Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Guest Post by Cecilia Tan on her New Three-Book Series at Tor

Whew! At last I can tell you all the news! We've been working on a project for quite a while now and I can finally officially announce that my upcoming new paranormal series, THE VANISHED CHRONICLES, will published by Tor Books!

I've long admired Tor as a publishing house. When I founded Circlet Press back in 1992, Tor founder Tom Doherty gave me some of my first and best advice about book publishing. Over the years I've only remained impressed with the quality of Tor's list and if you look on my shelves you'll see many of my favorite books bear the Tor logo, like Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Dart and Steven Brust's The Phoenix Guards. To be joining them is beyond exciting.

THE VANISHED CHRONICLES will be a paranormal/urban fantasy series where I play with two of my favorite things: 1) BDSM, and 2) the idea that magical world co-exists with our own but non-magical folks have gotten the details wrong. In THE VANISHED CHRONICLES I'll explain where all those myths about vampires come from. "Vampires" may not be real, but an ancient cult of blood magic? Yes, please!

If you read my Magic University books you know I like to mix ancient prophecy with modern sexuality. So there will be passion, power, eroticism, magic, love, et cetera. The first book is tentatively scheduled to come out in Spring 2017, so you've got a while to anticipate it.

If you'd like to keep up to date on my progress, and maybe even get sneak peeks of some sexy scenes, there's always my monthly email newsletter. Sign up here:

http://eepurl.com/TEWfv
 People are often surprised that I always close my office for Good Friday and that I go to church on Easter Sunday.  Just because I am a sex positive feminist doesn't mean that I have has no spirituality.

But I am a P.K. (preacher's kid).  The preacher is my mom, who was a feminist minster in the United Church of Christ who was part of that group of feminists that rewrote the Bible without pronouns.  She used to play Yoko Ono's Woman is the Nigger of the World while writing her Biblical term papers (and I will always love Yoko for that song and my mom for making it part of the soundtrack of my life).

So this year, I was excited that we at Riverdale Avenue Books were finally goging to pubish Blessed Assurance, a collecito of prayers of rthe LGBT commjnity, which as a child of changing religious mores, I knew was sorely needed.  I was proud to be a part of it.

But the book was late again, and we would miss the Lenten season.  The book had been late a number f times, and i was growing disheartened.

I finally talked to the author (as the book had been acquired by another editor) and told her in no uncertain terms that I wanted this book and I wanted it NOW.  She explained that the reason she was so late on the book was that she actually thought it was two books - a prayer book and a workbook - and I said, "OK, then.  Let's do them both."

And she said, "Are you kidding me?"

And we are now pubishing two books - one for the Thanksgiving season and one for Lent next year.

And she said to me, "You are my Easter. This book project was dead to me and you have resurrected it."

I was almost moved to tears.

I don't get the chance to save a book very often.   Sure, I can sign up a book that means a lot to someone, or I can save a poorly written book from bad reviews with my super-powered editing, but breathing new life into a dead project - this was a first.

And during Holy Week!

She was my Easter too!