Tim Slee's Blog: How's the Serenity?, page 2
April 28, 2019
3 ways to manage the pressure of 'the dreaded second novel'!
As a first-time novelist, you are asked a lot about (and worry about) 'what is your next one about'? Even before the first one is out! Talk about pressure! So, I'm writing THREE 'next ones'. Which is typical me. The first, which I titled 'Deep River', is in the bag, first draft done.
It starts like this:
ENROLMENT
This is a tale of three Henrys. One was young, adventurous and trusting. Another was an alcoholic, opioid abusing, empty hulk saved from self-destruction against his own wishes. The third, is me.
***
I'm also working on an alternative version of that one. A totally different take on the same theme, a little more suspense, than dark humour. It's about 2/3 done. Let's call it 'Deep River 2' even thought it's almost completely different - it starts like this:
SOL VISTA
I like it quiet. I like the soft, dusty stillness of people ageing. I like walking down the frangipani bedecked pathways, past the apartment doors with just a television burbling away or someone singing nursery rhymes softly to themselves. It used to be peaceful around here, but lately there’s been way too much yelling and screaming.
***
The third novel, I just started in Feb, but it's also 2/3 done because it's turning out to be such fun to write, that it's almost writing itself. I'm calling it 'Goat Island' and it starts like this:
1994, SUMMER
Sometimes you choose a place, and sometimes a place chooses you. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those hippie earth-mother Gaiea freaks. But you have to admit there’s a certain power about the land we live on. Geothermal, tectonic, gravitational. It won’t be ignored, if it decides to assert itself.
***
All three will be finished soon (by summer I hope). I wonder if any of them will make it into the big wide world?
April 13, 2019
Looking for a good Easter read?
If you are looking for a fast-paced thriller to read for Easter, (while eagerly waiting for Taking Tom Murray Home, of course) then try BERING STRAIT! On the Amazon technothriller bestseller list since launch, it has just passed 6,000 copies sold, and all proceeds go to a good Easter cause: Plan International Australia, the #girlsrights organisation.
March 15, 2019
Cover preview: Taking Tom Murray Home
Very excited to reveal the cover design for my upcoming novel 'Taking Tom Murray Home', coming out on HarperCollins in August!
A quirky tale deserved a quirky cover and I think designer Laura Collins really nailed it...
Have a read of the book blurb below, then let me know what you think!
The winner of the inaugural Banjo Prize, Taking Tom Murray Home is a funny, moving, bittersweet Australian story of fires, families and the restorative power of community.
Bankrupt dairy farmer Tom Murray decides he'd rather sell off his herd and burn down his own house than hand them over to the bank. But something goes tragically wrong, and Tom dies in the blaze. His wife, Dawn, doesn't want him to have died for nothing and decides to hold a funeral procession for Tom as a protest, driving 350km from Yardley in country Victoria to bury him in Melbourne where he was born. To make a bigger impact she agrees with some neighbours to put his coffin on a horse and cart and take it slow - real slow.
But on the night of their departure, someone burns down the local bank. And as the motley funeral procession passes through Victoria, there are more mysterious arson attacks. Dawn has five days to get to Melbourne before she has to bury her husband. Five days, five more towns, and a state ready to explode in flames...
Told with a laconic, deadpan wit, Taking Tom Murray Home is a timely, thought-provoking, heart-warming, quintessentially Australian story like no other. It's a novel about grief, pain, anger and loss, yes, but it's also about hope - and how community, friends and love trump pain and anger, every time.
A quirky tale deserved a quirky cover and I think designer Laura Collins really nailed it...
Have a read of the book blurb below, then let me know what you think!
The winner of the inaugural Banjo Prize, Taking Tom Murray Home is a funny, moving, bittersweet Australian story of fires, families and the restorative power of community.
Bankrupt dairy farmer Tom Murray decides he'd rather sell off his herd and burn down his own house than hand them over to the bank. But something goes tragically wrong, and Tom dies in the blaze. His wife, Dawn, doesn't want him to have died for nothing and decides to hold a funeral procession for Tom as a protest, driving 350km from Yardley in country Victoria to bury him in Melbourne where he was born. To make a bigger impact she agrees with some neighbours to put his coffin on a horse and cart and take it slow - real slow.
But on the night of their departure, someone burns down the local bank. And as the motley funeral procession passes through Victoria, there are more mysterious arson attacks. Dawn has five days to get to Melbourne before she has to bury her husband. Five days, five more towns, and a state ready to explode in flames...
Told with a laconic, deadpan wit, Taking Tom Murray Home is a timely, thought-provoking, heart-warming, quintessentially Australian story like no other. It's a novel about grief, pain, anger and loss, yes, but it's also about hope - and how community, friends and love trump pain and anger, every time.
February 28, 2019
1,000 km and hundreds of smiles
A big thankyou to all the lovely folks I met on my recent 1,109 km tour of Australia's SW Victoria! Looking forward to meeting you all again I hope, when 'Taking Tom Murray Home' comes out in July. Not enough space in the collage for everyone but will feature stories and videos later! Will give a small shoutout though to those who hosted me so kindly, Ironbird Bookshop (Port Fairy), Collins Booksellers (Warrnambool), Cow Lick Bookshop (Colac), Great Escape Books (Airey's Inlet), Dymocks Geelong, The Bookshop at Queenscliff, Antipodes Bookshop & Gallery (Sorrento), Farrells Bookshop (Mornington), Robinsons Bookshop HQ Carrum Downs, Thesaurus Booksellers (Brighton), Dymocks Melbourne (Melbourne), Robinsons Bookshop (Melbourne), Readings (Carlton) and not to forget Kim and Leah of Heartwood Horses and Leading Senior Constable Leo Finnegan of the Portland Victoria Police! And to the wonderful people at HarperCollins Books for organising ...
(Proceeds from Taking Tom Murray Home will go to Plan International Australia).
(Proceeds from Taking Tom Murray Home will go to Plan International Australia).
January 24, 2019
By request: early work available as FREE ebooks
Hi all! After receiving a few too many sad emojis on FaceBook over the fact my earlier fiction experiments have been taken offline I thought 'heck with it' and have made them available for FREE via BookFunnel.
These full length books were all experiments; written fast and loose, between 2016 and 2018 as I explored different ideas, genre (sci fi, fantasy, noir, thriller, historical, crime fiction) and styles. Yes, I write at a crazy pace once the mood takes me and my goal was to get as much feedback as I could about my work as quickly as possible. There is no greater feedback than seeing whether people will buy your book and once they have, what they write about it!
Just go to my page on GoodReads, and you'll see a download link where you can pick up the ebooks in the format of your choice.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Published between 2016 and 2018 there are six novels available:
Post apocalyptic fiction - The Vanirim and the Aesir (Vanirim was an award winner)
Historical fiction - Queen of America
Crime/thriller - Charlie Jones volumes 1-3 (Volume 2 was an award winner)
Enjoy!
TJ
These full length books were all experiments; written fast and loose, between 2016 and 2018 as I explored different ideas, genre (sci fi, fantasy, noir, thriller, historical, crime fiction) and styles. Yes, I write at a crazy pace once the mood takes me and my goal was to get as much feedback as I could about my work as quickly as possible. There is no greater feedback than seeing whether people will buy your book and once they have, what they write about it!
Just go to my page on GoodReads, and you'll see a download link where you can pick up the ebooks in the format of your choice.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Published between 2016 and 2018 there are six novels available:
Post apocalyptic fiction - The Vanirim and the Aesir (Vanirim was an award winner)
Historical fiction - Queen of America
Crime/thriller - Charlie Jones volumes 1-3 (Volume 2 was an award winner)
Enjoy!
TJ
November 11, 2018
Why are none of your earlier novels available anymore?
Hello, got this question on a book forum and thought I would clear up the mystery! In 2016-17 I published a series of novels that I had been working on since about 2013 - the main purpose being to raise some money for charity, the secondary purpose to experiment with self publishing and get some solid reader feedback on my work.
It turned out to be a great project and the books were well received; two were shortlisted in the US Publishers Weekly BookLife Prize for Fiction and 'The Vanirim' was the Grand Prize winner. Some, like the 'Charlie Jones' series and 'Queen of America' developed a devoted following (and there are sequels in the works, don't despair) and I enjoyed a lot of great interaction with readers.
But then ... in 2018 I submitted a manuscript to the HarperCollins Banjo Prize for unpublished Australian fiction and was fortunate to win a publishing contract! Which means devoting my energy to a new direction, so I've decided to 'retire' the earlier manuscripts for now.
All of these manuscripts are still available on request in e-Book format. Just write to me at teejayslee@gmail.com and I will send you a link from where you freely can download the e-Book.
Cheers,
TJ
It turned out to be a great project and the books were well received; two were shortlisted in the US Publishers Weekly BookLife Prize for Fiction and 'The Vanirim' was the Grand Prize winner. Some, like the 'Charlie Jones' series and 'Queen of America' developed a devoted following (and there are sequels in the works, don't despair) and I enjoyed a lot of great interaction with readers.
But then ... in 2018 I submitted a manuscript to the HarperCollins Banjo Prize for unpublished Australian fiction and was fortunate to win a publishing contract! Which means devoting my energy to a new direction, so I've decided to 'retire' the earlier manuscripts for now.
All of these manuscripts are still available on request in e-Book format. Just write to me at teejayslee@gmail.com and I will send you a link from where you freely can download the e-Book.
Cheers,
TJ
October 10, 2018
On international girls' day ...
Happy to announce that all proceeds from the sale of my upcoming novel BERING STRAIT will go to Plan International, the #girlsrights organisation working to provide education and safety to girls in 75 countries.
Why donate proceeds from a techno thriller about war to a charity? Well firstly, as a popular genre I hope it will sell well so there is a good amount to donate! And secondly because the book features strong female protagonists:
Alicia Rodriguez, Airboss and CO of a covert Navy unit stationed in the Bering Strait
'Bunny' O'Hare, Australian civilian contractor working for DARPA as a test pilot
Devlin McCarthy, US Ambassador to Moscow
And more!
The books will be published under the pen name FXHolden and you can pre-order it here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07J3P42HF
Why donate proceeds from a techno thriller about war to a charity? Well firstly, as a popular genre I hope it will sell well so there is a good amount to donate! And secondly because the book features strong female protagonists:
Alicia Rodriguez, Airboss and CO of a covert Navy unit stationed in the Bering Strait
'Bunny' O'Hare, Australian civilian contractor working for DARPA as a test pilot
Devlin McCarthy, US Ambassador to Moscow
And more!
The books will be published under the pen name FXHolden and you can pre-order it here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07J3P42HF
October 5, 2018
5 STAR Advance Review: Bering Strait
Release day getting closer. Have been sending book out to different places to garner reviews. Got the first one back from 'Readers Favorite'
You can get a free advance review eBook here.
https://dl.bookfunnel.com/g4fdazides
And here is the Readers Favorite review!
Review Rating: 5 Stars - Congratulations on your 5-star review!
Reviewed By Anne-Marie Reynolds for Readers’ Favorite
Bering Strait is a thriller. It is 2031 and a new cold war between America and Russia is starting. Perri Tungyan is a Yup’ik fisherman, just 17 years old. He lives on Saint Lawrence Island in the Bering Strait and, as he awaits the weekly shopping drone at the Gambell airstrip, he notices several specks in the sky. These loom larger and larger, identifying as aircraft, and Perri suddenly realizes that he is the only one who knows what is happening. Russia has started to take control of the Strait. Russian ships move in to block the entrance and exit to the Strait and a no-fly zone is imposed over Western Alaska. The lives of eight people are about to be turned upside down as Armageddon approaches.
When I started reading Bering Strait, I found it a bit slow going and didn’t think I would be able to get into it but, wow, it soon picks up the pace and becomes impossible to put down. The action is intense and the plot unique. There are plenty of twists and turns to keep the reader on their toes and keep their attention while it soars along at a fast pace. The characters are developed nicely throughout the story, each having their own part to play and meshing with one another seamlessly. You soon begin to empathize with them and they are a likeable bunch of people too. This story is unmissable and slightly scary because it isn’t set very far in the future and, given recent world events, isn’t out of the realms of possibility. Great story, highly recommended for those who want a tight, gripping tale to lose themselves in.
You can get a free advance review eBook here.
https://dl.bookfunnel.com/g4fdazides
And here is the Readers Favorite review!
Review Rating: 5 Stars - Congratulations on your 5-star review!
Reviewed By Anne-Marie Reynolds for Readers’ Favorite
Bering Strait is a thriller. It is 2031 and a new cold war between America and Russia is starting. Perri Tungyan is a Yup’ik fisherman, just 17 years old. He lives on Saint Lawrence Island in the Bering Strait and, as he awaits the weekly shopping drone at the Gambell airstrip, he notices several specks in the sky. These loom larger and larger, identifying as aircraft, and Perri suddenly realizes that he is the only one who knows what is happening. Russia has started to take control of the Strait. Russian ships move in to block the entrance and exit to the Strait and a no-fly zone is imposed over Western Alaska. The lives of eight people are about to be turned upside down as Armageddon approaches.
When I started reading Bering Strait, I found it a bit slow going and didn’t think I would be able to get into it but, wow, it soon picks up the pace and becomes impossible to put down. The action is intense and the plot unique. There are plenty of twists and turns to keep the reader on their toes and keep their attention while it soars along at a fast pace. The characters are developed nicely throughout the story, each having their own part to play and meshing with one another seamlessly. You soon begin to empathize with them and they are a likeable bunch of people too. This story is unmissable and slightly scary because it isn’t set very far in the future and, given recent world events, isn’t out of the realms of possibility. Great story, highly recommended for those who want a tight, gripping tale to lose themselves in.
September 15, 2018
The hard part...
Step one, have dream come true...
Step two?
So, after two and half years of writing, self publishing, reading, writing, reading, writing and (yep) writing some more I landed a contract for one of my unpublished manuscripts. Yay!!
Now I have to deliver the book, but that's not the hard part. This book, BURN, is unlike any of my others (not hard since all my books are unlike each other - sci fi, noir, thrillers, historical fiction) because it is contemporary fiction, very Australian.
It therefore made sense for me to retire my earlier stuff and just focus on BURN, and on getting started on a follow-on novel in the same vein.
But I'm finding leaving the other titles behind, even if it is temporary, is like literary amputation! I unpublished them from Amazon, but Amazon won't take down paperback titles because they can still be traded second-hand, so they are still up there, like phantom limbs.
And it's only been a month, so people who got a copy earlier this year are still putting up reviews on sites like Goodreads. Which is a tweak of the knife when the reviews are like "Omg this book was absolutely amazing!":
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
So I tell myself it's all good, those earlier manuscripts were just a part of the journey to help you find your voice, don't look back, look ahead!
Still. I never thought about this part. I have the Beatles song playing on repeat in my head:
You say "Yes", I say "No".
You say "Stop" and I say "Go, go, go".
Oh no.
You say "Goodbye" and I say "Hello, hello, hello"
Goodbye Charlie Jones, Freya Eriksdottir, Tully McIntyre ... hello hello BURN!
Step two?
So, after two and half years of writing, self publishing, reading, writing, reading, writing and (yep) writing some more I landed a contract for one of my unpublished manuscripts. Yay!!
Now I have to deliver the book, but that's not the hard part. This book, BURN, is unlike any of my others (not hard since all my books are unlike each other - sci fi, noir, thrillers, historical fiction) because it is contemporary fiction, very Australian.
It therefore made sense for me to retire my earlier stuff and just focus on BURN, and on getting started on a follow-on novel in the same vein.
But I'm finding leaving the other titles behind, even if it is temporary, is like literary amputation! I unpublished them from Amazon, but Amazon won't take down paperback titles because they can still be traded second-hand, so they are still up there, like phantom limbs.
And it's only been a month, so people who got a copy earlier this year are still putting up reviews on sites like Goodreads. Which is a tweak of the knife when the reviews are like "Omg this book was absolutely amazing!":
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
So I tell myself it's all good, those earlier manuscripts were just a part of the journey to help you find your voice, don't look back, look ahead!
Still. I never thought about this part. I have the Beatles song playing on repeat in my head:
You say "Yes", I say "No".
You say "Stop" and I say "Go, go, go".
Oh no.
You say "Goodbye" and I say "Hello, hello, hello"
Goodbye Charlie Jones, Freya Eriksdottir, Tully McIntyre ... hello hello BURN!
August 31, 2018
BURN wins 2018 Banjo Prize!
Crazy but true. My manuscript BURN won the 2018 Banjo Prize for Australian Fiction, so now I'm signed with HarperCollins!
You can read more about it below but of course huge thanks to the GoodReads community for all the encouragement the last couple of years!
https://www.harpercollins.com.au/blog...
https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/entert...
You can read more about it below but of course huge thanks to the GoodReads community for all the encouragement the last couple of years!
https://www.harpercollins.com.au/blog...
https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/entert...
How's the Serenity?
A blog about the fun of balancing life, work, family, friends, writing and karma... mostly writing and karma.
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