Category: Middle grade

Beyond the Secret Lake — out now!

Happy New Year! Updated Saturday 13th January 2024 at the end of a cold day in London.

Last weekend, when I first posted this update, we had just had a bracing walk with friends along the River Thames crossing over and back different bridges, and stopping for a pub lunch along the way. I love being able to walk up to the river from our house – it’s all of 10 minutes! (We are at the stretch where the Oxford-Cambridge boat race passes 😊.)

This weekend I’ve had my head down checking final files for the book launch – and all the hard work has paid off!

Beyond the Secret Lake is here!

I am excited to announce that, as of a few hours ago, Book 3 in The Secret Lake series is now out on Amazon and will be available to order in print from other stores in the next week.

I couldn’t be happier with the cover, which I signed off last week. I hope you like it as much as I do! ❤️

The beautiful cover illustration is by Stuart Bache of bookscovered.co.uk

From the back page…

Below you’ll find the back page blurb. The story is suitable for stronger readers aged 8-12+, with many teenagers and older adults from my early reader team thoroughly enjoying it too! Coming in at 62,000 words, it’s a little longer than book 2, with its many twists, turns and surprises guaranteed to keep readers turning the pages!

Image of 3 Secret Lake books suspended above a pond with pink azaleas in the background
Still Pond in London’s Richmond Park inspired the lake in the story.

Embark on an unforgettable journey Beyond the Secret Lake in this new page-turning time travel adventure for ages 8-12+

When Tom and Stella find a 100-year-old letter from their Edwardian friend Jack, his plea for help leads them and their friend Hannah back down the time tunnel to 1913.

There the adventurers reunite with friends Lucy, Emma and Sophie at the grand Penworth Estate – unaware of the danger that awaits. Young heir Sebastian has fallen mysteriously ill, and tensions are running high in the household.

With secrets lurking in every shadowy corner, it’s up to the friends to unravel a dangerous mystery that threatens Sebastian’s life.

Can the time-travelling detectives expose the truth behind Sebastian’s illness before it’s too late? Will the villain at Penworth succeed with their deadly plans?

Beyond the Secret Lake is packed with twists, turns, secrets and danger! Perfect for fans of middle-grade mystery, and anyone who loves history, old houses and daring adventures.

To read early feedback from my small advance team visit Beyond the Secret Lake’s main page here. Many have said this is their favourite of the series so far, which really warms my heart!

German edition coming soon! 🇩🇪

Whilst I have sold foreign rights for The Secret Lake to over 12 countries (meaning a traditional publisher in that overseas territory organises the translation and publication of it), I have always directly managed the translation for Germany. The translation of Beyond the Secret Lake into German is now complete and is currently being checked by the German editor, after which it will go to the German proofreader. It’s a long process, but very necessary to ensure the best quality translation. I’m hoping that book 3 will be out sometime in March in Germany 😊.

El Lago Secreto – colour Spanish edition of The Secret Lake 🇪🇸

I am also thrilled to announce that the colour edition of The Secret Lake will be published in Spain on 17th January. Below is a sneak peek of the front cover. In my next blog post I’ll share a few more images from the inside – they are truly magical, and I was thrilled that the publisher Editorial Planeta consulted me along the way, even allowing me to choose the illustrator out of three they had narrowed it down to. Look out for more images in my next blog post!

The Secret Lake colour edition in Spanish – I will share interior images in my next blog post!

That’s it for now. Happy New Year again, and happy reading! 😊 📚

PS: Click or tap here to read early reader reviews of Beyond the Secret Lake

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The Secret Lake 2 – Cover Reveal (and more!)

Update 8th March 2022 😊

Return to the Secret Lake launched on 8th March! You can order it in print or for eBook from Amazon here. The print book is also available to order from other online stores and high street bookshops, with a slightly longer lead time in the first few weeks.

Click or tap here to read more about the book and hear early reviews over on its main page.

Return to the Secret Lake — suitable for ages 8-12 or to read aloud to age 7+

(The rest of the text below is from the pre-launch blog post back in February.)

Hello from a blustery London!

This is a quick update to say that I signed off the final cover for the sequel to The Secret Lake on Friday, and the book is having final checks. (There are no real surprises in its title! — Return to the Secret Lake.) I shall be sharing the full cover and blurb seen below more widely in the coming week, but wanted my newsletter and blog subscribers to see it first. Please do comment below or email me to let me know what you think? — and feel free to share with friends, family or pupils. You’ll also find a couple of ‘sneak peeks’ inside the book further down. 😊

I hope you’ll agree that my cover designer, Stuart Bache, has done a brilliant job — in the many years I have been mulling over a sequel, I always knew that the story would involve a young child from the past coming to find Stella and Tom at night. This image is exactly as I had hoped it would be, and more…

Return to the Secret Lake comes in at just over twice the length of The Secret Lake, and in terms of plot complexity is suitable for girls and boys aged 8-12, or to read aloud to those aged 7 and up. I think/hope children will find the setting between modern-day and 1900s London intriguing; we spend more time in both eras in this follow-on book. Click or tap the image below to enlarge and read the blurb.

Early feedback so far on the story from a small team of advance readers has been fantastic, so if your child or class has read and enjoyed The Secret Lake this is definitely for them! (If they haven’t, you can download the first three chapters of The Secret Lake here for free to see if they might enjoy it; the sample is available both for eReaders and in PDF format.)

A sneak peek inside…

A quick flick through the final proof copy – you may see see a few mark-ups!

Launch date

The book is now having its final print copy proofread and I aim to make it available for pre-order in the next week or so, with a likely release date not very long after that in early March once the final files are uploaded to all printing platforms. Look out for another post in the next couple of weeks with links to pre-order pages. In the meantime, below is a quick look at the opening page of Chapter 1. 😊

With thanks to Anne Swift for the magical mole!

Lesson plans

Teachers/home schoolers — As previously mentioned, I shall be creating some interesting lesson plans to go with the book. More on this in a later blog post, or sign up to my email list.

That’s it for now. Do let me know what you/your children/pupils think of the cover if you get a moment? And I’ll post again once the book is available to order.

Sign up to my occasional newsletter to be notified…

If you’re not on my mailing list but would like to be notified when Return to the Secret Lake is available to order, please sign up to my occasional newsletter here. I don’t email often, and you can unsubsribe at any time.

Karen 😊

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