Easter reads!

Escape from the cold biting winds this Easter to a more regent time with Stephanie Burgis' Unladylike Adventures of Kat Stephenson series. 

All three adventures are currently only 99p on Kindle - what better way is there to spend a bitter Easter weekend than to curl up with Kat's magical story?

Book 1: A Most Improper Magick

Book 2: A Tangle of Magicks

Book 3: A Reckless Magick

Read more about the series in this guest post with author Stephanie Burgis:
http://templarpublishing.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/stephanie-burgis-guest-post.html

Stephanie Burgis Guest Post

Author of the magical Kat Stephenson series, Stephanie Burgis, has written us a special guest post to mark the occasion of the third book in her trilogy publishing this month!

Over six years ago, I heard a girl’s voice start whispering in my head: “I was twelve years of age when I chopped off my hair, dressed as a boy and set out to save my family from impending ruin. I made it almost to the end of my front garden…”

They were the first lines of A Most Improper Magick. I dropped my knife (I’d been chopping onions in my kitchen at the time!) and ran to find a notebook and get the lines down before I could forget them.

Between then and now, so much has happened. I had a baby, and I moved from Leeds to Wales. I finished the book, and I found an agent. He sold it as the first book of a trilogy, the Unladylike Adventures of Kat Stephenson. When I found out that it had sold to Templar in the UK, I laughed out loud with pure joy and delight. I got to attend my first publishing party in London, got to actually meet my editor. I got to see my books on the shelves of my local bookstore, one of the biggest miracles in the world.

I wrote the three Kat books sometimes lying on my couch, typing with my laptop on my legs (and Adam & the Ants’s “Stand and Deliver” blasting through my speakers), and sometimes sitting in my favourite coffeeshop, eating hazelnut-chocolate brownies and drinking endless lattes as I typed. I dragged my husband around every Regency-era house/museum I could find in England, Scotland, or Wales.

I’ve met so many smart, curious, inspiring girls and boys through Kat’s adventures. A Most Improper Magick won the Waverton Good Read Children’s Award, and on one of the best days of my life, I got to travel to Waverton to meet and talk to the fantastic kids who’d voted for Kat.

And I finished the last book in the trilogy. A Reckless Magick made me laugh out loud as I was writing it at a few points, as Kat gleefully threw herself into trouble, but it also made me cry, as she faced her biggest fears. This book pushed Kat to her utmost limits, and it pushed me to mine, too.

It finishes Kat’s story, at least for now. I really hope you like it.

When my author copies arrived, I got to hold all three books in my hand, together. I cried again, this time from happiness. Here they all are! They’re a trilogy. And they’re mine. Thank you so much for sharing them.

Keep up to date with Stephanie's news on Twitter @stephanieburgis or on her website

Happy Publication Day to A Reckless Magick

Today the third, and final, book in Stephanie Burgis's wonderful Kat Stephenson series is published. We talk to Steph's editor, Emma Goldhawk, about her experience working on the books

A Lovely Sort of Magick 

I share few similarities with Kat Stephenson - my dad's not a vicar, I don't live in 1804 and last time I checked, I couldn't do magic. BUT, I did take a pair of scissors to my own hair I was a kid, just like Kat does in A Most Improper Magick, so when the manuscript of the first of The Unladylike Adventures of Kat Stephenson landed on my desk, I instantly liked this feisty, funny, tomboy heroine.

What a pleasure it was, then, to discover that Kat's creator, author Stephanie Burgis, was as instantly likeable as her central character. Over coffee and brownies in Stephanie's local cafe in Abergavenny, just before the launch of A Most Improper Magick, she and I talked Austen, a shared obsession with CBBC’s Horrible Histories and most importantly, what was coming next for Kat and the series. It was 2010, and I've thoroughly enjoyed every minute of working with Stephanie since.

Each of the Kat manuscripts have come in at around 80,000 words and I know how carefully Stephanie will have considered each and every one of these words on the page. It’s an editor’s job to help an author make her book the best it can possibly be, not tell her what to do, so we would bandy ideas back and forth, suggesting different ways for teasing out more complex sentences or weaving in detail from previous books. We’ve also debated fun things like Mr Collingwood’s first name (Is ‘Reginald’ quite right for the gentle, romantic but shy young man who woos Kat’s eldest sister…? We eventually settled on ‘Peregrine’.) and whether we should use the word ‘garderobe’ instead of the rather more boring, but easier for readers to understand, ‘toilet’. (We kept ‘garderobe’ – it was historically accurate, and besides which, we decided it would be a delicious word to introduce to the reader.)

Having worked on these books over a period of two years, it was definitely bittersweet when I signed off on Kat’s third and final adventure, A Reckless Magick. I was proud of Stephanie’s achievement and the hard work she had put into the trilogy was something to be celebrated, yet I wanted more time with her characters and their stories. So, for now, I’ll have to leave Kat to get on with creating magical havoc in Regency England, while I look forward to what I might get to work on with Stephanie next!

Sign back in tomorrow when we will be hosting a guest blog from Stephanie Burgis herself!

Find out more about the series here or buy online from Amazon

A Reckless Magick cover results are in...

....Drum roll please....

Over the past few weeks our lovely readers have been voting for their favourite A Reckless Magick cover and we are pleased to announce the results....

The pink cover received 54 votes, but with 74 votes the yellow cover is our winner!

Thank you to everyone who took part.

A Tangle of Magicks Blog Tour 1st August - 9th August

As a huge fan of The Unladylike Adventures of Kat Stephenson I'm so thrilled to be organising a blog tour for Stephanie Burgis' second novel, A Tangle of Magicks. Steph is now an award-winning author with her first book, A Most Improper Magick, winning the 2011 Waverton Good Read Children's Award and we're certain that A Tangle of Magicks will soon be doing just as well. After all, how can anyone not fall in love with Regency England's feistiest twelve year old?

A TANGLE OF MAGICKS
Stephanie Burgis

When Kat Stephenson's family arrive in Bath in search of a suitor for her sister, it's not long before Kat discovers that the town of Bath is fizzing with wild magic. Stumbling upon a plot to harness the magic in the Roman Baths, Kat finds that her brother is unwittingly involved. To foil the plot and save her brother she must defy the Order of the Guardians and risk losing her magical powers, forever...

"A Tangle of Magicks is 300 pages of fun, fabulousness and magical frolics." So Many Books, So Little Time

"Mysterious, adventurous and absolutely hilarious." The Guardian, Children's Books Website


Steph will be hitting 9 of the most vibrant UK teen fiction blogs starting on publication day itself, 1st August, and ending on 9th August. Each stop will be offering an array of Katastic features including guest posts, Q&As and a vlog from Steph along with extracts and giveaways. What more could you want?

1st August

First off Steph is stopping off at the wonderful Chicklish where she'll be talking about her own adventure in Bath, trying the foul tasting waters of the Pump Room. Nice.

2nd August

So Many Books, So Little Time will be hosting the tour's first Q&A so make sure you visit to find out Steph's desert island books. The lovely Sophie has already posted her review so for some pre-tour reading, head there now.

3rd August

Find out about Steph's thoughts on literary heroines and why Kat turned out the way she is over at Fluttering Butterflies. Heroines forever! There will also be a review just in case you need a bit more persuading.

4th August

Writing matters over at Serendipity Reviews where Steph will be answering questions all about her writing techniques and her influences for Kat's adventures. There will also be a review and the first giveaway of the tour so make sure you enter!

5th August

Next Steph will be at Leanne Luce discussing her love of Bath and why she absolutely had no choice but to go and explore her favourite city once again when she decided to send Kat there for her second adventure. No choice whatsoever! Head here for another giveaway too.

6th August

Steph will be on the Book Angel's Saturday Spotlight today, writing about how the library in her American hometown gave her a chance to escape to England through the eyes of wonderfully written heroines. The Book Angel will also be posting her review.

7th August

The tour's extract hotspot will be at Turn The Page, so if you want a taste of Kat's second adventure this is the place to be. Turn The Page will also be hosting the last giveaway on the tour so make sure you enter to avoid a Kat shaped hole in your life.

8th August

The last Q&A of the tour will be over at Portrait Of A Woman so head here to find out Steph's take on writing YA/MG books and what she has coming up in the near future.

9th August

We arrive at the last stop with a first for the tour at Love Reading X where Steph will be dropping off a vlog for Kat fanatic Iffath where she'll be reading out an extract from A Tangle of Magicks. Definitely a highlight not to be missed!

~

And there you have it! Plenty of news, views and reviews that will delight any Kat fan and hopefully gain our heroine a few more followers. Trust me, you need this girl in your life!

Stephanie Burgis decided to be a writer when she was seven and sold her first short story when she was fifteen. She fell in love with Regency England when she discovered the novels of Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer. Now she writes full-time and lives in Wales with her husband, fellow writer Patrick Samphire, their son, and their crazy-but-sweet border collie, Maya.

For more from Steph, check out her website here or follow her on Twitter.

Steph will be signing copies of A Tangle of Magicks in Waterstone's in Bath from 1pm on Saturday 6th August and also in Waterstone's in Abergavenny on Friday 12th August from 6pm (pop into the store for a special invite for this event).