June 7, 2014 in Dag

I’m neurotic

You know what we writers are like. We’re free and easy spirits, living a cool, bohemian kind of lifestyle. We swan in and out of cafes, drinking copious amounts of coffee and watching as life goes by, notepad at the ready to jot down anything we notice that we can use later in the services of our writing.

We’re cool customers, unruffled by life. Marching to a different drum as we let ourselves be driven by our creative urges.

Well, I can’t speak for any other writers out there, but I absolutely know that this isn’t me at all.

I’m not cool. I’m not composed. I don’t lead any kind of relaxed, bohemian existence. I’m totally not the sort of person who just goes with the flow. Truth is, I’m neurotic as hell.

I worry about everything. I get myself all worked up about nothing. I make a big deal about even the slightest of disturbances. If there was anybody who could possibly be a poster boy for neurotics anonymous, I reckon it would be me.

I have to say that I am quite cool and relaxed about my neurotic nature. I even find it quite useful. I reckon that obsessing over fiddly little details is actually a pretty valuable quality for a novelist. And this obsessiveness also helps me to maintain my concentration for the extended periods required to actually write a complete novel – and then go back and rewrite it again and again and again.

So far from seeing creativity and neurotic-ness (honestly, I tried to google a noun version of neurotic and couldn’t find one – that’s how neurotic I am) as exclusive, I actually see them as a good combination. Maybe we need a new word to describe it – creotic or something.

Anyway, to anyone out there, have a great and creotic week. And see you at exactly the same time next week (you know I’ll be here, and now you know why).

June 4, 2014 in Dag

Special offer for Lethal Inheritance by Tahlia Newland

Today I’m happy to welcome an old friend, Tahlia Newland, who’s here to talk about a special offer for her book, Lethal Inheritance.

Special offer for Lethal Inheritance by Tahlia Newland


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Yep, you did hear right; it’s $4 off. Lethal Inheritance, book one of the Diamond Peak series, is only 99c on Amazon and Kobo from the 30th of May to the 5th of June. Usually the book is priced at $4.99, but this is the first in a series of four books, and for this one week, the author wants to make it easy for you to have a taste. This is a great 99c ebook deal, and an offer rarely repeated, so snap it up while it’s hot.  

What makes this book different to all the other YA fantasy?


The Diamond Peak series is more than just great fiction, it’s also an education on how to deal with negative emotions and difficult people. You’ll get a tiny taste of meditation and Buddhist philosophy and learn how to banish your demons in a very entertaining way.

What’s it about?


After an ordinary evening studying for her final exams, Ariel wakes to a scream and discovers that demons have kidnapped her mother and dragged her into a hidden realm. Ariel mounts a rescue mission, but to defeat the demons, who feed on fear and seek the enslavement of the human race, she must learn a secret esoteric wisdom to awaken the dormant but potentially explosive power of her mind.

Walnut, a quirky old wise man, guides her through treacherous inner and outer landscapes, and Nick, the powerful Warrior who travels with them, proves a dangerous attraction. Can Ariel defeat the sadistic demon lord before he kills her and enslaves her mother?

The stakes are high, death a real possibility. Fail now, and she fails humanity.

Is it any good?


 Lethal Inheritance has received the AIA Seal of Excellence in Fiction and a BRAG Medallion for Outstanding Fiction. “Lethal Inheritance rivals such young adult favorites as J.K. Rowling and Rick Riordian.”Tammy Dewhurst, Rabid Readers.

“Lethal Inheritance has it all – rich, detailed world building, insanely realistic characters, and a kick ass fantasy plot.” Book Briefs Reviews.
“A fun read, seamlessly layered with philosophical themes adding depth to the adventure, with engaging characters and evil antagonists, a bit of humour and romance and great action sequences.” Kevin Berry, author.

Where did you say I can get it?


Buy it now on Amazon or Kobo.

Please support this hardworking and talented author by sharing this with your friends.
May 31, 2014 in Dag

What freezes a writer’s blood?

I just started a new story.

Hooray, cheers, party hats, streamers, and all that other fun stuff.

Starting a new story is fun. It’s like starting out on an adventure, or climbing to a high lookout to see a whole land stretching out in front of you. Where will you go? What will you do? The possibilities are endless.

But it’s not all fun. Starting a new story can also be kind of scary.

I’ve had this story in my mind for a while. While I’ve been focussing on getting other stories done, it’s been sitting up in my head, quietly waiting and biding its time. In my quieter moments, I’ve been able to toss it around in my mind, considering how it will work and what sorts of ways I can bend it and twist it to make it as fun as it can be (and apologies for the rather tortured mixed metaphors here).

But then, after months (or even years) of quiet consideration, the time comes to make a start on putting that story onto the page. And that’s when things can get a little scary.

It’s one thing to have the embryo of a story idea spinning around in your head. It’s quite another to actually write the thing. There are so many reasons to be afraid. Will I be able to do the story justice? Will I be able to effectively convert what is in my mind as an idea into an actual story composed of words?

And what if it just turns out to be no good? In my head, it seemed like a great idea for a story? But now that I’m getting it written, is it really that good? What if I show it to other people and they turn around and say, “What a load of rubbish”?

So you see, the moment when you come to write a long-held story idea is actually a pretty terrifying one for a writer. But am I going to let it hold me back? Hell, no. I’m going to go for broke and get it written as well as I can. If I don’t do the original idea justice, or if it turned out to be a dumb idea in the first place, I don’t care.

Because if I did, then I guess I would never, ever be a writer.
May 24, 2014 in Dag

Pulling away the table cloth

I love magic tricks.

I love to watch as closely as I can when a magician is performing. I like to see if I can figure out what is going on. I almost never do. Sleight of hand always defeats me, leaving me in awe of the skill on display. I often feel that, even if I gave myself heaps of practice, I’d never be able to repeat such clever tricks myself.

One of the tricks I really like is the “pulling away the table cloth” trick. You know the one where the magician pulls away the table cloth in one clean sweep, leaving everything on the table (particularly the precarious stuff like fully laden glasses sitting atop high platters) completely unmoved. I know, you could possibly say this isn’t exactly a magic trick, but it’s still especially skillful, and it’s not something I could ever repeat myself.

But there is one way that I can emulate this.

I like to think that in some ways, writing compares to the tricks of a magician. We have our own kind of sleight of hand, even though it’s more about the tricks we play with words. And I even like to think I have my own version of the “pulling away the table cloth” trick.

I suppose it’s about playing tricks with readers’ expectations. Get them thinking in a particular way, and then, with one quick movement, revealing something that throws everything in a completely opposite direction. By the time the trick is performed, those readers are a bit like the glasses sitting on the table. Just as the glasses have suddenly discovered there is no longer a table cloth underneath them, so the readers will see that the assumptions they made about the characters or the story have turned out to be completely unsound.

Whenever I finish a new story, I’m never quite sure if I’ve been successful or not at performing this trick, but it’s a nice thing to aspire to. It means I’m always thinking, “How can I surprise my readers and challenge their expectations?” And that, to me, is one of the greatest things about being a writer.
May 19, 2014 in Dag

Look – in the backyard. Is it a turtle? Is it a tiger?

Today is a really special day for me.

Okay, I know I say that quite a bit. So let me emphasise by saying it’s not just any kind of special day. Today is a super special day. Because today marks the release of my very first picture book: Thomas and the Tiger-Turtle.

Thomas and the Tiger-Turtle is a story that is sure to change the world. It will reassess expectations about what is possible with the picture book form. It will radically change the way we view both ourselves and the world around us…

All right, maybe not. But it should be a lot of fun to read (and a lot of fun to look at the pictures too).

The story is really quite simple at heart. It’s about a turtle that is convinced it’s really a tiger, and about a boy who is determined to convince it otherwise. Thomas tries all sorts of ways to make the turtle see reality, including a trip to the zoo and an interesting game of tag. But when he finally achieves his goal, he finds that there’s a lot more too friendship than that.

I’ve got to give a big thanks to the people at Evolved Publishing for helping this dream become a reality, and especially to John Cardinal for his colourful and fun illustrations that have brought both Thomas and the turtle to life.

You can get a copy for yourself, in hardcover, paperback or ebook, from the following sites:

Hopefully you’ll have as much fun reading it as I’ve had writing it.