I had a great time at the Louisville Book Festival! Met a lot of wonderful authors and readers, and got to speak on a panel about crafting fantasy worlds. I hope to be back next year!

Thank you Golden Thread for giving a staged reading to Pilgrimage, a new full-length play cowritten by Humaira Ghilzai and myself!

I'm over the moon about this beautiful cover for The Silver Sail, as well as the brand new cover we had designed for The Twin Stars! Both are by Lance Buckley. Look for The Silver Sail May 3, 2022, and sign up for my newsletter for more updates!

My YA space fantasy novel giveaway has ended. Congratulations Helene H.! And thank you to everyone who entered!

Be the first to learn about future giveaways by subscribing to my monthly newsletter. You'll also get two free short stories set in the Coseema Saga universe, including my most recent, Written in the Stars.

Coseema is the Chosen One. She has special powers, she’s the subject of a prophecy, she’s instantly good at everything, and she’s the only person who stands between her planet and utter destruction. But it all feels too simplistic. When Coseema begins to wonder if she might be a figment of someone’s—or something’s—imagination, it throws her destiny into doubt. A short story prequel to the Twin Stars, from the perspective of Olive's fictional protagonist.

Happy February (and happy birthday to me!) As I gear up for the release of The Silver Sail this spring, I'm launching another giveaway! Enter to win a bundle of 5 YA space fantasy/space opera novels,  ranging from a fairytale retelling to a tale of interstellar oppression to a beautiful graphic novel. To enter, click on "join the Bridgette Dutta Portman mailing list" in the raffle graphic below. You can gain extra entries by following me on Twitter and/or tweeting about the raffle. No purchase necessary. Open to residents of the USA who are at least 14 years of age. Ends Feb. 20!

The novels are:

CINDER (The Lunar Chronicles #1) by Marissa Meyer
OFF PLANET (The Aunare Chronicles #1) by Aileen Erin
ON A SUNBEAM by Tillie Walden (graphic novel)
SKYWARD (Skyward Series #1) by Brandon Sanderson (autographed copy)
And my own book, THE TWIN STARS (The Coseema Saga #1, autographed copy + bookmark)

Best of luck!

Happy New Year!!!

2021 certainly had its ups and downs for me. I'm looking forward to new projects in 2022, including:

-Finishing The Silver Sail, Book Two of the Coseema Saga. Right now it's in the hands of my beta readers and on track for a May release. (We originally hoped for April, which may be pushing it, but things are moving along.) This draft is 88K words and 26 chapters long.

-Beginning (and hopefully finishing) the as-yet-unnamed Book Three, which will be the final book in the trilogy.

-Finishing Pilgrimage, a full-length play I'm co-writing with Humaira Ghilzai, and hopefully workshopping it with a local theatre.

-Beginning and making progress on another new full-length play.

-Seeing a production of my new one-act comedy Coffee Lady at Awesome Theatre in March.

You can sign up for my newsletter to stay up to date on all my writing projects. Much more to come!

​Meanwhile...I've been having a ton of fun with an app called Wombo Dream, which uses AI to generate fantasy illustrations. It's addictive, and occasionally disturbing, depending on the prompts you put in. Here are some images I created for The Twin Stars:

My YA novel giveaway has ended. Congratulations to the lucky winner, Annika F.!

Thank you to everyone who entered. If you didn't win (or if you're seeing this too late to enter), I hope you check out all these books and support these authors! Here are links to their websites (in alphabetical order):

​Hanna Alkaf (The Weight of Our Sky)
Whitney Amazeen (One Carefree Day)
John Green (Turtles All the Way Down)
Amalie Jahn  (Phoebe Unfired)
Violet Lumani (Foretold)
Adam Silvera (History is All You Left Me)

To learn more about OCD and how you can support people living with this condition: https://iocdf.org/

Finally, you can subscribe to my newsletter to receive a free short story about a teenage girl struggling with OCD and driving. Rough Road Ahead can be read as a prequel to The Twin Stars or as a standalone story. Enjoy!
​

October 10-16 is OCD Awareness Week and I'm pleased to announce I'm running a giveaway! I'm raffling off a bundle of 7 YA novels whose protagonists have OCD. I tried to put together a range of genres and styles, from romance to paranormal to historical fiction to space fantasy (my own). As a teen, I don't think I knew of any novels involving OCD. I'm so glad these books are available today. Many young people will be able to see themselves in these compelling characters and know they're not alone.

If you'd like to win these books for yourself or a loved one, click on the raffle graphic above. You can enter by subscribing to my monthly newsletter, and gain additional entries by sharing on Twitter. All entrants will receive a free short story, Rough Road Ahead, in which OCD meets Driver's Ed. Entrants must be 14 years of age or older and residents of the USA or Canada.

I'll be selecting the winner on October 17. 

The novels are:
The Weight of Our Sky by Hanna Alkaf (check out my video spotlight)
One Carefree Day by Whitney Amazeen (check out my video spotlight)
Turtles All the Way Down by John Green (check out my video spotlight)
Phoebe Unfired by Amalie Jahn  (check out my video spotlight)
Foretold by Violet Lumani (check out my video spotlight)
The Twin Stars by Bridgette Dutta Portman (check out myvideo spotlight)
History is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera (check out my video spotlight)

Note on Content: These are YA novels, and as such, some of them contain mature and/or emotionally heavy themes, including sex, violence, mental illness, and grief.

I will be spotlighting each of these novels, one per day, in a series of videos over the coming week. I'll post the videos on social media, so be sure to follow me!

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Twitter: @bdportman
Instagram: @bdportman