There is just seriously so much amazing news to share with everyone today!
First of all, the sequel to Sanctuary has a title and a cover! The book is called Containment, it will be released next August, and you can see the cover right here:
I couldn’t be more excited about this cover, and about this book! You can check it out on Goodreads, preorder it through Riveted, and watch this space for more information. Here’s the summary to get you started:
They may have escaped Sanctuary, but Kenzie and her friends are far from safe.
Ex-Omnistellar prison guard Kenzie and her superpowered friends barely made it off Sanctuary alive. Now they’re stuck in a stolen alien ship with nowhere to go and no one to help them. Kenzie is desperate for a plan, but she doesn’t know who to trust anymore. Everyone has their own dark secrets: Omnistellar, her parents, even Cage. Worse still, she’s haunted by memories of the aliens who nearly tore her to shreds—and forced her to accidentally kill one of the Sanctuary prisoners, Matt.
When Kenzie intercepts a radio communication suggesting that more aliens are on their way, she knows there’s only one choice: They must turn themselves in to Omnistellar and destroy the ship before the aliens follow the signal straight to them. Because if the monstrous creatures who attacked Sanctuary reach Earth, then it’s game over for humanity.
What Kenzie doesn’t know is that the aliens aren’t the only ones on the hunt. Omnistellar has put a bounty on Kenzie’s head—and the question is whether the aliens or Omnistellar get to her first.
In other writing news, Sanctuary was featured in Goodreads’ list of hot new YA series! So that, too, is pretty awesome. Lots of great writing news, and I’m still hard at work on my next project. Before I move on, can I remind you that reviews mean SO SO MUCH to authors? If you’ve read Sanctuary and could take the time to leave a quick review, you will forever have a special place in my heart!
On to the Tokyo
I have definitely been busy writing, but it hasn’t prevented me from doing and seeing lots of amazing things in Tokyo! If you’re here for that, wait no longer, because here’s what I’ve been up to.
1. Discovering new things around every corner
By far one of my favorite things about Tokyo is how there’s something new around every corner. Now I’ll be honest: the Godzilla hovering over Shinjuku is not exactly a secret. I mean, it’s located on Godzilla Street. But I hadn’t managed to find it before the other week, when I found myself wandering around Shinjuku with some time to kill and stumbled over the thing. Other things I’ve discovered wandering around: the Tokyo Godzilla store, which bleeds into a stuffed animal shop and an umbrella store with no discernible change; an international dance festival; a store that sells nothing but Halloween costumes for dogs; and a vintage toy shop that seems to carry mainly nostalgia items from the 80s. Tokyo is amazing for this. Every time you turn around, you find something new.
2. Continuing my obsession with Attack on Titan
The other day one of our friends asked my husband if by living in Japan I had gotten “sick of” Attack on Titan, or at least seen enough of it to sate my obsession. After he finished laughing for fifteen minutes solid, he replied, ” We are now the proud owners of three hoodies, four T-shirts, a water bottle, a phone key ring, a few bags, leg wax, buttons, pins, and a wallet, all with the same theme. You tell me.”
So Sweets Paradise (which, you guys, is an ALL YOU CAN EAT DESSERT BUFFET, and I DID NOT KNOW THAT before I went there) is currently Attack on Titan themed. To the right, you can see Levi and Erwin, who have for some reason taken up a second career serving tea. We went there and ate all the cakes and took lots of SNK pictures. It was amazing.
In spite of what my husband says.
3. Hitting up Tourist Spots
We have some amazing friends visiting from Canada right now (if you want to read about their adventures here in more detail, check out their blogs at https://airplanejayneblog.wordpress.com and https://sirmarkussite.wordpress.com ). One of the cool things about having them visit is that we’ve had an excuse to visit all the best Tokyo tourist spots.
One of our coolest trips was to Yokohama. We went on the huge ferris wheel at Cosmo World and took in the lights of the city at night, and we visited the Cup Noodle Museum. That might not sound very exciting, but it’s actually kind of amazing. The museum designers wisely chose to feature a looser theme of “inventions and creativity” alongside the history of instant ramen noodles, and that makes for a way more interesting experience than just a bunch of displays. We also paid the 300 yen to design our own Cup Noodles. Guess what theme mine was. Come on. Guess.
You can probably guess which one is mine. The one on the right is a Gundam model drawn by my husband Dan, who you should probably follow on Twitter, where he writes comic reviews. Or links to them. Whatever. Anyway, we thoroughly enjoyed our day in Yokohama.
My friend and I also visited Harajuku, where we consumed crepes and saw cotton candy that was literally the size of a basketball. We ventured to Sakura Onsen as well. It’s this amazing hot spring spa. I sprang for a massage treatment and was so glad I did. You know how after you get a massage you feel all limp and relaxed but you have to put on your clothes and drag yourself home? Well imagine that you aren’t WEARING any clothes, and don’t have to put any on — nope, not even your swimsuit — and just sort of drag yourself ten feet to the nearest hot spring and drop on in.
Yeah. That kind of good.
More to come from Tokyo, I promise. In the meantime, if you enjoyed this post, please click to share. Sanctuary is, of course, still available to order and just waiting for your love. And sign up for my newsletter if you want all the latest news before any of your friends. They’ll be jealous, I promise!