I love to write; I love to breathe life into my characters and see them exist in a realm outside of my mind.  There is such pleasure in sharing my work, in allowing others to immerse themselves in the stories of fantasy and adventure I weave–  Oops!  Oh yeah, that’s right, my first novel titled, Protector, is releasing in November with Lyrical Press.  And those readers I want to share with–I need to find them.  Elusive critters–where are you?

This whole process of promoting your book, months in advance of release day, intrigues me beyond belief.  In the course of researching how this is done, I am now even more in awe of authors who sells tens of thousands of copies and make writing a fulltime career.

Firstly though, I’d like to point out that I have the fulltime career portion of my writing nailed.  Yes, I spend all hours of the day and night pounding the keyboard, my characters demanding they all be heard.  It’s the second half that has me nibbling on my nails.  Where are these tens of thousands of readers?

I can only say I’ve got five months still to find you.  I have a wonderful network of family and friends, but it is those readers who truly love the “young adult fantasy romance” genre, I desire to meet.  Yeah, and I thought writing was a solitary career–just me and my laptop.  I couldn’t have been more wrong.

So if you’re reading this post–firstly I am immensely grateful you are.  And secondly, feel free to “follow” future updates and spread the word.  A friend of a friend, is a friend.

PS: I love giving away free stuff–that makes me an even better friend.

This week I began working on my second Young Adult novel (my first to be published in the USA with Lyrical Press in November 2012, titled “Protector”.)

The second book’s characters have been alive in my head for years, and now they are finally bursting free and having their say.  I have spent a week running research on horses and cattle and Outback stations, because the amazing state of South Australia is the “drought-ridden” location for half of this book.

Next on my agenda was to look at Australian lingo.  What I discovered, was even though North American readers like to visit far-flung destinations when they read a book, they apparently find such dialogue with Aus/NZ-isms, can jolt them out of the story, interfering with the book’s flow, so now torches, kitchen bench, bonnet, and car parks, will respectively be called flashlights, kitchen counter, hood, and parking lots.  And that’s only the start, because instead of no worries/no drama, it is more appropriate to use everything’s cool, not a problem.

So with that being the case, I ‘m going to get cracking–and that would be “it’s time to write.”

Thanks for joining me.

Reading romance novels with sexy heroes and beautiful heroines has always been my number one form of relaxation, ever since I was a young teenager and began picking my way through my mother’s romance collection. I have spent years building up my own library, snapping up full series by my favorite authors, and re-reading them, again and again. Then I had a life-changing thought in February 2009–why not write my own story? Surely it could be done?!

That’s when I picked up pen and paper and jotted down my cast of characters, expanding to include their family, friends, and hey, why not more than one world. Enter the mystical planet of Magio, one central land mass consisting of two countries, the rulers in a massive tug of war. Then add the conflict–the fierce, blood thirsty warriors of Dralion, and pit them against the loyal protectors of Peacio, both fighting forces equal in power and amazing magical strength skills. Although, now to spice it up and mix in one very hot prince, a ton of edgy villains with their own scourge of issues, and brew until boiling with spicy tension. A story to be proud of, a story which before I could write, needed the perfect strawberry on the top, and that delicacy came in the form of one innocent and young Earth woman, an eighteen-year-old teen who came with her own immense and unexpected secret.

This is the platform I began working with, hitting my laptop and writing four manuscripts in an ongoing saga with these characters within the young adult, fantasy, romance genre. Then taking some time away from them in my second year, being 2010, I took what I’d diligently learnt in the first and began researching the adult romance line. Another couple of books later, and having entered a writing contest or two, I was finally starting to produce something I was becoming quietly proud of.

This meant that 2011 was the year I felt confident I could go back to my first young adult novel–the fantasy story I mentioned above–and completely rewrite it. And I say a complete rewrite, because my first attempt, in retrospect, was quite frankly awful. So, taking all my developing skills, I set about producing a piece of work using the cast and characters I had come to love, to write a full length manuscript I titled, Protector. This novel was the first that I felt I could finally submit–somewhere.

Yeah, that place “somewhere” is a tough location. If only you could choose your own agent, instead of them choosing you! Thus, after a number of negative responses, which can all be rather disheartening as any unpublished writer will tell you, I began continuing on with my next piece of work, while waiting with bated breath for that first “yes” for Protector to arrive in my “inbox.”

And it happened, my readers. On the 15th of February 2012 I signed my first contract with Lyrical Press, Inc in New York. Thank you so much Renee Rocco and your fabulous team at Lyrical Press for saying “yes” to Protector.

And now, because immersing myself in the world of writing and story-telling is my dream, I shall continue to breathe life into my gorgeous heroes and feisty heroines, knowing that I can now share every future story I dream, with you.