I’m at a point now where I’m starting to look back at what I’ve done this year. There have been a few things that have happened that have made me re-think what I want out of life and where I want to be in the next few years, so I thought I would reflect on that. The first thing I need to reflect on is my writing career.

You might not have noticed but I have actually got a few  books published out there in the Aether so far this year.  I thought I’d remind you of them…

My first children’s book, “Pika The Phluph and The Gribblebid Tough“, was produced in collaboration with Maria K. The story of a small pink fluffball with an adventurous spirit and a big heart  started life as a way to teach my daughter about the “Ph” sound during her reading lessons.

Add Maria’s charming drawings and you have a sweet, (but not sickly) rhyming story just perfect for reading at bed time, letting the kids read by themselves… they do you know:

The Spiral binding is deliberate – it makes it easy to have the pages open on your lap without breaking the spine and is also easy to turn the pages for those little ones who are a little bit clumsy…

To pick up a copy – http://www.lulu.com/shop/maria-k-and-kira-morgana/pika-the-phluph-and-the-gribblebid-tough/paperback/product-20004195.html – is the link you need!

Maria and I didn’t sit back on our laurels though. We got busy and brought out a second “Land Far Away” book. The second one is called “The Grungegoggler’s Mess” and while it is just as fun and challenging to read, it harbours a serious message to our children.

The Grungegogglers are suffering from a horrible disease and while they have found a treatment, it isn’t a cure. One day, the Piskaphluph bird discovers what they are doing to the world around them and calls in the big guns to help her save the day…

This is also spiral bound, with beautiful clearly printed pages.

To pick up a copy – http://www.lulu.com/shop/maria-k-and-kira-morgana/grungegogglers-mess/paperback/product-20246845.html – is the link you need!

We’re hoping to have a third “Land Far Away” book out soon, as well as e-format for those people who live for their gadgets…

Now, moving away from the children, we’ll move toward adulthood. My next book is all my own work (except the cover which is by the wonderful Elizabeth Bank:

This little collection of stories is garnered from my apprenticeship in the last few years. You learn a great deal about writing when you have to stick to a word count and some of the hardest writing I have done was less than 150 words. Anyway, The Necklace of Harmony, is a collection of some of the best stories I have written, for various reasons in the last three years.

I’ve had some brilliant reviews on amazon – all of them 5 star – and I’m very proud of this little book. Not only does it show you the end product, but you get to look inside my mind at where the story came from…

To pick up a copy – http://www.amazon.co.uk/Necklace-Harmony-Short-Collection-ebook/dp/B0079HL2FE/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1329396628&sr=1-1 – is the link you need!

The final book in this little list, is very definitely adult.

The dark side of my personality escapes into my writing sometimes as A.E. Churchyard. As long as I ‘m writing for adults, I don’t have to worry about that too much. This book is all me; story and cover… and believe me it was an awful lot of work!

I’m quite proud of the cover, but as this is only one in a series of short stories that I’m working on, I’m certain that my graphic skills will get better as we go along. This is science fiction and horror (only a little bit) and fantasy mixed together. I liked the story (I’d written it for an anthology) so much that I edited it and published it.

Pick up a copy here – http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tales-Cassius-Statues-Justice-ebook/dp/B008BKGPRS/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1344110386&sr=1-1

And here – https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/180567

So, that’s what’s been happening on the book front…

The rest of my life is pretty much the same old, same old. Nothing much changes here (the weather is alternately sunny and wet, the children drive me crazy and TOH pretty much does the same) so it’s left to my creative endeavours (and the cats) to cheer things up.

When I can get on the PC that is.

TOH has taken the big step of re-entering education in order to change careers – nothing too dramatic, just going from a well paid engineering career (well it would be well paid if he could get a job) to becoming a Starving Artist. He wants to be an Illustrator/Animator, but he’s not exactly what I’d call enthusiastic about the daily practise of his art. Except when he plays with his graphics tablet.

So in order to encourage this, I’ve taken to making jewellery when he goes on the PC and starts playing with the graphics tablet, in the hope that he’ll be able to point himself in the right direction. He’s also bought himself a decent bridge digital camera and is taking photos of all sorts of things. This is great, but it doesn’t give me much time to actually write!

Enough of such meanderings…

Time for a competition!

Fancy a free e-book copy of “Tales of Cassius: Statues of Justice”? Of course you do, you don’t want to have to pay a measly £1.33 ($2.99 or thereabouts) for a copy do you…

Well all you have to do is tell me (in the comments below) what you think would be a good name for the next baddy for Cassius to take down. All I can tell you about the next story (I don’t want to give the game away) is the Title – “Tales of Cassius: The Necklace of Eyeballs” and the fact that it takes place on a Moon base.

You’ve got a week to enter and I will pick the best one next Saturday!