Getting The Band Back Together.

We are heading to Brisvegas this November to attend the Supanova Comic Con and Gaming event at Brisbane's Convention and Exhibition Centre.


Come along and see us and treat yourself to signed copies of Enlightened and Unveiled. Tickets on sale from the 10th September.


http://www.supanova.com.au/events/brisbane-2018/about/


We look forward to seeing you there!


Jen and Sarah

Dark Inspirations

We get asked a lot about how we came up with Lumeer and its people. A lot of our inspiration came from old Eastern European folklore which can be a little scary but we also find it fascinating. One story in particular that captured us, was about infants born with a Caul or Face Veil. A Caul is a membrane that covers the infants face or head at birth and is incredibly rare. It doesn’t harm the baby and is easily removed, but where’s the fun in leaving it at that, right?

Now, most legends have that a baby, born with a Caul was a sign of good luck and that a child born with a Caul cannot drown. This prompted savvy mothers to save the Caul and sell bits of it off to sailors, who would pay hefty prices for the powerful talisman… and they all lived happily ever after.

Then there is the darker legend - which of course is the one we like the best! This lore hails from Croatia and some Slovenian areas. This version states that a baby born with a Caul would either become a Kresnik (protector and all round good guy/gal) or a Kudlak (evil blood sucking toss). It was said that a clear or white Caul indicated the child would become Kresnik, but a red or dark Caul meant they would become a Kudlak. If there was ever conjecture about the Cauls’ colour, the midwife would run to the window and shout: "A kresnik is born! A kresnik!" hoping to sway fate. Here’s where it gets a little eewwwww…. It was believed that the kudlak was most dangerous after death because he or she would then become a vampire. So, to hamper the vampires’ return, the people would either impale the corpse on a stake or slash the tendon below the knees before burial. Ergh, as if death followed quickly by turning into a vamp wasn’t bad enough!

 

 

 

 

The R Word

Way back when Enlightened was just a crazy idea, and we hadn’t even typed our first word, Sair insisted – quite fervently that the story was an Urban Fantasy/Fantasy Fiction/Science Fiction/horror/Paranormal suspense. She was happy for it to sit under any of these genres however, under no circumstances, was Enlightened ever to be described as a Paranormal Romance. Jen has spent the last several years trying to convince her otherwise – Jen is crap at convincing people of anything.

Recently Sair helped out behind the scenes at the Cairns Tropical Writers festival where - thank Daska – she had the opportunity to meet the award winning Romance Author, Anna Campbell.

The timing of this meeting was fortuitous as the girls had been debating the genre of their series, given the impending release of number two. Jen argued that they had given Urban Fantasy/Fantasy Fiction/Science Fiction/horror/paranormal suspense a good run and it was time to open the story up to a new audience. Sair – being the horror buff that she is, stumbled over the R word and argued that putting the books under the Romance genre was limiting their audience.

This dilemma was foremost in Sair’s mind when she had the opportunity to steal five minutes of Anna Campbell’s time, so she posed the question to Anna. After Sair gave her a brief explanation of the story, Anna had Sair confess that the story was in fact a Paranormal Romance, hence the only place for the Enlightened series was the Paranormal Romance genre and we shouldn’t confuse people by putting it elsewhere. It is what it is and we need to embrace it. The clouds then parted and angel song was heard (slight exaggeration). Anna had managed to do in five minutes what Jen had failed to do in over five years. Enlightened finally became a Paranormal Romance!

Anna Campbell… Jen totally owes you a glass of something bubbly.

Lists & Twists

In our households, the holiday season is a next level kind of chaos that must be approached confidently, with no sudden movements or outward sign of weakness.  We like to think of ourselves as cool and calculated, everything planned and executed with unflappable grace and precision but in reality… we’ve had baby brain since ’04 and the whole situation probably resembles more of an arachnophobe who just walked through a web.  Sooo this – to our dear husbands – is why for the past month our houses have been covered in lists.  Since parenthood we have become dedicated List Girls and during the holiday season, we have lists about lists. In fact Sair’s pretty sure the amount of paper stuck to the front of Jen’s fridge in December might be the reason the seals have gone but anyway, we made it! The champagne has been drunk; the tree is dead and the ham a distant memory (although not as distant as one would like when trying on clothes in the sales).

Now we await the end of school holidays to settle ourselves back into the routine of work and writing, the latter being a labour of love that if neglected for too long tends to make us cranky!  So, between sorting school uniforms and book packs, there has been much talk of Lumeer and its residents. With ideas that have been simmering for a while thickening to nice juicy twists and new relationships developing, we are full steam ahead, revelling in the lives of our characters and even having a little cheeky fun tossing around ideas for our new cover. We’re really excited to be getting book two out this year, it’s currently our favourite plot of the series but no doubt that will change once we start work on book three!

So here we are - 2015, a brand spanking new year that we are ready to tackle, pens poised and windmill arms at the ready. 

 

We can’t wait to share it with you J

Getting our Tropical on!



As promised here are some pics of our time at the Cairns Tropical Writers Festival held in September this year. As you can see there was a lot of hard work going on!
 

We met some amazing people, including the very taletend Helene Young. We attended Helene's "Essence of StoryTelling" workshop and walked away feeling inspired. Enlightened was very popular in the Festival bookshop "Snap up a local" with other authors wanting signed copies! We're looking forward to the next one.

We were invited to talk with a fantastic bunch of Kindy students at Redlynch Kindy about being an author.They were very keen to share with us their favourite stories after we read them our favourite childrens book.


There was also a little time for plot twists and character development :)

 

We Get the Hint - Sneak Peek Book 2!

We know it’s been ages and yes… we get the hint!! We have been super busy creating twists and turns and are nearly half way there! As a thank you for your patience while we let our creative juices run wild, we wanted to post a little snippet of what’s to come…

I followed as he swiped us angrily through another set of double doors, this one lead to a large room. The walls were covered with padding and the blue floor was kind of bouncy, it was quartered with a red cross that divided the room into large squares.  I bounced a little on the balls of my feet; it was obviously some kind of training room.

Bravnica walked to the furthest square discarding his jacket then his jumper to the floor as he went, I followed warily. As soon as my foot crossed the red line of the last square it was swept out from under me. I felt myself falling backwards and braced for the impact but it didn’t come. Bravnica caught me just before I hit. His eyes searched mine briefly before he spoke. “If I were a Kudlak, you would be dead.”

He let go and I dropped the final distance to the floor, landing with a dull thud.

So this is how it’s gonna be.

I rolled to regain my feet, determined to prove myself. We started circling, each waiting for the other to make the next move. Watching for him carefully I kicked off my flats and shrugged out of my cardigan, thankful that I’d worn loose fitting pants and a light top.

He moved again, so fast that my mind was still trying to process his direction when he had me, held securely from behind I had no idea how he’d gotten there. He trapped my arms across my chest with his left hand and used his right to slowly tilt my head back, exposing the delicate skin at my throat. Goosebumps prickled as he lowered his mouth and I could feel the heat of his words as his lips hovered just above my skin. “Dead again.”

It was only a whisper but it sent shock waves coursing through me and I grappled to regain my scattered wits. We were circling again; I could feel the weight of his gaze as it poured over me. A shift that had occurred behind those ice blue eyes, it was subtle but base and my instinct were screaming at me. To do what I didn’t know but at some point his anger had turned to something else. Just as urgent, just as powerful.

I ruthlessly stamped out the memory of how his breath felt on my throat and started to formulate a plan. I figured as long as I let him call the shots I didn’t stand a chance. I needed to put him on the back foot but keep my distance at the same time. He was much more powerful than me and as soon as he had a hold of me it’d be over. Using my legs was my best bet.

I attacked; my sidekick was aimed at his ribs, but ended up being caught in his hands. I let out a growl of frustration to which he responded with a chuckle. My foot still held firmly in his hands I hopped to straighten up, as soon as I had my balance he gave a little tug sending me falling forwards and into his arms. Crushed against his body he looked down at me. My unsteady breath mingled with his and for one crazy delicious second I thought he was going to kiss me, instead he breathed. “Dead.”

I pushed back, annoyed at his game but even more annoyed at myself. Had I actually wanted him to kiss me?

“You’re only proving my point.” We started circling each other again. “This is why I need to train, so that I can protect myself and my family if I need to.”

He shook his head. “You can’t protect them like this.”

Frustrated I lashed out, rushing him with a barrage of fists which he deftly caught, pulling them down he transferred them into one hand to anchor low at my back. The angle caused my breasts to thrust upward and I was painfully away of my breathlessness as my chest heaved against him. I struggled to break free as he walked me steadily backwards and pressed me into the soft padding of the walls. Anger surged and I made to raise my knee but he predicted the move and let the weight of his lower body pin mine. Trapped by my weakness and angered by my own bodies’ want for his I bucked, trying to break free. He growled in my ear. “Not like this Ana.”

He pressed harder and I stilled giving him my best I-hate-you look.

He watched me patiently, letting the silence settle between us before speaking. “You are not built to fight Kudlak.”

My breath was ragged. I knew he was going to teach me a lesson, I just didn’t predict it being this hard to swallow. It was obvious now that Garrick had been pulling his punches.

The back of my eyes began to burn and I looked away, trying to control my tumbling emotions but he used his free hand to tilt my chin so that I couldn’t avoid his gaze.

 “Hand to hand they will kill you every time. If you really want to be able to protect yourself and your family you must harness your power.”

He released my hands and eased himself off of me, standing close enough to catch me if I decided to bolt. I didn’t, there was no point. He waited till I looked up, his eyes searched mine out. There was desperation in them, which he didn’t try to hide.

“It’s my job to protect you Ana; it’s your job to run…”

Cocktails and Bikinis...

Woohoo! Jen is heading to FNQ on Thursday for a serious climate change to celebrate the Cairns Tropical Writers Festival with Sair!

To have the two of us together is a rare treat and Redlynch Kindy is taking advantage and has invited us to have a chat to their students! They may only be four, but hey… you gotta start somewhere right?!

We are super excited to have been invited to participate in the Cairns Tropical Writers Festival Snap Up A Local on Friday night and will be attending a few talks by some fantastic local talent on Saturday before letting our hair down at the Gala Dinner on Saturday night. 

But despite the talks, the seminars and the dinners, we promise that we will take serious advantage of the one on one time to work on book two; which is fast becoming our favourite plot line of the series!!

Pics to follow J