Confession time: I doubt I would ever have picked up one of Marjories books, had I not met her in person. The reason is theyre categorized as Romances, which is where they are shelved in bookstores. Though I have no justification for avoiding it, the romance section is an area in bookstores I seldom wander into. Her novels also have traditional-looking romance book covers, which are occasionally a bit off-putting to us mighty manly men. Then again, who knows? I dont carry many biases where good storytelling is concerned. Im willing to find it anywhere, as too many of my friends will attest, when I try to drag them to wonderful movies that they arent eager to go to, simply because they fall under the chick-flick rubric. So, in any case, Im glad I did meet Marjorie Liu in person, because it would have been a shame to miss out on the work of an author this talented due to whatever degree of cultural prejudices I might still possess. I trust you who read this wont make the same mistake.
