June/July Newsletter
Hi hi hiiiiii!
Can you believe it’s nearly the end of July?! Ooof, I feel like every time I start a new newsletter, I begin by talking about how quickly time is passing, BUT IT IS, OKAY!?! I genuinely don’t know where the first half of the year has vanished to!
Luckily I have some very exciting things to share in this newsletter (and some SUPER mean teaser-y things, mwahaha), so that will hopefully distract us all (read: me) from spiralling into a panic over all the disappearing time.
There’s lots happening, so I’m going to dive straight in!
SYDNEY TRIP OVERVIEW:
I could tell you all the awesome things that happened when I visited Sydney a few weeks ago, OR you could watch this nifty 90 second video that shows all the highlights. In it you’ll see that I had an AMAZING time doing the following:
Visiting Penguin Random House (the publishers of The Prison Healer trilogy) — and while there, I caught up with and/or met a whole heap of fabulous people, plus filmed some insanely entertaining content (including a “Who is more likely to…?” questionaire about Kiva vs Jaren which I can’t WAIT to share!!)
Visiting Pantera Press (the publishers of The Medoran Chronicles and the Whisper duology) and having fun meetings there (which I’ll share more about next newsletter!)
Loads of bookstore visits to sign books (Dymocks George Street, Abbeys, Kinokuniya — they may still have signed copies available, just FYI!)
A visit to Booktopia to sign stock of the special hardcover edition of The Prison Healer (more on that a little below)
The ABIA Awards night — where The Blood Traitor won the award for 2023 Book of the Year for Older Children (13+) = eeeeee!!!!!!!!
Sydney Writers’ Festival — where I had two super enjoyable panels and signed for, collectively, around 5 hours (eeek!! Thank you so much to everyone who came and for being so patient with the queue!!)
I’m still in awe of how amazing my Sydney trip was and I can’t WAIT to return again, hopefully soon! Watch this space!!! (*Winky face*)
SIGNED BOOKS:
I mentioned above that I visited the fabulous peeps at Booktopia and signed a STACK of the gorgeous special hardcover editions of The Prison Healer. There are still some available (though stocks are limited) and they’re currently 30% off! Bargain! You can grab yours by clicking here. (And if you live overseas, contact the Global Book Hunters Guild here to find out how they can ship you a copy anywhere in the world.)
WANT TO WIN 50 BOOKS?
By nominating your favourite kids’ or YA book in the Better Reading Top 50 Kids’ Books, you can go in the draw to win ALL 50 BOOKS that make the 2023 list! (And it’s not just one winner — there will be SEVEN lucky winners who get this full prize!)
From an author’s perspective (ie. my perspective), this list is SUPER important since it means visibility for my books for the next 12 months, so I’d be incredibly grateful if you could spare a moment to vote! You can do so by clicking here. (Nominations close THIS SUNDAY at 5pm AEST!)
(Thank youuuuuuu!!!)
NEXT BOOK RELEASE:
Coming up on August 15, the small-format paperback edition of The Blood Traitor is releasing in AUS/NZ and this has the final bonus scene included at the back — it’s from Caldon’s perspective this time and it’s one of my favourite scenes EVER! It’s also the longest of all three bonus scenes included in these small-format editions (if you remember, The Prison Healer has a Jaren POV scene, and The Gilded Cage has a Torell bonus scene, with both books having also released this year in AUS/NZ).
If you want to pre-order this upcoming book, you can do so from Booktopia here or QBD here or from Dymocks here, or of course from your fave local/indie bookstore! For international readers, click here and scroll down to find your options!
And for anyone wanting to grab a copy of the first two books already available with those scenes I mentioned (Jaren and Torell), click here!
Now, here’s a newsletter exclusive teaser quote from the Caldon scene:
SUPER SECRET PROJECT!
For anyone who follows me on social media, you may have seen some sneaky posts lately alluding to a new project I’ve been working on, and that project may or may not have something to do with The Medoran Chronicles (*insert shifty eyes here*). I can’t tell you what it is juuuuuust yet, BUT I’m thrilled to report that the official announcement AND cover reveal will be coming NEXT WEEK! On Wednesday afternoon/evening, to be exact, so mark your calendars and get your honey and lemon teas ready because I can already hear you screaming from here!
This project has been kept HIGHLY confidential and I absolutely CAN’T WAIT to be able to tell you all about it next week. Until then, I’ve been given permission to share some teaser aesthetic images (which you may have already seen on my social media today). Let the conspiracy theories begin!
ARTWORK SNEAK PEEK:
When the above Super Secret Project gets officially announced next Wednesday, and pre-order links are available, if you decide to order it early, KEEP YOUR RECEIPTS! I’ll be doing a pre-order campaign that I’ll share a little closer to the release involving artwork relevant to this book. Here’s a fun sneaky teaser of one of the pieces that’s already been made — I won’t share the full artwork yet (or the name of the artist), but trust me, it’ll be worth the wait! I am IN LOVE!!!
RECENT RELEASES:
This month, the following books released:
As always, I love seeing my books make their way out across the globe, and I’m so grateful to everyone who continues to love these series!
WHAT I’M READING: For reasons that you’ll learn about next week, I did a full series re-read of The Medoran Chronicles since my last newsletter, so that took up a chunk of time. And then, after I finished writing Super Secret Project, I needed a palate cleanser (so to speak) from the genre (*explanation below), so my most recent reads were two contemporary romances: Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood, and Happy Place by Emily Henry.
*Explanation for needing a palate cleanser: when I’ve been in heavy drafting mode, and then I jump straight into heavy editing mode (which happened in this instance), I have trouble reading other books in the same genre without having what I call “editor eyes” as I read the words. It ruins the enjoyment factor for me, which is always devastating, especially when it’s a book I’ve been really looking forward to. So every time I finish drafting and/or editing something, I always have to read a few books in a different genre before returning to fantasy, so that I’m no longer in editor-mode and can sink into the story without analysing it too deeply!
WHAT I’M WATCHING: I absolutely devoured the newest season of Ted Lasso (S3) and, ugh, I truly can’t recommend that show enough! It’s just so stinking adorable, I can’t even!!! I don’t even like soccer (/football), and yet it’s still managed to 10000% draw me in and make me desperate for more!
I also recently watched the newest season of Manifest (S4) and that was super fun as well, though I’m sad it’s ended for real now!
I haven’t really been watching any movies lately (it’s a delightful side-effect of my burnout that I’m still working through — my concentration span is so limited that I just can’t sit through something long without feeling like I need to be doing something), but I DID manage to go to the cinema with my brother to see the new Disney/Pixar movie, Elemental, and it was so cute!
Righto, I think that’s all for this month! Reminder to keep an eye on my social media next Wednesday for that very exciting announcement — eeeee, I can’t wait!!!!!
Catch you next time!
