I'm begging (not kinky) ((unless??))

or: what is the subject line of this email that doesn't make me sound like a Democratic congressperson about to lose re-election

Three things about me:

1. I am bad at asking for things. Maybe it’s a side effect of being a smart kid doing school projects but I always assume I can do everything better myself and if I ask someone for help I imagine they immediately revise their internal perception from “dana, normal person” to “dana, annoying pathetic leach.”

2. I have a new book coming out in May. It’s called The Arcane Arts and I co-wrote it with my very talented friend Dan Frey under the pseudonym S.D. Coverly¹, because we thought it would be fun and cool to write about power dynamics and relationships with alternating perspectives. I wrote the chapters from the POV of the female character, Ellsbeth, a young woman trying to study arcane mechanicals at a prestigious graduate school. Dan wrote the chapters from the point of view of Rawlins, her mercurial professor who was once a wunderkind in the field. As they begin working together studying illegal magic, they find an impossible pull drawing them together.

Yes.

The illegal magic allows you to compel and control other people’s bodies and minds, and as they each gain the ability to manipulate others, it becomes obvious that both Ellsbeth and Rawlins have their own ulterior motives and love might be impossible in a relationship where trust can’t exist.

Sounds juicy, right? It’s fun! I promise!

Here’s the third thing about me: pre-orders really matter for a book’s future. I suppose that’s more of a general fact, and not something about me, so let me try that again:

3. I would really, really love you to pre-order the book.

Pre-orders are the best way to tell a publisher that a book is something that people want to read, I.e. something that they should put in front of people’s faces at bookstores. It’s a self-reinforcing phenomena where books that seem as though they will be successful actually get to become successful.

I really love what I do as a writer. I feel lucky every single day that I get to do this for a living (with the exception of days where I get brutal notes or face rejection or I’m in a bad mood). I had a genuine blast getting to be creative and weird with my friend Dan sending emails in character back and forth, and I really hope we get to do more of it.

I’m a little scared about The Arcane Arts finding its audience because… I’m not sure exactly where it's audience is. Our publisher calls it “romantasy” but…. by some people’s understanding of that term, it isn’t really. I think when some readers hear “romantasy” they think “a land of fairies and elves and dragons where people also happen to have sex.” The Arcane Arts is grounded—set at a contemporary university campus, with a system of magic that’s designed to be plausible in our world. It’s a version of magic that’s so esoteric and difficult that it’s been relegated to the world of the ivory tower—like theoretical physics or people studying numbers that don’t exist…. where people also happen to have sex.

It’s a romance…. sort of, but a romance with an age-gap and a complicated power dynamic that we wanted to interrogate and challenge. It is sexy, but probably only if you had a crush on your TA when you were an undergrad.

I feel as I type that I’m doing a terrible job promoting this book, so I’m going to get out while I still have my sanity.

If you’re reading this, please know it would mean a tremendous amount to me if you pre-ordered the book (ideally from your local indie book store!) Barnes and Noble has a 25% off sale on pre-orders!

It seems like at the moment we’ll be doing book events in Los Angeles, Chicago, Phoenix, and New York and as soon as those dates are locked down, anyone who subscribes here will be the first to know.

As a reward for reading this far down in this substack, here’s a picture of my son, Arthur.

He’s already reading The New Yorker! Please help pay for his college education.

x,

Dana

1. S.D. because my initials are D.S. (and Dan’s middle name also starts with an S) and Coverly after Thomasina Coverly from Arcadia by Tom Stoppard (whose dynamic with her tutor may or may not resemble certain moments in this book).