I’m still here…

Although I’d understand if you lost interest in this blog long ago.

It’s been five years since my last post. I’m keen to get blogging again on a semi-regular basis, and thought I’d start with an update on where I’m at in life and writing.

Life

My last post was in 2017, when The Undercurrent launched. At that point, I’d lost my brother Steve a few days before the launch, barely two years after losing my dad, and my mum had been diagnosed with dementia.

The years that followed were full of ups and downs. I spent a lot of time with my mum, grateful for every day she remembered me. When my dad passed, it was quick and sudden. The last weeks of my mum’s life were the opposite. Both experiences were terrible, and each changed me in profound ways I’m still grappling with.

In happier news, a year later, my husband and I bought a 160-year-old cottage on a couple of acres in the Scenic Rim, an hour south-west of Brisbane. It’s been life-changing in all the right ways. Beautiful scenery, welcoming people, a sense of community, and a re-connection with life away from a digital screen. Our cottage is small, but my life is bigger in ways I’d forgotten I needed.

Writing

If you follow my author account on Facebook, you possibly saw I’ve had two pieces of news about The Rephaim series this year.

Screen rights

In March, Sarah Kelley – a lovely and talented Canadian actress and screenwriter – bought the rights to adapt Shadows into a film (update August 2023: Sarah is now well advanced in adapting Shadows into a TV pilot). Sarah is from Algonquins of Pikwakanagan in Golden Lake, Ontario.

It’s an exciting opportunity for Gaby, Rafa and company. It’s a long road from print to screen, and this is an important first step. The process from here is for Sarah to adapt the book into a screenplay and then find a production company to bring it to the screen.

I’m so grateful to Sarah for loving The Rephaim characters enough to want to adapt the first novel in the series, knowing how many of her own projects she has going on. (This year alone, her short film Good Grief has won a stack of Canadian and international awards (she wrote, directed and starred in it), and she’s also been busy acting, and had another of her screenplays optioned.)

The Rephaim are in Poland!

In September, a Polish language edition of Shadows was released in Poland (print, e-book and audio). Interestingly, it’s been released as an adult book (rather than YA), and has so far been well received by Polish book bloggers.

The Instagram posts have been stunning.

Current project

After The Undercurrent came out in 2017, I spent a couple of years working on a stand-alone contemporary adult thriller, for a change of pace. I wrote it during an intense time in my life, so maybe it’s no surprise it didn’t find a publishing home.

And then I did something I should have done a while ago: returned to the fantasy series I’d been working on before The Rephaim. I had the first book drafted, as well as a few chapters of the second book, so I figured it would simply be a case of tightening up the line, giving it a polish, and writing the rest.

Wrong.

After working with editors on five published books, I’m not only a better writer, I’m also a better storyteller and have a stronger sense of the type of story I want to tell with this group of characters and the world I’ve created for them.

So, I’ve spent the last two years completely re-working the first book (the story is essentially the same but the characters are more nuanced and the world-building much richer) and am about a third of the way into the second book. I also have a completely new direction for the third than what I’d originally planned.

For the first time in a long while, I’m excited about writing. I’ve been doing a lot of fun research, in particular learning more about the middle ages, sword play and Greek myths.

The story will take three books to tell. Fingers crossed the trilogy finds a home.

A few photos from the Burn launch

As you’ll see from the photos below, I had an awesome night when Marianne de Pierres and I launched Burn at Riverbend Books in Bulimba with another of our annual chats.

We had a great crowd and the buzz was fantastic. Thank you again to Marianne, the team at Riverbend Books (especially Vicky, Pauline and Lachlan), Text Publishing (especially Steph Speight), and everyone who came along and made it such a great night.

PanoramicAnd I got to meet fellow Brisbane writer Christine Bongers 🙂

11667472_10153125663124495_3552003894058998912_nSome more shots from the night:

 

First look at Burn (Rephaim #4): a teaser

It’s only a month now until Burn – the fourth and final instalment in The Rephaim series – is released in Australia and New Zealand (24 June 2015 – release dates for other parts of the world are below).

Hard to believe we’ve come to the end already.

I’ve had quite a few requests for a teaser, so…here it is! (Click on link or thumbnail)

Burn_Text

Back cover blurb:

Gaby remembers everything.

For a year she believed she was a backpacker chilling out in Pandanus Beach. Working at the library. Getting over the accident that killed her twin brother.

Then Rafa came to find her and Gaby discovered her true identity as Gabe: one of the Rephaim. Over a hundred years old. Half angel, half human, all demon-smiting badass—and hopelessly attracted to the infuriating Rafa.

Now she knows who faked her memories, and how—and why it’s all hurtling towards a massive showdown between the forces of heaven and hell.

More importantly, she remembers why she’s spent the last ten years wanting to seriously hurt Rafa.

Australia/New Zealand: 24 June 2015 (Text Publishing)
United Kingdom: 5 August 2015 (Orion – Indigo Books)
US/Canada: 7 June 2016 (Tundra Books/Random House Canada)
Everywhere else (English language): check your local book stores or try Amazon (for hard copy and kindle editions) (Orion – Indigo Books)

Shadows gets a new look for Turkish edition

Shadows is about to make its debut in Turkey in a Turkish translation published by Yabanci Yayinlari (I’m in good company – among its excellent list of authors is fellow Aussie Jessica Shirvington).

Here’s the cover (which makes me grin every time I look at it):

Turkish edition

Shadows (aka Golgeler) is out in Turkey 16 January 2015. (And yes, I get a buzz seeing it in a language other than English!)

Shimmer release dates for Australia, NZ and UK

Here they are, confirmed release dates for Shimmer (Rephaim #3):

  • Australia and New Zealand (Text Publishing): 25 June
  • United Kingdom (Indigo): 3 July

(Indigo also distributes the Rephaim series – English language version – to a number of countries in Europe and Asia and other selected parts of the world.)

ShimmerI’m really excited for you guys to read Shimmer. There’s a still a bit of tweaking to do (mostly line edits) but it feels like it’s pretty much there now.

Meanwhile, I’ve also been busy working on Burn (Rephaim #4) and I’m over half-way into the first draft. This will be the final book in the series and a lot of threads need to come together (and work!). So far so good… 🙂

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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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