I am a writer who likes to dabble in Science Fiction. I participate yearly in National Novel Writing Month to write 50 000 words between 1 and 30 November.
I am taking this opportunity to confirm for some of you or announce to those are not aware of it that Corvus Quill Press has shut its doors.
I have been fighting to get Dark Dimensions, Heart of Deception and Legacy of Risks released since early November to no avail. After Christmas/New Year I will be contacting ArtsLaw in Sydney to see where I go with it.
This is why I haven’t done anything with Dark Dimensions over the last few weeks. I currently do not have a release letter and the publisher is ghosting me. Until I get that release letter, I cannot get the books taken down from Amazon. I am toying with the idea of publishing Dark Reign because the main point of view is from a character who has never even heard of vampires, is only vaguely aware of dimensional theory and is a parallel version of Troy, so he is thrown into the deep end with vampires and dimensional travel. Also, I am hoping by doing this that it generates interest in the rewritten Dark Dimensions.
I would love to know everyone’s thoughts on that because if it works, I will be back in business. Thanks for reading this long winded note!
About the Consequences series, that will have to be on hold until I can get the 2 books released. At the moment, that is not looking hopeful.
With Christmas and New Year fast approaching (sorry, if you hadn’t noticed it), I have realised that I need to prepare a separate, previously unpublished work to get published. So, while waiting on feedback for Dark Dimensions, I’ve been working on a serial killer story that I wrote many years ago.
It’s almost a rewrite and I’m still going through it the second time, but I’m hoping by the 3rd time it will be a lot better than it was. Already it’s grown, but it still needs to grow more.
Mind you, I’ve been playing with other versions of it that won’t get into the book, but that’s been entertaining, too.
The main thing is that I hope this book will be ready for beta readers in the next few weeks and that it’ll grow from there.
So, I’ve become a student again. Curtin University has a Creative Writing module that you can study on its own, so that starts tomorrow. I know, I know – what can I learn after 3 books have been published?
Well, you never know. Module 2 is poetry and module 3 is screenwriting. I think I’ll learn a few things.
So, to get things ready for when I do my own publishing, I did a thing last night.
I created my own Amazon author page.
I’m still waiting for it to go live, but hopefully that will be later today. It was rather late for me last night to create it!
Also, I couldn’t figure out how to do an Amazon Australia author page, so I have the Amazon one. I think it will go across to the Australian site when it’s up and running. You’ll find the link below:
Well, it’s half-way through NaNoWriMo and I’m doing well. I’m in front, which I’m pleased about, considering I’ve got quite a bit on.
I have swapped projects because – yes, I’m a rule-breaker! A big rebel! But I’m also putting a character through some trauma that means I have to change other works with this particular character. All for the good, I promise!
A lot of the time I get asked ‘why do you put your characters through so much?’ and I’ve even had said ‘I will take MC away from you! You can’t be trusted with them!’.
I think we do it because our own lives are so boring and mundane. It’s drummed into us that chaos and trauma can make someone grow. In reality, though, sometimes it can tear them apart. I think that’s why some writers do this to their characters. Because they know real life is a lot more dangerous.
I’ve noticed that the audience gravitates to Michael Downey Jnr’s Tony Stark and I’d like to believe it’s because he played him as a damaged and tragic hero. Same with Spiderman. Always in a Spiderman movie, there is one tragic death that makes him the deeper character he becomes.
We know in reality it does not always happen that way. Often, the survivor is left with PTSD or other conditions related to trauma. I think in books we tend to forget that that happens to people. That even characters are people and all of the trauma in their lives goes into making them the people in the books. Sometimes we get it right and sometimes we get it wrong. Where do we draw the line, though, is a question we all ask ourselves. How far do I push my MC? How far do I push his family, friends? Because the secondary characters around the MC are also traumatised by what we do to our MCs. They, like our real family, our real friends, have to live with what the MC is experiencing.
And they all have to get past it and somehow live out their lives.
It’s November! Again! And National Novel Writing Month is in full swing.
I wonder if they’ll ever change it to International Novel Writing Month? I suppose IaNoWriMo doesn’t really work – maybe they could try interNational Novel Writing Month? It’d still be NaNoWriMo if you use all the capital letters!
So, I’ve written quite a lot in the project I had planned and I’ll wait for some feedback on that (not telling). In the meantime, I’m writing in the paranormal universe I created with Nina and Sam last year. Remember the haunted dolls head lamp? Yep, those two are back. And they’re fighting to get rid of a daemon this time. Wish the girls luck for me!
On a completely different note, the rewrite of Dark Dimensions has been completed and whilst I have some feedback, I’m still waiting for more. Then I’ll send them the tweaking of Dark Reign as that’s completed and really examine the start of The Dark Road. I think that’s okay, though. I’ve looked over it during the past week and I think the narrative hook is there, etc.
Still waiting on the three published books to be released from their contract so that I can republish them.
And it appears as though I’m going to go down the road of self-publishing. Which is a bit scary for me! But I have a great team behind me in iFlow Creative and my beta readers and other editor as well as my proof-reader, cover art stylist and my techie – because we all need a techie to rejig websites! 😀
It has finally come to pass. My publisher, Corvus Quill, has had to close its doors. I am currently in the process of getting all of my books released and taken down from the sites.
Currently, Dark Dimensions is only available through Amazon Australia while the Consequences books are available through Amazon Australia, Books A Million and Dymocks.
Once I have them all back, I will be making arrangements to self-publish. The reason for that is because the two series are completely different genres and in Australia, publishers don’t want a mix of genres. So, I have new skills to learn.
Totally different topic
On a totally different topic, today is the start of National Novel Writing Month!
From here on, I will be diligently working on my writing as well as my paying work. I will fit them all in somehow, I assure you!
For those who are embarking on the NaNoWriMo journey, I applaud you and support you and wish you all the best.
Characters develop over time, much like a child will develop over her growing period. They go through growing pains much the same as humans do.
Writers who are planners will plan their characters before the start writing.
Writers who are pantsers will allow their characters to grow as they put pen to paper (so to speak).
That’s not to say that planners already have their characters developed before they write. I think all writers will admit that characters grow through their journey of the written word.
And why do we do this to our characters? Because we are all on a journey. A journey to find out who we are and why we are here. Characters in stories are no less inspired and the task of a writer is to document that character’s or those characters’ journey to be a more enlightened or balanced person.
We do this through hurdles and pitfalls that we put our characters through.
And for those of us whose characters talk to us, we will often go to bed thinking ‘what will happen to such and such next?’ And if you’re anything like me, you get a response like ‘shut up, you’ve just shot me!’ To which, your immediate reaction is to sit up in bed, shocking the cat sprawled out beside you, saying ‘what? What? What?’
But there has to be a balance between good and bad. l only found out last weekend that it is easy to break a character. It’s how you put the character back together that defines that moment for the character.
MJ Spickett is a friend of mine who is a brilliant story teller who’s books are enjoyed by lots of people around the world. She creates wonderful worlds full of intrigue and mystery.
Being one of Ravenwood’s Crime Scene Investigators was a dream come true for Selena Hawke. It was a chance at a new life, something normal and far better than serving a selfish and deranged Unseelie Queen, better known as the “Mad Queen”.
Selena loves being a Detective. She’s one of the first fey to break the chains of the Unseelie Court and officially become part of the human world. When a strange spree of murders rock Ravenwood, she must summon all her skills and power to find the murderers and defeat them.
To add to her troubles, her human lover, Eli, has decided to free Cleotro, a fey turned familiar and criminal to all faery kind. Stopping the murders was challenge enough, not falling for Cleotro’s dark sexual desires may prove even harder. All the while, the Mad Queen has set her sights on possessing Eli as her own.
Detective Selena Hawke hoped her life could return to normal after appointing a new Unseelie Fae Queen to take her place. However, when two of her closest friends are attacked and left for dead, their toddler son now missing, she must face a new evil when the Black Druids invade Ravenwood. To save her friends and find the missing child, Selena is forced to call for outside help, including a former lover who is intent on getting her back, even if he must use every trick at his disposal to woo her away from Eli and Cleo.
Despite not wanting to be the Queen of Air and Darkness, and even after finding a suitable replacement, Selena will learn that it’s a title from which she can not easily walk away. Unrest continues to grow within the Faery Courts and begins to directly affect her case.
Selena must choose…duty to the Human Realm or that of Faery, or lose them both to the Black Druids and their powerful, sexy, and seductive leader, Xavier.
Anthony Sinclair, master magician and prophesized Oracle, did everything to protect those he loved. He thought he had planned for every possible outcome for the future…everything except his soul being torn in half after his death. Now, he resides within two bodies, one a child with phenomenal power and the ability to access Anthony’s consciousness, the other a mystery, hidden in far off land. With the help of his child incarnation, Anthony must repair the damage done and unite both halves of his soul if he has any hope of stopping the darkness descending over the city of Ravenwood…and soon the world.
Raven’s Realm is the renowned prequel series to the Women of Ravenwood series.
“Dark and twisted.”
“A dash of Harry Potter with a dash of True Blood. The dark balanced out by hope, and in true Spickett fashion – the heat never lets up.” – Lone Wolf Books and Reviews
Six years have passed since the events in Ravenwood. After giving half his magick to Daniel Dion, Eli thought he would finally have a chance to be a normal teenager…but nothing about his life is normal. He is still haunted by his past life as Anthony Sinclair, one of the most powerful magick users in Europe. It seems even now, Sinclair’s enemies are hunting him. Still searching for his power, and unwilling to accept that while Eli may be his present incarnation, he is his own person and not Anthony Sinclair.
In an effort to break free of this curse, Eli accepts a deal from a Priestess that would strip him of his magick and give him the normal life he has always craved…but it may cost far more than he bargained for.
Now, Eli’s faery Guardian, Selena Hawke, must save him from himself before his magick unleashes a Chaos Demon and eclipses the world in darkness. However, first she must find him, and the Priestess is not about to give up her new prized possession.
A normal expedition of an ancient First Nations settlement in the Canadian Rocky Mountains takes mysterious turn after a secret passageway to a previously unknown underground temple is discovered. Although at first it appears Aztec, inside reveals something else. When Anthropologist Alex Jackson and his team begin investigating, they are attacked by unknown mercenaries. The research team is slaughtered in cold blood and the temple destroyed. Alex manages to escape but suffers horribly. Now Alex teaches at the local university. The attack still haunts him, leaving him desperate for answers. When Archaeologist, Lucas Griffith shows up at his office asking for help, clues are slowly uncovered. More underground temples, identical to the one Alex found, are being unearthed all around the world and those who discover them are being murdered like his team had been. Alex’s desire to learn why leads him and Lucas to search the remaining temples and secure them. Things become compounded when Lucas shows interest in Alex as a romantic partner, and he isn’t the only one. Owen, his bodyguard and former member of the British Army, also has an interest in him. Together, they travel across the planet in search of more underground temples.
An ambitious, erotic adventure. Spickett’s imaginative world building, and enticing romantic storytelling blends beautifully blends in this unique novel.
J A Duxbury's World 