Cut Up Girl

Cut Up Girl is the world's most famous superhero for all the wrong reasons. Her true identity as Valentine Summers has been exposed and her out-of-control personal life makes her the punchline for every late night comic. She wants to put her old life as a vigilante behind her, but when her greatest supervillain escapes prison she has to suit up again to recapture him. Even if she vanquishes the villain, will the dark secrets of her old life destroy her?

Author notes:
If you're a comic book nerd, you might know that there's a Legion of Superheroes reject called Arm Fall Off Boy. His powers are exactly what his name implies. He can pop off an arm and use it as a club.

Anyone can write a story in which Superman is a hero. My goal was to write a story in which you root for Arm Fall Off Boy, where he finds the courage to stand before the world's greatest heroes and say, "You need me."

That said, Cut Up Girl doesn't have the power to pop off an arm and use it as a club. That would be absurd. Instead, she can chop off an arm and have it instantly turn into a clone. Also, her arm grows back. Oh, and the clones explode. Plausibility is everything to me.

Finally, I suppose I should issue a "trigger warning." This book has a lot of sexual content, though it's not a work of erotica. I wanted to look at the reality that sex sometimes addicts two people into a relationship that turns into mutual self destruction. There are dark scenes of emotional abuse, along with some plain old alcohol abuse.

It's a story of a life that becomes a train wreck. It's a story about climbing out of that wreckage and beating up bad guys with your exploding clones until you feel better. Arm Fall Off Boy, this one's for you.