'The Twilight Gods' and a Favorite Fairy Tale

This book was my gay YA retelling of the Native American folktale, "The Girl Who Married a Ghost", which ended up on my very short list of favorite folktales of all time. I first ran across it in the anthology edited by Joanna Cole called The Best-Loved Folktales of the World, but when I moved, I had to give up pretty much every print book I'd collected over the years -- including this amazing volume. Oh, I can still get a used copy, of course, and I just might because I'd like to reread those stories from anywhere outside Europe. 

Particularly Asia, whose stories I found to be gentler compared to those from Europe (which tended to be pretty dark and violent). I'd love to write my own take on one of those stories, but I'm jumping way ahead of myself.

this was the edition I owned

The Twilight Gods is set in the mid-19th century England during the time of The Great Exhibition, and I wrote the story as a metaphor for a queer kid's coming-out. 

"The Girl Who Married a Ghost" has some spectacular scenes in it that I kept, and the second half of the book is nearly a blow-by-blow retelling of the fairy tale. And that's because that fairy tale easily tracks the progression of a teenager's self-discovery and the aftermath. So everything -- and I mean EVERYTHING -- about what follows Norris's talks with his family's strange lodger, though eerie and (yes, I'll always default to this word) gothic, encapsulates the confusing and even terrifying experience of learning more about one's true nature and how best to reconcile it in a world that's still saddled with so much stupid and ignorant ideas. 

The presence of ghosts, of skeletons, and the lodger who becomes Norris's guide (she represents the original fairy tale's Screech Owl, who also acts as the bride's guide in the story) are all in the fairy tale, too, and nothing could have worked more perfectly for my purpose. 

The setting was also carefully chosen since The Great Exhibition was a celebration of progress in science and technology and all that, yet backward thinking still runs rampant in the book, and just like the bride in the fairy tale, Norris is forced to make a choice in the end.

Here's a small bit of trivia about the book:

After I had the second edition of the novel published by JMS Books some years ago, the publisher was approached by the ALA to see if they were interested in submitting The Twilight Gods for a Stonewall Award. Unfortunately, as it was the second edition, the book didn't qualify, and I had to decline. 

Did it suck? Yeah, it did.

The Twilight Gods is 50% off through the end of May. You can check out the book page for the blurb as well as the link to different online stores where you can get a copy, including Smashwords and Kobo.