My Friend Pembroke

What I’m Reading Today: A friend lent me Granta’s Best of Young American Novelists 2 (thanks, Nina!). Every story I’ve read so far, amazing.

Good friendships are my social lifeblood. You know, the ones where you share common interests, you’re always emailing or getting together, it’s not one sided and you both put in the effort, you always look forward to hearing from them and you do a lot to try to make them look forward to hearing from you.

As a writer, having a great friend who is also a writer is so wonderful and sustaining. I have a number of these (thank you so much, peeps!), and today I wanted to talk about my friend Pembroke Sinclair.

We met when we were both going to grad school here at the University of Wyoming. We had a nineteenth century novel class together. My friend/mentor/Sir Walter Scott-expert Caroline McCracken-Flesher taught it. The class included both grads and undergrads, and the grads met separately once a week. Pembroke was looking out after a friend's baby, so she brought him to class, with Caroline’s okay. We got to know one another a little in that class. Then, later, she applied for a job as word processor and technical editor at the place where I worked. We really got to know each other then, and we’ve bolstered each other’s writing ever since. I’m rooting for her to go all the way!

It’s great when you know another person’s writing so well. Pembroke loves scifi/fantasy/horror. She’s particularly attracted to kick-ass women narrators, zombies, the devil, and events of biblical proportions. You can check out her blog here and then check out her stories (right-hand menu).

She has a book out called Coming from Nowhere. Here’s what it’s about:

JD does not have a past--at least not one that she can remember--and that makes living life on Mars challenging. With nowhere to go, she is sent to the local military academy where she is trained to become a member of the elite secret police. While there, she becomes a pawn in Roger's struggle for military dominance and Chris's rebellion to overthrow the military regime. She supposedly holds a secret that will change the face of the soldier, but, unfortunately, she doesn't know what that secret is. Her only desire is to find the truth of her existence, and finds herself thrust into a realm where the truth of her past and present is more horrific than she ever imagined.

And ~ SO COOL ~ here’s her book trailer. She’s the first close writer friend who’s had a book trailer! They did such a great job creating it, and the text is spot on. Short but exactly right. And I love the fact that the end part ~ “the success of either cause rests entirely on the discovery of her true identity” ~ is exactly what the book is about. She’s looking for who she is, and what she discovers impacts everything. I love the aliens in this book, and you’ve got to pay attention ~ she creates a great plot!



Questions of the Day: Do you have great writer friends? I sure hope so!