January 2020 Update

New year, same goals.

I’ve bought into the whole New Years’ Resolution thing in the past, but I pretty much have the same goals every year.

• Write more
• Make good health-related decisions

This year I’ve got an addition to the list, which is kind of tied into both.

• Consume less, create more.

This is kind of a catch-all statement that captures my attitude toward a lot of things. The older I get, the more cynical I get about this consumer-centric capitalist nightmare we all live in. This year I want to be more conscious of the things I spend my money on, and the societal/corporate structures that my spending choices support.

I want to be financially independent and debt-free, so I can pursue a life of literary abandon. But the day job is what pays for the book covers, the editing and the advertising at the moment. Lots of work to do in that space.

It goes without saying that being the best Dad I can be is right up the top of the list.

Crematoria Online

The Legacy of the Bloodreaver Kickstarter is almost over, and I’m almost sure that it’s not going to be funded.

I’m okay with that.

At the beginning of the campaign, I was a little disheartened about the slow start. I’ve run two other Kickstarter campaigns in my life, and they were both effortless, resounding successes. One was funded in 8 hours, the other was funded in 2.

To have such a dead-on-arrival campaign for Legacy of the Bloodreaver didn’t feel great.

But as I was setting up the campaign, I knew the costs were prohibitive. The costs involved in printing a 500 page book, shipping it from Amazon’s KDP warehouse to me to sign in Australia, then to re-send out to backers, is untenable. Combine that with the weak Aussie dollar, and Kickstarter’s fees, I pretty much had to price myself out of success.

The last campaigns I ran ended up costing me money in printing and shipping costs over and above what was raised on Kickstarter, but this time I did my homework and costed the whole campaign accurately so that I would be able to cover costs with the funds raised.

$75 for two books from an Aussie indie writer is just too expensive, it seems.

But that’s cool. It just reaffirms that I should be focussing on ebooks as my primary release platform, and that audiobooks are the next platform I need to pursue. Putting the physical books as a priority doesn’t make sense for me at this juncture.

There’s just under 47 hours left in the campaign at the time of posting this, so if you want to put in a last minute pledge, you’re more than welcome. If the campaign isn’t successful, you won’t be charged a dime.

Anyway, Legacy of the Bloodreaver should be going up for preorder on Amazon very soon. I’m really proud of this book, and I think all you LitRPG folks are going to love it.

The First 10 Weeks of Dadhood

Tobias turned 10 weeks old this week, and it’s a bit crazy how quickly that time has gone. Maybe it’s gone so fast because I’ve only worked my day job five out of those ten weeks, and the remaining time has been a flurry of editing, nappies, spending time with family, and all the chaos that Christmas brings.

It’s not hyperbole when I say that these last ten weeks have been the best of my life. The arrival of this little dude is the best thing that’s ever happened to me. Just look at that cheeky little bugger.

Modest Mouse said it best. “When life gets longer, awful feels softer.”

Other Writing

He’s a little tiny teaser of a cover I’ve had commissioned for Beasts & Bastions volume 1, done by the excellent and twisted horror specialist Dean Samed.

I’m still working on the first draft, but I’m hoping this book will drop sometime in 2020.

I’ve published five chapters of Beasts & Bastions on my website already, but I’m sad/glad to say that these chapters are now defunct. The first two chapters will be changed a bit, but the whole starting in the forest thing is going to be scrapped, and the characters are going to be changed a bit. I’ve got a better opening, which I’m going to start drafting after I get Crematoria Online book 2 out the door.

I’m also going to be helping edit the latest anthology from my local writers group (The book is titled Misbehaving), which is simultaneously exciting and terrifying. On one hand, I don’t feel qualified to edit or critique someone else’s work, but it’s also a fantastic opportunity for growth. So I’m in.

I also had a piece published on Junkee.com about my experience discovering my aboriginal ancestry, and all the baggage that comes with. You can read it here.