A Beautiful Surprise + FOUR books on a HUGE sale!
The fanciest of stenciled/sprayed edges you have ever seen!
Okay, so before I tell you about the BIG SALE that is happening right now and will end on Friday and save you buckets of cash, I also have to show you something that is epic and amazing and ✨beautiful✨.
Night of the Witch is getting a beautiful sprayed and stenciled design on the pages!!! The green! The black moons!!!! On ALL SIDES!!!!!
I have to be honest—I’ve wanted sprayed edges for my books since I saw them for the first time (it was the pretty black edges for Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows, one of my favorite books). And then publishers started doing beautiful stencilled designs, and I burned with jealousy. But never in a million years did I ever expect to get the best sprayed/stenciled edges I have ever seen??????? Because SERIOUSLY. The green is stunning, but those moons????? I am a moon girlie, through and through, and those moons are so pretty I’m sorta thinking of getting them tattooed on me (but I won’t, Mom, because I have commitment issues). Plus!!! The design is on all sides?! I’ve actually never seen that before, not like this, and how??? How is it so perfect?????)
And here’s the best news: EVERY. SINGLE. COPY. in the first print run of the US edition of the book will have this design! You don’t need a fancy book box subscription, you don’t have to pay extra—all you have to do is preorder the paperback in the US and your copy will have this gorgeous design! (And if you preorder from the sale below, that makes the cost less than ten bucks. LESS THAN $10!)
But hurry—once supplies run out, they’re gone forever. Pre-ordering now is the only way to ensure you’ll get this. And you can pre-order from any retailer, and this is the copy you’ll get. (Might I suggest pre-ordering from my local indie bookstore, Malaprops, which will provide you not only with the beautiful stencilled edges but also a shiny signature from me while also supporting good works in the community?)
And Luckily, There’s a Pre-order Sale Happening RIGHT NOW
That’s right, folks, it’s time for Barnes and Noble’s semi-regular pre-order sale! From now until Friday, B&N Rewards and Premium Members get 25% off all preorders when you use the code PREORDER25 at check out (and Premium Members get an additional 10% off)!
And, as I’ve mentioned before, this has been a very busy and productive year for me. Which means I have FOUR books in the pre-order sale!
Both Night of the Witch’s paperback (yes, that paperback! The one with the beautiful edges!!!) and The Fate of Magic, the much-anticipated sequel, are a part of the sale!
And, frankly, the Night of the Witch paperback is ridiculously cheap— $11.99 before the sale—only $8.99 with the code! It’s literally cheaper than the ebook and so pretty. I mean, the words inside are pretty great, too, but such. pretty. edges.
But that’s not all!
Because Full Speed to a Crash Landing, my sexy, high-action, romantic sci fi that is basically Sherlock meets River Song in an Ocean’s 11 style heist with spaceships and jetpacks is also on the sale!
Do you like characters who are the best at what they do and they’re insufferable about it (Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock, we’re looking at you)? Do you like characters who solve problems with chaos and crashes? Do you like the wonderful pain of will-they-or-won’t-they kiss and/or kill each other? This one’s for you.
But that’s not all!
Someone Who Loves You, my Han-and-Leia wedding picture book is also on sale! This beautiful book shows the wedding ceremony through the eyes of the Ewoks—Han and Leia explain what love is to Wicket and his friends while they prepare for the ceremony. (And I can’t tell you all the secrets, but I can say that I think you’re going to want to pay attention to who is in the background of some of these scenes…)
But that’s not all! Wait, no, that actually is it. But, haha, four books on sale should be enough, right?
And again: If you’d like to pre-order any of these books signed (or any of my backlist signed), Malaprops is the go-to spot! You can get any book of mine signed and personalized by supporting local.
WHEW. Okay. Sorry to turn into a sales machine for this, but between the pretty, limited edition stencilled edges for the paperback coinciding with the brilliant BN pre-order sale…I felt like I couldn’t let you guys miss out!
The Solar Eclipse!
If you follow me on social media, you saw some of my recent pictures of the solar eclipse. (In true bad-at-photography fashion, my actual pictures didn’t turn out so great, but I do think the video I recorded turned out pretty cool.)
To view the eclipse, I tucked my family into our tiny Honda and drove a total of more than 24 hours to see 4 minutes of the sun go dark, but it was totally worth it! Along the way, we made stops in Hershey, PA and Niagara Falls, NY, as well as a few natural wonders—a Natural Bridge in Virginia, caverns in Pennsylvania, and more.
Over on Patreon
This month, all Patreons got a special space-themed package with solar eclipse glasses, a fun bookmark, stickers, and a letter from me! I’m DEEP in the process of compiling goodies for pre-order incentives, marketing materials, and all that fun stuff, and Patreons always get first dibs. In addition to that:
We’re about halfway done my latest serialized novel, a YA horror called Darkness Fills the Void. If you’re just starting, you’re not too late! We’re just getting to the romance bits, which will be followed quickly by the “oh no, the ghosts are real” bits, so there’s a lot more fun heading that way!
The latest video lesson was all about the “business” of writing—how to add action to dialogue and how to show, rather than tell, emotions. This will be available a la carte at the Wordsmith Workshops website soon, or you can get access to the entire catalog of video lessons on Patreon
Other writing posts were about strategically editing with an eye to the future market, how to know when your opening isn’t working, and more!
What I’m Working on Now
YA Fantasy: Like 60k words in, omg, this story is flying into being, but also it makes me really mad at people who’ve been dead for centuries. Hope to be able to announce this one soon!
Chaotic Orbits series: Full Speed is deep into marketing plans, How to Steal a Galaxy is fully drafted and going into copy edits soon, Last Chance to Save the World is currently being drafted
Adult fantasy proposal: One step closer to being real
Darkness Fills the Void: YA horror novel set in Western North Carolina. Currently only available to Patreons.
House of Hex: Currently in copy edits
Side gigs!
Weekly posts and videos about writing at Patreon
SNHU as an online adjunct in the MFA writing program
Accepting critique and coaching jobs with Wordsmith Workshops—in addition to doing Word Lab!
Actively doing in-person school, library, and book fair events—book me for panels, signings, and workshops for both adults and teens on writing! If you’d like to get an idea of some of the programming I do, I describe it a bit here.
That sprayed edge is amazing!
Fun fact, I have a crescent moon tattoo. I carried the picture of it around in my wallet for years, staring at it everyday. A friend finally made me do it because she said I was ridiculous for saying I would get this tattoo one day, carrying the picture around all the time, staring at it, and always threatening. I haven't regretted it yet. When I sign up for the revising retreat, I'll show you. You know, when I have money again.