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Book news!

Ahem…

So, around September 2019, I decided I might write a heist book. I began watching alllllllll the heist movies.

Gwenda Bond should be on hiatus @Gwenda

Several of you asked for my heist list (some things I left off intentionally and a lot of these are rewatches but if I’m missing something you think is essential tell me!) cc @anniebellet

Eventually, the idea I had and this intense thinking about heist structure came together into a book I both knew I had to write and was a little nervous to write (always a good sign). I also knew — after working with Del Rey on Suspicious Minds — that I wanted to do it with them. I have a few dream editors, and the legendary Anne Groell, who edits geniuses like GRMM, Connie Willis, Naomi Novik and many more, is one of them. I’ve talked before about how working with editors is my favorite part of the process. I listened to an interview with Anne when she was Guest of Honor at World Fantasy and was so impressed with how much she’s clearly still in love with editing books and I just desperately wanted to work with her. We entered into a correspondence and.... When we showed this book to her, she got what I wanted to do with it even better than I did. So well… sometimes dreams come true!

NEWS FROM RANDOM HOUSE

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Baby’s first heist book! I’m hard at work on finishing The Frame-Up right now, which is why I am going to be scarce on the ground for the next month and change or so.

And I’m very excited about the second book, which I’m not going to tell you about yet, too. Many, many thanks to my amazing agent Kate McKean as well, whose guidance on this book and general wonderfulness is so very appreciated.

Before you ask, I’m still intending to keep writing rom-coms for my beloved St. Martin’s team, including my wonderful editor Tiffany Shelton there.

One thing I learned on this one: I really wanted this book to be my first book after Suspicious Minds, but my brain and other things intervened. Part of me thought…oh maybe I missed my window to keep working with Del Rey and take them original, non-IP projects, something I’d talked about with them in early 2019 (I LOVE EVERYONE THERE SO MUCH — it is a team of geniuses over there). But an extra pandemic year or two to let this idea cook was a good thing, and it’s all happening anyway. So the lesson to me is, if the opportunity is right, it probably won’t evaporate. As my sometime-collaborator Kami Garcia would say, Eye of the Tiger!

HOORAY!!!!