Tim Slee's Blog: How's the Serenity?, page 3
August 18, 2018
Advance Review Copies: Bering Strait
Grab a FREE Advance Review Copy of my upcoming novel before it comes out this October. All sales after release go to charity! Avail here:
https://dl.bookfunnel.com/g4fdazides
This has been an ambitious project: a Clancy-esque technothriller running to 500 pages. To land it I've had help from a fantastic team of technical advisers in the police, armed forces and even defense systems contracting. Publishers Weekly BookLife reviewed the draft and said, "Realistic and original...a fast-paced thriller packed with action and suspense."
https://dl.bookfunnel.com/g4fdazides
This has been an ambitious project: a Clancy-esque technothriller running to 500 pages. To land it I've had help from a fantastic team of technical advisers in the police, armed forces and even defense systems contracting. Publishers Weekly BookLife reviewed the draft and said, "Realistic and original...a fast-paced thriller packed with action and suspense."
August 13, 2018
Shortlisted for The Banjo Prize
Sharing some exciting news today! My unpublished manuscript #BURN has just been shortlisted in the Australian 'Banjo Prize' for fiction. Winner announced August 31, so fingers, toes and eyes are crossed ...
https://www.harpercollins.com.au/theb...
In the meantime, here is the blurb!
PLOT PRECIS
Set against the backdrop of a recent drought, thirteen year old Jill Murray and her twin sister Jenny see their father burn down their farmhouse rather than let it be repossessed by the bank. But he gets caught inside the house and dies in the fire.
Not wanting to see her husband’s death as pointless, their mother, Ellen, loads her husband’s coffin and the two girls on a horse-drawn wagon and determines to drive his body to the Parliament building in Melbourne to make a statement about the incredible pressure on farming families.
But Jill isn’t convinced her father’s death was an accident. He was a meticulous, detail-oriented man and she was with him as he walked step by step through the plan for burning their house down. She can’t believe he would have messed it up so badly, so the only other explanation is foul play. Her suspicions are still swirling as the family heads of out of town together with a motley assortment of townsfolk from Heywood for the week-long, two hundred mile journey to Melbourne.
The night before they leave town, someone burns down the local bank. It’s a pattern that repeats every time they pull into a new town – Torquay, Geelong, Queenscliff, Frankston. More towns, more banks, supermarkets, houses set ablaze. The police want to shut the protest down but it is attracting media attention now and gets solid legal support from a national media group to keep the police at bay. The police can’t prove anyone in the funeral cortege is the fire bomber, and there is no law against transporting a coffin in a horse and carriage. As media attention intensifies, more and more supporters attach themselves to the convoy. Ellen Murray emerges as a charismatic populist leader and her nightly addresses to the funeral followers attract a large social media following thanks in part to the social media skills of daughter Jenny in getting the message out.
Jill meanwhile keeps circling around the suspicious characters in the funeral cortege, determined to find out if one of them could be behind her father’s death. Then she learns that the local police in Lorne didn’t actually test the DNA of their father’s body, didn’t check the dental records against his and couldn’t check his fingerprints. They just seem to have presumed the dead man was him. Now Jill is struck by a new possibility – that the man in the coffin is not even their father. Could he be the firebomber?
Jill Robinson is a unique narrator and the story is told in the first person from her perspective. Jill and her twin sister have congenital analgesia, a rare but unfortunately real condition in which the affected child cannot cry, cannot sweat, and feels no physical pain. Pain (physical and emotional), and the ability to feel it or not, is the theme running throughout the novel as we see the two girls dealing with the shock and grief of the loss of their father, but unable to express it in tears. Unable to accept that his death was an accident, Jill deals with her pain by trying to prove he was murdered. Unable to show outwardly her grief at his death, she becomes determined to discover whether he is even dead at all.
As the funeral cortege finally pulls into Melbourne leaving a trail of fire, shock and grief in its wake, Jill Murray’s pain has reached a crescendo, but still, she cannot cry. Then inside the funeral chapel, their mother takes the girls aside. “I have something I need to tell you.”
amazon.com/author/timslee
https://www.harpercollins.com.au/theb...
In the meantime, here is the blurb!
PLOT PRECIS
Set against the backdrop of a recent drought, thirteen year old Jill Murray and her twin sister Jenny see their father burn down their farmhouse rather than let it be repossessed by the bank. But he gets caught inside the house and dies in the fire.
Not wanting to see her husband’s death as pointless, their mother, Ellen, loads her husband’s coffin and the two girls on a horse-drawn wagon and determines to drive his body to the Parliament building in Melbourne to make a statement about the incredible pressure on farming families.
But Jill isn’t convinced her father’s death was an accident. He was a meticulous, detail-oriented man and she was with him as he walked step by step through the plan for burning their house down. She can’t believe he would have messed it up so badly, so the only other explanation is foul play. Her suspicions are still swirling as the family heads of out of town together with a motley assortment of townsfolk from Heywood for the week-long, two hundred mile journey to Melbourne.
The night before they leave town, someone burns down the local bank. It’s a pattern that repeats every time they pull into a new town – Torquay, Geelong, Queenscliff, Frankston. More towns, more banks, supermarkets, houses set ablaze. The police want to shut the protest down but it is attracting media attention now and gets solid legal support from a national media group to keep the police at bay. The police can’t prove anyone in the funeral cortege is the fire bomber, and there is no law against transporting a coffin in a horse and carriage. As media attention intensifies, more and more supporters attach themselves to the convoy. Ellen Murray emerges as a charismatic populist leader and her nightly addresses to the funeral followers attract a large social media following thanks in part to the social media skills of daughter Jenny in getting the message out.
Jill meanwhile keeps circling around the suspicious characters in the funeral cortege, determined to find out if one of them could be behind her father’s death. Then she learns that the local police in Lorne didn’t actually test the DNA of their father’s body, didn’t check the dental records against his and couldn’t check his fingerprints. They just seem to have presumed the dead man was him. Now Jill is struck by a new possibility – that the man in the coffin is not even their father. Could he be the firebomber?
Jill Robinson is a unique narrator and the story is told in the first person from her perspective. Jill and her twin sister have congenital analgesia, a rare but unfortunately real condition in which the affected child cannot cry, cannot sweat, and feels no physical pain. Pain (physical and emotional), and the ability to feel it or not, is the theme running throughout the novel as we see the two girls dealing with the shock and grief of the loss of their father, but unable to express it in tears. Unable to accept that his death was an accident, Jill deals with her pain by trying to prove he was murdered. Unable to show outwardly her grief at his death, she becomes determined to discover whether he is even dead at all.
As the funeral cortege finally pulls into Melbourne leaving a trail of fire, shock and grief in its wake, Jill Murray’s pain has reached a crescendo, but still, she cannot cry. Then inside the funeral chapel, their mother takes the girls aside. “I have something I need to tell you.”
amazon.com/author/timslee
August 5, 2018
Crime thriller giveaway until 12 Aug
For fans for Janet Evanovic!
Sister Charlie Jones is about to take her First Vows as a Mercy Sister Novice. But there's one small problem. Someone is killing Sydney's Catholic priests and the police have decided Charlie Jones is their leading suspect.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BOOKLIFE PRIZE FOR FICTION SAID:
"Grim humor that is reminiscent of Ken Bruen, and a plausible plot full of good double-crosses and steadily ratcheting tension..."
"If you love your characters to be easily believable and relatable, your thrillers to be thrilling but not over the top, and detailed descriptions without excessive gore, then T.J. Slee should leap to the top of your favourite authors list and the Charlie Jones series to the top of your to read list." - Dave Taylor, Goodreads
"Held my interest throughout, there were many twists and turns, and the tension held up through the book. I loved this book. Very tense mystery. A fun ride." - Donna Bresnak, Goodreads
"I loved it. I have now read all three of the Charlie Jones books and loved them all." Debra, Goodreads
Sister Charlie Jones is about to take her First Vows as a Mercy Sister Novice. But there's one small problem. Someone is killing Sydney's Catholic priests and the police have decided Charlie Jones is their leading suspect.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BOOKLIFE PRIZE FOR FICTION SAID:
"Grim humor that is reminiscent of Ken Bruen, and a plausible plot full of good double-crosses and steadily ratcheting tension..."
"If you love your characters to be easily believable and relatable, your thrillers to be thrilling but not over the top, and detailed descriptions without excessive gore, then T.J. Slee should leap to the top of your favourite authors list and the Charlie Jones series to the top of your to read list." - Dave Taylor, Goodreads
"Held my interest throughout, there were many twists and turns, and the tension held up through the book. I loved this book. Very tense mystery. A fun ride." - Donna Bresnak, Goodreads
"I loved it. I have now read all three of the Charlie Jones books and loved them all." Debra, Goodreads
July 26, 2018
Review, Phillip Kerr, Berlin Noir
Berlin Noir: Penguin eBook by Philip KerrMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
I have very very few books in my Did Not Finish pile, and none of those are crime noir novels because I LOVE NOIR... but ...
(Thud of Phillip Kerr’s Berlin Noir series hitting the floor)
... this one is a first.
It shouldn’t have been, I love the setting (Berlin, 1930s, bad Nazis ... awesome). Second, he has the tone down pat, with some great Chandleresque writing:
“If he was a member of the human race at all, Neumann was its least attractive specimen. His eyebrows, twitching and curling like two poisoned caterpillars, were joined together by an irregular scribble of poorly matched hair. Behind thick glasses that were almost opaque with greasy thumbprints, his grey eyes were shifty and nervous, searching the floor as if he expected that at any moment he would be lying flat on it. Cigarette smoke poured out from between teeth that were so badly stained with tobacco they looked like two wooden fences.”
Third, well, the bad guys are Nazis, did I mention that? So it had to take a lot to get me to throw this one in the literary bin. It was the rampant sexism that did my head in. And yes, I realise it was written in the 1990s and is set in the 1930s but that isn’t an excuse. I just finished a couple of Dashiell Hammet novels written seventy years ago and they weren’t as bad as this one. I let the first couple of passages of derogatory remarks about women slide past in the hope he was just building the protagonist up as a sleazeball, but after a while I realised it was the WRITER’S voice coming through, not his character’s.
This is the passage that made me puke:
“Is that a fact?’ she said, smiling quietly to herself. It irritated me quite a bit, that smile; in part because I felt she was patronizing me, but also because I wanted desperately to stop it with a kiss. Failing that, the back of my hand.”
WHAAAAT...
I immediately thought, oh, ok, so because the woman is patronising the dumb gumshoe, that’s an excuse for a little light assault?
Yes, men in the 1930s thought like that. Hell, there are plenty of dumbass men today who are or should be in jail who think like that. But I read plenty of noir from all ages where it doesn’t come through as pure misogyny in the way Kerr’s writing does.
2 stars for his talent with metaphor and simile, and that’s it. Avoid this writer unless you WANT quotes to use in essays on misogyny!
View all my reviews
July 4, 2018
Review of: Peril in the Old Country, Sam Hooker
Peril in the Old Country by Sam HookerMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
When Terry Pratchett died we didn't just lose an author, we lost the entire Discworld universe. It was a fantastically humorous universe peopled with warty witches, goblins, færies, evil despots and hapless heroes.
But rejoice! For Peril in the Old Country is a rollicking story peopled with warty witches, goblins, færies, evil despots and hapless heroes!
There is more than a little Pratchettiness about the prose, but more in the way of an homage than straight fan fiction and it's a very easy and entertaining read. I read it during and in between international flights and it's the sort of book that bears multiple interruptions (boarding, meal service, movies, deplaning, straining to hear announcements) because the plot moves forward nicely in small bite-sized pieces and isn't so tricksy that you need to go back and re-read to remember what had happened the last time you picked it up.
Check my highlights for examples of the prose, but there are many chuckle-worthy gems:
"Grans of the Old Country seemed certain that young people were in constant danger of freezing to death, and took up knitting so they could stare death in the face and say, “Not today. Not on my watch.”
***
"Sladia continued talking, but Sloot could hear nothing but a high-pitched whine. He’d expected the sound of his life as he knew it bursting into flames to be more dramatic, yet there it was. A sort of highly efficient eternity passed, during which he managed to have a mental break, lose the power of speech, and rehabilitate himself before Sladia finished speaking."
It can be a little chaotic at times (I never really did work out what the spy called Roman's 'grand plan' really was ... but maybe that was the point?) but a bit like a ride at a fairground, the fun is in being flung around and turned upside down, not in the destination itself!
The main protagonist 'Sloot' is very reminiscent of Rincewind from Discworld and I would definitely recommend this one to Pratchett fans who miss Sam Vimes, Lord Vetinari and Nanny Ogg!
View all my reviews
Recent Goodreads Reviews!
Pick up the ebooks today from $1.99. All proceeds to Plan International, the #girlsrights organisation!
https://www.amazon.com/default/e/B079...
THE AESIR
Ruth: 5/5 - "The saga continues to increase in speed so pack your survival gear and immerse yourself"
QUEEN OF AMERICA
Kushlandia: 4/5 - "Queen of America rules!"
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Wanda: 4/5 - "Queen of America is unique."
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
THE VANIRIM
Monica: 5/5 - "Simply fantastic!"
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Ruth: 5/5 - "Buckle your seatbelts and hang on!"
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
BLESS ME FATHER
Naomi 5/5 - "I am a huge fan of thrillers and mystery books and this book is one of my new favorites!"
https://www.amazon.com/default/e/B079...
https://www.amazon.com/default/e/B079...
THE AESIR
Ruth: 5/5 - "The saga continues to increase in speed so pack your survival gear and immerse yourself"
QUEEN OF AMERICA
Kushlandia: 4/5 - "Queen of America rules!"
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Wanda: 4/5 - "Queen of America is unique."
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
THE VANIRIM
Monica: 5/5 - "Simply fantastic!"
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Ruth: 5/5 - "Buckle your seatbelts and hang on!"
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
BLESS ME FATHER
Naomi 5/5 - "I am a huge fan of thrillers and mystery books and this book is one of my new favorites!"
https://www.amazon.com/default/e/B079...
July 1, 2018
3 Book Kindle Countdown now on!
Pick up
NEW TOWN,
THE VANIRIM, or
BLESS ME FATHER
Only .99c today.
And don't forget ongoing eBook giveaway of The Æsir, 100 copies available:
https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sh...
TJ
June 26, 2018
Reading saved my life (literally!)
I was asked in an online meet-the-author gig the other day “What’s the weirdest place you ever read a book”. I immediately thought of some beautiful places, but nowhere weird came to mind ... then I remembered!
“I can’t tell you the weirdest place I read a book but I can tell you the weirdest place I ever read a sentence. I was upside down, falling out of the second floor window of a Sydney apartment, milliseconds away from smashing headfirst into the pavement below.”
And reading saved my life.
It was a fantastic summer night. A friend’s party in her warehouse apartment on William Street in Kings Cross, Sydney. For those who don’t know it, the Kings Cross skyline was for a long time dominated by a huge Coca Cola sign up on a hill, about 100 feet wide, 50 high, flashing neon. It was warm, the music was pumping, everyone was dancing, I'd had a mohito or two.
It was the last time I ever drank mohitos above sea level.
One of the windows of the apartment was open and I was sitting with some friends on the window sill, two floors up, back to the cool air. The girl whose party it was came up to me and said,
“Hey, can you look through my bedroom window? Someone is in there and they locked the door and I want to know what they’re doing!”
“Your bedroom window?”
“Yeah, it’s the next one along, you can just lean out…”
Now, she probably thought I would hop down from the window sill, stand with both feet planted securely on the floor facing out and hold tightly to the window frame bobbing my head cautiously around the corner to sneak a peak. But I didn’t. I just said, “No worries!”, leaned backward out of the window as far as I could, still couldn’t see so leaned over to one side trying to hold onto the window frame and the next thing I knew I was falling toward the ground head down, testing both Newton’s theory of gravity and Darwin’s theory that it is good that the dumb die young before propagating their DNA.
And that was when reading saved my life. Because I can vouch for the fact it is totally true that when the adrenaline hits your system, you become hyperaware, and time slows. In the second or so it took me to travel two floors to the pavement below these were my (potentially last) thoughts.
S**t!
The Coke writing is upside down.
That is not good.
Turn around turn around turn around!
So I managed to twist in mid-air like a drunken cat and get my feet and hands under me just as I hit. Luckily I hit a shop awning on the way down and landed on a broken real estate sign on top of a pile of garbage, cans and broken glass. I broke both wrists, my nose, exploded my left ankle and split my left tibia in a spiral fracture up to the knee.
But I lived!
And after many months in plaster which gave me a lot of time, and incentive, to reconsider my life choices I quit my job and began travelling the world and I haven’t stopped.
All of which is thanks to the fact I read the writing on the Coke sign while free falling head first out of a dance party. I think that qualifies as a weird place to read something!
What's yours?
“I can’t tell you the weirdest place I read a book but I can tell you the weirdest place I ever read a sentence. I was upside down, falling out of the second floor window of a Sydney apartment, milliseconds away from smashing headfirst into the pavement below.”
And reading saved my life.
It was a fantastic summer night. A friend’s party in her warehouse apartment on William Street in Kings Cross, Sydney. For those who don’t know it, the Kings Cross skyline was for a long time dominated by a huge Coca Cola sign up on a hill, about 100 feet wide, 50 high, flashing neon. It was warm, the music was pumping, everyone was dancing, I'd had a mohito or two.
It was the last time I ever drank mohitos above sea level.
One of the windows of the apartment was open and I was sitting with some friends on the window sill, two floors up, back to the cool air. The girl whose party it was came up to me and said,
“Hey, can you look through my bedroom window? Someone is in there and they locked the door and I want to know what they’re doing!”
“Your bedroom window?”
“Yeah, it’s the next one along, you can just lean out…”
Now, she probably thought I would hop down from the window sill, stand with both feet planted securely on the floor facing out and hold tightly to the window frame bobbing my head cautiously around the corner to sneak a peak. But I didn’t. I just said, “No worries!”, leaned backward out of the window as far as I could, still couldn’t see so leaned over to one side trying to hold onto the window frame and the next thing I knew I was falling toward the ground head down, testing both Newton’s theory of gravity and Darwin’s theory that it is good that the dumb die young before propagating their DNA.
And that was when reading saved my life. Because I can vouch for the fact it is totally true that when the adrenaline hits your system, you become hyperaware, and time slows. In the second or so it took me to travel two floors to the pavement below these were my (potentially last) thoughts.
S**t!
The Coke writing is upside down.
That is not good.
Turn around turn around turn around!
So I managed to twist in mid-air like a drunken cat and get my feet and hands under me just as I hit. Luckily I hit a shop awning on the way down and landed on a broken real estate sign on top of a pile of garbage, cans and broken glass. I broke both wrists, my nose, exploded my left ankle and split my left tibia in a spiral fracture up to the knee.
But I lived!
And after many months in plaster which gave me a lot of time, and incentive, to reconsider my life choices I quit my job and began travelling the world and I haven’t stopped.
All of which is thanks to the fact I read the writing on the Coke sign while free falling head first out of a dance party. I think that qualifies as a weird place to read something!
What's yours?
June 24, 2018
Last day for giveaway The Æsirim
Last day! Signed print book giveaway for 'The Aesir', sequel to the award winning 'The Vanirim'. This special edition includes BOTH novels!
https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sh...
https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sh...
June 19, 2018
Cool summer reads
Summer back catalogue sale now on! EBooks as low as $3, paperbacks $12.99. All proceeds to Plan International for #girlsrights!
https://www.amazon.com/Tim-Slee/e/B07...
https://www.amazon.com/Tim-Slee/e/B07...
How's the Serenity?
A blog about the fun of balancing life, work, family, friends, writing and karma... mostly writing and karma.
- Tim Slee's profile
- 96 followers
