YALC 2019 ANNOUNCEMENT

Hello and happy Thursday, Dear Readers. I hope life is showing you all the joy and success that you deserve.

I've been struggling to come to terms with the Twitter-storm triggered by The Hand, the Eye & the Heart's release, and my mental health has continued to be not-so-great. Which - because nature just loves to keep on giving! - has a knock on effect on some of my chronic health conditions, becoming a bit of a vicious circle. In addition to this, my mum has recently been seriously ill again, something which we thought would no longer be an issue after she had her operation at the beginning of the year. So I'm... stressed, in a word.

But I want to say how much I appreciate every single message, comment, DM and email of love and support that I've received from readers and fellow writers. I've read all of them, some multiple times, even when I haven't managed to reply. Your kindness has meant the world to me.

And now there's a lovely chance to say thank you to some of you in person, which I can FINALLY talk about! YALC is coming up and I will be there, Dear Readers, on Friday the 27th! I'll be doing the panel 10 Things I Love About YA Retellings, and the other panelists are *amazing*.

If I ever win the lotto, I swear I will replace this author photo, which is approx 300 yrs old

Look at that. Renee Ahdieh! Kiran Millwood-Hargrave! And Sharon Dogar! I'm so excited and honoured to have been invited as part of this line-up. Slightly concerned I may swoon/fangirl all over all of them, but still excited and honoured. I'll try my very best to be cool ha ha ha ha ha. Ahem.

Please do come along and say hello if you can, my lovelies. Even though the panel itself will be an amazing experience, 90% of my reasons for attending YALC at any time, and especially this year, are to have a rare chance to connect with you in real life. You could not be more important to me, so if you can make it? Rest assured that your presence will absolutely make my day.

Sending love and gratitude to you all. xx

EXCITING EVENTS 2019!

Hello, hello, hello, Dear Readers! Happy Tuesday to all, and I hope your week is off to a great start.

Over the weekend news has broken - at last - that I am to be part of the line-up at the Cymera Festival in Edinburgh this summer; so now I can finally talk about it!

This is super exciting for many reasons. Cymera is Scotland's very first literary festival for science fiction, fantasy and horror. It's partially organised by the wonderful Laura Lam, who is a long-time Twitter-friend of mine and frankly a marvellous writer and all-around jolly good sort. The list of attendees and panels is fantastic, and includes the aforementioned Laura Lam, as well as Elizabeth May, Richard Morgan, Lauren James, Tom Pollock, V.E. Schwab, Samantha Shannon, Tasha Shuri, Charles Stross, Aliette de Bodard, Dhonielle Clayton, Justina Ireland, Zoraida Cordova, Helen Grant and - I am not kidding - literally dozens more.

Finally, I will be doing my panel - which is scheduled for Saturday 3:34-4:45 and is on the theme of Eastern Inspired Fantasy - with New York Times Bestselling Natasha Ngan, author of my FAVOURITE fantasy of last year, Girls of Paper and Fire (read my review).

I cannot WAIT for Cymera. Edinburg is such a beautiful city, the festival is going to be full of people I both like and admire, and I get to meet Natasha Ngan and talk about books and writing with her! I'm pretty sure it's going to be in my top three favourite things I do this year. I hope plenty of northern Dear Readers will be able able to make it - but if you want to get tickets, better act now, they're selling up fast.

Don't think you'll be able to make it up to Edinburgh in June and now feel kind of bummed about it?

FEAR NOT THERE'S MORE!

On April the 8th I am going to be in London doing another bloody fantastic event at Waterstone's Picadilly with - *deep breaths* - one of my favourite people, Internationally Bestselling Samantha Shannon AND Zen Cho (author of The True Queen and Sorcerer to the Crown) AND Tasha Shuri (author of Empire of Sand).

The event - which is 'in conversation' style, meaning it will be super relaxed and chatty - will be chaired by Katherine Webber, fellow Walker author and writer of Only Love Can Break Your Heart. The panel is titled Queens of Fantasy (why thank you, Waterstones Picadilly) and runs from 7pm, with signing and general squeeing and hugs to follow.

I mean, I just... how amazing is this??? It's even on the day after my birthday! Like a very slightly belated birthday present!

Tickets are on sale now and since anything with Samantha in it pretty much sells out in about ten seconds, if you want to be there you should jump in quick.

I'm hoping that a nice chunk of Dear Readers will be able to make it to at least one (or maybe both? Both would be great!) of these. You guys know I live in a very out of the way locale and don't get the chance to do events as often as many writers - plus it's been a couple of years since my last release - and I'd love to catch up with some of you and celebrate the publication of The Hand, The Eye and the Heart.

Please come out to see me if you can! I promise that whether you chose Edinburgh or London, you'll have a lot of fun.