Rowenna Miller's Blog

Hi all! Rule, the third and final book in the Unraveled Kingdom trilogy, is out in just two weeks! Unfortunately, we aren't able to plan for any in-person events, but I'd like to invite you to TWO online events that week!

First up, an in-conversation with Tasha Suri via Orbit Live's Crowdcast channel! This is a GREAT format--you can ask questions, and Tasha and I will talk, ask each other questions, probably get interrupted by our cats...

May 19, at 5 pm EDT/10 pm BST (and if you miss it live, you can still leave a question ahead of time and watch the cast later!) Go sign up and join us!


Next, join Orbit's Lauren Panepinto for Orbit Tavern, on Instagram Live! In this fun format, Lauren makes a delicious cocktail and there are books. What could be better? 

Check out this lovely!


I have the best covers...not that I'm biased :) Orbit artist Lisa Marie Pompilio created this beautiful piece of art with the work of Carrie Violet, an embroidery artist. It's absolutely gorgeous--and what's more, there's significance hidden in a lot of the choices. The gray and red, the unraveling threads...I won't tell you what it all means, but it's so perfect!
More on Orbit's blog. 

FRAY is out now! 
The second book in the Unraveled Kingdom trilogy released on June 4 and I celebrated by...going to my kid's kindergarten program. BUT! We went and visited "mom's book" on a REAL LIVE bookstore shelf later that week!


You can read an excerpt here on Orbit's website!

One girl in a blue short cloak and a torn gown stood in the center of the Square, singing.  A ballad seller—the printer sent her out with broadsides of song lyrics, and she advertised them by singing the songs...The ballad seller’s voice rose and swelled.  She had a beautiful, clear tone, and the sad melody she sang floated and dipped like the undulations of a river.  A dead soldier, his lover in search of him, vows never to rest or love again—the ballads from the print shops were full of such sentimental drivel. Torn

Among all the eighteenth-century peddlers working the city streets, broadsheet sellers were among the poorest.  Some saw selling broadsheets, including those printed with ballad lyrics, as basically one step up from begging; artwork depicts these salespeople as impoverished, wearing ragged clothing.  At the same time, they provided a vital service in terms of disseminating popular culture at a time when your new material came in print--not records, films, radio, or the web.
Broadsheet Seller, Paul Sandby 1759
Last Dying Speech and Confession, Paul Sandby, 1759 (Likely a pulpy, pop culture piece, possibly a dragdown of a famous figure or a segment of a longer work)

And if you want to access new music in a world with no recording devices, no radio, no mp3 files...how do you do that? 
Ballad sellers.
The Pretty Maid Buys a Love Song
The Old Ballad Singer

The lyrics, of course, can be printed on broadsheets, but the melody is less commonly found printed on surviving examples (occasionally you do see some printed music, too).  The ballad seller would then sing the song, both enticing customers to come over to BUY THE THING and teaching the melody for repeating later. Melodies often repeat, too--the same one might be used for many different songs.  The ballads themselves were often very long, providing hours of entertainment from a few pieces of music.  (Hey, they didn't have smartphones, how else do you pass the time while you're doing laundry or waiting on potatoes to boil?)
And what does this tell us about literacy? Despite commonly quoted "facts" that few people could read in the eighteenth century, a thriving market for cheap print goods tells us that many people did have a comfortable enough ability to read.  They purchased and enjoyed these sheets.  In fact, the lack of printed music--staff and notes--perhaps confirms this: People were literate but not musically literate.
And the ballad seller's poorly compensated service meant that people could learn and sing new music.
A New Love Song, only Ha'pence a Piece, Francis Wheatley

If there's one thing (pick just one!) that's frustrating about the writing and publishing sphere, it's how often the things you really want to celebrate have to be kept quiet..for ages.  Centuries.  Aeons, even.

Ok, but even a few weeks or months on the silent circuit can feel excruciating when you really want to run around like a toddler on a cookie high with a fistful of sparklers and order MY BOOK IS GOING TO BE A REAL BOOK AND BE PUBLISHED AND STUFF! on a cake.  You maybe haven't quite refined the cake wording yet.
Which is why I've never really blabbed much about how, a year ago today, I got a quick text from my Agent of Awesome to see if I had a minute to chat.  I was at work at work, at a community college writing center, and a minute something I had to scrape up given that it was nearing end-of-semester time and I was neck-deep in papers submitted to the online tutoring portal I managed.
But that minute was going to have to give, because I Just Knew that this was good news.  
At least, I hoped so.  It was either that, or Jessica was telling me she was moving to Argentina and starting a marshmallow farm because I was such a terrible client.
It was good news. I tried not to bubble over in the hallway of the college, but did a silent internal happy dance.
I then had to go back to work and read freshmen term papers and give them comprehensible feedback in the form of literate, written English.  It was really, really hard.  And even harder--I had to keep mum.  I kept mum for a while, then I got to squeee when the news came out officially.
Even though this is delayed..waaaaaay delayed...I want to celebrate that moment of bubbling-over-happy from a year ago.  So--a giveaway!
Just leave a comment on this post (and pick up extra entries on Twitter and Facebook!) with something you're celebrating--something you're currently proud of accomplishing or working hard on, something that's maybe been "old news" for awhile but still makes you feel a little bubbly to think about, anything at all.  I'll draw a winner at random at 5 pm Eastern time on Friday.  Open anywhere the mail will take it; void if such drawings or these prizes disallowed where you happen to inhabit.
And the prizes!
A signed (and personalized per your request) coy of TORN, plus two of my favorite writerly things:

A notebook from Rifle Paper Co--I carry one in my purse to jot down notes and ideas and things I will definitely forget and what were we talking about? NOTEBOOK! Yes.

My favorite tea, in loose leaf form for optimized tea-strength personalization.
ALSO! If you're a writer, this prize pack INCLUDES a critique of your query letter, synopsis, and first five pages (provided by me, a writerly person who is not an industry pro but is a professional writing teacher and tutor, so that's...something? I guess?).  If you're not a writer...well, you got tea and a notebook and a book :)
Good luck and thanks for celebrating a year late with me!

One of the places I found inspiration for Galitha City was in the artwork depicting eighteenth century London.  The "Cries of London" are actually a catchall for quite a few series of prints, one of the more famous of which is by Francis Wheatley.  Wheatley may have idealized his subjects a little bit; comparing his work to, say, Paul Sandby's sketches, his criers tend to look better-kempt, less dirty, and significantly less likely to steal something.

Wheatley:


Cheerilee, I'm selling prettypretty primroses! Tra-la-la!
Sandby:
From the Yale Center for British Art
Get your liver for your dogs, or don't, I don't give a ****.
It may be little surprise that I prefer Sandby for historical research purposes...if he depicts someone with a certain cap or their apron tied in a knot (y'all are seeing that, too, right?) it's pretty sure that's because someone *actually did that.*

Still, Wheatley's work also gives insight into a busy, bustling, *loud* city life in eighteenth century England, even if his cabbage sellers and matchstick girls are all a little too rosy-cheeked and cheerful.  There is the texture of life here--what people are wearing how they wear it, what they carry and what they use.

Hot Spiced Gingerbread, Smoking Hot{Stuff I see: Scrounging doggo, man wearing some sort of gaiter over his shoes, cheery red short coat, knotted neck kerchief, sweet bonnets on mom and daughter}
Fresh Gathered Peas, Young Hastings{Stuff I see: Aprons used to carry goods, I think that's a pocket revealed by the uplifted apron, a child helping mom, a small dog that I *think might be* the "Spitz" breed very popular in the eighteenth century and later renamed "American Eskimo" in the US due to anti-German sentiment in WWI but don't quote me on that}
Round & Sound, Five Pence a Pound, Duke Cherries{Stuff I see: A young gentleman in a wee suit, a wheelbarrow for toting fruit, cherries measured by weight, a fellow without a waistcoat under his coat--it must be a hot day!}
Strawberrys, Scarlet Strawberrys{Stuff I see: A tucked up apron, a woman wearing stays--corset--but no gown or jacket, those curious little baskets called "pottles" used for portioning out strawberries.  You by them not by the pound, but by the pottle!}
Wheatley named each work after the "cry" a street seller might use to entice customers.  Taken en masse, we could envision a very loud street scene with competing voices vying for attention.  This is the bedrock of good marketing--a product, a slogan, placement where the customer can reach it!  Beyond this vitality that inspired a lively city in my writing, I love that these images touch on the less commonly depicted people. These folks were poor.  They were scraping by, often selling seasonal items.  Many of them are women; many of these women have children tagging along, assisting Mum with sales, portioning out vegetables, toting baskets.  That's what I see in these images--LIFE lived by people who are usually silenced by the passing of time, which often only records the work and deeds of the Big Important People.  It was important to me to craft a city full of life being lived by ordinary people

I'm excited to share that on March 31, I'll be at Volumes Bookcafe in Chicago to talk about fantasy, writing, and Torn with the incredible Hugo-award-winning author Mary Robinette Kowal!  (If you haven't read her Shades of Milk and Honey, you are in for a treat!) 



Join us at 7:30 (Central time zone)!  I'm looking forward to seeing you there!

More on the event here!

Release dates are weird things.

See, this book has felt "real" to me for a while now.  From seeing pass pages (and marking up pass pages and wow a novel means a STACK and a half of pass pages!)



to getting an ARC of my book, to a box of author copies arriving on my doorstep


to handling REAL ACTUAL copies of MY BOOK for the first time...

I've met my book as a book.  It feels real.  
It's been out there dipping its big toe in the world, too--there have been trade reviews and book blogger's reviews (like this one, this one, and I'm missing quite a few but I'm typing fast here, this one).  People have read my book.

I've had that stop and breathe moment--*PEOPLE have read my BOOK.*

(Whether people liked it or not isn't even registering--people have READ it.)

And all that happens before the book releases into the wild of Amazon, Barnes and Noble, your favorite corner bookshop that's hanging despite the odds.

So what does happen tomorrow? Well...I have preschool drop off at 9 a.m., and my daughter's ballet class at 3, and since I have to be at handbell rehearsal at 6, I'll have to be sure I get something into the crockpot for dinner.  What happens tomorrow? In some ways, it's an ordinary Tuesday for me.

In other ways, very much not ordinary.  Kind of a quietly giant deal. You only release your debut novel once--I'll be breaking out the bubbly after baby bedtime and having a quiet little celebration of my own.  (And you can join me at a bigger celebration at this event at Volumes Bookcafe in Chicago next week!)

I'm so thankful to everyone who's been along for the ride on this one, from the publishing pros who have guided this from manuscript to book, to the writing community and the friends who have been my steadfast cheerleaders, to my family who puts up with living with a writer.

And of course to you, reader--whether you'd already joined this kooky party via an ARC, you're waiting on your preorder to show up in the mail, or you're finding me now--thanks for reading!

GIVEAWAY!! TORN comes out next week—I kinda can’t believe it! To celebrate I’m giving away handmade-by-me, fabric-accented, signed bookmarks. Open anywhere the mail goes, enter on Twitter or Facebook! Open through midnight Sunday (ET).

I'm giving away five bookmarks minimum in each place, so feel free to enter in each!


Good luck!

Two months from today, Torn will be released!
I'm already excited--and I want to celebrate ahead of time a little bit and give one you a gift!  In the spirit of the trade employed by the main character, Sophie, in Torn, this is a "Seamstress Prize Pack." I'm giving away a copy of the American Duchess Guide to 18th Century Dressmaking and a sweet little pair of embroidery snips.


Why these items? Because my (sometimes obsessive) love of sewing and historical textiles was a huge part of the inspiration for Torn, and I am *loving* how this book by Lauren Stowell and Abby Cox makes the process of sewing historical gowns so accessible.  If you've ever wanted to dive into sewing historical garments, this is a wonderful entree.  And if you've been sewing for ages, there are still excellent patterns, tips, advice, and general prettiness to enjoy, too.  Frankly, even if you never intend to sew a stitch, it's a beautiful book to look at it and it certainly enriches your understanding of historical textiles and lifeways.
And the snips because they're cute and pretty and everyone needs a pair even if you don't sew--for trimming off tags, Irish pennants, your bangs (no, don't use them on your bangs).
To enter:Twitter: Follow and RetweetFacebook: Follow and CommentHere: Follow and Comment
Enter by midnight eastern time on Monday, January 23--I'll pick a winner and post on Tuesday! (US only, please.)
(And if for some wackadoo reason gorgeous historical clothing isn't your bag, watch this space and my Twitter and Facebook pages for other giveaways over the next two months.  Why? Because I'm really excited, that's why!)