Before & After Evil

Because LONG LIVE EVIL is about a reader walking into a story she loves and catapulting it into chaos, I had a vision of Before & After pictures that @vkelleyart executed amazingly so I wished to show them side by side!

Pray play spot the difference… the light of rising flames, outfit changes, snek.

I really wanted both pictures to be beautiful, for the energy to alter completely, and to say ‘People matter. Our relationships influence who we are and where we’re going. You change the story just by being in it.’ And to let you know… you’re going to have fun.

Here’s the UK preorder link with this art…

I find this post-engagement exchange in Pride & Prejudice between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy very cute:

...To be sure you know no actual good of me—but nobody thinks of that when they fall in love.” (E) “Was there no good in your affectionate behaviour to Jane, while she was ill at Netherfield?” (D) “Dearest Jane! who could have done less for her? But make a virtue of it by all means. My good qualities are under your protection, and you are to exaggerate them as much as possible...." (E)

Because in a way Elizabeth's right, it's pretty normal for a sister to take care of a sister when she's sick. But in another way, he's right because Mary refused to come and Kitty and Lydia only cared about the ball.

It's this cute thing about how we can't even see our own virtues that others fall in love with.

Shape-shifting is one of fairy tale’s dominant and characteristic wonders: hands are cut off, found and reattached, babies’ throats are slit, but they are later restored to life, a rusty lamp turns into an all-powerful talisman, a humble pestle and mortar becomes the winged vehicle of the fairy enchantress Baba Yaga, the beggar changes into the powerful enchantress and the slattern in the filthy donkeyskin into a golden-haired princess. More so than the presence of fairies, the moral function, the imagined antiquity and oral anonymity of the ultimate source, and the happy ending (though all these factors help towards a definition of the genre), metamorphosis defines the fairy tale.

—Marina Warner, From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales and Their Tellers

Okay so Dear My Followers Who Aren’t Discworld People,

I bet you get so FUCKING confused when I and dozens of others are putting all this “Glorious 25th of May” stuff on your dash so let me TELL YOU what it’s ALL ABOUT okay but I had a couple shots too fast so bear with my lightweight ass.

It’s a thing from a book called Night Watch by Terry Pratchett. On May 25 in-universe, a thing happened called the “Glorious Revolution” where in this city called Ankh-Morpork the leader (Patrician) died (was sort of assassinated sort of induced into having a heart attack) and a new leader came to power. There was a lot of unrest in the city because the regular people were like Life Sucks We Want Things To Not Suck In These Particular Ways. So the Bad side of the police got dispatched to quell the rebellion and also the damn army got made involved, while there was a group of ragtag Good police who ended up just trying to actually keep the peace and protect the rebels so things would calm down, but a bunch of them got killed and the revolution ended with the new leader sucking almost as bad as the old leader and yeah everything still kinda sucked.

Fast forward a bunch of years to our hero Sam Vimes the commander of the Watch cops chasing a criminal and getting zapped back into the past by magical lightning no that’s not a joke. Vimes was a teenage new police recruit the first time the Glorious 25th happened and now he’s in the past having to pretend to be the guy who trained him the first time. As the same things happen as happened before in this pivotal moment in his life/the city’s history.

And like!! Vimes knows what’s going to happen! He knows people are going to die!! And he knows that if anything about the past changes too much, he won’t be able to go home to his proper present. But the criminal he was chasing got zapped back to the past too so he has to catch that guy so he can go back to the present and have justice be served.

BUT!!!! Even though he KNOWS he probably can’t save anyone who’s “supposed to die” and even though he KNOWS he’s doomed to lose everything he has in his present if things change too much (his wife! is about to have their child!)!!! HE TRIES TO SAVE PEOPLE. Because they’re good men!! And if the price of going home is NOT TRYING! and selling those good men to the night! He doesn’t want to pay it!!

So he TRIES. So fucking hard. Because if he didn’t, he wouldn’t be Sam Vimes.

And okay anyway let’s not spoil the whole book KidK but anyway! When the good cops are out doing their duty trying to just help things be peaceful in the city, one of them is like “we should have some kind of banner or plume to show we’re in this together” and one of them is like “how about sprigs of lilac I mean they’re all over the place.” So that’s why lilac.

And that’s why Glorious 25th.

And the fandom decided to celebrate it as a remembrance of Terry Pratchett and as a Thing to raise awareness for Alzheimer’s because that’s what PTerry died of.

So that’s what this is all about. A really good book about time travel and found family and comradeship and trying your best against the worst kind of odds. And a really good author who shouldn’t be dead and trying to help others with his same illness.

That’s why lilac, that’s why 25th of May. Okay? Okay.

Hey anybody going to talk about rescued sacrificial maidens. Like yes a guy with a fuck off sword turned up and so you're not getting fed to the dragon/water creature/mountain spirit/vague embodiment of all things scary and you get to go back home, but is that really home? Your mom hugs you and your dad says he's so happy you're alive and you know that when they said they'll do anything to keep you safe they didn't really mean it. They have a feast prepared and you get to taste what they cooked for your funeral, help wash the dishes after. And it's selfish to think that between the whole village with everyone in it and you they wouldn't pick the lesser evil but it still leaves an emptiness in your chest, knowing exactly how much your life is worth. And the neighbors smile at you awkwardly and the neighbors' kids yell "hey! I thought you died!" because they don't know not to do that yet and maybe you did. Maybe you did.

And the hero with the fuck-off sword rode off into the sunset the way they always do but you're still here and you herd the cows by the cliff where you were tied up in your cleanest clothes waiting to not be alive anymore and sometimes you think that would be easier and when you don't come back one day, you can imagine it's a relief for everyone involved. Maybe you'll be the new thing to haunt the mountain, or maybe you'll follow down the road and listen for cries that sound like yours did. Either way, there's little left to fear. You know exactly how much your life is worth.

I love seeing two writers I love connected in this way. Like Diana Wynne Jones being smacked by Beatrix Potter, or Arthur Conan Doyle stealing Agatha Christie’s glove, but nicer.

Dear @meganwhalenturner,

You’ve talked before about how Diana Wynne Jones was an inspiration for you. Which of her titles do you feel had the largest impact on you as a person and/or within the Queen’s Thief series?

This question is for Science. (But no pressure to answer.)

I sure did. Thrilled we’re getting such a gorgeous cover this side of the pond!

Swordcrossed - UK cover reveal

THE SWORDS. THE DRAMA. THE PINK AND GREEN.

(I am, no lie, wearing a pink & green striped jumper today and it was entirely unintentional. it's just a perfect colour combination.)

UK preorder links

US preorder links

The inestimable @sarahreesbrennan was hypnotised via dastardly means into reading it, and said, "Freya Marske's books catch my heart with a butterfly net, because I believe in her characters so utterly . . . Swordcrossed proves there's nothing in fantasy – or queer romance – Marske can't do."

And if you've only just wandered in here and are wondering what the hell the book's about (beyond......swords. crossing.), read on:

Mattinesh Jay, dutiful heir to his struggling family business, needs to hire an experienced swordsman to serve as best man for his arranged marriage. Sword-challenge at the ceremony could destroy all hope of restoring his family’s wealth, something that Matti has been trying – and failing – to do for the past ten years. What he can afford, unfortunately, is part-time con artist and full-time charming menace Luca Piere. Luca, for his part, is trying to reinvent himself in a new city. All he wants to do is make some easy money and try to forget the crime he committed in his home town. He didn’t plan on being blackmailed into giving sword lessons to a chronically responsible – and inconveniently handsome – wool merchant like Matti. However, neither Matti’s business troubles nor Luca himself are quite what – or who – they seem. As the days to Matti’s wedding count down, the two of them become entangled in the intrigue and sabotage that have brought Matti’s house to the brink of ruin. And when Luca’s secrets threaten to drive a blade through their growing alliance, both Matti and Luca will have to answer the question: how many lies are you prepared to strip away when the truth could mean losing everything you want?

(tl;dr - two disasters fall in love! freya did a lot of research about the wool industry and is going to show it off! and someone does, in fact, put the point of their sword under someone else's chin.)

Hello!! I absolutely adored In Other Lands and am very intrigued by Long Live Evil - however, I know that sometimes villain-centric content can understandably veer into gory violence and horror, which unfortunately happen to be really big Nopes for me personally. (Awesome for those who enjoy it, though!) May I ask how you would rate the level of violence/gore/horror in LLE, so I can figure out whether it's a good fit for me? Thank you!!

Hello my love!

Thank you for your kind words about In Other Lands, and thank you for your interest in Long Live Evil. I am very excited and very terrified about its release after not having a book of my own out for so long, thus I truly appreciate it. And I was tempted to assure you that it would be 100% fine go ahead and get it. But you gave me trust by asking and I shall not break the covenant between writer and reader: my main aim must be to give you stories you’ll enjoy.

There is violence in Long Live Evil for sure—assassins, cursed descendant of a berserker family, dishonourable bodyguard for whom murder is a reflex, death and the undead—but there’s also violence in In Other Lands. I do like thinking about the consequences of fantasy battles and fantasy unconquerable warriors—what does it mean to be a living weapon, what if our enemies are people, what if our enemies are monsters and monsters are people, so that’s always going to be a theme.

I’m a horror girlie, to be honest, so I don’t know if my barometer reading for the horrors is accurate. Raised on Dracula and Interview with the Vampire, some of my favourite movies Scream and Ready or Not, recent 5-star read My Heart Is A Chainsaw. So I don’t want to mislead you. (I recently was talking enthusiastically about swimming with sharks to my friend and then remembered she fears the deep! And felt so bad!) LLE is firmly fantasy, but I do think my love for horror creeps through all my work.

I do think my humour (also raised on Terry Pratchett and Diana Wynne Jones and it shows!) cuts the horror quite a lot. Pratchett also contains violence, death and the undead, of course, and definitely if Pratchett is a no-go for you Long Live Evil will be too. Another friend of mine who has issues with the dead wasn’t bothered by LLE at all. (I do aspire to write horror one day so that may be a concern, but a concern for another time!) I would say that if you found my other books to be OK for your sensibilities, probably LLE will be as well.

But I can’t be entirely sure, so do seek out other reviews and opinions, and come to your own conclusions! I am sorry I cannot be more helpful, but I am trying to be 100% honest. Thank you again.

Hello, Tumblr:

Just popping in, after a long absence, to tell you about the pre-order campaign for my Author's Preferred Text editions of the Bone Season series.

As you may know if you've followed me for a while, I wrote my debut novel, The Bone Season, when I was nineteen and still at university. For its tenth anniversary last year, I decided to re-approach the book with ten years' more writing experience under my belt, and have since revised the whole series to bring it in line with the first. Bloomsbury has given the revised series a beautiful new look, with jackets illustrated by Ivan Belikov, the artist behind The Priory of the Orange Tree and A Day of Fallen Night.

The first book is available in hardback now, and the other three are coming in May, in either hardback or paperback. The audiobooks will also be revised, with narration by Alana Kerr Collins. You can pre-order them here.

If you're pre-ordering from the US, the UK or Canada, you can claim a beautiful art print of Paige and Warden by artist Erica Chan. Details here.

I hope you enjoy the revisions as much as I've enjoyed working on them.

-

The year is 2059. For two centuries, the Republic of Scion has led an oppressive campaign against unnaturalness in Europe. 

In London, Paige Mahoney holds a high rank in the criminal underworld. The right hand of the ruthless White Binder, Paige is a dreamwalker, a rare and formidable kind of clairvoyant. Under Scion law, she commits treason simply by breathing. 

When Paige is arrested for murder, she meets the mysterious founders of Scion, who have designs on her uncommon abilities. If she is to survive and escape, Paige must use every skill at her disposal – and put her trust in someone who ought to be her enemy.

like @seananmcguire I reply slowly - there were also several years where I was all ‘I’m not a writer anymore, they are so kind to write to me but if I wrote back they would See’ so that left me even further behind - but I WILL reply.

And I used to reply to my comments, too. I don’t write in an ivory tower, and if I did I’d always be peeping out my window, trying to see the light that showed me where other people were. Send me a message. Do you see my light? In the end we’re all looking for each other’s light, I think.

You again?

like literally if i didn’t want to see some weird nonsense i wouldn’t be consuming scifi

The new interview by the older interviewer is how I sell the shoe to people. It’s such a smart adaptational change, underlining the allure of immortality and the inevitability of loss and the importance of story—who tells it when, who listens. Changing the frame narrative changes the picture.

I don't think we talk enough about how genius is the change they made with Daniel being a lot older in the show.

I just love the premise that it's the exact same interview because Louis and Armand are in a lot of ways incapable of change but Daniel has lived an entire life (even if he doesn't remember some of it) that has shaped him into the person he is now.

You can never pass the same river twice and all that.

It adds so much to the story!

Daniel is absolutely my favorite character from the show!

SENSE8 | 1x05 - “Art Is Like Religion”

The After Picture.

Happy to say the Orbit UK preorder book and art link, which was glitching due to villainous gremlins, is fixed! Thank you so much to all my preorderers! I’ll be talking more about US preorder art soon, but I wanted to do a proper Grand Reveal of the Long Live Evil After Picture by the glorious @vkelleyart.

My vision was an epic fantasy tableau, then thrown into chaos by my villains - adding sinister lights but also a lot of fun and personality to the scene! And it was executed flawlessly. Here they are, the heroes and villains all together. Cursed lord, king with attached legend, peerless beauty… meet the playboy spymaster, axe murdering maid, dishonourable bodyguard and of course the villainess of the piece. Can’t wait for you all to meet the vipers and see the chaos.

I place the UK preorder with art link here…

Today’s the day.

May is a very busy month in the library I work in but the best part of it is always when I get to create a window display for The Glorious 25th of May. Sir Terry is my absolute favourite author of all time and I love been able to showcase his work to the people of Galway (and maybe get a few converts to the Discworld along the way 😉).

This year we have The Great A'Tuin on display again. Huge thanks are always due to the amazing Paul Kidby, who so kindly gave us permission to reproduce this spectacular art for library display 🥰

We also have a fabulous Lego mosaic of Sir Terry created by the one and only Brick Morpork (@BrickMorpork on Instagram). This mosaic was 1st prize in last years Irish Discworld Convention raffle and one of my best friends (and a fellow librarian) was the lucky winner. Big hugs and kisses M for letting me have it 😘😘

So if you're around Galway, come and have a look. It's on display till next Friday, there might even be a couple of new additions to it 🤫 And finally, thank you to Sir Terry for the amazing world he created and the joy it keeps on giving to us all 🐢🐘🦧🧙‍♂️🧙‍♀️

Fun fact of the day

Critiquing Regency Romance for historical accuracy is like going to Medieval Times and whining about how the special "elixir" is actually Dr Pepper and they didn't drink that in the real medieval times