Thought it was time to share how things are going with the next book! I’ll be delivering PEACEMAKER book one in December to Angry Robot, and it will be released next year. Will let you know publication date when it’s confirmed.

I’m loving writing in this world. It’s such an eclectic mix of genres and themes. This kind of story really frees my imagination.

It’s also brought me back into focus on the graphic novel second issue which is waiting to be produced. I’m thinking of running a very small Kickstarter to cover the costs of the artwork and then making it available free. What do you say to that?

Here’s a sample of Virgin looking out over the park that Gestalt artist Emily Smith drew for me a while back. I’d love your thoughts on it! I loved it at the time but I was looking for the slightly more realistic look that Brigitte’s art gave the story.

I’m hoping Emily will eventually be free to do some work on the series.

We’ve sat on this for a long while deciding what to do and are now opening up to submissions for a replacement artist on the PEACEMAKER comic (Brigitte done got a full time job!). If you think that might be you, please email Marianne though the contact page.

Once she has replied, you can sub a sample of your work. Ideally it would be a sketch of the character Virgin Jackson but we’d love to look at your general portfolio as well. This is a paid contract but the fee needs to be negotiable. You will be required to INK and COLOUR as well.

Look forward to hearing from you!

Some news on the comic front!

As of next month issue 1 of Peacemaker will no longer be on special at .99c AUD and will now cost $3.99 AUD.

The good news is that for your money you will also get the short story (approximately 5k words) that the character  is based on and a bunch of concept art from Brigitte Sutherland, along with her commentary, as part of the new price. Although the comic follows a different story line from the original short story, you can see the development of Virgin’s character and the heavy influences of the Australian Outback and spiritual weirdness. Brigitte’s commentary also gives some sneak peaks into my novel in progress.

Issue 2 is in the pipeline and will be double the size of issue 1. It will follow the same pattern of a reduced price initially, and then a package deal with extras when the price increases.

For anyone who has already purchased the comic and would like the short story and concept art extra as well, you can email me via this website and I will arrange it for the price of .99c AUD.

N.B. Many thanks to Tehani Wessely at Fablecroft for making the short story pdf available for me. The story was originally published as “Gin Jackson: Neophyte Ranger” in AGOG Smashing Stories, Cat Sparks (ed.), AGOG! Press, 2004, and later reprinted  as Virgin Jackson in Australas Imaginarium, a Fablecroft publication. Australis Imaginarium is still available for purchase and is full of terrific stories.