now you see her...
Bestselling author of historical fiction and the Five Queendoms epic fantasy series (SCORPICA, ARCA, SESTIA).
When I said the good news keeps coming I didn’t realize even MORE was coming today! My publisher Saga Press is giving away 100 advance copies of Scorpica over on Goodreads, so if you’re reading this and it isn’t October 4th yet, you could win one of them! But not if you don’t get your entry in. (As the lottery commercials used to say, you can’t win if you don’t play.)
Hop over to Goodreads and enter now!
And the good news just keeps comin’, y’all!
The link for signed copies of SCORPICA is now live at One More Page!
And on that page, there’s a little box so that if you want, in addition to the signature, you can get it personalized — to you or your cousin or your mom or whoever! it’s your show!
I’m on record about DC-area bookstore One More Page being my happy place, partly because in addition to books they also sell chocolate (!) and wine (!!), but in this case there’s an extra-relevant reason I’m directing readers their way: for a book that’s about women in charge, it just seems right to support a bookstore owned and staffed by, well, women in charge.
Here’s that link again. Pre-orders really move the needle on how much support a book gets in the months leading up to release, so it’s never too early to put in that pre-order, and it’ll ship to you the instant it comes out in February. Tell all your friends.
Fabulous news! My epic fantasy debut SCORPICA is now available as an e-galley from NetGalley, if you just can’t wait for February. You put in a request here, and if it’s approved, boom! Happy reading.
Want a reason to read? Here’s the utterly wonderful blurb from fabulous bestseller Kate Quinn: “Scorpica is Game of Thrones for all the ladies out there who loved Game of Thrones but hated its disappointing mad-queen finish: a richly-drawn fantasy world peopled by fierce women, smart women, warrior women, women to make you stand up and roar. A matriarchal quintet of queen-led nations is thrown into chaos when baby girls inexplicably stop being born, and the result is an intoxicating brew of court politics, deadly magic, family rivalry, and enough swashbuckling female swordplay to delight Wonder Woman's entire isle of Amazons. Macallister’s turn from historical fiction to historical fantasy is a gem--I can't wait for the next installment!”
What’s a DRC, you might be asking?
I was also not familiar with the term until I saw a tweet yesterday that a DRC of my upcoming fantasy novel SCORPICA is now available on Edelweiss!
(And for the follow-up question, Edelweiss is a digital catalog system primarily used by booksellers and librarians to figure out current and upcoming books and order them from the publisher. I think.)
If you have an Edelweiss account, you too can get your mitts on a DRC—which stands for Digital Review Copy—of my feminist spin on Game of Thrones set in a matriarchal world thrown into chaos when girls stop being born.
Most of what I review these days at the Chicago Review of Books (CHIRB, for short) is historical fiction or fantasy, but every once in a while, something else comes along I can’t resist — usually a female-focused thriller or crime novel.. What I couldn’t resist this time around was the opportunity for an early peek at the new Megan Abbott novel (!) set at a ballet school (!!). And it did not disappoint!
With the entire book filtered through Dara’s point of view, as a questionable decision early in the novel spirals into an ever-worsening situation for all three of the main characters, you’re likely to read with your shoulders up around your ears, full of tension and dread. When the crime finally comes at last, it’s almost a relief.
Read my full review of THE TURNOUT here.
Eeek, it’s all happening! My epic fantasy debut SCORPICA, the first book in the Five Queendoms series, comes out in six months and change — on the auspicious-feeling date of 2/22/22.
Did you see the cover reveal at Tor.com? SO COOL.
And so, since a little time is going to pass before you can actually get your hands on this epic story of danger, betrayal, motherhood, struggle, secrets, and a bunch more other things, why not add it to your to-read shelf at Goodreads?
(Plus there’s a nice summary there, and kind words from the few people who’ve been able to get their hands on very, very early copies. Yay!)
For obvious reasons, I have cover reveals on the brain… so while all that’s fresh, I figured I’d share some tips and thoughts with my fellow writers with a post on Writer Unboxed. Whether you’re traditionally published or self-published, experienced or new, connected or solo, I think there are three things you should keep in mind when planning a cover reveal — first of all, that the word planning is key.
Yesterday was a pretty big day! In addition to the cover reveal for SCORPICA going up on the interwebs, my latest review for CHIRB also went live. I raved about Shelley Parker-Chan’s SHE WHO BECAME THE SUN, “both inseparable from its real-life inspiration and wholly original.“
A sneak peek into my thoughts on Parker-Chan’s debut:
It may seem odd to keep coming back to “original” as praise for a story based on real-life events and people, but the word kept springing to mind as I read. Perhaps “imaginative” would apply just as well. She Who Became the Sun beautifully illustrates how the fantasy genre opens up to embrace anything an author can imagine—not just ghosts and goblins, but new ways of exploring and interrogating gender and identity, prejudice and violence, history and humanity.
I AM SO EXCITED.
The absolutely amazing cover for SCORPICA — book one of The Five Queendoms — is up on Tor.com today!
Without further ado, click yourself over there and GAZE IN WONDER.
Click if you haven’t already.
(And then click here to add it to your to-read shelf on Goodreads, because you’re going to want to do that.)
Here’s this month’s Writer Unboxed post — instead of talking about how authors feel about our reviews, I thought I’d tackle whether or not authors should write reviews of other authors’ books. Obviously, since I write reviews for the Chicago Review of Books, I’ve answered that question for myself with a yes — but not everyone will make that same decision.
I talk about the guidelines, potential pitfalls, and things to think about here.