Well, I can honestly say the chill has finally hit.

I have lit the fire – 3rd time this year – and it’s already making a difference.

This is when I find it interesting that the northern hemisphere is in the height of their summer and we’re in the depths of our winter – not that our winter is as bad as what some of you put up with.

Perth, Western Australia, has a Mediterranean climate, apparently. Southern, Mediterranean, I’d have to say. We don’t have snow, we do get rain, our air can be quite chilly and we absolutely bake over summer!

But that’s life in this amazing city. D’you know, it’s one of the most isolated capital cities in the world. The nearest capital city is 2.5 hours plane trip away and 3-odd days’ driving if you want to do that. The other nearest one is 4 days’ driving and about 4 hours flight.

And we have spectacular sunsets over the Indian Ocean. And that’s all I’m saying.

So, onto updates.

Clans in Conflict

The books are going well and I hope everyone’s enjoying them.

The Dark Road – still with the beta reader although I think it’ll be going to the editor soon.

Deadly Convergence – this is an ebook that will be going into Kindle Unlimited to start with. This is a story about Alex Travis and his partner Chris McLaren. It’s about five years before Dark Reign and I think it adds depth to Alex’s character by showing the dynamic between Chris and Alex and goes partway to explaining why Alex is so reluctant to have another partner.

Cover art is being worked on and then it will be online at Kindle Unlimited for 90 days. Maybe longer, not sure.

I have another Alex Travis story that’s being worked on now. This one includes Ryan lock and takes place as a side story to Dark Reign. Once that’s been completed it’ll go to the editor and thence for cover art. Again, this will be going to Kindle Unlimited for 90 days and then we’ll see how it goes.

I have other short stories for the series and all will be going to Kindle Unlimited. Hopefully, they will go into an anthology of short stories from Clans in Conflict.

Everything else is still working its way through things even as I write this.

Bushland Castle Productions

Okay, so, some of you may have heard that I have participated in a podcast – Finding Elara season 2.

This is has come from a new website called Bushland Castle Productions (BCP).

BCP are putting together a novella series called Otherworldly Emergence and they are looking for writers to participate in the series.

If you have a story in you that talks about emergence of creatures or powers into the mundane world, then perhaps this is for you. Check the novella series announcement here:

https://www.bushlandcastleproductions.com/emergence

I am already working on my piece for it, so join me in creating something unique in the writing world.

Feedback / Reviews

Okay, so last time I talked about settings of our worlds. This time, I want to talk about feedback – or reviews. Because receiving it can be daunting.

I remember the first piece of feedback I got and I stared at that first line with trepidation. Because it read “I don’t like vampires”, basically. As the book definitely had vampires in it, I didn’t want to read it.

And this was from a colleague who was evaluating it for publication. Needless to say, I put that feedback off for a few weeks. I gave it to a friend, complaining about it as I did, and he went through it and got back to me, telling me to read it now because it had some good points.

So, I gathered up my courage, took a deep breath and opened the feedback. And my friend was right. There was some absolute treasures in it and those treasures made Dark Dimensions much better than it had been. So, for all of those who read the first edition – you don’t want to know what the previous drafts had been like!

Fast forward to the Consequences series. I was lucky enough to get two of those books up and I didn’t even think to look at reviews – after all, I’d been brought up basically being told no-one would read my stuff. Probably, deep down, I was too scared to look.

But when I wrote a short story in which I put Marek through all 15 symptoms of emotional shock and had to go back and rewrite those two – turned out to be a very good thing as the publisher had gone out of business – I checked for reviews and found some very interesting feedback.

Now, not all of it was good, but most of it was constructive.

And that’s the best type to get – if you need it.

Because, again, I’ve taken that feedback into consideration in my rewrite and my proofreader has already given me feedback that Marek is far more well-rounded than he had been.

So, from a few bad yet constructive reviews, I was able to redefine the story, round out Marek’s character much more fully and hopefully, when it comes out this time, it’ll get a much better response.

I still look for those less-than-desirable reviews – as long as they’re constructive. Because I can use those to refine my work. To make my stories better and to provide a more enriched world for readers to enjoy.

Because reviewers are the ones who read our work. Without their input, we’ve just put words on a page. If our readers can provide constructive feedback, then if something is wrong in the story, we can fix it.

I’m still scared of reading reviews, but I am much more careful with how I use that response.

Fast forward to a year ago. I had a friend (I’d done an editing course with him) look over a story I’d written. It was raw and while he was going through it, I had already gone through 3 more drafts.

Now, he and I have very different worlds and while I didn’t use all of his feedback, I did take it into account when I rewrote it – and I took in a lot of what he said and it has made a vast difference to that story. I am still editing that, but I really do like where it’s going.

So, my advice is – if you receive negative feedback that is constructive – or a less-than-desirable review that is constructive – put it aside for a few days. Get over that sudden rush of “how dare they criticise what I wrote! It’s perfect!”

Then open it – have it alongside a duplicate copy of your work – and read it. Take into account what they’re saying – if they’ve given you a word doc – or you can highlight parts of it – highlight the parts that you think will strengthen your work.

Make your own notes on their review/feedback. Use it to hone your writing skills. Use it to give your readers a far better piece of writing.

If any out there are still Marion Zimmer Bradley fans, I will admit to having a copy of the Sword of Aldones. If I am correct, that small book was rewritten years later as Sharra’s Exile.

Sword of Aldones and Sharra’s Exile are both examples of where an author has revisited the work and realised that it could be far better. I’d say Marion did this after writing Heritage of Hastur because Regis Hastur features far more strongly in Sharra’s Exile.

Also, Sharra’s Exile brings the story directly into the Darkover series and allows it to plant its feet directly in a very powerful place in that universe.

When I read Sword of Aldones the first time, I read it for the story itself. I loved the story and the characters. It wasn’t until I’d become invested in the Darkover series that I revisited the Sword and realised that it belonged in Darkover, even though the setting was on Earth.

Having read Heritage of Hastur and then picking up Sharra’s Exile, I read them both, then went back to Sword of Aldones again and saw how much Sword was lacking and how disjointed it was. Sharra’s Exile is a perfect example of an author reworking an existing tale and retelling it in the way it should have been told from the first place. Now, I don’t know why Marion did this – either she realised it on her own as I did with Dark Dimensions, or she got a less-than-desirable review from a reader. Either way, Sharra’s Exile is the book that Sword of Aldones should have been from the start.

So, my advice is this. Don’t disregard poor reviews or feedback – unless they’re not constructive.

Don’t go and wail to the world that reviewers shouldn’t be giving out less than 5 stars. Read what those reviewers say in an objective manner. Then reread what you’ve written in that same objective manner – from a reader’s point of view.

Always, we should be reading our own work as though we are a reader. Use a text-to-speech function of your software if you can. That, surprisingly, can assist you in finding those places where a reader might shudder and throw the book away before they’ve finished it.

Because that’s the last thing you want. A reader to NOT FINISH a book because it was that bad.

If you have any doubts at all, pull together a group of friends to read the book before you publish. If you can afford it, pay a team to read it for you.

Remember, without readers, your writing will sit there stagnant.

So, finally, I’ll say it again – don’t ignore bad reviews. If they’re constructive, use them to refine your writing skills. Use them to refine your worldbuilding.

Use them to write better books.

Most importantly, don’t get into a discussion in the comments about how bad their reviews are. Because you won’t please everyone all of the time. You can only please some of the people some of the time and there are others out there who won’t like your writing.

That friend who gave me that feedback on Dark Dimensions? When I got past my angst over his opening comment, I found the comment that told me the story was worth publishing.

I grew up with my father telling me “get a real job, writing will never pay your way.” I took that to heart and only started writing fulltime 10 years ago. (In between working.)

The last time I saw my sister, one of the first things she said to me was “keep writing. You have to keep writing.” She had all my books at the time she died. For her to say that was the one thing that drove me to keep writing while being in a dark place.

But reviews and constructive feedback are your friend in the writing world. Without that feedback, we might never grow our talent and hone our skills in providing a place where people can escape from the ever-increasing heartache that is currently running rampant in some parts of the world.

Embrace the constructive reviews. Don’t belittle the reviewers, use them to improve your worlds and characters. Use them to make your plots more unique and plausible. Not everyone is out to cut you off at the knees.

But remember – writing is a joy and the more joy we can share with other people the better the world is. (So says the writer whose editor keeps threatening to take characters away from her before they get too hurt!)