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It’s me again

Posted in A writer's life, am wrinting, Creative passion, Life, the universe and everthing, Singapore, Travel, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 27, 2026| Leave a Comment »

My last day in Singapore.

I reached 30,000 words on Amethyst Way, Cry Havoc Book 5, which is not too shabby. I’m very excited about this.

With Gentleman Magician, Cry Havoc Novella, I’m waiting on feedback from Matthew on the blurb. I need to blurb to create entries of the National Library and the ISBNs and preorders and so on.

Now I have reached my goal, I’m about to head out to do some gift shopping and we might eat out for my last night here. At present I still have to pack but all my clothes are on the bed waiting to be stuffed around gifts and things.

In other world news, there are terrible floods in Nepal, which are awful and bring back horrible memories of the Boxing Day tsunami. I was not affected directly, just emotionally by that disaster. Climate change disaster!

As well as Dolly Parton passing away, Tim Curry has joined her. More icons falling.

In the old days of Live Journal I used to blog about life and stuff. And I’ve been thinking about this recently, particular AI and it’s impact. My writer brain goes into story mode and I toss ideas around. The trouble is those thoughts are scary.

My latest thought is that our children or grandchildren or even ourselves will have to pay for knowledge. At present, you Google something and the AI comes back you, offering help and so on. But when we are all dependent on AI, and our children can no longer think for themselves, the billionaires may start charging us for knowledge, for information.

Information that was created by humans, created by us and that is mostly free.

That’s a bit scary right. Then, what about AI changing information and us losing our history. How will we know what is right and what is wrong?

My answer? Librarians and books. Real, analogue books. But what if they disappear as wekk? What if we can no longer learn from history because that history has been rewritten and knowledge is transactional on a fee for service basis. I am sure someone has written a book like this already.

It sucks to be a writer sometimes because the brain goes to weird places.

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Spicing things up on the writing front

Posted in A writer's life, am wrinting, Edits, fantasy, general excitement, new release, self publishing, Steampunk, 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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Mad about maps

Posted in A writer's life, am wrinting, Creative passion, Maps, tagged , , , , , , , , , on August 14, 2026| Leave a Comment »

In a recent post, I talked about losing Russell Kirkpatrick. Yesterday, I dug up the maps he made for my books over the years.

I remember him telling me to draw a map and on one visit to Australia from NZ I showed him my hand drawn map of Argenterra, of which I was very proud. Of course, it was a bit like the expression his family included in their powerpoint about Russell at the memorial. “That’s terrible. I appreciate the effort.”

Although he may have been a bit more scathing. Lol. (I do really suck at this map thing). He was ‘Mad about Maps’ and I think his Twitter handle was ‘Insane Mapboy’ and you can imagine him seeing my pitiful drawing compared the carefully crafted maps he drew for his books. They were real places to him, everything considered carefully, cause and effect, geography, perfectly envisioned. And there’s me with a map, my head in a story and not really able to imagine and draw the place as well as him. However, he was helpful and liked to instruct.

The map helped me navigate the land in the Silverlands series and he sat with me to talk about naming conventions and how languages changed over time. I had a place called Two Rivers Meet and he said that it would be better as Trivers Meet or something similar. He also talked about some place names and from whose perspective they were named from. It was an incredibly helpful discussion and he also helped me flesh out a few things about the geography. He also prompted me to give the place a few more names so it wasn’t just empty in places. I also had the Lake of Reflections drawn way to big!

This is the map of Argenterra he did for me, based on my drawing but with extensive Russell improvements.

The next set of maps we worked on were Dragon Wine maps, three in total. It wasn’t a matter of just handing him a rough drawing. No, I had to sit with him and learn stuff too. Dragon Wine opens in Shatterwing at the prison vineyard and this is how we envisioned it. It was Russell’s idea to have the vineyard broken into types of grapes and we also had fun naming the rivers and things to fit in with what I had mentioned in the book. This map was included in the Pan Macmillian version of the book but somehow slipped out of my self published version. I’ll be fixing that soon.

The other map pertinent to the first and second books, Shatterwing and Skywatcher, is the map of the Sartell region. They also work for Nightwings and Bloodstorm. It also shows where the prison vineyard is, where the observatory is and Vanden town as well as Sartell. Some of these places are explored in the rest of the series.

For the last two books, I needed a map of the whole world of Margra. As it was post-apocalyptic, after a moon fell, there would be significant changes compared to the past, which is unknown. The map needed to be a sort of pieced together map that identifies past continents, swamped shorelines and maybe even conjecture. Russell did a bit of research on this and also drew on past experience of seeing maps where things were guestimated rather than measured and so on.

So for Skyfire and Moonfall, we have a different map. I love the little note at the bottom saying it was compiled by Nils of Barr. Sitting with Russell to do this was not easy because I had to have the names of all the things I referenced and then explain them to Russell. Some are just mentioned in reference to pre-Shatterwing and are not actually travelled during the story. I think Russell wanted to educate me but I can’t replace him with regards to maps. Some people are just good at visualising. Me not so much.

If I do maps in the future, well not sure how that is going to go. I use sketches of houses and things to navigate and describe but not publish them.

Russell thank you for helping me envisage worlds. You taught me so much but I have a lot to learn still.

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Singapore Speculative Fiction Event

Posted in A writer's life, Creative passion, Singapore, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on August 10, 2026| Leave a Comment »

A local author friend alerted me to a Singapore Speculative Fiction Event at the Book Bar, in Outram Park (actually it is close to Maxwell MRT). So I booked a free ticket and headed over on Friday last. The event was called Home, Truly & Beyond and featured Elaine Boey, Megan Chee and Joyce Chng with moderator Meihan Boey (fangirl squee!).

Duxton Road walking down from the Maxwell MRT station was a lovely experience. There are a mass of old ‘shophouses’ which are now fancy restaurants and exclusive bars.

I discovered a bookstore, called Littered with Books. Great name. I was early so went in to check it out. Bought a special book and then headed out. Littered with Books has lots of books, a lot of international SF and fantasy among the usual collection. The Book Bar was something else all together. It was full of South East Asian books and Singapore books and had a little bar, with food at reasonable prices. I did a quick survey of the books and bought my first round It was all set up for the talk too. I grabbed a drink and found a seat.

The view walking up/down Duxton Road.

Meihan talked about why she had organised this talk because while some Singapore writers were known outside Singapore they were sort of overlooked at home. The three writers talked about how they got published, when they started writing, the complexities of being Singaporean and trying to be noticed, particularly with agents and publishers. They talked about crickets when writing to agents. What a great term for the awful experience of querying agents and hearing nothing at all.

The picture of pretalk get together as they waited for the audience.

This picture is one of the panel underway.

They also read from various of their books. Elaine’s Small Bites had me drooling. It’s a body horror collection I believe but the food descriptions were so precise and real. Which is available for preorder. Next on my to do list along with ordering Megan Chee’s Archaeology of Falling Worlds. I bought Wolf Path by Joyce Chng and will do a little review below.

A picture of my book haul.

As for Meihan Boey, I have read her Miss Cassidy Trilogy, having bought them on previous visits. Recommended by my friend Dev J. They are now published internationally and you should definitely read them. So good. A blend of Victorian capitalism and Singapore blend of culture, myths and legends with a splash Scottish faerie.

The Wolf’s Path by Joyce Chng

The Wolf’s Path has made the British Fantasy Awards Shortlist for best collection and I can see why. It is part memoir and part story collection from older stories to newer ones. I find it quite intriguing as many of the fears and concerns Joyce writes about echo in me. Apocalypse, post-apocalyse, war, belonging, gender, aging. I am three quarters of the way through the collection. Joyce has a unique voice and at times uses lyrical prose. One story in particular stood out for me. “A Basketful of Figs”, featuring a fig tree in a courtyard, a symbol of permanence and also food. In the far future, families of Chinese immigrants return to China as ‘returnees’ after generations living in South East Asia. War comes and Joyce’s tale speaks to the impact on her family, her neighbours, distant cousins and even the defenders. I found it a bitter sweet tale. Exquisite even.

Other stories resonate with anger, with questioning, with alien invaders and the sharp strike of talons. Of bravery and difference. Another standout for me was “I found love in an urn full of ashes”–a story flavoured with the essence of myths and legends. I was amused and fascinated by this tale. “Lotus” was poignant, reminding me of the movie Waterworld, but not. It is more reflective on human nature, on greed and the things that make humans fight and I think optimistic after global warming floods most of the world. I loved the detail of the lotus flower, the roots, the seeds. Things I did not know. “Yao Jin” too, spooked me and fascinated me. What is this world that Joyce writes about? Very cool stuff.

Wolf’s Path is published by a US small press and should be available if you order it in or in ebook.

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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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Some Singapore Highlights

Posted in A writer's life, Creative passion, fantasy, geekgirl, Geeking out, retro SF, Travel, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 29, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Singapore is full of delights. Culinary, in particular, but also cultural. I had an amazing time last year with the 60th anniversary, with the cultural institutions exhibiting early Singapore artifacts that tied directly to the novel I was writing. This year I had a couple of things on my wish list. But, then, something popped up on my Instagram feed, something right up my alley. The Portals Experience. Link here.

Anyway, my son and daughter-in-law liked the idea too, being geeks like me. Portals is in Scots Road, fairly central. What is Portals? Well SF and Fantasy, a whole spectrum of books, book cover art, figurines, dioramas, games, genre discussion. It was truly amazing and I think I needed a season ticket to get the full effect of it. It opens up the whole world of cover art and books. The early SF. The early art. I’m thinking AI is going to kill the future of cover art and I hate that. These covers were amazing, just like the stories were. Amazing and new at the time. The SF, Fantasy and Horror genres reek with creative imagination of the other worldly and it’s not just books and cover art. There are games, game art, figurines, dioramas–whole scenes of imagined worlds. There are archetypes and there is genre growth and evolution and Portals gives more than a glimpse into this.

I thoroughly recommend this event. I asked one of the staff members if the exhibit will travel elsewhere and she thought not. It took the organizer two years to put together and now they will be looking to store the contents when the exhibition ends September 1, I think. So you have all of August to check it out.

The store was amazing too. You could by first edition SF paper backs, art prints (with half the revenue going to the artists), art postcards (same deal) and other geek stuff.

I will share some photos. It is five stars all round. No loos on site so come prepared.

Image 1. Panels of Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazines. There were several panels of different magazines on display.

Image 2 An example of a panel with book, game and figurine and artwork Warcraft

Image 3 Examples of book displays in the first room

Image 4 Film, artifacts and book Planet of the Apes

Image 4 Examples of early SF books

Image 5 An early book that I had not read

Image 6 Figurines–These were done by themes, exploring different cultural origins

Image 7 Eastern tradition

Image 8 Greek inspired figurines

Image 9

Image 10 Map

A short clip of Atlantis Diorama

And a short clip of one of my favorite parts- The book slider loop thing

Obviously I have way more photos and video but this is just a taste. You should get along to see if if in Singapore and if you are heading to Singapore soon, check it out.

Also, we went to Alice Boulangerie and Restaurant. I had an amazing burger. I couldn’t have the prawn pasta or the lobster pasta because they put fish roe in there. (I needed to google the ingredients). Amazing pastries in the display too. Great service.

Otherwise I have stayed at home and worked on book stuff. Like all day. On the weekend we are booked for the Ginger Lily High Tea at the Hilton in Orchard. Stay tuned.

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Still in Singapore

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on July 28, 2026| Leave a Comment »

It’s lovely. The weather is warm, of course, but less humid than on my visit last year. Or so my body thinks.

I have been to the pool every morning so far. Yay me. It is so convenient as the pool is downstairs. At home I have to drive for 20 minutes so it’s an event, rather than every day.

We caught some of the birthday fireworks. It’s not Singapore’s birthday yet but these are the lead up. We are right next to the stadium so the fireworks sounded like bombs going off. Very scary. We caught the last one.

Last hoorah of Singapore’s fireworks on the weekend.

I have started working on the revision to Gentleman Magician. I need to get a move on with that. However, it shouldn’t be too long if I knuckle down.

I’ve also been editing audio files for The Founders’ Legacy. And well that takes a lot of time and some of the errors (pickups) I can’t do here. I tried but the sound quality is different and I hate the sound of my voice so much anyway and the way I stumble over words that I feel that I might start over again, again, again. At least I got the whole book down this time, instead of redoing chapter one over and over again. Practice makes perfect.

But again, I winkled some more typos out so I have updated the files, yet again. I’m going to stop typo hunting now so I can move on. I found the issue was really in Vellum, the program I use to format the books. Somehow I had an option on to automatically correct spelling errors. I didn’t even know that option existed. My novel has a whole lot of made up pronouns, strange names and Vellum changed them and created chaos. All that careful proofreading torn up. However, I believe it is sorted now. But if someone mentions typos I may go up in flames.

For Russell Kirkpatrick’s memorial, which I’ll miss in person, is on Friday. Kylie kindly asked me to talk about Russell’s writing and links to the writing community. I have sent that video off but damn that was hard. In the end I just had to run with it, be as natural as I could, even though I hated listening and looking at me and I didn’t want to become emotional.

In other news, The Founders’ Legacy is for free on Kobo for a little bit. Hopefully this universal link will work. Barnes and Noble is inaccessible from Singapore for some reason. Link for The Founders’ Legacy. Here.

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I’m in Singapore (for a bit)

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on July 25, 2026| Leave a Comment »

I arrived on Thursday evening and I’m adjusting to the slight time difference. I’m not quite there yet. I am here mostly to chill and be with my son and my daughter-in-law. There are a couple of things I’d like to do. Maybe visit the science museum on recommendation from a writing buddy. Also, a Portal exhibition of SF and fantasy miniatures came up on instagram so we will go to that. And catching up with a couple of friends.

I usually set some goals when I come for a long visit. Five weeks is a long visit. Enough to get a break and settle my mind. First goal is to get to the pool to walk everyday, usually early morning. Two days in and I’ve done that. This is to help keep me fit. Something I have been neglecting. To eat good food but to be food smart because I have gained 5 kilos since I was here last year and that’s not good. I am meant to be losing kilos not gaining them!

Writing wise, I have a few things on. My original plan was to start drafting Amethyst Way, the next Cry Havoc novel. However, I need to revise Gentleman Magician first and I have booked it in for an edit so best get going.

The other thing was edit the audio book of The Founders’ Legacy. I’ve recorded it but not edited and mastered it. I did a bit of that yesterday but I may switch to Gentleman Magician as that’s more pressing (and less frustrating).

The audio book recording is such a challenge. Sometimes your mouth does not obey your commands and you mumble or say the wrong word. Eep. Then there are words you can write but not easily say. For example, self-congratulatory which I can say but not when I’m recording myself etc. There are other tongue twisters like ignominy, preliminary and many others. And dealing with non-gendered invented pronouns! Oh well, hopefully I will learn from this.

Anyway, the only picture I have taken is of the pool and noodles from last night oh and the delightful meal my daughter-in-law cooked when I arrived. Did I mention that noodles are my friend? My daughter-in-law and I bond over noodles.

Next post is a tribute to Russell Kirkpatrick, who passed away fairly suddenly.

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Crazy vortex with my new release

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on July 7, 2026| 6 Comments »

I’m still reeling from this.

I had my book professionally proofread. But you know even the best can miss a few things, right. Step one!

Then you have to be real careful taking up changes because you can make more errors. Mmmm. Step two!

Well this happened to me and I’m wondering if I will ever learn to read the thing before uploading. I did not read it again after the proof changes. Step three!

What was a vortex, though, was I had another program, that I no longer subscribe to, working in the background and unbeknownst to me it changed things and I didn’t see it. Step four! Vortex achieved.

It’s not that I rushed the proof changes, I didn’t. I took two days and did it slowly. However, obviously I have issues with my eyes, recent surgery, new glasses etc. But I didn’t realise what was going on. I have since removed the offending program from my Mac now.

So what did this vortex do besides leave in and or create errors.

Tal became Tai, or Sal, or I don’t know. Random.

Gen became Get and Ben and random.

Sihe Pel because Sihe Pal, Sihe Sal. Who knows.

Then there was Si that was changed to ‘is’ so I’m left with sentences like ‘is was’ instead of ‘si was.’

Or sihe became she. Eyes rolling here.

There were missing little words. Annoying and hard to catch.

Some sentences I rethought because they were not precise enough so not proofing errors just me thinking What?

So is it all fixed now. I’ve tweaked the cover, too, for the print version. New versions are up everywhere.

I will continue the saga of reading the book to create an audio book. I just keep redoing chapter one. It’s like I’m stuck in a vortex of my own creation!!!!

Apologies if anyone bought a copy with the typos. The new version should update. If not let me know. I don’t believe anyone bought a print version yet so that’s a relief.

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The Founders’ Legacy

Posted in A writer's life, Australian author, cover reveal, Creative passion, Feminism, Feminist Science Fiction, science fiction, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on May 23, 2026| Leave a Comment »

This book is coming along nicely. I have been tweaking the cover using Bookcoverzone. I’ve not done this before. I usually just say what’s on the cover but this site lets you tinker yourself. You would not believe how many iterations I have put the app through to get to this. No changes to the image, just the titling.

cover image for The Founders' Legacy by Donna Maree Hanson, featuring two hands reaching out to touch

I think this is where I’m going to leave it.

I haven’t started on the blurb yet would you believe. That can be hard work but I’ve been side tracked by writing administration tasks. You may not have heard that the book aggregator Draft to Digital brought in a fee for low selling authors. This was mostly due to some shenanigans by nefarious players. They also had to limit how many titles you could upload. I don’t think I make the minimum and most of my Draft To Digital sales are with Barnes and Noble so as I have an account there, I figured I would delist all my books and relist on Barnes and Noble. And there is a lot of books and it’s not a quick job. So…I am getting there…

A bit about The Founders’ Legacy. I wrote this book as part of my PhD in Creative Writing, where I researched feminism in popular romance fiction. Now you might wonder why I wrote a future SF book featuring genderless humans. You see I started thinking about equality and how that would look in its purest form. I was thinking of unconscious bias and how that would be eliminated if you couldn’t tell if a person was a man or woman or something else by their names.

If you took it another step, by the way they looked so what if they looked the same, no gender, no traditional families, or how much money they earned if they all looked and dressed similarly and earned the same money or got the same food, shelter, leisure etc. Then I also thought about how you would maintain that….so a domed city, bio-dome thing with supplementary water and various power sources so this culture could perpetuate itself and add the social conditioning, and also enforcement of the rules and you have Frequil, where everyone is free and equal…

The Giver by Lois Lowry has been cited as a text with similar themes. A small community, traditional family groups changed, social conditioning and chemical conditioning and some weird stuff in there too. I can see the similarity in themes here. However, I had not heard of this book when I wrote The Founders’ Legacy, initially called Sihem.

My influences were Logan’s Run, the movie. The book is a tad different in the ages and things it uses, but yes a domed city and an post-apocalyptic outside.There are rules and when rules are broken things happen.

Another inspiration would be Star Trek Next Generation The Outcast episode, where they meet a planet full of same gender and one of them wants to express gender and be female and become Riker’s lover. Anyway, the strong theme in that was about difference, the intolerance of difference. This was more of a pro-Gay episode.

I use romance novels within this story as they inform Tal and Gen, my two main characters, about gender roles, some feminist issues and about the world the Founders came from.

A feature of the Founders’ Legacy is the use of non-gendered pronouns ‘si’, ‘sis’ and ‘sim’. The pronoun sihe is an honorific and sihem a collective noun, This can make the novel hard to read and my trial readers generally said that they substituted ‘he’ or ‘her’. I found that when I read Ancilliary Justice as the AI character could not differentiate between sexes so called them all she. I found my brain kept wanting to know if it was a man or a woman. It was sort of a weird affect. The Founders’ Legacy takes that a step further. The other realisation comes when you realise how gendered our language is and how the brain wants to slot people into categories.

The book blurs utopian and distopian themes and is, I think, a young adult, adult cross over. While there is romance in there it is more science fiction, I believe.

I hope to get this book launched in June, 2026.

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