by J. M. Frey
“You’re real,” he whimpers, all his swaggering self-importance deflated.
“I am real,” I agree. “Sit. P-please.”
He falls into his chair like a toy dropped by a child, mouth an open cavern of disbelief, legs akimbo. He does not release my hand.
“It’s a pl-pleasure to meet you, Mr. Reed,” I say softly. It isn’t a lie, not now. Because I can see that this scares him as much as it scares me.
We can be frightened together.
Reed releases me to scrub both of his hands through his hair. “Who. How?”
I smile, take a sip of wine to wet my throat, and lay a hand on his calf. It feels like closing a circle.
“Let me tell you a story,” I say.
About the Author
J.M. is a voice actor, SF/F author, professionally trained music theatre performer, not-so-trained but nonetheless enthusiastic screenwriter and webseries-ist, and a fanthropologist and pop culture scholar. She’s appeared in podcasts, documentaries, radio programs, and on television to discuss all things geeky through the lens of academia. J.M. lives near Toronto, loves tea, scarves, and Doctor Who (all of which may or may not be related), and her epic dream is to one day sing a duet with John Barrowman.
Her debut novel Triptych was nominated for two Lambda Literary Awards, nominated for the CBC Bookie Award, was named one of Publishers Weekly’s Best Books of 2011, was on The Advocate’s Best Overlooked Books of 2011 list, received an honorable mention at the London Book Festival in Science Fiction, and won the San Francisco Book Festival for Science Fiction.
www.jmfrey.net | @scifrey
Acknowledgements
Once again, massive thanks go first and foremost to Stephanie Lalonde. She named pretty much everyone in this novel; I kept texting her inane directions like, “Now I need a name for the protagonist! He’s a spy-master, and he’s a nice guy, but he’s eccentric! Go!” It is the mark of a good friend that she met each text with what I envisioned was a smiling sigh and answered.
Writers make stories, but editors make novels. To that end, I have to thank my beta readers: Devon Taylor-Black, Liana Kerzner, Jason Meyer, Ashley Kung, Ruthanne Reid, Brienne E. Wright, Kimbr, Leah Petersen, Alex James, and Sunny Hope.
I repeatedly called this novel my “love letter to the Strong Female Characters in my life,” and I need to thank them all for teaching me not only what it means to have a voice of one’s own in geekdom, where women are quite often shouted down, but to also defend my right to speak with it. And so, a big thanks to: Devon and the Scarborough Museum Youth Team, Liana K., Ruby Pixel, Brandy Dawly, Dr. Jennifer Brayton, Kenickie Street, Random Nexus, Sunny Hope, Adrienne Kress, and Lesley Livingston. There are also awesome men in my life who are strong characters and who also deserve celebration: Alex James (and The Monster), Jason Leaver, Mark Askwith, Teddy Wilson, and Ajay Fry (no relation).
The Toronto nerd community is fantastic, and I have to make a point of thanking everyone who has supported me for doing so, including but not limited to the members of the Toronto Steampunk Society, the Toronto Nerd Mafia, Nerds with Guitars, the cast, producers, hosts, crew and overall wizards behind the scenes at the SPACE Channel, and the organizers and volunteers of Ad Astra, Polaris, TCon, FanExpo, GenreCon, SO Sci-fi, FutureCon, Geek Trivia, Nerd Nite, Star Trek Day, and every other fandom-celebrating events in the area.
To my Aunt Brenda, who loves my work more than anyone I know, and who lets me hide in her bunkhouse every summer to compose another new inanity whilst drinking all her tea.
To my agent, Laurie McLean, who—dear gods—is a bigger fangirl than I could ever be, and with a marketing background to boot. I love her to bits. Her “I love it!” flail is so adorable it should be illegal. Laurie, I’m so very glad that I’m not the “one who got away” anymore.
Thank you to Kisa, Ashley, and Summer of REUTS Publications, who have made this whole process painless and fun. I’m still flattered beyond belief that you ran up to my agent and said, “That book you were talking about! We want it!” I cannot imagine more wonderful, entertaining, kind, and effervescent women. I am lucky beyond measure to have such fantastically feminist fangirls working on my feminist fan book.
As ever, a big thank you to my parents, who are so supportive it’s sometimes insane, and to my two big little brothers, who never quite know how to take their little big sister’s flights of fancy, but whom I hope are proud of me and what I’ve accomplished anyway.
Lastly—most importantly and most profoundly—I must thank the brave, honest, intelligent people who have published the struggles with harassment and misogyny both in real life and at SF/F events, in SF/F literature, and in the writing community. I especially must thank The Mary Sue, Jim C. Hines, and Seannen McGuire for their blog posts on the topics. Your words affected me deeply, and any time I needed to remember why Pip says the things she says, why she needs to say the things she says, I would read the words of people who believe that SF/F can involve fantasy realms and futures where people of all races, creeds, genders, sexual orientations, and cultures can be represented and included—respectfully—and think, “This is how I can do my part to affect change.” This book wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for your books, your blog posts, your articles, your cries for equality, inclusion, and diversity. Thank you.
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Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two