Free samples!

With the help of my good friend Robert Denethon, I have created a sampler of scenes from the first two books of The Talismans trilogy. The sampler is free to dowload in mobi, epub and .pdf versions from Dropbox.



Sampler for Kindle readers
 
Sampler for epub readers

Sampler for .pdf readers 



I hope this tempts a few people to buy book one, The Dagger of Dresnia, and, of course, to stamp impatiently while waiting for book two, The Cloak of Challiver, which is due for release early in the new year.

Happy reading, friends! 

Demanding the Ashes: introducing a new children's novel.

Longtime friend of the Egobooers and award-winning former member of the KSP Speculative Fiction Group, Sonia Helbig has published Demanding the Ashes, the first novel in her kid's series Street Cricket Wars, under the pen-name Ricky Striker.

Ricky Striker’s Street Cricket Wars #1 Demanding The Ashes

Cricket mad Fred Black is just about to start high school but he has a huge problem on his hands. Evans - Selwood’s Primary School’s biggest bully who’s picked on Fred all primary school - will be going to the same High School next year. Fred decides he must stop the bullying once and for all. Can and his best mate, Todd, come up with a crazy plan to force Evans to stop the name calling once and for all? 

Find out in Ricky Striker’s Street Cricket Wars #1 Demanding The Ashes

Themes: Friendship, Bullying, Sports, Cricket

*Warning 1* Episode #1 ends on a cliff hanger just like most TV serial episodes. If you’d rather avoid the cliff hangers and get the whole series at once then you may like to check out the complete serial early bird edition which is available for readers who can’t bear cliff hanger endings or waiting for the monthly installments. It’s cheaper this way too!

*Warning 2* - Contains classic Ricky Striker “Weird Humor” moments based on The Ashes

Street Cricket Wars: The Complete Serial #1-5 

Ricky Striker’s Street Cricket Wars The Complete Serial #1-5 Blurb

Cricket mad Fred Black is about to start high school but he has a huge problem on his hands. Evans - Selwood’s biggest bully who’s picked on Fred all primary school - will be going to the same high school next year. Fred and his best mate, Todd, come up with a crazy plan to stop the bullying for good. After all, cricket can solve anything. Can’t it? But life is never that simple for Fred. There’s a reason his dad calls him Trouble. And Trouble is definitely about to break loose. Worse trouble than being called names by the school bully. So much trouble it erupts into a street cricket war.

Will Fred be able to put all the trouble right, keep his Mum and Dad happy, as well as beat Evans and win the right to his real name back - or will he fail? Find out in Ricky Striker’s Street Cricket Wars The Complete Serial Episodes #1-5.

Themes: Friendship, Bullying, Sports, Cricket

*Warning* - Contains classic Ricky Striker “Weird Humor” moments based on The Ashes

This early bird compilation edition is available for readers who can’t bear cliff hanger endings or waiting for the monthly installments. It’s cheaper this way too!

Demanding the Ashes is available at Amazon here.

*The series is also available in iTunes, Nook, Kobo, Page Foundry, Scribd and Tolino.

Congratulations, Sonia (Ricky), and wishing you the very best with your wonderful new kid's book series!

Author Spotlight: Satima Flavell

Satima joins me today for a inspiring chat about writing, novels and publishing, over at my author site, Joanna Fay.

Interstellar Award for Speculative Poetry open for submissions

From March 1st to May 1st, 2015, entries will be open for the new Interstellar Award for Speculative Poetry. After much deliberation, I'm pleased to open a prize solely for speculative poems. In the second half of the year, the Interstellar Award will be open for speculative short fiction. The award offers a First Prize of $1000 and Second Prize of $300, with highly commended and commended acknowledgements.

Speculative is here defined as science fiction and fantasy, all sub-genres such as space opera, hard SF, soft SF, paranormal, steampunk, new gothic, supernatural, metaphysical fantasy, magical realism, and all hybrid genres, including new ones of your own making. The only proviso is that entries contain at least an element of the speculative. So whether you're opening stargates, riding dragons, consorting with elves, reinventing mythologies, shifting magnetic fields, or revealing a subtle anomaly in an otherwise mundane event, your poem/s will be admissible.

Further details and entry guidelines can be found at Interstellar.

Musa Publishing closing day sale until February 28.

Sadly, it's the end of an era for Musa Publishing, which is closing its virtual doors at the end of this week on February 28th. I am grateful to Musa as the first publisher of my novels, with a hard-working, ethical, friendly management and editorial team, and wish them the very best for the future.

All books will be discounted by 80% until closing time on Feb 28. If you've thought about reading the first three novels in my fantasy epic, The Siaris Quartet, and haven't yet, now is the time to visit Musa and purchase them (for $1 each), as I don't know how long it will be before they find a new home with the as yet 'mystery publisher' who will take them on, and publish the final book of the quartet, Ascension, currently underway!

Here are the links for my three novels at Musa:

Daughter of Hope

Reunion

Vow's Answer

Happy reading, dear friends! The adventure continues...............