Susanna Kearsley's Blog
August 1, 2018
Bellewether Tour Dates for USA
Hi everybody!
Just a reminder of where I'll be stopping next week on my tour to celebrate the American publication of BELLEWETHER...
Sunday, August 5 @ 2pm:
Central Rappahannock Regional Library
1201 Caroline Street, Fredericksburg, VA 22401
Monday, August 6 @ 6:30pm:
High Point Museum
1859 East Lexington Ave., High Point, NC 27262
Tuesday, August 7 @ 6pm:
Malaprop's Books/Cafe
55 Haywood St. Asheville, NC 28801
Wednesday, August 8 @ 6:30pm:
Foxtale Book Shoppe
105 E Main St, Woodstock, GA 30188
Thursday, August 9 @ 6:30pm:
Murder by the Book (a joint event with fellow writer Susan Elia MacNeal)
2342 Bissonnet St., Houston, TX 77005
Friday, August 10 @ 7pm:
Poisoned Pen Bookstore with Diana Gabaldon
(This is a ticketed event and space is limited, so please check with the bookstore in advance)
4014 N Goldwater Blvd, Scottsdale, AZ 85251
Saturday, August 11 @ 1pm:
Mysterious Galaxy
5943 Balboa Ave, Suite 100, San Diego, CA 92111
Hopefully I'll see a few of you there!
Love,
Susanna
Just a reminder of where I'll be stopping next week on my tour to celebrate the American publication of BELLEWETHER...
Sunday, August 5 @ 2pm:
Central Rappahannock Regional Library
1201 Caroline Street, Fredericksburg, VA 22401
Monday, August 6 @ 6:30pm:
High Point Museum
1859 East Lexington Ave., High Point, NC 27262
Tuesday, August 7 @ 6pm:
Malaprop's Books/Cafe
55 Haywood St. Asheville, NC 28801
Wednesday, August 8 @ 6:30pm:
Foxtale Book Shoppe
105 E Main St, Woodstock, GA 30188
Thursday, August 9 @ 6:30pm:
Murder by the Book (a joint event with fellow writer Susan Elia MacNeal)
2342 Bissonnet St., Houston, TX 77005
Friday, August 10 @ 7pm:
Poisoned Pen Bookstore with Diana Gabaldon
(This is a ticketed event and space is limited, so please check with the bookstore in advance)
4014 N Goldwater Blvd, Scottsdale, AZ 85251
Saturday, August 11 @ 1pm:
Mysterious Galaxy
5943 Balboa Ave, Suite 100, San Diego, CA 92111
Hopefully I'll see a few of you there!
Love,
Susanna
December 6, 2017
Finally, a cover for you!
Hi everyone. I'm happy to (finally) be able to share the Canadian cover for BELLEWETHER, along with a summary of the story. I've updated the book's page here:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
Simon & Schuster Canada will publish the book in Canada on April 24, 2018, and Sourcebooks will publish in the USA on October 2, 2018.
I'll be sure to update you on any other dates and details as I receive them--I know you've been waiting a long time already, and I'm sorry for that, but I really am happy with how the book turned out, and hope you'll find the story worth the wait :-)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
Simon & Schuster Canada will publish the book in Canada on April 24, 2018, and Sourcebooks will publish in the USA on October 2, 2018.
I'll be sure to update you on any other dates and details as I receive them--I know you've been waiting a long time already, and I'm sorry for that, but I really am happy with how the book turned out, and hope you'll find the story worth the wait :-)
February 26, 2016
Thank You!
I just wanted to say thanks to all the readers who nominated A DESPERATE FORTUNE for Best Novel With Strong Romantic Elements in this year's All About Romance Annual Poll.
I'm very honoured to be on the ballot alongside Anna Lee Huber, Kristan Higgins Books, Naomi Novik, and Karen White, all great writers whom I very much admire (and like).
You can vote for any of us by using this link to the contest page (collectively we're category 26, right down at the bottom): https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/AAR_20...
And for more information on AAR's Annual Poll and how it works, you can visit this page on their site: http://www.likesbooks.com/blog/?p=18510
In the meantime, thanks so much again to everyone who put A DESPERATE FORTUNE in the running.
I'm very honoured to be on the ballot alongside Anna Lee Huber, Kristan Higgins Books, Naomi Novik, and Karen White, all great writers whom I very much admire (and like).
You can vote for any of us by using this link to the contest page (collectively we're category 26, right down at the bottom): https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/AAR_20...
And for more information on AAR's Annual Poll and how it works, you can visit this page on their site: http://www.likesbooks.com/blog/?p=18510
In the meantime, thanks so much again to everyone who put A DESPERATE FORTUNE in the running.
February 24, 2016
MARIANA eBook is a Kindle Daily Deal Today...
For my American readers:
I’ve been told there’s another $1.99 Kindle Daily Deal sale on today, this time for a book that will always hold a special place in my heart: MARIANA.
MARIANA was the second book I wrote, and the third one published, but it was the first of what I call my “big” books, and the one that truly opened all the doors for me. For years and years (until I wrote THE WINTER SEA) it was my father’s favourite, and my sister loved it more than any other of my novels.
So I’m happy I can share this news with you today! I’m told the $1.99 price will be matched across most eBook platforms for today (Wednesday), and although the sale is only on in the USA and I’m up here in Canada, I’ve been able to hunt down a couple of buy links for you, for amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Mariana-Susanna...
and Barnes & Noble NOOK: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/maria...
If you come across any other links, please feel free to share them in the comments below, and to share this post with any of your friends who might enjoy the book.
Here’s how MARIANA begins:
***************************
I first saw the house in the summer of my fifth birthday.
It was all the fault of a poet, and the fact that our weekend visit with a favorite elderly aunt had put my father in a vaguely poetic mood. Faced with an unexpected fork in the road on our drive home from Oxford, he deliberately chose the left turning instead of the right. “The road less traveled by,” he told us, in a benign and dreamy voice. And, as the poet had promised, it did indeed make all the difference.
To begin with, we became lost. So hopelessly lost, in fact, that my mother had to put away the map. The clouds that rolled in to cover the sun seemed only an extension of my father’s darkening mood, all poetry forgotten as he hunched grimly over the steering wheel. By lunchtime it was raining, quite heavily, and my mother had given sweets to my brother Tommy and me in a vain attempt to keep us from further irritating Daddy, whose notable temper was nearing the breaking point.
The sweets were peppermint, striped pink and white like large marbles, and so effective at hindering speech that we had to take them out of our mouths altogether in order to talk to each other. By the time we reached the first cluster of village shops and houses, my face and hands were sticky with sugar, and the front of my new ruffled frock was a stained and wrinkled ruin.
I’ve never been entirely certain what it was that made my father stop the car where he did. I seem to remember a cat darting across the road in front of us, but that may simply have been the invention of an imaginative and overtired child. Whatever the reason, the car stopped, the engine stalled, and in the ensuing commotion I got my first watery glimpse of the house.
It was a rather ordinary old farmhouse, large and square and solid, set back some distance from the road with a few unkempt trees dotted around for privacy. Its darkly glistening slate roof sloped down at an alarming angle to meet the weathered gray stone walls, the drab monotony of color broken by twin redbrick chimneys and an abundance of large multipaned windows, their frames painted freshly white.
I was pressing my nose against the cold glass of the car window, straining to get a better look, when after a few particularly virulent oaths my father managed to coax the engine back to life. My mother, obviously relieved, turned round to check up on us.
“Julia, don’t,” she pleaded. “You’ll leave smears on the windows.”
“That’s my house,” I said, by way of explanation.
My brother Tommy pointed to a much larger and more stately home that was just coming into view. “Well, that’s MY house,” he countered, triumphant. To the delight of my parents, we continued the game all the way home to Oxford, and the lonely gray house was forgotten.
I was not to see it again for seventeen years.
***************************
And here’s a little extra – not a buy link, but a link to the (very) homemade book trailer I made for the UK re-release of MARIANA back in 2009. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB_IW...
(Fun fact: The music for this was written by my friend Jim Guttridge, a film and television composer who’s currently doing the music for the CW’s series Beauty and the Beast. He wrote “Mariana’s Theme” especially for this book trailer, and scored it the same way he does when working on a film—letting the visuals play and composing while watching them).
Again, this $1.99 deal is just for the USA and my American readers. My apologies to everyone else (I don’t have any influence over these deals, they’re arranged by my publishers). Rest assured that if and when I hear of any other sales like this, in any territory, I will share that information here for you.
xx
Susanna
I’ve been told there’s another $1.99 Kindle Daily Deal sale on today, this time for a book that will always hold a special place in my heart: MARIANA.
MARIANA was the second book I wrote, and the third one published, but it was the first of what I call my “big” books, and the one that truly opened all the doors for me. For years and years (until I wrote THE WINTER SEA) it was my father’s favourite, and my sister loved it more than any other of my novels.
So I’m happy I can share this news with you today! I’m told the $1.99 price will be matched across most eBook platforms for today (Wednesday), and although the sale is only on in the USA and I’m up here in Canada, I’ve been able to hunt down a couple of buy links for you, for amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Mariana-Susanna...
and Barnes & Noble NOOK: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/maria...
If you come across any other links, please feel free to share them in the comments below, and to share this post with any of your friends who might enjoy the book.
Here’s how MARIANA begins:
***************************
I first saw the house in the summer of my fifth birthday.
It was all the fault of a poet, and the fact that our weekend visit with a favorite elderly aunt had put my father in a vaguely poetic mood. Faced with an unexpected fork in the road on our drive home from Oxford, he deliberately chose the left turning instead of the right. “The road less traveled by,” he told us, in a benign and dreamy voice. And, as the poet had promised, it did indeed make all the difference.
To begin with, we became lost. So hopelessly lost, in fact, that my mother had to put away the map. The clouds that rolled in to cover the sun seemed only an extension of my father’s darkening mood, all poetry forgotten as he hunched grimly over the steering wheel. By lunchtime it was raining, quite heavily, and my mother had given sweets to my brother Tommy and me in a vain attempt to keep us from further irritating Daddy, whose notable temper was nearing the breaking point.
The sweets were peppermint, striped pink and white like large marbles, and so effective at hindering speech that we had to take them out of our mouths altogether in order to talk to each other. By the time we reached the first cluster of village shops and houses, my face and hands were sticky with sugar, and the front of my new ruffled frock was a stained and wrinkled ruin.
I’ve never been entirely certain what it was that made my father stop the car where he did. I seem to remember a cat darting across the road in front of us, but that may simply have been the invention of an imaginative and overtired child. Whatever the reason, the car stopped, the engine stalled, and in the ensuing commotion I got my first watery glimpse of the house.
It was a rather ordinary old farmhouse, large and square and solid, set back some distance from the road with a few unkempt trees dotted around for privacy. Its darkly glistening slate roof sloped down at an alarming angle to meet the weathered gray stone walls, the drab monotony of color broken by twin redbrick chimneys and an abundance of large multipaned windows, their frames painted freshly white.
I was pressing my nose against the cold glass of the car window, straining to get a better look, when after a few particularly virulent oaths my father managed to coax the engine back to life. My mother, obviously relieved, turned round to check up on us.
“Julia, don’t,” she pleaded. “You’ll leave smears on the windows.”
“That’s my house,” I said, by way of explanation.
My brother Tommy pointed to a much larger and more stately home that was just coming into view. “Well, that’s MY house,” he countered, triumphant. To the delight of my parents, we continued the game all the way home to Oxford, and the lonely gray house was forgotten.
I was not to see it again for seventeen years.
***************************
And here’s a little extra – not a buy link, but a link to the (very) homemade book trailer I made for the UK re-release of MARIANA back in 2009. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB_IW...
(Fun fact: The music for this was written by my friend Jim Guttridge, a film and television composer who’s currently doing the music for the CW’s series Beauty and the Beast. He wrote “Mariana’s Theme” especially for this book trailer, and scored it the same way he does when working on a film—letting the visuals play and composing while watching them).
Again, this $1.99 deal is just for the USA and my American readers. My apologies to everyone else (I don’t have any influence over these deals, they’re arranged by my publishers). Rest assured that if and when I hear of any other sales like this, in any territory, I will share that information here for you.
xx
Susanna
February 2, 2016
Desperate Fortune Daily Deal!
Good morning, everyone! I just wanted to let my American readers know A DESPERATE FORTUNE is a Kindle Daily Deal today, meaning the eBook is on sale for $1.99 across most eBook platforms (amazon, NOOK, iBooks, etc.)
Being up here in Canada I don't have access to all the buy links to pass on to you, but please feel free to share them in the comments here if you come across them.
Happy reading!
x
Susanna
Being up here in Canada I don't have access to all the buy links to pass on to you, but please feel free to share them in the comments here if you come across them.
Happy reading!
x
Susanna
November 22, 2015
Thank You.
I honestly can't thank you all enough for the support and love you've shown for A DESPERATE FORTUNE by voting it into the final round of this year's Goodreads Choice Awards.
I really loved writing this book and these characters, and it means a lot to know they resonated with so many of you, too.
There's one more day left for voting -- the competition ends on Monday, November 23rd -- so do feel free to share and spread the word, but know I'm happy and so honoured by all this, no matter what the outcome.
Winning is a relative thing, and I feel I've already won just having readers like you.
Thank you.
I really loved writing this book and these characters, and it means a lot to know they resonated with so many of you, too.
There's one more day left for voting -- the competition ends on Monday, November 23rd -- so do feel free to share and spread the word, but know I'm happy and so honoured by all this, no matter what the outcome.
Winning is a relative thing, and I feel I've already won just having readers like you.
Thank you.
November 8, 2015
Goodreads Choice Awards
A DESPERATE FORTUNE is, remarkably, one of the nominees in this year's Goodreads Choice Awards for Historical Fiction, and I just wanted you all to know that I am incredibly honoured by this, because it comes from you, the readers.
I'm not always comfortable doing that "vote for me" thing, because I figure if people want to honestly vote for the book they will, so that's why you won't see me doing a lot of campaigning for votes, but please know that I truly appreciate this recognition of a book I really loved writing and sharing with all of you.
Whatever happens to A DESPERATE FORTUNE in this competition, being nominated in this category is award enough.
Thank you.
I'm not always comfortable doing that "vote for me" thing, because I figure if people want to honestly vote for the book they will, so that's why you won't see me doing a lot of campaigning for votes, but please know that I truly appreciate this recognition of a book I really loved writing and sharing with all of you.
Whatever happens to A DESPERATE FORTUNE in this competition, being nominated in this category is award enough.
Thank you.
January 27, 2015
Big Giveaway at BookPage!
For my American readers:
My publishers, Sourcebooks, are sponsoring an amazing contest for me this month at BookPage!
One Grand Prize Winner will win a Scottish gift basket worth $750 containing a Tartan blanket, fine whiskey, Celtic jewelry, tea, shortbread, and all of my books that Sourcebooks has published/reissued so far: The Winter Sea, The Rose Garden, Shadowy Horses, Mariana, The Firebird, Splendour Falls, Season of Storms, AND the upcoming A Desperate Fortune.
Five Second Place Winners will receive a full set of those same books (without the gift bastket), and ten Third Place Winners will get 1 copy of A Desperate Fortune.
The contest isn't officially supposed to start until February 1st, but I've just been given the link to access the contest page and it's open for entries, so I thought it would be nice to give you, my readers, a bit of a head start on entering.
So here you go! Feel free to share with anyone you like.
http://bookpage.com/contests/17762-su...
My publishers, Sourcebooks, are sponsoring an amazing contest for me this month at BookPage!
One Grand Prize Winner will win a Scottish gift basket worth $750 containing a Tartan blanket, fine whiskey, Celtic jewelry, tea, shortbread, and all of my books that Sourcebooks has published/reissued so far: The Winter Sea, The Rose Garden, Shadowy Horses, Mariana, The Firebird, Splendour Falls, Season of Storms, AND the upcoming A Desperate Fortune.
Five Second Place Winners will receive a full set of those same books (without the gift bastket), and ten Third Place Winners will get 1 copy of A Desperate Fortune.
The contest isn't officially supposed to start until February 1st, but I've just been given the link to access the contest page and it's open for entries, so I thought it would be nice to give you, my readers, a bit of a head start on entering.
So here you go! Feel free to share with anyone you like.
http://bookpage.com/contests/17762-su...
November 13, 2014
Bring me to YOUR hometown...
...for this spring's American tour celebrating the release of my new book, A DESPERATE FORTUNE!
Sourcebooks is sending me on the road in April in the States, and they're letting my readers decide where I go.
We did this in 2013 with THE FIREBIRD, and I had an absolute blast. It's a true Mystery Tour, for me -- I'm kept entirely out of the loop and I don't know what cities and towns I'll be going to until the last votes are counted.
And this time Sourcebooks has added some prizes, as well, including one very special grand prize.
If you want me to come visit you, just use the link below to nominate your local library or bookstore, and get all your friends to do the same.
http://books.sourcebooks.com/adespera...
Oh, and you can read the first two chapters of A DESPERATE FORTUNE on the voting page, too, while you're waiting...
Best of luck!
Sourcebooks is sending me on the road in April in the States, and they're letting my readers decide where I go.
We did this in 2013 with THE FIREBIRD, and I had an absolute blast. It's a true Mystery Tour, for me -- I'm kept entirely out of the loop and I don't know what cities and towns I'll be going to until the last votes are counted.
And this time Sourcebooks has added some prizes, as well, including one very special grand prize.
If you want me to come visit you, just use the link below to nominate your local library or bookstore, and get all your friends to do the same.
http://books.sourcebooks.com/adespera...
Oh, and you can read the first two chapters of A DESPERATE FORTUNE on the voting page, too, while you're waiting...
Best of luck!
March 25, 2014
Once More Into the Breach...
...if you feel like it :-)
The Firebird has somehow managed to advance into the 3rd round of the fun DABWAHA Tournament (March Madness for Romantic novels), and Thursday I'll be facing off against another good friend of mine, Deanna Raybourn, and her beautiful novel A Spear of Summer Grass (which you should read, if you haven't already) (it made me cry).
Our competition slot starts at midnight tomorrow night CST and runs until noon Thursday, so if you want to play along and vote for either of us, just drop by the game site during that time: http://dabwaha.com/
And if you're on Twitter, you can follow along with all the craziness of this annual tournament by following the hashtag: #DABWAHA. If nothing else, you'll get to see all the creative "Armitage Torpedoes" Deanna and her backers have been/are/will be firing at me (it's a long story...)
Thanks again if you voted, and no worries if you don't. It's all in fun.
The Firebird has somehow managed to advance into the 3rd round of the fun DABWAHA Tournament (March Madness for Romantic novels), and Thursday I'll be facing off against another good friend of mine, Deanna Raybourn, and her beautiful novel A Spear of Summer Grass (which you should read, if you haven't already) (it made me cry).
Our competition slot starts at midnight tomorrow night CST and runs until noon Thursday, so if you want to play along and vote for either of us, just drop by the game site during that time: http://dabwaha.com/
And if you're on Twitter, you can follow along with all the craziness of this annual tournament by following the hashtag: #DABWAHA. If nothing else, you'll get to see all the creative "Armitage Torpedoes" Deanna and her backers have been/are/will be firing at me (it's a long story...)
Thanks again if you voted, and no worries if you don't. It's all in fun.
