Title: Secondhand Origin Stories
Author: Lee Blauersouth
Series: Second Sentinels #1
Release date: March 15th, 2018
Release date: March 15th, 2018
Pages: 324
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Opal has been planning to go to Chicago and join the Midwest's superhero team, the Sentinels, since she was a little kid. That dream took on a more urgent tone when her superpowered dad was unjustly arrested for protecting a neighbor from an abusive situation. Now, she wants to be a superhero not only to protect people, but to get a platform to tell the world about the injustices of the Altered Persons Bureau, the government agency for everything relating to superpowers.
But just after Opal's high school graduation, a supervillain with a jet and unclear motives attacks the downtown home of the Sentinels, and when Opal arrives, she finds a family on the brink of breaking apart. She meets a boy who's been developing secret (and illegal) brain-altering nanites right under the Sentinel's noses, another teenage superhero-hopeful who looks suspiciously like a long-dead supervillain, and the completely un-superpowered daughter of the Sentinels' leader. Can four teens on the fringes of the superhero world handle the corruption, danger, and family secrets they've unearthed?
Of Beginnings and Inspirations
Lee Blauersouth
It started with a flu.
Years ago, I caught a nasty flu that had me sipping NyQuil on the couch for days. After running through my entire collection of superhero movies, I got a little desperate and ended up watching a stunningly bad, made-for-tv, Avengers movie about the children of the Avengers. At the time, I was finishing up my education to be a family therapist. I ended up ranting a lot about media depictions of complicated family dynamics. Particularly when found family, persistent danger, and trauma are involved.
But that was only the start. This book is a mashup of so many things I care about.
Much as I love watching superheroes fight supervillains, I wanted to see more heroes that fight real world problems I care about.
I see a lot of fights that need fighting. I'm a multiply-disabled, queer therapist who spends their work days embedded in systems of addiction, trauma, criminal justice, disability, and public assistance. If I was going to write superheroes, I wanted to write stories of hope, and community, and fighting spirit. I wrote this story for my own sake, but I feel like a lot of us could use these sorts of stories now.
I hope, if you read it, that I can give you some of the same feelings.
After about a decade drawing comics independently or with small presses, Lee started writing prose out of a combination of peer pressure and spite, then continued out of attachment to their favorite made-up people. They live in Minnesota even though it is clearly not a habitat humans were ever meant to endure, with their lovely wife/editor, the worlds most perfect baby, and books in every room of the house.
If you like categories, they're an ENFJ Slytherin Leo. If you're looking for demographics they're an agender bisexual with a couple of disabilities. If you're into lists of likes: Lee loves comics, classical art, round animals, tattoos, opera, ogling the shiner sciences, and queer stuff. Please have a look around and get to know their work!
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