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Posts Tagged ‘Steampunk’

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 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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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.

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Surgery day

Posted in A writer's life, Romance, RWA Conference, Steampunk, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 19, 2025| Leave a Comment »

The day has come. I have surgery, a vitrectomy, this afternoon. To say I’m not looking forward to it is an understatement. I have a few fears. One that the surgery won’t happen. Two that I will lose the plot while having it. (Shit scared might cover it) I’ll be awake you see (Holy moley!). That it won’t work and I’ll have to have another surgery and you know loss of vision. That I’ll have to have a cataract surgery in about a year, if the predicted rapid growth of cataract after surgery happens. That I might have other eye issues in future or with the other eye. The macular hole was totally unexpected. I get checked annually for macular degeneration and glaucoma.

I will be missing the RWA in Hobart! I will have EMO (experiencing missing out) as Matthew told me as FOMO is fear of missing out and I’ll be definitely missing out.

I only got half of my conference fee back and I was lucky to get that. The committee’s advice is to take out travel insurance. A bit late for me though. However, in future I will consider it as I usually don’t take out insurance when I travel domestically. Recall how Matthew and I got COVID when we were heading to the Terror Australis Writing Retreat? That was a lot of bucks and luckily we were able to stay and do the workshops via phone. Not ideal but the best outcome in the circumstances.

A win though for me. I have been able to massage my draft of The Prudential Light into something beta readers can wade through. I sent that off to four of them so it will be interesting to see the feedback. My take on it that I will need to really hone the structure down. I thought I had been introduced to a good editor but they did not answer my email about a quote and timing and I’m afraid a non-responsive editor is a horror story I don’t need. I even texted them and they said I’m in holiday mode will respond tomorrow and they didn’t. Oh well. Time to look for another. Not that I have issues with editors I use at the moment, but as this is a complicated structure for me and has memoir elements I thought I needed to find a specialist and someone who can suggest things, rather than a copy edit, if you get my drift. In the worse case scenario I can do it myself. I did study editing and considered hiring myself out but that’s a lot of creative energy that I can use for my own work.

Anyhow, time to go write a newsletter and send that out.

Cheers!

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The Prudential Light Cover Reveal

Posted in A writer's life, cover reveal, Creative passion, Steampunk, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on August 6, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Frauke, the fantastic designer from Crocobooks, has outdone herself with this wonderful cover for The Prudential Light, Cry Havoc Book Four.

I love this so much. Originally I wanted a silhouette of an older woman but once I saw this one, I realised that was how Prudence sees herself and how she would want to be remembered. The skinny, pretty young thing. You might notice so Chinese influences in the cover and that’s part of the story as is the magnolia.

Originally this was going to be a novella, but as you know from previous posts, lots of story came out while I was in Singapore and in the pool and there was also a front story of what was happening with Jemima and crew and then the memoir component. Now it’s going to be a novel, if a bit shorter than the earlier ones.

Now I might have mentioned I was also going to do a story about Edward, Fulton and Dr Heaton. It is sort of a prequel, but isn’t. This story is about how they met, how they fixed Fulton etc. Well guess what kiddos!!! Another cover reveal.

I have not started this one yet. But look! I love it. I realise it says novel right now. However, I do think it is a novella or shorter novel. However, when the time comes I’ll adjust the cover if necessary. Fingers crossed I get this written by the end of the year. Next blog post will reveal some health issues that might impact my writing for a bit.

Originally the title was going to be Edward Huntington Esquire: Gentleman Magician but that was way too many words if I was to stick to the style of the other books. So I trimmed it to Gentleman Magician. I also went for a younger model. The first iteration had a bowler and didn’t look right. The joys of self publishing.

Remember if you like any of my books, please leave a review or rating as it really helps.

Also if you haven’t read any Cry Havoc books, Ruby Heart, book one is currently free until August 15.

Apple

Google Play

Kobo

Barnes & Noble

Amazon

And on my bookstore.

Appearances

My partner Matthew Farrer (Black Library) and I will be guesting at Ozcomicon in Canberra this weekend. Fingers crossed.

I’ll be at Gamacon on 6 September in Canberra. That sounded so far away before but is coming in hot.

I’m also scheduled for Books and Beyond in Newcastle on 27 September.

I’ll have a table at Conflux in Canberra on 4-5 October.

On 18 October I will have a table at the Steampunk Faire in Goulburn. Hopefully I would have sewn my bustle gown by then.

And Newcastle Book Boyfriend on 22 November.

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Just a quick note from Guangzhou

Posted in A writer's life, China, Creative passion, Free book, revision, Steampunk, Travel, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 9, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Hi there

We arrived last night via train from Xi’an. We went Business Class, which was a godsend because we could lay the seat flat and we had space with just five chair and food. Great food. It was expensive and took 9 hours but an enjoyable ride.

(This post never got posted so it’s not last night!) So I’ll cut straight to photos.

On the platform

Below are the business class seats.

The gang!

Writing on the train

A shot of the view

Another bullet train

Railway food!

The hotel lobby

The view from the hotel room

Urgent yum cha!

These prawn dumplings are coloured and different flavours

This is my son’s favourite type of yumcha. They were so good, crunchy!

I’ve been back in Australia for a few days now. I’m still in Sydney and there are perks. I get to spend time with my daughter and it’s warmer than Canberra. However, my partner misses me. I really miss my Singapore life and the China trip was awesome. However, it’s back to real life.

On the writing side, I have a draft of The Prudential Light and now have to edit/revise and restructure it as well as find an editor. Today I have written to the cover designer for a cover. I’m very excited about this book. There was so much more to Aunt Prudence than I first thought.

Don’t forget

Ruby Heart is currently free and it’s been getting a good lot of downloads. It is soon to be promoted on Apple Books. The link to my store is here. So if you don’t have your copy get it now.

Or check out My books with buy links here.

I’m so excited about The Prudential Light, which I am going to call Book 4 because I have two layers of story, one is Aunt Prudence’s memoir and the other is what is going on in Aunt Prudence’s now with Jemima, Milly, Fulton and Edward.

There will be another book, Edward Huntington Esquire: Gentleman Magician, covering Edward’s story between sending Jemima to school and meeting her again at Primrose Manor. Basically, the story of Heaton and Edward meeting and then healing Fulton. No romance I think in this one. This may just been a series novel rather than a numbered book in the series. It’s a not quite sequel.

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Singapore Sojourn Part 4

Posted in A writer's life, am wrinting, Creative passion, research, Steampunk, Travel, Trying to focus, tagged , , , , , , , , , on June 14, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Time flies when you are having fun. Cliche I know. Today is June 13. Black Friday.

I’m about to head out to find a post office with my daughter-in -law. We have been out a little bit. We were going to go to the botanical gardens but it was too hot for me so we ate a late lunch in a cafe after a head/hair spa, which was simply amazing.

Me after the head/hair spa.

The day before we walked around the Gardens By the Bay and the highlight was Shake Shack where we had some lemonade with chips and cheese. So naughty and so yummy.

We met up with my son at Marina Sands mall where we checked out the Apple store and had dumplings. I am still keeping up with the pool walking in the morning. Be it rain or shine or cloudy. I wait for storms to stop though. The other day I saw this tiny yellow bird eating nectar from the flowers. When I looked it up I discovered it was a sunbird. Imagine nature thriving in amongst all these tall buildings.

Marina Bay Sands, a city scape and the round building is the top floor of the Apple Store.

Writing wise, I have had to revise my word count goal. I thought 30,000 words was reasonable for my time here and I was writing a novella. Well it is now 40,000 words and I’m currently at 36,000 words and I still have a week before we leave for China.

The story is still coming on strong, with new scenes popping in all the time. Yesterday I spent way longer in the pool than intended as I use my lap count to gauge my time. However, I lose count all the time because I start thinking about the story and characters start talking to me and then I come to and forget how many. Was that lap five or six? Over an hour later I’m upstairs realising I did about 20 minutes more than I wanted to.

The story is coming in different time periods so I know there will be a lot of restructuring and tying things together. I usually write in a linear fashion but this memoir is different and how things are popping up in my imagination are too. Weird but fun. Writing in Singapore is great. I found this great book and it has been really useful. There’s more research to do as well. National Library and the National Museum but I’m getting a picture of the layout. I also have to research a bit about 1840s Calcutta as some of the story takes place there.

I’m also learning a lot about Aunt Prudence as well. She is way more interesting than I thought she’d be, with some hidden talents.

Guess what! I think I may have a new character and spin off series in the offing but no spoilers.

On today’s agenda I think we are making homemade dumplings for dinner after we to to the post office. We have a bbq planned on Sunday, which will be nice.

I’m off to China for 12 days next Friday.

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Singapore Sojourn Part 2

Posted in A writer's life, Creative passion, Cry Havoc series, research, Singapore, Steampunk, Travel, tagged , , , , , , , , , on June 3, 2025| Leave a Comment »

On Sunday we went to Raffles for high tea and it was fab. The building is elegant and the food was delicious. Expensive yes but for me worth it.

The Grand Lobby

We got there a little bit early so amused ourselves outside.

This is an historic fountain made of cast iron.

This is the view from the courtyard looking up to the main building.

My food tray. There were also three different scones after this. My daughter-in-law took the photo of me below.

And lastly, from the front of the hotel, you can see the little stained glass motif of Raffles.

Otherwise, I’ve been researching and have started working on The Prudential Light. Aunt Prudence has been in my head and fighting to get out. The story just started pouring out of me, faster than I can write. However, I’ve put the brakes on and have gone back to revise the beginning because I think I finally have Aunt Prudence’s voice and that’s such a joy and a better idea how to structure it going forward. Hopefully that will save a massive rewrite and restructure at the end.

I’m currently at 11000 words and at this rate it may be a short novel rather than a novella. Because you know I’m fleshing out scenes and I haven’t got to the good bits yet. I need to visit the library and the museum in the city. However, I am able to set part of the story here in Singapore as it is not too early as I thought when I calculated how old Aunt Prudence was and key events in her life.

Overall, I think, I hope at least, that The Prudential Light will be a heartwarming, beautiful story. Let’s see if I can land this one.

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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.

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The Eve of Ages of Pages

Posted in A writer's life, book signing, Steampunk, Travel, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on April 25, 2025| Leave a Comment »

I have had an enjoyable time in Auckland in the run up to Ages of Pages. The weather has been interesting. Wind, rain and some sun, but compared to nights in Canberra warmish. I associate visiting New Zealand with cold so I packed warm things. Unfortunately I had to buy some summery things to get through. Poor me! I now possess a very pretty blouse and a blue floaty dress.

I spent a windy night up in Warkworth, not in a caravan (see previous post). However, I did get a night in a caravan but the wind had died back by then. Also a nice walk along Martins Bay. It was a really interesting experience in the caravan park. I think it might be my first time and I found it fascinating. I’m sure there is a story idea in there. We did a walk to Whangapaparaoa Pennisula, along Orewa Beach and around Mitre 10 in Silverdale. Interesting that I was in Silverdale when I have a Silverdale in Argenterra! The steps from walking around malls and hardware stores are shopping steps. These can really mount up. My mate Wendy helped me out by taking me on walks, which helped to counteract the food and the wine. (what happened to your diet Donna? Well you see I went to New Zealand and …um..).

Whangapakaraoa Pennisula view

Martins Bay view

Martins Bay view

This is a view from near Manly Beach

This delightful, sprawling Pohutukawa Tree. They have red flowers and look amazing end December and early January, so my friend Wendy tells me. I’ve seen amazing displays driving to Thames.

View from Orewa near the caravan park.

Even with clouds, New Zealand is beautiful and there are so many harbours and bays around Auckland, particularly north that there is wonder for the eye no matter which way you look. I’m very grateful for my long term bestie, Wendy and her hubby Paul for showing me all these beautiful spots.

This sign cracked me up and had my imagination running hot.

This is a locally made cider in Warkworth. It has citrus in it so quick fresh and bitey.

Last night I met up with Keri at Auckland airport and she drove us to Hamilton and we are both in our beds in a hotel on our laptops. Hahaha. And drinking tea. Today is ANZAC day where Australia and New Zealand commemorate the lost lives in two world wars and everything is shut until 1pm.

Liar liar pants on fire! I found a cafe open today so we can have breakfast after all!.

Tomorrow we attend the Ages of Pages book fair. It’s my first time and I am excited. I believe there is going to be about 90 authors and vendors, mostly from NZ but a few of us Aussies there as well. For readers the event is free so come along and check it out. Venue information here.

I’ll have a very limited number of books available so please come say hi.

I cannot see any reviews for Amber Rose yet, but there is a four star rating on Kobo so that’s a relief. Us authors are always keen to see how our book is received. I have most of the plot in my head for A Prudential Light, a novella come memoir of Aunt Prudence. It’s going to be fab.

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