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My big confession. I was meant to finish drafting Amber Rose by tomorrow. It is not going to happen. I have had other things crop up and the last two days I was so tired I could barely think. However, today Amber Rose is at 35,000 words, not 80,000 words. The words are coming.
A lot of things going on at the moment. A sick relative and the possibility of heading to NZ again before Christmas. Visitors for Christmas. Christmas! It’s so close. Work and social events increasing. However, I will try to keep writing until I can’t and then hope I can knuckle down in January.
I can’t believe we are near the end of the year.
I can’t believe I’ve done a lot of Christmas shopping already.
What else have I been doing?
Reading A Restless Truth by Freya Marske. I am really liking Maud and Violet and the setting on a ship. Think Titanic as a model and magic of course and lesbian sex.
I’m also listening to Kate Elliott’s King’s Dragon. I have a few of Kate’s books but I must confess I haven’t read them. This audio book displays her excellent prose, like brushes of a delicate paint, an intricate plot, reminiscent of history and elves and creatures. I’m just enjoying it so much.
I also put my nose into Julius Ceasar’s War in Gaul, which is very interesting too. A translation of course.
Viewing wise I have been whiling away many evenings watch Lark Rise to Candleford and loving every minute of it. Tonight I’m taking a break from that show to watch something with Matthew. Matthew has been very diligent writing to his deadline which is coming up fast. There will be some more Matthew Farrer fiction available next year I hope.
I’ve just checked and my last post was October 17. Where did the time go? I’ve been to Adelaide, tick. Then, we had family visiting from the UK so lots of stuff to do, food to eat (oh dear my gut bulge) and things to do.
Highlights for me were Matthew’s sister took us to the Taronga Park Wildlife Retreat. It is an amazing hotel, purpose built, tastefully fitted out and you wake up to koalas outside your window and you can do an evening tour after the zoo closes. And the view across the harbour was amazing. Our UK guest was very impressed. I thoroughly recommend if you are visiting Sydney and want a nice hotel, probably pricey but great as a special treat. Then some of us took the ferry over to Circular Quay and walked around the Sydney Opera House, had lunch on a street side cafe and then walked to the Rocks until we headed back to our new hotel, the Sofitel Wentworth, newly reopened after a grand refurbishment. I was too tired to go out but the gang went to Chinatown and had dinner. Then it was a visit to Coaster’s Retreat before heading back to Canberra with our guests. There were visits to the zoo and aquarium, National Museum and other things. Too soon our guests were off again to return to Sydney then home.
Life feels a bit like a roller coaster. Writing tasks long neglected, tiredness and so on. At the moment, I’m doing the final read through of Destiny’s Blood (much delayed due to the above) and then life might decouple a bit from writing. I’ll be drafting Amber Rose again, but also assembling deck furniture and doing house related things in the lead up to Christmas. I honestly don’t know how I fit it all in, but I always feel like I’m not doing enough.
I am really looking forward to going nowhere in particular, except Matthew is taking me to Sydney for a concert on Sunday but we will be back Monday so not quite the big expedition.
Two manuscripts on submission reach their useby day on the weekend so I’ll be looking to review them and send them out again. Sigh.
After a quick stay at home for one night on our return from Rarotonga and Auckland, we headed off to Adelaide by road. We were going to take the EV but given we only had two days to get there and the time added to charge and the amount of boxes, I rented a bigger car. I was hoping for a hybrid but lucked out. However, we did end up with a Subaru Outback Stationwagon which was fairly new. It was great except it was a bit gutless when overtaking on single lane highways where you have to get passed before another car comes your way.
I love the landscape as we travelled-The mallee scrub, the flat Hay plains, the silo art, the sunsets. We overnighted at Mildura on the way down. That town is huge, so flat and so spread out. There were cafes to choose from but not being local we chose by name and went to Nash Lane. That was a real happening place.
Emu in the wheat. There were lots of emus.
The Fiction and Friction event was something. It was my first dedicated independent book convention. We stopped in Murray Bridge on the way down and checked out the Fiction and Friction bookstore before heading into Adelaide. Nice!
We saw this on the way down, near Loxton I think.Fiction and Friction shop front.Flat plains near Hay I think
There were over 80 authors I believe and over 400 attendees, some of whom were VIPs so had early access and an afterdark function. I have never seen so many dedicated readers with trolleys. At other romance events I’ve been two there are maybe four people with trolleys. There were loads. Some people even did trips back to their cars and came in for more. I met a lot of readers, mostly due to the souvenir booklet where attendees were encouraged to get autographs. I sold books too. Not a sell out by any means, but I’m always grateful when readers buy books when they don’t know my work. I learned heaps too from the event about the scene that I didn’t know. I’ve not been to a RARE or BABE event. I’ve been wait listed for years…But I’m not well known enough and maybe not writing the right thing…However, it was a great opportunity to get my name out there and maybe acquire new readers.
Hay silo artThe river in Hay (Murrumbidgee)
What was popular is dark romance, and I’m guessing that include taboo, also explicit stories as well as Male Male romances (which have a big female readership). One reader told me she liked them because in her opinion male/female gets annoying because the female lead is meant to be strong but comes across as an idiot. A point to take note of.
The other things that are popular are special editions. Some people do all their reading with ebooks but then like to get the first book or the series as a special edition. Who knew? Well now I know right. And merchandise either as a freebie when you preorder or to buy if not. I had a preorder form up but didn’t have many preorders. An author friend said that her preorders covered the cost of her table before she sold anything there. I saw some authors with half a normal sized room with preorders laid out. The author guy next to me wrote mafia books and he had an all black special edition. People were just drawn to it. Black cover, black pages with white text and he had included some explicit images. I think special editions as objects in themselves are fascinating.
The venue was nicely decorated with a starry drape. It looked impressive but made where I was a bit dark. People couldn’t read my blurbs.
The vibe was absolutely amazing, positive, uplifting, exciting and joyful. Meeting up with other authors (known and not previously know) was such a buzz and sharing tips and bubbly was a nice ending. The after dark event was okay but many authors packed up which upset some of the VIPs who had paid to be able to chat with authors. I was a bit confused myself about what we were meant to do. There were panels and so on but mixing cold was a bit hard. I think if you do a mingle you should do speed dating or number draws to meet people and break the ice. Going up to a group of people already talking is a bit hard. However, I did get sales during the evening.
The starry ceiling as people were setting upI forgot to switch my watch to local time so turned up half hour early for a mingle. I was directed by staff to enjoy the river.My table set up. The theme was gardens so I went for it.Keri Arthur was my neighbour on one side. Love the branding on the banner.
Overall a very worthwhile experience. My big takeaway is that I need to do more with my pen name Dani Kristoff and also do some branding like Keri’s as I think it was confusing to only have my Donna Maree Hanson banner but I sold mostly Dani Kristoff books there.
It was also very valuable to get an insight in this indy convention thing. There are a lot of dedicated readers out there not reading traditionally published books.
I am off again tomorrow for a few weeks, mostly to Rarotonga. Do not feel bad for me. While there will be tropical distractions and family, I will try to write or at least read.
I didn’t post about Worldcon in Glasgow and I didn’t post about RWAus in Adelaide. Naughty me. Things are just well busy.
Destiny’s Blood is with the editor and sadly will not be ready in time for Fiction and Friction in Adelaide on 12 October. Not unless by some miracle. But it will be available later in October.
I have not been diligent with drafting Amber Rose. I have tinkered and I have thought about things. The downside to seat of the pants writing. I need to think about what comes next. Also, I think I burnt out trying to get Destiny’s Blood ready for the editor. I wish I thought up plot as fast as I do excuses. However, Amber Rose is extremely fun. I just love being with Jemima Hardcastle and Ambrose Fulton.
It is funny how people ask me sometimes, which book is your favourite. All of them are my favourite and for different reasons. The Silverlands (Argenterra, Oathbound and Ungiven Land) is about the world, the magic and the deep joy in there. These days it would be called Romantasy. Of course there’s Sophy and Oakheart. Such a great set of characters. I love the sisterhood of Aria and Sophy and also the pure steadiness and focus of Rae. The trilogy is about romance and magic and finding yourself. Everytime I pick it up, I get sucked into the story. It was my first fantasy novel, which I penned back in 2002 I think. It was hard because it is so difficult to do something different with fantasy and I was so happy to think up a world where everyone can use magic except my heroine and how frustrating that would be.
My online store is functioning so feel free to check it out. I haven’t got all my print books there but all the ebooks are.
I will miss Conflux in Canberra this year. I’m sad to miss it. I love conventions.
When I first met Kaaren in the early 2000s she was vibrant, focussed and enthusiastic. And she never ceased being so, even when she knew her days were numbered. She was determined to live every day to the full, feeling as well as she could for as long as she could.
After meeting Kaaren at an editing workshop where she as a presenter, we got talking about auditing and said come and work at the Australian National Audit Ofice. I did apply and got in and we worked together on audit projects. Partners! She approached her work in a focussed and organised way and she had a really ordered way of looking at things. She made audits fun, even though she was very competitive. You’ll never be as old as me, she said once. I replied, “Not much I can do about that.” She was also a writer and a horsewoman at that time, as well as a runner and cyclist. She was as focussed about those things as she was everything else. Her earlier books featured flying horses. She was quirky I suppose, she would tell me about the conversations she had with her characters. Her Kered’s Cry series was about recovery from trauma and it was researched and planned.
We were working together when she got her first breast cancer diagnosis. I cried. She told me to stop it. That was Kaaren. Tackling breast cancer was a huge challenge, one which Kaaren attacked like everything else. The only casualty was writing. Her publisher turned out to be dodgy and the stress became too much. I published the last book in her trilogy when I had my publishing imprint. I remember talking to her after her mastectomy and she had been outside in the cul de sac (she lived rural) trying to get her fitness back up. She went into remission and made the five year and the ten year mark. She worked as a contract editor at the Australian National Audit Office and worked back at Immigration, her other home. She moved to the coast and then moved again, once she found a tumour on her spine. She wanted to lessen the chores so her husband didn’t have to worry. Always planning ahead, always organising. She gave her her horses, her mini ponies but kept her cats. There are many more adventures of Kaaren, coming off horses and so on…
From memory, she’d started writing again when there was a lump on her neck. Dragon Boating and kayaking had become her new athletic thing as well. Up in Canberra, she had a very gruelling 7 hour operation to remove the tumour on her vertebrae just below her neck. I remember her telling me that it could affect her eyesight as she had to be on her face the whole time. They put a little cage in there to replace the vertebrae. I visited her in hospital afterwards and the worst thing was a sore neck. She’d hurt her neck a few years before getting thrown off her horse and nearly lost the use of her arms. At this time I didn’t know it was a recurence of the breast cancer. Maybe Kaaren suspected. When they sequenced it, they found it matched her breast cancer. She was officially terminal. She refused chemo at first but had some radiation. The doctor talked her into a drug that slowed bone metabilising. She was fit and well for maybe a year, nothing to see on the scans. She wrote the first book in her trilogy, Undercover Mage, featuring Everand from her first series. She started on the second. I remember her telling me. The doctors want me to to X and I can’t because I need to be well enough to launch this book and write the next one. She donated money from the sale of the books to breast cancer charity. She finished the trilogy, did in person launches for all the books and wrote a romance novel, which she finished just a couple of weeks before she died. When others would curl up and die, Kaaren refused to.
In the photo above she was at the RWA conference in Sydney in 2023. She had started entering competitions for anthologies and placing. It really lit up her world to get the validation and the encouragement. This year she placed second in the spicy bites.
Her funeral was beautiful and everything so many people said was true. She was many things and it is really hard to think of her gone. I’m crying now, because i’m writing about it. But after the funeral I had to think of her somewhere else, not gone as that was the only way I can cope. She had a positive influence on me always. She had me riding horses and writing and laughing. One of the things I learned about Kaaren’s life from her brother was that she had a really good childhood. I think that’s why she could walk around with a little dragon on her shoulder and wear it with pride. She had a solid beginning.
Kaaren leaves behind her husband, two daughters, son-in-law and a grandson. I remember one of her goals was to live to him born and she made it to his first birthday. She touched many lives and so many people. I can never be as brave as she was, as forward thinking and as caring of others, particularly her family. If she knew I was crying now, she’d say. Stop! Stop that.
Robot Hearts is locked and loaded. It is uploaded on most eretailers or heading that way.
I’ve uploaded the print version and am waiting for proofs.
Technically, it took me longer than I hoped. That’s because I’ve been sitting on the collection for a week or so because I was neck deep in revisions for Destiny’s Blood, Dani’s new book. That’s at the editor, but I’m pretty shattered by all the effort. While deep in revisions and on a deadline I could not disengage to do the admin stuff required to upload, even with everything ready. I did my day job but that’s about it.
I am yet to get back to the drafting of Amber Rose. Once I hit my stride with Destiny’s Blood, the blinkers went on and I couldn’t do too much else. However, I’m looking forward to getting back into that one. Loads of fun with Jemima Hardcastle.
Admin
I’ve been working on the shop but it’s not there yet. However, I did get the link between Bookfunnel and Papyhip working.
Binge watching round up.
I have watched all 8 Seasons of Castle. I think they stuffed the last season because when they weren’t doing the serious story arc about Lokstat, they made Castle to be like having paranoid delusions. That’s a shame because I thought over the series they established that he was clever and his story ideas for crimes had value. I’m continuing the Nathan Fillion journey with The Rookie. Matthew bought season 1 on DVD and we started it last night. A very good outing for the first episode and really good balance of character, challenges and crime solving.
I watched a couple of episodes of Grace, crime drama set in Brighton UK on Britbox. One of these episodes featured illegal human organ trafficking and undocumented migrants. I found this one very hard to watch. I also got mixed up and watched a Season Four episode before finishing Season One, so that’s like reading the ending in a book before reading the beginning. Shock! Horror!
Reading
Currently just The Fourth Wing and my novel crit book. I started a new ebook but I’m burnt out from the deadline I mentioned above.
Craft
I am almost finished the lap rug for Matthew. Just have some fringe to do and it’s done. I don’t want to count the years I’ve been working on this. It must be before I started my dayjob. in 2021.
Health
I’m currently wearing a 24 hour blood pressure monitor. I had a bit of a stress blow out the day of my friend’s Kaaren Sutcliffe’s funeral. Blood pressure spiked and I’ve been trying to get the monitor for two weeks. There’s a funny story in that but never mind.
Appearances
I will be at Fiction and Friction Indie Book Convention on 12 October at the Adelaide Convention Centre. Tickets are available here. I have a pre order form up, but I’ll be closing that soon. Probably 15 September. The link to the pre order form is here.
I had other posts to write but alas it’s 3.30pm and I’m ready for a nap. This could be because I’m trying to write a blurb and that’s so hard. My brain is fried.
I’m dropping in to say I have a few posts coming up but I’m not quite ready to post yet. There was the world SF convention in Glasgow, with side tripping to the beautiful highlands, then a dash home so I could fly to the Romance Writers of Australia Conference in Adelaide on the weekend, then home again for a funeral of my awesome buddy Kaaren Sutcliffe on Monday.
I did two pitches, my first in over ten years. Lucked out on both.
I just wanted to say I’m here, I’m back, I’m busy. Robot Hearts has been proofread, but at the last minute I finally had a story that fit an idea so I wrote that yesterday and I’m just trying to see if I can get my editor to look at it, before I press print, upload etc. However, every thing is formatted and I’ve written the blurb. I need the paperback wrap but I need to finalise the pages first.
I’m chatting to the awesome Nicole tonight about her views on Destiny’s Blood and I guess the rest of the week will be spent on revisions.
I’ve been invited to the Celestial Ball event in Brisbane in June next year and I’m hoping to get the the RWA conference in Hobart in August and I’ve signed up for Worldcon in Seatle next year too. Mmmm the year is filling up.
Destiny’s Blood has been popped off to my lovely beta reader for comments. The ending was a bit rushed by I will revise when I get some comments back.
Yay! I made my goal.
I received the edits back on Robot Hearts’ short stories. I admit at first they went into the too hard basket. I was writing Destiny’s Blood and then I had Gammacon on Saturday. On Sunday I bit the bullet and it was worth it. Three stories under my belt. That leaves the remaining stories which I have tonight and tomorrow to work on. I have ideas how to respond to the editorial comments. I think I can do this. Why the deadline? I’m heading to Glasgow and worldcon on Saturday and I have already booked a proofread. Having lined up a professional I can’t stuff them around. A day maybe, but yeah must do. Great for creating deadlines. Thanks Keri!
Gammacon was well worth it. I went half with Chris Andrews on a booth. It looked great. Chris arranged for a fantasy back drop and the way he arranged the tables gave us a great footprint. Our position wasn’t great but we had a number of good book buyers. Enough that we broke even and maybe made a small profit.
This was our table just after we had set up.
This is a close up of my side of the booth, with Chris in the background setting up. Chris writes fantasy too but also useful booklets for planning novels and books on writing. They sell really well.
Anyway, this week is a roller coaster until I get on my plane.
This week I think I’m going to achieve a goal and if I’m lucky two of them.
In the day job, I have scaled down to two days a week, starting this week. This is my first Wednesday free. You can’t believe how happy I was last night knowing there was no work tomorrow and two days isn’t enough time to get stressed. Next workday is Monday. This is kind of a goal I suppose.
Last night, we went to see Fly Me to the Moon, which was so much fun. I wasn’t feeling it from the trailer but it was way better than I expected and I got all kinds of retro rocket feels from watching launches and seeing rockets! Well worth the watch. The moon launch was 55 years ago.
The dragging symptoms of RSV are still with me. The cough is gone finally but I still have annoying and persistent nasal congestion. This is five weeks! Over it.
This morning I went for a walk in the fog a bit later than I went yesterday when it was one degree C! I am trying to regain my fitness after not exercising for five weeks. I’m going okay with that. I had an ulterior motive too. I needed to think up something cool to end Destiny’s Blood. I only have to write the resolution so maybe 5000 words, maybe a bit more. Luckily the ideas came thick and fast on my walk and I dictated those ideas in my phone. My goal is to get this to my wonderful beta reader Nicole by Sunday as she has some leave and can read it. Doing a happy dance here. After addressing beta reader comments, it goes to the editor.
Goal number two is a bit trickier. I received the edits for Robot Hearts, my short story collection and there’s a bit of work to do there. I figure I should just run at Destiny’s Blood, then switch to the short stories. Then I can pick up Amber Rose again. There is only so much brain.
In between I need to do my tax return and BAS before heading off to Scotland on the 3rd. I’m off to Worldcon (world SF convention) in Glasgow and I get to meet up with my buddy, Glenda Larke and her family.
Here come my complicating factors or wonderful interruptions. My son is here from Singapore. He leaves very early Friday. My Sister in law and Brother in law are visiting this week. I love hanging with them so a bit of a juggle. Tomorrow we are out but today I’ll stay in and write. Tonight, we have a family thing watching my granddaughter in a production. Saturday I am an Gammacon sharing a booth with Chris Andrews. Gammacon website here. So exciting but not conducive to writing. Come along and say hi and buy some books!
This means most of my preparation for Saturday will be on Friday and thus making Sunday harder to meet. I should stop writing this blog post hey.
I am really pleased to see some sales of The Silverland Series either the box set on KOBO and currently discounted (they only place it’s listed I think) and individual books on Amazon and elsewhere. I know romantasy is a new buzzword but The Silverlands is a romantasy or romantic fantasy or fantasy romance has been around for a while. It’s a world slip, featuring two girls from our world who find themselves in another world. A world where everyone can do magic, except Sophy. The story follows three young women and their romantic tales and the hidden dark threats to them. I am supposed to be checking this book for typos but I just fall in love with the world and the characters, particularly Sophy and Oakheart, and get lost and start reading instead of checking for typos. Not sure if I’ll make this a hard cover but you never know. Vorn and the First Comers is a prequel novella that’s for free in most vendors. One of the features of The Silverlands is the tales people tell from the early days and Vorn and the First Comers is one of these. I think it enriches the world building. It was my first fantasy series and I worked hard to make it original.
It’s been over three weeks since I got RSV. I’m still coughing a bit and have nasal congestion. One of my ears is not too happy either. It doesn’t pay to be older and susceptible. This is my fourth such illness in less than a year. Although I infected my partner and son, they have recovered. It’s my curse.
I’ve been working extra days and higher duties on the day job. I thought they’d get in the way of drafting and my son is visiting too. However, that’s probably not the reason my word count isn’t as high as it should be. I’ve been a bit slack too. I don’t usually write on the days I do my day job, unless the story is burning its way out of my brain. RSI means I try to keep my at computer time limited.
This week I had novel crit group with the CSFG. This means I need to read a novel a month and provide a critique. I did that! Yay. Now there’s a new novel to read. I’ve also been reading The Time of the Cat by Tansy Rayner Roberts. Nearly finished. It’s entertaining. It’s a bed time read so how much I read is based on how fast I get tired. I listened to Harlen Coben’s Tell No One, which is a stand alone novel of his. Told in the first person, it starts out lyrical and also rivetting. It had a really good twist and then the last twist I didn’t like at all. Anyway, lets not give it away or dwell. I also listened to the second Strike novel The Silkworm. I will read more. I find them a bit addictive so not conducive to writing..
Anyway, I think you can see where and how I’ve been slacking off. I’ve also got a few more episodes of Castle under my belt along with a delve into the Grace series. Castle is mostly cosy mystery but Season 3 and 4 sometimes went into thriller and harder crime areas. Matthew thinks I have a thing for Nathan Fillion so he bought me the first season of The Rookie yesterday. Grace is a tad more edgy than I like, but its good and I’ll get back to it. Grace is filmed in Brighton. I’ve spent some good times there.
Accountabilty post
Destiny’s Blood is at 70,000 words. I meant to get there last weekend but didn’t. I would like to get to 75,000 this weekend, but I have stuff on so I’m not sure. Oh dear I’m a committment phobe!
Amber Rose is at 22,000 words and I haven’t touched it since my last post. Mostly because I’m getting to the crunch time with Destiny’s blood so all my focus is there.
The really, really big distraction is that I bought a microphone and downloaded Audacity yesterday. I wanted to see if I could narrate one of my books. I’ve been using voice memo on the phone and sounded crap but you know the software and the new micropone sound pretty good. It’s pink! Lot’s of practice as it’s technical. Also, you know hating the sound of your voice thing.
Achievements
Emerald Fire in large print and hardback arrived. I have yet to decide if I’ll do more of my books that way. It’s a bit of work and I have to pay for the covers to be redone. Here is a picture of my hardbacks. I’m very proud of them. Weird. I thought Australian libraries would buy them but mostly it’s Europe and UK who have ordered these.
Appearances
I’ll be a Fiction and Friction in Adelaide in October. Link here
Donna Maree Hanson, Author, Phd in Creative Writing 