The Night Fisher Elegies by Dean Mayes.

September 1st 2022.

I am pleased to announce that my brand new book "The Night Fisher Elegies" is now available across the world and direct from the author.

The Night Fisher Elegies by Dean Mayes.

Taking the reader on a journey through love, faith, death, grief, family and dreams, “The Night Fisher Elegies” weaves together powerful explorations of humanism, moments of reflection tinged with melancholy and short verses, which inhabit the sometimes brutal landscape of self examination.

Dean wanders through a palace of memories contained within nostalgic love, experimenting with style, tone and character. He poses questions for the reader to ponder and wrestle with and offers pieces designed to evoke and provoke, while others are simply present as meditations to inspire and affirm.

Drawing inspiration from literary heroes such as Jim Harrison, Rainer Maria Rilke, Albert Camus, Charles Bukowski & Seamus Heaney this collection brings together pieces from over 10 years of writing and creating. “The Night Fisher Elegies” showcases Dean Mayes’ literary style across short fiction, ghazal poetry, short form essays and personal reflections.

Australian customers - I am able to offer a small number of individually signed editions through my dedicated portal. Price includes shipping and handling and will be shipped direct to you throughout September.

Australian Customers - Order Direct from Dean Mayes.

Amazon Australia.

Amazon United States.

Amazon Canada.

Amazon United Kingdom.

Working with Amazon directly on this project has been a positive experience. They've enabled me to deliver something that I'm really proud of.

The Night Fisher Elegies is a different project for me yet, for those of you who are familiar with my previous work, I think you will recognize my voice in these pages. I hope these stories will inspire you.

DFA.

Delving Into Destiny - Carlyle Labuschagne & The Broken Series.

I've been keen to feature South African native, Carlyle Labuschagne for a while now and, with the international release this past week, of her début novel in what is to become a three part cycle called "The Broken Series", I really wanted to help create a buzz around this exciting new talent.

Carlyle first came to my attention via author Lisette Brodey, who featured her at The Swansea Herald last month and I was immediately struck, not only by Carlyle's enthusiasm and drive, but also by the visual style that she incorporates into her writing. Carlyle shared some beautiful photographic examples, taken by her, which were resplendent with colour and life and I connected with the similar process that I have employed to imbue my own writing with a visual quality. I think that giving to the reader, something that will touch off intense visual cues readily, is an important skill that is a key quality in good writing.

So to Carlyle herself.  Born and raised in South Africa, Carlyle discovered her love of words early and describes writing a poem at aged 12 that was the catalyst for a life long commitment to writing. Through college, where she received a Diploma in Novel Writing and into adulthood, Carlyle continued to hone her craft, cognisant of her dream to develop a significant project that would allow her to achieve her dream of publishing.

That project, The Broken Series, has now come to fruition. Carlyle's first book "The Broken Destiny" was released internationally this month and both she and her novel - described as a rich, dystopian sci-fi fantasy - have been making a big impression. 

Ava is the great granddaughter of the founder of their kind: The Broken were genetically enhanced to survive evolution during the last years on earth, after which their experiments were abandoned and they moved to a distant star, Poseidon. Ava carries a secret journal that one belonged to her mother, which leads her to believe that her people are not what they seem. 

Ava has to decipher her mother's rantings in the journal, differentiating truth from madness to determine The Broken's true identities and origins. A few of The Broken will soon experience a "change," and each generation's change differs from the previous. (Ava's generation has been labelled the make it or break it generation.) Weeks before Ava's seventeenth birthday, an attempted kidnapping by Zulu warriors changes her destiny forever. Saved by a Minoan boy, she is taken back to his village where all the lies about her kind's existence (and how they came to be exiled to planet Poseidon) are brought to light. The Minoans are an ancient race that carries a secret tying in with Ava's prophesied destiny. Her destiny is to rise above the fall, to become what she hates to save them all.

"The Broken Destiny" is a richly constructed tale, brimming with detail and narrative that draws upon classic elements of fantasy, which Carlyle has skilfully re-imagined into her own signature brand. Her characters display a dynamism and voice that are accessible and visual. They are easy to invest in and one can really foster a relationship with them - which is important as the trilogy advances. Their individual arcs are established very well and they feed from the protagonist, Ava, effortlessly. Added to the characters are the cross currents of dystopian, fantasy and science fiction genres which Carlyle manages with a deft hand. Blurring the genre lines can be quite challenging and not always successful. It requires patience and balance. That Carlyle succeeds generously here, is testament to her skill as a word smith and stylist. 

The visual qualities of the narrative are inescapable here and it is to Carlyle herself that I refer via an informal email chat about her use of imagery, among other things, in her writing.

I use many tools to stimulate the creative process. My number one is of course music. Images are a necessity. One picture can spawn an entire novel on its own. A world lies within one moment captured in that image. 

My writing process centers and unfold around three things. One the book title or title chapter - I write around that and try to keep to the theme. Two the feel of the music kind of juices the mood of the scene out for me. Three and image - draws out the creativity and focus towards where I am going, what I am feeling, there are details in images, music and words that bring my writing to life in ways other things cant.

On it's own "The Broken Destiny" stands as a compelling piece of dystopian literature that carries quality, drama and adventure effortlessly across the pages. As the first instalment of the eventual three book cycle, it leaves the reader excited for more from this universe. It is a considerable achievement.

"The Broken Destiny" can be purchased right now from Amazon.

Readers can connect with Carlyle Labuschagne at her Official Site.

Carlyle's Facebook Portal can be clicked to here.  

DFA. 

The Deeper Meaning Of Reviews.

One thing that I have come to appreciate more than anything in my journey as a writer is the importance of reviews. 


Since the digital release of "The Hambledown Dream" in March this year, I have made it a priority of mine to query as many books reviewers as possible in the hope that they will sit down with my novel and offer a critical appraisal of my work. It is one of the few yardsticks with which to measure my success as a writer - whether what I am doing as a writer is of worth and value. And by this maxim I should add that I have endeavoured to become fearless in my pursuit of reviews. I am not afraid of the possibility that I might get a bad review. In fact - bad reviews or, more specifically, reviews that constructively critique my work, I regard as being just as important as the good the reviews. I'll admit, it wasn't always this way but I've spent enough time around the community now to appreciate this.


There is no denying however, the buzz of getting a good review. Not only a good review, but a comprehensively good review - one that identifies the themes and concepts that I was trying to articulate in my writing in a subtle way. There have been a number of reviews of The Hambledown Dream that have achieved this, but a review I received in the past 24 hours really humbled me. Yvonne Gill of Fiction Books sat down with The Hambledown Dream at my request and she has just posted her take on my novel. Click through the banner below to visit her site.

"This debut novel of the genre for me, was a great initiation and something to be enjoyed...The book is described as a contemporary paranormal romance, but for me it was so much more. There was a hint of the supernatural, both physical and emotional transformation, and the obvious question of the notion of reincarnation..."                                       Yvonne Gill.

DFA.