Books, Books, Books
Happy New Year! I hope everyone had restful holidays and lots of good food, and thank you all for following along for another year. This particular newsletter is going to be very long and overfull with books and art, so here goooooes.
Books
The Secret Life of Hidden Places, my and April Genevieve Tucholke’s adult nonfiction about architectural mysteries, is out in the US and the UK in exactly one month. And it’s coming to audiobook, too, narrated in splendid English baritone by James Langton.
This will be a busy year for audiobooks. Release the Wolves is also coming to audio in June, and - surprise, surprise - A Drop of Night, too, thanks to my awesome editor and HarperAudio. I will post more details about those two closer to release.
Speaking of Release the Wolves: I got to do a map for it! I’m very excited about this. And I’m working on chapter decorations now. I’ll post sneak peeks in the coming months. Here is the Rovina Cai cover again, because I just love it. It will be out June 25th.
I was also honored to be a part of Nate Pedersen’s upcoming anthology called The Dagon Collection, which has a very cool concept: an auction catalog for mystical artifacts pertaining to H.P. Lovecraft’s writings. My entry is called The Bloodskirt’s Key. Look at this gorgeous cover.
Die Letzten Hexen von Blackbird Castle was on German TV yesterday! It was the children’s book recommendation on 3Sat. Thank you so much to whoever made this happen.
UPCOMING EVENTS
There’s a fun upcoming event in Basel, Switzerland, at midnight! On a boat! And they used one of my ghost illustration for the poster for the fest, which I thought was lovely. I’ll be there on January 19th, reading from Die Letzten Hexen von Blackbird Castle, but there are lots of other cool things happening and authors reading. Infos here!
I’ll also be in Savannah, Georgia, for the Savannah Book Festival in February for the launch of The Secret Life of Hidden Places, together with my friend and co-author April Genevieve Tucholke, and in Lucerne in March for the Lettera Festival.
Launch of Storytelling Schweiz
I talked about this a while ago, and after a loooooot of work from all involved, the Storytelling Schweiz initiative is launching its second phase now!
Starting January 8th and running until July 31st, Storytelling Schweiz will be accepting entries from young people as well as spreading storytelling tips and inspiration from established Swiss authors and illustrators. The goal is to boost existing creators of Swiss children’s literature and also encourage the development of a new generation of storytellers.
If you know of any Swiss kids between the ages of 12-18 with a story to tell, and an enthusiasm for language, this is for them. (Not to mention there are 10,000 francs worth of prizes to be won.)
Check out our instagram for weekly storytelling tips, and subscribe to the Autillus newsletter for news about the Swiss children’s and young people’s writers and illustrators scene. And thanks so much to all our excellent sponsors. What an adventure this has been, and continues to be.
Teaching
Sign-up is open for next year’s Extramundana, the national workshop for up-and-coming fantasy writers ages 16-30, coached by me, Jyoti Guptara, and Bettina Belmont, and run by the excellent people at the Junges Literaturlabor in Zürich. This is our third year doing this, and it’s always a blast. Spots are limited to twelve, and the deadline for submissions is February 12th.
Art round-up
Here is all my personal art from the last two months. I’m trying to use more color! Slowly but surely. . . .
