Hello everyone,
I hope you are all keeping well!
May was another busy busy month, however June is about to get even busier. I’m on deadline – with means my nose must be flat to the grindstone so the manuscript for book 3 is with my editor before I go on holidays.
Wish me luck!
The Children of Gods and Fighting Men
The paperback is now out everywhere apart from North America, Australia and New Zealand.
The dates for these releases are:
N. America – 8th August 2023
Australia/NZ – 5th September 2023
Back home, it’s been lovely to see the paperbacks when I’ve been out shopping in Waterstones. Honestly, to be on one of the main tables is a dream come true.
When I was younger, I’d beg for book tokens for birthdays and Christmas – and these were always the books I checked out first.
More good news – I’ve reached 1,009 ratings on Goodreads this month, which is amazing. I will stop giving you this tally now that I’ve reached 1,000 – but it’s been lots of fun to watch this tick up and knowing that people are still reading my book so many months after publication.
Amazon paperback order link 👇
Waterstones paperback order link 👇
The Words of Kings and Prophets
The marketing work for The Words of Kings and Prophets – Book 2 in The Gael Song series – is ramping up!
Now all the editing work is completed, this is the fun part.
So, things for you to know.
Release dates are expected to be:
UK/Ireland/Europe/Commonwealth publishing area – 14th September
North America – 3rd October
Australia/NZ – 28th November
E-Book/Audiobook – 14th September (all territories)
The audiobook announcement is my big news since last month – and this is now available to pre-order on Amazon. I can also confirm that Aoife McMahon is returning to narrate the story.
If you are a blogger/bookstagrammer/booktuber or review books on TikTok, you can request an arc via Netgalley.
Also – if you are a blogger/booktuber/Tiktoker, please let me know if you are interested in joining my blogtour. Quite a few have emailed already, which has been lovely to see!
Amazon order link 👇
Social media and events
This month, I took part in a conversation with the lovely Dr. Philip Chase, where we both talked about our respective books.
If you don’t know Philip, he is a booktuber and has studied medieval history. He is a bit of a Tolkien expert and is also a writer himself.
For this video, he read my book, The Children of Gods and Fighting Men, and I read his book, The Way of Edan.
If you want to hear us talk about our books, historical and mythological inspirations, and our influences, then you should check it out. It was lots of fun.
This month, I took part in a panel at MCM London Comic-Con – which was AMAZING!!
I was there with my 12 year old son, who just had an absolute blast. The cosplay was unbelievably good – and the vast array of creators just took my breath away. I did literally take us hours to get around and see everything.
I took part in a folklore panel with TJ Klune, A.Y. Chao, Kit Whitfield, Verity Holloway and Ashley Stokes. It was such an interesting chat. I think TJ Klune was the absolute star of the show and gave such great insight into his life and writing.
Here is a picture of me with A.Y. Chao and TJ Klune after we did our book signing.
Writing news
I’m currently working on editing book 3 of The Gael Song series. I am already about 72% though the editing process and will keep going throughout June as the book has to be handed in at the end of the month.
I also can say that…
I have signed a two book novella deal with HoZ – both of which are set in The Gael Song world! I don’t have any more details to share yet regarding titles and release dates, but I can let you know that the first novella has already been handed in!
Reading
I read some lovely books this month. These are, The Way of Edan by Philip Chase, Sons of Darkness by Gourav Mohanty, When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain by Nghi Vo, and The Lost War by Justin Lee Anderson.
I haven’t written all my reviews up yet – I am blaming my edits!
Here are the links to the ones I did find time to write. As always, I will post the others next month!
Sons of Darkness – https://shaunalawless.com/2023/05/19/sons-of-darkness-by-gourav-mohanty/
Daughter of the Moon Goddess – https://shaunalawless.com/2023/05/17/book-review-daughter-of-the-moon-goddess-by-sue-lynn-tan/
Bye for now!