The Crowded Shadows (UK | US), book two in Celine Kiernan’s Moorehawke trilogy, is officially out in the UK today ( following the US date) and there’s a free extract here. Then in October we’ll release The Rebel Prince (UK | US) in both the UK and US, so the author has a packed few months coming up. But despite this, Celine has kindly said she’ll visit our blog over the next few weeks to say a few words about her work, writing fantasy, wolves and other things not necessarily beginning with ‘w’. Her first post was an insight into illustration, Celine being a classical character animator by trade.

Celine told us that a few years ago she had a shoebox filled with the usual myriad rejection slips that all writers collect. Holding down two jobs with two children, she would secretly write at night. But much hard work later she’s now the proud owner of a finished trilogy with some very shiny covers! She’s also accumulated two nominations for the Irish Book awards and a raft of great reviews for The Poison Throne (UK | US), book 1 of the trilogy:

‘Marvellous, vivid writing, and storytelling at its absolute best . . . I was utterly engrossed’ Roddy Doyle

‘Atmospheric, complex, and intense …  this epic starts strong and doesn’t falter one iota’ Publishers Weekly (starred review)

‘All the ingredients of an international bestseller: political skulduggery, passion, violence, loyalty and betrayal’ Irish Independent

‘Told with great assurance … this is an exciting, fast-paced story’ SFX

‘Kiernan will stun you with her debut … sure to captivate’ Romantic Times

‘A complex and original story… Kiernan has created a world that fascinates’ Bookgeeks.co.uk

So, with further books hitting shelves internationally over the next few months, we’ll look forward to hearing more from the the author over the next few weeks. Watch this space!