It's Almost Time for the Galaxy's Biggest Wedding!

Join me in celebrating Han Solo and Leia Organa! Plus Museum, more details, and more!

The big story this month—for me anyway, haha—is the launch of The Princess and the Scoundrel!

It’s already been an amazing experience promoting this book, and it’s not even out yet! Before I get to that, though, I want to remind you that there are two places to get signed books from me, and also two fun events you can come visit me at!

EVENTS:

Saturday, August 20, 12-2pm, in Morganton, NC, at Adventure Bound Books

This drop-in event will be super casual—come any time during these hours to meet me, grab a cupcake (!!!), and get a signed and/or personalized copy of the book.

Sunday, August 21, at 3pm, in Canton, NC, at Clara Rhea Farms

This fun event will take place at the library barn of the gorgeous Clara Rhea Farms! There will be books for sale, and I can sign/personalize any of them. The farm is gorgeous, and this promises to be a great afternoon!

At both events, I hope to have some extra goodies to share with everyone (first come, first served), and there should be some simply amazing fun times with good people and Star Wars love! I really hope to see you there!

SIGNED BOOKS & EXCLUSIVE EDITIONS

You can get signed books shipped anywhere from my local indie bookstores—Malaprops and Adventure Bound. You can also get the exclusive Barnes and Noble edition, which will include a poster inside the book. The book is available from any bookstore—you can see the full list here.

EXCLUSIVE EXCERPTS

Three different excerpts have been revealed (so far), and you can read them in order, giving you a pretty great snapshot of the opening of the story:

• First: StarWars.com

• ​Second: Inverse

• Third: USA Today

Also, I cannot confirm nor deny that something really freaking cool and beautiful will be released very soon but…maybe keep your eyes peeled for something really freaking cool and beautiful soon.

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Museum of Magic

Before I get to San Diego ComicCon Highlights, I wanted to do a quick shout-out to Museum of Magic! First, my unusual little story was featured in the School Library Journal’s website in the Teen Librarian Toolbox, a great honor! I spoke to them about how each chapter is determined entirely by a combination of chance (such as through dice rolls) and reader input, making each chapter hinge on the outcome of votes.

And speaking of those votes…the story has crossed the fifty-percent mark, with seeds laid in for a sequel. It’s not too late to jump aboard the train—you can binge everything that’s out so far and then start voting with everyone else! I definitely foresee this story going into next year, and at one chapter a week, it’s an easy, fun way to read a story that’s totally unique and totally up-in-the-air! I structured the voting and chance elements in a way that may make it a little harder for me, as the writer, but that I think will be even more fun for you, the reader. It’s basically a group Choose-Your-Own-Adventure story with a little Dungeons & Dragons mixed in for flavor.

Additionally, each section of the novel takes the main characters into a different part of England, where they touch on real historical events. We’ve gone to Scotland, to read the Daemonologie, a real book written by the same King James who commissioned the Bible translation known as the King James Version—and the start of the witch hunts in the UK. We’ve gone to Cornwall, chasing wills-o-the-wisps and uncovering a secret grave of a witch whose bones used to be on display for the public. We’ve gone up Glastonbury Tor (pictured above), where legend says the Wild Hunt crosses over. Every single location is meticulously researched and linked to real events and real people—you can follow the exact same path Emmi and Puck do!

Now is also a great time to join the story because we’re starting a new journey—to Knaresborough, this time, to meet Mother Shipton (whose prophecies were mentioned in Good Omens) and see her cave (which literally has calcification properties and can turn things into stone—really!).

Catch up now!

• Read all the episodes on Amazon—first three chapters are free, and anyone in America with an Amazon account can read from any Kindle app

• Read all the episodes on Patreon—join now and cancel before your card is charged if you want; open to all readers internationally, with bonus behind-the-scenes and extra content added thrice weekly!

• Additionally, make sure you’re in my Crown Club—a free weekly newsletter—to get goodies like this!

And if you liked my first serial novel, Blood and Feathers, I’m happy to announce that the paperback is available now!

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San Diego ComicCon Highlights

I am still pinching myself at the amazing SDCC! Shout-out to the organizers for having a strong plan of masking and vaccination that kept people safe—I was at an event for nearly a week and met hundreds of people and didn’t get sick!

It’s hard for me to pick one highlight from the event, but I think the thing I loved the absolute best was the life-size stand-up cut-out of Han and Leia from the book. Like, what?! How is that real life?

Del Rey had an entire corner set aside for people to take photos with Han and Leia!!!

PS: You’ve entered the contest to win a free trip, right? This prize is worth thousands, and you can enter with nothing more than an email address!

Anyway, back to SDCC—as much as *I* loved having my picture taken with the cut-outs…and I did, multiple times, lol…the best picture of the whole weekend belongs to these sweethearts (if you know them, please let me know their names so I can credit them!). DelReyBooks snapped their photo:

Of course, the convention is more than one photo booth! I did multiple signings over the long weekend. Adam Christopher, author of Star Wars: Shadow of the Sith (as well as tons of other books, including a Stranger Things novel!) was my signing buddy as we went through stacks and stacks of double-sided posters that showcased both our books!

Those posters, by the way, were so amazing that I absolutely stole (was given) a stack to take home and distribute! So…just saying…if you come to one of my events above…. there’s a good chance I’ll be able to slip you one ;)

In addition to signing posters, I got to see—for the very first time!!!!—a copy of the book in person!!!

The precious is mine! Plus, on the last day, someone brought along an advanced early media copy, so I got to sign the first ever copy of the book! And I included a special note at the bottom that it was the first one signed:

Although, I suppose if this winds up on eBay, I’ll know you did it, Andrew! ;)

Side note: did you see the cover of the book over my head?! It was so amazingly cool to walk past the booth and see my baby there! Oh, and speaking of babies…

I also did two big panels at SDCC, both of which were amazing and I’m grateful to inform everyone that I didn’t spontaneously combust from nerves during either. Brilliant photographer Brian Sims caught what is perhaps the best photo of me speaking about the book:

I have no idea what I' was saying, but it was impassioned and no doubt swoony.

You can catch the video of one of my panels, on writing in other people’s universes, here! Get yourself a moment of living at the con, without the mad crush of people surrounding you! Additionally, I’ve got day-by-day highlights of each day at the Con in my Instagram Reels.

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What I’m working on now…

• Museum of Magic, a YA fantasy with witches and witch bottles. A new chapter every week. Available on Patreon and Kindle Vella. Subscribe to my Crown Club for weekly reminders of the new chapters posted on Sunday and to be entered in give-aways!

• The Princess and the Scoundrel—out in August!

• Secret adult science fiction project: complete draft at 104k words. Sent to my agent after getting a thumbs up from a friend who read for me. Trying not to throw up about the whole thing.

• YA historical co-written fantasy: Editing this month!

• YA ghost story: Remember this one? Back to tinkering away on it! With deadlines met and stories out of my hands, it’s time to start something new.

• 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! Also, we’re starting live and in person retreats again!

  • 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.

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