The Last Thing You’ll Hear Blog Tour - Guest Post

With Glastonbury, one of the UK’s biggest music festival happening next week, it feels only right to be involved in The Last Thing You’ll Hear blog tour (hosted very kindly by Kaleidoscopic Tours)

The Last Thing You’ll Hear follows sisters Wren and Lark, who seem more like rivals than sisters. So when a mysterious music producer and his DJ prodigy come to their small town, both sisters are desperate to impress. Lark is the one who is taken under the producer’s wing, but Wren can’t help feeling that there’s something sinister going on as Lark distance herself from her friends and family.

But when the sisters get the chance to perform at the most-talked-about music festival of the summer, Enrapture, things come to a head a there’s a lot to lose. Can Wren put her jealously and ambitions to save her sister, or is it too little, too late for them both? 

A twisted thriller set at a music festival? Sign me up! 

Anyway, I am thrilled to be hosting a guest post about the power/dangers of music and why festivals are the perfect place to set thrillers, written by Jan Dunning. Some of you might know her from her debut thriller, Mirror Me, a twisted fairy-tale inspired thriller set in the world of high fashion…

Before I past you over to Jan’s guest post, I just want to thank her for finding the time to write this for this tour and huge thank you for Blue at Kaleidoscopic Tours for allowing me to tag along on this tour. If you want to say hi to Jan, you can do so on either Instagram and X/Twitter, and if you want to know more about The Last Thing You’ll Ever Hear, please check it out at uk.bookshop.org (Affiliate Link Alert).

Now, with that out of the way, over to Jan!

Let’s Lie and Play Mafia

You guys know I am a huge fans of the BBC show The Traitors, right? Same with the movies Knives Out and Glass Onion? So, the idea of these two being mashed together in a book excites me hugely. You can see where this is going, right? When the lovely people at Firefly Press asked if I wanted to be involved in a blog tour to celebrate the release of Lie Or Die by A.J. Clack, I knew I had to jump on it. 

Before I go any further, let me tell you about Lie Or Die. Kass is tricked by her best mate to get involved in a new TV reality show. Imagine Big Brother meets The Traitors and you get the idea. Ten contestants, one studio, forty four remote cameras. But when contestants start dying (for real), Kass and her fellow contestants are no longer fighting to win the game, but gifting for survival. 

I am thrilled that A.J. Clack has written a small guest post for this tour (and for this tiny little blog) about the game that inspired their debut: Mafia (sometimes is called Werewolf). I have never heard of this so quick Google/Wiki search for me, but I bet you guys know the game. If not, am going to pop a YouTube video below so you can watch…

Now we are all on the same page, I can hand over to A.J. Clack and their tips on playing Mafia/Werewolf. But before I do, I want to say a huge thank you to A.J. for writing this guest post and to Graeme at Firefly for emailing me and chatting about Lie Or Die. And if you’re curious over the book, you can check out either Firefly Press’s website or via Bookshop.org (Affiliate Link). 

With that out of the way, let’s lie, cheat and murder… 

Plotting The Harm Tree

I have a guest post for you guys! And I feel like this might fit lovely with me trying to read more spooky reads this month!

Rose Edwards is the author of The Harm Tree and its upcoming sequel Ember Days. Now, not going to say much about Ember Days (spoilers) but let's see how far I can tell you about Harm Tree. The land of Arngard is recovering from the last civil war, and is dangerous close to another. Torny and Ebba are two friends who are sent away, not remembering the war. But when Torny sees a man murdered in the street and she finds herself in possession of a dangerous message, the two find themselves on separate paths... 

And all the while, the Harm Tree stands... 

I am thrilled that the author of Harm Tree and Ember Days, Rose Edwards, has agreed to write a small guest post about plotting. I think you guys might like to read it! 

Now, before I hand you over to Rose, I want to thank her for finding the time to write this post and, if you want to say hi to her, you can by popping her a tweet at @redwardswrites. Also, quick thank you to Graeme from UClan Publishing for chatting to me about this. Also, if you're curious about The Harm Tree, you can check out UClan Publishing's website. 

Now, TO ROSE!

Love Is The Answer... Right?

I have a guest post for you. Yes, it break my SpoOOoky Halloween theme, but I think you might like this so decided to go for it. 

I am thrilled to welcome Ben Craib onto the Pewter Wolf, and he's going to chat about his debut YA novel, Love Is The Answer. 

Scarlett feels like she's lost a lot. Her mother to cancer. Her friends who have no idea what to say. Her dad, who has meet someone and seems to be moving on with his life. Scarlett just feels lost. Till she meets Hayden, life and soul of the world. He sees her and feels her pain. Scarlett dives into his life, all the parties, the sweaty raves and worse. All that matters is them: Scarlett and Hayden. 

But not everything is as it seems... 

Like I said earlier, I am thrilled that Ben can pop on the blog and write a small guest post, tackling about grief and mental health. And Ben would know - he co-wrote write two self-help books (Slay Your Dragons With Compassion with Malcolm Stern and Online Men's Group Success with Kenny Mammarella-D'Cruz), both tackling resilience and resourcing in turbulent times. 

Now, before I hand you over to Ben, if you want to know more about Ben or Love Is The Answer, you can check out Ben's website at bencraib.com/ or check out the publisher's website at quoscript.co.uk!

Now, over to Ben!!!

Quickie Interview with Mel Gough

You thought I was going to take today off, weren't you? Well, nope. Not today, for I am welcoming author Mel Gough onto the Pewter Wolf for a tiny Q&A (Four questions. Yes, that's how quick it is!)

Mel Gough is the author of several romances (which usually have a dead body in, for good measure). Her latest, A Leap of Faith, is published by Red Dog Press and is a little different from what I normally talk about or read on here. 

Set in South Africa in the early 1950s, Father Daniel Blakemore is happy with his missionary secondment in small, rural hospital on the Eastern Coast. Being away from England makes it easier to hide this homosexuality - a secret that would destroy everything if it ever comes out. 

So when Doctor Eddie Raleigh starts working the same hospital, the two men are instantly drawn to each other and their liaison represents both Daniel's deepest desire and his worst nightmare. If this ever comes to light, it could ruin everything. 

And with the emergences of the apartheid in South Africa and the criminal nature of homosexuality in the UK, how are the two men going to survive: in love, fear or duty?

I am thrilled that, when I did a twitter query about "Should I randomly email some MM romance authors to see if they want to be on the blog?" that both Mel herself and Red Dog Press jumped at me and went "Yes!" and, after a mini chat, Mel had kindly offered to be involved in a small Q&A. So, to Mel, thank you for spending time writing this post out. I know you must be busy, and thank you to whoever is in charge of Red Dog Press's Twitter (@RedDogTweets) for pushing us together. 

Oh, before I hand you over to Mel, let me point you into her social media home. If you want to check out her website, you can visit at melgough.com, or if you want to tweet her and say hi, you can at @melgough_writer. She can, also, be found on Facebook and Instagram. 

Now, ONTO THE QUESTIONS!

How Leslie McAdams wrote UNDONE

I was originally going to put this up in earlier August to celebrate the release the latest five of the Vino and Veritas. But, I got excited so am going to pop this up now to wet your appetites and I would like to welcome Leslie McAdams onto the Pewter Wolf Reads.

Leslie McAdams is an USA Today best selling New Adult romance author, winning a Watty Award 2015 for her debut novel, The Sun and The Moon. Her romances novels include Boy on the Train, Lumbersexual, and series Love in Translation and Giving You. Her newest, coming out next month, is Undone, a MM romance set in Sarina Bowen's World of True North universe. 

Undone follows Jason, who thinks his roommate, Murph, deserves someone deserving. Murph has the worst taste in men, according to Jason. He yelled at one of Murph's date and threw beer in another's face. Jason's sister is watching and has a theory that Jason is jealous. Jealous of the guys Murph is dating, which is stupid as Jason is straight and doesn't see Murph that way. So, why does Jason hate the idea of Murph of kissing any other guy. Expect, maybe, him...

I am thrilled that Leslie found time to write this small post to get us excited for Undone. The process of writing Undone, I found, super interesting. Before I hand it over to Leslie, I just want to thank her for find time to write this (and offering me a ton of titles in our emails that she went "Oh, I think you might like this!". Some of which have made their way onto my TBR and my radar for later date adding!). And, if you want to know more about Leslie and her titles, you can check out her website, lesliemcadamauthor.com. Or, if you want to say hi, pop her a tweet at @LeslieMcAdam. 

Now, over to you, Leslie! 

Come On-a My Digital Mainstream House

BLOG TOUR TIME! And it's a good'un! 

I am thrilled to be involved in Mainstream, a collection of short stories written by authors who are not exactly seen as mainstream authors and push them to the forefront: queer authors, authors of colours and working class authors. Edited by Justin David and Nathan Evans (publisher and editor of Inkandescent respectively), these authors include (deep breath time): Aisha Phoenix, Alex Hopkins, Bidisha, Chris Simpson, DJ Connell, Elizabeth Baines, Gaylene Gould, Giselle Leeb, Golnoosh Nour, Hedy Hume, Iqbal Hussain, Jonathan Kemp, Julia Bell, Juliet Jacques, Justin David, Kathy Hoyle, Keith Jarrett, Kerry Hudson, Kit de Waal, Lisa Goldman, Lui Sit, Nathan Evans, Neil Bartlett, Neil Lawrence, Neil McKenna, Ollie Charles, Padrika Tarrant, Paul McVeigh, Philip Ridley and Polis Loizou. 

It's the last name on this list - Polis Loizou - that I am thrilled to have on The Pewter Wolf Reads as I have followed his Twitter for a few months now and couldn't be more thrilled and excited when the Sarah-Louise from Inkandscent emailed and wondered if I would like Polis on the blog. 

I won't tell you about Polis's story in this collection - Pixalion - as Polis does a much better job explaining it than I would, but I think you are going to find his guest post (and, hopefully, his story and this collection) gripping. 

Now, before I hand you over to Polis, some blog house-keeping. I want to thank Polis for finding time to write this post (I know he is super busy with his sophomore novel, The Way It Breaks, just been released and his one-man show, Mr Fox, about to hit the Brixton Fridge) and I, also, want to thank everyone at Inkandscent (mainly Nathan and Sarah-Louise) who had to deal with my out-of-the-blue email back in April 2021, where I was basically "Hi, you don't know me, but would you consider..."

Oh, links! If you want to know more info on Polis or just fancy saying hi, you can pop onto his LinkTree of linktr.ee/PolisLoizou and all the links you need are there or drop him a hello tweet on @PolisLoizou. Or, if you want more info on Mainstream, you can check out Inkandescent's website (inkandescent.co.uk) or pop them a tweet at @InkandescentUK.

Ok, I think that's everything, so, POLIS! OVER TO YOU!!!

Darren Shan's Back! RUN!

Pinch, punch, first day of the month! And maybe we should all run for cover as look who's snuck back! Darren Shan, international best selling author of the Cirque Du Freak series, the Demonata Series and the Archibald Lox is back with Archibald Lox: Volume 2!

Now, quick backstory. Volume One of Archibald Lox was published as three separate ebooks back in April 2020 as some relief due to the start of the COVID-19 lockdown. These are (hang on, long title time): Archibald Lox and the Bridge Between Worlds, Archibald Lox and the Empress of Suanpan and Archibald Lox and the Vote of Alignment. These were put in a bind-up so you can read in one gulp (or, if you are curious to dip toe into this weird world-jumping fantasy, Archibald Lox and the Bridge Between Worlds is, I think, free!)

Now, Volume 2 will contain three new instalments which will be published individually then put together in one bindup. eBook 4 aka Archibald Lox and the Forgotten Crypt is out TODAY (!!!), ebook 5 aka Archibald Lox and the Slides of Bon Repell (possibly my fave title in this series) will be out on 3rd August 2021 and the sixth ebook aka Archibald Lox and the Rubicon Dictate is out 1st September 2021. 

So, this is gonna be a typical guest author post, I hear you ask. No, dear reader, it's not. It's a little different. Darren did an open call to his fans via his website and socials late May/early June for questions that he will answer on here. As you can imagine, I am excited and terrified to see what you all asked him and how he answered (I haven't read them at the time of writing this!). This is gonna be a deliciously dark mess, isn't it?

Before I hand you over to the Q&A, I just wanna thank Catherine from Catherine Ward PR for emailing and going "I have an idea you might like" and for Darren for being so up for this! And to you, the fans of Cirque du Freak, Demonata, Zom-B and Darren's other works, for going "Answer Me This, Darren!". And if you wanna check Darren out on social, you can find him on darrenshan.com or pop him a hello on either his Twitter (@darrenshan) or his Facebook (facebook.com/darrenshanverified/). 

Ok, we're going in. Deep breaths everyone!!!

Monstrous Extract

BLOG TOUR ALERT!!! And it's full of monstrous designs and words... 

See what I did there? Well, I had to do something as am, I think, the last stop in the Monstrous Designs blog tour!

Moving away from that awful dad-joke, Monstrous Designs is the sequel to Dangerous Remedy by Kat Dunn and it's a queer fantasy set in the French Revolution (do I need to explain why I want to go to Paris and read this?). And yet, Monstrous Designs takes place in both 1794 Paris and London. In London, Camille and Al are desperately trying to track down a kidnapper of a close friend. As they do so, they find themselves pulled into a game full of lies and deceit, while a new enemy is watching and has dark, monstrous plans for them both... 

Meanwhile, in Paris, the Duc is playing his own dangerous game and with Ada in his thrall, old loyalties are thrown into question and everything is now under threat... 

I have an extract for you guys (again, monstrous words and designs. Yes, I am not letting that go!), and it's a humdinger of an extract so am excited to share. 

Now, before I share the extract with you, quick housekeeping. I want to thank Amber from Midas who is working with the publisher on this tour. I think I scared her when Jade from Zephyr messaged us both and went "Andrew wants to help" (thank you, as well, to Jade for pointing Amber in my direction). 

Oh, if you want more info on Monstrous Designs, you can pop over to Zephyr/Head of Zeus's website - headofzeus.com. Or, if you want to say hi to the author, Kat Dunn, you can do so by visiting her website - katalicedunn.com - or checking her out Twitter (@KatAliceDunn) or her Instagram (@katalicedunn). 

All good? All ready? Alright, VIVA THE EXTRACT!!!

Let's Raise Some Hell!

HAPPY FIRST OF THE MONTH! AND I HAVE A GUEST POST FOR YOU ALL! 

But before we go any further, let's chat Raising Hell, the first in a new urban fantasy series by Bryony Pearce. It sounds dark, a tad messy and has a nice dash of humour. Sounds very me! 

Ivy and her friends did a stupid thing once, causing a nice little rift to let dark matter in the world. Dark matter which manifests as dark magic. Oh yeah, that exists. And every teen with access to the Internet can raise hell. Literally. 

Ivy is trying to do the best she can. But working school security barely covers the bills, and there's only so much one girl with a machete (and, oh yeah, a cat who happens to be possessed by her own dead grandmother) can do. And now, Ivy facing a teen goth with attitude, her handsome but ruthless brother and possible zombie apocalypse on the horizon... 

I am thrilled that Bryony Pearce has written a small guest post about the five (scary) influences on Raising Hell. Some of them surprised me (not sure why - maybe because am not a huge horror/fantasy fan like I thought myself to be), but I can't wait to share with you! 

Now, before I hand you over to Bryony, I just want to thank her for writing this guest post. I know she must be very busy with Raising Hell coming out in mere days (3rd July 2021). I, also, want to thank Graeme from UCLan Publishing for saying yes when I, randomly, emailed "So... what do you think of...?"

If you want more info on Raising Hell, you can check out UCLan Publishing website. Also, if you want to check out Bryony online, you can say hi either on her website - bryonypearce.wordpress.com - or tweet her at @BryonyPearce!

Now, ONTO THE POST!

Crown of Talons Lockdown

I am so thrilled to welcome back Katherine and Elizabeth Corr, sisters and authors of two series that I chat about on this blog, The Witch's Kiss trilogy and the Throne of Swans duology. Their latest is the conclusion to the Throne of Swans duology, Crown of Talons, and the best way to describe this series (and this book in particular) is imagine Game of Thrones had a baby with Swan Lake and you have a vague idea.  

Now, seeing as Crown of Talons is a sequel, I don't want to do a write-up in case of spoilers, so how far can I go to talk about this world... After the events on Throne of Swans, Aderyn is on high alert. Enemies outside and within court are watching her and thinking she and Aron, her cousin, aren't enough to rule. But with nobles from neighbouring country fleeing for their lives - the flightless have risen up and overthrown their rules - and an attempted assassination is made on Aderyn's life, the world is changing and Aderyn must have the strength to overcome everything to save her kingdom. Or die trying... 

It's going to be a bloody, feathery fight to the death!

Now, before I hand you over to the Katherine and Elizabeth, I just want to thank and apologise to them for writing this. I popped a random email at them (I love having them on the blog as they are a delight!) over Easter, saying something along the lines of "Hey, am reading Crown of Talons. Fancy popping on the blog for a guest post, if you have time?" and them saying "Sure, what do you want us to write, though?" and us bouncing ideas till someone (Katherine, was it you or Elizabeth? It wasn't me, am not this clever) said "What about what TV shows they watched or books they read if they were in lockdown with us?" and I jumped up and down in my seat, going "YES! THIS! CAN YOU WRITE THIS?!"

Ok, quick house-keeping. If you want to know more about either the Corr's series (Throne of Swans and their debut trilogy, The Witch's Kiss), pop over to their website - corrsisters.com - or you can jump on their social media and say hi to them both. Elizabeth is on Twitter at @lizcorr_writes and Katherine can be found at @katharinecorr.

Now, what would the characters in Crown of Talons read/watch during lockdown. Shall we find out?

Sue Wallman Knows You Did It

Let's hit the ground running with a small Q&A type post (very rare for PW, I know.) with thriller writer, Sue Wallman. 

In case you're not sure who Sue is (how?!), Sue is the bestselling author of four YA thrillers - Lying About Last Summer, See How They Lie, Your Turn To Die and Dead Popular - with her fifth title, I Know You Did It, coming out TOMORROW!!! All her titles are edge-of-your-seats away winners with her debut, Lying About Last Summer, was part of and won the Zoella Book Club 2016.

Now, I don't want to say too much about what I Know You Did It is about (Sue's going to explain in an elevator pitch below), but I am HUGELY grateful to Sue for saying "Yes" to my out-of-the-blue email, asking "Do you fancy being on my blog again?". 

Oh, FYI! By the think you'll be reading this, Sue will have done a Crowdcast with her lovely editor from Scholastic, Linas, and I think (though I'm not sure so don't hold me to this) that you might be able to rewatch the event. Go to crowdcast and see for yourselves.

Also, I would love it if you pop over to Sue and say hi. You can do so by visiting her website (suewallman.co.uk), her Instagram (instagram.com/suewallman/) or her Twitter (@suewallman).

Now, ONTO THE Q&A!

How Broken Is The Raven?

HAPPY FIRST BLOG TOUR OF 2021! I know! These first few weeks of 2021 are strange times (and after the horror that was 2020, we are all hoping 2021 will be better. Goodness, I hope so!!! Spoke too soon! on that front, haven't I?), so why not do a blog tour for the second book in the Shadow Skye trilogy, The Broken Raven by Joseph Elliott! 

Hopefully, I will have read or am currently reading the first in this trilogy, The Good Hawk (last year really screwed up my reading plans, you guys!), so let me see if I can get this write-up right. After the events of Good Hawk (no spoilers!!!), Agatha and Jaime return to their clan as heroes. But when Agatha discovers a threat to their people, she unwittingly releases a power that could easily kill every living thing on the island. Her and Jaime must call on allies, old and new, to fight against this new threat. 

All the while, Sigrid, a Norwegian girl with a strange gift, journeys to the court in Ingland where King Edmund is waiting... 

I am thrilled to welcome Joseph to the Pewter Wolf Reads, where he has written this has found time to write this guest post for the tour about world-building! I can't wait for you guys to read it and then get on board and read the trilogy (don't break my heart like Michelle Paver's Chronicles of Ancient Darkness is currently doing! I CAN'T!) 

Now, before I hand you over to Joseph, I just want to thank him for writing this post (I know you are super busy at the moment, so thank you!) and I want to thank Rebecca at Walker Books for allowing me to tag along with this tour. If you want more info on Joseph or just say hi, you can visit him on joseph-elliott.net or @joseph_elliott on Twitter. And if you want to know more about The Broken Raven, you can check out Walker Books. 

Ok, over to Joseph and the world of Broken Skye!!!

Vampires of Moscow Are A-Hunting

Blog tour time! And it's a bit of a curveball, I know, but stay with me as I saw this call on Twitter when I was on a mini-break with my Other Half last month (we wore masks all the time, washed hands a lot and followed guidelines. We were careful [though, according to the UK Prime Minister announcing a second Lockdown in England, not so much]!), and thought "Why not? This looks like fun!"

So, Vampires of Moscow is the first book in the Blood Web Chronicles series, written by Caedis Knight (the pen name of Jacqueline Silvester and NJ Simmonds), following Saskia de la Cruz is an investigator journalist for the biggest news outlet on the paranormal dark Blood web, The Blood Web Chronicle. She is, also, a Verity Witch - her only magic being that she can tell a truth from a lie. 

While working on her para-cases for the Chronicles, Saskia hopes that one day, she will discover a case that will lead her to her missing sister. 

So when drained bodies of illegal workers suddenly start appearing in Moscow, Saskia is sent to investigate a vampire crime ring that could be behind it. Saskia wants to get in, do the job and get out quickly... with her neck intact. 

But ballerina Konstantin Volkov and his wildcard Lukka complicate things as the vampire brothers have their own reasons to solve the murders, reasons that conflicted Saskia's... 

Basically, this sounds like the bastard love child of True Blood, Crescent City: House of Earth and Blood and Veronica Mars... so I sense you guys will LOVE it!

To celebrate the release of Vampires of Moscow and the eNovella prequel, Sirens of Los Angeles, Caedis Knight has written a special guest post and I am thrilled to share it with you! It's how Caedis Knight was created (as told by NJ Simmonds) and how Blood Web Chronicles came into being!

Now, before I hand it over to Caedis, I just want to thank them both for writing this guest post! If you want more info about the series or want to say hi to them, pop over to caedisknight.com or @CaedisKnight if you are a Twitter addict like myself!

Now, ONTO THE BIRTH OF CAEDIS KNIGHT AND THE BLOOD WEB CHRONICLES!

Don't Walk Round The Stone Three Stones...

I know Halloween is a few weeks away, but I thought it would be fun to get us into the spooky spirit (see what I did there?) but putting something up on one of the spookiest days - the 13th. Ok, it's not Friday 13th, but cut me some slack! It's today or Friday 16th and that didn't have the same creepy factor to it...

But today, to get things all spooky, I am thrilled to welcome Danny Weston, author of the new ghostly horror novel, The Witching Stone!

For those who haven't heard of this, The Witching Stone follows Alfie who, after a messy break-up, goes away on holidays with his dad in the small village in the north of England.

There, he meets Mia, who tells him about the local superstition about a boulder in the local graveyard and its strange inscription. "If you walk three times around the stone and say 'I don't believe in witches,' Meg will come after you..."

Alfie, in a reckless attempt to impress, accepts the superstition as a challenge. He might come to regret that...

As you know, I am not much of a horror fan, but I do love a good ghost story so, while chatting to Graeme from UCLan Publishing, one of us mentioned something along the lines of "Danny could do a guest post about horror writing" (I can't remember exactly who. Sorry Graeme, but I suspect it was you) and the other went "Yes!". And then, forgot about it like I normally do, then Graeme emailed me this post and oh, it's good!

Now, before I hand you over to Danny talking g about his top tips, I just want to thank him for finding time to write this post for the Pewter Wolf! I, also, want to thank Graeme at UCLan for chatting to me and starting the book rolling! Now, I don't believe Danny is on social media, but if you want more info about The Witching Stone, you can check out UCLan Publishing!

Now, over to Danny to tell us his top 5 tips to writing horror!

Fire Burn Cauldron Bubble

Double double, toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble...

Well, I had to start the month of Halloween like this, didn't I? I HAD to! And what real way to kickstart this month than to be involved in the blog tour for Fire Burn, Cauldron Bubble, to get us in the spirit of things (see what I did there...?)!

Fire Burn, Cauldron Bubble is an anthology of poems, featuring magic. Ranging from unicorns, dragons, witches, magic flying carpets, trolls, wands, spells going awry to nice (and not so nice) hauntings. With illustrations by Eilidh Muldoon and collected by Paul Cookson from a wide range of poets (including [takes deep breath] William Shakespeare, Lewis Carroll, Benjamin Zephaniah, John Agard, Valerie Bloom, Matt Goodfellow, Joshua Seigal and AF Harrold among others]), this collection of poems will get you in the mood for things that go bump in the night and ask for a trick or a treat...

I am so thrilled to be involved in this tour and I can not wait for you guys to read the guest post from Paul Cookson, chatting about poetry and why poetry is so important to him. It's an interesting post (and it comes from me who is a bit uncultured when it comes to poetry!)

Now, before I hand you over to Paul, I just want to thank Paul for finding time to write this post, and to Blue from Kaleidoscopic for asking me to be involved in this tour. Also, if you want to find out more about this collection (if case the post inspires you), you can check out Bloomsbury's website. 

Now, over to Paul we go! 

Burn The Kingdoms Down

SURPRISE! This is a last minute decision as, on a whim, I emailed Phoebe at Penguin, wondering if Sally Green, author of the Half Bad trilogy and the Smoke Thieves series, fancied writing a small guest post for me to celebrate to release the third and final book in the Smoke Thieves, The Burning Kingdom. Phoebe asked Sally and both were thrilled to. As am I as I got quite obsessed with Half Bad, Sally's debut trilogy!

I'm not going to do a write up about The Burning Kingdoms as third and final in series (I'm not going to spoil! I'm not a monster!), so let me do a tiny write-up of Smoke Thieves. Smoke Thieves follows several leads, each from four different kingdom.

In Brigant, Princess Catherine prepares for a loveless political marriage arranged by her brutal and ambitious father. In Calidor, downtrodden servant March seeks revenge on the prince who betrayed his people. In Pitoria, feckless Edyon steals cheap baubles for cheaper thrills as he drifts from town to town. And in the barren northern territories, thirteen-year-old Tash is running for her life as she plays bait for the gruff demon hunter Gravell.

As alliances shift and things take several sharp turns, throwing everything off course, our four heroes find their past lives transformed and their futures inextricably linked by the unpredictable tides of magic and war...

I am thrilled that Sally found the time to write this guest post, so thank you Sally. I, also, want to thank Phoebe for saying yes and chatting to Sally about this post.

Now, before I hand over to Sally, if you want to say hi to her, you can say hi to her via her Twitter (@Sa11eGreen). Plus, if you are curious on The Burning Kingdom or any other of Sally's novels, you can always check her Penguin's website!

With this all out of the way, OVER TO YOU, SALLY!

Boy Queen Takes It To The Runaway

Oh, come on! I might not be a RuPaul Drag Race viewer (don't give me that look!), but I couldn't resist using this gif to kickstart this post as, today, I am thrilled to be involved in the Boy Queen tour! 

Now, I read Boy Queen by George Lester earlier this year during lockdown and I had a blast reading it. It was fun, queer and everything I needed! (Link to the review is here, FYI!) So, once I had read this, I had to email the publisher to ask if there was going to be a blog tour or something to celebrate this book's release and if I could be involved in some way! 

Robin Cooper’s life is falling apart. While his friends are ready to go to uni, all he seems to be getting is rejection letters from most/all drama schools of the UK and Robin’s life seems to be spiralling. Unsure of himself and his talent, he and his best friends take him to a local gay bar on his birthday to cheer him up and, when there, they watch a local drag show. And Robin gets a strong reaction and he decides to, in the words of Mama RuPaul, Sashay away. 

But how can he get to grips with drag performing when he has a secret boyfriend who won’t acknowledge him in public, his mother can talk for England, his best friends are planning their futures and leaving him behind and the new boy at school is making Robin’s heart beat a little faster? 

Now, before I hand you over to George, I just want to say that if you want to check George out online, pop over to his youTube (youtube.com/TheGeorgeLester) or say hi to him on Twitter at @TheGeorgeLester. And if you want more info on Boy Queen, check out either PanMacmillan!

Ok, George, TAKE IT TO THE RUNWAY!

Fall Out Blog Tour Time

BLOG TOUR TIME! And it's a good'un, I promise!

I am thrilled to be a stop on Fall Out, C.G. Moore debut novel! I read this a few months back during self-isolation (review for that is here) and I devoured this book, so it was a no-brainer when I was asked to be involved in this tour!

When Cal comes out to his family, he didn't expect the reaction to be so explosive. He didn't expect his mum to cut herself and be rushed to the hospital, nor for his father to attack him on the hospital ward. But the fall out of his family is nothing compared to the fall out it comes from his friends, bullies and school.

As Cal is pushed closer and closer to his limit, can he rely on his family and friends to save him from having a meltdown or has he cut himself off too far from them, or himself, to save him?

Now, before I hand it over to C.G to chat about writing while listening to music and some song choices he listened to while writing Fall Out, I want to thank C.G. for finding time to write this post for this tour and for Hazel at UCLan Publishing for chatting to me about this tour!

If you wanna chat to C.G, you can visit him on Twitter at @YAfictionados! Now, over to you, C.G., and get your headphones on!

Darren Shan Talks World-Building

SURPRISE! And you thought this was going to be another Self-Isolation read post!

No, I am thrilled to welcome Darren Shan, author of well known and well-scary series such as The Saga of Darren Shan (aka Cirque du Freak), its prequel series The Saga of Larten Crepsley, The Demonata, Zom-B and his new series, Archibald Lox.

This new series is a little different compared to Darren's other series as to how they are going to be released. There should, in theory, be at least three volumes and each volume will have three short novels in them. The first three novels (aka Volume 1) are out now due to Darren wanting to bring a bit of cheer due to the COVID-19.

The first story is Archibald Lox and the Bridge Between Worlds. In this, we meet Archibald Lox (or Archie), a young locksmith who, by accident, steps from one world to another, discovering a universe beyond our own called The Merge. In discovering these new worlds of wonder, Archibald is about to come face-to-face with hell jackals, rivers of blood and cold-blooded killers...

Plus, this is free! FREE! I will pop a link somewhere so you can rush further and treat yourself!

I am thrilled that Darren has found time to write this post, as I know he is very busy being a writing demon (he might be a demon. Are we sure he's human?), but as soon as PR person Catherine emailed about Darren, I emailed back going "CAN HE BE ON MY BLOG?!". I remember vividly reading Vampire Assistant, the second book in Cirque du Freak series, by accident while on work experience at Ottakars (a book shop chain that was bought by Waterstones) when I was in secondary school. I remember reading Demon Thief on the bus home from somewhere and gasping VERY LOUDLY at a scene in the middle of the book. And people find it weird that I say "I'm not a horror fan" but will recommend Darren and Lord Loss in the same breath!

So, before I hand it over to Darren, just want to say thank you to him for finding time to write. And a thank you to Catherine from Catherine Ward PR who emailed about Darren's new series and got us emailing back and forth. If you want to say hi to Darren, go to darrenshan.com or pop over to Twitter. He's @darrenshan, FYI.

And if you want Archibald Lox and the Bridge Between Worlds (and why not? It's free!), check out Amazon UK or Kobo UK. Now, over to Darren!!!