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Netherford Hall Series Picked up by Solaris Books Imprint Solaris Nova!
Publishing moves slow, until it doesn’t! I’m so happy to announce that Solaris Books, via their new imprint Solaris Nova, has acquired Netherford Hall and its two sequels (currently titled The Viscount St. Albans and The Game of Hearts). The pitch is fast and furious: a sapphic Bridgerton with witches. And werewolves, vampires, Fae, and a motley crew of characters. It’s light, romantic, silly, sexy, and joyous, with magic, politics, and of course, lots of fashion. So much fashion, in fact, that it’s the book that inspired ThreadTalk in the first place! Yes, indeed. It was Viola’s chintz dress that got me going on my first research project, and look where we are now.…
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Pilgrim of the Sky is up for Pre-Order!
That’s right, folks! Pilgrim of the Sky, my debut novel, is back at it again. Which totally makes sense if you’re familiar with the godlings. They get reborn again and again. The official release is on Thursday, September 22, but if you order the ebook now, you get $2 off. It’s particularly exciting to see the new cover because it’s a perfect companion to Gods of Londinium, which will be out this December. And let me tell you, I cannot wait to share Joss’s whole story with you. Gods of Londinium may take place on a single world, but it uses just about every inch. It’s high adventure on the…
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Ten Things About QUEEN OF FURY Plus Cover Reveal
Queen of Fury is set for publication this December, and here's a sneak peek at some of the themes.
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Live Reading Stream from Queen of None
As I continue the one year celebration of the Queen of None release, I finally set up my audio arrangement in my office (read: space in the open loft area of my house where, if late enough at night, is relatively quiet enough). So last night I did a little live reading of two scenes from Queen of None: one, Hwyfar’s first introduction, and two, Anna’s total tear down of Gawain when she first arrives to Carelon. During the reading I was reminded, as I gave a voice to Anna… just how wily she is. She really is so calculating. It’s covered in a lot of beautiful language, good intentions,…
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QUEEN OF NONE is One! New Book Trailer and More
Queen of None was always about the stories within the story. But I also knew that Anna was not always the most reliable narrator. She is a good and compelling hero–but like all heroes, she has her faults, her missing pieces. The version of the characters you see in Queen of None is her take on them. Even some of those closest to her, like her own sons, are portrayed and informed by her own biases. Back in 2010, I actually started the sequel to Queen of None, originally entitled Knight of the Blood. At that point, it was going to be about Gawain and Palomydes at war. A story…
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Queen of Fury is Drafted!
What a long, strange trip it’s been. I started out Queen of Fury with a fairly straightforward idea. It was going to be 100% Hwyfar’s story. She was the standout character from Queen of None, and seemed like the ideal character to continue the whole invisible women of Arthur tale. But I wanted a foil for her, and very early on, I liked the idea of playing Gawain of Orkney against her. They have a very similar backstory: they’re both the same age, both royals from pretty messed up dynasties, both from toxic families, and they’re both gingers. Not to mention super tall. What I did not expect was Gawain…
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Spoiler-free Genealogies for QUEEN OF NONE and QUEEN OF FURY
It's all in the family when it comes to Arthuriana.
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2017 Publications!
2017 was a pretty big year around these parts. I saw the publication of two novellas and two short stories — all of which I hold quite dear. First, there came Wothwood, a heroic fantasy novella (yes, you read that right… it’s short and it’s fantasy) about the “wood where the world is broken.” While there’s a good deal of action and adventure, it’s at its heart about inheritance and revenge, and who you decide to be as a hero. I anticipate a sequel to this, but it may be a bit longer than a novella. I’m also planning on Aoda’s further adventures. Then came “Two Moons and Red Bread” which…
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Lev Grossman on T.H. White and The Once and Future King
One of the subjects I will go on at length most often is, most assuredly, Arthuriana. My abiding love for that genre started with a gorgeous illustrated volume (an abbreviated Morte D’Arthur) given to me by my great-aunt, but really came to fruition during my Freshman year of college when I was assigned both The Once and Future King and The Mists of Avalon. Previous to this, the only fantasy I’d really read was Tolkien, L’Engle, Alexander, and some Terry Goodkind. And while Mists was very empowering, especially as feminist fantasy, T.H. White’s The Once and Future King changed the entire landscape of how I viewed fantasy storytelling. If I…
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Falling in (and out of) love with fantasy
Occasionally, I still have moments where I look at a scrap of dialogue or a descriptive phrase, and I feel a little self-conscious, writing what I’m writing. It’s fantasy, sure. It is epic? Sometimes. It is heroic? Yeah, a bit. Does it have magic and all that? Of course. Am I way hung up on defining it? Not really. Okay, maybe a little. But it’s also not a lot of things. There are no elves, dwarves or, really, even wizards. Magic is… ordered, in a way. Effectively I’ve written out a great deal of the things that define the genre for other people, and even for me. Sometimes I forget…
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So, that finally happened…
If you follow my Twitter feed, you’ll know I was on something of a writing binge this weekend. Every few months this happens. It’s like my own personal NaNoWriMo, where the book I’m writing takes on an absolutely powerful life of its own, and I’m kind of strung along. While it sounds kind of cool, and in some ways it is, it’s also quite exhausting. Usually, it means I can’t sleep, and every spare moment is at the MacBook, clacking away. Time slips, stars move, and I remain rooted to the keyboard. At any rate, after clocking just about 13K in a day and a half or so, my mind…
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The self-conscious fantasy epic.
This morning I read a piece in the Guardian called When the Lord of the Rings doesn’t cut it: Confessions of a fantasy junkie, and found it rather amusing. In particular this bit (which makes us all sound a bit like Gollum, I think): I understand the pain of the addict. At the turn of a page, weeks of total immersion in a fantasy world come to an end and mundane reality is waiting. Fantasy is epic because that is how we like it. But like any narcotic substance, fantasy operates on the law of diminishing returns. Once you’ve see a few dozen dragons, you’ve seen them all. The fantasy…
