SCORPICA makes its first Most Anticipated list!

With the holiday season upon us, I know a book coming out in February seems like a really long way away — but December is also the time of year for Most Anticipated lists, so of course I’ve been keeping an eye out to see what lists SCORPICA might show up on. (Yes, it’s an unhealthy thing for writers to keep track of. A lot of us do it anyway.)

And yay! Here’s a fabulous list from FanFiAddict, rounding up FFA’s Most Anticipated Titles of 2022, with SCORPICA right there with other great company in February.

Check out the whole great list here.

pre-order your signed copy of SCORPICA today!

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.

Request an e-galley of SCORPICA from NetGalley!

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.

Here’s that NetGalley link.

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!”

add SCORPICA to your shelf at Goodreads!

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!)

SCORPICA cover reveal!

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.)

THE ARCTIC FURY in great company at Greatist!

How fun is this!? THE ARCTIC FURY made a list of 15 Best Historical Fiction Books at Greatist.com, in amazing company with the latest from Chris Bohjalian, Pam Jenoff, Michelle Gable, Kristin Harmel and more!

(Honestly, fully half of the authors on this list are friends of mine, and I’m genuinely delighted for every one of us! I am so lucky to run in these circles.)

I particularly love that the intro points out that “historical fiction” just means these novels are set in the past, though “many of them are inspired by real people and events, use familiar settings as backdrops, or retell old stories from new perspectives.“ Nicely put.

Jump straight to the writeup of The Arctic Fury or check out the whole list here.

one-day deal on THE ARCTIC FURY!

April 15 looks a little different this year — not only am I not scrambling to get those last-minute tax forms in on time (phew), it’s a big day for THE ARCTIC FURY, my historical adventure-slash-courtroom drama about an ill-fated all-female Arctic expedition! The ebook is a BookBub deal, meaning it’s $1.99 across all major book platforms, as well as a Kindle Daily Deal. So if you haven’t read it yet, snap it up! And if you’ve read it and loved it, please spread the word!

Easy-peasy lemon squeezy buy links:

Apple Books

Google Books

Kindle

Kobo

Nook

looking for a historical novel about Kate Warne?

You know, every Women’s History Month there’s a spike in Kate Warne content online, which makes me very happy as a charter member of the Kate Warne Awareness Society! But every once in a while I see people online responding to the great basics of Kate’s story — first woman detective, first female Pinkerton, Union spy during the Civil War, woman who saved Abraham Lincoln’s life en route to his inauguration — with some variation on “OMG WHY ISN’T THERE A BOOK ABOUT THIS WOMAN?”

I do not think it’s appropriate to write back to them individually and say, “Actually, there is.” So I’m writing this post instead.

And if you’re wondering why there’s no full-length biography of Kate, it’s because the historical record really doesn’t offer enough detail to support a chapter or two, let alone 200 or so pages of content. So if you want all of Kate’s story, imagination will definitely have to be a part of it.

There are lots of great takes on Kate, fiction and non-fiction, and I encourage everyone to explore them. Obviously, I’m a bit partial to my own take on Kate, but the more Kates the better, if the end result is that more people know her name. (And spell it correctly, unlike her gravestone.)

book club event guide for THE ARCTIC FURY!

If you got my last newsletter, you already know about this, but I just realized I hadn’t posted the link to the blog! Rectifying that with a quickness.

Sourcebooks put together this super-fantastic book club event guide for THE ARCTIC FURY and it is chock-full of goodness. Do you need an excerpt of the book so your book group can decide whether it’s for you? It’s in there. Does your book club like recipes for era-appropriate dishes you can eat and drink while discussing the book? Got you covered! Want to know more about the research and real-life women behind the fictional story the book tells? Yep, that too.

But enough about the thing: if you want the thing, here’s the thing.

THE ARCTIC FURY at Bas Bleu!

I’m pretty sure I’ve waxed poetic here before about how, for years, I’ve loved going through the Bas Bleu catalog before the holidays, picking out Christmas presents for my mom and circling a few ideas for myself. Now I’m utterly tickled to see my books in their pages — both the paper catalog and the online version.

And they’re giving a warm welcome to THE ARCTIC FURY! Not only is my chilly new novel available for purchase, it’s also listed at the top of their 2021 Winter Reading List and included in a fabulous five-book Winter Reading Collection with other great historical fiction that centers women’s stories. (I’ve read The Book of the Little Axe and The Lions of Fifth Avenue and they’re both excellent.) Nabbed the pretty pretty photo from their Instagram to include below!