Fire the confetti cannons: ‘Melpomene’s Daughter’ release day!

We finally got there, you guys! Maybe it was the promises I made the aosidhe (shh), or the sacrificial offerings to Fate, or the dogged persistence of Kim at Turquoise Morning Press — who managed to upload my ebook to websites despite a broken elbow meaning she can barely hold a mouse.

Okay, really it was that last one. (Thanks, Kim!)

But today is the Melpomene’s Daughter release day. And as I’m sure all older children will claim is typical (I’m the oldest in my family, so I wouldn’t know 😉 ), its birthday has been delayed and as a result rather poorly planned. I’m organising a book blitz for mid-May to atone, but I don’t want the poor thing to languish till then.

And don’t the three of them look pretty together?

Giveaway and links

My giveaway of a paperback copy of Isla’s Inheritance is still running. You can enter here. It’s open to anywhere The Book Depository delivers, but if the winner is in Australia I’ll sign their copy for them. You know, if they want me to… *shuffles feet*

As I write this, Melpomene’s Daughter has gone live on all the stripes of Amazon and at Smashwords. As I get more buy links, I’ll pop them here (where you can, as it so happens, find links to the first two books in the series if you’ve got some catching up to do).

You can add it to your Goodreads shelf here.

Obligatory Oscar speech

Melpomene’s Daughter wouldn’t have been possible without feedback, support, hugs and/or coffee from the following people.

Firstly, and most importantly, thank you to Nathaniel, for your bright-eyed enthusiasm and determination to make me laugh. Being your mummy has helped me see the world with fresh eyes, and it’s pretty awesome.

Thank you Peter, friend, alpha reader and evil genius, for telling me when you thought my bad guys weren’t being bad enough. Thanks also for that epic plotting (and scheming) session during our caving holiday. As you can see, I stuck to the plan. More or less. To Shelby, editor extraordinaire, for letting me get away with — and even encouraging — all that Australian slang: cheers, mate! Also, thanks and high fives to my friends Mikey and Cass for showing me it could be done. You were my inspirations when I sat down to write Isla’s Inheritance. True story.

For their full-throated support and enthusiasm, I’m grateful to Craig, Ali, Karen, Nicole, Barbara, Stacey, Lauren, Kim and the rest of the Pageinators. And, as always, thanks to my family and work colleagues, the BC09 gang, the rest of the AOR crew, and all my writing friends on Twitter: you guys are my safety net.

And finally, thanks to Isla, Sarah, Jack and the others, for letting me spend time in your world. It’s been a blast. It’s going to be hard to say goodbye.

And now I want to cry…

Bad news and good news: ‘Melpomene’s Daughter’ release delayed

So I can’t decide whether I tempted Fate with my last blog post (Fate is a dick) or whether I’ve accidentally hit on the truth with my Isla’s Inheritance series. Maybe the aosidhe have just caught on and are belatedly trying to suppress the truth.

Either way, I have some bad news: due to some circumstances beyond anyone’s control (a broken arm is involved), the release of Melpomene’s Daughter has been delayed. I don’t have a new release date yet, but I’m hopeful it will be in the next few weeks. As soon as I know anything, you’ll know.

I’m really sorry to everyone who’s waited so patiently for this book.

So what’s the good news?

Because I’m a rebel and won’t let the aosidhe tell me what to do (damn them and their pointy-eared arrogance), I’m giving away a paperback copy of the first book in the series, Isla’s Inheritance. If the winner is in Australia, I’ll even deface sign it for them if they want me to. (For an overseas winner that won’t be possible, unfortunately, unless they want to pay for postage. In that case, I’ll deface away!)

The competition is open to anyone in a country The Book Depository ships to.

Click HERE to enter the Isla’s Inheritance paperback giveaway

‘Melpomene’s Daughter’ teaser and excerpt

Melpomene’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.