Tasha's (aka Beren) Journal

So this weekend Soph and I are going to be at TLWLexicon, a literary festival in Faversham, Kent, along with lots of other lovely authors and creators. Check out the TLWLexicon website for all the details.


This is the festival's first year and there are going to be panels and presentations and dramatic readings and huge amounts of fun.

Soph and I are doing two panels on the main stage, one on Sat at 4pm and one on Sunday at 12 noon and we will be in the 'everyone' panel both mornings as well.

Saturday's panel is called '"Self-publishing" or "Independent Publishing"' where we will be nattering on about the percieved differences.

Sunday's panel is called "Creating worlds and building audiences" and is just what it says on the packet.

Basically we're going to try and tell everyone the things we have learned as publishers and authors in the shark pond that is the self publishing world today.

We also have goody bags to give away with bookmarks, keyrings, sweeties and other nice things in them, and all you have to do is take the flyer with all the money off codes as well to get it - so win/win :).

If you are anywhere near the south east of the UK this weekend this is going to be a lot of fun, so come see us and all the other lovely people involved. It's only £1 to get in and under 14s go free.

Sorry this wasn't up yesterday, for some reason Amazon told me I had successfully published, but it was only showing up on the US site for hours. Everything seems to be up and running this morning though.

I actually wrote this one last year as a commission at http://PennyDreadfuls21.com and it came out of it's 60 exclusivity period on 24th Dec, but, truth be told, I totally forgot about it until now :). My commissioner asked for modern setting, male/male, a vampire and a human in a situation bringing them together with conflict from one or both that meant they really didn't want an entanglement. This short story is what I came up with.

Please be aware it has mature content.

Title: Out of the Frying Pan
Author: Tasha D-Drake
Price: US $0.99, UK £0.77, EUR0.89

Dan works his magic with food as a new up and coming chef, what he does not need is his restaurant being destroyed by an explosion and ending up trapped with the UK's hottest food critic in what's left of his kitchen. When vampirism enters the equation it makes things a whole lot worse.

Our main site's running a little slow this morning (I assume Dreamhost are up to something) so here are some direct links in case it fails to load.
Amazon US | Amazon UK |Smashwords

My husband and I watched a film last night called "The Storm Warriors". It's a Chinese epic martial arts movie and it is beautifully made. The sets are stunning, the fight scenes amazing and the special effects are superb, however, it's not a very good film.

• Firstly, it's a sequel and totally fails to reintroduce the characters.


• Secondly the plot is so thin it's virtually non-existent.


• Thirdly, what plot there is doesn't actually make any sense; not even a little bit.

The whole film is a triumph of style over substance and hence falls flat as far as I am concerned. We watched half of the final fight scenes in fast forward because, by then, we were that bored of them. They were beautiful, but we just wanted to know what the hell was going to happen.

A little more talking and less fighting and it might have been a film worth watching a second time.

( Click for more of my thoughts on style and substance. )

For those in the US with Kindles, Forgotten Soul is finally listed for free on Amazon US. They appear to have price matched with B&N.

Sorry UK and other Kindle sites, it doesn't appear to be price matched outside the US yet.

I've redone the cover of Advent to appeal a little more to the YA vampire readers.

Meet Nate, my lead character. He's a lot prettier than Dahlia who was on the cover before ;).



( Click for the larger version )

I'm coming to an inescapable conclusion - naked men on covers sell books. I wonder if I could get away with a naked man on Cat's Call ... I mean they do get naked ... for entirely non-sexual reasons of course ... ;)

I'm joking, but I am going to redo the cover for "Chip Off the Old Block?" so that it has at least semi-naked men on it. It did it in cont. fantasy style, but I think it should definitely be in paranormal romance style instead.

I can do it at the same time I do the cover for the sequel to Forgotten Soul

Originally posted by beren_writes at New Novel: Advent by Natasha Duncan-Drake

Okay, so I've done it, I've published my first novel.

Thank you to everyone who helped me with it, from beta reading it to giving me input on the cover.

If you read down, you will see there is bonus content for any pimping (well there will be once I've finished editing it :)). Thank you in advance to anyone who mentions the book.

It's available on Amazon Kindle, UK and US (see links below) and the first chapter is also up on Youtube as read by me, if you would like to hear a sample.

If you do not own a Kindle, never fear, for Amazon have Kindle aps for everything else as well.
UK site:
Kindle for PC
Kindle for iPhone
Kindle for iPad
Kindle for Android
US site:
Kindle for PC
Kindle for iPhone/iPod Touch
Kindle for Blackberry
Kindle for iPad
Kindle for Android

Also just set up is wittegenpress a comm for our publishers. When we do competitions, give-aways etc. this is where you will find them. Membership is open, please feel free to join up.

The Book

	Title:	Cat's Call
	Author:	Natasha Duncan-Drake
	Description:	Existence is a Balance. Multiple universes and myriads of worlds exist in their own time and space and through each of them threads magic. Seven great Spirits guard the Balance against the forces of evil and chaos. It is time for them to choose new Questors to wield their power and be their mortal advocates. Charlie Waterman is eighteen and until he is assaulted by a cat figurine and wakes up with a tail, he is boringly normal. Apparently he is supposed to be the Questor of the Cat Spirit, but no one bothered to ask him if he wanted to be. It's not the kind of thing that comes up when you're taking your A Levels at a grammar school in Kent. When destiny catches up with him he's two years late and past some mysterious threshold. Eighteen isn't really old, unless you're dealing with magic for the first time. On meeting Akari, the man who claims to be his mentor, he is introduced to Between, a magical realm that exists outside normal time and space. Here he is supposed to learn how to fulfill his destiny. Accompanying Akari to Between to explore his new powers, he meets his fellow Questors: dragon; wolf; horse; spider; hawk; dolphin. They all seem to know what they're doing, but, fighting to maintain control, Charlie's causing earthquakes and accidentally turning into a cat while asleep, which is plain embarrassing. Five sixteen year olds, a young, antisocial vampire and Charlie stand between the Balance and chaos. Nothing on Earth could have prepared Charlie for his destiny and in choosing him, he is sure the Spirits have to be insane.
Series:	The Chronicles of Charlie Waterman #1
Date Pub: March 2011		Length: novel
Buying Options: [Amazon.co.uk £1.71] [Amazon.com $2.99]		Genre: contemporary fantasy, YA
ISBN 978-1-908333-00-1
Review/Feedback link: Post on Wittegen Press LJ

( Youtube Sample read by Tasha )
( Bonus Content )
( Excerpt )
Review/Feedback link: Post on Wittegen Press LJ