January Newsletter
Happy New Year, everyone!
It feels a bit strange to be opening with those words when we’re almost at the end of January (side note: HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?!? WHERE HAS THE MONTH GONE!?!?), but nevertheless, this is my first newsletter of a new year, so the sentiment is valid!
I had a lovely break over the Christmas and New Year’s period where I read a whole heap of books and watched a whole heap of movies and ate a whole heap of yummy food, leaving me nice and refreshed and ready for the year ahead — I hope it was the same for all of you!
There’s lots in this newsletter since I didn’t send one out in December, so let’s jump straight in!
ARTWORK FROM THE MEDORAN CHRONICLES
I’ve been taking some time away from social media while I focus on drafting my next book (more on that below), but one thing I’ve shared this month is another of the gorgeous scenes created by Ismael González to celebrate the release of Kaldoras at the end of last year. In case you missed it (social media algorithms are so silly!), I’ll share it again here, but to keep it as spoiler-free as possible, all I’ll say is that it could be from Kaldoras OR it could be from Vardaesia, since there’s a similar scene/location that happens between these two characters in both books. (IYKYK 👀👀)
For those of you who have already managed to read Kaldoras, you’re welcome for this. (You know what I’m talking about. Now you have no more excuses to scream at me!)
I’m utterly obsessed with the details in this piece — the glittery trees surrounding the Golden Cliffs, the sparkling Myrox coat, the tear dribbling from her eye (my heart!!)… there’s just too much to love!
Just to add, I commissioned five pieces from Ismael, and I’ve only shared two so far, which means there are still three to come! I can’t wait for you to see them, but to get you excited, one is of Aven and Niyx, one is of Alex, Jordan, D.C., and Bear, and the last is of Alex and Kaiden (with a Xira cameo). Eeeeee, you are not prepared!! Keep an eye on my socials for more reveals as they come!
“FOR AS LONG AS THERE ARE STARS IN THE SKY”
Staying on The Medoran Chronicles for a moment, I’m often blown away by the talent of my fans (you — yes, you!), and over the break I was left speechless when I was tagged in a composition created by a young musician who wrote a piece inspired by this series. (I’m honestly still speechless about it!)
Abi Bazroy shared part of the piece over social media (which I also shared, because OH MY GOSH IT’S AMAZING), but Abi has since uploaded the FULL piece to Spotify, and you all absolutely must listen to it because it’s sob-worthy. (No, really, it is. The line that uses the Graevale quote “For as long as there are stars in the sky” gets me EVERY SINGLE TIME. And I love love lovvvvve how the prophecy is brought in at the end as well. *Chills*)
The piece is called “Set Them Free” and you can find it by clicking here. Be sure to show Abi some love over on social media and support this talented young artist! (How can someone be this good at just 15 years old!?!?!? INCREDIBLE!!)
DYMOCKS TOP 101 LIST
I’m so thrilled that three (!!) of my books have been shortlisted for the Dymocks Top 101 list for 2024 — The Prison Healer, Kaldoras, and Weapon — and I’d be SO grateful if you could spare a moment vote for them! (This list is suuuuuuper important for authors since the chosen books are promoted in stores for the whole year! That’s massive!!)
You don’t need to be a Dymocks member to vote — just your name and email is enough (but if you’re a member, you’ll go in the running to win one of five $101 gift cards. That’s like 5 books!! SHOPPING TIME!!!)
To vote, click below and make sure you tap on the “Young Adult” category to find my books. (Kaldoras and The Prison Healer are on the first page, and Weapon is on the second.) You can vote for up to 10 of your faves, and you have until January 29th to do so!
Thank you so much in advance! You can vote by clicking here.
THE BLOOD TRAITOR — US HARDCOVER REPRINT
For months I’ve been inundated by US readers asking where they might be able to purchase a copy of the hardcover edition of The Blood Traitor, and for so long, I wasn’t able to answer this. The US publishing process is something I will never understand in entirety, but one thing I do know is that most (many? some?) books are released in hardcover first, and then a year later, they’re released again in paperback. When that second release happens, the hardcovers kind of just… fizzle out? (I doubt that’s the technical term, but let’s go with it.) Paperbacks are loads cheaper to make and sell, and they’re also smaller which means bookstores can stock more, so once the hardcovers are all gone, then that’s usually it for them — the focus moving forward is on printing and selling the paperbacks only.
So! Because the paperback of The Blood Traitor released in July last year, ever since then, people have been having trouble finding the hardcover edition for all the reasons I mentioned above. But… there’s also been loads of new readers to this series (thank you, BookTok), and oftentimes readers love having shiny hardcovers for their collections. You can see the conundrum, right?
Well, I now have great news! My US publisher, HarperCollins, is currently reprinting the hardcover edition — YAY!!! — and if all goes to plan, it should be back in stores in February. (That’s next month! YAY AGAIN!!)
I’m so glad this hardcover will be available to readers again, and I hope you love being able to add this gorgeousness to your collection! Thank you so much for making it happen!
UPCOMING EVENTS:
Brisbane: I’ll be a guest at GenreCon on Sunday 25th February, speaking on two different panels with some amaaaaazing authors. While I’m only there for the one day, this is a full-weekend event aimed towards aspiring and emerging authors. I hope to see some of you there! (A limited amount of books will be available to purchase on the day, and there will be time for signings as well.)
I’m also heading to Adelaide in early March, but I can’t say what for yet. But just… keep Tuesday 5th March free (at night time) and I’ll share more as soon as I’m allowed!
WRITING UPDATE
As mentioned earlier, I’ve been taking some time to focus on drafting my next book, and I’m so thrilled to be able to say I’m loving it SO VERY MUCH! The characters, the world, the plot — everything about it is just making me so happy! (And also stresssssssed, but in a good way! These characters are trouble with a capital T!)
Just to note, this isn’t the YA contemporary action/adventure/survival/romance story that I mentioned a few times last year (and yep, that’s still a mouthful, lol). I’ll be sharing more about that book soon — hopefully next month, or the month after. But for now, I’ve returned to my beloved YA fantasy roots for this new manuscript, and I’m experimenting with tropes I’ve never personally used before (like enemies-to-lovers 👀😏) which has been SO MUCH FUN. The world itself is also unique, so the worldbuilding has been stretching my creative wings. Lucky I love a challenge! (She says while crying into a vat of ice cream…)
Ha, no, seriously, I’m really enjoying myself, and I’m starting to be more gentle with my burnout brain and accept that my writing process is just different these days. My “new normal” isn’t always delightful — the brain fog alone is so incredibly frustrating — but I’m learning to show myself a little grace and giving myself permission to enjoy the journey, no matter how slow it is. (For reference, pre-burnout me could easily write 6,000-8,000 words a day. Like, easily. That was a normal day for me. Almost all of my books have been written within the space of a month. But now? I’m averaging about 1,000-2,000 words a day. And that’s using the same amount of time that used to give me the larger word count. You can see why that might be a little disheartening, right? But this is all part of my healing process, so I’ve just gotta keep baby-stepping my way through it. (Hi, hello, any Caldon fans reading this? “Small steps are still steps.”)
Right! Enough waffling about that — I know what you’re all really wanting, and that’s a sneaky teaser from what I’m currently writing! I’ve edited out the names, and I can’t give you any context or info other than to say that this excerpt is between the female lead and the male lead (again with the enemies-to-lovers reminder, which you’ll see a hint of here).
I know I said it before, but I am loving this book so far, and I can’t wait to finish it so I can start the ball rolling on getting it into your hands! I hesitate to say this but… *whispers* … it might just be my favourite thing I’ve ever written???? I didn’t think it was possible for me to love characters this much, but the entire cast is just so incredibly special, and I’m so so soooo excited to share more with you when the time comes! (And more sneaky teasers, too!)
THE PRISON HEALER SERIES: BONUS CHAPTERS
Now for the part so many of you are excited for!
As most of you know, I wrote three bonus chapters for The Prison Healer series:
Jaren’s POV of the first Trial by Ordeal in The Prison Healer
Torell’s POV of an alternate first chapter in The Gilded Cage
Caldon’s POV of ::something:: towards the end of The Blood Traitor
Until now, these bonus chapters were exclusive to the Australian small-format paperback editions, BUT I’ve just been given permission from my fabulous publisher to share these publicly! YAY!
I’ll be releasing one each month for the next three months, starting with Jaren’s, which you can find by clicking here. Please be aware that it contains SPOILERS for the first book.
Here’s a lightly redacted screenshot of the first page, but be warned that there are still spoilery hints for anyone who hasn’t read The Prison Healer, so best not to look at this if you’re waiting to get your hands on a copy!
And stay tuned for Tor’s chapter next month!
WHAT I’M READING/WATCHING
I mentioned at the beginning of this newsletter that I took a break over the Christmas and New Year’s period and managed to read a few books, so I’ll share them below. Some of these I loved and some were disappointing, but it was nice to have such concentrated reading time, which is rare for me!
My favourite overall was definitely The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer — I devoured it and have been telling everyone I know to read it, so if you haven’t yet done so, add it to your list! (It’s not YA, though, just for any younger folks reading this!)
I also vegged out during my staycation and watched a heap of things that I really enjoyed, including the following TV shows:
… And the following movies, too. If you’ve been reading my newsletter for a while, you might remember that I struggled for aaaaages to watch movies (thanks to burnout-brain concentration issues), so it was really nice to catch up on a few of these during my break. I think it helps that (ignoring the Christmas movies), these are all action films, which made it so much easier for me to be able to focus for 90+ minutes at a time. Interestingly, my favourite was probably Top Gun Maverick (interesting because I didn’t love the first film), though The Family Plan was really fun as well.
As for the Christmas flicks, Spirited was a re-watch, purely because I love it so much, but fun fact: I actually loathe A Christmas Carol and all its remakes (mostly because it’s been done to death) but this interpretation is so clever and entertaining and EVERYONE needs to watch it.
And just to add, Exmas was a romantic comedy enemies-to-lovers delight of a film, so even though the Christmas period has passed, it’s also definitely worth adding to your watch list!
Phew, okay, there was a LOT in this newsletter, but I think I’m all done now! I hope to see some of you in Brisbane next month (and Adelaide the month after)… and for everyone else, just a sneaky reminder to vote on the Dymocks Top 101 list. To save you scrolling back up, here’s the link again: https://www.dymocks.com.au/voting/top-101-voting
Thank youuuuuuu! And I’ll catch you all again next month!
