FOUR THINGS ON TUESDAY

Hello and Happy Tuesday Dear Readers!

1) Today I'm excited to bring you the very first sample of the Shadows on the Moon audiobook from Candlewick Press and Brilliance audio! It's only available on the Candlewick website right now:

Shadows on the Moon audiobook sample.

What do you all think? I really love Amy Rubinate's voice - I can't wait to see how her portrayal of Suzume evolves as as the character does, first into Rin, and then Yue.

2) Oh, and speaking of Shadows, my finished author copies of the US hardcover arrived last week. They are beautiful - I particularly love the dove grey boards and the red foiling on the spine. A few pics:

And most exciting of all, these wonderful blurbs on the back by beautiful authors L.A. Weatherly, Jaclyn Dolamore and R.J. Anderson:

Ah, happiness :)

3) An update about The Katana Trilogy! I've just sent back round two of edits on The Night Itself, which included my American editor's suggestions, and we're still on track for publication next year - hopefully in early July, although of course everything is subject to change until it actually happens.

I'm now hard at work on Katana #2 again (still not sure how I'm going to reveal the title - I feel like it ought to be a special occasion, so I might do a big giveaway or something). And by 'back at work' I mean, deleting all three chapters that I had written thus far and starting again from scratch because the combined changes wrought by two rounds of edits on Katana #1 mean none of the stuff I wrote before works anymore. All part of the joy of writing a trilogy.

Although actually I feel rather relaxed and happy about the whole thing. Also part of the joy of writing a trilogy? Who knows?!

4) The wonderful, sublime and brilliant Erin Bow (author of the wonderful, sublime, brilliant novel Plain Kate, or Wood Angel in the UK) has recommended Shadows on the Moon on her blog, and brought a little tear of joy to my eye. Thank you, Erin!

5) SURPRISE FIFTH ITEM! Ha ha, that's never going to get old.

I bring you the new trailer for Snow White and the Huntsman, my most anticipated film of this year now that I've seen The Hunger Games (twice).

Doesn't this look amazing? I can't wait.

I do wish people would give poor Kristen Stewart a chance, though. Everyone who isn't a big Twilight fan seems to be piling on to give her a hard time, saying that she has only one expression and can't act. In fact, before she signed up for Twilight (which, at the time, was a small, independent film with a quirky director) she was known as an excellent serious actress. Yes, the films became an unstoppable juggernaut of cheesiness very quickly - but let's not blame the young actors involved for that. That's down to the directors and the producers who wanted to get these films out as quickly as possible and weren't interested in creating anything Oscar-worthy.

A lot of other people are saying it was ridiculous to cast her because she's not 'pretty' enough to challenge Charlise Theron's Queen as Fairest of Them All. OK, Charlise Theron is probably one of the most physically perfect women who ever lived. But although Kristen's face doesn't have that level of conventional Hollywood perfection she *is* a very beautiful young woman. In fact, she's got the perfect snow white look in my opinion - and I would know, since I've read pretty much every illustrated version of this fairytale there is. Especially because in this film, (unlike the Twilight films, where she's wearing brown contacts which make her look very different) you can see Kristen's extremely unusual, striking green eyes.

So come on, people! Let's be true Feminists and not be mean to KStew! Hopefully she will surprise us all.