Category: News Clippings

The Vampire Knife – Out Now!

Happy ending not guaranteed.

IT’S HERE!

Today, on August 1, 2017, my first ever novel officially enters the world. It’s really, really, ridiculously exciting. You can find The Vampire Knife in bookshops, and in department stores, and on heaps of websites, too. It’s everywhere!

I wrote The Vampire Knife in the winter of 2015: the longest, coldest winter that Melbourne has experienced in my lifetime. I spun the novel out of a horror story I’d made up to scare my cousin Gypsy the year before, about a girl at a sleepover who hears a strange calling in the middle of the night. As I expanded on that initial idea, I filled the book with as many spooky and terrible things as I could think of: wolves and bears, castles and dungeons, knives and storms and prisoners and blood. Each night I sat at my desk and wrote another thousand words, trying not to feel scared as the wind and rain beat against my bedroom window, typing away until the sun rose once more.

When I was done, I sent the story away to Hardie Grant Egmont (a publishing house in Melbourne that specialises in children’s literature) and they agreed to turn my story into a real book. They found a brilliant artist called Ryan Andrews to illustrate the cover (and to draw some incredible internal pictures too), and they decided to publish the rest of The Witching Hours series as well. Now I get to write five more adventures starring Anna and Max, which is simply the best job I ever could have hoped for.

IMG_2292

You can buy The Vampire Knife at bookshops all through Australia; it’s recommend for all brave children aged 8-12. If you have a local bookshop, you should try and buy it there, but otherwise you can order it online from The Little Bookroom, or Booktopia, or Angus & Robertson, or anywhere else you’d care to Google. I really hope you enjoy reading it.

Got any questions? I’d love to hear them! Comment on this post and I’ll do my best to answer you. I’m currently hard at work finishing off book 3 in the series, but I’ll be back posting more blogs as soon as I’m done. The Year of the Witch must go on!

Thanks for reading – happy witching!

Witches 16

 

 

Vampire Knife News Flash!

Read all about it.

Hello, readers! Sorry for the lack of posts this month; I was lost in an enchanted forest on the island of Yakushima. I’m back now though, and I promise we’ll get back to our usual witchy programming really soon – but first, I’ve got some updates to share about my upcoming book!

Firstly – My debut children’s novel, The Vampire Knife, is now coming out on August 1, 2017. That’s only 77 days away, and is a month earlier than was first expected. If you enjoy reading about vampires, wolves, and very bad weather, August 1 is the date to mark on your calendar!

Secondly – To help chronicle my adventures as an author, I’ve started an Instagram account! It’s still early days, but the account will ultimately be a creative companion piece to the blog – although I’ve recently been a tad preoccupied with the creepy things people have been leaving outside my house. You can follow that story here: @jack.henseleit

Thirdly – Now that my book launch is less than three months away, the good witches of Hardie Grant Egmont have kicked off the marketing campaign! You can now read about my book on their website, or even look them up on Facebook or Instagram to see the special VIP packages that were sent out last week. If you really dig around, you can even find some exclusive marketing documents that feature early sketches of my heroes, Anna and Max!

(There’s no final cover design yet, but I’m told that it won’t be far away…)

So: that’s everything that happened while I was lost in the woods. The Vampire Knife is coming out sooner than expected, and I’m really excited about it. I’m also back at my writing desk this week, so if you’ve been enjoying the blog so far, be assured that the Year of the Witch is ready to continue!

Thanks for reading – and happy witching!

Witches 12

Welcome, reader

…to the blog grand opening.

G’day!

My name is Jack. Later this year, I’m going to be the author of a book – a real, proper book, with pictures and page numbers and everything. I even put a vampire in it.

But the book isn’t out yet. One day soon, when I’m a real, professional author, I’ll put up all sorts of posts about writing, or plotting, or how to have a knife-fight with a bear. But not yet. For now, I’m just going to be blogging about things that interest me.

One of those things will be witches.

It’s a brand new year, and in 2017 this blog will celebrate the Year of the Witch. Each week (or thereabouts) I’ll be writing about a different sorceress, a record that will include figures drawn from history, literature, or my own personal adventures. Hopefully these posts will be entertaining. For me, they might even be cathartic.

Don’t tell anyone this, but I’ve been afraid of witches my entire life.

So, thanks for finding me, and thanks for reading. I hope you’ll still be here later on, when I’ve got an actual book to promote. You’ll have to be brave, though. Things are about to get spooky around here.

Happy New Year!

witches-1