Songster and Wordsmith

As I write this post, I'm 20 pages off the final edit for Welcome to the Apocalypse Book 2. Then it's a read through and a proof read and finally load up to Amazon in time to make the deadline of June 8. Naturally, once this is done I'll have a ten minutes break and start working on Book 3. But I think I'm going to sneak in a little in-between story. with the recent relaunch of all my back catalogue, I've discovered a couple of sleepers that have awoken. Poison in the Pond, my horror novella is doing rather well. So is my YA spy adventure novel Resident Spy. Which leads me to the question of "Which book do I write next?" Let's face it, when books are selling, I should get stuck into writing more of those books. Poison in the Pond commenced life as one of the very first novels I'd ever written, and after it had sat in a drawer for many ears, I decided to edit it and publish it. Turned out to not be as good as I recall so many, many, many

My YA novels have undergone a revamp this month with new covers and new titles, and one novel even has a new chapter at the end. One Little Spell was originally released as Little Red Gem. But not enough people were reading the novel to get the reference to the title so I retitled it to One Little Spell. In the book, leading up to to the climax, the main character, Ruby Parker, is sitting in the car and having a moment where she reflects on her behaviour and prepares for the future. She has just gone on an incredible journey that has taken 250 pages and over 65,000 words to tell. To sum up her situation, the boy she loves has broken her heart and now she is having wondering if it was worth it. She must have learned something on this incredible journey. But what? The feelings inside are all mixed up as if someone has tossed them out a window and left them to the mercy of the wind. Her thoughts are like a Geiger counter machine in the middle of an earthquake. Thousands of

Aussie author Mirren Hogan is celebrating the release of her urban fantasy novel "Nightmares Rise". But I'm way behind on my promo activities so this blog is to showcase more of her historical fiction novel "Night Witches". You can read more about Mirren from the time she visited my virtual café for a coffee chat here . Little is known of the all-woman Russian aviators who flew bombing missions during World War II. From mechanics to navigators, pilots and officers, the 588th regiment was composed entirely of women. The 588th regiment flew 30,000 missions and dropped 23,000 tonnes of bombs on the Germans. The Night Witches developed the technique of flying close to their intended targets, then cutting their engines. Silently they would glide to their targets and release their bombs. Then they would restart their engines and fly away. The first warning the Germans had of an impending raid was the sound of the wind whistling against the wing bracing wir

I recently made the decision to revamp my back catalogue book covers and the blurbs because I'm heading to SupaNova Sydney in June and I wanted to take my back catalogue with me. But I had to be honest, the covers were lacking. The beauty of being a self published author is that we can correct things if they're not working. The tragic part of being a self-published author is lack of funds.   A side note here - Often the difference between a blockbuster movie and an independent film is funding. Same with self-published books. Great content can be overlooked simply because an author doesn't have the money to buy a great cover, or hire a top-notch editor, or pay for a course of writing killer descriptions.   I'm guilty of not possessing an endless bucket of funds. Hence why when two of my YA titles reverted back to me, I did the book covers myself. The reason for this was that I wanted to get them up on Amazon quickly so I didn't lose the reviews. I didn't

View from San Giorgio Venice    Pic Credit: Panoramio Author spotlight - Rosanne Dingli tells "Why my latest novel is based in Venice." It will come as no surprise to my readers that Venice is once more the location I chose for a new novel. Those who have enjoyed the companion novels According to Luke and The Hidden Auditorium will be pleased to hear a third story featuring my beloved Professor Bryn Awbrey is in the works. And what hard work it’s proving to be! Although I know Venice well, it’s been more than five years since my last visit, so my memory is being tested, and I’m having to look things up. Venetian chimney pots   Pic credit: Elisa Ruland   But some things are impossible to cancel from the bank of sensations memory piles up and stores for me. The sound of a long low barge laden with fresh vegetables thrumming to the end of a narrow canal, where eager shoppers wait for crisp orange zucchini flowers to deep fry in a golden batter is still