August News!
Happy August everyone!!!
I’ve had a massive couple of weeks since my last newsletter, which means there’s so much cool stuff to tell you! But before I jump into all the actual news, I thought I’d share some scenic pics from my time out at the Byron Bay Writers Festival at the beginning of the month, since the location was SO PRETTY!
One problem with travelling alone is that you end up taking a heap of selfies, so apologies in advance for these, but here’s proof that I actually managed to get some touristing done while I was away — and also proof that nature was willing to grant me a truce for a few days, when it normally hates me. I didn’t end up with a single bug bite, which is a minor miracle given that the resort where I stayed was literally in the middle of a rainforest! (And yes, I know, I look the same in almost every photo! I CAN’T HELP IT, OKAY?!)
Now for some scenery pics without the awkward selfie addition! Here’s the gorgeous view up to and beyond the Cape Byron Lighthouse:
I actually did six hours (!) of walking on the day I visited the lighthouse, and part of that included the Tallow Ridge Track, which was a rainforest-y hike up to the lighthouse itself. I absolutely loved that particular track, even if there were a gazillion steps — all of which I felt the next day, lol. I’m definitely glad that I packed my walking shoes, since I knew I wanted to do some of the hikes if the weather was nice!
I also wasn’t kidding about the stairs — for anyone who has seen the Avengers movies, all I could think while walking them was when Hulk throws a tantrum about “So many stairs!” hahaha. Here’s just a few of them:
Even with the unending staircases, I really loved the hike, and despite my sore, well, everything the next day, the view from the top was so worth it:
Just look at that gorgeous blue ocean! (That’s the Pacific for folks overseas!) Alas, I saw no whales (or Hemsworths, for that matter), but it was such an amazing trip!
Oh, and here’s proof that I was also actually at the writers festival and not just playing tourist the whole trip, haha. This pic was posted by fellow author Lili Wilkinson (pictured here with me) and taken right after our panel session:
Righto, that’s enough of a life update! Moving on to the news part of the newsletter!
OFFICIALLY LICENSED MERCH:
I’m so thrilled to share that Nat’s Book Nook has created some GORGEOUS officially licensed merch for The Prison Healer series — an entire collection of goodies, actually, all of which are available internationally!
First up is a plushie of Flox, and he’s so soft and fluffy!! (He also has my digital signature embroidered into his paw, which is such a cool detail!) For anyone who may have forgotten who this cheeky little silverbear is, here’s a reminder straight out of The Gilded Cage:
Kiva had met Flox upon her arrival in Vallenia, and after some deep consideration, she still had no idea what kind of creature he was. Part fox, part ferret, part raccoon was her best guess, combining to form an unholy bundle of mischief. All she knew was that he had as much energy as Tipp and Oriel, and he was absolutely infatuated with Jaren — not that Kiva could blame him.
And here’s another reminder from one of my favourite cutesy scenes in The Gilded Cage (note that I’ve edited this very slightly to keep this segment spoiler-free for anyone who hasn’t read book 2 yet):
I’m just remembering that Flourishing Fables did some artwork of this scene a while back, and it’s adorable, so in case you haven’t seen it before, here it is:
ANYWAY! I totally tangented, so back to this official merch! Here Flox is in his plushie form — LOOK AT HOW CUTE HE IS!!! I’M OBSESSED!!!
There’s also a smaller version of him that has a detachable keyring, so you can have him as a mini plushie (without the floof), or use him as a keyring:
Next up are the replicas of the Vallentis crest and the Hand of the Gods. These turned out so cool, and they’re quite solid too, so you could easily use them in a practical way (eg. as paper weights) if you didn’t want to display them on your shelves:
Next is a gorgeous bookpot, which includes a digital signature on the spine, plus a fan-favourite quote on the back (artwork by no0nedesigns) — these are so cool and also super practical, since they can be used to hold pens, bookmarks, etc.:
And last but definitely not least, there are some STUNNING dust jackets for the full trilogy, which can also be purchased as posters and/or art prints as well (as in, the artwork alone without the typography):
Let’s take a closer look at the phenomenal artwork, shall we? (Art by Daria Bobrova, and the typography for the dust jacket versions is by Hillary Bardin.)
Here’s The Prison Healer (the vibes of this are so on point!):
Here’s The Gilded Cage (hi, hello, can we take a moment to appreciate just how gorgeous both Torell and Caldon look in this?! And how fierce Naari is, too!):
And here’s The Blood Traitor (how dreamy is the background!! And look at Tipp’s little gap-toothed smile! My heart!):
I honestly can’t choose my favourite, but let me know in the poll below if you can!
NOW for the important details about how you can actually get your hands on all these amazing items:
You can pre-order any of these beauties directly from natsbooknook.com RIGHT NOW — the only exception is for peeps in the UK, who will have to wait until 28th September and purchase through Nat’s Etsy store (here). For every other country outside of the UK, that first link is the one you want! (And yes, as mentioned earlier, all these items can be shipped internationally!)
Please note two things:
Pre-orders are only open for a LIMITED TIME (I'm talking like a week from now), so order ASAP to keep from missing out
Because these are pre-orders, they won’t be shipping out immediately — Nat has said they’ll be sent sometime between November-January (so keep that in mind if you were thinking of these things for Christmas, because they might not arrive in time).
I know nothing about the sale logistics (or literally anything else aside from what I’ve shared here), so if you have any questions, you’ll need to contact Nat directly for your answers.
Lastly, for any Medoran Chronicles fans, Nat also loved that series, so maaaaaybe keep an eye on her socials over the next few months for some fun news! (*winky grin*)
ADVENT CALENDAR BOXES:
Staying on the merch front for a moment, Jess at Turn On The Light Pins is putting together some bookish advent calendar boxes for the upcoming Christmas season — HOW COOL IS THAT!!! These boxes feature items from all three of my series (The Prison Healer, The Medoran Chronicles, and Whisper) and will include things like acrylic standees, art prints, keyrings, and more!
There are three options for the boxes:
12 Days (art prints only)
12 Days (assortment of items)
24 Days (assortment of items)
The website says they’ll be shipped out late October to early November, so these should reach you in time to do your Christmas countdown (even international peeps)!
To order your advent box, click here.
Note: These items are not officially licensed so I don’t know what they’ll be, nor do I have anything to do with the design process of them, but you could contact Jess directly to ask. She’s produced gorgeous items in the past for my series (see examples below) and always with amazing quality, so I’m personally so excited to see what magic she puts together in these boxes! It’ll be a surprise for me as well as you! I LOVE CHRISTMAS SURPRISES!!!!
If, however, you don’t love Christmas surprises (*cough* Grinch *cough*), and advent calendars aren’t your thing, Jess has a heap of merch available as individual items — you can grab any of the Medoran Chronicles items here, or any of the Prison Healer items here — and below you’ll see a couple of my faves (top row from TMC and bottom row from TPH):
EVENTS:
I haven’t mentioned this on my social media yet since it’s only recently been publicly announced, but I’m doing an event on the Sunshine Coast in just a couple of weeks, which I think is my first local event since the insane launch of The Blood Traitor back in 2022! There’s a brand new writers festival starting up — the Sunshine Coast Hinterland Writers Festival (SCHWF) — and I’ll be doing a solo in-conversation session followed by a book signing. The convo itself will delve into my publishing journey across all of my books, allowing me to talk about all my worlds and characters and writing processes and everything else under the sun! I’m so excited!
Full details for my session can be found here (note: the link is a little slow to load), but to summarise:
Date/Time: Saturday 12th October at 12:30pm
Signing: Straight after the talk concludes, in the same venue. A bookseller will be on site for you to buy books, or you can bring your own from home.
Cost: Tickets for my session are $16.75 and you can buy them here (scroll to the bottom to find my event listing, but def check out all the others as well since there are so many cool sessions happening!)
SPECIAL EDITION (GERMAN) GIVEAWAY:
Do you guys remember these GORGEOUS limited German luxury editions that recently released through Bücherbüchse?
Well, they sold out super fast, but I’m thrilled to share that there’s going to be a giveaway of all three of these beauties sometime in the next couple of weeks, and I’ll be announcing the details over on my Instagram, so make sure you’re following me there in order to enter!
TURKISH READERS WANTING KALDORAS (OR WE THREE HEROES):
I have some good and bad news for any Turkish readers who are fans of my Medoran Chronicles series: my publishers have decided not to release the novella collection We Three Heroes (which slots in as book 4.5 between Graevale and Vardaesia), and they’ve also decided not to release Kaldoras (which is the epilogue book that takes place in the 4 years after the end of the series). That’s the bad news.
But.
BUT!
All hope isn’t lost yet, because if there’s enough of a demand, then they might be willing to change their minds and release those books. So the fate of We Three Heroes and Kaldoras is actually up to you.
How do you make this happen? I’m so glad you asked!
All you need to do is send them a quick email saying that you’d love to see these books translated and released in your gorgeous country. That’s it! You can address the email to Sevgi Ulker at rights4@alfakitap.com
I know a lot of you have contacted me asking for these, so fingers crossed we can make this happen! The power is in your hands!
KINDLE UNLIMITED:
Great news for Kindle Unlimited users: it looks like The Prison Healer might be staying available for a couple more months — until the end of the year, I believe, rather than September (which is what I was originally told). This is still only for USA/CAN subscribers, but better than nothing, for sure! Grab it while you can! (And tell your friends!)
Q&A:
I had so much fun answering some of your questions last time, so I figured I’d do it again this month! I’ll keep it to just five again (a mix of writing-related ones and fun/random ones) and save the rest for next time!
Q. Do you come up with a book title before, after, or during writing?
It really depends! Sometimes I know the title before I start writing (like in the case of The Prison Healer) but other times I start with a different title that changes as I get to know the book a little better. An example of this is The Gilded Cage, which started out in my mind as The Rebel Princess. There are also times when a title changes just slightly — like Whisper was originally Whisper of Promise (after a line on page 110 in the book that says something like, “It was a whisper of promise…”).
Sometimes titles change because of external reasons, like when my publishers’ marketing and sales departments have concerns about messaging or how the titles will fit in the market. That’s what happened with The Gilded Cage, btw — The Rebel Princess was considered too similar to other titles and there was a risk that it wouldn’t stand out among them. We went through sooooo many different possibilities before agreeing on a title, and even then, I had to add in a new scene to make it work, but I ended up loving that scene so I’m so happy this all happened!
As another (very random) reason for why titles can change, Vardaesia was originally called Tia Auras, but I didn’t like the way the official Medoran-series font looked for the T (it has a J-like curve to it — you can see it on the cover of We Three Heroes), so I decided to change it before ever telling my publishers my original intention for that title, haha. I know, I know, I’m so weird! (And I’m okay with that! Embrace the weird, I say!)
Q. What do you snack on when writing?
I don’t actually snack at all when I’m writing! I get so consumed when I’m working that I have to keep a steady routine which includes setting times to stop and take a break to have meals, otherwise I just lose myself for unending hours and then suddenly, oops, it’s the middle of the night and where did the day go?!? I also feel like if I was snacking while writing, I wouldn’t actually pay attention to what I was eating, and then I’d probably still be hungry later, lol. So I make sure that I dedicate actual break times for eating, and don’t mix food with work!
Q. If you had to compete in the Olympics, which sport would you do?
I mean, I could compete in anything badly. Or at least most things. I could run a couple of steps (maybe even without tripping) or swim a couple of strokes (hopefully without drowning) or have fun with archery (even if I hit nowhere near the target). And something I’ve recently learned is that I’d probably be fantastic at breakdancing. (*Covers giggle*)
But from an enjoyment perspective, if the choice was up to me, I’d definitely pick something equestrian. I’ve mentioned before that I trained and competed in horse riding all through my teenage years and early adulthood, so it’s something that’s very dear to my heart. Once upon a time, it was actually my dream to compete in dressage at the Olympics, so even though my dreams have changed and evolved over the years, I still have a lot of nostalgic feelings when it comes to those memories, and I’d absolutely choose that as my sport!
Q. If you were stuck on a deserted island, which one of your characters would you want for company?
This is such a fun question, though I must say, it’s also complicated, because I need more details. Like, do I want to stay stuck on the island, or do I want to find a way to leave? Because if I want to leave, then I’d pick a character like Xiraxus or Soraya from The Medoran Chronicles, both of whom could get me out of there in a jiffy, as could any of the Meyarins on the Valispath or any of the Shadow Walkers who could walk me through the shadows. Or anyone else from Medora who happened to have a bubbledoor vial handy, for that matter. And then from The Prison Healer, Ashlyn could windfunnel me straight off the island, too, as could a certain other character after he finishes learning that skill post-The Blood Traitor. That said, out of all those options, I’d probs pick Xira, because who wouldn’t want to ride on the back of a dragon if given the chance?!? Come on, now!
Another detail I’d need to know is how deserted, exactly, is the island, and what’s the food/clean water situation like? If it was a full-on survival situation, then I’d want to be with a character like Kiva from The Prison Healer because she’d know exactly what kinds of plants were edible, plus she’s had a decade of experience surviving in impossible situations and she’d probably be my best bet at staying alive. Or, actually, Alyssa from Whisper would be great as well, since she could just Speak food (or anything) into existence for us! (Whether it’d have any nutritional value is another matter, given how it was Created…)
BUT if, let’s say, I want to be on the island, and it’s only for a short amount of time, like a holiday, and everything I could want and need is available while I’m there, and this question is more about who I’d like to spend the time with… hmm, that’s tricky!!! I think it’d have to be Caldon from The Prison Healer series, though Jordan from The Medoran Chronicles is a close second since he’d be super fun to vacation with. (Niyx is also an obvious pick, but I’d be worried that he’d just make me practise sparring the whole time and take pleasure in kicking my butt, haha.)
I also feel as if both Kiva and Alex desperately need holidays, so I’d love to give them a bit of a break and some beachside R&R if it was in my power to do so! (No, I’m not going to write that as a novella, so please don’t ask! You can all go have fun with the fanfiction on that one!)
Q. Favourite Disney movie?
You should know by now that I’m terrible at answering “favourite” anythings, and this is particularly difficult because Disney has both animated and live-action movies, PLUS it also has some of the best franchises in the world, like Marvel, Star Wars, and Indiana Jones. So to save my own sanity, I’m going to drop a list of all my super duper faves here across all categories.
Let’s start easy(ish), shall we? Focusing on those big franchises first, my faves in those would be Return of the Jedi for Star Wars (with The Empire Strikes Back as a close second — I was obsessed with Princess Leia as a kid and wanted to grow up to be her), then it would be Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade for that one (I really loved the challenges inside Petra while Indy tries to get the Holy Grail to save his dad), and as for Marvel, oh jeez, that’s a tough call, but maybe Avengers Endgame? No, wait. Captain America: The Winter Soldier. NO, Iron Man. Ugh, no, let’s go back to Avengers Endgame. WAIT (AGAIN!), this is my newsletter, so I’m gonna say all three!
Now onto the tougher question of other live-action Disney movies, and, welp, there’s no chance of me choosing favourites, so here’s a list of some that I’ve loved over the years and would recommend if you haven’t seen them (there’s bound to be a heap more, but these are the ones that jump instantly to mind):
Now we get to the REALLY hard category, and that’s my favourite animated Disney movie. Let me tell you, this is a VERY MEAN thing to ask me, because how on earth can I pick!?!?!? I guess, if I absolutely HAD to narrow it down to my top three, then those would be Mulan, Tangled, and The Lion King (emphasis on ‘animated’ for that last one. I’m not a huge fan of the live-action version, and honestly lowkey devastated that the upcoming Mufasa movie isn’t going to be animated, since I think that could have been amazing!) Also, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Moana, and Frozen are all very close runners up:
As for (slightly?) lesser known Disney movies, I absolutely love all of these, and will recommend them until the cows come home:
So there you have it! Some of my favourite Disney movies… which admittedly is almost all Disney movies. Aren’t you glad I was asked this question? *Hides face*
WRITING/EDITING/PUBLISHING UPDATE:
I wish I could say the time has finally come for me to share my VERY EXCITING BOOKISH NEWS with you, but, nope, I’m still waiting on the green light(s), SORRY! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: publishing is a slowwwww business, folks! But some good news is that there’s now a third thing (!!) that I’ll get to announce soon(ish) as well, and it’s actually something that will be available much sooner than the other two things, so hopefully by next newsletter I should be able to talk about that, at least! (And over my social media before then!) No promises, of course, but if not by next month, then definitely by October/November because ::reasons::
Until I can start offering you actual publishing news, just know that I’m chipping away at things on my end, working on the edits for my next two books (the YA contemporary/action/adventure/survival/romance book and my next YA fantasy series), and things are progressing nicely! In fact, the copy edits for one of those books are heading to me next week (which means all the larger structural edits are done, woohoo!), and after that round is complete, all that’s left is proofreading and the last-minute checks before it goes off to the printer. So that book is officially in its final stages before it’s out of my hands! At that point, my full attention will turn to the other one, and I honestly can’t wait for reasons that I can’t say. (But just know that the reasons are VERY EXCITING.)
In between my editing deadlines, I’ve been dabbling away at drafting a side project set in the world of The Prison Healer — but don’t get ahead of yourselves here. I currently have 5 books with active contracts, and this isn’t one of them, so, alas, my priorities have to be on those contracted books, especially since only two of them are already written (eeek). Also, when I say “side project,” I really do mean that. It’s something I’m delving into in my free time, but I don’t have a lot of that, so it’s the kind of thing that will be coming together very slowly. The good news is, while I’m not always a great plotter, I actually know most of what happens in this particular story (except for some question marks around the midway point), so I’m confident that I will finish writing it one day, but it likely won’t be for a few years. Still, I’ll keep you updated on the progress when I can!
CANCEL CULTURE:
I had a bit of a “yikes” moment the other day, and I thought it might be interesting to share it with you.
For context, and with me being VERY careful not to say anything spoilery or that might get me in trouble with my publishers (since I’m not allowed to talk about this book yet): you know how I’ve mentioned that one of my upcoming releases is a new YA fantasy series? Well, in that series, there’s a symbol used for, uh, something. Let’s just consider it like a company logo for the purposes of this spoiler-free discussion.
So! When I was deciding what I wanted that symbol/logo to look like, I decided that it would be three interlocking shapes that represent three different characteristics (eg. Life, Death, Magic, Hope, Love, Patience, Freedom, etc. — it’s not any of those, but that’s the kind of thing I mean). I also knew it needed to be something easy to describe in order that readers could envision it without excessive words, so I couldn’t go wild with something like, “… made of perpendicular squiggly lines that were almost pentagons, but one was more like a rounded hexagon, and the third had a starburst in the middle and four edges that became five in the right lighting…” That’s a little ridiculous, and a bit of a word salad.
So to keep things simple, I decided to use three interlocking triangles. Easy to describe, easy to imagine. It fit perfectly with what I needed.
But then last week I learned something, purely by accident.
The three interlocking triangles in my fantasy world? No problem. I’ve created the world, my purposes for the symbol are good and honourable, and not a single person who has read this book has flagged any concerns with it (and there’s been a lot of people who have read it, all across the globe, which I really, really can’t wait to tell you about!).
So yes, those three triangles in my very fictional fantasy novel = not an issue at all.
But in the real world, that’s where things become VERY NOT GOOD, which I only discovered last week when I was brainstorming goodies I might use for promo and giveaways closer to the release. I was looking at jewellery specifically, something that incorporated my three-triangle symbol (since it’s not exactly uncommon), and I thought I was being Very Clever with my merch ideas.
Until.
UNTIL!
While Googling options, I stumbled upon the stomach-churning realisation that in our world, three interlocking triangles is sometimes used as a racial hate symbol by white supremacists! OMG!!!
My heart actually stopped when I read that, at least until I remembered that my book is nowhere near being released yet, and there’s still plenty of time to make changes (phew!!!).
One slight hiccup is that I’ve already had some gooooorgeous artwork done in preparation for finally being able to announce this series, but oh boy, am I glad that I stumbled upon the real-world symbolism of the triangles before I shared any of that art publicly! (Phew again!)
Now, the sad (ish?) news is that I was really visually connected to my fantasy version of the interlocking triangles and the meaningful three words attached to them. Not only that, but the symbol itself is important to the plot of the book, so it’s not something I can delete entirely. That meant I needed to come up with a new symbol (preferably one that isn’t racist — OMG AGAIN!!!), so I had to go back to the drawing board to come up with something else.
I’m going to use artwork to show the process of what happened next, featuring a close-up, heavily cropped section of the art that I’ve commissioned. Here it is with the original three-triangle symbol:
I decided that the best thing to do would be to swap it to another simple geometric shape. I liked the idea of three interlocking diamonds, but it turns out that they don’t interlock all that easily — either they’re side by side, or they look too much like the Mitsubishi symbol for my tastes — so after going through a heap of different options, I settled on circles.
I have to admit, I wasn’t loving them at first. Maybe it’s because we’re in the Olympics season, but the interlocking circle design reminds me too much of the Olympic rings (or at least, three of them). Still, I needed to use something for my symbol, and out of all the options I brainstormed, that was the one that worked the best with how I need to use the symbol in the books. So it ended up looking something like this:
But then.
BUT THEN!
I had a lightbulb moment when I realised, wait a second, circles can interlock in different ways! They don’t have to look like Olympic rings — why not get a bit more creative with this? It’s a fantasy world, after all. There are options here!
SO! Thanks to that realisation, I’m still calling it “three interlocking circles” in the book, BUT I’m personally going to be envisioning it as a much more magical/fantasy-esque design, something more along these lines:
HOW COOL IS THAT! I actually love it even more than the original triangles! (Not just because it’s not a hate symbol in the real world (ooof), but definitely for that reason, too!)
Anyway, the reason I’m sharing all this with you is because the entire saga made me realise that I very easily could have become “cancelled” by keeping the three-triangle symbol in my books if I hadn’t learned what I did about it in time to change it. I wrote/designed my fantasy version of it out of complete innocence and naivety for what the real-world symbol meant, but still, innocent or not, it could have had the potential to ruin my career. Once the damage is done, it’s done, and honestly, that’s terrifying.
Thankfully, I caught this in time, and I like to think/hope that if I hadn’t, one of my amazing editors would have flagged it before things became a problem (thank God for good editors!). But there’s always a risk in this industry, especially with the world changing so much, so quickly. Three interlocking circles might be completely fine now, but in a few years time, for all I know, they, too, could be something awful. Let’s just hope that’s not the case! And either way, it’s a great warning to be careful and to keep learning and listening, all of us! I certainly will be!
TEASER:
As mentioned earlier, I still can’t share anything with you yet about my upcoming book(s), but here’s a fun little snippet from the one that I have coming out next. Again, I can’t give you any details… but I CAN say that just this morning I was told the publication date, and if, hypothetically, someone was to fall pregnant today, you would have this book in your hands before that baby comes. THAT’S ALL I CAN SAY!
PROLOGUES: YAY OR NAY?
I’ve been seeing a lot of discourse in recent months (even longer) where prologues are getting a bit of a bad reputation, even sometimes considered to be “sloppy writing.” I find this a fascinating take and thought I’d spend a moment chatting with you about it.
I’ve written books that use prologues (The Prison Healer trilogy and Whisper), and I’ve written books that don’t (all 7 books in The Medoran Chronicles series). For my next two books, one of them has a prologue (the YA contemporary) and one of them doesn’t (the YA fantasy). That said, the prologue for the contemporary is less than a page, BUT STILL, it’s a prologue.
So let’s look at this. With my books that DO have prologues, how and why have I used them? There are three different ways:
For The Prison Healer trilogy, I’ve used the prologues to take readers back in time, to offer some important background information or a glimpse into a pivotal moment in the history of either the main character (book 1), or other characters (books 2 and 3). These were essentially a writing device that I used in order to give you, the reader, some information that would be needed later in the books, but in a way that doesn’t clog down the story with long explanations or memory sequences at a different point in the narrative.
For Whisper, the prologue isn’t really set at a specific time, but I guess it would be current time, if anything. It’s almost as if the main character is introducing herself to you, the reader, or at least giving you some information that’s relevant to the rest of the story — what her name is (or rather, isn’t), where she is (locked away), and why she’s there (because she’s considered a monster). This all happens within a page and a half, and was written in a way that is (hopefully!) captivating enough to make you have questions and want to keep reading.
For my upcoming YA contemporary, I can’t say much, but the prologue is a glimpse at something that happens later in the book, and it’s used as a bit of a teaser to (hopefully) get you excited to reach that point while wondering what on earth might happen in order for the main character/s to get there. I’m probably not allowed to say this yet, so shhhh (and for my publishers reading this, LOOK AWAY!), but this book is written in alternating POVs from the two main characters (one male, one female), and yet, the prologue is written in a way that I haven’t made it obvious whose POV it’s from. You’ll only find out once you reach that point later in the book, or do a re-read afterwards. So I had a little fun with that!
I mentioned earlier that some of my books have prologues, and others don’t, so what makes me decide whether or not I’ll use one?
…
*Crickets*
…
Umm, I think this is where I’m supposed to have some kind of Smart Writerly Answer, but, yeah, sorry, I can’t help you there. When I look at my two upcoming books, in regards to the fantasy one, I didn’t use a prologue because I wanted to jump straight into the action right from chapter one, but also, I wanted readers to learn things as the main character learns them, including any secrets that might have occurred at different points in the timeline. With the contemporary one, I actually wrote the prologue after I finished the book, and that was because —
*I’m pausing here as I decide how honest to be with you*
Okay, you want the truth?
I wrote it because I’m so nervous about this book, so I wanted to include a high-stakes danger moment from the very first page in order to (hopefully) make people want to keep reading. Let me explain a bit more: if you’ve been following my newsletters for a while, you’ll know that yes, it’s a YA contemporary (which is a new genre for me), but I’ve more specifically been referring to it as my “YA contemporary / action / adventure / survival / romance” book, and the reason for that is, I’m kinda terrified of you guys. It’s true! You’ve fallen in love with my fantasy books (thank you!), and you’re so used to the high-stakes action/adventure that I write, so I’m scared that if I start talking about a contemporary book, you might think it’s too much of a shift from what you want from me and you won’t be interested in reading it. (Hey, it’s possible!!)
So because of my *delightful* anxiety, I thought it might be smart to show in the prologue that there is still a heap of the action/adventure coming up later that you’re used to in my books — and, actually, I would say that this book might even have more than my other books, given the survival nature of it. (There’s one scene in particular that I still have early readers on my publishing teams screaming at me about, saying I basically gave them a heart attack while they were reading, so, um, #SorryNotSorry?)
This section is getting much longer than I intended, but I want to say one last thing quickly. I’m not sure where the poo-pooing of prologues has come from, or why they’re considered “sloppy writing,” and I’m not going to speak to that other than to say that everyone has their own reading preferences, and that’s perfectly okay. I have no strong opinion about whether I like or don’t like prologues, since I’ve read some amazing ones and some truly terrible ones. I will however say that I personally need two things from them: they need to serve a purpose, and they need to be relatively short (because of my limited attention span). Case in point: I recently started a book with a prologue that was over 30 pages of historical information and, no, honey. Needless to say, it was a DNF for me (I gave it a good go, promise!). I mean, some readers will (and do!) love that kind of long intro before the story gets going, but my poor little brain just couldn’t concentrate on such a lengthy chunk of background info.
You’ll actually find that even from a writing perspective, all of the prologues I’ve written are super short, as in:
The Prison Healer - 1.5 pages
The Gilded Cage - 3.5 pages
The Blood Traitor - 2.5 pages
Whisper - 1.5 pages
And I’ve already mentioned that my upcoming contemporary prologue is less than a page. So I guess this is a running theme for me regardless of whether I’m reading or writing.
ANYWAY! I think I’ve rambled on about this topic for long enough, so now I’d love to hear from you! Instead of asking if you like prologues (since, like me, there might be some you’ve enjoyed and some you haven’t), instead I’d love to know if you even read prologues, or if you just skip over them entirely and go straight to Chapter One. Be honest now!
I’m really curious to see what the poll results end up being for the above! If I remember, I’ll share over my socials in a few days so you can all see how this turned out!
WHAT I’VE BEEN WATCHING:
I’ve watched some fun things since my last newsletter, and looking at them below makes me realise just how varied my taste is. Action, comedy, animation, drama, sci-fi, documentary, supernatural… suffice it to say, I’m a mood watcher, haha. Some notes on these:
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: I actually loved this. I’m still struggling to watch full movies sometimes just from an attention/concentration perspective, but this one gripped me the whole way through. It’s super violent, though, so just a warning for anyone who gets squeamish in action movies!
Miranda: This was a re-watch for me. I watched the series years ago and found it so funny and entertaining, and since I needed something light and humorous during some stressy times over the last few weeks, this was perfect. 10/10 would recommend. (Be prepared for some serious secondhand embarrassment though, lolllll.)
Wondla: This was amazing! I didn’t even know it existed! The quality of the animation is fantastic, and the storyline is like reading a YA dystopian adventure set in a beautifully creative and diverse fantasy world. Love, love, love!
The Originals: I’m a HUGE fan of The Vampire Diaries (the TV show — I haven’t read the books). It’s one of my few comfort shows, and I do a full series re-watch almost every year. My favourite seasons are the ones that feature the Mikaelson family, so you’d think I would have watched their spinoff series by now, but nope, this was a new experience for me! I definitely enjoyed it, but nowhere near as much as The Vampire Diaries. Still, it was super entertaining and I’d recommend it to anyone who watched and enjoyed TVD! (There’s also some cameos by familiar characters, which I loved, and it made me nostalgic for the original series! It’s almost time for my yearly re-watch!)
Simone Biles Rising: I *loved* this. I watched it just before the Olympics began, and it was so inspiration and heartwarming and left me so invested (and nervous!) to see how she would fare in Paris. (Surprising no one, she was incredible.) I can’t wait for the next part of the docuseries to release!
The Last Thing He Told Me + Dark Matter: I also really enjoyed both of these when I watched them, but admittedly, I can’t remember a heap about them right now. Still, would recommend to fans of thrillers/mysteries (The Last Thing He Told Me) and sci-fi/mystery/action (Dark Matter).
WHAT I’VE BEEN READING:
I’ve actually experienced a terrible run of books lately. I’m not sure what’s been going on — maybe I’m just in a reading slump — but I’ve been DNF-ing left, right, and centre. Because of that, there’s only two books I can think to mention this month:
Quicksilver by Callie Hart: I’ve been seeing this everywhere over social media, so I figured I’d give it a go and see what the fuss is about. I don’t have the best track record when it comes to “hyped” or “trending” books since they often leave me disappointed, but I didn't mind this one. I’m pretty fatigued by fae books at the moment since I’m finding a lot of them are blending together (that’s just a personal opinion — don’t come at me!), and it did take me a while to get into this and decide if I wanted to continue or not… but in the end, I enjoyed it. The final quarter especially is very epic, and I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for book 2 when it releases. NOTE that this is an adult fantasy book with mature themes, for any young persons reading this!
A Forgery of Fate by Elizabeth Lim: I can’t/won’t say anything about this since I read an advanced copy and this book isn’t out until next year (?), but I will say that I absolutely love Elizabeth’s writing — her worldbuilding is always phenomenal — and if you haven’t read her other books yet, you absolutely MUST. I still can’t decide if Six Crimson Cranes or Spin the Dawn is my favourite, but you can’t go wrong with either series! Trust me on that! (Her books are fine for younger readers — they’re all YA fantasy!)
Goodness, this newsletter ended up being LONG, but finally we’ve made it to the end.
It’s my birthday in a couple of days — September 4th — and then I’m back on deadline soon after that with those copy edits I mentioned earlier, but I’ll still be active on social media for any announcements etc., so I’ll catch you there!
Until next time!
Ah this long newsletter was just what I needed to read! Thank you so much, we love hearing about all the news + life updates! Loving all the segments :)
Omg I loved all the updates!! And thank you for your in depth answer about the desert island! I’ll make sure my questions are my specific in the future hahah. So excited for the next update! And happy birthday for the 4th 🫶🏻