JaclynMoriarty – Author

Author • Chocolate lover

jaclyn@jaclynmoriarty.com

THE IMPOSSIBLE SECRET OF LILLIAN VELVET

The Astonishing Chronicles of Oscar from Elsewhere

Stolen Prince of Cloudburst

The Slightly Alarming Tale of the Whispering Wars

Welcome

Jaclyn Moriarty is the best-selling author of novels for young adults and adults including Feeling Sorry for Celia, The Year of Secret Assignments, and the Colours of Madeleine trilogy. Jaclyn grew up in Sydney, lived in England, the US, and Canada, and now lives in Sydney again. She has been the recipient of the NSW Premier’s Literary Award, the Queensland Literary Award, and the Aurealis Award for Fantasy. Her books have been named Boston Globe Honor Books, White Raven selections and Best Books for Young Adults by the American Library Assocation. She is very fond of chocolate, blueberries, ice-skating and sleep.

Find out more about Jaclyn

@jaclynmoriarty on Instagram

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Very special trip to Tasmania to celebrate Mum’s

Very special trip to Tasmania to celebrate Mum’s 80th birthday with Mum and my four sisters.

And here is the magnificent US edition of Lillian

And here is the magnificent US edition of Lillian Velvet!! (under my original title, ‘The Secret of Lillian Velvet’ - we added ‘impossible’ to the Australian one). Out in October. Sublime cover art and design by @jimctierney and interior design by Paul Kepler - pictured here on its first trip to @cocochocolateau for hot chocolate, with its siblings (other US editions of Kingdoms and Empires books) and with cousin (Australian edition of Lillian Velvet). So different and equally magical. Thank you to @arthuralevine and all at @levinequerido ❤️

My first ever ‘unboxing’ video in two parts. W

My first ever ‘unboxing’ video in two parts. With very special thanks to editor Nicola Santilli, publisher Anna McFarlane, and designer @hannahjanzen_ , and with emotional, effusive thanks to @kelly_canby for beautiful cover illustration and illustrations throughout.
Thank you also to @charlie_moriartyy for filming this and for being a very good sport about my lack of professionalism here.

‘The Impossible Secret of Lillian Velvet’ is out in Australia, the US and Canada in just a couple of months, and in the UK next year. It’s the 5th Kingdoms and Empires book but it can be read on its own. It’s about Lillian, a girl who lives on the south coast of NSW. After she receives a pickle jar filled with gold coins for her 10th birthday she begins to find herself being transported to different places and different times for short, unexpected adventures. I feel happy and excited about it. Thank you to all the lovely booksellers, librarians and readers!

Tuesday was a very fun night with two brilliant an

Tuesday was a very fun night with two brilliant and lovely people- author, @herbnerdreece and publisher, Anna McFarlane- along with several delightful booksellers and @allenandunwin folk - talking about Reece’s (wonderful) new book, ‘The Lonely Lighthouse of Elston Fright’ and my new book, ‘The Impossible Secret of Lillian Velvet’. Both will be out in a few months (with proper covers - the ones pictured here are just the advance reading copies). Anna asked great questions and the audience were lovely, and then they also asked great questions, and it was a real pleasure to chat with booksellers afterwards.
(A note on the creation of this post: (1) when I got home Tuesday I thought, ‘Post something now!’ I saw that Reece and some of the booksellers had posted ‘stories’ about it and that seemed like a good idea. I could even ‘share’ their stories? ‘No rush,’ I decided, and watched the next episode of Mare of Easttown instead. (I only just started it - I’d thought it was a political show about a mayor and hadn’t been that interested) (2) this afternoon I suddenly remembered that I hadn’t posted anything yet. I decided to ‘share’ those ‘stories’ I’d seen. They had vanished! Of course. They only last a day or so. I opened the messages where I’d seen them and they dissolved before my eyes. (3) Oh well, i thought, I’ll choose a photo of Reece and me to post. The photos were ‘live’ so I googled how to choose a different still from a Live Photo, in case I looked better that way. That was very funny - in every still, Reece maintains a pleasant, regular smile while in every one my face is jumping from weird expression to weirder expression. It really made me laugh, while also being a bit sobering. (4) Next, I decided to photograph our two books side by side. But where had I put the books? I remembered thinking, ‘Put them here. You’ll remember this spot.’ But no. I did not remember. Etc, etc
Anyway, this all started about two hours ago and now I’m finishing the post in a parked car on a dark street. This may help to explain why I hardly ever post on social media. I apologise - thanks so much again to Anna and Reece and the lovely booksellers, and best wishes to all.)

#jimbaran #bali #the last two photos here that loo

#jimbaran #bali #the last two photos here that look very pink? they are a trick #the sunset looked way better thru my sunglasses #so I took those two photos thru my sunglasses lens #i don’t know why it worked, as they are prescription sunglasses #and I’m so blind! #usually people put on my glasses and exclaim in horror and throw them back at me #and get a headache #and look at me a little differently from then on #anyway, those last two pink pictures show how the sunset actually looked to me #thru my glasses #which is a kind of truth, right? #i mean, what is truth? #what is reality?

Sunday at Curl Curl Beach

Sunday at Curl Curl Beach

This video is a little fable about how sometimes y

This video is a little fable about how sometimes you might have to wait a while before you see the other side of the rainbow.
(Or maybe it’s about how some rainbows really don’t put the effort in, and about how exasperated their parents become: ‘I mean, look at this, this is the best you can do? THIS is how we raised you? Enough with the video games!’ etc)
One or the other.
#balmoralbeach

This reel is really because today’s walk to Long

This reel is really because today’s walk to Long Reef was unplanned and the water had such a glow! The white water, I mean, had an otherworldly glow in the sunlight. I doubt I caught that in the photos but hopefully somebody did, somewhere. Just use your imagination. Also, during the walk i thought up a whole new Kingdoms and Empires book featuring the third sister, Astrid. As the other sisters, Imogen and Esther, have had books of their own, readers are always telling me that Astrid deserves a book, and yes, that’s only fair. But I haven’t had any ideas - until today when the glowing water provided me with a whole book. I’m definitely building up the glow too much. Apologies.
Another thing, all the poetry accounts I follow keep going on about spring. With great respect to the northern hemisphere, it’s not spring. It’s autumn. You can feel it in the shade and in the wind. And I think you can see it in these pictures. I THINK.

Hello dear UK readers: the beautiful UK edition of

Hello dear UK readers: the beautiful UK edition of ‘The Astonishing Chronicles of Oscar from Elsewhere’, with magnificent cover by @karljamesmountford is now in bookshops! To welcome it into the world I have taken it on some outings in my neighbourhood- over the Harbour Bridge, to the beach, to the chocolate shop, etc. I’ve also introduced it to its siblings, the other UK editions of the Kingdom and Empires series, and its cousins, the also beautiful US and Australian editions of ‘The Astonishing Chronicles of Oscar from Elsewhere’. (See pictures.) (I might have that description in the wrong order, sorry - I chose the photos and then dinner was suddenly ready so I was interrupted. Now I’m back. The dinner was good, thanks! I was trying a new recipe and it could’ve gone either way.) Thank you to everyone who has already bought this book, and to everyone at @guppypublishing, and to Karl James Mountford for the wonderful cover and illustrations. And thank you to the Lancashire Evening Post for calling this book ‘another mesmerising blend of fun and fast-paced adventure’ in which readers gain a ‘fresh perspective on her richly imagined fantasy land through the eyes of new character Oscar Banetti’. (Oscar is a skateboarding 12-year-old from our world.)

Instagram post 17955168380267274

Instagram post 17955168380267274

Beach writing this summer #collaroy #freshwater #c

Beach writing this summer #collaroy #freshwater #curlcurl #balmoral

Gabrielle Williams was a brilliant, hilarious auth

Gabrielle Williams was a brilliant, hilarious author and a lovely, exuberant person. I only met her a few times but she was immediately warm and delightful, and I once had an hour-long phone conversation with her, which was mainly just laughing at her wickedly funny and fantastic stories. A few days ago, I picked up this book and thought, ‘How did I miss reading this? I love her books!’ So I’ve been reading it the last few days, hearing her voice in my head and looking forward to messaging her about how much I love it and how perfectly insightful and funny and warm it is. Yesterday I finished a chapter, picked up my phone to look at Instagram, and saw that she has just died. What a terrible loss - I am so sad for her friends and family and send my deepest sympathy.

A dream and a delight to spend the afternoon drink

A dream and a delight to spend the afternoon drinking @cocochocolateau hot chocolate with the brilliant @kelly_canby (and her very lovely son), whose covers and illustrations for the Australian editions of the Kingdoms and Empires books are STUNNING. (See other pictures.) Kelly lives in Perth, WA (in the very suburb where I was born! So it’s all meant to be…)- and I hadn’t seen her for years. (You should see the cover designs she’s started doing for the new book, The Impossible Secret of Lillian Velvet. Absolutely breathtaking.) Impossibly talented and also a really, really lovely, funny person. I wish we could meet much more often!

A spontaneous weekend writing trip! I stayed at a

A spontaneous weekend writing trip! I stayed at a Tiny House called the Rabbit Hole in #vincentia #jervisbay on the #southcoastnsw and I had a wild smile on my face the whole time I was away. Honestly, even when I went to dinner at the Chinese restaurant in the Country Club two doors down. (They looked at me really worriedly.) The Tiny House was a teeny space (naturally) and I assumed I’d just sleep there and write in cafes but I wrote more there than I’ve written in weeks! It had an Alice in Wonderland theme with hats, clocks, rabbits, mushrooms and a pink iced cake on a silver tray, so I guess that’s why. It was also a ten minute walk from the #whitesandswalk where I swam at five different beaches, so I guess I didn’t write THAT much. But you should see how little I’ve written in the last few weeks. A magic weekend.

2022 recap! (I liked the one my sister @nicmoriart

2022 recap! (I liked the one my sister @nicmoriarty and other people have been doing so much! Wasted most of today trying to figure out how they did theirs.) HAPPY, HAPPY 2023 TO EVERYONE!

Some pictures from 2022 (including one of my mum,

Some pictures from 2022 (including one of my mum, uncle and a very cute little second cousin at my cousin’s beautiful Hunter Valley wedding)(Oh! And one of me facing the water taken by my wonderful friend Sarah at Glenelg during the very, very, very fun Once Upon A festival where I forgot to take any photos of the other brilliant and lovely authors, sorry!)
Photos are from #freshwater #kirribilli #balmoral #glenelg #cremornepoint #curlcurl #huntervalley #drawingroomrocks #sydneyharbour and #nusalembongan (more or less in that order)

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