On the plane, I was…

On the plane, I was working on my back cover for the Silence book. No author should ever have to come up with their own back cover material; you can't help feeling like an idiot. If it weren't for my kind friends and their lovely blurbs, I would have given up in despair. Any thoughts on how I can improve the two paragraphs of promo text would be much appreciated. (This is geared towards people at conventions, for example, who might pick this book up off a dealer's table and browse it, since it probably won't be in bookstores much).


"The word for Mary Anne's writing: delicious. It is also rich, inventive, full of unexpected moods and tastes -- by turns funny, poignant, strange, familiar, pungent, mournful, thrilling, stark. Like a dish of something wonderful: dig in."

-- Benjamin Rosenbaum, author of Other Cities

"Mary Anne Mohanraj's writing is just like the writer herself: graceful, exotic, and full of boundless energy. Readers will find it a treat to get to know her."

-- Cecilia Tan, author of Black Feathers

A new collection drawing from the many areas of Mary Anne Mohanraj's work, Silence and the Word includes within its pages everything from enticing erotica to Sri Lankan-American immigrant stories, from provocative essays to romantic poetry. Covering the seven years since the publication of her last collection, Torn Shapes of Desire, this book offers the reader both old work and new, from award-winning stories such as "A Gentle Man," to never-before-published pieces like "At the Gates of the City" and "Exposure."

Within these pages, Mohanraj boldly explores sexuality, ethnicity, and their interactions with the human heart. If you're a long-time fan, you'll be thrilled to finally have so much of her work finally collected in one place; if you're a new reader, prepare to be emotionally engaged, possibly aroused, and certainly fascinated by what you're about to read.

"Mary Anne Mohanraj writes clear, well-built, and finely finished short fiction and poetry -- and what she writes is often filled with highly charged sexual romanticism."

-- Penthouse Forum

"Mary Anne has a mischievous, sexy, thoughtful, smart, erudite brain, and I'm so glad that she sometimes shares its thoughts with the rest of the world."

-- Nalo Hopkinson, author of The Salt Roads

5 thoughts on “On the plane, I was…”

  1. Works for me. In your own comments, I’d suggest deleting “within its pages” and “within these pages.” Both seem like a given to me.

    -nalo

  2. Starting with “…you’ll be thrilled…” you use the word “finally” twice. 🙂

    I also don’t like “both old work and new” — “old” has only negative connotations to me. Maybe “award-winning” instead?

    Good luck!

Leave a Reply to Mary Anne Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *