Ramblings of an Australian Writer

Six months into the year and I'm wondering where did the time go? It seems as if I blinked and we went from January, with its sweltering Australian summer to winter, with its rain, wind and cold. I wish I could say these last six months have been productive and the time has gone into writing, but I can't.

For the most part, this year hasn't been a good one. I'll spare you the gory details, but the year so far has revolved around health issues, both mine and my mother's (who I'm a carer for), and other relatives. At the current moment, I'm on (hopefully) the last leg of a nasty sinus infection that has laid me up for nearly three weeks; prior to that, mum was in the hospital; my grand-niece was ill, my niece had the worst ear infection I've ever heard of, my cat was sick, and the list goes on. Subsequently, there's been little in the way of work done. And I'm annoyed at my own human frailty--being tired, being sick, being tired and sick, being depressed--for not getting more done on works in progress that I can't stop thinking about. The mind is willing, sort of, but the body is weak.

It could be said that rather than write this blog post, I could be working on a wip, but the truth is that it takes a lot less concentration to write a blog post than to work on a wip. And I've been Lady Silence for some time and felt that it was probably a good idea to sort of pop my head up and say here I am, I'm surviving.

There were good things that have happened this year, the first being the Cut Snake Collective photography exhibition I was part of, which was a terrific experience and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. The second was a short holiday I took mum on before she went into hospital, a trip up to the Flinders Ranges (where my latest release Book, Line, and Sinker is set) and that was wonderful.



1. The ochre pits, where the Adnyamantha people gathered ochre for paint. 2. Yellow-footed Rock Wallaby in its natural habitat, in Brachina Gorge. 3. The Chase Range.

A small selection of the photos I took. To see more, go here.

Anyway, I have been reading a lot, a varied collection of books, actually, so here's a list of some of the ones I particularly enjoyed.

Career of Evil - Robert Galbraith
Close Encounters of the Furred Kind - Tom Cox (non fiction)
The Martian Chronicles - Ray Bradbury
New Watch - Sergey Lukyaneko
Throne of the Crescent Moon - Saladin Ahmed
The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
The King - J. R. Ward
Code Name Verity - Elizabeth Wein
Feral Machines - Ginn Hale
The Archer's Heart - Astrid Amara
Midnight in Peking - Paul French (non fiction)

Some are re-reads, because a book is a joy forever. And that, dear friends, is that. Hopefully the last half of this year will be infinitely less absorbed by health issues and I can write! Hope you're all happy and healthy. <3

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 )

It's been a busy month for me. March has been taken up with edits--edits on The Bone Cup, final round, book 6 of The Archangel Chronicles; talking with Bottom Drawer Press about my forthcoming release with them, Mythica, for which edits are due at the end of month thereabouts; doing the final round of fixing stuff up on book 9 of The Archangel Chronicles so I can get it to my lovely beta.

In between, I've had some family concerns. My father's health, I've discovered, is deteriorating. Then my mother had two falls, a few days apart. And I've been dealing with incredible back pain that has made writing/reading/doing anything quite painful. It hasn't been a happy month on the health front.

But there are words. There's always words. Words in my head that yearn to be put down onto a document. Words that will be books, stories, tales. Words that are few in number right now, but they will breed and multiply and the tales will take shape and evolve. I'm so happy that I can write, even if it is only a paragraph at a time right now.

I've read some great books, too, at least lying down I can read, thank god for small mercies! And I've been reading news articles and such on the internet, getting my righteous anger on as regards Australian politics.

Of course, there's also telly. My shows that I can't miss are Vikings, Supernatural, So You Think You Can Dance Australia, The Project, Grand Designs, Would I Lie To You, The Last Leg, and soon, Game of Thrones. And then there was True Detective, and I ate that up like it was the most gorgeous, delicious, perfect food. Never, ever have I found Matthew McConaughey so attractive as I did in that show. Movies to see soon--300: Rise of an Empire (starring long time favourite of mine, Hans Matheson); Noah. There's a whole post coming about why I want to see Noah and it involves the Archangel books.

Anyhoo, that's where I am right now. Soon, there'll be more. Soon. But for right this minute...

Link of the Now: Budget Bytes--delicious food, gorgeous recipes, on a low budget. YUM.

May was a good month, wasn't it? Well it certainly was here on my blog! I had loads of awesome guests come and chat about all kinds of things, do giveaways, and there was the wonderful Blog Hop Against Homophobia as well. Lots of people to meet, books to read and stuff to talk about. Pretty awesome.

Part of the interviews I did involved asking everyone a variety of questions, (obviously!), but there was one question that I asked everyone I interviewed - if you were a plant in the next life, what would you be and why? Such a wonderful variety of answers, I thought I'd recap the month with everyone's answers to that question, with a link to each interview. (I'll link guest posts at the end.)

And if you want to comment and tell us what sort of a plant you would be in the next life, then please do! The more, the merrier!

Q: If you were a plant in the next life, what would you be and why?

3/5 C. R. Moss. "I'd be an oak tree. Sturdy, beautiful, able to offer shelter to wildlife and shade to people. :)"
4/5 Kim Fielding. "Lavender. It’s pretty and useful and smells nice, hardly any pests bother it, and it can live quite a long time under difficult conditions. It’s not fussy. Who doesn’t like lavender?"
6/5 Hayley B. James. "Oh! What a fun question! I think I’d want to be a lilac bush. I love the smell of lilac flowers."
10/5 Helen Pattskyn. "LOL! I would love to be a belladonna atropa. They’re quietly beautiful (brown flowers that become big black “berries”) and only slightly poisonous (assuming you’re not a small child)."
12/5 RJ Astruc. "I have some lucky bamboo on my balcony, and I love it, it’s so cool and curly. So that’s what I’d go for. I’m going to pretend, of course, that I’d grow that way naturally, and not have to suffer lots of splinting and twisting in the growing process…"
16/5 Leora Stark. "Lavender. I am obsessed with it. I'd be so relaxed all the time!"
19/5 Jacqueline Brocker. "What I'd like to be; daffodil - I just love them so much, bright and always cheerful. But this is not me so much, so I'd probably be something a bit quirkier like, I dunno, a snapdragon. ;)"
20/5 Meredith Shayne. "A cactus, because I'm a bit fleshy, a bit prickly, and hard to kill."
24/5 Megan Derr. "Venus fly trap. They're ominous and cute all at once. I love playing with those things whenever I go to zoos and gardens. I would totally dig being a Venus fly trap."
27/5 Clare London. "A sweet potato. I like the contrast of cute and sensible :D."
29/5 Marie Sexton. "A lily, because they’re gorgeous, but they’re also tough as hell. They grow in bad rocky soil without much water. That’s impressive."
30/5 Blak Rayne. "Strange question indeed! LOL A cedar tree. Cedars keep the bugs away, they don't shed because they don't have needles, they can grow very big, and they smell nice, plus I love their bowed branches."

Guest posts without mention of plants or next lives:
2/5 Caridad Pineiro.
15/5 Ella Jade.
22/5 Margie Church.
25/5 Jamie Samms.

And what would I be? Well, I'd be rosemary. Because rosemary is hard to kill, doesn't need a lot of care or attention, is adaptable and is great in cooking and in hair care. And it smells nice and relaxes you.

June has started and with it, I broke a toe and got a cold, so I've been feeling pretty sorry for myself. (And not at all rosemary-ish.) Good news, though, is that No Surrender, No Retreat, book two in the Archangel Chronicles has a release date of JULY 25TH, so that's very exciting.

And finally, I'll leave you all with this Kickstarter project link, to make a documentary from footage that was filmed while Andy Whitfield (Spartacus: Blood and Sand, Gabriel) was dealing with his hodgins lymphoma. The doco seeks to raise awareness about cancer as well as be a testamonial to the life of Andy Whitfield.

Be Here Now: The Andy Whitfield Story.

February has been a rollercoaster month so far, and we've only just started it! I was thinking about my writing, specifically about No Quarter which is out soon (omg, so excite!) and about how proud I am of that book and the books that follow it that make up the series. Even though I'm only a quarter way through writing book three, I'm still thoroughly enjoying this universe I've created and the characters and their stories. They are all eager to tell me their stories, and I foresee there being quite a lot of pieces set in this universe to come. It's almost like my comfort food of writing. Does that make any sense?

So while I was thinking about this, a memory from when I was a very little LJ came to me and I laughed and laughed for a while, that fond nostalgia laugh. It amused me so much that I wanted to blog about it. And hey, look – a blog post that isn't a promo link or a Six Sentence Sunday or a Thursday Thirteen!

Anyway, when I was very young, around 10 years old, I think, although that's a long time ago and I can't be sure that's how old I was, I wrote a story about a magical horse and his friends. I know I was in primary school at the time, because I remember a/my handwriting was *dreadful* (not that it's much better these days!) and b/I didn't wear a uniform to school – uniforms were for high school.

I remember I got an A for this story, which was written in an A5 size notebook with a dull grey cardboard cover. It's odd the details you remember. I remember showing my mother this story, because I was proud of my grade and because I wanted her to read my amazing skills as a storyteller (aged 10). Mum read the story and said it was very good, and then asked me about a part of it.

Naturally, I can't remember how the exact conversation went, but I remember the gist of it, which is as follows.

Mum: This is very good, LJ! But, why is Magical Horse Character calling 'ooo'?
Little me: 'Ooo'? [I was confused. I didn't remember writing anyone saying Ooh or ooo.]
Mum: Yes, right here. [She showed me what I'd written.]
Little me: OH. That's not 'ooo'! That's 0 0 0 – triple zero, to call the police!
Mum: ...I knew that.

Because our emergency call number is triple zero (911 in the US), it was easy to see how mum got 'ooo' out of '0 0 0.'

It gave me a giggle, remembering that. I think that's the earliest memory I have of my writing. That and the story I wrote about Humpty Dumpty in Australia, with Mr. Dumpty wearing a corks-onna-string-from-the-brim hat – like this:



This is not to be confused with the awesome that is the Australian Akubra hat, which is this:



The things we remember from our childhoods!

It's a good day today.

Firstly, I'm guest blogging at clarelondon's blog, today, talking about inspiration in photos, and I've shared some images of inspirational things, including one of Daniel Craig. Inspiration is in everything, am I right? Anyhoo, do stop by!

Secondly, I got a contract for book two of my Archangels series, No Surrender, No Retreat, which I am delighted and excited to accept, so yay!


These are jolly good things after several weeks of blah - the hot weather here has been dreadful, the heatwave has been one of the worst in years, so when the cool change finally hit on Monday morning, all of Adelaide drew a huge breath of relief. Being able to think without feeling like your brain is jelly? What a marvellous sensation!

There's been some health issues for me, above and beyond the usual (there's always something, sigh), so I am off to visit cardiologists directly and get that diagnosed properly. Interim diagnosis is SVT, which is Supraventricular Tachycardia, basically where the electrics in your heart misfire, so your heart starts beating a mile a minute. It is a very scary feeling, believe me. However, in my case, there's some concern that there's an underlying issue - not to mention a history of heart disease in my family - so it's off to the cardiologist for me. Soon, I will be on a first name basis with everyone in all the specialist units in the Royal Adelaide Hospital. My mum is also having tests at the end of February, so she will be staying here at my house for a few days, one before, the day of, and at least one day after the tests.

All of that explains why I've been less than frequent with blogging or doing the Thursday Thirteens or Six Sentence Sundays. Heat, plus health, plus worrying, do not make for a productive mindset. Today is a new day, though, a good day, so onwards and upwards!

Thirteen things I have done today.

Now, this probably doesn't seem like a Big Deal to most people, but when you're like me and have two bung knees and one bung wrist, this is a Herculean effort and I'm bloody chuffed with myself. (Plus a really sore face and jaw, thanks to yesterday's dental stuffs, but only two more to go and on December 1st, my mouth reno will FINALLY be complete. OMG I can't wait.)

The cat, however, is wandering around the living room, all wide-eyed, like I've just altered his entire universe. And thinking the gap on top of the entertainment unit means that it is a new space for HIM to sit his furry little arse. Uh, no, Castiel. You are not a telly. Don't even think about it.

1. Threw out a BIG box and garbage bag full of paper.
2. From the recliner armchair, upon which had collected the entire paper production of a small saw mill, it seems.
3. Shifted said recliner to next to the armchair.
4. Shifted the airconditioner into the spot vacated by the recliner. Which, now it's there, I should have done in the first place, when I got the sofa three years ago. Now the living room looks a whole lot bigger.
5. Cooked and ate a magnificent lasagna.
6. Had a wee lie down.
7. Shifted a very heavy wooden trunk full of medieval garb into the bedroom. This trunk is heavy enough empty that a Strong Male Friend (tm) had to carry it for me when I bought it, some twelve years ago. So how did I move it? I pushed it along the floor.
8. Washed some dishes.
9. Changed the cat litter. Castiel still thinks he has to tunnel to China when he uses the litter tray.
10. Put out the non-working dvd player that is something like seven years old for hard rubbish. That was six hours ago; I went outside and it's now gone. As I knew it would be. Hard rubbish around here rarely ends up going to the tip.
11. Dusted. ACHOO!
12. Read twitter, LJ and the rest of the things I read on the interwebs daily.
13. Spoke on the telling bone to mum. (Which reminds me I need to look for a new phone because this old landline thing is slowly dying.)

All of this? In honour of a new telly arriving tomorrow morning, for which I am terribly excite. My current one is analog, twelve years old, dying and the digital set top box is five years old and dying. The new telly will be awesome.

So day before yesterday we went to lunch at Seoul Korean restaurant and it was delish. Mum wasn't convinced she'd like it, as she's becoming a picky eater in her old age, but she loved it. I? I am still daydreaming of those lightly fried dumplings, the kimchi pancake and the garlic grilled chicken. Nomomom. I fully intend to go back again soon.

Mum gave me a microwave and some scratchies for my birthday, the microwave, I hasten to add, was delivered the week before the 23rd, I didn't have to somehow lug it around Adelaide and a restaurant and home. XD



How delicious does this look? It was amazing. Top shot is dumplings and kimchi pancake, with a glass of punch made of ginger, cinammon and persimmon; bottom shot is beef bibimbap with sides and red pepper paste. Castiel approves!

I'm so close. SO CLOSE. Again, the Archangel novel has no title. I am fail in that department. Does anyone else have a 10K block that seems to take forever to pass? For me, it's the 30-40K word mark, it always seems to feel like an eternity to pass 40K, but once I do, everything else seems to zip past at lightning speeds. Like this week and my 10K words, hurrah.

Shiny things: So many pretty shiny things.

And sundrily, I have a dental appt on Thursday, for which I have fear as dentists are my major phobia, but boy, do I need a lot of work. Ah, teeth. We should have shark teeth.