The first thing you experience when reading Dalton's debut is its prose. The first few chapters seem surreal. A brother writes sentences in thin air. Your end is a dead blue wren. Other images are painted that while poetic, don't make sense. Soon, it finds reality, and a stark one at that. Eli is a …
I’m finally writing again!
My local library is open again. As I live in an apartment with my husband, the library is where I can escape to write. So while we were in isolation, my sequel to Social Media Central was left untouched. After several months I can proudly announce, my work in progress is back on track. With …
The Negative Reader
I noticed something the other day. I was going to write a review of a favourite book for someone else's blog, but because it had been a while since I read the book, I checked its reviews on Goodreads to refresh my memory on elements of the plot. While pretty much everyone praised it, one …
Book Review – The Museum of Modern Love by Heather Rose
Many reviewers consider this novel a meditation on art. This is true as it's really not a story driven piece. Several times I put this book down for a while to consider what I'd read. But it was never going to be a 'did not finish' book. I had to take it in stages as …
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Resurrecting an abandoned manuscript
Sequels never sell as well as the first in a series. It's something I've learnt through time. The final of the Actors and Angels trilogy has had lower sales than the first, even though it's won a Rainbow Award. More people have read Nate and the New Yorker than its follow up. So, quite some …
Never read your reviews!
New book. Time to check for reviews. Because at time of writing this I was addicted to Google, searching said book title plus my name. All authors do it. We need the quotes for marketing while the novel is still fresh. No reviews on Amazon several weeks after release, but a few on Goodreads. But, …
Getting a manuscript ready for submission
A father and daughter team were on the radio the other morning. Like me, dad obviously enjoyed the house party days of the nineties. He told his daughter (and us) about the Primal Scream track, 'Loaded'. Hearing people still affectionate about that decade is why one of my WiP's is set in that era. I'm …
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The first notes from my editor
Please note that I'm back home in Australia now, but this blog was written while overseas. I just got my first notes for my new ebook, Winter Masquerade. I'm working with a new editor so I wasn't sure what she might say. My usual problem is passive voice. So, the first thing I was asked …
I signed a new book contract.
The week before writing this blog I signed a book contract. It was for an eBook titled Winter Masquerade. At one stage I wanted to expand this book but after reading it for editing, I liked its pace. I didn't want to bloat the story. Someone asked me during the week which of my novels …
Selling Books at a Smaller Con
It's Sunday morning when I'm writing this. We're at Hubcon, the small pop culture con in the Blue Mountains. This is its inaugural year. There are only eight of us in Author Alley which means better sales for our books, compared to the larger festivals where there's more competition. Of course, I'm asking the best …
