Ramblings of an Australian Writer

Brick by Brick co-authored with Cate Ashwood has won an Honorable Mention in its area of best gay contemporary romance in the 2015 Rainbow Awards. Thank you so much!

The comments for this one are so lovely, again, thank you. "This story is like the most delicious dessert for the brain! How beautifully written it was and what a great romance between these two so likeable men! This is for sure a well deserved ten across the board. Nothing less will do for this beautiful story. It's such a delight when one comes across a story so well written, a story that wraps you up in the softest wool cotton keeping you warm way after 'The End'. More stories like this one need to come out. So, I suggest to these two wonderful Authors to Get Going! I Want More!!!"

And don't worry, we two authors are working on more stuff together. :D

It's coming soon, but first, here is the cover. This is a contemporary m/m romance written by myself and good friend and colleague, Cate Ashwood. The cover art was done for us by Bree Archer. The book is being published by Dreamspinner Press.

Blurb: They say that time heals all wounds, but losing Parley, his one true love, left Zach with a hole in his heart that no one else can fill. After forty-eight blissful hours alone together as teens in an abandoned house, Parley disappeared. Parley is what he is, and the pray-away-the-gay camp his parents ship him to won’t change that. However, finding the balance between accepting his true nature and not losing his family means tough sacrifices.

Sixteen years later, Zach is thunderstruck when Parley stands on the front doorstep of his house—the house that had been their refuge, which Zach restored. But Parley isn’t alone, and Zach wonders if he’s found Parley only to lose him a second time. If they can overcome the terrors of the past and the situation of the present, maybe they can build a new relationship just as Zach rebuilt the house—brick by brick.

Cover:




Isn't it lovely? We're very lucky. :D

It's been a while (again) since I posted here, and all I can say about that really is that between having the cold that wouldn't die and a plethora of other real life things, there hasn't been much energy left in the L. J. bank to power me too far. But there's been some good stuff happening, which makes a wonderful change--with my mum and one of my besties, Minnie, I've been going to the local hydropool every week and doing hydrotherapy. I love this pool and it's a great chance to do a weekly catch up with a very good friend, so it's all win-win for me. Last week, we met a cute little boy who was wearing a Cthulu t-shirt. He wandered up to mum first and gave her a very serious high five, and later, when I was heading to the change room, he and I had a Very Serious conversation about a man in a Big Blue Box (Dr. Who). That whole thing made my night!



This is not a rocking horse, this is a rocking dragon! Made of felted yarn. Click to embiggen.

There's also been a day in the Handspinning and Weavers Guild shop, visiting with old and dear friends, a lot of phone chats with my brother, which is awesome, and checking out a nearby thrift market where I got a really gorgeous multi-colour glass bottle. This week, we also had the back lawn mowed, FINALLY, as it was beginning to take on triffid-like proportions, and I felt that I should alert everyone that if we vanished, taken by the grass, they should avenge us. Now it's all cut back and it looks SO good. I got a few new things for the garden, and there's more coming from my favourite go-to online garden store, Diggers (http://www.diggers.com.au).


Bowls made of felted yarn. I love these, the two blueish/purple ones especially. I'd love to be able to make them myself. Click to embiggen.

But what you guys really want to know about is the writing, right? Well, nearly two months ago now, I submitted Waiting for the Moon and You to Dreamspinner Press and I'm waiting to hear back on that. Having it finished and all was a huge relief, as for a while there, I thought it'd be the manuscript that would never end! Some muses are very chatty. The next and last three Archangel books are confirmed for 2015 release, also with DSP. The novel I'm writing with the awesome Cate Ashwood is trucking along, very quickly, actually, so much so that it seems as if it's writing itself and we are merely the physical facilitators of this story. It's called Brick by Brick and is a contemp love found/lost/found story set in Canada. I'm working on another project with Cate and the lovely Raine O'Tierney as well, and while that's taking me a bit to kick it off (I'm blaming this on being VERY tired atm), I'm very excited about it. Finally, and certainly not least, Mythica will be out soon with Bottom Drawer Publications, and I love the cover I have for it--reveal on that soon. So there are books coming soon and far, my friends!

Also, there was a lunch for the Adelaide m/m writers and readers last weekend, at The Archer hotel in North Adelaide. Good food, good conversation, and it was great to catch up with Ali Wilde and Zathyn Priest again, and to meet L. V. Lloyd, Alison Mann, her mum and Thelma Jean Mathew. Thanks to Alison for arranging it all, and here's hoping we can do the lunch thing again, sometime in the future.

Link of the Now: As the Northern Hemisphere is coming into winter, I want to share with you a fantastic etsy shop, run by the lovely Maria. You can't go wrong here, there's hand/neck/head warming things for everyone. I've got two pairs of her armwarmers! ElizavetaViola.

(Don't forget, I'm on Instagram now, so if you want to follow along, here's me: http://instagram.com/ljstar239)


Our much less scary back garden! Click to embiggen.

So to end this post, there's a meme going around Facebook at the moment, where you list 10 books that have stayed with you, long after you first read them. Rather than post my list on Facebook, I thought I'd post mine as a blog post.

I've got a list as long as my arm, so for that reason, I'm limiting my choices to books written by people I don't know. And there's a few notes about the books too, for extra points!

This is in no particular order. And a bit more than 10 books. It was hard enough to cut down to 18!

( Les livres )

Author's Note: This isn't from the novel I'm cowriting with jerusalemorbust, but it is a semi-reflection of the story we're working on. Michael in this guise is entirely her creation, Gabriel is mine. Together, they fight crime.

Well, maybe not fight crime, but close.


Title: Sometimes.
By: misslj_author
Rating: G.
Summary: A moment of melancholy reflection shared by the Archangels Michael and Gabriel.


Sometimes there is failure. It's never easy, Gabriel knows, yet it happens, even to beings who are nearly omniscient. There is always a reason for things, even if no one understands what the reason is or why.

Reasons never make things simpler or satisfactory. Reasons never make the weight of pain and guilt any lighter. Reasons simply are, a stone weight around one's neck, reminding one of everything that would perhaps be better forgotten.

Her name was Theodora. Gabriel isn't looking at Michael. He can't. He wants to say so much about this, more than just a name, a phrase that is a slipstream of movement against the tide of his life. She was the harmony to my rage. She was a maid to a lesser noblewoman in Constantinople. It was the twelfth century, the Varangians were under my command and I failed them.

Michael is silent and Gabriel is grateful. Platitudes won't help; they both know that. Empty words are just that: empty. They both live with their grief and their guilt and their pain, burying what they can and continuing on with their tasks. Only one who has lived forever could truly understand the complexity of the weight they carry, the weight of memory and melancholy and fragments of joy and hope.

Michael does. Gabriel does. The Host do. Probably, too, some of the residents of Hell, if Gabriel were to think about it. However, at that moment, he isn't thinking about anything other than war and battles, death and blood, tears and anguish.

Sometimes, of laughter. In the infinity of memory, laughter and joy occasionally bubble to the fore.

But only sometimes.

"Sometimes is enough," Michael says quietly.

"Maybe," Gabriel answers.

I'm not the only one who feels this, am I? Which is to say that when I'm working on an edit (as I am for meredith_shayne right now), I want to write. Naturally, given that the Room of Wisdom (aka the bathroom) is where I gain great ideas and, natch, where I have just rescued the cat from falling into the toilet again, I have had... an idea. I know, fear me.

jersualemorbust, expect another long screed of word salad at some point today - it can go anywhere you think it'll fit into the narrative or after your chunk or whatever.

Co-writing is awesome. Which is only mildly cryptic but also probably a little explanatory of the above. And now, back to it!

And also, note for self when I need to explain this in the future, so I'm not looking for it again. Alright versus all right.