There are three separate pieces of Horde Friday business today, so let’s start with the shiny book!
Giveaway Winner
The winner of the Innkeeper Chronicles Volume 1 collected edition from Subterranean Press is: Virginia Franco!
Congratulations, Virginia! I will contact you from the modr@ilona-andrews.com email address to make arrangements. Please check your spam folder if you see this but have not received the email. If we don’t hear back by Thursday, July 16, a new winner will be drawn next Friday.
Thank you to everyone who entered. If you did not win this time, do not despair: the blog will host more giveaways this summer! And if you had your eye on this particular prize, you can also download Clean Sweep, Innkeeper Chronicles #1, completely free from the Ilona Andrews Store.
Columbus Book Festival This Weekend
House Andrews are featured authors at the Columbus Book Festival in Ohio tomorrow, Saturday, July 11, and Sunday, July 12.
None of the House Andrews events require tickets, yay!
Schedule
Today’s schedule for Columbus Book Festival:
BOOK SIGNING
Steamy Lit Bookstore Booth
11-11:50 AM
Location: Booth #31
PANEL
Spirits, Spells & Swoons: Romantasy. Location: Stage 2, Topiary Park
1:00 PM
Panelists: Shalini Abeysekara, Jeaniene Frost, Kris Hickey (M), Ilona Andrews
BOOK SIGNING
2:00 PM
Reading Room, Main Library, 2nd Floor
See you there.
PS. For those of you who are waiting in customer service response, we will jump on it on Monday.
- Sunday, July 12 at 10:30 AM Speed Matching | Room 2A
During Speed Matching, readers meet authors in small groups for quick five-minute rounds, receiving a personal introduction to each book before the authors rotate to the next table.
- Sunday, July 12 at 3:00 PM God Complex: World-Building | Stage 2
Returning to Stage 2 for a conversation with John Chu, author of The Subtle Art of Folding Space, and K.X. Song, author of The Dragon Wakes with Thunder.
And, because this has become the most frequently asked question:
Yes, House Andrews will be signing books on both days
Ilona and Gordon will sign for one hour after each of their scheduled appearances. That means there will be a signing before and after Saturday’s panel and signings after both Sunday sessions.
House Andrews will also bring a few of the trial vellums, stickers, and a small quantity of presigned bookplates. These will be available first come, first served while supplies last.
The festival’s signing guidelines are:
- You must have a book to enter the signing line.
- You may bring a book from home or purchase one from the Official Festival Bookstore, which will be supporting local independent booksellers.
- There is a limit of two items per author.
- Posed photographs may be allowed in front of the signing table if time permits.
- Each signing lasts for up to one hour.
Festival Info & FAQ
For any questions and last-minute updates, the festival website and FAQ should be your first stop:
The main website is here.
The FAQ for the festival is here, part of a very well-organised and informative Event Information menu, with visitor information regarding full author lineup, schedule, parking information, accessibility guidance, and tickets.
House Andrews are guests of the festival. The authors themselves, the Ilona Andrews blog, me as the moderator, or the Ilona Andrews Facebook fan group do not organize the event and cannot override its policies, schedule or provide authoritative answers about festival logistics or the book stock of invited retailers. Thank you for your understanding.
For everyone attending: have a wonderful time, please be kind to the festival staff, volunteers, and the authors, and please send us pictures! The rest of the Horde would love to experience the weekend vicariously.
Achievement Victory Lap
Finally, the lovely Heather wrote in with a request after Ilona’s very concise announcement that the initial draft of Maggie 2 had been finished:
“Any chance we can get a celebratory thread for Maggie 2 being finished so we can give House IA all the praise and hopes?
Maybe… a thread where the BDH can post all their hardest efforts at getting something hard done?”
That seems like excellent Friday energy, thank you Heather!
There has also been a sneaky update on the Release Schedule page that did not create nearly the waves I expected.
Second half of 2027! Habemus release period for Maggie 2 – The Redactening.
So this is the BDH celebratory thread – tell us about something difficult you have recently finished, or survived, completed, submitted, repaired, organized, endured, or finally crossed off a very long list.
All victories count here!
In all honesty I’m calculating how many re-listens of tkwnkm it will be until the end of 27. Even I think that might be too many. Send help
Finished my bachelor’s degree 35 years after starting college!
Congratulations!
Yasss!!! Congrats! 👍🏻 🎉
Yahoo! You did it!
Congratulations! That is a truly impressive accomplishment, and I hope you spend some time every day just being proud of yourself 👍
My father did something similar started before World War II and finished at the close of the 1960’s.
While it’s not recent, I am fully recovered from spinal surgery which occurred almost two years ago. I am thrilled to walk easily again.
How amazing is that? Congratulations!
Amazing! The PT must have been tough, and I’m so glad your hard work paid off
And congratulations to Lesley. That’s a remarkable achievement.
after playing completely for over four years I finally made it to the Michigan Pinball State Champion in the open division (called open because it’s open to everyone
it was my third year qualifying for the women’s division as well and I took third. it was a wild experience and I was so thrilled my hard work got me there that I didn’t even feel sad getting eliminated in the first round of the open 😂
also currently maintaining my crown as the highest ranking women’s pinball player in the state on the open side!
….and know you all know my other nerdy little secret!
Congrats on finishing the second Maggie book! Here’s hoping you’re feeling nothing but delighted with yourselves, but even if you aren’t I bet real money the horde is delighted for you.
A few months ago, our family moved back across the globe and Oldest Child is not adjusting well to the new school. So far we’ve worked it back up to staying in school 2/3 of the day. I will take any progress I can get. Fingers crossed we all make it through in one piece.
Good luck with the transition! I hope OC adjusts in the fastest and least diffcult possible way
Last week I got the first piece of equipment for our new business, which will recycle plastic waste into new products! Coincidentally, we also received our Belizean work permits, which will allow us to operate the business ☺️
I purchased Maggie 1 months ago, but have not read it. I am planning to either 1) hold off until all the books are published so I can read all three in a glorious bookorgy OR 2) in case of emergency, break the glass and at a time when I need a fantasy world to hide out in.
Congrats on finishing Maggie 2!
“the redactening” lol 😂
At 95% done with my fantasy manuscript (118k words), I basically scrapped the whole thing and started over. I’m now 55,000 words into Draft 2!! WOO!
Yay, big congratulations to HA on the Redactening! I wouldn’t say it’s finished, but this week I made big progress on my application for a master’s program (eek!)– finished drafting all the essays, and made a fairly successful first pass at revisions and cutting down to meet the length limit. I’ve been having trouble getting myself to work on it, so progress feels great!
Finished all the paperwork for my separation and can finally see the light at the end of this 20yr ordeal. Learned a lot, especially about myself. SsOooo ready to move on.
GOOD FOR YOU! Congratulations. That’s a big milestone.
had my first colonoscopy .wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.
CONGRATULATIONS HOUSE ANDREWS. I am GIDDY that the book is so long.
Thank you so much for all your hard work.
1. Survived. So far: difficult transition at work. They replace my wonderful manager with an autocrat.
2. I have now completed the 2nd draft of my book. It’s non-fiction. Which is hilarious because I only read fiction. And I realized I need to add another part to it. So I got the outline of that done too.
But the most amazing part is that I finally have a process that WORKS! I’ve struggled to write because of organization and not realizing what my process is. And the non-fiction of it all has actually taught me how I write. So that’s the big news.
Anyway. I am so happy for everyone’s accomplishments. ((HUGS)) to all.
Moved to our next duty station. With two young kids, three dogs, and a bucket of my fish.
Does the second half of 2027 on the release schedule mean June 1, 2027? I will mark my calendar to take vacation!
Passed my exam for certification in my new career field. Switched careers to a Fed employee in Jan 2025 and had to endure all the uncertainty that came with. I completed the three year program in 15 months. Maggie was my reward for passing. I even splurged and got one of the special editions
Congratulations on finishing Maggie The Redactening!!! whoop whoop 🙌🏽 gloriously excited for those 240k plus words. Yes, we know some of them will be cut during editing, but still!! The BDH treasures all the words from House Andrews. We gathers them up as our little preciouses.
Speaking of preciouses…
I had a hard first half of 2026, juggling a big client in a brand new job, with everything riding on the deliverables in April, May and June. At the same time, keeping the home fires burning while my husband builds our complicated new house. Maggie was my prize, my talisman, the light waiting for me at the end of the tunnel – I promised myself that I wouldn’t open TKWNKM until I was on holiday in July.
And here I am, on holiday with the kids at my mum’s place, across the country and sitting in the winter sun. The client is happy, the family time is so good and the wait for Maggie (which included blog restrictions) was sooooooo worth it!!
So here’s me, catching up on the blog before I start the first Maggie 1 reread and blissing out on all things HA.
I managed to get through the last 20 months after the sudden unexpected death of my husband. Love of my life and best friend, gone in an instant and whilst I lost a big part of myself I am slowly but surely learning what it means to continue life as just me. I am on holiday with the kids which is hard as he was a sun and sea loving guy so the memories come thick and fast. But we are here. I am determined that we make new opportunities and I will live with, and one day surpass (I hope) the guilt of doing this without him. I have loved HA since the first book I bought as a recommendation from Amazon back in 2008. Thank you both (and Mod R) for all the feels throughout the years.
I am so sorry for your loss, Jo and I wish you all the strength.
Retiring after 36 years in my field (clinical laboratory science, aka hospital lab) and REALLY looking forward to having time for real life, finally!