Finished copies of BLOOD ON THE WIND have landed in the Kurtagich household, and they’re gorgeous! I couldn’t be more obsessed.
And can we have a moment for the custom case binding beneath the dust jacket? Stunning!
BLOOD ON THE WIND is out on March 26th at most online retailers or via my website.
I am thrilled to be able to tell you that my debut adult novel, THE MADNESS, is going to be published by Graydon House! The Madness is a feminist gothic Dracula retelling set between London and North Wales, where I live. I’ll be chatting more about the book in the coming months over on my newsletter, so do subscribe here if you haven’t already.
Dawn Kurtagich’s THE MADNESS, pitched as a feminist retelling of Dracula set in the moody Welsh countryside where anything—real or imaginary—could be lurking in the shadows, to Sara Rogers at Graydon House, in a six-figure deal, in a pre-empt, in a two-book deal, for publication in summer 2024, by Joelle Hobeika and Laura Barbiea at Alloy Entertainment, with the assistance of Victoria Marini at High Line Literary Collective, and on behalf of Chelsea Eberly at Greenhouse. The author is currently represented by Victoria Marini (world English).
Welcome to YA Scavenger Hunt! This bi-annual event was first organised by author Colleen Houck as a way to give readers a chance to gain access to exclusive bonus material from their favourite authors...and a chance to win some awesome prizes! On this hunt, you not only get access to exclusive content from each author, you also get a clue for the hunt. Add up the clues, and you can enter for our prize--one lucky winner will receive one book from each author on the hunt in my team! But play fast: this contest (and all the exclusive bonus material) will only be online for 120 hours!
YASH Blue Team Member
Go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page to find out all about the hunt. There are many contests going on simultaneously, and you can enter one or all! I am a part of the BLUE TEAM--but there is also a red team, a gold team, a green team, a purple team, and a pink team for a chance to win a whole different set of books!
If you'd like to find out more about the hunt, see links to all the authors participating, and see the full list of prizes up for grabs, go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page.
Directions: Below, you'll notice that I've listed my favourite number. Collect the favourite numbers of all the authors on the blue team, and then add them up (don't worry, you can use a calculator!).
Entry Form: Once you've added up all the numbers, make sure you fill out the form here to officially qualify for the grand prize. Only entries that have the correct number will qualify.
Rules: Open internationally, anyone below the age of 18 should have a parent or guardian's permission to enter. To be eligible for the grand prize, you must submit the completed entry form by Sunday October 4th, at noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered.
Today, I am hosting Yvonne Ventresca on my website for the YA Scavenger Hunt! Yvonne Ventresca is the author of BLACK FLOWERS, WHITE LIES and PANDEMIC (winner of SCBWI’s Crystal Kite Award). In addition to her YA novels, Yvonne’s other work includes two nonfiction books and several short stories selected for anthologies, including the new middle grade collection, VOYAGERS: THE THIRD GHOST. When she’s not writing, she loves a good ghost story and studies karate in a haunted dojo. You can learn more at YvonneVentresca.com, where she features resources for teen writers.
Find out more information by checking out the author website or find more about the author's book here!
In Pandemic, only a few people know what caused Lilianna Snyder's sudden change from a model student to a withdrawn pessimist who worries about all kinds of disasters. When people begin coming down with a quick-spreading illness that doctors are unable to treat, Lil’s worst fears are realized. With her parents called away on business before the contagious outbreak--her journalist father in Delaware covering the early stages of the disease and her mother in Hong Kong and unable to get a flight back to New Jersey--Lil’s town is hit by what soon becomes a widespread fatal illness.
With friends and neighbors dying around her, Lil does everything she can to survive. Just when it all seems too much, the cause of her original trauma shows up at her door. Lil must find a way to survive not only the outbreak and its real-life consequences, but also her own personal demons.
I love this cover! And here, Yvonne reveals an exclusive deleted scene! From Yvonne:
Pandemic Deleted Scene
At one point in my writing process, this was Pandemic’s opening. The scene has since been deleted, but it shows a glimpse of Lil’s friendships before the pandemic.
Five months earlier:
Lockers slammed as the usual Friday afternoon joy filled the school. Kayla and Megs walked down the hallway in front of me. I caught up, slipped between them, and linked my arms through theirs.
“Hey, Lil,” Kayla said.
The loudspeaker interrupted with Mr. Fryman’s last announcements of the week. “Don’t forget that Monday is Spirit Day, so please show your school pride by wearing red and white,” he said. “Congratulations on donating over 200 pounds of non-perishable food for the Thanksgiving drive! This season, I’m thankful for all of you! Don’t forget, charity begins at home. And success is a journey, not a destination!”
“Principal Cliché is at it again,” Megs said. “Will he ever stop?”
“You can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” I said.
Megs laughed, but Kayla moved away from us and stood straighter, head up, chest out. At first I thought we’d annoyed her again. Then she did the head tilt, which meant an attractive guy had entered her orbit. As I glanced around for the usual suspects, I almost walked straight into the English teacher who helped me coordinate the food drive in between his debate team coaching.
“Hey, Mr. B,” Kayla said, all white-teeth smile.
“Happy Friday, ladies,” he said. “Liliana, let’s meet in the parking lot in five minutes. I have directions to the food pantry and—”
“Debate team practice on Tuesday?” Kayla interrupted. “I’ve been working on a new speech for Original Oratory, Myths about Love.”
“Sounds good. I can’t wait to hear it.”
She beamed after him as he continued toward his classroom, greeting students and making small talk as he went. Mr. B had convinced the other English teachers to exchange homework passes for food donations, which greatly increased our collection size.
“He’s like the school mayor,” I said.
“The mayor of hotness,” Kayla said. “That dark wavy hair, those brown eyes. Mr. B is bee-you-ti-ful.”
“Oh stop,” I said. “He’s at least thirty.”
“So?” Kayla said. “I’m mature for my age.” She’d spent all of last year crushing on him. It looked like our sophomore year would be more of the same.
“Gross.” Megs scowled. “And illegal.”
Kayla flipped her hair back, ready to argue.
“Are you nervous about the next debate?” I asked, hoping to derail their fight.
“No,” Kayla said. “I just envision people naked. I have a vivid imagination.”
I shook my head, leaving Megs to deal with her as I left to meet Mr. B.
Later, I would face evil in the form of a deadly virus. But I didn’t know then that evil could come in many forms. It could even masquerade as a caring teacher.
That afternoon would change everything.
And don't forget to enter the contest for a chance to win a ton of books by me and more! To enter, you need to know that my favourite number is 3. Add up all the favourite numbers of the authors on the blue team and you'll have all the secret code to enter for the grand prize!
CONTINUE THE HUNT
To keep going on your quest for the hunt, you need to check out the next author!
I’m offering one lucky reader the chance to win a signed hardcover copy of my witchy, Faustian YA Horror-Fantasy, TEETH IN THE MIST with a note from me! This is open internationally.
Thanks for playing!
Back in the day, the purpose of fairytales was to be scary. Before Disney came along and turned them into wholesome family fests, fairytales were warnings meant to be didactic terror tales. Gretel & Hansel is a visually stunning take on the classic fairytale chockablock with symbolism and a deep meditation on the female. Many have said that it is more style than substance, but that’s only on the surface. Dig deeper and there is plenty to analyse and pick through.
From IMDB: A long time ago in a distant fairy tale countryside, a young girl leads her little brother into a dark wood in desperate search of food and work, only to stumble upon a nexus of terrifying evil.
Much like Robert Egger’s The Witch (2015), every frame in Gretel & Hansel is perfectly shot—like an oil painting—and perfectly centred. It was shot at 1:55 aspect ratio, almost as though the cinematographer decided to follow the “block of three” photography principle and never strayed from it (another three here, which we’ll talk about more later). You don’t need to move your eye very much in order to take in the film, unless, like me, you’re looking for all of the delicious symbols peppered throughout the film.
THE NUMBER THREE
Threes are everywhere in this film, which intrigued me to the core of my being. Three is my number. I’ve written many essays in my life about the number three, my favourite being an essay on the number three in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Three is the number of magic, the trinity, of mysticism and gnosticism. It is the (approximate) number of pi, and, my favourite: it is the number of the three fates (the maiden Clotho, the mother Lachesis and the crone Atropos)—also relevant to this film. The film follows Gretel on her journey from girl to woman. She represents the girl, and the woman, where the witch represents the woman and the crone.
From the triangles scattered throughout the film to the three main characters, threes are everywhere. When Gretel looks into the witch’s house, she does so through a tiny triangular window that, from the other side, looks strikingly like the Eye of Providence, which is a symbol used to illustrate God watching over all of humanity. There may be something in there—a commentary on what is to come and Gretel’s rise to being all-powerful? More threes occur throughout the film—the three figures Gretel sees in the woods; the three versions of herself reflected in the mirror; each mirror pane containing the reflections of three dead children; the three corpses on the bloodied table (lots of period references here too, by the way—more on that when we discuss the feminine). I’m sure that with a careful re-watch, I could find more threes than I know what to do with.
Intriguingly, when there is danger in the film it is often accompanied by a square of a rectangle and the colour red (again, see later about femininity and the female). It is also interesting to note that the shape on the door of the house where they started, and where Hansel ends, is a circle—the first circle I remember seeing in the film (we only see it at the end, not in the beginning where they start), perhaps to symbolise the fact that Hansel has come fill circle? Perhaps to distinguish between the feminine and the masculine? Something else to ponder.
Femininity and the Female
It seems obvious that the movie is a meditation on the female. How females have been trapped. How females are always the caretaker. How females always have to sacrifice something. How females have, as the film quotes more obvious uses” than skills like herb-lore and witchcraft. How females are targets. But also how women have power. And how women wield power. How women can be the danger. Gretel’s name coming first in the title is no accident.
Throughout the film, the colours pink and red (blood and girlhood) are used to indicate danger. The girl in the pink hat; the pink smoke turning red; the pink bindings holding Gretel down. Again, this symbolism is intriguing. A reference for growing from girlhood to womanhood? Red is the colour of danger—and is used to that effect in the film as well. Ah, women and our periods. Women and the blood we spill giving birth. Women and blood, blood and women. It is the stuff of life—and of death.
The movie is both a meditation on the power of women, the danger of men and a commentary on the sacrifices women have to make for power (or the perceived sacrifices). With a disgusting old man and potential employer enquiring after Gretel’s maidenhood to the vivid red of her period, from the abandonment of the children’s mother to the final reveal of the witch devouring her own children—the film is a commentary on what being a woman is. Percolated with the colours red and pink, where both are used to illustrate danger, it seems obvious that this is a film about the raw power and fear of womanhood. Even the hallucinogenic mushrooms the children consume are vividly red and eventually lead them to the witch in the woods. In the end, both Gretel and the Witch, Holda, have to make sacrifices (eat your children, be the caretaker for your brother). Gretel sends Hansel away “with a part of herself freely given”, turning sacrifice into a gift.
Three little windows above her head.
Nature is also a heavy theme here, relating to both witchcraft and women (women, like all of nature, go through cycles, as does spellwork and witchcraft). There is a time to plant and a time to harvest, there is a waxing and a waning moon, there is a time for fertility and a time to be barren. Gretel ends up bending nature to her will as she comes into our powers, which might be a powerful (and brilliant) meditation and symbol of women (and Gretel) taking their own power into their own hands.
The film is a giant female coming-of-age emancipation.
While I enjoyed this film immensely and will be buying it for my collection when he DVD is released, I found the ending too heavy-handed. Gretel’s voice-over could have been omitted for much greater effect. It took away from the film’s mesmerising cleverness; as though the director didn’t trust the audience to be clever enough to understand it without the heavy-handed monologue attached. I should also note that I did not understand the the strange zombie creature that the monk/priest kills while attacking Hansel… it seemed out of place and random.
Gretel and Hansel reminded me, in a strange way, of the novel The House in the Dark of the Woods by Laird Hunt (which is brilliant and you should all read).
Have you watched Gretel & Hansel yet? What did you think?
There’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that 2020 has been tough on all of us. If it wasn’t wildfires, it was flooding; if it wasn’t a pandemic, it was lockdown cabin fever. I think we all deserve a round of applause for having come this far and still having our sanity.
I sense a shift in the air though, and maybe you do too. Perhaps it’s the first gentle whisper of Autumn, but I secretly suspect it might be… hope. Hope that things are turning towards a lighter, happier place and that 2020 is finally letting us breath and nurse our bruises.
Lockdown brought so many challenges that I barely know where to begin, or whether I should at all. Maybe I’ll leave those bruises to nurse just a little longer before I expose them to the light. In the meantime, I find my joy in writing—in two new shiny projects that are endlessly delightful. Well, maybe not delightful, not yet, but well on their way to becoming so. It has been a long, dark night of the soul and I am ready for a new leaf.
Going out and about, now that I am allowed to, has been like experiencing an intrepid voyage out to sea. Wildly exciting with a twinge of unease. Fresh air! Who would have thought of such a thing?? Life outside the walls of my home? NO! Drives through the countryside are slowly turning into more lingering moments—I’ve even watched a sunset or two at the beach. I even had a couple of picnics.
Life, it seems, goes on. I am delighted to meet it once again.
Halloween 2019 is approaching. We are all excited. But more importantly, we are craving a good scare. Here are 10 YA horror novels that deserve your attention this Halloween.
It’s been eighteen months since the Raxter School for Girls was put under quarantine. Since the Tox hit and pulled Hetty’s life out from under her.
It started slow. First the teachers died one by one. Then it began to infect the students, turning their bodies strange and foreign. Now, cut off from the rest of the world and left to fend for themselves on their island home, the girls don’t dare wander outside the school’s fence, where the Tox has made the woods wild and dangerous. They wait for the cure they were promised as the Tox seeps into everything.
But when Byatt goes missing, Hetty will do anything to find her, even if it means breaking quarantine and braving the horrors that lie beyond the fence. And when she does, Hetty learns that there’s more to their story, to their life at Raxter, than she could have ever thought true.
Seventeen-year-old Aderyn (“Ryn”) only cares about two things: her family, and her family’s graveyard. And right now, both are in dire straits. Since the death of their parents, Ryn and her siblings have been scraping together a meager existence as gravediggers in the remote village of Colbren, which sits at the foot of a harsh and deadly mountain range that was once home to the fae. The problem with being a gravedigger in Colbren, though, is that the dead don’t always stay dead.
The risen corpses are known as “bone houses,” and legend says that they’re the result of a decades-old curse. When Ellis, an apprentice mapmaker with a mysterious past, arrives in town, the bone houses attack with new ferocity. What is it that draws them near? And more importantly, how can they be stopped for good?
Together, Ellis and Ryn embark on a journey that will take them deep into the heart of the mountains, where they will have to face both the curse and the long-hidden truths about themselves.
Before the birth of time, a monk uncovers the Devil’s Tongue and dares to speak it. The repercussions will be felt for generations…
Sixteen-year-old photography enthusiast Zoey has been fascinated by the haunted, burnt-out ruins of Medwyn Mill House for as long as she can remember–so she and her best friend, Poulton, run away from home to explore them. But are they really alone in the house? And who will know if something goes wrong?
In 1851, seventeen-year-old Roan arrives at the Mill House as a ward–one of three, all with something to hide from their new guardian. When Roan learns that she is connected to an ancient secret, she must escape the house before she is trapped forever.
1583. Hermione, a new young bride, accompanies her husband to the wilds of North Wales where he plans to build the largest water mill and mansion in the area. But rumors of unholy rituals lead to a tragic occurrence and she will need all her strength to defeat it.
Three women, centuries apart, drawn together by one Unholy Pact. A pact made by a man who, more than a thousand years later, may still be watching…
Simmering in Patagonian myth, The Tenth Girl is a gothic psychological thriller with a haunting twist.
At the very southern tip of South America looms an isolated finishing school. Legend has it that the land will curse those who settle there. But for Mavi—a bold Buenos Aires native fleeing the military regime that took her mother—it offers an escape to a new life as a young teacher to Argentina’s elite girls.
Mavi tries to embrace the strangeness of the imposing house—despite warnings not to roam at night, threats from an enigmatic young man, and rumors of mysterious Others. But one of Mavi’s ten students is missing, and when students and teachers alike begin to behave as if possessed, the forces haunting this unholy cliff will no longer be ignored.
One of these spirits holds a secret that could unravel Mavi’s existence. In order to survive she must solve a cosmic mystery—and then fight for her life.
The Blair Witch Project meets Imaginary Girls in this story of codependent sisterhood, the struggle to claim one’s own space, and the power of secrets
Sixteen-year-old Skye is done playing the knight in shining armor for her insufferable younger sister, Deirdre. Moving across the country seems like the perfect chance to start over.
In their isolated new neighborhood, Skye manages to fit in, but Deirdre withdraws from everyone, becoming fixated on the swampy woods behind their house and building monstrous sculptures out of sticks and bones.
Then Deirdre disappears.
And when something awful comes scratching at Skye’s window in the middle of the night, claiming she’s the only one who can save Deirdre, Skye knows she will stop at nothing to bring her sister home.
On the edge of town a beast haunts the woods, trapped in the Gray, its bonds loosening…
Uprooted from the city, Violet Saunders doesn’t have much hope of fitting in at her new school in Four Paths, a town almost buried in the woodlands of rural New York. The fact that she’s descended from one of the town’s founders doesn’t help much, either—her new neighbours treat her with distant respect, and something very like fear. When she meets Justin, May, Isaac, and Harper, all children of founder families, and sees the otherworldly destruction they can wreak, she starts to wonder if the townsfolk are right to be afraid.
When bodies start to appear in the woods, the locals become downright hostile. Can the teenagers solve the mystery of Four Paths, and their own part in it, before another calamity strikes?
Hendricks Becker-O’Malley is new in town, and she’s bringing baggage with her. With a dark and wild past, Hendricks doesn’t think the small town her parents moved her to has much to offer her in terms of excitement. She plans on laying low, but when she’s suddenly welcomed into the popular crowd at school, things don’t go as expected.
Hendricks learns from her new friends that the fixer-upper her parents are so excited about is notorious in town. Local legend says it’s haunted. Hendricks doesn’t believe it. Until she’s forced to. Blood-curdling screams erupt from the basement, her little brother wakes up covered in scratches, and something, or someone pushes her dad down the stairs. With help from the mysterious boy next door, Hendricks makes it her mission to take down the ghosts . . . if they don’t take her first.
In 1872, New Orleans is a city ruled by the dead. But to seventeen-year-old Celine Rousseau, New Orleans provides her a refuge after she’s forced to flee her life as a dressmaker in Paris. Taken in by the sisters of the Ursuline convent along with six other girls, Celine quickly becomes enamored with the vibrant city from the music to the food to the soirées and—especially—to the danger. She soon becomes embroiled in the city’s glitzy underworld, known as La Cour des Lions, after catching the eye of the group’s leader, the enigmatic Sébastien Saint Germain. When the body of one of the girls from the convent is found in the lair of La Cour des Lions, Celine battles her attraction to him and suspicions about Sébastien’s guilt along with the shame of her own horrible secret.
When more bodies are discovered, each crime more gruesome than the last, Celine and New Orleans become gripped by the terror of a serial killer on the loose—one Celine is sure has set her in his sights . . . and who may even be the young man who has stolen her heart. As the murders continue to go unsolved, Celine takes matters into her own hands and soon uncovers something even more shocking: an age-old feud from the darkest creatures of the underworld reveals a truth about Celine she always suspected simmered just beneath the surface.
If Lupe Dávila and Javier Utierre can survive each other’s company, together they can solve a series of grisly murders sweeping though Puerto Rico. But the clues lead them out of the real world and into the realm of myths and legends. And if they want to catch the killer, they’ll have to step into the shadows to see what’s lurking there—murderer, or monster?
What will you be reading this Halloween?
There are many more excellent YA Horrors coming after Halloween, which I will be sure to keep you updated about nearer the time.
What will you be reading for Halloween?
Hello lovely readers!
The sun has been shining and I’m just feeling the Spring air. I can’t get enough. Loads of cool things have happened so I’m going to go through them all briefly.
Firstly, a reader got the cover of THE DEAD HOUSE tattooed on her body! I am in awe and utterly mesmerised. Doesn’t it look cool??! I never in my wildest dreams thought this would happen (except me doing it to myself, maybe!) Shout out to Sammie Marie for being my first reader tattoo!
The next cool thing that happened is that TEETH IN THE MIST was named one of Publisher’s Marketplace’s Buzzbooks of Spring/Summer for 2019. I mean, WHAT??? That. Is. So. Cool. *falls over*
More news! TEETH is going to have DECKLED EDGES!!! Don’t know what deckled edges are? They are these pretty things:
So pretty! I think it will add to the spooky, Victorian vibe. One thing I realised recently was that Vic-Lit was a thing (Victorian Literature—books written in that period and style), and that large parts of TEETH fall into that category. Niiiice.
The audiobook recording of TEETH is going well. And this time it has been so much fun, because my audiobook producer has been keeping me in the loop and even sending me snippets of the actors reading the book! I swear, I have chills. Real, huge, CHILLS. I had a video chat with two of the utterly amazing women working on the audiobook, Elece and Michelle, and it was like talking to family.
L-R Elece and Michelle and a teenie, tiny me!
I’ve been getting awesome blurbs for TEETH, but I can’t share them yet. Instead, I’m going to share the amazing Kirkus review that TEETH got recently, which was so, so lovely and welcome!
Are you ready…. #BewaretheRam
Other than that, I’ve been working on the pre-order gift I’m going to be giving you guys. There will be 20-30 boxes of amazing things for you guys to win, but there will also be items that every single person who pre-orders will receive. It’s the biggest and best I’ve yet done! I’ll be sharing more on my social media, so don’t forget to give me a follow there to stay in the loop.
Last but not least, there are two giveaways running until the 18th of April, so if you’d like to win a copy, go here:
That’s it from me!
Love,
Hello my lovelies! Head’s up that there is a Goodreads Giveaway currently running for TEETH IN THE MIST. It’s US only, sorry about that!
Love,
Dawn xox
Hey friends,
Just a quick one today to let you know that TEETH IN THE MIST has now sold to France and Russia! Isn’t that amazing?!
Also, THE DEAD HOUSE has sold to Germany and France!
And, AND! AND THE TREES CREPT IN has sold to France!!
I am over the moon that more readers will be able to find my disturbed girls and watch them kick some ass.
You can pre-order TEETH IN THE MIST here.
Dawn out xx
Happy Halloween, bookish fiends! I hope you’ve been ghoulish tonight. I have most definitely been ghoulish… I’ve got the worst lurgy ever, so I’m pretty green and hacking up phlegm for days. If that’t not chilling, I don’t know what is! That meant my halloween celebrations were done from my cosy bed surrounded by tissues, strepsils and panadol.
A few things have happened since my last update, the first of which was the reveal of my forthcoming YA novel, TEETH IN THE MIST . The response has been absolutely wonderful—thank you!
I also received a box of ARCs in the mail, which was a fantastic day!
Teeth in the Mist by Dawn Kurtagich
I completed pass pages as well as pass page proof queries, and last but not least: TEETH IN THE MIST sold to Russia! Slava!
I went on my writing retreat to Geneva with two other writers, and it was fantastic! The retreat was run by Marcus Sedgwick (author of Ghosts of Heaven, Midwinterblood and more) and Maureen Hansmann. Marcus and I sat down separately to chat to Mark Stay of The Bestseller Experiment to chat about it (Mark and Marcus had their chat in the outdoor hot-tub!). You can listen to that here.
Dawn Kurtagich, Holly, Mark Stay, Marcus Sedgwick. Geneva, September 2018
The book I most recently blurbed, hree Strikes, was published, with stories from Kat Ellis, Lucy Christopher and Rhian Ivory, and it has been getting some well-deserved press and attention! If you haven’t picked it up yet, there’s still time to enjoy it over a roaring fire with a cup of cocoa this fall.
My dear friend, Kat Ellis, was finally able to announce her book deal for Harrow Lake, coming from Penguin Random House in 2020. You guys. THIS BOOK. I love it. I read it ages ago, and was lucky enough to chat to Kat about it many a time over coffee and cake, and it is SO FREAKING GOOD. It’s going to creep you guys out! More on that over the coming months. In celebration, my friend Jennielyreads and I threw her a surprise celebratory film night to celebrate! It was a lot of laughs and Kat deserves way, way more.
a hamper fit for a Queen!
Now that TEETH is all done and dusted, I’ve been throwing myself into new projects. Three different ideas, one of which will be my fourth novel, have been keeping my attention, but I’ve also been finishing up my adult novel (which I refer to as my Orange Book—OB for short). OB has been such fun! I absolutely love the voice and the story, and it’s been wanting to be completed since 2010 when I wrote the first draft (the first and only time I wrote 93,000 words in a month!—By the way, I don’t recommend this method of writing. I had burn-out for weeks). That being said, I am going to sort-of Nano it… a bit. We’ll see. No pressure. (Ha. Haaaaa).
OB is a story of obsession, and I’m a little bit (ahem) obsessed with it, if truth be told. I’m aiming to have it finished and to my agents this month (I am very, very close), at which point the wait begins for edits… Publishing is a long slog! :D While waiting for those edits, I’ll return to those other three YA ideas…
November is nearly upon us, and so is my birthday! WOOP! I’m thinking it’s about time I do a giveaway of one of the TEETH IN THE MIST ARCs… look for that soon over on my instagram and twitter. TEETH is also available to add to your Goodreads TBR, and I’ve just learned it’s also available for pre-order!
Onto reading. A recent 5* read:
Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney
(GO BUY THIS BOOK NOW IT WAS AMAZEBALLS). Alice Feeney is an author I’m going to watch. She is subtle, but her narrative blows a punch that was breathtaking. More of this, please.
Current Read: NIGHT FILM by Marisha Pessl
Night Film by Marisha Pessl
I’m reading this one and listening to the audiobook. Have you read it? What did you think?
And finally, I’m back on YouTube after a 7 month break! WOOP! Head on over there to check out my Halloween Book Recommendations and Haul video.
we float down here… halloween 2018
That’s all for now, folks! Keep bookish, and keep fiendish.
xoxo
It’s finally here! THE COVER FOR TEETH IN THE MIST!!! It was revealed over at the NOVL and the love I’ve been getting for it so far has been amazing. Thank you, endlessly!
I went on Instagram Live (my favourite thing at the moment!) and chatted about why I love this book so much, and why I’m nervous for you guys to like it. See, when I went in to this book, I wanted to write a horror version of epic-fantasy. I saw epic-fantasy novel, these sprawling tales that had far-reaching consequences across the centuries, but I never saw anything like that in the horror genre. I decided I wanted to have a go at it. What I ended up with was a Gothic horror-fantasy.
TEETH IN THE MIST is a cross-genre book that has definite horror and gothic elements, but also has magic and sigils and powers and lessons and a quest. So this book become much more than it was meant to be. So I’m eager to see if you guys might like and accept it. My little book feels like the new kid on the block.
As for the cover, I LOVE IT. I wrote about the process of the cover evolution over on the NOVL, and I hope you’ll go and read it about it there and leave a comment so they know that you like the cover and want to see them do more reveals and surprises in future.
I’m also doing something a little different this time! If you guys would repost the cover image of TEETH IN THE MIST on your instagram page or twitter, then I’ll comment on it and give you a follow! This way, we can spread the word about the book and I can get to know you guys better. If you’re game, don’t forget to use the hashtag: #TEETHINTHEMIST so I can find you!
Lastly, I’m still running two giveaways (one over on twitter—it’s pinned to my profile— and one on instagram). All you have to do is repost the image, follow me, and you could win a 2018 book of your choice from the book depository (provided they ship to your country).
Thank you for all the amazing support for this book. It nearly killed me, but it was totally worth it!
Love,
There's something sinister in these mountainous hills...
March 2014
That was my first thought when I looked into these slate mountains, and it was the first seedling of what was to become my third YA novel: TEETH IN THE MIST. The journey to "the end" was a tough one, and I'll be talking about that a little in the coming months. In the meantime, though, I just want to tell you that I did it. Despite incredible odds, I finished. It's easy to tie our self worth, as artists, to our art. It's easy to feel unworthy unless we are producing, creating, making at all times. It's a dangerous mentality, and completely and utterly untrue. We are all valuable human beings, whether we are creating art or not. I needed that reminder. Still... I FINISHED THE BOOK!!! It is something I can hold in my hands and cry over (trust me, there will be tears).
Much in the same way that writing THE DEAD HOUSE was a massive cathartic act, where I took this trauma I had experienced and put it into a story, something I could close the door on and hold in my hands; something outside of my own head, TEETH IN THE MIST has done the same thing. How amazing, to have experienced this twice! I am profoundly relieved to be on the other side. Whew. Now I can be proud. Now I can acknowledge the dark alleyways I had to navigate to get here. Now I can breathe.
My badass witch girls are coming to you guys in June 2019. But there is so much to look forward to until then. Be sure to subscribe to my newsletter for timely updates and exclusive giveaways and news, and check out my instagram too (I go live there most mornings to chat to you guys).
“She is a shadow upon a midnight river; she is the eye of the storm.”
Cover being revealed in September 2018...
