A Seer, An Animus, and the Most Powerful Dragon in Pyrrhia Walk Into a Book . . .

Hi everyone!!

It’s here, it’s here!  DARKSTALKER Day has arrived!  Shiny new crazy book alert!  Yaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wings of Fire - Darkstalker front cover

Travel back in time, two thousand years into Pyrrhia’s history, to find out what really happened when an IceWing prince met a dazzling NightWing . . . when their dragonet hatched with more power than any dragon had ever had before . . . when a terrible tragedy befell the Kingdom of the Sea and their animus prince . . . when a young seer met the love of her life and realized he might also be the doom of their tribe.

This is the first Wings of Fire: LEGENDS special super-edition, which means you can read it either on its own or as part of the series.  (I mean, of course I think it’s more fun if you also read the other books!  But if you’re not ready to jump into the whole series, this is a stand-alone option that can give you an idea of what the Wings of Fire world is like.)

Unlike the regular books, it stars three dragons instead of one: Fathom, a SeaWing animus and prince; Clearsight, a NightWing with dizzying visions of the future; and the uber-powerful Darkstalker himself!

Who, meeeeee?

Who, meeeeee?

Oooooooooooooooooo this cover is so ominous and beautiful and perfect — everything about this art and the book design fills me with happiness!  (Including the shimmery silver-dark endpapers — wait till you see them!)  A million thank-yous to artist Joy Ang and designer Phil Falco and Scholastic for this gorgeous book!

Important things to know about getting your own copy of DARKSTALKER:

  1. Barnes & Noble has an exclusive special edition of this special edition which comes with seven dragonet game pieces and a Pyrrhia gameboard!
  2. Or, as always, you can order a copy through my lovely local bookstore, Newtonville Books, which I will happily personalize/sign for you (this Friday, the one day I’m home this week!) before they send it out!
  3. OR you can come meet me and buy the book at one of my events this summer, where I can sign it and we can hang out and talk about it (and maybe I’ll even read from Book Nine!) (if I’m on speaking terms with Book Nine at that point) (Book Nine is kind of a brat).

The first event is coming up next THURSDAY, July 7, from 2:30-4:30pm at the Water Street Bookstore in Exeter, NH, when I’ll be joining the Scholastic Summer Reading Road Trip for the day!  I’ll be there with Newbery Honor author Cynthia Lord, signing and taking photos and chatting about anything, plus also posing a lot in front of the amazing RV!

You guys, Clay is ON A GIANT RV!  With Clifford and Harry Potter and all kinds of other awesome characters!  How amazing is that?

Then the following week (Thursday, July 14, at 6:30pm!) I’ll be at the wonderful Blue Bunny bookstore in Dedham, MA, which I am super-excited about because I’ll be there with one of my favorite authors, S.E. Grove, who writes the amazing Mapmakers trilogy — I LOVED The Glass Sentence and The Golden Specific and I cannot WAIT for book three, The Crimson Skew!  If you like my books, or if you’re a fan of Philip Pullman or Diana Wynne Jones or incredible world-building or surprising cool fantasy or wonderful writing, I think you’ll love her books too!

We’ll also be doing another appearance together in August — Sunday, August 7th at 5pm at the Brookline Booksmith (yay!) in Brookline, MA, so you’ll have two chances to hang out with us, get books signed, and ask lots of bookish questions (woo hoo!).

I’m so excited and nervous for you all to read Darkstalker — if you remember anything about the history of Pyrrhia, you can probably guess there’s a lot of dark stuff in this one.  But you’ll get to find out where the Night Kingdom used to be!  And there’s also true love, best friends, fun with scavengers, and an adorable octopus, which will hopefully make up for the, you know, massacres and heartbreak and betrayal and stuff.  😉

All right, I’d better stop before I start spilling spoilers everywhere!  I hope you all get your talons on DARKSTALKER soon!  And happy summer — yaaaaayyy lots of time for reading!

(Speaking of which…)

What We’re Reading:
Me:  Paxby Sara PennypackerWhat Is Not Yours Is Not Yours, by Helen Oyeyemi; Bintiby Nnedi Okorafor; and the new Ms. Marvel series by G. Willow Wilson

With my bigger bear: Half Magic, by Edward Eager (well, I’m trying to!)

With both bears: Hilo Book 2: Saving the Whole Wide World, by Judd Winick and No Such Thing as a Witch, by Ruth Chew