Posts

A big decision? #amwriting

Image
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
Post a Comment
Read more

Why writers should never read books (or watch TV)

Image
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
Post a Comment
Read more

Books2Read links and flippin' eck, I'm writing!

Image
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
2 comments
Read more

Dead To Me - A (very) Short Story

Image
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.
1 comment
Read more

Reverberations - HBTC novel - is now available

Image
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
Post a Comment
Read more

Josh vs The Loft: an update (in other words, I've finished writing Alumni - Reverberations)

Image
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
Post a Comment
Read more

New Website

Image
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 titles
Post a Comment
Read more

Work in Progress: Scene But Not Herd

Image
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…
Post a Comment
Read more

Work in Progess: Alumni - Reverberations

Image
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
Post a Comment
Read more