‘Melpomene’s Daughter’ teaser and excerpt
Posted: April 25, 2015 Filed under: On the Isla's Inheritance trilogy | Tags: Melpomene's Daughter Leave a commentMelpomene’s Daughter is scheduled for release next Tuesday. Finally you guys will get to read my favourite book in the series. Some parts were challenging to write, because there were a few different loose threads from the other books that I needed to braid together, but the end result is (IMNSHO) worth it!
To celebrate, I thought I’d give you guys a glimpse at a teaser and an excerpt in advance of the big day. Because squee!
If you’ve got some catching up to do, for details on the various places you can buy the first two books in the series, click here.
Excerpt from Chapter Two of Melpomene’s Daughter
“Isla?” Ryan called from inside the shed, his voice echoing against the steel walls. “Can you come here for a sec?”
Great. Could this day get any worse? I grimaced, heading down the path, and stopped a couple of metres away. The steel in the walls didn’t bother me—something about the manufacturing process diluted the iron’s toxic effects even as it hardened the metal. Still, I could feel the nauseating effect of the iron sculptures from here. “I’m not coming inside.”
“Right.” My older cousin appeared in the doorway. Dishevelled ginger hair stuck up on the top of his head and bags smudged the skin under his eyes. His aura was a sad, dull silver.
“You look awful,” I said, and then winced. Good one, Isla.
Ryan didn’t seem to notice. He rubbed his forehead. Freckles stood out on his pale skin. “I haven’t been sleeping. And I’ve got a rotten headache.”
“Aislinge vision?”
Ryan’s visions were revealed through his drawings and paintings. Other aislinges—human seers created by the aosidhe—had their individual abilities manifest in different ways. Everest’s Shannon had been able to envision the locations of people and places, but as far as I knew, she’d never been able to see the future as Ryan did.
Ryan nodded grimly. “I tried to ignore it. I didn’t want to paint it. But the dreams got worse and worse.” His hands shook, and he added in a croaking voice, “I didn’t have a choice.”
“I’m so sorry, Ryan.” Tears of remorse burned the back of my eyes. I swallowed hard. I hadn’t meant to make him into an aislinge, and now I had no way to undo it.
“That’s not what’s bothering me. Here, let me show you.” He ducked back inside the shed and returned within moments, holding a large sheet of paper. He’d drawn a picture in black ink, which glistened in the afternoon sunlight. Ryan’s hands shook, distorting the image. I gently took it from him.
The picture was of a headstone. The edges were still sharp, as though the stone was newly made, and there was no grass growing on the dirt before it. A fresh grave. But the headstone was blank.
“Whose is it?” I whispered.
“I don’t know. Believe me, I’ve tried to see. I have. I just can’t.”
Gnawing at my lip, I stared at the picture. All of Ryan’s previous visions—of my mother, an attack on Dad’s farm, Everest’s impending death—had been tied to me, as though his power was only attuned to things I’d care about. If the vision was of a duinesidhe’s death, such as Jack’s or my mother’s, I doubted they’d have such a prosaic human headstone. But my human family, my friends…
“Shit,” I said.
Also, in case you missed it, this month I’ve been busy writing about writing over at Aussie Owned and Read. You can read my post on dialogue tags here, and on the advantages and disadvantages of first-person point of view here.
Sneaky cover reveal: ‘Melpomene’s Daughter’
Posted: April 15, 2015 Filed under: My Books, On the Isla's Inheritance trilogy | Tags: book covers, Melpomene's Daughter 2 CommentsThis week I’ve been busily beetling away on my galley proof for Melpomene’s Daughter, the last book in the Isla’s Inheritance trilogy. Like I said the other day, this is my favourite book in the series, and it’s been blessed with my new favourite cover in the series. Because ocean, and pretty hair.
Don’t tell the other two books.
And now, back to the proofreading cave!
*drops Goodreads link smoke bomb*
*swirls cape*
*vanishes in a puff of red ink*
Blurb for ‘Melpomene’s Daughter’
Posted: April 8, 2015 Filed under: On the Isla's Inheritance trilogy | Tags: blurbs, Melpomene's Daughter 1 CommentFor those of you that missed it on other social media, the final book in the Isla’s Inheritance trilogy, Melpomene’s Daughter, has its own Goodreads page. Where you could add it. If you wanted to. *shuffles feet*
The cover isn’t up yet — I’m hoping to have it in the next week or two — and the exact release date is to be confirmed. But there is a BLURB. Which I shall re-create for you here in all its blurby glory.
Isla struggles to embrace her fae nature while preserving her humanity in this final, exciting instalment in the Isla’s Inheritance trilogy.
Isla has spent months persuading the Canberra fae that she isn’t a tyrant like her mother, trying to prove that — despite her mixed blood — she’s human, not a monster. That she’s one of them, not one of the high fae who enslaved them.
But a vision of a fresh-dug grave warns that someone is going to die.
When the Old World fae move once again against her family, seeking revenge for old wrongs, Isla will stop at nothing to keep those she loves safe. She just wants to be left alone. But to win that right for herself, her family and all Australian fae, she must cross the oceans and take the fight to the country of her birth.
Isla will prove she really is Melpomene’s daughter after all.
I love this book, you guys. I know writers usually say that their favourite book is the one they wrote most recently, and I did work on copy edits for Melpomene’s Daughter the weekend before last, but I really do think that it is the most fun, most exciting and most heartrending book in the series.
I can’t wait to share it with you all. ❤
![[Obligatory promo link here]](https://cassandrapage.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/islasinheritance-cpage-md.jpg?w=590)
Beautiful People: Valentine’s edition
Posted: February 14, 2015 Filed under: On the Lucid Dreaming duology | Tags: beautiful people, Lucid Dreaming Leave a comment
Beautiful People is a monthly meme for writers. Every month, the hosts — Cait at Paper Fury and Sky at Further Up and Further In — post a list of 10 questions for writers to answer about your characters. It’s designed to help everyone get to know the chosen characters: their quirks, their personality, their flaws, and who they are.
This month’s theme is luuuuuurve, because tomorrow is Half-Price-Chocoalte Day or whatever. For something different, I wanted to talk about the characters in my as-yet-unreleased adult urban fantasy, Lucid Dreaming: Melaina and Brad. I haven’t announced this officially yet, but I’m currently gearing up to release Lucid Dreaming in the last quarter of 2015. Woo!
How long have they been a couple?
They meet and get together during the course of the story. By the end of the book they’ve been together about a week and a half.
What? It is a very busy week and a half!
How did they first meet?
That’s a little awkward, and Brad doesn’t like to talk about it…
But I’m his author, so I will. 😉 Basically, he kinda sorta tries to strangle her in her bed. He doesn’t actually remember it, though. He was asleep at the time.
What were their first thoughts of each other? (Love at first sight or “you’re freakishly annoying”?)
Her first thought was, “Who is that weirdly dressed hot guy following me home?” His — a day later — was, “I don’t know her so she must be here to visit the woman sharing my ward room. Dammit!”
What do they do that most annoys each other?
Other than the way they met? (Melaina was pretty bloody annoyed about that!)
They haven’t really been together long enough to discover that they hate the way the other person hogs the remote or puts the toilet paper on the dispenser (over vs under: the eternal debate).
Are their personalities opposite or similar?
Somewhere in between. Brad is a bit of a sceptic about the supernatural when they first get together, so Melaina’s explanations about what is happening to him just make him angry. But once he realises she’s for real, he starts to come around.
Melaina is much more open-minded about that sort of thing — just because she’s never seen a ghost, that doesn’t mean they aren’t real.
How would their lives be different without each other?
There’d be a lot less kissing, for a start! 😉
Are they ever embarrassed about each other?
Give it time! Brad might have been worried about taking her home to meet the parents, given her nose piercing and blue fringe, but he’s an orphan. And his sister, the other relative who might disapprove, liked Melaina before he did.
Does anyone disapprove of their relationship?
Yes. Melaina’s friend Jen is wary at first, worried Brad might have another “incident”. Her other sometimes friend (frienemy?), Leander, has similar concerns.
Do they see their relationship as long-term/leading to marriage?
By the end of the book they both know they really like — maybe even love — one another. But they haven’t had a chance to consider it going any further than that. Honestly, I didn’t really give them much of a chance to ponder.
I’m so mean.
If they could plan the “perfect outing” together, where would they go?
Melaina would like to go somewhere that there aren’t too many people, like a bed and breakfast in the country, or a beach house down at the coast. Brad wouldn’t mind too much, but he’d want it to be a well appointed bed and breakfast or beach house, and he’d organise for chocolates and a bottle of champagne to be left in their room…
Giveaway: ‘Isla’s Inheritance’ paperback
Posted: February 1, 2015 Filed under: On the Isla's Inheritance trilogy | Tags: contests, Goodreads, Isla's Inheritance Leave a commentIf you’ve been waiting for Isla’s Inheritance to come out in paperback but haven’t quite gotten around to buying it, this may be of interest to you — I’m giving away three paperback copies over at Goodreads. The contest is running for all of February, so if you live in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the US or the UK, now’s your chance to enter.
I suspect you need to have a Goodreads account to enter, although I don’t know for sure since I’m already a member.
‘Isla’s Oath’ (Isla’s Inheritance 2) release day
Posted: January 20, 2015 Filed under: On the Isla's Inheritance trilogy | Tags: Isla's Inheritance, Isla's Oath, young adult 4 Comments
They say that new parents always freak out and obsess about their first child’s milestones, whereas with second and subsequent children they tend to be more relaxed. I only have the one actual child so I can’t comment on it, but in some ways, this definitely holds true for books.
Or maybe it’s that I’ve been so busy trying to get all three books ready for the tight release schedule that everything sort of snuck up on me!
Either way, to my surprise, today is the release day for Isla’s Oath. The book blitz will be kicking off on 23 January (at least I remembered to book it a birthday party!), which is very exciting. And, for those of you that haven’t already preordered, the buy links I have so far are here:
Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon Australia | Barnes & Noble
Kobo | iBooks
As this post goes live, the only one of those that says “buy” instead of “preorder” is the Amazon Australia one, because it isn’t 20 January in the northern hemisphere yet. But throughout the day, the rest of the sites will catch up with us.
(The one place I feel like I’ve really let Isla’s Oath down is that I have to work today, whereas last year I was at home when Isla’s Inheritance launched, so I got to hang out all day on Twitter like a giddy schoolgirl. Still, I know I’ll be checking retailers throughout the day, and squeeing in my office even if I can’t do it on the internet till I get home! Maybe you guys could squee on the internet for me? That’d be awesome!)
If you haven’t read the first book in the series yet and are interested, you can find the relevant purchase links here.
The all-important thank yous
I owe so much to everyone who helped during the process of producing Isla’s Oath, whether it was with a bit of advice, assistance or even just a chance to decompress.
As always, to my alpha reader, Peter — who would provide advice on anything except “the girly bits” — thank you. Luckily Shelby, my fantastic editor, was more than happy to pick up the slack! Thanks also to the rest of my cheer squad: Ali and Craig, Mikey and Karen, the Pageinators, my work colleagues, my sister Kristy, and the Aussie Owned and Read girls — especially Stacey Nash, who was simultaneously on this crazy ride for her own books, and held my hand (virtually) while I hyperventilated over what I was getting into. To the BC09 girls, and my friends on Twitter and Facebook, who’ve also provided a ton of virtual support: I couldn’t have done it without you. Thanks for putting up with how distracted I get when I’m drafting.
A special mention goes to Sharon, who came up with the name Isla’s Oath back when I was just calling the manuscript Book Two. Your title is so much snappier!
Finally, to Nathaniel, my bright little boy and the light of my life: I love you to the moon and back. No, the sun! No, infinity! I’m sorry the books don’t have pictures. xo
‘Isla’s Inheritance’ paperbacks now available
Posted: January 19, 2015 Filed under: On the Isla's Inheritance trilogy | Tags: Isla's Inheritance Leave a commentOn the eve of the release of Isla’s Oath (today is your last chance to preorder it; tomorrow you’ll have to … post … order it?), I realised that although I squeed about it on Facebook, Twitter et al, I hadn’t shared the news here.
ISLA’S INHERITANCE IS NOW AVAILABLE IN PAPERBACK!
In fact, it has been for three weeks, but I got so distracted with the holiday season that I plain forgot to blog about it.
Here are the buy links I have collected so far:
Amazon US | Createspace | The Book Depository | Barnes & Noble
Last year I promised photos of me fondling the paperback when it arrived. I don’t have one of those, but I do have one of me doing my very first every author signing — in my dining room — and grinning like a loon. I hope that will do!
(Note the TARDIS pendant. Because I am a nerd. Or geek. I’m never sure which is the better term.)
Happy happy joy joy!
The colour of happiness: emotions as colours in the Isla’s Inheritance trilogy
Posted: January 17, 2015 Filed under: On the Isla's Inheritance trilogy | Tags: colours, Isla's Inheritance, Isla's Oath 2 CommentsThose who’ve read my debut novel, Isla’s Inheritance, will be aware that one the talents Isla discovers is the ability to read people’s emotions via their auras. Until she gets used to and learns to interpret the colours, this is quite overwhelming for her.
Over time, Isla built a mental list of what the different colours mean. As for me, as her creator, I had a physical list that I often referred to while writing, to make sure that I kept the colours consistent. Building this list meant I often wrote Google searches like “what is the colour of happiness?” It was interesting to see the variety of responses this turned up, and of course everyone is going to attach different moods to different colours, depending on their cultural background and personal associations. (I had happiness as a shade of pink when I wrote the books, but now I’d make it canary yellow.)
A good example is red: in Western countries it tends to be associated with passion; with strong, hot emotions. Because Isla is Australian and has that cultural filter, those are the associations she has with shades of red, whereas if she’d been from an Asian background she would probably have associated red with happiness and prosperity.
Isla’s experience of emotions of colours is almost — but not quite — like synaesthesia. I have a friend who has grapheme-color synaesthesia, meaning that her perception of numbers and letters is shaded by a colour (she doesn’t associate numbers with colours; she sees numbers as having colours). The difference in Isla’s case is that she doesn’t experience every emotion she sees as a colour. She observes it in more of a detached fashion — albeit one that swamps her vision until she gets used to it.
Here is a sample of some of the different colours I used in the trilogy, and the emotional associations that I made with them. I often used adjectives, because as you can see, you can have the same basic “colour” meaning a few different things. (Wikipedia was a fantastic resource for this!) The examples below are all toward the red end of the electromagnetic spectrum:
Sickly yellow – fear
Amber yellow – caution
Vibrant orange – terror (beyond fear)
Soft pink – compassion
Salmon pink – embarrassed, like a blush
Deep pink – happiness
Scarlet – lust
Blood red – angry, aggressive or enraged
Rose red – love
Red shot through with black – when fury has crossed over into mindless, ragey violence
For me as a writer, the most fun part was finding creative ways to describe emotions and colours mingled together. Here are some examples from Isla’s Oath, which comes out on 20 January:
Jack seemed calm—his aura a uniform light blue, like a winter sky—and I resolved to emulate him.
Jealousy and grief clashed in her aura, lime green and silvery grey.
His aura was primarily the deep blue of suspicion, but a slow tendril of sickly yellow fear curled there too.
I’d seen fear before, sickly yellow and pulsating. This boy’s fright was beyond that, a blazing orange that hit me like a punch to the gut, knocking the wind from my lungs.
What emotions do you associate with different colours? Are there any I’ve listed that you disagree with? I’d love to hear from you!
A week to go: ‘Isla’s Oath’ teaser
Posted: January 13, 2015 Filed under: On the Isla's Inheritance trilogy | Tags: Isla's Oath 2 Comments
Isla’s Oath comes out in a week. A WEEK! I have no idea where the time went, but that kinda snuck up on me! To celebrate (and to hide my panic), I decided to share a teaser. Because everyone loves to be teased, don’t they?
If you’re interested in preordering, here are some handy links…
Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon Australia | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | iBooks
Excerpt from Chapter Six
“I’m so sorry, Dad! I overslept.”
He glanced at his watch. “It’s almost eleven. It’s not like you to sleep so late.”
“I know, I know. Late night.”
His eyebrows shot up. “Dominic?” Although his tone was neutral, anxiety clashed in his aura, too bright for first thing in the morning.
Wincing, I glanced around, wondering where my aunt was. “No. Other stuff.” This keeping secrets thing was hard work. “I’ll tell you later. Do you mind waiting while I get ready?”
“Not at all. Your cousin’s out in the shed; I’ll go see what he’s working on.”
The shed was Ryan’s art studio. I didn’t go out there anymore, because there were several shelves of Dad’s ironwork along the back wall. I used to store his dozens of gifts to me out there, having no use for that many candleholders and coat hooks. Since my eighteenth birthday, when my duinesidhe heritage manifested, I had extra incentive. Proximity to that much iron made me lose my lunch.
Dad had offered to take the ironwork back. Sarah told him not to. “It might come in handy. You know, for stuff.”
Probably thinking of the duinesidhe that attacked him, Dad had agreed.
Refreshed after a quick shower and with minty-clean teeth, I went out onto the back porch. “Dad! You ready to go?” There was no answer, and anxiety made me grip the railing in tight hands. Only a couple of months ago I’d found Ryan passed out in the shed. “Dad? Ryan?”
“Here.” He stepped into the shed doorway and beckoned me. “I think you need to see this.”
I shook my head, staying where I was. “See what?”
“Ryan’s latest painting.”
“Can he bring it out?” I asked plaintively.
“Oh. Right.”
There was a murmured conversation in the shed. I clenched my jaw with impatience. After a couple of minutes, Dad and Ryan filed out and up onto the porch. They weren’t carrying the painting. “It’s too wet to move,” Ryan explained. He had a smudge of paint on the side of his nose, and his face was pale. “But I took a photo on my phone.”
“Clever.” I smiled.
He didn’t smile back as he handed me the phone.
At first the photo, small as it was, appeared to be an abstract style uncharacteristic of Ryan’s work—his usual preferences were either realism or comic book. The photo was comprised of curving yellow, red and orange lines, with a black shape underlying them. I shaded the phone’s screen from the sun’s glare and zoomed in to get a better look.
My eyes widened. Flames encompassed the entirety of the painting, from edge to edge, licking at the black sticks of trees and rolling across familiar ground.
It was Mount Taylor.
“Do you think this is an aislinge vision painting?” I whispered. A cold ball settled in the pit of my stomach, its tendrils of ice seeping through my body.
He nodded.
I have ‘Isla’s Oath’ news – and an excerpt to celebrate!
Posted: December 20, 2014 Filed under: On the Isla's Inheritance trilogy | Tags: Isla's Inheritance, Isla's Oath Leave a comment
So it’s all happening at once in the world of my second release, Isla’s Oath. Here’s a summary in case you missed it…
Preorders are now available
(for everyone)
Isla’s Oath preorders for the ebook are now available from the following retailers: Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon Australia | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | iBooks
If you’re a Smashwords aficionado, the link is here. But they don’t do preorders; instead you can add the book to your preorder and I think view a sample? I confess I’m not 100% sure. (I expect the aficionados will know this already.)
Advanced Reader Copies are now available
(for book bloggers)
If you’re a book blogger, Isla’s Oath is now available for review on NetGalley. If you are going to request it and haven’t yet read the first book in the series, Isla’s Inheritance, contact me and I’ll get you a copy of that too.
Book blitz sign-ups are now available
(for bloggers)
Again, this is one for bloggers (for now!). The Isla’s Oath book blitz is running from 23–29 January (you may have guessed that from the fabulous banner above, courtesy of XPresso Book Tours!) — you can pick a day in that range to post. There will be excerpts and an interview provided, and perhaps other things if I get struck with inspiration. There’ll also be a grand giveaway of a $50 Amazon or B&N gift voucher.
Phew. I’m exhausted just thinking about it!
Here’s an excerpt from the first chapter of Isla’s Oath, to celebrate!
“Ready?” Jack asked, standing beside me. He was wearing board shorts and a tank top, his feet bare on the sandy path. Blond hair stirred in the evening breeze, brushing his shoulders. He looked like any Australian male on holiday at the beach.
Except your average male didn’t have four-inch-long ears protruding from sun-bleached hair.
“I guess.” I took a deep breath, savouring the briny smell that evoked memories of vacations with my father. I picked my way down the path to the beach, sandals clicking against my heels as I stepped between the weathered log retainers. Jack followed. The plastic bag he was holding rustled.
When we reached the beach, I shook off my shoes and picked them up, hooking them over one finger. The sand was cool under my feet; the radiant heat of the hot February day had faded into a mild summer evening. “Where to?”
Jack pointed towards the worn, even stones scattered at the feet of the towering headland. The water pounded, working patiently to undermine the rocky bluff and send it crashing into the sea. A deep rock pool shimmered in the moonlight, connected to the ocean by a winding channel that surged and retracted with the tide.
We picked our way across the stones to the empty pool. I glanced at Jack. “This is the place,” he assured me.
I nodded, trying not to feel nervous. Jack seemed calm—his aura a uniform light blue, like a winter sky—and I resolved to emulate him. Or at least try.
I could have taken a sample of that light blue calm to help me relax, but I didn’t know how to do it without damaging him. That was, after all, why I was lurking on a beach on the south coast of New South Wales in the middle of the night.
One of the shadowy rocks in the pool moved, floating towards us. I jumped, staring. The shape drifted from the shadows into the moonlight, revealing it wasn’t a rock but a head, hairless and with tiny, round ears. Two solid black eyes opened wide, examining us for a long moment before their owner stood.
Water streamed off his naked body, splashing into the pool. His skin gleamed silvery blue and his chest was broad and flat, tapering to a narrow waist. He didn’t have a bellybutton. Mercifully, the water was opaque and reached the middle of his taut belly, so I didn’t have to avert my gaze from an ironclad confirmation of his sex.
“This is your half-breed master?” The creature spoke to Jack with a watery hiss, slow and deliberate.
Jack bristled. I stepped forward. “I’m Isla.”
Cassandra Page 