Happy new year, mortals!
Happy new year, mortals!
Loki is ready and willing to ruin 2023 for everyone...
It’s been almost a year since Loki first burst into the world with a cry of “TURDS!” Loki never looks back or reflects unless he HAS to and I’m generally inclined to think along the same lines. If you don’t look back, your demons can’t catch you.
Let’s look forward instead. Very soon, I shall be able to share the cover of Loki book 3, AKA A Bad God’s Guide to Ruling the World. It’s a love letter to Wagner’s Ring Cycle, Lord of the Rings, and the joys and horrors of school plays.
Watch my twitter and that of @WalkerBooksUK and you might soon witness Loki in his full green splendour. In the meantime, you can preorder here.
LokiTok
In “Look Ma, I’m not a complete luddite” news, I’ve done my first TikTok. Check it out! It was an epic effort…because I had to teach myself animation first. (Using Procreate, which I’m enjoying so far. I’m learning to draw digitally too, but I’ve decided to jump right into animation, because I love to run before I can walk.)
Note: there’s also someone called Louie Stowell on Tik Tok who is not me. I assume he is me from a parallel world.
Writing tip of the day
It’s OK to have a day off. Or many days off. I’ve taken all of Christmas off and it’s meant I’m raring to go. Brains need time to turn to jelly watching crime telly before they can regain their form and work again. It’s science.
Upcoming events
I’ll be at Stepping into Stories in Herne Hill on Saturday 4th Feb talking all things A Bad God’s Guide to Taking the Blame. Bring your drawing muscles. It’s a fantastic programme generally, so do book in for other things too!
Book for my event here and find out more about the festival here. I’ll also be awarding prizes for the story competition. You can still enter if you get in your story by this Friday, 6th Jan!
Joke of the day
Q: If you call it the bathroom, you’re American. If you call it the toilet, you’re British.
What are you when you’re IN the bathroom?
A: European.
Horrifying monstrosity of the day
Over Christmas I posted this picture of a perfectly innocent marzipan snowman riding a giant rat on Instagram and someone commented, “I can’t believe you’re allowed to write for children.” You be the judge of whether it’s an eldritch horror or actually very cute thank you very much.
Loki doodle of the day
I asked twitter for the best news story to base this doodle on. This was the favourite.
Book of the day
I read a proof of Jamie by LD Lapinski over the holidays and perhaps it’s a little cruel to put it in my newsletter, taunting you, as it’s not in the shops yet. But you should pre-order it because it’s brilliant. It’s about a non-binary kid called Jamie being forced to choose between going to a girls’ school and a boys’ school (while being neither.) It’s also about young people having the power to change the world, even though the world does not want to be changed.
Buy my books
If, for some reason, you’re subscribed to this newsletter and have not bought my books, the universe has brought you one more shining chance to hold them in your hands. Buy my latest book while supporting an indie bookshop HERE.
If you’d like to browse all my books while having a look at my website, go here instead.
Now, go out into the world and cause trouble. Such is the will of Loki.
Louie xxx
PS find me in between newsletters on @louiestowell on twitter and @louiestowell on Instagram and @wannawatchthings on Tik Tok. You never know, I may do a second Tik Tok one day…
PPS if you’re interested in being part of a children’s book Discord, let me know…
Happy new year, mortals!
Mrs H is shaking her head in dismay as I don't understand the joke. But Jamie sounds really cool, and a must read for those of us uncertain ones.
So looking forward to Loki 3. There definitely needs to be a movie series!
A children's book discord sounds awesome. I would love to join! I shall follow you on tik tok :)