I’m thrilled to announce that How to Marry a Winged King is getting a new cover to match How to Find a Nameless Fae! The illustration is once again by the talented Holly Dunn, and I love that we’ve snuck kōwhai, a distinctly New Zealand flower and one that features heavily in this story, into the border!
How to Marry a Winged King is a companion novella to How to Find a Nameless Fae and set in the same world, but they are each standalone fairytale retellings so you can read one without reading the other.
Cinders just wanted to dance at the ball. But she becomes part of a game to find a fae king’s bride.
As a lowly human, Cinders has never been good enough for her noble fae family – but she can’t escape them. Every dawn, the magic binding her to their manor calls her back.
When the fae king announces he’ll choose a bride at the Thrice-Held Ball, Cinders is of course forbidden to attend. Even if the dancing doesn’t go past dawn, her family would never allow her to be seen with them. But after she receives a pair of enchanted shoes that alter her appearance, she can’t resist the chance to become someone else for a night. She’ll dance in disguise for the three nights of the ball and enjoy her small stolen freedom.
She never expected to catch the fae king’s eye, or for her act of rebellion to turn into something far more dangerous. Everyone wants to know who the mysterious masked lady is, and they won’t rest until they find out. King Tawhiri sees her as no one ever has before, but how can she trust it’s more than just enchantment at work?
Can she make it home by dawn? And does she even want to marry a winged king, anyway?
Links are still populating, but it is slowly rolling out across the interwebs. The ebook will release 20 August!
To celebrate the trad re-release of How to Find a Nameless Fae, I’ve put together a pack of digital goodies for anyone who pre orders the hardback! This will include:
🏠2 bonus scenes, including a never-before-seen one from the hero’s pov
Tor UK has acquired the rights for How to Find a Nameless Fae & How to Marry a Winged King (worldwide) & for the Stariel series (UK & Commonwealth excluding Canada)!
What does this mean?
I’m now a territorially-complicated hybrid author, part indie, part trad, depending on where you live and which book format!
For Stariel, the ebooks will remain indie in the USA and Canada, but will transition to traditionally published everywhere else.
For How to Find a Nameless Fae & How to Marry a Winged King, we’re going full trad everywhere babyyyy!
Will the content be changing?
No, the books may get a light copyedit/proofread, but the stories will remain the ones you know and love!
When will the new trad editions be published?
The ebooks will switch over to Tor UK’s versions imminently for the relevant countries! The UK print editions will be re-released in HARDBACK starting with:
How to Find a Nameless Fae in August 2026.
The Lord of Stariel in November 2026.
With the rest to follow!
What will happen to the current indie paperback editions?
The indie paperbacks will over time be replaced by the new trad print editions. If you want to get the indie paperbacks before they go out of print, please do so ASAP. The new editions will be a different size/format, so act now if you’ve got a partially complete set of Stariel paperbacks!
Will the ebooks be staying in KU?
This is going to depend on the territory! The Stariel books will be staying in KU in the USA & Canada. Outside of that, it will be up to the publisher to decide, so the ebooks may be only periodically available in KU.
What about audio?
My existing audiobook editions are with Podium and will remain available.
Are we losing the beautiful covers?
The plan is to keep the same gorgeous designs by Jenny Zemanek (Stariel) and Holly Dunn (Nameless Fae), with a glow-up for the new trad editions.
How are you feeling?
Very emotional, in a good way! Thank you so much for supporting me on this journey! As an indie, it’s been wild and humbling to see fans’ love for these stories. Bringing my books into the trad space means they can reach even more readers. Tor has published some of my favourite authors, and I can still hardly believe I’m joining them! I can’t wait to see my books in bookstores.
The Books They Can’t Burn charity auction is an amazing fantasy romance auction where you can get your hands on over a hundred signed special editions, series bundles, exclusive swag packs, and other bookish goodies! 100% of all proceeds will be donated to PEN America, a charity fighting book bans around the world.
As authors, our freedom to publish — and your freedom to read! — is more and more under pressure. From political book bans to policy changes in big tech companies: the current powers that be don’t like spice, feminism, or marginalised people, and they know very well that they can fight ideas by fighting the books that spread them. The Books They Can’t Burn is one small way we’re fighting back.
We’ve already raised an AMAZING $6.5k and there are still two more days left on this charity auction!
My own contribution to the auction is a paperback of How to Find a Nameless Fae and How to Marry a Winged King + art swag + a signed bookplate. I am blown away by the generosity of the current bids for this item! You guysssss! ❤️
If you’re looking for a steal, I can’t believe bidders have so far overlooked these gems from two of my friends:
Zoom call & Patreon membership with Kate Healey
I will never stop yelling about how much I enjoy Kate Healey’s books, and as one of her patreons, you get SO MUCH COOL THINGS. She is also a smart, interesting, cool human being and you will have THE MOST FUN if you win this zoom call.
Special Edition Wrath Witch Wars
I first saw this book in person at BABE and it was SO GLITTERY it drew me across the aisle to introduce myself to the author and as HOW it could be that glittery. I immediately bought a copy on my own shelf. IT IS SO GLITTERY. Cannot overstate that.
The auction will be open until Feb 25th at 11:45pm ET, so make your bid before that time! And don’t forget to browse the list for other items you might like to grab, because there’s plenty of eye candy on there 👀
Before I had a chance to make a post here about the Stariel Kickstarter being live, the campaign fully! funded. Which means, these deluxe special editions are going to happen! And boy are they deluxe. We’re talking foiled faux-leather cases, reversible dustjackets, interior art, and endpaper maps!
The campaign is here if you want to snag your copy or just lurk and check out the art:
I know not everyone is familiar with Kickstarter, so I’ve put together this 101 explainer for those of you wondering what this is all about! If you’re already a savvy Kickstarter connoisseur, you can go straight to my campaign here:
I’ve wanted to offer Stariel special editions for a long time, but the printing technology required to bring fancy hardbacks to life means I ideally need to order a whole lot of books at once. Which means a big upfront cost to pay for a print run.
Enter Kickstarter! Kickstarter is a crowdfunding platform for creative projects that allows fans to ‘pledge’ for different ‘rewards’ – essentially you pre-order your shiny books upfront to help reach my campaign’s funding goal. This means I’ll not only be able to pay for the print run but also I’ll know how many books to order.
What are rewards?
‘Rewards’ are what Kickstarter calls the products I’m offering to people who back my campaign. In this case, the main rewards you can choose are Stariel hardbacks (just one book or the whole set). There is also a digital reward option available for those of you with limited shelf space who still want to support my Kickstarter.
How do I pick the reward I want?
You can find the rewards in their own tab if you scroll to the top of the campaign.
They also show as a sidebar if you’re on a desktop. Scroll through the list to find the reward you want and click the pledge $XX button. You’ll be given the choice to add on additional items if, for example, you want extra copies of books or to add a bookmark. Shipping will be automatically calculated once you select the country you’re shipping to – if your country isn’t listed, contact support@merrick-books.com and they will add it for you.
What are add-ons?
After you choose your pledge level, you will get the option to add ‘add-ons’. This is where you can add extra copies or swag items, but if you’re happy with what’s in the pledge you selected, you don’t need to add anything on.
Shipping to my country isn’t showing up?
Shipping is listed for most locations, but because there are thousands of combinations, your country might not be listed! If your location isn’t showing up, please reach out to Merrick Books, who are managing shipping for me, and they will update the list of countries to include yours. You can reach them here: support@merrick-books.com.
When does the campaign start/end?
The campaign runs for just over three weeks, starting 16 September (17 September in New Zealand) and ending on 9 October (10 October in New Zealand).
What happens if the campaign doesn’t reach its funding goal?
Then nothing! If we don’t make the funding goal by the end of the campaign, no one who pledged towards it will be charged, and I will return to the drawing board.
What are stretch goals?
If the campaign goes super well and we fund much higher than expected, I’ll be able to add more bells and whistles to the shiny editions (like more interior illustrations).
Is A Rake of His Own included?
No, the Stariel spinoff / book 5 A Rake of His Own is NOT part of this kickstarter. This is for two reasons:
Doing four books in one campaign is already pushing things, both in terms of behind-the-scenes organisation and in terms of affordability for you guys. Fancy editions aren’t cheap!
If I run a separate campaign for A Rake of His Own after this one, I can fully focus on it as the star of the show. It’s such a special book to me, and I felt like including it with the main Stariel quartet would mean it would inevitably be overshadowed.
So we WILL be getting a shiny edition of Rake too, but it WON’T be until later.
Any other questions? Let me know in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer them!
What happens when a first-born bargain goes wrong?
Princess Gisele has spent her life preparing for an evil fae sorcerer to claim her. That was the bargain her mother was tricked into: one royal first-born in exchange for spinning straw into gold.
But it’s been decades, and he still hasn’t shown up.
The unfulfilled fairytale-debt, however, is refusing to lie quietly. When its chaotic magic reaches unbearable levels, Gisele takes matters into her own hands. Terrifying fae sorcerer or not, she’ll hunt him down and force him to stop ruining her life.
But instead of an evil mastermind, she finds the scholarly, nameless lord of a magical house. He wants nothing to do with the angry knife-wielding spinster on his doorstep. Unfortunately, the fairytale-debt has other ideas.
Now magically bound to her lifelong nemesis, the only way to break the magic between them is to work together to find the nameless fae’s lost name. Assuming they don’t strangle each other first.
HOW TO FIND A NAMELESS FAE is a cozy fantasy romance retelling of Rumplestiltskin with spice, featuring a middle-aged heroine, a buttoned-up hero, and an interfering sentient house.
Advanced Praise for How to Find a Nameless Fae
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Imagine Rumpelstiltskin but in a cottagecore, fantasy, romantic comedy kind of way.”
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“Lancaster truly has a way with making lovable and a little unhinged characters that you will be rooting for from beginning to end.”
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
"I fell into the world of faerie and never wanted to leave."
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“At its heart, this story explores loneliness, how it affects all kinds of people, the doubts it plants, and the yearning it brings. But it’s also about finding your people, and I think it’s safe to say that Gisele and Mal finally found theirs 💕”
I can finally reveal this BEAUTIFUL cover, designed by Holly Dunn:
BLURB:
What happens when a first-born bargain goes wrong?
Princess Gisele has spent her life preparing for an evil fae sorcerer to claim her. That was the bargain her mother was tricked into: one royal first-born in exchange for spinning straw into gold.
But it’s been decades, and he still hasn’t shown up.
The unfulfilled fairytale-debt, however, is refusing to lie quietly. When its chaotic magic reaches unbearable levels, Gisele takes matters into her own hands. Terrifying fae sorcerer or not, she’ll hunt him down and force him to stop ruining her life.
But instead of an evil mastermind, she finds the scholarly, nameless lord of a magical house. He wants nothing to do with the angry knife-wielding spinster on his doorstep. Unfortunately, the fairytale-debt has other ideas.
Now magically bound to her lifelong nemesis, the only way to break the magic between them is to work together to find the nameless fae’s lost name. Assuming they don’t strangle each other first.
HOW TO FIND A NAMELESS FAE is a cozy romantasy retelling of Rumplestiltskin with spice, featuring a middle-aged heroine, a buttoned-up hero, and an interfering sentient house.
How To Find A Nameless Fae is set in the same world as my novella How To Marry A Winged King, but they are each standalones that can be read in any order (though there is a small cameo of the Winged King characters in Nameless Fae).
I originally wrote Winged King under a tight wordcount constraint for an anthology. Since then, I’ve re-edited and expanded it, giving it a bit more room to breathe. The new version is about twice as long as the original story (roughly 20k words total).
I’ve decided to offer this new version as a pre-order reward for How To Find a Nameless Fae, which means that if you pre-order Nameless Fae, you can get the new version of Winged King to read right now, FREE.
Just fill out this form with proof of your pre-order to claim the reward!
I know I’ve been fairly quiet online for a while. One wants to write upbeat posts about progress and the next release and so on and so forth. One does not want to write posts admitting to all the projects added to the Pile Of Shameful Failures living on one’s hard drive – and there have been far too many of those for comfort over the last few years.
We shall not talk about those dark times except to say thank you, dear readers, for continuing to show your love for my existing books even while I’ve been relatively absent.
We shall instead talk about what is coming next!
Is It More Stariel?
No, I’m afraid it’s not. It makes me so happy that people love Stariel enough to want more! I do want to return to this world, and I had originally intended for a Stariel-shaped Thing to be my next project. However, the Creative Department does not always follow directions from their CEO, and in this case they rebelled completely after months of trying to force them to comply. Which is a roundabout way of saying that one of the items on The Pile of Shameful Failures is More Star More Riel, which is now officially On Indefinite Hold. Maybe down the track a way we will try again.
(I can, however, offer you a tiny piece of More Stariel in the form of a bonus short story when you sign up to my newsletter).
What Is Coming In 2025, Then?
A standalone fantasy romance novel titled How To Find A Nameless Fae. It’s a fun, tropey retelling of Rumpelstiltskin, with a hero best described as “what if Howl had cat ears?” It’s ridiculous. I love it so much!
It’s set in the same world as my award-winning novelette How To Marry A Winged King (currently out of print), which has been brushed up and slightly expanded and will be re-released alongside How To Find A Nameless Fae.
