Ramblings of an Australian Writer

I am steaming right now. Mind you, I'm not alone, bc this is something that's affecting a LOT of authors, both well known and not, from people like George RR Martin, Jeff Vandermeer, John Grisham, Jodi Piccault, David Baldacci, Mary Bly, Michael Connelly, Sylvia Day, to others, such as myself, Megan Derr, Aleksander Voinov, Olivia Dade, Andrea Speed, Ginn Hale and more.

And what is it that is affecting us? Oh, just that our work is being used to "teach" AI how to write books. Without our consent, and without our knowledge, which has to be a breach of some kind of IP and copyright law as we authors retain IP and copyright even when our work is in print or out of print (as is the case for the 7 of my books that are used, and which most of those I intend to republish.)

There's a gift link to read this article at The Atlantic, which expires in 11 days, so read soon, which has a ton of info. More info here, and The Authors Guild are launching a Class Action Suit Open AI. James Swallow is another author who's been hit with this too.

The Authors Guild has been brilliant, I have to say, and has a great post up on their site about what to do next. But I'm still peeved about this, oh yes I am.

I've been blog-silent for the majority of this year, limiting my posts to reporting new releases and the like. There's a reason for this silence--this has been the worst year I can remember.

It started on an uneven keel: on the one hand, I'd moved house and the new place is lovely, in a gorgoeus, leafy suburb, near a terrific shopping center, close to a library, a swimming pool, my doctor and more. But it took three months to get the Internet on, due to the lack of room left on the copper wiring of our outdated telecommunications system. I had to get an antenna put on the roof, and there was a delay on that because the weather alternated between hotter than Satan's armpit or wetter than a swamp or both. Once it was up though, hooray, because yay, Internet!

And then a few months after that, my father died. Other personal issues have arisen which have been... less than good, let's say. Things were quite grim in my head for a while--we can be our own worst enemies sometimes, I think. I suffer from depression, yes, it's true, and I manage it with anti-depressants as best I can. Between the situation that's arisen since my father's death and those other personal issues, well, it's been a dark year so far.

On the good side, I've had books out! Ice with Less Than Three Press; The Wind-up Forest, The Crystal Lake and The Bone Cup with Dreamspinner Press--these are books four, five and six of The Archangel Chronicles. Volume two of the Rockin' Hard anthology came out in paperback with Less Than Three Press, and that contains my short, Capsicum Head. All good things, things I'm proud of, things I'm thrilled about.

I wrote. I wrote my guts out, as they say. I wrote books seven, eight and nine of the Archangel Chronicles intended to be the last three. Sometimes, writing is the best medicine. I also got my edits on Mythica, which is out with Bottom Drawer Publications soon. Dreamspinner contracted the last three Archangel books, much to my delight. I wrote some more, submitting Waiting For The Moon and You a month ago.

But this is the thing about depression. Depression doesn't really care what you do or achieve. Depression is the monster under the bed that rises up when it damn well feels about it and too bad what you might want. Depression is insidious, touching every part of your psyche.

Robin Williams died yesterday, and his passing had a huge effect on me, more than I thought it would. Not just because Dead Poet's Society was my teenage inspiration or quotes from Mrs. Doubtfire became the hilarious calling card in a group of friends. Not just because he was a comedic and improvisational genius or because Good Will Hunting was everything I loved about my past as an academic or The Fisher King was moving and touching. Because Robin Williams was dealing with the monster under the bed--depression--and that monster doesn't discriminate.

I have seen some people talk about him being "selfish" which just... well. So this is my link for the day, the week, the month, hell, for all of us who live with depression or depression sufferers. There is nothing selfish about suicide.

Today, Lauren Bacall died. She was a classy, intelligent, beautiful, strong woman. I hope that she and Robin Williams are together in the great beyond, enjoying a coffee and a laugh together.

So "Noah" is out. I haven't seen it yet, but I plan to. I'm interested particularly in how Darren Aronofsky handles this, as from everything I've read about it, this vision of the story is based on the Apocryphal books of the Bible, rather than what is in the Bible today. The book from the Apocrypha that is relevant is the Book of Enoch, which talks specifically about the nature of angels and those angels who were sent to Eden to watch and guide humanity--The Watchers, aka the Grigori--led by Semjaza, and how those angels developed a desire for human women and fathered children with them--the Nephilim.

Semjaza is in the film, played by Nick Nolte, which I find an intriguing choice, so I'm quite interested to see how he does in the role. In the Archangel Chronicles books, particularly No Shadows Fall, I've written Semjaza as being wholly self-absorbed and completely obsessed with his goals of running Earth and claiming Ishtahar back as his wife, along with his Nephilim sons, Hiwa and Ahijah. In No Shadows Fall, I've written Ishtahar as being unwilling to return to him and his sons not wanting to have anything to do with him.

The Watchers appear in "Noah" as beings of stone who guard Methuselah because he helped them. This is also from the Apocrypha. I chose not to devle too deeply into early Biblical theory for the Archangel Chronicles, because I didn't want to get bogged down in theology and theological debate at the expense of the story I wanted to tell. The romance between Gabriel and Michael is the primary story and the trials and challenges they face are the things that bind them closer together, and in turn, bring them closer to the rest of the Brotherhood of Archangels. The secondary romances, Uriel and Raziel, Ishtahar and Remiel, Lyudmila and Piotr, Kokabiel and Baraqiel, and, introduced in The Wind-up Forest, Liam and Baxter, Declan and Angelique, Lily and Danny, Minnie and Max, are just as important. They are in the story to illustrate that all love and romance is important and that the capacity for love that sentient beings possess is what distinguishes us.

"Noah" is therefore interesting to me as something featuring characters that I've written about and loved, hated and felt indifferent about; it's a film I want to see because of its relationship to the Apocrypha and because of the ongoing story about angels and humans and how the divine reacts and interacts with the mortal.


The Wind-up Forest
Blurb: Sequel to No Shadows Fall
Archangel Chronicles: Book Four

Archangel Gabriel is hoping for a quiet period in his life to enjoy his relationship with Archangel Michael, but someone has other ideas.

New dangers arise when the Holy Grail is stolen. Gabriel, Michael, and the rest of the Brotherhood of Archangels and their allies must somehow thwart the twisted desires of the thief.

Their search for the Grail takes them all over the world, calling on old friends like Uriel and Raziel, and forging powerful new alliances. Though they face a fresh set of perils in pursuit of the thief, the enduring comfort Gabriel needs so much, that of his beloved Michael, never abandons him.

Ebook | Paperback.

The Archangel Chronicles

Book One: No Quarter.
Book Two: No Surrender, No Retreat.
Book Three: No Shadows Fall.

About: Archangel Gabriel, Archangel of War and Sanctification, has developed feelings for Archangel Michael, chief of the Brotherhood of Archangels. Discovering these feelings are returned, Gabriel sets out to woo Michael, and the two fall deeper in love as their relationship blooms. But the path of love is never easy, even for an Archangel, and there are many dangers and tests to face and overcome. From Archdemons, Lucifer, and war to murderous angels, egomaniacs wanting to become supreme dictator of Earth and more, there is a new trial to overcome.

With their Brotherhood, the rest of angelkind and allies, including shifters, witches, shamen, and Michael's elite squad of shifters called the Venatores, and a small group of Archdemons, Michael and Gabriel face each new challenge head on, determined not to fall and not to lose each other and their love.

The Whole Series in Ebook and Paperback.


Link of the Now: Learn Chinese at the BBC. A great resource to learn Chinese online. It's not updated any more, but it's archived, so it's still a great place to start.

I have been quite slack in keeping up with my blog these last few weeks--all I can say is that I've not been 100% and my back has twinges which render me useless for a day at a time, so things have been stressful. However, there are some things happening that I want to share with you all, so here we go!

The Romance Reviews Year End Splash Party continues, so pop along to join in the fun and win great prizes!

The Rainbow Awards Pre-Party and 7th Anniversary giveaway is on and "City of Jade" is one of the wonderful books being given out today. Enter here or here.

Liam Jones, a character from The Archangel Chronicles, had to discuss his police rap sheet over at Cate Ashwood's blog. Liam makes his debut in The Wind-Up Forest, along with his brother, Declan, a group of Venatores and new angels and demons and monsters. To read a little about Liam, head on over here!

Ice enters serial at Less Than Three Press this month, so if you're keen to read about vampires in Antarctica in the future, then head on over to LT3 and sign up for serial, here. There's a whole collection of wonderful authors and their vampire stories available now, too, as LT3's vampire collection is available for order and preorder, so do check it out.

And last but certainly not least, I recieved the cover art for The Wind-Up Forest. Anne Cain is a genius. I love this cover SO MUCH. Behold the beauty! click to see the full size image.

Link of the Now: Has to be one of my favourite blogs, Messy Nessy Chic. Go, read and lose yourself in the wonderful things that she posts, about life in Paris, interesting finds from the internet, travel, food, fashion, abandoned places, history, and so much more.

And now back to Nano (and waiting for my groceries) I go!

Writing:

I have been a busy bee. I've finished Mythica, which is now in the hands of my lovely beta, Cate, and I've written 20% of my Belle Epoque novel, which has the tentative title of Boulevards and Love Songs. This may change (probably will, actually,) because titles are my nemesis and it doesn't quite *fit*, but for now, it's not known as Untitled Belle Epoque book. And that's a good thing.

Weather:

I am SO HAPPY with all the rain we've been having. It's been very cold at night, but the rain has been awesome and my plants have been very happy with it all. The chili, lavender and rosemary need to be repotted into bigger pots very soon, so next fortnight, I'm going to Bunnings to invest in the necessary things to make my plants happy and spread their roots. I am a servant to my plants. I've noticed a marked increase in honey bees, too, which, while I don't want to be stung, is awesome, as bees are very much of the good.

Weaving:

And it's been good weather for weaving, though I have decided that mohair is the fibre of the devil and I hate it with a fiery passion. That stupid fibre--it keeps breaking or it un-ravels from its spun shape thing, or it pills, and argh. I did have it in its skein and that was just a recipe for frustration, so mum helped me wind it into a ball, of sorts. I realised that I didn't have enough cardboard to wind it around, so it ended up being wound onto a drumstick. The drumstick was given to me by a friend in a band, when after a party one night, learning that I intended to walk home, he gave me the drumstick so that I could use it for self protection. That eventuality never arose, and I've kept the stick for the last ten or so years. And this weekend, it came into its own and became the support for the mohair of doom. When I'd finished winding it all, the result looked a little like a dagwood dog made of wool or a woolly fairy floss. Look at it!



Link of the Now:

In my wanderings through the vast lands of the Internets, it occured to me that while doing research (and I do a lot of it, it's true,) I come across interesting and awesome things. So, I have decided to implement an ongoing thing in the blog, which is the Link of the Now. Instead of the link of the day, as I don't update every day. So, of the now it is.

For the first Link of the Now, I present to you a site I found while I was link hopping and researching Paris and Russia in 1895 for the Belle Epoque book. I'm a bit fuzzy as to how I ended up on this site, selling the most amazing (and expensive) Faberge original antique jewellry, but the page is so full of pretty, shiny things, I don't care how I got there. Just... pretty, shiny things! (Yes, I'm a magpie.)

They have lay-by/lay-away... This necklace is my ultimate favorite. I love it. I love how it looks like ribbons. And this ring is quite lovely. This set is gorgeous, but I do love the ribbon one the best. Ahem. Close the tabs, L. J. Step away from the expensive shiny things...

So what shiny things do you guys like? And what sites are you enjoying at the moment? :D