Today is the release date for A Darkness Strange & Lovely by Susan Dennard. This is the sequel to Something Strange & Deadly which I read and loved last year. But let me back up a bit to tell you how I came to love this author.
Two weeks before San Diego Comic Con 2012, a retweet made its way onto my Twitter feed about this awesome video that “you just have to watch!” We all see these tweets. I don’t know why we choose to pay attention to some and ignore others. I clicked the link. I watched the video. I cried. If you’re wondering, it was this video:
The video had only been up for a few days but I wasn’t the only one watching. I can’t tell you how many times I watched this that day and cried with her. I immediately followed Susan on Twitter. I don’t want to sound crazy but I was drawn to and just really love her spirit. She’s so warm and inspiring and supportive and embodies positivity. I bought her book and got it signed at Comic Con knowing very little about the book…but having already stalked her on Twitter so much in just a short period of time, I knew I would love it. I read Something Strange & Deadly shortly after. Loved it as predicted.
This led me to spending an entire day going through her blog and by going through I mean reading all the way back to her first post. That led me to spending another day going through the entire archive of the blogs, Publishing Crawl and Let the Words Flow which she contributes to. She helped me fall in love with the craft of writing all over again. There aren’t enough words to describe the gratitude I have for Susan from everything she’s taught me through her books and all the work she’s put into on these blogs to all the encouragement she puts out over social media and just being herself. Just thank you. One big giant THANK YOU.
I’ve also participated in quite a few #BAMFWordBattles and attended the Young Authors Give Back Tour this past June…which I wasn’t quite in the age range to go to but I went anyway. You know how sometimes you don’t even need to talk to a friend or really do anything except be there? Pretty much that. I wanted to, needed to be there. For so many reasons, I was craving.
Hopefully I can also be there for Susan’s future events in the tri-state area (and in the LA area once I move back there, whenever that is!) but in the meantime, I wanted to let you know about Susan if you aren’t already familiar with her because zombies in 1876 Philadelphia and France (and in the final book, Egypt!) is awesome and the author behind the book is also awesome. So put the first two books of this trilogy at the top of your list this week and enjoy!
Something Strange & Deadly by Susan Dennard is available now. A Darkness Strange & Lovely releases today! Be sure to read the e-novella, A Dawn Most Wicked and a Deleted Scene from Something Strange & Deadly.
Happy Reading!