Ren "Jackal" Segura is a Hope -- a special child, a powerful symbol of a new world government destined for greatness. But two months before she is to assume the role she has been preparing for her entire life, Jackal discovers that everything she believes, everything she is, is a lie. Convicted of a terrible crime, she agrees to participate in a "rehabilitation" experiment: While her body lies comatose for eight months, a computer will convince her mind that she is spending eight long years in solitary confinement. But Jackal's history as a Hope has given her strengths and skills other prisoners lack -- powers she will need to endure the tormenting loneliness, to discover the truth about her betrayal, and to rediscover her life, her love, and her soul in a strange place of shattered hopes and new beginnings called Solitaire.

Solitaire: A Novel

Literature & Fiction

Eskridge, Kelley

United States

Convicted of a crime she did not commit, former Hope child Jackal serves a terrible solitary imprisonment sentence and is eventually abandoned in a strange country where other people like herself help her learn the truth about her imprisonment. 30,000 first printing.

Solitaire

Genre Fiction

Barnes&Noble

NIGHTMARE is an online horror and dark fantasy magazine. In NIGHTMARE's pages, you will find all kinds of horror fiction, from zombie stories and haunted house tales, to visceral psychological horror. Funded as a stretch goal of our sister-magazine LIGHTSPEED’s Queers Destroy Science Fiction! Kickstarter campaign, this month we’re presenting a special issue of NIGHTMARE called Queers Destroy Horror!: an all-horror extravaganza entirely written—and edited!—by queer creators. Here’s what we’ve got lined up for you in this special issue: Original horror—edited by Wendy N. Wagner—by Chuck Palahniuk, Matthew Bright, Sunny Moraine, Alyssa Wong, and Lee Thomas. Reprints—also selected by Wagner—by Kelley Eskridge, Caitlin R. Kiernan, and Poppy Z. Brite. And nonfiction articles—edited by Megan Arkenberg—by Lucy A. Snyder, Sigrid Ellis, Catherine Lundoff, Michael Matheson, Evan J. Peterson, and Cory Skerry. Plus a selection of queer poetry selected by Robyn A. Lupo and an original cover illustration by AJ Jones.

Nightmare Magazine, October 2015 (Queers Destroy Horror! special issue)

Wong, Alyssa

Kiernan, Caitlìn R.

Snyder, Lucy A.

Thomas, Lee

Wagner, Wendy N.

Bright, Matthew

Moraine, Sunny

PALAHNIUK, CHUCK

Bright, Poppy Z.

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Now a motion picture: OtherLife. A New York Times Notable Book, Borders Original Voices selection, and Nebula, Endeavour, and Spectrum Award finalist. "Suspenseful and inspiring."—School Library Journal "A stylistic and psychological tour de force."—The New York Times Book Review Jackal Segura is a Hope: born to responsibility and privilege as a symbol of a fledgling world government. Soon she'll become part of the global administration, sponsored by the huge corporation that houses, feeds, employs, and protects her and everyone she loves. Then, just as she discovers that everything she knows is a lie, she becomes a pariah, a murderer: a person with no community and no future. Grief-stricken and alone, she is put into an experimental program designed to inflict the experience of years of solitary confinement in a few short months: virtual confinement in a sealed cell within her own mind. Afterward, branded and despised, she returns to a world she no longer knows. Struggling to make her way, she has a chance to rediscover her life, her love, and her soul—in a strange place of shattered hopes and new beginnings called Solitaire. Kelley Eskridge is a novelist, essayist, and screenwriter. Her stories have received the Astraea Award and been adapted for television. A movie based on Solitaire is in development. She lives in Seattle with her partner, novelist Nicola Griffith.

Solitaire: a novel

Small Beer Press

Dangerous Space showcases a collection of seven seductive stories by Kelley Eskridge, whose novel Solitaire was a New York Times Notable Book, with an introduction by Geoff Ryman (author of Was and Air). The opening story, "Strings," takes us to a world that tightly controls musical expression and values faithfulness to the canon above all else. By contrast, in the title novella, "Dangerous Space," we see the full power of music unleashed to sexually enthralling as well as risky effect; original to the volume, this tale features Mars, the intriguing narrator of "And Salome Danced" (short-listed for the Tiptree Award), on tour with an indie rock band on the verge of breaking out. Closing the volume, the moving, edgy "Alien Jane" (a finalist for the Nebula Award and adapted for the SciFi Channel's Welcome to Paradox series) delves into the importance of pain for the human organism and finds hope in the most unlikely of places. Jeff VanderMeer writes on Amazon's blog: "As short story collections go, this is one of the best of the year, with incisive, often subtle character studies combined with down-to-earth contemporary fantasy elements. The great writing here is at the service of fascinating people and unusual situations." And Julie Phllips, author of James Tiptree, Jr.:The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, writes: "Richly imagined, moving, and very sexy, these stories about music, art, sex, and identity will make you rethink all the categories you thought you knew." Gwyneth Jones, author of White Queen and Life, writes: "Characters slip from story to story, role to role, delineating a fascination with the ruthless hunger for sensation that possesses all great artists; and the complicity of those who love them. Kelley Eskridge's collection is a treat: unassuming, deceptively gentle, packing a subtle punch."

Dangerous Space

Short Stories & Anthologies

Aqueduct Press

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