PORCELAIN: Bone China Preview

Thought Bubble is something my husband and I look forward to every year. Some readers may remember that we got engaged on stage there in 2012 during the cosplay competition, so it's special to s for a LOT of reasons.

This year was a little more low-key for us. We got married in September, honeymooned, got new jobs and other life-stuffs and didn't get our costumes for this year's cosplay up to our usual standards. We decided to attend ThoBubbs for just one day and in our civvies - a first!

One thing that remained on out absolutely-have-to-to list was to visit our Improper Books Chums. I wrote (what seems like an age ago) a review of the first offering of theirs that I came across which I think goes some way to explain how I feel about this incredibly creative and imaginative team.. PORCELAIN: A Gothic Fairy Tale was perfect bait for the butterflies in my belly and I'm so excited that the second instalment of this beautiful story will be available to swap for magic beans (though probably not, probably just cash) in 2015...

PORCELAIN: Bone China Preview

Hearing of this preview made me nervous. Anxious in a kind of 'never meet your idols' way. I adored A Gothic Fairy Tale and had such high hopes for its sibling. I was worried about it for about .000001 of a second before reminding myself that these guys know exactly what they're doing and that we have nothing to fear.

For those of you who weren't able to get down to TB or who (like me) need to inhale every molecule of their favourite stuff, you can download a .pdf of the PORCELAIN: Bone China preview for your enjoyment.

Let's just talk about the cover for a moment. Green. Green is my favourite colour, the hue of my blogging alias and of course, the shade of choice for the great and magnificent Oz. Some of these things may be coincidence, though I feel that the latter is not. Like A Gothic Fairy Tale, this book already feels like an old familiar bed time story, your favourite after-dark childhood story told by torchlight, but with those veins of adult reality running through every word.

Here come the (semi) spoilers.

I feel like child is my favourite niece. Or an on-paper version of the adventurer I thought I was when I was a kid. In A Gothic Fair Tale, she tugged at my heart strings and knocked on the lid of the box of my fondest memories. In Bone China, she's like a familiar cousin - one you've always looked up to, admired and loved. Her barbed wit and matured into a venomous, assured spear that she will throw if you so much as err on the wrong side of her.

The introduction of a whiff of a love interest admittedly evoked mixed feelings in me. I feel protective of child but very quickly, this empathic emotion-set shifted as we see Child planted so firmly 10 years on from when we saw her last. She is stunning - Wildgoose has done our girl proud and rendered that little scamp into a beautiful young woman. This fits. This is how the story goes and it flows so well from before. The introduction of a few new characters doesn't feel shoe-horned and I'm excited to see how this all pans out.

The full release of the next gorgeous chunk of this story will be out next year - 2015 can't come soon enough.