Finding North: September 2024
Imagination, telepathy, and cake 🍰
If you need or prefer to hear your news, I hope the above recording is helpful. The content is the same as the written newsletter.
Hi there! I’m Amie Kaufman, NYT and internationally bestselling author of The Isles of the Gods, Illuminae, Aurora Rising, These Broken Stars, and many more books besides. 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.
This month I want to talk about imagination, and storytelling, and the parts of it that live inside all of us.
First I’m going to head through all the information I want to share about The Heart of the World’s release, and then we’ll get on to the more conversational parts of the newsletter. As always, thanks for joining me this month.
In this letter:
25% off The Heart of the World
The Heart of the World preorder offer
The Heart of the World US tour
My guide to book tour events
What I’ve been up to
What I’m writing
What I’ve loved lately
B&N sale: 25% off preorders
I held off on sending this newsletter a couple of days, because I wanted to let my American friends know that right now you can get 25% off all preorders at Barnes & Noble, with the code word PREORDER at checkout. If you’ve been meaning to preorder, this is your moment — there won’t be another offer like this before The Heart of the World is released. Click here to grab this deal.
The Heart of the World preorder offer:
Time is ticking! The Heart of the World, the sequel (and conclusion) to The Isles of the Gods is out on September 17th (or right now, if you’re an Aussie.)
You can preorder via these US preorder links, these UK preorder links, and in Australia via Dymocks, Readings, Amazon, QBD, and your local independent bookshop.
I know I’ve said it before, but here it is one more time: preorders are the single best way you can support an author. They tell publishers and booksellers that you’re excited about the book in a way that nothing else can.
If you have a mailing address in the US, UK or Australia (or can borrow one!) you can lodge your preorder (hardcover, paperback, ebook or audio) to claim a set of two art prints of the beautiful cover art, by Aykut Aydogdu. I think they’re just gorgeous, and so many of you have asked for them. I have them framed at my house, and recommend it!
Click the button below to claim, and for a whole list of FAQs.
The Heart of the World tour:
I’m heading to the US to talk all about The Isles of the Gods and The Heart of the World — and to be honest, all my other books too. I’ll be in conversation with some of my favourite authors, and I’m so looking forward to seeing you all.
You can find details on all my tour stops at the button below, as well as links to the hosting bookstores, in case you’d like to order a signed and/or personalised copy from them. The link also has heaps of FAQs, including signing guidelines.
A Guide To Book Tour Events
I recently posted this guide on instagram for readers who haven’t been to a tour event before. Heading into a new situation can be stressful, and for some readers, the uncertainty can put them off completely. If you’re the sort of person who checks the menu before you head to the restaurant, and likes to understand how things work, I hope this is helpful. You can click on the post below to watch it.
What I’ve Been Up To
This month I’ve been thinking about readers, and the places they intersect with writers. I so often hear things like ‘I could never do what you do!’ or ‘my imagination just doesn’t work that way’ — and I simply don’t agree. My experience is that everyone has the most incredible stories in them.
In August we celebrate Book Week here in Australia — there are activities in schools all over the country, from reading groups to dress-up days to author visits. I did twenty different sessions this year, and came out the end of it very, very tired, but so very happy. And surer than ever of one of my deepest beliefs.
When I visit schools, sometimes I teach writing workshops. We start with a blank piece of paper, and at the end of an hour, each new writer has the premise for a whole story, entirely of their own making, about all the stuff they love the most. I’ve taught this workshop more than a hundred times — to kids and adults, to people who have never written, and veteran writers.
Every single one of them ends up with an original story idea. Every single one. Because every single one of us has an imagination. Every single one of us has stories inside us. Sometimes we’re told we don’t, or we shouldn’t. Sometimes, at some vital moment, someone treats our imagination carelessly, and we learn to keep it to ourselves. Or we learn to hide it so well that we can’t find it when we go looking.
I love working with the kids who stick their hands straight up in the air, when I ask them who’s a writer. But I also love working with the kids who tell me they don’t write at all, that you’re “not allowed” to write about the stuff they’re into. (You absolutely are.) I love it when the teachers join in — I still remember the sports teacher who thought he’d been sent to supervise something he couldn’t care less about, who ended up staring in astonishment at what he’d created. (I can be very persuasive, when it comes to convincing people to join in.)
Some of you will be reading this newsletter as writers. Others will be here as readers. But all of you bring the most extraordinary imaginations to what you’re reading. Stephen King says that writing is an act of telepathy, and he’s right — but that telepathy doesn’t just require the author to project the right images, feelings, or heart-stopping moments straight into your brain. It requires you, too — it’s your imagination that receives them, and constructs them in ways that bring stories to life.
Readers are storytellers too — and there’s nothing more fun than collaborating with you. I’ve been thinking about this a lot, as I prepare to launch a book in just a couple of weeks. I’m going to invite you back to the Crescent Sea with me, but it’ll be your imaginations that sail you there.
What I’m Writing
In between prepping for launch, making a packing list for tour, and dealing with the last of the Book Week visits, I’ve been finishing my first draft of Project RSR, my 2026 book — I’ll be sending off my draft to my editor before I head out on tour. As I write to you now, I have perhaps 5,000 words to go. After that I have a lot of little spots I left myself notes to come back to, so I’ll tidy them, and then it’s off my plate for a little while!
I’ve also been doing lots of behind the scenes work on Project LK, which I’m finally going to be able to announce next month — I can’t wait to tell you about it! For now, picture me looking gleeful and secretive!
What I’ve Loved Lately
I read the first book in the Murderbot Diaries back when it came out in 2017, and lately I’ve been catching up on the rest of the series on audio. The protagonist is a security unit that’s hacked itself so it can act independently (and sometimes, as an unwanted side effect, experience An Emotion) — but free choice means you need to… well, choose. This series is funny, philosophical, and so compelling.
That’s it for this longer-than-usual newsletter — I’ll be back in a couple of weeks with a special launch day edition! In the meantime, one more reminder:
You can preorder The Heart of the World via these US preorder links, these UK preorder links, and in Australia via Dymocks, Readings, Amazon, QBD, and your local independent bookshop. I’d love it if you did!
I’m really excited to see you in Sacramento, Amie! It took a bit of shuffling around and a few hours drive, but it’ll be the first author event I’ve been to and I’m excited for it!
I am also bingeing Murderbot at the moment! Systems Collapse is making my whole heart gush so much.