Number eight

Turned on its side, it resembles infinity

(I know I promised you a newsletter last week, but life intervened. But The Library of Broken Worlds is officially out in the world, and it’s time to celebrate!)

Young Alaya holding a copy of her debut novel, Racing the Dark, in front of a painting of a Goya bean can.

I was twenty-five when my first novel came out. It was published by a wonderful small press, Agate Books. I remember being terrified and overjoyed. Everything that I had wanted for my life was finally happening. I threw a huge party and ordered red velvet and carrot cakes from a famous Harlem bakery. I wore a pretty dress I could never fit into now and the friends who celebrated with me then are still friends now. I felt, truly, so lucky. But I was also scared: what if my book didn’t sell? What if it was secretly terrible? What if I never made enough money to gain independence from a bad relationship? What would my career look like in fifteen years? What would my life look like? 

It’s sixteen years later, and yesterday my eighth novel, The Library of Broken Worlds, was released into the world. A career in the arts is always a precarious thing, but I am so happy to still be here, writing books, improving my craft, telling the stories that only I can tell. All of my novels have a piece of myself in them, but Freida’s story is perhaps the most clear-eyed, the one that I was able to tell without flinching, without shame, with self-knowledge and love. She’s able to love radically, in two different relationships over the course of the novel. She confronts the emotional scars left behind by a sexual assault, a journey that has ben so hard for me, and yet also so rewarding. I want young survivors to be able to see that there is nothing for us to be ashamed of, that there is beauty and joy and love to be had if we accept the truth and release our misplaced guilt. Freida helped me do that, and I hope that she helps others as well.

Eight is a good number. It is multiply divisible, and turned on its side it resembles infinity. I still have a career, which my twenty-five-year-old self would be delighted to know. How many more books will make up my life? This book took seven years; Trouble the Saints also took about that long. I’m working on two more books right now, but it’s slow going. I have big ideas that I’d love to have the time and stability to dig into. But careers, like life, are not guaranteed. Every writer dies with books unfinished, or only dreamed of. Life is contingent—upon opportunity, chance, societal limitations, chemistry, physics. What I do in this branch of the wave function does not necessarily align with its other branches. Not because of my individual choices, but because branching quantum probabilities will inevitably accumulate macroscopic differences. 

Older Alaya at her book launch last night at the incredible Octavia’s Bookshelf in Pasadena!

For now, in this branch of the wave function, I am overjoyed to say that The Library of Broken Worlds is available in the US and the UK wherever books are sold. You can crack open the pages and peer into Freida’s fantastical, AI-haunted, far-future world. My dream is for this novel to make it into the hands of young readers (and older readers!) who need it. 

This first week is crucial for making that happen. Recommend it to your local library and bookstore. Buy a copy if you can, or even buy an extra for a young reader in your life. Post on social media, write a review for Goodreads or Amazon, text a friend. Anything you can do is incredibly appreciated. It is hard to ask for this given the extreme limitations of most people and a positive embarrassment of brilliant books being published these days, but if you can help, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it. 

Abrazos,

Alaya

Sample tweet: 

The Library of Broken Worlds by @alayadj is finally out! If you love the sound of libraries, AI gods, a bisexual MC and some mind-bending ideas, check it out! https://tr.ee/yReWTAk0jL

Instagram & Facebook-ready infographic:

Also, check out this essay I wrote for John Scalzi’s blog about AI and how I used it in the novel.

Want a signed copy? Stop by Octavia’s Bookshelf!