Welcome to the New Year!

Hi everyone,

I've had a bit of a holiday in terms of blogging, but not in terms of writing. I've been crazy busy with my "The Sylvalla Chronicles" series. It's an amazing amount of fun to be immersed in a world so deeply. I can't wait to publish Prophecy and Omens but in the meantime - I've created a book magnet - a free book, "The Secret Child," in the Sylvalla Chronicles World. For fans it provides a bit of backstory about the wizards and how they relate to Sylvalla and the whole epic fantasy adventure!

The Secret Child is completely free and is as available through Book Cave - all you have to do is sign up to my newsletter - which is awesome, because it's the best way to keep an eye open for specials, and also for the link to the new video trailer for "Quest" that the talented Clem Winfield is about to put out. I hope you enjoy.

For poetry fans, I've got some cute little short excerpts sprinkled through Prophecy and Omens, that I think will be fun to share over the next few Tuesdays amongst maybe some more substantial works by beloved or interesting poets :)

A.J.

PS  I think that the tuatara eye Clem Winfield animated looks really creepy - do you?

Brainjack: the next war starts in cyberspace, by Brian Falkner

Sam Wilson, brilliant teenage hacker, is looking for trouble. And trouble is looking for him. He's trying to get into the most carefuly controlled pieces of cyberspace there is - but he has no idea of the danger that he's getting himself into, it's not just that the police might be after him, he's being chased by an agency he can't even comprehend.
Ok, I'm a science fiction buff, so nothing in this book was particularly new, but it didn't seem to matter, it was a great roller-coaster. Lots of fun, lots of danger, and some really nice touches -- it makes me want to read his other book - the tomorrow code - to see if it's half as good as this one.

About the author:  I'm slow on the uptake (my excuse is that the book was published in Aus):  Brian is actually an NZ author -  born and raised in Auckland - which I wont hold against him, and is the author of several aother books besides this and the Tomorrow code (shortlisted for the 2009 New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children - Young Adults and the Esther Glen Award at the LIANZA Awards). The Flea Thing (shortlisted for the LIANZA Esther Glen Award, 2004), The Real Thing, and The Super Freak (shortlisted, New Zealand Post Book Awards, 2006).