CANR

• Tarnished Are the Stars - 2019 Scholastic Press,

• Rosiee Thor website - http://www.rosieethor.com/

  Rosiee Thor began her career as a storyteller by demanding to tell her mother bedtime stories instead of the other way around. She lives in Oregon with a dog, two cats, and four complete sets of Harry Potter, which she loves so much, she once moved her mattress into the closet and slept there until she came out as queer.
  Rosiee is represented by Saba Sulaiman of Talcott Notch Literary Services.

• Amazon -

  Rosiee Thor began her career as a storyteller by demanding that her mother listen as Rosiee told bedtime stories instead of the other way around. She lives in Oregon with a dog, two cats, and four complete sets of Harry Potter, which she loves so much, she once moved her mattress into the closet and slept there until she came out as queer. Follow her online at rosieethor.com and on Twitter @rosieethor.

• Stay on the Page - https://stayonthepage.wordpress.com/2019/06/06/qa-with-rosiee-thor-author-of-tarnished-are-the-stars/

  Q&A with Rosiee Thor, Author of “Tarnished are the Stars”
  Posted on June 6, 2019
  I’m so excited to welcome Rosiee Thor, author of one of my most anticipated 2019 reads, the forthcoming queer science fiction epic TARNISHED ARE THE STARS to the blog today to talk about writing ace characters, dealing with online aphobia, queer community and more! Rosiee Thor is also the founder of Be Your Own Mentor. You can find her on Twitter and at her website. You should definitely also pre-order TARNISHED ARE THE STARS on IndieBound, Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
  Taylor: 30 Days of Pride is all about creating a sense of queer community during Pride Month by giving writers, bloggers, etc. a platform to share their voices and identities. Can you talk a bit about what queer identity means to you and what pride means to you?
  Rosiee: For me, identity is first and foremost a journey–of self-expression, understanding, and community. I’ve gone through many stages of awareness of my own identity, and I find it’s something of an exploration during which I can continue to discover new ways to identify myself and new ways to identify as queer. I remember someone once told me that coming out wasn’t usually an event so much as it was a process, and I’ve found that to be true in every way. I’m constantly encountering new people to come out to, but even more than that, I continue to come out to myself as a develop my understanding of queerness and what it means to me. The labels I used when I came out for the first time aren’t the same as ones I use today. Some days when I’m feeling unsure in between labels, it’s easy to slip into a feeling of isolation and question my own validity–especially when there are other more external voices in the mix invalidating my queerness. One of the most freeing and self-affirming things I’ve done lately is accept that my queerness is more journey than destination, and that’s something to be proud of.

  Taylor: So first, I am sooooooooo excited for TARNISHED ARE THE STARS and welcome all the arospec rep in SFF YA fiction. Can you talk a little bit about your debut and how it came to have this representation in it?

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  Rosiee: The queerness in TARNISHED, much like my own sexuality, was a laborious journey. I like to think that as I grew braver about my own identity, so did the representation in my book. In the original draft of TATS, there was no romance at all. No one kissed, no one flirted, I don’t think anyone really even touched a whole lot. It was a safe draft, only for my eyes. I risked nothing by putting myself on the page, and there was no pressure to define or even acknowledge who I was and what it meant.

  I wrote eleven drafts in total, and with each draft, I changed the representation and how I approached it. At first, I wrote a bisexual main character because that was how I was identifying myself, but the word I wore on the outside never really matched the inside. Eventually, I came to the identities reflected in the final pages now–which includes two sapphic ladies and an aro/ace boy. Each of these characters reflects a small piece of myself, and I’m happy with the representation I landed on both in how it manifests in the story and how it speaks to my own identities.

  Something that impacted my writing of my own identity in a big way was the encouragement of both my agent and my editor. I think on some level I was waiting for permission to write myself onto the page… for some reason I didn’t think my experiences were interesting or relevant, and I worried that injecting too much of my aro/ace identity would make the book less appealing to publishers. My agent never pushed me to make the book anything I didn’t want it to be, and my editor actively encouraged me to be more overt about the characters’ sexualities and how they informed their personalities and actions beyond romance. I am so grateful to them for not only validating my own identity, but for giving me the space to show those identities as valid on the page and share them with readers.

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  Taylor: So next, building on my last question, you’re a debut and already doing so much for the writing community with Be Your Own Mentor (an amazing project y’all, my dear readers, can check out here). Can you talk a bit about your goals as a queer writer within this vibrant, YA community? Are there other genres and age groups you want to write for or types of representation you’re itching to write?
  Rosiee: As a former mentee who benefitted greatly from my relationship with my mentor (hi Linsey!) mentorship is something that means a lot to me. The publishing industry can be lonely and demoralizing, and doubly so for those of us on the margins. If I can have an impact on another writer’s journey and making publishing even a little more tolerable, then I will consider myself lucky. Making connections with other writers–especially other queer writers–is a joy and a privilege, and as cheesy as it sounds, I cherish those relationships so much. I’m very proud of all my mentees and can’t wait to see them succeed in this industry and broaden the spectrum of queer representation on the shelves.

  As for my own writing goals, I’d definitely like to try my hand at some other genres and age categories. Most of all, though, I’d like the opportunity to write more aro/ace spectrum rep. With my debut, I got to explore the emotional journey of discovering labels for the first time, which was deeply personal and raw at the time of writing it. I’ve had a couple years of identifying with aro/ace spectrum labels now and learning more about how those labels interact with my worldview, and I hope I get the chance to explore more of those in fiction. There’s so much great aro/ace spectrum rep out there, but there’s still not enough, and the spectrum of identities and experience that exist in the world should exist on the shelves in equal numbers.
  Taylor: If you feel comfortable talking about this, from one ace to another, so many of my ace friends and I have experienced aphobia and utter nonsense from others, and often other queer peeps, during pride month. What do you wish people would do better in terms of communicating with ace folks on and offline?

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  Rosiee: Oof. Where to even start with this? There are so many microaggressions out there… I’m finding new ways people can be aphobic every day, honestly.

  This might be a bit of wishful thinking, but I’d really like to see a deconstruction of compulsory coupling in… all respects. I see this in my day-to-day life where I’m expected to either be in a romantic relationship or single, and no other relationships I might have (strong platonic friendships) are considered relevant. The biggest way this manifests is when invited to weddings, I’m expected not to bring +1 unless they’re a romantic partner which is, to put it bluntly, a big bummer when going to a wedding where I don’t know anyone. Online and in the bookish community, I see this most often in headcanons of couples or even in canon couplings where everyone has to get paired up by the end. I’d like to see more allo folks embrace singledom as an acceptable happily ever after. I know people really love shipping and I wouldn’t want to put a stop to that, but it’s nice when people make space for aro and ace people in their headcanons or even just acknowledge their existance. This can really help to decentralize allonormativity and reduce compulsory allocentric pressures. At the very least, it would be a start in helping us to feel welcome.

  One other thing I’d really love to see allies do is challenge preconceived notions about what makes media queer. There’s a general sense that queer media must feature a prominent queer couple in order to count as queer, but queer people–not just aros and aces–experience the world as queer people whether they’re in a relationship or not. Before you label a book as queer or not queer, think beyond the pairings in the book and think about the characters’ identities… A book about two bisexual people in a m/f romance is still queer. A book about two bisexual people not in a romantic partnership is still queer. A book about an aromantic or asexual spectrum character is still queer. Just because a book doesn’t feature a m/m or f/f romance doesn’t mean it’s not queer, and when you leave aro/ace spec books off of queer book lists or recommendations, it tells aro/ace spec readers and writers and people that we don’t belong.

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  Taylor: Now let’s talk about books! What are some of your favorite queer YA recommendations (and specifically aro and ace books) that you really love?
  Rosiee: There are so many but I’ll try to keep this short… As far as queer YA goes, I’ve recently really enjoyed WILDER GIRLS by Rory Power, WE SET THE DARK ON FIRE by Tehlor Kay Mejia, and THE FEVER KING by Victoria Lee. Aro and Ace spec books are a little harder to come by in YA, although traditional publishing is definitely picking up speed and there are so many more than there used to be. I will say that Mackenzi Lee’s LADY’S GUIDE TO PETTICOATS AND PIRACY made me personally feel exceptionally seen, and the ace representation there resonated a lot for me. I also want to mention–though it’s not YA–Lynn E O’Connacht’s THE ICE PRINCESS’S FAIR ILLUSION which is an adult novel in verse retelling the Thrushbeard fairytale as a queer platonic partnership between an aro and ace princess. This is the aro/ace spec book of my heart. It’s weird and wonderful and truly gets it. It’s an aro/ace book for aro/ace people, and I’ve truly never felt so fully represented as I did by that story.
  Taylor: What other pieces of media (so books, movies, TV, theater, music, etc.) have been fundamental to your experience as a queer person or are your favorite examples of queer representation?
  Rosiee: I feel like it’s impossible to have this conversation and not mention The Legend of Korra. There’s a lot of queer media out there that has impacted me over the years (shoutout to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the bisexual witch of our hearts, Willow) but Legend of Korra came at the right time and in the right way for me. That final season was a sort of sneak attack, and after being queer baited by so many shows (although at the time I didn’t know what queer baiting was and was barely aware that I was queer myself) seeing a queer relationship actualized in such a casual but meaningful way was a truly glass shattering, eye opening moment for me. I don’t think I could have anticipated what that kind of representation could mean for me until I saw it.

  The other piece of media that impacted me queerly to the same degree was THE HUNGER GAMES. Though it’s never explicitly stated in the text, there’s substantial textual evidence (and in this essay I will prove…) that Katniss is aro, if not ace as well. Her relationship to romance and sex is primarily as a tool to manipulate an alloromantic audience and to conform to their allormantic expectations. Before reading THG, I’d never recognized this piece of myself in media before. It was, perhaps, the first time I truly understood my identity, even before I knew what to call it. Say what you will about the series, but Katniss is an aro queen… and also an arrow queen. I’ll happily die on this hill defending her, not that she needs it.
  Taylor: If you could give advice or a message to the LGBTQPIA+ identifying folks who maybe don’t have a sense of community, feel alone, aren’t out, etc. this month, what would you say?
  Rosiee: There’s no one single way to be queer, and wherever you’re at in your journey, you matter and you are as much a part of the queer umbrella as you’re comfortable being. Labels are sometimes weird, and coming out isn’t always safe, but know that when or if you’re ready to reach out, there’s a whole community ready to welcome you. You’re one of us, whether you say it out loud or not, and you don’t need anyone’s permission to be yourself. I already adore you, and I hope you adore yourself too.

• Pitch Wars - https://pitchwars.org/pitch-wars-interview-rosiee-thor-mentor-linsey-miller/

  Pitch Wars Interview with Rosiee Thor and her mentor, Linsey Miller
  Saturday, 22 October 2016 | Posted by Heather Cashman

  Our mentors are editing, our mentees are revising, and we hope you’re making progress on your own manuscript! While we’re all working toward the Agent Showcase on November 3rd-9th, we hope you’ll take a moment during your writing breaks and get to know our 2016 Pitch Wars Teams.
  And now, we have . . .

  Rosiee Thor – Mentee
  Twitter | Website

  Linsey Miller – Mentor
  Twitter | Website

  Rosiee: Why did you choose Linsey?
  I knew I wanted to work with Linsey as soon as I decided to enter Pitch Wars–even before I knew for sure that she’d be mentoring. Her debut sounds amazing, and her dry humor on Twitter completely sold me. I wanted to work with someone who liked science, feminism, and speculative-fiction, and, well, her blog tagline is “Magic, Ladies, Books, Science,” so basically she’s a perfect human (assuming she isn’t an alien or a robot). Also she’s the pun master, and puns are my lifeblood, so it was a no brainer.

  Linsey: Why did you choose Rosiee’s manuscript?
  I really liked the idea of pre-Industrial technology with post-1900’s medical theory, and I thought the main characters were touching and had so much potential to really be explored in the world Rosiee had created. And–even though I loved and still love the concept, writing, and characters–I knew what I could do to help, and I think that’s an important part of picking a mentee.
  Rosiee: Summarize your book in three words.
  Family, Failure, Future (because apparently alliterations are also my lifeblood)
  Linsey: Summarize Rosiee’s book in three words.
  Clockwork Nerd Misadventures
  Rosiee: Tell us about yourself. What makes you and your MS unique?
  I’m a competitive swing dancer, history nerd, and a devourer of all things bread. I have a deep love for history, magic, and intense, never-ending speculation, which is probably why almost everything I write has a healthy dose of all three. With CLOCKWORK HEART I really wanted to explore what might happen if a futuristic society regressed to a pre-industrial level of technology, and how people/society would react. It really tickled the historian side of my brain, but it’s also ownvoices and writing a bisexual main character played a strong role in my own personal journey toward accepting myself.
  Linsey: Tell us about yourself. Something we might not already know.
  I’m a YA fantasy writer represented by Rachel Brooks of the L. Perkins Agency, and my debut novel, MASK OF SHADOWS, comes out next summer. I’m an MFA student now, but my background is in biology. Almost all of my stories involve science history, Germ Theory as magic, pastries, and murder. Not necessarily in that order. There’s also somehow always a sad doctor character.
  Something not known…I have somehow become completely obsessed with playing Overwatch despite never playing games of its kind before. Thankfully, school and work mean I can’t just sit at home and play all day. Ten internet gold stars to the person who can guess which hero I play.

  Check out Linsey Miller’s upcoming release . . .
  MASK OF SHADOWS, a YA Fantasy, will be coming from Sourcebooks Fire in 2017!
  A gender fluid pickpocket auditions to become a replacement member of the Left Hand – the queen’s quartet of assassins – but must survive the competition while also putting their true reason for auditioning into motion.

• Pop Goes the Reader - http://www.popgoesthereader.com/her-story-ladies-in-literature/her-story-ladies-in-literature-2019-with-rosiee-thor/

  Her Story: Ladies In Literature 2019 with Rosiee Thor
  Thursday, July 25th, 2019 at 12:00 AM | filed under Her Story: Ladies In Literature

  Her Story: Ladies In Literature is a special, month-long series on Pop! Goes The Reader in which we celebrate the literary female role models whose stories have inspired and empowered us since time immemorial. From Harriet M. Welsch to Anne Shirley, Becky Bloomwood to Hermione Granger, Her Story: Ladies In Literature is a series created for women, by women as twenty authors answer the question: “Who’s your heroine?” You can find a complete list of the participants and their scheduled guest post dates Here!

  About Rosiee Thor
  Rosiee Thor began her career as a storyteller by demanding to tell her mother bedtime stories instead of the other way around. She lives in Oregon with a dog, two cats, and four complete sets of Harry Potter, which she loves so much, she once moved her mattress into the closet and slept there until she came out as queer. Rosiee is represented by Saba Sulaiman of Talcott Notch Literary Services.
  Author Links: Website ● Twitter ● Instagram ● Goodreads

  We stopped at a Barnes & Noble for yet another bathroom break. I didn’t have to pee, but I was grateful all the same. I was on my way south somewhere, it doesn’t really matter where or why, but I’d been heading in a downward direction for a lot longer than we’d been driving. It was a miracle, perhaps, that I was able to stagger inside that Barnes & Noble and pick up The Hunger Games without falling, weighed down as I was by the immense pressure to perform the role of a romantically and sexually available twenty-year-old woman.
  For months I’d borne the flirtations and advances of men I didn’t want to date, men who didn’t receive the world of “no” I shouted with every form of communication I had except my voice. And perhaps just as harmful were the bystanders who encouraged me bear it, who told me it was normal, that I should get used to it, that I was expected to reciprocate or else be called cold or hard-to-get.
  I didn’t know it then, but what I was experiencing is called “compulsory allonormativity.” In the absence of the technical term, Katniss Everdeen came to me, leaping off the shelf. She began as an excuse, pages for me to bury my nose in so I didn’t have to look at the seemingly endless, tortuous road toward other people’s expectations, but Katniss Everdeen was so much more. She wasn’t cold; she was the girl on fire. She wasn’t hard-to-get; she was ungettable, unbeatable, unwavering. She did more than live my all-too-familiar world of “no”…she survived it.
  I wanted to lose myself in those pages, but instead I found myself.
  In Katniss’s comfortable, albeit dangerous, life of hunting with Gale, I saw my desire for reliable friendship. They had a partnership based on mutual respect, not on butterflies in their stomachs or lust on their tongues.
  In Katniss’s mistrust of Peeta’s kindness, I saw my own fear of the world around me, the unpredictability of a favor and what might come attached to it. I saw the dread I felt whenever anyone bought me a drink, held a door, or asked me about myself. It wasn’t the act, but the unspoken rule that they’d done something for me…so now I owed them.
  In Katniss’s resentment of Haymitch and his game of sponsor gifts I saw a familiar transaction. Haymitch gave her food or medicine or help so she could survive, but only if she gave the world what they expected to see: affection between a girl and a boy in love. It was an allegory so sharp and painful it might as well have been an arrow through my heart. Haymitch was the world telling me I had to perform like a girl who wanted to fall in love, or I’d be slaughtered too.
  In Katniss’s careful analysis of these relationships and her circumstances, I saw a way to survive. She recognized her situation for what it was. She knew the world wasn’t going to change on its own, so she did what was necessary to survive. She had to live so she could recover and then change it herself.
  Just like Katniss, I had a lot more pain ahead of me, but also just like Katniss, I survived it. We endured the crushing dichotomy of invisibility and life in the public eye – where everyone can look at you, but no one really sees you for who you are. It was incredibly isolating, but even at my loneliest, Katniss Everdeen was with me, she was like me.
  Years later, I now know that I am aromantic asexual. I know that doesn’t make me cold or hard-to-get. It also doesn’t make me strong or selfless or a survivor. I made myself those things. So did Katniss. But still, we have to fight to be seen as we are: more than our traumas, more than our romances, more than the world wants to allow us to be.
  Katniss Everdeen isn’t a girl torn between two boys; she is a girl caught in a web of compulsory allornormativity. While people scream “Team Peeta” or “Team Gale,” I whisper “Team Katniss,” because she deserves more than a love triangle legacy. She deserves to be free. She deserves to be seen, like I was when I pulled her story off the shelf in that store, like I was when I pretended I needed to pee again so I could pick up books 2 and 3.
  So, Katniss Everdeen, I salute you – three fingers to the sky. You made me feel seen, and I see you too.

  Title Tarnished Are The Stars
  Author Rosiee Thor
  Intended Target Audience Young Adult
  Genre Science Fiction
  Publication Date October 15th 2019 by Scholastic Press
  Find It On Goodreads ● Amazon ● Chapters ● The Book Depository
  A secret beats inside Anna Thatcher’s chest: An illegal clockwork heart. Anna works cog by cog – donning the moniker Technician – to supply black market medical technology to the sick and injured, against the Commissioner’s tyrannical laws.
  Nathaniel Fremont, the Commissioner’s son, has never had to fear the law. Determined to earn his father’s respect, Nathaniel sets out to capture the Technician. But the more he learns about the outlaw, the more he questions whether his father’s elusive affection is worth chasing at all.
  Their game of cat and mouse takes an abrupt turn when Eliza, a skilled assassin and spy, arrives. Her mission is to learn the Commissioner’s secrets at any cost – even if it means betraying her own heart.
  When these uneasy allies discover the most dangerous secret of all, they must work together despite their differences and put an end to a deadly epidemic – before the Commissioner ends them first.

Thor, Rosiee TARNISHED ARE THE STARS Scholastic (Young Adult Fiction) $18.99 10, 15 ISBN: 978-1-338-31227-0
Three young people in a post-Earth world work together to uncover a mystery.
Anna is a gifted mechanic bucking the laws against technology. Nathaniel, son of the abusive and powerful Commissioner, just wants to make his father happy. And Eliza, who has dedicated her life to serving as the Queen's spy, is loyally preparing for a strategic marriage. Set in a distant future where humans have fled to space and are searching for a safe terrestrial home after destroying Earth, these three have to navigate their differing agendas, burgeoning identities, and a strange illness that attacks the hearts of anyone born on Earth Adjacent. The easily followed plot twists and turns between them, and debut author Thor departs from cliches in the genre in interesting and modern ways; Nathaniel explores an asexual and aromantic orientation while Eliza and Anna develop a steamy connection. The main characters are cued as white, but racial identity categories don't seem to have survived the apocalypse, nor did anything resembling a community for LGBTQ people. The prose becomes a bit labored and graceless at times, with an occasionally dragging plot, but the worldbuilding and sympathetic characters will keep readers invested in this strange but plausible future.
A blend of space opera, queer romance, and high-stakes dystopia, this story will appeal to a broad audience. (Science fiction. 14-18)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Thor, Rosiee: TARNISHED ARE THE STARS." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Aug. 2019. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A596269624/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=4c1faec2. Accessed 10 Sept. 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A596269624

Tarnished Are the Stars
Rosiee Thor. Scholastic Press, $18.99 (384p) ISBN 978-1-338-31227-0
In this intriguing science fantasy debut, the population is divided between preindustrial settlers who live on Earth Adjacent and the aristocratic people of the Tower, a space station ruled by the enigmatic Queen Elizabeth. Successfully terraforming Earth Adjacent hinges on the society curing a congenital heart defect that some element of the planet's environment causes in everyone born there. Although the authoritarian Commissioner has found a way to protect his Settlement, those whose lives have been saved by illegal clockwork tech have formed an outlaw village. When Nathaniel, the Commissioner's son and heir apparent, goes on the hunt to arrest Anna, a mechanic who services illegal medical tech, his belief that technology is inherently dangerous undergoes a seismic shift, and is further rocked by his first meeting with his Tower fiancee, Eliza, who reveals that she's been sent by the Queen herself to overthrow the Commissioner. As Eliza and Anna decide what their budding mutual attraction means, and Nathaniel struggles to choose a life not defined by his father's expectations, they also make daring plans that will decide the future of a whole world. This is a fun and unusual blending of space-age tech and steam-punk-style clockwork that readers with a love of adventure will enjoy. Ages 14--up. Agent: Saba Sulaiman, Talcott Notch Literary. (Oct.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Tarnished Are the Stars." Publishers Weekly, 5 Aug. 2019, p. 71. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A596104226/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=a88f93fd. Accessed 10 Sept. 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A596104226

Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition) "Thor, Rosiee: TARNISHED ARE THE STARS." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Aug. 2019. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A596269624/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=4c1faec2. Accessed 10 Sept. 2019. Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition) "Tarnished Are the Stars." Publishers Weekly, 5 Aug. 2019, p. 71. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A596104226/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=a88f93fd. Accessed 10 Sept. 2019.

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