So I’m pretty stoked. Last December I submitted a short story called The Hilltop Gathering to the We Shall Be Monsters anthology call-for-submissions. What really appealed to me about this project was how authors were invited to write stories that explored disability. As a disabled person, this simply delighted me.

For the first time since I plunged into creative writing again in 2014, I submitted a story with a disabled main character. In Life in the ‘Cosm, Noola has a disability and is a prominent character in the book, but this time I wanted the star to be a disabled monster. Frank E., or Frances Elizabeth, is she!

Now, even though many people see me as a space opera person, because that’s mainly the genre in which I write, I love reading classical literature from the romantic area. Yes, I am a Brontë sisters and Jane Austen fangirl. What I hadn’t been prepared for, as I did my research into the 1818 version of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus, was that it read like Austen, but dark, and there was so much shade thrown in the direction of toxic masculinity. I freaking loved this book! I’d never read it before this project, and I’d like to scold my English teachers for not introducing it into our curriculum in high school!

There is such an “othering” of Frankenstein’s monster—who, by the way, is more eloquent than most people I know—that the call for marginalized authors to write short stories while under the book’s influence just makes sense. I am so happy my story will be in the anthology, but I must say, the reward for me was discovering the novel. If you’ve not read it, I highly recommend it!

In the meantime, would you kindly consider showing your support for the Kickstarter? The anthology is being edited by the formidable seven-time Aurora-winner Derek Newman-Stille and published by Renaissance, whose mission is to lift up diverse voices. There are some really awesome rewards, too. You can make less expensive pledges, as you’ll see on the Kickstarter page, but I was blown away by the $50 reward, where you not only get the ebook of We Shall Be Monsters, but you also get 20 ebooks from Renaissance authors! At the $75 reward level, you get the 20 ebooks and the print copy of the anthology. And there are more rewards, too.

I’d like to thank those who have already pledged their support of this project. I think it’s going to be amazing. Heck, I already love the cover!

I do really hope you read Frankenstein and then buy We Shall be Monsters. I love anthologies like this. It’s a trip to see what different takes the various authors have in their stories. I personally cannot wait to get the anthology into my hands! Squee!

Cait (pronounced like “cat”) Gordon is originally from Verdun, Québec, and has been living in the suburbs of Ottawa since 1998. Her first novel, Life in the ’Cosm (Renaissance) was published in 2016. Her short story, A Night at the Rabbit Hole, appears in the Alice Unbound: Beyond Wonderland anthology (Exile Editions). She’s currently working on The Stealth Lovers, a prequel to the ’Cosm series. For her day job, Cait is a freelance editor. Some of the titles she’s edited include Confessions of a Mad Mooer: Postnatal Depression Sucks (Robin Elizabeth), Camp Follower: One Army Brat’s Story (Michele Sabad), Skylark (S.M. Carrière), Little Yellow Magnet (Jamieson Wolf), A Desert Song (Amy M. Young), and Moonshadow’s Guardian (Dianna Gunn). Cait is also the founder and editor of the Spoonie Authors Network, whose contributors manage chronic conditions and/or disabilities.