Summer 2025

Well, it’s made it. Summer is here!

We had a really hot start – or end of spring, whichever you want – but we’ve now got nice weather.

Although, along with the nice weather comes the bushfire warnings. No rain equals dry loads. Keep safe out there, everyone!

I know I talked about ghost hunting last time, so might do some more in a week or so. Just depends. I will keep you posted on that.

Updates

Clans in Conflict

For those who don’t know much about it, this is a series about a clan that is lost travelling through dimensions due to a scientific experiment gone horribly wrong and about the city-state Part 2 concludes in.

Dark Dimensions Part 1 and 2 is recounting that journey to Torkandisch. Dark Reign is the next book in the series and covers the next 12 months in the city-state.

The Dark Road is back with the beta readers. This story takes place about 16 years later. Lots in Torkandish has changed and there is lots of intrigue and heartache throughout this book. Some funny instances, too.

But Dark Beginnings will take us back to where it all started in Tordun, covering Vlad’s rise to power and, perhaps, that fateful experiment, along with the first 15 years of dimension-hopping. Dark Beginnings is still on the backburner. I have started this and I will return to it.

So, that’s what’s in store for anyone who wishes to immerse themselves in this world.

There are also going to be other stories, along with a special edition of Dark Dimensions where the two parts are combined. That will be in the future.

Speaking of other stories, Deadly Convergence is centred on Torkandisch 5 years before the Clan lands in the city-state and follows a crime that twists into something else. This is available only on Kindle and on Kindle Unlimited.

Also, I have a story that revolves around Ryan Locke of Dark Reign and Deadly Convergence. This is currently being edited before going to beta readers and the editor.

Consequences

This series follows the rise of Marek from a mastermind thief to the saviour of a nation.

Heart of Deception is now available through Amazon and Draft2Digital.

Legacy of Risks will follow in the next few months, once cover art is finalised for it. The reason why it will take a few months is because I’m applying The Emotion Thesaurus options to it.

Dangerous Heart will then go to beta readers.

Watch this space.

There will be some short stories come out and, possibly, a fourth book that covers events much later after Dangerous Heart. Definitely a “watch this space” moment.

Other Universes

Strefinobhan

With Heart of Deception released and my work on the Otherworldly Emergence series coming to a conclusion, I should be able to get back into editing the first book of this series and sending it to beta readers. I am still unable to say when this will happen, but hopefully sooner rather than later.

Paranormal

Again, this will have to wait until work on the Otherworldly Emergence series is completed. One of my paranormal pieces, however, is in the Emergence series, so stay tuned for updates there.

Speaking of which, you can find the Otherworldly Emergence information at the website below.

Bushland Castle Productions

I have finished editing one novella, Not your Normal Heroes. I am still editing the other and will have that editing finished by the end of the week.

Both stories have gone through some beta readers and have been received well and will be going to more beta readers on Friday.

Pitches for this novella series has now closed and we are working hard on our manuscripts to bring them to you in a timely manner.

All of the information regarding the novella series is at the website:

https://www.bushlandcastleproductions.com/emergence

While you’re on the website, is information about their nonfiction series Australia: Living in the 70s. If you have a life story about living in the 70s in Australia, check the website for more details on that series. I know if I were to submit, it would all be about CountDown, Sandman vans and learning about Unionism through school (and other things, of course).

Also check out their podcast – Finding Elara. Learn about Mindfulness from other creatives – not just writers, but other creative persons, as well as worldbuilding and other information.

At the end of each segment, there’s a prize drawn. Go in to win books and other goodies!

Not only that, but Finding Elara has just made it onto YouTube. There is a Halloween special up that features one of my short ghost stories being read out live. So, just search for Finding Elara and have a listen. I’m the one in the blue hat.

Grow Write

Once every fortnight, Grow Write meets at the Midland Library in Midland, Perth, Western Australia. We are very excited to announce that our very first anthology is complete and it is almost ready for publishing. Watch this space as I will be sharing the cover with you!

Emotions and head hopping

This time, I want to talk about emotions. Because emotions are what keep your reader in the book – well, apart from intrigue, suspense and action.

What I mean is your reader will connect more strongly with your characters if they show emotions.

Now, this can be really hard. I know, because I find it hard to write emotions. At least I did. That was before I got a copy of The Emotion Thesaurus. I’m sure I’ve already mentioned it before, but this really did open my eyes to emotions in a story.

I chose to write first person for that very reason. Because I couldn’t connect with the emotions of my protagonist when I wrote in third person. In third person I can talk the emotions over with the reader through the character.

I also discovered that head hopping is an easy mistake to make – let me rephrase that.

If you want a scene that is written in third person to be only from the point of view of one character, then there can be no head hopping in it.

To write a scene from one person’s point of view rather than from many is your choice to make and all the shows I’ve watched on television make it hard to stick to one character in a scene because they show that same scene (at different points) from different characters’ perspectives.

But I’m not going to talk about scenes from multiple points of view in this because that just does my head in to think about. So, I’m going to limit this little gem I’ve worked out to a single point of view scene. Got it?

So, head hopping. This can be an issue if your scene is written from one person’s point of view. I’ve done it myself – even in Not your Normal Heroes. Because that is the first story for a long time that I’ve written in third person.

It is a natural thing that if you are writing a character’s response, you just think like them. It’s like speaking both sides of a conversation. (Don’t ask, it’s not easy to explain.)

It’s a matter of watching out for things like this:

“Rafe calculated the distance from where they stood and nodded.”

This scene was actually in Jordy’s point of view, so he wouldn’t know that Rafe was calculating the distance in his head. He would see what Rafe’s facial expression was and that would tell him what Rafe was probably doing.

So, this is where The Emotion Thesaurus comes in handy. I can read where I want a character to react, then consult the thesaurus to see what others would observe from that character. Like a widening of the eyes, a crease to the brow or a particular tone of voice, like a growl or higher pitch than normal.

The closest thing I can say that the thesaurus does is it lists body language in ways that help a writer to understand it. To be able to convey through body language what the character is seeing in other people.

Such as what does anger look like? What does fear look like? Or relief? These questions are vitally important to writing more rounded characters. (Yes, I will go through what I’ve written one day and apply the thesaurus to them.)

Same with smells. What does mildew smell like? What does a sewer smell like? I’d love a reference book that provides those ’cause I’ve started writing a list by researching what those types of things smell like.

Therefore, for those scenes where you want people fully immersed, try thinking about how you can relay those smells, those feelings, those tastes. Think about what noises are going on in the background (another thing I have trouble with) and what the character can see.

All of these will give your reader a much better sense of characters and action in your written works.