Alison's April news
The last book in the Women of Maiden's Creek series (THE HOMECOMING) is on preorder... and other news.
April already! Here in Melbourne the first tinge of autumn chill is creeping in on the breeze and the summer bedding is replaced with a cosy doona. This is my favourite time of the year - the days are still warm but the nights are made for snuggling up.
It’s been a busy few weeks… I had the pleasure of a writerly conversation with my friend Nicola Marsh closely followed by the wonderful Australian Romance Readers Association annual event (A Romantic Rendezvous). It was the first time in a long time that I was able to attend their annual awards and while I had no books up for awards I had the bitter sweet task of accepting the awards for my friend Kaz Delaney on behalf of her family. When she was awarded Australia’s favourite Romance Author, the love in the room was palpable. God bless you, Kaz, you were deeply loved.
Finally a fun night with the Sisters in Crime talking about Regency mysteries with Alison Goodman and Kelly Gardiner/Shamini Kumar. I have written my own Regency mystery - LORD SOMERTON’S HEIR - more news on that to come next month. My friend Beverley Oakley made a gorgeous Regency era ‘open gown’ from a sari I purchased many years ago in Singapore. I thought it would be fun to dress appropriately for the panel.
I do have one small favour… Amazon won’t let me link the new editions of the Maiden’s Creek books to the old ones so it looks like they have no reviews :-( I would love it if you have read the books, if you could pop into Amazon and post (or repost) your review/rating so it looks like the books have got a bit of love.
NEWS
The last book in the The Women of Maiden’s Creek series, THE HOMECOMING is now up on preorder on Amazon for readers outside Aus/NZ. Preorder price is just 99c so grab it while it is this price. It goes live on 26 April in ebook and print. Like the previous books it does stand alone but it is more fun to read the series in order because the hero and heroine of this book appeared as children in the previous two books and I wanted readers to see what had become of them. Danny also has the dubious honour of being the only lawyer I have ever written about! More details HERE.
I have started to experiment with translations and I am delighted to announce a German translation of the Harriet Gordon prequel THE UMBRELLA (der Regenschirm) is now available on Amazon/ Kindle Unlimited. Click HERE
A French translation of SECRETS IN TIME (Secrets Dans Le Temp) is in the works!
SPECIAL OFFERS
TERROR IN TOPAZ is available on Kobo (US only) until 16 April for just $3.99. Click HERE.
I am fairly sure most of you have already downloaded THE UMBRELLA (the Harriet Gordon prequel) as it is my thank you for signing up to my newsletter. If you haven’t, it is part of a Mystery ‘Samplers’ promo - plenty of prequels and short samples of mysteries and cosy mysteries for you to try before you buy - all for FREE. Some may require sign up to newsletters (mine does).
And what am I reading/listening/watching…?
Reading: I have been finishing off the two Regency Mysteries: Alison Goodman THE BENEVOLENT SOCIETY OF ILL MANNERED LADIES (and I have started the second book THE LADIES ROAD GUIDE TO UTTER RUIN)and Kelly Gardiner/Sharmini Kumar’s MISS CAROLINE BINGLEY PRIVATE DETECTIVE. I can highly recommend both books.
Listening: I binged Chris Hammer’s THE SEVEN and I have started on MURDER AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM by Jim Eldridge.
Watching: I am casting around for something new to watch (any suggestions) - WHITE LOTUS is on the list. I watched REACHER (my husband’s choice - not really mine - too graphically violent!) and I keep dipping into LUDWIG. Also finished the latest series of DEATH IN PARADISE and of course there are endless SURVIVORs to keep me going!
Finally…
Many of you may be aware of the recent scandal involving Meta’s blatant poaching of millions of books to train AI. To compound the deed, instead of offering the authors some form of recompense, META (Facebook’s parent company) went to a pirate database called Lib Gen (there may be other pirate databases but this is the main one they used) and used what is already stolen material. I have long since given up chasing pirates - they’re like a hydra… cut one head off and another one grows. Most pirate sites are phishing or malware sites so there is some karma in that but for a multi billion dollar business to abuse the copyright of millions of creatives is unconscionable. They took 20 of my books - most of which have ‘not to be used to train AI’ disclaimers in the front. But I am just one of many and what can we do about it? Basically nothing - it is a legal grey area as far as AI training is concerned but clearly theft where the data base is concerned. I am not anti AI - just the ethics around the training of the AI creatures. I just bring it to your attention - if anyone ever tells you they have found a great site where they can download a book for free… politely remind them it is unlikely the site has the author’s permission to download the book. Would they walk into a physical bookshop and just walk out with a book? It does make me wonder why I do what I do!
All from me… please feel free to comment directly on the Substack post :-) I love hearing from you and if you are not already a subscriber, consider subscribing to my posts and look out for a link to a free download of the Harriet Gordon prequel novella THE UMBRELLA in your inbox :-)
Best regards
Alison
It is maddening that AI is stealing the work of authors. I am against AI, first for being environmentally unsustainable, and secondly, because I consider it to be "fruit of the poisoned tree". And lastly, cost/benefit wise. There are some places where it could be useful, such as analyzing scientific data, but do we really need it to write essays for us? I don't think so.