Seeing Hayley - Previewing The Water Seer by HMC Writer.

Continuing on my path of profiling talented Australian artisans, musicians and writers, this week, I'd like to share with you a sublime scribe in Queensland based author Hayley Coates, who goes by the moniker HMC.

(image credit: HMC Writer & Cristal Bettany).

I first encountered Hayley back in 2012 when we collaborated on - and were featured in - an anthology of Australian writers called "Great Southern Land - Tales from Australia". Her contribution to that anthology was a earthy character piece titled 'Bobby, Be Good' which I regarded, at the time, as being perhaps the strongest entry in the book. 

Soon after that anthology, HMC published "White Walls" - a taut, psychological thriller set right here in Australia that, to my mind, cemented HMC as an author to watch. Her command of the genre in White Walls was gripping and it garnered universal praise for its involving story, vivid characterizations and mind bending concepts. 

(image credit: HMC Writer.)

In amongst an impressive body of subsequent short stories, anthology contributions and thought provoking essays, HMC has been working away diligently on a new project called 'The Water Seer'. And now that project is about to see an international release in digital format in September this year, with a print release to follow in October.

The Water Seer promises more of HMC's signature style that has so captivated readers to date but it also promises to showcase HMC's ability to cross genres and meander into themes and situations that are unique and fresh.

(image credit: HMC Writer.)

MOUSE is a seer. She’s had a vision of a little boy’s death, and it’s someone she knows and loves. But how could a champion, junior nipper drown in a calm ocean when he swims better than most adults?

When a strange woman comes to town, her allure is undeniable, but something is off. Mouse’s visions are frequent and vivid, children she works with go missing, and the past, present, and future blur together. Her new enemy is a Bruja Del Agua – Water Witch, who not only drowns her victims, but tortures them for eternity.

With the help of her dead Aunt Catalina, her best friend, Trent, and a Wiccan called Anna, Mouse must use her power and wit to defeat the most powerful Bruja she’s ever seen.

From her home on Queensland's Gold Coast, HMC balances her career as an author with teaching while raising her two children with her "motorbike-loving Viking" partner. HMC recounts that she writes for the pure pleasure of being able to express herself and to think critically about issues that are passionate to her. 

HMC says - "I blog about asylum seekers, gay rights, tattooed professionals, robot dancing, baby poo, and so on … you know, the juicy stuff. I’m sometimes serious, but mostly not."

There is bohemian quality to HMC that I find really attractive. Her stories challenge a literary orthodoxy, presenting people and situations that far removed from mere "paint by numbers" genre pieces. They are absorbing and thought provoking.

HMC is most definitely, an author you should know.

Visit HMC here.

Goodreads HMC here.

Connect with HMC here.

Tweet HMC here.

DFA.

March Sweepstakes - Win Signed Print Copies of Dean's Books.

How about a random sweepstakes for readers?

My novel "Gifts of the Peramangk"  has been nominated for the 2014 EPIC Award for Contemporary Fiction. The winner will be announced during a gala event in San Antonio, Texas on March 15th 2014. 

To celebrate the nomination, I am offering signed print copies of both my novels "The Hambledown Dream" and "Gifts of the Peramangk" as well as digital copies of my short stories "The Regenesis Cluster" and "Feast" to one lucky reader. The sweep will run for two weeks, starting today, March 4th and will end at midnight (Australian Central Summer Time), March 18th 2014.  

To enter, all you have to is answer the following question, 

"What is the working title of Dean's current writing project?" 

Post your answer by commenting on this post below and I will choose a winner from the entries received and notify that winner by March 21st 2014.

To give you a clue to the answer, all you have to do is read up on my bio (see About section) or visit my Pinterest page where the answer will pretty much hit you in the face. 

Entries are open to Australian, North American and U.K. residents. 

Good luck. 

DFA.

Tales Of Australia - Great Southern Land Release Day Sweepstakes.

To celebrate the September 27th 2013 release of Tales of Australia - Great Southern Land featuring Dean Mayes - The Hambledown Dreamer, Hayley Coates, Lee Battersby, A. Finlay, Charmaine Clancy, Salwa Samra, David McDonald and Sean McMullen - Satalyte Publishing is offering multiple readers the opportunity to win a prize pack featuring signed copies of titles from the contributing authors.

I'll be contributing a signed print copy of my debut novel "The Hambledown Dream" to the prize pack. 

To enter - pre-order Tales of Australia - Great Southern Land today from Satalyte Publishing then navigate to the Satalyte Publishing Facebook Page to enter the Rafflecopter Sweepstakes.  

Journey into visions of the Great Southern Land by eight Australian authors.
The novelettes of this series will take you along arcane paths into fantastic Australias of the imagination.

Disciple of the Torrent by Lee Battersby
This Corner of the Earth by Dean Mayes
Acts of Chivalry by Sean McMullen
Bobby, Be Good  by H.M.C
Dreams Didgeridoo by Salwa Samra
After the Red Dust by Charmaine Clancy
Jaylin by A. Finlay
Set Your Face Toward the Darkness by David McDonald

 * Featuring Aurealis and Ditmar Award winning authors, along with some surprisingly fresh new writing.

Foreward by author of Savage Tides and Rotten Gods, Greg Barron.


“…These stories are compulsively readable…”

Tales of Australia - Great Southern Land releases internationally on September 27th, 2013.

DFA.

Born By Fire - Conversations With Ashleigh Galvin.

“Shar ran. Just kept running, unaware of where her feet were taking her. 

She kept shaking her head, trying to erase what she’d heard…she just couldn’t believe it. Memories started to spin in her mind, memories of Greg swinging on her swing when she came home from school. 

Birthdays, Christmases, all lies. Every single day of her life was a lie. Deceit, every word he’d ever said. Tears blinded Shar as she ran deeper into the woods. She was numb to the pain of 

branches pulling her hair, raking across bare her skin. 

The pain from inside blocked everything out.”

from "Birth By Fire's Embrace" by Ashleigh Galvin (SPMG Ltd.)

Continuing my look at rising Australian authors this week, I'm pleased to introduce an exciting young scribe from Queensland - Ashleigh Galvin, whose debut novel "Birth By Fire's Embrace" from Spectacle Publishing Media Group launched across all the major etailers back on May 9th - with a print release scheduled for quarter 2 this year. 

A rich mix of fantasy, action adventure that treads a line between our own modern world and a fantastical realm filled with classical archetypes, "Birth By Fire's Embrace" marks the first in an intended 8 book cycle from Ashleigh under the heading of the Amethyst Series.

The guff on this first entry is thus;

A taut fantasy for all ages, Birth by Fire’s Embrace explores how drastically things can change when the world that lies just beyond our senses begins to surface. Sharrlette Moore is an ordinary young woman on the cusp of academic success, happy and satisfied in her relationship with the best guy in the world and looking forward to all that life has to offer. When all that is familiar vanishes from Sharrlette's life, she begins to look inside and find the strength and courage to carry on in a harsh world, and look towards another world that lies ahead.

The further away modern, popular literature moves from the Twilight series, it seems that the better and more original those literary offerings become. I've made no secret of the fact that I have struggled with the fantasy genre in the past, simply because there has been so much of it and not all of it has been very good. Where the genre does work, however, is in those stories where the author has clearly stepped out of the genre's comfort zone by offering an original element that immediately piques curiosity and promises an tantalizing alternate take. 

And Birth By Fire's Embrace is no exception, proving that there is life in the fantasy genre yet. Ashleigh Galvin brings to the table a dense and nuanced world which she juxtaposes skilfully with a modern real world setting. This kind of world creation, to me, is an appealing and important aspect of this kind of writing. It takes a kind of artistic flair to pull it off well. Galvin's balancing act between the real and the other worldly are visually accessible, keeping you invested in the environments and situations. 

Galvin's characters, lead by the fully realized heroine in Sharrlette rise from the page vividly and with an attention to their individual details that make them convincing. I especially found Sharrlette's arc engrossing. She represents the "every person" really well, allowing us as the reader to access the story through her eyes in such a way that we feel her reactions to what is taking place. Again, because Sharrlette is grounded in our own real world to begin with, this device makes for a much more compelling story.

As a work whose design is to set up a series, this first entry succeeds really well in introducing us to the universe Galvin has created and she has achieved the two important functions such a entry has to satisfy. It offers a contained story that sits on it's own while offering enough tangible threads that will entice the reader to invest in further instalments the eventual series.

Ashleigh Galvin has written an exciting tale that refreshes the genre and offers an accessible journey with classic elements worthy of exploration and contemplation.

Having had the opportunity to take an early glimpse of the novel, one of the things that impressed me about it was the relative youth of Ashleigh herself. She writes in a voice that, to me, seemed so worldly and -  *ahem* - mature, that I knew that I wanted to delve a little further into the voice behind this accomplished work.

I started by asking Ashleigh a little about her herself and where she's at now. Ashleigh has an impressive resume to her credit both in business and modelling, while she also dabbles in digital art.  

A.G. - I live with my fiancée, Michael in a little unit in Brisbane, Australia. While I’d love to be a full time writer, eventually, I currently work at HBM Lawyers as an IT/Admin Assistant. I've been working there for roughly 3 years.  I've been doing Modelling on the side for roughly 4 years. It’s great fun. Particularly the themed shoots. It lets you step away from reality for a little while. I also draw in my free time. Mostly digitally now days. I normally draw Manga style characters. It’s great fun and, if being an author doesn't work out, I’d like to be an illustrator. But I have a lot more practise ahead of me before that.     

DFA - As an author, you've made an impressive splash into that pool. Where did your journey as an author begin and how did it progress?

A.G. - I started writing when I was still in primary school. I was going to write ‘the best novel ever’. It was called ‘The Scar of Athens’ and, needless to say, when I read it now, it’s extremely boring and lacks structure. But it inspired me to continue writing and refining my skills.

DFA - I was really taken by the visual quality of your writing. Where does the inspiration for your vivid story telling come from?

A.G. - My usual reply is daydreaming - (laughs here) - I daydream a lot! I like to call them epic daydreams because I can have one daydream that will last a week or longer. Whenever my mind is idle, I just pick up where the story left off. I get most of my novel ideas this way. 

DFA - You've created a compelling set of characters for the novel. How do you arrive at your characters and what elements do you infuse into them?

A.G. - I don’t actually base most of my characters on people I know. I don’t like to do that because I feel it can make the characters too predictable. I create most of my character from the ground up. Sharrlette is probably the exception. She was based mostly on myself, with a dash of my sister thrown in. My fiancée Michael also provides a lot of inspiration and ideals. He is a Games Designer so we are both very creative. 

DFA - It's clear that the work which has gone into your debut novel has been considerable. With the release of Birth By Fire's Embrace, how do you feel about the achievement and what are your hopes for the future?

A.G. - I'm very proud that I've actually written a book worth publishing. I know very few people get published at my age so I'm happy about that too. I'm very happy with the universe I've created for this series. It’s a great place that I can set many different stories in. It’s just bursting with potential.

As Ashleigh Galvin works towards more stories in the series, expect the Amethyst Series to attract a lot of attention. Her skill as a story teller is considerable and her relative youth affords her a particular edge in the production of future stories that crackle with everything that is great about talented indie authors. 

Purchase "Birth By Fire's Embrace" here (Amazon) and here (B and N).

Connect with Ashleigh here. 

Tweet with Ashleigh here. 

Visit Spectacle Publishing Media Group here. 

The Regenesis Cluster - the stunning new novella from Dean Mayes - out now.

Artist's First Radio features Australian Author Dean Mayes.

Artist's First Radio, an affiliate of CBS Media in the United States, welcomed Australian author Dean Mayes (The Hambledown Dream, Gifts of the Peramangk, The Regenesis Cluster) to it's May 19th broadcast where he talked at length with Ashley Fontainne about his latest novel, his writing journey up to now and he discusses the challenges of being a working author and Intensive Care Nurse. Dean also hints at a couple of exciting new projects he has in the works.

Ashley and Dean explored the challenges of writing an indigenous story from the perspective of a non indigenous Australian and the steps Dean took to ensure that his novel respected a culture and a people that are not his own. They also talked about book marketing in the new publishing paradigm, the benefits (and sometimes curses) of social media and the satisfaction of reaching a truly global audience through writing. 

Listen to this hour long feature interview with Dean and Ashley and discover even more great content at Ashley's Artist's First portal.

DOWNLOAD MP3.

DFA.

Catch up with episode 2 of Liz Miele's "Damaged" animated web series.