May Newsletter
Happy May, everyone! (Also, ooof, how on earth can we nearly be halfway through the year already? WASN’T IT JUST CHRISTMAS!?!?!? *Runs screaming into the void*)
Time crisis aside, I have some super exciting news this month, so I can’t wait to jump in and start sharing about it all. But as an overview, I’ve been insanely busy these last few weeks with events and revisions and all kinds of fun meetings (hi, hello, more on that below *smirk*), and I’m 1000% percent sure I’m going to forget things, but I’ll do my best to offer a recap!
SO! In this newsletter you’ll find: a coded note from me to you, an update about my new book (the one I mentioned last newsletter — the YA contemporary action/adventure survival book), a writing update, some film/TV news (eeek!), a teaser quote from the Torell bonus scene that’s in the new edition of The Gilded Cage, upcoming events in Sydney and Perth, a Spotify playlist for Graevale (*sobs*), a Supanova recap… and more!
Wowsa, that’s a lot, so let’s dive straight in!
CODED NOTE:
First up, here’s something interactive and hopefully a little fun for you. I’ve written a letter using Kiva’s code, and you can find the cipher by clicking here.
Hopefully there aren’t any typos, but jeez, you would not believe how tricky it is to use the digitised code! SO MUCH COPYING AND PASTING!! If I ever do something like this again, it’ll be handwritten, since I can whip up a note like this in seconds rather than the 4 hours (!!!!) it took me to do this digital version. You’re lucky I love you all, that’s all I’m saying! 😅
NEW BOOK UPDATE:
I just want to say a HUGE “thank you” to everyone for your overwhelming excitement about the romantic survival story I shared a little about last month. I’ve now finished a full revision with my agent — and in a total miracle-of-miracles, I managed to cut 13,000 words from the book, bringing it from 108,000 words down to a small-for-me 95,000 words. (To be clear, this wasn’t at my agent’s request — luckily for me, she loves big books (phew!), but there are some logistical issues in the publishing industry right now (especially paper shortages and rising costs of printing) that made me err on the side of caution as I was editing, and I therefore did a rather thorough line edit instead of the quick polish I’d intended. (FYI: a “line edit” is normally one of the close-to-last stages of editing with an actual editor where they/you go through line by line to tighten sentences and trim unnecessary words or phrases).
For reference, all of my published books are over about 120,000 words (aside from Whisper, which is around 90,000 words), so I’m super proud of myself for getting this new one down to 95,000, especially without actually cutting any full scenes. It reads so nice and smoothly now and I’m even more excited for my agent to send it out to publishers at the end of this month/early next month. (Also terrified (!!!), but excited and terrified usually go hand-in-hand in this industry — le sigh.)
Cross your fingers and toes for me, especially since I’ve been hearing horror stories lately of (established!) authors who have been on submission for over a year because everything is so unbelievably slowwwwww in the publishing industry these days. And I don’t need to tell you this, but the longer it takes to get the book on contract with a publisher, the longer it’ll then take to get it into your hands (usually 12-24 months after a contract is signed), so send all your speedy thoughts my way for this one!
And in the meantime…
WRITING UPDATE:
I’ve started dabbling with a brand new fantasy series and, ugh, you guys, it just makes me so happy. In a vulnerable “Should I share this or shouldn’t I?” moment of transparency, it’s actually my psychologist who encouraged me to set aside the darker fantasy I was working on and instead start something with a completely blank slate, without any plan whatsoever, just to see where it takes me. This made me VERY nervous, since I’ve fully plotted out that darker fantasy and I have a pretty solid idea of everything that will happen in it, which helped ease the “HoW dO I wRiTe a BoOk?” anxiety that comes every time I start writing something new. (Fun author fact: imposter syndrome is SO REAL!) The problem with that, however, is that it’s not actually my preferred writing style. Plotting, I mean. I get so bored if I know what’s going to happen, and it means I drag my feet while drafting and second-guess everything since there are no surprises (to me) — and it makes me think it’s a piece of trash. So while on some level I know the darker fantasy is actually a pretty great concept and one day (when I’ve forgotten my plotting) I will definitely go back and write it, for now, my psychologist’s exercise is for me to write something that brings the wonder back into it — for me.
The first book I ever wrote, Akarnae, was written like that. As was its sequel, Realia. I had no idea what I was doing, and I never, ever, everrrrr intended for anyone else to ever read them, so it didn’t matter if they sucked. And, as you all know, I fell in love with the world of Medora and ended up writing (and eventually publishing) a 6-book series with 2 short stories, and I would happily go back to that world any time to write anything and everything I can there. (Sorry, TMC fans, I don’t have any plans to do so just yet! But I would definitely love it if the time comes one day!)
So all this is to say, part of my psychologist-prescribed healing-from-burnout process is to bring the wonder and magic and surprise back into my writing life. At first, I was sceptical. But now? I really can’t wait to see how this story unfolds, because all I have is vague idea of the main characters (OMG YOU GUYS, THE CHARACTERS ARE EVERYTHING!!!!), and a scribbled map of the world, plus the inciting incident that causes ::problems:: that need to be fixed… and that’s it. Nothing else. (My poor agent — she asked about my plans for this book/series and I was like, “Um, so I think it’ll have [x, y, z] but that’s about all I can tell you right now.” Likely NOT what a brand new agent (to me) wanted to hear, but she took it totally great and encouraged me to see how I go, which was the comforting green light I needed to hear!)
To be honest, this book may not work out. But (*whispers*) I think it will. Because this new series? It has everything I love about fantasy in it. (Purposefully!) Every trope you can imagine. And worst case it ends up as an unpublishable mess but I still have fun writing it… then at least my psychologist will be happy (and me, too).
… But I promise to try and not make it an unpublishable mess. Pinky swear!
FILM/TV NEWS:
If you follow me on social media, you would have seen me put up this photo a few days ago with a VERY EXCITED caption about a 4-hour lunch meeting I had with the producer (right) who holds the film/TV rights to The Medoran Chronicles, and her sister (left) who is heavily involved with helping get the project off the ground:
I haven’t shared much about this until now, not even an official announcement, for a few reasons, many of which are that I thought we were a long way off anything actually happening. But it turns out… that may not actually be true.
Let’s rewind for the full story.
If my timeline is correct, the producer (who I’m just going to call AL here), optioned the rights in early 2020. Now, if we’d had a crystal ball, we might have known that the coming days/weeks/months/*years* were going to be, shall we say, challenging, especially in the film/TV industry. We all know what happened — covid stopped the world, and that obviously caused some hiccups in AL’s plans to get the ball rolling on things. Plus, AL lives in America, and this series doesn’t have a publisher over there, just a distributor (and not even the full series is available yet), so there were a lot of hurdles going against AL at the time (and even now). BUT! AL never gave up, and while I knew from the get-go that she was passionate about this series, and that she would do everything she could to make something ::happen::, I’d been warned by a gazillion author friends that these things rarely ever eventuate to anything. It’s nice to get your books optioned, but the likelihood of them actually ending up on screen is so incredibly small that I had the lowest of low expectations. I mean, I always had hope that it might happen, since that would be so freaking cool(!!), but at the end of the day, I don’t write books so that they can end up on screen — I write books so that they can get read.
But jump forward in time to last week when AL came to Australia and had some insanely exciting meetings with studios and other producers and cinematographers and, and, and… okay, so my film/TV lingo is limited and I don’t actually know the roles of many of the people she met with, but I do know the names of the studios she mentioned, and all I can say is OMG WHAAAAT!??!?! For all the obvious confidential reasons, I can’t offer any specifics here, but what I can say is that I was sitting across from AL as she shared everything she’s been doing and all the people she’s been meeting with, and I just had this moment when I was like, “Wait, why does this sound like it’s a lot further along than my this-is-a-nice-thought-but-it-will-never-happen” assumption?!? I even had to stop her a few times and ask her to repeat things because I was legit in shock!
So, again, I can’t tell you anything yet (sorry!), and I will warn you that there are still some large jigsaw pieces that need to fall into place before anything actually becomes concrete, buuuuuuut it’s also not looking like the impossible dream I once thought it would be.
NOW! Two things for you to know:
I’ve had a bazillion people message me asking about casting and auditions (especially auditions), but friendly reminder that authors rarely ever get a say in these decisions. (And to be honest, that’s probably for the best, haha.) If a time comes when I learn that there’s an open casting call (or whatever it’s called) and the general population is allowed to audition, you have my word that I’ll share the details about it. But please don’t count on this happening, since it’s highly unlikely. (And please also note that we’re nowhere near this stage yet! Still lotttttts of things have to come together first!)
I’ve had a lot of people comment things like “I hope they don’t butcher it!” or “I hope it stays true to the books!” or things like that, so let me reassure you with this: if it does end up happening (still a big “if” despite all the excitement — film/TV is a tricky industry and even when things are going well, they still take a lot of time to happen!) — one thing I can promise you is that AL loves these books almost as much as I do. She’s read and re-read them so many times that she knows them inside out, and she’s even turned away some incredible opportunities and people in the film/TV industry because their vision didn’t align with hers when it comes to keeping an adaptation as true to the books as possible. Also, rewind the clock a bit to when I first gave her the rights: I actually had another offer on the table from a different producer/studio, and even met up with them for lunch to talk about what their plans for an adaptation would be, and they said all the right things, even made promises they probably shouldn’t have, but something just wasn’t sitting right about them and their vision for the series. I had this gut feeling that if I gave them the rights, perhaps they would be in a position to have it made faster, to get funding immediately, maybe even to green light it straight to production…. but there was this whispered warning in my mind that told me they didn’t care about the story or characters and would go the commercial path of changing things to suit the market. And while I’m aware that book-to-screen adaptations always have some differences (and I’m okay with that), I still want the spirit and essence of the story and characters to be there, and I just didn’t think it was going to be the case with that producer/studio. Conversely, when I spoke to AL via Zoom the first time, we spent most of our talk fangirling over the characters and plot, I just knew that she would protect them and keep them as true to their book-versions as possible. And everything she’s done up to this point — including making sure the people she’s teamed up have the same vision — has indicated I made the right choice in trusting her. So while I can’t guarantee that an adaptation will be word-for-word exact to the books (indeed, I can guarantee that it won’t be, since that would be eleventy billion hours of filming, lol), I’m pretty confident in saying she won’t “butcher it.” So for all of my lovely and passionate fans worried about that, you can breathe easy, because I am!
If anyone reading all this hasn’t started The Medoran Chronicles but is interested in seeing what they’re all about, the full series is available globally as ebooks and audiobooks, and the physical books are available in some territories. In a nutshell, the first book follows a sixteen-year-old girl named Alex from our world who suddenly finds herself stranded in a fantasy world called Medora, and she attends a school for supernaturally gifted teenagers while she searches for a way back home. Here’s some other things you’ll find in the books as they continue across the series:
NEW RELEASE:
Jumping over now to The Prison Healer series, the small-format paperback edition of The Gilded Cage released in AUS/NZ this week, and it includes an exclusive bonus scene from Torell’s perspective. It’s actually what I had originally drafted as the first chapter of the second book back when I was playing around with the idea of the sequels being multi-POV, but ultimately, I realised that some of the plot twists were twistier if I kept things from Kiva’s perspective only. But before I made that decision, I wrote the whole first chapter of TGC from Tor’s POV, and it’s what you’ll find if you get your hands on this new edition!
Here’s a fun teaser quote, and as for purchasing, if you live in AUS/NZ you can grab it any good bookstore (or online), and for overseas people, now that Book Depository has closed, there are a few different options for you, all of which you can find by clicking here and scrolling down to the TGC listing.
UPCOMING EVENTS:
Sydney: I’m heading to NSW next week for Sydney Writers’ Festival — it’ll be my first time back in Sydney since before the pandemic (and before any books in The Prison Healer series released!), and I’m so incredibly excited! You can find me at the festival on Saturday 27th May where I’ll be speaking on a panel with YA superstars Amie Kaufman and Lili Wilkinson. Since our morning session sold out in record time, they’ve opened a second session that night with tickets still available (click here). Note that there will be signing time directly after both panels, so bring your books — or buy them from the bookshop on the day!
Perth: I’m so excited to be heading back to Western Australia for the Celebrate Reading Conference that’s being held in Fremantle on October 27-28. This is particularly special to me, given that the setting for The Prison Healer was inspired by Fremantle Prison, and I’ll definitely be aiming to stop by for a visit when I’m in town!
There’s a stellar line-up of authors attending this conference, and tickets are already available, with an early bird price on offer until May 26th (save $55!). You can find all the info and grab tickets by clicking here.
SUPANOVA RECAP:
Last month I travelled to the Gold Coast and Melbourne as part of the Supanova tour, and both weekends were absolutely amazing. I’ve been attending Supanova as a guest since April 2015, right after my debut published, and I always have the most magical time seeing readers and talking about books, while catching up with my Supanova “family” of staff and volunteers. And, of course, it’s always so much fun hanging out with the other authors. This group was no exception, and it was a delight to spend time with Samantha Shannon, Freya Marske, T.R. Napper, Luke Arnold, and Grace Chan, as well as the fabulous literary manager (and friend) Paige Belfield, and all the incredible volunteers that helped over the weekends. I returned home exhausted but exhilarated, and I’m already looking forward to my next Supanova tour! (Heads up, I’m not doing the Sydney/Perth tour this year — see above for when I’m in those cities instead!)
Each time we do a Supanova, we take a Serious Author Photo™ and then a silly author photo (on both weekends). Here are the silly ones we took on the Gold Coast (first pic — we all decided to hold each others’s books), and then in Melb (second pic — we were all mentally shattered by this point of the two weekends and none of us knew what we were doing, haha):
(Above left to right: Samantha Shannon, me, T.R. Napper, Paige Belfield (front), Luke Arnold, Freya Marske.)
(Above left to right: Grace Chan, Freya Marske, me, Samantha Shannon, Paige Belfield (front), T.R. Napper, Luke Arnold.)
We also visited the Jurassic Park exhibit on our way back to the green room at the end of the Saturday in Melbourne (celebrating the 30th anniversary of the film) and it turns out we’re all VERY UNCOORDINATED at taking any kind of “Quick! Look afraid!” photo. We had the best of intentions, but, well, we failed, haha:
… Though we did get this shot when the T-Rex finally decided to roar, and as you can see, we’re all in the midst of walking away, so it’s just as bad as the posed attempt. There’s a reason we’re all authors, guys. (That said, Luke is also an actor, so you’d think he could have given us some pointers, but nope! 😂)
GRAEVALE SPOTIFY PLAYLIST:
While I was at Supanova, I was given one of the most amazing gifts ever by Libby (who is @londonapplesbooks on TikTok and Instagram) and it was a fully annotated copy of Graevale. I had to hold back tears as I was flicking through it on the day, and then definitely had to hold back tears when I had a chance to look at it more thoroughly later. I’ve put some photos up on my social media which you can find here (click the arrows on the side of the images to scroll through them), but please don’t look at those unless you’ve read the book since they’re full of spoilers, being direct pics of the book pages. (I’ve included three examples below, but there are more on my socials!)
One of the other awesome things that Libby included was a Spotify playlist for the book, and I’ve been given permission to share that with you, for anyone interested (note a repeat of my spoiler warning). You can find the playlist by clicking here, and you can click on the image below to zoom in on the top right photo to see which page is relevant for which song:
FOR ASPIRING AUTHORS:
I watched a great panel session the other day that was released as part of Brisbane Writers’ Festival on the topic of “What are publishers looking for in YA?” It featured top commissioning editors from Australian publishing houses — Zoe Walton from Penguin Random House (who is my Aus editor, actually!), Kate Stevens from Hachette, and Anna McFarlane from Allen & Unwin — in conversation with agent/author Danielle Binks. For anyone wanting to know more about the Australian YA publishing market at present (especially aspiring authors), I definitely recommend having a watch via the YouTube link here.
FAIRYLOOT EDITION - FINAL CHANCE!
The extra special Fairyloot edition of The Blood Traitor sold out super fast, so the wonderful folks over there have announced a second (and final!) printing of this beauty. It’s available NOW in the fairy trove (click here), but be warned that once it’s sold out, that’s it, forever! Here’s a digital image of this beautiful edition:
… And here are some real-life photos of my gorgeous author copy, so you can see it in a non-digitised form. These pics truly don’t do it justice, though! (I’ll be forever obsessed with the foil design on the hardcover! And please excuse the image of the reverse dust jacket art — it was really fiddly to take a photo of, so I folded it around the (horizontally-placed) book to make it easier for you to see the stunning artwork by Talia Nobel!)
WHAT I’M READING: Because I was travelling for events and also doing my deep revision, I haven’t been reading a heap, but I kept seeing Carissa Broadbent’s The Serpent and the Wings of Night basically everywhere, so even though I tend to avoid over-hyped books (and I’m also not really into vampire stories, having read waaaaay too many back-in-the-day), I decided to give it a go. It took me a few chapters to get into the first book, but once I was in, I was totally invested. I devoured the first book, then jumped straight onto the second and devoured it too. This is apparently a 6-book series but told in 3x duologues (or “duets” as they’re being called), so it was nice to not have an awful cliffhanger after the second book since the third isn’t out yet.
They definitely gave me big ACOTAR vibes, in so many ways, including the characters and certain situations they find themselves in (even in dialogue moments), so that might be off-putting to some people, or it might be appealing. And for any younger readers, I will warn that these are definitely adult fantasy, not YA (the lead woman is in her early twenties, and the lead male is in his “thirties” but is a few hundred years old), and there are very mature themes (and a heap of triggers), so best for 18+ readers.
WHAT I’M WATCHING: I’m still making my way through my Gilmore Girls re-watch, but on top of that, during my travels, I also finally carved out the time to see what all the excitement was about re: The Last of Us, and okay, I get it — it was definitely a gripping show! That ending though… ugh, cliffhanger!!!
As for movies, I watched two this month that I really loved: Ghosted (on AppleTV+) and Dungeons and Dragons (I bought it from iTunes — I don’t think it’s on any streaming platforms yet since it’s still so new). I was worried going into D&D since soooo many people had said how amazing it is, and usually that kind of hype ends up being a letdown, but I loved it so much! It was the perfect mix of action/adventure fantasy with a heisty quest, loveable found family, and some genuine laugh-out-loud comedic moments. Definitely recommend!
Aaaaaand that’s it! Yikes, there’s so much in this newsletter, so big thanks to anyone who managed to read (or listen) this far!
Catch you next time!
