ILONA ANDREWS

#1 New York Times Bestselling Author

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It Runs In the Family

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We’ve received many requests and questions about Kid 2’s work and what is it about and when can it be available.

Once in a while, there will be a successful writer who will come out with “My child wrote a book!” and they will use their platform to promote their child’s book. Full power to them. When you have a platform, why not help your child out?

That probably won’t be us. At least in the beginning.

Now don’t get me wrong, we’ll help with advice, we’ll allocate money for ads, and we will use whatever knowledge we have to help her write a good query and sign with a good agent. We are very proud of her.

But people are mean. They will call her a nepo baby, they will say that we wrote the books for her, and they will compare her work to our work, and on and on. Yes, advertising her work here would likely give her a big jump in sales, but at what cost? It is far better for her to launch without the baggage of Ilona Andrews attached.

Thank you so much for your interest. She was very touched that many of you asked, and she sent over a small snippet of an older work, not connected to anything, as a thank you. She says, “This is what I put mom and dad through while in school.”

Yes, she was that bad. Don’t ask me about the time she performed an exorcism.

“Are you mad at me?”

I put my stress ball in my lap and turned to my niece in the chair beside me, staring at her over the brim of my red-tinted shades. “I’m not thrilled.”

She slumped back against her seat, groaning. “Can we just get it out of the way now, please? I hate when you brood.” 

“Okay. First of all,” I started. “I don’t brood.”

“I don’t want to fight. I had a really bad day.”

“Oh no! What happened?”

“Nessie. Don’t tease me.”

“This is the second time this month that I have had to drop what I’m doing, rush here from the Circle, and sit in this chair – awaiting to be informed of what a lousy guardian I am.” I straightened my cloak. “You can suffer my teasing.”

“Everybody’s overreacting! It wasn’t that serious!”

“Mhm.

“Nobody here can take a joke,” she grumbled. “Too bad their rich parents can’t buy the kids at this school a sense of humor.”

“Haley.”

“They’re so soft! I have to walk on eggshells around everyone!”

“Haley,” I tried again.

“And for being one of the ‘top performing Arcane Art academies in the world,’ this place is so behind! All the stuff we’re learning right now, you taught me and Griff when we were in freaking pull-ups!”

“Haley.” My stern voice came out. “You chased the headmasters’ son down the hall, with blood dripping from your hands. Whose blood, frankly, I’m scared to ask.”

“It was ketchup.”

“Well, they all thought it was blood. Probably because you were maniacally laughing and chanting, ‘I am blood mage, the madness calls for blood! I am blood-

I saw the lady at the front desk staring, the warmth draining from her face.

Damn it.

I smiled and waved. “Go Vampire Bats!”

She turned away, shaking her head.

“Great,” I hissed under my breath. “Now the front office at your expensive new school thinks I’m a blood mage. Friday’s PTA meeting is going to be a blast.”

“It was just a joke,” Haley muttered. “Everybody didn’t need to freak out.”

“Kiddo, you were frothing at the mouth.”

She threw her hands up, auburn curls bouncing around her freckled face.

“I already told them- it was soap!”

I blinked. “Soap?”

“Hand soap. The foaming kind, from the dispenser in the girl’s restrooms.”

I dragged a sweaty palm down my chin. “You poured soap in your mouth?”

“Sugar Citrus Breeze- blech.” She made a sour face. “Didn’t taste like sugar.”

“No, I don’t imagine that it would.” I sighed. “And you did this, willingly?”

“Yup,” she replied, popping her lips.

“To make it look like you were unhinged?”

“You’re always saying Dad’s problem is he can never commit to anything.” She looked me dead in the eye. “I committed.”

 “I’ll be committed, if you keep this up. Between this charming, little stunt you pulled here today, and your brother terrorizing his classroom last week with the reanimated corpse of their beloved pet hamster -“

“It was a bunny.”

I rolled my eyes. “Whatever, bunny -“

“Sir Hops-a-lot, Duke of Carrotown.”

I sharply inhaled. “I can’t keep doing it, Haley. The Circle has been falling apart at the seams for weeks, now. You got to help me out.”

She looked away, her upper lip quivering. “… Sorry.”

I stared at the stress ball in my lap. Thin, purple fabric, all faded and torn. Yellow, stiff foam seeping out from decades old cracks. It had taken a lot of abuse in the last two months.

“So why’d you do it? “

She shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe I’m hormonal. Or I really am crazy.”

“Hormonal? Definitely. Crazy? Eh… too early to say.” I would tackle the topic of not calling people crazy another time.

“But I probably am. It runs in the family.” She frowned. “He started it. He’s always calling me a blood mage. Says I’m gonna turn Corrupt. Like Mom.”

Little bastard.

“You won’t.” I draped my arm over her. “I won’t let you. Either of you.”

She rested her head on my chest. “But if I did… would you still love me?”

I held her tight. “Yes. We’d just put a muzzle on you and carry on. We are Cowls. Like you said, it runs in the family.”

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Comments

    • I’d read that. I’ve been writing for a solid year and that’s better than mine. Mine reads like a justification for a multimillion dollar server for a scientist. I’m working on this.

      • Please tell her that from that snippet alone I’d buy her first book when it come out. Love it! 🙂

        • Love the snippet. Would totally read kid 2’s work. Would love the story that goes with the snippet. She can sneak my email into her author email list. She’lol blend in with my other authors and not identify as yours 😉

          Really enjoying Roman. So much I’m torturing myself by reading it each week instead of waiting until the end when I can binge it!!

  4. I enjoyed the snippet very much. Thank you! I am eager to see how Kid 2’s writing has matured. I will keep an eye on the debut authors lists.

  6. Okay that snippet was GREAT, and I was prepared not to like it bc generally I don’t like kid characters. But this kid is great, and I’d happily read more about her.

    But I loved Jack and George and Sophie and Julie and Conlin as kids… so maybe writing non-annoying kids DOES run in the family!

  7. I understand your reluctance to interfere. But tell Kid 2 that the BDH has her back. I’m looking forward to reading her book.

  8. Talent runs in the family for sure. And sense of humour with punchy lines. My daughter is a teenager who likes to write occasionally. She writes brilliant suspense and her descriptions are ace. What she lacks is what your daughter have in spades-conversations that catch attention and keeps scrolling to read more and more.
    Don’t give into to crowds of NEPOTISM folk. I’m all for helping kids when one can. Especially if we can do it in ways where It does not make kids hate you. Great work and hope to read her book!

  10. Please thank Kid 2 for the snippet! She’s obviously very talented in her own right. 😊
    Here’s hoping for a hint when her first book comes out and her author name.🤞

  11. Loved it! I would totally read that book based on the snippet. I love the way she imparts the important details about the characters. Top level writing! Thank you so much!

  12. I like her voice and can picture the scene very well, like I watched it instead of read it. I usually read a book a day and I would gladly add her book to my TBR pile.

  13. Gotta admire a kid who’d commit to putting soap in her mouth to pull off a practical joke. It also pre-emptively takes out the “I’ll wash your mouth out with soap if you keep using those words” threat from a parent or guardian. (Reminds me of the scene from Christmas Story where the little boy rates the taste and texture of the blocks of soap he’s had to put in his mouth for using dirty words.)

    Tell Kid 2 that snippet was great! I’d like to read that book.

  15. I laughed all the way through it & loved it. It left me wanting more. Kid #2 DEFINITELY inherited your sense of humor.

    I love fantasy books packed with lots of action AND snark.

  19. More!!! More!!! More!!!

    Now you did it… we WANT!!!!
    It was great!!!!!
    thank you!! I hope everything goes as planned for the new writer in your family!!!

  20. great snippet, that’s a book I would read. I hope I come across her work, but understand why feeding her to the horde would be horrific.

    • +1
      I do not have time to search for new authors.
      You would be doing us a favour to let us know how to find her work.
      Then we can decide.
      Not nepotism to give us a chance to read.

      Nepotism is when you give her something, or exclude others from an opportunity (like a job). It is the grabbing/taking-away of choices.

      Letting us know where to find one option for reading … is simply awareness of options. It is the sharing of choices.

      Completely different things.

      Please carry on, with a clear conscience.

      • 👍➕1️⃣ That was great ❣️Now Kid 2️⃣ needs to write that book
        because I think we all will want to read it. Question is, how will we know how to buy her work? I don’t think Kid Two Gordon will look great on a book cover.
        I don’t think it’s nepotism at all to just give us a name to look up and do the work of a search to find her work. I would for sure go to her site and sign up for her newsletters. I don’t see any difference between that and your naming of other authors on your site as you have done with Jesse M. for example. I think you are withholding a tool from her that you freely give to others, and that is a handicap.

        Thanks, Kid 2️⃣ I will give whatever you write a try. You’re That Good!

  25. Tell kid 2 that thank you for the snippet! The snippet was well written and I could easily see it in my mind and it was easy to read. I loved the aunt/ niece relationship and it left me wanting more of the story, and not just because she’s related to you. Keep up the good work!

  26. My daughter’s 2nd grade teacher opened our parent teacher conference with “I want to assure you that Squeak didn’t make it completely out of the building and she was never in any danger.” It went downhill from there.

    Raising them is HARD but the stories – after you’ve all survived – are GOLD.

    I like kid 2’s voice and I’m invested. We, the BDH are A LOT though. I wouldn’t want us breathing down my neck either. So we’ll just hover back here and wait, beady eyes gleaming, until she’s ready.

    • My sixth grade teacher started the conversation with “I would have let her catch him but I was afraid she’d kill him.”

      I lost it after my nemesis and his cronies had surrounded me hitting me with the pointy end of a football (that actually hurts quite a bit) while chanting about my lack of physical ability during gym. I responded by picking up a rock in each hand chasing him while shouting that I was going to kill him, at which point Mr. Pierce tackled me. It’s amazing that kids and hopefully their parents survive childhood.

  27. I love it, and I’m hooked already, maybe that older work will get published some day too. I hope I am able to find her work when it’s published. I am interested to see what it’s like! As a parent of a very “creative” 9 year old, I feel for you both!

  28. 100% understand your approach towards your kid’s career, if I were you I would do the same.

    About the snippet, I LOVED IT! SO SO MUCH! Is this YA or youth fiction? I know my son would love to read it, if its for kids. It made me snort-giggle quite a bit 🙂

  29. this is good! she should turn this into something marketable. I would most certainly read it.

  31. that was a great snippet. please pass on my thanks to kid 2, she’s sated the horde s chants of more more more more for a day, and that’s hard to do 😁

    • Ha! I think she actually may have amped up the chants of more. Cause that was so good and I know I want more! I echo all the thanks for the awesome snippet. Feel free to feed us more…

  35. Well I’m hooked. I can guess what a blood mage is, with the expectation that I’ll be more of less right, but what are Cowls? Can Cowls cope with blood mages or is auntie putting on a brave front for Haley? What is The Circle and why is it under stress?

    Let us know when we can buy the whole novel. Thank you

  39. “Sir Hops-a-lot, Duke of Carrotown” I love it! It’s right up my alley. I had a pig I named Princess Pigglewart.

    Question, will her official literary name be Kid 2? Kid Two? Something else?

  42. I would definitely enjoy reading that young woman’s stories. The Addams’ Family spinoff Wednesday could use her talents on their writing staff, too. (That’s not criticism, I enjoy the show, just think it moves a bit slowly at times, and thought Kid 2’s ideas might improve progression of Wednesday. ) ALL the best, and I hope she learns to ignore the trolls and other haters.

  43. I think it makes sense, like how JD Robb was launched as an unknown and once she released 10 books or so, they were like “Surprise! It’s really Nora Roberts!” and had that two part crossover book to try to introduce the two parts of her audience to each other.

    Following that logic, might we have a Ilona Andrews / Kid2 collab at some point down the line? (I know, Kid2 needs to be published first! I’m just adding it to the BDH wishlist now 😀)

    • I hear you about JD Robb aka Nora Roberts. At first I thought it was a new author until I looked at the copywrite page. Once I did that, I kept on reading the series with my mouth sealed to let everyone else find out who the author actually was.

  44. Thank you for sharing Kid 2’s snippet. It made me laugh and exclaim out loud (working from home is great in these situations). She’s very talented in her own right. Like the rest of the Horde, I would keep reading the book when/if it comes out in the far reaches of the future.

    I can understand why the balance of wanting to help her, and doing things for her can be tricky. As my parents use to tell me “We’ll be here for you, but you have to do the work yourself. We’ve been there, done that. Now it’s your turn.” 🙂

  46. While I totally respect your decision to let Kid #2 debut with out the pressure of the BHD looming over, as a consumer it can be very hard to find new work that I love and based on what little you have shared I would enjoy their writing. I hope that I am able to find it.

    Perhaps you may be willing to narrow it down a bit for us and at least announce the day it gets released and make us all devour everything new that day in hopes of finding it.

  49. Kid 2 will do fiiiine! She already knows how to bribe a Horde. 😉

    What if you just posted a list of emerging authors on the blog at a future date after it’s published, of which one of them was Kid 2? It wouldn’t be specific advertising and the Horde would still be able to find [and devour] the [tasty] new book! 😇😇😇

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