SUPER MEGA SECRET BOOK DEAL ANNOUNCEMENT!

At last! At long, long last! At laaaaaaast!!! *Maniacal laughter*

Ahem. Yes, that's right Dear Readers! The very exciting news I have been teasing you with basically forever (don't hate me!) is now finally mine to reveal! And incidentally when I said 'very exciting' I actually meant THE MOST EXCITING THING EVER. Here's the official press release: 

Walker Books acquires a new YA fantasy novel The Hand, the Eye and the Heart from Zoë Marriott 

Marriott’s new YA explores themes of gender fluidity in a fantasy setting 

Walker Books are delighted to announce the acquisition of The Hand, the Eye and the Heart, a new YA novel from award-winning British author Zoë Marriott. Commissioning editor Annalie Grainger acquired world rights in all languages from Nancy Miles at Miles Stott Children’s Literary Agency. Zoë Marriott is the author of many critically acclaimed and beloved books, often inspired by myths and fairy tales, including The Swan Kingdom, which was longlisted for the Branford Boase award. Shadows on the Moon won the prestigious Sasakawa Prize and was an American Junior Library Guild Selection. The book will publish in Spring 2019.

In the tradition of bestselling and beloved writers like Tamora Pierce and Ursula Le Guin, The Hand, the Eye and theHeart is a rich and lavishly detailed YA fantasy that draws on explorations of gender fluidity and identity. Zhilan was designated female at birth. Marriage and children are the future, not war. But when a warrior rebel begins to ravage the empire and threatens Zhilan's family, they are determined to fight. The only choice is to dress as a boy and to take on a boy's name: Hua Zhi. In a world where love and betrayal are two sides of the same smile, danger lurks everywhere, and Zhi might be the only one who can save the Emperor ... but only if they can save themselves first.

Annalie Grainger said:

“Zoë is such a talented writer. Her books are always intricately plotted and beautifully written, and they draw on such complex pertinent themes, all within diverse and well-constructed worlds. Her latest builds upon this powerful legacy of diverse stories. Its world-building is glorious and the exploration of gender fluidity is important and sensitively handled.”

For more information, please contact Publicity Manager Rosi Crawley on rosi.crawley@walker.co.uk

Tl:dr: My new book is coming out from Walker Books next year, and it is a high fantasy called The Hand, the Eye and the Heart.

For more details about the journey of writing this book and the challenges it brought, you can read my post HONESTY IS A DANGEROUS POLICY.

Bringing The Hand, the Eye and the Heart into the world was not easy. It was, in fact, dangerous. And uncomfortable and frightening. The fact that it exists anyway is testament to the support and vision of The Royal Literary Fund and Arts Council England, both of whom believed in me and helped buy me the time (over two years) required to research and write this book.

And of course, a massive thanks are also due to the steadfastness of Super Agent, whose regular doses of encouragment and good sense helped pull me out of periods of hopelessness more times than I imagine she ever realised.

Time for a little Q&A! (UPDATED 05/12/2019) - you can now Pre-Order the book here, here and here, or at any indie bookshop!

Q: Is it true this book is a retelling of 'Mulan'?

A: Not exactly. It isn't a direct retelling of any one story. It is heavily inspired by several different versions of the Ballad of Mulan - including the original poem and many subsequent, ever-evolving retellings within Chinese culture such as the Chinese Opera. But the main character of The Hand, the Eye and the Heart is not Mulan. The protagonist of this book is Zhi. It's really important to me that this is clear, because Mulan is such a revered and significant figure and I'm not seeking to mess with her. So I'm not claiming to retell 'the true story of Mulan' or anything sensational like that. Zhi's journey definitely echoes Mulan's in some ways - but that is about paying homage to a legendary heroic archetype, not subverting or revising Mulan's story.

Q: Is the book set in China?

A: It's set in an imaginary place called The Land of Dragons or the Red Empire. This (again) is heavily influenced by Chinese history, especially the Tang Dynasty - but only in the same way that, say, George R. R. Martin's Westeros is influenced by England in the Middle Ages. It is not intended to be a historically accurate portrayal of China. It's a fantasy. There's magic and all kinds of made up people and places and events, as well as many people and places and events which take history as a jumping off point for fantastical extrapolation. The Big Bad, for example, is a mixture of a bandit King referred to in one version of Mulan's story (a man called Leopard Skin) and a real general who rebelled against the Emperor during the Tang Dynasty.

Q: So is the main character really trans?

A: I think of their gender identity as falling under that umbrella, and wrote them with the intention of presenting them to my readers that way - personally, I believe Zhi to be what contemporary westerners would probably call gender fluid or maybe, more broadly, non-binary. But readers are free to interpret the character's gender in any way they like (so long as they don't try to say that they're cis! Definitely not cis).

Q: Did you have sensitivity readers who were Chinese or trans?

A: I've been lucky enough to have advice from several trans people at different stages, including two sensitivity readers who are both *brilliant* writers in their own right. We connected with one of these through the fantastic organisation Inclusive Minds. I've tried my absolute best to act on and incorporate every comment or suggestion they made. I also had really valuable help and advice from several readers (and friends and family members of readers) of Chinese and East Asian heritage, and one Chinese sensitivity reader who is also a professor of English (so intimidating).All these people have absolutely made the book better - more nuanced, truthful and respectful. There are probably still mistakes and things in it that could be improved, and I take full responsibility for those areas.

Q: Is it true that you're an LGBTQA+ writer? Are you trans?

A: I identify as queer, yes. But I don't really think that writers should have to offer up a list of their marginalised identities on demand as part of discussion of their work, so even though I'm happy to talk about my queerness at other times, I'd prefer not to go into it now. I will say that the book is not #ownvoices.

Q: When exactly is the book out? 

A: The fourth of April 2019 - and pre-orders are live (and much appreciated)! That's in the UK. The book doesn't have a US publisher as yet.

Q: When can we see the cover?

A: Right now! Here it is: 

Q: Can we read some of it?

A: I'm working on this. I'm excited to share it with you.

Q: Is this the never-ending manuscript that just keeps getting longer that you're always moaning about on Twitter?

A: Er...yes.

Q: How long is this thing anyway?

A: Currently? I mean, it's hard to really say, we're still editing so...

Q: Just spit it out!

A: It's a bit over 100k, all right? That might come down. Or it might go up. I don't know, I'm just the writer. Anyway, it's in the same general length bracket as Shadows on the Moon. 

Other stuff that might be of interest! Some aesthetics I made on Twitter the other day and the Spotify playlist for the book. Also, some of you may remember that this book has been referred to (even in the tags of this post) as Codename: DTH. That's because the book's working title was 'Deceive the Heavens', which is a quotation from Sun Tzu's The Art of War.

That's all for today, muffins! Feel free to toss any more questions in the comments - I'm interested to hear what you think!

NEW ARRIVALS!

Hello, my little macaroons! Happy Wednesday to everyone, and thank you for joing me today. I'm delighted to say that I have pretty pretty pictures to share - because in the last week not one but TWO delightful parcels have arrived for me bearing gifts.

What was in package number one, you ask? Why ask no further, because it was THIS:

 

 

The final volume of the Candlewick Press hardback editions of The Name of the Blade Trilogy! A rather lucious jade green this time, with a scale effect and copper typography - and matching green binding with copper foil and endpapers.

And yes, that's a jellyfish in the silhouette. If you've read the book you know why, and if not then you'll just have to buy this and find out won't you?

But even better than that!

Together at last. My fourteen year old self, if she could see this, would be actual-facts-ugly-crying. I nearly did myself. The trilogy is now officially completed and it's so beautiful!

But wait - there's more. ALSO in the post last week was THIS:

Yes, that's a glimpse of the long-awaited sequel/short story/epilogue of Shadows on the Moon, which I hope will satisfy fans of the book at last. But this book, too, is part of a set, so it seemed only right to do this:

Look what they did with the back covers there - isn't that clever? It's almost like the tangle of thorns transforms into a swirl of hair in the same gust of wind the sweeps the cherry blossoms across from one book to another. Gorgeous!

Frail Human Heart will be out in the US at the beginning of November. This new and improved version of Shadows on the Moon will be out here in the UK at the same time.

Once they're both on the shelves... I'm sure not what'll be next for me. I'm out of contract now - I have no new books due out for the first time in a decade. I'm still working on the book I got my Arts Council grant for, and I'm hoping to make a giant leap in progress during NaNoWriMo this year (yes, I'm going to give it another bash, no, I never learn, and yes, I will keep you all abreast of my progress - in fact, why not join up too and friend me here?) but I don't know when or if that will be published. I have some other news about my future which I'm hoping to share soon, but I need to get official confirmation first. Apart from that it's all wide open, which is both scary and exciting. 2017 is going to be an eventful year, I think!

Read you later, cupcakes!

FRAIL HUMAN HEART BLOGTOUR: DAY #9

Happy Tuesday, Dear Readers! Today is the ninth and final day of the FRAIL HUMAN HEART Blogtour, and we are paying a visit to the frankly gorgeous website of the frankly gorgeous Daphne of Winged Reviews, where I ramble on at some length about my inspiration and initial creative process for THE NAME OF THE BLADE TRILOGY.

Nine whole days of blogging in a row! I'm not sure I've ever done that before - but it's been fun, hasn't it? Below is the round up of all the stops in the tour:

Day #1, Pewterwolf - Snippet from the book
Day #2, KitKatscanRead - Snippet from the book
Day #3, Feeling Fictional - Snippet from the book
Day #4, Teens on Moon Lane - Snippet from the book
Day #5, The Reader's Corner, Jack & Hikaru Deleted Scene - major spoilers!
Day #6,  Luna's Little Library, Hikaru Deleted Scene - not really spoilery
Day #7, SisterSpooky, Mio & Shinobu Deleleted Scene - pretty spoilery!
Day #8, Serendipity Reviews, Detailed interview with Viv
Day #9, Winged Reviews, In Depth Inspiration Post

The number of reviews on the FRAIL HUMAN HEART page on Amazon has grown and I am so happy and grateful - thank you to everyone who's popped on to leave their thoughts and a rating so far. I'm thinking that once I get to ten, that's when I'll pick one person to win that really special super prize related to the trilogy, which will hopefully make their reviewing efforts worthwhile.

Also a quick reminder that not this weekend but the weekend before I totally overhauled and remade my website. The new one can be found at the exact same website address (handy, right?) of www.zoe.marriott.com, and I'd love to hear from you about it using the new email form or here in the comments. Do you like it? Miss anything from the old site? Is there anything new you'd like me to add? Let me know!

Finally, to ease the pain of the ending of this most magnificent blogtour, I'm going to be doing a guest post on the Author's Allsorts tomorrow called DASTARDLY TROPES in which I weigh in, at some length, about what is and is not a trope and how we should use or discard them in order to make our writing stronger. So if that's the kind of thing you like, pop in here again tomorrow for the link or else head straight to the Author's Allsorts.

FRAIL HUMAN HEART BLOGTOUR: DAY #8

Hello, hello, hello my delightful cupcakes. Here's Monday again, greeting you like a slap in the mush with a frozen kipper.

Let me ease the fishy concussion with Day #8 of the FRAIL HUMAN HEART Blogtour, where we pay a visit to the site of another longtime blogger pal - Viv of Serendipity Reviews (*Waves* Hi Viv!).

Today's entry into the tour is a super detailed interview that asks all kinds of fascinating, wide-ranging questions. I really enjoyed doing this Q&A, because it wasn't all the same old topics, so hopefully you will too.

See you tomorrow for the very last day of this magical mystery tour!

FRAIL HUMAN HEART BLOGTOUR: DAY #7

Hello, Dear Readers - here's wishing you a glorious, lazy Sunday. To add to your enjoyment, I bring you today's link to the FRAIL HUMAN HEART Blogtour - and it's another completely exclusive deleted scene, written just for you and never released before!

The deleted scene is being hosted by my wonderful and precious blogger friend Laura, at SisterSpooky, so head over there pronto - but beware that the scene in question is a teeeeny bit spoilery, offering insight into Mio and Shinobu's mysterious pasts (ooooh!).

Here's a round-up of the Blogtour so far, in case you're just now boarding the NAME OF THE BLADE train, or if you just missed a day somewhere for whatever reason:

Day #1, Pewterwolf - Snippet from the book
Day #2, KitKatscanRead - Snippet from the book
Day #3, Feeling Fictional - Snippet from the book
Day #4, Teens on Moon Lane - Snippet from the book
Day #5, The Reader's Corner, Jack & Hikaru Deleted Scene - major spoilers!
Day #6,  Luna's Little Library, Hikaru Deleted Scene - not really spoilery

FRAIL HUMAN HEART BLOGTOUR: DAY #6

Hurray, its Saturday! We made it, munchkins! And as a reward, I bring you Day #6 of the FRAIL HUMAN HEART Blogtour, where we will be be visiting the delightful Luna, one of the trilogies biggest fans and a true Renaissance blogger (because she can do everything - no really, check out her jewellery shop).

And not only do we get to visit Luna's Little Library today, but it's another exclusive, never-seen-before deleted scene from the trilogy. From Hikaru's PoV! There may be slight spoilers ahead, so brace yourselves!

I will be back tomorrow to link you to the next deleted scene, so don't forget to check in then. And just in case, here's a summary of all the links so far:

Day #1, Pewterwolf - Snippet from the book
Day #2, KitKatscanRead - Snippet from the book
Day #3, Feeling Fictional - Snippet from the book
Day #4, Teens on Moon Lane - Snippet from the book
Day #5, The Reader's Corner, Jack & Hikaru 'Deleted Scene' - spoilers!

See you on Sunday!

FRAIL HUMAN HEART BLOGTOUR: DAY #4

Ooooh, it's Thursday - the weekend is nearly here, my darlings! Just hang in there. And if it helps, I'm here today to bring the next installment of the FRAIL HUMAN HEART Blogtour, which is making a visit to Teens on Moon Lane, a new book blog that I love.

I'll be doing one of their 5-4-3-2-1 guest posts later on in the year - either August or September - so I'll be sending you back over then, but for now, check out today's snippet because it's the last... tomorrow, I'm pretty sure, we start on the juicy spoilerific deleted scenes (*le gasp!).

In other news, today I'm taking Finn the Devil Hound to the groomers, and let me tell you - parents taking their kids to have vaccinations is nothing to it.

Kids don't usually start making pathetic whining and crying noises the second you get them into the car or scrabble with their wee paws on the floor to try to escape. Or basically ignore you for twenty-four hours afterward because they feel so hurt and betrayed that you would leave them in that strange place (even though they've been going to that 'strange place' once every two months for two years).

Left to itself, Finn's hair - much like that of the cocker spaniels from whom he is descended - would literally grow until it brushed the floor. It's silky and gorgeous, but not at all practical for a dog who loves to splash through muggy, twiggy coppices and leap into green, weed-filled ponds. Once it reaches a certain length it not only drives me crazy but him - he'll start getting itchy and scratching and chewing at himself, and has even made himself quite sore on previous occasions.

What's more, grass seeds, those tiny weapons of mass destruction, will work themselves into the long

fur on his fluffy webbed feet and then actually into the flesh of his feet themselves (they're designed so that the movement of the animal they've latched onto will cause them to spiral, effectively 'drilling' into the fur and skin, because that way the animal concerned will carry the seeds far away from the parent plant).

When grass seeds burrow into your dog's feet it causes them terrible discomfort. They'll often do even worse damage to themselves trying to chew the painful splinter out and then you're off to the vet's for surgery. I can check Finn's feet twice a day for grass seeds, but once his fur reaches a certain length it just becomes impossible to be sure he's seed free, and if I never have to see him whimpering with pain, with blood spurting from between his toes as he seemingly tries to bite one of his own paws off again, it'll be too soon.

I used to do his grooming myself, with the help of a heavy old shaver that belonged to my brother and my father to hold, lift, and turn Finn, and help me get him in and out of the bath. I couldn't do it alone after I had the prolapsed disc in my spine. But now that dad's gone there's no one to help me. So every six to eight weeks, during the spring and summer months, like clockwork, we head to the groomers... and I become Bad Mummy The Betrayer to my dog for a day.

Honestly, wish me good luck. I'll need it to deal with the emotional blackmail alone...

FRAIL HUMAN HEART BLOGTOUR: DAY #3

Hello, of beautimous ones! Today the blogtour leaps happily onto the site of one of my very oldest blogger pals (that is to say I've known her for ages, not that she is old at all, btw) Sarah, at Feeling Fictional. Hi Sarah! Head on over there and check it out!

And just for fun, here's my Spotify Discover Weekly Playlist, so you can listen to the songs I've been listening to so far this week:

See you tomorrow, Dear Readers! xx

FRAIL HUMAN HEART BLOGTOUR: DAY #2

Happy Tuesday, my lovelies! Day #2 of the FRAIL HUMAN HEART Blogtour is upon us and is hosted by Katie at KitKatscanRead!

Head over there to check it out - and if you haven't already, check out my new and improved website at www.zoemarriott.com too, and let me know if there's anything you miss from the old site or anything new that you'd like me to include there.

I'm also still appealing for more reviews - good, bad, or in-between - for FRAIL HUMAN HEART on Amazon. I appreciate the ones I have so much, but it's still looking pretty lonely with only three reviews compared to the twenty-four that THE NIGHT ITSELF has. Don't think that you need to write great scads of stuff if you don't want to. Just a line or two with your impressions of the book and whatever star rating seems right to you is perfect (although I admit that I do read and enjoy longer reviews, that's between me and my nosy conscience).

See you tomorrow, cake-pops!

FRAIL HUMAN HEART BLOGTOUR: DAY #1

Hello and happy Monday, Dear Readers! Today, as promised, we kick off the FRAIL HUMAN HEART BLOGTOUR - and our first lovely blogger is PewterWolf. What juicy extra content is on his blog? Who knows? Click through quickly and check it out!

In other news this fine Monday, over the weekend I finally updated my website - by which I mean, rebuilt the thing from scratch and moved it to a new hosting service. I love the new look and the new organisation and it's now ten times easier to update, so hopefully this version will endure for a long time. As a plus, it's prettified with all my own photographs instead of stock images, which I love.

It's the same website address: www.zoemarriott.com. Check that out too when you have the chance, and let me know if there's anything from the old site you miss that I could transfer across or anything else you'd like to see.

I'll be back tomorrow with another link for the next day of the Blogtour, so don't miss out, my little cupcakes!

ETA - to make it easier to follow the tour, here's a compilation of all the links so far, in order:

Day #1, Pewterwolf - Snippet from the book
Day #2, KitKatscanRead - Snippet from the book
Day #3, Feeling Fictional - Snippet from the book
Day #4, Teens on Moon Lane - Snippet from the book
Day #5, The Reader's Corner, Jack & Hikaru 'Deleted Scene' - major spoilers!
Day #6,  Luna's Little Library, Hikaru Deleted Scene - not really spoilery
Day #7, SisterSpooky, Mio & Shinobu Deleted Scene - major spoilers
Day #8, Serendipity Reviews, Detailed interview with Viv
Day #9, Winged Reviews, In Depth Inspiration Post

FRAIL HUMAN HEART RELEASE DAY!

Happy Thursday! And Happy Book Birthday! Yes, the fateful hour is upon us at last - the final book of the Name of the Blade Trilogy: FRAIL HUMAN HEART is OUT NOW in a variety of ebook formats and in print. Any photos of the book in the wild in shops or libraries (or in its new home on your shelf or ereader) would be much appreciated, my babies!

I've talked so much about this trilogy and why it's special to me over the past few years that I feel like today we don't need anymore of that. So instead, a selection of nice things that make me feel celebratory.

First, a link to FRAIL HUMAN HEART's book birthday interview with lovely author Katy Moran over on Author Allsorts in which I once again fail to keep my big mouth shut on various topics.

Some of the gorgeous #TNISelfies taken by Dear Readers over the past couple of weeks (still two books left!):

 

(If your photo is not here, btw, it's because I apparently saved some of them in a different place, a totally safe and sensible place, so safe and sensible that I... can't find them right now. Sorry!)

And some very kind tweets that readers have sent me over the last few days:

As normal, I'll be stalking my Amazon and Goodreads pages over the next few days hoping to see reviews - positive or negative! - go up, so if you have the book and have the time to give it a star rating or a fling a few words at the review form, I'll make sure to remember you in my prayers to the Writing Gods.

Thank for you sticking with me on my journey through writing this trilogy (and yes, I know its cheesy to say 'journey' hecklers in the back, but it's my blog and I'll be as cheesy as I want!). Read you later, my lovelies.

THE NAME OF THE BLADE IS COMPLETE

Hello, oh lovely readers! Today I bring you a festival of loveliness in the form of my giddy photo-spree on receipt of this:

That's right, the finished copies of The Name of the Blade: FRAIL HUMAN HEART are back from the printers - just in time, as the book is out on the 2nd of July - and I have received my own, my precious, early copy. Which means, I can do this:

And this:

Aaaand this:

This is an amazing moment for me. Seeing these three books, finished, lined up together this way? Represents five years of my life. Half a decade of hard work on my part, and on the parts of Wonder Editor, Super Agent, Delightful Designer and Lovely Lass (we still miss you, Lovely Lass!) as well as the gathered forces of Walker Books and Candlewick Press. We had wobbles, tantrums, bursts of rampant insanity, and lightning bolts of pure inspiration. I believe that FRAIL HUMAN HEART is the best thing I've ever written, and that the trilogy as a whole represents my greatest achievement as an artist.

When I look at these pictures, and the real thing sitting on the coffee table next to me, and realise that my first (and probably only) trilogy is now officially complete, I can hardly believe it. We did that. I did that. The time has flown by so fast and so much has changed in my life since 2010 when I wrote the first synopsis.

It's bittersweet, though. This trilogy, begun with my father's encouragement, written during his final illness, and completed after his death, is inextricably bound up in my love for him. I will most likely always feel a pang of sorrow when I look at them, because he never got to see the story finished, and he would have wanted to, so much. At the same time, I know he would have been happy and proud today, and not want me to grieve too much for things I can't change. So that's what I'm going to try to do.

Here's how I want to mark today, and the upcoming release of FRAIL HUMAN HEART - which is now just three weeks away. I want to celebrate all the books in the trilogy, and I want to thank all my readers who went out and bought or borrowed the first book, and encourage them to snap the final one up as soon as it hits shelves. I want to do this by giving you free stuff. 

Let me explain.

Many of my Dear Readers (like myself - I admit it!) might have the habit of reading the first book in a trilogy, liking it... and then deciding not to buy/borrow the middle book until the last one comes out. I mean, come on, we all know that middle books are angsty and prone to end on cliffhangers, and then you have to wait a whole year and it's just too frustrating. I tried not to end DARKNESS HIDDEN on too much of a cliffhanger, but I have to admit it was pretty angsty, so I'm not innocent. Anyway, this wide-spread habit on the part of all readers means that the sales of middle books in trilogies is often way lower than the sales of first books, and this has definitely been born out in the figures I've seen for The Name of the Blade.

This would be fine, except that all too often if you (and I) don't buy the middle book of the trilogy, well... another year passes and the final book comes out and you just sort of miss it because, honestly, it's been two years since the first book and you've moved on or forgotten what the story was about... so you never end up buying the final book at all. And I just. This is where I put my writer hat on and say: No. No, man. This is not OK.

I put all the best STUFF in the final book. All kinds of amazing stuff, seriously! And all these subtle hints that you probably didn't even NOTICE in the first book, but they were there, and RIGHT NOW they are lying in wait - no, honestly, RIGHT NOW - in your brain, just quivering with the chance to spring out and make sense of all the awesome stuff - the final book is where EVERYTHING DOVETAILS OK and all these fantastic thematic elements that my subconscious was working on the whole time just suddenly emerge and it's beautiful, all right, and just - that story needs to be completed in your brain. It needs to find fruition, or else it'll be unfinished forever! YOU WILL NEVER KNOW HOW COOL IT ALL WAS! THIS WAS FIVE YEARS OF MY LIFE, HOLY CR*P, PLEAASE VALIDAAAATE MY EXISTEEEENCE.

*Pants*

Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that a good proportion of the people who read and enjoyed the first book have not yet read and enjoyed the second one, and I would really like them to, and also to read and enjoy the final one. So: free stuff.

I have ten signed copies of DARKNESS HIDDEN right here - my author copies, which I have saved for a year, for this reason - and I am going to give them away to ten UK readers.

The winners will also get assorted The Name of the Blade swag, and two signed and personalised bookplates.

I want these books to go to Dear Readers who read THE NIGHT ITSELF but haven't yet gotten around to buying or borrowing DARKNESS HIDDEN, because when Book #3: FRAIL HUMAN HEART comes out on July the 2nd, I want you to be as excited about it as I am, and I want you to run to your local bookshop, or Amazon/online retailer, or the library, or your big sister or dad or whoever buys or borrows or lends books in your life, and say: I need Frail Human Heart right now. I want us all to be celebrating the completion of this trilogy together. That is what will make me happy.

So how do you get your hands on your free signed copy of DARKNESS HIDDEN (and assorted swag)? It is so super easy, you'll laugh.

I want you to take a selfie of you (and any friends, relatives or pets who wish to be included) holding THE NIGHT ITSELF. It doesn't matter which version of the book it is, or if the copy of the book is yours, or if you borrowed it from the library, or a friend - only that you've got it there. Then email your TNI selfie to me at z d marriott (at) g mail (dot) com or tweet it to me (feel free to share it anywhere else that you like as well, because I'm sure you're gorgeous). I'm going to RT each and every one of these lovely pictures on Twitter, and then make a masterpost of them here on the blog to share, because I just want to feel like we're all being happy and excited about the release of FRAIL HUMAN HEART together, OK?

That's it, that's all you have to do - selfie with THE NIGHT ITSELF, and email or tweet it to me. The first ten people to do this get the signed book and swag. And I really hope that when FRAIL HUMAN HEART comes out you'll join in with my excitement, that you'll get hold of a copy, and talk about it online if you enjoyed it (or even if you didn't) but that's not required. It's as simple as that. To recap:

Step One - TNI selfie.
Step Two - Send TNI selfie to Zolah via email or Tweet.
Step Three - PROFIT.

The giveaway will remain open for as long as it takes for all ten books to run out (unless it gets silly) and, as I said above, is for UK readers only, please. Spread the word! Spread your selfies! Spread The Name of the Blade love! Make Zolah a happy writer. Fly free.

A PEEK INSIDE THE NOTEBOOK...

Hello, my well-iced cupcakes! Sorry for my blogging absence last week. I'm afraid I caught two bugs one on top of the other and I pretty much lost the full seven days. I'm still recovering, but at least I feel mostly human now. That was my NaNo efforts out of the window, though. I think I've learned my lesson now that it's happened three times: the universe does not want me NaNoing. I can take a hint!

Today's post is one that I promised on Twitter to the delightful Dear Readers Jenni (@JuniperJungle) and Lucy (@ChooseYA) aaages ago, after I posted a screencap of part of the original page of notes I made back in 2010 when I first came up with most of my ideas for THE NAME OF THE BLADE. So here is me finally getting to it, half a month later.

I've mentioned on the blog before that I use a programme called OneNote - a sort of virtual notebook which lets you open up new pages and tabs and jam random notes all over the place in no particular order - to keep track of my messy, developing ideas as all the elements of a story start coalescing in my brain. It's not really the same as brainstorming. It's just jotting things down, actually, but it's better for me than a normal notebook (le gasp! No, I still love normal notebooks and my stationery fetish is intact, I'm not a pod person, honest!) because after writing the notes you can move them around, add things, take things away, change the size or colour, add hyperlinks or paste in reference pictures, and generally make a mess of the virtual page without *literally* making a mess of the page, as you would if you did this on paper.

For this reason, while showing you any of the actual notebooks I used to write the trilogy (nine of them!) wouldn't be very interesting because most of the pages are barely legible and all of them are a mess, showing you screencaps of my OneNote pages is not only possible but feasible. And since Lucy and Jenni assured me it would be fascinating... here we are.

 

This is a continuous screencap of my very first page of notes for THE NAME OF THE BLADE, written over the course of about four or five days of furious inspiration in 2010 - and then added to over the following year. As you will be able to see immediately if you've read any of the books, my original ideas were all over the place and many of them evolved or changed completely between starting to scribble down ideas and the book actually being written and then ending up on shelves.

For instance, if you look at that first double column of notes, you can see that in the beginning I was working on the assumption that this would be one book. So all the events that ended up being spread out over the course of TNI and DH are jammed together. And initially Rachel and Jack weren't sisters. Rachel was going to be a babysitter/au pair who got killed early on to underline the terrible threat of the Nekomata. But when Rachel appeared in the story - with her mild OCD, bossiness and common sense - she was far too good to be squandered that way. So she ended up getting her own viewpoint and storyline! Good going, Rach. There was also a bit of confusion about everyone's names that I'm a little puzzled by now...

However, some things - like the haiku which gave the series its individual book titles and guiding theme (that the powerful, passionate love mortals are able to feel within their finite lifetimes is terrifying and awe-inspiring even to such ancient forces as the ones surrounding them in this story) stayed exactly the same. I actually wrote the haiku within minutes of the idea of a warrior trapped in a sword appearing in my head - and as my ideas kept getting bigger and bigger, realising that there were three book titles in there was part of how I knew it was going to be a trilogy.

The blurred section, by the way, is a bunch of mythology stuff that's going to be revealed in the final book. And since no one but my editor and agent have read that yet, it didn't seem fair to splash it around and ruin things for everyone else. If any other notes up there seem like massive spoilers, they're probably things that I actually changed later on, so I've left them because they won't do any damage to your reading pleasure.

You can see down the right hand side that I have other pages for each individual book - which is where things get really detailed and spoilery. There's also one called THE NAME OF THE BLADE which was my series bible, so to speak, keeping track of who knew what when and all the little niggly details that I needed to remember. And finally there's one called The Name of Love, which is a short story in the universe that I've been working on intermittently.

Every book that I've worked on over the last few years has a notebook like this in OneNote. Since most of my books are standalone most of them have less tabs - but not all. For instance, #BaBBook has just as many tabs because I've been doing in depth research into Japanese flora and fauna and food and house construction and a host of other things, and I've got a mini-encyclopaedia filled with reference notes, pictures, and links.

I hope this was interesting to someone, anyway! Thanks for pushing me to post it, Jenni and Lucy! Read you later, my lovelies.

FRAIL MORTAL HEART COVER REVEAL

Hello, hello, hello, my lovelies! This post was originally supposed to be for yesterday, but I've been miserably ill since Saturday and today's the first day that I could be bothered to do more than tap out 140 characters on Twitter. However, I think the under-lying fabulosity of the post kinda makes up for the delay, so I'm just going to go ahead and call it even (especially since even now I know that 99% of you are busily scrolling past my words to get to the shiny shiny cover reveal below, you impatient heathens, you).

So, anyway: The Name of the Blade Book Three - FRAIL MORTAL HEART. It haz a cover and it is beautimous, and since it was shared with the lovely guests - hey guys, it was amazing to meet you! - at the blogger tea at Walker Books on Saturday (wherein I made my second flying visit to our country's fine capital in as many weeks and picked up this weird bug which may have been down to the salmon sandwich I ate on the train, and that's a lesson for you, my children - if they don't have ham then just say no to train sandwiches) and there are slightly blurry, not-really-forbidden glimpses of it circulating all over Twitter, I've now got permission to rip away the veil of secrecy officially.

And yes, that was the longest sentence that's ever been written on this blog. Yes, I am doing it on purpose to mess with you, oh patient and rare 1% who are actually wading through all this before getting to the image. I love you, my babies! Never change!

Fine, fine, I'll shut up. Here it is!


It's coming right up, right next!


Well, just a bit further down.


And a little more.


Leeetle more.


Just a bit


Tiny bit.


Now!

Um. Yeah. Do I even need to describe the amount of flailing, squeeing and unbearable smugness that is emanating from Marriott Towers right now? No? I thought not. As I said at the blogger tea - my cover has a dragon on it. LIVE ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED.

Also, this:

Click to embiggen. Do it. DOOOO IIIIITTT.

That is my trilogy guys. It's *this close* to finished. And actually being serious for half a second here - I am so, so proud of Walker Books for once again kicking #racefail and whitewashing in the soft dangly bits and giving my books cover art that not only accurately reflects the ethnicity of the characters within, but celebrates it with an airpunch and a HELL YEAH WE NEED DIVERSE BOOKS BABY. At my publisher they not only acknowledge that they need diverse books, they really and truly want them, and treat them with the respect they deserve. How awesome is that?

Thank you to Annalie (Wonder Editor) and Maria (Delightful Designer) and also Larry Rostant, the photographer (who doesn't have a nickname because I haven't met him so it seems like it would be taking a liberty) for making my dream covers a reality. Wow, guys. Just. Wow.

OK, before I go, a final reminder that I, along with amazing fellow YA authors Emma Pass and Kerry Drewery, will be at the Lincoln High Street Waterstone's this Wednesday doing a panel event - Heroines of Teen Lit - with readings, a Q&A, signing, and super special swag (although I'm not bringing sweeties this time because... well, I've been too ill to go and buy any. Sorry *Sad face*). No need to book tickets or ring ahead - just turn up at 6:30 and we will be delighted to see you! 

THE NAME OF THE BLADE: US EDITION!

Hello and happy Wednesday, my lovelies! Today is a fine day for...book p*rn!

Yes, that's right, a precious finished copy of the Candlewick Press edition of The Night Itself - retitled THE NAME OF THE BLADE for US release, and due out in November of this year - has arrived and it is a hardcover of surpassing prettiness if I do say so myself. Get out your smelling salts, lock yourself away somewhere private, and prepare yourself for sexeh sexeh book shots (I HAVE SO MANY OF THEM I MAY HAVE A PROBLEM SEND HELP):

 

So, here is the front. Which, you may note here, is incredibly shiny and has more coloured foils on it than you can shake a stick at - dusky purple for the Nekomata, gold for its eyes and the lettering, a bit more gold and some black on the grip of the katana, and silver for the blade itself. Its rather shockingly lovely in the flesh. BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE:

Let's hear it for brightly coloured endpapers I love them so. This is one of the best things about hardcovers, I swear. So bright, so yellow, my preccccious...

And what colour goes the best with dusky purple dust jackets and bright yellow endpapers? Why it's pale dove grey and silver, which is the exact shade chosen for the binding, as you can see.

But what's that? A strange symbol on the spine? Let's check the dust jacket again!

It's there too! And all shiny and silver and purple again, hubba hubba.

Also, it feels worth mentioning that this is a super dinky little hardcover - it's smaller than a trade paperback here in the UK and not much bigger than a mass market paperback. I've never seen such a petite hardcover edition - it's practically dwarfed by the Candlewick Press hardcover of, say, Daughter of the Flames or Shadows on the Moon. I'm not sure why that is, but it's kind of precious, honestly. I want to slip it in my pocket, just because I can.

Anyway, this is a case where the little thumbnails you see of a cover online do not do the book justice in any way. It's simply scrummy in the flesh, and I hope that lots of people notice this and pick it off the bookshelves of their local shop come November. Lucky for me, the book's already had two lovely reviews, one of which was featured in the Publisher's Weekly Children's Bookshelf Newsletter (and I had no idea until it popped into my inbox and I was reading it as normal and suddenly there was my book staring out at me, leading to much flailing and squeaking at Casa Marriott).

In the meantime, I'd like to ask a favour of any Dear Readers who have a few spare moments: if you've written a review of Book Two of the Trilogy: Darkness Hidden for your blog or your Goodreads, or you were thinking of doing so? The Amazon page for this book is looking a bit sparse in terms of reviews. It's got four absolute stonking ones, which I'm very grateful for - don't get me wrong! - but since the first book has over twenty it kind of looks like no one is reading the next in the series which isn't the impression I was hoping the book would make, you know?

However, there's no pressure to do this, and I'm not guilt-tripping anyone who doesn't want to or doesn't have the time, so feel free to ignore my neediness, oh delightful chickadees. I love you all regardless! *Mwah*

THE NAME OF THE BLADE: AMERICAN EDITION

Hello, Dear Readers! Happy Tuesday to all.

People have been asking me for a while about the cover for the U.S. edition of The Night Itself - which is coming out in November under the title THE NAME OF THE BLADE from Candlewick Press. Originally they were going to go with the illustrated UK cover, but obviously then the UK cover changed to a photographic one. So they went off again and designed an entirely new piece of artwork, which I was asked to keep firmly under my hat for the time being.

However, yesterday I recieved a lovely package from Candlewick, containing advanced reader's copies (or ARCs) of THE NAME OF THE BLADE with the US cover in place. So I decided it was probably OK to share the cover artwork now. This is based on the fact that the last time I had a book coming out in the US, I held off from sharing the cover for a very long time, waiting to get official permission, even after the image had turned up on the publisher website, NetGalley, and Amazon, and people started sending it me asking me what it was. I ended up feeling like a bit of a twit. This time I'd like to get in first.

So without further ado, I present to you:

On the physical version, I'm told that the yellow and metallic bits you see - the lettering, and the sword - will be in silver and gold foil, with the rest of the cover in a matt finish. As far as I'm aware this will be a hardcover release.

It's very different from any other urban fantasy covers, isn't it? What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments!

I have a couple of ARCs of THE NAME OF THE BLADE going spare, so I'm thinking about maybe combining these with other bits and pieces I have to hand and doing a giveaway next week - more on that when I've worked it out.

Oh, and heads-up that I'm posting on the Author Allsorts about how I write this Friday, so tune in for that. I'll probably post a link here just as a reminder :) 

MUSICAL MUSES

Hello and happy Tuesday, Dear Readers.

I'm sorry that I didn't post last week. As I mentioned (rambled on about) here, I've been really unlucky with my health for the past few months. I've had bronchitis for about six weeks now and have been unable to shake it; constant coughing eventually caused a cracked rib, which is a particular agony that I'll probably inflict on a character one day, just to be nasty. And then, when I thought things couldn't be worse, I had a recurrance of the famous prolapsed disc. So I was pretty miserable, physically.

But I'm not going to lie - I could probably have managed a quick update even with all that. I mostly didn't post because I was feeling really low and melancholy all of last week, and I couldn't find the energy or enthusiasm. Anyone who follows me on Twitter or Facebook will probably have noticed that I've barely been around. Basically, I went into hermit mode.

I've started to feel a little better already this week. I think partly it's to do with spending time with my adorable nieces over the weekend, partly to do with the sun making an appearance, and partly to do with forcing myself to really get stuck into my revisions on The Name of the Blade #3 and finding that it's not quite as much of a hot mess as I was afraid it would be.

With all this, it feels like a good time to share some new pieces of music that are helping me to feel motivated and inspired. I hope you like them too.

Finally, either this week or next week I'm going to get a really important decision on something which could make a huge difference to me over the following eighteen months. I don't want to get more specific about that - although I will tell all if I'm successful - but if anyone has any spare good luck vibrations or positive thoughts to send my way, I'd appreciate them. Thanks.

TRILOGY: ACHIEVED

Last night, I finished the very first, very rough draft of The Name of the Blade Book #3. I got my characters where they needed to go. I thought of a final line. I typed THE END.

That means, in essence, that my trilogy is finished.

Yes, it needs to go undergo the usual revisions. It'll get printed out and go in a drawer for two weeks, and then I'll re-read and revise it, and then I'll send it to my editor and agent. And then I'll work on it with my editor for probably between four and eight months.

But.

But.

I typed THE END.

I committed the final scenes - the scenes that I've been planning since 2010 - to paper. It's all there now. It'll get chopped and changed and polished and proofread, but it is there.

253,978 words in total. 704 pages combined. Seven notebooks. Four years of my life.

You guys. I did it. It's DONE.

*Lies on floor, staring at ceiling*

What now?