SeaHeart

(Originally posted at Muse Rising! <3)

The second installment of The Dark Wife's FREE audio book recording is now live at the dedicated audio book page, or download it below! <3

The Dark Wife, written by me, Sarah Diemer, is read by the awesome Veronica Giguere, and mixed and produced by the incredible Hugh O'Donnell! <3

2. The Dark Wife — Chapter One, Olympus

The Dark Wife is the YA, lesbian retelling of the Persephone myth.


Three thousand years ago, a god told a lie. Now, only a goddess can tell the truth.

Persephone has everything a daughter of Zeus could want–except for freedom. She lives on the green earth with her mother, Demeter, growing up beneath the ever-watchful eyes of the gods and goddesses on Mount Olympus. But when Persephone meets the enigmatic Hades, she experiences something new: choice.

Zeus calls Hades “lord” of the dead as a joke. In truth, Hades is the goddess of the underworld, and no friend of Zeus. She offers Persephone sanctuary in her land of the dead, so the young goddess may escape her Olympian destiny.

But Persephone finds more than freedom in the underworld. She finds love, and herself.

(Originally posted at Muse Rising~!)

Welcome to the Sparkle Party! This week marks the one year anniversary of my debut novel, The Dark Wife's publication. (If you're just tuning in, The Dark Wife is a YA, lesbian retelling of the Persephone and Hades myth.) My life has changed drastically in one year, and I owe everything to the little novel that could, and to the incredible people who have supported it. This week is in celebration of that fact, and I thought we'd get the Sparkle Party started off with--well--SPARKLE!, by placing my next novel's announcement (and cover reveal) on the very first day!

So, it is with a ton of excitement and MORE GLITTER than this world has ROOM for, that I announce The Bone Girl as my next YA novel. <3 Coming late June, it's a dark speculative fiction/dystopia about a girl made of bones and a band of misfits and freaks, and I'm deeply excited about it, and hope you will be, too~ <3 (It's a novel I've been working on for about five years now, so I'm ecstatic to be so close to releasing it!)

The cover was drawn by the supremely amazing and talented Laura Diemer, who also illustrated The Dark Wife's cover. <3



In a world where snow never falls and flowers never grow, the animals have learned to speak, and the people change their skins as easily as they change their clothes. But while Skin Peddlers sell fleshy wares in corner shops, the radical Church of the Skinned preaches against the impurity of selling one's most precious possession.

One night, a greedy Skin Peddler steals the most beautiful skin he's ever seen, leaving a girl of bones behind. Lutese wakes up skinless--and though other people would simply buy and slip into another skin, Lu refuses. As a bone girl, as a freak, she ventures into the wild, dying world to get her skin back.

Unbeknownst to Lu, there is a prophecy about a bone girl whispered among the animals. It foretells of an ending to the world, of an everlasting winter. As Lu draws closer to End City, the rumors grow stronger, following in her wake. But she doesn't care about anything besides getting her skin back...

Until she falls in love with an outcast girl named Mara, one of the reviled Low. This simple act sets events into motion that could destroy the world...or save it.

Add The Bone Girl on Goodreads!

I've spent all Easter (sadly!) in bed with a fever at Jenn's parents' house. BUT. TONIGHT, a fan tweeted the news at me before I learned officially (the internet, IT IS FAST): THE DARK WIFE is a FINALIST for the Golden Crown Literary Award's spec fiction category! I have NO WORDS, just ECSTATICNESS. SORT OF makes laying in bed all day almost worth it. ;D #TotallyNotRelated ♥ ♥ ♥

I have some amazing, amazing books alongside me (huge hat tip to the amazing people at Lethe Press! <3)...I just gah. EXPLODE.

I shall be MORE ARTICULATE when I am not FEVERED. But, suffice it to say: I am ecstatic and over the moon and just...JOY FOREVER. <33333333333

My novel, The Dark Wife, is the YA, lesbian retelling of the Persephone and Hades myth. You may know that my fabulous friend, Hugh, (of The Way of the Buffalo podcast.) sprung to hire the AMAZING voice actress Veronica Giguere to bring the first two chapters of The Dark Wife to life as a free audio download (here!). But, Hugh, being amazing as he is didn't want to stop there.

Hugh created a Kickstarter project to help fund the rest of the production--the ENTIRE novel as a FREE audiobook download. We can ONLY do it with YOUR help! There are tons of happy gifts to people who donate toward the Kickstarter, and we're so excited about the possibility of bringing The Dark Wife to audio--please spread the word, and thank you so much!! <3 <3 <3

Any spreading of the word is love and is SO APPRECIATED!!!!!!! <333333

}}} -- THE DARK WIFE Kickstarter Page -- {{{

Two weeks ago, we heard the illustrious Veronica Giguere read the prologue of The Dark Wife on Hugh's fabulous podcast, the Way of the Buffalo. Today, you can now hear the second chapter, in which we meet HADES and an interview with yours truly at the Way of the Buffalo! The interview that Hugh did with me is the best I've ever been given--it talks about gay YA, how we need gay books, and many other things. Please give it a listen~! <3

This week's edition of The Way of the Buffalo is centered around The Dark Wife, and includes the prologue of my novel, as read by the lovely voice actress Veronica Giguere. I wax incredibly ecstatic about all of this here, but if you just want to bypass all of my squee and listen to the AWESOME, you can do so at the podcast.

Spoiler alert: IT IS FUCKING EPIC AND AWESOME, and I LOVE Veronica's portrayal of Persephone. I'm both awed and humbled to be a part of this. <3

(Also, please consider leaving Hugh a comment at the Way of the Buffalo's post about this, to let him know what you thought of the podcast! <3)

So, our annual pilgrimage to Salem/Gloucester/Rockport is coming up this coming weekend (INSERT SQUEE AND JOY FOREVER), and while we made enough with Glamourkin to cover my furlough (thank you SO MUCH to everyone who posted about it, retweeted it, talked about it on Facebook--basically spread the word or purchased. You're wonderful, we appreciate you, we are SO GRATEFUL~ <333), and the hotel in Massachusetts was paid for months ago (psychic moments for the win!), we have very little spending money or nom money. That's a first world problem, right? We're going to fucking Massachusetts--I don't care if I have to eat ACORNS--we're going to be able to cavort in the sea and walk the streets of Salem--I'm content and happy AND JOY FILLED BEYOND BELIEF. :D <3333 But still, it'd be so wonderful to have a few noms and be able to go whale watching, too (we've gone every year). SO. Jenn and I were like HOW CAN WE MAKE THIS HAPPEN? and never ones to back down from a fabulous challenge, we put our colorful heads together and came up with SOME PLANS to hopefully make a bit of spending moolahs for the upcoming trip! :D

TOMORROW, I shall post a small sale here of some of our crystals, some of our Glamourkins that we want to pass along, and some of my Happy!Pagan!Jewelry! that I don't wear all that much. But TODAY is the FIRST PLAN.

I have fifteen copies of The Dark Wife sitting on my shelf for a rainy day. I know that I offered a pre-order when it first came out to my friends list, but I didn't open it up to non-friends-list people. This time, I'm opening it up to everyone!

The Dark Wife is a YA, lesbian retelling of the Greek myth of Persephone and Hades, and was released on May 17th and is already generating critical acclaim. It's currently nominated for a Rainbow Award.

So! I have fifteen copies of The Dark Wife--if you were thinking of purchasing a paper copy, this one is siiiiiiiiigned. IT MIGHT SPARKLE.

If you would like to purchase a signed copy of The Dark Wife, please pay $16 for domestic orders, $19 for Canadian orders to oceanid@oceanid.org via PayPal. I will consider shipping to international locations, but I'll calculate shipping first before you pay me, if that's all right--I don't want to overcharge you or undercharge me. :)

Please indicate which address you want me to ship it to either in the notes, or make certain that the address sending it is the correct one. Also, if you want me to say something specific or--I don't know--make the dedication hilarious or weird or touching, just tell me! I TAKE REQUESTS, YO. XDDDD

So, I write books--I'm not a math guru. XD I vastly undercharged for shipping and packaging on The Dark Wife pre-orders, but--even so--they are now all officially shipped out (thanks to my lovely wife who stood in line at the post office for two hours. Good heavens, she should be getting paid in sparkles for all of this. ;D). If you pre-ordered a signed copy, it should be to you shortly!

I hope you love them~ And thank you so much for your patience, everyone! There's always going to be a learning curve on every new thing attempted--I love and appreciate your patience so much! <3

(Lesson learned: good GODS, self, charge more for shipping!!!! The bunny commands me.)

I added two posts of interest at MuseRising.com this morning--one is "An Open Letter: Homophobia Can Be Overcome," and the other is about my new eBook (another Halloween fairy tale!), a labradorite necklace you can win and link-round-uppage. :D

Please feel free to share the letter or--really--any post, if ye wishes! And, just because it makes me happy:

FINALLY, you can now order a print copy of The Dark Wife! After all of the technical stupidity involved with this, I should let you know that I AM FAINTING FROM RELIEF RIGHT NOW, OMG FINALLY IT'S HERE.

I'm still taking signed pre-orders from my friends list until Thursday, because I promised. :)

But you can now order a print copy for yourself if ye wishes! :D :D :D

Any help promoting this whatsoever is so appreciated that I will never stop appreciating it. I SHALL BEAM RAINBOWS FROM MY HEART INTO YOURS I will appreciate it so much!

This is my proof. NOTICE HOW SHINY IT IS. IT IS SO SHINY, IN FACT, THAT IT MIRRORS THE SPARKLE OF THE CAMERA PHONE. XDDDDDD