Nina Smith's Blog: The Gothic Chicken, page 4

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 Continue Reading

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 Continue Reading

The Last Blasted Fairy: Chapter One

Shadow Book 4: The Last Blasted Fairy is in production and will wing its way to the printing presses of destiny very soon! Just in case you were wondering what it's all about - here's the first chapter, posted right here, just for you. CHAPTER ONE One month. One month they’d been hunting down a three thousand year old despot. One Continue Reading

Food has Feelings too: A Treatise on Ethical Vampirism

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 Continue Reading

Like a Goddamned Phoenix

Hello dark denizens of the shadowy cyber realms! Perhaps you noticed my website was missing this past few months? Well, it's a fascinating story. The untimely death of my website's beloved forced her to go deep into the Underworld, crossing through seven gates to - er - No wait. That's the Sumerian Goddess Innana. My bad. (Hail Innana!) Anyway, like a phoenix rising from Continue Reading

Which Shadow Tribe is Your Star Sign?

Which Shadow Tribe is your star sign? I want to know!

Gutters at Twilight

It was a dark and stormy night, and-

No. I can't lie. It's February, and just about twilight, and I have the bright idea of taking my recently sprained ankle up and down a ladder for the purpose of cleaning my gutters in time for the impending Doomsday storm everyone on Facebook is sharing photos of right now. Photos EXACTLY LIKE THIS ONE:



So anyway...

I'm up the ladder cleaning a gutter, and my loyal offspring is demanding I come down and let him do it, before I hurt my ankle again. I'm hardly going to refuse an offer like that. I move the ladder to an easy spot, where I know the downpipe is always clogged up, and my strapping teenage son duly goes up there and cleans it out. When he's done, I go back up to clean a harder to reach area. That's when I see a rusted half metal pipe scrap sitting in the gutter. That doesn't need to be there. I'll just move it. I'll move that darn innocent looking rusted scrap of DOOM.

So I move it onto the roof, turn it upside down, and there's a nest crawling with paper wasps right there under my hand. Can you say heart attack? Flashing back to that time I accidentally stabbed a wasp nest with a pitchfork and got seen right off the premises by a swarm of outraged stingers, I slide down the ladder like Robin Hood, throw off my gloves, release my gutter-cleaning tongs into the wide beyond, and freak out at my offspring. He freaks out back, cos he was just up there. I freak out some more.

And speaking of Doom, I WASN'T THE ONLY ONE!



Happy Australian summer everyone!

PS My Dad moved the wasp nest off the roof today by sliding it along with a very long piece of pipe until it fell into the yard.

PPS My Dad is awesome...

Doom and Gloom: A Pixie Romance – Episode 4

So far in Doom and Gloom: A Pixie Romance: Pixie Gloom was having a quiet night at home playing with her poppets and some pins, when Moon Troopers knocked at the door and demanded to search the house. But while an unhappy Gloom is on the search for vampiric pineal glands with her pin, what is going on outside?

Doom and Gloom: A Pixie Romance Part 1

Doom and Gloom: A Pixie Romance Part 2

Doom and Gloom: A Pixie Romance Part 3

Will the Moon Troopers find the skeleton key? Will Doom survive? Stay tuned for the next exciting episode!

Doom and Gloom: A Pixie Romance is brought to you courtesy of the colour black and the number 13.

Starring Megan Weaver as Gloom

Yellow poppet as The Poppet

Vlad the ethical Vampire as Vlad

Jarrad Smith as the Terribly Polite Moon Trooper

Jarrad Smith as Doom

And several chickens.

Shortlisted!

I am super excited to announce that, thanks to nominations from some awesome fans, Shadow Book 3: Shiny Things has been shortlisted for the 50 best indie books of 2016!

Shiny Things is one of 100 books to be shortlisted. If you have read it and liked it, please please head over to Read Freely (just click or tap the graphic) and vote for me.

Read Freely will be gifting three lucky voters with a $50 Amazon giftcard. Just saying

Blasted Fairies: Myth, Legend or Conspiracy Theory?

IF you believe that there is a tribe of fairies somewhere in Shadow who can shoot blasts of fire from their hands, chances are you've been had by a good storyteller, and probably fleeced of all your coins at the same time. Honestly, I've heard some compelling conspiracy theories in my time, but that isn't one of them. It's just not possible.

Now that I've made my own position completely clear, let me tell you how this story came about.

It all started with a Bloomin Fairy named Woody Strawhat. According to Mr Strawhat, one day a wild-eyed woman with dreadlocks and ragged clothes shot fire from her hands (right in front of him) at an unknown assailant, shoved the message in his hands and told him to run, then proceeded to run like a bearfly on fire herself. Naturally Mr Strawhat didn't hang around; he took the message straight back to his tribe, who spent about a year talking about it before giving it to a passing muse, who brought it to me.

A mysterious letter left by a Blasted Fairy.

Now no matter what you may think about the veracity of the source - and believe me, I have the greatest respect for Bloomin Fairies, but they do tend to blow things out of proportion - this mysterious letter poses a very real mystery. The pictograms show a definite Freakin Fairy influence, but the message is bewildering. For those of you who do not know your pictograms, let me explain.

First of all, the fiery symbol that dominates the page is a universal fairy symbol. It is a loud and clear cry for help. How regrettable that we should receive it far too late! The trees and lightning to the left look very similar to symbols I have seen for Shock Forest, which is near to the Bloomin Fairies who received the letter. What looks like a house, a few random splotches and a path could indicate a settlement. The path appears to lead to an explosion, which may indicate some kind of disaster - but this is where I start to have my doubts, for even in distant Shock Forest, a disaster of the magnitude this indicates would have been noticed, surely!

Finally, there is the mysterious figure in the top right hand corner. I am not sure what to make of this at all. Is it some kind of monster? Did these Blasted Fairies - if in fact the letter were genuine - live under the sway of some evil? It's hard to say, and in fact quite unsettling to think that something may indeed be out there.

The Blasted Fairy letter is now kept securely in the archives in Shadow City, awaiting the opportunity for further investigation. I would like to think it is a forgery, or some kind of mischief, but on the off chance it is genuine, then we have a very real problem in Shock Forest, and will one day have to deal with it.

-Flower