I am hugely excited to be able to announce a very special treat, brought to us courtesy of my awesome publisher!

I know that for some of you the wait for the next Theodosia book seems interminable. And nineteen months between books is a long time, I’ll grant you that. But, especially for you blog readers, my publisher has agreed to let me put up excerpts of the third Theodosia book, Theodosia and the Eyes of Horus. And not just the first chapter, but a chapter a month right up until the book actually comes out! Those of you who are dying for your next Theodosia fix will be able to get it right here.

I know there are some readers who are new to Theodosia and haven’t had a chance to read Theodosia and the Staff of Osiris yet, so I’m giving you guys a week’s head’s up before I start posting excerpts from Theodosia and the Eyes of Horus. OSIRIS is out in paperback now, so getting a hold of it won’t stretch your budget too far. Ten to twelve hours of entertainment for only $6.99? Who can beat that?

But. That’s not the only way to get a hold of Book Two.

And, in honor of this, I am also going to have a contest to give away copies of OSIRIS, just in case there are any new readers who haven’t found Book Two yet. That way, they won’t risk spoilers or getting left behind! All you have to do is leave a comment in this thread between now and midnight on Sunday, October 4. Winners will be announced Monday morning, then the first excerpt will go up next week.

For those of you who send me an email through the contact page here, please double check your email address. If you don’t leave a correct one, I can’t get back to you!

(Keeley and Julia Rose–I’m looking at you! The email addresses you left aren’t working…)

Books you might enjoy while waiting for Theodosia’s next adventure:

The Enola Holmes books by Nancy Springer
Savvy by Ingrid Law
Gilda Joyce, Psychic Investigator by Jennifer Allison
Emma Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree by Lauren Tarshis
A Drowned Maiden’s Hair by Laura Amy Schlitz
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly
Half Magic by Edward Eager
The Railway Children by E. Nesbit
Fly by Night by Francis Hardinge
Monster Blood Tattoo by D. M. Cornish
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

If you’ve read any of the Theodosia books, you know how central a role secret societies play. What you may not know is that the secret societies in the books are based on societies that actually existed.

In Victorian England, there were a number of brotherhoods and societies dedicated to all sorts of intellectual pursuits, horticulture, zoological studies, philosophy, archaeology, classical studies. You name it, there was probably some sort of society or club to study it.

Including subjects of the occult and ancient mysteries.

In fact, the Victorian age saw a huge boom in interest in these subjects. Some scholars think it was because of the advances of the industrial revolution and scientific progress. With science and technology taking on a much larger role in society—and answering a lot of questions that had been unanswerable before then—people hungered for the mystical and magical. Some of these secret societies focused on gaining magical knowledge and others focused more on gaining the wisdom behind these practices. They felt magic was a way to gain a more highly developed spiritual nature.

Here are some pictures of actual secret society members dressed for their ceremonies. I used these pictures as the basis for some of the ceremonies of the Arcane Order of the Black Sun in Theodosia and the Staff of Osiris.

As they say, truth IS stranger than fiction! And yes, secret societies continue to play a huge part in Theodosia and the Eyes of Horus!