Recap of Haze UK blog tour

Now I’m back in Australia it’s time to catch up on the UK blog tour that’s been happening over the past couple of weeks.

Huge thanks to the bloggers who participated, and to Nina Douglas at Indigo Books for organising. 🙂

  • Winged Reviews:  An insightful interview with Mary, in which I have an epiphany about a certain aspect of the Rephaim series.
  • Dark Readers: Casey (possibly Rafa’s number one fan) hosts a mini Rafa-fest. 🙂
  • Wondrous Reads: In a guest post, I talk about weapon choices in urban fantasy.
  • Fluttering Butterflies: Clover invited me to share my ‘bookshelf requirement’. My choice: Melina Marchetta.
  • Wondrous Reads: In my second visit to Wondrous Reads this tour, I chat with Jenny about the world of the Rephaim, writing action scene and musical inspiration – as well as a teeny teaser about Shimmer.
  • Bookbabblers: I chat about character inspiration and my fave TV shows with the lovely Sarah.

Thanks everyone. 🙂

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UK Haze blog tour starts next week

The lovely team at Indigo has put together a fun blog tour to promote the release of Haze in the UK (it’s out now).

There are guest posts and interviews, including a question that prompted a revelation for me about a particular aspect of the story, (thanks Mary!). I also chat about guns and swords. Oh, and there’s a mini Rafa-fest…

I’ll promo posts during the tour, and then collate links to them all at the end of the tour.

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Rafa and ladies' kisses

You’ve possibly noticed my books tend to make regular mention of food – in particular, tasty cuisine from different parts of the world.

In Haze, there’s a scene in which Rafa is telling Gaby a story about their childhood and it involves sneaking into the kitchen at the Sanctuary to steal Italian biscuits known as baci di dama (ladies’ kisses).

So, as an excuse to write a post with ‘Rafa’ and ‘ladies’ kisses’ in the search terms, here’s the recipe (from Gourmet Traveller) and photos of my first attempt over the weekend to make them (great suggestion Heather Scott).

I took a slight cheat’s option and used Italian-made hazelnut spread rather than the chocolate filling in this recipe – partly because it was quicker, and partly because I wanted more hazel flavour.

•    105 gm (¾ cup) hazelnuts, roasted and peeled
•    160 gm (1 cup) pure icing sugar
•    125 gm softened butter
•    1 orange, finely grated rind only
•    1 vanilla bean, scraped seeds only
•    150 gm(1 cup) plain flour

Chocolate filling (or use hazelnut spread)
•    150 gm dark chocolate (60% cocoa solids), coarsely chopped
•    25 gm butter
•    25 ml pouring cream

Method
•    Preheat oven to 180C. Using a food processor, process hazelnuts and icing sugar until nuts are finely ground.
•    Using an electric mixer fitted with a paddle, beat butter, rind, vanilla seeds, hazelnut mixture and a large pinch of salt until creamy, then add flour, stirring until just combined (do not overmix).
•    Roll half-teaspoon of dough into balls and arrange about 6cm apart on baking paper-lined oven trays. Bake one tray at a time in centre of oven until golden (12-15 minutes), then cool on trays over a wire rack. Repeat with remaining biscuits.
•    For chocolate filling, combine chocolate, butter and cream in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring occasionally, until melted. Stir until glossy and smooth, then cool to room temperature.
•    Spread half-teaspoon of chocolate filling onto the flat side of half the biscuits (you may have a little filling left over), then sandwich with remaining biscuits, pressing lightly together to seal. Biscuits will keep in refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 1 week. Bring to room temperature before serving.

And yes, I realise mine look more like ladies poking out their tongues than puckering for a kiss (probably appropriate, given my approach to romance). Here’s what they’re supposed to look like (from Gourmet Traveller):

0508TObaci-628

Haze: official launch

Last night we had the official launch of Haze (The Rephaim #2) – and it was a huge amount of fun.

Riverbend Books at Bulimba kindly hosted us again, and the wonderful Marianne de Pierres (who launched Shadows last year) was also on board, this time to lead an ‘in conversation’ session with me.

I was much more relaxed this year than last year – so much so I even did my own reading (in front of 60 plus people who know me!) – and the conversation format with Marianne helped enormously. Just two writers chatting. It was fun and informal and seemed to go down well.

As well as my enthusiastic gang of family and friends, there were also bloggers and reviewers in the crowd: Nomes from Inkcrush (with her friend Amanda), Michelle from Maree’s Musings, Mia K Rose (from the blog of the same name), and Trisha (from Padua College, who is also a Goodreads regular). It was lovely to have them along and to get a chance to chat in person.

During my chat with Marianne, I also announced the working title (which is pretty much final) for book 3: Shimmer.

(Nomes has written a fantastic overview of the topics we covered. Read it here.)

Special thanks again to Text Publishing for putting on the soiree, especially publicist Rachel Shepheard who did a fantastic job bringing it all together (as well as organising some wonderful publicity for Haze). And of course, my business partner Heather Scott (pH creative threw a few extra dollars at the bar later in the night). And thanks to everyone who came along and who continue to share in this adventure of mine.

At the start of the night I also acknowledged my friend Michelle Edmonds-Weller, who very sadly passed away on 12 May after a long fight against breast cancer. She was 42. In the days before she passed, Michelle asked me to sign her copy of Haze. It was the toughest signing I’ve ever done, knowing she wouldn’t get a chance to read it. Her husband Teale and sons Riley and Kynan came along to support me for the launch, which I really appreciated. As a way of honouring Michelle – and her family – I reminded women in the audience to get their breasts checked regularly. (I’m booked in at Breastscreen Queensland next week.)

Here’s a photo of Michelle (in the white scarf) at Shadows’ launch last year with her family and the Dunlops.

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Haze is out in the wild

As of yesterday, Haze is out in the wild. Publication day is such a strange combination of excitement and nervousness…a sensation that lasts well beyond publication day, actually.  (Now that I’ve experienced it twice, I figure I can make statements like that.)

My very good mate Rebecca sent me this great shot of her and her family checking out copies of Haze today. Don’t worry, her girls aren’t actually reading it (too young for that content!). Note her hubby is catching up on Shadows first. 🙂

IMG_0547Early response to Haze has been lovely. Here are a couple of reviewers quick off the mark:

Next up for me, aside from working feverishly on Book 3 (title reveal coming soon), will be Voices on the Coast on the Sunshine Coast on June 3 and 4, which I’m looking forward to.

I had a blast at Literati on the Gold Coast last weekend, and met some lovely readers and a bunch of great writers. Here’s me with the lovely LA Larkin at the dinner on Friday night. (Thanks to LA for sharing this one.)

BKr0eADCMAAOtDr.jpg_largeRight then. Back to it.

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About Me

I’m the author of the Rephaim series and The Undercurrent.

For my day job, I’m a writer-journalist-professional communicator, where my writing involves a lot less profanity.

I grew up in regional South Australia and now live in the Scenic Rim with my husband and a retired greyhound.

If you’re interested in how I came to land a publishing deal, you can read the short version in this post from August 2011. There’s a longer version (in a guest post) here.

Paula Weston

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