So the big day finally arrived yesterday, well one of many big days in the Twin Power journey! Yesterday was special as I got to share with you the cover of my debut book with O’Brien Press, Twin Power.
Lauren O’Neill did the cover art for Twin Power, and she did an amazing job. From the very first time that I saw it, I knew that she had captured the very essence of Aoife and Aidan. Aoife and Aidan are twins who love playing football, they are bright, energetic, vibrant characters and Lauren has really brought them to life on the cover.
Twin Power will be published in March 2022. You can pre-order it now on https://www.omahonys.ie/throw-in-twin-power-p-10519109.html
Twin Power is suitable for age 9 and upwards and I am hoping that many of you who enjoyed reading Izzy’s adventures when they were first published in 2019, will now enjoy reading a longer book about a similar topic, kids who love playing football. Here is the blurb on Twin Power.
Twin Power: Throw In!
by Emma Larkin
“Will you please come back and play for the club Aoife?”. Aidan asks his twin sister this question every week. Twins, Aoife and Aidan Power, along with their four best friends love playing Gaelic football. They spend most evenings after school playing football in the green in their picturesque rural village of “Droichead Beag”. Aoife and Aidan are skilful and fast but when they combine on the same team, “Twin Power” is unleashed and they have an almost telepathic communication on the pitch, leading to some spectacular scores. But while Aoife loves football, an incident at a match almost two years earlier saw her stop training and playing with her local GAA club, Droichead Beag GAA. Aidan knows what happened, but Aoife refuses to tell her friends. Could it have something to do with their Under 12 counterparts in Gorman GAA, the rival parish team of Droichead Beag, where old rivalries run deep? And how will Aoife’s refusal to play affect their school team when the children’s teacher Ms. Kelly, herself a former All- Star football player announces an exciting new school’s football competition, “Star Schools GAA”? Parish rivalries re-surface and threaten to get out of hand as the children of Droichead Beag National School fight tooth and nail to get their hands on the coveted first ever Star Schools Cup.
I really enjoyed writing Twin Power, and I hope that you all enjoy reading it.
As some of you may know, I self-published my first three Izzy books and set up a business along the way, Emma Larkin Books, to market and sell them. I have also branched out into Izzy merchandise. The core aims of Emma Larkin Books are to inspire children to read and to enjoy being active, whatever sport or activity that may be. It started out with wanting to give girls a book where they could see a young woman like themselves, Izzy, on the cover in Croke Park. A symbol of what they could do. In Twin Power, Aoife, Aidan, and their friends, male and female play football as equals. I think that this is an equally important message to promote from a young age and I think that boys and girls alike will enjoy reading about Aoife, Aidan, and their friends.
I love running a business and all that goes with it, but I still adore the thing that started it all, writing. I was approached by O’Brien Press to write a book. They had heard of me through my Izzy series. It was a dream come true to sign with a major Irish publisher and they are a joy to work with. I consider myself very lucky. I have learned so much through working with all the wonderful people at O’Brien Press on Twin Power, and I can still continue to write and sell my Izzy books.
Thank you all sincerely for all your lovely messages of support yesterday about the cover reveal, I really appreciate it.
Best wishes
Emma
