I’ve been thinking about this for a while. I don’t like to make people pay for my work, but at the same time, I’m disabled, I can only work a few hours a week and the exhaustion is interfering with my ability to write. I want to give myself an incentive to write when I feel well enough. If I have paying subscribers, I have to write!
I may have mentioned the Space Dragon story I’ve been working on for a couple of years. The plan is to share a chapter a month for paying subscribers until I’ve written it all. You won’t be getting the first draft, since I write that by hand, but you’ll get the edited version. There will probably be further edits in future before I release it as a book. I might also share some of my short stories as paid subscriber posts.
What do you think?
Let me share a few paragraphs with you and if you want the rest, please feel free to join the paid subscription.
Update 22/03/2025
No one wanted paid subscriptions, so I’ve unlocked this chapter and any others that I’ve posted.
Discharged unexpectedly from the British military at the peak of her career, Jade Palmer must find a way to rebuild her life. Haunted by strange nightmares and fragments of her own fractured memories, Jade finds herself thrust among unfriendly family and unfamiliar friends. Her only comfort is in the cobbled streets, quaint cottages and winding river paths that hold the happy echoes of her childhood.
But in the local cemetery, older than living memory, a strange mist rises among the willows in the depths of the night… and with it, a vengeful entity that seems to stalk Jade’s every footstep with terrifying purpose.
Alongside her faithful dog, Cannelloni, and wild-child sister, Leela, Jade must fight once more—braving a tangled journey through ancient supernatural lore, and the depths of her own hubris, to protect those she loves.
For the dead have truths to tell… and their retribution comes as cold as the grave.
Mist in the Willows, the first entry in the Spirit Fleet Chronicles, is a chilling and cozy gothic novel about loss, cupcakes, annoying family, mysterious steampunk strangers, and the ways in which violence may haunt us all.
Returning to Sydney, Detective Ramesh Ryan is promoted to the Homicide Squad. Zoe Yang joins him there. Now a detective herself, she is assigned as his junior partner. Straight up, the cops are off and running—investigating the discovery of a murdered company director. Following the clues, Detective Ryan finds that this and a second murder may be linked to past events.
As the pressure mounts for a quick solution to the case, the detective finds that he too, is in the killer’s crosshairs. But Ryan is distracted from the investigation by a romantic encounter with an old university friend. He also worries about his mother, Mumta, and her new obsessive desire for grandchildren from her only son. Could this be linked to her recent medical tests? And there’s another pressing problem—the plague of rats in his apartment block.
Pietro Guffini, aka The Owl, heads one of Australia’s largest crime gangs. He unexpectedly took the position after the sudden and violent death of his predecessor, Oscar Bruno. Now he’s trying to get himself up to speed.
Extract:
Pietro Guffini, aka The Owl, was well acquainted with death, though you wouldn’t know that at first blush. He was someone you could pass on the street without a second glance—stocky, with the neck of an ox, his balding pate sitting atop a square, bespectacled face. Mr. Ordinary. This persona had served him well when, back in the day, he had worked as a driver for Oscar Bruno, then the head of one of the largest and most violent organized crime gangs in Australia. Underneath The Owl’s subservient, everyman demeanor beat the heart of a burningly ambitious man, a cold-blooded killer prepared to do anything to achieve his ultimate goal—to replace Oscar Bruno and head up the crime gang himself.
The Owl’s chance came when Bruno was murdered, killed by a sniper’s bullet. His number two and three had died around the same time, so suddenly, everything was up for grabs. One by one, would-be successors had been eliminated. After all of the blood and mayhem, The Owl was the only man left standing.
After removing all the opposition, he had started going through the accounts and discovered, to his horror, that they were in complete disarray.
Pietro Guffini could have left cleaning the books to a professional bean counter. But anyone examining them would have a complete blueprint of all the gang’s illegal activities. He decided to do it himself.
*Terms and Conditions –UK entries welcome. Please enter using the Gleam box below. The winner will be selected at random via Gleam from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data. I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.
About the Author
Clive Fleury is an award-winning writer of novels and screenplays, including most recently the murder mystery Off Season, which was the first in the Detective Ryan Mystery series. He is also a TV/Film writer, director, and producer who has worked for major broadcasters and studios on a wide variety of successful drama and documentary projects, in the US, the UK, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has written and directed four feature films, one of which, “Big City Blues,” starred Giancarlo Esposito, the late Burt Reynolds, and Balthazar Getty. His most recent film, “Sons of Summer,” is a surfing movie set on the Gold Coast of Australia and stars Temuera Morrison and Isabel Lucas. Clive currently spends his time between Miami, Florida and Sydney, Australia.
I wasn’t there this year, although I did watch the live stream and scared the cat when my mate Annabel won Best Newcomer. Here’s the BFS post with the winners list.
Gordon Slee fears he was never meant to be born. Anxious since childhood after hearing he was an accident, the forty-two-year-old is still struggling to escape the shadow of his high-achieving family.
But a glimmer of hope is on the horizon – a huge promotion within his hotel group is up for grabs, and he is sure that his time has come to make a mark on the world.
However, within his own department, redundancies are afoot. He may lose his job before he gets the chance. Until he learns of a historic covenant that preserves the right for sheep to run through the company’s top London hotel. Could he convince his boss that he’s the man to save the hotel from catastrophe?
Up in Bryn Nefyn, North Wales, live the descendants of the covenant owner. The elderly sheep farmer and his aging hippy brother could use the money the hotel might offer. But along with their strong-willed American shepherdess, they laugh at Gordon’s attempts to negotiate a deal. Surely, they couldn’t use a covenant that’s been forgotten about for over a hundred years.
Or could they?
For lovers of upmarket commercial fiction with a touch of romance and comedy, The Approval of Sheep is an uplifting story about family and love, overcoming adversity and discovering our reason for our place in this world.
*Terms and Conditions –Worldwide entries welcome. Please enter using the Gleam box below. The winner will be selected at random via Gleam from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data. I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.
What if your best friend wanted your new life too?
Sammy Jenkins only comes to Brambleton because her best friend Chloe needs a favour. Again.
One shift serving canapés at a North Devon country mansion. Then it’s back to mounting bills and a life that’s going nowhere. Except the owner of the estate sees something in her.
Suddenly, Sammy is being offered a full-time job as housekeeper, complete with a cottage of her own. It’s more than she ever dreamed of, even if Chloe thinks it should all have been hers.
But settling into life at Brambleton Hall isn’t easy. Magnus, the butler, demands perfection. And Nate, the handsome, reserved gardener, gives nothing away. Somehow, though, Sammy is making it work. She has a home that’s just for her, a job she’s good at and Nate might not be quite as distant as he first seemed.
Then Chloe comes to stay.
And while Sammy understands the rules that keep Brambleton Hall running smoothly, Chloe doesn’t see why any should apply to her…
Hi! I’m Debbie. Once upon a time, I was a perfectly respectable London professional – a chartered accountant with a law degree, a Blackberry (remember those?), and too many sensible shoes. Then common sense prevailed, romance called, and I swapped London’s Zone One for Devon’s Zero Signal. I still wonder if leaving the City was brave or simply plot research taken to a reckless extreme.
Currently my “head office” is a polytunnel: no Wi-Fi, but plenty of fresh air and flourishing tomatoes. The plants photosynthesise while I draft havoc; technically off-grid, creatively on fire.
Meanwhile, the dogs run the editorial obstruction department. They possess zero publishing experience yet veto scenes with a single raised paw. Oh, and their union insists on edible compensation only.
These days, I know the real price of life’s essentials: a good haircut, a great friend, and the joy of a proper night’s sleep. I write love stories for grown-ups – warm, witty, stuffed with second chances and the kind of relationships where affection and exasperation create irresistible chemistry – for better for worse.
Think of my indie “publishing house” as one woman, no award-strewn empire, no two-legged staff – just me, two obstinate dogs, and a biscuit budget.
I’ve tried not writing. It didn’t go very well. So I need readers. Not many, just the excellent sort who laugh in the right places. I hope you’ll be one of them.
I treated myself to this when it was published and I’ve been working through it. I finished it last night. This book was interesting to read and certainly triggered some thoughts.
Charlotte Bond’s chapter On the Nature of Dragons was particularly thought provoking for me, because Dragons! but also texts withing texts. Given my recent embroidery project and plans for future embroideries based on the novel I’m drafting/planning at the moment, I found the perspective really useful.
I also enjoyed RJ Barker’s chapter. It was funny but also insightful about writing life. I found the idea that for some writers the ‘first draft’ is the same as the planning phase for other writers. Since I start with an idea, a character, a vague question and build an entire world before writing, my first draft is very much the planning stage. I only know what happens when I write it.
It was fascinating reading Jeff Noon’s essay, because I read Gogmagog and its sequal and loved them. Jeff Noon wrote them with Steve Beard, and learning about their collaborative process explains a few things about the novels.
The Spotlight On…chapters provided insight into important fantasy writers of the past – Tolkein, Moorcock and Leguin. Thd only one I haven’t read in Michael Moorcock, but I will try to find one of his books in the future after reading his chapter.
I found all of the essays interesting and helpful as a writer, but these one really stuck out to me.
Highly recommend to those who write fantasy. And people who love fantasy in general who want to lift the curtain on the writing process.
