Happy Touraine's Arms Day!
After what feels like one thousand years, my first novel is finally out into the wide, wide world. I feel a lot of very complicated ways, especially given the world that it’s coming out in. I’m taking this day, this project, and the next one, and the next as a victory. I worked so, so hard on this book for almost ten years. I hope that it hits the people who need it.
First: if you are on the fence about buying it or need to see something cool, just check out this site Orbit made, with The Unbroken’s MAP!!! How can you resist??
I’d like to say thank you to all of you, here, who have followed my newsletter, pre-ordered the book, requested from your libraries and your bookstores, reviewed early, told your friends and family—I literally could not do this without you. I appreciate your support—some of you from a very long time ago!
Here’s a small present, from my arms to yours:
I won’t belabor the point here—I know you all have at least one thing you should be doing right now *cough-reading-cough* (and listening to this playlist, courtesy of Reads Rainbow) and I am fresh out of coherent thoughts at the moment. I will be having a glass or two of champagne to celebrate while playing Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla so I can ignore (yes, ignore) the things everyone will be saying about the book.
Appearances
- I’ll be doing an AMA (Ask Me Anything!) over at r/fantasy today! Come ask me some questions! (Click through to this post for the final link!)
- I’ll be chatting with the New Orleans bookshop Tubby and Coo’s on my UK release day, Mar 25 @ 12 PM CST//5 PM GMT. Come join us!
- At the weekend, Spectrum Writers London and the Super Relaxed Fantasy Club are having me and Tasha Suri again, along the ever amazing Portal Bookshop and a few other folks about writing LGBT science fiction and fantasy—Mar 27 @ 2 PM GMT! Get your tickets for £7!
- Catch me at Patrick Rothfuss’s Worldbuilders Twitch stream on Tuesday, Mar 30 @ 12 PM CST//6 PM BST here.
- I’ll be on another Twitch stream on Wednesday, Mar 31 at 4:30 PM EST//9:30 PM BST with my beloved Escape Artist podcast bosses Al and Marguerite!
- I’ll be making appearances at both WonderCon and Flights of Foundry in April!
- Check out this writing prompt I made with The Story Engine deck! It’s very on-brand for me, and now it’s yours to do with as you will—leave a comment if it sparks something! Here it is on Twitter.
Past events/recordings:
- Orbit LIVE with Tasha Suri, author of Empire of Sand and Realm of Ash - We talk about writing empires, historical influences, villains, fanfic, and kissing
- Worldbuilding for Masochists Podcast, Episode 46: Join If You Know the Chorus - about in-text song and story in The Unbroken, sea shanties, and more
- Fantasy Inn Episode 76 - An interview with yours truly! We talk post-colonial war narratives, editing audio short stories for PodCastle, and of course, the secret behind Touraine’s killer biceps
- FanFiAddict - I chat with FanFiAddict’s David Walters! He also recently spoke with my cover artist, Tommy Arnold, and they talk about The Unbroken’s cover!
Written Interviews
- The Nerd Daily
- Winter is Coming
- This annotated first chapter over at Civilian Reader
- So so so many more, but these are the ones I have links for now. Look out for others at Word Wonders for Fadwa’s #ColorTheShelves and Qwillery and Jo Ladzinski’s blog; essays about aspects of the book and my process over at Mary Robinette Kowal’s My Favorite Bit column, John Scalzi’s The Big Idea, and Chuck Wendig’s Five Things I Learned. I’ll also have an essay about war narratives in fantasy coming out in Fantasy Magazine some time in April. (I’ll try to update these links later, but you know—life is life.)
There are very likely (read: definitely; I know because I recorded them) appearances coming up on various podcasts, conventions, and streams, but not everything has been finalized with links or aired yet. I’ll get an updated list on my website soon for you all to peruse it at your leisure.
Finally, a note for those who entered the pre-order giveaway: I am in the process of mailing out bookplates to as many people as my budget allowed; please allow 2 weeks or so for shipping. (Unfortunately, I cannot notify everyone individually.)
Thank you again, everyone, for your support and your enthusiasm. If you want to know how I’m coping, I’ve been watching Lubalin videos one, two, three, four, and five on a loop and dancing. Lubalin three is my autobiography.