Local author gives us a piece of her mind in debut fantasy novel

Roseville, MN, August 2, 2015

Where do souls come from? This question has never been answered in quite as unique a way as it is in Dysmorphic Kingdom, Colleen Chen’s debut fantasy novel, released in July from Montag Press.

Set in the imaginary kingdom of Malland, Dysmorphic Kingdom is an adult fairy tale about the journey of Vesper, a young woman who encounters a talking, animated body part that has somehow detached from the rest of its person and become its own separate being. Vesper’s sheltered life with its wistful fantasies of change explodes into chaos as she discovers that people everywhere are falling victim to a magical disease that causes body parts to fall off and animate. She finds herself fighting an evil plot to create an army of body parts and a society of denial and control, one that deals with all problems by severing them.

Uplifting, humorous, and full of wisdom, Dysmorphic Kingdom is high fantasy with a philosophical bouquet, raising questions about conquering both our insecurities with ourselves and our differences with others, all in a polarity-ridden world.

Chen received her B.A. in PPE (Philosophy, Politics, and Economics) from Pomona College in Claremont, CA, and her J.D. from Harvard Law School. Her stories have been published in a number of venues online and in print in several anthologies, and she is the author of a growing list of choose-your-own-erotic-adventure novellas at www.hotpinkbooks.com. She blogs online at www.colleenchen.com and is a reviewer for the speculative fiction review site Tangent Online.

Ori Brafman, New York Times bestselling author of The Chaos Imperative and Sway, says, “Edgy, original. It’s inventive, funny, and sly. The characters come alive, and you can’t help but lose yourself in this world. Great writing makes you think of the world in a different way—and Chen does exactly that.”

Soma Frazier, award-winning author of Collateral Damage: A Triptych, says, “Warning: addictive. Side effects may include e-stalking Colleen Chen to locate more of her writing, sitting on a sunlit patio for several hours to devour a book that’s outside of the genres you normally read or compulsively visiting a surprising world in which none of the tedious old rules apply.”

Dysmorphic Kingdom, released in July by Montag Press, is for sale on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Dysmorphic-Kingdom-fairy-Colleen-Chen/dp/1940233232/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8