Note: The recording above is a reading of this newsletter — there’s no different content, and it’s not produced, so you’ll hear the occasional stumble, or sounds of daily life in the background. If you’re someone who needs or prefers to hear their news, then I hope it’s helpful.
Hi there! I’m Amie Kaufman, NYT and internationally bestselling author of Red Star Rebels, The Isles of the Gods, Lady’s Knight, and many more. This newsletter is the place to learn about my latest releases or events, and to follow along behind the scenes as I find my way through writing, and through life.
Hi, my friends.
On Monday it was the first day of winter here in Melbourne, and the weather changed like a switch had been flipped. Suddenly it’s cold and rainy, blustery as can be. I certainly know I’m alive as I ride my bike to school drop-off in the mornings! And it’s certainly a shocking change from Tokyo, where I was sweltering and seeking the shade just a day before the cold arrived!
This month I want to tell you about that trip to Japan, and talk, of course, about the new book I have out this week. One Knight Stand is finally here!
If you’re in Melbourne, I also want to encourage you to make sure you read the events section at the bottom, as I’ve got lots coming up!
In this letter:
Travels in Japan: on letting things unfold
One Knight Stand is out now!
Adventures in (ha!) gardening
A listing of many events
Let’s get started!
Last week I was in Japan, which is fun to say. Quite a few people have asked why — was it for work? I tell them the truth, which is that my husband sent me there, because he knows what makes me tick. (“You two are such a perfect couple! How did you meet?” “On a sticky nightclub dance floor! Not quite a meet cute!”)
He knows that exploring new places is what fills my creative cup more than anything, and as he watched me search our calendar for a week when the family could get away, he propped his chin on one hand. “Why don’t you just go on your own?” he asked. “It would be way cheaper, you could go whenever you wanted, and you could do whatever you liked.”
Now, I love to travel with my husband. He’s my person. I love taking Pip everywhere. I love explaining contemporary art to her and trying new foods and learning the stories of the places we go. But I will admit that it’s a different category of experience to simply waking up in the morning and pondering what takes your fancy.
An hour later I had booked a flight. And I spent every day of the intervening three months daydreaming about this trip.
It was everything I wanted it to be. I was responsible for nobody but myself, had no real schedule, and allowed my days to unfold just how they pleased. All of this was as much of a holiday as the holiday itself.
I wandered the grounds of the famous Kenrokuen Garden, marvelling at the way the gardeners didn’t try to shoehorn all the plants into neat rows, but simply supported them and weeded around them, and made their imperfection and individualism more beautiful than any design could possibly have been.
I explored modern art museums, and found sparks of inspiration in the way the artists talked about their work, and in the way I would have made that work, or understood it.
I sat in cozy cafes with my notebook and wrote up the idea for a whole new story that came out of nowhere, and I worked on mail club letters as well. (If you missed that, you can find it here.) I walked and walked and walked, and I left my headphones off, and let my brain slowly filter through everything it had been holding in its buffer, until it got quiet, and that was very good.
When we’re small, we often have unstructured days — or at least, we don’t know what the day will be. My daughter wakes up all the time and brightly asks what are we doing to do today?
There’s so much less room for it when we’re grown ups, but gosh, it does us good. If you get the chance this week, set off for an hour without a plan, and without someone else’s voice in your ears, and see where you end up.
I am spending most of this month on final revisions for my PhD, but that’s not the writing I want to talk about, because One Knight Stand is out this week! We had SO much fun writing this book — we knew when we were writing Lady’s Knight that we’d get to tackle the sequel, and push past the happily ever after, and it’s ended up being everything we wanted.
Lady’s Knight is definitely the funniest book I’ve ever written, and I like to describe it as ‘A Knight’s Tale, but all queer ladies’ — we are not taking ourselves too seriously, we are anachronistic, we have cheerleaders at the tournament and we are inventing brunch, but also we are interrogating the way the patriarchy has shaped ‘knight and maiden’ stories, which are some of the most formative in all our traditions, whatever form they take. How do these stories change, when there are only women involved? Does our damsel in distress engineer and then participate in her own rescue? Does the knight choose to rely upon others, rather than cutting a solitary figure?
In One Knight Stand, we push past the happily ever after to ask what happens if you slew the dragon, but you’re still living in the same world you were before. Don’t worry — this book is absolutely still fun and funny and cozy (we invent medieval tourism, we apologise for exactly none of the jokes) — but there’s still a lot of dismantling to do.
Oh, and if you’ve ever wondered how Olivia, Isobelle’s maid, came by all those interesting skills of hers… read on.
You can find One Knight Stand wherever books are sold, including the following places:
🇦🇺 Check down the left hand side of this page for links to all the retailers.
🇬🇧 Allllllll the links can be found here.
🇺🇸 Right here on Amazon, or audio links here.
We would be thrilled if you picked up a copy, or requested it at your library. We would be thrilled if you left a review on your favourite retail website. Thanks for joining us and our ladies!
Here’s a thing I’ve loved lately: growing apples! Or rather, tiny apple trees, I guess? Back in May, I cut an apple open for a late night snack, and found that all the seeds had started germinating inside it. I’ve never seen that before! I decided to see if I could help them, and stuck them in a pot (I say casually, as if it didn’t involve making my husband go outside in the dark and rain to hunt through the shed for potting mix) and left them to it, keeping them damp. And behold!
Molly’s already had one try at digging them up, so I can’t speak to their long term chances, but it’s fun to just let something unfold and see what happens, hey?
Melbourne: My launch party for One Knight Stand is Thursday 4th June (that’s tomorrow night, as I send this!) at 7pm at Dymocks on Collins St. There are only a handful of tickets left, but (I am not supposed to say this, but who will know?) in reality it’s going to be a rainy night, so some people won’t show — if you’re keen, just come along. You can also book here.
Bendigo: I will be in you on Saturday 20th June at 12pm for a pride event with The Story Society. You can grab tickets here.
Melbourne: I am curating a series of three free fantasy events for Readings Books, and I would love to see you there for some fun, smart conversations. They are:
Spice Market: A smart, thoughtful conversation about the gender politics of romantasy — why it’s having a moment, why it’s really been there all along, and what we love about romance. I’m hosting Keshe Chow, Dr. Kate Cuthbert and Bronwyn Eley. Thursday 25th June, 6pm at Readings Hawthorn. Tickets here.
Writing From Our Roots: A thoughtful discussion about the wave of fantasy stories we’re seeing that differ from what was once the European medieval default — the joys of writing in this space, the barriers, and more. I’ll be hosting Tigest Girma, and another author yet to be announced. Thursday 30th July, 6pm at Readings Emporium. Tickets here.
Fountain of Youth: A smart discussion about why YA fantasy matters, where it’s been, where it’s going, and so much more. I’ll be hosting Vanessa Len, Lili Wilkinson, and a member of the Readings Teen Advisory Board, who’ll bring an actual YA perspective. Thursday 27th August, 6pm at Readings Kids. Tickets here.
That’s it from me for now. I hope that if you pick up a copy of One Knight Stand this month then you love it — and don’t forget to try a little time with no plan at all some time soon!
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