Wednesday 30 April 2014

Busy Little Bees

 Unfortunately, I've been so caught up with releasing Death Wishes, I neglected to tell you that the totally awesome sequel to the totally awesome Crossfire has been released ahead of schedule.

And it lets you get to know more about the boy who ought to have floated Mirissa's boat but never quite manages it because of his guilty secret. Go check them out. You will not be disappointed.


Crossfire: Once a normal teenage girl, now an Amazon warrior. Add in a bunch of kick-ass preternaturals and one maniacal demi-god and what have you got? The worst birthday ever!

GrecoWhen Greco’s long-estranged mother is taken by an unknown enemy, he must face more than just his own personal demons. Ruthless mercenaries, inept crooks, and deeply buried secrets abound while Greco and Mirissa push their relationship to the brink in their search for answers. In this short story sequel to Crossfire, the mysteries of Greco’s past are revealed and his biggest mistake threatens to destroy his future.

Don't forget to leave a comment when you've read it.

Sunday 27 April 2014

A flurry of activity

Goodness me, you go away to Wet, Windy Wales for a few days and it's all happening when you get back. First of all, my very good friend Shoshona (SD) Freedman released her amazing book The Faithful. How can I say this nicely? You MUST go and Buy this Book. And then Read It. And then Write a Comment saying exactly what you thought of it.
Here's the blurb:

For Agent Josh Metcalf, memories are ghosts. They are blood-soaked backpacks and the smell of strawberry Chap Stick. Josh is haunted by a little girl who went missing his first summer on the force. Decades later his search has become an obsession, and he’s pinned the photos of hundreds of missing children to his wall of tears. All the children had psychic abilities. All the cases went cold -- with no witnesses, no useful tips, and no children ever recovered. Until a woman gets injured trying to stop an abduction, and Josh comes face to face with his personal ghost.

For Rowan Wilson, a meteorite hunter for NASA’s Spaceguard program, memories are lies. The childhood she thought she knew has been erased, leaving a black hole in its place. New recollections are flaring to life: men dressed like priests, a ranch in the mountains, mind control, and rape. Each new memory draws her closer to one of the other missing children, Sumner Macey; and to I Fidele, the underground organization for whom kidnapping is just the beginning.

For Sumner, memories have become weapons. He’s sharpened each of his with surgical precision: the ranch, the doctrine, the mind-wash, and the murders. He’s eager to slice at the black sludge pumping through I Fidele’s heart, desperate to cripple those who stole his childhood.

To I Fidele, non-psychics are cockroaches in need of extermination, an inferior species destroying the earth. They’re ready to enforce eugenics on a global scale. If they succeed, only those faithful to their doctrine will survive.


Pretty amazing huh? This lady knows how to tease you in, entertain you and keep you so wrapped  up in her world that you forget to eat, sleep and - well, you can fill in whatever is important to you.
Buy, Enjoy, Comment! It's my new mantra.

Tuesday 15 April 2014

Congratulations ...

... and celebrations, while I tell everyone I'm happy as can be.
(Apologies to Sir Cliff for mangling his lyrics)

♥   ♥   ♥   ♥   ♥   ♥   ♥   ♥   ♥   ♥   ♥   ♥   ♥
I am just so incredibly happy that two of the Awesome WorldWiseWriters have made it through to the third round of ABNA. Only the Quarter finals!!!
♥   ♥   ♥   ♥   ♥   ♥   ♥   ♥   ♥   ♥   ♥   ♥   ♥
Yay, way to go ladies!


Shoshona Freedman's truly thought-provoking book The Faithful is through in the Mystery and Thriller category.

Jennelle Faulkner's marvellous mind-mangling story Mirrored Time
is through in the Sci-Fi category.

Well done ladies, we are rooting for you all the way to the final where you'll just have to duke it out for overall winner. Or maybe mud-wrestling?

Wednesday 9 April 2014

Critting for England ...

Oops, so busy reading, critting and trying to edit a bunch of my older stories, I haven't posted for two weeks. One of the things I've discovered is that there are certain things that snag so badly for me, they pull me right out of the story and I just cannot get over myself enough to carry on reading. Here's my hit list - any of them resonate for you?

1. Voice mis-match (a 'mumsy' voice then a page of blood-thirsty, bone-crunching wet and nasty action). Sorry but if the voice doesn't match up to the genre I'm not likely to get past the first page. Especially if the first character I meet is a killer. I need to be wooed by a voice fit for purpose.

2. Cardboard characters (I don't get to meet them properly before they're saving the world). Or even worse, there is a lot of description and I get told what type of character they are but I never get to see them in action or hear their thoughts.

3. Cardboard action (heroes faced with impossible odds on the first page but oh-so-easily resolved when hundreds of monsters are slain with each stroke of a magic sword). Sorry, but this just feels like a get-out-of-jail-free card and I just invested a raft of emotion for a computer game scenario? Never more than once.

4. Way too much world-building detail (especially great chunks of description, particularly when it pertains to stuff that has no bearing on the characters or the story). Who gives a monkey's whether her shoes were Prada or D&G?

5. Name soup - a cast of dozens of bit players and/or names of Places and Things, cluttering up a page and snagging me out of the action while I try to work out who/what they are.

6. Too much geography (he stood up, turned around and walked towards the door situated on the right of the room ... that sort of thing). I am snagged out of the story while my brain tries to do the visual reconstruction of whatever picture the author had in his/her mind.

7. Constant time-stamping. As with the name soup, every time you mention a time scale precisely, it snags me out of the story while my brain scrutinises this new piece of information to try and fit it into a recognisable time-line and determine whether it makes sense with my view of how long things take.