New Book: THIS IS NOT A DRILL

I took the plunge and I’ve made my new contemporary romance novella BACKSTAGE HEAT, part 1 of the LIES FOR A LIVING trilogy and part 1 of the CHAOS OF STARS serial, available for pre-order:

Click here to go to the Amazon page.
Release date is only two weeks away, on Saturday 15th April! Then the second novella CENTRE STAGE will be released in May and the third LEADING LADY in June!

Here’s the blurb to BACKSTAGE HEAT:

Curvy Aussie ex-pat Tori Walker never expected to catch the eye of the hottest actor on London’s West End. Cameron Campbell is a notorious womaniser, and guys like him don’t notice girls like her – except he did, and now he wants her in his bed. But Tori’s not prepared to share her darkest secret with London’s baddest playboy, even if she had been crushing on him for years.

Cameron had given up on finding love offstage, accepting an eternity of make-believe and losing himself in one night stands and booty calls. When Tori enters Cameron’s life, he finds himself overcome with feelings that he thought were gone forever. Can Tori learn to trust someone who lies for a living, or will Cameron lose her to her inner demons?

It’s a sexy, sweet, glitzy New Adult Contemporary Romance novella about a plus-sized nineteen year old Aussie expat trying to make a life in London, and running into her long-time celebrity crush at her new job.

Confession: I wrote this in 2014 but never had the guts to publish it! There are heavy sex scenes that will make my mother blush! Sorry Mum!

Also confession: a publishing editor told me the love interest was ‘too good to be true’! At the time, I was writing an anti-Christian Grey: someone who was sweet, supporting and caring the whole way. If that’s too good to be true then I guess my husband doesn’t exist either!

Is this based on my husband and me? No, it’s not, but I have taken certain elements of our lives and embellished or re-imagined. My husband is English and we lived together in England for nearly two years before moving to Australia. We both worked in the theatre over there, me in front of house and him as stage manager. My husband is seven feet tall: Cameron’s only 6’6. Tori and I are both fat, but she’s also pretty, whereas I am not. Some of the trauma Tori has to overcome is the same trauma I had to overcome, so I’m writing from the heart.

I hope you enjoy the novella and I look forward to writing more of the CHAOS OF STARS serial.

March update and a new Episode!

It’s been quiet around here.

We’ve had some life-changing adjustments to make.

My husband came out of hospital unable to feel his feet. He’s doing rehab, and he’s got crutches and a wheelchair. It’s possible that the nerve damage in his back was so severe he might never gain full use of his legs. It’s also possible that the nerves might grow back, very slowly. We just don’t know, and neither do the neurosurgeons.

We moved house to a more accessible house for him. I’ve still got boxes to unpack.

I lost my day job. I was made redundant. I don’t really want to talk about it.

And I completed a new 3-part Episode for the Mysterious contest called Those Left Behind, which I’m incredibly proud of because I first had the idea long before the Mysterious contest was even announced, so I put NO ANGEL on hold (yet again) to get this 3-part story out.

The April 2017 writing contest was called Mysterious: “suspense in the digital age”

Things not quite adding up at a crime scene? Did MC’s significant other vanish without a trace? Receiving messages from someone you thought was dead? Woke up in a strange place with a dead body and can’t remember how you got there? Use your sleuthing skills to solve the mystery!

I actually thought of the plot for this story long before the contest was announced. It was going to be my second Episode, but since I knew it was only going to be 3 chapters long, I worried about who would bother to read it. Thankfully this contest was announced, which gave me the push I needed to write the story!

I even made my own cover art!

Mysterious: Those Left Behind

You wake up alone in an unfamiliar world. Where has everybody gone? It’s up to YOU to figure it out.

In this mystery, you wake up in an abandoned laboratory as a female scientist with no memory of what has happened, but with evidence of some kind of major catastrophe affecting the lab.

It’s your job to figure out what happened. After all, you are a scientist.

Available to read on Episode Interactive.

Episodes are free to play: you start out with about two passes but you can earn up to four or five which regenerate over a few hours. You CAN buy passes and gems, but you don’t HAVE to.

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Beautiful People February 2017: No Angel Edition

Beautiful People is a linkup hosted by Cait @ Paper Fury and Sky @ Further Up and Further In.

It’s aimed at writers so we can answer the questions about our characters and our books. It’s designed to help you get to know your book better! (And also give your followers a sneak peek of your works-in-progresses.)

Beautiful People

I’ve taking part in Beutiful People this month because I want to talk more about my Episode WIP called No Angel and the romance between my main character Persephone and the mysterious boy Tristan who knows what happened to Perspehone’s missing twin, Angel.

The Book Episode

My Episode is currently 4 chapters long and is called No Angel. You can find out more about No Angel and Episodes here.

Persephone and Angel used to be two peas in a pod. Literally. Until a falling out caused them to become as dissimilar as identical twins can be.

So when Angel goes missing after a house party and the police are convinced she simply ran away, it is up to quiet, loner Seph to unravel the mysteries and secrets her popular sister-turned-frenemy has been keeping from her.

What caused the fight between Angel’s popular clique? Who was Angel’s real boyfriend? And what really happened that fateful night when Angel showed up at the house party but never came home?

The Questions

Just a warning that there are some MASSIVE spoilers for chapters I haven’t written yet.

How and why did they meet?

Tristan enrolled at Persephone’s high school in senior year, believing she was the person he was tracking. He was wrong. They met officially in the girl’s bathroom where he tried to remove her ‘wig’ and she slapped him across the face.

2. What were their first impressions of each other?

Although Persephone thought Tristan was attractive, she didn’t like his arrogance and found him really creepy. The fact that all the other girls found him really hot also turned her off. Persephone’s not the type to follow the leader, which is why her signature style is Goth.

Tristan believed Persphone was Angel so he was pretty disgusted by her. But once he figured out she was Angel’s twin, a protectiveness came over him, and he even found her attractive. He likes how feisty she is, and he tries to respect her wishes. It is her sister he’s tracking, after all.

3. How would they prove their love for each other?

SPOILER (highlight text to reveal)

Tristan would leave his current millennium-long relationship with Isadora, and Persephone would allow Tristan to turn her into a vampire.

4. What would be an ideal date?

A walk along the beach in the moonlight, just talking about everything.

5. Is there something they emphatically disagree on?

Tristan believes that lycans are just animals and need to be put down. Perspehone believes that like vampires, lycans have a vestige of their humanity still left in them, and is willing to give them a second chance.

6. List 5 “food quirks” they know about each other. (Ex: how they take their coffee, if they’re allergic to something, etc….and feel free to mention other non-food quirks!)

Tristan is allergic to garlic and sunlight, although he has protection from the sun’s rays from a fairy queen.

Persephone doesn’t like coffee.

7. What’s one thing they know about each other that no one else does?

That the story of Tristram and Isuelt was true, although now it has become somewhat distorted from what originally happened.

8. What’s one thing that they keep a secret from each other?

Not sure yet, will have to figure that out.

9. How would their lives be different without each other?

Persephone would never find out what happened to Angel and would be another of Angel’s victims.

Tristan would continue in his relationship with Isadora and never find the true fulfilment he finds with Persephone.

10. Where do they each see this relationship going?

SPOILER (highlight text to reveal)

Definitely not to marriage and babies! I imagine Persephone will join the coven and help Tristan and Isadora hunt down rogue lycans.

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Maria V Snyder’s Dawn Study Fan Special Edition

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Beautiful Books January 2017

Beautiful Books is a linkup hosted by Cait @ Paper Fury and Sky @ Further Up and Further In.

Beautiful BOOKS

Cait and Sky say: “Just like every year, we’re giving our monthly link up “Beautiful People” a small rest so we can focus on “Beautiful Books”.

Today’s set of questions will be all about GOALS and EDITING.

The Questions

What were your writing achievements last year?

In 2016 I finished the first draft of Winter Witch, wrote most of the sequel Winter’s Wrath, and wrote and published 4 chapters of No Angel on Episode Interactive.

2. What’s on your writerly “to-do list” for 2017?

I’d like to publish the first trilogy in my Chaos of Stars contemporary romance trilogy.

I’d like to finish Winter’s Wrath.

I’d like to write Winter Warrior, the final book in the Wraith trilogy, to go with Winter Witch and Winter’s Wrath.

I’d like to finish No Angel on Episode Interactive.

I’d like to get started on some other Episodes once i figure out the main conflict/plot.

3. Tell us about your top-priority writing projects for this year!

I would say publishing the serial, except hat I need to hire an editor first, and they cost a pretty penny that I just don’t have without the knowledge that I’ll make the money back.

4. How do you hope to improve as a writer? Where do you see yourself at the end of 2017?

At the end of 2017 I want to overcome my fear of publishing novels again.

I hope that by the end of 2017 I have published my contemporary romance trilogy and have Wraith nearly completed and ready to go in 2018.

I want to be a successful Episode author as well.

5. Describe your general editing process.

I write my first draft. I take a break from the manuscript. I write a second draft. I take another break. I use EditMinion to help me catch overused words, passive voice, weak words, ‘said’, and cliches. Then I do one more draft and send it to a professional editor. This is what made my first professional editor say “Easier copyedit ever!”

But you know, they don’t come cheap.

6. On a scale of 1-10, how do you think this draft turned out?

If we’re talking specifically about Winter’s Wrath, I think this draft turned out OK. I still need to finish it but I’m excited to write the rest. Unfortunately, I took a break in December to catch my breath after NaNo and work on some Episodes, and then my husband had a horrible accident that put him in hospital, so I haven’t had a chance to finish the draft yet.

7. What aspect of your draft needs the most work?

Characterisation, I think. Just making my characters seem more real.

8. What do you like the most about your draft?

I don’t really know. The showdown between two powerful sorceresses?

9. What are your plans for this novel once you finish editing? More edits? Finding beta readers? Querying? Self-publishing? Hiding it in a dark hole forever?

I guess I’d like to find a beta-reader. I’m trying to listen better to my own instincts as everything a beta reader’s ever raised with me I’ve already thought about previously. If anyone’s interested in beta-reading the Wraith trilogy, let me know. I can’t guarantee when it’ll be finished. Unfortunately my real life often gets in the way of my writing.

After that I’d love to self-publish the Wraith trilogy because I already have a cover for the first book that I won from an artist way back in 2014. Once again I have to save up several hundred dollars for covers for the other two with no real promise of ever making the money back from sales.

10. What’s your top piece of advice for those just finished writing a first draft?

LET IT REST. Don’t go immediately from complete first draft to editing the first draft. Your eyes need a break and they’ll catch errors better once the manuscript isn’t so familiar to you.

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