Wow! September already over.
 
I began this two-year journey with the aims of writing new work and also ensuring my old works were available online or on request through print-on-demand.

The former aim has currently led to one published novel, Girlie, an anthology of my early life poetry titled Rearview Mirror, and ten unpublished novel manuscripts awaiting further editing and publication. I’m very happy with that outcome over a twenty-two month period.
 
The second aim resulted in republication of the Andrakis trilogy (30th year edition), the Ashuak Chronicles trilogy (20th year edition), and finally, as of this coming week, all four books in the Dreaming in Amber series. Phew!
 
Republishing the Dreaming in Amber books was an interesting process, primarily because I no longer have possession of the last edited manuscript copies that HarperCollins used for publication. I spent significant time across September editing the manuscripts I do have, and they needed important adjustments that included:

• ensuring character names and personalities were consistent across all four books
• inserting final adjustments that were made originally via email conversations way back in 2006-8
• finding and replacing or deleting ‘noisy’ words, like quickly, suddenly, smiled etc
• correcting a major issue around the name Dylan being used for Andra, an issue that made it all the way through to the original HC copies (long story, not for this blog)
• ensuring consistency with ‘amber’ from the Genesis Stone being the source of magic across the stories
• paragraph breaks being relevant
• text layout consistency
• minor typos

I was surprised how much needed correction. To be honest, I’m sure more can be fixed, but my headset is also that these books are in the past of my writing life and represent where I was back then.
 
My readers do know that all of my fantasy books are set in the same physical world, in different regions of that world, and they share the same background history regarding the Genesis Stones, amber, dragons, Elvenaar/Aelendyell and Dragonlord cultures. However, they represent different times in the world’s history, across at least two thousand years from the falling meteors that are the Genesis Stones through to the release of the Demon Horsemen in the Dreaming in Amber books. Across that time, human culture developed from basic medieval in the Andrakis books to emerging industrial era technology in Dreaming in Amber.
 
Two fantasy series remain in unpublished format that are additions to the world above. The first, working series title Dragon Kin Chronicles, deals with the dragons who were portalled away from Ashua by Alwyn and the Alfyn, far to the west of Andrakis and Ranu Ka Shehaala. Their story is set around a similar time to the Dreaming in Amber series (ie three hundred years after the Ashuak events) and the Domovinan human culture affected by the dragons is an emerging industrial technology in line with similar developments in Ranu Ka Shehaala (there are trade and espionage exchanges between the nations influencing human technological growth). Ultimately, the story explores how and why humans and dragons eventually co-exist, which sets the scene for the second unpublished fantasy series, The Last Wizard Saga, originally heralded by my 1995 novel, The Last Wizard. Set a further five centuries ahead in time, humans having undergone a medieval Dark Ages period post-destruction of emerging human technologies by the Demon Horsemen and Dragon Kin, the novels look at a world in which dragons and wizards are outlawed (the outcome of the Dragon Kin Chronicles having proven problematic), but one of each survives, and a new world order commences.
 
Basically, I linked the tales across seventeen books, and core elements are echoed, with the amber/Genesis Stone magic source underpinning them all. It’s been and continues to be a fun journey for me, and hopefully readers.

In conversations with my daughters, we also redesigned the cover for Girlie, the historical biographical novel. The original cover was to publish the story mainly for family, using a photo of my Mum and a background of the tapestry she wove while recuperating from TB, but the new design incorporates her favourite peacock green colour, and art deco design and lettering more akin to the era in which the story is set. Consider the pictorial comparison in the changes. The third image is a hardback edition with the black background.

So, September has been busy. What I planned to spread across three months, I condensed into one. I’m about to edit two works by friends early October as a break from my own creativity, and then I’ll return to working on the existing unpublished work. As I flagged in the last post, November is booked out again for a NaNoWriMo project. 2024 is racing along. The AFL Grand Final is done, Bathurst is looming, bursts of Spring sunshine cause house renovation and repair jobs to blossom, and writing is never ending.

So many people recall variations on this piece of doggerel, and I think I first heard it recited by American comedian Jimmy Durante when I was a child watching old black and white movies on a 32 inch TV, but attributions claiming its origins arise from disparate sources. Since August ends winter here in Australia and heralds spring, this crazy piece is inevitably recited in our family.
 
August brought a range of exciting writing events and projects to the fore, culminating in a writing workshop for Writers SA titled The Story Arc, during which I guided fourteen keen and engaged participants through a six-hour intensive focussing on building the story arc in their current projects. Participant feedback was very positive, and I enjoyed the energy and connection with writers.

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I always offer a ‘burning questions’ option where participants can pop specific questions on Post-it notes to be addressed during the workshop and the question that resonated was ‘Why do writers always suffer imposter syndrome?’ If the term is not familiar, it simply means that writers feel they cannot be considered themselves as writers and what they are really doing is being imposters. We discussed this as a group and an agreed definition, verified by similar online forums, is that a writer is an artist who creates through using words, and an author is a writer who publishes work for public consumption. Then there is the whole conversation as to what constitutes an author: novelists, poets, scriptwriters, journalists, copywriters, traditional publishing, self-publishing, ‘vanity’ publishing and so on. However, what sat at the base of the discussion is that so many writers feel like imposters because of a combination of self-perception and perceptions of observers. As participants expressed, the value of being a writer seems to be equated with questions like: ‘Oh, you’re a writer? How many books have you published?’ or ‘How much do you earn through writing, then?’ or ‘A writer? Literature or genre stuff?’ and a crowd favourite: ‘Really? Yeah, I’ve always wanted to write a book, too.’ The questions, in themselves, are not unreasonable, but for writers who are diligently developing a project, who cannot seem to attract an agent or a publisher’s interest, who fully intend to self-publish because their work is never intended to be a best-selling blockbuster, who are passionate about creating with words, the questions cause self-doubt and being unable to produce a published work or a manuscript to prove that writing is taking place then leads to guilt that what we are doing is simply wasting time. No economic value equals no value in what we are doing. Anyway, we rallied from the question and agreed that, like so many artists, we are all writers because we are passionate about our art, we commit ourselves to creating and crafting, we have intention to complete our projects irrespective of whether the ultimate goal is to be published or not, and we enjoy what we are doing. We all not only have stories to tell, but we are actively involved in writing them. We ARE writers.
 
For myself and my projects, progress continues, and some changes are in place.
 
The initial bad news – both Science Fiction novels were rejected by their first publisher offers (positive feedback, but not what the publisher would normally publish). No big deal and not unexpected. They will now go to the next possibilities.
 
The Dragon Kin fantasy book three is moving very slowly. The core aim of book three is to move towards resolution for the Dragon Queen, Shadrael, her Alfyn nemeses, and the humans caught in the conflict. I know how the story will end (roughly), but the plotting leading to it still challenges me regarding detail. I will chip away at this project.
 
Several readers contacted me in recent weeks asking how they can obtain the now out-of-print Dreaming in Amber novels and that has prompted me to begin editing the existing manuscripts, design covers and prepare them for release through Amazon (and other sources). This was to begin in 2025, but I have decided to start the process this month and work through one book at a time, releasing one a month, hopefully from October-December/January. Once they are done, my 1992-2008 backlist will be available from me and from Amazon.
 
Thank you to the readers who bought Girlie and have since given me very positive feedback. I have started drafting the companion novel, Bill, which will be a project in 2025, and in a similar vein it will tell the story of my father’s youth, leading up to marrying Eileen. With scant details, it will require as much research as Girlie did, and most likely a lot more speculative content. I’m looking forward to it.
 
The four The Last Wizard fantasy novels will begin to be offered to overseas agents this month.
 
For NanoWriMo, the project will be to totally focus on the men’s novel, now with the working title Comes the Moment. I’m hoping to punch out most of that novel in the four weeks of November.
 
Into September we dive, full of energy and creativity and joy. Spring has sprung indeed!