Ramblings of an Australian Writer

This is an update on my books. I realise that I have not posted for quite a while, unfortunately my time and energy has been filled with other things. As such, I feel that now is a good time to post what is going on with my books, website and myself.

My website:

As has been noted, the www.ljlabarthe.com website is now down. I decided not to renew it when the bill came in and let the site die, because of the situation with my books. I am unsure at this point whether or not it will go back up in the future. At the moment, I feel that my Dreamwidth account will suffice for now.

Less Than Three Press:

It was with great sadness that I was told of the closing of LT3; a feeling shared by many I have no doubt. They were one of the first to publish me, with a little story about an angel and his human lover in their angel anthology. With my rights reverted back to me, I am pondering what to do with them, though I am considering that I will most likely publish the trilogy I was aiming (hoping!) to publish with them. I hope that another publisher will take them on, although I am waiting to get some editing and beta'ing done on books two and three respectively before putting out the feelers on those. At this time, however, all my books with LT3 have been pulled and are no longer for sale.

I will miss working with LT3, they were a great indie publisher, very no-nonsense and very approachable. They were willing to take risks and publish good quality work, to provide excellent editing services and tremendous art. I will always treasure the covers done for me by Aisha, her art always took my breath away and exceeded every expectation and hope I could have. I always felt that this publisher had my back and the backs of all their signed authors and I will miss them.

Dreamspinner Press:

Several weeks ago, I asked for my rights back. I have recieved them. I don't know what I'll do with those books, I am considering self-publishing City of Jade, my historical set on the Silk Road during the time of the Byzantine Empire, and perhaps, if life gets quite a bit less hectic, the Archangel books, but condensing them considerably so that they are three books instead of nine. Beyond that, I think the rest of my books would be best left to retire.

Dreamspinner were also one of the first publishers to sign me, for a Daily Dose collection. I was very blessed to have a wonderful editor in Erika, and the amazing art of both Anne Cain and Reese Dante for the majority of my books. I'm also grateful to Elizabeth for agreeing to let me put together an all Australian anthology, Under the Southern Cross, and to Anne Regan for assisting us in doing it, and Lynn West for editing.

I'm sad it's come to this, but I feel that it's the right outcome for everyone.

The future:

As I do/don't release things, there will of course be updates here, on my Twitter (brbsiberia), my Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/lj.labarthe.9) and my Instagram (ljstar239). If you're interested in my daily life of cats, retweets and randomness, please feel free to follow me on Twitter and Instagram; if you have a Dreamwidth account or Livejournal account (I use the same name there), feel free to follow me. Everything from Dreamwidth is copied to my LJ account.

Thank you everyone for the past years of support, reading, feedback and reviews. I wish you all the very best for the future and I hope to see you in bookshelves soon. <3

I did say it was Fiction February!

Release day!

Rocking Hard, Vol. 2

Less Than Three Press presents the second of three volumes of amazing stories along the theme of rock 'n roll. Authors familiar and new combine for a collection of stories all about music and love.

-- Fallen Angel | Kayla Bain-Vrba
-- My Truest Love | Mell Eight
-- Capsicum Head | L.J. LaBarthe
-- Song of the Soul | Cassandra Pierce
-- Acceptance | Alessandra Ebulu

Get it here!

February is going to be a very busy month release-wise for me. I have three releases! They say that good things come in threes, don't they? :) So here we go, upcoming releases and their dates, links for preording, and the like. Very exciting, all told.

Ice

Koby is a graduate student specializing in the cohabitation of dead and living cells in a single body, a course of study that requires he spend two years working in the labs at the parium mines in Antarctica, where he will assist in experiments conducted on the vampire prisoners kept there.

Expecting little more than a tedious assignment, despite the dangers of the environment and the dangerous vampires sentenced to the mines for life, Koby instead discovers a dome of horrors, where the persons in charge cannot be trusted and the greatest victims are the prisoners—and the most incongruous place to discover a new love. If he cannot solve the problems destroying the dome from the inside, the vampires won't be the only ones to die.

Novella | Release date: 5 February | Preorder here.

***

Rocking Hard, Vol. 2

Less Than Three Press presents the second of three volumes of amazing stories along the theme of rock 'n roll. Authors familiar and new combine for a collection of stories all about music and love.

-- Fallen Angel | Kayla Bain-Vrba
-- My Truest Love | Mell Eight
-- Capsicum Head | L.J. LaBarthe
-- Song of the Soul | Cassandra Pierce
-- Acceptance | Alessandra Ebulu

Anthology | Release date: 11 February | Preorder here.

***

The Wind-Up Forest

Sequel to No Shadows Fall
Archangel Chronicles: Book Four

Archangel Gabriel is hoping for a quiet period in his life to enjoy his relationship with Archangel Michael, but someone has other ideas.

New dangers arise when the Holy Grail is stolen. Gabriel, Michael, and the rest of the Brotherhood of Archangels and their allies must somehow thwart the twisted desires of the thief.

Their search for the Grail takes them all over the world, calling on old friends like Uriel and Raziel, and forging powerful new alliances. Though they face a fresh set of perils in pursuit of the thief, the enduring comfort Gabriel needs so much, that of his beloved Michael, never abandons him.

Novel | Release date: 17 February | Preorder paperback here | Preorder eBook here.

***

Phew! And there's more to come later in 2014.

I have been quite slack in keeping up with my blog these last few weeks--all I can say is that I've not been 100% and my back has twinges which render me useless for a day at a time, so things have been stressful. However, there are some things happening that I want to share with you all, so here we go!

The Romance Reviews Year End Splash Party continues, so pop along to join in the fun and win great prizes!

The Rainbow Awards Pre-Party and 7th Anniversary giveaway is on and "City of Jade" is one of the wonderful books being given out today. Enter here or here.

Liam Jones, a character from The Archangel Chronicles, had to discuss his police rap sheet over at Cate Ashwood's blog. Liam makes his debut in The Wind-Up Forest, along with his brother, Declan, a group of Venatores and new angels and demons and monsters. To read a little about Liam, head on over here!

Ice enters serial at Less Than Three Press this month, so if you're keen to read about vampires in Antarctica in the future, then head on over to LT3 and sign up for serial, here. There's a whole collection of wonderful authors and their vampire stories available now, too, as LT3's vampire collection is available for order and preorder, so do check it out.

And last but certainly not least, I recieved the cover art for The Wind-Up Forest. Anne Cain is a genius. I love this cover SO MUCH. Behold the beauty! click to see the full size image.

Link of the Now: Has to be one of my favourite blogs, Messy Nessy Chic. Go, read and lose yourself in the wonderful things that she posts, about life in Paris, interesting finds from the internet, travel, food, fashion, abandoned places, history, and so much more.

And now back to Nano (and waiting for my groceries) I go!

It's been a while since I've posted here and I can only say that life has been extremely busy with one thing or another. Suffice to say that when I got a certain email from a certain publisher yesterday, there may have been the sit-down version of the happy dance going on in my home.

And what did the email entail? Well. See this awesome art below? (Click to see full size.)




These are my Archangels, all ten of them, as drawn and inked by the incredibly talented Danielle Ellison of Mad Robot. And they have three more novels that have been contracted by Dreamspinner Press.


I am so happy, I can't even. These three forthcoming books pick up after the end of book three, but it's not essential to have read the first three novels to follow these new ones. So what's going to happen in these three? Well, the Holy Grail has gone missing and Bad Things start to happen. It's up to the Archangels and their allies to fix things up. There are new characters and old, and the continuing relationship between Gabriel and Michael as they work through this new challenge presented them. The books are called, in order:

The Wind-Up Forest
The Crystal Lake
The Bone Cup.

In other publishing news, City of Jade is out now and has already recieved some really wonderful reviews. It's available here--ebook and paperback, if you're curious. Ice, my novella with Less Than Three Press goes into serial in October, and here's the info for that. Just before that starts, Capsicum Head, my story in the Rocking Hard rock and roll serial anthologies goes live, and more info is here if you want to sign up for that and the other stories in the collection.


Also, dear New Zealand, you make the BEST sour apple soda I have ever had. Please make it available in more shops in Australia, like, supermarkets, yes that would be awesome. Macs Sour Green Apple is *amazing.* Finally, my rosemary plant has begun to flower and it's so pretty. I had no idea that rosemary flowers were so lovely. I've always had a black thumb and I think I've graduated to a grey-green thumb, as only half my plants die now! It's a step up from all of them, right? Right! :D So here is my pretty rosemary flower to end this update of writing stuff.

I'm at Lex Chase's place today, talking history and answering ten questions about me. So drop by and say hi!

I've also gotten my cover art for my forthcoming serial from Less Than Three Press. It's beautiful, I love it so! "Ice" starts its run on 30th October, after "Engineered Throne."




"Ice" is a vampire m/m story set in Antarctica and Australia in the future. It's a scifi spec story.

A very belated happy new year to everyone! I've been quiet here because of one thing: heatwave hell. It's been stinking hot in Australia since late Dec '12, and the heat has really sapped my energy - along with most of Australia. Today is actually pleasant, low 20s, so I'm getting myself into gear and catching up on things.

Firstly, I am thrilled and honoured that "No Quarter" is nominated in the Best Romance Novels category at the Preditors and Editors poll. I'm with some amazing talent, which is a real thrill for me. If you'd like to vote (and please do!), the poll for that category is here. The nominees are listed alphabetically by title, so "No Quarter" is half way down the page. :)

Secondly, I read some great books in 2012. I don't really like reviewing, per se, but I'm all about rec links, so here are the books that I most enjoyed and links to places to buy them. I should also note that these are not necessarily newly released in 2012 - there are also books in the list that were new to me in 2012.

In no particular order:

1. The Danilov Quintet by Jasper Kent.
Only three out so far.
2. The Prince and The Program by Aldous Mercer.
3. The Bastard Prince by Megan Derr.
4. The Remy Chandler series by Thomas E. Sniegoski.
5. The God Eaters by Jesse Hajicek.
Free read here.

So there we go. Now, to finish up the polishing of "City of Jade," which I'm hoping to submit this month, and to finish writing my vampire story for LT3. :D

How's life treating you guys?

⋄ Evening Greetings from Australia! First post.

⋄ "Life and Nothing But" Excerpt and giveaway.

⋄ "Sunburnt Country" Excerpt and details.

⋄ "City of Gold" Excerpt and giveaway.

⋄ "Fire, Burn" Excerpt and details.

⋄ "Life and Nothing But" & "City of Gold" Giveaways reminder and chatter.

⋄ Winners of the giveaways.

I'm still very tender and sore, still very tired, so I'm not blogging/writing or anything at full capacity yet. But I had to do a Six Sentence Sunday, so here it is!

This week's Six Sentence Sunday is from my short story Sunburnt Country, out in serial form in the Something Happened on the Way to Heaven serial published by Less Than Three Press and out at the end of August.




He was about to say something when Raziel stopped dead in his tracks and stared, pointing.

"What on earth is that?"

"It's a big blue whale," Tommy said calmly.

"I can see that, but ... why is it here?" Raziel stared at it.

"It advertises beer, mate," Tommy stifled a laugh behind a cough.

"It's made of solid concrete," James added helpfully, grinning broadly at Raziel's astonishment.



*~*~*

erastes posted a link of 15 YA/Children's books you should read, and then posted a list of her favourites. Before I passed out last night, I pondered this myself and below is a list that is a little bit longer than fifteen - mainly because I couldn't choose. Oops!

Books I loved as a child/young adult:

1. The Stone Cage - Nicholas Stuart Gray
2. Black Beauty - Anna Sewell
3. Carbonell (trilogy) - Barbara Sleigh
4. Star Ka'at - Andre Norton
5. Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis (esp. The Last Battle bc of Jewel the Unicorn.)
6. The Phantom Tollbooth - Norton Juster
7. Gobbolino the Witch's Cat - Ursula Moray Williams
8. The Water Babies - Charles Kingsley
9. V - A. C. Crispin
10. The Silver Brumby - Elyne Mitchell (and the rest of the Brumby books.)
11. Cats in the Belfry - Doreen Tovey (and all her other books.)
12. The Famous Five books / The Malory Towers books / The ...of Adventure series - Enid Blyton
13. Watership Down - Richard Adams
14. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - Ian Fleming
15. The Phoenix and The Carpet trilogy - E. E. Nesbit
16. The Black Stallion - Walter Farley
17. Charlotte's Web - E. B. White
18. Born Free - Joy Adams
19. The Green Grass of Wyoming - Mary O'Hara
20. Forever - Judy Blume.

A lot of books featuring magical and/or talking cats and other animals. It's a mixed bag, really. What are some of your favourites from childhood/teenagerhood?

Coming on August 24th: "Sunburnt Country" by LJ LaBarthe at Less Than Three Press.




Sunburnt Country is the story of James, a young man working in outback Australia. One day, Archangel Raziel appears and tells James that he can hear demons. He needs James's help to find his book of magic that has been stolen by an Archdemon named Adramelech. After convincing James that Raziel is who and what he says he is, they set out to try to find the book and Adramelech. James is deeply unnerved by the events leading up to getting the book back. However, James cannot deny that he is attracted to Raziel, an attraction that is mutual and eventually consummated. Archangel Uriel arrives, telling Raziel to protect James and the town while he fights Adramelech. Adramelech manages to outmanoeuvre Uriel, confronting Raziel and James in James's home. As Raziel and Adramelech prepare to fight, James grabs the book. Uriel arrives to fight Adramelech and Raziel goes to James. James and Raziel spend time together and come to an understanding: to pursue a relationship together.

Read an excerpt here.

Sign up for the serial anthology release here.