The Anthology is written in a format that gives the reader control of their journey through the story. It is by the reader's own navigation and intuition that our heroine will tell her tale.

The Anthology is the fictional epic of an extremely sensitive, partially deaf, near-sighted, and socially dysfunctional girl born into poverty in the great American Midwest in the early 70s.

A true mutant of backwoods incest and inbreeding, the girl's inability to see and hear properly go unrecognized most of her childhood. 

Her handicaps go undected not only because she is poor, but because this awkward, yet kind, little, fat girl is born with other mental abilities so adept, she is able to mask her marginally functioning senses as she grows up.

In fact, it is discovered through mandatory state testing, little Anya's intellect, comprehension and intuition actually rank in the top 1% of the country. Sadly, none of her teachers know how to help her utilize these skills. 

Throughout her childhood, she is rewarded for her intellectual merit with cruelty. Her high test scores are just a verification to the community that the girl really is unnatural and it's OK to ostracize her.

And so she becomes.

Ridiculed without mercy for being so utterly disturbing to everyone in the small farming town; she finds solace in literature, fairy tales and make-believe. 

As a preteen, she suffers blasting headaches, flights of paranoia and ever-maddening insomnia as she grows to loathe herself. In a desperate battle with the 'harping voices,' (the ones who want her to end it all) she begins writing a way out. 

Each night, her discipline, her concentration and her focus grows. The vision of her legendary and fantastic future becomes more plausible, as does her will to survive. 

Far away to New York City she will go when she turns 17. When she gets there, she will no longer be ashamed of her talents. She will garner knowledge, true love, fame, fortune and she will find a way to communicate to the world just how God damn beautiful she (as well as all the other precious freaks she finds along the way) are.

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The Sea opens with a reflective 21 year-old AnyaHard.

With less than $200 in her pocket, she left home as planned shortly after her 17th birthday on a Greyhound headed East with a dream in her heart and the comfort of knowing she wouldn't be seeing Nebraskaland again for a very long time.

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The Anthology takes a modern look at society, the differences between rural and urban ideology from a radical, but positive subculture perspective. It is also a coming of age story for this unique, budding young woman who never even kissed before she leaves home.

Witty dialogue, excessive '90s 'club kid' candor, perceptive psychological musings and reality jarring sociological quakes, The Anthology is a bit Judith Rossner, Janeane Garofalo, Queen Elizabeth; and, a whole lot of Valley of the Dolls and Tina Turner.

The beginning sections of the book do mirror my own life, but AnyaHard is completely a fictional character. 

I have also chosen to use visual graphics from my real life to add to the story's online, inter-active realism. It's also an opportunity to celebrate the artists I've worked with or been inspired by over the years.  

The final sections of the book are set in the present budding fetish/grunge/glam New York rock scene which is on the verge of making a Seattle-scale impact in music history with dozens of great bands and interesting characters who are setting a new course for the evolution of both rock and technology. 

AnyaHard's own music is a sonic, static-addled, psychotic rock matrix. 

She is convinced that noise, static especially, is melodic - so she sets out to change the face of rock music by producing utter 'noise' that is so catchy that it simply can not be ignored. 

Ironically, after finding success and navigating this arduous terrain (the likes of which most people could never conceive of, and will love to read about) she finds herself back where she started, in the position of misunderstood freak when her music begins to resonate in listeners' heads and she is branded a witch by both the church and the popular media.

   -- TonyaKnudsen@TonyaKnudsen.com

©2001 AnyaHard.com