Tag Archives: my writing

Hearts Are Jerks – reviews

Posted on by
5-star amazon review:

This book introduces ethical relationship concepts in an engaging way. The narrator is a smart and honest teen trying to do her best at school, at work, and for her loved ones. Her struggles with heartbreak, long-distance love, bullying, and prejudice will resonate with any reader. Highly recommended for its modeling of conversations concerning love, sex, and consent. Also highly recommended for its easy, casual inclusion of queerness and disability. Be aware that there is explicit sexual content.

——-

5-star amazon review:

It’s not impossible to write and publish a great young-adult novel that centers on a polyamorous relationship.

It’s improbable.

Gabrielle Harbowy nailed it.

One of things I like best about this book–aside from the dry wit and the deep sweetness–is the naturalistic placement of high-school polyamory into a world where high-school polyamory has consequences. And especially the fact that the consequences are not lazily predictable ones.

—–

5-star amazon review:

I bought a copy for my classroom, since we do SSR and ninth graders are always forgetting their “fun books.” It made its rounds of girls, and then a couple of boys. Now it has gone missing, so I hope it connected with someone who needed to feel seen. Time to buy another copy!

—–

5-star amazon review:

It takes a certain sort of book to really capture the chaotic emotional turmoil of youth, but Hearts are Jerks meets the challenge with finesse and enthusiasm, instilling its tale of a heroine just trying to be happy and make her loved ones happy with dramatic verisimilitude. The characters are believably young and unwise, and make foolhardy decisions with the best of intentions, never expecting the harshness of real life to crash down on them.

The novel confronts and challenges the difficulties of its sometimes heavy subject matter with seriousness and grace. Too often we dismiss bullying and harassment as “harmless” or “don’t feed the trolls”, but this story shows us that sometimes such actions have real consequences for everyone involved, and it’s extremely cathartic to see.

Also, ethical polyamory rules. 🙂

I learned a great deal from this book, and I hope you will too.

New Story Time!

Posted on by

Very pleased to announce that my story “All the Light in the Room” is now available in the anthology Interdimensions Vol. 1: 2024 (a GenCon Writers Symposium Anthology) from Atthis Arts, edited by Toiya Kristen Finley.

You can click on the cover image (or click: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DD7CGG59/) to go to Amazon and give it a peek!

“Clockwork Run” – a mini 5e adventure

Posted on by

Edit: This game is now up on YouTube and you can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkVWLCK88a4

Tune in to the Sigil Entertainment Twitch Channel (https://www.twitch.tv/sigil_entertainment) this THURSDAY (May 28, 2020) at 7PM Eastern / 4PM Pacific. We’ll be playing CLOCKWORK RUN, a D&D 5e adventure I wrote specifically for Sigil Spotlight.

(Readers of GEARS OF FAITH might recognize a few characters and settings.)

Eugene Marshall of Arcanist Press will DM, and I’ll be playing. I hope to see you there! If you miss it, it’ll be up on Sigil Entertainment’s YouTube channel, just click this link! 

Cover Reveal: Hearts Are Jerks

Posted on by

My book is finally here, and it is beautiful. I’ve been waiting a long time for this, and I know some of you have, too!

There is a lack of polyamory-positive books for teens on the shelves today, and HEARTS ARE JERKS addresses that.
hearts-front

Sixteen-year-old Alicía Diaz’s parents have been in a stable, nurturing polyamorous relationship all her life, so and dating both a boy and a girl in high school doesn’t seem like a big deal to her.

When Allie crashes the car during an impromptu driving lesson, there’ll be no more driving for her until it’s paid in full. Her love life crashes next: she finds out her girlfriend is moving away, and that she told her new boyfriend before telling Allie.

She’s determined to handle it all on her own, but then other kids start harassing her to the point of threatening her summer job – the one she really needs to pay off her accident. Allie doesn’t know how she’s going to make everything work. But she knows she has to stay true to herself.

Available soon on Amazon in paperback and ebook. Also coming soon to other retailers.

 

Coming Soon…

Posted on by

Those of you who have been waiting a long time for HEARTS ARE JERKS won’t have to wait much longer. I returned first proofs to my layout genius today, and we’re working on back cover copy now.

The cover reveal will happen soon, here first. Then it’ll be available on Amazon in print and ebook, and it’ll spread from there. As soon as it’s ready, we’ll get the Goodreads page set up, too.

HeartsAreJerksComing

Verthandi

Posted on by

A while back, I wrote a mythological/historical fantasy story for an anthology called The Bard’s Tale: Stories and Recipes from the Black Dragon Inn, about one of the Fates and her interaction with a very special young girl.

That story is now available as a reprint on Curious Fictions, along with a lot of other great short stories by a lot of great authors. You can read for free, or opt in to support the site or specific authors. I hope you’ll go take a look.

(Of course, if you want to see the recipe that goes with the story, or the gorgeous story art by David Szilagyi, you’ll still have to buy the anthology. I recommend it.)

Zae’s gaze

Posted on by

“Zae’s gaze” is one of those awkward things that you don’t realize is awkward until you read it out loud. Which I’m doing, on this pass of Gears of Faith, to make sure I catch all the little things that fell through the cracks of my big rewrite/revision.

Reading my soon-to-be-a-book out loud to catch typos is mortifying and humbling. I’m catching the unfortunate, the unexpected, and the just plain awkward. Also I’m recording them. Chapter 5, for what it’s worth, has bonus cat.