I have a couple of free ebooks available, Ariel's Dream and A Hole in the Pavement. Both are short stories ... Ariel’s Dream is a free urban fantasy introduction to my young adult series about Ariel's adventures in the hidden realm of Diamond Peak. I'm pretty sure that anyone who likes this story, which happens 3 years before the events portrayed in book one, Lethal Inheritance, will like the series, and you don't have to be a teen to enjoy it, because it has many levels. Anyone who likes different books will like this because of its magical realism elements, meaning that the outer and the inner world of a character merge to create an apparently external world that is a metaphor for the internal one. How can you get this one of my free ebooks? Download it from Amazon by clicking this link <http://geni.us/bF0> which will take you to your local Kindle store. If the book doesn’t show up as free for you, (and it doesn't in some countries) then please help to make the book … [Read more...]
An unexpected and humbling review.
I discovered this lovely review on Amazon. It made me wonder if I'm a better writer than I think I am. When you’re reading a sweet, tender story of romance, you don’t expect to be on pavements with holes in them, or at bus stops, or held in the routines of the morning’s commute, and you certainly don’t expect that setting to contribute to the story’s charm. That, however, is exactly what Tahlia Newland has achieved here. There are just two characters, each with a self-image that’s far from flattering. The girl thinks she has ‘thunder thighs’ and an expanding waistline and yet she ‘can't give up eating ice cream’. The man sees her as a goddess and himself as an ordinary mortal. He suspects she finds his bow tie unfashionable but to her, it’s cute. And so the story develops in this world of ‘rusty fences, cracked paths, faded paintwork and builders' rubble’. But it’s also a world which has ‘the fragrance of Jasmine in the warm air’ and it’s this juxtaposition of mundane everyday … [Read more...]
A Hole in the Pavement – FREE 26th and 27th December – share the love
My charming, romantic short story is free on Kindle on the 26th and 27th of December. This magical realism story is truly one for the Christmas, season, guaranteed to bring a smile to your face and warmth to your heart. If you've read it already, gift it to a friend. Follow the links for the blurb and to see what others are saying about it. US Kindle store UK Kindle store Please tell your social networks about it. This story has only 5 star reviews. (Okay, so there's only 5 of them! If you've read it and liked it, I'd appreciate some more) … [Read more...]
Review: Unspent time by Graham Parke, buy for 99c & enter to win a Kindle Fire or a Kindle Touch
Book title: Unspent Time Author: Graham Parke Publisher: OutskirstPress (pb) Amazon (eb) Genre: Fantasy Warning: reading this novel may make you more attractive and elevate your random luck by about 9.332%* (*These statements have not been evaluated by anyone of consequence.) If this catch line for Unspent Time gives you a giggle, you’re in for a treat. Unspent Time is a collection of short stories and I loved it for its humour, originality and general craziness. If you have a prejudice against short stories, drop it and read this. It’s highly entertaining and the author’s commentary links the stories into a unified and satisfying whole. The blurb is a good indicator of the subject matter, so I’ve included it here. Blurb: From the award winning author of ‘No Hope for Gomez!’ comes a collection of 20 impossible tales. Permeating the cracks between the past and the present is the realm of Unspent Time. Pockets of ‘should have been’s and ‘might have happened’s. Time that was … [Read more...]
A drop from the well of creativity & a revamp
I 've revamped the blurb for A Matter of Perception, changed the order of the stories so that the one that got all the accolades is at the beginning, added the blurb for Give Me a Break at the end, and written an introductory story called A Drop From the Well of Creativity. (Do you like the serial commas?) Here's the new blurb. It's a big improvement on the old one. Take a journey into a world where the hidden becomes manifest and the lines between fantasy and reality blur. This collection of imaginative and entertaining stories about ghosts, sirens, light spectrum mages, realm hopping gods, alien monsters and ordinary people will warm your heart and make you smile, shiver, and maybe even wonder about the nature of reality itself. The theme of individual perception as a result of our assumptions, beliefs and emotional experience bind these otherwise diverse stories into a unified whole. If this inspires you to purchase the book - at $1.99, why not? - click the cover for … [Read more...]
The resurgence of shortstories – guest post & ebook give away
Today I have a guest post over at Supernatural Snark on The resurgence of shortstories If you leave a comment you'll be in the running for a free copy of A Matter of Perception. The giveaway runs untill Dec 31. … [Read more...]
Have you ever asked yourself – is it good enough?
At various points in their careers every artist, and probably everyone with an assignment or presentation to hand in, will ask themselves this question and it’s just hit me (again) because I have a story all ready to roll out to the world. I’ve had it professionally edited and I’ve formatted it beautifully using HTML, ( a fun learning curve) so it looks better than a lot of ebooks I’ve read, and now I’m asking myself, is it good enough? This is the quandary of any author whose work hasn’t been picked up by a publisher. In this case, because we’re talking about one short story, I haven’t even submitted it, because no one publishes one short story. An anthology of short stories is coming next and I’m not submitting that to anyone either because no one publishes anthologies of short stories by new authors. So, how do you know if your work is good enough? Answer - show it to people who will know. Seven people have looked at the anthology and every one of them has enjoyed them and agreed … [Read more...]
Rejection isn’t rare, but feedback with it is.
One of the things that annoy some writers is that rejections don’t come with any feedback on the story or novel being submitted. The reason given is that agents, editors (in the case of magazines) and publishers just don’t have time. I understand that completely, because to give responsible feedback takes a lot of thought as well as the time to write it properly. So when feedback does come, it’s greatly appreciated and very heart warming. It shows that someone has taken the time to nurture your writing. It’s only happened to me once, in this recent response from Aurealis Magazine (an Australian and New Zealand Sci fi/fantasy magazine). On the 4th May, I submitted a 6000 word story called ‘Butterfly’. The first 500 words of it are at the end of this post. (I won’t put it all up yet, because I’m still hoping to find a Magazine to publish it.) In italics below is the email I received from the editor. My comments are in ordinary type. 'Dear Tahlia, Thank you for submitting your story … [Read more...]
