The Winding Narrative Turns Seven

The Winding Narrative is seven years old! Last year was a massive year for me professionally. Highlights included having two novels published and joining the committee for the Mansfield Readers & Writers Festival. Let’s see 2024 in review…

Novel Writing

My dream for the past decade has been to publish a series, and I’ve finally done it! I have two books out with Wings ePress in the Jade Riley Mystery Series: The Godfather of Dance and A Killer Among Friends. I’m currently editing Book 3, The Man in the Dam, which is planned for release September 2025.

If you’d like to read the Jade Riley mysteries, you can order them through Lightning Source from your local bookstore, or from Amazon US, Amazon AU (or search your country website). If you prefer an eBook, it’s on a variety of platforms including Kindle, Kobo and Nook. Find them at Books2Read.

Besides the writing itself, I’ve had to learn a whole new set of skills to promote my books. I’ve been active on social media as well as appearing on podcasts, community radio, blogs and articles. Although time-consuming, I’ve enjoyed parts of this more than expected. In particular, every other month, I appear with the fabulous Marg Attley on her show Quiet Please There is a Lady Onstage on Radio Mansfield 99.7FM.

The links to my various interviews are on the media page on my website.

Brightside Story Studio

I still love helping authors bring their stories to life in my editing business, but to allow time to write, I mainly take work for from existing clients. The inspiring Sara Adrien with her wonderful Jewish regency romances keeps me busy. I have taken a couple of new clients, and one has just signed with a top Australian agent.

Check out our Clients’ Book, which shows the works I’ve had an editorial hand in, either through Brightside, NAC or as a beta reader. At least another four books will be added to this list by the end of 2025.

The Winding Narrative

I aimed to blog once a month and exceeded this with 21 posts. My interviews were mainly with authors about their latest releases, but I also spoke to Brooke Michie about Bookstagram and Timo Bozsolik-Torres about the use of AI in publishing. I also did some posts about the process of writing a series.

I’m delighted to introduce Sophia Voukelatos, intern at Brightside Story Studio, who is doing some interviews for my blog. Her first was with Kirsten Alexander on After the Fall, her new release.

My most viewed new blog of the year was Booklover Brooke Michie explains Bookstagram. My most viewed blog of all time is still The Book Publishing Flowchart. The new blog with the greatest number of likes was a three-way tie between Writing a Mystery: Chapter Titles/Playlist A Killer Among Friends, Invitation to Christmas book signing and How to Get Your Book into an Australian Library. A surprise resurgence came from DIY Project Two: Ski Coat Rack, which was great to see.

Mansfield Readers & Writers

I joined the committee of Mansfield Readers & Writers, and due to several resignations, became Vice President. We have a small committee of authors and book sellers, who recognise the power of storytelling. Our main objective is to hold a festival, this year on October 11-12, 2025. We’d love to see you there.

We also run High Country Words Writing Competition, with three categories: short stories, poetry and bush poetry. It’s open Feb 1 to April 30, so get your entries ready!

Short Stories

I had a story accepted for Mirror World Publishing’s anthology, Against All Odds, due for release later in 2025. To hear more about my piece, The Value of a Sapphire, here’s a short interview.

Expat Writers Facebook Group

I continued growing the Expat Writers Facebook group for writers whose work is influenced by living overseas. We welcome new members whether you write novels, articles or letters home as either an expat or immigrant. Our members come from all corners of the globe. Find out more here.

I hope you’ll stay with me through 2025. It’s shaping up to be an exciting year.

To see where I was last year: The Winding Narrative Turns Six.