celebrating some of my favorite fictional queens!

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March 1 kicks off Women’s History Month, yay! And SCORPICA has also been out exactly a week. Many thanks for all the support so far — it’s been a real blast to see this book out in the world at last.

Lots of fun things to share still happening, and here’s today’s: I list my Top 10 Fictional Queens for Culturefly.

In fiction, some of the best queens are the worst. What makes a fictional ruler memorable isn’t always what we like to see from real-world monarchs—in fact, the opposite is often true. But it takes more than just an appetite for evil to keep any particular queen from fiction on our minds.

Read about Queen Lucy, Galadriel, Julia Wicker and more here.

Events coming up for SCORPICA!

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Hi there! If you’re in the greater DC area, you have two chances to hear me talk about SCORPICA in the coming weeks! These are on my Events page also, but here’s the key info for the locals:

March 2 at 6:30pm — the Eldersburg Branch of CCPL, presented by A Likely Story. Register here.

March 9 at 7pm — One More Page Bookstore, Arlington, VA. Register here.

Hope to see you soon!

this interview has a lot of character!

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So I’ve been an interviewer (many times) and I’ve been interviewed (many times), but this one is a first for me: I was asked to interview one of my characters! At first I wasn’t sure how that would work, but when I mentally flipped through a list of the characters in my most recent book (it’s a long list), I realized there was one who would lend herself perfectly to an interview.

Fasiq is many things: an actual giant, the leader of a bandit gang, a charismatic and confident speaker, a legend in her own mind. And when readers talk about their favorite characters from Scorpica, she often tops the list. So I realized she’d be the perfect subject for such an interview, and for a person who’s pretty secretive, she had a lot to say.

Read my interview with Fasiq here.

Kate Quinn interviews me about SCORPICA for CHIRB!

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This was such a fun interview! As you probably know, for the past few years, Kate Quinn and I have both been writing historical fiction featuring extraordinary women. But did you know that before that, Kate wrote a fabulous series set in Ancient Rome? So I knew she’d be a great person to ask for a Scorpica blurb, and she was kind enough to give an absolutely smashing one.

Like the sword fight between Inigo and the Man in Black in The Princess Bride, our conversation ranged all over: from the similarities between historical fiction and epic fantasy (“it’s more like dog/wolf than dog/cat”), to the role of men in matriarchy, how we feel about fact-checking emails, and some of my latest reading recommendations.

Read it all here.

GIRL IN DISGUISE makes an appearance at CrimeReads!

Just a little palate-cleanser here in case you’re tired of hearing about SCORPICA! This is the great thing about having multiple books out in the world — you never know which one’s going to pop up when or where.

Deanna Raybourn, who writes the fabulous Veronica Speedwell mystery series, recently put together a great list of her “favorite books featuring a question of identity,” and was kind enough to include GIRL IN DISGUISE. I’ve already told her I want the first part of this sentence on my tombstone.

Greer Macallister is always a great bet, but in Girl in Disguise she outdoes herself, fictionalizing the career of Kate Warne, the first female Pinkerton detective.

Read: Who Do You Think You Are? A List of Identity-Switching Mysteries over at CrimeReads.

Friends & Fiction tonight!

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One of my favorite ongoing book event series (serieses?) is Friends and Fiction, and I’m beyond honored to be participating in their show for the second time! The main event tonight is V.E. Schwab (who I looooove) talking about her new book GALLANT, and I’ll be on the 15-minute aftershow, my first public virtual event for SCORPICA.

It’s all on the Friends & Fiction page.

Take Five at Writer Unboxed: all about SCORPICA!

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You’ll see a lot of interviews popping up about SCORPICA as it hits shelves this week (!!!), and here’s one of my favorites: Take Five at Writer Unboxed. I’m a longtime contributor at the site, writing monthly about everything from gifts for the writer in your life to the responsibility of world-building to tips for a great cover reveal. But every once in a while, instead of writing a post, I get to be the interview subject! So I answered five questions about SCORPICA.

Click here for the interview.