Ramblings of an Australian Writer

AUTHOR FRIENDS: If you're interested in helping with donations for disaster relief for the recent floodings and earthquakes, may I point you towards this tweet. Go here. These two women are putting together a great way of raising money and want you involved. LGBTIQA welcome! Private message Mia Sosa for more information. I'm giving away three complete sets of the nine book series "The Archangel Chronicles" as part of this fundraiser.

READER FRIENDS: (I know the two overlap, authors are readers too!) Anyway, I haven't had a chance to post about this because of that thing called Life. Big congratulations to my dear friend Robyn Walker who got an Honourable Mention and one of the five Judge's Choice Awards for this years' Queer Sci Fi Flash Fiction Competition and to L. V. Lloyd who has a story in the anthology.

The ebook anthology, titled Renewal, is now available for purchase from these retailers:

Mischief Corner Books
Amazon
Kobo
24 Symbols
Playster

And the paperback is available here.

This is the list of Judges' Choices and Honorable Mentions again (alphabetical by author's last name):
R R Angell, To Be Seduced is To Be Reborn – HM
‘Nathan Burgoine, First Shift – HM
Foster Bridget Cassidy, Springtime Fae – HM
Rory Ni Coileain, Longitudinal Case Study – HM
J. P. Egry, Coffee Cat - HM
Steve Fuson, Mating Season – HM
Lia Harding, Homefront – HM
Hannah Henry, The Tiger and the Lily - HM
Emily Horner, Bluebonnets – Judge’s Choice – Scott
S R Jones, In a Bind – HM
Ellery Jude, The Sprout - HM
Jackie Keswick, Patience – HM
Kristen Lee, Rings of Blue – HM
Elsa M León, Love Rituals – HM, Judge’s Choice – Jerome
Leigh M. Lorien, Green Burial – HM
Carol March, The Shaman – HM
Lloyd Meeker - Renewal - HM
Siri Paulson, Urban Renewal – HM
Ada Maria Soto, The Dust – Judge’s Choice, Angel
Ginger Streusel, Auto-Renew – HM
Soren Summers, Lament – HM
Robyn Walker, Wrong Daughter – HM, Judge’s Choice – Ben
Eric Alan Westfall, Merry Go Round – HM
E R Zhang, ARC – Judge’s Choice – Clare

This is the list of all the other wonderful authors in the book (alphabetical by author's last name):
Colton Aalto, Third Seat
Kiterie Aine, Gen 2547
Martha J. Allard, Snowless
Tam Ames, Vernalis
Richard Amos, Again
Jeff Baker, Restoration Inc
Redfern Jon Barrett, Alif
Abby Bartle, Werewolf
Joe Baumann, Walkers
Rose Blackthorn, A Circle Has No End
Dustin Blottenberger, Fields
Jaap Boekestein, That Part You Love
Matthew Bright, Below the Hill
L.M. Brown, Upgrades
Michelle Browne, The Birthing Pod
Jenn Burke, Chrysalid
L. Brian Carroll, Rumble
Fenrir Cerebellion, Faulty Resistance
Lex Chase, When Light Left
Rebecca Cohen, Late Fees
Ross Common, Tattoo Artist
Carey Ford Compton, I Will Be Your Shelter
PW Covington, Dash T
Andi Deacon, The Test of Gold
Vivien Dean, All That Fire
Bey Deckard, Soul Food
Jana Denardo, Falling Waters
Nicole Dennis, Mystic Blossom
Zen DiPietro, A Fertile Mind
Matt Doyle, Torin
Jude Dunn, The Whole World is Watching
Sarah Einstein, The Witches’ Garden
Tray Ellis, Fresh Start
K.C. Faelan, Ouroboros Undone
J.S. Fields, First Commission
Ofelia Gränd, A Fake Cup of Coffee
Sacchi Green, Third Time’s a Charm
M.D. Grimm, Ophiolatry
Nephy Hart, Rebirth of a Dragon
Kelly Haworth, Shedding
S R Jones, In a Bind – HM
Dustin Karpovich, Rainbow Powers
Lin Kelly, The Projector
Jon Keys, Gift of the Little People
Reni Kieffer, New Reign
Mia Koutras, Real Time
Aidee Ladnier, LightHeart
CB Lee, True Love’s Kiss
A.M. Leibowitz, Fresh
L.V. Lloyd, The Librarian
Mary E. Lowd, A Jetpack of a Different Color
F.T. Lukens, Checkpoint
Catherine Lundoff, Firebird
Anne McPherson, Brick and Blood
Xenia Melzer, The Joys of Death
R.L. Merrill, Exchange
Daniel Mitton, The Unmarked Grave
Eloreen Moon, First Contact
John Moralee, After the Fall
Lyda Morehouse, Murphy’s Landing
RL Mosswood, Molt
E.W. Murks, Chrysalis
Milo Owen, Seeing You
Carrie Pack, Allora’s Kiss
Terry Poole, All Hail the New Queen
Irene Preston, Certified Organic
Shilo Quetchenbach, Blackout
Wendy Rathbone, The Groomsman
E.J. Russell, Reboot V5.0
Ell Schulman, Take a Third Option
Patricia Scott, Hope’s Renewal
Andrea Felber Seligman, On the Day After the Second Long Rains
Stephanie Shaffer, Miss You
Mindy Leana Shuman, Genesys
L M Somerton, Library Fines
A.M. Soto, The Dust – Judge’s Choice, Angel
Andrea Speed, The Return
Andrea Stanet, The Harbinger
Paul Stevens, Winter Idyll
J. Summerset, The Ritual
Naomi Tajedler, Gilgul
Laurie Treacy, Coffee Break
Natsuya Uesugi, Switch
Zev de Valera, The House of Many Windows
J. Alan Veerkamp, Loyalty Index
Brigitte Winter, Sunrise
Alexis Woods, Fealty
Christine Wright, Rejuvenation

The final book in the Archangel Chronicles will be released on the 2nd. It's available for preorder now on the Dreamspinner site, but it is indeed the last one.

I have been so incredibly lucky to be able to write this seriews and have it find its home with DSP. I began them wanting to write about Archangels and Archdemons and how the two ancient enemies would interact in crisis that were bigger than their animosities. I also wanted to develop romantic relationships within that framework, and the main one is that of Archangels Michael and Gabriel.

Theirs is a love that is essentially "friends to lovers." I'm sure many--if not all--of us have had a crush on someone and kept it as quiet as possible for various reasons, and in Michael's case it's purely a lack of self-confidence. He doesn't feel that the dashing, handsome, outgoing Gabriel would have any interest in him at all. He hides it so well, so deep within himself that it's kept buried for centuries. Michael is shy and retiring, keeping himself separate from the rest of the Brotherhood and so it isn't until a meeting of all of the Archangels that Gabriel catches his attention and is drawn to Michael more than ever before. A slow and gentle courtship begins as the two open up more and more to each other, their relationship and their love growing.

Of course, nothing is ever easy and there is always some plotting or misdeeds that interfere with the path of true love.

Now, with nine books in the series, everything is over and with a happy end for everyone--except the bad guys.

I hope everyone has been with these characters since the first book will enjoy the last and I hope that new readers of the series will enjoy it just as much.

Thank you to all my readers, past, present and future; to Elizabeth and DSP for publishing the series; to Cate and Meredith for beta'ing; to Ericka, Lynn, Ian and the editing staff; Anne for the amazing covers. <3 <3 <3

The Archangel Chronicles can be bought here.

Reading order:

1. No Quarter
2. No Surrender, No Retreat
3. No Shadows Fall
4. The Wind-up Forest
5. The Crystal Lake
6. The Bone Cup
7. A Shot in the Dark
8. A Fire in the Heart
9. A Candle in the Sun

I've been blog-silent for the majority of this year, limiting my posts to reporting new releases and the like. There's a reason for this silence--this has been the worst year I can remember.

It started on an uneven keel: on the one hand, I'd moved house and the new place is lovely, in a gorgoeus, leafy suburb, near a terrific shopping center, close to a library, a swimming pool, my doctor and more. But it took three months to get the Internet on, due to the lack of room left on the copper wiring of our outdated telecommunications system. I had to get an antenna put on the roof, and there was a delay on that because the weather alternated between hotter than Satan's armpit or wetter than a swamp or both. Once it was up though, hooray, because yay, Internet!

And then a few months after that, my father died. Other personal issues have arisen which have been... less than good, let's say. Things were quite grim in my head for a while--we can be our own worst enemies sometimes, I think. I suffer from depression, yes, it's true, and I manage it with anti-depressants as best I can. Between the situation that's arisen since my father's death and those other personal issues, well, it's been a dark year so far.

On the good side, I've had books out! Ice with Less Than Three Press; The Wind-up Forest, The Crystal Lake and The Bone Cup with Dreamspinner Press--these are books four, five and six of The Archangel Chronicles. Volume two of the Rockin' Hard anthology came out in paperback with Less Than Three Press, and that contains my short, Capsicum Head. All good things, things I'm proud of, things I'm thrilled about.

I wrote. I wrote my guts out, as they say. I wrote books seven, eight and nine of the Archangel Chronicles intended to be the last three. Sometimes, writing is the best medicine. I also got my edits on Mythica, which is out with Bottom Drawer Publications soon. Dreamspinner contracted the last three Archangel books, much to my delight. I wrote some more, submitting Waiting For The Moon and You a month ago.

But this is the thing about depression. Depression doesn't really care what you do or achieve. Depression is the monster under the bed that rises up when it damn well feels about it and too bad what you might want. Depression is insidious, touching every part of your psyche.

Robin Williams died yesterday, and his passing had a huge effect on me, more than I thought it would. Not just because Dead Poet's Society was my teenage inspiration or quotes from Mrs. Doubtfire became the hilarious calling card in a group of friends. Not just because he was a comedic and improvisational genius or because Good Will Hunting was everything I loved about my past as an academic or The Fisher King was moving and touching. Because Robin Williams was dealing with the monster under the bed--depression--and that monster doesn't discriminate.

I have seen some people talk about him being "selfish" which just... well. So this is my link for the day, the week, the month, hell, for all of us who live with depression or depression sufferers. There is nothing selfish about suicide.

Today, Lauren Bacall died. She was a classy, intelligent, beautiful, strong woman. I hope that she and Robin Williams are together in the great beyond, enjoying a coffee and a laugh together.