There’s an image of a handgun in the top left corner of my new YA near-future dystopian novel Be Disarming. I received solid advice from people who would know having such an image might hurt sales and would almost certainly invalidate the book from being picked up for use in schools or school libraries. That the handgun isn’t rendered in a realistic style but is clearly a graffiti image in a Banksy-esque style, and that the spray from its muzzle isn’t a deadly hail of bullets but a bouquet of colorful flowers wouldn’t matter, I was told. Gun imagery is looked upon with close scrutiny by those doing their level best to keep schools safe, and rightly so.

Ultimately, I decided to keep the image (although I did jettison the original title, First Person Shooter), not due to any distrust for my advisors or a perverse wish to tank the sales of a book I’m very proud of, a book which took me longer to write than any other I’d worked on. I kept the image because I make a sincere effort to avoid both hypocrisy and compromise in my work. There’s no avoiding that Be Disarming, thematically, concerns Americans’ relationship to guns and their use. It’s about other things as well, primarily a young woman trying to break free of an oppressive society that barely tolerates her existence, to break free and bring others with her, both the oppressed and the oppressors. She’s an artist in a society which neither values nor has space for art. She’s an artist and a free thinker in a society where either of those qualities could get her killed.

I’ve mentioned elsewhere writing Be Disarming helped process my despair after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. According to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit dedicated to providing free online public access to accurate information about gun-related violence in the United States, there have been over four thousand mass shootings since that awful day. A “mass shooting” is defined as an incident where four or more victims are injured or killed; the number above, incredibly, does not include events where “only” one, two, or three people have been shot.

My rebel artist, Maudlin Angel, has a definite point of view when it comes to the weapons in her world, one she and I don’t necessarily share. We first see her and her friend Chick risking their lives to paint an image very much like the one on the cover above, and in their journey through the pages of the book she must continually reflect on and refine her relationship to American gun culture.

As should we all. 

Be Disarming might not make it to school library shelves, but I’m hoping people will find the book via other means. Whatever assistance you could provide to help it do so—a review, a like, a share, certainly a purchase—any action you are willing to take would be greatly, greatly appreciated.