From ecstasy to tragedy, with love blossoming shyly, love at first sight, and even love borne of practical necessity—The Scarlet Circus, the fourth volume in Yolen’s award-winning short fiction series brings you passionate treasures and unexpected transformations. This bewitching assemblage, with an original introduction from Brandon Sanderson, is an ideal read for anyone who appreciates witty, compelling, and classic romantic fantasy.
Available on February 14th 2023
Dear Readers:
Writing romance fiction takes a certain skill base, as does writing fantasy fiction. I am well practiced in the latter, a latecomer to the former.
I didn’t mean to write a bunch of fantasy/romance short stories. It just sort of happened. I thought that I was writing fantasy . . . but my long period of widowhood (seventeen years of bad dates) supplied the romance that was lacking in my life in a fantastic sort of way.
Now, I am almost eighty-four, and five years ago I re-met a college boyfriend, Peter Tacy, a widower of seven years. He is also a poet, educator, birdwatcher, violist, playful, and six feet tall. We had spent our two months of dating in college discussing Emily Dickinson instead of exploring bodies. We both had wonderful marriages, strong families.
Our first date as widowed compatriots a few weeks before the world shut down. Our first old-age date took place was at the Emily Dickinson House/Museum.
Then, Covid happened.
We were stuck in his house for three months. Let me emphasize how much that close quarters played in the romance. I think that we might have missed out by being too scared of Covid (this was pre-vaccine). But we played at being married, and it worked.
Reader, I married him.
Romantic? Yes. Magical? Absolutely. And suddenly, I remembered the stories I had written and published on that dual subject during widowhood’s worst. (Which, if I am lucky, you now have or will soon have in your hands—The Scarlet Circus.) I reread them, and boy, had I been overcompensating!!! Love objects included birds, ghosts, jinns . . . and walkers through time, as Peter and I surely have been.
Now, we are settled down (sort of, as we drive back and forth between our houses on an almost weekly schedule). He has two music groups he plays with, and I have a writer’s critique group I began forty-five years ago. And then there’s the Scottish house in St Andrews.
Yes, we are a busy duo for two octogenarians!
As for the romance? Luckily, we have two large houses, and soft voices. I draw the blinds!
*
Poem written especially for you
How to Transport Love
This love thing can lay heavy
on your heart,
it can skip a beat,
make mush of reserve.
If octos act like teens,
They need to come up for air
once in a while.
Go to bed early.
Turn on the bed’s heaters.
Make happy fools of themselves.
©2023 Jane Yolen all rights reserved
The Booked Unicorn 