City of Roses is a serialized epic very firmly set in Portland, Oregon—an urban fantasy mixing magical realism with gonzo noirish prose, where duels are fought in Pioneer Square and union meetings are beseiged by ghost bicycles. —It's the story of Jo Maguire, a highly strung, underemployed telemarketer, and what happens when she meets Ysabel, a princess of unspecified pedigree. Jo rather unexpectedly becomes Ysabel's guardian and caretaker, and now must make her way through the strange subculture of Ysabel's decidedly odd family and friends (which involves rather more swordplay than she's used to)—while Ysabel must now deal with a diet of frozen pizza and a job that requires her to call strangers on the phone and ask them ...
City of Roses is a serialized epic very firmly set in Portland, Oregon—an urban fantasy mixing magical realism with gonzo noirish prose, where duels are fought in Pioneer Square and union meetings are beseiged by ghost bicycles. —It's the story of Jo Maguire, a highly strung, underemployed telemarketer, and what happens when she meets Ysabel, a princess of unspecified pedigree. Jo rather unexpectedly becomes Ysabel's guardian and caretaker, and now must make her way through the strange subculture of Ysabel's decidedly odd family and friends (which involves rather more swordplay than she's used to)—while Ysabel must now deal with a diet of frozen pizza and a job that requires her to call strangers on the phone and ask them how satisfied they are with their banks.
Vol. 1, "Wake up…", collects the first 11 chapbooks of City of Roses. —Think of it as a DVD box set collecting the first half of the first season of your favorite television program. It ends on a hell of a cliffhanger, yes: but there's more, much more to come. Roughly 150,000 words, or about a 400-page or so paperback. So far.
…the style is lush, lyrical, sensual, edgy, and evocative, like a rich, dark brocade embroidered with gold thread and rare gems… If you like your storytelling straightforward and down to earth, this might not be for you. But if you can tolerate, or even delight in, some moments of bemused befuddlement, you may willingly pay the price to cross over into the mists of this urban fairyland.
"Kip," of course, means "dweller at the pointy top of the hill" in Old English. It's also the Dutch word for duck; the smallest unit of Thai currency; a gymnastics maneuver; a tanned cowhide, or bundle of same, as well as a method of drying and preserving fish; shorthand notation for one thousand pounds of pressure; and a place to crash, as well as the act of crashing, for the night.
"Manley" is of either Irish or English extraction. In either case, it means "the lee of Man"—though, on the one hand, it's the lee, or side protected from wind and weather, of the Isle of Man, and, on the other, it's a lea, or meadow, somewhere not far from Manchester.
But "Kip Manley"—far from dwelling on a pointy hill somewhere near a Mancunian meadow—was born in Sheffield, Alabama, in the ninth month of 1968. Currently residing in Portland, Oregon (after stints in Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, both Carolinas, Illinois, Arak [Iran], Puerto Ordaz [Venezuela], Boston, and the Pioneer Valley), he ekes out a meagre living as a writer, designer, and cognoscente of marginalized eclectica, with the invaluable companionship of Jenn Manley Lee, Taran Jack Manley, and the requisite two cats.
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Overview
City of Roses is a serialized epic very firmly set in Portland, Oregon—an urban fantasy mixing magical realism with gonzo noirish prose, where duels are fought in Pioneer Square and union meetings are beseiged by ghost bicycles. —It's the story of Jo Maguire, a highly strung, underemployed telemarketer, and what happens when she meets Ysabel, a princess of unspecified pedigree. Jo rather unexpectedly becomes Ysabel's guardian and caretaker, and now must make her way through the strange subculture of Ysabel's decidedly odd family and friends (which involves rather more swordplay than she's used to)—while Ysabel must now deal with a diet of frozen pizza and a job that requires her to call strangers on the phone and ask them ...