News! - Author & Book Rebranding

Well if you've been paying attention then you may have noticed that my Author brand has been undergoing something of a renovation.

Over the next few weeks, my website, blog and book covers will undergo a complete rejuvenation.  I would love to hear what you think of the new designs.

This month also sees the release of the Audiobooks for Ice and Fyre and the complete Afterland Chronicles Boxset - so if you like audiobooks then you're in for a treat!

Take a look at the newly designed book covers for my two series:

The Afterland Chronicles

The Dark Fairy Tales Series

DO YOU LOVE POST-APOCALYPTIC, BUT HATE ZOMBIES? - THE AFTER BOXSET - NEW RELEASE

I am proud to announce that one of my books has been included in the AFTER bundle - a boxed set of uniquely different post-apocalyptic novels, featuring characters just like you.

What would you be willing to do to survive?

BOOKS INCLUDED:

1. "The Last Girl Guide" by Karen Wrighton
2. "The Tube Riders: Underground" by Chris Ward
3. "Mr Apocalypse" by Mark Gillespie
4. "Of Myst and Folly" by Leah Cutter
5. "The Rift" by Kim Antieau

FIND OUT MORE HERE

OR 

PURCHASE FROM THESE STORES

COVER REVEAL - Rabbit Girl

Out This Summer!

A New Young-Adult Romance 

Would you abandon your best friend to save your sanity?

"Sanity is overrated. Look at you - you're as mad as a hat full of cats - all the best people are..."

Lissie has long had more than her fair share of problems. For one, her only friend Is a six-foot white rabbit called Lewis.

Add to that a childhood traumatised by schizophrenia and Lissie generates enough material to keep a team of psychiatrists busy for years.

If she is to recover, Lissie must be prepared to give up the only friend she has ever known. However, getting rid of Lewis is no easy matter...

CONGRATULATIONS!

Congratulations to:  Siena De Salis of | Flinders | NSW |  AU

You have won the Goodreads Book Giveaway

A signed copy of The Last Girl Guide: Diary of a Survivor is winging its way to you as I write.

Ascension of the Whyte - Audiobook News!

Hi everyone,

You may well have been wondering where I have been the past couple of weeks. Well, I have been away on holiday to the Cotswolds where I visited many literary places including the birthplace of J. K. Rowling and the famous Rose Farm, and Woolpack Inn made famous by Laurie Lee. I even checked out his grave with a beautiful inscription which pronounces, "He lies in the valley he loved."

I also had a well-deserved rest, ate a great deal, drank a little and sat a lot! However, I have not been entirely idle.  I have done much research and written a few thousand words of The Last Girl Guide, and I have arranged to have an audiobook produced for Ascension of the Whyte, which should be available by Christmas.  So if you are an audiobook fan, check back here for updates on the release date.

New Book Release

I am happy to announce the release of my first Children's Chapter book - Molly Midnight and the Little People. Published under the pen name Tessa Thompson and available now on Amazon.

Molly Midnight is descended from a long line of witches, but their magic is long forgotten. Until the day Molly inherits her Grandfathers doll’s house.

The Midnight family doll’s House holds a secret. Inside, live all of her long-lost ancestors. Now, the lives of these tiny people are under threat - a Witch Hunter has arrived in the village.

Can Molly learn how to use magic in time to save her family and the house full of little people?

"A magical adventure story."

"An enchanting new series, children everywhere will be certain to fall under Molly Midnight's spell!"

A Writers Life - Disasters

Okay, so this week has been a busy week, I planned the complete outlines of the five books that I intended to work on over the next twelve months and even got their cover designs drafted.

Cover Design for my new
Thriller Series - Hoyle & Son

I downloaded a new scrivener app so that I could sync my work onto my iPad for when I had a flash of inspiration and no laptop handy. I was feeling pretty happy with myself, smug even. 

Then, just like there really was some Amish-like God up there waving his divine finger at me and tut-tutting at my shameful display of pride - KERPOW! Everything fell apart. 

Cover design for the third
in the Afterland Chronicles
Series - Ice & Fyre

Maybe I did worship at the feet of that false God of 'Technology' a little too enthusiastically - recklessly even, but the punishment was harsh. My new syncing app synced all of my work into oblivion, including the first five chapters of Ice and Fyre. I am not ashamed to tell you I cried like a beauty queen only not so prettily. 

So, instead of spending the day busily writing as originally planned, I spent the next eight hours trying to recover my work. After googling thousands of 'solutions' to my problem, trawling through hundreds of backup files and performing various geeky technological gymnastics, I got most of it back. Though it appears that the first Chapter of Ice and Fyre sadly, is lost forever. 

Trying to remember a couple of thousand words that you wrote a few weeks ago seems an impossible task especially when those words were painstakingly crafted to resolved the cliffhanger left at the end of Ryte of Passage, So now I have to rewrite it....

Looks like this week is going to be another busy week - doubly so because I'm going to backup the hell out of everything!

Karen

Fantastic Weekend at Latitude Music and Arts Festival!

Last weekend I attended Latitude Festival with my youngest daughter Anna. It is the eighth Latitude Festival that I have attended and in terms of weather, it was certainly one of the best. Though I attend mainly for the music, the Literary and Arts components are second only perhaps to Glastonbury. This year's literary offer included Author Naomi Alderman, comedian, and writer Sara Pascoe, award-winning campaigner Leyla Hussein and  Amy Annette (editor of I call myself a Feminist) discussing the new feminism and issues around women and power.

The Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction winner was attending the festival for the first time. She presented three exciting events hosted by novelist and BWPFF co-founder Kate Mosse. Now in its twenty-first year, the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction is the UK’s most prestigious annual book award for fiction written by a woman. 

Set up in 1996 to celebrate and promote international fiction by women throughout the world to the widest range of readers possible, the Prize is awarded for the best novel of the year written by a woman. I can only dream of honors such of these, but who knows one day...