Tod Davies is the author of The History of Arcadia series—Snotty Saves the Day, Lily the Silent, and The Lizard Princess—as well as the cooking memoirs Jam Today: A Diary of Cooking With What You’ve Got and Jam Today Too: The Revolution Will Not Be Catered. Unsurprisingly, her attitude toward literature is the same as her attitude toward cooking—it’s all about working with what you have to find new ways of looking and new ways of being, and in doing so, to rediscover the best of our humanity. Davies lives with her husband, the filmmaker Alex Cox (who contributes maps to #TheArcadiaProject), and their two dogs (who contribute moral support), in the alpine valley of Colestin, Oregon.
“Cleverly explores the motifs of Frankenstein. . . . Fans will appreciate the intriguing perspective on a familiar theme.”—Publishers Weekly"A philosophical fable. . . . As much Faust as Frankenstein.” —Kirkus Reviews“Readers will feel right at home in this crossover world of 'wonder tales,' which has been described as 'Lewis Carroll with footnotes by Jonathan Swift.' If that description alone doesn’t get your bachelor's degree in English Lit all tingly, then you're reading the wrong list.”—Westword"You can read Report to Megalopolis without having read the other books in the History of Arcadia (although why wouldn’t you?)." —Deb Baker, BookConscious“…it’s a simple tale, but as with all of Davies’ stories, it’s more complex than it seems. The message of resistance comes through loud and clear.”—Sects and Violence Select Praise for The History of Arcadia Series“Innovative form and spellbinding content. . . . Stories, as Tod Davies’s History of Arcadia novels ultimately suggest, serve as civilization’s backbone, and it is therefore in stories too that we can discover the potential for fundamental change and a better society.” —Marvels & Tales“Look inside this world and find wonder.” —Kate Bernheimer, editor of My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me and Fairy Tale ReviewSelect Praise for Report to Megalopolis, the fourth book in The History of Arcadia series“An allusive and face-paced tale. Report to Megalopolis blends the lyricism of fairy tales with knife-in-the-ribs social criticism, a dash of humor, and plenty of gruesome twists.” —Edwin Battistella, Editor, Literary Ashland, and author of Sorry About That: The Language of Public Apology“Spend a day in Megalopolis with Aspern Grayling. You’ll be captivated by his story—fascinating and unflinching in its depiction of human nature and our potential for breathtaking creation and unbridled destruction. Davies has imagined a future world populated with characters who charm and compel in equal measure.” —Gene Hayworth, Director of Social Sciences, University Libraries at the University of Colorado, and Owner, Inkberry Books (Niwot, Colorado)“Impressive. . . . Report to Megalopolis creates and makes believable its imaginative world, a world that is both original and rooted in classical works of fantasy. With its lavish settings and dramatic events, it plays in a quite novel way with the old myths/fairy stories of orphans, muddled generations and incestuous couplings.” —Janet Todd, author of A Man of GeniusSelect Praise for The Lizard Princess, the third book in The History of Arcadia series“Complex and gripping. . . . Newcomers to Arcadia will be captivated by the rich history, while those familiar with it will find that Sophia’s legend grants them a new perspective on the earlier tales.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)“This fantasy quest lends a hand toward making our contemporary world a little better.” —Foreword Reviews“The impressive The Lizard Princess continues Tod Davies’ imaginative History of Arcadia series with her trademark brilliant storytelling.” —Largehearted Boy“[The Lizard Princess] encourages big-picture thinking. . . . The combination of a straightforward quest complicated by hindsight, with magic, science, and meditations on the building of myths and the role of stories, makes for a book not like much else out there. . . . Gorgeously written and complex.” —New York Journal of Books“A fantasy novel that includes a conflict between a world that admits of the supernatural and skeptics who deny anything beyond the material, it is a tale for our time.” —Sects and Violence in the Ancient WorldSelect Praise for Lily the Silent, the second book in The History of Arcadia series“Tod Davies is a multitalented writer.” —The Oregonian“Davies’s absorbing salute to the necessity and power of storytelling promises many grand adventures while hinting that there is really only one.” —Publishers WeeklySelect Praise for Snotty Saves the Day, the first book in The History of Arcadia series“The most audacious and unusual book I have read this year. Framed in a “we found this on our doorstep” ala Spiderwick sort of way, it is ostensibly forwarded to the publisher by a professor from the land of Arcadia. . . . If you are intrigued by how [fairy tales] are manipulated with such ease by pop culture mavens and movie makers . . . you will find the cheekiness of Davies’ story to be wildly appealing.” —Bookslut Summer Reading List“Like Susanna Clark’s magnificent Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell . . . and many works by Nicholson Baker, Snotty Saves the Day features fictional footnotes that add another layer to the novel. . . . Give it to a smart, precocious young person in your life, read it yourself, and see what kind of interesting conversation develops.” —Bookconscious“Awesome. . . . There’s plenty of humor in the book. . . . And the best is the truth—what Is, as the book calls it—Snotty discovers about himself. He doesn’t just see the error of his old ways; he re-becomes an entirely different person. And that possibility, that ability—that we all might re-become what we were born to be—raises a wonder, a “sympathy with the idea of ‘changing the world’” that beats louder than does a superficially bleeding heart.” —Nervous Breakdown“[An] amusing debut . . . dressed up with footnotes, scholarly introductions and a bibliography, as well as lovely line drawings by Gary Zaboly, Snotty’s story seeks to prove that fairy tales rank with quantum mechanics in their ability to establish parallel worlds.” —Publishers Weekly
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