THE BOOK OF SNOW & SILENCE COVER REVEAL! (And pre-orders!)

Hello, Dear Readers! Happy Tuesday, and I hope you're all having a pretty good week so far. Thank you so, so much for your RTs and shares for the announcement of THE BOOK OF SNOW & SILENCE last week. This book is really special to me. I love it. It's probably my favourite thing that I've written since Shadows on the Moon. Your support means more to me than you can possibly know, especially after I've been on such a long break from the blog and the book community. *Smooshes all*

Your general loveliness about The Book of Snow & Silence makes me all the more gleeful that I get to bring you this utter lusciousness today without having had to make you wait for aaaaaaages as in times past. The cover is coming right up below - BUT! Before we get there - yes, you, I know you were about to begin scrolling, just wait for a second, OK? - I also have MORE VERY GOOD EXCELLENT NICE NEWS.

As of today, pre-orders of the ebook of The Book of Snow & Silence are LIVE. Yep, you can order the ebook right here, right now!

This is great in more ways than one. The official release date for both the ebook and the paperback is the 30th of June, two weeks away - but if you pre-order the ebook before that release date, you'll get it for £1.99. I don't know about you, but I think that's a saving well worth getting your paws on.

If you don't want to pre-order for whatever reason - for instance if you don't like ebooks and are planning to wait for the paperback - don't worry! I promise there will be goodies for you as well. But I'll wait for release day to get to those 😘

I also wanted to give a head's up to blogger/reviewer friends: if you're interested in reviewing this, email me at z d marriott (at) g mail dot com and we can arrange to send you a PDF proof. A book like this lives or dies based on reviews - mainly Amazon reviews - so it would honestly mean so much to me if people would be willing to leave *honest* reviews, even just a few words, on the book's Amazon page.

And now, without further burbling on my part... the cover art reveal!

DRUMROLL PLEASE!

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Look at the beauteousness!  

 

 
The icy blue-green northern lights colours! The ominous stormy clouds billowing up behind that tempting crown - which happens to appear to be constructed of snowflakes and ice!

The subtle glacier cracks on the title font!

WE LOVES IT MY PRECIOUS. I'm always so happy when details that are important in the story are so strong on the cover art, and this is not only perfect for this book, but a damn knock-out in it's own right. Thank you so much Lauren, Cover Designer Extraordinaire! Me and my characters salute you!

OK, to sum up - pre-orders are now live (eeeeeiii!) and reviewers and bloggers can email z d marriott (at) g mail dot com to ask for a (non-pretty, but final text) proof if they're interested. Reviews are life, muffins!

Let me know what you think of this cover art in the comments 🙂

THE HAND, THE EYE & THE HEART COVER REVEAL AND GIVEAWAY!

Hello, and welcome to a very special post this Monday evening, Dear Readers. It's time to reveal the gorgeous cover art for a book that (as I've mentioned a few times) is really special to me: The Hand, the Eye & the Heart.

And I know you're all busily scrolling past this right now, but I'm going to ramble a bit first anyway because a) it seems less basic than just slapping the cover up here with barely any introduction and letting the art do all the talking and b) it's my blog and I'll ramble if I want to.

This cover illustration (including hand lettering!) was created by a legendary artist, Kate Forrester. You can visit her website and see her brilliant work for yourself (and I highly recommend it, because it's a feast for the eyes) but suffice it to say that she's created covers for some publishing greats. I personally think she's outdone herself this time.

This is the inspiration board I'd put together for any potential artist or designer for the book to look at. That's how I've worked with Delightful Designer over my past four books. I share it here because I think it's interesting - there are so many points of convergence that it is spooky, including the fact that I'd actually pinned a cover created by Kate Forrester long before I ever knew she would be involved - not because, on this occasion, it had anything to do with the cover art. It didn't.

Delightful Designer is currently on maternity leave and the designer Walker had working on The Hand, the Eye & the Heart (hi, Genius Designer! We haven't spoken, but you're awesome!) came up with the concept and decided on an artist without any input from me whatsoever. And all I can say is: good call. Honestly, I don't think it could have worked out any better.

So now, without any further ado... THE COVERRRRR!!

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I mentioned in the teaser post that every detail in the cover is not only informed by the aesthetics of  the cultures on which the book itself draws, but also by specific details of the story and characters. All the animals (mythical and real) are significant in the story. The flowers you see - peonies and magnolias - are each mentioned in the story. Above all, the style and composition and colours all remind me very much of a glorious kesi tapestry, and since this kind of weaving is an artform which is very important to the main character of the book, that means a lot to me.

I think it's honestly stunning. And so right for this book. I'm also told there's a chance that the finished version maaaay have foil, so my fingers are crossed for that...

Other details about this book which I can now share! It's 448 pages long - the longest book I've ever written. It starts with an epigraph from The Art of War by Sun Tzu. It will also contain a trigger warning (which I'm very grateful to my publisher for letting me include) and a list of resources which I hope might be useful for trans and non-binary folk.

And just to make this as special as possible, now it's GIVEAWAY time. There won't be any ARCs for this book, but I've been promised that there will be early copies and that these should materialise sometime around the new year. So if you'd like to get your hands on one of these early copies, of which there will be limited numbers, as soon as I do? Then RT or share this post and enter the giveaway below for a chance to win The Hand, the Eye and the Heart in all it's (hopefully) foiled glory.

This giveaway is open INTERNATIONALLY and you can increase your odds of being the winner depending on how often you share and RT this post over the next two weeks. Have at it and have fun, muffins!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

COVER COMING SOON!!

Hello, hello, hello Dear Readers! Happy Tuesday to all - I hope everyone's having a good week so far. My week is definitely looking up, since I've had some fantastic news today.

I'm basically just posting to tease you this week, but I hope you'll forgive my need to share my excitement - because I've had confirmation that the cover art for The Hand, the Eye & the Heart is FINALISED and that I will be able to share it NEXT WEEK!

I love this cover so much, you guys. I've loved it since I saw the very first, very rough design idea, even though it was in bizarrely in black and white. Walker has really outdone themselves this time. They commissioned the absolutely legendary artist Kate Forrester to illustrate and hand-letter the cover, and every detail in her artwork is so respectful to the cultures the book draws on, and so beautifully and directly specific to this story. My first impression was that it looked like some kind of wonderful ancient tapestry - and since the art of weaving is very important in The Hand, the Eye & the Heart, that makes my little heart sing.

And soon I will get to share it with all of you!

*High pitched incoherent squealing*

Ahem.

OK, so here are the details. If anyone reading this has been lucky enough to be invited to Walker's YA Wonderland:

And you can make it, then on Monday of next week you will not only be meeting a bunch of cool authors and eating a bunch of delicious nibbles - you'll also be getting the very first, exclusive look at this cover art.

But don't worry if you're not going to be there. No, seriously - calm down, folks - would your faithful Zolah toy with her Dear Readers like that? Not only will all the bloggers present be tweeting what they see under #WalkersYAWonderland or #WalkerYA2019, but I'll also set up a blog-post all ready to go on Monday too. As soon as the presentation is over I will press 'Publish' and share the full cover on the internet in all its hi-res full-wrap glory.

Stand by on Monday evening to be BLOWN AWAY. I can't wait!

NEW SHADOWS ON THE MOON PRE-ORDERS ARE LIVE!

Hello, Dear Readers, and happy Tuesday!

A very quick post today to share a nice piece of news - you've probably already guessed it from the blog title, but you can now officially pre-order the new edition of Shadows on the Moon from Amazon here. It's also available from The Book Depository here, Waterstone's here, and from WHSmiths here.

Not only does this reissue of the title possess that gorgeous new cover with so many wonderful deails from the story, which matches the cover of Barefoot on the Wind...

But it will also contain exclusive extra content, including a short story set after the events of the novel, which I'm seeing as a kind of prologue to Yue and Otieno's story, and hoping readers will love as much as I do.

The book is out on the third of November, so I haven't seen any real copies in the flesh yet, but I think it's going to be a very lovely item indeed.

And since we're talking about real copies... look what arrived in the post last week!

Matching nail polish entirely coincidental

The very, very first advanced copy of Barefoot on the Wind! I love the brush-effect on the font so much; it looks just as beautiful on the title page as on the front cover.

This one is out on the first of September, so less than a month to go - and of course you can pre-order this one from Amazon, The Book Depository, Waterstone's and WHSmith too, if you are so moved (you'd be doing me a favour, and you might get the book a few days early, so it's win-win).

Before I go, a quick reminder that my contribution to the YAShot Blogtour is still up at the lovely Luna's blog and that the giveaway for a complete signed set of the Name of the Blade trilogy is still active, so get on that while you can.

That's all for this week, my lovelies, but next week baring unforeseen circumstances I'll be tackling a reader question with regard to fairytale retellings. Read you later!

SHADOWS ON THE MOON COVER REVEAL

Hello, hello, hello, Dear Readers! Happy Wednesday - and happy cover reveal day, too!

Last week I showed you the luscious cover art for BAREFOOT ON THE WIND, the Japanese-influenced retelling of Beauty and the Beast which is coming out in September. The official page for the book is now up on my website, too. It's a companion novel to Shadows on the Moon, set in the same fairytale realm (although with no overlapping characters) so because of this, and because it's been half a decade - and wow that makes me feel old - since Shadows was first released in the UK, Walker Books have decided to publish a new edition of Shadows on the Moon.

This new version will have brand new cover art that complements the BAREFOOT ON THE WIND cover, which of course is super-exciting, and I'll get to that in a moment. But it also has other stuff: new bonus content which has never been available in print before, including something readers have been asking me for pretty much since Shadows hit the shelves back in 2011: a glimpse into Suzume's new life in Athazie.

Not only will the this edition of the book contain love poetry written and exchanged by Otieno and Suzume after the conclusion of the story's events - it also contains an exclusive short story which acts as a kind of 'epilogue' to Shadows on the Moon. I'm very proud of this story, and I hope it will be a satisfying little gift to everyone who loved the book.

The new edition is not available for pre-order yet, but as soon as it appears on Amazon/the Book Depository/Waterstones, I will link it, fear not. In the meantime... *Drumroll Please*

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So what do you think? It's beautiful, right? Again, there's so much detail here that comes right from the book - the cherry blossom motif, that kanzashi pin with its ominous drip of blood, the swirling hair, the iridescent effect on the font, like moonlight or the mother-of-pearl inlaid in a lacquer box... I think those who've read the book will recognise all of these things with a little secret thrill, but I also hope that new readers will be drawn to it's sheer beauty as well. And here's the full effect:

I hope you all love this as much as I do, Dear Readers, even though it's very different from the original version (with some significant things in common, of course). Let me know your opinions in the comments!

BAREFOOT ON THE WIND COVER REVEAL & MORE EXCITING NEWS!

Hello, hello, hello, Dear Readers! Apologies for the quiet period here on the blog - I've had a month of frantic mega-busyness, including a wonderful weekend as a speaker at the Bradford Literature Festival, where I met some of the most wonderful and fascinating people imaginable. Sadly all the rushing around (predictably) culminated in the herniated disc in my spine recurring and putting me on bed rest for a week (look after your spine, my children, you'll definitely miss it when it's gone).

But I'm back today to share the thing I've been desperate to show you for weeks and weeks and weeks now - yes, you know what I'm talking about - it's the cover artwork for BAREFOOT ON THE WIND! Which, just to refresh your memories, is a Feminist re-imagining of Beauty and the Beast, set in a fantasy version of Feudal Japan.

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE. Before you scroll down to feast your eyes on the undeniable loveliness of the artwork designed by Delightful Designer and the ThereIs artistic studio, I have more exciting news to share - about Shadows on the Moon.

So, BAREFOOT ON THE WIND is a companion novel to Shadows on the Moon, taking place in the same fairytale realm, Tsuki no Hikari no Kuni (although there are no over-lapping characters). As such, and because it's been five years since the original release, Walker Books have been inspired to reissue Shadows on the Moon in a brand-spanking-new edition which will not only have new artwork, but original bonus content written by yours truly.

The new edition of the book will be available just after BAREFOOT ON THE WIND's release (which will be the 1st of September). I'll be sharing the luscious new cover artwork for that next week, as well as giving you more details about the exclusive new material which will be in the reissue. For now, let me just say that it's providing something many readers have been asking me for since the book originally came out.*Eyebrow wiggle*

OK, OK, you've been good patient readers. I'll put you out of your misery - here, without further ado, is BAREFOOT ON THE WIND...

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Is that gorgeous, or is it gorgeous? I love it. Everything on this cover - the white, red and green colours, the frosty white thorns, the moths, the red butterflies and the falling snow - is symbolic (Google 'butterflies in Japanese mythology' for a hint) and comes directly from stuff that's in the story. I want to burble on endlessly about how much they nailed making the cover represent the book, but it's basically all spoilers so I'll just be over here quietly squeeing while you absorb this:

The full wrap, including a quote from legend L.A.Weatherly, who calls the book 'Hauntingly lovely'. Don't you love the way that the way the illustration continues all the way around like that? J'adore! J'aime! Also, note the brush-stroke effect in that lovely font - I suggested that! When I first got this I spent at least an hour just staring at it, taking in all the tiny little things that link the art to the story and make it totally unique and meaningful. Ack, so happy. If you're interested in cover design, here you can see the Pinterest board of story-relevant images that the designer asked me to put together to help inspire the illustrator.

Over to you now, Dear Readers. What do you think? Does this live up to your expectations? Make you excited to read the book? Sound off in the comments :)

FRAIL HUMAN HEART COVER REVEAL + OTHER NEWS

Hello and happy Wednesday, lovely reader peeps!

Today I bring you the cover art for the U.S. Candlewick Press hardback edition of FRAIL HUMAN HEART (the final book in The Name of the Blade Trilogy). I've actually had this for a while, but was asked to keep it under my hat until I had official permission from Candlewick Press.

Well, official permission still has not been granted, but since the cover's turned up on Amazon.com and Goodreads anyway, here it is!

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As with the previous Candlewick covers for the series, this is very different from any other cover art I've had - I love the deep green and copper colours, which are all very Art Deco. That is a jellyfish represented there, yes. If you've read the book you'll already know the significance of this; if not, you'll need to get the book, which comes out in November in the U.S., to find out.

Now for some other exciting news - chances for Dear Readers to come and see me! I very much hope that some of you will. I'm going to be participating in two big book events this year.

The first is the Bradford Literature Festival which is a super, super big deal. This festival is huge, with events practically coming out of its ears (most of which I'd love to be an audience member for, even if, as happened rather often when I checked the event details, it turns out that it's meant to be for ages seven and under) and rather stunningly awesome, with days focusing on manga and comics, fairytales, and Harry Potter to name but a few. I'm going to be there for the weekend of the 21-21st of May, taking part in two events with a very interesting mixture of other writers and artists, talking about the difference that comics, manga and graphic novels have made to us as people and creators, and about women's roles in fiction today. Which is super interesting stuff, I must say. I just hope no one is going to be shocked at my massive love for Yaoi/'boy's love' romance manga. I can't help it, OK, bishounen are too pretty.

My first panel will be on the afternoon of Saturday 21st of May, between 3:30-4:45 at the Small Hall at the University of Bradford and is titled We Love Comics. The second one is 21st Century Wonder Women (such a cool title) and is on Sunday the 22nd between 11:00-12:30, at the same venue. After each of these there should be time to sign books and talk to readers. You can get hold of tickets for either or both of these pretty cheaply now. If you're a Northern Dear Reader, please consider coming along to chat and to take part in as many of these fantastic book related activities as you can. You'll definitely have a great time.

The second event I might be even more excited about (because I know and love several of the authors attending and can't wait to spend time with them in real life): YAShot, which will be taking place on the 22nd of October (also a Saturday!) in Uxbridge, London, at at least three venues throughout the borough.
 
This festival is the brainchild of wonderful writer Alexia Casale. YAShot was a massive success last year - everyone was buzzing about it. I was invited, and really bummed when it turned out that I couldn't take part, which is another reason I'm stoked to be able to be there this year.

There'll be loads and loads going on, with children's and YA writers from all over the UK taking part, and I will be there all day, from the start of the event to the finish. So I may be doing more than one event at more than one location, and I will certainly be signing books and chatting to readers and other writers all day long. If you've ever wished that you had more of a chance to have a proper conversation with writers rather than just snatched time while they were in the middle of signing your book, YAShot will be a great place to be.

The final line-up of authors hasn't been fully announced yet, or all the events organised - but I do know that there will be lots of activity, including a blogtour, beforehand. As soon as I have more details, I will dish.

That's it for today, my cupcakes. I'm hoping that I will very soon have BAREFOOT ON THE WIND cover art to share with you - I haven't seen it myself yet, and I'm giving myself a second ulcer in my anticipation - so look forward to that. Next week I'll be posting on the Author Allsorts blog and will put a link to that here, and the following week, if the BAREFOOT art still hasn't come through, I may do a review for Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, which I'm going to see at the end of March. That's presuming it's either bad or good enough to need reviewing, of course - fingers crossed!

CANDLEWICK PRESS EMOTIONS

Hello, hello, hello, Dear Readers - and Happy Wednesday!

Today I bring you many emotions courtesy of my lovely US publisher, Candlewick Press, who sent me two things last week that made my bottom lip wobble (just a tiny, tasteful amount).

First up, the copyedit/pass pages for the US edition of Frail Human Heart. I worked on them over the weekend and sent them off on Tuesday. This is them after I'd shuffled them all together again and was about to put them in a big brown envelope for the post:
 

You might be little confused as to why this would make me feel ALL THE EMOTIONS or why I felt the need to snap a picture. But consider. Copyedits/pass pages are literally the last stage that a book goes through before it's sent off to the copyeditor and actually becomes a book. This is the final book of the trilogy. What that means is that this is the last time I will ever do work on or make changes to the trilogy. Ever. When I sealed up that big envelope to send it off to Candlewick Press (or rather, to my editor at Walker so that she could send it to Candlewick Press) I was saying goodbye to The Name of the Blade for the final, final time.

Goodbye, my darling!

*Blubs* *Waves hanky*

And just when America had reduced me to an attack of the feels once, another parcel arrived from the lovely Miriam (my US editor), and this one held shiny goodness of the Darkness Hidden kind:

Yes, it's the US dust jacket - brilliant blood red with red and silver stamped foil and the Name of the Blade logo (which, I just will never ever get over having a logo, hee hee!).

I decided to see what it will look like as a finished book by wrapping it around the US hardback of The Night Itself/The Name of the Blade:

So pretty, right? And it has the most lovely quotes on the back from reviews of The Night Itself/Darkness Hidden on the back! And look at it next to it's big sister!

*Lip wobbles again*

So yes, all the feels from Candlewick. Thank you, Miriam! *Hugs*

Just a note: the UK paperback edition of Frail Human Heart is up to seven lovely reviews on Amazon right now. When it reaches ten reviews, I'll pick one of the reviewers to receive a really special, unique trilogy-themed gift pack, so if you've read it and have something to say, get in there.

Read you lately, my lovelies!

PRETTY PRETTY PICTURE POST!

Hello, my angel delights! Happy Tuesday, and I hope you're having a lovely week so far.

Today I thought I'd share the contents of two beeeeautiful packages that I received late last week. Can you guess what was in them? Here's a hint: it was books. OK, that was just the answer, but honestly I'm impatient to get onto the pretty part. So first up, I want to share the Polish translation of The Swan Kingdom, published by Egmont Poland:

Now, I had to work to get my hands on this. Technically when translations are made I'm supposed to get two or three copies, but even though I'd chased this up several times, years had gone by and clearly it was just not happening. So I went online and searched around and found a single copy for sale through Amazon. I felt a bit silly ordering it (yes, that is my own name on the cover there, Amazon employees, keep moving on) but I'm so incredibly glad that I did because just as with the Egmont Poland version of Shadows on the Moon, this book is an object of transcendent loveliness.

It has the same unique supersoft velvet finish to the cover, the same flippy cream paper that makes it possible to bend the book completely in half, the delicate traceries of spot UV on the title and the details of leafy spiny branches (on Shadows, these were bamboo branches, here they seem to be hawthorn, if I'm any judge WHICH IS PERFECT) and my absolute favourite: French flaps. IT IS GORGEOUS.

So this is mine, my own, my precious, but something else came unexpectedly before the weekend and this bounty I'm willing to share, after a fashion. It was my Candlewick Press editions of THINGS I'LL NEVER SAY, the anthology to which I contributed my very first short story written as a professional writer:

It, too, is replete with loveliness. The colour hasn't come out brilliantly in these pictures, but writing on the spine is blue and the endpapers are leaf green. The cover itself is taken from a piece of vibrant collage artwork which was specifically created for the book - and it's incredibly gratifying to see my name there on the inside flap, and a quote from my story on the back, too (the third one down). 

My story in this anthology, 'Storm Clouds Fleeing from the Wind', is effectively a short prequel to Shadows on the Moon, and is the story of how Akira came to dance at the Shadow Ball years before she ever met Yue, and how she was chosen as Kage no Hime. I've talked before about how special this story is to me - it's not only the first short story I've ever had published, it's also a story that my father encouraged me to write, and which I completed shortly after his death in order to fulfil my promise to him to keep writing.

When my two author copies of this book arrived, the temptation to flick through and find my own story and reread it before doing anything else it was irresistible - and I was thrilled and surprised to find that it literally brought up the short hairs on the back of my neck and completely arrested my attention. I was spellbound by it. And I wrote it! I think it may be the best thing I've written to date, and I don't say that lightly.

A lot of people want to know more about Akira and see more stories in the world of the Moonlit Lands (and I am working on that last one, too) but although US readers will be able to buy this book for themselves or borrow it from the library come the end of the month, there's no word yet on when or if Walker Books will bring out a UK version. And it doesn't seem fair that US readers can get more of the stuff everyone's asking for but UK ones can't.

I wish I could offer up one or both of my author copies, but my mother stole one when she dropped by to see me on Friday (curses!) and, you know, I do want one for myself.

Luckily, I've discovered that this book, too, can be had through Amazon for a reasonable-ish sort of price, although still not until the end of March. So I'm going to order two copies, sign 'em, and give them away to two UK readers when they're available. How does that sound? Good? More details when I have the books in my hot little hands.

Read you later my lovelies!

TITLE CHANGE ANNOUNCEMENT

Hello and - ack - happy Monday, my cinnamon rolls! I know a Monday post is unexpected, but don't worry, I'll still be posting on Thursday to announce the winners of #Zolahpalooza (and if you haven't entered yet...er...why not? Get on that!). I've burst onto cyberspace today to break some news which I hadn't planned to share until next week but... well, an Amazon listing intervened, and I'd rather you hear it from me first.

So, a few weeks ago I had an email from Candlewick Press - Walker Books' American sister company and the US publisher of The Name of the Blade trilogy. They wanted to talk about the title of the third book in the trilogy. You see, although FRAIL MORTAL HEART had always been the name of the book (literally since I came up with the idea for the series in 2010, as the titles were one of the first things I thought of) and everyone liked it a lot... history, in the form of two other recently published or upcoming books, had overtaken us.

Screenshot of OneNote page from 2010 showing the haiku that inspired the titles

Those other books were, of course, MORTAL HEART, the third book in Robin LaFever's His Fair Assassin Trilogy, and THE MORTAL HEART, a Beautiful Creatures novella by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. These authors are all NYT Bestsellers and their books are huge, especially in the US. I, on the other hand, am only a bestselling author in Germany (Hallo, schön Deutsch Leser!) and otherwise my books are sort of... let's say... petite in sales terms. And thus, this strong similarity in titles was a problem. Not for them, so much - but definitely for me.

It is a fact universally acknowledged that in the world of publishing sometimes there are strange coincidences which seem to spring from the shared zeitgeist of creative energy that most writers swim around in on Twitter and Facebook and the blogosphere all the time. There's no connection between Robin LaFevers or Margaret Stohl or Kami Garcia and me, and obviously none of us knew that we were busily writing books or novellas with startlingly similar titles until it was kind of too late (for me, anyway).

I admit that when I saw the announcement of the title of Robin's book my heart sank a bit. When, just under a year later, the cover for FRAIL MORTAL HEART was released, several US blogs picked it up and made fairly stinging comments on the fact that I'd apparently been too stupid to realise 'That title's taken!' I even had a couple of not very delightful Goodreads messages about it. By the time I saw the Beautiful Creatures one, it kind of felt like the universe was trying to tell me something. So the email from my US publisher was not out of the blue.

They had a suggestion of what the name could be changed to, and it was a good suggestion - but because the title was part of the haiku (which is in the book) and also quite a significant line of the heroine's internal dialogue, it didn't really work. Plus, I already had a new title in mind, which would scan as part of the poem and convey the same idea within the book. And that title was:

FRAIL HUMAN HEART

Not that much of a change at all, really. I confess I do feel a pang for the word 'mortal', but I think this works equally well *and* it has alliteration going for it. In order to keep things tidy, it's been agreed that this shall be the final title for both the UK and US version of the book, which obviously necessitated some quick work on the part of Delightful Designer on the previously released UK cover (we don't have artwork for the US one yet, so nothing has to be messed with there). Here is the amended cover for the Walker Books UK paperback:

AND - which is what prompted this post to be written today in the first place - Amazon pre-orders for FRAIL HUMAN HEART are now live! So if pre-orders are your thing, have at it.

Read you later, darlinks!

THINGS I'LL NEVER SAY

Hello, and Happy Holiday Season, my honeybunches! I hope everyone's fully prepared to either celebtrate or else hunker down and comfortably ignore all the winter festivities, whichever is your preference. Today's the last blog post you'll be getting from me for the next couple of weeks, as I'm taking a little bit of time off for Christmas and the New Year, so I thought I would share some new cover art.

This is for the anthology I've mentioned a few times before; produced by Candlewick Press and due out in hardcover in the US in March 2015, it's entitled THINGS I'LL NEVER SAY and is full of short stories on the theme of secrets and secret selves. I was told that my UK publisher Walker Books would be releasing this anthology here in Britain at some point, too, but I don't know any details about that yet, sadly. I'll update you when I do! In the meantime, I'll probably look at getting hold of some copies of this so I can do a giveaway for British and European Dear Readers in March.

My story - my first ever published short story, in fact - is called 'Storm Clouds Fleeing From the Wind' and is set in the universe of Shadows on the Moon, casting light on the young Akira's famous (and scandalous) dance at the Shadow Ball that changed her life forever. I'm really proud of this piece of work. I hope that others will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Now, without any further delay, here's the cover:

I don't technically have permission to post this here, but it's already up on Goodreads and Amazon, so... whatevs. What do you think of it? Let me know in the comments :) Read you later, 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 :) 

MORE LOVELY UPDATES

Hello, hello, hello, Dear Readers! It's a crisp yet bright spring morning here on the east coast of England. Some of the apple and cherry trees in my neighbourhood have started to bloom, there are magpies hopping around on the field in front of my house, and there's still frost on the ground under a cloudless blue sky. I'm very much looking forward to taking Finn for a nice long walk once I've finished typing this up.

Thanks so much to everyone for your kindness and good wishes over last week's news. It's *still* hasn't quite sunk in. It'll probably be another couple of weeks before the first installment of the money comes through, so maybe it will seem real then. I'm going to start work on my Beauty and the Beast retelling in April, and since I'm - wonder of wonder! - up to date with everything else and basically waiting for Super Agent and Wonder Editor to get back to me on various things, I've decided to take this week off. Properly off. Not like that last time I took a week off and spent the entire time thinking about, planning and working on New Secret Project before getting back to work on Book #3 of the trilogy (fun though that was). I mean off-off. As in, I've got a whole heap of DVDs that I bought over the past year and which I got got for Christmas that I haven't even opened yet, and a small mountain of books to read, some of which have been waiting for more like two years, and dagnabbit, I'm going to get to them all. Or at least, as many of them as I can without my head exploding.

How long I'll be able to stick to this decision without my workaholic self going into a tailspin is unknown, but right now it's giving me a delicious sense of freedom. I'll be heading out to the shops later to buy lovely ingredients for various recipes I intend to try out this week, but other than that my schedule is completely clear - and it's blissful.

Now for updates! First, I've heard the lovely news from Candlewick Press, my U.S. publisher, that there will be an audiobook of the first volume of The Name of the Blade when it it released over there. It'll be made by Brilliance Audio, the same people who did such an first class job of producing Shadows on the Moon in audio format. I'm really happy and excited about this. Remember, the official release date for the book (and now audiobook) is November of this year, and it's coming out as The Name of the Blade rather than The Night Itself. When there's a cover or any other news rest assured I will share it.

Secondly, here is the full-wrap cover art for the UK paperback reissue of The Night Itself:

And Darkness Hidden:

When I showed my mum these, she read the cover copy on DH and said: 'Oh no!' Which is pretty much the reaction I was going for, so I'm happy. But mostly I'm spellbound by the utter gorgeousness of these covers. Thank you, thank you, thank you to Larry Rostant for the amazing photography and to Maria Soler Canton for being a genius of a designer and artistic director. These will be out in early June of this year. As soon as I can get my hands on a finished copy, I will take pics and share, promise.

That's it for this morning, Tweeps. If anyone would like to ask any writing, reading or publishing related questions in the comments for me to answer in a future post, I am open for business :)

THE NAME OF THE BLADE RE-COVER REVEAL!

Hello, Dear Readers! Happy Monday - and I say that completely un-ironically today, because for me it's a very good Monday. I finally get to share my incredibly exciting The Name of the Blade news! And it is this:

Walker Books have created a new cover for The Night Itself as well as one for Darkness Hidden, in order to relaunch the series with the release of the second book. And the new covers are GORGEOUS.

To celebrate the reveal of the brand new look for the Name of the Blade trilogy, five special bloggers are not only displaying the cover art but also giving you the chance to read the entire first chapter of Darkness Hidden for free. Simply visit the blogs below in the order listed and you'll get all the extracts of the chapter in order, along with the opportunity to gaze at Mio and Shinobu in all their ass-kicking magical glory. Then come back here and listen to me ramble for a bit, because I said so. Go on. I'll wait.

1. Winged Reviews 
2. Serendipity Reviews
3. Readaraptor Reviews 
4. Pewter Wolf 
5. Book Angel's Booktopia 

Yay, you're back!

OK, so you guys know that I loved everything about the original illustrated cover for The Night Itself. The colours, the enigmatic face of Mio, the fonts. I felt it captured my story perfectly. So I have to admit that when Wonder Editor sent me an email telling me that they were going in a new direction with the cover for Darkness Hidden and wanted to re-cover The Night Itself to match, my heart did sink a little bit. I tried to be absolutely professional about it, and have faith - especially in the very talented Delightful Designer who did that amazing job with the cover for The Night Itself in the first place - but I felt pretty sure that I was just never going to love the new version as much as I had the original one. I was especially sure of this when I was told that the new covers would be photographic.

Let's not beat about the bush. Finding really good stock photographs of people of colour is hard. And it's especially hard if you want pictures of a South-East Asian heroine who isn't dressed up like a naughty schoolgirl or a sexy Geisha (there's nothing wrong with images of Japanese schoolgirls or Geisha. There's a lot wrong with the way the Western world appropriates and fetishizes their images). My editor told me very firmly that I wasn't to panic when I saw the rough mock-ups that showed the direction they were going in, because the photograph of a girl in a mini-skirt kimono with her hair in Chun Li buns and bright red lipstick would NOT be used in the final version.

Well, I didn't panic, but I wasn't exactly, you know, filled with joy, either.

However, not very long after, I was lucky enough to have a meeting with Wonder Editor and Delightful Designer. And it was there that my heart started to lift up, because Delightful Designer had been looking at my Pinterest board for The Name of the Blade and she had picked out half a dozen beautiful photos of young women that I'd put there as visual references for Mio, as well as a few for Shinobu. These were pictures of girls who really looked like teenagers, with no make-up on and natural looking bobbed hair in ordinary clothes that a teenager might wear. The pictures for Shinobu were of Takeshi Kaneshiro, who can be summed up in just one word: beautiful man.

We agreed straight away that any image of Mio on the cover of the book needed to be like these: natural, young-looking, not exoticized or fetishized. Preferably Mio should look active and strong on the cover - definitely not dead, or in any kind of a 'costume', not even a lovely ballgown. The same for Shinobu, although for him a martial arts kendogi or hakama would be all right. And then came the phrase that made my heart leap right up in my chest and start twittering like a skylark: photoshoot.

I've never had a photoshoot done for any of my book covers before. Wonder Editor told me that I should contain my excitement a little bit because they didn't know if a photoshoot would be authorised and they might need to use stock photographs after all. But, she asked, if they did manage to get approval for a cover shoot, were there any photographers in particular that I liked?

I said two names. The first one was Larry Rostant. Just in case you're not a giant book cover geek like me and have no idea who that is? Go Here. And here. As you can see, he's incredibly talented and shoots all kinds of diverse covers. He's provided art for the likes of bestsellers Rae Carson, G.R.R. Martin, Philippa Gregory, Clive Cussler, Kate Elliot, and my friend Emma Pass. It's always been one of those impossible dreams of mine to one day have a cover by him, even if it was a piece of stock art that he'd pre-shot. So I said his name, but I had no actual expectation that we'd get him. In fact, the more time went on, the more I resigned myself to the idea that there probably wouldn't be a photoshoot at all. Chances were, Wonder Editor and Delightful Designer had just been trying to cheer me up.

So then came a day just before Christmas when I was on the phone to Super Agent, and she happened to mention that she'd talked to Wonder Editor recently... and Wonder Editor had let an intriguing fact slip. They'd already done a cover shoot for the trilogy. Earlier that week! She was a little surprised I didn't know about it?

WHUT.

As soon as I finished talking to my agent, I called my editor - and I hardly EVER do that, but this was an emergency - and in the calmest and least crazy-stalker-lady tone that I could manage, I asked if this was true. My editor sighed and said, darn, they'd been hoping to surprise me. In fact, she'd intended to call me later that day. Yes, they had gone ahead with the cover shoot. AND THEY HAD GONE WITH LARRY ROSTANT.

After the most lovely conversation ever - well, lovely for me, anyway - in which I grilled my editor about every detail of what she had seen at the shoot, down to what the model's footwear was like, I hung up and passed out. I'm being factual rather than metaphorical there: I literally passed out. Turns out that I had food poisoning. But I'm sure at least part of my swoon was caused by sheer excitement and happiness, rather than harmful germs attacking my body.

Anyway, all this is to say that when Walker Books decided to re-cover this trilogy, they made my dream come true, even though I didn't think that was possible at first. And when I finally saw the images from that shoot and the sorts of covers that my books would be getting, I knew that much as I had loved the look of my original illustrated cover, I could truly love these new ones even more. My very first thought on seeing them was - these look like bestsellers.

There's no thought that makes a writer happier than that one.

And now to tackle the one little tiny snag that has occurred to me. It's possible that some of you, enchanted as I know you must be by these new covers, are thinking: DAMMIT NOW MY SET WON'T MATCH. Because you already own The Night Itself with its original cover. What are you to do?

Well, these books are in paperback, so I can't offer to send everyone a new dust jacket or anything like that. But what I CAN do is this. Anyone who goes out and buys the new version of The Night Itself to match Darkness Hidden and emails or tweets me a photo of them holding both books, will get a TRIO of signed and personalised bookplates - one for each book of the trilogy including the final one. I'll remind you all of this again closer to the time of release, but basically what it means is that if you're going to the trouble and expense of buying a second copy of the first Name of the Blade book, I can at least make sure that your whole set will eventually be a signed one. I hope that seems fair.

Have a lovely week, everyone!