Last year, while at Imaginales in France, I met an amazing artist, Laurence Peguy. Since then I’ve wanted to commission some art from her, and when I ran out of bookplates recently I knew it was the perfect opportunity.

For my new bookplate, I wanted an illustration that conveyed the sort of stories and characters I write but not any specific ones, so that the plates could be used in all books. I suggested a magician-y figure, and Laurence agreed.

What she drew is all kinds of wonderful:

I’ll be taking bookplates along to the signing at Dymocks Knox on Saturday, as well as my new quote bookmarks. All I have to do is choose which bit of The Traitor Queen to read, and I’m all set.

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Bookplates, for those who have never heard of them, are stickers that I sign and give to people to stick in their books who: a) stumble upon a signing but don’t have a book, b) couldn’t bring all of their books to a signing, c) have an ebook but still want me to sign something. I also sometimes send them to bookshops or my publishers. (I don’t, however, give them away to people who request them via the internet, or I’d be running a full time bookplate postal service and I’d have to start charging.)