May 26, 2025

PAINTED FLOCK Cover Reveal!

It’s that wonderful time of the year: a new cover reveal! We’re exactly one month away from Painted Flock’s release, and it’s time to give it its proper, gorgeous cover. Plus, all the important info about the book and distribution!

As with Baker Thief, the cover for Painted Flock is from Laya Rose, who is always an absolute charm to work with. There are so many details on this cover that are drawn from the book, it’s so cool to see them all in there.

Let’s look at the full wraparound, yeah?

Look at it!! Alain and Clémence together, the swooping birds, the larch tree with a scar, Emmanuelle waving back… I just love everything about this.

Painted Flock releases on June 26, 2025, exactly 7 years after Baker Thief! And it’s available for preorders, but let’s get some details in.

So what do you all need to know about this book?

First, a blurb is in order, yeah? One you don’t have to squint at my cover for, anyway!

Clémence Voyer’s one and only priority is Alain, ols five-year-old brother. Ol had been ready to kill countless witches to keep him safe. With Montrant Industries’ crimes exposed, Clémence is freed from their clutches and under witness protection, granting ol a rare opportunity to give the boy a sense of normalcy and indulge his bird obsession.

The city of Val-de-mer is left with one obvious problem, however: over a thousand witches trapped in exocores need to be transferred safely into new bodies, and ols involvement in the creation of exocores is not so easily forgotten—not by the lovely Emmanuelle Duclos, the scientist in charge of devising the exocore transfer, not by the witch community ol betrayed, and not by Montrant Industries, who needs ol dead to protect itself.

Mired in the middle of the exocore restoration project, Clémence is forced to face the people ol harmed. Ol will need to learn to trust again determine what it means to be accountable if ol wants to move forward and finally give Alain the idyllic life he deserves.

Painted Flock is a book about healing, and also deeply about the ways amatonormativity distorts our relationships. It centres three characters:

• Clémence Voyer, an agender quoiromantic scientist from the lower class who struggled all ols life

• Emmanuelle Duclos (Adèle’s sister from Baker Thief), Val-de-mer’s star scientist, demiro and demisexual

• Livia Loureiro (Claude’s twin from Baker Thief), grayro witch trying to help identify all the exocores, and perhaps heal her own wounds

You do not need to have read Baker Thief to read this one, but it will spoil the first book fairly extensively.

Painted Flock will be available in ebook, paperback, and hardcover. Preorders for ebooks are already up most everywhere (except Amazon, as per my last newsletter)! Print copies will follow as my schedule, Ingram’s idiosyncracies, and Canada Post’s strike permit.

If you preorder it on itchio, you also get a $2 discount (and I get about as much money, too).

I’ve had a lot of ups and downs with this book, but I’m very proud of it and I can’t wait for everyone to enjoy it.

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