Adelaide Steampunk Festival Countdown.

Adelaide Steampunk Festival is only a few weeks away… Come say hello. I’ll be in Artist Alley and doing an author talk on Saturday morning.

Adelaide Steampunk Festival Countdown.

Patreon Exclusives and Sneak Peeks

My #Patreon supporters received Random Acts of Writing and a Book Cover reveal this week. If you want to receive exclusive content and sneak peeks, come and join us 

Patreon Exclusives and Sneak Peeks

A Day at Historic Largs Pier Hotel.

Adelaide is fortunate to have many of its original historic buildings. You can find them in the CBD, North Adelaide, surrounding suburbs, Tea Tree Gully and Port Adelaide area – just to name a few.

I love searching them out, discovering interesting little historic tit bits and, if I’m lucky, guided historic tours.

This time I’m going to share a bit about the Largs Pier Hotel, which opened in 1882 – one year before my next book, ‘The Department of Curiosities’, is set.

I’d been searching around the suburbs for somewhere to  photograph the book covers for my upcoming series (three in all), and film some visuals for the book trailers. I get excited when I discover somewhere contemporary – even more so when it has many potential areas for differing vignettes and scenes. The Largs Pier Hotel was just such a treasure.

We’d attended a costume dinner (Gatsby/steampunk theme) there a few months earlier and was struck by the architecture and furnishing. The food was superb (so I knew where we were all going to have lunch during  the day. Bonus!)

I rang the hotel a month before my planned photo shoot date to check they were okay with us descending on them and taking photos. Shelley was both friendly and helpful.

The day arrived. My models were dressed. We arrived at the hotel and introduced ourselves at the front desk.

We booked our table for lunch and got a most fantastic surprise. The manager had organised a room for us to use during the day, allowing us to store the model’s other outfits and my extra photo equipment until we needed them (and the models didn’t have to change in the toilets!)

And the room. Woah! Absolutely gorgeous. I may have plans to go back there for our wedding anniversary…

 The views from the balcony were magnificent, across Largs Pier and the beach.

  

The Dixon Bar had some gorgeous Chesterfield couches and stunning decor…

The central staircase leads from the ground floor to the top… Perfect for photos.Thank you to my models Felicity and Blake Canham-Bennett for bringing my charactes Tillie Meriwether  and Professor Allington to life.

And a heartfelt thanks to Shelley and the staff at Largs Pier Hotel, for their patience and their hospitality. (And the food at the Pier Restaurant was great too!)

Lastly, congratulations are in order: The Largs Pier Hotel recently won the Mid-Range Hotel Accommodation award at the recent AHA/SA Hotel Industry Awards for Excellence.

Well done!

Photos  ©2018 Karen Carlisle/ D Carlisle

A Day at Historic Largs Pier Hotel.

Summer Author Postcards: Guest Blog Post

Blake and Wight are sharing Summer Author Postcards. Here’s mine.

Summer Author Postcards: Guest Blog Post

Patreon Updates

Today I’m discussing book cover options with my supporters on Patreon.

 

Patreon Updates

Words, Video and Music

Good morning, Dear Reader.

I’ve been busy doing interviews, making music videos and, of course, writing. There’s always writing…

‘She Writes Books’ – Music & Lyrics

Here are Richard’s complete lyrics:

I was excited to be asked to create the video. This song really speaks to me. There are so many parallels to my writing journey and how it began. Here’s just a few.

‘She writes books about a time’:
I had just published ‘The Illusioneer & Other Tales’ with my short story, Tomorrow, When I Die, inspired by the original HG Wells time travel short story, The Chronic Argonauts. (yes, there was one before ‘The Time Machine’).  Chronic Argonauts was first published in 1888 in the Royal College of Science student magazine,  Science Schools Journal (April-May-June issue) and is credited as the first time-travel story with an ‘inventor-built‘ time machine.

‘She has ink on her fingers a message in her heart‘:
We’d been discussing how I hand write my original drafts (sometimes with a nib pen to get me out of a ‘writers block’.)

‘There’s blood on the pillow from her brand new start‘:

I’ve written on my blog many times about my previoius career and having to leave it due to work-place anxiety, which also triggered PTSD (it’s complicated). In the end the work effected my health (both physical and mental), so I had to leave my paying profession as an optometrist.

My brand new start is my writing career. Writing is cathartic. I can explore various issues and keep my own schedule around recurring migraines, anxiety and other issues. 

‘Listens to the children with their nursery rhymes Here comes the chopper to chop off your head’:

This seems to be directly from my ‘Doctor Jack’ book trailer.

I used children’s nursery rhymes to link in both book trailers for ‘Doctor Jack & Other Tales’. I don’t know about you, but there can be an eerie quality to them. The rhyme, Oranges and Lemons, features in the ‘Doctor Jack’ trailer.

I used a few of the stills from the ‘Doctor Jack’ book trailer in the ‘She Writes Books’ video

I asked Richard Ryall, of the Littmus Steampunk Band, if he wrote the song about me. He was cagey at first, but later asked if I would be in the music video. (squee!)

If you want to buy a copy of ‘She Writes Books’, follow this link to Bandcamp: https://littmus.bandcamp.com/track/she-writes-books

More about the Secret Project teaser video.

I’ve reached the end of the filming and editing for The Littmus Steampunk Band’s music video last week.  Last week Patreon supporters received a sneak peek at the ‘video-so-far’.

Richard has now finished tweaking the sound and adding greenscreen work of the band. It’s now live on his youTube channel!

Upcoming Interviews and Guest Blog Posts and Events

I mentioned interviews earlier… Here’s a list of dates to watch out for August – October:

• 21st August (rescheduled) – Author Postcards Blake and Wright- https://blakeandwight.com/about/  While you are there, you can read a short guest post of mine, featuring Aunt Enid – https://blakeandwight.com/2018/07/10/elevenses-with-aunt-enid-protector-extraordinaire/
  This should go live today or tomorrow (due to Time Zone differences)
• YouTube release of the Littmus Steampunk Band’s new music video for ‘She Writes Books‘ (I haven’t got a firm date for this yet…so watch this space)
• 15-16th September– I’ll be at the Adelaide Steampunk Festival. I’ll have my books, be hosting a demo of parasol dueling on Saturday and doing a writer talk on the Sunday. Come say hello.
• 28th September – interview by Bryce Raffle, editor of the dreadpunk anthology, Deadsteam, with my short story, The Case of the Murderous Migraine. https://deadsteam.wordpress.com/blog/ 
• October release of the dreadpunk anthology, ‘Deadsteam’.(possibly 1st or 6th October)
• 2-3 November – Adelaide Supanova.

For more information on upcoming events, check out my EVENTS page.

Thanks to everyone who has supported me by reading my blog, joing my Patreon supporters or buying my books. If you want to learn more, get sneak peeks, and exclusive information, then sign up for my newsletter (usually out during the first week of the month).

Words, Video and Music

Watch this Space - Secret Video Project

Here’s a little teaser video.

More later…

Watch this Space - Secret Video Project