I have all kinds of fun book news for you. We've had a busy 2013 so far, with trips to Seattle, where FaerieCon worked its usual magic on us, and then Tucson, where we soaked up the festive atmosphere at the Festival of Books, and then spent a few extra days in the desert along with our friend Nina Kiriki Hoffman. By the way, if you haven't yet read Nina's books, I suggest you rectify that. She is right up there on my favourite authors list and MaryAnn says that Nina's latest collection, Permeable Borders, was her top read of 2012.

April 30th is the official release date in Canada for Over My Head, my new YA novel from Penguin Canada. It will begin to ship on April 19th, so it'll probably arrive in the stores before April 30th. This is book two in my Wildlings series. I'm doing my best to make each a satisfying read on its own.

MaryAnn insists that I tell you that book one, Under My Skin, earned a starred review in Canada's Quill & Quire, plus it's scored consistently high ratings at both Goodreads and Amazon. Thanks to everyone who has supported me by buying the book, and big gratitude to those who took the time to post their reviews, which are immensely helpful to independent authors these days. I'm so glad that the vast majority of you liked it and I hope you enjoy Over My Head just as much.

Speaking of which, beyond Canada's borders we're releasing both print and ebook editions under our own Triskell Press imprint, as we did with Under My Skin. Every purchase of our Triskell Press edition gives us direct financial support and frankly, those sales are letting me continue to write for a living, so big thanks to all who help us out.

The Triskell Press ebook (with MaryAnn's lovely cover) has just gone live and is available right now at www.amazon.com/dp/B00C61OA2K Print lovers, don't despair; our trade paperback is not far behind. It's just more time-consuming to do all the prep work for the print edition. We'll let you know as soon as it's available.

Anf if you don't have a Kindle, no need to worry. There's a free Kindle app available that works on pretty much any platform. You can get it here: www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000493771.

I have to offer a round of thanks to all of you who snapped up The Cats of Tanglewood Forest, which came out March 5th. It's been a smashing success with starred reviews in both Publishers Weekly and Quill & Quire, and heaps of accolades on Goodreads and Amazon. The week of its release PW named it as a top book and—lo and behold—it even made it into Ottawa's local Costco stores which is a first for me. Of course the beauty of Charles Vess's cover and interior illustrations have given it that extra push. The first print run sold out quickly and Little, Brown went back to press right away, so hopefully no one has had to wait to get their hands on it.

Not only that, but Little, Brown decided that they should engage Charles Vess to do full-colour paintings for their edition of Seven Wild Sisters, which will come out in early 2014. Charles is also adding even more new paintings for us all to get lost in, and I'm sure looking forward to their arrival in my in-box. We are beyond happy that the world will get yet another affordable, gorgeous book with both of our names on it next year.

A little about our recent travels. Our week in Seattle was busy. An interview that happened at FaerieCon is now online at soundcloud.com/faerieworlds/interview-with-author-charles, as is another that I did for Author Magazine at the Pacific Northwest Writers' Cottage www.authormagazine.org/interviews/interview_page_delint.htm. But I have to say that the highlight of our week was at Northshore Jr. High in Bothell, where MaryAnn and I met with 150 enthusiastic kids aged 12 to 14. We played music, talked about writing and creativity, held contests to win advance reading copies of The Cats of Tanglewood Forest, threw Wildlings bracelets, passed out bookmarks, and got a standing ovation at the end. We'd been a little concerned that a 90-minute presentation might be hard to sustain, but the time flew by. My favourite question in the Q&A: "Did you ever consider going on America's Got Talent, because you could probably win!" We had to laugh, but we sure had to love that vote of confidence!

Tucson was its usual compelling self despite some cool weather on day one of the book festival. Thanks to all who braved the long lines to get their books signed. I love meeting you. As compelling as the book festival was, MaryAnn, Nina and I left around 3 PM on Sunday afternoon to catch the end of the Tohono O'odham Wa:k Pow Wow out at San Xavier Del Bac Mission. We loved every minute, the drums keeping rhythm to our heartbeats and our eyes feasting on the amazing dancers while the singers lifted their voices to the sky. I'm glad we caught some of both events, but if only they hadn't landed on the same dates, because the festival is a book-lovers' Paradise.

I have a couple of appearances coming up. This Tuesday, April 10th, I'll join authors Violette Malan and Matthew Johnson for the new Chizine Reading Series here in Ottawa.   bit.ly/ZCloHw

And then, on Thursday, April 25th, 7-10 PM, we'll have a festive book launch party for Over My Head at Pressed Cafe here in Ottawa (750 Gladstone Avenue). MaryAnn and I will play some music, I'll read a short passage from the book and while I sign books, Joel Hayward will entertain us with music.

Well, I think I've bent your proverbial ear for too long so I'll head back to my writing projects. I'll just quickly add that I've finally started a blog of sorts on Tumblr, where I share a bit of whatever appeals to me on a given day. You'll find photos from FaerieCon and Tucson there. I hope you'll come and visit. cdelint.tumblr.com.

As always, you can also find me on MySpace, Facebook and Twitter.

Thanks again. I hope all is well with each and every one of you.

cheers
Charles