Just popping in to say thanks to everyone who sent best wishes about PEACEMAKER making the Best SF Novel shortlist. As I said on FB,

“Hi Everyone, thanks for the lovely warm wishes on the Aurealis shortlisting. So amazing to see how the awards have grown and what intense competition there is in each category. Proud to be part of it! Congrats to all my fellow shortlisters and to everyone who was eligible this year. We are all contributing to the depth and quality of the world’s speculative fiction and that’s a good feeling.”

And now it’s probably a good time to let you all know that MYTHMAKER book #2 will be out in October this year.

Also, Supanova are rolling out their guest announcements for this year, and I’m very delighted to say that I will be appearing at the Gold Coast event. Thanks for having me back Supanova!

I’m back at work now. The back has improved enough for me to be able to work again as long as I take regular breaks and keep my core exercises consistent. This is fantastic because I need to get Blaze Dark cooking, and do my Too Sharp edits. Tara Sharp 3 (Too Sharp) is slated for September release – so that’s exciting. I’ll update you on Blaze Dark when I know.

It’s good to be back in routine after what feels like an eternity away from writing.

Other news reminders are that I’ll be in Perth in April for SwanCon, and at Supanova Perth, Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane. Unfortunately have to miss Gold Coast and Melbourne this for family reasons. I’ll also be appearing at WriteFest in Bundaberg and the Gold Coast Literati event.

This year, I’ll be introducing Graphic Novel reviews to this site. Reviews will done by Krista Mckeeth who helps me out on Burn Bright and Delacourt sites. So welcome Krista!

All in all it’s shaping up to be a busy year! On top of that, it’s my youngest’s last year at school, so a lot of focus is going on that.

I’m still recovering from my latest hard drive fail and am slowly loading necessary software and data. What a colossal pain!

In amongst that and my Tara Sharp deadline, I written a few blog posts. One is for Tehani Wessely on Indie Publishing, and an interview with Readings books about Angel Arias, and a blog about Peacemaker for Geek Speak magazine. All these are upcoming and I’ll post the links soon.

Brigitte now has the manuscript for issue 2 of Peacemaker and is sketching some new characters for me to peruse. This issue will introduce Caro Jenae (journalist) and Indira Chance (detective) and abounds with action. So excited to see the sequences!

Other than that, it’s business as usual in the MDP office. My interview with the talented Tom Taylor Made is coming up soon as well. And following that I’ll be talking to the the comic legend, Marv Wolfman. I hope you’ve been enjoying meeting the varied creative types that have been visiting the MDP site over the past twelve months or so.

Next weekend, I’ll be part of the Gold Coast Writers Literary luncheon and am looking forward to meeting a bunch of new peeps. And not long after that is SheKilda and Supanova. I thoroughly enjoyed the Bris Writers Festival last week but did find the commuting into the city quite tiring. Glad I’m not doing a billion Xmas bookstore signings this year like in 2010.

Angel Arias is out in about ten days, so look for it in your bookstores (if you still have one near you!!). As of Ocotber 3rd you’ll be able to use the QRTag in the back of the book to download, Bluebeard, the song that Yunyu has made available as a complement to the book. I’m sure you’ll find them brilliantly suited to each other. For those that don’t have QR readers on their phones, we’ll be providing an url as well.

TTYS! MDP x