The Hunting Moon is here!
And a Witchlight sneak peek! 👀
The Hunting Moon is in stores!
#ChooseWithSooz updates
Still on tour—plus, DenNerds meetup!
Witchlight sneak peek 👀
1. The Hunting Moon is in stores!
It’s wild to think I have one more book out this week. That’s eleven, y’all. ELEVEN.
Also, I got to do an event with one of my most favorite authors of ALL TIME, Megan Whalen Turner.1 That is just wild to my brain. It can’t comprehend that not only am I an author, but I got to hang out and share a stage with one of my writing heroes.
It’s been an amazing week.
I was so, so worried last year before the release of The Luminaries. It was the first time I was launching a new series in 6 years, and the pressure felt unmanageably huge. I do not look back at fall of 2022 with happiness, but only terror. Poor Sooz.
Fortunately, the good(?) thing about having your daughter almost die and then learn she has chronic illness that requires daily management is that you stop giving a single solitary turd about the success of your book!
Like, I’m over here trying to keep my daughter alive! Sure, I want my books to “perform to expectations,” but also…I am literally trying to keep my daughter alive. And meet deadlines to keep us housed and pay her medical bills.
Perspective, right?
All of this is to say that I am so, so grateful to you all for supporting me through this really tough year—and for buying my book to support me when I can’t go all-in on promo like I used to.
And I think that because I haven’t been clutching the “success” of this book so tightly and stressing under the weight of “performance expectations,” I’ve had the emotional space to actually ENJOY my release to the fullest.
Tour has been an absolute BLAST so far. Release day was a total delight—even with a few (inevitable) nasty reviews thrown my way 🙄—and I’m just having the greatest time this week.
So thank you for being a part of that. You’re amazing, and I owe you all so much.
2. Latest #ChooseWithSooz Updates
Because of release week, I had to do some other videos to start. So I’ve shared those and the #UghJay polls below!
#ChooseWithSooz Part 34 (vote today!)
3. Still on tour—come see me!
I will be at YALLFest today and tomorrow, then at Brave + Kind in Atlanta on Monday! With the amazing Mark Oshiro!
And we have a set time + location for our DenNerds Meetup at YALLFest! Check that below!
Here’s the schedule!
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10: YALLFest
Fierce Friday
2:30 PM, Charleston Museum — Courtyard
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 11: YALLFest
🚨DenNerds Meetup!! Don’t miss! 🚨
9:00AM Kudu Coffee
Fall in Love with Books
12:00 PM, Charleston Museum — Courtyard
The Where (Crafting Setting): Writers on Writing
1:00 PM, American Theater — Ballroom
Gotta Have a POV: Telling Stories from Multiple Viewpoints
3:00 PM, American Theater — Cinema
SIGNING
4:00 PM, American Theater
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 13: Brave + Kind Bookshop
Brave + Kind NaNoWriMo Writers Meet Up
6:00 PM, Learn more here!SIGNING with Mark Oshiro
7:00 PM, Get your ticket here!
4. Witchlight Sneak Peek
I realize I’m meant to be promoting The Hunting Moon, but I’m so deep in Witchlight mode…I can’t help but want to share a snippet!
Plus, what better way to thank you for your support than to give you a sneak peek of what’s to come?!
So here’s a meaty chunk of the first chapter from Iseult.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Iseult det Midenzi knelt over the dying man. He had been fine two days ago, his wife said, but now he had these shadowy lines across his body. Please, are you the one who heals the Cleaved? Please, can you help him?
Iseult couldn’t help him.
She had tried. Since dawn, when the woman had first found her at the imperial hunting lodge, Iseult had tried to weave this man’s Threads back into life as she had done with the Hell-Bards a month ago. Living, living, breath and living. Threads that heal, Threads that thrive. But it was early afternoon now, and still his Threads had not responded.
It made no sense. Iseult should be able to control these Threads. She should be able to heal this slowly cleaving man. Yet it was as if, by destroying Corlant, the very nature of cleaving had changed. Gone was the quick, vicious death that bubbled up from the core and burned a person from the inside out, magic turned molten and cruel. Now it was this agonizing thing that crept over a person for days, sucking the life from them.
It was horrible to witness, and Iseult hated that none of her tools as a Weaverwitch could stop what Moon Mother had decided must be.
“Iseult,” Safi whispered, dropping to a kneel beside her. “You’re exhausted. You need to stop.”
“I c-can’t.” Iseult’s hands trembled as she wove them through—again—the man’s Threads. Strands like burning silk. Here were the ones that bound him to his wife and his three daughters. Here were the ones that bound him to his work as a blacksmith. And here were the Severed Threads eating him alive.
They seared against Iseult’s palms, as Severed Threads always did, except now she couldn’t control them. She was going to have to turn to this man’s wife and say, “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”
It was the third person in as many days Iseult hadn’t been able to heal—and the fourth person in a week who’d had no magic but had begun cleaving all the same. Why?
“Come,” Safi repeated, and this time, she gripped Iseult’s elbow, gentle but unrelenting. Iseult didn’t fight her Threadsister; there was no point, and Safi was right: she was exhausted.
“I will come back soon,” Iseult told the wife, a lie on two fronts. First, because soon wouldn’t save the man. Second, because Iseult was leaving soon. Tonight, in fact. She and Safi were leaving this eastern corner of Cartorra to brave the Windswept Plains.
Still, it gave the woman hope to offer promises. It made this woman feel like someone cared enough to do something—and Iseult did care. And she was going to do something. “Keep him warm and make him drink water.”
“Thank you,” the woman replied. The lines around her mouth and eyes were stark with exhaustion, with fear. And with love too, for the Threads that bind etched deep marks upon the soul.
Yet as the woman offered Iseult jars of lanolin meant for oiling blades—as a thank you—Iseult spotted faint shadows within the woman’s weathered hands. They followed her veins, and were it not for Iseult’s magic—her constant connection to Threads and the corruption that can work inside them—she would never have noticed. But she did notice, she did recognize, and her heart broke for the second time that day.
It was spreading. This slow, incurable cleaving was spreading.
“Th-thank you,” Iseult murmured to the woman before her weak grasp on stasis could give her away. Then she hurried with Safi away from the woman’s home.
They mounted their horses, a chestnut named Dandelion and a gray named Cloud, and set off into the afternoon. Half the morning had passed while Iseult bowed over that blacksmith. Wasted time with no one saved or healed.
Her throat ached. Her tongue felt sluggish behind her teeth.
“The w-wife is cleaving too,” she said once they had left the small village behind. Snow dusted the road, hiding potholes along the edges. Knowing Safi, she would send Hell-Bards to fix those holes later today because, even if she kept saying she was not empress—even if she and Iseult were leaving at midnight, Safi couldn’t seem to let the responsibilities go.
It had been a month since Safi had taken full control as Empress of Cartorra. They were calling it a military coup in Praga, and already domnas and doms gathered to oppose Safi. Little good it would do them. Many of the Hell-Bard forces backed her, and although they were no longer bound to a Loom or impervious to magic, they were still the best soldiers in all the Witchlands.
Thousands of newcomers arrived each day to the lodge, Hell-Bards and soldiers summoned from the capital, servants and nobility Safi ’s magic told her could be trusted, and of course, the necessary craftsman that followed large crowds and war.
Including that blacksmith and his wife.
And there you have it, my dear, dear readers. ANOTHER BOOK OUT IN THE WORLD! Thirteen years in publishing, and I’m still here—which means my goal for longevity is going strong so far.
I wrap up my tour next Tuesday, then the pre-order campaign live workshop is on November 18! See you then, dear readers!
💚 - Sooz
Please read her books. Seriously. Especially if you enjoy the Witchlands. The Thief is more middle grade, but book 2, Queen of Attolia, is fully YA…and the romance. THE ROMANCE.
I am very proud of this reel, haha. I saw the trending track “Luminary” and just HAD to make something. And I love how it turned out. 😍
The snippet is such a treat! Thank you!!! 😃
Ahhhhh! The sneak peak is so good!