BOOK BIRTHDAY FOR THE COMMUNE
Cover for The Commune, Tales from Purgatory book one, by Liz Roderick - a cover with a lot of psychedelic dream elements including a gigantic octopus. A short, young white woman with long, auburn hair and a tall, darker young man with curly black hair stand back-to-back. The young man is conjuring a fireball in his hand.
The main point, sort of, of this post is to put the content notification from book one out there so that people can make a wise decision on whether to buy it. If you’re here for that, you can skip to the end if you want. Though I always have Other Things to Say that Might Be Interesting.
It’s hard to believe, but it is very nearly the book birthday of The Commune, Tales from Purgatory book one—the first in my seven-book YA dreampunk/fantasy/sci-fi/suspense series (yarg! whatever!). This is my favorite series, y’all, and the one that I have worked on orders of magnitude harder than any of my other books. I love all my other books! I worked plenty freaking hard on them! They are all good!
But this series is epic.
I live on the windswept coast. I have friends here, but the population is literally like 1,200 people, so no one is throwing me a book birthday. I will be celebrating with my writing group, who is out of town, so I’ll just be dropping into my critique group by Zoom and eating cupcakes while we talk about our pieces.
I will also be getting the second of many planned tattoos related to the series.
The first tattoo I got from Tales was when I was in the heat of drafting book four, which is now book seven. It’s the same tattoo the main character of that book got: Let me dream, on my left inner wrist. It felt like I was being marked with a religious symbol, initiated into a spiritual sect. It was my way of announcing my devotion to the dark art of my imagination, throwing in my lot with the writing gig, forever.
I have worn a lot of hats. I’ve been a criminal, a paralegal, a parent. A musician, a farmer, an interpreter, a revolutionary and activist. I’ve studied chemistry and worked in a lab. I’ve done transcription, legal guardianship work, and plenty of other odd jobs. I’ve really enjoyed a lot of those things, really not enjoyed some of the others. The only thing that ever felt right, however—that felt like my entire life had fallen into place and things finally made sense—is writing.
The thing I was put on this earth to do is write.
I’m not saying that the universe has some grand purpose for me or my books. Not all of us have to be great and important. But we all have our Thing. I used to think I would never find that Thing. I think this world doesn’t always allow people to find their Thing. But I have. And that and my daughter are the two aspects of my life I’m most grateful for.
My writing is my way of connecting with the divine mystery. It’s my way of finding and making meaning in a universe that often seems like a gritty, pointless mess. It is why I’m here. So, getting this tattoo on Tuesday will be the next step, my deeper initiation. And one thing I can say about getting fandom tattoos from my own series, at least I know I’ll never have to cover them up. If the creator gets canceled, my tattoos will be the least of my problems. Since I’m not a sex pest, however, and I am glad that marginalized people exist and support their right to do so in any way they personally see fit, I figure if I get canceled it will be for something like Being Queer or Being Autistic in Public. So, come at me, bro.
So, The Commune is now on Ingram. That means you should be able to order it at libraries and bookstores worldwide. I’m still trying to figure out shit like Barnes & Noble and bookstore dot org—they don’t make it easy. Self-publishing is hard fucking work—but with the book also up on Amazon and itchio, I think y’all have plenty of options if you want to dive into my twisted, surreal universe.
However, my appeal for you to buy my books does come with one caveat: I have had a hard life and those experiences come out in these books. So that everyone can make a rational and reasoned decision about whether they want to buy The Commune, I’m posting the content notification below.
Also, as I say in the author’s notes at the end of book one, if you somehow finish it before I get book two, Deathwalkers, out, email me and I’ll send you an arc. But Deathwalkers should be out before March has marched very far. The first arc of the series is all shiny and clean, just waiting for their covers so they don’t jump out at you naked.
Thank you for your support. If you’re listening to me complain on social media about my financial life falling into the pit, you know how much it means to me that you buy my books and offer encouragement. But also know that I do have a more robust support system and more options than a lot of people—more options than I have personally had in the past. I’m hopeful I’ll figure it out. I just really want to figure it out in a way that allows me to be independent and stable, living in my house.
And as I get older and older, and fail and fail and fail at sustaining any work besides writing books…well, at some point I have to recognize that I’m probably not going to be able to sustain any work besides writing books, at least long-term. So, when you buy my books, you’re helping a disabled person survive on their own terms, which is an act of defiance in this world we find ourselves in. Thank you.
CONTENT NOTIFICATION
READ ME. I’M SERIOUS.
How many f-bombs can you put on the first page of the first book of your YA series? 17? 39? How many references to black tar heroin?
These were the questions I asked myself when writing this book.
Look, I love YA. It’s my favorite. But there isn't a whole lot of YA quite like this. It's not a nonstop shit show, don't get me wrong, but it does have some pretty glorious explosions of shit.
I, the author, had a really fucked up youth, and a lot of my life has been pretty rough. I'm really honest about most of that stuff online, so if you want the gory details, you can track me down on social media or my blog on talesfrompurgatory.com. A lot of those dark experiences—addiction, rape, abuse, incarceration, gang bullshit, psychosis, inappropriate relationships—come out in this series. All I can say is, I don’t handle these subjects like they’re something morbid and scary, and I don’t want to preach at the youth of today about how these things are bad and how to live their lives. I do think I show most of these things realistically enough that you can see for yourself how bad stuff can get.
I’ve simply written the sort of book I needed to read. A book that has a kid going through some of the same shit I did, and somehow turning it into an adventure, somehow gaining wisdom from it and finding beauty. Also, there might be magic and a lot of hanging out in the afterlife.
Do be aware, I deal with some shit in this book. The only thing you can always rely on me NOT to do—I won’t kill animals or have any sort of gruesome and graphic slaughter of innocents on the page. Why that’s my line, I’m not sure, but that’s where it is.
Adults, I’ll slaughter the fuck out of them and describe what their brains look like in the moonlight.
Take care of yourself.
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