Friday, June 26th, I had the opportunity to chat with the amazing Dionne Codrington at CBC for the show All in a Weekend.
We talked about what inspired my latest novel Lavender Spike, a bit about my upbringing, and of course, about art as the driving force in the book and in our lives.
It was my first radio show ever, and Dionne was an absolute pro at calming my nerves. Full of warmth and light, she made me feel welcome and appreciated.
Not shown in the photos, producer Jill, was the other wonderful soul who added to the experience being such a positive one.
Huge thanks to both of them and to CBC for having me.
The interview went live Sunday but can be now be listened to on demand on CBC.ca by putting my name in the search bar,
We have an audiobook! Narrated by Elana Dunkelman, look for it everywhere you listen to your audiobooks as of June 23rd!
“Pain, passions, and violence are conveyed as agonizingly and earnestly here as they were in the Hunger Games and Handmaid’s Tale cycles. … Cautious brush strokes help sell this speculative story of art as the basis of a future police state.” ―Kirkus Reviews
“There’s no denying [Lavender Spike’s] originality. Replete with mind-bending thrills and chills, this proves hard to look away from.” ― Publishers Weekly
“An art-centric social justice dystopia for those who enjoy blurred-edge realities and driven characters intent on revolution of a corrupt society. Suggest to fans of Annalee Newitz and Pierce Brown.” ― Library Journal
“Lavender Spike is a speculative novel about the necessity of art and rebellion.” ― Foreword Reviews
“Lavender Spike is that rarest thing in fiction: a truly unique dystopia, one that shuns simple allegory and plays by its own strange and fascinating set of rules. In a just world, everyone would be obsessed with this book and fans would already be having bitter arguments about who should be cast in the film.” ― Jason Pargin, bestselling author of John Dies at the End and I’m Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom
“Lavender Spike crackles with the spirit of power and creation. Rachel Tremblay’s newest novel is a visceral and poignant examination of the purpose of art that poses the question, ‘Can art truly be a catalyst for change?’ Brimming with action, Lavender Spike will take readers on a journey that will inspire, enthrall, and excite the imagination.” ― Karen McBride, author of Crow Winter
“Lavender Spike is a luminous adventure, delicate and poignant to the very end. You won’t want to miss it!” ― Kayla Ancrum, award-winning author of The Wicker King and Icarus “A wild acid-trip dive into alleyways where art is both drug and religion ― with all the vivid color and darkness that comes with both. A very I-need-a-cigarette-after-reading journey.” ― Nathan Makaryk, actor and author of Nottingham
Come join me and Sylvain Neuvel, author of The Themis Files, The Test, the Take Them to the Stars trilogy, and his latest, The Many, for the launch of my book LAVENDER SPIKE! It’s free, come enjoy a chit chat and refreshments, get your book signed, and mostly, come celebrate, connect, and build community! I’m looking forward to seeing you there!
This gritty and relentless dystopian novel from Tremblay (Off My Feet) posits a near-future world with an economy built on art.
Isobel “Izzy” Ker is a Purist artist, working in an archaic, bland style that makes her an enemy of the New Art Government and the Triggers, celebrated artistic leaders whose “gore-porn” creations are incredibly addictive, and who have cultlike followings of cruel lackeys called Hounds. Living in the resource-poor Dumps outside the protective dome of rich Mahl City, Isobel struggles to survive and keep painting. When Hounds raid her hideout, she’s forced to join the Half-Lights, a crew of anti-art rebels and thieves determined to bring down the government. The Half-Lights send Isobel into Mahl City as their spy—but Isobel’s new life posing as a Trigger proves seductive, and when her friend and fellow rebel Joanie tries to help her, the danger only increases. In an adventure that is twisty, cathartic, and extremely fast-paced, the two friends discover a new side to their world and themselves as they experience both the pleasures and horrors the art-worshipping city has to offer. The worldbuilding occasionally feels heavy-handed, especially in early chunks of exposition, but there’s no denying its originality. Replete with mind-bending thrills and chills, this proves hard to look away from. (June)
DEAR FOLX, I’m so happy to finally share the cover for my upcoming book LAVENDER SPIKE !! This is my own oil painting combined with Jess Albert’s digital touch (Jess is the Digital & Art Director at ECW Press). The universe works in strange ways and I am so happy I ended up painting the artwork for my cover! I am super stoked with the cyberlicious result.
LAVENDER SPIKE releases June 23rd 2026 with ECW Press and is now available for PREORDER from your favourite bookstores and online book-selling platforms!
“Lavender Spike is that rarest thing in fiction: a truly unique dystopia, one that shuns simple allegory and plays by its own strange and fascinating set of rules. In a just world, everyone would be obsessed with this book and fans would already be having bitter arguments about who should be cast in the film.” ― Jason Pargin, bestselling author of John Dies at the End
Isobel “Izzy” Ker, the last working artist of the Old Holy Order, lives a life of poverty in the Dumps outside of Mahl City, covertly selling her illegal paintings to the Old Order’s few remaining devotees. But when her studio is ransacked by the city’s enforcers, her only choice is to seek refuge with the Half-Light Rebels, a gang of anti-art radicals and glorified thieves.
She agrees to help the rebels, but their first mission goes south, and Izzy is arrested and brought before the leader of the oppressive New Art Government, a group that keeps people in check by feeding their addiction to a novel and dangerous craft, Trigger Art. Izzy has a choice: Convert to their way of life, using her skills to debut as a Trigger Artist, or rot in the city’s infamous prison. Izzy accepts and is thrust into the spotlight, now intoxicated by the luxury and power afforded her, not to mention her handsome bodyguard, Rilke. The wild, engrossing act of creating her first public piece almost makes her forget what life was like in the Dumps. Almost. All the while, Izzy is fanning the flames of rebellion, working in secret with the rebels and preparing to unveil her audacious debut piece.
Lavender Spike is a bold, wholly original cyberpunk novel in which art is both drug and religion.
Hello folx, I haven’t shared my new work here since the end of 2023. Big ol’ oops. I always add them to the Art page on my website, but I like to post them to the blog for those subscribed. New work and some process pics are posted to my instagram (@swell_rachelle) and facebook (/dirtybrush.art) where I also share about the meaning of each piece. I would like to also inform you that my prices are now written below each piece (click the “i” on a phone) on the Art page.
Bonjour gang, je n’ai pas partagé mes nouvelles oeuvres ici depuis la fin de 2023. Oops! Je les ajoute toujours sur la page Art de mon site web, mais j’aime les afficher dans le blog pour ceux qui sont abonnés. Mes nouveaux morceaux peuvent aussi se trouver sur mon instagram (@swell_rachelle) et mon facebook (/dirtybrush.art) où je partage sur le processus de création et la signification de l’oeuvre. Je voudrais aussi vous informer que mes prix sont maintenant inscrit sous chaque image (cliquer le “i” sur un téléphone) sur la part Art.
Thanks for looking! Merci!
The Messengers • 20” x 20” • oil on cradled wood panel • $1,400
A Hundred Thousand Joys • 20” x 20” • oil on cradled wood panel • $1,400
Best Friends • 20” x 20” • oil on cradled wood panel • $1,400
Three Hearts and a Doughnut • 20” x 20” • oil on cradled wood panel • $1,400
At Any Given Time • 21” x 13 3/4”, framed • oil on wood panel • $1,010
Third Eyes • 20.5” x 24” • oil on wood panel, framed • $1,750
L0v3 B0mbS • oil on wood panel (fully palette knife painted) • not for sale
Creature Comforts / Holy Trinity • 20” x 24” oil on wood panel, framed • $1,680
Battlescraps • 23” x 14” • oil on wood panel • $1,125
Like Tears in Rain • 10” x 12” • pencil on wood-mounted bristol • not for sale
Save Yourself • 10” x 12” • pencil wood-mounted bristol • $425
Tuesday Smile • 11” x 14” • pencil on bristol • $500
Patchwork no.1 • 11” x 14” • pencil on bristol • $500
I have sent in my last edits, which I finished two days before my birthday (October 1st). Great present to myself! This photo was taken on my bday morning, feeling good, 46 and excited for every freaking day. (Can we be done with the aging taboos? A lady can tell her age, screw all that. Aging is Hot.)
So, let’s see…
I wrote Lavender Spike in 2019
Finished the first draft and wrote Dead Gretchen during Nanowrimo the same year
Published Off My Feet and Crash Kitty in 2020
Then in 2021 I started editing Lavender Spike and finished in 2022, six drafts later (my usual)
I queried on and off for 2 YEARS
In January 2024, after a heavy edit, a final polish with a hired copy editor, and getting blurbs from authors I respect immensely, I was about to self-pub it, but at the eleventh hour I sent it off to Jen at ECW Press
We signed a deal in July 2024
2025, we went through the usual cycle of edits — revision edits, copy edits, line edits, and proofread.
And I am done!!! 💥 💃 ♥️ 😍 😭
What a journey this book took me on so far. What a great experience with the team at ECW. What a good birthday gift to be done!!! I am so excited for the next steps — cover & preorders ✨
Pub day is set for April 14th 2026 💫
Thank you for taking this ride with me 🫶🏼 I appreciate you so much.
I am thrilled to announce that my dystopian, art-centric cyberpunk novel LAVENDER SPIKE will be published next autumn (2025) with ECW Press!
In a technologically advanced and climate-crisis-stricken world where art is the new religion and the new drug, last artist of the Old Holy Order Isobel “Izzy” Ker is fiercely hunted by Hounds, worshippers of psychotropic Trigger art, and forced to choose among loyalty to her family’s traditions, survival, and following her heart, which finally leads her to create a painting that rattles everyone to their bloody core and starts a revolution the likes of which she never would have imagined could come from her brush.
Stay tuned for the cover reveal, author blurbs / reviews, and other announcements through here, or follow my Instagram account and/or Facebook page for book news, book talk, and life stuff in general 🙂 We have fun! Below is the Publisher’s Marketplace Deal Report and a mood board I created for the book.
• This Circus • Oil on cradled wood 18” round • SOLD
My daughter posed for me in her Halloween costume. Taking pics, she flipped the birdie and I loved it.
This idea of playing the game and also hating it, living in a broken world as we simultaneously work to fix it, being unapologetically ourselves and at the same time having to be so many things for so many people. Deciding to take no more bullshit. Being nobody’s monkey. Boundaries. It got me thinking about so many dichotomies and ambiguities, all thanks to a little photo session sass.
Paintings rarely finish the way I intend them to be at the start. They usually end up being a lot more interesting hahaha.
Keep fighting the good fight folx! That is—everything that wholehearted supports equality, love, peace. Yes middle fingers can be part of that!!
The Messengers • 20” x 20” • Oil on cradled wood panel
Thought and Memory. Huginn and Muninn. The keepers of the secrets. Birds who saved my life, once, in a dream.
SOLD 
rachel(le) tremblay 