2009: The Summer of Vampires

Just a quick post to let you all know that Dunraven Road will be published on June 20 and is now available to pre-order! Head on over to Immanion Press to secure your very own copy. After all, what is summer without sadistic vampires and dangerous underground cults in the back streets of Devon?

You can read the first chapter on my website.

I’m also on Facebook, so feel free to sign up if you want to be kept updated on news and announcements… The excitement never ends!

One Month to Go!

I’ve had an exciting couple of weeks. Mainly because I got to see the cover of Dunraven Road for the first time, check out the awesomeness! :

The cover was designed by the multi-talented Lucas Swann (he’s also the keyboardist and programmer for Uninvited Guest) and the model is Lenore, who’s a presenter for Rockworld TV – and makes a fantastic vampire

Here’s the synopsis:

“In the sleepy backwater of Dunraven Road, a group of hedonistic friends are trapped in a deadly prison of their own making. When Zach, their enigmatic leader, brings his long term plans to fruition and paves the way for a sadistic vampire cult, their fragile world begins to break apart. Fuelled by dangerous passions and an insatiable craving for ‘red’, the group must decide whether to succumb to the sweet lure of the abyss, or stand and fight for their very survival.”

Dunraven Road will be available to buy from next month – Watch this space!!

Life Dream Accomplished… Now What?!

Remember these dismal sentiments from a not so distant post?:

“It’s hard to write when you’re low…  Angry with your own crappy circumstances…  I don’t think it’s helping that I will be 26 in just under a month and two of my most revered literary idols were first published (and successfully so, I should add) when they were 25.  I knew it was unrealistic to aim for this same goal, but I did any way.”

Well, a mere four days after my 26th birthday, Dunraven Road was accepted for publication by Immanion Press.

Wait, I need to express this more clearly… I HAVE SOLD MY NOVEL!!!

Crap on a stick!, I was so overwhelmed when I got that email, I still don’t think it’s quite sunk in.  I signed the contract on Tuesday, a day when I text/emailed everyone I knew, or had ever known, spoke to both my nans on the phone and jumped up and down more often than is healthy.  By Wednesday, I was already exhausted (but in a gooood way ).

It was majorly exciting just being asked to send the full manuscript to Immanion (I sent a synopsis to start with).  Getting that far was already further than I had ever come to having a novel published.  I never blogged about that because I was afraid of jinxing it!  Getting an actual offer was almost surreal.

I suppose this blog just got interesting!  The manuscript is currently in the hands of my editor (I love saying that!  I have a goddamn editor!!), who will comb through it, searching for anything that needs to be added (or cut, for that matter), or changed or whatever.  I’ve been told that if everything goes to plan, the book could be published in the first half of next year.

I’m really happy to be with Immanion, they were one of my first choices (and look mum, no agent!)  They seem really professional, their book covers look fantastic and the company was started by none other than Storm Constantine, an author who’s been writing quality fantasy for years (she’s the author of the Wraeththu novels).  If that’s not a reason to jump up and down until I’m sick, I’m not really sure what is.

On a completely different note… While researching for my current work in progress (I can’t bring myself to type W.I.P.  Oh right, I just did…), I found out that Utah is the home of the Dirty Devil River and Goblin Valley.  Coolest place names ever?  Possibly.

Sorry about all the exclamation marks, they really were impossible to control.

!!!!!