Playing around with character art
As part of re-releasing The Rephaim series in Australia and New Zealand, I’ve been playing around with character art to keep my promos interesting.
I don’t use AI for any form of written content generation, but I’ll confess I’m mildly addicted to the image generation function (which can be hit and miss – and some of the misses are hilarious). And even then, I’m only using it for social media. (I’ll blog separately on my thoughts on generative AI.)
What do you think of these? Any requests for scenes/moments/quotes out of any of the books?
Reflecting on a decade since The Rephaim series
This year, it’s 10 years since Burn, the fourth book in The Rephaim series, came out in Australia and New Zealand.
These books changed my life. Not in a throw-in-my-day-job kind of way, but in the way it enriched my life as an author. After many years of writing novels and amassing a daunting rejection pile, I was finally in print and connected to an audience. That meant writers’ festivals, school visits, meeting other authors and – best of all – interacting with readers.
It was awesome.
From 2012 to 2017, I had a blast – the four books of The Rephaim series came out, were on-sold to the US and UK and I followed it up with a stand-alone near-future thriller, The Undercurrent. It was my most critically successful novel , and I found new readers, but the fans who loved The Rephaim mostly didn’t embrace it (perhaps because Rafa wasn’t in it?).
That was seven years ago and I haven’t had a book published since. I haven’t stopped writing: a contemporary thriller a few years ago and, most recently, the first two books of a new fantasy trilogy. Granted, the thriller was not my best work. I wrote it in the final year of my mum’s life and it was a more of a distraction than a passion project. But the fantasy series is the one I was working on before The Rephaim, and I’m deeply invested. It’s in a very different shape to what it was a decade ago and I think it’s some of my best work.
The Rephaim books have always been close to my heart. I started writing Shadows to entertain myself after a near-miss publishing deal and – as naff as this sounds – I still enjoy reading the series. So, when the books were close to being out of print in Australia, my agent and I reached out to Text Publishing to see if I could get the local rights back. Text Publishing, to whom I’ll always be grateful for taking a chance on me, agreed to the request.
That happened in February this year and I’ve been on a very steep learning curve ever since as I’ve embarked on re-releasing them myself. I’ll blog more on that in coming weeks.
In the meantime, the new 10th anniversary editions of each of The Rephaim books are now available on Amazon Kindle. The new edition print versions (via Amazon and bricks-and-mortar stores in Australia/New Zealand) are not far away and ebooks on other platforms will follow later in the year. All other versions internationally are still available through the usual channels.
What’s particularly special about these new local editions is that the new covers feature original artwork by my talented brother-in-law (and watercolourist) Tony Weston and designs by my talented bestie (and graphic designer) Heather Scott.
I’m hoping the books can have a new lease on life and reach new audiences. Being back in this space has reminded how much I love my creative life – with all its ups, downs, frustrations and triumphs. I’m in the infancy of managing every aspect of publishing a book series myself, of course, and I’m leaning on the wisdom of many who have gone before me – not the least being Ellie Marney and Kirsty Eagar.
Meanwhile…
Meanwhile, the new fantasy trilogy is taking shape, I finally have thoughts on how to step back into the world of The Rephaim, and the TV option in Canada for Shadows is still live.
I’m cautiously optimistic about the future.
But whatever happens, I’ll keep writing.
Recap of Haze UK blog tour
Now I’m back in Australia it’s time to catch up on the UK blog tour that’s been happening over the past couple of weeks.
Huge thanks to the bloggers who participated, and to Nina Douglas at Indigo Books for organising. 🙂
- Winged Reviews: An insightful interview with Mary, in which I have an epiphany about a certain aspect of the Rephaim series.
- Dark Readers: Casey (possibly Rafa’s number one fan) hosts a mini Rafa-fest. 🙂
- Wondrous Reads: In a guest post, I talk about weapon choices in urban fantasy.
- Fluttering Butterflies: Clover invited me to share my ‘bookshelf requirement’. My choice: Melina Marchetta.
- Wondrous Reads: In my second visit to Wondrous Reads this tour, I chat with Jenny about the world of the Rephaim, writing action scene and musical inspiration – as well as a teeny teaser about Shimmer.
- Bookbabblers: I chat about character inspiration and my fave TV shows with the lovely Sarah.
Thanks everyone. 🙂
UK Haze blog tour starts next week
The lovely team at Indigo has put together a fun blog tour to promote the release of Haze in the UK (it’s out now).
There are guest posts and interviews, including a question that prompted a revelation for me about a particular aspect of the story, (thanks Mary!). I also chat about guns and swords. Oh, and there’s a mini Rafa-fest…
I’ll promo posts during the tour, and then collate links to them all at the end of the tour.
Rafa and ladies' kisses
You’ve possibly noticed my books tend to make regular mention of food – in particular, tasty cuisine from different parts of the world.
In Haze, there’s a scene in which Rafa is telling Gaby a story about their childhood and it involves sneaking into the kitchen at the Sanctuary to steal Italian biscuits known as baci di dama (ladies’ kisses).
So, as an excuse to write a post with ‘Rafa’ and ‘ladies’ kisses’ in the search terms, here’s the recipe (from Gourmet Traveller) and photos of my first attempt over the weekend to make them (great suggestion Heather Scott).
I took a slight cheat’s option and used Italian-made hazelnut spread rather than the chocolate filling in this recipe – partly because it was quicker, and partly because I wanted more hazel flavour.
• 105 gm (¾ cup) hazelnuts, roasted and peeled
• 160 gm (1 cup) pure icing sugar
• 125 gm softened butter
• 1 orange, finely grated rind only
• 1 vanilla bean, scraped seeds only
• 150 gm(1 cup) plain flour
Chocolate filling (or use hazelnut spread)
• 150 gm dark chocolate (60% cocoa solids), coarsely chopped
• 25 gm butter
• 25 ml pouring cream
Method
• Preheat oven to 180C. Using a food processor, process hazelnuts and icing sugar until nuts are finely ground.
• Using an electric mixer fitted with a paddle, beat butter, rind, vanilla seeds, hazelnut mixture and a large pinch of salt until creamy, then add flour, stirring until just combined (do not overmix).
• Roll half-teaspoon of dough into balls and arrange about 6cm apart on baking paper-lined oven trays. Bake one tray at a time in centre of oven until golden (12-15 minutes), then cool on trays over a wire rack. Repeat with remaining biscuits.
• For chocolate filling, combine chocolate, butter and cream in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring occasionally, until melted. Stir until glossy and smooth, then cool to room temperature.
• Spread half-teaspoon of chocolate filling onto the flat side of half the biscuits (you may have a little filling left over), then sandwich with remaining biscuits, pressing lightly together to seal. Biscuits will keep in refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 1 week. Bring to room temperature before serving.
And yes, I realise mine look more like ladies poking out their tongues than puckering for a kiss (probably appropriate, given my approach to romance). Here’s what they’re supposed to look like (from Gourmet Traveller):
