You Might Be BLINDSIDED By This News

I have a confession to make. While I've always been totally cool with TRANSPARENT being a standalone novel, the truth is there's been more to the story in my mind since I wrote it. And you know what? I was okay not writing the rest of it, especially when my publisher didn't express interest in a sequel. Because I've heard how hard it is to write a sequel, and I promised myself I wouldn't ever write one unless I knew I'd get paid for it.

And that's how it was. How I figured it'd always be. The end.

So in January 2013 when I got an email from my UK publisher, Hot Key Books, asking if I'd be interested in writing a sequel to TRANSPARENT...well, let's just say "mind blown" is an accurate descriptor. The crew at Hot Key Books have been some of Fiona's biggest supporters since TRANSPARENT sold in the UK. They said they loved Fiona and her world so much they really wanted to see more if I had it.

I honestly couldn't believe it at first. I've spent so much of my writing career feeling like I was begging people to buy my work—and here a publisher who had already been so kind to me was now asking me to write more for them.

Of course I said YES.

And then I wrote up a detailed synopsis of what I envisioned for the sequel. Hot Key said they loved it and wanted to buy it like now and can I get them a first draft by August? To which I happily and somewhat naively agreed.

Now I finally get to tell you:

Natalie Whipple's BLINDSIDED, the sequel to her debut novel TRANSPARENT, to Sara O'Connor at Hot Key Books by Ginger Clark at Curtis Brown (World English). 

If you've been following me on Twitter, you have probably seen my stressed tweets about a mysterious WIP that I've been laboring over for the last six or so months. Well, that novel is BLINDSIDED! It has lived up to the hard-to-write sequel stereotype, but I am currently editing the first draft I finished up a few weeks ago.

So if you have wished there was a sequel to TRANSPARENT, yay you now have one to read! And if you were happy that it was a standalone, well, you can go along pretending it is. I'm totally fine with that. Though you might miss out on meeting the infamous Spud, just sayin'.

And what's even better? BLINDSIDED will be coming out in January 2014! Yes, just six months away! No waiting a year plus for a sequel here. It will be available in English worldwide, all at the same time, so no one is left behind.

I'm so excited, and I'd like to take a second to thank Hot Key for their faith in Fiona and her stories. It has been such a pleasure to work with them both on TRANSPARENT and now on BLINDSIDED. I couldn't ask for a more enthusiastic team. They make me wish I could move to England and go to all the parties they keep inviting me to.