I currently can't touch type. This blog is being dictated directly to my phone. I've had reconstructive surgery on my left arm so when I move it over the keyboard it hurts like hell. Why was I operated on? I snapped a tendon from lifting a heavy suitcase into a taxi during my extended travels. …
The Multimedia Author
Three things happened in the past weeks. One involved film making, the others involved the challenges of social media. After much badgering from my younger work colleagues I finally joined Instagram. The odd thing is, I'm enjoying it more than I thought. My high school teacher friend groans about how we have several social platforms …
Adventures in Self Publishing – Part 1
This is an interesting year of me. It's one of those years where things just seem to fall in place. My day job is moving forward with opportunities, and I got signed up to a new publisher after my former one folded. I even got a contract for my non-queer novel which, although I had …
The First Novel
Tomorrow I’m going to feel a sense of déjà vu as my first novel gets relaunched for the third time. My last publisher closed down, so I was very lucky that NineStar Press decided to re-contract my works. An author's first novel is special. It’s the one they sweated over. It’s the one that was redrafted …
Writing Erotica
From Top to Bottom is a short tale about three sexually adventurous men who, um, well, decide to become more sexually adventurous. I originally wrote this for my last publisher who, when first contacting them, was told that erotica and romance are what sell best. I wrote a romance that has been both praised and …
Slipping between genres.
"You're mixing genres." This wasn't said to me as a negative. It was an observation from an editor when I had the initial draft of my first novel assessed. At the time, I didn't realise this was such a big deal. Cinema had made an art of combining genres for a long time. Surely, literature was equally as experimental. But …
Sharing Advice from Writers
Over the last seven weeks I have been blessed by a team of talented authors who shared their tips in a series of guest blogs. This has been a wonderful experience, not only because of the feedback I received from readers, but in making myself rethink some of my own practices. I'm a member of the Australian Society …
Plotter or Pantser?
I was asked this question for an author interview recently and had to look it up, even though I worked out what it meant without quite knowing how pantser worked into the concept. For those still uninitiated, a plotter plots their books before they type a single letter, and a pantser flies by the seat of …