Books!

My latest novel is out! It’s a YA fantasy titled The Art of Saving the World and it’s got all of the following and more:

questioning asexual lesbian protagonist

who finds out she’s the ~Chosen One~

except the Powers That Be have no faith that she’ll succeed in actually saving the world

loophole!! they send in several AU versions of her as backup

who are also all queer

and dealing with some flavor of anxiety!

and endometriosis in some cases

how do you even cope with seeing AU versions of yourself when you’re self-conscious as hell

“oh my god do I really bite my lip that much oh GOD does my laugh sound like that????”

“if one useless Hazel can’t save the world how are SEVERAL useless Hazels supposed to do it jfc”

there’s a grouchy lady dragon mentor

a Mysterious Government Agency

and an out-of-control interdimensional rift

as one review mag says: “takes the standard chosen-one plot formula and tips it on its head, then wrings what’s left for all the angst and existential crises it’s worth” which is PRETTY ACCURATE

and also the author (that’d be me) is queer and disabled and has cats to feed

This book came out in September 2020 and it got pretty badly hit by the coronavirus crisis in terms of marketing/promo, so ngl, I’m kinda worried about its sales, and I’m seriously hoping word of mouth will be able to save the day. So if any of this appeals to you: 

please share this post/spread the word!

please pick up the book from a library or bookstore!

here are some books by trans authors I’ve loved and some coming in 2021 that I cannot WAIT for 😍 (covers edited in! I don’t have copies!!)

Long before I had ever thought about becoming a writer, a woman appeared on my television screen, describing her personal experience of the Holocaust. I was riveted. Imagine a teenage girl with a six-year-old sister, alone and destitute in Nazi-occupied Poland, choosing to shelter one Jewish man who has jumped from a death train. Then she chooses to hide six more Jews. And six more. And then the Nazis requisition her house. 

Thirteen Jews in the attic, four Nazis directly below them, and one young girl and her sister standing in between. Her name was Stefania Podgórska, and I never forgot her story.

I had no idea then that a seed had been planted.

Fast forward two and a half decades, and now I am a writer. Now I can Google. I find hours of this woman’s uncut interviews. I find her son and travel with him to Poland, where we meet her little sister and one of the women they saved. And what I discover is one of the most remarkable narratives of personal courage, sacrifice, resilience, and resourcefulness I have ever encountered. 

This wasn’t just a story I wanted to write. This was a story that needed to be written.

The seed had sprouted. It became this novel.

Politics and culture might have changed since the 1940s, but the fundamentals have not. Love breeds love, and hate breeds hate. And that’s why the story of the Podgórska sisters is a story for now just as much as then. We need heroes. We need people of courage to stand up and say no in the face of hate. And that’s exactly what the Podgórska sisters did.

Maybe that’s why I never forgot that broadcast. Because a part of me hoped, if tested, that I could be just a little bit like them. I hope reading this book inspires you to wish the same.

In love,

Sharon Cameron