SKIN & BONES
Thanks to parenthesised, I just realized that nowhere on my blog do I mention anything about my debut YA novel, SKIN & BONES. (A slightly enormous oversight for an author's blog, don't you think?)
So, without further ado...
Blurb, SKIN & BONES:
When sixteen-year old Consuela Bones discovers that she can remove her skin, revealing a lustrous mother-of-pearl skeleton, she slips into a parallel world known as the Flow; a place inhabited by archetypal teens with extraordinary abilities. Crafting skins out of anything - air, water, feathers, fire - she is compelled to save ordinary people from dying before their time. Yet now someone is murdering her new friends, one by one, and Consuela finds herself the focus of an intricate plot to end the Flow forever when all she really wants is to get back home, alive.
Influences, SKIN & BONES:
SKIN & BONES began with geeky conversations exploring why there were no new iconic superheroes. Historically, superheroes appeared during times of war, when the zeitgeist suggested that it would take something superhuman to address these problems. (In the War on Terror, I believe our modern-day vigilante/Batman is Jack Bauer of '24.') This touched upon a related topic: Why weren’t there more good superheroines? Few reflected an ethnic minority, and none were without prominent breasts or skimpy costumes. When I was first struck with the image of Consuela Bones - inspired by Mexican caricaturist José Guadalupe Posada’s Catrina - I joked that I’d like to see anyone sex-up a girl skeleton!
The idea grabbed me. I researched Mexican folklore, Octavio Paz’s Labyrinth of Solitude, and the holiday, Dia de Los Muertos, the Day of the Dead. I found a wealth of beautiful imagery and savage passions that fed something I nicknamed the ‘anti-vampire’ ideal. Instead of a powerful, sexualized beauty turning out to be death, a beautiful image of death could be something vibrantly, powerfully and passionately alive. This person would be someone a Latina girl could champion as her own superheroine - not skinny or bosomy or white/black/red/brown, but universally magnificent on the inside.
At its core, SKIN & BONES is a story both visual and visceral.
SKIN & BONES is due out fall, 2010 by Dutton Books.
Information can also be found at Fangs, Fur & Fey and the 10_ers communities.
Thanks!
So, without further ado...
Blurb, SKIN & BONES:
When sixteen-year old Consuela Bones discovers that she can remove her skin, revealing a lustrous mother-of-pearl skeleton, she slips into a parallel world known as the Flow; a place inhabited by archetypal teens with extraordinary abilities. Crafting skins out of anything - air, water, feathers, fire - she is compelled to save ordinary people from dying before their time. Yet now someone is murdering her new friends, one by one, and Consuela finds herself the focus of an intricate plot to end the Flow forever when all she really wants is to get back home, alive.
Influences, SKIN & BONES:
SKIN & BONES began with geeky conversations exploring why there were no new iconic superheroes. Historically, superheroes appeared during times of war, when the zeitgeist suggested that it would take something superhuman to address these problems. (In the War on Terror, I believe our modern-day vigilante/Batman is Jack Bauer of '24.') This touched upon a related topic: Why weren’t there more good superheroines? Few reflected an ethnic minority, and none were without prominent breasts or skimpy costumes. When I was first struck with the image of Consuela Bones - inspired by Mexican caricaturist José Guadalupe Posada’s Catrina - I joked that I’d like to see anyone sex-up a girl skeleton!
The idea grabbed me. I researched Mexican folklore, Octavio Paz’s Labyrinth of Solitude, and the holiday, Dia de Los Muertos, the Day of the Dead. I found a wealth of beautiful imagery and savage passions that fed something I nicknamed the ‘anti-vampire’ ideal. Instead of a powerful, sexualized beauty turning out to be death, a beautiful image of death could be something vibrantly, powerfully and passionately alive. This person would be someone a Latina girl could champion as her own superheroine - not skinny or bosomy or white/black/red/brown, but universally magnificent on the inside.
At its core, SKIN & BONES is a story both visual and visceral.
SKIN & BONES is due out fall, 2010 by Dutton Books.
Information can also be found at Fangs, Fur & Fey and the 10_ers communities.
Thanks!