DarkSiders Around the Web - March

Let's whizz around the web...

BookBub

Annie Seaton is over at BookBub.

Video

Bernadette Rowley reads (while wearing a lovely costume) scene 1 from her book, The Lord and the Mermaid (Book 1, Wildecost Saga).

Blog Posts

Lilliana Rose shared some love messages - Love,  Love Messages, Happy Valentine's Day, talks about a Broken Pen, and finds a New Writing Spot.

Echo Springs featuring Leisl Leighton and Daniel de Lorne was featured in November Book Club: Must-Reads from the Riverina Regional Library.

Daniel de Lorne goes to the scene where much of the action of the Bond of Bloods series begins in Visiting Carcassonne: Where it all began.

Khloe Wren had an Author Spotlight at Australian Romance Readers Association.

C.M. Simpson has the following poetry in the blog feature Wednesday's Verse:

• Dragons in Mourning featured in 365 Days of Poetry
• Children, Machines, Human
• The Unicorn Fierce 

both featured in Another 365 Days of Poetry, a collection of mixed-genre poetry to be released later in the year.

C.M. features flash fiction every Friday in the feature, Friday's Flash.

• When Pixies Dance the Storm Dance
• Tiramar and the Druid

C.M.'s  Tuesday's Short blog feature, where she shares a short story on her blog for a week. This week it features Destiny's Queen. 

Follow C.M.'s blog to keep up to date with this feature.  

C.M. Simpson shares chapters from her alter-ego's Carlie Simonsen book, Dear Tiger: I Don't Think I'm Human Anymore (Book 2, The Tiger Letters).

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | 

D.D. Line  interviews fellow anthologist Sonia Bellhouse in Fire and Ice (Part One), and talks about Emotional Punch (part 2).

Nicola E. Sheridan blogs about another mythological creature in the post, Fat Phobic? Meet the Nuppeppo.

Keri Arthur features an oldie, Embraced by Darkness (Book 5, Riley Jenson) and Unlit (Book 1, Kindgoms of Earth and Air) in her Six Sentence Sunday Time.

Keri was featured in a podcast with Mel Hammond - #148 From Traditionally Published To Indie: A Success Story, with Keri Arthur

Louise Cusack blogs about Grief and Writer's Block.

Come Back to Me (Book 1, Love Across Time) by Annie Seaton was mentioned in the Australian Women Writers Challenge Speculative Fiction  Yearly Round Up - 2018.

Thanks for joining us around the web. 
Until next time, happy reading!

What We Are Reading

Welcome to What We Are Reading for September. This month there is everything from crime to romantic comedy with some erotic romance mixed in for good measure. Enjoy:)

Colleen Simpson
Come to Grief by Dick Francis
This week I'm reading Come to Grief by Dick Francis. It's one of his best books (although, I tend to have trouble deciding which I like most). This one draws on character motivations to commit a heinous crime, and the moral courage of one person to turn in ('betray') a friend who is causing grief to innocent people. I have always loved and admired the way Dick Francis draws the most believable characters and makes them all - good, bad, minor, major - quite real. Take a look at the way he draws Jonathan (the delinquent with hope of redemption teenager), Archie (powerful civil servant), Ellis Quint (villain, but loved-by-all television host), Rachel (child with leukemia who steals Sid Halley's heart), Jonathan's aunt, and Sid Halley (jockey-come-detective) himself. These are all memorable, as are those mentioned in passing. He is amazing.


Jenny Schwartz
I discovered Shelly Laurenston's shifter romances. They're funny and sexy and really re-readable. There's a bundle deal on Amazon that's pretty good, although it's not the first four in the series, but a mixed bunch.

Jayne Castle (Jayne Ann Krentz writing science fiction romance) has just released her latest Rainshadow Island novel, Deception Cove. For those who haven't discovered the joys of dust bunnies -- you are so missing out! This is light science fiction with a paranormal element and a strong romance.

Juliet Madison's I Dream of Johnny is magical romantic comedy with an Australian flavour. Damn typos! Mandy wants a Greek god, but gets a GEEK one instead. Mayhem in the nicest way ensues.



Shona Husk
Assassins in Love by Kris DeLake
This is a sci-fi romance about two assassins. I really enjoyed the world building (which wasn’t heavy on explaining the tech it just was—which is how I like it) and the characters were great. It was one of those reads that left me smiling and wishing I had book two in the series on my TBR pile already (so I could jump straight in).

Hold’em (Vegas Top Guns) by Katie Porter
Fighter pilots and BDSM. I don’t think I need to say more :) Oh, except maybe it’s the woman holding the cane and she is also a pilot. This is the third book in the series. I’ve enjoyed them all so far.

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Happy reading

Shona

What We Are Reading

This month we have Kylie Scott, Colleen Simpson and Nicole Hurley-Moore sharing what they've been reading.

Kylie Scott

Addicted by Charlotte Stein
The torrid tale of a mild mannered librarian whose attempt at writing erotic romance needs a healthy dose of reality. Kit goes off to a sexual healing class and there meets Dillon, dreamy hunk and sex addict. I love Charlotte Stein. I honestly laughed so hard I cried several times with this book. It was brutally honest about our heroine's insecurities in the most wonderful way. You couldn't help but relate to her. Charlotte writes wonderful smexy times books in first person point of view and if you haven't tried her then please, for the love of good quality smut everywhere, give her a go. Addicted was fabulous. Can't wait for her next book.



Colleen Simpson


A Victory Celebration by Greta Van Der Rol
This short story of science fiction romance fills in a little more of the relationship between Ravindra and Morgan, the two main characters in Morgan's Choice, and Morgan's Return. Fast moving, it uses an unscheduled girl's night out to weave a tale love, conflict and reconciliation in a post-war time of celebration and intrigue. I enjoyed it, I now own it, and I want more from this author.

Nicole Hurley-Moore

Life as a Victorian Lady by Pamela Horn.
This is a little book and part of a series I think. It gives you a little glimpse into their world. It covers quite a lot but it is only 89 pages long – so if you are looking for in depth detail you may need to look elsewhere. Its chapters include – Growing Up, Etiquette & the Social Round, Mistress of the Household, The Role of Lady Bountiful and Pleasure & Pastimes.

Life in the Victorian Country House by Pamela Horn.
Well worth reading and has lovely illustrations and photos. It gives you a sense of the time and the cosseted world of the country house.

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Happy reading

Shona

What We Are Reading

Welcome to another WWAR. This month we have Colleen Simpson, Maggie Mundy and Kylie Scott sharing what they've been reading.

Colleen Simpson
The Genesis Plague by Michael Byrnes.
Reminiscent of Matthew Reilly's novels, this fast-paced action adventure combines elements of international conspiracy, ancient history, espionage, and a touch of romance for a very satisfying read. Set both in Afghanistan and the U.S., it romps through events that occur after an unusual weapons cache is accidentally discovered in the war zone, and has an underlying theme comparing fanaticism from both sides of the trench. Its pace doesn't slow, and I'll be looking for more of Mr. Byrnes's work, starting with The Sacred Bones, which was excerpted at the end of the book.

Maggie Mundy
The Duke and I by Julia Quinn.
As Julia is coming to the conference this year I thought I would read one of her books and this was recommended by people who adore her work. I will start this by saying I don’t normally read this type of book and a close friend thought it was great so there you go. The sort of regency I like to read is Austin. Love the language and detail. I found the story light and the characters quite clichéd and I didn’t believe the motivation for their actions was strong enough. Also I felt uncomfortable with a scene where the heroine gets the hero drunk so he will have sex with her so she can conceive. Non consensual sex is rape and this didn’t sit well with me and did not endear the character to me. I also felt his reasons for not wanting a child to be too shallow for me. I was given a more recent book of hers and will be interested to see if her writing has changed. I think it just wasn’t my cup of tea as she is extremely popular.

The Unseen by Alexandra Solokoff
Again this is another author who has presented at the RWA conference. This book is a supernatural thriller about university professors who are studying the phenomena of poltergeists. I am about two thirds of the way through and it is good but slow. The characters are believable and the plot is strong, it is just the pacing needs to pick up a bit. Sometimes the descriptions of the countryside take over and you get drawn out of the plot but I can see she is trying to create an atmosphere but it gets too much at times.

Kylie Scott
Hyde, an urban fantasy by Lauren Stewart
It's a really fun and clever re-telling of the classic Dr Jekyll, Mr Hyde story featuring one hot surly alpha male and a young woman also trying to deal with the curse, or whatever the heck it is making them turn. The world building is great and the writing lovely. Thoroughly recommend it.

Changes to Saturdays

We will be changing the Saturday blog posting, which so far has consisted of the column, Darklight On..., featuring our a spotlight on our DarkSiders. This will still continue, but it will no longer be weekly. Instead it will be monthly from March.

We will also be introducing another column:

Enchanted Orb

This will look at the what has inspired the DarkSiders both now and in the past. This feature too, will be monthly, and will be run by Colleen Simpson, one of our newest members and volunteers.

Coming up we have:

21 Jan - Rowena Cory Daniells
11 Feb - Imogene Nix


Thanks to Rowena who came up with the idea and Colleen for volunteering.

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