Siren Suicides (Second Edition)

Introduction

I was breaking my head over how to write the introduction to this second edition. I looked at heaps of books and read heaps of introductions and none of them really helped me with what it is I wanted to say, so I thought, "Fuck it. I'll just say it how it is."

Why second edition? Why cut the trilogy from 249K words down to 88K? Well, number one, Siren Suicides was never a proper trilogy to begin with. The story simply didn't fit in one book and I chopped it in three parts and published it that way (back then I didn't know any better). Later I started getting comments from readers like "Great book! But it sort of ends abruptly..." and without batting an eye I would reply, "Oh, it's meant to be that way." Still later I noticed that many people read the first book but hardly anyone reads the second or the third, and the message at the end of the third book is lost. In fact, the whole point of the story is lost as it's sitting snugly in the very last chapter.

It wasn't only me who was thinking this. Lots of readers in their reviews mentioned it, the idea that editing it down could make it better, and I thought, "Okay. All right. Fine. Let's dive back in and see what we can do." And we did, or, rather, it was mostly my new editor Sarah Grace Liu. Sarah sliced and spliced and stitched and mended important parts together, and I wrote a sentence here and a sentence there to fill in the gaps, which weren't that many.

What you're holding in your hands is the result of this work and the hope that this story will reach more readers and speak to them as it spoke to me when I wrote it, back when I traded suicide for writing books, this being my first. On the next page you will see the original dedication that has been trimmed just a little, and after that, the sirens will greet you with their cold pitiless gaze.

And now, lots of thanks to lots of people who made this book happen.

Thank you to all my readers who have encouraged me to republish Siren Suicides as one book. There are too many of you to list here. You know who you are. I love you. Thank you to my Patreon supporters. You guys are supporting the printing of this book and the giveaways and the shipping costs and much more. Thank you to my daughter Anna Milioutina for designing the new beautiful cover that keeps the original covers' color scheme intact—the grey Seattle skies, the rain, the water. I adore it. Thank you to my editor Sarah Grace Liu for taking the time to shrink this sprawling beast down to a neat orderly tale AND NOT LETTING ME BUTCHER IT(I tried). Thank you to Colleen M. Albert who edited the original trilogy and made me believe in my story. Thank you to my formatter Stuart Whitmore for making the interior of this book crisp and readable. Thank you to my partnerRoyce Daniel who once more proofread the whole thing just in case some mistakes have been overlooked. And, above all, special huge enormous THANK YOU to Katya Pavlopolous and Christi Frey who have offered their help in identifying the parts that could be cut and who have painstakingly commented in red ink and in neon yellow highlighter and in black pen and in tears (I'm sure) on the printed manuscripts and then shipped them to me and I shipped them in turn to Sarah.You girls have started it all. You rock. I hope you like the result.