HOW IS IT AUGUST ALREADY. HOW DO I HAVE A BOOK OUT NEXT MONTH. HOW DID I HAVE A BOOK OUT LAST MONTH. (how am I still on deadline lol)
Welcome to another installment of my newsletter, which is inevitably late. Heads up: there may be a mid-month short blast with updates on events and other fun things, so keep an eye out for that! As always, the best way to keep up with announcements is on my Instagram.
behold: corn
News & Updates
THE THIEF AND THE TRAITOR BRIDE is out next month!!! WILD.
For all fun preorder things, check out my website! Both the US and UK have preorder campaigns with a few wonderful indies, which include prints of the beautiful art by Jaria Rambaran. As a reminder, the US is paperback and UK is hardback, and some shops ship internationally.
Also added to my website: Traitor Bride can be read as a standalone but it does involve some friends from book 1, so if you want a reminder of what happened, there’s a full (as in, full including spoilers) recap here
There will be events for this book, so stay tuned! I’ll share more when I can.
There is an ARC scavenger hunt at various indies around the US on Friday, August 7th! Check out this post for details.
Other books
UK readers, the paperback edition of The Second Death of Locke is out now!
I, in the Shadows is now out in Spanish!
Fun stuff
ICYMI, the wonderful Ravi-Coehlo Creative made an AMAZING set of designs inspired by Locke! I got a few myself and I am obsessedddd. I think collaborating with other creative people is one of my favorite parts of this job, and I can’t wait to do more of it.
Writing Corner
Back on deadline, pals. I think I can get necromantasy off my desk this week, but I am v happy with the weird stuff happening! We’re also on the cover stage for The Dying Season, so I cannot waitttt to see what that looks like. Books are funny in that I’ll either have a very strong vision for the cover (US version of My Throat an Open Grave, for example) or my brain is just that DVD logo unable to hit the corner. This one was more of a DVD logo moment for me - I literally had no idea what to expect, but the early sketches and concepts are perfect.
I’m also prodding a few things on the back burner, some of them Locke-related, some of them completely disconnected side projects. Here’s a snippet of one of those (it’s basically a worldbuilding document in disguise):
Besides, she loved Locke. She always had missed it in her own way, but growing up in Leota, the Isle had faded to nothing more than memory. Now, she woke every morning to the salt on the air and the sharp cold, and the howling of the wind, and all of it was home. She sometimes found herself missing Scaela, but not on her own behalf—mostly, she missed the rare sun, and Kier’s mothers’ house, and the beach where they’d grown up. She missed Scaela for Kier more than she ever did for herself.
You may be thinking, “Why are you still worldbuilding for a book that’s already out?” to which I respond, with fear and trepidation, I am not done with book 3. So.
General Chatter
This is going to be a short one! It’s so weird - I delay these newsletters a lot because I get weirdly anxious about this section, often because I have nothing good to say lol. If you haven’t noticed, I can get anxious about just about anything if I set my mind to it. So, let’s just do a recap of some things I’ve been enjoying lately:
I have been knitting a lot. In previous newsletters, I talked a bit about how I am trying to be off social media more and I realized that it really cut down the urge to reach for my phone if I did something that occupied my hands. Enter: crafts. I’m still working on my crochet granny square reading blanket project (I’ve crocheted squares for 20 of my 30 reads so far this year) and I’ve been working on a few knitting projects too! I finished my first pair of socks last month, and I just finished a shirt (details in recs!) and recently started on the Monday Sweater by PetiteKnit. It has been so good for my brain, and I get a fun little item at the end of it! My long-term goal is to replace the questionable-quality jumpers from my 20’s with sturdy handmade ones.
I can’t just watch normal things when I’m actively on deadline, so I’ve been watching a heinous amount of Air Crash Investigation. For someone who flies as much as I do, this is a questionable decision.
the view from Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon)
Partner and I went back to Wales a few weeks ago, and we climbed Snowdon. We also hit a few spots for research for my 2028(9?) horror novel. I literally cannot say anything about it yet, but it’s been percolating for a while, and I can’t wait to actually work on it in the coming months.
It is nearly blackberry season in the countryside, which is my FAVORITE. My dog, Winnie, is equally excited, and she does quite a lot of bramble investigating while we’re out on walks.
Recommendations
Y’all. Y’ALL. I think I’ve found one of my favorite books of the year??? It’s Bad Words by Rioghnach Robinson, and I have been yelling about it for the last month. If you have spent years chasing the high of Book Lovers, you have to read this one. It’s not out for a few months, but I cannot lie, I have multiple editions on preorder…
I also read Bone Horn by the incomparable Prudence Bussey-Chamberlain, and I had so much fun. It’s a satire of detective noir with a literary spin, and there were so many lines in it that I underlined for future chewing.
For crafty things, I have been knitting a lot and doing a bit of baking!
The project I’m just finishing is Milsey by Rebecca Clow and I’ve really enjoyed it! I’m not great at knitting flat (purling is my enemy) but this worked up so fast and it’s really lovely, even though I am still learning 🙂
I had dinner at a friend’s and brought dessert, and even though it was too hot and I messed up on it setting, it was delicious. I made Claire Saffitz’s Blackberry Caramel Tart from Dessert Person, and it was so tasty!
And that’s all! See y’all next month 🙂