Bethenny Frankel and her hundred million dollar booze be damned, this bitch was writing about YES’ing ten years ago. Maria Dahvana Headley has been a dear friend to the GirlieGirl Army since it’s inception, and throughout her rise to literary fame. She’s a glamazon in every sense of the word, and her first book The Year of Yes is one of our all time favorites and has been translated into nine languages, and optioned for television and film by, respectively, 20th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures. As a playwright, she is the creator of The Upstart Crow Project, an organization which will commission 37 female playwrights to adapt all the plays of Shakespeare into contemporary versions. Not enough of a literary pedigree for you? She is a MacDowell Colony Fellow and lives in Seattle, with her husband, legendary playwright and screenwriter Robert Schenkkan, and two warlike Bengal cats. Having majored in dramatic writing in College, we were around a lot of talent. Maria stuck out like a shiny, glittering thumb. The woman is a genius. So here are 5 reasons, written by the wunderkind herself, why you should read her genius new book; Queen of Kings, a book about Cleopatra and what would have happened if she became a vampire, and had never actually died. Intrigued yet?
“Maria Dahvana Headley is like a hipper and darker 21st Century Anne Rice. If you like your history mixed with fiction, and full of sex and magic and violence – and let’s face it, that’s how we all prefer it – then you’re in for a hell of a ride.” – Ed Brubaker, Eisner Award-Winning Author of Incognito, Criminal, and The Death of Captain America
5 Reasons To Read The Queen Of Kings By Maria Dahvana Headley
1. BECAUSE YOU ARE A WARRIOR, NOT JUST SOMEONE’S GIRLFRIEND.
Queen of Kings is a book about kicking ass, bombshell style. I got tired of the notion that girls in monster novels should just be girlfriends, regularly getting saved from danger by the guys, who usually spend their time flying, spider silk whirling, and doing all the cool stuff. I just watched THOR. The fabulous Natalie Portman plays the girlfriend in that movie, and she doesn’t get anything fun to do, except ooh and ah over Thor’s abs. Mind you, they’re impressive abs, but still. Touch the abs. Take the abs home, if you want to, and get a much closer look at them. But then? Take Thor’s hammer. That’s where the power is. And that’s not even a dirty joke, ladies.
2. THIS IS A BOOK ABOUT THE ORIGINAL GLAMAZON, CLEOPATRA.
Mind you, like all of us, she’s more complicated than that. Sometimes she does bad things. Sometimes she does incredible things. At the center of this book, though, is the notion that Cleopatra was queen of Egypt for 20 years. She was one of the most powerful women the world had ever known – and she still is. In Queen of Kings, I play with the notion of what would happen if a woman like that didn’t die. Ever.
3. YES, THIS BOOK HAS MAGIC, MONSTERS AND GODS IN IT.
It’s about soul-selling, world-saving, and, well, blood. So, if you’ve been, semi-guiltily watching the Twilight movies? Those books are agave syrup. This one is chile peppers. I think both are in order. And if you like Harry Potter, which mixes real world with another world where magic works? You’ll dig this. Watch the book trailer to get a taste of what’s in store…
4.THIS IS A BOOK ABOUT A WOMAN WHO GOES UP AGAINST VILLAINS WHO WANT TO DESTROY THE WORLD.
And that’s a big part of Girlie Girl Army. Sure, in Queen of Kings, it’s monsters and gods, but it’s not so different from going up against oilfields and manufacturers of toxic things. We’re all fighting this fight every day, if we’re paying attention, anyway.
5. AND FINALLY – GIRLIE GIRL ARMY FOUNDER CHLOE JO DAVIS AND I HAVE KNOWN EACH OTHER FOR…GULP…15 YEARS.
We met on the first day of college. (See my first book, The Year of Yes, for a Chloe cameo appearance…) Our friendship has seen us both change a lot, and we’ve both had wildly unexpected things happen in our lives, but now, I have to say, we’re both where we always wanted to be, with people we love, and doing what we love to do. Last year, Chloe gave birth to her gorgeous son Panther, and last week, I gave birth to this book. I think her labor may have been slightly more painful than mine, (my book only weighs 1.4 lbs!) but she handled it with grace. Queen of Kings hasn’t got any panthers – just lions and tigers and serpents and bears – but still, this is a book about someone who is fierce in her love. Just like Chloe is. (Um, if Chloe were a shapeshifting queen. Maybe she is. I wouldn’t be surprised – she’s pretty damn fabulous!)
Visit Maria’s Website. Visit Maria’s Blog. Follow her on Twitter.
