Nina Smith's Blog: The Gothic Chicken, page 3

100 Days for Change

I don't normally like to mix my work life with my art life, but on this occasion, I'm going to.

As you know, by night I'm a writer of dark comic fantasy fiction. By day I'm a communications specialist at a cool little marketing company called ipCreative.

In the course of my day job, I've encountered an initiative called 100 Days for Change, started by Women and Leadership Australia, which aims to bring about greater gender equity in the workplace through a series of grass roots changes by ordinary people. All that's required is to make a pledge here on what you will change to create greater gender equity in the workplace, and then post it on social media with the hashtag #100daysforchange. Then go out and do it! The initiative is being championed by Kristal Kinsela of ipCreative's sister business, IPS - you can check out a cool video of Kristal talking about the initiative here.

What I like about 100 Days for Change is the approach: when seeking any major change, it's far more effective to simply get in there, boots and all, do it yourself, than wait for legislation to come down from on high.

Here's my pledge:

This is really important to me. I've always done my best to write strong female characters in my fiction, precisely because it was strong female characters like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Xena Warrior Princess, and Sarah Connor when I was growing up that inspired me to always stand on my own two feet, and speak up when something wasn't right.

There are a few more strong female characters in popular fiction/film now. We've had Wonder Woman charging across the trenches, Captain Janeway showing no mercy, and fabulous films like Heat, where Melissa McCarthy and Sandra Bullock were strong, pig headed, flawed, human, and wonderful - far more than just a pretty accessory. Pop culture just as easily goes the other way though - and every time I see a female character who is just there for decoration, or who starts off strong and ends the story needing rescue (hello Robin Hood Prince of Thieves) I cringe. As a woman, I want to be more than that. I want heroines who inspire me.

Stories are the way in which we understand our world. They reflect us back at ourselves. They plant seeds and ideas that grow into the realities of the future, because you can't make something solid happen without the spark, the idea, that starts it all off. (Remember Monkey Magic, back in the 1980s? In the opening of every episode, they told us - "The Father Buddha said: With our thoughts, we make the world.")

As a writer, and as a marketing professional, I want to be a part of creating stories, images and ideas that mirror to younger women and girls their own potential: that they can be anything, go as far as they choose, and that they do not have to live lives limited by traditional gender roles. I want to help make a world where there are stories, ideas, and spaces for the strong, independent women of the future.

Indie Author Spotlight: Ashley Craig

Meet brand new Indie Author Ashley Craig! She said my three favourite words (fairies, fiction, shiny!) so I just had to invite her here for an interview. Settle in with some marshmallows and coffee and read on to find out all about her! Tell us a little bit about yourself? How long have you been writing? I'm from the Appalachian Mountains in the eastern United States. I grew up in a rural area where I constantly explored the forest and let my imagination run wild. I read fairy tales and imagined all kinds of fantastical stories in my youth. I was a very imaginative kid!  I started writing stories, poetry, and songs in my pre-teen years.

I became involved with journalism for my high school newspaper, then majored in English in college; with the schoolwork and time constraints, I had to step back from creative writing for a while. I was still always writing but it was always for class. 

A couple of years ago, an idea came to me and caused me to pick up my creative pen again. Malaki Mayhem grew from there. It is the first book I've published so I'm very excited to share it!

I work full time as a paralegal and am taking online classes to get my paralegal certification so unfortunately writing has to be a spare time project for me, but I'm hopeful to have more time for it once I finish up the classes. I've already got an idea for a new book featuring Maddox, who is a character in Malaki Mayhem! What is Malaki Mayhem about? Malaki Mayhem is a fantasy adventure romance. It's set in a magic realm filled with traditional mythical and legendary creatures, as well as a few creatures of my own inspiration. There are fairies, sylphs, nymphs, shifters, Malaki (of course), and more. 

The story begins with the heroine, Ela, waking alone in the middle of the forest with complete amnesia and no magical powers. Woodland fairies discover her and take her in; she tries to make a new life with them as a human unexpectedly dropped into a magic-filled realm. 

Eventually, rumors begin circulating about a proclamation banishing all non-fairies from the kingdom in which the woodland fairy village is located. This would obviously affect Ela, a human.

As she begins working on a strategy to combat this banishment, Maddox--a mountain fairy knight who reports directly to the rulers of the kingdom, King Phoenix and Queen Ara--arrives in the village. He is on his way home after being away for an extended period. Maddox takes one look at Ela's blue hair and aura and claims she is actually Queen Ara. They determine that an impersonator must have cast a spell on her and took her place as queen, causing this uncharacteristic proclamation.

The story continues as Ela, Maddox, and their companions attempt to stop the banishment and imprisonment of all non-fairies, expose a royal impostor, and reunite the kingdom. How did you find the Indie publishing experience? I published through Kindle Direct and found it to be fairly easy and straight-forward. Malaki Mayhem was actually an impulse publish for me. 

I'd considered going the more traditional route of sending my manuscript out to publishing companies, but I wasn't sure where to start. I found the traditional process a little complicated and kept putting it off. 

Recently, I saw an advertisement for Kindle Direct, read up on it...and published my book the next day! 

I am entirely new at this and am still learning, but I think with a little hard work the Indie process can be completely worth it. Do you have any advice for aspiring authors? Get your words on paper. 

Draft one doesn't have to be perfect; you can go back and revise once your draft is done--but you have to do it first! 

If your muse temporarily gets distracted by something shiny and you find yourself with writer's block, try browsing online for ideas (Pinterest is both my friend and my nemesis...I've wasted a ton of time on there but also stumbled across a ton of inspiration) or join writing websites/facebook groups. 

What ultimately matters is that you keep at it! Want to find out more about Ashley and Malaki Mayhem? Support an Indie author! Buy the book here.
Get in touch: ashleycraigauthor@gmail.com
Follow Ashley on Goodreads

SEEN ANY VAMPIRES?

When the temptation to make a cheesy sketch show about vampires proves irresistible ... You should totally make one! Introducing my newest project, in collaboration with FangSmith, Gingergolds, and Glamour Goth: ‘Seen Any Vampires?’ is an urban-fantasy-comedy-sketch-improv You Tube series featuring fangs, fondue, psychics, and a little bit of too-real life advice - as well as the larger-than-life and twice as groovy vampire hunter Barry Mundi, (in)famous psychic Mystic Megan, Parthenia the Vampire Queen (straight outta Shadow!), and Dazzas Jnr and Snr. Straight out of Donnybrook, Western Australia and completely unscripted, Seen Any Vampires features original vintage costuming, historically accurate lighting, amazing low budget special effects and more magical realism than you can poke a fang at. Want to know more? Follow the picture to our channel, watch episode 1, and hit the notifications bell for updates - episode 2 will go live this weekend!

SEEN ANY VAMPIRES?

When the temptation to make a cheesy sketch show about vampires proves irresistible ...

You should totally make one!

Introducing my newest project, in collaboration with FangSmith, Gingergolds, and Glamour Goth:

‘Seen Any Vampires?’ is an urban-fantasy-comedy-sketch-improv You Tube series featuring fangs, fondue, psychics, and a little bit of too-real life advice - as well as the larger-than-life and twice as groovy vampire hunter Barry Mundi, (in)famous psychic Mystic Megan, Parthenia the Vampire Queen (straight outta Shadow!), and Dazzas Jnr and Snr.

Straight out of Donnybrook, Western Australia and completely unscripted, Seen Any Vampires features original vintage costuming, historically accurate lighting, amazing low budget special effects and more magical realism than you can poke a fang at.

Want to know more? Follow the picture to our channel, watch episode 1, and hit the notifications bell for updates - episode 2 will go live this weekend!

Ethical Vampirism: A Manifesto

Hey, man. How are you? No, I mean really? Everything okay? If not, you want to talk about it? Seriously, I'm here to listen, and all your feelings are valid. Let me tell you a little about myself. My name's Vlad, and I'm an ethical vampire. Please don't laugh, it's very hurtful. I'm totally serious. Look, I won't go into how it happened, because that story is being told in Gloom and Doom: A Pixie Romance. But I'll tell you why, and how you can join the movement too. Well, if you're a vampire. If you're not, I'd like to invite you into my office for a counselling session, and perhaps we can talk about you voluntarily donating some blood. Oh wow, sorry man, I'm totally getting ahead of myself. Why ethical vampirism? Well, to put it quite simply, food has feelings too, and we vampires have got to respect that. There's a karmic price to every fairy, or dwarf, or fire elf, or even human you kill, you know? That's why they fight. They totally don't like it when you drink their blood. And yet, we must drink blood to survive. That's where ethical vampirism comes in. It's a second way: A better way. A cruelty free, karmically neutral path that not only gets you blood without a fight, but makes friends with your food as well! I first conceived the idea of ethical vampirism while reading my favourite book, Psychiatry for Dummies. It's a great book. I learned everything I know about counselling from it, and I've even founded a practice on the strength of it. You see, for far too long, the evil and despotic muse king kept us under his sway by feeding us all the blood we could consume - but it was poisoned blood, tainted with chemicals that made us easy to manipulate. I won't go further into the whole terrible situation, it's really quite traumatic, except to tell you that we - my brother Dave, myself, and a few trusted friends - broke free by refusing to drink the blood. And that was when it became clear: there is a better way forward for the vampire nation. Using the awesome powers of psychology, we can build bridges with all the tribes, and exchange dealing with your deep-seated issues for a bit of your blood. Especially the fairies. We like the fairies best. You can read more about that in Shiny Things, a totally factual account of this fairy who comes to Shadow and helps us free our king. So hey, if you're a vampire and you want to know more about ethical vampirism, talk to me, anytime of the night. If you're a fairy or a human, you can talk to me about anything. Anything at all. Peace man. -Vlad

Character Profile: Mort

Let me introduce you to Mort. He's going to loom large in Shadow for a little while, the way men in ragged robes that hang out in dodgy laboratories and mess with the laws of nature always seem to do. You know, with the exploding test tubes and the lightning and the maniacal laughter... Okay okay, so maybe not the maniacal laughter, Mort is far too classy for that. Mort Name: Mort (formerly Augustus of the Magnetic Cosmic Mystery. You'd shorten it too, right?) Tribe: Muse Distinguishing Features: A facial scar. Age: 1463 (doesn't look a day over 263 though) Family: All dead. Probably. History: Not a chance loveys! Too many spoilers

Indie Author Spotlight: Bethany Forrester

Meet Bethany Forrester, an Indie author from Western Australia who recently published her debut novel The Kingston Chronicles. It’s a soap opera – about witches! Tell us a bit about yourself: How long have you been writing, and what inspired you to start? I know this sounds terribly cliché but I’ve been writing my whole life. Literally. My grandmother and father are poets and when I was a child my grandmother took care of me while my parents worked. My grandma fostered creativity in me and I’d make up little rhymes that she would write down and show my mom. I have some of these. The earliest one is from the age of four. She used to send them to my aunt in America who ran a poetry magazine, and she published a few of them. So, I’m not sure I ever really had an inspiration to start or if it was just an inevitable strand of fate. In high school I wanted to be a novelist (or a journalist, or a lawyer, it varied.) but I could never really seem to get anywhere with a story. I used to write a lot of poetry though and started the occasional short story. I had floppy discs (yes, I’m that old) full of unfinished stories. High school was a pretty dark time in my life and the poetry helped. I didn’t start writing longer stories and novels until I was in University doing my degree. I mean, the fact that writing was literally coursework helped a lot. It definitely gave me a lot of time to hone my skills and to focus on writing. I think that’s a huge issue, especially for Indie authors, the fact that most of us work one or more jobs (I have three jobs), including our jobs as authors. Time is an essential part of the writing process. I can’t say definitively what inspired me to start but I can tell you that I really can’t stop. It’s a part of who I am. What was your inspiration for the Kingston Chronicles? The inspiration for The Kingston Chronicles came in part due to a course I took as part of my writing degree. I’d always been obsessed with myths and legends, especially Greek myths so when I had the opportunity to take myth-based classes I snapped them up. The Greek mythology and pantheon were an inspiration in the formative stages of this book. That’s not to say that The Kingston Chronicles is a retelling of any particular myth, but it has been influenced by the archetypal characters of some of the Gods and the soap opera nature of their actions. The characters of the Gods are quite strong and are a really good example for writers to learn from. I think I especially like the Greek Gods because they are so unavoidably human. They get jealous of humans, they lie, cheat and exact their revenge on not only each other but the whole world. I think that’s why that particular collection of myths has lasted so long: it’s the drama. Writers are still re-working the tales. Films are still playing with these characters. They still serve some psychological function for humanity. Tell us a bit about the Kingston Chronicles (1). My aim with The Kingston Chronicles was for it to read much like a soap opera. There are multiple points of view, with each character giving you a little more insight into the story and the world it is set in. The main plot line focuses on Anastasia Kingston. She’s the youngest daughter of a real estate tycoon called Cosmo Kingston, and her mother was his third wife, internationally renowned country singer Iola Robertson. Anastasia has three half siblings, Sofia, Harley and Dennis. I won’t go into all the parentage here because it’s all explained in the book, but it’s safe to say that not only has Cosmo been married multiple times, he also can’t keep it in his pants. When Anastasia decides to leave her mother and move to Los Angeles the story really comes alive. Once in LA Anastasia finds out that she is from a long line of witches, a fact that her mother has kept from her, and that the Kingston line is part of a powerful magical dynasty. She reconnects with her childhood friends, Mya and Iris Conway, who are the daughters of Cosmo’s best friend Phil and also from a magical dynastic family. Mya takes Anastasia under her wing to navigate the glamourous socialite circles she now moves in, while Iris begins teaching her the ways of the craft. Amid this backdrop of glittering lights and magical lessons Anastasia meets Aidon Conway, Phil’s much younger brother, and falls in love with him. Things become sinister however when a mysterious stalker starts breaking into Anastasia’s room, leaving her presents. The story is mostly Anastasia exploring her identity and finding her place in the world. The second main plot line follows Cosmo Kingston. Someone is stalking him too and Cosmo will stop at nothing, physical or magical, to find out who it is and punish them accordingly. These two plot lines are the main focus of the book. Can you give us a teaser for the next book? Of course I can! As much as I’d like to I can’t give you an excerpt yet because I’m still writing it. But I can tell you that (without giving away spoilers) the unmasked stalker at the end of The Kingston Chronicles returns to wreak havoc on Anastasia’s life. The second book, which as yet doesn’t have a title, deals mostly with the emotional fallout regarding the ending of The Kingston Chronicles. I can also tell you that Aidon survives the second book, mostly because he’s my mother’s favourite character and she made me promise not to kill him off. The plot lines established in The Kingston Chronicles will be delved deeper into in the second book as now the readers are familiar with the characters I can focus a little more on the story. The reader will however get to know more about Sofia and Dennis, characters that were largely absent from The Kingston Chronicles. Can you tell us a bit about your Indie publishing experience? I get asked a lot of questions about Indie Publishing and on occasion I have given lectures about why I chose to Indie publish. I chose to because it is extremely difficult to be picked up by a traditional publisher. Look at amazing authors like J. K. Rowling. She was rejected by seven publishers before she finally caught a break. In Australia alone you have hundreds of manuscripts being sent to publishing houses and only a handful of new titles in each genre being published a year. The ratio of rejections is high simply for volume. There are other contributing factors, but this is the main one. Now while Indie publishing has its benefits for writers like me, it also has its drawbacks. Readers have this assumption that people who self-published weren’t “good enough” to get published traditionally. While this may be true in some cases it certainly isn’t in all of them. While self-publishing technically does have less checks and balances it is up to the writer to make sure their content is of high quality. Readers tend not to want to pay the same price for an indie book as from a major publisher because of this perception. Only by educating readers and by creating quality self-published books will this stigma change. The ability to self-publish is attainable for many writers now, which wasn’t the case in the past. With ebooks and print-on-demand features, set up costs for indie authors can be really affordable. I was really adamant that The Kingston Chronicles was going to be the same quality as a book put out by a major publisher. So not only did I edit it twelve times I also had two professional editors review it. People are still pointing out errors in the book to me. Writers are only human. Editors are only human. Sometimes we miss stuff. We do our best. I’ve read books that have been traditionally published that had errors in them. Books where character’s names change halfway through for example. It’s not uncommon even in traditionally published books. (So yay! I’m industry standard). Ultimately, I chose indie publishing not only to have full control over my work, but because I wanted it published. I didn’t think the traditional publishing route was going to work for me, so I chose another path. I’m a big believer in changing your own life and not just hoping that the universe sends you a break. Any advice for aspiring authors out there? Again, these are completely cliched, and I’m not the first to say them. First, writing is hard work but essentially anyone can write a book. You just need the dedication to return day after day and write something. Anything really. Second, you need to read widely, even outside the genre you write in. Reading helps you not only understand style and technique it also helps build your vocabulary. It can also be inspiring. But my main advice is to listen to your heart. People may think you’re never going to make it, or in moments of self-doubt you may even wonder what the point is, I know I have, I’m forever having ideas and then discovering someone else has done something really similar, but if you truly want to write a book, if you want to shoot for the dream of getting a book out there then there is only one thing you can do. Tell the voices to shut up (when they’re in your head) or just ignore them and continue on your merry way. If you give in to them then they were right. If you don’t then you’ve proved them wrong. Where can readers find you and your books? The Kingston Chronicles is available in paperback and Kindle editions from Amazon. It is also available to borrow through the Western Australian State Library so if you reside in WA you can ask your local library to order it in for you. If you want to be kept up to date with competitions, sales and information about the sequel you can follow me at @b.forrester.author on Instagram and B. Forrester – Author on Facebook. The Kingston Chronicles has recently been added to Goodreads too so if you use the website or the app you can add it to your bookshelf too.

Misery Reads

I am thrilled to announce that Shadow Book 4: The Last Blasted Fairy is officially live and available to download on your kindle here. (Don't have a kindle? The app is free!) Please say hi to Misery Duff, who has been kind enough to read us the first chapter of the book. Grab some popcorn, settle in and listen to the story!

Misery reads…

I am thrilled to announce that Shadow Book 4: The Last Blasted Fairy is officially live and available to download on your kindle here. (Don't have a kindle? The app is free!) Please say hi to Misery Duff, who has been kind enough to read us the first chapter of the book. Grab some popcorn, settle in and listen to Continue Reading

Shadow Book 4: The Last Blasted Fairy Pre-release

IT'S no secret that next week's release of Shadow Book 4: The Last Blasted Fairy is the result of nearly a year of procrastination, prevarication, and very slow editing carried out at bus stops between 3.10 and 3.25 three afternoons a week. In my defence, I plead guilty to working a day job, producing three fashion parades and a gothic Continue Reading