Artwork giveaway

My book MINRs is coming out September 22 from Simon and Schuster

To celebrate, I'm running a giveaway on GoodReads (ENTER HERE).

There are three signed ARCS (Advance Reader's Copies) up for grabs -  for US readers only. The draw is August 22.

To make it more fun I'm also going to add some of my original artwork. These are sketches that I made to help me when I was writing the book.

Artwork #1 - Finn (one of the kids) underground after the attack.

This image sat on my desk as I wrote some of the sad scenes. It's a watercolour with pen - postcard sized - and could be yours!

I'll reveal the other sketches in the next two weeks. The draw is August 22.

I'm giving away some ARCS! (US only)

The widget seems to keep dissappearing, but you can find the link to the giveaway here.

Two months until Perses arrives!

My new book MiNRs is released two months from today!

To get you ready I'm going to be posting some behind the scenes bits every week until the book birthday- usually sketches I've made to help my writing process.

The kids have to survive in a maze of mining tunnels, but they also learn how to make their own, using a handy machine called a digger.

It had a drill bit at the front along with a "disrupter" - a bit that looks like a pineapple but that can cut through rock like a knife through butter.

I want one.

You can't buy a digger... yet. But you can pre-order the book.

Details here.

MiNRs and images

My book MiNRs is out in September, and I'm already well underway on writing the sequel.

Before there was even a first draft there were images in my mind that I had to put on paper first. 

These helped me shape the mood and feel of the story. 

(My amazing editor Ruta Rimas was even more important of course!)

This was one of the first images I finished. I even included it in the original pitch proposal to Simon and Schuster. It's not any character in particular, but shows some of the bleakness and remoteness of life on another planet, one that's been attacked. I had it pinned to my studio wall for inspiration.

I'm often asked if I draw the pictures or write the words first when I'm doing a book. They happen at the same time and each feeds into the other. I'll always have paper and pens next to my keyboard to do a quick sketch of a character or scene.

Having said that, MiNRs isn't an illustrated novel (the way my Neil Flambé books are) but there are hundreds of sketches of the world of Perses in my drawing books and on my computer. I'll be posting some of them here from time to time once the book has it's official birthday. Which is....?

September 22, 2015

Mark your calendars.