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

jaclynmoriarty

A Magical Event for Lillian Velvet at @gleebooks_k

A Magical Event for Lillian Velvet at @gleebooks_kids and the first event in the history of the Kingdoms and Empires series at which illustrator @kelly_canby and I have appeared together! I wish Kelly ALWAYS flew over from Perth for events because (1) she decorated the bookshop window with a scene from Lillian Velvet! (2) She created portraits of two lovely child readers who were there, plus the wonderful Rachel, the children’s bookseller at Glebe who organised this very special event (see pic) and (3) She is dazzling and delightful and I love catching up with her!

Thank you so much to Kelly, to Rachel (for the exquisite afternoon tea) to Anna, Nicola and Reem from @allenandunwin and to the lovely readers who came along. There are now copies of The Impossible Secret of Lillian Velvet, signed by both Kelly and me (impossible!) at Gleebooks, Glebe Point Road. 😎

Thank you so much to everyone who came along to th

Thank you so much to everyone who came along to the launch of The Impossible Secret of Lillian Velvet! Extra special thanks to @garthnixauthor who very generously ‘conversed’ with me. Garth is a hugely successful, internationally best-selling, prize-winning author whose books I love and admire, and I was so grateful that he took the time to do this event for me. He was also my original literary agent, and got me my first ever book deal so it’s completely thanks to him that I’m an author at all - which made the event even more special to me.
I was wildly nervous and babbled a bit incoherently, but Garth kept things under control with calm professionalism. (He also brought along a pickle jar of gold chocolate coins - see picture here - as a tribute to the pickle jar of gold coins that starts Lillian’s story! I love it and now have it on display here in my living room.)
Thank you also to the wonderful people at @betterreadbookshop especially Carolina, who ran the event and afternoon tea perfectly. It’s a fantastic bookshop and holds great book events! Thank you to Reem Galal @reeemo_g and Anna McFarlane for all your help and for being so brilliant and lovely. (Delicious cake by @bakealicious_by_gabriela !)
And thank you to @meganmaurice for the photos and to the magnificent Pia (pictured here) for dressing up as Lillian Velvet! And thank you to the lovely reader Téa, who gave me such a special piece of artwork (also pictured here)
Altogether a magic day and I am a very lucky girl.

The final picture is a screenshot of one other upcoming book event that I’m doing at Gleebooks, in case you missed this one - Kelly Canby, illustrator extraordinaire will be there too!

Many photos of me with books here, after a great d

Many photos of me with books here, after a great day yesterday visiting bookshops and meeting lovely booksellers (along with Reem Galal, publicist and really delightful person). The day was like time travel as we are both with Optus, so no phone or internet. We had to do things such as hail cabs! Like the olden days! Exciting!
There are now signed copies of The Impossible Secret of Lillian Velvet available to buy at the following excellent bookshops:
- Kinokunya
- Dymocks Sydney
- Gleebooks Glebe
- Constant Reader, Crows Nest
- Gleebooks, Dulwich Hills
- Harry Hartog, Bondi Junction
- Burns Bay Bookers, Lane Cove

And some great news: Lillian Velvet is a winner in the Good Housekeeping Kids’ Book Awards - Best Kids’ Books of 2023! Despite my housekeeping skills. It’s a very nice award as apparently they use a panel of kid judges, as well as grownup experts. Thank you to @goodhousekeeping !
And thank you so much to Reem and to @gleebooks_dulwich @gleebooks @harryhartogbookseller @burnsbaybookery @constantreaderbookshop @kinokuniya_sydney @dymockssydney

(PS apologies for promotional posts! I will try to stop very soon! I appreciate your patience.)

#Lillian Velvet #jacaranda #i promise this is the

#Lillian Velvet #jacaranda #i promise this is the last Lillian Velvet/jacaranda combination #i think

Today, 31st October 2023, is the official Australi

Today, 31st October 2023, is the official Australian launch day of The Impossible Secret of Lillian Velvet! To celebrate, I have organised a kind of festival whereby children can dress up, knock on doors and be given treats. In recent weeks I have been moved and humbled to see how many houses have been decorated, in anticipation of the launch of Lillian Velvet. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you all. Please, go forth and enjoy! (The password to participate is, ‘Happy Halloween’ or ‘Trick or treat’. If anyone says these words to you it is polite to respond, ‘And a happy Lillian Velvet Australian launch day to you.’ With a bow of the head.)

(Thank you so much to @kelly_canby for the magnificent illustrations and cover, to @acrophony for being such a patient and lovely editor, to Anna McFarlane, a dream publisher, and to all at @allenandunwin ! The book is out in the US and Canada (without the impossible in the title - it’s just a secret there) and will be out next year in the UK. Thank you all! I hope you enjoy the book! Support local independent bookstores!)

Re the song I chose here: also, if you OPEN your e

Re the song I chose here: also, if you OPEN your eyes it might feel like nothing changed at all! That’s because I post local jacaranda trees EVERY YEAR. Thank you for your patience. #jacaranda
(And while I’m here, go to the Better Read than Dead website to book your place at the afternoon tea to celebrate the release of The Impossible Secret of Lillian Velvet (if you like)! I will be conversing with the magnificent Garth Nix! Sunday, 12 November, Newtown! Lillian Velvet is out now in the US and Canada, and will be out TOMORROW in Australia!!!!)
PS this stops so abruptly! I’ll see if I can extend it.

Beautiful drawing of a scene from ‘The Stolen Pr

Beautiful drawing of a scene from ‘The Stolen Prince of Cloudburst’ by one of my favourite young readers, Margot Zmarzly. When something as special as this arrives in the mail unexpectedly, everything feels better. (Margot and her parents have kindly given me permission to share it.)

Hello! Here’s a reel of some happy things from O

Hello! Here’s a reel of some happy things from October so far, including:
1) my birthday! (Got some beautiful flowers, a teapot, a candle, went to dinner!)
2) The Secret of Lillian Velvet - out NOW in the US and Canada, and will be out end October in Australia! (And next year in the UK…)
3) Found nice pictures of my parents’ wedding - their anniversary is the day after my birthday.
4) A wave in the shape of a dragon.
Thank you to everyone!

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.

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