2021 Update

Hi kittens.

I know this blog has been pretty quiet recently.

I had a pretty rough 2020 – along with the rest of the world.

I was hospitalised twice and nearly died (not COVID related).

I went back to University for a post graduate course.

I continued to work full time at my day job.

I also wrote two novels, one during Camp NaNoWriMo in April 2020, and one during NaNoWriMo 2020.

They are nowhere near ready to be published.

In fact, the point of this blog post is to inform you that I will not be publishing anything in 2021.

I work full time, study part-time, and I have to focus on my health this year.

Writing is a hobby that can take a lot of out you, and publishing is for fun. If I didn’t care about the quality of my published product, I would just churn out my work without taking the time to self edit. But I do care, and it takes time, and a different sort of brain usage than writing a first draft.

I will still be sharing interesting posts on my Facebook page. Please give it a like to stay updated!

I will also be writing. I fully expect to take part in NaNoWriMo 2021, and I will track any other projects on the NaNoWriMo website as well. if you’re a Nano participant, please send me a friend request!

If you’d like to read my available books, please follow these links to the book pages so you can find a format of your choice:

The Edge of Darkness (Adult sci-fi stand-alone)
Tina Storm: Demon Hunter (Tina Storm: Demon hunter #0.5) (YA paranormal – series unfinished)
Demon’s Blood (Tina Storm: Demon Hunter #1) (YA paranormal – series unfinished)
Lies for a Living (Adult contemporary romance trilogy compiled as a stand alone)
The Archive of Lost Dreams (Middle Grade paranormal short story collection)

Happy New Year 2021!

Smashwords Authors Give Back Sale

The corona virus is wreaking havoc across the globe, and many people are required to self-isolate and/or have lost their incomes.

Smashwords authors banded together to request Smashwords run a special sale:

“These authors wanted to show their support to readers who now face unprecedented social isolation, anxiety and economic hardship as a result of the world response to the Covid-19 pandemic.”

There is one small thing I can do to make this time seem a bit less shitty, so I have joined the sale. Staying home a reading can be one of the best things you can do in this situation, so from now until 20 April 2020, most of my books are free or deeply discounted on Smashwords.

The Archive of Lost Dreams is always free at Smashwords.

Four short paranormal tales. The Archive of Lost Dreams: a little girl discovers the importance of dreams and wishes. Roses Are Red: 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.

Tina Storm: Demon Hunter is always free at Smashwords.

Tina Storm has never been a normal teenager. She’s a demon hunter with the gift of a lightning vanquish – an inherited power from a long line of Storm demon hunters and researchers. Tina Storm: Demon Hunter is the prequel to Demon’s Blood and consists of five urban fantasy ultra-short stories (under 5k) that trace Tina’s adventures as she moves to a new town and starts a new school.

If you enjoyed Tina Storm: Demon Hunter, now you can continue Tina’s story for free with her first full-length adventure, my YA paranormal Demon’s Blood. 

Tina Storm, an Australian teenage demon hunter, must infiltrate a coven of witches to discover who is leading the illegal blood magic rituals whilst juggling the attentions of the hottest male witch and her Chinese shapeshifting demon boyfriend, and has to do it all without the use of her lightning vanquish.

Also, for a very limited time only, my deep space cyborg adventure sci-fi The Edge of Darkness will also be free.

When Max , an unwilling cyborg, is sent back to Earth at the end of an interstellar war, she uncovers a conspiracy aboard the transport ship and must race to find the answers and save the people she cares about before her world and everything she knows is lost to darkness.

I have never made the Lies for a Living box set free or discounted anywhere, and this will be your only chance to get it at a discounted rate (I didn’t want to put in in the sale at all, but I then I thought better). Currently, it is $2.40 down from $5.99, which means that it is cheaper to buy the complete trilogy in the Lies for a Living box set than it is to buy just one of the novellas. I haven’t made this one free because it’s my latest, but you can read more about it here.

All three Lies for a Living novellas bundled into one novel-length romantic adventure set in London.

Book #1 Backstage Heat
Can BBW Tori learn to trust a man who lies for a living?

Book #2 Centre Stage
The paparazzi have revealed Tori and Cameron’s secret relationship, but is Cameron up to his old ways?

Book #3 Name in Lights
With Cameron on location, can Tori resist the new rockstar bad boy?

Go forth and read!

Lies for a Living available on Smashwords – isn't it romantic?

I’ve recently published my new adult contemporary romance trilogy on Smashwords.

What’s it about?

Image result for isn't it romanticWell, if you love that rom com Isn’t It Romantic on Netflix starring Rebel Wilson as a cynical young woman who wakes up in a romantic comedy with Liam Hemsworth,  you’ll love the first book, Backstage Heat.

Although mine isn’t a comedy, here are some weird similarities (keep in mind my books were originally published on Amazon in 2017 so I haven’t copied the movie):

  • Plus-size female lead
  • The super hot, successful love interest is a celebrity
  • Both of them are Aussies in a foreign city: mine is London, theirs is New York
  • The end message is self love
  • Karaoke!

You can find the books on Smashwords here, plus a special box set of all three books bundled together.

I predicted this controversial new black hole theory in 2011

This post contains spoilers for my 2011 novel THE EDGE OF DARKNESS, a sci-fi about cyborgs in deep space.

Please visit The Edge of Darkness page on my website and to find places you can purchase.

Just today I saw a news article about a new theory regarding the event horizon in black holes.

BLACK HOLES: WHAT ARE THEY?

Although no one has ever actually ‘seen’ a black hole, researchers say that it is the result of a star, one many times larger than ours, going supernova, which results in the remaining matter being pulled together by a gravity so strong that nothing, not matter, not even light, can pass through. They are called black holes because light ‘bends’ around them due to their gravitational strength, but once past the ‘event horizon’ no light can pass.

According to NASA,

The supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy is called Sagittarius A. It has a mass equal to about 4 million suns and would fit inside a ball with a diameter about the size of the sun.

WHAT DOES THE NEW RESEARCH SAY?

The new research, published in the journal Physical Review Letters, hypothesis that it is possible for a person to bypass the singularity and in doing so, break Einstein’s Law of General Relativity.

The law of General Relativity states that the laws of physics apply to everything, but black holes can rip apart the fabric of space and time, therefore negating the laws of physics.

Deep inside a black hole, past its event horizon, is the singularity, a place where even time ceases to exist.

Everything the black hole has ‘eaten’ will reach a point, a second ‘Cauchy’ event horizon, on its journey to the singularity, and this is the point where, with a specific type of black hole, matter may be able to bypass the singularity.

“Passing through a black hole could open up a whole new future, but it would erase your past”

“An enormous, electrically-charged black hole would allow things to pass through this Cauchy horizon and dodge the singularity at its heart.”

And what happens when the singularity is dodged? When time itself has been manipulated?

“Your past has been erased. Your future is eternal.

This is what the mathematicians and physicists believe is the outcome of crossing a black hole’s Cauchy horizon.”

In other words:

Researchers believe people can pass through them. It’s just that your past will be erased even as your future becomes infinite.

HOW DOES THIS RELATE TO The Edge of Darkness?

In The Edge of Darkness, towards the end of the novel my hero Max falls through a black hole and emerges 400 years in the past. She erases this past and switches into one of the many posisble futures.

One of my readers laughed at me and said, “It’s highly implausible this would actually happen.”

I said, “Sure, that’s why it’s called science fiction.”

Now who’s laughing?

Do you think someone in scientific research got their hands on a copy of The Edge of Darkness and got thinking about the events within?

I’ll probably never know, but it’s exciting to think that life is imitating MY art.

A Year in Review: 2017

After a horrifying start to 2017, I’m pleased with what I’ve achieved this year:

Maria V Snyder’s Fan Edition fo Dawn Study (Chronicles of Ixia #6) was released, and my picture was on the mosaic cover!

 

In January I published Cupid’s Arrow: Guardian Trials on Episode. It’s only 3 episodes long but I plan on going back to it one day. I had a dream after I published it and that has inspired another part of the story. The cover is done by  The Awkward Cover Art Shoppe.

In February my husband came home from a two month stay in hospital and we moved house the next week.

Then in March I published a special 3 episode only Episode, a short story called Mysterious: Those Left Behind. I originally wanted to write this for Episode and they just so happened to have a contest about the mystery genre when I was plotting it in my head, and it was perfect for a 3 episode short story.

In April I published the three-part Lies for a Living, three interconnected novellas then bundled into one full-length novel, about a BBW and her celebrity lover interest.

In April I published part 1 of Lies for a Living, Backstage Heat.

In May I published part 2 of Lies for a Living, Centre Stage.

In June I published part 3 of Lies for a Living, Name in Lights.

A box set of the trilogy was also released in July.

In July I rebranded my Tina Storm books with new titles and a new cover for Demon’s Blood done by Cover Couture.

Then I organised the rest of the covers for my New Adult fantasy series Winter Witch, done by Magic Owl. I can’t show them to you, but they are totally gorgeous.

Then I took a break and focused on my non-writing life.

In November I started NaNoWriMo, but this year, due to outside commitments, I couldn’t finish it. I did get a fair chunk done and I am excited to write the rest of it, I’m just stretched too thin at the moment. This means that I can’t commit to when Winter is going to be published, but I’m hoping, if my life settles down sometime soon, in the latter half of 2018.

How was your 2017? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.