Well, Elflings is less than a week away from the publishers!  Good times ahead. (Well, one would think.  My self imposed book reading ban can be lifted once the edit is finally done.)

Elflings has 40 pages left to edit and should be coming in at 95k.  Still not as long as the Quest of the Demon, but very similar to Tallen, the Aftermath will continue with Elonan - his grumpy, somewhat selfish, trouble seeking self in all his glory.  Would you be brave enough to tell a dragon to shove their quest somewhere uncomfortable?

Despite that particular good piece of news, I've actually been surprised to find in my email inbox, contact from the Wyndham Library.  They asked if I'd be interested in doing a reading of one of my novels as part of the Wyndham National Year of Reading events!

Have a think about the last time you read something that you'd written out loud to an audience?  Highschool was it?

It certainly will be interesting to hear some of my characters out loud!  More info to come...

Some of you may remember my first attempt at making a home made book teaser.  Quest of the Demon book teaser, uploaded Jan 2011 I was surprised to actually get some views (up to 569)... but, if you look at it, (unless you are comparing it to when color tv was introduced), it's pretty basic.

From there, just over 6 months later, the book Teaser for Tallen was created.  Now this was a bit of an advance for me as I actually had some very basic animation.  Having photoshop as opposed to just paint as my art program helped a lot, 588 views and no real comments, some likes and looks like 1 dislike (oh well)...

My question is, for the tech savi out there, any suggestions on improvement for my book teasers?  Elflings will involve a ship, winged giant bat like monsters in a nightmare, traveling over snow dunes and the deadly swoop of an ice dragon... Let me know what you think.

Well, editing is going along smoothly.  I have made it to about half way!  Edit has added another 5k to the manuscript... where do all the words come from I wonder?  Up to a 90k work of fantasy though I do find that as the writing progressess (since the first novel), it's not quite as YA as it should be.

I wonder, is it me changing my tastes, or is society getting less blaze about things?

Enough of the deep thought, Friday the 13th was a great night to get out and about to attend a themed trivia night.  No sexy vampire costume for me... Zombie all the way!  Needless to say my friend and I received a few good looks on our drive into the city!  Good night in all!

Well, with moving house, renovaiting the old one and a few other life changing events, things have been pretty flat out (not to mention working full time in my day job...) but I'm finally getting stuck into it.

Finally it has begun.  I'm 16 pages into the final edit of Elflings. (Only 170 pages to go...) Wish me luck!

Finally, 2 weeks without the net and now I'm back!  2 weeks of moving into a new house and renovating the old one has left little time for anything else.  But I have my online life back and I also have the comments from my draft readers so now it's time to knuckle down and finish off this final draft of Elfings, ready in the nick of time for Dec 2012!

Also, don't forget, this Wednesday appearing at the Point Cook Library between 6-8.  Come and join the

Come and check it out.  Point Cook has a group called Fast Food and Fiction that is a book club / group for teens between 13-18.   Food is provided, all teenages welcome.

Well, I'm not a teenager, but I'll be popping in for their next gathering on the 20th of June to have a chat about writing, YA and of course, Elflings which is due out in Dec 2012.  If you're a teen in the Wyndam area (Point Cook, Sanctuary Lakes, Hoppers Crossing, Werribee, Wyndham Vale, Tarneit and Truganina... hopefully I didn't miss any
1), come and check the group out.

On the same day, book suppliers will be attending and I'll have a few copies of Quest of the Demon and Tallen available, you could pick up your very own autographed copy! (Or you could borrow the ones

For those of you who follow my face book page, you may have seen the occasional bird photo.  Well, I admit it.  I'm a keen bird watcher and combined with that, I love the challenge of taking photos of these often difficult to see creatures.  To that end, I've created a new website http://aussiebird.weebly.com/ check it out if you're interested in having a look at some of the amazing Australian bird life. You never know, it might inspire your imagination!

Sorry for a little bit of an ego trip, but, yay, I won the latest short story competition hosted on SFF World with my short story 'the coin'.  Or, if you happen to be a member of SFF world and for some reason 'Snikerty snikerty ha ha,' comes to mind - yes, that's the story. 

Keep your eyes out.  Thanks to these monthly Flash Fiction contests and the occasional Short Story contest that I enter, I'll soon have enough to publish a small anthology.  What I need to work out is whether or not I'll put it up through all mediums, or for the first time, try out the kindle library.  I'll keep you posted.