2018/03/15 by Natalie Rivener

Phoenix Fire – book launch

It’s been a few weeks since the Phoenix Fire book launch and I’ve had a chance to centre myself again. What a ride! I’m sure you could tell from the tone of my various posts leading up to the release of Phoenix Fire and the day of the book launch that I was dealing badly with stress. *laughs*

I’m happy to declare that the launch was a success. The decorations looked pretty. Fans and supporters attended. Copies of The Flight of the Phoenix and Phoenix Fire were sold and signed.

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I would like to thank Grant, Tex and Les for lending us the space at The Nexus. Their friendly staff and mesmerising milkshakes (at The Nexus Cafe AKA Catz Pyjamas) made our day so much easier than previous launches I’ve been a part of. You guys rock!!!

If you live in Gauteng (South Africa), I can still supply you with copies of both The Flight of the Phoenix and Phoenix Fire in person. Outside of Gauteng will incur courier fees. It appears that some of the Flight authors still had a few knocking around.

2017/12/16 by Natalie Rivener

Pre-oder Phoenix Fire!

You have waited long enough! Phoenix Fire is finally available for pre-order! Yes, on Amazon, it means that the eBook is a bit more expensive…but you do get it delivered to your Kindle (or Kindle account) the moment it is published.

If you want to save those last few pennies (or whatever small change is called in your country – here, we use cents), mark your calendar for 20 December! Phoenix Fire will be available on Amazon as both eBook ($8.99) and print-on-demand versions.

2017/12/11 by Natalie Rivener

Phoenix Fire – authors

You’ve seen the Phoenix Fire blurbs, now it’s time to meet their authors!

Natalie Rivener

You already know me but, who knows, maybe you’ve never read my bio before…

If Natalie had been born a few odd centuries earlier, she would have been burned as a witch. Her nonconformity has branded her as not-a-sheep and she loves exploring new things without caring too much about what others may think.

She currently spends most of her time running after her two kids but she’s really a Jill of all trades…everything from sewing to pole dancing to painting to calligraphy to baking has taken up her time, but her favourite remains writing.

She lives with her husband, two children, cat and tarantula in a quiet part of Gauteng, South Africa.

Connect with Natalie Rivener:

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Natalie-Rivener-writer/103681193158365

Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/Siygrah

Smashwords:
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/TheRivener

Ann-Elize de Ridder

Ann-Elize de Ridder completed her BA Honours degree in 2005 at The University of Pretoria. She lives with her husband, dog and cat in Pretoria where they keep company with Pratchett, Gaiman, Coelho, King, Feist, Shakespeare and others. She is a teacher and a true believer in the unlimited potential of the human mind. Having the opportunity to work with learners with ASD has given her an interesting perspective on the human condition.

After a near brush with world domination, she decided to down scale to a quiet life of chaos and magic. Granted, that last part is not entirely accurate, but as a LARPER, imagination is the limit of possibility.

She is grateful to her mother who gave her a love for reading and introduced her to fantasy and horror writers from a young age, and to her husband who supports her reading habits.

This will be her first publication. It is dedicated to the people and the families of those on the Autistic spectrum. May they find their voices.

Richard T Wheeler

Richard T. Wheeler is the author of The Kobold who Breathed Fire in the Phoenix Fire anthology, Guardian Angel in the Flight of the Phoenix anthology and A Girl Called Storm in the STORM anthology of short stories, and the co-author for the Sanguinem Emere universe of Gaslight Vamp novels. Richard holds a BA Degree in English Language

and Literature (with a specialisation in Creative Writing), the content of which he disregards in the creative process. He aims to liberate writers from their day jobs at Dauntlesswriting.com.

Connect with Richard T Wheeler:

Websites:
http://www.richardtwheeler.com/
http://www.dauntlesswriting.com/
http://www.sanguinememere.com/

Smashwords:
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/RichardTWheeler

Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6456004.Richard_T_Wheeler

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/richardtwheelerauthor

Rob McShane

“Building a life is similar to writing a successful story,” Rob says. “The plot, characters and action must flow together and it takes a team effort. As with writing a story, you

cannot do it alone.”

He should know, he has lived several different lives shared with various characters, and written many stories on his journey: novels (The MageStaff), poetry (regularly on his blog, The Wayward Warrior, and published in several chapbooks), short stories, songs and music. Thrilled to be accepted as part of Phoenix Fire he has also been recently accepted by the AVBOB Poetry Competition and regularly finds success amongst his worldwide blog readership.

Connect with Rob McShane:

Website:
https://robmcshane.wordpress.com/

Smashwords:
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/robmcshane

Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/robmcshane

Carmen Dominique Taxer

As a South African writer, Carmen understands the complexities of the human spirit and the urge to escape the ravages of newsworthy stories of cruelty and injustice. She spent her childhood dreaming about suave, eloquent strangers that could change the world, that could sweep the filth away and leave a gleaming, beautiful darkness behind them.

A daydreaming gothling, Carmen has always found beauty in the dark and hope in horror. Romance and love, twisted into the struggles and grit of reality, are the core of humanity. But horror doesn’t have to be ugly. At the centre of the horror genre lies a kernel of hope that explores the intricacies of the human psyche and its power to overcome suffering. She writes Dark Romance, Horror, and Erotica, and what she and her co-author and long-suffering husband, Richard T. Wheeler, have coined as Gaslight Vamp – a look at vampires through a fictionalised Victorian setting, ruled by vampires.

Carmen uses vampires to give voice to the struggles and successes of humanity, painting a portrait of the world that is both dark and beautifully highlighted with love conquering death above all else.

Connect with Carmen Dominique Taxer:

Websites:
http://www.sanguinememere.com/

Smashwords:
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/CDTaxer

Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/Orionangel

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/richardtwheelerauthor

Ryhen E Knight

Ryhen E Knight was born in Pretoria,

South Africa in 1976. He received his doctorate degree in engineering in 2003 and has been working in the field of engineering since 2003, to pay for his addictions: travelling and coffee.

An engineer by trade and a writer at heart, he has a passion for history, dragons and Lego. Short stories are one of his preferred writing formats, but he has dabbled in poetry and travel writing. The dream is to publish a series of fantasy novels from his cottage in Scotland. He and his wife have two young squires that resemble sons and they live happily ever after in Pretoria.

Connect with Ryhen E Knight:

Facebook:
https://facebook.com/RyhenEKnight

Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14050160.Ryhen_E_Knight

Minki Pool

Minki was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1985. It soon became apparent that she was the artistic type, and she found an outlet for her creativity in music, art and writing. She is a graphic and website designer by day, and a writer, corsetiere, horn player, and maker of things by night. She currently lives in Cape Town where she spends most of her time reading anything she can lay her hands on. She enjoys yoga and miscellaneous musings over a good cup of tea.

Connect with Minki Pool:

Website:
http://www.minkipool.com/

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/minkipool/

Vittorio Leonardi

Born in Warrenton in the Northern Cape, South Africa and raised in Welkom in the Free State, Vittorio started his flights of fancy very early. A passion for Star Wars and a desire to be Luke Skywalker took him to study Drama at Pretoria Technikon, which naturally led him to becoming a full time stand-up comedian… Because you need something solid to fall back on.

In 2009, he began making thoughts into reality as the head writer on Last Say on Sunday – a political satire show ahead of its time but one step behind the censors. However, once TV-Land had him, they wouldn’t let him go as he has continued in this vein, writing for SABC 1’s local celebrity gossip show The Real Goboza since 2010; for children’s television on Let’s Get Quizzical and on sitcoms such as Thandeka’s Diary, Ses’Top La and Abo Mzala.

On the big screen, you can see him in award-winning sci-fi film District 9 as well as Death in the 48-Hour Film Project 2014 short Death’s (Man)date.

A full-time geek; when he’s not gaming, he co-hosts the GeekXP podcast Release the Geek and his own podcast Urbane Myths.

This will be his first short story… And about time too.

Connect with Vittorio Leonardi:

Website:
http://vittorio.sharp.fm/archives/heres_a_thought/

YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/GritPypeThin

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/VittorioLeo/

Twitter:
https://mobile.twitter.com/vittorioleo

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/vthejester/

2017/12/08 by Natalie Rivener

Phoenix Fire is about to break out!

Mark your diary for 15 December, Phoenix Fire is about to break out!

More Than a Fish by Natalie Rivener

When Myhrrl runs away from her arranged marriage and (sort of) into Eldvin’s arms, he can almost ignore the fact that they have been captured by pirates. Maybe this fisher boy is destined for more than gutting fish after all.

Layers of Darkness by Ann-Elize de Ridder

Growing up with tales of great warriors taught Eveline one thing: When things get tough, a true knight will not ride off into the sunset with you. A true knight will stand by your side through the darkness.

The Kobold Who Breathed Fire by Richard T Wheeler

The Eldkin told Kobold Nix that he’s to become a snatcher. He, however, is set on becoming a mysterious flametongue to impress enigmatic she-kobold Shi’zine. Nix’s a little greedy thing. Too bad kobolds define greediness as a four-letter yip.

Dragon’s Breath by Rob McShane

A dragon without fire? When Warheart is called to lead his house to war, he can hide the loss of his dragon’s breath no longer. Will he find his strength or is he doomed to fail and burn?

Radiance by Carmen Dominique Taxer

For six decades, Ka-Jyn has sworn to protect the people of Disara from pain and disease. But now, succumbing to the ravages of age, she must defy the laws of nature and seek help from an old friend.

The Pirate Who Played with Fire by Ryhen E Knight

When magical fire and a drunk pirate collide, things go south and it is up to Tom and Elyan to set aside their wedding plans to rescue the situation. And maybe a cat.

Ancient Ashes by Minki Pool

Dell, a troublemaking heiress, is sent on an archaeological expedition to unearth an ancient religious relic. When it becomes clear that the relic has devastating secrets of its own, she must choose between betraying her family, or betraying everything she has come to believe in.

What Remains by Vittorio Leonardi

“It’s amazing what you’ll agree to when you’re on fire.”

Cole has been haunted by his father’s words since the old man’s death. On the dark side of the moon, he’ll come closer to understanding them than he can imagine.

2015/07/24 by Natalie Rivener

The Flight of the Phoenix – podcast

This is your chance to hear me displaying all kinds of bravado on Release the Geek, the official GeekXP.co.za podcast!

Les (from Release the Geek) actually podcast ambushed me one sunny day while I was at home with my son (who was almost 3 months old at the time)…so, you might get to hear a little baby voice here and there. *blush*

All in all, I think it went quite well. And I put my foot in my mouth less often than usual.

Click here to listen to the podcast!

2015/07/16 by Natalie Rivener

The Flight of the Phoenix – Authors

Ahhh, Richard. The man who set me on the next journey in my writing career. He’s one of those guys who will charm the socks off you. I can’t help but listen to his advice. Heck, today I came home with a tub of coconut oil and a packet of coconut flour just because he was telling me about its amazing baking applications.

Initially, I actually met him because he was my middle sister’s best friend’s little brother (at the time, all I really knew about him was that he kept a rat called Rattex). Try that for a tongue twister! Say “my middle sister’s best friend’s little brother” six times fast!

He kept popping up in my life and I never suspected that he would one day be writing right along with me…and that I would learn so much from him.

Here’s what he had to say when I asked him a few questions:

What was the biggest lesson you learned as a contributor to the anthology?

Each writing project teaches you something about yourself, but a collaborative project can acquaint you with your limits. Limits of personal time management, limits of personal leadership and, more importantly, the limitless potential of a collaborative effort. Writing is usually a solitary affair, but when writing for an anthology it’s not just you. Your work needs to match up to others, so you naturally up your game.

An anthology gives you an opportunity that you also don’t always have readily available, access to other writers and an overarching volume editor. These two parties also have a stake in the quality of the anthology, so they tend to provide focussed and valuable feedback to your work, and you to theirs.

If you have the opportunity to write for an anthology, I’d recommend it. Your co-authors will make you a better writer, and hopefully, so will you them.

What are your current writing projects?

It’s a pretty exciting time, actually. I am writing a series with a co-author, the talented Carmen Dominique Taxer, and simultaneously blogging about the process of writing, post-production, publication, and marketing the series on DauntlessWriting.com. I have the aim of doing this full-time, as opposed to trying to squeeze it in between full-time drudgery at a traditional nine to five. We’re going full indie, taking responsibility for every facet of the creative process. Marketing is creative too! I’m hoping that the non-fiction work will be of some help to others who walk the same path as we are.

The series itself is something that I believe will have seen the light of day if the traditional gatekeepers of the publishing world had their say. The beauty of indie authorpreneurship is the ability to do what you want, when you want to, and not being beholden to someone else’s idea of what will be “worthy” for publication. If traditional publishers were honest with themselves, they would admit that they have no idea what makes one book explode onto the bookshelves of every home in the world and another fizzle back down into obscurity.

The series is called Sanguinem Emere, (which is an archaic legal term that, loosely translated, means redemption bought through blood). It is a Gaslight Vamp series which draws from diverse inspirations, such as from the Anne Rice Vampire Chronicles to A Song of Ice and Fire, to the Steampunk genre, to the classics’ Gothic Horror. Like I said, traditional publishers would have had no idea what to do with this.

If an aspiring author approaches you about writing their first novel, what advice would you share?

ABC. Always Be Creating. There is a reason that the first episode of the Dauntless Writing Podcast is on this topic. The rest of the stuff will follow, just get yourself in the seat and write. Even if you think your writing is no good, even if you think you have a bunch of other stuff to do first, like reading up on craft or publishing. Write, because the best way to get better is by writing. Read up, by all means, but never let that stop you from putting words on paper.

Priority number one is Always Be Creating. You can always make it better later as you learn new skills and techniques.

Contact Richard T Wheeler

His personal website

Dauntless Writing

Vampire Bibliographica

Goodreads

Facebook

Twitter – @RichTWheeler

2015/07/02 by Natalie Rivener

The Flight of the Phoenix – RSA Book Launch

Good news! We are hosting a book launch in South Africa! Don’t miss out! Come meet the authors, have your book signed, take a photo! If you missed out on the pre-order price, you can still get 10% off your local print-run copy by buying it from us at the book launch.

Where: Rooihuiskraal Public Library

When: 25 July 2015, 14:00-17:00

2015/06/05 by Natalie Rivener

The Flight of the Phoenix – Authors

It is time for the countdown to the release of The Flight of the Phoenix (links and updates will follow soon) and time to introduce you to the authors who worked themselves silly to contribute!

First up is Ryhen E Knight with his understated wit that will have you chortling in short order.

What has been your high so far with The Flight of the Phoenix?
Being my first venture into publishing some of my work, I feel like a kid at a dinosaur exhibition – often awed, sometimes frightened, but always excited. Picking a high… All of them? If I had to choose one (while my arm is being twisted by Natalie), the biggest high has been seeing the proof of the book and realising that this is it! My name is there. My story is there. And soon the book will be there!

What was your worst low?
As a writer, self-doubt is often the biggest enemy. And when you are navigating your way through uncharted territory, in this case first time publishing, that self-doubt is magnified and surrounds you like a wet t-shirt in a cold breeze. You are never satisfied with your product and constantly in fear of what your readers will think. And wondering what you look like in a wet t-shirt. That has kept me up at nights.

What are your future writing plans?
Write some more. There is a sequel to this book and I want to take my quirky mind deeper into this world of transformation. Furthermore my hunger for being a writer has been rekindled and I am working on my big passion: Planning my next travel adventure! And then finishing my first novel…

2015/04/08 by Natalie Rivener

The Flight of the Phoenix – Important dates

The Flight of the Phoenix will officially be released on 16 July 2015! This will include both our international sales (ebooks and print-on-demand via Amazon) and the local print run in South Africa.

Pre-orders for these editions will open 1 June 2015.

The book launch (South Africa only) will be 2PM on 25 July 2015 at the Rooihuiskraal Public Library.

Our Smashwords edition will be available as of 16 October 2015.

2015/04/01 by Natalie Rivener

The Flight of the Phoenix – Book launch in the making

Wow! What a lovely feeling when everyone is pulling together! My authors are super excited about this project.

In July this year, we will be releasing The Flight of the Phoenix on Amazon (both ebook and print on demand) and we will hold a local book launch!

Mark the 25th of July on your calender if you live in (or around) Gauteng and we’ll see you there!

Please note that pre-order prices will be cheapest (25% less than the normal price). At the book launch itself, it will be 20% less than the normal price. The final pricing is still being calculated.