Exclusive look at deleted SING ME FORGOTTEN epilogue!
In This Issue:
NEWS - Sing Me Forgotten made it to the Book Shimmy Awards final round!
More NEWS - A Forgery of Roses received a STARRED review from Kirkus!
Book Rec of the Month - Little Thieves by Margaret Owen
Exclusive Content - Read the deleted epilogue to Sing Me Forgotten!
NEWS - Sing Me Forgotten made it to the Book Shimmy Awards final round!
Thank you so much to everyone who voted for both of my books in the semi-final round! I was so excited to see Sing Me Forgotten make it through to the final round in the category "All By My Shelf" (best stand-alone novel). Voting is still going on, so if you feel so inclined, I'd be so grateful for anyone who votes for it again in the finals! Vote as many times as you'd like to HERE!
If you're looking for ideas of what else to vote for, I'll let you in on some of my favorites this year! For "Best of Shelf," Wings of Ebony by J. Elle was a fantastic debut this year! Lakesedge by Lyndall Clipstone is an excellent choice for "Hot under the Covers," Gods & Monsters by Shelby Mahurin for "Cover Lust," Within These Wicked Walls by Lauren Blackwood for "Retellings," and We Are the Fire by Sam Taylor for "Maniacal Laughter."
Thanks again to all who voted! I truly don't deserve you! <3
More NEWS - A Forgery of Roses received a STARRED review from Kirkus!
Kirkus Reviews, one of the biggest trade reviewers in the biz, gave A Forgery of Roses a star! To say I'm honored and thrilled would be an understatement! If you'd like to check out the full review, you can do so HERE!
Book Rec of the Month - Little Thieves by Margaret Owen
LISTEN. This book is one of my favorites I've read this year. Maybe one of my favorites ever? Definitely top 20. It was so. Much. Fun. It's a retelling of Goose Girl from the villain's POV, and I loved her so much. AND THERE'S A GUY NAMED EMERIC IN THIS BOOK. Was it fate for me to adore it? Probably. Was it fate for me to shove it at everyone I know? Who cares? I'mma do it anyway.
Here's the official blurb:
Once upon a time, there was a horrible girl...
Vanja Schmidt knows that no gift is freely given, not even a mother's love--and she's on the hook for one hell of a debt. Vanja, the adopted goddaughter of Death and Fortune, was Princess Gisele's dutiful servant up until a year ago. That was when Vanja's otherworldly mothers demanded a terrible price for their care, and Vanja decided to steal her future back... by stealing Gisele's life for herself.
The real Gisele is left a penniless nobody while Vanja uses an enchanted string of pearls to take her place. Now, Vanja leads a lonely but lucrative double life as princess and jewel thief, charming nobility while emptying their coffers to fund her great escape. Then, one heist away from freedom, Vanja crosses the wrong god and is cursed to an untimely end: turning into jewels, stone by stone, for her greed.
Vanja has just two weeks to figure out how to break her curse and make her getaway. And with a feral guardian half-god, Gisele's sinister fiancé, and an overeager junior detective on Vanja's tail, she'll have to pull the biggest grift yet to save her own life.
Margaret Owen, author of The Merciful Crow series, crafts a delightfully irreverent retelling of "The Goose Girl" about stolen lives, thorny truths, and the wicked girls at the heart of both.
Order it on:
Amazon, BookDepository, IndieBound, Barnes & Noble, or Books-A-Million
And make sure to add it on Goodreads!
Exclusive Content - Read the deleted epilogue to Sing Me Forgotten!
Thank you so much to everyone who voted for both of my books in the Book Shimmy semi-final round! As a thank you, below you'll be able to read the epilogue I promised! A few heads-up items: As this is an epilogue, it is SUPER SPOILERY. Do not read it if you have not yet read Sing Me Forgotten. DO NOT PASS GO. Also, when I went back to the super early draft that this epilogue was in and read it, I realized just how much I have grown as a writer since then (it's been over three years!). Putting it lightly... this epilogue needed quite a bit of work. So I went in and did some revising and fixing up before presenting it to you. But, in spite of that, please bear in mind that this has not been through any rounds with any kind of editor. In fact, I deleted this epilogue from the story before I even queried to get an agent with this manuscript--that's how far back in the process I got rid of it.
Why didn't I keep it? Well, while I loved the idea of getting a glimpse at Emeric and Arlette after the events of Sing Me Forgotten's final chapter, I realized that the epilogue didn't really add anything to the story that wasn't already there. I wasn't setting up for a second book, wasn't trying to tie any loose ends... really, it was just a metaphorical band-aid I was trying to put on the massive wound the end of Sing Me Forgotten inflicted on me when I wrote it (hahaha *weeps*)
Anyway, with all of those caveats out of the way, I present to you the deleted epilogue! I hope you enjoy!
EPILOGUE
Something is missing.
Emeric Rodin stares at the newspaper spread like a map on the dirt floor in front of him. A photograph of what remains of the Channe Opera House warps in his vision from the front page, its black ink blurring into the words in the columns beside it, words telling of the thousands of people who perished that night three months ago when the city skyline burned orange, of the mysterious artifacts found in a crypt beneath the rubble, of the mass murderer who vanished like a ghost.
Where is the killer now? article after article asks, listing innumerable pieces of evidence and facts and theories like they might add up to the answer everyone seems to be seeking.
But something is missing.
Emeric should know what it is. He should know why his soul feels trapped in an unending yawn, reaching and reaching for something he cannot quite grasp hold of, something slippery like smoke, desperate like dreaming.
The newspaper ruffles, flapping like wings in the magnolia breeze that keeps sighing in through the cracks in the walls of the hidden shack he and Arlette have made their home. The twitching flame on his candle gutters out.
Emeric makes no move to reignite it. Instead, he watches the wick glow red, red, red as a sunset, red as blood, red as the curls of the girl he met on that hill in the snow the night he survived what the rest of the cast of Le Berger did not.
“They haven’t found her yet.” Arlette’s words startle him, and he blinks up at his sister as she enters the room wrapped in a blanket. “None of those articles are going to tell you where she is.”
He mops a hand over his face. “I know.”
“You should sleep.” Her hand settles on his shoulder.
“I will,” he tells her, pressing his palm over her knuckles. “I just need another moment or two.”
She watches him, silent, and though he can see nothing of her expression in the dark, he knows she must be pressing her lips together, scrunching her brow, trying to see through his face to the thoughts tumbling behind it.
“Maybe it’s time to let it go, Emeric,” she finally whispers. "Maybe she doesn't want to be found."
He drops his hand from hers and gets to his feet. “Good night, Arlette.” Grasping her close, he presses a kiss to her forehead before heading for the door. “A few minutes, like I said. I just need some air.”
“Emeric–”
But he doesn’t wait to hear what else she has to say. He’s already ducked out into March’s midnight chill, hugging his arms close to keep from shivering as he trudges through the woods.
Once he’s sure he’s far enough away that Arlette won’t hear, he digs the necklace out of his shirt and holds it so it glimmers in the moonlight. For all the things he wishes he could remember about the months leading up to the Channe Opera House Massacre, this mystery is perhaps the one whose answers he craves the most.
He knows the necklace belonged to her–this mysterious Isda who saved Arlette’s life–but why did she give it to him? Where has she gone? Was it she who burned the opera house and killed all those people, like Arlette believes? And if so, what made her do it?
He slides his thumb into the seam on the pendant’s side. The tiny ballerina emerges and begins to twirl. Tinkling bells tiptoe through the quiet air, soft as secrets. He closes his eyes, stills his heart, and listens.
Sometimes, if he concentrates hard enough, if he waits for the time of night when the shadows come out and curl around him like a breath, he hears… something. A countermelody just beyond his reach. A voice he should know, golden and hypnotic as caramel, lovely and full of a longing so deep it makes his bones ache…
His eyes fly open, but before he can dig his fingernails into the sound, before he can remember, it’s gone again, darting away from him like the lilting up of a question mark at the end of a lyric.
“Isda,” he whispers to the moon. “Who are you?”
But the moon doesn’t answer.
And neither does she.
And that's a wrap on my final newsletter of 2021! Can you believe we made it through this monster of a year? Let's hope 2022 treats us a little better!
I hope you all have a lovely holiday and a fantastic new year celebration! Before we know it, A Forgery of Roses will be releasing, so make sure to keep an eye out for my newsletters leading up to the publication date! I'll be revealing all sorts of fun things in the next couple months--preorder gifts, where to get signed copies, and launch events! It's going to be so fun!
Until then, thank you for being my favorites! Sending love from my home to yours this holiday season!
