Ten Tongues

REDUX

My first book came out in 2010, a short story collection titled Ten Tongues that I wrote during graduate school.

The small press that honored me with publishing the book operated much in the same way of many small presses which was on a very low budget with few resources. Publicity remained largely up to me and though I did what I could, the book made a very small splash in a very big pond.

I didn’t make a dime on it. I didn’t necessarily expect to make money. In fact, I’ve never made money on my writing. That’s not why I write. Don’t get me wrong; it’d be nice to make money, but I have and will continue to write even if I never do.

The press that published my work folded about ten years ago, killing my book. Not willing to give up and not feeling like it’d lived its fullest life quite yet, I figured out how to reclaim my rights and publish it again, this time under my own imprint.

Behold, through a lot of trial and error, it’s finally happening! Ten Tongues is scheduled for re-release on September 1, 2025, fifteen years after its first life. I’m excited to share it again with a second opportunity to put it out into the world.

It’ll once again be available on Amazon and the like as well as by ordering through your local bookstores. Next week, I’ll hit my socials with links to make it easier. You can find me on Facebook (Cyn Kitchen) or Instagram (@kitchencynk) and I’ll be refreshing my website too, cynkitchen.net.

Funny thing about this book is that I always said it was a collection of stories about characters finding their voice. I have struggled to write a memoir for many years because I couldn’t name the heart of what I was attempting to express. Then I figured out that all along I’ve been fighting to find my own voice, and once that happened, the new book came out in a gush. It’s what I’ve been writing about all along. “There is nothing new under the sun.” Indeed.

I hope you’ll grab a copy of Ten Tongues if you’ve never read it. I couldn’t write it again. Life back then is unrecognizable compared to now. Nevertheless, I’m not ready to let my first book fade into obscurity and am giving it another chance to step up to the mic and make herself heard.