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.

Blade Runner meets Perdido Street Station? Can do, says debut author Nina D'Aleo.

Nina D'Aleo's been a great confidante in recent months. Her first book, The Last City, has just been released by our mutual publisher, Momentum, and as she's already been through the process I'm shortly to embark on, she's been a wonderful sounding board. That might also have something to do with the fact that in addition to her degree in creative writing, she's a qualified psychologist!

She's agreed to be interviewed by me to tell us a bit about her book, which has been billed as an intoxicating blend of noir crime, science fiction and fantasy. Sounds awesome, right?

Forget perfection. Just write!

I've had a longish break from writing, and it's taken me quite a while to get back into it. Weeks of frittering and time wasting and occasional opening of my document to fiddle with the scene summaries I've jotted down, but not actually do anything else.

I think this was partly because I'm at the beginning of a new book, and the task ahead seems so daunting.

Source

The ultimate hot chocolate

It's been cold 'round our way. Cold and wet. Leaden skies. Damp grass which never quite seems to dry out. Typical winter weather, really.

When staring at a computer screen waiting for inspiration, what's a girl to do but drink hot chocolate?

I did have a particular inspiration for my hot-chocolate-making extravaganza. This cup.

IT man came back from a trip to the shops with it, two weeks after Mother's Day, looking a bit sheepish, and claiming that it was chosen by our daughter. Not him. Oooooh no! He just paid for it. :-)

Anyway. I'm all for a simple recipe, and this one only has two ingredients; chocolate (I used milk chocolate) and milk. I used Lindt couverture for reasons which will shortly become apparent. But any good quality chocolate would yield a nice cup.

Now if you take a look at this picture, you may at first glance think that my hand is really small. Or that the bag of chocolate is REALLY big.

Unfortunately, it's the latter. I'll just zoom in on the label for you:

Yeah, I'm well aware that no sensible person buys chocolate in bags that big, not least of all because it takes up more than its fair share of space in the pantry. Unfortunately our local wholesale bakery sells these bags at such a reasonable price that they're impossible to pass up. I made about a kilo of gourmet rocky road with it at Christmas time, but I still have lots left - and it ain't getting any younger.

Anyway - back to the hot chocolate. For my taste - sweet and rich, but not overpowering - eight little hexagons is about right for an average sized mug. I know, a whole 2.5kg bag of little chocolate hexagons. Too cute.

Heat your milk until just short of boiling, then pour it into your mug. Or if you're lazy like me, microwave it in the mug.

And if you want to be all fancy and gourmet about it, when you pour the chocolate pieces into the cup, stir until melted with a cinnamon stick like this:

'Cos we all keep cinnamon sticks handy for such occasions, right?

There's always a bit of semi-melted chocolate stuck to the bottom of the mug when you're finished. Scraping with a spoon is permitted (and in my book, obligatory).

Right, so now I only have 800 grams of chocolate left. Ideas, anyone?

And do you have a favourite time-wasting drink or snack to fuel you through your writing benders?

Why the digital publishing model is GREAT for debut authors!

Hi all,

I'm guest posting here at Rach Writes on why the digital publishing model is good for debut authors and, ultimately, for readers too.

Come and visit!

(Source)

Publishing deal!

Image by http://www.scenicreflections.com

I didn't expect to be writing a post like this so soon. If you'd asked me at the beginning of the year whether I saw a publishing deal in my near future, I'd have said "No way!" Then my agent sent my manuscript to new digital publisher Momentum, a division of Pan Macmillan Australia - and they liked it. And they offered me a deal for international digital publication. And I accepted.

I'm back!

It's time to get out the metaphorical broom and whisk away the cobwebs on the windows and cornices; don gloves and pull up the weeds which have grown in the corners of the landing and twined their way up the banisters of my stairway...

Okay, enough with the unnecessary imagery. I'm back! And very glad to join you again. What have I been up to? All sorts of very worthwhile enterprises, some of them actually outdoors, which is always nice for a writer.

In November, I enjoyed my roses in full bloom. Can't resist sharing a picture.