Unboxing MAELIN, My Adorable New Book 🌸🖤

if you're reading this book I must be dead all right we have arrived at the scenic location hopefully the helicopter that I had to wait 10 minutes to go away for does not return I will just dive right into it and open up the box there should be six paperbacks of mailing in here and I am so excited it may take me a minute to uh unpack this bear with me shoot after this I'm meeting up with my friend Angie we hung out this morning got breakfast and coffee and we are going to go to an escape room so that shall be fun it's very sticky okay I'm not that weak I'm actually so strong strong okay here we go the excitement Never wors Off This Is The Moment of Truth are you ready wow wow oh my God it's gorgeous look at that it's so vibrant I got the glossy cover for this one same as Nightshade Academy and I thought that I would have preferred it matte but I actually really like it glossy so I've got six of these I'm going pull them all out now m m three more this is me with my book wow this book was supposed to be just like a short little side project it turned into something that I absolutely fell in love with I think it's some of my best work writing wise oh I am so excited I guess I will give the introduction a read I will just dive right into it then me wasn't supposed to exist after publishing the first book in the belladon series Nightshade Academy I dove straight into writing the second one but the idea of this companion Nela wouldn't stop pestering me I eventually accepted that I couldn't not WR it so I put underground royalty on hold and here we are mean is told Through The Eyes of blimy my favorite instructor in Night sheet Academy he's a charismatic Guardian in his early 50s a warm light in the cold Force however as the plot unfolds readers learn that behind his laughter lies a heavy burden when blimy was 22 years old he wrote a false article for the Press about how his fellow Guardian me died his lingering remorse for doing so compels him to V yashi an academy traine who thinks like me from suffering the same fate as her perhaps you're wondering why I'd write this noela considering how nit Academy exposes the ending what more is there to tell well quite a lot actually the ideas struck me in the summer of 2023 soon before Night sheet Academy's publication I was tweaking chapter 25 in which yashi reads about me in the archives what if blimy did more than write a lie about her death I wondered what if he was was involved in the events leading up to it from those questions arose me which Dives even deeper into bl's past while the history uncovered in Nightshade Academy is indeed the truth it's only a morel of it the first challenge of writing this book was flushing out how and why blimy gets involved in me's death the story underwent multiple iterations before I settled on the version you're about to read I'm glad I integrated bl's disgraced family and his passion for writing into the central conflict the next challenge was defining blimy and me's relationship I knew they would graduate together but I didn't know how close they should be my initial plan was to mirror their bond with yashi and vels but after some thought that choice felt trite of course the ending would be tragic if me died as bl's best friend I wanted a fresh direction that would require pushing my creative boundaries to land the ending with a solid punch would it be more intriguing I asked myself if blimy was an acquaintance instead of a friend an outsider looking in a third wheel perhaps the answer was an electrifying yes I loved the idea of blimy carrying about me without being her bestie and that's where TIG came in what began as an opportunity to purge a pesky idea out of my system turned into a book that I spent hundreds of hours on over the course of four months I'm talking tears laughter and lattes the full deal don't be fooled men is not a spin-off but a tail woven tightly into the belladon series while you don't have to read this Nolla to understand the main books or vice versa I planted Easter eggs and cross references for the enjoyment of those who do mean has been loads of fun but I'm ready to grieve the loss of a story I love and let it go so without further Ado I invite you to turn the page and travel 36 years before Nightshade Academy to when blim was not yet an instructor but a trainee himself I'll regroup with you in the acknowledgements until then this story is blimy as to tell I signed off uh from O A bird just pooped on my foot yep that is absolutely repulsive then maybe I'll just okay the helicopter's back I'm it's going to use some bark to scrape it off I guess that is disgusting everything is spiraling out of control right now the helicopter the bird poop on my ankle I feel like I'm covered in bugs I prefer nature through a window I really do but as I was saying I wrote that introduction one month ago it was the first time I ever wrote an introduction to a book and I felt like it was very fitting to kind of explain why I wrote this Nolla um especially since I theoretically should be putting all of my energy into the second book which I am now but I wanted to explain why I took that pause to work on this story I hope that if you read night treade Academy or even if you didn't read night treade Academy that you'll consider giving this book a read I will have all of the links in the description at this point I think it's just pre orders right now uh but paperbacks will be coming out on the release dates May 11th 2024 sorry for this helicopter that's quite the Shane damn it why did I okay I said Shane Shane Shane look at me hey Shane Shane Shane Shane Shane Shane Shane where's Shane Shane Shane Shane Shane Shane Shane I heard you mention Shane Shane is Shane Shane Shane Shane's Dead Shane I'm going to read you guys the Prelude which is how the book starts immediately after the introduction if you're reading this book I must be dead if I'm not I will be soon because this story exposes what the force ordered me to cover up it's the truth about me vandros a girl who graduated from belladon Guardian Academy beside me and died 4 years later I wrote a beautiful lie about her and I fear that if I don't write the ugly truth to counter it I'll lose my sense of what actually happened so despite the risk and the knowledge that my words may never see the light of day I bring my pen to the page for my own Clarity and to pay tribute to a noble Soul taken too young my name is blimy outing and I dug me's grave that is the Prelude to the story and after that we've got 12 chapters um I like to describe this as a comedic comedy very comedically humorous gem what okay that's not what my comedic tragedy it's not that funny it's not deserving of the comedic comedy level that's just a full level above it but it is a comedic tragedy and it was so much fun to write I just like the gradual Vibe shift that just goes from haha funny to oh no sad like I said in the introduction this was such a fun story to write one of my favorite things is like the characters who are just pissed off so they're not trying to be funny they're just like funny because they're pissed off um that's seriously tag I just had fun writing all of the characters you get to uncover who these people really are at the same time that the characters in the book are kind of realizing like oh so and so is different than what I thought at first these are the six copies of me that I have and they all look solid as I can see right now no formatting issues at all so it is ready for publication don't need to go in and make any last minute emergency tweaks uh you guys will be able to order these very very soon and uh check the description because as you're watching this perhaps uh you'll already be able to pre-order or order and also shout out to Julia Rosemary Turk her cover reveal was just launched today as was as I was filming this if you want to stay up to date on my books and the other books at lost Allen press please join the Lost Island press newsletter I'll have a link in the description and if you join you get a free ebook of capsule my sophomore novel and the helicopter is coming back so I'm going to close off very quickly now thank you for watching and goodbye [Music]