Tansy Rayner Roberts's Blog, page 2

Preorder My New Release From Brain Jar Press

It’s a New Year and I already have some new projects on the go!

Over at Brain Jar Press, my first ever writing book is up for pre-order! From Baby Brain To Writer Brain: Writing Through A World Of Parenting Distraction is a chapbook of essays about how I kept my creative work alive and moving forward while my kids were little, particularly after the birth of my second child.

There’s nothing idealistic or romantic in this one, it’s all solid and practical advice about guilt management, time management, and putting one word in front of the other. I’m so excited to be joining the Brain Jar Press team. The book will be released next February, and is part of the Writing Chaps series.

Book cover featuring a tired writer, a messy room and a sleeping baby.

This month, I started a new serial on my podcast, Sheep Might Fly. “Castle Ever After” is a sequel to the Castle Charming collection of novellas about fairy tale dramas and disaster princes. It’s a seven part story that will take us up to the end of February.

My dark epic fantasy novel Power and Majesty is available free this week as part of the Midwinter Monsters & Mayhem Fantasy and Science Fiction Giveaway. So many books to download! Grab it while you can.

Merry Joyeux to All!

Aramis, Porthos and Athos celebrate for the holidays. Art by Katy Shuttleworth ©2014.

Hope you all have a safe and happy holiday week.

I just finished reading the podcast edition of Joyeux, a festive SF novella which is the standalone prequel to my space opera novel Musketeer Space.

You can listen to all seven episodes here:

The First Day: Devotions [bringing in the green]

The Second Day: Restraint [the burying of past sins]

The Third Day: Repast [and the rains fall]

The Fourth Day: Misrule [the dance of the elements]

The Fifth Day: Amends [breathing the air]

The Sixth Day: Resolution [leaping the flames]

The Seventh Day: Joyeux [for family]

You can also buy the ebook directly, or download it when you support my Patreon.

Murder with a Chance of Gargoyles

I have one more novella release to come out in 2020! This magical cozy mystery is exclusive to my Patreon subscribers, and will drop on 18 December to everyone who pledged $2 or higher this month.

Bella Hathaway comes from a family of daredevil adventurers — but she’s a a quiet scholar of magical languages who wouldn’t say boo to a goose.

When her curse-breaker aunt is murdered in the Eldritch Library, Bella inherits a house full of dangerous artefacts & talking furniture. As she investigates her aunt’s death, she finds more mysteries: a hoard of gargoyles, a lost language, a family of werewolves… and a tragic family secret.

Check out this sample chapter!

Curse of Bronze



(the Gargoyle Mysteries #1)



Chapter One

Bella Hathaway knew that her Aunt Charlotte was dead when the old bronze key appeared on her desk, hovering above her abandoned breakfast tray and an almost-perfect translation of Isolde’s Werewolf Quartet from the original Lupine.

She knew that key like it was a member of her family. It always hung from Aunt Charlotte’s belt loops, alongside a pouch of desert sand and a vial of snakebite antidote.

A moment of deep, overwhelming grief tore through her, followed by a spreading numbness as she realised exactly what this meant. Me. How can it be me?

Time to walk to the village to put in a telephone call to her sisters. Charity could not be found at any of the numbers she had left behind, belonging to obscure hotels in far-flung countries. Faith answered on the second ring, sounding out of breath and slightly heroic, as always.

“Can’t talk long, I have to leave the Embassy tonight to cross the border to… well, I shouldn’t say. Loose lips sink ships and all that.”

“Aunt Charlotte’s dead,” Bella said, over the crackling on the line.  

“Oh, I say. How rotten.” There was a momentary pause, as Faith took in the news. “Poor old stick. Do you know what happened?”

“Not yet. There’s no official word from Lyceum. But her bronze key…”

“Ohh,” said Faith, taking in her meaning right away. “Congratulations, kid. Tag, you’re it.”

“You don’t hate me?” It was a strange thing, to inherit a legacy that Bella was certain she did not deserve. Her sisters were the valiant ones: the war reporter and the daredevil duchess. She was just a translator of old books who had barely travelled outside her county except when she went away to university. 

Someone had to stay home. Only… now, the opposite was true.

“Why would I mind?” Faith laughed. “I have enough adventures. And look at Charity, throwing herself out of blimps in ballgowns and skis. Of course it was going to be you who got the House.”

The House on Gramercy Street was their family’s legacy. Bella had never even been allowed to visit. (“When you’re older, perhaps,” her mother used to say vaguely, never explaining more than that. “Far too young,” Aunt Charlotte agreed, even after Bella came of age. Maybe when you’re forty or so.”)

Bella was twenty-four years old, and the old bronze key had chosen her. The House was hers. Which meant, of course, her aunt was dead.

“I can’t just up sticks and go to the city,” Bella said now, to her sister. “Don’t you need me here?”

“Nonsense,” said Faith. “Close up the cottage! I won’t be home till Christmas — longer, if this bally war continues in Balvoria. I’ll send a telegram to Charity and she can beg her second butler to come down from the manor and sort it all out for us with mothballs and what-not. This is your time, Bella. Go and be marvellous.”

It all sounded so completely possible when Faith spoke like that — as if Bella, too, could become an adventuress with no cares in the world.

“All right,” she said, straightening her shoulders. “I’ll go at once.”

It shouldn’t cost more than sixpence to catch the train to the city. She could finish her translation on the way. And she had better find a chain or a ribbon so she could keep the bronze key around her neck.

“Watch for traps,” Faith reminded her, right before she rang off. “You know what Aunt Charlotte was like.”

As if Bella needed reminding.

* * *

Later that same day, Bella Hathaway arrived on the doorstep of the House on Gramercy Street, wearing her second-best boots and her most sensible skirt. The House was in a terraced row, all white stone and high windows, without a soul walking the streets between the train station and here. (This was Lyceum, of course, ‘city of monsters’ though it was hardly the done thing to say so these days. Most of the people who lived here kept to themselves until after the sun went down.) Bella knew to look for the brass door knocker, and found two doors side by side: each featuring a hideous, grotesque brass face with a ring clasped in its lipless mouth.

“Twenty-two,” she said under her breath, selecting the door on the right.
She was almost silly enough to reach for the knocker, but the key in her pocket twitched, reminding her that she wasn’t a visitor. She was the heir of the house.

* * *

A familiar scent washed over her as Bella stepped into the front hallway, which was lined with dark shelves and glass cabinets, crammed with all manner of arcane objects. The smell was the same as she recalled from Aunt Charlotte’s many flying visits to the cottage: dust and sand and silver polish with a hint of Earl Grey.

The floorboards creaked under Bella’s buttoned boots as she walked very slowly down that long, narrow hallway. Was it her imagination, or did it curve slightly as she went? That couldn’t be right. Houses were built in straight lines. No one added bendy bits to architecture unless churches, vampires or duchesses were involved.

There was a sound nearby, like a hiccup. Bella caught her breath. She had to be brave. She was the sister of two of the bravest women she knew. She wasn’t going to let a few house creaks scare her.

The items in the glass cabinets, now they were worthy of fear. Antiquities for the most part, many of them very odd indeed. Cups carved from bones. Jewellery with too many spikes to be comfortable. Jeering masks, animal skulls. A dagger that, if you looked closely, was clearly still crusted with ancient blood.

Aunt Charlotte was a curse-breaker. These were her souvenirs. Every single item was a reminder that the women of the Hathaway family were adventuresses to the bone.

It was Bella’s house, now. She was the heir. Every strange, possibly-cursed ancient item lay under her protection. It was a responsibility, and one she had to take seriously. She couldn’t let herself be put off by… the shuffling, muttering noises clearly coming from a nearby room.

Finally, a doorway.

Taking a deep breath, Bella stepped into a perfectly pleasant parlour. The wallpaper was striped. There were fresh flowers on the dresser: a porcelain vase filled with roses and fern-fronds and bleeding hearts in a formal arrangement.

There was an abundance of furniture: large floral settees and armchairs, crammed together in an odd arrangement that no human, surely, would have chosen for themselves. There had to be eight side tables, all shoved too far back from the chairs to be any use at all.

There was a tea trolley covered in teacups, each in a different design, and a large teapot designed for an enormous household, rather than a single curse-breaking aunt who lived alone.

As Bella looked around, she heard a whisper. Then another. It sounded an awful lot like the words it’s a guest, repeated over and over in high-pitched excitement.

She was going to have to put her foot down. “I’m not a guest,” she said aloud. “I’m Charlotte Hathaway’s heir. I’m Bella. I belong here.” To prove it, she set down her suitcase and looked around for somewhere to hang up her coat.

A hum rose up from around her, and then one of the floral armchairs swung around as if pulled on a wire.

“Not very tall, are you?” it accused.

“Now, Maggie, that’s rude,” said a side table.

“Let’s have tea!” suggested the mammoth teapot.

“Tea, Mrs T!” chorused the teacups, all jiggling like mad.

Mad, yes. That was a word that Bella would prefer was not in her head right now. “Excuse me,” she said faintly. “I’m going to have a bit of a look around. If that’s…” Don’t ask permission from the furniture, that’s a poor precedent. Don’t let them see how unnerved you are.

Standing tall in the hopes of looking confident, Bella circled the tea tray and another dresser. The parlour was in something of an L-shape. Around the next corner she spied a blackened, blown-open hole in the far wall. Beyond the blistered wallpaper and broken plaster, there was an intriguingly book-lined room beyond…

As Bella stepped up to the hole itself, a figure loomed out of the shadows: a beastly creature, walking like a man in perfectly-tailored waistcoat and trousers. He had the monstrous of face of a golden lion that had been twisted in a fun-house mirror: fierce and cruel.

Startled, Bella screamed. The beast-in-trousers, likewise startled, yelled out in return.

Breathing hard, they stared at each other. Bella was instantly awash with embarrassment; this was Lyceum. Of course non-humans lived here. “Who are you?” she asked in a voice that was most definitely brave, and not in the least quavering. “What are you doing in my aunt’s house?” My house, a small voice whispered inside her head; at least, she hoped it was inside her head, and did not belong to the sideboard or hat-stand.

The beastly gentleman — or gentlemanly beast, she could only hope — raised a bushy eyebrow at her. “If your aunt is Charlotte Hathaway,” he said in a voice that was more drawl than roar. “Then I’m the librarian.”

“Aunt Charlotte has a librarian?” Bella gasped. “She has a library?” If she had been privy to this information earlier, they would have had to employ several beastly librarians to keep her away from this place.

“No,” said the beast, speaking as if she was a slow learner. “I have a library. Your Aunt Charlotte has a house full of cursed objects, one of which blew a hole in our shared wall some years ago.”

A blush rose on Bella’s cheeks. Of course. She should have realised from the configuration; this was a connecting wall. But then — what on earth was Aunt Charlotte thinking, to let her house remain gaping open like this, with a creature like this living next door? For years? It was most improper.

Bella was quite cross about the whole thing for the three seconds it took for her to remember that Aunt Charlotte was dead, and then she did the worst thing possible. She burst into tears.

Really, she was overdue. But how embarrassing.

* * *

By the time Bella recovered her sensibilities, she was nestled in a large floral armchair with two over-friendly antimacassars snuggling her shoulders and whispering soothing nothings in her ear. 

Far too many lampshades gathered around her in a circle, as if to offer comfort, and actually giving her the overwhelming sensation that she was under inspection. The teapot wheeled herself into the room on a trolley, poured a cup of tea and added sugar, using methods that Bella hoped never to see again in her lifetime.

She stared at the brimming teacup in quiet horror. She had never been less desirous of tea in her life.

The beast librarian still stood at the hole in the wall. He had not stepped over their informal threshold, either out of politeness or from sensible caution, given the nature of the various objects that inhabited this house. “I take it something terrible has happened,” he said in a voice that might have sounded sympathetic, if it did not come out in a terrifying growl.

A bell clanged through the house, making the teacups shudder. 

“Aunt Charlotte’s dead,” said Bella, sounding like her voice was terribly far away. “And there’s someone at the door.”

The beast librarian bowed his head, so that she could not see his expression. She very much wished to know what his reaction was to this news. Had he been a friendly neighbour to Charlotte? A lover? Goodness, did aunts have lovers? It was foolish to think otherwise.

“I’ll leave you to your visitor,” he said in a softer version of his growl. “Knock on the wall if you need to scream at someone again.” He disappeared back into his own house, leaving Bella alone with a distressing cup of tea, and an army of overly-familiar furniture.

The bell rang again.

Pulling herself together, Bella got to her feet and made her way back to that dusty and ominous hallway. “Please do stay where you are,” she said more than once, as the furniture showed every intention of keeping her company all the way there, one shuffle at a time. 

The front door felt like it was almost as far away as her own tiny (safe) cottage, but Bella reached it without incident, and threw it wide open. “Hello? Can I help you?”

Two uniformed policemen stood on her step, all blue serge and brass buttons.

“Are you a relative of Miss Charlotte Hathaway, the famous curse-breaker?” asked the older one. The younger one unashamedly craned his neck as if trying to see beyond her, into the house.

“I am her niece,” said Bella.

“I’m sorry to inform you, madam, that there’s been a bit of an accident,” said the older policeman. To his credit, he did seem genuinely sorry. “Is there anyone else home?”

“Only me,” said Bella. “If you have bad news, you’d better get it over with.” Most policemen probably did not turn up on doorsteps to discover that magical inheritance laws had carried word ahead of them. Or perhaps that sort of thing happened in Lyceum all the time?

“Oh, she’s not dead,” said the policeman quickly. “At least, we don’t reckon so. It’s all a bit delicate, really. Complicated, you might say.”

“Weird,” added the other with an over-abundance of syllables for that particular word.

Bella blinked several times. “What do you mean, she’s not dead?”

In retrospect, that was a terribly suspicious thing to utter aloud. In her defence, it had been a trying day.

And it was about to get worse.

To read the rest of this magical cozy mystery when it drops on 18th December, pledge $2 or higher to my Patreon page.

November is Teacup Magic Month

My new Teacup Magic series is available to buy across various platforms, as ebook and as paperback!

These charming paranormal cozy novellas are about the investigations of Miss Mnemosyne Seabourne, a young lady who likes to drink tea, solve mysteries, and avoid matchmaking mammas. Whether she’s defending her hapless cousin the Duke of Storm against courtship magic (consent is important when marrying a Duke!), campaigning for women’s rights, romancing spellcrackers, sharing sleigh rides or running across rooftops in an opera dress, Miss Seabourne’s life is always full of adventure.

Inspired by my love of Regency history, the Teacup Magic series gives you all the traditional tropes of a good costume drama: day dresses, chaperones, high tea, ladies using creative magic to liven up croquet, dead bodies on printing presses, and handsome men rolling their sleeves up to the elbow.

They’re also the perfect length to dip into for a light, comforting read, being my favourite kind of book: novellas! The first two novellas in the series, Tea and Sympathetic Magic and The Frost Fair Affair are both widely for sale and would make a perfect stocking-stuffer this year.

Castle Charming Release Day… and a free novella!

It’s here! After a very long journey through the longest year, Castle Charming is now on general sale. HUGE thanks to my Kickstarter backers who made this book possible with their early support.

Welcome to Charming, where fairy tales come true (whether you like it or not).

Kai’s new job is to report on the scandals of the messed up royal family for the local newspaper. He didn’t expect to become the story.

Dennis signed up to protect the princes. Falling in love with one of them was never part of the deal.

Ziyi made a wish to catch her own Prince Charming… but wishes come at a cost, when fairies are involved.

In this magical kingdom of cursed spinning wheels, violent beanstalks, deadly queens and disaster princes, the most dangerous thing of all might be a Happily Ever After.

Buy Castle Charming today

This mosaic novel of LGBTQ+ fairy tale family adventure is made up of four novellas (originally published as “Glass Slipper Scandal,” “Dance Princes Dance,” “Let Sleeping Princes Lie” and “Dead Queen Walking” plus bonus short story “Charm or Dare”). The text was revised for this edition, which also includes nine black and white internal illustrations by the wonderful Katy Shuttleworth.

But wait, aren’t there two covers in that banner? That’s right! Castle Charming has a sequel, Castle Ever After, set three years after the adventure ends. Featuring royal wedding preparations, an unexpected family reunion and the Snow Queen, this bonus sequel novella is exclusively available to a) Kickstarter backers and b) my newsletter subscribers.

It’s super spoilery, so don’t read Castle Ever After unless you’ve already read Castle Charming! This edition of the novella also included five bonus Charming scenes requested by my top-tier Kickstarter backers.

Download Castle Ever After today, when you subscribe to my author newsletter Tea and Links.

Coming in 2020: The Great TansyRR Book Flood

SEPTEMBER 2020

Holiday Brew (Belladonna U #2) 
General release, September 30 2020

OCTOBER 2020

Castle Charming
General release, October 15 2020

NOVEMBER 2020

Tea and Sympathetic Magic (Teacup Magic #1) 
The Frost Fair Affair (Teacup Magic #2)
General release, November 1 2020

And possibly a surprise title or two, still to be announced…

Tansy’s Book News September 2020

SPECIAL OFFER ON MY PATREON THIS MONTH

Pledge $1 on Patreon and receive an early ebook copy of my new Regency magic novella, The Frost Fair Affair.

Pledge $15 on Patreon before September 15 and you will also receive the paperback of The Frost Fair Affair, shipping this month!

You can also listen to me reading The Frost Fair Affair as a free podcast over the next few months, at my podcast Sheep Might Fly.

Our heroine stumbles across a precarious plot while printing political pamphlets…

Thanks to last Season’s scandal, Miss Mnemosyne Seabourne is now officially notorious. Wintering in Town, she hopes to use her new celebrity to campaign about the unfair restriction on portal travel for ladies… while being quietly courted by a certain handsome spellcracker.

As the river freezes over and a spectacular Frost Fair sets up on the ice, Mneme finds herself beset by secret societies, spies and sneaky saboteurs. Who stole her political pamphlets? Who is leaving dead bodies around printing presses for anyone to find?

Mr Thornbury knows more than he’s letting on. If she can’t trust the man she hoped to marry, Mneme is just going to have to unravel the mystery for herself, quickly enough to save both of their lives. 

If you enjoy vintage spy adventures, flirtatious couples and cozy sleigh rides, you’ll adore this exciting sequel novella to Tea and Sympathetic Magic.

REVIEW COPIES!

Holiday Brew, the second of the Belladonna U collections, will be on sale from September 30. If you’re keen to read this early, consider downloading a review copy from Booksprout in exchange for an honest review on your favourite book platform.

What’s an Aussie witch to do for Halloween when the weather is all spring sunshine and happiness? What’s the appropriate ritual for breaking up with your boyfriend on the Summer Solstice? And who did Ferd Chauvelin kiss on New Year’s Eve?

Follow our Belladonna U student witches through three holiday festivals with their usual romantic disasters, friendship dramas, and magical explosions.

(Includes the stories Halloween Is Not A Verb, Solstice on the Rocks and Kissing Basilisks)

Holiday Brew Release Day

I have a new book out today!

(this will be happening a lot over the next few months, brace yourselves)

If you read and loved Unreal Alchemy, the first Belladonna U collection, then you’ll want to get your hands right away on the sequel, Holiday Brew.

What’s an Aussie witch to do for Halloween when the weather is all spring sunshine and happiness? What’s the appropriate ritual for breaking up with your boyfriend on the Summer Solstice? And who did Ferd Chauvelin kiss on New Year’s Eve?

Follow our Belladonna U student witches through three holiday festivals with their usual romantic disasters, friendship dramas, and magical explosions. 

Including these novellas and stories:

Halloween Is Not A VerbSolstice on the RocksKissing Basilisks

Holiday Brew will be released for general sale on September 30, but my Patreon subscribers all get to download the ebook today. You only need a $1 pledge to join my 150+ subscribers, getting access not only to this brand new early release, but also a heap of my other titles.

You can unsubscribe from Patreon at any time. Check out my latest newsletter for a sneak peek at “Solstice on the Rocks,” one of the stories in Holiday Brew.

Support Your Local Writer!

It’s a rough time out there for everyone, especially artists and creators who are largely self-employed (or have been supplementing their erratic income via rapidly disappearing casual jobs).

As we’re all encouraged to stay home and isolate, creative work has never been more important — providing entertainment, distraction and education. If you have favourite creators, check in and see how they’re doing right now in the midst of this global crisis, and if they have any initiatives you can support (either with money if you have it spare, or with signal-boosting).

If you want to support me and my work in 2020, here are some ways to do that:

Pledge to my Castle Charming Kickstarter before 8 April 2020. For $5 you can pre-order the ebook, and you’ll get a bonus audio-story.Pre-order my next book, Unreal Alchemy – a collection of cozy urban fantasy stories about a geeky rock band at a magical university. Perfect comfort reading.Pledge to my Patreon. A $1 or $2 monthly pledge gets you a pile of ebooks to download straight away, including my space opera novel Musketeer Space, an early release of Unreal Alchemy, and much more. Sign up to my free newsletter, so you’ll find out about other projects when they happen.

If you’re looking for some light entertainment, don’t forget you can listen to my new stories as they happen on the Sheep Might Fly podcast in serial episodes — entirely for free! 200+ episodes so far.

Castle Charming Kickstarter

It’s Kickstarter Day! My crowdfunding campaign for the print edition of the Castle Charming collection is live as of 10am this morning. Check out the Kickstarter page to see all the cool rewards and book merch available along with the basic bread and butter of the campaign: the book itself.

I’ve been writing these novellas about royal romance, fairy tale dramas and newspaper headlines for several years now, with the final installment published last year. Castle Charming has never been available in print before — and readers can choose between paperback and hardback, or simply sign up for the collection in ebook with a bonus story never available before for general sale.

The gorgeous new cover is by Poisoned Ink Design Studio.

I’ve commissioned some gorgeous new art and design from Kathleen Jennings (an enamel pin and a limited edition book plate!) and from Katy Shuttleworth, who created the original ebook covers.

My mother Jilli, Deepings Dolls artist, has committed to a limited run of up to 6 Green Fairy Dolls in a brand new design. Her work is unique, with every doll coming out differently — hand-painted on Tasmanian turned wood.

I’m already at 36% of my goal, and so excited to be able to share this book with you all!!! Check out my Kickstarter today.