Stefan Bachmann's Blog

Oddments, Vol. II

In this edition of Oddments, you will find brief discussions of Austria, cows, music, researching very old things, literacy projects, etcetera.

You can read Volume I here!

Oddment, n. According to the Oxford Dictionary, a “small pieces of cloth, wood, etc. left after a larger piece has been used to make something”, which is exactly what most of these entries and art will be: odds and ends, left on the cutting floor on the way to more substantial work, but not wasted.

News

Well, are you?

STORYVOR, a new platform for literacy just launched. It’s one of a bunch of literacy projects we’re working on at the moment in a wider circle of literacy in Switzerland and abroad, and I’m super proud of the work we’ve done. It’s the brainchild of a group of people who care deeply about books, reading, slowing down and paying attention, and who want to do what we can to promote it, in this case with teaching resources, tip lists, reading lists, and more. If you have ideas, articles, improvements, or the like, do get in touch with us!

It’s in its very early stages at the moment, but if you would follow us, subscribe to our newsletter that would be amazing.

Discover STORYVOR Comic Corner

I’ve been practicing my character drawings of late, so here’s a wee comic for this month’s Oddments. I don’t think it’s particularly good, but it was fun to make. 🐛

Curious Things

Hiking in Austria: I’ve never really hiked in Austria before. As someone who grew up in Switzerland, one has it deeply ingrained from a young age that our own alps are better in every conceivable way than our neighbor’s alps. Having now visited the neighbor’s alps, I have to say it was really great and I want to go back.

It also made me realize that going hiking with lovely friends in the green, green mountains is a worthy and rejuvenating thing to do, and I should do it more often.

Researching family histories: I’m a very nosy person. I want to know everything about everything, but mostly about every-one. And what better place to be nosy than within your own family? Many small (and not so small) dramas and happinesses have been uncovered already, and I hope to find much more.

(The picture above is my great-grandmother who I never met and who was, according to all who met her, very mean. Her life was also hard and sad, though, so who can blame her.)

The above photo was taken of the Schlosshotel Kronberg in the early 1900s by . . . a pigeon. This had somehow bypassed me. I now want to write a story about a pigeon-wielding detective who stumbles upon a crime via pigeon photography and sets off to solve it.

The main theme of Elio:

I haven’t seen this movie yet, but I want to, and so in the meantime, I will make do with listening to its soundtrack, which I think has one of those classic, sweeping Hollywood themes that implies a great many tugged heartstrings.

Marathons: I remember seeing tortured images of runners crossing the finish line, looking soaked and miserable, and thinking “What a strange thing to do. I will never.” I guess I’ve grown up now, or am a lot stupider, because I’ll be doing a fraction of a marathon with two friends in October, and have begun running, and finding it exactly as stressful as those images looked. Hurray!

And that’s it. Fall is going to be very busy, so I may not post for a bit, but fingers crossed that by November things have calmed down.

Oddments, Vol. I

About five years into this now almost 15 years (??) of doing book things, I decided to move away from the ramblings of my teenage years and not share very much online. And considering the vast, unnamed horror that is the internet, that has been a good choice and not one that I want to change. But I also have been meaning to make these newsletters a bit more interesting and less news-dumpy, since that’s boring, no doubt to read, but also to write.

So I’m going to do a series on here called “Oddments”, which will be sort of a personal gazette filled with all the odd, disparate, curious things I find interesting right now: research rabbit holes I’ve fallen down, fun words, a line from a current project, illustrations from the past months, and little stories about the art, music, travel, and so forth. . .

(Is writing your own gazette about all the things you’re interested in kind of self-absorbed? Yes. But also, I would love it if all my friends would have a personal newspaper where I could read what they’re up to and what they’re particularly obsessed with at the moment. I don’t want to know the news of the whole world most of the time, but I do like knowing the news of specific places and people.

Without further ado, here is Oddments, volume I. Illustrations throughout are by me.

Oddment, n. according to the Oxford Dictionary is a “small pieces of cloth, wood, etc. left after a larger piece has been used to make something”, which is exactly what all of these entries and art will be: odds and ends, left on the cutting floor on the way to more substantial work, but not wasted.

NEWS

I got to do the inside illustrations for the new special edition of the fantasy classic, Howl’s Moving Castle. Thank you so, so much to Greenwillow Books, Virginia, Martha, and Paul for this opportunity!

I’m extra thrilled about this because I love this book and it’s the basis for one of my very favorite films. The new edition is out September 9th, 2025, from Greenwillow/HarperCollins.

Note, I didn’t do the color illustrated cover art, which is by the fantastic Devin Elle Kurtz.

If you’d like to pre-order this edition, you can do so here:

Pre-order

AUTILLUS — the Swiss association of children’s book authors and illustrators — is doing some fun functions in collaboration with the European Woman’s Soccer Championship 2025, which is taking place in Zürich this year. If you’re in Switzerland, and have kids or students, and are looking for a fun avenues toward literacy, check it out! (These are German-language events.)

AUTILLUS x HerGame Culture 2025

A literacy project I’ve been working on for a different organization will be launching soon, and I’m excited and will talk about it when the time comes, but in the meantime, here’s an utterly contextless sneak-peek:

Spotted

The Key Thing: How strange to see the world through keyholes, though the means to see more is quite literally at this creature’s fingertips. The Key Thing, wanders in dark alleys and quiet lanes, particularly attracted by the promise of glimpsing secrets and overhearing bits of gossip. The creature is very clumsy and loud, and thus ill-adept at discovering anything interesting.

Curious Things

The 1561 celestial phenomenons over Nuremberg:

“In the morning of April 14, 1561, at daybreak, between 4 and 5 a.m., a dreadful apparition occurred on the sun, and then this was seen in Nuremberg in the city, before the gates and in the country – by many men and women.” So begins a document describing a phenomena seen in the skies over Nuremberg, and often described as a battle, various crosses, blood red moons and more, all collapsing toward earth. What was it? Nobody knows! (A comet strike would be my theory.) The document above is kept in the Zürich Library, which is annoying because I only heard about now that I no longer live in Zürich. But I want to go see it, at the earliest convenience.

The word for a collection of cats: I’ve recently learned that it’s not “herd” or “flock”, but rather a “clowder”, a “colony” or a “glaring”. I’m sure I’ve never once read the phrase “a clowder of cats” in all my years, but I also feel like this is very valuable information.

Joe Hisaishi’s suite with the Vienna Philharmonic: Joe Hisaishi does a lot of the music for Studio Ghibli movies, and since the latest middle grade I’ve been working on has been greatly inspired by those, I’ve been listening to his soundtracks endlessly, and also stumbled across this symphony, which is a gem.

The Milarca Museum: In Monterrey, Mexico, there’s a mansion that is an exact replica of another mansion high in the mountains, owned by a (not very) reclusive billionaire. This copycat mansion is a museum that houses his curiosity cabinet, shells, maps, tusks, a vast collection of numismatics (also known as coins), as well as lots of gothic windows, surgically removed from their natural environments in Spanish and Italian monasteries and placed about idiosyncratically, like at the end of a reflective pool overlooking the skyline of San Pedro. It can be visited by the public, and so I visited a few weeks ago and loved it.

Bonus fact about the owner of the museum: His name is Mauricio, and he had a dinosaur named after him called the Mauriciosaurus. I don’t know how I feel about that.

Wandering hither and yon: It’s been a very busy travel year so far, mostly for work. In order, it’s been Monterrey -> Bangkok -> Phnom Penh -> Singapore -> Mexico City -> Zürich -> Mexico City -> Munich -> Zürich -> Toronto -> Monterrey. Lots of beautiful things were seen, and lovely people met.

Writing colorful murder mysteries: As of last weekend, I finished a new middle grade book, a murder mystery set in a flying castle. I don’t want to say anything else about it yet, except that the concept has been languishing in drafts for almost a decade and I’m excited to finally have written it down. It was very fun to write, and hopefully it will be fun to read.

Ancient cities swallowed by trees: One of my favorite things when visiting Cambodia was the ancient cities swallowed by trees. The walls are filled with incredibly ornate stories, carved into the stone, and the trees don’t care at all. They grow without regard for plot development.

This gorgeous edition of Piranesi, which I ordered at once: I loved this book, but only read it once, so now I’m going to read it again, and I fear I will have to buy more of these. My sister has collected an entire library of Folio books, and now I want to, tooooo.

One Line:

“And yet there was certainly some indication that they were tumbling out of the sky toward their doom.”

— A secret project

And that’s it! I’ll leave you with this illustration of this sinister figure and the dancing dead, and will try to do an Oddments, Volume II, in a month or two. Thanks for following along!

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News

Hello, friends. The year is almost done, and it’s been an eventful one. The last few months included moving out of my little old house beneath the castle in Germany (goodbye, house 🥲), sending my piano to Switzerland, running back and forth between Germany and Switzerland eight thousand times for work, and then at last flying to Mexico, where I will be for a bit. I’m now ensconced in the mountains and the sun and am going to tell you about all the things that have happened since the last newsletter.

News

As some of you know, a few years ago I joined the board of AUTILLUS - the Swiss society of authors and illustrators for young people. This year, I got to oversee the process of rebranding the association, which has existed for almost 30 years now. I’m really happy with how it turned out. Huge thanks to our agency, The Weather, for all of their great work and patience as we wrangled this project into shape. (To be clear, I didn’t illustrate this or design it. Basically, I just said yes or no to many things and tried to find solutions to many problems.)

If you’re interested in Swiss literature for young people, here’s what you can do:

Check out our new website and sign up for quarterly newsletter

Follow us on socials

If you’re a professional writer or illustrator for young people living in Switzerland, become a member!

If you’re a teacher, publisher, or bookseller seeking artists or illustrators for projects, events, or workshops, use our portfolio function to contact the perfect collaborator.

You’ll find all of the above here:

Autillus

The third year of the “Extramundana” had its performance at “Zürich liest”. It was a great evening, full of writers reading fantastical things until deep into the night. I also got to do an illustration for it, which was very fun. Thank you, JULL, for organizing this.

(Unrelated to the above: I got an absolutely thrilling bit of illustration news that I can’t share yet, but scream. Scream, scream. Still screaming.

The Secret Life of Hidden Places was Amazon’s Wanderlust Book Club pick for September. It also sold in translation to Japan. Hurray!

We had our finale of Storytelling Schweiz, an initiative organized by us at Autillus and conceptualized by the great storyteller, Jyoti Guptara. The concept was to encourage young people to develop their voices and confidence in speaking by telling their stories out loud. It involved tips from authors and illustrators all over Switzerland, as well as school visits and workshops that reached over 1,000 young people in Switzerland. The final part of the initiative was a competition where young people could send in their recorded stories and win many prizes. It was a wonderful event, and great to see the effects of the initiative in real time. Congratulations to the winners, and thank you to the sponsors!

More infos here:

Storytelling Schweiz Art Round-up

Here is some of the art I’ve done over the past few months. I’m finally starting to settle into a style that I can work with, which has been fun. The style = lots of swirly trees, smudgy textures, pops of color, MOONS. I love moons. Here are all of the above:

That last picture is for my US publisher Greenwillow Book’s 50th birthday! They’re the best. I wish them the happiest of celebrations, and congratulations.

And that’s all! I hope everyone has a lovely holiday season and a great new year. Thank you all for following along here, and I’ll see you all in a few months!

Art Round-Up #10

Summer is almost over! How? I don’t know. But it’s been great. Travel was travelled, food was eaten, words were written, work was done. And art, too! Here is the round-up of art from July and August, and some bits of news, etcetera, at the end.

Bonus: some oddly-headed people. The one with the birdcage will need to be redone at some point.

News

I think I forgot to post this on here, but Die Letzten Hexen von Blackbird Castle was shortlisted for the Rattenfänger-Literaturpreis back in June, which is really lovely. Thank you to Diogenes and the jury!

This and that

What I’m reading: The Ministry of Time for book club.

What I’m listening to: The Promised Land soundtrack. I’ve not seen the movie, but the music is gorgeous. Moody strings for days.

What I’m particularly excited about: this special edition of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel. Do I already own several copies? Yes. Did I pre-order anyway? Yessss.

Where I’ve been: Estonia! It was lovely, again. Here is a picture of one moment of the loveliness, to end with.

7 Tips for Surviving the Monster Apocalypse

Art by Rovina Cai

It’s here! Release the Wolves, my new, dark, middle grade fantasy, is out in the world. I got my finished copies (they’re gorgeous), got to see my illustrations in a book for the first time (hurray!), and also got very far behind on the promised posts about behind-the-scenes stuff (🥲). But I will get to it! This month has particularly packed with non-book things, but I’m back home now and determined to catch up.

Before anything, huge, huge thanks to the wonderful people who made this book happen, to my agent, my editor, everyone at Greenwillow/HarperCollins, and to all of the readers who have picked up my stories over the years. I’m very grateful to all of you that I get to keep doing this.

Also, unrelated but very exciting: Die Letzten Hexen von Blackbird Castle is Top 10 on Audible Germany right now, in all categories, and number two in children’s books. I’m shook.

But back to the book at hand. Look!

I did twenty-four chapter headers for the book, which took a great deal more time than expected. Here are two of them:

And here is a wee video my publisher made. (As mentioned elsewhere, I would not recommend giving this to an eight-year-old, despite what the video says.)

So. In honor of Release the Wolves’ journey into the world, here are some helpful tips to surviving the grim world of Varen, a monster apocalypse of whatever sort, or just life, which can feel quite monster apocalypse-y in general.

7 Tips for surviving the monster apocalypse

1. Find friends

Nobody is going to get through the deluge of monsters from beyond the veil without help. You might think you’re better off alone, but it’s practically guaranteed that you’ll be the first to be picked off. To survive what’s to come, you’ll need allies, and to have allies you’ll need to find ways both to be trustworthy and to trust others. No small feat in a world so full of desperation and danger.

2. Fight well

It helps to have trained for years in the art of monster hunting with your friends on the fields and moors of Varen. But if this wasn’t an option - or if your particular apocalypse involves monsters of other sorts - there are many other useful skills necessary to survive. Strength comes in countless forms, and victory often hinges on conviction, not just with a sword or an axe.

3. Don’t give in to fear

The end of the world brings no small amount of anxiety with it. But the beginning of the world probably did, too, and the middle, so perhaps it’s best to get comfortable with the fear. It’s not going anywhere. The trick is to figure out when it’s a valuable warning, and when a paralyzing path toward evil and isolation.

4. Don’t take strange, possibly enchanted objects that you don’t quite understand. (Or do?)

Sometimes, even during the impending end of the world, curiosity might overtake you. Your better judgement may lapse briefly at the sight of something wondrous and strange lying among the blood-spattered grass, or hanging around the neck of a fallen enemy. And then, well, you might snatch it up. And that might backfire royally. Or it might be the answer to everything. Curiosity killed the cat, but it could also save the day.

5. Safe isn’t always safe

On your journeys, you might find a quiet place to rest a while, a place that seems safe and peaceful, with strong walls and iron locks. And maybe it will be a good place to rest. But sometimes the place you thought safest is much more dangerous than the wild unknown. Don’t always trust walls, and doors, cities, and soldiers.

6. Remember the stories

When life is bleak, remember that there were so many people before you who got through their own ends of the world. Some of them survived victorious. Those that didn’t still managed to navigate their endings with strength and conviction. More importantly, old stories can be full of practical wisdom, and may just be the key to unlocking present dilemmas.

7. Find something to believe in

Closely related to number six is this final tip for intrepid adventurers off to face the apocalypse. Keep your eye fixed on something in the future, something wonderful, even if it seems improbable. Few things are more dangerous than those without hope.

The hunt begins at midnight. . .

Argo, a young blacksmith, must leave everything he knows and set off to find his sister as the world begins to end around him.

Read more

ORDER YOUR COPY:

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RELEASE THE WOLVES: Meet the Main Characters

Hello, and welcome to this blog series on Release the Wolves, my upcoming dark and scary fantasy for young(ish) readers. These posts will be full of tidbits about the world, the characters, and the monsters, and a new one will be releasing every week, starting with this one.

Before we get into that, though . . . I got finished copies!! And they’re gorgeous. Thanks so much to Greenwillow Books, Rovina Cai, Paul, and Virginia, for making such a beautiful book.

Here is Rovina Cai’s full wraparound jacket art. I love how flowy it is, and that sinister-yet-warm-glow on the left side, and how it all comes to a point at our two, beleaguered heroes . . . When the jacket arrived in my inbox I sat and stared at it for a very long time in delight.

Also! I got to do the interior art for this book, which was a first for me and very exciting.

Meet the MAIN Characters

And now the point of this post, which is to introduce you to the characters of Release the Wolves. We have. . .

Argo Smith’s son

Argo is a blacksmith’s apprentice in the village of Milford when the book begins, and very soon finds himself in a much more dangerous position due to a series of unfortunate choices and occurrences. He’s an earnest, grim boy, for lots of good reasons. Terrible things have happened to him, including a run-in with the mysterious “Little Lord” - a monster in the woods - when he was a child. He has a bit of a hero complex, with an undercurrent of feeling like everything is up to him, even though it’s really not. My last book had a very optimistic main character, who was always ready to collaborate, and personally I would also lean in that direction, so it was interesting to write someone completely different.

Ana ISULDRI

Without giving too much away, Ana is a monster huntress on a quest to avenge a terrible crime. She’s got a lot on her shoulders, too, like Argo, and like everyone in this country after so many generations of destruction and fear. She is also mistrustful, but is a bit more ready to find an ally. She has a complicated relationship with her family, an alter ego to hide her true identity, and a very cool attic full of monster hunting accoutrements.

There are, of course, a host of other characters, including Simna, Argo’s sister, but not much can be said of them for fear of spoilers.

About RELEASE THE WOLVES

One thousand years ago, the Elduari conquered the country of Varen in a brutal war. Now, every few generations they subject their one-time enemies to a terrible tradition: bloodthirsty monsters are unleashed across the land, attacking indiscriminately, keeping the population in a perpetual dark age. . . .

Read More Pre-order deal

Tertulia, a new book discovery website, is running a pre-order deal for Release the Wolves where you can get the book for 20% off with code STEFAN. From now through June 30th!

From what I’ve gathered it works on a membership basis, but the code should work without signing up for anything, if you are like me and cautious about these things.

Pre-order

Also, Caroline Carlson gave the book a lovely review over on Literary Hub, and BookRiot and The Review Geek have given it some nice mentions as well. Thank you all, so much! (And go check out Caroline’s upcoming book Wicked Marigold, which looks fantastic.)

“Stefan Bachmann is a master of truly scary storytelling. . . splendidly written . . . compellingly narrated . . . Give this book to your bravest middle grade and teen readers, or read it yourself with all the lights on.”

— LitHub

And, while we’re on the topic of new middle grade books, I just finished The Cats of Silver Crescent by Kaela Noel, and it was the perfect read for summer, featuring cats who talk and dress like humans and just the right amount of spookiness.

Here is a final picture from the walk yesterday, because it’s so lush and green here right now. And then on to next week, whose post will be about the world of Release the Wolves, and maps!

RELEASE THE WOLVES: Giveaway + Infos

Release the Wolves, will be out in a mere month, and thus begins the deluge of content for the book! There will be giveaways. There will be a TikTok and Instagram tour. There will be posts every week about the world, the characters, the map and the interior art I got to draw for the hardcover, tips for surviving the monster apocalypse, etcetera.

For those of who are new subscribers and have never heard of this book before, let me answer what I imagine are the most burning questions in this completely made-up interview with myself:

Does this book contain wolves?

Not a single one.

Whyyy is it called that, then?

The idea for this book came to me while reading about the reintroduction of wolves into various wildernesses in order to control the population of prey animals, such as rabbits and deer. Which made me think: there are lots of good, scientific reasons for doing this, and in the big picture it makes sense, but how did the rabbits and deer feel about it? And what if those rabbits and deer were people, that some other people had decided were inferior and should be hunted and ravaged every few generations in the name of societal balance? From there, the misty, conquered land of Varen was born, where every seventy years, a Release occurs, and an unstoppable horde of monsters rolls across the countryside, killing and destroying everything in sight . . . until our hero Argo decides he’s had very much enough of being the prey.

What can I expect reading this book?

This is a middle grade fantasy adventure, but dark. Think, hmm, Edgar Allan Poe meets LOTR? You can expect:

Marshy, misty atmospherics

Spooky villains

Monsters of all sorts

Twists, turns, and ethical dilemmas

A blacksmith’s apprentice hero named Argo

A monster huntress bent on revenge

Themes of guilt, power, responsibility, trust, and learning when to let go.

Who is it for?

For middle grade readers and up. That said . . . Content warning for parents and educators: This is upper MG. Some retailers will list it as 8+, but personally, I wouldn’t give it to an eight-year-old. Maybe a ten-year-old, maybe an eleven-year-old, but it’s dark and sad in places, and features lots of peril and scary things. Just know that if you’re coming off Cinders and Sparrows, my last middle grade book, this one is considerably less cozy and considerably more high stakes.

book teaser Giveaway

If you’re a Goodreads member, enter below to win one of five hardcovers of Release the Wolves!

Goodreads Book Giveaway Release the Wolves by Stefan Bachmann

Giveaway ends June 25, 2024.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Next week: the characters of Release the Wolves.

ART ROUND-UP #9

Before the great deluge of Release the Wolves posts rolls across the land and drowns all of you, dear readers, in monsters and mayhem, I thought I’d do a post full of art and housekeeping stuff. I did a lot of personal drawings last month, thanks to many long train journeys back and forth between Switzerland and Germany. There’s nothing quite like sitting down for eight hours (or more, depending on the fickle temperament of the German train system) and watching castles and hills roll by (or not roll by; sometimes one stands still for ages in the middle of a sugar beet field) to make one want to draw fanciful things.

Anyway, here they are and I hope you like them!

Star Hunting

Brooding (probably drawn during one of those spells in the sugar beet fields)

Eclipse (I didn’t watch the recent eclipse - I think it wasn’t visible in Europe - but this is how I imagine it looked.)

A Busy Mind

Faucet Problems

Much To Do

After Much is Done

And some experiments:

On a final art note, thank you so much to everyone who keeps buying prints, stickers, and other goodies from my art shop and Inprint. I’m flabbergasted by every sale, and the thought of these things being on people’s walls, or tattoo’d on their arms, or being toted around with them in their daily lives everywhere from Ireland to Australia is so cool. I’m very grateful.

Here is a picture from Brianna and Wendy on Instagram, of a framed ghost print, as well as a tattoo of the Midnight Reading ghost. Thank you both!

Photo dump

Zürich looking idyllic.

The Netherlands looking possibly even more idyllic.

I live within biking distance to the Dutch border and the other week I pedaled over that way along the dyke above the Rhine, and it was the most beautiful thing. (Here is the border in question.)

A living jewel I stumbled upon, or maybe it stumbled upon me, during a forest walk.

Ok! Next week, Release the Wolves things! I’m excited!

Release the Wolves is on netgalley

This year is absolutely flying by, and my next book, Release the Wolves, is up for request on Netgalley and Edelweiss! If you’re a reviewer, blogger, librarian, etc., feel free to request and review. It was also just made a Junior Library Guild Selection, hurray!

Request an early review copy from: Netgalley Edelweiss

Also, since the book is just about three months away, I’ll be sharing fun things in the run-up, including character intros, a bestiary (the book is full of monsters), world infos, a MAP . . . and more! Stay tuned.

Summary of Release the Wolves:

One thousand years ago, the Elduari conquered the country of Varen in a brutal war. Now, every few generations they subject their one-time enemies to a terrible tradition: bloodthirsty monsters are unleashed across the land, attacking indiscriminately, keeping the population in a perpetual dark age.

For Argo, fear of another Release is something he has always lived with. When his friend is killed by a monster during a routine patrol, Argo suspects that another Release is coming, and sooner than everyone expects. But in a country built on fear, getting answers is dangerous. Elduari spies are hiding behind the most familiar faces, and any hint of disobedience could lead to the death of thousands.

As whispers of dissent circulate, rebellion grows in the villages. Now Argo and his new ally, Ana—the King’s eldest daughter who is also a monster hunter in disguise—must decide whether to wait in silence or risk everything and join the fight. But what if it’s already too late?

From Stefan Bachmann, the internationally renowned author of The Peculiar and Cinders & Sparrows, Release the Wolves is an atmospheric, suspenseful, and haunting novel about friendship, family, power, and the monsters all around us.

PRE-ORDER YOUR COPY:

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THE SECRET LIFE OF HIDDEN PLACES

April’s lovely dog Oscar with a stack of Secret Life.

In other news, The Secret Life of Hidden Places is out in the world. April and I got to do various publicity for it, got an ice cream flavor named after it, signed copies, visited graveyards . . . All the necessities.

It’s been featured in:

Atlas Obscura

BookBub’s most Fascinating Nonfiction of 2024

The Guam Daily Post

LoveReading’s Audiobook of the Month

Translations

Last but not least, Cinders and Sparrows is out in Russian from Eksmo! It’s called Silence at Castle Blackbird which I think is quite fun.

More soon!

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THE SECRET LIFE OF HIDDEN PLACES - out now

The Secret Life of Hidden Places: Concealed Rooms, Clandestine Passageways, and the Curious Minds That Made Them, April Genevieve Tucholke’s and my investigation of architectural secrets across the globe, is out today!

Are you one of those curious souls who always needs to know what’s behind that locked door, inside that chest, over that wall, inside that spooky mansion, down those cellar stairs, or in that cave? Better yet, are you one of those curious souls who doesn’t actually want to risk life and limb traveling far and wide, finagling one’s way into difficult to reach locations, and scouring archives for juicy anecdotes, and would rather gather information from safe a distance? Then this is the book for you. A compendium of secret rooms, hidden passageways, and other strange and wondrous architectural anomalies, their histories, and most intriguingly, the stories of the ones who built them and what they were trying to hide.

Some of the chapter topics include:

The thirteen mysterious labyrinths on a remote Russian island

An underground manor in England

The illegal alchemy laboratories of old

The secrets of Marie Antoinette’s Versailles

The history of hidden speakeasies in the United States

A temple full of traps in Japan

A vast Dutch dollhouse with a hidden room

16th century tunnels beneath Mexican cities

And many, many more…

The book is chock-full of color photography, anecdotes, and history. It was so much fun to write, and I hope you’ll love to read it, too.

(Note that it is a book for adults, not for young readers like my previous books.)

Intrigued? Find out more, and buy the book in hardcover or as an audiobook here.