“Ebony…”
“Yes?”
“Thank you for letting me know.”
She sniffled. “You’re probably going to be in reflection for months, so as your publisher I urge you to write a book while you’re there. You’ll have all the time in the world.”
“If I write more about Deidra and Mark, they’ll never let me out.”
“No, don’t do that. Maybe you could write a mystery novel under a new pen name or something.”
I answered on the exhalation, “Yes, maybe.”
“I’ll contact you when things settle down.”
“That’s fine.”
“Again, I’m sorry, Devina.”
“I’m sorry too.”
When I hung up, I sat for a second watching the people down on the street, wondering if any of them had read my book and whether they’d loved or hated it.
What am I going to do?
I had felt lost for a long time, but now I was falling into a dark pit of hopeless despair. In desperation, I reached out for a lifeline and called up Tina.
“Hey, love, Amber and I were just talking about you. Are you okay?”
In a loud and clear voice, I heard Amber call out to me in the background, “They just talked about your book on the News.”
“Ebony called me. They’re unpublishing my book.” It flew out of me.
“I’m so sorry about that,” Tina began before Amber interrupted: “Told you romance was a risk.”
“Someone got injured climbing the wall to the Northlands, and they’re blaming me for it.”
“Yes, we saw on the News. It’s horrible.” Tina’s tone was empathetic.
“Can you believe that a woman broke both her legs?”
Amber gave a small outburst. “It was because of your book.”
The blaming in her voice made me defensive. “I never imagined my book would make people try and get to the Northlands. That was never my intention.”
Amber wasn’t helping. “See, this is why it’s so important that we’re responsible as authors. Our words inspire people to do either good or bad. That’s why we need censorship.”
“What did they say about me on the News?” My question was for Tina, but again, Amber answered and my irritation with her grew with every syllable that came out of her mouth.
“They used your book as an example to explain the Council’s latest bill that expands the ban on emotionally charged entertainment.”
“What does that mean?”
“You know that horror is banned, but now there will be a complete ban on all entertainment that evokes dangerous emotions such as terror, anger, or lust.”
“A ban. No, they can’t. Books are sacred.”
“Well, would you rather have people break their legs or, worse, kill themselves because they believe in some far-fetched fantasy?”
