It’s taken a few months to regroup after finishing my PhD. And I’ve decided to give myself until the end of the year to write some academic articles and finish my new dark fanasy novel, The Water Dragon Queen. I’m also rewriting my PhD novel, A Once and Future Past, and working on a Tara Sharp novella.

While that’s all bubbling along, I will be writing serialised romance for Radishfiction.com 

Part of this consolidation time has been spent looking at where I am at in the broad scheme of publishing, and I thought you might be interested to see the academic articles and thesis based on some of my fiction:

In 2011, Dr Roslyn Weaver from the University of Sydney devoted a chapter ‘The End of Human: apocalypse, cyberpunk and the Parrish Plessis novels’ to my Parrish Plessis trilogy in her scholarly work Apocalypse in Australian Film and Fiction: a critical study, published by McFarland Press.

In 2017, Dr Dorothea Boshoff from the University of South Africa completed a doctorate based on my four-book series, The Sentients of Orion. The thesis was entitled Crafting Positions: Representations of Intimacy and Gender in The Sentients of Orion. Dr Boshoff also published an article in the Mensageiros das Estrelas Journal, entitled ‘He Said, She Said: Fake News and #MeToo in Marianne de Pierres’ Sentients of Orion.’ Thea also tells me that she is wriing an article about themes of lonliness in my fiction, using an unpublished short story from the Sentients of Orion universe entitled The Echo of Love.

In 2018, Dr Gerry Turcotte, president of St Mary’s University in Calgary, Canada, published an article entitled ‘The Caribbean Gothic Down Under: Caribbean Influences in Marianne de Pierres’ Parrish Plessis Novels’ in Caietele Echinox, vol 35: Neo-Gothic – Hybridizations of the Imaginary.

 

 

It’s the last day of 2018. I’m thinking a lot about my ancestors as I plan to write the biography of Colonel Thorn during 2019. It’s a tale of lost fortunes, artistic audacity, passion, betrayal, tragedy, family jealousies, runaway brides, the court of Louis Philippe, and New York society. It will be my magnum opus. Here’s a snippet of my research about Thorn’s daughter, Jane, who married Etienne de Pierres:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jane (Thorn) de Pierres is bottom left in a white dress with blue ribbon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A hundred years later in Australia, circumstances were vastly different. Jane and Etienne’s descendants were pioneers in a harsh country. I feel deeply humbled when I think about how hard my grandparents life was, and how hard they worked to leave a legacy to their children.

I’ve always been a futurist, but there is something very grounding, very important in knowing what came before – the path that was paved for you (me) and how you honour those memories. I try never to take it for granted.

So, today I honour my parents and grandparents: my dad and grandfather in the Stockman’s Hall of Fame, and my mum in the Pioneer Women’s Hall of Fame. Thank you for everything.

Yes, you read it right! It’s a real thing.

He Said, She Said: Fake News and #MeToo in Marianne de Pierres’ Sentients of Orion.

Dr Thea Boshoff and her colleague, Dr Deirdre Byrne, have had their work accepted into the Mensageiros das Estrelas Journal. The article will be published in 2019 in Issue #4, LIES, Inc. lies and “alternative facts” in Science Fiction.

If you want to know what this is about, grab a digital copy of the Omnibus.