Campfire Tales Worth Writing About is the newest edition in the Worth Writing About series which features short fiction and other bits and pieces around a theme. Each sale’s profits go to a charity and this month’s charity is The Abortion Access Fund
My story, Which Tree, is a little weird modern bardic tale inspired by the tabletop roleplaying game Sleepaway.
I wrote it quickly, inspired by an incident in the game of Sleepaway I played the year before last. It has some gender diverse characters and something living in a tree. I wrote it longhand first up and typed it up within a few hours, which was a pretty fun and breezy way to write. I’ve been enjoying writing short fiction to prompts and I’m hopeful I’ll be able to share more little publications like this with you soon!
If you want to capture the feeling of sitting around a campfire and telling stories, this is the collection for you. Buy now
Vampires and werewolves live long lives. The Sleepless City saga might have ended but the story continues… Someone is hunting supernaturals. Vampire Simon Hawthorne and his human partner Ben Leyton’s plans for a peaceful holiday with family are hijacked by the New Zealand Supernatural Council. Tensions are on the rise in Wellington. Supernatural councillors are disappearing. Werewolves are suspicious of anyone human or vampire. If they don’t work together, their enemy has already won. And no one with a connection to the supernatural world is safe.
Foxhunt by Rem Wigmore Sci-fi with a bi protagonist and all-queer cast
Orfeus the musician is searching for hope in the heart of danger…
In a lush solarpunk future, plants have stripped most of the poison from the air and bounty hunters keep resource hoarders in check. Orfeus only wants to be a travelling singer, famed and adored. She has her share of secrets, but she’s no energy criminal, so why does a bounty hunter want her dead? Not just any bounty hunter but the Wolf, most fearsome of all the Order of the Vengeful Wild. Orfeus will call in every favor she has to find out, seeking answers while clinging to her pride and fending off the hunters of the Wild. But she isn’t the only one at risk: every misstep endangers the enemies she turns into allies, and the allies she brings into danger. There are worse monsters than the Wolf hiding in this new green world.
A witch in the broom closet probably shouldn’t be so interested in a ghost hunter, right?
That Basil is a librarian comes as no surprise to his Mt Eden community. That he’s a witch? Yeah.
That might raise more than a few eyebrows.
When Sebastian, a paranormal investigator filming a web series starts snooping around Basil’s library, he stirs up more than just Basil’s heart. Between Basil’s own self-doubt, a ghost who steals books and Sebastian, an enthusiastic extrovert bent on uncovering secrets, Basil’s life is about to get a lot more complicated.
Available: Amazon, Kobo, Apple, B&N, coming to Google Play soon! Love can be dark. It can be dangerous, deadly, and tainted.
Chocolate and roses? They weren’t the romantic sentiments expected of those who walked in this world of smoke and shadows. Takeshi Matsumoto didn’t need them… didn’t want them from the man he loved. But he didn’t expect the explosions or the attempts on his life, either. It wasn’t as though Yoshitake had gifted him with those life-threatening events, not when there were plenty of men already within the Shirokawa-gumi eager to get rid of him.
Men who wanted the power that came with being the Head of the Shirokawa-gumi.
Except he was the rightful heir… because he was Takeshi Matsumoto, Fifth Generation Head of the Shirokawa-gumi.
Securing his birthright wasn’t going to be easy, but Takeshi had been trained for this… planned for this… and he wouldn’t hesitate to kill for it.
But the problem was… Takeshi couldn’t trust anyone. Not even the man who shared his bed.
Caught (Smoke and Shadows 1) is a 56k approx. Dark MM Yakuza Romance that involves the twisted love of a yakuza heir and his older bodyguard.
The son of a Voce healer and a Dracan warrior, Falric Mislan has always questioned where he belongs.
While obligation, the easy companionship of his peers and the unswerving loyalty of his best friend has kept him grounded in his father’s culture, the alluring magic of his mother’s people inexorably calls to him. Two rites stand between Falric and his fate. One, a simple, but unfamiliar ceremony that will awaken his Voce powers. The other, the Moon of Solitude. But when Falric uncovers a dangerous object, death and vengeance threaten his place and his future. Secrets abound and more than loyalties will be tested.
*Moon Rite is the first book in the Legend of the Ancients series. The books of Locurnia are LGBTQ inclusive and contain explicit material. This series is intended for adults 18 and over.
Over last century the social mores against gays and lesbians forced many of them into secret relationships and exposed them to threats and phyiscal violence. Even as the century came to a close these risks still existed. Family Ties and Rainbow Bonds is set against the conflict of love on both sides of the fence.
Growing up with a strictly heterosexual father, Poppie, young Georgie struggles to find her true identity among her six brothers, including the extroverted pianist Claudios. Always a step behind in the family intrigues, Georgie doesn’t realise how the sons and daughters-in-law sort life so that they can benefit from their mother’s and father’s successful business venture in Christchurch. When Georgie falls for a teenage girl she meets at the family camping ground in Hanmer Springs, New Zealand, Georgie’s life begins to change. Then there’s the realisation that brother Claudios and his ‘flatmate’ walk to the same drum as Georgie does. Each has their own coming out story that they share as Georgie joins the Rainbow Family. Georgie moves into the political activity that emerged in New Zealand in the early 1980s, at a time when enlightened New Zealanders are working towards the repeal of anti-homosexual law in New Zealand, a time when the good and bad of people on both sides of the debate are exposed. Family Ties and Rainbow Bonds explores the tensions of the time and how love can tie and release the truth of being who you really are.
The case: a grandmother who vanished from a locked room. The best lead: a psychic who’s as mysterious as she is cute.
Detective Jack Duarte is the one called upon when weird cases hit Auckland. A fierce loner with a reputation for solving the unsolvable, she is the perfect choice for the latest odd mystery: the locked-room disappearance of a beloved grandmother, who has vanished without trace and, seemingly, without suspects or a motive.
This time around, though, Jack has also been assigned a partner. The fresh young detective Piper, who has transferred in with a difficult history, is determined to prove themself. Smart, perky, and inexperienced. They are exactly the kind of partner Jack manages to scare away. As they dig deeper into the mystery, though, Jack has to put her own reluctance in the back seat and help Piper navigate a whole different world — because the beloved grandmother has her own mysterious past, one that has already cost lives… and souls.
With the help of the enigmatic and beautiful psychic Emmaline, Jack and Piper must confront the strange world on the other side of the mirror. Some mysteries can only be solved with magic!
In honour of Pride here’s a selection of books from Kiwi authors featuring an array of rainbow characters – purchase links in the titles and covers. A couple are preorders at the time of publishing, and some are on sale for the month of June 2022.
The Last God (preorder) by Gillian St Kevern MM high fantasy Kel, a former prince turned gravedigger, serves the Unknown God. Bitter about the gods’ neglect of their people, Kel’s limited patience with the divine is tested when his former lover, now a famous general, shows up in the tiny town of Farport. Done with being the gods’ plaything, Kel quits the priesthood—only to discover that the unknown god has plans for him and his ex.
Iscar’s shocked to discover that the prince who was too good for a lowly soldier now follows the god of outcasts. He’s even more shocked when the unknown god declares himself to be War and claims Kel as his high-priest. Having experienced all war’s horrors, Iscar is determined to free Kel from the god, escorting him to Celestial City in an attempt to win Kel away.
Kel fights his attraction to Iscar and struggles with his duty to his god. Iscar’s belief that the gods are just, and reward those who are deserving, is challenged by their journey. His allegiance is no longer to the gods, but to his love. But Kel, consumed by doubt, cannot see what a man—or a god—would want in him.
Rival Princes by Jaxon Knight MM contemporary romantic comedy
There are three golden rules for new recruits at Fairyland Theme Park:
1. No breaking character, even if you’re dying of heat exhaustion 2. Always give guests the most magical time 3. No falling in love.
Nate’s only been at work one day, and he’s already broken all three.
Fast-tracked into a Prince role, Nate’s at odds with Dash, the handsome not-so-charming prince who is supposed to be training him. Nate doesn’t know how he ended up on Dash’s bad side, but the broody prince sure is hot when he gets mad.
Dash has worked long and hard to play Prince Justice at Fairyland. Now, instead of focusing on his own performance, he is forced to train newbie Nate to be the perfect prince. Nate’s annoying ease with the guests coupled with his charm and good looks could dethrone Dash from his number one spot … so why does he secretly want to kiss him?
Fairyland heats up as sparks fly between the two rival princes. Will they get their fairytale romance before they’re kicked out of Fairyland for good? Find out in this standalone MM contemporary romance by Jaxon Knight, set in an amusement park where fairytales can come true.
Trillin isn’t technically a person. She’s a tiny breakaway piece of consciousness from the all-devouring Endless, doomed to eventually rejoin it. But when a human witch stumbles into her world, Trillin suddenly has a new reason to figure out individuality–one shape-shifting tentacle at a time.
Sian is sure important magical discoveries are just around the corner, if she can just get her portals to work reliably. Reaching the dimension of the Endless without being eaten on sight is a dream come true, and Sian is determined to explore every bit of it. For science, of course, not for the strangely adorable life-form who keeps popping up and trying to… flirt?
But Trillin’s world can be a dangerous place, and keeping Sian safe might risk drawing the attention of the Endless itself–which will swallow Trillin up along with all her dreams of humanity. Together, can this unlikely duo escape the Endless, figure out the optimum number of appendages, and maybe even find love?
here are many messages in this book: Never go drinking using your passport for ID. Make sure to apply lidocaine before ripping out your toenails. Magic might be real, but it never fixes the worst of your problems. Try to fall in love with bastards. You or someone you know may be gayer than previously thought. We’re not going to make it to Mars. A locked psychiatric ward needs more books than a single copy of Jane Eyre. Asking time travellers for advice on your exams is considered cheating. It’s not just human houses that become haunted. The key message is this: Life in the early 21st century is often very strange. So are these stories. With a crisp insouciance and gliding charm, Jack Cottrell’s fiery, fey, finely-tuned fictions leap from sci-fi to fantasy, comedy to horror, literary realism to romance, and to hybrids of all of these. Featuring sport, friendship, love, health, family, climate change, artificial intelligence, desire, magic, Greek gods, ghosts, peanut butter, cyber pranks, racial prejudice, and creepy medical advances, his stories play with the allure of the past, the disturbances of our own times, and the dangerous idealism of our future technologies – each one in fewer than 300 words.
The once-grand, now dilapidated old house they live in has become a refuge for their found family—Morgan’s partner Araminta, an artist with excellent dress sense; Theo, a ten-year-old with an excess of energy; quiet telekinesthetic pensioner Denny—as well as the ghosts who live alongside them. All people who once needed sanctuary for their queer, neurodivergent selves.
Now they offer that safety to the dead as well as the living.
When a collection of ghosts trapped in old bottles are delivered to their door, something from the past is unleashed. A man who once collected ghosts – a man who should have died centuries before – suddenly has the house under his control. Morgan must trust their own abilities, and their hard-won sense of self, to save their home, their family, and the woman they love.
As a mechanic, Greg can fix just about anything—except his broken heart. He finds solace in witchcraft, solving problems for ghosts instead of looking closer to home.
When a visiting musician dials up the charm after a gig in town, Greg’s life looks to be taking a turn for the better. His plans to keep things simple between them are complicated by the awakening of a spirit bent on corruption. Greg must make choices between moving on or taking the fight to a whole new level and save Wellington from a past it had almost forgotten.
Brand: A pansexual college surfer dude looking for love in all the wrong places Gage: A mysterious goth with something to hide who will do anything to keep what’s his
When they meet at a party, there’s an instant attraction but between Gage’s dominant hunger and Brand’s need to submit to him… the fire may be all-consuming.
an MM vampire/human romance featuring lots of spice – start of a series!
Joel is a music teacher who knows it’s time to forget his ex and move on, while Marcus runs a lawn-mowing business and has come to Wellington to escape the reminders of a recent breakup. Although they’re opposites, when Joel and Marcus connect, their romance has the potential to hit all the right notes.
Too bad neither of them feels ready for new love.
With family and friends in common, dating is risky and things could get messy if it doesn’t work out. When the sweet song of possibility draws them towards romance, a Chopin prelude ends in a seductive kiss. But it will take some practice and perseverance to find their perfect harmony…
Author’s note: This is the second edition of Prelude to Love. The first edition was released by another publishing house. This edition has some added content, and has been revised and re-edited with the end result being a better, stronger story. It uses New Zealand spelling to reflect its setting.
I’ve been in my house on Covid lockdown for two weeks. First Anna tested positive and then after a few days of looking after them, and sleeping in separate rooms, I started to feel like I had cold symptoms. I tested negative with a RAT two days before the third one came in positive.
It’s the first time I’ve been sick with a cold/flu since early 2020, but most of my tips and tricks for caring for a cold had been revisited already for looking after Anna. Anna’s covid case was thankfully relatively mild, mine wasn’t so much. It moved into my chest after two days and breathing started to be pretty difficult. Thankfully I had proactive advice from my doctor’s office and had a turbuhaler prescribed, which Anna was well enough to go and collect for me. This is all context for the meat of this post, which is that I have had an entire week of careful rest, so as to get better and to avoid Long Covid if I can.
A lot of my friends have expressed a difficulty with giving themselves time to rest, and then when they do have time, not knowing how to approach it. I get it, there’s always other things we could be doing. Chores, side-hustles, catching up on the ever-present to do list and so on. But, that doesn’t mean we can’t rest. So, here’s some of the things I do which allow my body and my mind to let go of all the ‘should’s and just rest.
Sit and read. Best on a comfy chair with a soft, warm blanket and a cup of something hot – tea, coffee, hot chocolate, whatever you prefer, and a nice snack. If it feels too hard to give yourself the time to read, you can timebox it – just 30 minutes. You can spare that much, and if at the end of the 30 mins you want to keep reading, do it.
Video games. I bought Mario Kart as soon as Anna tested positive, basically. We both have Nintendo Switches and this has been a great game for us to learn and play together, trying out the different characters and vehicles and just having a little fun. It engages the mind but it’s not taxing, and your body is resting. Plus, laughter is healing!
Comfort watching. Now this could be old movies that you’ve loved in the past (I hit up Moulin Rouge and Titanic lately), it could be a beloved show that you’ve seen a thousand times before or it could be aesthetically pleasing Youtubers. Anna and I have watched an awful lot of Study for Success this week – it’s so beautiful to look at, and who doesn’t love to gaze at stationery?
5. Go take a nap. Here’s my trick with napping. I don’t stress about actually sleeping. I get comfortable, I make sure I’m warm in bed, and I put on something soothing to listen to. Maybe it’s my favourite acoustic album (Alt-J an Awesome Wave), or maybe it’s a podcast that I’ve heard before (Welcome to Night Vale, or Overdue are good options for me, personally). Then I close my eyes and just listen, and if I drift off well, that’s great, but if not, I’ve given my body some downtime.
That’s just 5 of the things I do to ensure I’m getting rest, and this last week I’ve been doing them all a lot. I hope it helped!
This week is KiwiRPG Week! An excellent collective of Aotearoa based game designers, players and podcasters have teamed up to do some excellent things this week. If you’re interested in Tabletop RPGs and want to learn about my newest game, read on!
The biggest excitement for me is today I launched my new game: Trading Places
Before I get into that, a shout out. My game isn’t the only one launching today, the esteemed Simon Carryer has released a D&D fan edit called Pyramid of the Undying which you should also check out!
Trading Places is a journaling game. It’s an introspective game about ordinary and extraordinary lives, and I’m very proud of it.
It’s about swapping bodies, a la Freaky Friday or the brilliant book The Seven and a Half Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. What if one day, you woke up in a body and a life that isn’t your own?
It’s run beautifully in playtests, with one game running full Hallmark Christmas movie, and another game going a lot more poetical and introspective about the nature of life. It’s a game which you can do a lot with, and I expect is only the first of many journaling games from me…
Jamie Sands - Author 