Velveteen: How dare you? I never asked for you to hunt me down! No, Velma Martinez hadn't. But when you had once been Velveteen, child super-heroine and one of The Junior Super Patriots, West Coast Division, you were never going to be free, even if your only power was to bring toys to life. The Marketing Department would be sure of that. So it all came down to this. One young woman and an army of misfit toys vs. the assembled might of the nine members of The Junior Super Patriots, West Coast Division who had come to take her down. They never had a chance. Velveteen lives in a world of super-heroes and magic, where men can fly and where young girls can be abducted to the Autumn Land to save Halloween. Velma lives from paycheck to paycheck and copes with her broken-down car as she tries to escape from her old life. It's all the same world. It's all real. And figuring out how to be both Velveteen and Velma is the biggest challenge of her life, because being super-human means you’re still human in the end. Join us as award-winning author Seanan McGuire takes us through the first volume of Velveteen's—and Velma's—adventure.

He was the last great hero of his generation. Velma Martinez—Velveteen—had never intended to be a great hero, but she was out of choices. “Hello, Jolly Roger.” “Hello, bunny-eared girl who’s taken over my ship. Have you come to collect the bounty on my head?” “I’ve come because Dame Fortuna told me how to find you, and we need your help.” Velveteen crossed her arms. “The Super Patriots are corrupt, and I think Marketing is evil, and they have my best friend, and we want her back.” Jolly Roger blinked, several times, before turning to the Princess. “Is she for real?” “She is,” said the Princess, sounding smug. “She would have been happy stayin’ out of the way for her entire life, but The Super Patriots forgot the first rule of rabbits. Don’t follow them into their dens. They’re meaner than they look.” \\\\\_ Velma hadn’t wanted to be a superhero, had walked away from it all once before. But when love and friendship call Velveteen to fight, she can’t run away, no matter the odds. Award-winning author Seanan McGuire chronicles Velveteen’s ultimate battle in this concluding (for now!) volume of her adventures.

A doorway opens in mid-air. The body of a woman falls to the ground and lies there unmoving as the door slams shut behind her, dissolving like confetti into the wind. As the grass beneath her slowly dies, Velma Martinez–Velveteen–once architect of the downfall of The Super Patriots, Inc., most recently the servant of the Seasons, has come home. But ah; we are getting ahead of ourselves. That is the difficulty, once holidays become involved. They want everything to be a fairy tale, and nothing to be true. Perhaps this would not hurt so much, except that they remember the meaning of fairy tales, before we sanded off their edges and called them suitable for children. The holidays remember how to bleed. So much as it hurts, we must leave the body in the grass, alone and untended, with no one to confirm whether she will live or whether she has already died. For all things must begin at their beginnings, and the beginning of this tale is far, far behind us… Join us as award-winning author Seanan McGuire returns to the story of Velveteen, where the choices that a superheroine makes always have consequences.

In a world where superhumans are bought and sold by corporate interests and children are pressed into heroism whether they like it or not, it can be difficult to tell the good from the evil. For Velma “Velveteen” Martinez, there was never any real chance for a normal life. Her parents sold her to the Super Patriots, Inc. as soon as her powers manifested, reasoning that the world’s largest superhuman management company would be better suited to care for her...and the money didn’t hurt. Before she knew what was happening, Vel was swept into a world of appearances and expectations, molded to become a hero and manipulated by the people she was meant to trust. Is it any wonder she walked away as soon as she had the opportunity? Now an adult, Vel has found herself swept back into the superheroic world, entangled with seasonal powers and fighting the people who were once her friends as she tries to retain her freedom, her independence, and her sense of right and wrong. What’s someone whose only power is bringing toys to life supposed to do? And is there any chance that justice will prevail? These short stories encompass the first two volumes of Velveteen’s adventures, from the very beginning to her climactic battle against the Super Patriots, Inc.