Hello everyone,
I hope you are all keeping well!
I seriously cannot believe that February is over. It’s already getting a bit warmer and the evenings longer – and I am impatient for Spring to arrive. How about you?
February for me has been very busy. Lots of excitement (and anxiety) is building as the structural edit for The Words of Kings and Prophets is now finished!
As anyone will tell you in publishing, sometimes it’s very quiet, sometimes it’s very busy. November to January was quiet post the book launch of The Children of Gods and Fighting Men, however, in February, publishing activity picked up again.
So what’s coming up you ask? Well, I’ll tell ya!
The Children of Gods and Fighting Men
The paperback is out in U.K./Ireland/Europe on the 11th May 2023. Very excitingly, the paperback will feature an extract of the prologue of book 2!! That’s right. New content will be available with the paperback release.
(The USA/Canada paperback release is in August.)
Here is the U.K. Amazon link, If you’d like to preorder! However, you can also order from your local bookstores too.
I will be doing a giveaway for newsletter subscribers once I get my copies, so keep your eyes peeled for that.
Another exciting announcement is that The Children of Gods and Fighting Men WON the ‘Best Traditionally Published Debut’ by FanFiAddict Magazine. I literally couldn’t believe it. I even got this snazzy sticker!!
There were lots of amazing books nominated across all 4 categories, so if you are looking for a recommendation, have a wee look at all the nominees.
I also appeared in Fantasy Faction’s top 50 books of 2022.
I made it to number 22 myself – and I have to say there are a lot of amazing books here. Several of which I have already read, and another batch are on my TBR for this year.
If you want a nosey to see who else made the list, here is the link below!
Fantasy-Faction’s Top 50 SFF Books of 2022
In terms of personal milestones, I reached 700 ratings on Goodreads this month, which is amazing. If you have left a rating or a review, thanks so much. It means a lot.
If you haven’t yet, please think about doing one. It can be anywhere at all – goodreads, amazon, waterstones, social media. Word of mouth really does pay off.
Another huge surprise was the traction I gained in Europe over the last month. The English editions seemed to gather a bit of momentum and I reached number 1 in my Amazon sub categories in Spain, France, Germany, and The Netherlands. How amazing is that?
The Words of Kings and Prophets
Aside from the paperback, the next big thing for me will be the release of The Words of Kings and Prophets – Book 2 in The Gael Song series.
As I mentioned above, I’ve been very busy with this. The structural edits are now completed and I expect the copy edits to be in next week. That’s a very quick turnaround, however, I do enjoy this part of the process. It’s really nice to get the book into as great a shape as possible before it hits early reviewers and Netgalley.
If you are a blogger or review for Netgalley, do keep your eyes peeled. I’d guess that it will up for review by April.
It’s also nice to note that all the preorder links for America and Canada Amazon are now fixed. It’s also now available to pre order at Barnes and Noble.
Release dates are expected to be:
UK/Ireland/Europe/Commonwealth publishing area – 14th September
North America – 3rd October
Audiobook – is expected to be ready around the same time as the UK book release, however, that is not confirmed. I will keep you posted as soon as I know more.
Writing
I’m currently working on book 3 of The Gael Song series and I’m 105,000 words in.
I’m happy with this progress as I also spent two weeks in February doing the structural edits.
I know the copy edits will be in by the end of next week, which means that a significant portion of March will be taken up with that. However, I still would like to think that I’ll be around the 130k mark by the month end – which actually means I should be finished the drafting phase – or at least very nearly.
This is right on schedule and means I can spend April – June editing and polishing before I hand the manuscript into Head of Zeus.
Social media
This month I took part in a booktube interview with Steve Talks Books, and I took part in a writing advice video put together by ToriTalks.
The first video I want to talk about, is the one I did with Steve Talks Books. This was a spoiler review and chat of The Children of Gods and Fighting Men – so I got asked lots of questions about the plot and characters. If you’ve read the book and want a listen, here is the link.
For those who haven’t read, maybe leave it until later. It’s full of spoilers!!
And I also appeared in Tori’s video.
If you are writing and feel deflated or ever wondered how other authors feel about their writing process, then this is excellent. It features over 30 authors, giving quick bits of advice. Well worth a watch.
Another YouTuber that I really want to recommend is William Gwynne. You might know him from the reviews he does with his brother Ed, however, he also has his own channel where he speaks about other books. He did a video on his 10 most recent 5 star reads, which The Children of Gods and Fighting Men featured in.
If you like fantasy, historical fiction and classical literature, he’s one to watch.
Oh and lastly, I had a lovely book review from a Spanish booktuber, called Elena!! It’s so lovely to see that my book is being read in so many different countries!
Events
I will be talking about my book with Fantasy Fellowship on the 3rd March. This is on the topic of mythology – so if that’s something you are interested in, check that out!
In person events that I will be attending in 2023 are:
London Comic Con (28th May)
Cymera (4th June).
A few more details have trickled in – and I know I am appearing on Sunday the 28th May at the London ComicCon at 2:30pm. My panel is on fantasy and folklore – should be very interesting!!
Thanks for reading! I’ve gone over my books and writing in this blog update, but my newsletter also covers my reading updates and will have some giveaways in the next couple of months. If you haven’t subscribed yet, here is the link!
https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/113796/62156773538137319/share
And if you want to subscribe to the blog, here is the link for that!
Shauna Lawless is writing 