Month: March 2015

Some Blog-Off News

In a recent blog post, I talked about Mark Lawrence’s brilliant idea to throw a slush-pile of self-published work at ten intrepid bloggers, and leave them to find just one from their twenty five to recommend. All ten bloggers would then read and review all the ten finalists. The bloggers have been sifting through their slush-piles, and deciding how to tackle their task. Some have picked at random, some have chosen by cover/blurb/title (the time-honoured method), one has divided her pile into more manageable piles of five. The first reviews are trickling in. All the details are on Mark’s blog. But there was an unexpected development. Another blogger, J R Karlsson of Fictiongarden.com, decided to join the fun, by looking at the entire pile of 250+ books. Quite a challenge! He eliminated some that he’d read already, or were on the site’s ‘recommended’ list. He eliminated some more on the […]


For US/UK readers: ‘The Fire Mages’ at a special price this week!

If you haven’t already picked up a copy of The Fire Mages or you know anyone who’d enjoy it, this is a great time to buy – at the US Amazon, it’s just $0.99 and in the UK it’s £0.99. These prices are only available for a few days, and I’m sorry, but they only apply to the US and UK. If you already own a copy – thank you very much! When you finish reading it, a review on Amazon or Goodreads would be very much appreciated. To buy from your local Amazon, click here. In other news… The Mages of Bennamore has finished its final editing, and is now with my wonderful proofreader, Lin, who fixes my typos and corrects all my wayward punctuation. Once that’s done, the book will go up for pre-order at Amazon, ready for publication on May 15th. The next book in the Brightmoon […]

Posted March 22, 2015 by PaulineMRoss in Publishing/marketing / 2 Comments

Short fantasy review: ‘The Family Business’ by Marina Finlayson

Short fantasy review: ‘The Family Business’ by Marina Finlayson

If you’ve ever wondered what the Sphinx thought about her perpetual task of riddle-making, and whether she’d like… well, a bit of a change occasionally, this is the story for you. It’s not even very long (4,000 words), so you can’t argue that you’ve got no time. It’s original, clever and very, very funny – what’s not to like? I don’t normally read short stories, but the author went straight onto my must-read list after I loved her urban fantasy set in Sydney, Twiceborn (with werewolves and dragons, what could be better?). I had to try this too, and I’m so glad I did. Five stars.

Posted March 21, 2015 by PaulineMRoss in Review / 0 Comments

Fantasy Review: ‘Dragon’s Curse’ by H L Burke

Fantasy Review: ‘Dragon’s Curse’ by H L Burke

I’m a sucker for a dragon story, and this one is a little different from the usual. It starts as a charming little fairy-tale, where the girl in the dragon’s lair is a spirited and smart young scholar rather than a helpless princess, and the dragon isn’t quite what he seems, either. The two strike up an unusual friendship. This part of the book was lovely, and I enjoyed every moment of it. The second half is far more predictable, and rather more uneven. Here’s the premise: Shannon is a talented young scholar, determined to take a job as healer in the small kingdom of Regone for the perfectly logical reason that she’s the best person to heal the king from injuries sustained while fighting dragons. While there, she is pursued by the amorous knight Sir Roderick, who offers to slay a newly-arrived dragon to win her hand. To avoid […]

Posted March 16, 2015 by PaulineMRoss in Review / 0 Comments

Mystery DNF: ‘The Neon Rain’ by James Lee Burke

Mystery DNF: ‘The Neon Rain’ by James Lee Burke

Thank goodness, was my first thought, when this came up as the monthly choice for my reading group. A detective novel – now that’s something I’ll enjoy. Boy, was I wrong. This is a male fantasy book: a cop who swans around talking big to all sorts of lowlifes, and then gets captured/beaten up/tortured many times, which he miraculously survives. It’s full of blokes who act tough and beat each other up (both cops and villains), women who are either murder victims or whores, villains who are moustache-twirling caricatures, a main character who survives impossible levels of violence and survives/escapes through sheer dumb luck… There are some good points. The setting of New Orleans is beautifully evoked with a multitude of small details, great use of dialect and an atmosphere so thick you can feel the sweat dripping down your back. You could argue that it’s a tad overdone, but, […]

Posted March 12, 2015 by PaulineMRoss in Review / 0 Comments

The great self-published blog-off

Following some discussion about the difficulties of promotion for self-published authors, Mark Lawrence, author of the Broken Empire series, came up with a great idea: get some established fantasy bloggers lined up, and throw self-published books at them, 25 apiece, with a six month window to work through their ‘slush pile’ and find just one book to promote. The chosen books would then be looked at by all the bloggers and rated, to produce an overall winner. Mark threw the idea out into the blogosphere, chose 10 bloggers from the many who volunteered, accepted submissions from self-published authors, randomly assigned each to a blogger and sat back to watch the fun. Now, I’m not big on competitions, and writing competitions, in particular, seem to be more subjective than most. However, the opportunity to have my book at least looked at by a blogger who wouldn’t normally even consider a self-published […]


Urban Fantasy Review: ‘Twiceborn’ by Marina Finlayson

Urban Fantasy Review: ‘Twiceborn’ by Marina Finlayson

I almost missed out on this one. I started reading, loved the opening, really got into it, things were just rolling along merrily when… werewolf. Now, werewolves are part of the unholy trinity, along with vampires and zombies, that I never read if I can possibly avoid it. So… oh dear. But then I discovered that the book has dragons in it… DRAGONS! Yes! Dragons make everything better. So I started again, and boy, am I glad I did. Because this book was just so much fun (yes, even the werewolves). Here’s the premise: Kate is a twenty-something Sydneysider, recovering (not very well) from a messy divorce and the death of her young son. To keep herself busy, she undertakes occasional courier jobs for friend Ben, and if the jobs are a little suspect, and involve disguises and evading strange people tailing her, she’s too sunk in gloom to worry […]

Posted March 10, 2015 by PaulineMRoss in Review / 2 Comments

The work-in-progress blog tour: The Mines of Asharim

Yes, folks, it’s another of those fun blog tour thingies. The rules: link back to the previous blog post, then describe your current work in progress, with the openings of the first three chapters, and finally tag another author blog to carry things onwards. So, just another excuse to talk about writing… You can blame Marina Finlayson for this one. She’s the author of Twiceborn, an urban fantasy featuring both werewolves and dragons (yay for dragons!). It’s also cool that it’s set in Sydney, which makes a refreshing change from London or various US cities. You can read her blog post here. My current work-in-progress is called The Mines of Asharim. It features a young woman escaping from traumatic events, trying to find a refuge. What she finds instead is far more powerful, and sets her on a path to restoring her people’s fortunes. It’s set in another part of […]


Five Star Archives: ‘Ready Player One’ by Ernest Cline

Five Star Archives: ‘Ready Player One’ by Ernest Cline

I read this back in November 2011. I’d expected the author to have a whole string of other books out by now, but no. The follow-up, Armada, is due out this year. That’s a long wait between books. I wonder what he’s been doing in the meantime? Enjoying himself with the royalties, I hope. Anyway, I still think this is a great book. Flawed, but great fun. PS I’ve only just noticed the tiny pixelly person on the cover. 🙂 I loved every single word of this book. I actually read most of it with a silly grin on my face, even the seemingly boring info-dump bits that started off ‘X was born in…’ – it was just pure pleasure, especially the parts set in the OASIS (the avatar-populated artificial universe where most of the action takes place). I’m not even much of a geeky technophile – OK, I love […]

Posted March 5, 2015 by PaulineMRoss in Archive, Review / 3 Comments

‘The Mages of Bennamore’: cover reveal

‘The Mages of Bennamore’: cover reveal

I love the covers that Glendon Haddix (of Streetlight Graphics) has been creating for me. They really jump out at you, whether on the cover of the paperback, or as a thumbnail on Amazon. I know from the many compliments I’ve received that lots of others like them too. So I’m thrilled to show you the latest in the sequence, and it may be his best yet. Here at last is the cover for The Mages of Bennamore, which will be released in May: You can see the hi-res version of it here. The war between Bennamore and the coastal region was over almost before it began. Now the victors are bringing their spellcraft to the Port Holdings, unaware that the coastal folk have their own less conspicuous magical ability. But the uniquely powerful mage who negotiated the alliance is dead, and the coastal folk are restless, and suspicious of […]

Posted March 1, 2015 by PaulineMRoss in The Mages of Bennamore / 3 Comments