Narrelle M. Harris's Blog, page 27

Works in Progress 2018 (aka Narrelle’s To Do List is Scary)

Hello all. I’m already bolting out of the gate in 2018 with a series of projects that promise to keep me chained to the keyboard all year.  Yes, that is the sound of me cheering. I quite like my keyboard.

Besides working hard on the day job, I spent January preparing the re-release of the second book of the Duo Ex Machina series, Sacrifice. My Patreon supporters are getting the re-edited chapters of that book every two weeks, and when completed, they’ll get a thank you copy of the book and it’ll go on general sale.

Now that the individual chapters are scheduled in Patreon, I’ll be working on the third and brand new novella in the Duo Ex Machina series,  Number One Fan.

One of the other things I’m working on  is the expansion of Grounded (a sample of which was posted for Patreon supporters in December).  The things I’m writing into it are slotting in very naturally, and now I wonder why I didn’t include them in the first place.  I hope to have completed these edits by the middle of February and soon after be ready to resubmit to the publisher who asked to see a longer version.

I’ve also devised a cover for the proposed short story collection, Scar Tissue and Other Stories. It will contain some of my (edited) Lost and Found flash fictions and reprints of older stories. I’m also planning a number of brand new stories too – a few more Lost and Founds, and a some other short stories, perhaps set in the universes of Ravenfall and Kitty and Cadaver

Scar Tissue and Other Stories is planned to be a reward for Patreon supporters once I reach my first goal of $100/month. I’m not quite there yet, but if you’d like to help me reach that goal (and access reward copies of books, sneak peeks of works in progress and other exclusive content) that would be grand.

These aren’t my only planned projects for 2018.  Among the others are:

A re-release of The Opposite of Life
Writing the third of the Gary and Lissa books so that there’s a trilogy
A series of short stories for Clan Destine Press – The She Wolf of Baker Street
A story collection set post-The Adventure of the Colonial Boy
Working with a UK artist to develop a potential picture book.

Ambitious, I know. But I’m full of ideas! With fortune and good planning, I might even get all these started (and some even finished) by the end of the year.

Wish me luck.

Quintette of Questions: Jay Hogan

This week’s new romance release interview is with Jay Hogan:

Jay Hogan

1. What’s the name of your latest book – and how hard was it to pick a title?

The book is called First Impressions and funnily enough the title came to me as I began writing. Until then I had simply labelled it ‘MM on the go’ and then half way through the third chapter it sailed into my thinking. After all, the story is about dismissing possibilities based on first impressions and past history. Something we all do. Having a fixed idea of what we are looking for and struggling to accept anything different as having a chance.

2. If you could choose anyone from any time period, who would you cast as the leads in your latest book?

Matt Bomer for Michael and Jason Lewis for Josh

3. What five words best describe your story?

Enemies to lovers, forgiveness, hope, crime ( 6, I know).

4. Who is your favourite fictional couple or team?

Sam and Ryan in The Lightning Struck Heart by TJ Klune, and Sam’s band of misfits.

5. What song always makes you cry? 

Rise Again by The Rankin Family (Canadian)  about losing someone  and seeing the lost person in the faces of their children.

About First Impressions

Michael:

Two years ago I made a mistake, a big one, and then I threw in another couple just for good measure. I screwed up my life big time but I made it through. I was lucky.

Then I was given the opportunity for a fresh start. Two years in Auckland, NZ, ‘The City of Sails’. Away from the LA gossip, a chance to breathe, to get my life back together. I grabbed it and packed my new set of golden rules with me.

I don’t do relationships.

I don’t do commitment.

I don’t do white picket fences.

And I especially don’t do arrogant, holier-than-thou, smoking hot K9 officers who walk into my ER and rock my world.

Josh:

The only thing I know for certain about Dr. Michael Oliver is the guy is an arrogant, untrustworthy player, and I’d barely survived the last one of those in my life.  Once was more than enough.

The man might be gorgeous but my eleven-year-old daughter takes number one priority and I won’t risk her being hurt again. I’m a solo dad, a K9 cop and a son to pain in the ass, bigoted parents.

I don’t have time for games.

I don’t have time for taking chances.

I don’t have time for more complications in my life.

And I sure as hell don’t have time for the infuriating Dr. Michael Oliver, however damn sexy he is.

About Jay Hogan

Jay is a New Zealand author writing in the LGBTQIA genre in MM Romance and Fantasy.

She has travelled extensively and lived in many places including the US, Canada, France, Australia and South Korea, and loves to add experiences from these adventures into her writing.

She is a cat aficionado especially of Maine Coons, and an avid dog lover (but don’t tell the cat). She loves to cook- pretty damn good, loves to sing – pretty damn average, and as for parenting a gorgeous daughter-well that depends on the day.

She has lovely complex boys telling sweet sexy stories in her head that demand attention and a considerable number of words to go with them. Their journeys are never straightforward and can even surprise Jay, but the end is always satisfying.

Follow Jay Hogan

Facebook
Twitter

Buy First Impressions

First Impressions (Amazon US)[image error]
First Impressions (Amazon UK)


First Impressions (Amazon Australia)

Mark First Impressions ‘to read’ on Goodreads.

 

Quintette of Questions: Nicole Field

This week’s new romance release interview is with Nicole Field:

Nicole Field

1. What’s the name of your latest book – and how did you choose the title?

This book was previously published under the name Gothic. Titles are always the most difficult thing for me. I try to name books before I actually get through to finishing writing them. The unfortunate problem with that system is that, sometimes, the novel’s title doesn’t fit with the novel anymore.

That was the case with this book. After several drafts to get it to its current form, I threw aside the name Gothic, and chose Changing Loyalties.

2. If you could choose anyone from any time period, who would you cast as the leads in your latest book?

Oh goodness. Maybe I’m not particularly creative, as all four of these actors come from the last 10 years, but in my head, the casting of my main characters would be as follows:

Main character Dahlia: Mila Kunis

Love Interest Elliott: Ian Somerhalder

Love interest Bianca: Melissa George

Best friend Renee: Ksenia Solo

3. What five words best describe your story?

Polyamorous, paranormal romance, drama city.

4. Who is your favourite fictional couple or team?

I’ve always loved Joscelin and Phedre from Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey, but I’m also a huge fan of Mercy and Adam from Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thomspson novels!

5. What song always makes you cry?

For me, that song is ‘It Can’t Rain All the Time’ by Jane Siberry, and features in the 90s movie, The Crow. Whenever I hear that song, I am filled with imagery of falling rain, darkened streets, and despair so deep that you need the reminder this song offers.

‘It can’t rain all the time

The sky won’t fall forever.’

The movie itself is so atmospheric, and I love it when a song like this one can transport you without you even needing to turn on the DVD player.

About Changing Loyalties

When Dahlia finds the body of her father, a werewolf, brutally murdered and left to die alone, she’s left with more questions and grief than answers. But who or what killed him remains unknown, and it soon becomes clear her father isn’t the killer’s only target.

Adding to the growing pile of mysteries in her life is the new job—for a company that seems to be run by the kind of people who have no qualms about murdering werewolves. Even more frustrating, Dahlia’s new boss, Bianca, is curt and rude—and far more intriguing than seems fair.

About Nicole Field

Nicole writes across the spectrum of sexuality and gender identity. She lives in Melbourne with her fiancee, two cats, and a bottomless cup of tea. She likes candles, incense and Gilmore Girls.

Follow Nicole Field

Nicole Field Writes
Faerywhimsy on Twitter
Polynbooks on Tumblr
Amazon Author

Buy Changing Loyalties

Changing Loyalties (Less Then Three Press)


Changing Loyalties (Smashwords)
Changing Loyalties [image error] (Amazon paperback)
Changing Loyalties (Amazon UK paperback)


Changing Loyalties (Kobo)

Review: Faerie Apocalypse by Jason Franks

Have you ever wondered what’s going on in the mind of people who set about pursuing quests in the worlds of magic? Potential lovers seeking the fairest of them all; mages seeking further power; sons seeking fathers; daughters seeking vengeance; those seeking simple distraction and escape from their everyday lives.

Jason Franks has. And he doesn’t think very highly of them.

Faerie Apocalypse plays with the tropes of quests and fantasy violence. He twists the old storytelling standards of cycles-of-three, cunning humans outwitting faerie malevolance, all the same-old-same olds.

Franks isn’t afraid of being pretty damned gruesome with it, either. Many encounters end not merely with violence but with gore so extreme it’s less horrific and more a form of nihilism. If Shakespeare wrote Titus Andronicus in a spirit of ‘I’ll show YOU a revenge tragedy!’, Franks has said, ‘I’ll show YOU a tide of pointless butchery!’.

Except that it’s not pointless. The purpose, mostly hinted at throughout the brutal excapades of the mortals, the mage, the daughter of the warrior queen and the Bad Little Dog is very pointed, but it’s a spoiler to say what it is.

I loved how the inklings that supposed mortal questers aren’t as noble or heroic as they’re cracked up to be turn into certainties that they’re all pretty awful people with little regard for the consequences of their actions. Where they go, death follows, on a scale that humans in the mortal world have wrought with such horrific abandon.

The level of butchery is a bit much at times, but it’s a deliberate choice that is less gratuitous than it seems, by the time you reach the end and learn why. Though the hint is in the title. It is a faerie apocalypse, after all.

I’ll admit that I have a fonder spot in my heart for the wild and wickedly funny Bloody Waters , but it’s good to be reading Franks again and I’m looking forward to whatever comes next.

Read my interview with Jason Franks.

About Faerie Apocalypse.

Over the centuries the Faerie Realms have drifted away from the mortal world. But for some, the Doors will open. For some, there is a Way to travel there, if they want it badly enough.

If they dream it hard enough.

In this era, only lovers, poets, and madmen can access the Realms of the Land—and for good reason.

A succession of mortals travel to Faerie: a veteran seeking beauty; a magus seeking power; an urchin seeking his wayward father; an engineer seeking meaning. These mortals bring the horrors of our age to the Land, and the Folk who live there respond in kind.

Buy Faerie Apocalypse

Faerie Apocalypse (IFWG Australia)


Faerie Apocalypse (Amazon US)


Faerie Apocalypse (Amazon Australia)


Faerie Apocalypse (Amazon UK)


Faerie Apocalypse (Barnes and Noble)


Faerie Apocalypse (Booktopia)


Faerie Apocalypse (iBooks)
Faerie Apocalypse (Kobo)
Faerie Apocalypse (Book Depository)

Review: The Compact by Charlie Raven

Late last year I read and thoroughly enjoyed A Case of Domestic Pilfering by Rohase Piercy and Charlie Raven. That book had originally been written by Raven then reworked by Rohase.

Raven’s style is clear in her solo effort The Compact,  set in London and England of 1898 – a paranormal queer adventure where real people meet fictional ones and detection meets ghosts.

The action revolves around two extremely close friends, widows Harriet Day, who teaches piano, and artist Alexandra Roberts. The lifelong friends share an undercurrent of romantic attachment, but their lives are about to be turned inside out. First, Alex falls under the unhealthy influence of the wealthy Minerva Atwell, whom she has been commissioned to paint. Then one of Alex’s boarders dies in a horrible accident.

Their lives ares entangled with Roberts’ boarders, including the unpleasant Albert Burroughs, and the childlike and ethereal George Arden. George is fey and vague and sees ghosts. He’s also falsely accused of murder by Burroughs.

Real life figures Aleister Crowley, occultist and magician, and his lover, poet and female impersonator Jerome Pollitt, become involved with George’s situation, as does Dr John Watson, who is recovering from illness while Sherlock Holmes pursues a case in Russia.

It’s a large cast which Raven deftly handles with charm, elegance and excellent pacing. The story has plenty of humour as well as creeping dread, while the story slow-builds towards the discovery of grisly crimes, horrible secrets, Atwell’s disturbing schemes and George’s strange history.

Dr Watson’s efforts to be a detective in his friend’s absence are naturally not as brilliant as Holmes’s, though he does his best in partnership with the brilliant, unpredictable, substance-abusing Aleister Crowley. The comparisons he (and the reader) makes between Holmes and Crowley are inevitable and entertaining.

Watson is only a small player in the tale, however, which focuses on Harriet trying to discover Minerva Atwell’s power and clear George Arden’s name. She and Alex are both strong characters, as is Minerva and all her mystery. Crowley and Pollitt are lively, too, as are all the supporting cast.

The action reaches its climax of mystic threats, ancient Sumerian tablets, the unquiet dead and deadly intent at Minerva Atwell’s creepy spa in the country.

Raven’s prose is lively, her period detail light and evocative, and even the most minor of her cast of characters is distinct and fresh. She’s also made me keen to read more of and by Aleister Crowley!

The Compact is engaging good fun. After enjoying A Case of Domestic Pilfering so much too, I’m hoping I won’t have to wait too long for some more from Charlie Raven.

Buy The Compact

The Compact  (Amazon.com)
The Compact (Book Depository)
The Compact (Wordery)

Five Questions for Jason Franks

Today, Jason Franks answers five questions about his new book.

For our interview, Franks is wearing a pair of classic-cut Levis that are probably Costco fakes. His black t-shirt is frayed at the collar but the Black Sabbath logo looks crisp as if it had just been printed. He hasn’t shaved in a couple of days and his glasses are smudged. He has terrible posture and a very small head.

(Descriptions supplied by Jason Franks.)

Jason Franks

What’s the name of your latest book – and how did you choose the title?

The book is called FAERIE APOCALYPSE. Originally it was going to be LOVERS, POETS AND MADMEN, which sums up the seed inspiration for the story, but does not give much of a clue as to what the book is about. So I went looking for some other options.

The book is set mostly in the fairy realms and deals with the nature of the place and the people who venture there, so FAERIE seemed like an obvious place to start.

I was reading about Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian—a key influence on my book—and I came across the phrase ‘apocalyptic prose’. That immediately seemed to fit not just the style of my own work, but also the story. So there it was.

Faerie Apocalypse.

If you could choose anyone from any time period, who would you cast as the leads in your latest book?

I have this one already sussed from IFWG and I were working out the cover art. In the end we opted not to show any characters on the cover, but here’s what I came up with. There are five leads, as follows:

The Veteran: Contemporary Christian Bale. Long hair, bearded, a bit haggard, a bit spaced-out.
The Magus: Contact-era long-haired, crazy-eyed Jake Busey.
The Warrior Queen: Carey Lowell circa 1990.
Malo: A teenaged Benicio Del Toro.
The Engineer: A CGI rendering of a youngish lady, designed not to stand out in a crowd. A bit pixilated and well inside the Uncanny Valley.


What five words best describe your story?

Dense, circuitous, violent, occulted, and reflexive.

What faerie creature would you most like to meet – or be?

Out of all the creatures in the book I’d most like to meet the Queen of the Ore-lands. She wouldn’t have much time for me, but she’s also less likely to try to trick, murder or eat me than any of the other characters.

What song reflects a theme, character or scene in your book?

The book references a number of songs quite explicitly. There’s a couple of Hendrix songs that flag key plot points. One of the monsters is a Blue Oyster Cult song given flesh. But the last part of the story is called Black Wings, after the Tom Waits song, and I think that perfectly sums it all up.

If you want a second helping, try Earth Died Screaming, also from the Bone Machine album:

About Faerie Apocalypse.

Over the centuries the Faerie Realms have drifted away from the mortal world. But for some, the Doors will open. For some, there is a Way to travel there, if they want it badly enough.

If they dream it hard enough.

In this era, only lovers, poets, and madmen can access the Realms of the Land—and for good reason.

A succession of mortals travel to Faerie: a veteran seeking beauty; a magus seeking power; an urchin seeking his wayward father; an engineer seeking meaning. These mortals bring the horrors of our age to the Land, and the Folk who live there respond in kind.

About Jason Franks

Jason Franks is the author of the novel Bloody Waters, the Sixsmiths graphic novels, and the Left Hand Path comic series. His work has been short-listed for Aurealis and Ledger Awards. He lives in Melbourne, Australia, where he is widely known as a person of low character and wicked intent.

Follow Jason

http://www.jasonfranks.com
Facebook: Frankly Operational
Twitter @jasefranks
Instagram: jasefranks

Buy Faerie Apocalypse

Faerie Apocalypse (IFWG Australia)


Faerie Apocalypse[image error] (Amazon US)


Faerie Apocalypse (Amazon Australia)


Faerie Apocalypse (Amazon UK)


Faerie Apocalypse (Barnes and Noble)


Faerie Apocalypse (Booktopia)


Faerie Apocalypse (iBooks)
Faerie Apocalypse (Kobo)
Faerie Apocalypse (Book Depository)

 

Review: Langue [dot] doc 1305 by Gillian Polack

One of the things I enjoy most about Gillian Polack’s books, besides their quirky sense of humour, is how wonderfully she explores the everyday and the ordinary, giving them texture and depth so that they’re not ordinary or mundane at all.

In Langue [dot] doc 1305 Polack marries her deep knowledge as a Medievalist to a favourite SF trope – time travel to the days of knights, lords and peasants – and then does her usual magic of transforming the ordinary into the profound.

Artemesia Wormwood (a name she chose for herself) finds herself a last-minute addition to a team of Australian scientists travelling back in time to  Languedoc, France, to the year 1305. She’s taken on the task of team historian for the money – her sister needs it for cancer treatment – but when she goes back in time she finds the scientists generally don’t have interest in, let alone respect for, her expertise.

The team is meant to be studying the era without interacting with it, and especially not with the inhabitants of the local town, St-Guilhem-le-Desert. You can imagine how successful that turns out to be.

The inevitable folding together of medieval humanity and the time team is subtle and slow, and Polack interleaves the lives of both groups of people with a gentle but inexorable rhythm.

We see parallels and echoes of each group in the other. The mischief makers and the leaders; those who are arrogant and those who are quietly trying to keep their society functioning; the friendships and the growing emnities.

Artemesia keeps trying to warn the time team that the people out there are real and that these are dangerous times. As the two groups begin to interact in small ways, however, even Artemesia may be getting complacent through her role as liaison with the knight Guilhem, himself an outsider looking for his place in the community.

Langue [dot] doc 1305 has many delights, from the superb low key characterisation that develops such wonderful, fully human people, to Polack’s equally low key yet pointed storytelling which points out how many fallacies people retain about what it is to be human in the medieval era.

Some characters are more sympathetic than others, though Polack’s compassion in drawing out human frailty and strengths means that your sympathies may wax and wane until the last few chapters. Artemesia’s playful academic humour and the way she’s often relegated by her colleagues to ‘pointless, useless irritant’ ensure you’re on her side from the start.

The build up to the confrontations of the conclusion is steady but never dull. When the final events take place (within the caves that are temporary home to the team, within the village, and where those two connect) they have a strong impact on both characters and reader.

I love the texture, intelligence, compassion and craft of Gillian Polack’s writing. I love her quiet women finding their strength and her wit. I love her perspective as a Jewish Australian and her great humanity as a writer.

And I loved Langue [dot] doc 1305.

Since the sad demise of Satalyte Publishing, Langue [dot] doc 1305 is  out of print. Happily, it’s due to be rereleased later in the year. (I’ll blog again then when it’s available.)

In the meantime, if you can’t wait, you can try Abe Books or contact Gillian Polack directly on Twitter or through her website for one of the first edition copies she still has.

 

News: Support me on Patreon! (There are books in it for you)

Narrelle M Harris on Patreon

In December 2017 I began a Patreon account to help fund my fiction writing.

My first Patreon project is to re-release my first book, made up of two novellas – Fly By Night and Sacrifice – as a novella series under the banner, Duo Ex Machina.

The Duo Ex Machina series is about Frank Capriano and Milo Bertolone, loving couple and members of the two-man band, Duo Ex Machina, and their infrequent and unpleasant encounters with crime.

Fly By Night

My first Patreon target has been achieved – I’ve re-edited and re-released Fly By Night with a beautiful new cover by Willsin Rowe.

Sacrifice is being edited and posted as fortnightly chapters to my supporters, and will be released to them as a complete e-book in due course.

I’ll be writing three more e-books in the series: Number One Fan, Kiss & Cry, and Little Star, each set in years and decades following the first two novellas, set in 1999 and 2004 respectively.

Your Patreon pledges will allow me to make time to write these three new novellas, as well as paying Willsin Rowe for new cover art and formatting of the final stories for mobi and epub versions.

I’ll also be collecting a number of other short stories and writing new ones for free story collection, Scar Tissue and Other Stories, when I reach my initial income goal of $100 a month.

I aim to give my backers value for money, so there’ll be posts about Melbourne (where most of the stories will be set), my inspirations, sneak peaks of other works in progress, bits of other writing and writing tutorials (depending on which tier you support).

Stay tuned for the new cover images and new releases, or support me on Patreon for early access to the stories, other fiction, writing advice and more!

Become a Patron!

If you you’d rather buy Fly By Night outright, you can find it at:

Fly By Night: Duo Ex Machina Book 1  (Amazon US)
Fly By Night (Amazon Australia)
Fly By Night (Amazon UK)


Fly By Night (Google Books)

Cover reveal: Fly By Night by Narrelle M Harris

Thanks to the generosity of my supporters at Patreon, I am re-releasing edited versions of my early novellas, Fly By Night and Sacrifice.

The first, Fly By Night, will soon be re-released with this brand new cover art by Willsin Rowe!

In this cover are Frank Capriano, his boyfriend Milo Bertolone, who play music together as Duo Ex Machina. The novella is set in Fremantle, pictured behind them.

I can’t tell you the parts played by the cracked glass and the crayfishing boat because Spoilers, sweetie.

Willsin has previously done wonderful work with my books and stories at Clan Destine Press. His is the marvellous eye behind the covers for Ravenfall, Near Miss and the Secret Agents, Secret Lives series.

If you support me at Patreon at the $1 level or above, a copy of Fly By Night will be yours as soon as the e-book files are ready. Otherwise, the book will be officially re-released a week or two later. I’ll make an announcement here when that happens!

E-book release: Ravenfall

I’m delighted to announce that Ravenfall is now available in eformat at the following online bookstores:

Ravenfall (Amazon US)
Ravenfall (Amazon UK)


Ravenfall (Amazon Aus)
Ravenfall (iBook)

I’m keeping an eye for it on other sites, like Kobo and Barnes & Noble Nook Books. If you spot it before I do, let me know and I’ll add it to the link list!

If you prefer paperbacks, you can get it at:

Ravenfall (Clan Destine Press)
Ravenfall (Amazon.com)
Ravenfall (Amazon UK)
Ravenfall (Barnes and Noble)
Ravenfall (Angus and Robertson)
Ravenfall (Book Depository)
Ravenfall (Booktopia)

And if you want to read/hear me talk about it in print or podcast, you can poke around these places:

Release day: Ravenfall – read an extract of the novel.
Ravenfall and the romantic vampire – a post about locations, inspiration and the quest to be human.
 AusRomToday: Build Us Your Ideal Story. A recipe for monsters, mayhem and a forever love—Ravenfall by Narrelle M Harris.
AusRomToday: Tell Us Your Backstory.  A Scottish Lilt with Narrelle M Harris.
Joy 94.9 podcast: David and Sue talk with me about Ravenfall on their drivetime show.