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Archive for the ‘new release’ Category

Spicing things up on the writing front

Posted in Steampunk, Edits, fantasy, A writer's life, am wrinting, general excitement, self publishing, new release, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on August 20, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Yesterday, Amethyst Way word count increased to 20,000 words. All that pool inspiration is working. I have a lot more to do just to jazz up the three scenes I have targeted. But, the edits for Gentleman Magician have come in and this morning I diverted to them. Not that I’m racing to get it out the door and published as that takes a bit of work.

I publish wide and a do a print version so this means I have ISBNs to assign, which in turn means I need to work on a blurb and assign the different ISBNs. Admin work, but still work.

I need to register the book with the National Library of Australia so it makes the catalogue.

If I do a preorder, which I can as I have all the things I need, I would then need to register the book on all my sales platforms and that takes more time. More admin. I would also then need to do the layout, which in Vellum is pretty easy, except I have to do things like write author notes, update also buy links and well more admin.

Then there is the proofreading. This time I will do this myself by reading the story aloud. I had a good copy edit so am confident that the MS is pretty clean. This may take a while because I hate people hearing me read aloud. Go figure. But if I sent it for a proofread I would need to book it in and wait a couple of weeks or more for the proof to be completed, then take up the changes.

Then when I am happy I will upload the final manuscript to all the ebook retailers. And then I will know the physical page count so I can do my cover template to send to the cover designer. Then when she sends me the cover, I am ready to upload the print book. The printer (Ingram Sparks) does an eproof and then I can hit print if everything is okay.

Then there is announcements, soft launches, ordering copies and so on.

Admin is the opposite of creativity! Like doing your taxes while trying to draft a massive fantasy novel. For me, admin is the pits and the bane of creativity. I don’t know why because I was a public servant and they live for admin! Hahaha!

I also have some logistics for the physical book launch of The Founders’ Legacy in Canberra upon my return.

However, nothing compares to a good new book unboxing. You find most authors will show photos, videos, post you name it. Because their baby is born. Anyway, it is possible, Gentleman Magician will be out in the world mid-September. In time for Books and Beyond in Ourimbah or Ozcomicon in Sydney earlier.

It is official. I’m excited. Here is the awesome cover again.

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There is movement at the station…

Posted in A writer's life, Creative passion, new release, Singapore, Steampunk, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 5, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Gentleman Magician is with the editor. Phew! My son and daughter-in-law were away all day Monday until later in the evening so it was my chance to knuckle down and finish writing/revising/reading through the manuscript. I didn’t get the whole thing done until Tuesday morning, but it is done and it is sent at 50,000 words–full of Edward, Fulton and Dr Heaton. Sorry no Jemima!

I had fun with it and it was a challenge. Prequels can be difficult, for sure, because you have to tie into those things you set up on the novels. Also, there is no romance in it…I can’t have Edward being unfaithful to Jemima, even if it is before they get together.

Right now, I’m onto Amethyst Way. Here is the cover! A big thank you to Frauke at Crocodesigns.

It’s early days on the writing front. I have some words down and will get some more in after I have finished blogging. Amethyst Way will feature Milly and Jemima and using some Victorian era cliches– letters to convey information (not the whole book just the set up) and faerie entwined into the story.

Of course, I meant to start this two weeks ago but with The Founders’ Legacy autocorrect debacle, which delayed me finishing Gentleman Magician, I am about two weeks behind on Amethyst Way. And technically I was meant to write another novel about Jemima’s father and mother, which had to be skipped for now.

I’m so excited to be writing this story. My sister-in-law, who is a big fan of the Cry Havoc series, said she’d love a story about Milly and as The Prudential Light was Aunt Prudence’s memoir and Amber Rose was about Fulton, it seemed only fair to focus on Milly. Of course, that suggestion gave me ideas!

I am hoping to have Gentleman Magician in print before Books and Beyond on 27 September in Ourimbah. I think my chances are good. I will definitely have copies for all the October events, Conflux, Once Upon a Fairytale, the Goulburn Steampunk Festival and Books in Sight event in Canberra.

Anyway, I’m so excited.

Tonight we are eating out near Orchard Road I think because we are seeing The Odyssey in one of the Singapore Imax theatres. I haven’t ventured out in recent days, except for the pool, which is downstairs and a few laps of the complex in the evening. This is by choice as I want to write.

I know I’m in Singapore, but apart from a few things I have not done, I’ve seen most touristy things. However, now the busy things are done, I should be able to write in the mornings and explore Singapore in the afternoons, maybe even on my own. I usually go out with my daughter-in-law but you know I am a big girl now. We do have a favourite Japanese grocery store called Don, Don, Donki and will get back there soon.

I am going to a book event at the Book Bar on Friday to see Home, Truly and Beyond: Singapore’s Speculative Fiction Writers. It will feature Joyce Chng, Elaine Boey and Megan Chee with moderator Meihan Boey (I love her books). Me and my phone will find the venue.

My son is going to China and Vietnam for work on Sunday, which is Singapore’s national day. I’m likely to stay at home as we are near one of the major venues and there will be so many people, if the run up events are any indication. My son is away for ten days and that leaves me and my daughter-in-law to hang out by ourselves. My son’s absence couldn’t be helped as work is important. I head back at the end of the month, so I’ll have a final week with my son then. It all seems too quick to me. A day short of five weeks! It sounded like a long time but it’s not really. My daughter-in-law suggests I come for three months next time. Matthew has a permanent invitation, too, but alas the old kitty kat, Gin, does not.

Anyway, that’s it from me at the moment. The Founders’ Legacy is out in the world. The physical book launch will be on Monday 31 August at Smiths in Civic, Canberra. The first book physical book launch in literally years.

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Currently in Sydney

Posted in Creative passion, feminism and romance, Feminist Science Fiction, new release, SF romance, The Founders' Legacy, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 2, 2026| Leave a Comment »

It is going to be 23 degrees C today. It’s mid-Winter and that is batshit crazy. Mind you it’s about 10 degrees in Canberra atm but even that is a bit warm for Canberra at this time of year.

I have retired from my day job (Tuesday) and have come to spread my wings in the big city for a few days as a newly freed woman. Hah! (Mostly to meet people while I have the chance).

Interesting insight into the mind here. I used to think those two days I worked the day job were such an imposition. I worked hard and I was tired after. Now though my brain says…oh two days that’s nothing. You won’t get much work done now you have those two days! You could have kept working and earning $$$. I mean what the hell brain! Don’t be stupid and play around here.

Anyway, now I have to prove my own brain wrong.

I have brought Gentleman Magician with me to start the revision after beta reader feedback. That’s what you do after you launch a book, pick up the next one. The problem I have is that I have a soggy beginning in Gentleman Magician, not surprising as it’s a kind of prequel, a solid middle and a vague, cut off ending. Which means I have a bit of work to do. I did a bit of work on the train up yesterday but right now, obviously as I’m blogging, I’m a bit unfocussed.

I am going to eat lunch out so I am dreaming about Gozleme and whether there is any fresh stuff about…I can’t have any more tea because I have enough caffeine in me that I can’t sit still for five minutes. I will probably excavate my daughter’s cupboard for snacks soon and then complain about my weight. I am nothing if not consistent.

As mentioned, I launched the ebook of The Founders’ Legacy on Tuesday. I am currently planning a physical launch but that may be in early September because I am nicking off to Singapore for five weeks soon and appearing at the Canberra Geek Expo on 18 and 19 July. And I have to arrange for books to be delivered. I tried to book a launch just after Geek Expo before I fly out but the venue is unavailable…so…September. I shall keep you posted.

I am also working on an audio book. Cringe! I hate the sound of my own voice for starters. Also, weird things happen you know. Like one of the characters is called Kai and I have in two separate recordings of chapter one mispronounced the name Kai. And not noticed until I finished the recording for the chapter. The first time I call Kai Kal, which is a mix up with the main character Tal. I thought no problem I’ll just record that bit, snip the recording, delete the offending bit and insert the new bit. But for some very strange reason I am loud and sound very different in the redone recording. I delete the whole chapter and go back to the beginning. It’s all practice right?

The next time when I am editing I noticed I have called Kai “Kate”. Kate! There is no Kate. What the hell is my brain telling my mouth. This time I do a bit of research and can alter the inserted new bit which is loud etc and smooth it in. Not sure I’ll keep it but I did manage to do that using the Audacity envelope tool and manually manipulating the wave form.

Other interesting observations about recording an audio book, beside being exhausting, is stumbling over your own tongue. Yes, the tongue twisting words. There have been a few. One I edited out. The worn brown modular lounge… That does not work in spoken lingo so it changed to “Old brown modular lounge.” Self-congratulatory. Yeah that one. Gez man. Tongue gymnastics there. Preliminary…another twister.

When you record an audio book and you don’t have the stamina, experience and perspicacity, you get tired, your mouth stops working, your lips turn to jelly and your tongue becomes like a piece of disobedient rubber. Blah! Blah! Bleargh!

However, as The Founders’ Legacy uses single pronouns I think it will be more accessible as an audio book so I will perservere.

The only thing I have achieved is an audio book cover so I can’t back out now.

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The Founders’ Legacy- Is live!

Posted in A writer's life, feminism and romance, Feminist Science Fiction, Gender queer, Genderless, new release, Non-binary, SF romance, tagged , , , , , on June 30, 2026| Leave a Comment »

I am sorry I did not write this before when I had pre orders up. I had a sudden bereavement and everything went a bit pear-shaped.

My PhD novel is here.

I have blogged about this before so scroll back. However, I will say that I am currently working on the audio book, which I think it will make it more accessible. Reading a single non-gendered pronoun is hard enough (try writing it) but listening should be better. I shall let you know.

Also, a special introductory price of $2.99 au is in effect until 14 July, 2026 and $1.99 US

Here is the blurb

The Founders created them free and equal.

In the domed habitat of Frequil, sixteen-year-old Tal 455 is now an adult. Like every sihem—a genderless human engineered by the Founders—Tal has been raised to value harmony and the collective good, where every citizen has a place.

When Tal proposes an experiential history machine to explore Frequil’s origins, the ruling council reluctantly approves it under strict supervision. Paired with Gen 456, a certified genius, Tal begins uncovering fragments of the Founders’ world that were never meant to be seen.

Hidden among the archives are stories of men and women living in a society with different rules. Fascinated, Tal and Gen use their machine to experience a forbidden past—and begin questioning everything they have been taught about themselves.

They were created to be equal…not different.

File under YA/SF Gender queer

Links

Buy links

Google Play

Amazon.com.au

Barnes and Noble

Kobo

Apple https

My store buy direct 

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There’s movement at the station!

Posted in A writer's life, Creative passion, Cry Havoc series, new release, Steampunk, tagged , , , on May 3, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Gentleman Magician is at 40,000 words. This is going to be a novella and I think I can finish it soon. I just have to write the ending scenes. I’m so excited. It’s taken me a bit longer to write than I planned but I have enjoyed not rushing. The Cry Havoc series continues. Steampunk and magic, with a side order of sandwiches. I’m really excited to be exploring the relationship between Edward Huntington, Ambrose Fulton and Jasper Heaton.

After I’ve done a bit of research, I’ll be starting Book Five, The Amethyst Way, featuring Jemima of course, and an adventure for Milly. Not sure I’ll write the prequel novella about Jemima’s father and mother but we shall see.

I’ve given up shopping my PhD novel, The Founders’ Legacy, to agents and publishers. The small Australian presses I had in mind are closed to subs. I have a feeling it’s a bit woke for the current climate in the USA and bad economics and global uncertainty don’t help either. Anyway, I did try. So the other day, I found a cover. Let me know what you think. It is SF YA/Adult cross over. I’ve got to work on the blurb. This is what I have so far:

Sixteen-year-old Tal is graduating from pod life and dreams of developing an experiential history machine to explore the past. When Tal’s research project is initially refused, that future seems impossible. After negotiation, approval is granted on two conditions: Tal must stay clear of the Founders’ lives and work alongside a young genius named Gen.

While mining data in the city’s systems, Tal uncovers the Founders’ arbitrary decisions that shaped Frequil’s genderless society. Fictional texts from the past introduce the idea of binary gender. Drawn by forbidden knowledge, Tal and Gen use their invention to experience what it was like to live as a pre-Frequil man and woman. As their bond deepens, the biological template that made Tal genderless begins to break down…

The Founders’ Legacy explores gender, love, and autonomy in a society that believes these concepts are no longer relevant.

In other news, I have eye surgery on Thursday for the fast growing cataract that is the result of my previous eye surgery, the vitrectomy ilast September. I’m half blind and typing this is fraught!

I have one upcoming appearance June 12, Newcastle Book Boyfriend. I’m heading to a Regency Weekend on the 14th and I’m madly sewing for it. Between writing and craft and bad posture I hurt.

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The Prudential Light-launches tomorrow

Posted in A writer's life, blurb, new release, Steampunk, strong female lead, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 15, 2025| Leave a Comment »

The ebook is loaded on all the platforms.

I’ve started the process for print production. Just in time because Frauke, the cover designer is taking off on holidays! There will be a paper back version, a hardback version and a large print accessible version (mostly for libraries).

We have updated the blurb. I saw ‘we’ because Matthew Farrer did the hard yards. I send him my thoughts and he turns them into blurbs.

New and updated blurb

A book of manners, magic and mayhem

Aunt Prudence Wainwright, famously daunting dragon lady of the Hardcastle family, has set herself to writing her memoirs. But which Prudence will have her story come out?  

Will it be the maiden aunt who lived quietly in a small village, bringing up her niece Milly and sewing and embroidering to her heart’s content? Maybe it will be the outrageously-dressed, old busybody whose battle of wills with her niece, Jemima, unfolded in Ruby Heart? Better yet, the doughty old warrior hidden under the lace and brocade, who fought off villains with her hatpins and umbrella in Emerald Fire?  Perhaps it will be the family matriarch featured in Amber Rose, prim, dependable, astute at procuring baked goods and deft at baby wrangling, who is at times a tad flirtatious with the older gentry?  Or will these memoirs reveal yet another side of Prudence that the rest of the Hardcastles have yet to see?

With the family’s magical gifts running through her veins, there will be plenty to astonish her relations: adventures, abandonment, heartbreak, secret loves, and dangers. But with new babies on the scene, marriage proposals, battles with rogue magicians, and the very past she is recalling bursting back into her life in startling ways, how will she ever find the time to finish writing!

I’m very excited to see it out there in the world. I can’t wait for feedback, truly. It might be a bit different from the other books in the series.

I’ve started work on The Gentleman Magician but I’m getting lots of ideas for Book 5 so much so that I found it hard to sleep last night. I’m going to be playing around with tropes and cliches. I’m currently contemplating a title too.

Some pre order links but it is also listed on Google Play Books, Barnes and Noble.

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Amber Rose is out there

Posted in A writer's life, Amber Rose, Book launch, book signing, Cry Havoc series, new release, victorian paranormal, tagged , , , , , , , , , on April 11, 2025| Leave a Comment »

That sounds like a tag line from the Xfiles! Hahaha.

Now all I have to do is wait in case some one likes it enough to give me a review. Taps fingers on the desk.

On launch day, yesterday, I had my hair done. I don’t think I mentioned this story. I was feeling a bit down, a bit anxious around the middle of March. I decided I wanted to dye my hair grey, steel grey. I did not do any research. Rocked up to a random new salon and asked for that. I was shown a colour and that looked ash grey to me. However, I walked out of there with medium ash brown hair. Matthew blinked when he saw me. That’s not what I was expecting, he said. I was miserable about it. My mates were great and told me the new colour looked great. It made me look younger, which is true. Yesterday, I got it fixed. Previous posts you will see a different hair colour.

I like my new hair. It’s not steel grey yet. I put a lighter champangne type rinse in it. After the last shock colour I wanted to be careful. I have planned a bit birthday bash for my 65th birthday in early May. For the birthday party, I will do steel grey. However, I am very happy and it made launch day special. Bonus is that today my order arrived so I have some print copies.

New hair!

New hair. New Book.

I’m hosting a birthday dinner for a friend tomorrow. And I’m making a cake today. I’m going to try for a black forest cake. My first time. If it sucks of course I’ll duck out and buy a cake instead.

I pop off to New Zealand next week. I’ll be in Hamilton at the Ages of Pages book signing event on the 26th of April. Back just in time for my party!

PS I forgot to mention. Did you all see the Murderbot trailer dropped? I’m so excited. I loved the books.

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Amber Rose Blurb

Posted in blurb, tagged , , , , , , on March 19, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Amber Rose is currently having a second round of edits but we are getting closer.

Launch date is set for April 10 2025.

We have a blurb

Amber Rose

A book of manners, magic and mayhem…and, perhaps, a tad too many scones

All Ambrose Fulton wants is to enjoy his idyllic life at Hatfield, helping his wife Milly raise their little son, tolerating Aunt Prudence and entertaining their friends.

What he gets is a ferocious assault from a violet-eyed automaton that devastates the estate and makes off with his enchanted clockwork arm, brutally ripped from his shoulder. To the rescue, barely in time to save his life, come friends Edward Huntington, gentleman magician, and his wife, the monster-slayer Jemima. 

Whoever sent the machine can only have wanted one thing: to glean the secrets of Huntington’s magical mechanical designs for purposes clearly nefarious. Now as well as wrangling an anxious innkeeper, a fake heir, interfering magistrates, odd magicians and some thoroughly unexpected visitors, they must uncover their mysterious enemy’s identity and stop them or who knows what evil ends Huntington’s inventions will be put to?

Next is to register ISBNs, put up pre order links etc.

I’m off to Brisbane and Sydney over the weekend just when I’m expecting my edit back. However, we shall solider on. Don’t forget tickets are now at the door. I believe panels are in the morning and the signing/book selling is from lunch time.

While I was waiting for the edits of Amber Rose, I managed to polish up a Regency Romance I drafted way back in 2016. I’ve lobbed it at a trad publisher. The reason I mention this is that I am very proud of my productivity and have been thoroughly enjoying writing in February and March.

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Big news!

Posted in Creative passion, new release, phd, Science Fiction Romance, tagged , , , on December 4, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Two major things occurred this week.

I delivered my printed and bound thesis to the university to complete my Phd. It is a week shy of a year from when I submitted it. Honestly, the longest 12 months ever due to the administration at the university. Anyway, I hope to graduate in April in person but I’m likely to have my degree conferred before then. This now means I can start work on developing my Phd novel, Sihem, for publication, actually to submit to agents first up. I have structural edits to take up. You might ask why do I need to do that. Didn’t I just do a PhD in creative writing? Yes, I did but I was limited to word length and also I explored themes related to my PhD topic and that restricted how much time I devoted to other aspects of world building. That’s my January sorted.

The second big bit of news is Awakening has been published to most e retailers. I’m about to hit print on the print version too. I haven’t updated my links yet. There’s a lot going on as we finish off renovations and painting and pay attention to family visiting in the lead up to Christmas.

I wanted to share with you a bit about the genesis of Awakenings. It started with a kind of a poem as I sat by my mother in the early morning in the later stages of her life. She didn’t die that time but it was close. So I sat there at 2 am watching her on April 19 2014, looking at her pale white skin, her shallow breaths and then wrote down the ideas that came to me. Here is what I wrote:

Bring out the soldiers who lie within their frozen crypts

Do not wake them or disturb them

Their time is done

They gave us this peace, t his life and we are thankful.

Let not their sleeping, tranquil faces beguile you

They are bringers of death, purveyors of harm

It is time to let them go

Let them burn

Their flesh to no more rise

Let us grasp a future where they no longer exist

Where we are free

I don’t claim to be a poet, but these words were the genesis behind Awakening. I used some of these words and the ideas behind them for the novel. Here is the blurb.

Bring out the cold soldiers who lie in frozen sleep.

Do not wake them nor let their tranquil faces beguile.

They are purveyors of death.

They must burn!

What soldiers?  Colony Five has been proudly peaceful since before living memory. 

The cryptic new orders make no sense to Deleen Milo… until she sees the burning bodies in the stasis sarcophagi.  She tries to uncover the truth behind the mysterious soldiers, only to become adrift in a colony suddenly full of secrets and threats.  Who wants the soldiers destroyed and the colony defenceless?

Pursued into hiding, Deleen manages to revive Rik Chesson, a Cold Soldier trying to understand the new world waiting for him after 134 years of cryosleep.  Deleen has never trusted easily, and Rik’s nanotech-infused posthuman form sets her nerves on edge.  But they are the only ones who can rescue the surviving Cold Soldiers and defend the colony against a deadly new threat.  They have to work together, and as they begin to truly know one another Deleen realises that however Rik’s body may have changed, the man inside might just be one she can love…

It has taken a while to get this book published. I started out thinking it would one thing but Nicole Murphy who was my first reader suggested I take a different tack. Every time I was part way through a revision something else would crop up and some of those revisions were big. This year, I had another beta reader, Lily, who did an amazing job and her comments helped me focus on getting it done and out there. I hope you like it.

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The Changeling Curse by Dani Kristoff is out. Finally!

Posted in Australian author, General excitment, new release, Paranormal romance, tagged , , , , , , on June 22, 2022| Leave a Comment »

After years of struggle, it’s out. I’ve uploaded the ebook to retailers and it should filter into the net shortly.

Print book is still a few weeks away but I hope to have it available at Gammacon in Canberra 22nd July through to 24 July. Come grab a copy!

Blurb

Rolf Bauer, alpha of the Canberra werewolf pack, thought his life was getting back to normal after the defeat of the evil sorceress Nira.  But a new curse has appeared, transforming random humans into werewolves in a brutal forced change that none of its victims has survived… until now.

Up-and-coming journalist Abbie McGregor is the only human to survive the Changeling Curse, and her world turns upside-down as Rolf nurtures her through the change and into her new existence as a werewolf.  As part of his pack, Abbie must not only master her inner wolf and control her surging sexual desires, but submit to the leadership of her alpha.  And that is something she swears she will not do, despite the attraction flaring between them.

As they hunt the sorcerer behind the new curse Abbie pushes Rolf to the edge, challenging him to explore his hunger for power and for love.  And Rolf must guide and protect the headstrong Abbie, the only one who knows their enemy’s scent and can track him down… unless he kills them both first!

PS it’s a bit hot this one.

PSS now I can work on Awakenings–SF adventure from me!

Great cover by Cathy’s Covers

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