With Dark Child in the world, a rant about obsessive checking of rankings and call for reviewers - yes that means YOU!

 Hello. My name is Adina. It's been almost three months since my last drink blog post.

Wow, this cover actually matches the background colour on my blog. Pure coincidence.

It's finally happened. I've crossed over to the other side. The 'published' side. I'm starting to think of it as the Dark side. Because the last few months have been mad. Manic. And also, inevitably, filled with huge amounts of frivolous time wasting and not much actual writing. And it kind of goes without saying seeing as this is my first post since early February that I haven't been blogging either. Or visiting any of you. :-( Most of this I blame on the sustained state of heightened nerves arising from the fact that I've had four books released in four months, with another two releases still to go next month. They're all actually the same book: Dark Child. But as it's been released as a digital serial, one new episode has come out each month, each attended by a flurry of tweets on Twitter, and updates on Facebook, and hours and hours (oh, let's be honest, days and DAYS) wasted obsessively checking sales ranks and figures on Amazon and the iBookstore. Why did nobody tell me it'd be like this? Actually, they probably did, but back then I wasn't listening. I just wanted to be published!

Some free reads for you to celebrate Dark Child release day

image by Evgeni Dinev, freedigitalphotos.net

Most people know that book names are often changed by publishers, for whatever reason. My debut novel is being released today under the name Dark Child, which I love, as originally that was the name I'd given the planned series - though the first book had a different title.

My working title for the first book was Birthed by Moonlight, and not only did that name get cut but so did the original prologue that told the story of my main character's extraordinary birth. Seeing as today is a birth of another kind, the birth of Episode One of my first novel into the world, it seems appropriate to share Kat's 'birth' story with you. I've posted it in the 'Extras' section on my website.

You can also read a free sample from the beginning of Dark Child at my publisher's website if you go here. This is a longer sample than the one up at Amazon!

Enjoy. :-)

So, do you prefer to try before you buy? Are you a free sample reader?

The Next Big Thing

Well, I've been tagged by the lovely and talented Wai Chim (from my writers' group), author of Chook Chook: Mei's Secret Pets, a children's book released 2012 through University of Queensland Press. And of course I'm running late with my post which was supposed to be exactly a week after hers. Thank goodness Blogger lets you backdate posts. No one will ever know, right? ;-)

The Next Big Thing is an authorly chain-post of sorts; where we each share a little about a current work in progress, and then pass the baton on to other writers to do the same a week later. I have several projects at various stages of completion, so for this I'm going to pick one of them at random to talk about. It might be some time before I actually finish it though!

Covers for Dark Child

This day has arrived more quickly than I expected it would...but it's just as exciting as I thought it would be to finally share with you my beautiful covers for Dark Child, Episodes One and Two. There will be five episodes in all, releasing between February and June 2013. Each cover image shows the main character, Kat, sleeping against a stormy, rune-filled backdrop, and reveals a little of the dominant setting for that episode. So episode one features a forest path, episode two features Manhattan, and so on.

Here's my first cover!

Cover for Dark Child Episode One

adinawest.com goes live...and a Dark Child editing update

I love my new website. I wanted it to be a little bit baroque and hint at late nights and guttering candles...and I think the designer has captured that beautifully with the hand drawn aesthetic.

Readers of this blog aren't really the target audience for my author website, as it's targeted at future readers, while many (most?) of you are writers yourselves. But you're very welcome to pop on over and have a look if (like me) you're endlessly curious about how other writers present themselves. It's an odd sort of transition, too, from writing blog posts for a 'journey to publication' blog like this, to writing blog posts for my author website. I really have no idea at this stage what any future readers of my book will be interested in knowing about me, so I think it might be a while before my blog posts over there become as personal as the ones here. If they ever do!

Changing the way we read - serialisation of e-books

Original caption on SMH article was "Serial thriller ... Adina West's new novel will be serialised. Photo: Wolter Peeters"

Well, that was another nice little hiatus from the blog, though of course I haven't been on holidays. Nothing nice like that! Just snowed under with lots and lots of things to do, because my structural editing report for Dark Child arrived not too long ago and it was pages and pages long. Lots of hugely useful constructive comments, but it has necessitated lots of rewriting too! Working with an editor has been gruelling but also very rewarding.

Anyway, besides that, in the interests of briefly getting you up to date with where I'm at, I have a tentative release timetable for my novel Dark Child. I may have mentioned it before, but in case I didn't, it's to be released as a serialised novel, meaning in instalments. The first will be released in February 2013, so not long to go now! The serialisation is a great experiment in reader engagement in so many ways, and it got me in the news yesterday, in this Sydney Morning Herald article. I think I may even have scored a mention in the same paragraph as Charles Dickens.

Writer's Repast: Blueberry Streusel Cake (call it Crumble Cake, if you prefer)

Blueberry Streusel Cake

Heaven knows I'm no photographer. That's one of the main reasons I'll never start a food blog. That and the fact that I'm far too lazy and undisciplined.

But I do like to bake.