February start

Wow! Already February! Hopefully, it won’t be as fast (I know, wishful thinking). Anyway, I have a lot of news.

Big one, big one – I have entered the Western Australian State Premier’s Writing Awards. Fingers are crossed that something will come of it.

Also, I have expanded my distribution and all 3 books will be released to other online stores on Wednesday 12 February. There are a few places I wouldn’t mind adding, but they’re emails to the company and I’ll look into that later.

That took me just about all of yesterday (Saturday)! But I got it done!

Kindle Unlimited

I have finished two stories to go into Kindle Unlimited, I’m just waiting for beta readers to have a look at those.

They’re both part of the Clans in Conflict universe and Alex Travis plays a role in those.

Clans in Conflict

I am still waiting on beta readers for The Dark Road. I’ve been promised they’re nearly finished, but I’m getting a little antsy on that.

For that reason, Dark Beginnings is still on hold. And that one I’m actually struggling with because there’s going to be a lot of politics in it and – well, that’s not really my strong point.

Consequences

Still waiting on proof readers to finish with Heart of Deception but it shouldn’t be too much longer.

I’m still editing Legacy of Risks and that’s still plodding along.

New universes

I had a quick look over Malevictus’s story yesterday and, yeah, that will need looking at before it goes out to beta readers.

And I’m still writing Alek’s story. (Don’t worry, I’m a little annoyed that it’s another Alek/Alex, too.) Poor shifter’s been through the ringer, just like his cousin.

Paranormal

I’m looking at a publishing house for the paranormal, but that will be a long way off. Any short stories will probably go under that banner as well.

New writing program

As I said last time, I have discovered Lore Forge and while I love it, I have had a few instances in the past week where it has frozen and blanked all the text. When it came back, all the text was there, but it was a little disconcerting. (Understatement – heart-pounding, sweat pouring – come on! Where are those words????)

I still like using it, though. It’s stripped back and works with my strange brain!

We’ve finally hit some cooler weather, but only until next Friday, then higher temps again. Oh, well, summer will be over soon. Like, 2 more months … then I’ll probably be complaining about the c-c-c-cold! Haha

Anyway, got some more writing to do, so have a great 2 weeks!

Full Steam Ahead

So, we’re almost half-way through January 2025. Can we all believe it? Where on earth did 2024 go? Did we all fall asleep and miss it (oh, wait, that’s Flash Forward!)?

Okay, updates on books.

Clans in Conflict : www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0CTHRMJQW

The Dark Road is still with a beta reader, however, I have had verbal feedback that the story fits with Dark Dimensions and Dark Reign, so I’m just waiting for that to come back and then I’ll send that to the editor.

Of course, the other two (three) books can be found at the above link.

Dark Dimensions – sometime in the future I will combine both books and offer them as a special edition.

Consequences

Heart of Deception Edition 2 is currently with proofreaders, so hopefully that will be back soon. The cover will be completely different, but I’ll do a cover reveal when the time comes.

Legacy of Risks Edition 2 – I am still in the throws of editing this. I have decided to do a heavy edit, which means turning as many paragraphs around to see which works best. Of course, being a pantser and an author who sees everything as a big movie (yes, sounds and smells as well), I find this really hard which is why it’s taking a bit longer than I’d hoped.

Dangerous Heart has been rewritten, but I may do a heavy edit of that, also. Just to be sure it’s the best it possibly can be.

Other work.

I have decided to be brave.

I have a paranormal story of about 10,000 words which I’m going to put up on Kindle Unlimited. Just out of curiosity more than anything. Just to see how it goes. Wish me luck!

Website

The website is still progressing. Hopefully I’ll be able to work on it a bit more. I have been distracted by all the Christmas/New Year celebrations!

Other writing stuff

English spelling and meanings

I won’t cover everything here – there’s just too much!

Gotta love the English language – when you can have two words with similar spelling but mean different things and sound completely different – or two words with exactly the same spelling but sound and mean two different things.

Take for instance, the word ‘lead’.

LEAD – to lead someone around – this is pronounced ‘leed’ but basically someone or an animal follows you around – or it could be a group of people or animals.

LEAD – a metal – this is pronounced ‘led’ but relates to an actual physical metal (yeah, don’t quote me – it could be an alloy but I don’t have a scientific bone in me!)

Then you get this as well.

LED – you have led someone around – this is pronounced ‘led’ but is not a metal. It is a past-tense of the ‘lead’ in the first instance, meaning you’ve led someone or an animal or a group of people or animals around.

Have I confused everyone yet? I’m not surprised if I have! As I said, the joys of the English language!

If you’re very unlucky, I might put some more of these gems out in a fortnight!

Until then, have a great fortnight and conquer the world!

New year

Well, it’s almost the end of 2024!

What a year it’s been.

I’ve successfully wrenched control of one of my books from the defunct publisher and managed to publish a second edition of it. So, it’s in 2 parts, but in the future I may put out a single version so both parts are in one book. At over 160,000 words, it’s going to be a huge book.

I have also successfully published its sequel. This was due to be published by the original publisher, but I’m glad it wasn’t because I didn’t have to jump through any hoops to publish it.

So, on with news!

Clans in Conflict

As I said, Dark Dimensions Parts 1 and 2 are available to purchase from Amazon. I have yet to take it to other distributors. I’m still working on that.

Dark Reign, the sequel, is also published through Amazon and will be distributed more widely hopefully some time in the near future.

The Dark Road, the third book in the series, is with beta readers to check for its pacing, etc., and whether it actually works as a story.

Dark Beginnings – the story of Vlad the Supreme – is currently being written, but I still have a lot of other things to do before I can finish that.

Dark Dimensions Parts 1 and 2, and Dark Reign can be found here: www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0CTHRMJQW

Consequences

Heart of Deception Edition 2 has been edited and is with a beta reader to see whether they can pick up any issues with it. Cover artist is already working on the cover art for that.

Legacy of Risks is still being rewritten. It will be an edition 2 when it’s completed. That needs to go to the editor and beta readers, so it will be a while yet.

Dangerous Heart has been edited but needs tweaking, but as it has not been published it is still an edition 1.

Website

I am still working on my website rebuild. With all of the upheaval with Christmas and New Year, I didn’t really get a chance to work on it, but I will get back to it. I have built some of it but I need to really spend some time on it.

General stuff

Aircon is fixed just in time for another heat wave from Tuesday onwards! We’ve had some cooler weather which was a great respite, but now the aircon is fixed it’s much more bearable.

Hopefully, next time I’ll have more news to share with you!

In the meantime, have a safe and great New Year and talk to you in 2025 (oh, that’s scary!)!

Exciting News!

I have allocated and am one move away from registering ISBNs for Dark Dimensions Parts 1 and 2, edition 2. Which means we are one step closer. My next step is to decide when to publish. Then I can put that into the registration and that’s the registration done.

Once that is complete, I’ll be able to concentrate on Dark Reign which is the second in the Clans in Conflict series and the sequel to Dark Dimensions.

When those books are up and published, I’ll be able to work on Heart of Deception and Legacy of Risks, Consequences books 1 and 2. Due to those changes when Marek was younger, these updates have yet to go through beta readers and back through the editor to ensure enough of these make the books edition 2s.

Returning to Clans in Conflict, I have written what was the third book in that series, however, we have since realised there needs to be a book in between. I am currently working on that, however, that may have been started in the wrong point of view, so I am toying with that, also. And it may be that that becomes a novella instead of a full-sized book.

The Dark Road then becomes book 4 although I could adopt Robert J Crane’s approach and make the interim book 2.5 keeping The Dark Road as book 3. That will depend on what Robert says because I won’t step on his toes without permission. Yeah, I know, it’s probably too much to worry about, but I’d rather keep friends than make enemies.

At any rate, The Dark Road is complete and just needs beta readers to read it and then the editor.

So, swapping back again to Consequences, book 3, Dangerous Heart is finished but again needs to go to beta readers and then to the editor. Once that’s done, that will also be published.

Now, the new book that I mentioned in my past post is still with a beta reader and I am still working on the second book in that series, but that is more for the future. I don’t even have a name for that series!

So, that’s the state of the situation at the moment. More will be coming in two weeks! Now, time for something – wait, kitchen is calling!

Exciting Update!

I have finally finished the editing of Dark Dimensions Part 1 Edition 2! I have put it into Atticus and am working on formatting it ready for publication.

I have advised my cover artist of the size and cover art is now being drawn up. I’m soooooooo excited!

The beta readers have Part 2, so hopefully they won’t be very long.

I have started to rework Heart of Deception, Consequences 1 (Edition 2) which has some changes to it due to some revelations that have come out of a book I’ve been updating about the hero’s early life – late teens and early twenties. There are some events in that book that have ramifications for our young thief in the Consequences series, so those are now being reflected in Heart of Deception.

As Dark Dimensions Part 1 Edition 2 gets closer to publication, I’m not sure whether I should be scared or excited. Maybe a bit of both? Stay tuned for further updates! 😀