Free Novel September!

Long Days in Paradise is FREE! for the month of September. Just use the Code: YE63E. This is due to a celebration of the fact that the series is now complete and the second and third novels are even more awesome than the first. I even recently received a phone call from a reader of the third novel she was so excited about it. Yes, that's right, someone actually rang me to say just how cool it was. Okay, so it was my sister, but she probably reads about ten times more books than I do, so I was suitably impressed. I think you will be too.

And wait, there's more. I'll even throw in a excerpt from The Face of Destiny, the third shards novel, since you went to the trouble of reading this far. See, it was worth it after all...

Soon the passages were lit by patches and slices of reds and yellows issuing from cracks in the huge and occasionally creaking timber panels above, and there were dusty expanses he could peek at through gaps he passed from time to time. Okay, so he had no idea where he was going, but he was making good time.

Until the cockroach.

At least Jorden assumed it was a cockroach. It had the right shape and it scuttled in much the same way – though sluggishly compared to one of Tasmania. It was just slightly larger. Well, actually it was a lot larger. It was the size of a large dog, although not the same shape. It was lower to the ground and wider and more... cockroach shaped.

It came closer, Jorden backing. He wasn't sure what a giant cockroach was likely to eat, but the size of its serrated mouth parts didn't fill him with any confidence about it being a strict vegetarian. It was almost as bad as facing a polythorn back in Maeruna, yet he doubted he had the advantage of it being repelled by his anger. At the moment he was feeling fear and he hoped it wasn't attracted by that.

Then another shape slid from the shadows and there was a flash of metal in the shards of light. Jorden jumped aside as the metal point of a weapon caught the cockroach on its armoured thorax. He saw it flinch and back; then scuttle away.

Jorden stared and blinked. He had been saved by girl in a bright yellow dress carrying a very large sewing needle. It was over half as long as she was, with a point and eye. Definitely a giant needle. He could only continue to stare. She did much the same for a moment, but Jorden noticed there was something different about her. She was not the same as others he had seen in the House.

He looked carefully. “You don't have wings,” he found himself saying. Normally something like that wouldn't be out of the ordinary, but here...

The Megan Series...

Yes. Due to popular demand there will (likely) be more books in the Megan series, possibly some time in 2012 if all goes well (and it actually gets written). The main core of this series will be three reasonably self contained books covering the fate of the Megan on Zarrellen. There is also a prequel novel which may be released at the appropriate juncture (when I get around to a rewrite), as well as potentially further novels in the series set in a later period of time.

Now, I think I put enough qualifiers in there. Michael green certainly wants to get off of Zarrellen before he is completely cooked by radiation, but getting off might not be that easy. He still has work to do before getting off, and even when he does leave I have this feeling he'll be back. Things certainly look to be heading downhill for Tao-Lani and the girls, and the fate of a new race is at stake. The question remains as to whether the universe is big enough for both megan and humanity.

But that is another story...

Haven Earth Teaser...

A rough excerpt from Haven Earth as Malibu and the girls hit the beach on Catalina...

In the end it appeared about twenty were heading to the beach at some stage, but perhaps only ten or so in the near future. Most were in the same clothes they had been wearing on the flight down, but I did manage to get Sierra and Tiger and a couple of others into swim costumes that looked like one piece antiques from the 1920's, Tiger even had a little skirt. It was all very retro, and actually quite cute. I assumed she had picked mine as well, but I had no idea why she had chosen white polka dots on pink.

I could see, however, the beach might be more of a challenge than I first thought. Many of the crew were having trouble even managing the stairway to the lower levels beneath the enclosed balcony leading from the Catalina terminal to the resort proper, or haven as the locals called it. After negotiating that obstacle, and it actually seemed that many had never – ever – seen a stairway in their entire lives, we came a landscaped nature strip which acted as a buffer between the haven and the beach. There were a few patrons in the open shade here and there, most older rather than younger, but the majority seemed to be further inland behind the safety of the extensive glazing.

Then we hit the sand. It was dry toward the top of the beach and already warm in the morning sun, the light of that flashing on wave crests ahead. I was already barefoot, something Nile had protested and I ignored, and I relished the sand between my toes. It was somewhat course, and not particularly white when seen up close, but it was there and real and that was enough. I noticed some of the more adventurous patrons were even out on the sand, but no more than thirty across the entire beach – and nobody was anywhere near the ocean itself.

I noted the murmur of those with me as they followed, some struggling with a soft uneven surface that was so unlike the smooth floors of Avalon. I wondered if they had even walked in parks as part of their preparation for deployment. A few were even hanging back at the nature strip and that was okay for me. It would be enough for them to just get a feel for the outside world without passing out, at least for now.

Tiger, however, was near, as was Sierra. There were others as well, although the group was starting to spread somewhat, each with their own points of interest. Most were gazing toward the ocean, of course. Few if any had ever seen the ocean with their own eyes, including myself when I thought about it, and now it was near – high tide perhaps, but neap. I looked for the moon without any luck.

I wasn't stopping with the sand, of course, and waded out into the surf, the cool water dragging at my calves. It wasn't chill, but then it wasn't exactly warm either, and I looked back to the others, noticing I had something of an audience. “Come on in, it's great,” And I backed slowly away, the waves crashing against my thighs.

Tiger was near enough that a wave slid over her toes and foamed about her ankles. The look on her face was priceless. “It's wet,” she said, stating the obvious.

I could only laugh. “It's water, dummy.” I glanced to the calm waters of the bay. “You wanted to swim, so let's swim.”

Sierra by then was standing in water to her knees, reaching down and letting it run through her fingers, while several others were brave enough to at least set foot in the breakers. “You can't swim here,” Tiger was saying. “It's full of things that bite and eat you.”

I smiled and I turned, diving into the surf, a squeal of exclamation behind that was soon lost to a roaring in my ears. It was a day of firsts for me, but then my new life would be full of such things. I had memories of this, and now actually swimming in the endless waters of planet earth hardened such memory to stone, made it real and tactile. I could feel the currents tug at my flesh, feel the coolness of the water – hear and smell and taste...

The Face of Destiny Redux...

The Face of Destiny is now on Smashwords.com...

That is pretty much the entire Jorden saga. Book 4 will be the Pandora story, of course.

The Saga of the Missing Links.

We have finally nailed down the bug that was causing links not to work in books uploaded to Smashwords. This means that all books will be gradually updated during the normal revision process to include working links. Yay. Other than that it doesn't mean very much at all. lol.

Also since epub supports a prologue and epilogue, Long Days in Paradise has been returned to its correct chapter numbering system and again has a prologue and epilogue as it should rather than odd chapter numbering that it had there for a while. The latest version, with working links to the map as well, is now available for download at smashwords using the above link.

The Face of Destiny

The Third Book of the Shards of Heaven has a name, we hope, and a potential cover design. This brings it that little bit closer to release. The series is being fast tracked a little due to popular demand, but it will still take a few weeks to get this one out I think.

This is essentially the final part of the Jorden story. The world goes on, of course, but that will likely be someone else's story. Exactly who that is will be revealed in time, perhaps even toward the end of this novel, and Jorden will likely have a cameo in the next instalment when we finally get around to putting pixels to paper.

Can things get any worse for Jorden? Well yes, unfortunately. This time Helen has gone to far in her quest for the ultimate knowledge of the reality of the shards, and this time with even more tragic results. She will leave Maeruna, this time forever. Jorden too plans to leave it all behind, but thanks to Helen, that is going to be a lot harder than he would like.

And yes. The mysterious Aingeal makes the cover. Secrets are revealed. This is a story of death and life and all those pieces in between...

Latest Releases!

The long awaited sequel to Long Days in Paradise, The Time of the Dula Kaena is now on Smashwords! Over the last few days the Mirrim Dawn sequence - Mirrim Dawn and Mirrim Vale - has also been released.

Not sure what the next project will be, so watch this space. Current projects include the (essentially completed) Haven Earth novel(s), the first Divo novel, and a proposed definitive science fiction vampire epic, Vampire Planet (until it gets another name, if ever). We may also see the the Megan prequel, Cadan, in print sometime, as well as perhaps more Delta Pavonis stories to give background to Housekeeping.

The third Shards of Heaven novel, The Face of Destiny, will also be released, hopefully this year. And yes, Jorden is in more trouble than ever. Things can always be worse in the shard worlds. This will essentially complete the Jorden Miles story for a while, although we still hope he will be back for a cameo appearance in the fourth Shards novel some time in the future.

We also have more Alice stories, such as Alice and the Beanstalk to follow the wildly popular Alice and the Rabbit short. I am looking forward to reading what happens there!