There are a couple of absolutely awesome-looking debut middle grade novels coming out really soon. In case you’ve been living under a rock (it’s nice under there; the worms are friendly) or in case you don’t normally read middle grade, this is they. I’ve read the openings of both of them (see below for links) and they look fantastic.
The Dreamsnatcher, by Abi Elphinstone
Release date: February 26th, 2015
Goodreads Description
Twelve-year-old Molly Pecksniff wakes one night in the middle of the forest, lured there by a recurring nightmare – the one with the drums and the rattles and the masks. The Dreamsnatcher is waiting. He has already taken her dreams and now he wants her life.
Because Moll is more important than she knows… The Oracle Bones foretold that she and Gryff, a wildcat that has always been by her side, are the only ones who can fight back against the Dreamsnatcher’s dark magic. Suddenly everything is at stake, and Moll is drawn into a world full of secrets, magic and adventure.
Here’s the book trailer (I don’t normally bother with book trailers, but this one is great).
The D’Evil Diaries, by Tatum Flynn
Release date: April 2nd, 2015
Goodreads Description
A hilarious, crackling, original debut about an unlucky demon, perfect for fans of Derek Landy and Eoin Colfer.
Twelve-year-old Jinx is hopeless at being evil. Which is a bit of a problem when you’re Lucifer’s youngest son. But when Jinx runs away from Pandemonium, the walled city he’s lived in all his life, he bumps into dead girl Tommy – who’s been sent to Hell for accidentally feeding her nasty uncle to a circus lion – and unearths a conspiracy that could up-end the entire underworld.
Cue shenanigans involving carnivorous carousel horses, death-trap-riddled libraries and hungry quicksand. Now the fate of the realm rests in the hands of its most unlikely demon and a girl who shouldn’t be in Hell at all…
So, I’ve just finished the copyedits for Secrets of the Dragon Tomb. This is actually the first time the book has felt really real. Obviously it’s not laid out yet, or bound up in a cover or anything like that. It’s still a printed manuscript. But seeing it like that, covered in copyeditor and editor marks, with notations for the layout and so on, well, that basically says: this is going to be a real book. Everyone involved is acting like it’s going to be a real book. It’s not just in my head. A machine is in motion and it’s gaining momentum.
Anyway, that’s not what I was going to blog about. I was going to blog about copyediting.
This manuscript, this Secrets of the Dragon tomb has been read dozens and dozens of times. It has been read by me (over and over and over and over again), my critique partners, by Steph, by my agent and my editor. It’s been reworked and revised and polished repeatedly. So it should be good. It should be a shining jewel of sparkly unicorn-ness. Right?
Oh dear.
This, folks, is why we have the absolute lifesavers called copyeditors. These wonderful, lovely people seek out errors and inconsistencies like I seek out the last square of chocolate in the house.
Here are just a few of the errors that my lovely copyeditor picked up:
I used two different names for the same character in the first two pages (oh, and since you ask, this is the version currently doing the rounds on international submissions…)
I clearly have no idea how to use hyphens. Not the slightest idea. At least 90% of my hyphens were deleted by the end
Similarly, me and commas have only the slightest acquaintance. Indeed, if we were at a ball in Regency England, we would need a third party to introduce us before we could properly speak to each other
And so on. That’s just the beginning of it.
I know not everyone goes through a traditional publisher when they put their book out. I know a lot of people self-publish (and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that; it works for a lot of people, and very well). But if you do, for all that’s holy, please, please do yourself a favour and employ a copyeditor, because no matter how well you thought you did it, you absolutely have to realise you are but a worthless worm of incompetence without them.
An aside (or a below)
You can now pre-order Secrets of the Dragon Tomb pretty much anywhere except Amazon.com (because they are being weird):
It looks like the publication date of SECRETS OF THE DRAGON TOMB has been pushed back once again, this time until January 12th, 2016. Sometimes publishing feels like being Alice through the looking glass: no matter how fast your run, things never get any closer.
Image copyright to me (Patrick Samphire).
So, yeah, I can’t say I’m over thrilled by this development, but, you know, it gives me the incentive to just get on and write something else entirely. With so long until SECRETS OF THE DRAGON TOMB comes out (and who knows for sure that it won’t get bounced again), I can probably write an entirely different novel between now and then. I’m thinking of having a go at an urban fantasy, because I’ve been reading a lot of urban fantasy and really enjoying it (and I have some ideas, which always helps…).
So, does anyone have any recommendations for good urban fantasy? I love Jim Butcher and Laurell Hamilton and I’ve enjoyed books by Patricia Briggs and other similar writers. I also love some of the more British urban fantasy writers (who often edge into horror) like Mike Carey and Ben Aaronovitch. Steph has recommended Ilona Andrews.
So, what else should I be reading in the genre?
Update: Over on twitter, C.G. Cameron recommended Tanya Huff, so that’s going on the list, if you’re looking for UF books yourself.
Hey folks. This time around, I thought I’d highlight three really good looking books that are being published today.
Just a Drop of Water, by Kerry O’Malley Cerra
Ever since he was little, Jake Green has longed to be a soldier and a hero like his grandpa, who died serving his country. Right now, though, he just wants to outsmart—and outrun—the rival cross country team, the Palmetto Bugs. But then the tragedy of September 11 happens. It’s quickly discovered that one of the hijackers lived nearby, making Jake’s Florida town an FBI hot spot. Two days later, the tragedy becomes even more personal when Jake’s best friend, Sam Madina, is pummeled for being an Arab Muslim by their bully classmate, Bobby.
According to Jake’s personal code of conduct, anyone who beats up your best friend is due for a butt kicking, and so Jake goes after Bobby. But soon after, Sam’s father is detained by the FBI and Jake’s mom doubts the innocence of Sam’s family, forcing Jake to choose between his best friend and his parents. When Jake finds out that Sam’s been keeping secrets, too, he doesn’t know who his allies are anymore. But the final blow comes when his grandpa’s real past is revealed to Jake. Suddenly, everything he ever knew to be true feels like one big lie. In the end, he must decide: either walk away from Sam and the revenge that Bobby has planned, or become the hero he’s always aspired to be.
A powerful story of a girl who is afraid to touch another person’s skin, until the boy auditioning for Hamlet opposite her Ophelia gives her a reason to overcome her fears.
Step on a crack, break your mother’s back. Touch another person’s skin, and Dad’s gone for good.
Caddie can’t stop thinking that if she keeps from touching another person’s skin, her parents might get back together… which is why she wears full-length gloves to school and covers every inch of her skin.
It seems harmless at first, but Caddie’s obsession soon threatens her ambitions as an actress. She desperately wants to play Ophelia in her school’s production of Hamlet. But that would mean touching Peter, who’s auditioning for the title role—and kissing him. Part of Caddie would love nothing more than to kiss Peter—but the other part isn’t sure she’s brave enough to let herself fall.
Perfect for fans of Laurie Halse Anderson, this debut novel from Rachel M. Wilson is a moving story of a talented girl who’s fighting an increasingly severe anxiety disorder, and the friends and family who stand by her.
This one is already out in the UK, but today is the US publication day.
Just like any other morning, Skylar Rousseau is late for school, but when she is greeted by a blanket of silent stares upon entering Blackfin High, she discovers that the whole town thought she fell from the pier and drowned on her sixteenth birthday three months earlier. However, Sky remembers the last three months living her life as normal, and since she is a full, living breathing human being, she has no idea whose body is buried underneath her tombstone. Everyone seems reluctant to help except her steadfast friend and crush, Sean … and a secretive man who draws her to a mysterious circus in the woods.
Sky must wade through impossibilities and lies to discover the truth about what happened to her, which proves to be a bit difficult when someone is following her every move with the intent to harm her. And Sky’s only hope of finding the answers she seeks may have already been turned to ashes.
So, I’ve been buried deep in revisions of SECRETS OF THE DRAGON TOMB these last three weeks or so, hiding in the corner of a cafe for four or five hours a day whacking away about it.
While I was busy working a few very cool things showed up.
First up, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and the rest are now all listing the publication day for SECRETS OF THE DRAGON TOMB as August 18, 2015. I haven’t heard anything official, but for now, I’m going to assume this is right.
Second up, SECRETS… is now actually available for pre-order from Book Depository, Books-a-Million, various international Amazons, including Amazon UK (although oddly not Amazon USA, which is peculiar, because right now it’s only scheduled for North American publication), and it’s listed on Indiebound, although whether you pre-order it probably depends on your local indie store.
There’s no cover or book description up on any of those sites yet, but you can preorder anyway! (Here’s some info about the book right here on this lovely website, just for you.)
Well, good morning everyone! (Or, you know, good some other time of day. Whatever.)
Today I’m really excited, because it’s the day that Stephanie Burgis’s Courting Magic is published. This is the fourth book in the Kat, Incorrigible series, which started with Kat, Incorrigible (titled A Most Improper Magick in the U.K.)
Courting Magic takes place five years after the last book, with our heroine, Kat, just about to enter Regency society. But Kat is not just any young lady, she is a magical Guardian and a witch, and she’s been given a mission to uncover an illusionist who is infiltrating parties to steal from the guests.
Courting Magic is a novella, so it’s about half the length of the Kat novels, but it’s still got everything you’d expect from a Kat novel: adventure, romance, magic, and one of the best heroines you’ll read.
This is the blurb:
In Kat Stephenson’s Regency England, magic is even more shocking than a stolen kiss. But now that she’s eighteen, it’s time for wild and magical Kat to be introduced to high society by her older sisters, whether she likes it or not…and to finally have a romance of her own!
Of course, her true love is hopelessly ineligible. But when has Kat ever let Society’s opinion stop her from making up her own mind? Once she realizes she’s found her perfect match, she’s not going to let anything or anyone stand in their way – even if she does have to solve a magical mystery, matchmake for an old friend, and break a few rules along the way!
“Courting Magic” is a sparkling 34,000-word Regency novella set in the world of Kat, Incorrigible.
Courting Magic is available as an ebook pretty much anywhere you can buy ebooks.
Yes, I’ve just received my editorial letter for my first novel, Secrets of the Dragon Tomb. For those of you who don’t know about such things, you get an editorial letter after you’ve sold your book, as part of the publishing process. It’s where the editor goes through in detail what you need to change to make the book publishable. Pretty much every book gets one of these. Maybe there are a few bestsellers who don’t, but everyone else does. The edits can be minor or incredibly major (and if you self-publish, you’ll need to hire an editor to provide the feedback for you, because you always need it).
Anyway, this is basically the feedback I got in my editorial letter:
Or something like that… :)
As my book is a middle grade book, a couple of the things I’m having to fix are making the protagonist younger (he’ll be 12, instead of 14 as he originally was) and making the book shorter (it was 100,000 words in the first draft, 75,000 words in the draft that my editor bought, and will now need to be closer to 60-65,000 words.
I’m also going to have a map at the front of the book. I love maps at the front of books! In fact, it’s not really a book if it doesn’t have a map, right???
Luckily for everyone, a proper artist is going to draw the map, but I had to provide a rough version for them to work with.
So, as a kind of peek, here’s the map I sent to my editor.
Mars in 1816. Image based on Google Mars images.
I don’t intend to explain what any of the things are on the map. You’ll have to wait for the book. I did decide to alter the geography of Mars a bit, because I have the power.
Well, who’d of thought. It’s turned hot. Really, really hot for Wales. (“Wales: not always raining…”) I suppose the correct response to this would be to dig out some shorts from somewhere, grab a cool yet awesome hat, and head out to enjoy it. Instead, I’ve drawn the curtains. Well, we’re not really built for this kind of weather over here.
Anyway, I’ve been playing about with the openings of two possible books for the last couple of weeks, and today I really nailed one, so I’m going to pursue this idea for a while. Luckily, both of these books are planned as chapter books, at around 10k words, so I should be able to get both done if I can find good openings for both.
In other news, Steph has revealed the cover to her forthcoming novella in the Kat, Incorrigible series, Courting Magic, set about five years after the previous Kat book. You can see the cover reveal over at the YA Book Nerd blog. I designed the cover, and I’m pretty pleased with the way it turned out.
I’ll do a blog entry in the next few days talking about the idea for the cover and what I did to make it, for those who are interested in such things.
That’s all for now. The sunshine is getting too close, and I must hide…
I have had a revelation. No more of this proper writing stuff. You know the thing. You work and work and work at being completely original, with great plots, fantastic ideas, fascinating, surprising characters, and writing that would make poets eat their own quills with jealousy.
Well, no more! Next time around, I am going high-concept. You know the kind of thing: “It’s J.K. Rowling meets James Joyce!” or “It’s Philip Roth meets Enid Blyton”. That kind of thing. No more having to come up with my own ideas. Just take two random ideas and stick ’em together.
A twelve year old farm boy is chosen to go on a quest to slay (or possibly collect) terrible beasts in all colours of the rainbow, in order to save The Land from a terrible but unspecified doom.
Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief) meets Meg Cabot (The Princess Diaries) – The Princess Thief
A twelve year old boy (there’s a theme here) discovers he is a princess when one of his teachers suddenly turns into a monster and attacks him with a magical tiara. He is forced to flee to princess school. Or whatever. Losing the will to live…
A. A. Milne (Winnie the Pooh) meets Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games) – Poo(h) Games
Okay. I’m stopping now.
So. Which would you read, and what’s your high-concept idea?
So, some of you may wonder where I’ve been recently.
No? Really?
Well, as it happens, I’ve been on a grim interplanetary adventure. No, I didn’t get sucked into the John Carter movie (things haven’t been quite that bad).
Instead, the Martians kidnapped my lovely debut novel, Secrets of the Dragon Tomb, and I’ve spent the last few parsecs (yes, I know that’s a unit of length, not time) getting it back.
Unfortunately, as a result, the publication date of Secrets of the Dragon Tomb has been bumped back. It won’t now be published in Fall 2014. It’ll be coming out in Spring 2015 instead.
Still, at least I kicked some Martian butt in the process, so it’s not all bad, right?
