What's Next or You Heard it Here First

The short version:
My standalone YA novel,  BRIAR ROSE, has been contracted to my UK publisher, Macmillan Children’s Books in London!!! At present we’re looking at an early Spring 2014 release, though that might change down the line.

The much longer version with all sorts of publishing backstory and deets:
Now that FORETOLD (Book #4) is published in the UK and in the US and the series is concluded, many of you have asked: “What’s next, dear author?” For all you hoping for more Demon Trappers’ books, I don’t foresee a novel-length work but I do have some ideas for a novella (or two). These will be have to be slotted in around my contracted work so I don’t miss deadlines. One will be most likely be about Riley and Beck after the end of FORETOLD and the other may be about Ayden and Mort.

By contract I was required to submit my next book proposal to St. Martin’s Press (my US publisher) since they were the ones who initially bought my Demon Trappers Series and then sold it on to other countries. The proposal I submitted was a young adult historical series set in Late Victorian London (1888 to be exact.) For those of you who have followed my career you will know I have dabbled in those waters once before in my Time Rovers Series (Dragon Moon Press). I ADORE Victorian England for all its grittiness, absurdities and its back alley denizens (Jack the Ripper anyone?) so I specifically wanted to revisit that era from two teens’ point of view.
Alas, my US publisher turned down the series as they didn’t feel it would work well for them. They may well be right. So I submitted the proposal to Rachel Petty, my UK editor.  The concept was close but not quite there enough to go to contract. While we chatted about changes to the magical elements she asked if I’ve ever thought of writing a totally twisted re-telling of a classic fairy tale and set it in the Southern US? I said I hadn’t, but give me a bit to let my imagination run riot.

No surprise, dear readers, my imagination grabbed onto the notion and I came up with a novel that is a twisty, dark, Southern-style version of Sleeping Beauty that involves Hoodoo,  metal magic, the Civil War and steampunk. (I really do have an odd brain.) My literary agent sent it to London and….

I haz book contract!!!

We’ve been hammering out the contractual details over a couple months and I’ll be signing it in the next day or two.

Rachel Petty oversaw my UK/Australian editions of the Demon Trappers Series and now she will be  my “acquiring” editor so we’ll be working a lot closer. We’ve met the last two times I was in London and she’s a blast. I’ll also be working with the wonderful promotional and marketing folks at Macmillan Children’s Books ::waves at Lorraine, Amy, Bea, etal::  I’m just so excited!

I can hear you now — but what about all my other readers in the US, Germany and around the world? Macmillan Children’s Books licensed worldwide rights for the novel so they’ll be contacting publishers in other countries to see if they’d like this book. That includes the US. So hopefully the story will find a publishing home here in the States and it’ll be in your local bookstores and available for your e-readers. If not, I suspect you’ll be able to buy the UK edition through various online channels.

Meanwhile, I’ll be continue to tweak that Victorian story idea while I write the Sleeping Beauty tale and the Demon Trappers stories. Do you get the sense I’m be working like a mad thing for the next year or so? To which you would reply, “And that’s different how Ms. Oliver?” LOL
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That’s the news. If you comment, please don’t trash my US editor/publisher. It was a business decision on their part and I’m good with that. New direction, new book, new opportunities. I am SO jazzed. And as always, all this goodness wouldn’t be happening if it wasn’t for *you*, my lovely readers. Bless you all!