Happy Book Release!

They're releasing them right out into the wild!

Varian Johnson is my buddy and VCFA classmate, and his THIRD book Saving Maddie is out today on his BIRTHDAY!

I've already read it, but I still plan to get my very own copy because I am a little bit in love with Maddie, because Varian workshopped a scene from this book in my very first workshop at VCFA, because it's dedicated to our class (I think? gotta get my copy to verify), and because there's a really cool character in it -- okay, well, she's not that cool, but that's kind of her charm -- who shares the name Rachel.

Plus, how sexy is this cover?



Varian's doing a blog tour right now. Check it out.

Jandy Nelson was in the class two ahead of mine, sort of our big brother-sister class, and I still have a vivid memory of her grad reading in which she read from The Sky is Everywhere. It's poetic and gorgeous, like Jandy.

Here's a trailer:

The Sky is Everywhere from YR Penguin Books on Vimeo.

AND, I'm belated in congratulating my Chicago and Monkey friend Cesar Torres on his first book, a short story collection called The 12 Burning Wheels. You can get it as a book or an e-book from the publisher M-Brane SF or on Amazon.



Cesar's writing is dark and creepy and weird in all the best ways, and he creates new worlds so quickly I don't know how he stays as grounded in this one. Cesar works HARD on a lot of things at once, as do Varian and Jandy. I am trying to learn how they do that, but in the meantime, I congratulate them!