Category: News

While it’s more than a little gratifying to see Peacemaker on so many Most Anticipated SFF Books of 2014 lists, it’s also a little daunting. Not sure what kind of story people are expecting, but it was fun writing it, so hopefully it will be fun reading it.

I grew up on Zane Grey westerns and have tried to capture the same passion he had for the landscape, while writing a thoroughly MDP genre mashup. The SF is understated (in the first book at least), the romance is understated, the western tropes are overstated and the crime and fantasy aspects dominate.

If you’re looking for reference points for the story then you might find echoes of Mythago Wood, Light of the Western Stars, Gun with Occasional Music and some good paranormal fantasy (thinking Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs), but conceived and written original MDP style. 

Anyway, not that I’m collecting links or anything (???), but you’ll find PEACEMAKER mentioned on some of these great blogs:

• Publishers Weekly
• BuzzFeed
• SparkNotes Kirkus
• The Book Plank
• Fantasy Faction
• Shadow Hawk
• Tor.com
• A Fantastical Librarian
• Draumr Kopa
• Australian Women Writers Challenge

Thanks to everyone who featured my book. I’m excited for its release from Angry Robot in April/May and for some other great news that will accompany it.

Popping in to shares some links and news with y’all.

Firstly, PEACEMAKER is now with Angry Robot while they consider what editing needs to be done on it, which gives me time to start thinking about, and moving on to, book 2, DEALBREAKER. Muwahahaha! Boy, will that have some fun stuff in it. I got excited just writing the synopsis!

Meanwhile, I’ve been writing the first chapters of a crime novel that I’m DYING to get into full time. It’s all about Antiquities theft. Gorgeous yummy stuff.

Over at sonsofcorax, I blog about how I get inspiration for names in my fiction. Anyone who’s read the Sentients of Orion and Parrish Plessis will find this interesting.

Some people have been asking me where they can get copies of my new picture book Serious Sas and Messy Magda so I’ve just dropped in the BOOK DEPOSITORY link for you all.

And a little interesting titbit … Terri Sellen shared the link to this extraordinary phenomenon. It is so reminiscent of the stories in my Glitter Rose collection by Twelfth Planet Press, that I got goosebumps when I saw it. Which brings me to the fact that Glitter Rose will finally be available in e-book soon. Will let you know!

Everything that kills me… makes me feel alive~ OneRepublic

Love, love LOVE this song! Every time I hear it, I smile. Upbeat, great lyrics, slick music production. So what about the video? Frankly, I’m not sure.

Filmed in New Orleans in the second oldest church in the country, the band performs in a basement while overhead a Christian revival meeting is going on. The two scenes are cut together in quick bites and interspersed with an alligator roaming around. The video culminates in someone from the revivalist meeting falling through the floorboards down to where the band are.

An intersection of belief sytems, perhaps? Music News says: Lyrics “losing sleep dreaming about the things that I could be,” resonate in the duality of danger being ever present and looking for a safe haven to heal yourself. The lost alligator roams the halls of the deteriorated church basement far from its’ swamp home and the ever present unknown. 

Lost in translation is the phrase that comes to mind when I watch it. I feel like the meaning is an elusive vision, hovering just outside my cornersight. But then maybe I’m just looking for something that’s not there in the first place!

To be fair, part of my ambivalence towards the video is because the music incites a wholly different set of images for me – far removed from church basements and bible-singing congregations. But this was the vision the band and British producer James Lees (British aesthetic, colour, frames, blah di blah…) shared, so I’m on board with that and I still totally LOVE the song.

The Video

The making of the video!