02 June 2024

Three Skips

I started accruing my book collection in my late teens.  Not too many early on, since I moved house a lot.  A couple of shelves of books.  Then a full bookshelf, multiple bookshelves, double-stacked bookshelves.

Since I moved house every couple of years, this made for a major undertaking in moving, so finally reaching the financial point of being able to put a deposit on a house (and starting the decades-long process of actually buying it) meant I no longer had that regular struggle to get all the books wherever.

Ironically, once I settled in for what turned out to be a sixteen-year stay, I switched to audio and ebooks and hardly bought any new physical books at all.  This precious hoard became decoration and dust-collectors, and when it came time to move once more, I bit the bullet and gave away all the books.

Well, I kept Diana Wynne Jones, Calvin & Hobbs and Ruth Manning Sanders.  And my own books, of course.  One bookcase worth of books.

Since I've moved into a place that was fully furnished already, I had to do some severe downsizing.  Donated clothes to the clothes charities, towels to the RSPCA, and the contents of my kitchen to a lady who had just separated from her husband and had literally nothing but her kids and a car that would not fit all the things she'd like to take away.

Furniture seems very difficult to sell these days, even at nominal prices.  I gave away most of it, and the rest went out onto the curb, for the opportunistic passerby, or the couch-munching crusher truck booked with the local council.

Everything else went into three skip bins, in a neat illustration of how much junk you can accumulate in sixteen years, or how something quite useful becomes junk when you have nowhere to put it, and no more time to get it into the hands of those who would be glad to have it.

I'm still a little confused about the furniture.  Last time I had a garage sale, the furniture went first, to professional resellers.  Now, it seems no-one wants it.

Anyway, this took up all of my head space, especially since I was also arranging for a cat enclosure and dividing door to be built at my new place (to separate my cats from the resident dogs, and all the local birds).  I'm somewhat more rural now (outskirts of Sydney rather than in the Bankstown area), and have a slightly longer commute in which to do some quality writing.

I haven't written a word for nearly a month.

This is pretty amazing for me, since writing is what I do for enjoyment, and I like the stories I'm working on, but moving stress ate up all my mental energy.

I'm looking forward to getting back into it.  Last time I worked on Tangleways, I'd just put Eluned into the infirmary. :D

03 February 2024

Touchstone Trilogy - French Edition

Cover of French Edition of Stray
Some news for the Touchstone fans. The wonderful Justine of Seraminda Editions has faced down the truly daunting task of translating Cass' Aussie ramblings into French!  And Stray is only a handful of days away from release!

You can hear/ask more about the translation process and release at Justine's Insta, or even pre-order the Kindle edition at Amazon FR.

This is my first translated volume to make it to the shelves, and I'm tickled at the existence of a book I wrote, that I can't read.  

[French is actually one of the languages where I can get the gist of quite a few of the sentences, but not necessarily end up understanding what's going on.]

Anyway, thank you Justine for all the amazing work that has gone into this translation!

06 September 2023

Status update

 On the good and bad news front.  I have written quite a lot this year!  I have continued to make forward progress on Tangleways (finally getting past a small hurdle that was stopping me).  But I don't think I'll have any new books out this year.  Next year should be a bumper year though - I'm absolutely determined to get Tangleways out as my next release.

05 May 2023

Writing progress

Just checking in.  Making steady, if slow, progress on Tangleways.  I'm still aiming to finish it this year, but haven't been nearly as quick as I like.

My speed on different types of stories, and sections in them, can vary wildly.  Second books in a series are particularly hard because it's necessary to introduce the existing world and through-plot while carrying the new one in an interesting way, and avoiding it turning into a dull info-dump.  So the establishment chapters of Tangleways have been particularly challenging for me (bringing in enough of the world without weighing everything down), with such a complex world as the Trifold.

I also needed to settle some plot details before I could start writing toward them, and fortunately have figured out some of the major ones.  I tend to look forward to and plan out 'fun scenes', and am soon to reach some of them, which will be nice.

Anyway, still here, still going!  My philosophy on writing is that as long as I keep adding new sentences, even if it's only one a day, I'll eventually end up with a book.

27 December 2022

Four Kings Release!

Here at last!  Sorry for a slow writing year.

In a huge contrast to Firsts, Kings has only a single (somewhat involved) sex scene.  It has a lot of extended family though, and we (technically) meet all the parents.  That's a lot of parents!

Cover of Four Kings
Four Kings

Continuing the story of 'The Book of Firsts'.

Mika Niles always thought boyfriends way too much effort.  Now she has three of them.

While Mika has a habit of making life look easy, maintaining a balance between three boys who refuse to become rivals would be a challenge all on its own.  Adding to the mix apparently infinite family drama, and the inevitable backlash brought by living with three extremely covet young men, may be enough to threaten Mika's lifelong dream.

When it's no longer a game, and not nearly enough of a secret, can Mika find a way to stay with her Kings?

Out now in the following stores (and more to follow as it slowly makes its way through the various distribution chains).

2023 will be primarily devoted to Tangleways, with occasional breaks to work on a lit rpg side project.

Ebook:

Amazon (US, AU, UK, FR, DE etc)

Kobo (US, AU, UK)

Google Play

Smashwords

Paperback:

Amazon 



07 November 2022

Getting closer

Maybe three chapters to go? Am aiming toward a first draft toward the end of November, and then beta readers, editors, etc. So end of year is possible (but never guaranteed!).

Also started a side project today which I'll write on and off to take mental breaks. 'Firsts' was a side project that sat on the back burner for a couple of years, until I suddenly decided to finish it. This one (working title 'Three Lives') is a system apocalypse heavily based on the Chinese webnovels I've been reading about holographic games. It'll remind people a little of 'The Starfighter Invitation', but is more traditional to the sub-genre than TSI. One of those stories I write purely because I want to read another in the style, but can't find anything that suits me. Don't expect to see it for years.
First sentence: Dying wasn't fun, but being reborn managed to be worse.

08 August 2022

Auto-art

Checking in to say still here, still working on Four Kings!

After coming across a few videos of people using AI art generators, I couldn't resist running some of my book titles through the prompts to see what I got.  I used https://creator.nightcafe.studio/ 

Here's the results!  Comment if you can guess which book titles they are!  [Or hover over the picture for the image name!]

Champion of the Rose

Stained Glass Monsters

And All the Stars

Lab Rat One

The Pyramids of London (used the Steampunk style for this one)

The Silence of Medair (picked fantasy style, got Thomas Kinkaid)

The Singularity Game

I'd not be likely to use any of these as a cover, but some of them are very interesting!

Three Skips

I started accruing my book collection in my late teens.  Not too many early on, since I moved house a lot.  A couple of shelves of books.  T...