Ramblings of an Australian Writer

I'm a bit behind in posting what's going on, which is due entirely to having pulled my back muscles. My physio, who is a magic worker, has put most of the problem to rights, but there is lingering pain and the necessary meds make me very tired, so I've spent most of my time resting or doing necessary stretches. Let me tell you, though, internets--back pain is nothing to sneeze at. It's quite possibly the worst pain I've ever felt, and that says a lot.

Anyhoodle, last week, I was at the ARe Cafe, talking about my love of series, and especially about The Archangel Chronicles, of which the next three are in the editing queue with Dreamspinner Press. I've started writing book seven, because these characters are very loud in my head--though they've had to endure my inability to do much while recovering from the back issue--and that book is coming along very quickly. You can read my post at the ARe Cafe here.

Noble Romance have closed and ceased operations. Emily Veinglory's Erotic Romance Publishers site has more information, here. What this means is that my novella, Life and Nothing But, is no longer available for purchase. I have my rights reversion letter and my plan is to go over the book and edit it again and then it'll probably go up on Smashwords. I'm not totally certain about this, though, so that may change, but suffice to say that the book is no longer available.


Link of the Now: Something a little light--Cat Versus Human, a cute comic strip about the joys of living with cats. I relate to this one, having had my own feet at the mercy of Castiel's talons of doom. And this one made me lol heartily. I hope you all enjoy this comic too.

⋄ 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.

Dear Readers,

WANNA WIN SOME GIFT CERTIFICATES? HOW ABOUT A NEW KINDLE?

NOBLE is having a Yahoo Group Subscriber Drive to bring new readers to our Yahoo readers' groups. Subscribers to these groups can attend FUN PARTIES, where they'll have a chance to chat with favorite authors, meet new-to-you authors, read excerpts, learn about new releases, AND WIN A BUNCH OF REALLY COOL PRIZES.

To make this subscriber drive more FUN, we're holding a contest. All you need to do is:

1. Subscribe to the NOBLE Yahoo Group of your choice. Here's the links.

NobleYoungAdult-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

NobleRomancePublishing-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

1. AFTER you subscribe, send an email to Noble, at give them the following information: Your name, the email address you used to subscribe, and MY NAME so they know who lured you into our lair—I mean, enticed you to subscribe. If you subscribed to the young adult readers' loop, send an email to YahooReaderNYA@nobleromance.com. If you subscribed to the NRP readers' loop, send an email to YahooReaderNRP@nobleromance.com.

At the end of the month, Noble will see which author brought in the most subscribers. The winning author's subscribers will ALL RECEIVE A $10 GIFT CERTIFICATE to Noble Romance Publishing or Noble Young Adult – Not Just Romance!

And here's the best part: The winning author will receive a brand new Kindle – and all their new subscribers will be entered into a drawing, and one lucky winner will receive a brand new Kindle, too! J

*Contest open to U.S. residents, only. Only new subscribers are eligible to win. Sorry – no unsubscribing then re-subscribing allowed. Subscribers must stay subscribed for a minimum of one month to be eligible. Contest ends AUGUST 3, 2011; Prizes will be awarded by SEPTEMBER 3, 2011. Don't wait. Sign up NOW.

I'm thrilled to be able to share this today. So here it is!




And you can buy it here.

Blurb: When Michael Lee takes a job as a tutor to Lord Henilworth's children, the last thing he expects to find is the love of his life. However, from the moment he first meets Nick, the gardener of Castle Henilworth, he cannot deny the attraction. Believing it to be one-sided, Michael tries to bury himself in his work, but living in the same village and working in the same place make it impossible to completely avoid Nick. Gradually, Michael overcomes his shyness, and, when Nick makes his own interest clear, everything seems to be going Michael's way. However, ghosts of the past and a racist attack threaten the fragile happiness Michael has found. Will Nick's love really be enough?

It's a novella, clocking in at just over 16K words, set in a castle estate in country England, near the city of York. I hope you enjoy it!

So I have my final cover art for Life and Nothing But now and oh. It's so beautiful. I stared at it for a good ten minutes in awe at how beautiful it is. The novella is out on the 25th in the US (so the 26th here, I'm guessing), which is when I shall post links and such and a preview of the cover. Which is beautiful, I say again.

The editing process with Bonnie has been amazing. I've learned so much while working with her and I'm enormously grateful to her for everything she's done to bash this story into saleable shape. The whole experience with Noble has been wonderful.

In wip news, I'm at 3K words on my Byzantine Empire period novel, which I'm amusing myself by calling my Byzantine road trip novel. Basically, because that is what they're doing - road tripping across central Asia, along the Silk Road, from Constantinople to the Chinese city of Hangzhou. That one's not far along yet soley because of the research. I'm assured that no one will really be fussed if I'm wrong or fudge over some details, but that isn't the point. *I* will be fussed, because I'm a research geek and a history geek. So, I am fussing, natch.

The other one, my Archangels novel, is nearly at 10K words. This is good, except my two mains have yet to do anything more than gaze soulfully and longingly at each other when they think the other isn't looking. Mind you, there's trouble afoot in that universe, so the course of true love will take a while yet.

Other than that, the joints hurt and I'm tired and sore, but it's a day ending in Y, so onward I go. I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend, whatever you're doing.

Some wonderful news - my novella, Life And Nothing But, has been accepted for publication by Noble Romance Publishers. It has a release date of April 25th, 2011 and I'm very excited. I rather suspect as the date gets closer and the cover art is done that there will be more posts about it. And, no doubt, about other projects that I have on the go as well. My brain is full of ideas but alas, between pain and weather, the body is not so willing. There really needs to be a way to plug my brain directly into my laptop so I can think my ideas into a Word document. That would be awesome.

For something a little different now, a mini-meme:

Name: L.J., although my friends call me Star.
Favorite genre to write: Historical m/m (predominantly medieval and Byzantine eras), paranormal m/m.
Favorite genre to read: Fantasy (witches, wizards, magic, dragons, etc.), history text books and biographies... actually, if the blurb sounds interesting, chances are I'll read it.
General location: Adelaide, South Australia.
One Professional goal: To finish my very long novel without pulling out all of my hair. To finish the co-written novel (Chiaroscuro.) and get it out this year.
One Personal goal: To visit New Zealand this year.
One interesting fact about you: I used to manage a local punk rock band. They never really made any money, but it was a lot of fun. What's another one that isn't so well known... hrm. Oh. My next mobile phone will most likely be a smartphone (Nokia), as my current Nokia's buttons are too small for me to use easily with one very bad, almost non-working hand. It makes me sad, as it's a very pretty phone.
And anything else you want to add: I lurk on mailing lists, therefore I am? :)

Tell me about yourselves, dear flist. I'm curious and interested in what you all read/write/aspire to do/like to do/interesting things.

I've submitted two stories this month, one to Dreamspinner Press and the other to Noble Romance. Now, while I try not to think about them (this never goes well, I am a talented worrywart!), I turn my attention towards the Freaky Fountain Press Heavenly Bodies anthology.

I had an idea for what to do for my story for this late last night, around 3a.m., which led to getting out of my comfortable, warm bed and surfing the net looking for the specifics to see if my idea would actually be feasible. It is, which fills me with glee, and I found lots of awesome stuff in my quest for Biblical archaelogy sites and got sidetracked quite a bit. (Gate of Ishtar, I'm looking at you.) Anyway, I'm doing a quick refresher on the destruction of Sodom and Gormorrah story then, after a good night's sleep tonight, writing will begin tomorrow. Huzzah!

Unrelated to writing, I can't recommend the following movie enough. I bought it on dvd, sight unseen, based entirely on a recomendation from jerusalemorbust and the fact that it is a/historical and b/stars an actor/singer I particularly like (Yoo Seung Jun aka Steve Yoo.) The film is Jackie Chan's latest, his 99th film, and is called Little Big Soldier. If you like Jackie Chan films, history films and foreign films, this is for you. It's brilliant and the best $10AU I've spent in a while.

It's nearly Christmas now, three more sleeps! So to everyone, a very merry Christmas and holiday season.