L.J. Hayward's Blog, page 8

Oh, flush it!

So, in that semi-conscious, dozing, not quite asleep, not quite awake state you sometimes manage before admitting it's time to get up, I had a sort-of dream this morning. In this dream, I had a bundle of books in my arms, paperback versions of the ebooks I've 'indie' published. I was standing in front of a toilet. You can probably guess what happened next. Yes, I flushed the books.

I think I can be forgiven for wondering if there's a bigger meaning behind this 'dream'.

Self publishing a book is...

Indie Review - "Kick"

Kick by John L. Monk

I rather enjoyed Kick. But for a few small niggles, this would have been a four star read, but we’ll get to the niggles in a bit. Firstly, the good stuff…

When Dan Jenkins was a mixed up, emotionally confused college kid, he committed suicide. There were issues with his girlfriend, and with himself, and he did something terrible, an act for which he now feels guilty. From the ‘Great Wherever’ where he finds himself after death Dan is dispatched onto ‘missions’ by an unseen,...

"Dead Bones" Review

So, as I think I've mentioned earlier, it's incredibly tough to get reviews on independently published books. It's hard to get the exposure in order for people to find your book, or they're not interested in anything other than the traditionally published. However, there are some wonderful folks out there who do take the time to seek out and review independently published books, and Catherine at Unlimited Book Reviews is one of these lovely few and she reviewed Dead Bones...



"A good, solid fan...

Celebration Sale!

To celebrate the release (finally!) of Night Call Book Three,



Night Call Book Two,




is now on sale for US$0.99 at both Smashwords and Amazon!!

The sale will last two weeks until the 20th October, so you've got plenty of time. ;)

Cheers!!


PS, if the Amazon price hasn't dropped when you go look, give it a day or so. They can be bit a slow sometimes.

"Rock Paper Sorcery" - It's ALIVE!!

I know it's been a long in coming, but finally, the wait is over! I certainly hope you enjoy this latest adventure with Matt, Mercy and Erin.



Sorcery, an arcane mystical power wielded by white-bearded old men with fancy sticks? Or just another pain in Matt Hawkins’ neck? Matt knows which he would prefer, which is more likely, and that they’re not the same thing…

Life’s looking up for Brisbane’s only badarse, supernatural-battling warrior. There’s been a distinct lack of marauding Old World badd...

Indie Review - "Dead Hungry" by Louis Arata

Continuing with the review of independently published books...



by Louis Arata

As I was reading “Dead Hungry”, I kept finding myself trying to pick a label to put on it. Horror? Post-apocalyptic? Even science fiction at one point (Robert A. Heinlein’s definition mostly). By the end, I settled on ‘intelligent horror’. While there is a lot of detailed gore in this book, it isn’t the horrific part. The horror comes from the personal and social impact of the reason for the gory bits.

Cannibals, self-...

Indie Review - "Auctumnalis" by Parandus Gold

As an independently published author it's incredibly hard to get any sort of exposure to readers. Goodreads and Kindle/Amazon promotions are great, as far as they go. Word of mouth helps, too, and getting reviews in as many places as possible. So, in that vein, I'm going to start putting up reviews here (as well as at Goodreads and Amazon) of independently published stories.

Without any further ado, the inaugural review...




by Parandus Gold

This books is both dream and nightmare.

It’s the story of...

New Night Call story!!

Right. Been a long time between drinks, but finally, there's a new Night Call story!!

Introducing the short story...



A day in the life of Night Call—Matt Hawkins, vampire-slayer extraordinaire and Mercy Belique, vampire femme fatale. From the whacky, to the mundane and back again in twenty-four hours.

After successfully completing one job—killing the angry, ugly rat thing was the aim after all, no matter what else may have gone wrong… er, happened—Matt Hawkins settles in for a nice, quiet day at...

Night Call Locations - Dutton Park Cemetery

My urban fantasy series, Night Call, is set in and around Brisbane, Queensland. I do take poetic licence with some geographical details, but mostly I try to find real world places for the characters to wreak havoc. One of those places is the South Brisbane Cemetery, often mistakenly referred to as Dutton Park Cemetery. By me. ;) Dutton Park just has a spookier, cooler ring to it than boring old South Brisbane.



It's a very cool place to visit. Old and sort of neglected, it's full of worn down,...

Dead Bones - Medicine as Magic

So, thought I’d do another little set of posts about how Dead Bones came to be. This first one will be about the how the story idea first developed.

So, medicine as magic is the basic premise of the story. I’m sure most of you are aware I work in the allied health industry (yes, ‘tis an ‘industry’, not a service anymore), thus, as with Blood Work, it found its way into my writing. It also helped that one of my favourite TV shows is MASH. A friend and I were joking around (years ago) about taki...