Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘author appearances’ Category

In editing hell

Posted in A writer's life, author appearances, Creative passion, Editing, fantasy, Fashion, tagged , , , , , , , , on November 16, 2025| 1 Comment »

I’m back and well life has been busy, with travel, with writing, day job and just stuff.

My eye continues to improve from surgery and next month I’ll see about a new set of spectacles to see if that helps. I’m over the horror of it and the doom saying about what happens if they other eye goes. Not point in fretting.

The Prudential Light is back from the editor. She’s a damn fine editor that I had at Pan Macmillan and she freelances and has worked on the dragon wine series with me. For me, The Prudential Light was a bit ambitious, two different historical timelines, a lot of birthdates, event dates to keep straight. However, I’m nearly there and the ed has taken a feather duster to my prose and worked on the plot tension. There are unfortunately (or fortunately) less baked goods in this story.

I expect The Prudential Light to be out early December, maybe earlier but next stop in the proofreader and you can’t rush the proofreader.

I’m behind on other things. Newsletters, BAS statements, blogging and social media. As much as I hate to admit it, I only have so much energy.

Appearance wise, I was at Books and Beyond in Ourimbah in September. It was such a fab event. So many keen readers and it looked so pretty, even though from the outside it looked like the car park of a Mitre 10. I’ve put in an expression of interest for next year, so fingers crossed they let me come back. I also had a stall at the Goulburn Steampunk and Victoriana Fair and that was a fab event. We are taking the whole family next year, or as many as we can muster. I made two bustle dresses for this event. One took me a very long time. Did I not say I’ve been sewing lately? Sometimes, I. have to write before I allow myself into the craft room.

A very difficult fabric to work with. All that pattern matching.

Me with pink hair. I’ll be sporting that colour next week in Pokolbin.

This dress was an adaption of the plaid dress patter. I had less fabric to work with so bought the Apricot satin for contrast and bustle. It is a lighter dress for the heat and the bustle is not as overly engineered.

UPCOMING APPEARANCES

First up, next week, I’m at the Meet Your Next Book Boyfriend at the Mecure Valley, in Pokolbin.

Tickets are available here. $50 for full day $22.50 for half day. Apparently, the gardens next door have an amazing Christmas display so come along and check it out. Link to Tickeboo here.

Next March, I will be in Sydney for the Australian Romance Readers Romantic Rendevous, March 22, 2026. at the Rydges, in Surry Hill. Tickets are now on sale. There will be panels, an author lunch and the signing in the afternoon. I’m only doing Sydney this year, but the event is happening in Brisbane, Melbourne, and Perth. Check out this Trybooking link.

The good news about this event is that I’ll have The Prudential Light with me. I’ll be putting up a preorder too on Benenti.

I have other appearances coming in in Canberra and elsewhere. I’ll update you all. Now to head over and do my newsletter, which is also long overdue.

Read Full Post »

Procrastawriting or taking care of business

Posted in A writer's life, Australian author, author appearances, Author signing event, Book cover, book signing, Conflux, Creative passion, fantasy, Geeking out, research, revision, Science fiction conventions, Steampunk, Victorian, tagged , , , , , , , , , on July 11, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Yesterday, I did zero work on my current WIP, The Prudential Light. I did not have the excuse of the previous couple of days of recovering from my shingles vaccination, which really did knock me about. I did procrastawriting.

I wrote and sent a newsletter, and prior to that I signed up to Benventi for preorders for Books and Beyond 28 September. That took time. Here is a link to that preorder form. This is evidence and also if you are in the Central Coast and want to check out the event, please do. I’d love to say hi. It’s a first time, small writer event, which I think is free for the public.

I’ll be at the Geekmarkets on the CSFG table in the morning of 19 July with some of my books on offer. Also, free and fun.

I’ve signed up to Gamacon 6 September and I will have another appearance in August to announce soon.

Early October, it’s Conflux in Canberra, where I’ll have a table too. Not sure if I’ll make it onto any panels yet. That’s 3-5 October over the long weekend. A great SF con and a real experience if you have never been. I am hoping to launch The Prudential Light there but if so I need to get cracking.

I have other events later in the year as well but that’s the next few.

I have ordered book covers for The Prudential Light and Edward Huntington Esquire: Gentleman Magician so keep your eye out for those. I’m super excited about those.

While I have mucked about for two days, I actually did do some work this morning on The Prudential Light. It requires some additional structure so I had to write some new bits and one section needs a bit of research. The word count is now 53,000 word and I am not sure if this will reach 70,000 by the time I’m done.

I am in the ‘this is a mess, everyone will hate it, I can’t make it good’ stage. Or trending that way. I am still having fun with Jemima and Aunt Prudence.

Now as you can see I am writing a blog post. Is this procrastawriting? Or a heavy dose of writerly admin? I find it a bit of a diversion and I like blogging. Often I think of things I want to blog about and then don’t get around to it and then forget.

Have I told you I have started a TikTok? I am very much a Noob and the platform has amazing potential but being time poor I don’t have time to explore it and I’m also distracted by all those TikToks. My lastest talk about how hard I find revision. I love drafting novels. The hard work is shaping them into something you can read. Hence, my angst over is it good enough, can I make it better and so on.

I also owe the blog some posts from China, which I will get to.

Now it is time to get another cuppa.

PS my daughter just made me tea, put the heater on, brought me slippers, my hoodie and a cookie. I’m so spoilt.

Read Full Post »

Ages of Pages

Posted in A writer's life, Australian author, author appearances, Author signing event, Keri Arthur, New Zealand, Travel, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 10, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Hamilton is a lovely city. Keri and I stayed close to the venue and did a big long walk to Hamilton Gardens. It was $20 to see the themed gardens and expect to see photos from these pop up here and later. I reckon I could get a mystical door way theme going.

The event was quite big. A lot of authors and cool vendors and well organised. It was well organised. Some authors did fabulously well. Keri Arthur for one. Laura Hunter said she did great. Me, not too great but not bad either considering I am still building a following and I haven’t ever appeared at a NZ event before.

It was lovely to meet readers and also connect with authors who I knew but haven’t seen in a while. Waves to Lee Murray. Or authors I know online such as Mary Brock Jones. We were table buddies being placed next to each other. I met a librarian and also a rep from the NZ Society of Authors. The beauty of this book event is that it is free to readers. Yes, there are VIP tickets I think and raffles but basically it is free. I recall they do an anthology for charity too.

While I wasn’t busy at the table I scoped out a series. I did a lot of writing down of world building, story arc, characters and plot. It’s very weird but I was inspired by Nalini Singh when on panels at the ARRA event. She talked about her 12 book Psy-Changeling series and how she wrote the first book and a scene for the final book at the same time. I haven’t ever tried planning so hugely. Actually I lie, when I first wrote a book, an SF romance with feminist overtones, Relic, I mapped out a six book series, a cross galactic, alien and sex and gods and planet settling thing. However, I never published that book. It was in 2000 and SF romance wasn’t a big thing, I was a new writer, there was no self publishing then and while I had two different agents around that time, it never went anywhere and I wrote other things. I did get feedback from author friend that I should write it later on when I was more experienced. Maybe I will, who knows.

Anyway, I wrote the first scene in that scoped series the other day. However, I have lots of things going on writing wise and need to apply my ADHD post menopause brain to achieve more and faster.

Anyway, take aways from NZ and Ages of Pages. NZ is always worth a visit. Ages of Pages is a great event. Not sure I’ll go again but you never know as I always have a reason to visit NZ so makes sense.

Here is the photo bomb!

Chinese section of Hamilton Gardens

Photo by Keri Arthur. Me in the pagoda thing Hamilton Gardens

Japanese section of Hamilton Gardens. Lovely lamp.

Italian section of the Hamilton Gardens. Romulus and Remus being fed by the wolf.

Egyptian Wall Hamilton Gardens

Small statue in the picturesque section? Not sure. Hamilton Gardens.

Unicorn from Tudor garden section Hamilton Gardens

Egyptian pool, Hamilton Gardens.

Keri taking a photo of me, Chinese section Hamilton Gardens. Some great reflection going on there.

The photo Keri took of me in the Chinese gardens.

This is a shot from leaving the themed gardens. Hamilton Gardens.

This gum was in the Hamilton Gardens, general area. It’s very impressive.

Also, we walked around the street and found some amazing trees. I asked Keri to pose with this huge Plane tree so you can see how thick the trunk was.

We did about 18,000 steps that day.

At Ages of Pages

Me and Laura Hunter at Ages of Pages

Keri at her table before she sold out of some of her books.

My table at Ages of Pages

At dinner on the eve of Ages of Pages at The Cook pup. Keri, JO Mantel, assistant to Laura, Laura and me grinning like a ghoul.

Anyhow, I am back home and I’ve done some stuff and will be blogging all that over the next few days.

Read Full Post »

Amber Rose moving closer to publication

Posted in A writer's life, ARRA, author appearances, Author signing event, tagged , , , , on February 22, 2025| Leave a Comment »

These last days have been fun, not!

I had a blood test on Wednesday last week and felt great. The next day I’m sneezing, my nose is running and my eyes are watering. Friday I’m in full lurgy mode but negative RATS for COVID, RSV and Influenza A and B. I just had to weather it as I didn’t feel sick otherwise. Just a cold. Then the cough started and I felt a bit ick. Something had changed. Meanwhile I worked the day job and I’m working on Amber Rose. I had done the complete draft but I needed to tidy up to send to the editor.

Editing and coughing are not a good mix.

Anyhow, I was prescribed anitbiotics and I think I am on the mend. Still have a bit of nose and cough but I’m hoping they will fly away by tomorrow and maybe I could get a good sleep. I had to cancel few things due to the cold, like a sleep study I’ve been waiting years for. Oh well.

The good news is that I sent Amber Rose off to the editor yesterday. Happy dance!

This novel caused me some angst if you must now. I should have written it last year. Actually if I’m honest years ago. However, for various reasons I didn’t. Then something went twang in my brain and I was uncertain how to bring it to an end and I felt lost in the narrative. My friend, Maxine, did a quick read of what I had at the time, around 47,000 words and gave me some feedback. It really, really helped and I think I brought it home.

I don’t have any immediate plans for more Jemima Hardcastle books. Well not set in Victorian England in any case. I have quite a bit of half finished manuscripts that I need to work on this year and a couple of other projects boiling away.

I’m taking a break to catch up on things: blog, newsletter,preorder form, BAS and other admin. I may put Amber Rose up for preorder! That’s exciting.

Appearances

On Saturday 22 March I’ll be at the ARRA signings and will be on a panel as well as selling books, Royal on the Park, 152 Alice Street, Brisbane

Sunday 23 March I’ll be in Sydney at the ARRA booksigning, Rydges City Central, 28 Albion Street, Surry Hills

Saturday 29 March, I’ll be in Melbourne at the ARRA booksignings Jasper Hotel, 489 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne.

The ARRA events are ticketed. Here is the link to the their page.

Later on in April, I will be at Ages of Pages in Hamilton NZ, 26 April, 9.30am to 4 pm, Claudelands Event Centre. Free entry. Check the website

Read Full Post »

Hectic January

Posted in A writer's life, am wrinting, author appearances, Author signing event, Trying to focus, tagged , , , , , on January 16, 2025| Leave a Comment »

I thought December was hectic. Last minute travel, visitors, Christmas and the lead up to New Year. Alas, January has been hectic and it’s not done yet.

At the moment we are on a bit of a break up near Palm Beach. There was a series of storms last night and now the forecast is for rain until we leave on Sunday. The forecast at home was for 3 days of rain, but that’s changed to sunny days which puts our garden in the soon to be dead zone. Sigh.

I also didn’t bring anything warm because it was so hot so I’m borrowing a shawl. It truly is relaxing here. No traffic, just the lap of waves and the sound of wildlife. I am meant to be writing but did a bit of admin first. I swear I’m losing my mind but luckily I found it again.

I have done a bit more work on Amber Rose and I was very worried I was stuck. However, my good friend Maxine said not to think about it and it would come to me and it has in bits and snippets. I think the important stuff is the emotional side of the action and I think that’s hit me now. I have a few days here to get stuck in. I hope to clear 50,000 words this week.

We are back in Sydney next week for a Wardruna concert, travelling by train. We were here last weekend and I think the one before. My daughter has moved and it looks to me I’ll be here more often than previously. My sister is back from NZ so she will be my next destination in the Sydney area.

With this change I’m getting a bit spun about. How to do I make goals for the new year? What should I focus on? I feel like I’m just running and running and going here and there. I’m sure it will settle once I get used to the changes in my life.

Travel wise, I’ll be at the ARRA signings in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne in March 2025 and the Ages of Pages in Hamilton New Zealand on 26 April 2025. Do come along! There are going to be panel discussions and interesting things.

Wait for it! My banner

You can see why I really need to finish Amber Rose and get it ready! It’s on the advert!

At least my dizzy feeling of being spun about is shared by my partner, also a writer, and he at least has deadlines to meet and is diligent about writing. I must give up streaming stuff, or only watch after I have done my quota.

Well I best stop writing now and get to work. Until next time.

Read Full Post »

A preview of my end of year round up

Posted in am wrinting, Australian author, author appearances, Culling craft, revision, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on December 2, 2024| Leave a Comment »

This post is based on an email I sent to the CSFG group. It has been amended.

We came back from the UK end of February 2024 and I hit the ground running. In March I attended two signing events one in Sydney and one in Melbourne, organised by the Australian Romance Readers. I’ll be appearing again in 2025 in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne next year.

I joined the CSFG novel crit group and got to work on revising The Founders’ Legacy for submission. The crit group requires members to read a novel a month for critique so it was a pretty hectic year on the reading front. The only time I read just for pleasure was when my book was up for crit.

Sihem (Now a The Founders’ Legacy) was my phd novel. I kept thinking that was going to take months to revise, but I knew it was a couple of weeks focussed work and I was right. As I had put this novel on submission I haven’t revised it yet. Not only do I have the crit to apply as I choose, I have some thoughts in my head.

I also revised Grandma Needs: Through the Pantry Door, my children’s fantasy. I drafted this last year. I have continued to put this out on submission. However, it’s a competitive market out there so we will have to see.

I submitted two short stories during the year and they were rejected too. However, I got the idea to do a collection of Robot stories, which led to Robot Hearts, science fiction collection. This included six previously unpublished stories. A few were older, and I wrote three new ones from scratch. That collection was published in September. I had a lot of fun with this.

I also wrote Destiny’s Blood, Book Three in the Cursed Ones series under my Dani Kristoff name. That was published earlier this month.

I’m about 37,000 words in book three of the Cry Havoc series, my steampunk series, featuring Manners, magic and mayhem. I had hoped to have had that published this year but it looks like next year. However, I am still drafting this so who knows, I may get the first draft done by the end of the year who knows?


I also started another book /novella called Louisa’s Choice, but that’s about 10,000 words in and has been for a while. It is kinda a reverse harem/why choose book possibly series.

I still have a revision on a Regency romance to do as I have two lots of beta reader feedback and a number of other things on the go, like a YA/Cross over fantasy that is drafted but needs restructuring and the next book written.

I don’t think I’m anywhere near as productive as I wished to be, but I’ve made a start. There are days when I can’t even sit at my desk. No idea why. I reduced my day job to two days and still I am not as productive and as enthusiastic as I want to be.

I also did a few events. Gamacon in Canberra and Fiction and Friction in Adelaide. I’m set for a few more in 2025. I’ve also attended a few writing related things like romance reader lunches, romance writer get togethers and an occasional CSFG thing. I went to Romance Writers of Australia conference in Adelaide and the World SF convention in Glasgow.

I spent of time on the back office stuff too, website/blog etc. I set up a pay hip store for my books. Many thanks to Keri Arthur for help there.

I read through Ruby Heart and Emerald Fire to correct typos and created hard backs and large print hard backs. I also published a hardback version of Vorn and the First Comers, which is a prequel novella to another series. I have more to do on this front. I also bought a microphone and have been practising reading for audio book purposes. I’m not entirely there yet. Although I didn’t meet my own expectations, I think I can safely say I’ve had a writerly year. I watch way too much streamed shows and don’t read enough either.
‘
Life is hotting up for the end of year. I am expecting family to visit from Singapore. My two eldest granddaughters are turning 18 in January and both graduated from high school this year. My eldest daughter is moving to Sydney with my youngest granddaughter. My other daughter announced she eloped in August. My grandson is back from overseas and doing well.

Life is constantly changing around us.

On a more personal front I have had a bit of a crisis. I have a craft room and I haven’t been in the craft room for a long time. It’s chaos in there and I’m at the stage where I feel the need to cull, that maybe I have to get rid of some things so I can focus on a few things. I have legacy silk flower makings, millinery projects and supplies, a floor loom, dressmaking stuff, yarn, quilting supplies, embroidery kits and the rest. I’m a regular craft junkie. I feel that way about the house too, but mostly the garage and all the crap that is in there. I’ve been warning Matthew that he might have to supervise as I will throw his stuff out. Rolls eyes. Maybe this is a good thing and not a sign of some impending life crisis. I’ve put on weight. My eldest said I have ballooned. It’s a battle to keep fit, exercise, do all the craft, writing and stuff and work. I feel that I’m going to go mental just trying to do everything. So maybe 2025 is about new beginnings, giving myself a break and throwing crap out. I want order, not chaos. However, order requires consistency and work and that’s the hard part.

Speaking of hobbies. Yesterday I did a cooking course. We made ricotta gnocchi and biscotti. I made cranberry and almond biscotti. I really can’t help myself can I?

And if you want to join my newsletter, where I share promotions and giveaways. Try here.

Read Full Post »

Fiction and Friction Event Adelaide

Posted in A writer's life, author appearances, Author signing event, Romance, Romance fiction, Romance reader convention, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 17, 2024| Leave a Comment »

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 art
The 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 up
I 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.

Read Full Post »

Achieving Goals

Posted in A writer's life, am wrinting, Argenterra, Australian author, author appearances, epic fantasy, fantasy, General excitment, magic, tagged , , , , , , , , , on July 24, 2024| Leave a Comment »

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.

Until next time.

Read Full Post »

The dreaded lurgy aftermath

Posted in A writer's life, am wrinting, Australian author, author appearances, tagged , , , , , , , , on July 13, 2024| Leave a Comment »

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

I have a preorder form for this event here.

I’m also with Chris Andrews at Gamacon on 27 July, 2024 at the Canberra raceway. Link here.

Talk soon!

Read Full Post »

Mixed bag

Posted in A writer's life, Argenterra, author appearances, feminism and romance, Free book, phd, Romance scholarship, tagged , , , , , , on May 31, 2016| Leave a Comment »

This morning I went to the dentist to get my chipped tooth fixed. I now have my smile back. It was a small chip to my front tooth, but it happened just after I gave up my extras health cover. Anyway, the damage wasn’t too bad financially. I will have to be careful about what I eat in future. Given my weight gain, I could probably stand no eating!

I’m at the stage of my PhD where the more I read the more stupid I feel. There is so much to know about the world and I know I haven’t even touched a 0.000001 per cent of it. I feel like if I open my mouth something stupid is going to come out. Or does come out. I know this is untrue of course! I’m not entirely stupid! (just marginally or slightly stupid, lol) It’s just that I’m dwelling in some emotional gutter where PhD candidates fall after the first splurge of excitement. I want to know everything about my topic! I can only do a small portion of what I’m aiming for. Live with it!

Writing/drafting an academic paper was like sliding a stiletto around my insides while singing the national anthem. A relief when it is over. I will be getting comments from my supervisor to get it to the next stage so I’ll just put the stiletto over here so it’s ready for when I need it.

I had a wonderful long series of dreams/thoughts about my creative piece for the PhD. It was the most rounded piece of imagination in relation to it, that I might even draft a rough outline. Today, I’ve printed out an article that the lovely Russell Kirkpatrick recommended to me after I was whining about how hard Gender Trouble by Judith Butler was to understand, particularly when she starts dissecting the psychoanalysts. Butler’s book inspired lots of creative thoughts for my fiction piece. I may not get it all into my head, but it was thought provoking. The article is Taking Butler elsewhere: performativities, spatialities and subjectivities by Gregson, N and Rose, G, 199. It’s right here in front of me.

Another issue I find is that I have to reread articles and books. I take notes, of course, but then on rereading I see other things that I’d missed before. This is because the reading expands your understanding and then you read something else and make further connections until you get an ‘aha’ moment.  I have a lot of reading done, heaps more to do but the thought I may have to read it again. Eep! Add to the that the suspicion that my reading mojo is not quite up to par yet. Retention is difficult at times. I need to find the right balance of stress and relaxation so that my retention is better.

I have a few retro romances waiting for me to read them. I find I am developing preferences and dislikes. I don’t think movie star love stories thrill me much. The lifestyles of the uber rich likewise, unless written by Roberta Leigh because she excels at that stuff. The stories with  a young, ignorant nanny employed in the Bahamas doesn’t do it for me either, but there might be exceptions. I don’t mind the cowboy romances. Usually the dude is not a rich guy, machoing over someone. This is based on only limited number of books so far. Marriage of convenience stories are usually not bad. A lot of my selection appears to be Australian and New Zealand romances (funny that) and they are usually different from the English ones. It appears I have no Helen Bianchin so I’ll have to get some of those.

In other news, I went to listen to Dan O’Malley being interviewed by Colin Steele last night about his new book, Stiletto. The theatre was packed. Dan was amusing (as ever) and the signing queue long.

The Goodreads giveaway for Argenterra is progressing well. I’ve not ever done one before. I will post back here and let you know how it goes and what it means in the wash.

The link to the Giveaway is here.

Read Full Post »

Older Posts »