Dear Reader,
I take great pride in being an excellent big sister. When my younger sister, Caroline, went off to sleepaway camp for the first time, I spent all my hard-earned babysitting money to send her a care package I knew would knock her Tevas off. It was the care package I had dreamed about but certainly never received, so there I was, making it a reality for Caroline because big sisters — much like saints — do not shy away from sacrifice, miracles, or heroic virtue.
And yet, Caroline recently informed me that when we were little, I convinced her that a monster gumball from the vending machine would taste better if I chewed it first. I somehow pulled off this stunt for years. Just as I was about to apologize for such psychopathic past behavior, I remembered that she still owed me apology for having once snuck into my closet, stealing a dress, and deciding that she needed to shorten the hemline immediately. With scissors.
It is a savage, lifelong love affair, this DNA-laced knot between us, because the only thing more impactful than my sister’s criticism is her encouragement when I need it most. Caroline constantly pushes me to work harder, smarter, and to dig deeper to discover untapped strength. In this way, we prepare each other for professional challenges, personal conundrums, and our mother’s ever-biting sense of humor.
I wrote Spectacular Things to explore the complicated family systems that sisters must often navigate, both together and separately. How do sisters support and undermine one another? How do they define themselves in relationship to one another? And what happens when sisterhood is not biological, but a web of relationships unified and complicated by shared dreams and competing ambitions?
Spectacular Things is set in and around the U.S. Women’s National Team because the tough love between sisters is not dissimilar from that of teammates, who must not only learn each other’s strengths and weaknesses but also anticipate them on the field. Professional soccer players are known to push each other to the brink in the name of achieving excellence. Training camps are notoriously aggressive because to go easy at practice does everyone a disservice on matchday.
The beauty of soccer is how efficiently the game reflects the pressures we all grapple with every day: how we confront obstacles and strive to see them as opportunities. I tried to keep this in mind as I worked through draft, after draft, after draft. The result is a book steeped in love and sacrifice, pain and joy, and the ever-running clock. There is disappointment and triumph. There is loyalty and betrayal. And underneath it all, there is sisterhood.
I sincerely hope you enjoy Spectacular Things, but if you don’t, I know a girl who is eager to check my ego and always keeps a pair of scissors handy.
– Beck Dorey-Stein
