I’m afraid I will be one more person who fails you I know I think you’re afraid of that too. Please don’t run I can’t ask you to choose methisus to stay, but I want to be with you more than I fear losing you. If you want me to chase you, I will chase you. If you want me to find you, I will find you. If you’ll have me, I’ll choose you every time.
-Little Thieves by Margaret Owen
Everything you need to know about this particular ship is summed up in “I know I think” <3
Periodically I see folks wish there was a map in Little Thieves, and while I sadly don’t have control over that, what I can do is make one for you! This was supposed to be a fairly quick exercise…. and then I found these fantasy map brushes and immediately lost control of my life.
Hey folks! It’s been really fun seeing these character intros from Little Thieves circulate, and I thought I’d put them all in one handy post for you! For folks who’ve read the book already, I’ve added Adalbrecht and Irmgard at the end there, since I did some quick-n-dirty renderings of them for a character alignment quiz. At some point I’d like to add Death and Fortune, but here’s the main cast for now!
Since the Illumicrate photo challenge is starting soon over on insta, I can share the exclusive print I did for their edition of Little Thieves! This was printed on the board of the book itself, appropriately lurking under the cover. As a bonus, you can also check out the three concept sketches I proposed, including one that you may recognize from elsewhere….
Hey folks! I know some people missed out on the preorder prints for Little Thieves, and we wanted to do something fun for the holidays, so! If you purchase Little Thieves between 11-26 and 12-13, you can submit your receipt HERE, and my publisher will send you all seven prints! This is limited to 150 sets, so please be sure to fill out the form on the earlier side to be safe! It’s also limited to US & CAN only because international shipping would cost more than my entire bank account, lolsob.
If you can’t afford the book right now, no worries—requesting through your local library is also great! Books that are in high demand may get additional copies purchased for the collection. Adding on Goodreads and boosting on social media is also much appreciated, since word-of-mouth is way more effective than me just saying “buy my book, there’s a horrible girl!”
(But also: please buy my book. There is a very horrible girl.)
Not to spam folks, but boosting this again for anyone who missed it and/or needed a reminder! If you didn’t know, for the overwhelming majority of authors, the first week of sales is their best shot at hitting the NYT bestseller list. Since Little Thieves came out this Tuesday the 19th, ordering or buying in-store by Tuesday the 26th will count!
I have not hit the list before, but I sure would like to—hitting the list actually increases sales even further, for one. But beyond just feeding me and my cats, publishers tend to decide whether to keep publishing authors based on their sales. (Which, considering how little control authors have over the marketing for their book…. is….. challenging.)
I’d say Little Thieves has a decent shot at hitting the list next week, but it’s up against a lot of really great books, at a time when supply chain issues are flipping tables all over the place. So: I will take all the help I can get! ✨
Oh, and PS: if we do hit the list, I will share a dramatic reading of either a minute of my bad teen fanfiction, or one of the many short stories I wrote in grade school. This is the best offer I can make.
Final boost! I won’t be bugging y’all after this, haha, but if you’ve been meaning to pick up a hardcover copy, there are about 24 hours left until the cutoff for it to count towards bestseller lists. In-store purchases count! Placing an order online counts! And just sharing this around ye olde tumblr graveyard helps too!!
If you can’t afford the book right now, no worries—requesting through your local library is also great! Books that are in high demand may get additional copies purchased for the collection. Adding on Goodreads and boosting on social media is also much appreciated, since word-of-mouth is way more effective than me just saying “buy my book, there’s a horrible girl!”
(But also: please buy my book. There is a very horrible girl.)
Not to spam folks, but boosting this again for anyone who missed it and/or needed a reminder! If you didn’t know, for the overwhelming majority of authors, the first week of sales is their best shot at hitting the NYT bestseller list. Since Little Thieves came out this Tuesday the 19th, ordering or buying in-store by Tuesday the 26th will count!
I have not hit the list before, but I sure would like to—hitting the list actually increases sales even further, for one. But beyond just feeding me and my cats, publishers tend to decide whether to keep publishing authors based on their sales. (Which, considering how little control authors have over the marketing for their book…. is….. challenging.)
I’d say Little Thieves has a decent shot at hitting the list next week, but it’s up against a lot of really great books, at a time when supply chain issues are flipping tables all over the place. So: I will take all the help I can get! ✨
Oh, and PS: if we do hit the list, I will share a dramatic reading of either a minute of my bad teen fanfiction, or one of the many short stories I wrote in grade school. This is the best offer I can make.
If you can’t afford the book right now, no worries—requesting through your local library is also great! Books that are in high demand may get additional copies purchased for the collection. Adding on Goodreads and boosting on social media is also much appreciated, since word-of-mouth is way more effective than me just saying “buy my book, there’s a horrible girl!”
(But also: please buy my book. There is a very horrible girl.)
This is pretty much the last of the (planned) art that I have for Little Thieves for the time being! The good news is that these are going to be two prints that will be included in every preorder of Little Thieves from my local indie, Third Place Books! And yes, the prints should line up, so when you put them next to one another it will look like this:
This is the same store that’s including the Rubies and Pearls comic with the first 200 preorders, so if you’d like to get your hands on that, I’d get your preorder in posthaste! The book comes out October 19th so you have just under a month left.
This is pretty much the last of the (planned) art that I have for Little Thieves for the time being! The good news is that these are going to be two prints that will be included in every preorder of Little Thieves from my local indie, Third Place Books! And yes, the prints should line up, so when you put them next to one another it will look like this:
This is the same store that’s including the Rubies and Pearls comic with the first 200 preorders, so if you’d like to get your hands on that, I’d get your preorder in posthaste! The book comes out October 19th so you have just under a month left.
Hey everyone! You may have already seen this on twitter, but if you haven’t: A few months ago, I adapted an early scene inLittle Thieves as a comic! Some lucky folks received physical copies of it, but now that we’re officially a month away from release day, we’re sharing the whole thing online, starting with the cover and first 4 pages! Part 2 will be posted tomorrow, and the final part on Tuesday. Enjoy!! ✨
Here’s today’s update! Vanja has her priorities in order. Final pages tomorrow!
And here are the final pages! You can find pretty much everything I have under my Little Thieves Tag, and if you’ve enjoyed this preview, you can:
For US and Canada residents, you can get some pretty nifty stuff through my publisher’s preorder campaign! And if you preorder through my local independent bookstore, Third Place Books, you’ll receive two exclusive prints,andthe first 200 preorders will also receive a physical copy of this comic! (The first printing of the comic had the wrong book release date, so: promo!) As of yesterday morning, TPB was just shy of 100 preorders already, so be sure to get yours in if you really, really want the comic in addition to the prints.
Thanks everyone! Hard to believe we’re almost across that finish line!!
Hey everyone! You may have already seen this on twitter, but if you haven’t: A few months ago, I adapted an early scene inLittle Thieves as a comic! Some lucky folks received physical copies of it, but now that we’re officially a month away from release day, we’re sharing the whole thing online, starting with the cover and first 4 pages! Part 2 will be posted tomorrow, and the final part on Tuesday. Enjoy!! ✨
Here’s today’s update! Vanja has her priorities in order. Final pages tomorrow!
Hey everyone! You may have already seen this on twitter, but if you haven’t: A few months ago, I adapted an early scene inLittle Thieves as a comic! Some lucky folks received physical copies of it, but now that we’re officially a month away from release day, we’re sharing the whole thing online, starting with the cover and first 4 pages! Part 2 will be posted tomorrow, and the final part on Tuesday. Enjoy!! ✨
The submission period ends 11:59 PM ET, Monday, October 18, 2021
Eligibility is limited to the US and Canada (sorry int’l folks, this is run by my US publisher!)
To my knowledge, ordering through a subscription box service doesn’t count!
Preordering through my local indie bookstore, Third Place Books, is HIGHLY recommended, not just because you can get your copy signed (just note you’d like it signed in the order comments), but because I may have a little extra somethin somethin for those preorders!
Once upon a time, there was a girl cold as winter, greedy as a king, lonely as an orphan.
And here is the seventh and final illustration I did for Little Thieves! (Seven is lucky, don’t you know?)
The b&w illustrations will be included in the final edition of the book, and hopefully we will be able to reveal what the color versions are for soon! In the meantime, you can always check out the process videos over on ye olde youtube.
i loved little thieves so much that i was compelled to actually make fanart again? it was an absolutely fabulous book in both its own right and as a retelling, and it had so many of my most wanted elements in fiction. definitely give it a read, but mind the content warnings.
i loved little thieves so much that i was compelled to actually make fanart again? it was an absolutely fabulous book in both its own right and as a retelling, and it had so many of my most wanted elements in fiction. definitely give it a read, but mind the content warnings.
get in, losers, we’re making one of my favorite books of 2021 go viral.
LITTLE THIEVES by Margaret Owen is a retelling of the Grimm fairy tale of The Goose Girl, in which an innocent princess is forced to swap identities with her evil maid. LITTLE THIEVES looks at this premise and says “hmm, needs more guillotines.”
What is this book? A magical heist novel? A takedown of the entire concept of princesses in fantasy novels? A (demi)romantic comedy between a notorious jewel thief and a “collection of billiard cues that unionized to solve crimes”? YES, dear readers, it is all of that and more!
When Vanja went on the run from her godmothers, Death and Fortune, and stole her BFF’s identity, she didn’t stop there. She’s been robbing the undeserving rich right under their noses in the guise of the beautiful and equally-underservingly-rich Princess Giselle. When she swipes the wrong bauble and crosses a vengeful forest god, she is cursed for her greed by slowly turning into rubies, and if she does not amend her ways —
— hang on, sorry, Vanja is trying to pry off some of the rubies to sell —
— if she does not amend her ways, the curse is a death sentence (a very, very valuable death sentence). Vanja has only a month to “return what she has stolen” before she becomes a living rock. Worse, anirritatingly competent detective is on her case, and he might be the only one who has come close to catching her…which Vanja might be kind of into?
Joined by a sapphic shapeshifter and a cast of the characters she’s wronged (and some she needs to wrong some more), Vanja seeks to save herself in more ways than one, hassled at every turn by her frustratingly clever detective/rival and — more ominously — a dark figure from her past who threatens not only her life, but the entire empire.
LITTLE THIEVES has top-shelf fantasy world-building without asking you to keep notes. It is inspired by the Germany the Grimm brothers would have known, rooted in a city where pawnbrokers and hedge witches rub elbows with the gods. If you loved SIX OF CROWS/Shadow and Bone and want something with even more depth, this is the one.
Buy links and more info can all be found on this post on the authors Tumblr (@terriblenerd). Treat yourself!!
EDIT: HOW DID I FORGET TO MENTION THAT THE AUTHOR ILLUSTRATED A FULL SET OF WOODBLOCK-STYLE PRINTS THAT DIVIDE THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE BOOK??? The ones in the print book are in black and white BUT JUST LOOK AT THESE!!!
