News from Squire's Isle

This is big!

My next novel coming out is Sojourn, a short scifi horror piece. After that, I’m releasing my next big project: The Virtuous Feats of the Indomitable Miss Trafalgar and the Erudite Lady Boone (just call it “Trafalgar & Boone” for ease <g>). This is the first book of an ongoing series about two explorers in a magical, steampunk-inthused version of 1920s London. I’m very excited for people to read this story and meet these characters, but that excitement just shot through the roof because of the advance review it just picked up.

Kirkus Reviews is well-known in the industry for its harsh but fair reviews. The hope is that you’ll be able to pluck something quotable from their review and put it on the book jacket so people can see their name. So Trafalgar & Boone made the trip to Kirkus and came back with the rarest of rarities. Not only is the review glowing and full of praise, it got a star. I’ve read that only 2% of books get a star every year, and my book is one of them! This is highly elite company, and that star means a lot to booksellers. It means the book is worth displaying and treating special. It means more people seeing the book and hopefully picking up a copy.

The best part – to me – is that the book was reviewed as a standard novel. Not niche, not “lesbian fiction,” but as a mainstream novel that happens to feature gay characters. That elevates it to a higher level, I think. I love the LGBT genre, and I’m proud of the place I’ve been given in that world, and I feel like this recognition is holding the door open just a little to show the rest of the world that this isn’t a ghetto or an inferior market. This is a genre that can stand with the big dogs.

I just can’t get over this review!

“…Cannon (Cinder and the Smoke, 2015, etc.) populates his story with a bright, complex array of characters, mostly women and many LGBT and/or of color. It’s refreshing to see such classically underrepresented groups overcome adversity and save the day in smart, sexy style. While graphic scenes of sex and violence make this one for more mature readers, one won’t find many better examples for young girls of the importance of being true to oneself than Trafalgar and Boone.

An imaginatively wrought, steampunk-influenced feminist adventure.” – Kirkus Reviews (starred review)