Another Sneak Peek of The Whispering Night!
Now introducing Erica...
Latest News!
Audiobook Shout Out
Sneak Peek of The Whispering Night
UK Tour Stops
Pre-order the US Edition!
1. Latest News
I finished! I FINISHED The Whispering Night! It is written, edited, and off to copy-edits momentarily.
Phew.
That was a sprint, y’all.
I pushed so hard for so long on Witchlight last year, only for that to get bumped for reasons outside of my control…
And then I had to immediately dive into a sprint for The Whispering Night. So I feel like I’ve been living on pure cortisol for nine months now—and I just ain’t young enough for that anymore. 😂
But that’s okay! Because now The Whispering Night is finished, and I have the majority of Witchlight done too. So I’m hoping the next three months won’t be nearly so intense as the last three months were…
Anyway, LET US ALL CELEBRATE THE END OF WINNIE’S JOURNEY! I would be lying if I didn’t say it feels bittersweet. I love her and Jay and Erica and Bretta and Emma and Fatima and Darian and Mom and Rachel and…everyone in Hemlock Falls—even the nightmares.
Perhaps I can find a way to return to forest again one day. 😉
To celebrate, I’ve got the next sneak peek of The Whispering Night below! Enjoy!
2 A Shoutout for the Audiobook!
I ended up listening to the audiobooks for The Luminaries and The Hunting Moon—just to make sure I didn’t miss any key story promises or world facts—and I would now like to share that they are FANTASTIC!
Oh my gosh, Caitlin Davies is absolutely incredible as a narrator. She brings Winnie and Hemlock Falls to life so well. I genuinely enjoyed listening to these, and I actually think she made my books better than they really are! 😂
So check if your local library has them, gang, or use some audio credits to give them a listen. Because I cannot recommend them enough!
3. Sneak Peek from The Whispering Night
The Witch
The girl goes to the edge of the forest at twilight. She has avoided the call of the Dianas for three years, but she can avoid it no longer. She has failed, failed, failed to cast the spell from her sister. So if she wants to finish what her sister began—and finally learn why her sister died—she will need training.
Thus, when another summons comes, a small note that materializes inside her sister’s old locket with GPS coordinates in red ink, the girl decides to answer. The witches have been sending her these messages for the last three years, oddly unwilling to give up on her.
She is glad they’ve kept trying. After she failed for the thousandth time to do even the the most basic of spells—a mundanus that creates a flickering flame—she has accepted she cannot do this on her own.
The red-inked coordinates lead her far from her clan’s estate, and though the mist has not yet risen for the night, and she is outside the red-staked boundaries of nightmare danger, she still constantly checks her surroundings. She has crafted a plan, of course, in case a Luminary finds her here. A story about hunting mistcap mushrooms…And she has even brought a small sack with her for the filling.
But she encounters no one, and soon, she reaches the secret meeting place six minutes early because she is always six minutes early. She squints into the shadows. To her left, golden-leaf maples have turned to gray shadows in the darkness. To her right, underbrush and saplings are surrounded by fallen leaves.
Before her, the final grains of daylight vanish into gloaming. And behind her, a crow’s face zooms in.
The girl jumps, a yelp escaping her as she lurches away from the head. It is not a true crow, but a person in a charcoal-colored mask marked with feathers and a metal beak, glittery and gold. The person wears black, almost scale-like armor . Then the person laughs, a wheezing sound that isn’t quite human. And when she speaks, it is with an older woman’s voice. “So you are ready to join us, are you? Why now?”
The girl swallows. Her heart is trapped somewhere beside her tonsils. She was expecting a question like this, of course—why now?—and she rehearsed several answers while wiping off eyeliner in her bathroom But suddenly her various stories and excuses sound like exactly that: stories and excuses. And although she can see nothing beyond a glittering darkness where the crow’s eyes should be, she senses those eyes will see through any lies.
“Because,” the girl finally replies, “I want to know what my sister was. What she did. What…what all of this meant to her.”
“You mean you want to know why she turned on the Luminaries and chose their enemy?”
The girl nods. She does want to know why her sister would trade one controlling society for another. What the Dianas have to offer that was worth giving up everything for, including her life.
The Crow laughs again, a round, hearty laugh that is fully human now. As if a switch has been flipped inside her throat. “I think there is more to your answer.”
There is, but the girl will not say it out loud. Cannot say it. The spell her sister left behind—she doesn’t know if it was a secret. She doesn’t know how much this Crow before her knows.
So instead, she says: “This is all I have. Please.” Her voice weaker than she wants it to be. “It’s all I have, and so I have to try.”
The Crow sighs, a sound that is neither amused nor even mocking now. It is simply the sound of someone who has heard what they needed to hear. “Yes,” she agrees. Then she offers a black mask to the girl. It is wobbly without a human head inside and vaguely canid in shape. “This is yours now. Whenever you are summoned, you will wear it. Whenever you enter the forest, you will wear it. And whenever you work magic, you will wear it.”
Work magic. The girl’s heart finally releases from her throat. She reaches for the mask.
But the Crow skips it out of reach, wagging a finger. “This is for our protection as much as yours, child. Do you understand? Should the Lambda hunters ever find you, then you cannot betray us. You do not know who we are, you do not know our faces.”
“You’ve seen my face, though. That means you can betray me.”
“Yes, it does, Erica Thursday.” The Crow bobs her head. “Now take the mask, child, and we will begin our first lesson.”
4. Get your UK tour tickets!
Below are dates and times and locations for my UK Tour—but just a heads-up I will be at two different convention/festivals on this tour as well. We just haven’t announced those dates yet.
More to come soon!
Monday, 27 May
7.30pm Waterstones Piccadilly with Elizabeth May, chaired by Daphne Tonge
Tuesday, 28 May,
7pm Toppings, Bath with ST Gibson, chaired by Lucy Holland
https://www.toppingbooks.co.uk/events/bath/susan-dennard-2024/
Wednesday, 29 May
7pm Waterstones Liverpool with ST Gibson
(link to come!)
Thursday, 30 May
7.30pm, Toppings, Edinburgh with ST Gibson
https://www.toppingbooks.co.uk/events/edinburgh/susan-dennard-st-gibson-2024/
5. Pre-order!
Last but certainly not least, don’t forget to pre-order the US edition! Links here.
Or you can always order signed, personalized copies from Schuler Books!!
And I should have a UK cover and pre-order links for that to share soon.
Thanks so much for reading! Now that this book is mostly off my plate (still have copy edits and pass pages to do!), then I should have more time for newsletter-ing.
So until next time, dear reader!
💚 - Sooz
I got chills reading the sneak peek! Congratulations again on finishing!
Oh my goodness! That sneak peak is amazing! I can’t wait to read the whole novel!! And CONGRATULATIONS again on finishing it!