The new covers, side-by-side. ‘Bodies’ comes out November 1.

 

October Update

‘Bodies of Stone and Water’ Out November 1

 

The new AI book is out on November 1, and I’ll be making ‘Minds of Sand and Light’ free for the month of November to introduce anyone who’s interested. I’ve decided to go with a cleaner, more minimalist design for the cover of book 2. I’ve amended the cover for book 1 to match, so now both books now have minimalist covers.

Unfortunately this only applies for copies of ‘Minds of Sand and Light’ outside Australia. Harper-Collins Australia continue to own the rights to ‘Minds’ in Australia, so they have control over the pricing and cover. I’m already in enough legal debt from trying to get the rights back on ‘Dark Heavens’ (and they still haven’t responded about that!) so for now – they can have it.

This means that book 1 won’t be a freebie for Australians, sorry. BUT if you respond to this email and ask me for a copy of ‘Minds of Sand and Light’, I’ll be happy to pass the (revised) International ebook version through to you as a gift. High-level patrons will be receiving hardcover versions of both – and I’ll have the signed paperbacks and hardcovers available on my website for sale as soon as I’m happy with them.

The publication process for ‘Minds’ was horribly fraught. The editors at Harper-Collins wanted to make really massive changes to everything about the book, and I had to fight them every step of the way. By the time the book was finally published, I was exhausted by the whole process. It’s only now, that book 2 is complete, that I have the energy to go back to ‘Minds’ and fix it. The changes aren’t huge – I did fight back hard about my vision – and you probably won’t notice the difference.

‘Bodies of Stone and Water’ has been a joy compared to it. Katie, my editor, could see what I was doing and didn’t fight me on it! She questioned some of the social commentary without demanding that I remove it. Such a refreshing change.

The list of my other books at the front of this novel has the titles of ‘Queen of Hell’, ‘Her Two Kings’ and ‘Hearts of Glass and Bone’ up there, and none of those books are out yet.

‘Dark Heavens’ Re-Release

 

Yekateryna’s final cover illustration! This is just the front, and I received it yesterday and have been messing with ideas for a poster etc since then. She’s done a terrific foiled design that I’ve shared with the Patrons (if you’re a Patron seeing this newsletter and not the Patron-specific one, let me know, Mailchimp is messing me around) and the illustration is for both front and back covers, AND she’s given me about 2cm all around the edge to give me space to work with the hardcover and possibly bookmarks/posters in future.

Yes, that is the Gold Coast, and that is Jewel and Q1 buildings.

I’m planning to release this later this year. The interior is fixed and done (so many changes) and Yekateryna will be working on Book 2 later this month. The students at University of Canberra suggested the Dragon’s Palace Under the Sea for book 3 – perfection. I still have no idea for the rest of the books.

I’m open to suggestions on a very wide illustration idea for the sprayed edges for the entire series. I can do them book-by-book so they build up into a big design. It’ll be about 35 cm across and 20 cm high. What should I put on it?

Let me know!