Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Kress Outed!

I am not who I am. At least, not all of the time.

Over the past few years I have not published a science fiction novel because I have been writing and publishing a YA fantasy trilogy under the pseudonym "Anna Kendall." They have sold in five countries thus far. The first one is out in the United States, and the first two are out in England. Here are the covers:


Why YA? Why fantasy? Why a pseudonym? I wrote fantasy because my protagonist, Roger Kilbourne, popped into my head one day and began tugging at my sleeve: "Write me! Write me!" No, I said, I don't write fantasy. More "Write me! Write me!" So I did. (You really can't argue with these people). Telling his story took three books.

Why YA? Because Roger is fourteen at the start of the first book, and apparently any novel whose first-person protagonist is fourteen, is YA. I actually did not realize this when I began Roger's complicated story.

The pseudonym evolved because my agent and publishers did not wish to have this confused with my usual SF, much of which concerns genetic engineering. There is no genetic engineering in CROSSING OVER. There is a dark form of magic; Roger has the ability to cross over into the Country of the Dead. There are some things more dangerous than dying, and Roger encounters them.

Reviews have been good. And I like these books. If you choose to read them, I hope you will, too.

10 comments:

Bryan H. Bell said...

I prefer science fiction and I haven't read any fantasy since I was a teen (I read lots of it then and I guess burned out on it). However, I'll make an exception for one of my favorite authors and give this a shot. I've picked up the Kindle version of Crossing Over.

EA Hirsch said...

Ooh! Color me intrigued. Unlike Bryan I DO read fantasy, and love YA (not to mention your writing, thus far--halfway through Beggars) so this is very exciting! Bang--got one of the last three copies from Amazon.

Unknown said...

I can't read Kendall on my Kindle; I have a Kobo. Any plans for an ePub edition?

Siobhan Carroll said...

I listened to Crossing Over on audio book and really liked it: the Land of the Dead is an intruiging place, and I want to learn more about Solvine(?) Moor...

earthling said...

How exciting! Thank you for sharing with us.

Unknown said...

Looks interesting, something else to add to the TBR pile!

Bryan H. Bell said...

As some of you may have noticed, Google's Blogger was down yesterday. The six(?) comments responding to this posting on Nancy's Blog appear to be missing, which I'm guessing is a result of the outage. I don't whether they'll be restored, so here's my original comment (from memory):

I haven't read any fantasy since I was a teen (I read lots of it then and I guess burned out on it). However, since Nancy is one of my favorite authors, I'll give this a shot. I picked up Crossing Over for my Kindle.

Jane said...

You will like them. You will love them. You will wish to own them, lend them to friends and buy them to give as gifts. They are terrific.

Ismail N said...

I just finished reading Crossing Over and am looking forward to reading the next instalments. I really love Maggie and am very curious to learn more about Mdm Chilton. :D

Ismail N said...

I just finished reading Crossing Over and am looking forward to reading the next instalments. I really love Maggie and am very curious to learn more about Mdm Chilton. :D