Ramblings of an Australian Writer

Dreamspinner Press is turning seven!

Can you believe it? How awesome is this--DSP is seven!



You can get a whopping 35% off my books this week, and they are all over this-a way! So grab a bargain while you can.

There are loads of other authors on sale this week, check out the index to see who's on sale--click the name and you'll be taken to that author's page and list of books.

I can't believe that it's been four years I've been published! So wonderful!

Capsicum Head, my story in the Rocking Hard: Volume Two serial has started today, so if you want to read about Aussie punk rockers and their misadventures (and who doesn't, right? XD), go sign up for serial today. Sign up page is here, and there's loads of great stuff available for serial subscribers. In any case, if you're just looking for the rocker stories, you want this page and 3/4 of the way down is volume two with Capsicum Head.

In other news, Noble Romance has folded. This means all author rights have reverted, which means I have the rights back to my novella, Life and Nothing But. I have taken down all mentions of this from my personal sites, and as far as I can tell, the book has been removed from Noble's own website and third party vendors.

What I plan to do with it now that I have the rights back, is rework it--there are parts of it that I feel need to be altered if not plain removed. I was very lucky to have such a wonderful editor to work with on it, so I don't think there's much I need to alter. However, I plan to get a new cover for it and put it up on Smashwords. When I've made all the changes and decisions, I'll post more.

I am at C. R. Moss' blog today, talking about all kinds of things and giving away a copy of "Life and Nothing But" and a copy of "City of Gold." So do come join us!

~ Clickee here! ~

⋄ 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.

To celebrate the Amazon Kindle release of Life and Nothing But, I'm having a wee party here. More of a shindig than a party, actually. Maybe a hootenanny. A Blue Light Disco for you Aussies who remember those ;).

So do drop in and say hi, chat, eat the virtual nibbles and lets talk books, Kindles, E-Readers, and my novella on Amazon! Which is *drum roll* here:

Ta da!

Congratulations to the winners of my book giveaway over at Amara's!

Jason won Life and Nothing But and Roro won City of Gold. I hope you both enjoy the books and thanks for dropping by.

I had a great time at Amara's, just as I did at JS's last month. Guest blogging is great. To come, blogging at Ella Jade's in September and at Lou Sylvre's in February 2012. (So far. XD)

Today's Thursday Thirteen is thirteen sentences from things I've written. I've limited it to four works – two that are published (Life and Nothing But and City of Gold) and two that are works in progress (City of Jade and No Quarter). So here we go. Sentences that I picked at random. Also, mea culpa, the works in progress really are still in progress, so any errors, etc, are as yet unfixed.



1. "Difficult and somehow insulting, as if all we are good for is war and when that occupation is taken from us, we are patted on the head and sent off to languish in occupations that are best left to the city's militia."
- City of Jade.

2. " So, I went and had a look around; Shamshiel's ranting at the other Grigori and his wings look a little bare -- he looks like he's a moulting chicken."
- No Quarter.

3. He had not been inside Nick's abode at all, he realized, and he couldn't help himself from looking around curiously, trying to learn as much as he could about the man without being too obvious.
- Life and Nothing But.

4. Misahuen’s lips curved upward in the faintest of smiles, and then he was gone, walking into Constantinople with the merchant and the rest of his pack train.
- City of Gold.

5. He didn't feel like explaining it right then, for the vista of Antioch, golden and lovely, shimmering in the light of the sun, captured his attention.
- City of Jade.

6. "You are the most stubborn, bad-tempered, ill-bred patient in the history of medicine," Raphael was saying, obviously continuing a conversation that had been interrupted by Tzadkiel's call, " you have absolutely no respect for your condition, you refuse to follow my orders, instead gallivanting about like an Archangel of leisure, which you most certainly are not... what am I to do with you, Uriel?"
- No Quarter.

7. The scotch burned his throat on the way down, a welcoming burn that distracted him from his dark thoughts.
Life and Nothing But.

8. Misahuen was silent as the rest of the party he was with talked among themselves, and Gallienus watched, hoping against hope that Misahuen would turn and see him there in the shadows.
- City of Gold.

9. "I will guard it with my life," Michael said solemnly and Gabriel's lips twitched in suppressed mirth.
- No Quarter.

10. "Culturally, I suppose that yes, the Byzantine Empire is more Greek than Roman, but Byzantium grew out of the Roman Empire and so it is the Eastern Roman Empire."
- City of Jade.

11. Turning in a small circle, he couldn't keep the smile off his face as he saw the pinpoints of golden light that were hundreds of candles shining in the windows of every room in every cottage and, up on the hill above them, the windows of the castle.
- Life and Nothing But.

12. “It is traditional in my country to marry, but there are many who have lovers outside the marriage, lovers of both sexes.”
- City of Gold.

13. As he looked up, blinking away the snowflakes, Gabriel let out a slow breath as he watched the beauty of the Northern Lights undulating serpent-like across the sky.
- No Quarter.

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.