Sensational Snippet

Hi all, once again, from the desk of me...

It's been relatively busy for me lately, which is why I haven't posted anything for a week or so. But never fear, here is an update on what's happening.

I've been snowed under with work lately that I haven't had a chance to spend any free time working on my book. It's a painstaking process at the moment, as I'm currently committed to the task of cleaning up loose ends and making sure everything flows. Since the majority of the story has been written, it's now, more or less, time to finalise everything and lock things down.

I find this part of the writing process the most arduous, as it relies on a lot more thinking than the process of just writing initially. I have to make sure I don't contradict myself, and I also have to make sure the flow is right, not too jumpy, and not confusing. Although I know my editor will eventually sit down and practically rip the book to shreds, I'm hoping I can save her the task prior to her seeing it, so that the book may survive a little longer in its current form.

So, because I have checked, double-checked and re-checked my double checking, I am now pleased to offer you the opening few paragraphs from Book 2: Ad Fundum.

The opening basically starts near the end of the book, but does not provide the actual ending, nor the entire part of the climax. The point of the opening is to give the reader an exciting glimpse into the story and hopefully motivate them enough to read on. Readers will hopefully want to know what's happened, they want to know who the characters are and how they got into the prediciment.

So here it is... the opening of Beneath a Broken Sky: Ad Fundum:



The air was still. Everyone at the edge of the river stared silently into the sky above the city, awaiting the inevitable and unescapable event that was – just a few days ago – never even dreamt of. Parents continued to play solemnly with their children in an effort to hide their growing fear. Couples held each other tightly. Individual people grouped together with strangers; some holding hands, others embracing; all in a desperate attempt to feel someone close to them until the final moment.
The sky flashed like lightning, but everyone knew it was something much more sinister; something much more than life itself. And yet, no one knew exactly what it was. No one knew how it had started.
Except me.
There had been an immediate analysis within the first hours of the anomaly’s discovery; an analysis that eventually drew to the conclusion that the event was unstoppable. All that was left now was raw humanity.
Community. Love. Hope.
‘How much longer?’ Katie asked me.
‘I don’t know,’ I replied, my throat clenching.
There was more silence. ‘Will it hurt?’ she asked after a moment, her voice soft.
I turned and looked at her tearfully. She was so gorgeous. Her beautiful eyes glistened, reflecting the abnormal light washing over us from the sky above.
I knew the answer to her question, but I didn’t want to admit it to her. Instead, I shrugged and replied, ‘I don’t know.’
She nodded and looked back up at the night sky. The now-familiar orbs – once millions of miles away – glowed back at us as brightly as the Moon they now dwarfed. ‘Hold me,’ she said softly.
I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her close. Her warmth felt comforting. I rested my head against hers and closed my eyes. For a moment, the world disappeared and I saw myself in a different place; a place from my childhood perhaps, where life was once happy and carefree.
There was a dull screeching sound, like car tyres on bitumen blocks away. Slowly, the screeching rose in volume. I opened my eyes as the light suddenly began to descend. Katie’s arms tightened around me as the sky quickly paled.
‘Don’t be scared,’ I told her, ‘Don’t be scared.’
‘I love you,’ she said to me.
I looked at her and smiled. ‘I love you,’ I replied.
The screeching suddenly exploded all around us. The light approached.
It was only a matter of seconds.
‘Don’t let go,’ I said.


Well there you have it. I hope it sparks some interest in you to read more. I might add a few more snippets as I go along. But anyways, until next time!

Enticing Extras

Hello again!

Today, I'm showing you other projects that I'm currently working on. In light of me posting the cover samples for the 'Beneath A Broken Sky' trilogy, I've decided to show you other cover samples/teasers for other books I'm currently in the process of producing.

These other stories are currently in various stages of production, some more advanced than others. Beneath each teaser image I will rundown the basic idea I have for each story. Most of the ideas are still rough and need embellishment and further brainstorming. A couple of them are ready to start producing, and are scheduled to commence once the 'Beneath A Broken Sky' trilogy has been completed.

I must warn, however, there are two images which may disturb young viewers, so discretion is advised. I myself don't think they're too bad, but they are based on horror and violence. Click on the images for a larger view.


One Day:
Four people. Four lives. One ending.
Four people with no connection to each other live out their daily lives in their own world.
A street-smart detective invistigates the murder of the mayor's daughter. An unmotivated single-father lawyer fights a case he knows he can't win. A sales assistant from a big-brand department store goes about her seemingly monotonous life. A terrorist prepares for his attack on the city. Four lives are told seperately in four parts. Every character has small interactions with every other one, but none of them realise that each of their lives leads to one outcome.



One Night:
Four people. Four lives. One ending.
Following on from One Day, is One Night, the second and final part of the race to stop a terrorist from destroying the city. Four people, each of whom are on their way to the city's biggest rave party, find themselves thrown into chaos as the terrorist group unleashes their plan.
Each character must face their own fears and band together in order to end the reign of terror before it escalates any further.



Prime Target:
A comedic adventure in the style of "The Craic", "The Castle", and "Crackerjack".
As the world's most wanted cyber-criminal plots to crack every secruity algorythm used by high-security corporations. The American cyber task force has men all over the world trying to track the criminal, with no use. On the other side of the world, with no idea on current events, high school student, Luke, decides to play a practical joke. Creating a blog under the psyeudonym name of Kelu (which happens to be the same surname of the cyber-criminal), he reveals to the internet world he has discovered the formula to obtaining every prime number. Word of the formula revelation reaches America. Seeing the name, they believe that it is the terrorist teasing them. Two of the currently available (not necessarily the best) officers are sent to Australia to find "Kelu" and apprehend him. Luke quickly discovers his prank has gotten out of control. He and his friends try and figure out what to do and are confronted by a mad man who wants to save (kidnap) them from the government. Hilarity ensues as the bungling American task-force officers arrive and Luke is forced into a frantic cat-and-mouse chase.


The Terrible Tales of Terrance Turnpopple:
Terrance is a 12 year old boy who often finds himself in peculiar situations. This particular situation, however, turns out more menacing than he thought. A devious plot is taking place in the small town of Bingswood. Mysterious people arrive while others go missing. Strange sounds come from abandoned houses, dead animals appear in Stimey Creek, and other peculiar events unfold. The clues lead Terrance, his best friend Zack, cousin Codi, and annoying neighbour Cynthia, on the road to uncover a truth. Told over a series of small books, The Terrible Tales of Terrance Turnpopple is aimed at pre/mid-teen kids with a taste for adventure, suspense, mystery and heroics.



Red List:
A murder is amongst them, and none of them know it until its too late. Based on actual events, Red List tells the story of a man who befriended, stalked, hunted, then brutally killed almost fifteen people in a week. Using seemingly innocent situations, such as carpooling, school committees, church functions and sporting events, the killer finds his victims and adds their name to his list - a small red leather bound notebook. When he writes their name, he immediately writes their method of death and begins the process of making his ideas reality.
A gripping suspense told from the perspective of the two police officers investigating him, as well as the killer himself.


Afraid of the Dark:
It is dusk. A father is killed on the street while walking with his young son home from work. His 3 year old son runs home. In the darkness of night, the killer breaks in and the boy is brutally murdered. The body is buried, but the killer also dies and the house is left.
Almost 60 years later, univerisity student Kyle is walking home one night. He sees the derelict house... a house no one has lived in since he could remember. As he passes, he sees the face of a boy looking out through the window from inside. The boy has no eyes. Kyle blinks and the vision is gone. Curious, he investigates further. One day he breaks in and looks around. The house is empty and there is nothing out of the ordinary. Later that night, he walks by again. The boy with no eyes stares through the window. Kyle watches, not looking away. The boy screams and vanishes. Kyle informs classmates of the haunted house and a mission is set up to film the hauntings. They set up a camera during the day and stream video footage onto a laptop. The camera records only during the day. Anything from dusk till dawn is non-existant. A group of students - including Kyle - go and stay the night. During the day, everything is fine. As night decends, members of the group are killed one by one. As the group disappears around him, Kyle must fight for his life and survive the night.

Acute Artwork

Hello once again! In today's post, I'm revealing small teaser-ish cover design samples for the 'Beneath A Broken Sky' trilogy. The samples displayed in this post are pretty much the final style I'm going for. The font is definately the final version, as I've been slaving away using Illustrator and Photoshop, designing my own variation of the existing "Arial Black" font style, so I'm not changing it any more.

I wanted the backgrounds for each book to be the same as each other. There is no variation, other than the sub-titles. I have had an idea that the covers could use different colour hues. The first book, "Ante Finis", would be blue. The second book, "Ad Fundum", would be red. The third book, "Lux et Veritas", would be orange/yellow. But for the time being, all covers are silver/grey, as that is actually what looks best out of all the colour options.

So here's the cover design samples for your viewing pleasure. Until next time...

Book 1: Anti Finis













Book 2: Ad Fundum













Book 3: Lux et Veritas

Beneficial Blurbs

Hi again,

Today's post is to delve into the plots of each book. The small paragraphs - call them blurbs, if you will - are to provide you with outlines for each book... hopefully without giving too much away. Fingers crossed...

Beneath A Broken Sky: Ante Finis
The Global Aeronautical and Space Agency (GASA) is preparing its first routine expansion of The Field: a technologically-advanced energy generator situated on the edge of our solar system. We follow the events leading up to the mission, focusing on the shuttle crew and a mysterious technician who may be leading a double life. After a plan is revealed to sabotage the expansion mission, the lives of everyone involved will climax into an unforeseen tragedy that will spark an unstoppable event that consequently changes the world forever.

Beneath A Broken Sky: Ad Fundum
Joseph Bentley is a university student caught up in events triggered from a catastrophic sabotage attempt on The Field. Working with an eccentric professor, who has discovered a bizarre anomaly caused by the Field's malfunction, Joseph must convince the Minister for Science of the impending annihilation of man-kind. During his quest, he discovers that the anomaly was actually man-made and planned. As his world comes crashing down around him, Joseph must unravel the mystery of who is responsible before the end of the world overwhelms them all.

Beneath A Broken Sky: Lux et Veritas
A year after the catastrophic event, the world has been thrown into chaos. Billions of people lost their lives and the survivors must now contend with a new cancerous epidemic that is sweeping the worlds. In a tragic twist of fate, Katie is diagnosed with the cancer and is given only a matter of days before she becomes another victim. With only a short amount of time, Joseph promises he will find a cure and save her. Starting with Professor Landow's research, Joseph begins tracking down a mysterious woman who had developed a variation of the cure he needs.
To make his job easier, Joseph teams up with his good friend, Ryan - now a forensic scientist - in his search. Together they unveil the truth about the cure, the pre-planned anomaly, and a secret that had spanned almost three generations. With their lives constantly on the line, Joseph and Ryan face many obstacles in their attempt to save not only Joseph's love, but also the remaining survivors of man-kind.

Dramatic Dreams

I guess I should tell you how it all came about. I appologise for the non-linear structure of these posts, but hey... I'm writing as things come to mind.

The idea came to me from a dream I had. I live in Brisbane, Australia, and my perspective in the dream was as if I were standing on the boardwalk of Southbank (a cultural area of small parks, cafes, etc.) looking east towards the cityscape. In the sky above the buildings, I could see planets. Not just one or two ... but approximately twenty-six. Some were familiar, others were vaguely generic in appearance. Some could not be mistaken, such as Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, etc. But the thing that was different about the vision was that there were eight planets of Jupiter, five of Mars, six or so of Saturn, etc. I could see planets crashing into each other, sending enormous shockwaves through space. I woke just as massive fragments of the planets began to descend towards the city in a terrifying shower of burning hot rock and fire.

This dream took place approximately three and a half years ago... even before I met my current fiance. The dream was etched in my mind. It had been so vivid and life-like that I couldn't escape from its images. I decided to turn it into a book.

At first, the idea seemed stupid. Obviously, it was completely unbelievable, but I vowed to myself that I would try and push it into a realm of some sort of believability. I researched physics, quantum theories, and many other aspects which could shift the idea at least into a realm of more plausible proportions. Eventually, enough research had been made that I could at least explain some of the theories behind the anomaly, while also leaving an overall vagueness to it that the majority of people could just "go with it" without being bogged down into techno-jargon. It's not meant to be super real and it's by no means etched in fact. It's a fantasy, with as much realism as I can throw at it to make it sound just that little bit plausible.

From that point, I needed to establish characters, motives, twists, and events. I did this and developed a framework to my story. The skeletal structure allowed me a basis to work on, which I could flesh out and expand upon.

At first, the original story, simply titled "Beneath A Broken Sky", was a one and only. It focused only on Joseph and his journey. However as time went on, I began developing further plot points. He found a love interest, and experienced a whole new range of events. From these new plot points, I discovered I could elaborate and create a second story. Based a year after the first one, the sequal expanded upon the repurcussions of the original story, but provided an interesting twist. Then, due to the twist, I discovered I could create a prequel, which would show how it all began.

So from one dream came a story, then a sequal, then a prequel. I found ways to link everything together in an interesting and fluid way and, funnily enough, the books will be written in that order (2, 3, 1).

So there you have it. In further posts, I will continue to update you on things, as well as post basic outlines of each book's plot. Hopefully I won't give anything away.

Until next time, don't forget to take out the trash.

Charismatic Characters

Hi again... from the desk of me...

This post is dedicated to the reveal of specific characters used throughout the "Beneath A Broken Sky" trilogy. There may be revisions on this post sometime in the future, as I haven't quite fleshed out some characters - specifically from "Book 1: Ante Finis". This is because my original conception began with "Book 2: Ad Fundum", as described in another post "Dramatic Dreams".

The photos included in this post have been sourced from generic web image searches through Google. They are simply generic people who, I feel, closest resemble the type of characters I'm writing. Since I've found these pictures, I have used them to provide me with inspiration in writing their characters. My descriptions of characters have maintained effective continuity throughout the trilogy while also providing me motivation for their actions.

The photos have been sourced not only just for their visual likeness to the characters I am describing, but also because of their expressions and poses. So, without further procrastination, here's the list of major characters and their visual likenesses:

Joseph Bentley (Book 2, 3)

University student. Studies advanced physics and theoretical science before he is caught up in events that could change his life. Book 2 and 3 follows his life and his experiences from first-person perspective.

Katie McAlister (Book 2, 3)

Advertising Executive. Smart, sporty, sexy, funny. Joseph's perfect love interest.

Professor Raymond Landow (Book 1, 2, 3)

University Professor. Having professional connections with GASA officials, Landow is able to discover a major anomaly forming at the edge of the solar system. Blaming a sabotage attempt on the Field, Landow - with the help of Joseph Bentley - must try and shut down the Field to stop the anomaly from growing and creating a cataclysmic event.

Alex McAlister (Book 1, 2, 3)

Minister for Science. McAlister is an old-fashioned man with old-fashioned values. His world of science focuses primarily on hard-evidence work. When Landow and Joseph approach him citing theoretical anomalies, McAlister proves to be a difficult hurdle to overcome. Joseph not only contends with him on a professional level, but also privately, as McAlister is also Katie's arrogant and demanding father.

Renee Sallenger (Book 1, 2, 3)

Technician/Assassin. Primarily a GASA technician involved with the Field Expansion crew, Renee is part of the sabotage attempt on the Field. When Joseph begins to figure out the truth behind the sabotage, she is sent to silence him, no matter what the cost is.

Dmitri Tirklov (Book 1, 2, 3)

Proffesional scientist. A long-time friend of Landow, Tirklov is a brilliant Russian scientist working with revolutionary vision. He is also idolised by Joseph.

Ryan Larson (Book 2, 3)

University student. Best friend to Joseph and an obviously successful ladies man. Ryan is a brilliant scienctist who doesn't follow stereotypical science typecasts. His major ambition - after getting with sexy ladies - is to get into forensic science.

Marcus (Book 1, 2, 3)

Secret Soldier. Responsible for overseeing special tactical militaristic operations. Also an associate to Renee and active participant in following the same motives.

Edward Thompson (Book 1, 2)

Mechanical shuttle technician. While working alongside Renee, Edward discovers her true motives and suddenly finds himself in a life-or-death situation. Narrowly escaping from Renee's vengence, he vows to find out what she is planning and expose her.

William Platski (Book 1, 2, 3)

GASA Official. Responsible for overseeing procedure for the Field Expansion mission, and close collegue to Landow while working at GASA.

Jonathan Davis (Book 1, 2, 3)

Jonathan is a GASA technician, also working alongside Renee and Edward. After Edward's life is compromised, he secretly hides his knowledge of anything in the hope that he can save Edward.

So there you have it. These are the major characters so far. As I said above, this post may be revised as more details come into play in terms of character's visual identities.

NOTE: Characters portrayed in this post are fictional. Any connection to existing names, etc, is purely coincidental. Images are for example only. The people shown do not have any connection with me or the book, or its characters, in any way.

Until next time, make sure you brush your teeth.