So, I’m known ’round these parts as Agent Bobby, purveyor of (creative?) profanity and non-sequitur Riker gifs. But sometimes, when I slide down my batpole (sexy?), I land in my batcave dressed as “B.C. Johnson,” my slightly more serious writer persona. I also get a +4 to Dexterity saves while wearing my Author’s Raiments, so that’s nice.
Deadgirl Returns
Anyway, I wrote an article here a few months back about being unpublished, when my first novel Deadgirl had a glorious 10-month run and then suffered from Sudden Publisher Existence Failure. Well it’s been a long road, but my agents at the Belcastro Literary Agency and the gentle and intelligent and well-dressed editors at Curiosity Quills Press have brought the book back.
Appropriately, Deadgirl has resurrected, and will be available on November 6th for all devices and in a physical form made of pressed cellulose glued together. The sequel is already finished (by me), and is currently being fed into the agent/editor machine as we speak.
I’ll include the synopsis for Deadgirl after the cover, but here’s the short version: I LOVE BUFFY. That’s basically the impetus for me writing the thing, so it’s a fair warning of what you’re going to find in the book. Smart-ass quippy girl gets powers, her situation mostly sucks, but her friends are cool and sometime she kicks monsters in the mouth.
So let’s provide a little context. Here’s the old, original cover, from when the book first came out:
Now, I liked this cover a lot, and not just because it was the very first time I’d had a book published and it was the very first cover a publisher had made for me and SQUEEEEEEEEE. Though the squeeing played a pivotal role, certainly. Roberta R. over at Offbeat YA described it accurately as Lucy Day (the main character) at the beginning of her journey, when everything about her situation and death (not a spoiler, it’s the title of the book) is still rattling her.
The cover illustrates the darker sections of the book. However, it’s only one of the faces of Lucy Day. Here’s the other, from the new cover, for the edition, and my book is back and SQUEEEEEEE:
That’s the other face of Lucy. The “screw you” face, the smart and quippy ball of life that doesn’t take crap from anyone, up to and including the Grim Reaper. It’s dynamic, and while I wasn’t convinced at first of the “here’s the main character looking at your face” aesthetic, I’ve really come around to enjoying the hell out of it. It was designed by Andy Garcia, who did a bang-up job with it.
The first cover is accurate, but it lends the impression of a moody ghost story. The second and newest cover tells you more about the story – it’s a super-hero piece in all but name. It would go perfectly with a Marvel logo and issue number in the upper left corner. You can add it on Goodreads here, if you’re anything like me and forget about things all the time.
Alright, if you’ll forgive the self-aggrandizing bit of advertisement, here’s the synopsis. Thanks for letting me gush a little – it’s not every day your dreams come true again.
Deadgirl Synopsis
“Dead is such a strong word . . .
Lucy Day, 15 years old, is murdered on her very first date. Not one to take that kind of thing lying down, she awakens a day later with a seemingly human body and more than a little confusion. Lucy tries to return to her normal life, but the afterlife keeps getting in the way.
Zack, her crush-maybe-boyfriend, isn’t exactly excited that she ditched him on their first date. Oh, and Abraham, Lucy’s personal Grim Reaper, begins hunting her, dead-set on righting the error that dropped her back into the spongy flesh of a living girl. Lucy must put her mangled life back together, escape re-death, and learn to control her burgeoning powers while staying one step ahead of Abraham.
But when she learns the devastating price of coming back from the dead, Lucy is forced to make the hardest decision of her re-life — can she really sacrifice her loved ones to stay out of the grave?”
Comments