This weekend was Boskone. Have I mentioned that? I don’t remember what I’ve said here anymore. I’ve been so very, very busy, and at this point I’m completely exhausted. I can barely type. But I did want to post two things today, and then in the next week I’ll start trying to catch up.
First, The Thorn and the Blossom received a wonderful review from Publishers Weekly:
The Thorn and the Blossom: A Two-Sided Love Story
Theodora Goss. Quirk, $16.95 (82p) ISBN 978-1-59474-551-5
Evelyn Morgan is a university student struggling to lead her own life despite others’ expectations; Brendan Thorne’s troubles begin when he loses his wife to heart failure and subsequently quits his job. A chance meeting leads to their falling in love around the centerpiece of a medieval Cornish version of the tale of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and from then on their lives and relationship seem to be a modern-day parallel of the frustrated romance between Gawan and his beloved, Elowen. But Goss (In the Forest of Forgetting) presents no ordinary linear tale: the reader is treated to both characters’ stories in parallel on alternate sides of an accordion-style book, letting the reader decide which story to begin with. The fantasy elements are light, revolving mostly around Gawan’s story and Evelyn’s visions of fairies and trolls. Overall this makes the tale align more with old-fashioned romance than pure speculative fiction, but Goss’ appealing characters and modern magic atmosphere will continue to attract a following. Illus.
And second, the reading I did from The Thorn and the Blossom at Boskone was taped! The videos are available on YouTube, but you can see them below. Reading with me is my wonderful editor, Stephen Segal, who actually came up with the idea for the physical format of the book. (I came up with the idea for the story, of course.) The first video is the reading itself, and the second video is a Q&A session we had afterward. I hope you like!
I’ll get back to blogging regularly soon. Probably some time next week, once I’ve recovered a bit. It’s been exhausting, but there’s a good reading why I’m doing all the work I’m doing. I’ll talk about it, eventually . . .