De-blog

Image by Darkmoon Art There is a theory (I can’t recall whose) that our decisions are already made at the beginning of a deliberation process, and the weighing up of pros and cons is merely a form of delaying while we find the courage to take the leap. After three months of prevaricating, I’ve taken that leap. Well, more of a step-over, as what I’ve done is congruent with who I am and my values, but I’m wary of the kickback it might have and how others could feel under duress to follow my example or plead their case, neither of which are necessary. To be clear: this decision has no bearing on anyone else, nor is it a judgement of how other creative people do their thing. Cutting to the chase (finally)… I’ve re-priced all of my ebooks to 99c/99p (depending on where you are in the world). That includes all novels, novellas and short stories written by Debbie McGowan or J.S. Morley. The only exceptions are my box sets/multiple-volume books, which are 2.99 USD, and my free ebooks, which wi...

Nige - my other half – is a singer/songwriter. He'd likely tell you otherwise, but I heard his songs (and learnt all the lyrics – it's an affliction) before I even set eyes on him, so whatever else he claims he is, he is also a singer/songwriter. I mention this to qualify something he said to me not long after we became friends: there are only so many ways to combine the musical elements; inevitably, people will write melodies that have been written before. Or something like that. I'm paraphrasing to fit the theme of this blog post, which will be short. I'm trying to get back into the habit of posting more often than once a year. That point about songs came back to me a couple of weeks ago when I was watching artists on YouTube demonstrate how to draw faces, and one of them said something about all art being derivative, stolen from others. The key is to learn to 'steal like an artist'. So I don't sidetrack, I'll just add a link to a TED talk by Austin K...

Illustration by John Hain Every time I open a text message or email at the moment, it's from one of my utilities providers telling me my bill's about to increase. Meanwhile, my union has paused strike action hoping it will contribute to a more positive negotiation climate. Seriously, the common people are on their knees and STILL we're sucking up to government and big capital, not that those two are separate entities. All is not well in the Western world. Yes, for all of the above, I realise I'm very fortunate. I enjoy a comfortable standard of living but nothing more than that, and my private rants about the unfairness of a system that piles guilt onto us – the barely comfortable – while the bunch of w*nkers at the top don't give a single sh*t on a platinum toilet…are much longer and swearier. But I didn't come here to rant; it escaped and expanded while I was considering the intended topic of this post, which is a couple of recent changes that have impacted ...

I hear the front door close, the clang of your keys as you drop them into your pocket. My peaceful afternoon is about to end, just as soon as you’ve taken off your shoes, checked the mail, poked your head into the sitting room, slammed the kettle with your dismay and laid your disbelief upon the naked kitchen table. I can almost hear you tally your point score as you climb the stairs to my studio—THE attic, as you call it—and I should brace for your arrival, but I don’t give a damn. That creaky top stair denies you your stealthy approach, yet I act as if you will still catch me unawares. The square of blue above my head holds my attention, patchy and ragged as if the skylight were a giant phone and the sky a wash painted by a clumsy finger. “I bet you do that all day.” I fake a start, as usual, and spin my chair so my back is fully to you. If you could manage as much as a civil ‘hi’, I’d respond in kind. But the kindness has all gone. We are embittered, estranged echoes of our past....

Phew! [wipes brow] I've finally done it! My new novel is out in the wild (admittedly, it's still sitting on Amazon's doorstep waiting to be let in). Reverberations  is a stand-alone-ish novel in the Hiding Behind The Couch series – purchase links will appear on Beaten Track as soon as they're live. The ebook is already live on the Beaten Track store. Mysterious happenings are mounting up for Josh, Sean and their estranged alumni. Josh Sandison-Morley was born a sceptic. Why else would he insist there’s no such thing as ghosts when he’s eliminated every plausible explanation for the noises in his former therapy rooms? Sean Tierney’s having some ‘performance issues’. His GP says there’s no physical reason: his blood pressure is under control, and he’s stayed off the booze, ergo it’s all in his head. In the circumstances, being a palliative clinical psychologist isn’t proving (self-)helpful. Despite two decades of friendship and their grand plans to open a private psycho...

Alumni – Reverberations is finished! Now I wonder what all the fuss was about. :D To explain further/recap, here’s the Author’s Note I’ve added to the start of the book: As a way of making light of how long it’s taken me to finish this novel, I’ve spent the past five(!) years saying, “Josh has been stuck in the loft for [x] years now.” That was where I left him at the end of Reunions , published in April 2017—dangling from the loft hatch in his former ‘surgery’, a space he previously rented but now owns. It might, therefore, be somewhat confusing to find that Josh is not stuck in the loft at the beginning of this book. This isn’t because he cunningly escaped while the author was under siege from burnout. Rather, the five-chapter epilogue of Reunions and the first seven chapters of Reverberations overlap. This was always my intention—to add in the ‘how did we get here?’ background to events at the end of Reunions —but it should, I hope, also serve as something of a Previously…in...

Three blog posts in one day… There is a method to my seemingly sudden enthusiasm for posting, and it’s a one-off. Along with starting and never finishing stories, over the past few years I’ve been trying to come up with a streamlined, stripped-down layout for my website, the former incarnations of which had lots of pages and lots of content, but mostly it was duplicating what was available elsewhere. For instance, I had a page for the Hiding Behind The Couch series, but I also have hidingbehindthecouch.com , so that was pointless. All my books are listed – along with blurbs and purchase links – on Beaten Track, and then there are the pages and posts on this blog, and I thought… Work smarter, Deb. Which is why I’m posting about my forever-ongoing works in progress today. Twice. I mean, I have published other stuff in the time that Scene But Not Herd and Alumni – Reverberations  have been gathering virtual dust. See? Not as bad a writing drought as I thought! And I have a lot of ti...

Scene But Not Herd  is book 2 of  Front of House , a  Hiding Behind The Couch  The Next Generation  if you will. Scene But Not Herd  follows on from  Goth of Christmas Past  (Front of House #1). Draft blurb for  Scene But Not Herd : Amy is so done with people trying to organise her life. By people, she means her bossy older sister Fi, who insists she’s protecting Amy’s proprietary rights to her software, but that doesn’t make it any less annoying. Meanwhile, Hadyn’s fallen into a black hole. Literally. Managing the studio is taking up all of his time, his hopes for pursuing a relationship with Amy are teetering on the event horizon, and his new songs suck. Krissi and Jay’s prodigies aren’t the only ones who are fed up. Krissi’s ‘opportunity of a lifetime’ is driving her nuts, Jay’s stagnating behind a desk, and virtual ice cream and swings just doesn’t cut it. Then there’s the not-small matter of what do about Stu…

Poor Josh has been stuck in the loft for five years. That's how long I’ve been working on Alumni – Reverberations . It’s part of the Hiding Behind The Couch series and started life as Alumni (Season 8). That was in 2017, after I published  Reunions (Season 7 – which ended with Josh bravely climbing that ladder), but for various reasons, I had to set Alumni aside. Even now, I can’t honestly say the end is in sight, but it’s a lot closer than it was, which is good news for Josh. OK, minor spoiler: he does eventually find a way down from the loft. I know because I wrote that part about three years ago. The trouble was, the further I progressed with this instalment, the harder it became…until I realised I wasn’t writing Season 8. I was writing a renaissance of Ruminations . At last, it all made sense. So here we are, five years later, and Alumni – Reverberations is still a work in progress. I haven’t decided on the final cover other than it being Ouija-board inspired. However, I...

What modern social media looks like to me. I am SO TIRED of social media. That's possibly not a surprise to anyone who knows me, as in  actually  knows me as opposed to being my 'friend' so they can attempt to sell me stuff. I'm not good at peopling in the real world; it would be inconsistent at best if I were a virtual socialite. I'm kind of an early adopter when it comes to technology. I was at uni in the early days of Web 1.0, and the possibilities it presented were endless and exciting. So much knowledge at our fingertips...just as soon as we found a way to catalogue, share and search for it (the latter enabling me to hone my research skills, for which I will be forever grateful). Even the burgeoning of Web 2.0 - interactive content created by and for the people - I was fully in favour of, and I could just about stomach the early manifestations of social media. I may not have signed up to MySpace of my own volition, but it was fairly benign by modern standards. ...

  Three years after his partner’s death, Detective Chief Inspector Gray Fisher has finally made the break from the police. With a new place to live, a new job and his PhD underway, Gray welcomes the friendship of Will Richards, an investment banker with hidden depths and a farmhouse menagerie of rescue animals. Gray’s not looking for love, and he’s certainly not interested in becoming involved in police work again…until former colleague Rob Simpson-Stone tracks him down to ask for his help with a case. So begins Gray and Rob’s new business partnership. For Rob Simpson-Stone, the career change may have come too late to rescue his marriage, but his relationship with his son is back on track. Rob’s grown-up nieces might be a taller order, but he’s prepared to do whatever it takes to prove they no longer need to worry that one day he won’t come home. As events unfold, Gray’s past recklessness catches up with him and Rob both, putting those they hold close in danger and forcing them to ...

Penumbra is a clever novel and not what I was expecting based on the previous books by Dan Ackerman that I've read, which admittedly is not their full back catalogue, although I'm working on it. The world Ackerman narrates is so complex, so different yet familiar. For this reason, there is no need for blatant world-building up front, and I'm delighted Ackerman doesn't insult the reader by going down that route. We know how capitalism works, how inherited privilege persists unchallenged. So we're thrown into the thick of reality on Eden - a space station carrying potentially all that's left of humankind - ruled by Arden, a young, entitled, drug-dependent autarch, all of which are understandable given he inherited the responsibility and Eden is unsustainable. What I've said so far doesn't reveal much more than is given in the blurb. Of course, there's all the technology that goes with the setting of a self-sufficient space station, most of which is ...

The Silk Thief (The Roshaven Series Book 2) **COVER REVEAL & PRE-ORDER LIVE** A Humorous Urban Fantasy Novel coming 4th June 2021 The Blurb: Fourteen, heir to the Empire of Roshaven, must find a new name before Theo, Lord of neighbouring Fidelia, brings his schemes to fruition. Not only has he stolen Roshaven’s trade, but he plans to make Fourteen his own and take her empire in the bargain. Her protector, Ned Spinks, is plagued with supernatural nightmares whilst his assistant, Jenni the sprite, has lost her magick. Can they figure out how to thwart Theo’s dastardly plan before it’s too late for his city and her empire? PRE-ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY: mybook.to/SilkThief The Silk Thief is the second quirky magical mystery adventure set in the Roshaven series of humorous fantasy novels. If you like the wit and humour of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, then you’ll love The Silk Thief. More About the Roshaven Books: The Rose Thief, The Roshaven Series book 1 Someone is stea...

Title: Striking Balance – The Peculiar Making of Beatrice Benjamin Sophia Scott Schnell Gow Series: Appalachian Elementals (#3) Genre: Appalachian Paranormal Fantasy Author: Jeanne G'Fellers Publisher: Mountain Gap Books Release Date: 21st July 2020 You know when you've beta-read books one and two in a series, and read the novella that came after (or, in fact, between) them, and then the author contacts you and says, "Hey, d'you fancy beta-reading book three?" Yep, that! Because, honestly, when someone writes as brilliantly as Jeanne G'Fellers does, beta-reading is a free book, and I kind of feel like I cheated the author out of a sale. Well, the least I can do is tell you what makes this novel (and series) so awesome. So the first thing is the series itself: Appalachian Elementals is, as the title indicates, a series set in the Appalachians…featuring elemental beings, although not just elementals. The mixing and mingling of different kin...

Title:  Minuet Series:  Notes from Boston Author:  A.M. Leibowitz Publisher: Supposed Crimes Release Date: 1st September 2019 Full disclosure: I beta-read Minuet (along with books 2 and 3 - Nightsong and Drumbeat ), which doesn't make any difference to what I will say - I'd love this series just as much had I read it in the usual way. But it has given me an insight beyond each novel, as I've kept in mind how the various arcs fit together and developed strong feelings towards certain characters. Those feelings don't always run in line with 'heroes' and 'villains', although...the one uber villain, well, let's say he gets his comeuppance quite satisfactorily in  Minuet . Central to this instalment are the characters Mack, Amelia and Jomari, and I must admit that I still don't feel I know Jomari as well as the other two, purely because I've known him for a shorter period of time. In some ways, he's more closed off than Mack, altho...

Not My Christmas by Debbie McGowan Published: 25th December, 2019 Length: 18,000 words (approx.) 99c from Smashwords  • Amazon Blurb: Christmas at the Davenports has never been a relaxing affair, so when the opportunity for a little alone time with a beautiful, available woman comes Charlie Davenport’s way, she takes it, breaking several family traditions and risking the wrath of her siblings. But it’ll be worth it, right? And she can always make it up to them later…or next Christmas. A stand-alone story from the world of Hiding Behind The Couch. Keywords: LGBTQ+, ownvoices, romance, family, bisexual women, Christmas, humour

Woot! My 2018 novella The Great Village Bun Fight won an award this weekend. :) The Rainbow Awards  are an annual/bi-annual event, run by Elisa Rolle, celebrating LGBTQ+ books across all genres. Entrants make a donation to an LGBTQ+ charity of their choosing, and this year, the awards raised over $12,000. A huge thank you to Elisa for all her hard work and dedication to the awards and the contributions they make, not just to writers and readers but to the LGBTQ+ community. The Great Village Bun Fight (Winner of the Rainbow Award for  Best Bisexual Contemporary Humorous Fiction) Paperback • eBook • Audiobook For purchase links, visit: https://www.beatentrackpublishing.com/bunfight All’s fair in love and war. But not in baking. A humorous story about baking and village life. Also includes a rockin' reverend, cakes and bunting. Do what you do best. So said Henry’s grandad a year ago to the day as he handed Henry a small, red-foil-wrap...

OK, so I missed it by a few minutes in BST as it's technically now the 21st August, but let's assume it's still the 20th for me as it still is for many of you. Today I released Meredith's Dagger - my fiftieth novel - on my fiftieth birthday! Both of those facts are quite hard to believe. I made it to fifty! Woot! And fifty books? Well, I wrote most of them in the last ten years, not sure how... I'm going to keep this short and give a little background to  Meredith's Dagger , which I originally wrote in 2011 but then set it aside while I did further research into the relevant local history. Then I got caught up in all that research and it was a bit overwhelming, so I let it rest awhile to work on other books. I've come back to it several times over the years since and made it through the first few chapters before I reached the point where I wanted to slap Julian - you'll reach that point too, but he's not so bad really once you get...

Title: Keeping House Author: Jeanne G'Fellers Publisher: Mountain Gap Books Series: Appalachian Elementals (#2) Genre: Appalachian Paranormal Fantasy, LGBTQ+ Purchase Links: Mountain Gap  •  Amazon  •  Smashwords Kobo  •  Barnes and Noble Blurb: Centenary Rhodes is caught in a deal she didn’t make. Thanks to her eternal lover, Stowne’s, quick thinking, she’ll live forever, but there’s a hitch. Cent’s now fey, and three months out of the year she’ll live on the other side of Embreeville Mountain among the Hunter Fey, serving their king, Dane Gow. As Cent begins wading through the anachronisms that come with being a Hunter, she learns that nothing is what it initially seems. Cent shares several past lives with Dane, who wants her back, and Stowne’s lied to Cent so many times that she’s having doubts about their marriage. To make matters worse, the past Hunter Kings are influencing Dane’s behavior, and the youngest Hunter, Brinn, might...