BLOG TOUR ROUND UP!

Hello and happy Friday, my lovelies! I hope your week's been delightful so far, and if not, that you're prepared to pamper yourself over the weekend to make up for it. Today (as the title suggests) is a round-up of all the wonderful blog activity on THE HAND, THE EYE & THE HEART's marvellous tour so far. Frankly, I've just been blown away by this, so let's dive right in.

Monday's post was a musical tribute to the book by Alex at The Paperback Piano which is just unspeakably beautiful.



Tuesday's stop was gorgeous Dear Reader Hannah, founder of Luna's Little Library, who engaged in a fairly awe-inspiring chapter by chapter breakdown of her reactions to the book - sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes spoilery (you have been warned!)

On Wednesday Laura Patricia Rose contributed a fashion spread of just the loveliest outfit (that I would definitely wear) inspired by the book. Bird belt inspired by Bingbing: 10/10. 

Thursday we were blessed with Charlotte from Wonderfully Bookish Blog's beautiful, atmospheric and spoiler free image/mood board which is a very interesting insight for me, personally, into the visual impressions a reader might glean from my writing.

And we're closing the week out with Kirsty's endearingly nerdy yet gorgeous Anagrammatical Shenanigans (that's the only term I feel is fitting).

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE!

The blog tour continues right up until release day, so I will be rounding up again next Thursday as part of my release day post. I urge you not to wait that long to check these fantastic posts out, though - I'll be sharing and RTing during the week and I'd love it if you did the same to build excitement and buzz, not only about the book's publication but also our fantastic #UKYA blogging community.

And as if that wasn't enough excitement, my lovely publisher Walker Books are currently running a super exciting giveaway on Twitter - you can win not only a copy of the book but also a stunning Chinese calligraphy brushpainting set. UK Dear Readers can win by following them here:

EXCITING COMPETITION ALERT! Want to win a copy of 'The Hand, The Eye & The Heart' by @ZMarriott alongside a stunning calligraphy set?  Follow & RT to enter! By entering this competition you confirm that you accept our terms & conditions of entry (see t&c link in bio). pic.twitter.com/JJ44GvAl3i

— Walker Books (@WalkerBooksUK) March 27, 2019

If you're not in the UK then you should definitely be checking back here on release date for a post about the book's journey and also a new, international giveaway which maaaaaay be of interest...

I've been getting messages on Facebook and Goodreads asking me if I'll be doing any signings for this book, so even though I've been banging on about this non-stop I feel it behooves me to remind everyone again that I'll be in London the week the book's release - on the 8th of April, right after my birthday! - to chat about the book (and other awesome books) with a raft of awesome, award-winning and bestselling authors at Waterstone's Piccadilly. We will also sign copies! AS MANY COPIES AS YOU WANT. Book tickets now so as to avoid the sad, frowning grey unicorn of disappointment!

Finally, perhaps it is time for another NEW and EXCLUSIVE SNIPPET of my precious book baby? Don't mind if I do, muffins! Read below the cut:

THE BLOG TOUR BEGINS (and Other News)

Hello, and happy Saturday, Dear Readers! It is now less than TWO WEEKS until The Hand, the Eye and the Heart is officially released and will hopefully be winging its way to a bookshelf or an ereader near you. Not at all coincidentally, I have lots of cool and fun stuff to share with you today, so let's get right into it. First up - The Hand, the Eye and the Heart's Blog Tour begins next week!

Just look at this! Look at it! Music, fashion, read-a-longs, calligraphy, make-up looks? What a feast of madness and brilliance! I'll be RTing and sharing all of these as they go live, and then collecting each week's posts in a masterpost at the end of the both weeks so you don't miss anything.

I urge you to share and RT these as you read and enjoy them, not only to spread the word about the book, and the tour itself - but also to thank each of these dedicated book bloggers for supporting our fandom and giving UKYA a boost in general. I'm honestly humbled by this, guys. I don't often use the term 'awesomesauce' anymore, but this? This is awesomesauce.

Next up! For those of you like me who have poor eyesight or vision impairment, injuries or disabilities that make it hard to read chunky books, or limited space to store physical copies, here's some good news: the Kindle and Kobo versions of the book are now life for pre-orders. Hurrah! And at a discount from the physical copy's price, which is always nice.  

Further to this, shortly after the Kindle version went live, both it and the physical book shot back up into the Amazon bestselling ranks again:

Not gonna lie, I DID do a little squeal (while on the train - I ducked down and pretended it wasn't me while people gave each other suspicious looks) when I saw this. As the release date gets closer and closer, pre-orders make a huge difference to whether the book will succeed in both the short and long-term, so thank you to everyone who's managed to scrape up the cash to do this. I know, I really do, that it's not always easy. I hope *so much* that you'll love the story, and Zhi, and Yulong, and Yang Jie, and Wu Jiang, and all the rest, and think it's worth it.

Now before I start blubbing on my keyboard, I'd better remind you about the event coming up to celebrate the book's release in London, in April: Queens of Fantasy with amazing authors Samantha Shannon, Tasha Suri and Zen Cho. I've motored my way through a stack of all of these guys books in the past month and St. Paul on a pogo stick! THEY ARE SO AMAZING. I might not let anyone else even get the chance to ask them any questions because there's so much I want to know. Will we meet Mehr again in the sequal, Tasha?? Samantha, what was the deal with the Unceasing Emperor's ex-girlfriend?? Zen, did you get the term magicienne from the term 'graduette' which used to be applied to female university graduates??

Ahem.

I've been told that the tickets are really going fast - I'm not just saying that - so if you're hoping to come you should probably look into booking your place sooner rather than later.

And now, in celebration of all this gloriousness, it's snippet time. Yes, really! New and exclusive and just for you, I've picked out one of my favourite bits from later in the book (with no spoilers) and it's under the cut. I hope you all enjoy it, my lovelies!

Let me know what you think in the comments. Read you later!

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.

THANK YOU!

Hi Guys - happy Thursday. Very quick update for me today as I'm literally on the train home from my Fellowship in York, but I wanted to commemorate this:

And this:

And this whole thing in general!

Pretty exciting, huh? Especially a month before release! And all the result of amazing support from Dear Readers. Pre-ordering a book is the number one best thing anyone can do to support an author they love or a book they're excited for, and I'm so grateful for everyone who has. If you can't pre-order, though, don't despair. A purchase in the first week of release - the week of the 4th of April in this case - is the next best thing, but you can also help by requesting the book at your local library, or leaving a review for it on Amazon or Goodreads. Just talking about it on Twitter or with your friends can make a difference, and I'm humbled and delighted by the number of people who want to do that.

This is a special book to me, and I really hope that it will be special to you, too, once you get the chance to read it.

Barely a month to go now, everyone! Whoop, whoop!

READER QUESTIONS: What is Plot?

Hello and happy Wednesday, Dear Readers! I hope your week is going well so far - or at the very least, that it can't get worse from here (ah, pessimist humour, you are so grim).

Today I'm bringing you a post sparked by the loveliest message from reader Hana, who emailed me via my website (and also a little bit inspired by a conversation about plotting on Twitter that got my brain working). But before we get to that, it's time to announce the winner of last week's giveaway! This is actually happening a bit sooner than I expected, because I set the giveaway for two weeks to give people plenty of time to enter. Apparently Rafflecopter had other ideas. And when I checked the entries today I found that the giveaway was closed, but they didn't email me to let me know so... I dunno. I'm as confused as you, Dear Readers, but let's not dwell on the past.

Onward to the winner, who is...

*Drumroll Please*

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RACHEL J ROWLANDS!

Congratulations, Rachel! I'll be emailing you a little later today to ask for your shipping address so that I can get this prize package out in the post to you. I hope you enjoy all the books, and that you remember that ancient and wise proverb: If you love a book and leave a review, the writer will have good luck and so will you. 

I mean, I'm not trying to tell you what to do, but I'm preeeeetty sure Plato said that, so you really ought to pay attention. To Plato. Ahem.

Now for today's Reader Question! The lovely Hana asks:

I just wondered: how you plan out... a story - how does an author like you, of whom I look up to, draft things out? I have book ideas and I like writing in my spare time, and I'd love to understand your technique! I myself am stuck with thinking mostly of the cool, climactic scenes in my stories, but struggle to piece it all together and make it clever without getting too overwhelmed. If you could get back to me - any quick tips would do - I would be super grateful.

Lovely Hana, I have GOT THIS. Listen, some authors just *get* plot, you know? They don't ever have to define it, or plan it, or stress about it, because it is IN THEIR BONES. They're natural storytellers, and it flows for them totally organically. These are the writers who weave the most awesome tapestry of plot threads together and for whom plot twists and narrative balance are like breathing.

I kind of hate those authors?

Most of the writers I know struggle with plot - and me most of all. What you say here about having ideas for cool and climactic scenes but no real idea how to turn that into a story? This makes me feel so seen. Honestly, this is what most writers spend most of their time discussing, worrying over and asking each other for advice about. And that's good news for you! Because it means we have come up with practical answers to these questions which are actually useful!

So here's my run-down of resources that should hopefully help you to understand and construct plots. First up, this three part series that I created a while ago that guides you through the whole process from 'Oooh, I have a cool idea!' to 'Oooh, I have a fully coherent story!'

TURNING IDEAS INTO PLOTS: Part One, Part Two and Part Three

You can click on the diagrams to make them large enough to read all the small writing, btw. Now, this is a method which has reliably worked for me, and I know that it's good for others too because writer-friends of mine have actually used this to teach creative writing courses. BUT! Every writer's mind works differently, and you might be looking for something that goes into a bit more detail about the ways that plot, character, theme etc. interact.

And so next, here's Rachael Stephen's video about her favourite plotting method, the Plot Embryo.



I've used this for my last two books - after coming up with a basic story plan using my own Plot Diamond - as a sort of narrative MOT, to make sure that all the elements of the story are actually working together as they should be.

I also highly recommend John Yorke's book Into The Woods, which is another very different but compelling and useful examination of how plots work and why. The first time that I read it, it honestly blew my mind a little bit, and I think a lot of writers have that reaction, so brace yourself!

If you're looking for something slightly less novel-crafty and more thinky, here's a post I did a little while ago (which includes another video from Rachael Stephen) about the importance of figuring out your thesis, or the 'truth' of your story, and how you can use essay planning methods to ensure you demonstrate this throughout the developing narrative. The triangle structure is maybe more useful for short fiction, but the idea that you should work out your story's thesis first and use that as a 'North Star' to guide you in working out what your novel/essay/short story is truly about, and therefore what stuff should be in it, is universally useful in my opinion. I did another essay about this on the Royal Literary Fund Website, which you can check out if you'd like some more depth.

And finally, there's a wealth of other writing advice here on my All About Writing page, which covers everything from rooting cliches out of your work to how to create a character, so check that out too, Hana. I hope this is useful and gets your story-writing muscles quivering with anticipation to get to work!

UPDATES & A GIVEAWAY

Hello, hello, hello, Dear Readers! Happy Monday to all, and apologies for the long wait since the last time I blogged. This Christmas and New Year period has *kicked my ass*. Repeatedly, in fact, and for a list of reasons as long as my arm.

There are some massive changes coming in my life. Some of them are positive and exciting. Some of them are stressful and not-so-nice. I can't talk about most of them yet, mainly because final decisions (either mine or other people's) haven't been made. I'm aware this is infuriatingly cryptic by the way - but I'm afraid it's the best I can do just now - and I will give details about stuff that I think Dear Readers will be interested in as soon as I can.

There are some updates I can make, though, and I will do so below.

The main reason for the lack of blogging: my mother. She's been very ill over the last few months. At one point she was rushed to the hospital in the middle of the night in an ambulance, then transferred to a hospital sixty miles away for emergency surgery - only to have that surgery cancelled at the last minute. She came home on a promise that the surgery would be rescheduled within three weeks, but that didn't happen. As a result she's been suffering a lot of pain and hasn't been able to move about much. Her operation is now on again, and by the time you're reading this I hope she will be comfortably settled into her bed and waiting to go down to the theatre. So please send kind, hopeful and healing thoughts in our direction today, if you can spare them.

Now onto something happier. Not only have I finally upated the blog with a page dedicated to my newest book (check it out for a Q&A about the book and some interesting links) but early copies of The Hand, the Eye & The Heart are here! And they are beeeeeeooootiful:

 

The colours! The internal illustrations! THE TURQUOISE FOIL! *Swoons*

I was lucky enough (well, begged loudly enough) to get two despite the limited numbers. One has winged its way off to a lucky competition winner, as promised. The other stays with me for always (my preeccccciousssss). If you're a blogger, vlogger or other bookish person and you would like one of these early copies to review, you'll need to get in touch with Walker Books as soon as possible - @WalkerBookYA on Twitter is a good bet. If and when any further copies fall into my possession, I will of course do a giveaway.

However, just because The Hand, the Eye & the Heart is as rare as hen's teeth just now that doesn't mean there can be NO giveaways. In fact I happen to have a small pile of absolutely lovely books from Walker right here:

 

On the Come Up by Angie Thomas, the follow-up to mega-hit THUG, which needs no introduction.

The Quiet at the End of the World by Lauren James. I'm so excited about this one! Lauren's last book The Lonelist Girl in the Universe was *staggeringly* good, and so unique. No one else is writing this kind of imaginative, grounded, hard-science fiction in UKYA right now. You want this.

Nothing but the Truth by Dick Lehr, a book about racial intolerance in the US written by a former Boston Globe reporter who used his experiences to inform his fiction.

These are some of the most sought after books coming out this spring, and personally I prefer this spiffy yellow ARC cover to the official one, for Angie Thomas's book. I'm going to make these available to one lucky winner, ALONG WITH:

• Gorgeous THTE&TH postcards (see below!)
• The first chapter of THTE&TH, printed out and signed by yours truly, to keep you going until its release on the 4th of April.
• A signed and personalised bookplate to stick in THTE&TH (or any of my other books, I guess) when you get your hands on it

All you have to do is comment here on the blog, then share the giveaway somewhere on Twitter, or follow me on Twitter, sometime in the next two weeks. You can get extra chances to win by sharing more than once - and the giveaway is open to readers in Britain and the EU, because that's the postage I can afford just now (sorry international peeps!).

Here's the Rafflecopter. Good luck, muffins!a Rafflecopter giveaway

EARLY COPY GIVEAWAY WINNER

Hello, Dear Readers! Happy Tuesday and happy Christmas! I'm saying that now because I probably won't blog again before it's all over - the dark chocolate brownies, spiced apple cake, roast potatoes and pork shoulder with crackling aren't going to cook themselves, and I'm having my whole family over not once but twice this year so... yeah. Eeep.

Don't worry - of course I'm not going to sign off without announcing the winner of my giveaway of my very first early copy of THE HAND, THE EYE AND THE HEART (which I don't have yet, but which will hopefully land in my hot little hands in the New Year). I'll do that below, but first I wanted to share this:

And seven is my lucky number, too! I'm very proud to see my quirky, chunky book in such lovely company. Thank you everyone who has pre-ordered the book, talked about the book, RTed or shared my posts about the book. It honestly does make such a difference, and that's why I like to notice things like this, celebrate them, and show you what your support can do.

And now for the winner! Drumroll please!

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JACKIE ORTON!

Congratulations, Jackie, I'll email you today and get your postal details so I can send your copy of the book to you as soon as I get it. I hope you enjoy it!

Commiserations to everyone else who hoped to win this and didn't, this time. Please don't be too upset. There will be more giveaways and competitions in the run up to the book's release. And remember that it's not very long until April, now. Which gives me a bit of a flutter of butterflies, honestly! Have a marvellous holiday season and New Year, muffins!

a Rafflecopter giveaway