a dark and drowning tide is out next month

tour dates, an ode to the box i once called home, and wings of starlight ARC giveaway

Aug 26, 2024

Somehow, A Dark and Drowning Tide is out next month. I hardly know what I’ll do with myself when it isn’t looming over me, much like Lorelei and her greatcoat. Since the publication date was pushed back six months, this book has been coming out for a very, very long time. And if you read my last edition of the Ursprung, you know that my relationship with this book has been fraught. But without a hint of irony: I am going to miss it so much when it’s out of my hands.

Because the book is coming out next month, I am obligated to remind you that preordering the book is enormously helpful to authors—and that the preorder campaign is running until midnight on September 17 (yes, it is open internationally). I look at the entires as they come in, and I’m incredibly touched that some of you have had this book on preorder for like a year at this point. More touching, I think, is recognizing so many of your names. Some of you have been around since the Down Comes the Night days! This is about the point in a book’s promotional cycle when I become a nervous wreck :) So whether you’re a long-time fan or a newcomer, thank you for being here. I appreciate y’all so much!

NOTE: if you want a personalized copy of A Dark and Drowning Tide, act now! Kepler’s is taking personalization requests until September 3.

keep reading for

an ode to the box i once called home
tour stops
publicity roundup
wings of starlight ARC info
wings of starlight FAQ

Earlier this month, I packed up the apartment I have lived in for the past six years, and moved down the street. I’m honestly thrilled. Living in student housing in your 30s is kind of depressing, but such is the life of a grad student’s partner. I have watched a whole generation of students pass through campus. I have seen stars be born and collapse! Still, it’s bittersweet—less because I liked it there1 and more because there are so many memories tied up in that apartment.

I was 24 years old when I moved to California, and life seemed so full of possibility. I am now 30, and while I’m a little less starry-eyed than I was back then, this next juncture of my life also, somehow, feels full of possibility. In December, we’re leaving California, and I have no idea where we’re going next. But before I look forward to the future, allow me a moment to reflect on my love-hate relationship with the place that often felt like a Gothic manor, if Gothic manors were less-than-500-square-foot box.

I will not miss its popcorn ceilings; or its carpet that was a color that wasn’t really a color; or its impossible-to-clean kitchen counter that could fit maybe one appliance on it but good fucking luck if you want to cook anything that requires more than 2 ingredients; or its bathroom that had no storage space so I had to rig this flimsy metal shelf contraption that sometimes fell on you unprovoked; or the revolving door of neighbors, each more strange and sinister than the last2; or the view that was a massive construction zone for 2 years but now is just a quad with the worst acoustics you can imagine, just so bad, like if you so much as whisper while standing in it, everyone who lives in the four buildings framing the quad will hear every word you say; or the fact we could not fit a desk in there so we wrote at the kitchen table and then the table accumulated such rancid, desperate energies that it was pretty much a cursed object and I fantasized about smashing it Office Space-style at least weekly.

But what I will miss is this now-irrecoverable period, where I became who I am. It’s wild to think how much has happened over these last few years. I signed with my agents. I wrote 5 books. I met some of my best friends. I watched people leave. I got married. I got a dog. I isolated there. I spent countless hours walking through campus: the place I called the fairy field because the daisies bloomed so prettily; the path to the parking lot we called the Hinterlands, because it was so far; the picturesque neighborhoods that led to the coffee shop Ava and I visited almost every day in 2021; the footpath to the Dish; the grass in the low rises, where we drank takeout cocktails from our favorite restaurant. Dreams came true and were shattered there. I hosted parties and let people break down on my couch. Its walls have seen so much joy and so much suffering. Writing this is making me cry! How can I really sum it up? What else is there to say but life happened there?

What a gift, though, to mourn people and places and versions of ourselves. How lucky we are to love and be changed. I’ll wrap up this exceedingly sappy section of the newsletter with a photo of me signing my agency agreement (age 25, four months after moving to California) and me holding my fourth book (age 30, 1 week post-move).

tour stops

I’m SO excited to be going on tour for A Dark and Drowning Tide! I’ve never been to the PNW before, so I’m very much looking forward to seeing new sights, meeting new readers, and reuniting with old friends whose hometowns I’ve never visited. Having lived in the Bay Area for the last 6 years, I have largely forgotten what rain is. I hope to see this weather phenomenon while I am in Oregon and/or Washington.

September 17
Kepler’s (Menlo Park, CA)
This event is ticketed; get your tickets here!
September 19
Elliot Bay Books (Seattle, WA)
In conversation with Rachel Griffin
Septemer 20
Powell’s (Portland, OR)
In conversation with Courtney Gould
September 23
Capital Books (Sacramento, CA)
In conversation with @hilarie_reads

Let me know if I’ll see you there! <3

publicity roundup

LibraryReads
I’m so honored that A Dark and Drowning Tide was selected as a top 10 LibraryReads pick for September 2024! Thank you to all the librarians out there for showing this book so much love <3 If you’re unfamiliar with LibraryReads:

LibraryReads is the monthly nationwide library staff picks list for adult fiction and non-fiction. Rather than picking “the best” of anything, LibraryReads represents collective favorites—the books library staff loved reading and cannot wait to share.

"On an expedition to find an enchanted spring, Lorelei and Sylvia must work together to solve the murder of their leader. Exploring themes of magic, romance, adventure, political intrigue, academic rivalry, racism and classism, grief, and healing make for a really good read. The strange unpredictability of the magic makes the plot engaging." —Shannon Carney, Baltimore County Public Library, MD

Booklist
A Dark and Drowning Tide received a lovely review from Booklist, which described it as “darkly whimsical” and “add[ing] its own panache to the fairy-tale trope.” What a word, panache! I’m delighted.

Goodreads: Most Anticipated List of Fall

“Professional genre alchemist” made me smile… thank u goodreads

wings of starlight ARCs are here

And just look at how beautiful she is!! After keeping this project under wraps for so long, I truly cannot believe early copies are going out into the world—or that there’s only six months until it’s published. Having three books out in a 13-month period makes time flow in strange ways.

how do i get an ARC?

Digital ARCs are currently available on Edelweiss and NetGalley. I believe my publisher’s physical ARCs are already allocated, but I’ll plan to run giveaways in the coming months—starting now! If you’d like a chance to win an early copy, please fill out this Google form. I’ll select a winner on August 29.

Please note: I do not handle ARC distribution or approve requests on NetGalley or Edelweiss. I have a very limited number of author copies, which are already earmarked for giveaways. Offers of your firstborn children, souls, organs, etc. are noted and appreciated but unfortunately cannot be accepted.

other frequently asked questions

Will Wings of Starlight be available outside the US? Will it be translated into other languages?
Right now, the book is only available in the US. However, you should be able to order a US edition through Amazon or Blackwell’s. Foreign publishers can pick up translation rights at any time, though! Excitement on social media goes a long way in making publishers aware there’s interest. I’ll share translation news when/if I can!

What formats is it available in?

Hardcover and ebook editions are available for preorder now. There will also be an audiobook.

Where can I preorder it?
You can preorder Wings of Starlight anywhere books are sold in the US, including:

Barnes & Noble
Amazon
Bookshop
Kepler’s, my local indie bookstore
Your local indie bookstore! You can usually preorder online from your store’s website, or you can call them.

Will you be sharing sneak peeks?

Yes! As soon as A Dark and Drowning Tide is out, I’ll be sharing more about Wings of Starlight both here and on Instagram.

Do they kiss?
Yes :)

Does it have an HEA?
No :( This is a prequel to Secret of the Wings, set a few centuries before Tink and Periwinkle arrive in Pixie Hollow. If you’ve seen the film: this book explores why Clarion forbade the crossing between Winter and the warm seasons. You don’t need to have seen the film to enjoy Wings of Starlight, though.

I have a different question.
Drop it in the comments here, and I’ll get back to you ASAP!

In fact, the first words I uttered in Box were “I hate it.” To be fair, it’s a really ugly apartment, and I was too grumpy to see any potential. It was like 6:00am, and we had freshly finished a 13-hour-straight drive from Quartzite, Arizona. We’d planned to take leisurely drive from Austin up to Palo Alto. All of our worldly possessions were crammed into the back of our Nissan Cube. We were on our way to Joshua Tree from Phoenix. The Cube quite literally couldn’t take the heat, and the transmission gave out on the highway. We ate tortilla chips for dinner in a motel, and the next day, hired someone to drive us across the California border so we could pick up a U-Haul in Blythe. We towed the Cube to California, where it sat in a parking lot for months growing a little biome in the divots on the windshield wipers. RIP Cube.

My favorite was a woman who would shriek-sing to “Mr. Cat.” It was a topic of much debate whether Mr. Cat was, indeed, a cat or if Mr. Cat was her husband.

allison saft

Discussion about this post