The Boneyard: a free fantasy story
This short story is about an actual place near Kiama where I live in the Illawarra. The story was a semi finalist in the Aussiecon 4 Make Ready fantasy/scfi competition 2010. It’s now part of my short story collection: A Matter of Perception “Hurry up,” Con shouted. His voice sliced through Ellen’s morning fog. She groaned and rolled over, pulling the quilt over her head. Con poked his head into the bedroom. “Are you coming or what?” “I’m coming,” Ellen grumbled. She struggled out of bed and grabbed last night’s clothes off the floor. “I wanna see this place as much as you do, I’d just rather do it later, that’s all.” “I’m not going later.” “I know,” she growled. Why else would she be getting up before sunrise. Half an hour later, they stood in lung-searing cold staring at blocks of jagged rock silhouetted against a predawn sky. Waves crashed, splashing…
Friday Free fiction: Ella and the Beast.
This is the first of my weekly free fiction series. Sometimes it will be a short story and sometimes it’ll be an excerpt. This weeks offering is an excerpt from Prunella Smith:Worlds Within Worlds, but like quite a few of the scenes in that book, it’s also a short story. Normally, the Friday Fiction will be available for one week only, but I’m going on holiday next week for a couple of weeks, so you’ll have longer to read it before I delete it and replace it with something else. My feet pounded the hard earth, jarring my bones, but I couldn’t stop. The monster closed in behind me, his breath coming in hard, loud pants. I tripped and stumbled over a fallen branch, only just saving myself from a fall. An evil chuckle reverberated through the darkening forest. ‘I’m going to get you, bitch.’ The chill in the beast’s voice…
‘Rite’s Path’ new release by Kate Policani FREE this weekend
Kate Policani is a good friend these days. I first met her several years ago after reading and being very impressed by her book ‘The Disenchanted Pet’. Since then, her writing has grown and she released a revised version of the book recently. It’s a great story and well worth a read. This is a short story she’s put out on Kindle and it’s free this weekend, so I suggest that you click the link and pick it up. Rite’s Path by Kate Policani Genre: Fantasy, Short Story, Choose-your-path Synopsis: Mesha and her brothers attend the Grand Festival of Duman to see the greatest spectacle in the land of Sas against their Father’s wishes. Mesha’s people don’t worship Duman and consider his believers to be reprobates. Her sneaky brothers brought her along rather than give up their fun, and she didn’t object. In the Queen’s Courtyard, everyone expected that the…
Another 5 star review of ‘Stalking Shadows’ : A great story with love, jealousy, betrayal, battles, and hard lessons
I’m back at Book Broads today for Stacy’s review of Stalking Shadows. She starts by saying she ‘just got done with Stalking Shadows and it was really good,’ then gives a run down on the story and finished by saying that she’s looking forward to reading more of the story. Pop on over to read the review and leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of Lethal Inheritance. http://bookbroads.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/stalking-shadows-blog-tour.html
Last review of the blog tour and it is AWESOME.
Day 19 of the blog tour has me over my peak download quota and facing a hefty internet bill for this month–I’m so far in the bush that I have to have Satelite internet and it’s expensive–but my day was totally made by a review on Book Briefs that humbled me. There is nothing better and more inspiring for an author than to find a reader who not only resonates with their books, but also encourages others to read them. Thank you, Michelle. Readers like you make writing worthwhile. One little quote: If you like fantasy books at all, you HAVE to read Lethal Inheritance. To find out why she thinks that, please visit Book Briefs, and while you’re there help send some traffic Michelle’s way. (Tweet it etc) http://bookbriefs.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/review-lethal-inheritance-by-tahlia.html
What is Magical realism?
My young adult novel You Can’t Shatter Me is magical realism, and all my fiction has magical realism elements, in particular The Prunella Smith books . But what does that mean exactly? What is magical realism? Here’s what Wikapedia says about it. “Magical realism is an aesthetic style or genre of fiction [1] in which magical elements blend with the real world. The story explains these magical elements as real occurrences, presented in a straightforward manner that places the “real” and the “fantastic” in the same stream of thought. It is a film, literary and visual art genre.” The question this raises is how is it different to fantasy? Magical realism is set in the real world. Fantasy is set in a fantasy world. Even in urban fantasy, the witches, fairies, vampires and so on that populate the world make it not the real world as we know it. The real difference lies…
Single short stories now available in all ebook formats
Reader’s favourites from my short story collection, ‘A Matter of Perception’ are now available as individual books on all ebook formats. The heartwarming magical realism tale of Norris and his Goddess, ‘A Hole in the Pavement’ is 99c, available here, and the poignant story of two women facing death in vastly different cultures and times yet linked via their dreams, ‘Not Me, It Can’t Be,’ is FREE and available here.