Starting next week, I have a book (or two) out every month until November. Yikes! Four of these releases are about killer unicorns: “Errant” in Kiss Me Deadly next week, the Rampant paperback at the end of August (with new material! tell your friends!), “The Care and Feeding of Your Baby Killer Unicorn” in Zombies vs. Unicorns at the end of September, and Ascendant on October 1st). I am currently recording a podcast to promote Ascendant. My promotional world is all killer unicorns all the time, which is funny, because my creative world is all about celestial navigation and genetic engineering and post-apocalyptic societal structures.
If I thought it was hard to write series and to perpetually be one book ahead of my readers, it’s REALLY hard to get my head inside Astrid’s and killer unicorns when I’m writing a character that’s so very different from her and lives in a world so phenomenally altered.
But it’s a good problem to have, so I can’t complain. I’m excited that there’s so many killer unicorns descending this fall. I’m also excited to be writing this new book and this new world and these new characters.
And I’m super-super excited that I’ve got two short stories coming out, and that people are responding to them. Today, I saw Ana the Booksmuggler’s review of Kiss Me Deadly, in which she had this to say about “Errant”:
Part of Peterfreund’s Unicorn Hunters series, Errant is set in the 18th century France when a nun , sister Gitta (a Unicorn Hunter) , accompanied by her unicorn, arrives at a chateau just before the wedding of a girl named Elise. As part of the celebration, a traditional Unicorn Hunt is to be enacted with Gitta’s help. This story is excellent as it develops, quite well these two characters. Starting with animosity from Gitta’s side – her frustration with these people and this girl who know nothing about tradition and sacrifice, except yes, yes she does and Gitta slowly realises that and the relationship that builds between the two girls is incredible. There is a communion of spirits between them (and the unicorn) and I would like to use the author’s own words to describe this story: “18th century French feminist killer unicorn story about a nun and a bride and a forest full of monsters.”
Perfect. 8 out of 10
She loved a lot of the other stories, too. so make sure to check it out next month. I’ve only read Carrie Ryan’s and Sarah Rees Brennan’s so far, and I definitely agree with Ana’s assessment on those, so I can highly recommend this collection.
