Francesca's Thoughts

Once upon a time, I nicknamed a manuscript ‘cursenovel.’ More recently I finished it, named it Rotting Trees and, when no one I’d approached wanted to sell it, decided to publish it myself.

Then I wrote this post. I do have some graphics planned to share to my social media as part of the never ending PR machine that is required of self publishing, but I thought it would be fun to have a master post type blog here, since most social media platforms are increasingly functionally unusable and/or full of Nazis and/or require you to have 250k followers before it’ll show anyone anything.

What is Rotting Trees?

A young adult contemporary fantasy novel. In normal English: magicky but set in the real world, and with an audience in mind of anyone aged about 15 upwards. I’ve been describing it as for fans of The Raven Cycle and Good Omens in both tone and generalised vibes.

Okay, but what’s it about?

All the women in Ariel Scarlet’s family die before the age of forty. Family legend blames a cursed Victorian necklace, and Ariel is determined to discover who cursed it and why.

Sophey Cartwright works in Bezzina’s Emporium of Magical Artefacts and Antiquities. She can help Ariel find out the truth… but is Ariel ready to face the past and choose her own place in history?

Keen eyed readers will remember Sophey and Ariel from the handful of Bezzina’s Emporium short stories I’ve been writing over the last few years. I think the first ever story was part of the Major Arcana series – what a lockdown project that was – and you can read the Bezzina’s stories here and the whole Major Arcana series here. You don’t have to have read the short stories to enjoy Rotting Trees, but they are a good time and you might enjoy seeing how I splashed around in the world before committing to a seventy-one thousand word manuscript. Which has, for the record, been professionally proofread and been checked by a sensitivity reader.

I’m sold, where is it?

From December 2023-December 2024, I’ll share a chapter per week of Rotting Trees to my Patreon, the No. 1 Readers’ Club (it’s available for all paying members regardless of tier!). The prologue is up for members now, and you can read the progue and chapters one to three for free on my website here. The book will, of course, go online alongside all my usual Patreon funsies like tarot readings and short stories. I’d love to do a Kickstarter to fund an ebook and print run in 2025, but that will depend on demand (my energy levels aren’t likely to go up but my workload probably will, so we’ll see how it goes on Patreon first). If you’re new: membership to the No. 1 Readers’ Club starts from £1 a month, and there’s an option to trial for 7 days. You can also sign up for free to see my public posts. I name a character after every paying member, do monthly tarot readings and add paid members’ names to the thank yous of published books.

Are there content warnings I should be aware of?

Yes! As you can tell from the blurb, this isn’t a romantic comedy. It’s not really graphic and it’s definitely not sexy (I would say it has at least one hundred percent less kissing than The Raven Cycle and the same number of dogs as Good Omens), but I did explore complex and often uncomfortable topics. If you prefer to know themes before you begin, I have a list (if you prefer to dive into a book come what may, just scroll on):

Moderate: death, grief, racism, substance abuse/addiction, violence.

Minor: alcohol, animal cruelty, blood, cursing, disordered eating, mental and physical illness, parental neglect, religious bigotry, vomit.

If you’re a parent and your 14 year-old would like to read it but you aren’t sure: you know your child better than I do, so my recommendation is to take the content warnings into consideration and read it yourself first. Unless, of course, you’re one of those parents who thinks children shouldn’t consume anything depicting LGBTQ folk, children having adventures, or critical thinking. In which case, get them and yourself a membership to your local library immediately and go and have a think about what you’re really afraid of. Did I just spoil Rotting Trees or was that a generalised moan about books being banned from libraries? There’s only one way to find out!

Is Rotting Trees available anywhere for free?

Aside from the prologue/chapters one to three sampler, no. If you see it online for free, please tell me because it’s been stolen. I’m mindful that we are all living in horrible financial times and to keep my work as accessible as possible the No. 1 Readers’ Club has a trial option, plus you can join from just £1 per month. I cannot make it cheaper without devaluing a) my work and the effort it takes to write, edit, publish and promote a novel while living with chronic health issues, juggling five jobs and undertaking a degree simultaneously, and b) the writing industry. If Patreon isn’t for you, no hard feelings – I have 14 years of posts on this blog available free, plus dozens of short stories online. You can find previous Bezzina’s Emporium short stories in particular here. You can, as ever, support my work on a one-off basis via Ko-Fi or PayPal.

That’s all for now – I’m sure I’ll add more questions throughout the year I’m sharing this story. I am so very excited for you all to get to know Sophey and Ariel properly over the next year. Thank you to my critique partners Bel, Jengo, Ruth and Lindsay, to my editor, Debz Hobbs-Wyatt and to my sensitivity reader, Helen Gould. Love as ever to the No. 1 Readers’ Club, whose support over the last two years has allowed me to spend time writing this. Let’s gooo! If you have questions about the book as it unfolds, leave them here or on Patreon and I’ll add them to this post.

Links you may find interesting

• A blog post where I talk more about why I’m self publishing Rotting Trees
• Rotting Trees on GoodReads and StoryGraph if you’d like to add it to your ‘currently reading’ during the read-along
• Ebook and paperback ordering info, as of 31st October 2024!

Look after yourselves!

Francesca

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Thanks for reading. If you’d like to read my short stories and see behind-the-scenes work, you can sample? the No. 1 Reader’s Club on Patreon for a month with this link. No pressure to stick around! Think of it as trying a miniature dessert with no requirement to eat the whole menu. You can also find me on Ko-fi. Thank you for your support – you’re helping to fund this space and pay for other costs of running a creative business, like paying editors.

Here are the books I’ve published so far and where you can find them. If you enjoy my book recommendations, browse my Bookshop.org page here.

I’m on social media (reluctantly), via Instagram, Tumblr and Facebook. I prefer my montly-ish newsletter! You can find all my books and my unhinged reviews of books I love on GoodReads and StoryGraph.