MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR LOKI SIX! Cover reveal! Battlestar Galactica! CATS! PREORDERS!

Dear readers,

This newsletter comes hot on the heeels of the last one becuase I have something exciting to share - the spoilerific cover of LOKI: A Bad God's Guide to Monster Hunting. Without further ado, in all its Prince-ly purpleness...HERE IT IS!

You can preorder it HERE!

Now, you might look at that cover and think...wait, are those really monsters? Aren't at least some of them Loki's children? And you'd be right, you clever sausage you! Loki firmly objects to his spawn being called monsters! However, at least one of the pictured monsters IS a real monster, in the sense of bad to the bone... I won't tell you which.

The back cover questions the title on the front cover, that's how subversive Loki is, give him a prize and make sure it's crisps

This book has it all: QUESTS! FEASTS! NEW REALMS! BALDER BEING ANNOYING! SMELLY GOATS! SMELLY GIANT CATS! (NON SMELLY) ELVES! DWARVES! (Tolkien spelling, sorry, it's built into me from childhood) JOTUNHEIM! THE WORLD TREE! It touches on big themes of family, monstrosity* and identity and what it means to belong. This is where the series gets EPIC.

Oh and it's also where I got to draw a scene based on this Battlestar Galactica Promo. It's the most dramatic picture I think I've ever drawn. I don't usually feel proud of drawings - I'm usually thinking, DONE, NEXT! But I am proud of that one.

Speaking of the sin of pride, it IS quite nice to look back at the series so far with book six in its place... a lurid rainbow of Loki!

Henry Ford said any colour as long as it's black. Walker said any colour as long as it nearly melts your eyeballs with its intensity.

What colour do you think book seven - aka the grand finale - should be? I know what I want, can I persuade my designer to fulfil my hopes and dreams? We shall see!

Also, in non new book news, the new wildcat species that was discovered recently is DEFINITELY Loki. Sorry scientists, it's a scam. Look at that cat. He's up to something. He's planning something. He's also VERY handsome. Or she. Or they. Loki can be anything at any time. Loki could be this newsletter. I haven't had Loki transform into a digital substance yet...

The new wildcat species that has resting I WILL BITE YOU face is a form fit for a god, I'd say. Tho Loki doesn't bite, except in battle. He's more likely to pull hair even then.

And finally, it is my birthday today! Here's me in an earlier era with the mandatory brown and gold picture frame of the 80s posed photo.

My childhood sadness was that I missed sharing a birthday with Frodo and Bilbo by a single day. Still, not having a hobbit birthday that means I don't have to get other people presents on my birthday at least. Instead, if you want to get ME a present...preorder book six! Preorders are precious to writers as they show bookshops (and my publisher) that everyone is dead keen and means they'll order plenty in when the time comes. So...you know what to do....

Preorder here

That one covers all the major retailers but if you have a local indie, I know they'd love a preorder, wherever they are!

Til next time,

Louie xxx

*If you want a great adult book on the topic of monstrosity, I really recommend Humans: A Monstrous History by Surekha Davies.