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

We're near the end, dear friends, the end. The last book of The Archangel Chronicles will be out on the 2nd October, and to celebrate its release and the end of the series, I'm doing a series of posts here to commemorate that. So first up, a playlist. This is music I listened to while I was writing, music that I thought fit the characters or the scenes or the tone of things. It's an eccelctic variety, and I hope you enjoy some--if not all--of it.

More about What's Up Wednesdays here.

WHAT I'M READING.

Nearly half way through The Genome by Sergey Lukyanenko, finally! I had books from the library so I kept putting this back until those were read. Anyhoo, I think Lukyanenko is the bees knees when it comes to urban fantasy/paranormal, his Night Watch series are up there in my top ten all time favourite books. So when I got a notif from Amazon that there was now an English translation of The Genome, that was the one I bought with a gift certificate at Christmas.

I only have one problem with this one: the translation isn't as good as it is for the NW books. But having said that, this is terrific book. It's hard sci-fi but doesn't have so much sci-fi!science that my brain wants to melt; in fact, I actually understand what's going on, so I count that as a big win. For another thing, it's very obvious that Lukyanenko likes to poke the bear that is the Russian government (he's Kazak and lives/writes in Russia/Russian.), so his main characters in this book are a black woman who is a doctor, an executioner and a linguist; a gay man who is the best at what he does in the sector; a teenage girl who has been genetically altered to be an assassin; a Frenchman who has an uncanny ability with weaponary; and the captain, also genetically altered to be a specialist pilot. The captain, the teenage girl and the co-pilot are all Russian. There are issues of prejudice between the crew and their new passengers, while the crew themselves meld together into a tight knit unit akin to a family. Who just happen to be on board a discus shaped space ship with high tech weapons and internals.

It's fast paced, it's interesting, it's got me gripped. The characters are all awesome, especially Janet, the black woman, who is a tough, strong, no-nonsense character who also is the most empathic, alongside Alex, the captain. Actually, I like all the characters so far, but I bet that'll change! In short, another fantastic book from Lukyanenko, and I hope there's more English translations of his work done soon.

WHAT I'M WRITING (+ A WRITING GOAL).

Promo things for my new release, A Shot in the Dark, which is available in eBook and paperback.

I've done a bit more on the paranormal, but that's going slowly right now as suddenly, things have happened, much earlier than I expected and I'm suddenly running around like a chook with its head chopped off. (Read: VERY busy). Also have made a start of fixing up and synopsising the sci-fi, but that's also slow going because of aforementioned running around.

WHAT WORKS FOR ME.

Sleep. Ye gods and little fishes, sleep is so marvellous and wonderful and my bed is awesome and it must never leave me. Also, reading helps jiggle the old brainmeats, which is why we should do it. And because we enjoy it. And I'm so gripped and confused and impressed with the TV series Fortitude, which is confounding, wonderful, horrifying and brilliant. If I could write something that intense and maintain the suspense, not giving anything away, I would be delighted.

WHAT ELSE IS NEW.

More bullet points!

Epilepsy diagnosed. That's okay, I'd expected that, but laws regarding driving mean that getting my license has been set back by a few years, so that's annoyed me greatly. Oh well. C'est la vie.

My niece's wedding is in 6 weeks and I am so not ready!!

Planning a trip to the gorgeous Flinders Ranges for the near future sometime with mum, because she's never been and I'm of the opinion that everyone should visit at least once in their lives. This'll be my fourth trip up there.

Fortitude. I cannot get enough of this brilliant show. Stanley Tucci is amazing. The rest of the cast are too.

The music of Ólafur Arnalds (he does the soundtrack for Broadchurch) is perfect to write to.

The new poster for the next James Bond movie, Spectre, is out and sweet mercy me. Daniel Craig. 'Nuff said.

Mum's had a few more falls, which is worrying, but her GP is on the case and I'm hopeful that the new plan will be a good one.

L-R: The Spectre poster; our first spring onions, fresh from the garden. They smelled amazing; my new release, A Shot in the Dark; the cat hiding under a stool in the bath... as they do; some of the cast of Fortitude.

A Shot in the Dark is out! You can get it from Dreamspinner Press here: eBook and paperback.

Blurb: Sequel to The Bone Cup
Archangel Chronicles: Book Seven

M/M Paranormal, Angels / Demons
Publisher: DSP Publishing
Cover Artist: Anne Cain
Release Date: March 9, 2015
Length: 210 pages / Novel

After the theft and recovery of the Holy Grail, saving all of creation from destruction, and almost losing Michael, Archangel Gabriel devoutly hopes for nothing more dangerous than a stubbed toe. So when Archangel Michael sends a pack of his Venatores and two of Gabriel’s trackers on a rescue mission, Gabriel believes it’s purely routine.

No one is prepared for the danger and terror the Venatores find. What they face is torture, kidnapping, medical experiments, vivisection, and the enemies’ desire to remove all nonhumans—including shifters—from Earth forever. The supposedly routine rescue mission turns into a struggle for survival, and Gabriel and Michael face a terrifying new foe, and a threat to not just their existence and love but to the existence of everything they know. If the Brotherhood of Archangels and their allies can’t prevail, all will be lost.

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.