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.

New financial year

Yep, you can tell it’s a new financial year! For those creating invoices, profit & loss sheets are now in a new year. Yeah, I’m grousing!

Our weather has turned sharply cold again but the fire is nicely keeping us warm.

On the bright side, I have some new beta readers who are currently working on various books for me. I am very grateful to them!

Okay, updates.

Clans in conflict

Deadly Convergence is still available here.

Still editing the other Kindle Unlimited book.

The Dark Road is still with the beta reader, although I may have another option there.

Dark Beginnings – I am still working on this but it is a little on the backburner at the moment.

Bushland Castle Productions

The novella series of Otherworldly Emergence closes in July.

All of the information necessary is at the website:

https://www.bushlandcastleproductions.com/emergence

Join me in being part of this amazing opportunity.

Consequences

Heart of Deception is currently with the cover artist prior to being published. Can’t wait for that to come through.

Legacy of Risks is now with a few beta readers, so when I get that back I’ll update that with any changes necessary.

Paranormal

I have gotten back into my ghost hunter/daemon hunter story. I have yet a few things to work out, but I am writing in it.

For those curious about the spelling of daemons, yes, they are demons, but not of this world. They come from Nina’s world, therefore they are “different”.

Shifters

These are currently on the backburner while Aleksander and Blair work out where their story is going.

Malevictus

Let’s not talk about editing. I am struggling to edit this one. I need to edit it, I know that, but it’s just not there for me. It’s a matter of digging in and getting it done. (sigh) This hasn’t changed.

On other news about that, the second book is coming along.

Rules of writing

I often see things that purport to the “10 Rules of Writing” or “Follow these 10 rules and your book will sell”. These are often not rules.

In the words of either Stephen King or G R R Martin, there are no “rules” to writing.

Some of what we think or believe to be rules are conventions, not actual rules.

I have chosen to follow the Australian Government Style Manual and the Macquarie Dictionary for grammar, punctuation and spelling rules. Those are what I follow.

Everything else, to me, is a convention – like too many words that end in “ly”. It’s a convention. Not ending a sentence in “with” or something like that – it’s a convention.

Not starting a sentence with “and” or “but” – it’s a convention.

And, interestingly, most of these conventions were brought about in 1700s. Or thereabouts.

What I think, then, is that the English language is an evolving language. Take the word “Google”. It used to just be a brand name for the search engine on the Internet. It’s now a word in the dictionary.

“Google” is a prime example of the English language evolving as time moves on – like it has done all its life. So many words come from different languages. English comprises of a lot of old English words, but there are an awful lot of Latin, French, German, Greek and a whole heap more.

But going back to the rules.

One thing that I have taken on as a rule is this – my first draft (the raw writing I first put down) was told to me by my characters. It’s my job to write that story down as they tell it to me.

Then every draft after that is me refining that story so that others can understand it when they read it. So that others will be engrossed and drawn in by the characters, the setting and the plot.

That’s my job. Whether I do it well is a different matter.

But that is something I’m learning every day. I do trip up sometimes and that’s when I learn even more about writing.

Writing doesn’t come to us without a lot of hard work. We work at our career – and to me, writing is a career – and we work hard to improve throughout our writing career.

Never forget – we’re not too old to learn something new.

Talk to you all next fortnight!

EOFY

Really? June is nearly over? What?

Has my clock sped up? (Just kidding)

Yes, I’m about to light the fire – again! Fingers crossed it stays that way.

Okay, updates.

Clans in conflict

Deadly Convergence is still available here.

Still editing the other Kindle Unlimited book.

The Dark Road is still with the beta reader, although I may have another option there.

Dark Beginnings – I am still working on this but it is a little on the backburner at the moment.

Bushland Castle Productions

The novella series of Otherworldly Emergence closes in July.

All of the information necessary is at the website:

https://www.bushlandcastleproductions.com/emergence

Join me in being part of this amazing opportunity.

Consequences

Again, still waiting on beta readers. So far, have had good reports but one has some updates she wants to pass on. That’s what I’m waiting for.

Paranormal

I have gotten back into my ghost hunter/daemon hunter story. I have yet a few things to work out, but I am writing in it.

For those curious about the spelling of daemons, yes, they are demons, but not of this world. They come from Nina’s world, therefore they are “different”.

Shifters

These are currently on the backburner while Aleksander and Blair work out where their story is going.

Malevictus

Let’s not talk about editing. I am struggling to edit this one. I need to edit it, I know that, but it’s just not there for me. It’s a matter of digging in and getting it done.

On other news about that, the second book is coming along.

Planner or Pantser?

Can you be both? Of course you can. Let me explain what I think they each are, first.

To me, a plotter plots everything out. Characters, settings, plotlines, subplot lines, everything.

On the other hand, also to me, a pantser is someone who may do very sketchy plans for the next few coming scenes, has no idea of the end of the story and basically creates characters as they go.

Believe me I do this.

I have a few stories on the backburner that I started planning just to help people understand how to plan out a story. They’re still on the backburner. They’ve got a great start but I just don’t have the interest to continue them.

I am very much a pantser – for my first draft. Then I may plan how to bring it back in line – no, wait, who am I kidding? That’s why Nina’s first story stalled. Because I tried to make a note of the key things that happened in each chapter while editing the second draft. Bogged me right down!

Both methods are valid. I mean, I know people who have greatly improved their work by doing all the plotting, all the planning. I just don’t know that I can do it.

My advice is to try both ways. If one method isn’t working for you, try another method. I wrote a whole book on just a photograph. My first paranormal story.

The other suggestion I make – and this is only what I, personally, have done, is have an experimental character. Create a character that you can do anything you like to. Do the worst to this character. It’s amazing what you learn from it.

And always remember to keep an open mind. We learn our craft every time we touch a keyboard, put pen to paper, watch a movie, read a book or even watch events happening right before our eyes.

The world really is our oyster – go out there and make a pearl of a book from it!

Mother’s Day

Okay, so I don’t normally celebrate this – but that’s how our family grew up. We didn’t do Mother’s Day or Father’s Day, but I do acknowledge that a lot of people participate in this celebration.

We actually went to a wedding yesterday. Which was Mother’s Day for us. It was held at a place called Point Walter and it was an amazing event. The bridge and groom were on time, even though we suggested she should be late, and the only thing I could have faulted was that there weren’t chairs. Which is okay for those of us who can stand for over 30 mins, but the mother of the groom was in a wheelchair and I don’t do standing up very well at the moment.

The day was gorgeous, though, as only Perth can be in May. And it helps that we’re going through a warm patch in May. I remember the first winter I was here May was the coldest month in the whole year. Now we get a warm patch. Welcome to climate change. And that’s all I’m going to say.

So, today there are very few updates. Still waiting for manuscripts to be returned and for cover art to be completed. It’ll happen. I blame it on Mother’s Day. (Just kidding)

Don’t forget to look out for Finding Elara on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music, podcast republic and wherever you stream music.

So, to give you something a bit more than just rambling about weddings and memories of growing up, I thought I’d add a few things I’ve learnt over my writing career (wow, sounds like I’ve been doing this for a long time! Not true).

Settings

Everyone reads different. Some people like lots of description, some people don’t. The main thing is to find a balance.

This is where brainstorming, mentoring, beta readers and the like can come in handy. They’ll let you know if there isn’t enough description for a reader to see the vision in your head.

But what if there’s too much?

I deliberately don’t put a lot of description in – unless it’s really important. Why? Because I still remember, in year 12 (yes, it was a very long time ago) skipping every second page of Anna Karenina. Anyone read Tolstoy? My apologies if that upsets you.

It’s taken me this long to realise I don’t enjoy information (info) dumps – or over-describing things.

And yet, one of my inspirations was the Saga of the Exiles and the Galactic Milieu series by Julian May. She had pages and pages of prologue and introduction and stuff like that. And lots of big paragraphs (being info dumps). And yet, I enjoy the books so much I can read them over and over again.

The first time I read them, I didn’t read the introduction/prologues. But I did the second and third times around. And while they held a lot of information, I was glad I hadn’t read them at the start. Why? you ask.

Because I didn’t need them. Julian had put so much of herself into those books that I didn’t need the background information the first time around. The second and third time it enriched what I was reading, I will admit that. But that first read was raw and only about the story.

When I went back and read the intro/prologue, I saw the depth of her world and its many details and how it all interacted in a much deeper way.

Do I regret not reading them the first time around? No. Because I still enjoyed those books.

Now, will I go back to Anna Karenina and read those pages I didn’t read? Not on your life. It’s not my style of reading. Feel free to do so for me, however (chuckle).

So, what does that mean for my writing?

Having come to terms with how I read, I take it on board that there must be others like me. So, I have tried to eliminate info dumps and turn that background knowledge into conversations – arguments, if I can manage it.

What I’ve also realised is that I’m not a fan of long paragraphs. And those who have read Dark Dimensions P2 and 2 and Dark Reign will have noticed those long paragraphs.

I analysed what I didn’t like about ebooks – because that’s all I read these days – and realised that I skipped those really long paragraphs, too (Sorry, Mark Hayden. I promise, I’m reading all the King’s Watch word for word, now).

That is now reflected in my own work. Those long-winded paragraphs are few and far between now and are more dynamic.

So, you might ask – but what’s this to do with settings?

Settings is where we usually have most of our descriptions and info dumps.

So, my advice to any writers out there is to consider how your readers might read and how you can assist them. Because they are the reason we are here. They are the reason we write.

Having said that – it’s still your style of writing.

This is not a “rule” as such, it’s just the way I write. Your story and your voice will show you how and what you write. Don’t let anyone else tell you how to write your story. It’s your story, not theirs!

So, I leave with these words of wisdom and hope to have actual updates when next I write!

Talk to you all later!