Hello friends,
For shame – I forgot to blog this week. (I’m cranking through the first round of revisions on The Traitor and the Tunnel – the only things I’m doing, really, are eating and writing.) Please accept my sincere apologies. On Monday, I’ll be back with an overt bribe: an excerpt from book 2, The Body at the Tower.
Until then!
Hello friends,
On Tuesday, I finished the first full draft of the third MQ novel, The Traitor and the Tunnel. (*weak cheer*) Consequently, my brain most resembles a smallish bowl of cooling tapioca. Today I’ll confine myself to announcing that yesterday was the official pub date for the French edition of A Spy in the House. Here’s the cover:
As you can see, they’ve changed the title to The Jade Pendant. I like that the series is still called The Agency, and not L’agence. What do you think?
For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been crashing inelegantly towards the end of the third Mary Quinn novel, The Traitor and the Tunnel. I’m seeing progress, at last, and it feels good. I can tell I’m near because I’ve started making lists of things to do and books to read A.D. (After Delivery). Now, this is still a couple of weeks off, but it’s never too early to list. So far, I’ve got (in no particular order):
YA & genre:
Perchance to Dream, by Lisa Mantchev
The Hunchback Assignments, by Arthur Slade
In the Serpent’s Coils, by Tiffany Trent
Hearts at Stake, by Alyxandra Harvey
The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag, by Alan Bradley
Sairius Littricha:
Empire of the Sun, by J G Ballard
Changing My Mind, by Zadie Smith (yes, a foray into non-fiction)
Romola, by George Eliot
So, bookish friends – what am I missing? What else would you recommend?
This week, in reviews:
Lynn Rutan of Bookends (Booklist’s children’s & YA blog) calls Spy “terrific… intriguing… enticing” and demands, “More more!”
Teens Read Too gives Spy a Gold Star Award for excellence! Reviewer Jennifer Rummel says it’s “pure magical entertainment. A great feisty heroine, lots of danger, plenty of mysteries to untangle, and a little romance creates a wonderfully perfect first edition to a new series.”
At Pipedreaming, Vikki VanSickle says, “A Spy in the House is the love child of Libba Bray’s Gemma Doyle trilogy and Ally Carter’s Gallagher series and then some”!
Thank you so much, you enthusiastic librarians and booksellers. I’m honoured.
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