Would you like smut with that?

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 09:38:01 GMT

When I checked my PO Box on Friday, it contained something I'd been waiting for eagerly, the CD Forget to Breathe, by James Butterworth.

That's James. *points up* The CD is full of gorgeous songs like "3 Days", all written and sung by James with the same direct honesty, and recorded professionally.

If you want to have a listen to more of the album, there are teasers up on James' myspace page.

Email James at jb-cd-sales@hotmail.com to order the CD, which is $17 Aus, plus postage.

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 23:11:39 GMT

Last year, I posted about bunnymcfoo's Christmas project to raise money to buy underwear for teenagers in a homeless shelter in Spokane. That project was hugely successful, and she raised over $3000, which enough to buy a lot of underwear, warm clothes and toiletries.

She running the same appeal again this year. You can find her post here. Please drop past and leave her a dollar or two, if you have anything in your paypal account.

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:51:41 GMT

Who'd like a Seasonal-type card from me? Comments are screened, so leave me a postal address.

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 23:07:00 GMT

Torquere Books are having a Black Friday sale. They've reduced some of their print titles, including Spiked, which contains my novella "Marginalia". Print specials are while stocks last.

There's also 15% off all ebooks, and the discount code is thanks09

The sale runs until midnight Saturday, EST.

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 00:55:57 GMT

Torquere Press are offering 15% off all purchases through the Torquere site, from now until midnight Monday (est). Just put anniv09 in the coupon code box at the checkout.

Also, don't forget to enter the Month long Torquere Press birthday contest!.

And Carole at Rainbow Reviews says kind things about Droit de Seigneur.

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 01:27:32 GMT

Droit de Seigneur is now available on the Torquere site.

Accolon despises the tedious politics of Arthur's Court, but as a knight, he is obliged to attend. His new squire, Derryn, is sharp-tongued and clever, and takes very good care of Accolon. The pair of them wind up in the middle of a Court conspiracy, holding an enchanted blade and ensnared by a sorceress. Treason, betrayal, gossip and love--Accolon has never known Court to be so dangerous.

***

*cough*

Can we all agree that none of you tell my Medieval Literature professor about this novella? Right? Because I don't think he'd be very amused.

Accolon hung back at the entrance to the Great Hall, giving Queen Guinevere and her ladies plenty of room to walk ahead of him, making sure he didn't stand on anyone's trailing robes. It didn't work, and he had to breathe in as Lady Felicity pushed up against him on her way past.

"Apologies, my lady," Accolon said.

"Lord Accolon," Lady Felicity said, her eyelashes lowered briefly. "You so rarely favor us with your company at court. I need to speak with you."

Accolon hesitated, and Lady Felicity stayed holding his arm, her breasts pressed absurdly against his chest. The bonds and ties of friendship and love within the court were treacherous, and Accolon had no idea who Lady Felicity owed her allegiance to, political or personal. A rejection could see him facing a blade, as could an invitation.

"With me? Why?" Accolon said. "Perhaps later, in the Great Hall. I must check my horses first."

"Your horses," Lady Felicity said, sounding dispirited. "It's always the horses."

Accolon nodded. "It is."

Lady Felicity drifted after the other ladies with Lady Morgan bringing up the rear, and Accolon stayed where he was, while the court shuffled into the Great Hall or made its way to the stables or bedrooms.

Derryn, Accolon's new squire, wandered up to Accolon and handed him a jug of small beer.

"Where were you during the meal?" Accolon asked Derryn, taking the jug gratefully.

"Horses," Derryn said. "Putting your pack in your room. Finding out what you need to know, like that old Lord Brunor has got Lady Felicity with child. You going to take her? She'd be safe."

Accolon looked down at Derryn, who was leering at him. "No, she doesn't charm me. You should try. You've never been to Arthur's court before, so the ladies will want to test you."

Derryn lowered his lashes, in exactly the same movement that Lady Felicity had used, then grinned at Accolon. "Do they like Welsh squires here?"

Accolon drained his jug and handed it to Derryn, taking in Derryn's light hair and gray eyes. He caught Derryn's arm so Derryn's sleeve fell back, showing a slender wrist and pale skin. "They'll either like you or be jealous of you."

When Derryn pulled his wrist free, Accolon let it go without resisting. There were dangerous eddies between he and Derryn, and Accolon was intrigued by the hints of darkness in Derryn. He understood all about darkness.

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 14:09:11 GMT

I'm over on torquere_social, posting Not Safe For Work excerpts from an abandoned novel that some of you will have seen in an earlier draft. Later on today (well, tomorrow my time), I've got an Arcana, the Ace of Swords called "Droit de Seigneur", due to be released. Wander over, check out the excerpt, heckle from the back row if you like, and I'll be back with a purchase link for the Arcana later.

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 23:56:17 GMT

It's Torquere Press' birthday this month, and to celebrate, they're running an awesome birthday present competition.

And you get to try for lots of small presents, and one really big present. Head on over to the contest form, here on their website, and you'll see you have the options of entering just once, for an e-book reader, as well as hitting the form every day for a month, for the daily prize.

You can find the list of the daily prizes and the names of authors--like myself and Winnie Jerome--who are participating, over here, along with more information.

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 00:19:38 GMT

Torquere Press are having a sale, up until Monday midnight, US EST. 15% off everything, just put beatheat into the coupon slot when you check out.

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 15:04:58 GMT

If you've read The Tockleys, you'll guess I've found resonances in the Buddhist faith, even though I follow a different spiritual path.

icarusancalion has posted a public explanation for her past actions, and recantation of past words with regards to one of her Buddhist teachers - Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo, and temple she used to attend, Kunzang Palyul Choling. I'm moved by her courage.

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 03:01:28 GMT

Monsters Past, Book Two in the Australis Liminus series, is available in e-book and print now!

Sid and Dan are back in this sequel to Running the Nullarbor. This time the retired army man and magician have joined the Australian Defense Force along with Sid's cousin Kit and her fox Marlowe in order to put Sid and Kit's magical abilities to work in the defense of their country.

Being in the army seems to be one dull moment after another and the threesome are stuck on the base when they discover there are worse things than basic training and meetings. When they go deep into the Australian Outback to check out strange happenings, they discover someone has opened a portal to the past. Pre-historic huge-jawed crocodiles and seven meter long monitor lizards are just the beginning as Sid, Kit and Dan find Australia has more enemies than the invading army inching across its northern reaches.

Can two magic users and a soldier penetrate an American army base, defeat magically-assisted secret service agents and shut down the portal to save Australia from the dinosaurs?

James Hogue, author of Vinculum, writes: “Monsters Past” by Laney Cairo is the continuation of the love story between Dan and Sid that began in “Running the Nullabor”. Both men, along with Sid’s cousin, Kit and her adorable fox, Marlowe, have now enlisted in the Australian Army and become part of a magical, paranormal Special Forces unit. They are quickly called into action when malevolent magical forces reconstruct Australia’s prehistoric past. They find themselves combating not only evil magicians, but carnivorous, primordial monsters as well. But through it all, the love that they have found together continues to grow and flourish.

This futuristic, paranormal love story is a romantic, suspenseful, thrill ride adventure. There are also moments of pure comedic genius, such as the scene where Dan and Sid use a prehistoric, giant wombat as a tank to penetrate a magical barrier. The story is well written, moves at a fast pace, and is very entertaining. Laney Cairo is an author with an extremely bright future ahead of her. I highly recommend this book.

At the moment, the paperback is only available from the Torquere site here. I'll post an Amazon listing as soon as there is one. And, as always for Antipodean folks, planetfantastic will have stock as soon as the wholesaler begins listing the paperback. Just email Fantastic Planet at sales(at)fantasticplanet(dot)com(dot)au.

Wed, 20 May 2009 05:53:40 GMT

I've got a story in the Down Under Taste Test short story collection, just released by Torquere Press.

In "Almost Paradise", Nimbin is an odd place, part tourist town, part relic of the Seventies, and Lee finds that the graffiti and bright paint hide significant shadows.

The rocks that overlook the town

Inside the museum

Inside the museum

Do you think I made up that detail in the story about the egg-beaters?

Inside the museum

Inisde the museum

No, really

This place actually exists

The surrounding countryside is amazingly beautiful too

Even the Hard Wok Café is real

I had to be careful not to use photos that showed people's faces, because of the culture of the place. Most of the photos I took were shot from the hip, without being framed, out of concern that the dealers would take my camera off me. Nimbin is beautiful and scary.

And here's a bonus sunset-at-Byron Bay photo, since that's mentioned in the story too:

Wed, 13 May 2009 14:55:02 GMT

Kim is in his last year of high school and just hopes to make it through the year without running into any gay bashing. The thing is, Kim is not only gay, but he's transgender, too. He's unhappy and lost in his female body, and his mother has agreed it's time for him to undergo hormone therapy and possibly surgery.

Things get even more complicated when university student Dash joins Kim's mother's coven. Dash is immediately attracted to Kim and they wind up going out together, but when Kim reveals he's a female to male transgender, Dash reacts badly.

With all the other things going on in their lives, will Kim and Dash be able to try again and find happiness with each other?

*

I wrote Circle of Change after reading a mainstream 'inspirational' romance, which had hand-holding and lingering looks, along with lessons to be learned. For reasons that I can't quite recall, writing a pagan response seemed like a good idea, and now it's available as an e-book. It has hand-holding, and lessons to be learned. And paganism. And trans issues. Wow, does it have a lot of stuff in it that matters to me.

The dedication reads to all the gender warriors I have known. This one is for you. May the Goddess bless you all.

Sat, 09 May 2009 01:55:31 GMT

Torquere Press are offering 15% off all e-books, until midnight Sunday (US EST time). Just type 'mom09' for the coupon code at checkout.

And Romance Writers of Australia have invited me to be part of the Perth Romance Roadshow, on May 23rd. I'll be on the panel for the Author Q&A session, in the afternoon.

The Romance Roadshows are one day conferences, where RWAus takes an awesome line-up of writers on the road (Keri Arthur! ~fangirls~), around the states, for members who can't make it to the annual conference. Or members who can, but still want a second conference. Non-members are welcome, too.

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 22:44:25 GMT

Torquere Press are offering a 15% disount off their books for the next day and a half! To use the discount, type 'stpat' when prompted during checkout.

My author page is here.

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 11:54:00 GMT

One of my day jobs sent me to Melbourne recently, and I randomly booked a hostel in St. Kilda, without realising it was the weekend of the St. Kilda Festival. I might just have been to four Big Day Outs, but that didn't mean I wasn't up for another day of gigs.

The sun setting over the Yarra through smoke particulates, on the Saturday evening.

The carousel at Luna Park

Now, onto the actual gig pic spam...

Husky were the first act I caught, on the main stage.

Then, Last Measure, on The Push Stage, which was the all-ages, local talent venue.

Then, on the air New Music Stage, I stumbled across The Violent Flames. They're originally from Perth, but have moved to Melbourne in search of fame and fortune. I'm reccing them. Go on, go listen to the tracks on their Myspace page. ~shoos you all over there~ They also have one crazy drummer, James, who I couldn't stop taking photos of.

The Galvatrons played the main stage next. They had a crazily photogenic bass player.

Back to The Push Stage for Neon Love

I have more photos, of The Angels, but I'm holding those back to exhibit in April. I'll post them here after that. And if you were wondering, I have a Nikon D40, with a bargain basement Cosina 70-210 telephoto lens.

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 10:13:37 GMT

Photos, from the Big Day Outs I went to, around Australia. Yes?

TZU

Pendulum

The Ting Tings

Dropkick Murphys

Kamahl

Kamahl was a surprise guest at the Sydney Big Day Out, appearing on the Lilyworld stage, which is the cabaret-style arena. He sang "I Still Call Australia Home", which dissolved the two punk boys in front of me into puddles of nationalistic sentiment, and me into hysterics.

At Gold Coast Big Day Out, I took photos of someone draped in the Eureka flag, rather than the Australian flag, which pleased me.

Sydney Big Day Out, and I grabbed some crowd photos at dusk, of people being tossed on blankets.

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 03:50:30 GMT

I'm a guest blogger, over on Out in Perth, the local queer press. If you want to read my gig review for Big Day Out on the Gold Coast, it's here! Photos are mine too. I'll do a full pic spam here, too, once Out in Perth have finished using the photos.

Sat, 17 Jan 2009 13:38:40 GMT

I arrived in Brisbane at 6am, claimed my luggage and a seat at the airport, and went to sleep for another couple of hours, on the grounds that nothing and no one was awake, including me. 8am, and I felt up to catching the train into the city. Discovered that there was nowhere at Roma St Station to buy breakfast, so grabbed a taxi to the campervan hire company.

Oh Goddess. They gave me a choice of two 'family-friendly' vans. (The un-family-friendly vans included slogans such as 'If you loved me, you'd swallow that' and 'Virgins wanted, no experience needed'. That's why I booked a tame one.) My options were a black van covered in skulls. Niiice.

And:

Yes, they offered me a Ringo Starr van. (Those of you who have read The Tockleys will appreciate the synchronicity of me setting out to research the second Tockleys novel in a Beatles van.)

With lyrics from "I am the Walrus" on the back.

Here's the inside, already messy from where I've tested out the comfort of the bed by catching up on some missed sleep this afternoon. It passed.

There are furry handcuffs, instead of furry dice, hanging from the rear vision mirror.

They even put a Lennon quote on the dash.

I then got lost. And unlost. And lost again. I phoned Cath, who I was supposed to be meeting when she finished work, some distance away. She was frantically busy, so she handed the phone to a workmate, who gave me clear and concise directions on how to get onto the motorway.

I then headed in the wrong direction, had to get off the motorway, thread through the suburb, then get back on again.

Then there was a toll! OMG, Brisbane has tolls! I was not prepared for that. I'd read up on Sydney's highway robbery practices, but hadn't filled a bag with gold coins yet. The bored-looking woman at the tollgate took my "help, I'm a tourist" plea with bland good humour, relieved me of my cash and let Ringo and I through. (If you were wondering, Perth doesn't charge people for the privilege of driving around, figuring that once they've insured, registered and fuelled their car, they've done their bit.)

Anyway, I found Cath's work, and some food, then followed her home to the Gold Coast. Ringo is lodged in her garage, where I'll be sleeping tonight. We've been out for dinner, and have talked ourselves hoarse.

Tomorrow is Gold Coast Big Day Out.

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 11:53:50 GMT

I'm off tonight, on the first leg off my epic Laney-rocks-around-Australia adventure. My first flight has already been changed (fail, Qantas, fail), leaving me with painful hours to kill in Brisvegas airport before the city wakes up and I can do anything. Unless, of course, Qantas is four hours late with the flight, in which case, it won't matter.

I'll be glad to be out of Perth. 29C minimum? 42C maximum? Anywhere else in Australia is going to be cooler, and probably not actually on fire.

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 08:03:40 GMT

Running the Nullarbor has an Amazon listing. planetfantastic has stock on the way.

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 03:00:10 GMT

The Tockleys is a Recommended Read on Fallen Angels Reviews. (Review is linked to the artwork above.)

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 22:11:41 GMT

Running the Nullarbor is available in print!

It's listed on the Torquere Books site here. It hasn't appeared on the distributor's site yet (that takes a few days, especially with the holidays), but as soon as it does, I'll let you know. Then it will have an Amazon listing, and planetfantastic will order stock in, for people in the Antipodes.

And Bad Case of Loving You made the Uniquely Pleasurable Review Team's Best of 2008 list.

Yes, I am posting early on Christmas morning. Someone had to get up to put the leg of ham in the oven at 6am. And I need to clear up a little before the extended clan begin to descend on my house in waves over the next 36 hours.

Best wishes for the New Year to you all.

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 22:35:03 GMT

It's Year in Review time, when Australian writers compare their published output against The Sean. The Sean is the number of words that Sean Williams--a well-known, awesome and prolific Australian writer--publishes professionally each year.

The Sean this year was 282 000 words.

My published word count? 260 000 words! I made 92% of a Sean!

~does the dance of the Sean~

(If you want to compare this to last year's figures, here's that post)

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 22:21:47 GMT

The Tockleys now has an Amazon page.