Been really tied up with getting Angel Arias finished because the release date was brought forward a month. Now that it’s all done I’m up for air. Time to say hi and see how you’re all going.

News-wise, the Burn Bright campaign (Publish Burn Bright Worldwide) is gaining momentum with bloggers across the world generously spreading word. Notably, About Happy Books, Strangemore and The Yetzel Library have joined in. Then there are the Facebook communities and the individual tweeters. Thank you all, especially my own team, who tirelessly help share news – including the announcement that Yunyu will release a new song for the Angel Arias which will be available for FREE download via a QR tag in the book.

I’ve finished the rough version of Peacemaker issue 2 but need to go through it and make it ready to send to Brigitte Sutherland. I hope to get to it this week. Issue 2 is twice as long as issue 1 and introduces detective Indira Chance and Caro Jenae, investigative journalist and Virgin’s best friend. I find the comic calls to me constantly (when I’m working on other things), which is always a good sign.

The next two months though, will essentially be Tara Sharp 3 with my October deadline just around the corner. Tara is always a pleasure to spend time with and will make a nice break from Ixion and Grave (Night Creatures trilogy).

The Event Horizon (skiffy joke there!) is dotted with some upcoming good stuff: Logan Library SF Finale day panel, Gold Coast Literary Luncheon, Brisbane Writers Festival, SheKilda convention and Supanova Brisbane.

Also was fortunate to have a double page profile in the Sunday edition of the Sydney Morning Herald recently. Many thanks to Steve Meacham. Not often a SF writer gets that kind of spread in a major newspaper.

A bunch of my peeps have had some wins lately. I was thrilled to see Angie Slatter and Charles Tan nominated for a World Fantasy Award but am in absolute squee mode now that I know that Alisa Krasnostein at Twelfth Planet Press also has a nom. Alisa and I worked together on on my boutique collection, Glitter Rose and I’m so proud of her, and to be associated with her publishing endeavours (which also includes feminist spec fic podcast Galactic Suburbia).

Whew! Well that was a fair bunch of news. Hope you’re all well. Sending you my shiniest thoughts.

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.

Loving this ad created by Brigitte Sutherland (click to enlarge):

And for anyone that would like to catch up for a signing or just to say howdy, I’ll be at this panel in August with a bunch of great authors! See below.