Title Announcement

Titles are funny, finicky creatures. They’re tiny fickle turncoats that braid your hair one second and steal your shoelaces the next. But like any odd little monsters, you notice their absence when they’re not around. You miss them. Because even though they’re pesky, hard-to-tame beasts, once you pin one down, it’s yours.

I knew titles were important. But I didn’t realize just how much it means to be able to hold one up and say, Yes. This is what I’ve made. The jumble of words that is my manuscript is now a Real Thing. It has a name, and it is mine. And now that I finally have one, well… if I could I would hoist it up Lion King style and proclaim to all the animals great and small that I have a title! Let us welcome it into the world with the trumpeting of elephants and drumming of hooves!

So it’s with much gratitude and gladness and good feeling that I present…

THE READER

A stunning debut set in a world where reading is forbidden, perfect for fans of Inkheart and Shadow and Bone

Sefia knows what it means to survive. After her father is brutally murdered, she flees into the wilderness with her aunt Nin, who teaches her to hunt, track, and steal. But when Nin is kidnapped, leaving Sefia completely alone, none of her survival skills can help her discover where Nin’s been taken, or if she’s even alive. The only clue to both her aunt’s disappearance and her father’s murder is the odd rectangular object her father left behind, an object she comes to realize is a book—a marvelous item unheard of in her otherwise illiterate society. With the help of this book, and the aid of a mysterious stranger with dark secrets of his own, Sefia sets out to rescue her aunt and find out what really happened the day her father was killed—and punish the people responsible.

With overlapping stories of swashbuckling pirates and merciless assassins, The Reader is a brilliantly told adventure from an extraordinary new talent.

And for all you lovers of books and bookish things, I’d like to invite you to sign up for my mailing list to receive updates, sneak peeks, bonus content, exclusive giveaways, and all other manner of wonders and goodness related to The Reader. Come on in! The paper is crisp and the ink is fine.