It’s been a while since I’ve done an update newsletter so this is pretty overdue. 2018 was an exciting year, but 2019 is proving to be even more of a rollercoaster!
Deniz and I were married in May in a quiet, intimate ceremony attended only by our immediate family. On our wedding day, we both woke up with a hint of the flu! You know you’re marrying the right person when you’re both ill on your wedding day and it still turns out to be the best day ever.
Because of immigration laws (I’m Canadian, Deniz is a Brit) we had less than a month to pull off our wedding, but we were both thrilled with the outcome. Even with the short notice our siblings and both sets of parents were able to make it. We took everyone to a local country villa called The Grove and treated them to dinner and a relaxing night in the quiet English countryside. The wisteria was blossoming, and if you’ve ever smelled it, you’ll understand why its one of my favourite plants.
We spent a lot of our spring and summer in Canada due to wanting to spend time with family, enjoy the Canadian Rockies over the short but glorious summer, and also in no small part due to the demands of the immigration process. Deniz headed back to London for work (he owns a pub called The Pearl & Feather) while I stayed with my folks to await my visa. By the time I received it, it had been three weeks since I’d seen Deniz and I was missing him terribly. I was on a plane as soon as possible and back in London by the beginning of August.
In September we enjoyed a 9 day honeymoon in Sicily. We flew into Catania and rented a car. The southern corner of Sicily boasts beautiful beaches as well as several Baroque towns, all protected as UNESCO world heritage sites. These towns are absolutely jaw dropping. We visited Ragusa, Noto, Modica, and Taormina. Taormina is known as the ‘jewel of the Mediterranean’, and while I’d agree its beautiful, it was far too touristy for our taste.
Ragusa is like visiting a movie set. It sits high on the clifftops and is kept as clean and manicured as a Disney park. Modica was rough but still beautiful and felt authentic and lived in. We didn’t feel like tourists there, just part of a bustling Sicilian town. Noto is quite brutish looking until you get to the very centre and then its like finding money in your pocket. The town centre is stunning and we had the best Sicilian food there!
For our last 5 days, we journeyed all the way across the island to the borders of a park called Zingaro. Our villa was less than a minute’s walk to the sea, and not far from an adorable little seaside town called Scopello. Here we snorkelled, enjoyed Sicilian pasta (they are famous for a pasta called busiate made with sardines, pine nuts, olive oil, and sometimes raisins), drank wine, and rented a boat to enjoy the coastline. We also took a day trip to a medieval town called Erice where it was terribly windy and a bit spooky, but gorgeous and unique. It’s tight cobbled walkways and old medieval buildings would make a great setting for a book or film! And if you’re thinking that I used the trip as an opportunity to do research for an upcoming series, you’d be absolutely right!
What’s next on the travel agenda? None other than Spain! More about that next time.
Moving on the publishing/authoring aspect of my life…good grief, what a whirlwind!
My last solo launch was Salt & the Sisters which became a bestseller instantly and closed out The Siren’s Curse trilogy. What a great feeling to read over the reviews you left! It was bittersweet to finish with Targa and Mira and set them aside (for now) to focus on the next trilogy, which will have Georjayna from Born of Earth at its centre. Right now, all things fae are hot and trendy, so its a great time to get into this story.
If you love my Wise mythology, fairies, fae, and witches (that’s right, my first witchy character), then read or reread Born of Earth to get the most enjoyment out of this upcoming work. It promises to keep you on the edge of your seat, and yes its chock full of earthy magic, just what you readers who identify the most with fairies and Wise have been asking for. Unlike other launches where I publish a book as soon as its ready, with this trilogy I’ll be waiting until the first 2 books are ready to go and the 3rd already underway before rapid releasing them…starting in late November if all goes smoothly. Stay tuned for a title and cover reveal before the end of October!
I also released a co-authored project with a brilliant writer named Aaron D. Schneider who came on board to help me conceptualize and write Born of Metal. I love how this story turned out and it too hit the bestseller lists during its first two weeks. The audiobook for Born of Metal has now been recorded and is in its final stages of prep. It was fun to pick out talent with a British accent for Ibby’s London-bred character and Tara-Louise Kaye has done a great job with the narration. The audiobook for Salt & Stone starts production next week, so there’s a lot of new releases slated for the end of 2019 and beginning of 2020.
Speaking of audiobooks, its a market that is growing in leaps and bounds! To help my audio stories get off to the best start possible, and to reward my VIPs, I started an Audiobook Review Team on Facebook where members can request promotional codes to redeem for my books for free! I’m still accepting new members but when we reach 500, we may close it down so it doesn’t get too big and unwieldy. I hope you join us there!
If you don’t have Facebook, don’t worry, you can join the email list to be notified as audiobook codes become available. Just email my VA Adriel Wiggins at admin@adrielwiggins.com
That’s all for this update, thanks so much for reading, not just my update but my books as well! I couldn’t do this without you.
Abby
Recent Comments