Stardust Dispatch #12

Happy Autumn, Starfriends!! It's been a long year, but we've made it and now The Heresy of Thieves release day will soon be upon us in just one brief month. A huge thank you to everyone who has already pre-ordered my weird, dark, wonderful little epic fantasy. I'm largely an unknown quantity in the publishing world, and your early support means everything to me.

I have some fun pre-order gifts for you! An annotated version of the first chapter of the book, a postcard print of the gorgeous map of Yvaelen (illustrated by Sveta Dorosheva), some Byx the spider stickers, and signed jackalope bookplate.

If you have pre-ordered already, fill out this form here to make sure you get your swag. Additionally, all form submissions will be entered to win this cozy autumn fantasy bundle: a huge 60x80 fluffy sherpa blanket featuring the Yvaelen map, a black wax candle from Tatine, a Witchlands zip-up accessories pouch, and tea from Steven Smith Teamaker.

Can we talk for a minute about that map?? I've been blessed with not only an incredible cover, courtesy of Katerina Belikova, but a spectacular imagining of my realm by Sveta Dorosheva. I've drawn many iterations of the map of Yvaelen over the years, poorly and with little regard for scale. Gradually, that took shape into something more cohesive, and I was pretty proud of the map that I managed to draw out in Inkarnate and send over to my publisher.

But when they said they wanted to commission an actual artist and use my map as a reference?? I sincerely thought I must have misread the email at first. My humble world was getting the glam treatment in ink and paper? Sveta's version moved me to tears when I saw it. A literal dream come true moment for me. My epic fantasy book has a real, proper, beautiful, epic fantasy map.

Sooo yeah, I'm sharing it everywhere. I've got it up on my wall, I've got it on my desktop, I'm sharing it with everyone who pre-orders, as an art postcard, and one lucky witchling out there gets to curl up in the softest, warmest version of a fantasy map ever this winter! (Seriously, do not forget to fill out this form after you pre-order! I want to send you all things!)

In other news, I've got my August Stardust Mixtape out now on the site, free for your listening pleasure as always. If you like the tracks, I've got the full set listed and most of them can be found on Bandcamp! Go support them!

Upcoming events this month

I'll be on some panels at Flights of Foundry from Sept. 18-20, online. If you've never been to Flights of Foundry, and if you're at all interested in writing, go this year! It's 60 hours of non-stop incredible panels, presentations, networking and more. Check it out, and please support Dream Foundry! They do such important work. My schedule:

• What I Wish I Knew Before Getting Published - Sat. 19th @ 8am PT
• Worldbuilding, Worldbreaking, and Worlding: How We Relate to Worlds & Why That Matters - Sat. 19th @ 12pm PT
• Up & Coming Novellas - Sat. 19th @ 9pm PT

A few days later, on Sept. 22nd, I'll be in New York giving a reading at Brooklyn Booze & Booze at Barrow's Intense! This is going to be such a fun night. I hope to see many of you there!

That's all from me for now. I hope you all had a glorious Labor Day and are looking forward to a delightful autumn. Please pre-order The Heresy of Thieves, in hardback or ebook, at Barnes & Noble for 25% off or wherever you prefer to buy books! (Most bookshops can easily do pre-orders for any book, mine included! So if you prefer to shop local, visit your bookshop's website, or stop in and ask them to get you a copy of my book on order!)

I hope to see you at Flights of Foundry or Brooklyn Books & Booze, but if not, I'll have more stardust news for you in October!

XXOO
Mia