Join me at the Author Fair + Inspo for the Clockwork Coffin! 💖⚙️📚
Plus more thoughts about special editions and one of my favorite non-fiction books for spooky season!
Hello!
Thank you so much to everyone who responded to last week’s poll about sprayed edges. It’s given me much to consider and I have more thoughts to share about the results later on in this newsletter. I also have event news to share along with one of my favorite non-fiction books that inspired The Clockwork Coffin, perfect for spooky season!
Ames Public Library Author Fair
📚✨ Mark Your Calendar for Oct 12! ✨📚
Join me at the Ames Public Library Author Fair for a day of bookish fun!
🕒 2-5 PM
📍 Visit my table for:
- Forsaken Beauty and the Etherbeast
- Free bookmarks & postcards!
Can't wait to see you! 💖⚙️
As always, please check the Events page of my website for more information! Next month, I’m heading to TeslaCon, where I’ll be on several panels along with signing books at my table.
Thoughts about sprayed edges
Thank you so much to everyone who responded to last week’s poll about sprayed edges! The feedback in the comments and in my inbox were incredibly helpful. At the time of this writing, the majority are in favor of sprayed edges of some kind. I will definitely take the results into consideration for my next release.
Right now, if I end up releasing a special edition, I’m leaning toward a solid color sprayed edge. The issue I’m running into that makes me hesitate is my favorite candidate for a printer doesn’t distribute directly to retailers and they’re in the UK, which means that shipping would be another factor.
I would also need to consider how to get special editions into reader hands. I know some authors do Kickstarter campaigns or TikTok shops for their books. Both of those come with serious time and storage commitments. I’ve attended enough panels and classes about Kickstarter to know how much work is involved to make sure readers have a positive experience.
However, it’s still very early days for my research into printers, so these issues may not come up. I’ll have follow up polls after I’ve had more time to mull everything over.
Inspiration for The Clockwork Coffin
I’ve mentioned this in previously, but I’ve always had a love affair with the monstrous. When I was growing up, one of the first series of books I read on my own were The Bailey School Kids. In this series, a group of children would encounter eccentric characters who may or may not be a mythical creature, such a vampire, werewolf, gremlin, or even the Phantom of the Opera!
Reading that series inspired me to read Dracula in its entirety when I was nine years old, though I didn’t read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein until my senior year of high school. Though I loved the Universal Monster movies, I thought I knew too much about Frankenstein’s creature to enjoy the book. I’ve never been happier to be wrong!
At last count, I think I have 13+ different editions of Frankenstein, all with different commentary, annotations, and gorgeous artwork. It’s one of my favorite novels and was a major source of inspiration for Monsters and Machines.
My sweet sister knows all about my Gothic tendencies and so she gifted me a copy of Monster, She Wrote: The Women Who Pioneered Horror & Speculative Fiction by Lisa B. Kröger and Melanie R. Anderson. While it’s by no means definitive, it’s one of my favorite books about the history of women in speculative fiction, spanning from the 1600s to modern times. I reread Monster, She Wrote when I was in the planning stages for The Clockwork Coffin and it was invaluable for shaping my characters.
The Clockwork Coffin is a steampunk fairy tale retelling of The Princess in the Coffin, but it also has strong Gothic elements. The lead female character, Sabeline, is cursed and has her very Gothic moment of running through a decaying manor in a flowing white nightgown, though she is hardly fleeing. I had so much fun using that trope in a different way and I can’t wait to share more about this book soon!
What are some of your favorite spooky season books? I’ve been reading a lot of moody fairy tale retellings, including much of T.K. Kingfisher’s work. She has quickly become one of my favorite authors after I read Nettle & Bone and Thornhedge. I’m nearly done with Cursed by Marissa Meyer and I love it so far!
Happy reading!
Kelsey
