— Who knew back in the day, when O’Hara first met Levy, that she’d be working with him and his son and his daughter, all these years later? Jokingly insisting that she knew, O’Hara declares “‘You will have a son’ I said to Eugene, ‘and you will have a daughter, and you will want to work with me until the end of your days’”
We sit next to each on the play set; I’m at the slide and he’s overlooking the playground, the other is wondering off by the swings. We joke about about what three adults are doing here at 2 am. I say we’re re-experiencing the most innocent times of our lives, at the moment we need it the most. He laughs, I go down the slide. The night is marked by scrapes, bruises and the dirt on our clothes. Later, the three of us go get ice cream and laugh and smile.
It’s become routine to go out and for one night, run around and be wild things. I’ve started to depend on these nights more than I should, and I laugh a little too hard at his jokes. We all talk around each others’ sentences.
He makes coy remarks, I ignore them. He makes them again and I laugh and change the subject. He leaves the car as dawn approaches, and says I should give myself more credit. I assure him the pity party is only every other Wednesday at 9. We both laugh,I smile and drive away.
The men I’ve loved watching… nummy right. Of course there’s more, this is just some of my favorites.
Beastmaster, Legend of the Seeker, Leverage, Once Upon A Time, Walking Dead, Supernatural, Alice (syfy), Firefly, Terra Nova, Bones… Nummy men right there.
I'm excited to announce that I have signed a book deal with Del Rey at Penguin Random House in the US and Michael Joseph in the UK for my debut novel, Alchemised, a standalone dark fantasy set in a war-torn world of necromancy and alchemy, in which a healer with amnesia is taken as a prisoner of war and must fight to protect her lost memories and the secrets hidden among them. It will grapple with themes of trauma and survival, legacy, and the way that love can drive one to extreme darkness, and it is, as you may be able to tell, a reimagined version of Manacled.
I know I’ve been rather quiet about my publishing journey, and a lot of that has been because I didn’t want to spark any concerns or worry that I might be abruptly taking away a story that is such a deep part of myself and that I know has meant so much to so many people. This process has unfolded very slowly and quietly because I have tried to be mindful as I could be in every step of the way.
As most of you know, I have been a reader in fandom long before I ever began to write. Fanfiction is incredibly special to me, and I have tried to do my best not to undermine its legal protection or allow my works to do so either. During the last several years, there has been a growing issue with illegal sales of Manacled, putting both me and the incredible community that shares fanfiction freely in legal jeopardy.
After consulting with the OTW as well as other lawyers, it has grown clear that as a transformative writer I have limited options in protecting my stories from this kind of exploitation, but I wasn’t sure what to do; I didn’t want to just take the story down, in part because I worried that might only exacerbate the issue, but I didn’t know what other options I had. Then I suddenly had this idea of alchemy, which was peculiarly appropriate; an academic world filled with unique transmutational abilities, and a necromantic war against people who had discovered the secrets of immortality, and I could see a path to reimagining the story while still holding on to as much of the original spirit of Manacled as possible.
I began redrafting the concept privately around Christmas 2022, and then as if the universe had aligned, just as I was finishing, Caitlin Mahony and Rivka Bergman of WME reached out to me and were delightfully enthusiastic about concepts and ideas for my new alchemical world and the ways I had reimagined the story.
I'm thrilled to be working with Emily Archbold, my visionary editor at Del Rey, along with Rebecca Hilsdon at Michael Joseph in the UK, to polish this novel for publication in Fall 2025. I feel uniquely privileged that both my publishing teams are familiar with Manacled and understand how special it is to so many people, and how important it is that this reimagining captures the same spirit while also having its own wings.
Manacled is not going anywhere at present. It will remain online throughout 2024, at which point it will, if you’ll pardon the pun, alchemise for 2025 and be removed from AO3.
I'm so thankful to all of you who've enjoyed my works, and I hope that I can continue to rely on your support as I take my next steps as an author.
As someone who just recently finished Manacled, I'm so incredibly proud and happy that this story can not only be brought to a wider audience but also so that Senlinyu can finally financially get the support they so much deserve from a story that has touched so many. I soo excited and looking forward to this!!!
I'm pretty sure the current handbook reccommends "attention all Amtrak passengers" but hey, it's your semi-privatized national rail network so do what you want.
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