New Cover and two sales!

Posted under A Time-Traveller's Best Friend on September 2nd, 2020 by

We’ve got a new cover for BETWEEN WALLS, guys! I’ve been waiting eagerly for this since I uploaded the interim cover. Ain’t she a beaut?

In other news, I’m running a 60% off sale on the complete SHARDS OF A BROKEN SWORD over on Smashwords, where you can get whatever eformat you read for whatever ereader you have. ($6.99 down to $2.79). Sale ends September 23rd (click on the image to find it).

King Markon’s son, Prince Parrin, is afflicted by a nasty curse that brutally attacks any woman with whom he so much as flirts.
*
When the crafty Prince Akish attempts to rescue Princess Kayami Koto from a dragon-guarded and enchanted keep, it seems only sensible to bring his own dragon.
*
Dion ferch Alawn must gather all the shards of the Broken Sword that will unite her country and save her world.
*

I’m also running an all-retailer 99c sale on the first book in my Time Traveller’s Best Friend series in preparation for the publication of the third book at the end of this month.

Meet Marx. Meet Kez.

Marx is a small, angry man with a time machine and a chip on his shoulder. Kez is a homicidal little girl with a price on her head and a penchant for kicking people where it hurts the most.

Stolen time craft, shadowy corporations, and the odd goat shed or two can be more deadly than you think… 
*

Sale ends on the 6th! Available on Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, and Smashwords.

Look forward to the cover reveal for the third book–I’m certainly excited about it!

Bad Influences in Time and Space

Posted under A Time-Traveller's Best Friend, Favourite Authors on September 25th, 2017 by

I mentioned last time that I don’t write scifi—as such—and that even my scifi books are more in the way of fantasy to me than actual scifi. And over on the Amid the Imaginary blog I talked about a few of the influences that brought me to write A Time Traveller’s Best Friend and Memento Mori in the format they’re in. AKA, not in chronological order and with some of the stories from Vol 2 ducking in between some of the stories from Vol 1. 

Today, I’m going to talk more about the influences that led to the skewed, oddball way in which the Time Traveller’s Best Friend series was written.

Specifically, I’m going to talk about the biggest influence.

For those of you who haven’t read the ARC of Memento Mori—but are, I will presume, frothing at the mouth to read it—this is the dedication:

For Steven Brust.

It was through reading his Vlad books out of order—and thoroughly enjoying the intricate story structures therein—that I came to realise how much I enjoy reading stories told in a non-linear fashion.

In my Time Traveller’s Best Friend series, I am forcing my readers to share that particular pleasure.

So, if you’re confused with Kez and Marx’s adventures and frustrated by the lack of a linear storyline—

Please feel free to blame Steven Brust.

I mean, Steven Brust isn’t the only influencer for this series, but his amazing story structures have always stirred up a spirit of emulation in me—in fact, I’ve written about them before here on The WR(ite) Blog. If you’re familiar with Steven Brust’s work at all, you should also find a nod to him in one particular character’s name.

Guys, you GOTTA read it. This is still my favourite Steven Brust book, though all of the Vlad books are fantastic.

It was by reading the Vlad Taltos series out of order (unavoidably, at first, and then on purpose when I found out how much fun it was to read them that way) that I came to realise that things don’t necessarily have to happen in chronological order for a reader to be able to connect events and characters. Moreover, the truly amazing story structure of several of the books (like Dragon, which jumped from past to present and somehow met in the middle in the most satisfying way) proved that things don’t necessarily have to be told in exact chronological order within the confines a book, either. And since I was already writing time travel fiction…

The rest, as they say, is history. I mean, “they” probably weren’t talking about a tiny indie author and her books, but whatever. This is my blog. If I want to indulge in shameless self-aggrandisement, who’s going to stop me?

Oh! And one last thing: A Time Traveller’s Best Friend has a 99c sale going on at the moment. So, yanno; get it while it’s cheap, and don’t forget to grab Memento Mori before its new release price jumps from $2.99 to $3.99 on the ‘Zon…

Thanks! (and Have an Excerpt!)

Posted under A Time-Traveller's Best Friend on September 18th, 2017 by

It’s so close, guys! Just a week and 2 days until Memento Mori comes out! That being the case, I wanted to take the opportunity to say thank you to my awesome beta readers, the people who cheered for me over these last couple of months, and that one guy who actually kicked me into finally writing the 2nd book in the Time Traveller’s Best Friend series.

First, the beta readers. Thank you so much! You continue to surprise and delight me with the stuff you find, the things you love, and the typos you correct before its too late. In particular, thank you to Dinah, Carly, Elizabeth, Anna, and Martina; you guys gave such useful feedback and one or two of you were even kind enough to love Marx and Kez as much as I do.

Second, thanks to the people who’ve encouraged me in some way over the last couple months. It’s been a rough couple of months due to a lot of sickness, pain, and general too-much-to-do-ness. So thanks to Josh, who has been there from the start with Kez and Marx and always encourages me (also, check out his art, guys!), to Sarah, who talks to me about Kdrama, squees over favourite authors with me, and sends the occasional cat pic (especially for the cat pic 😀 ), and to Intisar Khanani, who always seems to know the stuff I don’t and is always willing to help out.

Thirdly and finally, thanks to the guy who gave me the kick in the pants I needed to get going on the 2nd Time Traveller’s Best Friend book. I don’t know his name or what he looks like, but the owner of one of the bookstores I deliver books to said every time he was in, he was asking for the next book. You guys have no idea how much I needed to hear that. I loved Kez and Marx but I wasn’t sure they were resonating and I had to get going on my fantasy series. So thanks, man. I don’t know who you are, but there’ll be a free new-cover copy of A Time Traveller’s Best Friend in the A Bit Curious store for you when I get the shipment.

Now for an excerpt! (And don’t forget to preorder for next week, guys!)

–oOo–

“We’d better synchronise our timepieces, sir.”

“We have a time limit?” asked Mikkel, his brows rising in surprise.

“Not as such,” said Arabella. “But there are certain things that need to happen at exactly the right time. If they don’t…well, let’s just say that we really, really want them to happen at the right time.”

“Are we fixing events in time?”

“Something like that.”

“That’s going a bit overboard, isn’t it?” Mikkel said, frowning. Time and synchronicity were reasonably flexible: so long as a few major things remained fixed, smaller changes didn’t ripple too far forward. River-like, time had a way of falling back into its previous course, flooding around obstacles and back into its accustomed bed. “Even if we’re here to help Kez and Marx—! I mean, they can’t do too much damage running around the Time Stream; it is self-repairing, after all.”

Arabella gave a small, prim cough.

“It fixes itself.”

Arabella’s mouth pursed in a pained sort of way.

“Good grief! They broke the Time Stream?”

“They are trying to fix it, sir,” Arabella said excusingly. 

–oOo–

The Fantasy of Writing SciFi

Posted under A Time-Traveller's Best Friend, Sci-Fi on September 12th, 2017 by

I don’t write scifi.

That probably sounds weird, given that I’m publishing the 2nd book in my Time Traveller’s Best Friend series this month. Don’t worry, you didn’t imagine it; Memento Mori really does exist.

I don’t write horror, either; but I’ve published a short ghost story.

Nope, I’m not schizophrenic (not that you can prove, anyway); I just have a different world view.

Aliens, time travel, ghosts…

…those things don’t exist in my paradigm. I’m a Christian writer, so I believe in God. Any other supernatural or alien creatures other than angels or demons? I don’t believe in ’em.

So when I write about them, I’m writing fantasy. And I am a fantasy writer.

I came to this conclusion a few years ago when I first wrote A Time Traveller’s Best Friend–why it was that I found it so easy to switch to writing scifi when it wasn’t something I’d ever considered writing. Why I felt so much at home there with Kez and Marx. I’ve always been more interested in characters than genre (it’s the reason I read so widely across genres) and when Kez and Marx showed up there was no other setting for them than a Scifi one. They were time travellers, and could never have been anything else. I just wrote them into the fantasy world that was right for them.

So next time you read one of my scifi books–psych! You’re not really reading Scifi. It’s all in your imagination. You’re reading Fantasy.

A Preorder, a Sale, and an Excerpt Walk into a Bar…

Posted under A Time-Traveller's Best Friend, Book Recommendations on September 2nd, 2017 by

Well, not really.

But I really do have a preorder, a sale, and an excerpt to share.

Memento Mori is now officially up for preorder, and looks absolutely GORGEOUS with its cover from Seedlings Design Studio.

To celebrate that, I’ve put A Time Traveller’s Best Friend at 99c for this weekend, over all store-fronts.

Amazon||Kobo||Smashwords||iBooks||B&N||Google Play

(It will be a part of Patty Jansen’s 100 99c SciFi/Fantasy books promo, too, so check out the others! I can particularly recommend Suzannah Rowntree’s Pendragon’s Heir, and A.K.R. Scott’s Inharmonic—both of which I own).

Memento Mori will be out September 26th, so don’t forget to preorder! And finally—have an excerpt!

–oOo–

“Good news, sir!”

Mikkel looked up warily. Arabella sounded cheerful, which was nothing out of the ordinary, but her idea of good news and his were often so radically different that he couldn’t help feeling the first dragging tendrils of dread close around his chest.

“Don’t look like that, sir; you’ll like this.”

“Will I? Is it something that’s likely to get me arrested?”

Arabella appeared to think about that. “I shouldn’t think so, sir. Actually, it’s Marx and Kez who’ve been arrested.”

Mikkel sat bolt upright. “When? Where? And who managed it?”

“A small Time Corp cruiser. They were making their normal patrol to show a few new ensigns the ropes and stopped to investigate something fishy. They’re requesting help because, and I quote: ‘This is too big for us and we don’t want to make a mess of it.’”

“Wait.” Mikkel’s eyes flicked to Arabella’s face. There was no sign of the prim smile that meant mischief, but he was still suspicious. “What about being hit on the head? Am I likely to be hit on the head?”

“No, sir,” Arabella said, slightly reproachfully. “Didn’t I promise I wouldn’t let them hit you on the head?”

“Only because you said you’d knock me out first. I don’t like this.”

Arabella blinked. “Really? I thought you’d be pleased!”

“Marx and Kez managed to be captured by a glorified baby-sitting cruiser?”

“Ah. I see what you mean.”

Mikkel sighed and brought up the vector controls on the pad beside his chair. “We’d better get down there before they scar the new ensigns beyond repair…”

***

“I don’t like this job, Marx.”

“Whose fault is it that we’ve got to do it?”

“Ain’t mine!” instantly said Kez. “An’ I don’t wanna be messin’ wiv stuff Marcus wants!”

“Marcus is dead.”

“Yeah, well, ’e’s got an ’abit of turning up when you don’t expect ’im. Wot if he’s in this time as well?”

“I checked in the Core,” said Marx patiently. “No, shut up, kid; I checked. I killed him thousands of Relative Year Units ago, and the Core says he’s safely in the Institute this year. He won’t travel out for another year.”

“Yeah, well—”

“Shut up, kid,” Marx said again. “He’s not here. And if he shows up, I’ll blast his flamin’ head off again. Happy?”

Kez sounded gruff. “Yeah. Orright. You better.”

“Then get a wriggle on. That cruiser’ll be by in a few RMUs; we want to be done before it shows up.”

“Oi. Shove over. This is my bit.”

“What does it matter who does what bit?”

“It don’t, but this is my bit.”

“I should have left you in the Upsydaisy.”

Kez blew a raspberry at him, showering him with a fine mist of spit. “Yeah? How you gonna get this done wivout me, then?”

–oOo–

Enjoy! And if you want to know what job it is that Kez and Marx are currently engaged upon…well, you’ll have to preorder, won’t you?

 

Cover Reveal: MEMENTO MORI (A Time Traveller’s Best Friend Vol 2)

Posted under A Time-Traveller's Best Friend on August 30th, 2017 by

I’ve been waiting for this day for so long!

Last week on Friday I got the email containing Memento Mori‘s comp cover from Jenny at Seedlings Design Studio.

Something that implies impending doom, I said. Something that suggests the end of the world. Well, as usual, Jenny has more than delivered.

Feast your eyes, lovers of humorous scifi!

And for those of you who may have missed the updates as they happened, below is the blurb and a rundown of the story titles included in Memento Mori.

–oOo–

Even time travellers can run out of time.

Marx and Kez have been skipping through the known Twelve Worlds, keeping one step ahead of certain capture by the seat of their trousers, and the vastness of time and space is feeling a tad too small.

Kez has always been a bit crazy, but now it’s Marx who is getting mad. Someone is trying to kill them, and that’s the sort of thing he takes personally.

To add to their difficulties, there are Fixed Points in time that are beginning to look a little less…fixed.

Between Time Corp, WAOF, Uncle Cheng, and the Lolly Men, it’s beginning to look like there’s nowhere safe in the known Twelve Worlds for Kez and Marx.

Here be monsters…

–oOo–

In this Volume of A Time Traveller’s Best Friend:

First World Problems

Death Notice: Worlds Wide Press

A Stitch(up) in Time

Shipboard News, TCC Umber

The Box that Travels Through Time and Space

Absent for Duty List, 4th World Orbiting WAOF Station

By the Sea

Notice of Enrolment: Group 23, Time Corp Ensigns

Nine Tenths

Core Memo: Breach Investigation, Final Notes

Everybody Needs Someone

Local News

Produced to Infinity (and Beyond)

External Communications: Holstrom Institute

Time Out

Internal Communications: Murpak City Zoo

Here Be Monsters

Worlds Wide News Article

–oOo–

Keep your eyes out, guys! You’ll be able to preorder Memento Mori before you know it!

(Plus there will be excerpts and blog posts over the next couple of weeks, so don’t miss out…)

 

Kicking Shins Through Time and Space

Posted under A Time-Traveller's Best Friend on August 9th, 2017 by

I LOVE THIS COVER SO MUCH

When I first wrote A Time Traveller’s Best Friend, it was a short story.

It was a short story written for my writers’ group, which gave a series of prompt words that turned out wildly different stories from each of us. I took it back to the writers’ group, still madly writing the last 500 words—have I mentioned that I’m a procrastinator?—while the small talk was going on. It turned out to be reasonably popular, which was nice.

My problem was that I really connected with Kez and Marx. I’d never intended to write scifi (I’ll follow up on that in a blog post next month) but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to keep writing about Kez and Marx. I didn’t like the idea of extending the short story I already had, but I am a fan of scifi tv series (*coff*Star Trek Voyager*coff*) and it occurred to me that I could do something similar with Kez and Marx.

And so the short story became a Book.

However, by the time I was finished the first draft of that book, I was quite certain that I could keep writing this pair of characters into more books.

The book became a Series.

I dithered on the series for a bit—I had another series I was writing, and exciting new ideas for other books, and I wasn’t entirely sure how well Volume One was received. Then it came to my attention (through a bookstore owner who stocks my books) that a certain reader was always coming in and asking when the next book in the Time Traveller’s Best Friend series would be out. I mean, I always wanted to keep writing about Marx and Kez, I’d just got sidetracked. That day, I was again caught up in the excitement of Kez and Marx’s world, ideas fluttering away in my back-brain and plot growing steadily and sturdily behind that.

The upshot of all this is a number of things:

First and foremost, Volume Two of A Time Traveller’s Best Friend, Memento Mori, is on its second edit and will be published next month. Just as excitingly, Jenny at Seedlings Design Studios has designed a new cover for A Time Traveller’s Best Friend, and next week will be hard at work on the cover for Memento Mori. Thirdly, A Time Traveller’s Best Friend has a new blurb! You know, because once you update the cover, you should take a look at the blurb…

Below is the new-and-improved blurb for A Time Traveller’s Best Friend. You can check it out on Amazon, iBooks, Kobo, and Barnes & Noble. (There will also be new-cover paperbacks available from late next month! Yay!)

Meet Marx. Meet Kez.

Marx is a small, angry man with a time machine and a chip on his shoulder. Kez is a homicidal little girl with a price on her head and a penchant for kicking people where it hurts the most.

After a narrow escape from the owners of the stolen craft he pilots, the last thing Marx wants is another gun pointed at him. What he wants and what he gets, however, are two very different things.

On the run from killers, shadowy corporations, and one very specific Someone, the last thing Kez wants when she points a gun at yet another apparent killer is a self-appointed protector.

What she wants and what she needs, however, are two very different things…

Cover Reveal: A TIME TRAVELLER’S BEST FRIEND

Posted under A Time-Traveller's Best Friend, accomplishments, Cover Reveal! on July 26th, 2017 by

Guys, I’m so excited! I’ve been wanting to update the cover for A TIME TRAVELLER’S BEST FRIEND for a little while now (I mean, I love the old one, too, but I needed something more commercially viable), but I wanted to make sure that I first a). had an idea of the sort of thing I wanted, and b). had the second volume written and almost ready to go.

Of course I got Jenny to do the cover. I knew how good she was going into this, and the conversations we had about the cover really had me excited, so I had very high expectations of the cover.

Those expectations? They were totally blown out of the water. This cover. I mean, THIS COVER, GUYS.

It’s perfect. It’s amazing. It’s my FAVOURITE COVER SO FAR.

Guys, I can’t even—I just—just WOW

Keep an eye out over the next couple of weeks: I’ll be blogging and talking about A TIME-TRAVELLER’S BEST FRIEND: MEMENTO MORI over the next two months in preparation for publication day in September. Closer to the day there will be another cover reveal, and you can expect excerpts, competitions, and giveaways, etc.

Also, don’t forget to let me know if you’re not on my Awesome Beta Readers list and want to be. I’m signing up Betas over the next week, in particular for this scifi series; so if you love Douglas Adams-esque scifi, message/pm/email me!

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