Hey, Look! A New Book!

I’m so awesome at rhyming.

The Archive of Lost Dreams and other paranormal tales is now available on Smashwords and, as a bonus, also on Goodreads (where I will shortly be adding the Storm Front short stories as well)!

Yaaaaaaaaaaay!

Also – there’s another gorgeous cover! Whatever would I do without my wonderful cover artist? I don’t know.

I love it to bits. It’s so elegant and old-timey (wimey).

This Tenth Doctor gif is inserted purely for the viewing pleasure of Archer and Melbs. You’re welcome.

Brief synopsis:

Four short paranormal tales.

The Archive of Lost Dreams: a little girl discovers the importance of dreams and wishes.

Roses Are Red: Nineteen year old Loren meets her guardian angel who is struggling with jealousy issues.

Don’t Even Peep: Eight year old Susan investigates the secrets in her Victorian home.

Round, Round The Fairy Ring: Seven year old Abigail’s new baby sister is replaced with a fairy changeling.

 

Go add the book to Goodreads and read the preview on Smashwords and buy it if you have a spare 99c!

Guest Post: The Edge of Darkness Fantasy Cast

Today I’m bieng hosted at the lovely Gina’s popular blog Fantasy Casting.

What’s being cast? Why, my version of the dream cast of The Edge of Darkness!

Drop by and have a look, leave a comment, and check out some of Gina’s other posts because she’s a very awesome lady and has been an invaluable support to me since I published The Edge of Darkness.

Gina will also be hosting an interview soon! I’ll post a link when that happens.

Thanks a lot, Gina!

Life Changing Events: Why I’ve Been Absent For A Week

And no, I haven’t done any writing.

I finished NaNo last Sunday, officially won it at midnight on Wednesday, and I was prepared to do some more words on The Oncoming Storm late last week, but something amazing happened that changed my life.

On Thursday my partner was granted his spouse visa to Australia. It’s subsequently thrown me a little off schedule.

We’ve been waiting to hear back for several months, and we didn’t expect to hear for a few months more. We’re planning on moving to Australia early next year, when the inevitable English snow has melted (hopefully).

Two days later it was my partner’s birthday and we’ve kind of been having this massive celebration for his birthday and his visa approval and trying to see all our friends and contact all our family and preparing for Christmas (they get you early in the UK!)… it’s been a tiring but extraordinarily happy time.

So I’ve not been online very much at all, let alone had time for writing.

Who else had a life-changing event in the last week?

NaNoWriMo Day 27: And We Have A Winner!

Word Count: 50,263

That’s right, kittens, I’ve validated my novel! That means I’ve ‘won’ NaNoWriMo for 2011!

*throws confetti and glitter, offers everyone fairy cakes and those really yummy pastry triangles filled with spinach and cheese – look out, they’re hot!*

While the novel’s not yet finished, I’ve validated it today anyway so that I can take a breather. I’m still looking to add maybe 20K-30K, depending on how it flows. I’m not looking to word pad, but events keep jumping up at me demanding to be recorded. Now that the big party scene is over the next big thing is the climax, which is the witch’s All Hallow’s Eve gathering. I have to do some more work between now and then, including building Tina and Ten’s relationship, Lachlan’s downfall, the thing that happened to Chelsea, a realisation about Connor, and some family stuff for the Storms.

It’s going to be fun, but right now I need a break.

NaNoWriMo Day 25: When I Question My Sanity

Word Count Goal: 41,675

Achievement: 46,296

Soundtrack: Nightwish’s orchestral music.

Sometimes I wonder about my head.

I know I said in a previous post that even though I write graphic, gruesome violence I’m really quite mild-mannered. Well, I’ve been watching the Scream movies with my partner, and it has influenced me a lot. There’s more violence, more fighting, and although I’m trying to demonstrate what Tina can do, rather than just expecting people to accept it when I write that she’s a good demon hunter, now I’m starting to feel a little weird about it.

How much violence is too much? This is the third violence-against-Tina scene I’ve written, and it’s worse than the previous two combined. It’s longer, crueller, and more graphic. And how much violence is bad for YA literature? The most popular YA book series, Twilight, always managed to avoid the violent scenes (much to the disagreement of many fans, especially in Breaking Dawn). I wonder if I’ve just wasted two pages more suited to a horror film, if it will even stay in the novel. Don’t get me wrong: I want it to stay in. I love what I’ve written. And teens have been watching horror movies since forever. I watched Halloween when I was twelve years old.

I’m writing what I want to read, and I want to read a mixture of YA and adult fantasy literature. I want all the awesome sweetness and innocence of YA literature mixed with the adult content I see in my head. The Edge of Darkness is an adult book because of its social commentary, violence, and sex. Dadewalker, despite it containing offpage sex and onpage violence, is young adult. I’m getting the feeling that Tina Storm’s first book has a lot of Tina losing her innocence. I’m going in to more detail about her story and what’s happening. Tina’s growing up through the book and the book’s target audience, by association, is growing up as well. This might end up being an upper YA book, or even YA for adults. I don’t know. We’re going to see.

I feel weird because of the unplanned things my characters are doing. They’re taking me by surprise, although what’s happening is so awesome I don’t want to lose any of it. I guess that’s the beauty of writing a half-planned book. The characters are taking me places and dropping hints I’m yet to gather into the puzzle that will explain everything to me.