(For the uninitiated: the four parts are signing, delivery and acceptance, hardback publication, paperback publication. There are three books, so it's in twelve parts, slightly front-loaded since I signed all three together. The last will be the paperback of the third book.)

My PhD stipend goes up a little bit each year; it's still not large amounts of money, but it's what I'm living on. My advance payments don't, despite the fact that some of them are no longer advance because they happen after the book is out.

Especially because often that schedule gets elongated by factors outside the author's control – they may have met every deadline but a book might still be delayed. That 2028 payment could end up being 2029. It will be the same amount, regardless.

Cost of living rises, taxes rise, other wages rise, but as an author you get the same payments six years apart and nobody really talks about the fact that the last one is worth less than the first.

Orange was another hard colour from what I remember. No love for the citrus buddies from cover designers.

Yellow is a rare colour for books. I remember when I did bookstagram and I used to try to do colour themed posts sometimes and yellow was always a struggle.

The launch is completely gluten- and nut-free, which is more than can be said of most events. But I'm sorry, I cannot bake without eggs as I'm intolerant to nearly all the substitutes and I rely on the eggs for vital structural integrity reasons.

The cakes aren't vegan because vegan baking is pretty much incompatible with my own allergies and dietary needs and when it's my party, I put my own ability to eat the cakes before others'. (There'll be crisps and fruit alternatives though.) So not everyone will eat them and we should have enough.

This is such a lovely review and you picked out so many things that I was hoping readers would notice, thank you! I got emotional reading this.

Yeah, it's frustrating, particularly if release dates are close.

Oh, that's so frustrating. On the... plus? side, I have previously bought a book by mistake because it had the same title as another one, and then enjoyed it, so maybe you'll pick up a few readers.

There are a couple of other books that share my debut's title but they're in v different genres.

I don't know, I also periodically get them about MTAF, usually negging me about how few reviews it's had and how little buzz there is (which is true but they didn't have to say it).

Glad you enjoyed it!

I'm not aware that this friend has ever publicly posted about me or my books, or that their email address is widely available.

Truly don't know how this could have happened, at all. Unless they're spamming a LOT of people about book clubs wanting to read The Wolf And His King and one of them just happened to be someone who knows me and could message me about it.

Bím ag obair air, cinnte. Though that doesn't mean I'm any good at it 😆 I would probably agree with "do" + possessive pronoun ("for its knowledge" = "to know [it]"?), though pinch of salt because I'm very migrainey and brain foggy this evening so that's somewhat vibes-based.

Yeah, they both (UK and US) seem to be working hard and the combo means half the work for either side but double impact. Here's hoping it translates into actual sales! (And maybe brings some attention back to my poor neglected YA, which I do think was just as good, albeit in different ways haha.)

Honestly, I don't know either. I think as usual it's a whole combination of things, including that it's a retelling (though not of a particularly well-known story outside of medievalist circles haha). Beautiful cover art has definitely been having a huge impact though.

Haha probably true either way but 19 was weirdly specific! (Though "one year after Twilight" probably WAS a very specific era in YA marketing.)