Yes, it’s turned cold again. Weird, I know! At least the days are slightly longer. And no storms currently, but we have had quite a bit of rain again.
Updates
Clans in Conflict
Dark Dimensions Part 1 and 2 are still going to be available free on Kindle on the weekend of 17 to 19 October as part of a special. Should be great! I look forward to any feedback.
Dark Reign will also be free that weekend, along with Deadly Convergence.
This special is only for the Kindle ebook.
The Dark Road is still waiting to be beta read, so as soon as that happens, it will be going to the editor.
Dark Beginnings has been on hold, but I am looking at getting back to that in a few weeks. I have a novella I need to edit before I can start working on that.
Consequences
Heart of Deception
The cover art for Heart of Deception is progressing nicely, so I’ll be publishing that as soon as I get it back. We’ll be checking the proofs for colour to make sure the colours are correct.
Legacy of Risks
This is still with the beta reader, so hopefully won’t be too long.
Dangerous Heart
Once Legacy of Risks is back to me and with the editor, I’ll be sending this out for beta readers.
Other Universes
Paranormal
Again, I am still working on these. I hope to get some smaller stories out in my exclusive content area of substack. Depends on what happens.
Stefinobhan
Mal’s story
This is with a beta reader and I’m waiting to hear from some others who might be interested in beta reading a weird organised crime/sci fi book. If you’re interested, just message me and I’ll arrange it.
Colliding worlds
This is officially on hold until Mal’s story is out.
Crime
Murder
Yes, I have a half-written story about a murder in Sydney and a chase to find the only witness to it. This has been on hold, but I have started to look at that, too. Just have to put into my diary which one comes first!
Bushland Castle Productions
As mentioned before, I have now completed a paranormal story for Bushland Castle Production’s Otherworldly Emergence Novella series.
I have finished editing the other one and am about to submit that story. I’ll be trying to lose something like 2800 words, however. As usual, I’ve gone overboard.
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:
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!
Timelines
As some of you know, I’m a bit of a write-by-the-seat-of-my-pants. This means I usually have a very vague – more like nebulous – idea of where the story will end, but how it will get there is completely up in the air.
What I have found, though, is that sometimes timelines are useful. This is especially so if a series is in the future.
So, for Clans in Conflict, because of all the dimensions and all of the different versions of people in each of those dimensions, my timeline had to be a bit different.
It was more like a jumble of lines leading in all directions as I tried to make heads and tails of the different characters.
With Consequences, the timeline starts about 7 years before Heart of Deception. Only because I wrote a few incidental stories about Marek before the books. So, I had to ensure I knew what he’d done and when so that when I rewrote the two books, I could reference previous acts and know I was referencing them correctly.
In the Otherworldly Emergence series, when Ben Patterson decided he wanted his own metapowers, I had to work out when he got those powers and where he was in the timeline. Because as happens often in Perth, Ben is across both the stories.
See, Perth, although we have a population of 2 million, is like a small country town. At some point or other in any given year, you’re likely to run into people who know each other.
Doing that particular timeline let me see where Ben enters each story and work out how big a role he has to play in that. But that was after I’d pantsed two stories.
Because I couldn’t give this particular universe up, I actually have 3 stories that intertwine. And they do. Massively.
So, if your books intertwine, or you have a series, I recommend putting a timeline together – especially if some of those stories overlap – just so you know you’ve got your references spot-on.
J A Duxbury's World 