The book is finally here! Tomorrow, July 25th, Fierce Kingdom should be perched on a bookshelf near you, anxious to be bought and read. And while the book is lazing around doing nothing, I’ll be traveling from city to city doing readings and signings and, hopefully, sampling some local donuts.

I realize that in all the interviews I’ve done leading up to publication for Fierce Kingdom, no one has asked about the epigraph. So I’m going to talk about it anyway.

Here it is: “I just want to know if a sound can create a boy. Or, if a woman becomes a mother when she thinks she hears a baby crying for her.”

Second day of book tour in Canada, and there are all sorts of good things in Toronto. Soup dumplings at Lee Chen’s. Nanaimo bars. Summer weather that’s way better than Alabama.

But the first two things we always look for in a city are doughnuts and playgrounds. Toronto has loads of both. There’s this great playground near Corktown Commons under an overpass…

On Friday I signed 1,200 copies of FIERCE KINGDOM at the Books-A-Million headquarters. Here’s the before and after:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ll be starting the official book tour for FIERCE KINGDOM in a little less than three weeks, so I’m starting to think about what questions I’ll likely be asked. There’s one I have no doubt about: Who’s your favorite author?

A softball question, right? No problem?

And here’s the second big review for FIERCE KINGDOM…I might quibble a wee bit that the toddler is not “cranky” and that it’s not exactly a “horror story.” But, okay, quibbling would be pretty ungracious. It’s a starred review and the Pick of the Week!

https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-7352-2427-8

Alright, so I’m not sure if Kirkus Reviews counts as the first official review of FIERCE KINGDOM. But I’m old school and think that an actual printed version you can hold in your hand MATTERS. So, to my knowledge, this is the first print publication with a review. (Which is actually online. Tricky.)

I’ve spent a lovely couple of days in Toronto thank to Penguin Random House Canada, but this may be the highlight: cookie versions of Fierce Kingdom. So tasty, too.

 

I’ve just firmed up the first leg of my FIERCE KINGDOM tour schedule in the U.S., although I hope to add a few more Southern cities in the following weeks. But here’s what I’ve got so far…come by and visit!
July 11–Foxtale Book Shoppe in Woodstock, GA (outside Atlanta)
July 12–Alabama Booksmith in Homewood (Birmingham)
July 13–Square Books in Oxford, Miss.
July 14–Lemuria Books in Jackson, Miss.
July 17–Page & Palette in Fairhope, Al.
July 18–Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale, Az.
July 19–Vroman’s in Pasadena, Calif.
July 20–Town Center Books in Pleasanton, Calif. (Bay Area)

I’ve been lucky with book covers…I’ve liked every one of them for all five of my books, and I’ve loved most of them. (It’s a bit of a different thing in terms of foreign covers. There was an Italian–or was it German?–version of The Well and the Mine done in black and red tones with an apocalyptic-looking cornfield that left me really perplexed.)