ReadingAddiction

THIS BOOK IS A HUG FROM A CLOSE FRIEND YOU DONT TALK TO ANYMORE

OR WHAT YOU RECALL THAT HUG FELT LIKE WHEN YOU REMEMBER THAT FRIEND AND WONDER WHERE ARE THEY NOW

Is that moment, after living for ten years some place different than your hometown when you turn a street and for just one second you can’t recognize your surroundings, because in that second you were suddenly back in your hometown, but youre really not, and youre lost and alone and terrified

And then you recognize something in the street and you remember where you are and who you are and everything is fine once again

Only it isn’t cause you cant stop thinking about that *feeling* for the rest of the day

Is a boat ride through an enchanted forest with a friend that just told you they have terminal cancer

And the boat ride was their last wish

IT IS DREAM LIKE

I MEAN THE LANGUAGE, HOW [THE AUTHOR] CONSTRUCTS HER SENTENCES AND IDK IF IT WAS INTENTIONAL BUT IF IT WAS THIS IS A MASTERPIECE

During the middle leg of the Raven King tour, I’ve been trying to think of a tactful way to word this, particularly since I’ve said versions of it online before. I couldn’t think of a good way so I kept typing things and then deleting them. But this ask has given me the push to try again. This is especially difficult because I don’t want to step into fandom space or give the impression that I’m trying to Kill! Fandom! Freedom!

But this is about my space. It’s been nearly a month on tour now and I’ve met several thousand readers and there’s definitely patterns and I’d like to not see them played out again for the final eight tour stops.

Here it is, again:

Please don’t come up to me in the signing line and ask me sex questions about my teen characters. Even if I didn’t continually shout how this series was about the overruling value of friendship rather than pairings, I’m 34. They. Are. Teens. I don’t want to engage with the story in that way. I have zero interest in being more explicit than I was in the text. When you ask me in the signing line, you put me on the spot and then I’m forced to stare at you and try to not make you feel terrible as I avoid the question or tell you I’m not comfortable and then we all leave with a bad taste in our mouth.

Moreover, the general nature of the questions is — they are — how to — let’s just say — They’re explicit, they’re always about the boys or about a poly relationship, never ever about Blue + Gansey, they’re voyeuristic, and all of these things combine to make increasingly me uncomfortable not just as the adult creator of a teen series, but as a person who is keen to promote LGBT relationships as mainstream and not the stuff of sexualized fantasy. 

So rather than pretend I know all the answers, this is what I’m going to say, I think.

1) Ask yourself why it is that you want to know the answers to these questions.

2) Ask yourself if you would be comfortable having this question asked about you.

3) Ask yourself why it is important to you for me to tell you my answer to the question; why do you want my input? Is this a fandom question or a creator question?

And then, please. Keep the smut out of my space. I will one day write an adult novel where all topics are a go, but not for these characters. 

urs,

TAROT LESSON!

So, I’m in love with the Raven Cycle books by @maggie-stiefvater.  They’re big wonderful blankets of joy on me.  And I’m desperately fond of the master-apprentice relationship that forms between Persephone and Adam.  In my ultimate headcanon, Adam joins 300 Fox Way down the line as one of the psychics.  On and off.  When the occassion calls for it.  IT MUST BE.  hahaha.  

So I had to make something of them.  This is that something.  I want to do many more illustrations from these books, so here’s hoping!