Well, here we are. Thank you so much for subscribing to Thorn & Fable and allowing me to take up valuable space in your inbox. I appreciate it!
Compared to 2023, this year has been… well, just as busy, really. : ) After the Forest made its way into the world on October 4 in the UK, the US and Australia/New Zealand simultaneously. It was chosen for Illumicrate (UK), Owlcrate (US), Guiltless Book Club (AU) and The Book Case (South Africa) book subscription boxes, which led to it becoming a Sunday Times bestseller. (!) Closer to home we had some really exciting launch events in bookshops in Sydney and here in Jervis Bay with authors Kate Forsyth, Lauren Chater, Jo Riccioni, Allison Tait and my fabulous publisher at HarperCollins, Roberta Ivers.
Thank you to everyone who bought, read, reviewed, shared, commented on, listened to, created a reel or otherwise spread the word about After the Forest. And an extra special thank you to the people who sent a DM or email to let me know how much they enjoyed the book. Every one I receive makes me tap dance with delight. (Seriously.)
Right now, I’m working on my second novel, which will be publishing in early 2025. Called Upon A Starlit Tide, it combines elements from ‘The Little Mermaid’ and ‘Cinderella’ (with hints of one or two other French fairy tales) to make a whole new story. The US cover is being designed as we speak - I can’t wait to share it with you soon! In the meantime, you can read more about the book on my website. (And please feel free to add it to your Goodreads Want To Read list, or even, if you live in the US or Canada and are so inclined, pre-order your copy!)
News & Appearances
On Friday May 24th I’ll be at Shellharbour Libraries for their Sydney Writers Festival: Local Author Panel Event. Writers Hayley Scrivenor (Dirt Town, #1 Australian bestseller), Meredith Jaffe (The Dressmakers of Yarrandarrah Prison, 2022 Better Reading Top 100) and debut author Emma Darragh will also be there. Come and say hi!
I’m thrilled to be helping my friend and mentor Kate Forsyth launch her beautiful new book Psykhe on Wednesday 29th May at Better Read Than Dead in Newtown. Join us!
I’ll also be at South Coast Readers & Writers Festival in July. This will be my first writers festival appearance as a real live author and I’m so pleased that I’m doing it right here on the South Coast, the beautiful patch of unceded Yuin land I call home.
And I was tickled pink (yes, I know, I know, terrible joke) that After the Forest was included in this list of deceptively sweet reads over at Grimdark Magazine.
In other news, a rageful little poem I wrote some years ago called ‘Said the Woman’ has been shortlisted for the Heroines Women’s Writing Prize, and will be included, with the rest of the shortlist, in an anthology that reimagines women in myth, fairy tale, folklore or legend, and tell women's lost histories, or untold stories. I love being part of this - you can read the shortlist here.
I’ve been reading…
It’s been a great reading year so far! I finally caved and read the entire A Court of Thorns and Roses series over the summer (I devoured it, to be honest). And I’ve read some cracking early copies of new releases - Psykhe by Kate Forsyth, The Beauties by Lauren Chater, Black Tide Son by H.L Long, and a super grim, super dark novella called In the Shadow of Their Dying by Michael R Fletcher and Anna Smith Spark.
My current read is The Book of the Briar Dead by Angela Slatter and it’s fabulous! )I’m also reading Tilda is Visible for my book club, which I’m enjoying, too.)
I’ve been watching…
I’ve just started watching dark fantasy series Castlevania on Netflix and it’s so much fun, how did I not know about it? I also saw Dune Part 2 at the cinema - it was breathtaking. And when my husband pitched Road House for family movie night he used two words to sell it to me: ‘Jake Gyllenhaal.’ Although he was disappointed by the film, I was not - I thought it was super entertaining and yes, absolutely Jake Gyllenhaal. (Speaking of, I re-watched Brokeback Mountain over the weekend and good grief, it’s as good as ever. Perfect, really. )
Ask Me Anything…
I threw it out there and you guys caught it. I received quite a few questions and will do just three per newsletter, so if you don’t see your question this time, bear with, it will come : )
“When do you know, in your bones, that your story is something special and to keep going?”
Hmm, this is a tough one. And the answer really depends on whether you’re writing for yourself, or if you’re writing with the hope of your work being published. If you’re writing for yourself, then I’d say you know your story is special when you can’t stop thinking about it, and you just have to sit down and work on it. I’m the kind of person who gets obsessed with things, and if I’m not obsessed with an idea for a story then I wouldn’t bother writing it. So I’d say that’s how you know you should keep going. However, when it comes to publishing it gets a bit trickier. I’d like to say sure, of course I know in my bones when I’m onto something promising but that would be a lie. Usually, it takes someone else - someone with more knowledge of the publishing industry - to tell me when an idea is any good. For After the Forest, that person was Kate Forsyth. (‘It’s got legs,’ she said when I first told her about my idea for a Hansel and Gretel re-telling. Three little words casually said during drinks after a writing workshop that made me hold tight to that story through the many times I felt like giving up.) Now, it’s my agent who tells me whether or not a potential project has legs. Has she told me that an idea I’ve been obsessed with isn’t worth pursuing? Yes. We had that exact conversation a few weeks ago. Was I upset? No. She knows the industry and what she can potentially sell a lot better than I do. So I don’t think it’s enough to just be obsessed - I think you need to get some guidance from someone with experience, if you can. And if you can’t, pay close attention to what agents say they’re looking for on their submissions pages. Keep your eye on what’s happening in the industry. Apply for mentorships and, if you’re able to, invest in a manuscript assessment.
Any scenes from After the Forest that would make it into a ‘Deleted Scenes’ highlight reel if books came with special features like DVDs?
Yes! But firstly this answer includes spoilers so if you haven’t read the book yet, stop reading now!
Ok. Onwards. Would you believe me if I said that After the Forest used to have a few scenes in not only Mathias’s point of view, but also Rob’s? These got smoothed away during edits (it’s fine, it had to happen) but there was was one particular scene where we got to see Mathias turning into a bear (his changing had more to do with the phase of the moon in earlier drafts) and I loved that scene so much, I really did. It was hard to cut.
You know what? Here it is:
The moon could not help Mathias, now. He staggered after Greta, all too aware that he had lost hold of himself and that the moon’s silvery grip on the shape-curse – ever tentative - was slipping. Greta’s anger, and his own desperation, had roused the beast sleeping within. Magic bore down upon his shoulders, his heart, his gut.
He fell to his knees and heaved, then rolled away, gasping, face upturned to the trees. The change was coming, swift and relentless, a roiling of muscle and bone. He was compelled to move; to ease the passage of his raging body- hither and thither, neither man nor beast - by dragging it across the ground.
Some dim part of him worried that Greta had turned back, that she would come through the trees and find him there, sprawled in his own bile, half-covered in fur amid the sharp, wet sounds of his bones breaking.
It would serve him rightly if she did. He was no conjurer, no mage. His hold on the shape-curse was precarious at best, wrought of moonlight and the strength of his own will. Succumbing to emotion- to fury, or grief - was enough to shatter it. He knew this. Could not forget it. And yet there was no escaping his heart tonight. No escaping the fear and loathing in Greta’s face. Mira had warned him. She had told him this would happen. And, fool that he was, he had not listened. Pain lashed his hands, the flesh of his fingers ripping, the bones claw-curving as the last of the man was wrung brutally from him. He braced himself against a tree, breathed dirt though flowing lungs, begged the earth for mercy that he knew would never come.
And then it was over. The bear lay panting as the scents of the night - damp, moss, pine needles – returned. It could hear her steps, fading. It could hear the beat of her heart and smell the warmth of her skin. It could almost taste the tears, salt-wet, on her cheeks.
“I’d love to hear about some of your favorite books of all time.”
Sure! In no particular order…
Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier - I read this in my early twenties and will love it forevermore. Just beautiful.
The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffeneger - perfection.
Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff - Jay is a genius and this book has everything I could ever want.
Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie - If you haven’t read any of Abercrombie’s books, this is a great place to start. Gritty, revenge grimdark with a female protagonist named Monzcarro Murcatto. She’s a mercenary. Need I say more?
The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley - Zimmer Bradley has received some truly horrifying press recently and I almost didn’t include this book here because of it. However, it was a huge part of my reading journey in my early twenties and to not include it feels dishonest.
The Ill-Made Mute by Cecilia Dart-Thornton - Book one of the Bitterbynde Trilogy and all three are wondrous. Adore them.
Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks - I love all Geraldine’s books but this one is my favourite.
Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth - a touchstone book for me, and the one that led me to seek out Kate as a writing teacher.
The Fionavar Tapestry trilogy by Guy Gavriel Kay - this beautiful trilogy is a re-telling of the King Arthur legend.
A Little Hatred by Joe Abercrombie - this is book one in a trilogy and all three are amazing. It’s grimdark, and therefore gritty and violent, so consider yourself warned.
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon - I bought my first edition of this book (then publishing as Cross Stitch in Australia) more than twenty years ago. And occasionally, in difficult situations, I still ask myself - what would Jamie do?
Thanks for reading! Until next time….
Kell x