*no longer available* FREE short story download: “Don’t Even Peep”

To celebrate this blog achieving 1000 views, I am offering a free short story download. This download is a pdf file and will be available for a limited time only. I hold the rights to this story and reserve the right to modify both the download content and this web page without notice.

Image © Starla Fortunato

“Don’t Even Peep” is a late 19th century paranormal short story. It is copyrighted and offered for consumption under good faith.

I wrote it in 2007. The idea simply popped into my head one night.

It will be published alongside five Tina Storm: Demon Hunter urban fantasy short stories, and three other paranormal short stories later this year.

The download can be found here:

Download no longer available. 

This is your chance to check out some of my writing before it is available for commercial consumption.

I’d love to hear any comments you have.

Please, find it in the goodness of your heart to retweet.

30 Day Book Challenge: Day Twenty-One

Day Twenty-One: A guilty pleasure book

The Night Huntress Series by Jeaniene Frost

Why this book is a guilty pleasure:

  • I’m not into vampire fiction. Really, I’m not. They’ve been overdone. But I like this series.
  • The heroine, Cat, is half-vampire, not your run of the mill helpless human victim.
  • Cat kicks total ass.
  • The love interest, Bones, is blatantly modelled on my favourite version of Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer – the Spike from season 6 and 7, the one who loves Buffy, has mad sex with her and then goes off and gets his own soul. Bones is a full-blood vampire, a Master vamp, a bounty hunter, and a total badass.
  • And he’s totally protective and territorial of Cat.
  • And his nickname for her is ‘Kitten’. I love that. It’s the same nickname one of my love interests calls my heroine because she’s soft and cuddly with claws. LOL.

  • The sex in this series is insane. Each time (and there is multiple times per book) it’s more intense than the last. I don’t know how Frost keeps coming up with stuff.
  • The two main characters have a legitimate relationship with completely normal problems such as communication issues and jealousy – none of this Bella/Edward, Nora/Patch, Luce/Daniel crap.
  • Normally I feel really detached from the love interests in paranormal and urban fantasy. I don’t see how the heroines can love their mates. Their mates tend to be controlling assholes. But in this series, I understand Cat and Bones’ relationship, and I enjoy reading about it. Cat and Bones have very real, very adult problems in their relationship, and they overcome these problems in very real, very adult ways. There’s no “OMG he’s so hot I can’t think straight, but I hate him!” “I’m going to kiss you forcefully now!” “Yes, I’m all yours once more!” kind of crap you find in YA fiction. It’s a legitimate relationship, not this whole ‘destiny’ and ‘young love, I’m 17 and I know what true love is!’ bollocks.
  • There is actually a plot to each of the books, but I’ll be damned if I can remember them. All I really care about is the relationship. That’s the best part.
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The First Milestone!

The blog has reached 1000 views! *runs in tiny circles*
As celebration, tomorrow I will offer a FREE download for a limited time only: a late 19th century paranormal short story called “Don’t Even Peep”.
It will be published alongside the Tina Storm: Demon Hunter short stories later this year.
This is your chance to check out some of my writing before it’s even published.
Check out the story available soon, and let me know what you think!

30 Day Book Challenge: Day Twenty

Day Twenty: A book you would recommend to an ignorant/racist/closed minded person

Animal Farm by George Orwell.

Apart from the fact that I don’t believe ignorant people read, I would recommend Animal Farm because it is a great study into the power struggles and metaphorical history of Europe. I’m not sure this book would do any good to educate said ignorant/racist/close minded people: honestly, I don’t know any people like that. I make it my business not to associate with them.

I’d recommend this book because it shows just exactly how ignorance and greed, indifference and short-term goals can really break any idea of an utopia. It would certainly reinforce their belief in corrupt governments, but hopefully it would educate on the idea of revolution.

Hopefully this book would teach others to question authority: not simply hate on everyone in a position of power when things don’t go their way (as is the case in Australia when people complain about the government – they don’t know how good they’ve got it and voting is compulsory) but in other countries that have recently tried to change themselves such as Libya and Tunisia.

It is the idea of people easily believing propaganda that I hope this book will be able to educate and show a different side. Ignorant people are no better than poor Boxer, or the sheep in this book. Racist people are no better than the pigs. Close-minded people are no better than Benjamin the donkey who, although he recognised the signs of corruption, did nothing about it.

Of course, this is hoping that such racist, ignorant, and close-minded people can actually find the parallels between Stalin Russia and the plot of this book. They’d need a reading companion with them to explain it all. I think I’m giving them too much credit.

30 Day Book Challenge: Day Nineteen

Day Nineteen: A book that changed your mind about a particular subject (non-fiction).

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Philosophy.

I took a Philosophies of Modernity class in my final year of University. It was a poor decision: I didn’t enjoy any of it. I took it because I really enjoyed modernity from a sociological perspective, and this was the only course left that fit my timetable. I also thought, that because I really kind of hated philosophy so much, that this course might help me change my mind.
I bought the book to help give myself an overview of philosophy and perhaps make the course easier. It didn’t. But at least now I understand philosophy. I still think it’s a load of bollocks: there is nothing I hate more than people standing around musing to each other about how mysterious the universe is. I hate that they’re always asking questions and never bothering to find answers. The answers are out there: maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but they are out there.

However, instead of hating philosophy so much that I simply shut down at the mere mention of the word, I now can listen to and understand people when they start farting on about it. I still don’t enjoy it and I certainly don’t understand it, but at least now I won’t stay utterly silent and let people who think they’re smarter than me get away with random and vague assertions trying to show how deep and knowledgeable they are when they’re really just as confused as I am.