When my cover designer asked for three words to sum up Hidden in Sealskin, this is what I sent back:

Fun, mysterious, magical (in the sort of “I don’t know if this is going to help me or hurt me, but it’s cool as heck” sense of magical).

Ok, so that’s three words and an explanation, but it got exactly at what this book is all about.

*pauses to let you ogle the pretty cover of prettiness*

But More On The Story Part…

Hidden in Sealskin takes you on a journey with Adren, an outlaw also known as the White Changeling, as she fights with all her strength to help a unicorn that can’t help itself. To do that, she sets out to steal a sealskin, a feat made even more difficult in her struggles to trust Nadin, the awkward teenager who insists on helping her, and by her discovery that both the sealskin and its owner aren’t what she first thought.

There’s a footman with the voice of Alan Rickman, Nadin almost faints at one point, and Adren gets unicorn snot in her face at another.

There are enchantments, invisibility, an explosion, and the slow-unfolding secrets of Adren’s own mind that force her to reckon with the wounds her past has dealt her.

In other words: fun, mysterious, magical.

My Previous Fiction

This may be my first novel, but it’s not my first book. That honour belongs to Dreaming of Her and Other Stories, a surreal collection of short stories and poetry, described as “like stepping into another world” and “a buffet of exquisite bites of literary, emotional, and devotional grace,” written “recklessly, elegantly, lovingly.”

Neither is it my second.

My second book, a novella called The Illuminated Heart, is a deeply personal retelling of the fairy tale East of the Sun, West of the Moon, but with the undead instead of trolls. It has been described as “touching and compelling,” “the perfect book for a dark night and a warm blanket,” with villains one reviewer considers “better than in the original tale.”

No, Hidden in Sealskin is my third book. Four years in the making, and despite an early version of its first chapter appearing at the back of Dreaming of Her and Other Stories, this book wasn’t about to let itself be published until I was mature and skilled enough to pull it off. Looks I got there.

Coming Next

Like my previous work, Hidden in Sealskin is self-published. For many readers, self-publishing is a dirty word. It calls to mind books that are cheap in every sense of the word, and only one of them good.

Even if it weren’t self-published, we’re all so busy nowadays; who has time to read? Many of us have to-read lists that take up more shelf space than our have-read lists. Some, already swamped with all the work a new school year, are beyond our ears in homework, tests, and papers.

And, especially if this is the first you’ve heard of me, you may be wondering if we’ll be a good match. Is it worth it to take a chance on the work of an author you’ve just met?

In tomorrow’s post, I’ll not only talk more about these, but I’ll also share an excerpt from one of my favourite scenes in the book.

Your Turn

Excited about Hidden in Sealskin? Let me know in the comments!