and the winner is...

Okay, it's time for the winner of all those awesome downunder books. Thanks to everyone for coming along and joining in. You are all awesome.

I have to admit, you guys crack me up. How am I supposed to choose a winner from that lot? You're all crazy book obsessives. You all deserve to win oodles of books. If I had fifty copies I'd give you all a set.

But alas, I have to choose one. Life's unfair like that. So, by a secret combination of wind direction, blood pressure, the price of fish in Beijing and asking my cat what he thought, the winner is...

breeziesbooks!!!

Congrats! I'll ping you on Twitter too in case you don't see this.

Thanks so much to everyone for playing. It's really nice to see so many people interested in new authors.

(For those who missed out, I'm also currently doing some giveaways (of my own book, that is!) at EllzReads, Sara's UF blog and Sidhe Vicious.)

two is better than one...?

Okay, then. Deep breath. Tomorrow is the day my second book drops.

(That's it in the sidebar, in case you're wondering. Big fat yellow book with a sexy girl on the front. Go buy it, if you care to. It's got fairies and magic mirrors and all manner of shenanigans. Hope you enjoy it!)

Anyway. Tomorrow is Book 2 Day. And... well, I kinda don't know how I should feel about that.

I mean, yeah, I'm excited. Don't get me wrong. It will never cease to be awesome to have my books on the shelves. And hey, now I can say 'my books' instead of  'my book'. And it's a relief, too, because now I can finally talk about all that cool plot stuff I handed in 12 months ago with someone who knows what I'm on about. Assuming someone reads it, of course :)

But it also means I'm officially no longer a 'debut author', with all the uncertainty and wonder that goes with that label. That means that people will always compare this book to the first one, for good or ill. It means that (hopefully!) I have a following, however small or scattered, and they expect things from me. And that's where the doubts creep in. Ooh, will they like it as much as the first one? Is it as dark? As sexy? As intriguing? Will they like my characters?

Blah, blah, all those usual author nerves. A billion people in China don't care. And the fact is, SHADOWGLASS turned out exactly how I wanted. It's not going to please everyone, because nothing ever pleases everyone. But all the elements that made SHADOWFAE what it was are there aplenty in SHADOWGLASS: it's dark, sexy, romantic, scary, magical.

SHADOWGLASS is the book I wanted it to be. And all I can do now is hope you enjoy it.

Oh, and I suppose I could run a contest. Y'know, to celebrate and all? Sigh. Mutter. Okay, then.

But giving away just my own books (see, there, I said 'books', not 'book'!) is jaded. Been there, done that, got the postal receipts.

So as well, I'm gonna give away some fabulous books by some other, even more fabulous Aussie fantasy/romance authors. RIght here on my little ol' blog.

I've got Keri Arthur. I've got Tracey O'hara. I've got Denise Rossetti. Oh, and I've got some Kiwi named Nalini Singh. You may have heard of her. She's not strictly an Aussie, but we'll claim her. We claim all the good ones. Especially when the rotten buggers beat us at cricket.

Yes, it's the Great Aussie Fantasy contest!!

Yes, that's right. Tomorrow, one lucky visitor will win a pile of awesome books from south of the equator. So tell your friends. Come back tomorrow.

Aussie fantasy. It's here. It's hot. You know you want some.