Book Cover Reveal!
And a Happy Hallowbirthween to me!
First of all. It’s my 35th birthday. So, Happy Hallowbirthween to me! 🎃
I know we make a big deal about 30 being the threshold to adulthood but something about being well into my thirties and halfway to 40 is feeling like I’m tipping over into old adult. The pressure to have some shit together is intensifying.
The good news is my autistic brain’s frontal lobe will apparently finally finish developing at 35. So, this year, I will finally become an adult!
The Big Reveal
Here she is…
She’s a black and gold queen. She’s bold and demure. She’s simple and intriguing.
If you prefer something more animated, check out the video I made for Instagram and TikTok (and follow me on either while you’re there).
Thanks to my friend and talented artist/designer, Linda, for making my design really shine! ✨
Someday, I want a special edition hardcover with gold foil and gilded edges. 🤩 Buy this one so I can afford that someday.
This is just the front cover for digital *reveal* purposes; the full cover is in the works, but here is the final description that will be on the back.
How did Snow White’s mother become so vain? What if Cinderella didn’t go to the ball? When does the Beauty become the Beast?
Inspired by familiar fairy tales, author Tish Black’s debut short story collection takes the tales in new directions and rewrites history: Little Red hunts wolves, Gretel helps the witch, and Bluebeard’s wife gets revenge. These transgressive stories challenge readers’ ideas of what the tales could mean to them. There’s more to learn from fairy tale heroines than how to be eaten, rescued, or married.
These unconventional heroines fight the patriarchy with no time for romance; instead, readers will find tales of revenge, sisterhood, political revolt, and independence. In the lead story, a beautiful woman with hair as black as ebony is given to a king with blood-red lips, but it’s with her chambermaid that she finds true love. When tragedy strikes, her values change. Exploring why Snow White’s mother chose beauty over her daughter, “Ebony” leads to her decision to send the huntsman. In “Thistle,” a princess cursed to sleep lives a lonely life until the witch who cursed her reveals the true story of what her parents have done to them both. Rapunzel escapes the tower on her own in “Plum” and then joins a radical group trying to take down a misogynist monarchy.
Conveying the radical feminism of Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber and the defiance of Emma Donoghue’s Kissing the Witch, Black’s collection of thirteen tales redefines the fairy tale heroine.
Other Book Updates
I got beta readers’ feedback at the beginning of October, and then I went on vacation to work on final edits. (And, like, to vacation as a verb; gather with long-distance friends in Cape Cod and relax alone in New Brunswick.) I wish I could say definitively It’s done! but it’s only 12 stories and an introduction done because there’s one story that’s tricky to both readers and myself, so it needs more work. It’s almost done! Really, this time!
I got my ISBNs (very official) and made my Ingram Spark and Amazon KDP accounts. Goodreads sends me in circles between needing an Author account to be able to add a book and having to claim an existing book to become an Author account… 🤔 But I’ll get that figured out.
It is an unseasonably warm 23˚C today in Ottawa, so I’m finishing writing this on my balcony in the sun. The planet is definitely in trouble; we used to go trick-or-treating in snowsuits under our costumes, but here I am in bare feet. The warmth lacks the spookiness needed for the holiday, don’t you think? 👻
Best wishes and unseasonably warmest regards,
.tish
Congratulations, Tish! And a happy, happy Halloween birthday to you!! 🎃💜