Looking for SIGNED COPIES of my books?

Do you know what makes a great gift? A book!

Do you know what makes an even better gift? A SIGNED book!

The nice folks at Mystery Lovers Bookshop are right around the corner from me. And if you order a book through them, I’ll come by and sign and personalize it before they ship it to you. Just make sure to specify who you want it signed to when you order!

You can visit their website here!

Coming soon ... WAR OF THE MAPS!

Hello, friends!

I’m back with a brand new novel — coming April 2025! It’s called The War of the Maps, and I can’t wait for you to read it! Here’s a picture of the cover, with are by the wonderful George Ermos:

Art by George Ermos

You probably noticed the gigantic “Vanished Kingdom” logo at the top. This new book is a companion to my earlier novels Peter Nimble and Sophie Quire, all of which are now being repackaged under the Vanished Kingdom banner. These new editions will be available in March 2025:

Art by Gilbert Ford and George Ermos

So what is this new book about?

EVERYTHING!

It is by far the biggest, most ambitious story I have ever tackled (which is why it took me so long!). In many ways, I’ve been working on this story for my entire adult life.

From the Abrams website:

From the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of The Night Gardener and Sweep, comes an epic middle-grade adventure—companion to Peter Nimble and his Fantastic Eyes and Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard—that will take readers to the very ends of the earth … and beyond

The War of the Maps is a breathtaking fantasy in the vein of His Dark Materials and The Last Battle that dares to give new answers to age-old questions—inviting readers of all ages to sail beyond the edges of the map into a world of magic, myth, and boundless adventure.

Since time before time, two opposing forces have been locked in an endless battle: It is the war between magic and reason—between what if and what is. And the victor will not just shape the future but the very nature of reality.

Peter Nimble and Sophie Quire have spent the last four years fighting to protect a world of magic from the insidious, unstoppable forces of “progress.” But, every day, the wonders that once surrounded them are vanishing. Lurking behind this transformation is a mysterious group called The League of Maps that seems to hold the answers.

As Peter and Sophie fight to untangle this mystery, they find themselves thrown into opposing sides of a vast war that stretches from the very beginning of humanity and into our present age.

As you may know, middle grade publishing is in a challenging state at the moment. If you want to support this book (and my ability to keep writing books), then PLEASE consider preordering a copy … it makes a huge difference in the life of a book to have strong preorders in advance.

If you want your copy signed and personalized, you can order this and all my books from my friendly local bookstore: Mystery Lovers Bookshop.

READER QUESTION: How much planning ahead do I do?

Illustration by Patrick Arrasmith

Mateo, a reader in TX, recently wrote to ask if I plan my stories ahead of time of figure things out as a I go. I figured I could post my response here:

The truth is, I do BOTH. I plan my stories quite a bit ... but I'm careful only to plan certain parts (the rest I leave to discover as I write).

Before anything, I need to know my opening and closing images. These bookend images should "rhyme" with one another ... telling their own little story in miniature. You can see this most clearly in The Night Gardener: Molly and Kip are riding in a cart in both the beginning and the end … but they’re going in very different directions (even the weather is different!).

 The other thing I need before I start writing is a deep sense of what is broken about my main character. I always ask: what's the missing part of them that the plot of this story can help them fix? This was huge in Sweep … which ended up being a story about an abandoned girl finding a new family. If I don’t have that element, I can’t start writing.

Beyond that, I spend lots of time drawing pictures of moments/scenes that excite me. Stuff that would go in the movie trailer. When I have about 20 of those images, I start piecing them together in a sequence that makes sense.

Some early sketches that helped me write SWEEP

But that’s about it. Like any road trip, it’s important to have a sense of your general destination, but the route you take should not be over-planned. In fact, planning too much will hurt your ability to make discoveries as you write.