February 2023
It may be the shortest month, but we have a lot to cover! In this month’s newsletter, scroll down to find:
- Join the Frean Chronicles book tour
- Author Spotlight with Dana Claire
- CamCat Unwrapped Podcast Interview for Contest of Queens
- Travel Log: Castle Research and Burns Night
- Guest Post on Madison Lawson’s Blog
- The Frean Chronicles is going on tour (and you can join!)
- Queen’s Catacombs Preorder
- Contest of Queens Review Corner
Join the Frean Chronicles Book Tour!
In honor of the Queen’s Catacombs release, both books are going on tour with ireadbooktours. It will run from March 14th to April 10th 2023, and there’s still spots available, so if you are a book reviewer, have a book blog, or a bookstagram/booktok account jump aboard while you can!
Author Spotlight: Dana Claire
Grab your stakes and your rock salt. Monster hunting class is in session.
Happy love month one and all and welcome to February’s Book Nook where I have the privilege of interviewing one of my favourite humans, Dana Claire, award-winning and Amazon best-selling author of War of the Sea, The Reclaimed Kingdom, The Blood-Light Trilogy, Sideliners, and Hunterland. The topic of today’s chat is her recent release, the Supernatural/Buffy lovechild, HUNTERLAND. So pour yourself a glass of rose and leave all the lights on, we’re going to talk about love and monsters.
Hunterland
Monsters? Easy. Falling in love? That could be deadly.
Liam Hunter has warded off hungry vampires, slayed monstrous beasts, and put agonized spirits to rest since he could hold a stake. When trouble comes through the Hunterland message board, alerting them that nurses are dying at high schools across Wisconsin in a string of fishy “suicides,” the Hunter family hits the road to save the day.
The trail leads to Falkville Falls, where Liam clashes with Olivia Davis, whose maddening family seems inexplicably embroiled in this haunting mess. Olivia has always mothered her little sister, Pepper. But when the Hunter family opens her eyes to the hidden underworld of real monsters prowling the dark, she realizes she can’t protect Pepper from this newest threat by herself. Can the two families work together to uncover who or what is responsible before the next murder, or will this vicious death cycle have no end?
Podcast Feature: CamCat Unwrapped
To celebrate Contest of Queens coming out in paperback AND it’s one year anniversary, CamCat had the entire audiobook on their Spotify CamCat Unwrapped. The first two chapters remain forever more (woohoo!) so you can check those out here, as does my interview with Jess which you can listen to here:
Travel Log: Castle Research and Burns Night
Short story long,
I have taken a sabbatical from my day job as a Speech Language Pathologist to live in the UK and finish the Frean Chronicles Trilogy!
- Contest of Queens: completed!
- Queen’s Catacombs: comes out March 14th 2023! (preorder here)
- Mysteriously Titled Finale: in progress!
If you’re interested in following along on my travel journey, I recommend following me on Instagram: @jordanhbartlett
Castle Research
Sometimes you can feel like you’re in the right place at the right time, and this time I was in the right place twice. I met the loveliest humans, Natalie and Andrea while working at the Harry Potter shop and we ended up going out for drinks after I finished my shift. They’re both from the States, so I took them to my favourite place in Edinburgh for fish ‘n’ chips- The Old Chain Pier. We had a lovely evening, said our goodbyes, exchanged Instagrams, and went on our merry way.
Two days later, I take myself on a wee field trip to Linlithgow Palace and Blackness Castle. Of all the castles in all the countries in all the world and guess who shows up in this one? Natalie and Andrea of course! So I then proceed to get willingly kidnapped for the rest of the afternoon and we visit the Kelpies and wander the graveyard in Stirling, and I even eat pidgeon for the first time for dinner.
Serendipity, I have found thy definition!
Burns Night
If you’re like me, you likely didn’t know what Burns Night is, but it’s a celebration that happens every year on January 25th in Scotland in honor of Robert Burns, a poet who contributed to Scottish culture in a rich and beautiful way. His better known works are: Auld Lang Syne, Address to a Haggis, and My Love is Like a Red Red Rose.
I was very fortunate to get to celebrate Burns night right! I kicked the evening off with a special poetry-reading tour of the Real Mary King’s Close and then had Haggis (complete with Address to a Haggis recitation).
Great Chieftain o’ the Puddin-race!
Aboon them a’ ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy of a grace
As lang ‘s my arm.
Guest Post with Madison Lawson
I wrote a feature post for Madison Lawson’s blog recently (author of The Registration). Jump on over to her page here to read it.
Queen’s Catacombs Preorder
March 14th, 2023 is the date to remember not only because it is PI day, but it is ALSO the day QUEEN’S CATACOMBS officially hits the shelves. I am so excited to share this with you, so if you are the pre-ordering kind of person, you can do so now!
Add it to your GoodReads, add it to your Amazon wishlist, add it to your diary, add it to Santa’s list, and I know I will be hard pressed not to add it to my arm in ink… (we’ll see). Here’s a recent review:
Contest of Queens Review Corner
Reviews are so helpful in getting word of Contest of Queens out there. If you have time, and if you’ve read the book, I would be eternally grateful if you could leave a star rating and/or a written review on Goodreads or Amazon.
Thank you to all the wonderful people who have left a star rating or review. I honestly can’t believe that it’s got an average of 4.6/5 stars on Goodreads, and 4.9/5 stars on Amazon! Here’s a lovely review:
Jordan H. Bartlett 