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Bird bird bird, bird is the word…

The delicious delicious word.

I must be dreaming.

No, pretty sure I can reach it from here.

Oooh, I wanna watch this…

Ptery vs. Tortie, sure, why not, beats pay per view.

A new stand-alone novel set in the Schooled in Magic universe!

A hundred years before Emily, the world is in chaos. The Empire is in ruins. Old certainties are collapsing everywhere. The provinces are becoming kingdoms, the magical aristocracy is trying to redefine its place in the new world disorder, the commoners are being ground under and bold or desperate men are preparing their bids for apotheosis or nemesis. The world teeters on the brink … and Whitehall School is caught in the middle, a pawn of greater powers.

For common-born magicians Alan and Irene, scorned and despised by their aristocratic peers, the challenge is to keep their heads down long enough to graduate and go out into the world as qualified magicians. For Walter, Heir to House Ashworth, the challenge is to take advantage of the chaos to build an unassailable position and put himself in firm control. For Hasdrubal, Charmsmaster of Whitehall, the challenge is to protect the school from outside powers seeking to subvert or destroy it …

And they will all be swept up in a desperate battle to save Whitehall, because the school is now the centre of a plot to remake the world once and for all.

Read a FREE SAMPLE, then purchase from Amazon US, UK, CAN, AUS, Draft2Digital or my Private Bookstore.

Writing and publishing plans, Dolly the crazy chicken update, one of my series leaving KU, and other news.

Actually I had to deal with the fact that Kit at eighteen/nineteen cannot POSSIBLY fit into a jacket he had when he was fifteen so he obviously had to go out and buy the exact same jacket in a larger size. Which does get mentioned. Kit thinks that might make him weird, and it probably does.

(He does take it off when he wears gear, though, and enough time doesn't really pass in TKLOF to worry about laundry.)

First: I want to apologize. I normally post the full cover (front, spine, back), but… I missed the window to download that from the publisher =/. Second, someone in comments asked about sample chapters—and I realized that it is, in fact, the end of March, and Cast in Blood is coming out on the 28th of April. So: I have sample chapters, and the regular front-only cover. Much of my day is focused on my youngest at the moment, but as he gets used to being at home, he is much, much happier than he was during his long hospital stay—and that makes things easier for me. It gives me more of my brain-space back; it gives me room to think … Continue reading →

In reply to Celia.

Maybe a Light sigl that allows you to project a blinding field around an enemy’s eyes, similar to the Haywire Stephen uses to mess with strength sigls?

She is separated from him a time or two, and the separation does affect them both. It's very clear that their bond is under a lot of pressure, magically speaking.

You know, he actually did remind me a lot of Conor while I was writing him — probably the dissipated prince thing. He definitely has nice clothes and is fashionable, and does a certain amount of complaining when his clothes are ruined, but I don't think anyone is as much of a fashion icon as Conor, though it would be fun to see if Ash could start a trend in court of like, faeries wearing cowboy hats made out of moss or something. If he wore it everyone else would probably have to.

That's a good question! TWP is the first series to really revolve around a prophecy. The current prophecy (not all of which has been deciphered) is a bit like a series of threats ("If someone does not do X, Y will happen) but they feel obligated to take it seriously since it's been right about a lot of things that have happened and continue to happen (so it cannot be mere speculation). Even though, you're right, they don't know the source. It's probably always a good idea to regard the source of a prophecy with some suspicion. :)

Hi! I am so sorry if there was confusion about this. The Wicked Powers was never supposed to be four books that I remember — it was sold to publishers as a trilogy. (If it was meant to be four books, it would have been sold as four books, publishers like to know what they are getting!)

Here is the official announcement of Wicked Powers being sold, which calls it “the final trilogy” in Shadowhunters.

In 2023 I sort of mused out loud about how many books it might end up being, but it was very “I don’t know” and that that was before the announcement (in 2024) that it was going to be a trilogy. And you never do know. I’d have to be further along in the story to decide whether a fourth book was needed, so all I can say is that it’s supposed to be a trilogy, it was sold as a trilogy, but then so was TMI.

I know there is a lot of anxiety about the fact that there are four main characters and three covers at the moment. I don’t know who is going on the later covers but I can promise you this is something my publisher is well aware of! We’ll figure something out. And if eventually it does stretch to four books, well, that would fix that problem!

Hey! Well, as authors, we don't really get to determine who does what special editions. It's up to stores and the like. I can tell you there will be at least one book box edition that isn't US based and at least two other UK based special editions. If you loved the B&N one, you just need to wait about a week or two.

The Scholomance isn't really about chasing down students and making them come back if they don't want to. It's voluntary to be there.

This is a very funny question. I do get what you mean: in the past, young Shadowhunters have had to deal with a corrupt or incompetent Clave along with other enemies. Now we know the Clave is neither corrupt nor incompetent, and hopefully not too many jerks are in positions of influence. I can promise that Alec has not gone mad with power or anything.

So indeed, in this iteration of things, the Clave is not the problem. The Clave is also sort of split, and the Cohort remains a threat, along with plenty of other evildoers. As for why the kids have to handle some of this themselves and not have the Consul etc. handle it, well. Let's just say things are chaotic and it isn't possible for the adults to handle all the kids' problems.

(Ty, Kit and Dru are not currently doing any necromancy, although they will have to all deal with the fallout from past necromancy. )

Also, I set my alarm to remind me to open up my inbox for questions, then it didn't go off! I am technologically cursed. Trying to be more reliable, though!

Art @sincerely.candice.slater

“So House Andrews are on tour and Mod R is ‘in charge’. Pah. As if we need a babysitter. When did we ever get in trouble?”

“I have the alphabetized list here somewhere…”

“All right, so we’ve occasionally been in the wrong place at the wrong time. No one can link it back to us.”

“Mod R is cool anyway. She supports Horde rights.”

“And more importantly, she comes up with defenses for Horde wrongs. Which never happened.”

“Nice save.”

“Focus! What’s the situation?”

“Only four sleeps until This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me. Tuesday, we ride at dawn!”

“Um, I can’t actually ride at dawn. I couldn’t take time off work, sorry.”

“We ride at lunch break!”

“That works, thanks.”

“FOR MAGGIE! She’s one of us, one of us, one of us!”

“Imagine, dropped into her own favourite story… historically, we’ve dealt with that very well.”

“Have we, though?”

“Well, we’ve done Nav.”

“Eh. More like Nav did us.”

“The point is: CASTLES! Politics. Assassins. Questionable decisions. Emotional compromise. That’s our natural habitat.”

“Maggie’s adventures are a trilogy, Ilona confirmed it. Seems unsafe to me. That means w*iting for two sequels.”

“Dollar for the swear jar, we’ve talked about this. It’s not like House Andrews even do actual cliffhangers. Cliff-leaners, at most.”

“But with no one coming to save us…”

“Think about it. That means no one’s coming to stop us, either.”

“Ooooh. Game changer! So we can do anything.”

“Even better, my friend. We can do everything.”

Mod R: “Okay, let’s remember fluffiness … is that Andrea’s crossbow?!”

“It’s fine, I’m practically an honorary bouda.”

Mod R: “No weapons during Horde strategy! It’s Ferret Safety 101, people. We are regrouping, we are being chalant, we are—”

“Barsa?”

Mod R: “Resting. You need your strength.”

“Can we get a bedtime story? We’ll lie down and pretend to nap.”

Mod R: “Once upon a time, in the great world of readers, there lived a Horde…”

“Not a nasty, pillaging Horde!”

“The best Horde.”

Mod R: “…and they were given a book, for them and for all readers who have ever wished to get lost in a story…”

“And then, we made it into a bestseller?”

Mod R: “And then, we made it into a bestseller indeed. And we devoured dushegubilly ever after.”

“Read it again, Mod R?”

The post 4 Sleeps ’till Maggie first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

 ...and the book!

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With the pirate battle moon captured Jethro and the pirate empress in custody; the Cadre must secure it for the Federation's future while also preparing for the next fight.

At home and abroad Shanti and the family deal with the fallout from the attempted abduction of Bagheera as well as family members starting their own life paths. The brass refused to allow Shanti in on the investigation into the abduction however Shanti has other ideas.

While Jethro and the Cadre sail cross the stellar void to their next battlefield against nightmarish foes; Shanti has to fight on her own battlefield, battling politics and corporate espionage but reminding one and all What We Fight For…

Amazon: Amazon

B&N: To be continued...

 Well, the Tally Hawk is up:

I did a couple videos but they came out shaky. I was kinda fatigued from putting it up. I'll try again later.

There’s been a lot of focus lately on the new readers joining us, and I wanted to take a moment to talk to the people who have been here all along.

Thank you.

Many of you have cared for these books for years, even longer than I have. My inbox is always full of questions, recommendations, fun stuff that reminded you of IA, and only the occasional emotional spiral about a detail I’ve never even considered from the stories we love. As House Andrews have said many times before, that makes it all worth it. You are seen and you are beloved.

At release time, one particular question shows up enough that I know the Horde speaks with one voice: “What’s the best way to support the book?”

It’s true that readers who understand the publishing ecosystem tend to behave in certain ways. And people call the BDH many things on the mean streets, but never ‘uninformed’ – so let’s get into it.

The cold reality is that what happens in the first few weeks after a release matters far more than it probably should. Visibility drives everything. Willingly or not, we all live somewhere in the algorithm.

Reviews

They don’t need to be long, and they don’t need to be polished critique. Most of us have been on the other end, quickly checking for best fit before our decision battery runs out. Clear, in spaces where new readers will see them, and soon after release is what usually matters here.

Reviews also don’t have to be positive. Whatever yucks your yum could easily be the next person’s favorite thing! If you go straight to the one-star reviews to see what the haters say, I see you. I’ve bought books so fast my credit card was left spinning because of DNF reasons that sounded amazing to me. Female protagonist is too bossy, my left foot!

I know purists will pipe up and say they never look at a book that has less than 4.5 stars etc, but bestseller data don’t lie. This is what a good audience reach looks like for a book – all sorts of people read this and felt things about it:

Word of mouth

Recommending the book, talking about it, posting about it.

There’s another thriving misconception here that it needs to go viral, or it only counts if it’s done by “big account” influencers. Most of us trust recommendations from people we know far more than the new BookTok engagement driver who mentions the same book as everyone else for the 127th time in a row.

From bestie to bestie and book club to book club, that’s how good books travel.

Library requests and bookstore interaction

We all know that librarians are the superheroes of Book World. There’s no way to overstate how influential they can be in making good books available to the right audience. So request the book you want, check it out, bring it on the librarian’s radar. They’ll take it from there.

Equally, bookstores don’t take wild guesses when it comes to what they stock. Demand drives decision. If you’ve ever found a favorite book by browsing the shelves of the local retailer, there’s a good chance it got there because enough people asked for it, preordered, bought, and showed interest in it and others of the same genre/type.

Why is any of this important to us? We already know what we like, what we’re buying and in how many formats.

Because this is how we get ants

Visibility doesn’t stay contained to one book.

New readers discover one series, and then go looking for everything else. That’s how older series find new life, stay relevant and *ahem* continue.

The questions about sequels come up a lot and I don’t mind answering them every day, that’s part of why I’m here. Woot, Mod R gets the big bucks! But those answers don’t change from post to post and derailing the attention from the new releases isn’t getting us the wins we think. If a series isn’t marked as Finished or Finished for Now on the Release Schedule page, it will continue when the time and creativity allow for it. They’re not forgotten, and we’ll be the first to know as soon as a release date is official.

Speaking of behaviours that work against the very thing we’re hoping for: there’s the instinct to hold off until a series is complete before buying it or starting on it. It’s understandable, but it is also a self-fulfilling prophecy. A series that doesn’t sell and doesn’t get early momentum is a series that isn’t viable and won’t continue. I could sugarcoat it, but you know I’m your girl that keeps it real.

This all applies to book releases in general and none of it is prescriptive. Read only what you want, because life is short and the news cycle even shorter. Support however is convenient. Ignore all of this entirely if you prefer, or as always, take what is useful and leave the rest.

As for This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me in particular – it’s an idea House Andrews has wanted to explore for a long time, and worked hard to bring into the world.

We know better than anyone else what kind of ride we’re in for when that happens. For the Horde!

The post Book Support first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

There aren’t structural flashbacks, but between each chapter there are interstitials. These can be anything from pages from a book of Faerie history to the viewpoints of characters we haven’t seen much in the main narrative stories or an alternate perspective on a scene we’ve already experienced. There is one big flashback I can think of but it’s more like a vision of something that was forgotten than a journey into the past. At the moment there are more flashbacks in LPOH.

Hello, all.

I thought I would check in and let you know where I am and what’s been going on.

I hope everyone enjoyed the Matthew Corbett series. I certainly enjoyed writing it and I hated to leave the characters but Matthew’s story was done and it was time to move on.

I took the opportunity to reflect on where I’ve been and where I’m going. Then I decided to write a musical play, which I finished today, March 23rd. It concerns the last days of a famous (or infamous) fictional figure. There are sixteen songs and two reprises, and I’m hoping it will see the stage around Halloween of 2027. This is for sure not iron-clad, as there of course remains much to do, but I’m hopeful. I’ll let you know more as the project progresses.

Next up, I’m going to finish the Trevor Lawson tetralogy. It’s high time to get the vampire/bounty hunter up and running again in his search for LaRouge and his battle with the Dark Society.

In the meantime, I would urge you to check out the video trailer that a very talented fan has created for the Corbett series, bringing in a lot of scenes from the books. This has been made with AI, and no matter your feelings on this hot-button subject, for a major studio to have made this trailer would have cost multiple millions of dollars.

I will risk being burned at the stake by saying we may be looking at the future of film-making, and that five years from now we may be astounded by what results from this new creative tool. Every new creative tool has met with controversy and become a hot-button issue, but just take a look at this video and consider what will be available in five years’ time. Of course we can’t know the future and probably shouldn’t, but time marches onward and though we may resist what comes out of the looming mists one has to be in awe of the possibilities. So…as they say…it is what it is. The real question is: what can it be?

On to Trevor now, and awakening him from the long sleep he’s been having. I can tell you he’s eager to strap on that gunbelt! Again, I’ll let you know more about the play as the details are hammered down. (Hammer…my favorite movie studio!)

As always, I thank you for your support and readership and for wanting to take this journey together. I can promise you, we still have a long way to go!

Best to you and enjoy your Spring and Summer,

Bred in the Bone is sad, but not because anything terrible happens to Julian or Emma. It is more sad in the philosophical sense of reminding us that nothing is permanent, that as Stephen King once titled a story, "All that you love will be carried away." Mortality, human nature, love, you know. The little stuff.

So it's not so much sad as haunting, I would say. And Emma and Julian are fine; we see them in book one. Still happy, still together. :-)