All posts by Narrelle

Events, Novels

Romance Writers conference, bookmarks and Ravenfall

This morning I picked up a large (and surprisingly slippery) pile of bookmarks ahead of my attendance at the Romance Writers of Australia conference, Love Gone Wild,  being held this weekend in Brisbane.

This will be my first RWA conference, and I’m looking forward to learning more about my fellow members and about the world of writing romance (and how best to get word out to readers old and new about what I’m doing).

One of the things I’m looking forward to, of course, is that my new book – paranormal romance thriller Ravenfall – is being launched at the conference!

Ravenfall is the story of James Sharpe and Gabriel Dare and a monstrous plot that threatens all Great Britain! The paperback is available for pre-order now, becoming officially available later this month, and the ebook due for release later in September.

For those on GoodReads, you can mark Ravenfall  as to-read now!

If you’re going to be at the RWA conference, please come up and say hello (and grab a bookmark!).

You can read more about Ravenfall here, or pre-order the paperback at one of these online stores:

News, Short Stories

New release: Near Miss by Narrelle M Harris

I’m thoroughly delighted to announce that my new short erotic romance, Near Miss, is now available as an ebook! The fabulous cover is by Willson Rowe, and the story is published by Clan Destine Press.

Near Miss is set in Melbourne and is full of romance, sex, fabulous hair, rock music and knitting.

The blurb

Glory is a rock chick. She’s fierce. From a distance she keeps seeing a gorgeous woman with fantastic hair.

Ness is a hairdresser. She was named for the Loch. She’s been admiring the lead singer of Glory Be for ages.

Fate keeps preventing them from meeting, until the night of the yarnbombing in Melbourne’s Treasury Gardens – a night that knits their lives together.

Where to get Near Miss

 

News, Novels

Cover reveal: Ravenfall

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Near Miss is due out this month, but even before that’s hit the digital stands, here I come with a new cover reveal!

Ravenfall is a queer, paranormal, erotic romance thriller, set in contemporary London, and published by Clan Destine Press. It’s due out in mid August 2017.

Ravenfall

In London, war veteran James Sharpe struggles to come to terms with what he’s become: a vampire. His new lodger, artist Gabriel Dare, is best thing that’s happened to James since his discharge. Or he would be, if James knew whether he was still capable of love. He knows he’s capable of much worse things; the things he fights within himself every day.

Is James a danger to those he cares for? What will happen if Gabriel finds out what James is?

Gabriel, however, has a secret history of his own. And when some of his friends, the subjects of his art, go missing from the streets, a whole nest of secrets and a dangerous plot are revealed: involving a clairvoyant cop, Gabriel’s brother and a host of London’s monsters.

Cover art by Willson Rowe

Keep an eye on Ravenfall for links when the book is launched in August 2017.

Reviews

Review: The Lighter Side of Sherlock Holmes: The Sherlockian Artwork of Normal Schatell

We’ve just tipped over into July, but I have one more Happy June reading review to share!

It must be obvious to the meanest intelligence by now that I am – and have for a long time been – a devotee of Sherlock Holmes, the best and wisest London detective I have ever known, who is also “the most incurably lazy devil that ever stood in shoe leather”. I’m equally fond of his good friend, Doctor John Watson, who claimed to have a wandering wound, shaken nerves and a tendency to be up at ungodly hours.

Sharing my fascination and affection with these fellows who seem to fit in every time and place is the late Norman Schatell, whose Sherlockian cartoons are collected in this entertaining little volume from MX Publishing.

Normal Schatell was a very active part of Holmesian fandom throughout the 70s until his  death in 1980. His sketches in this book are not always crisp and clean – many are lightning panels he was as likely to draw on envelopes as to prepare for print – but they are all charming and cheeky. Some of the best have a subtlety that deeper knowledge of the stories rewards, and I often found myself laughing away to myself as the penny dropped.

Not content simply to draw cartoons, a portion of the book showcases Schatell’s witty and imaginative “Impractical Arts and Crafts” with ideas and designs for items like The Very Kinetic Holmes Marionette, a working model of the Great Grimpen Mire and the Eddie Rucastle Roach Stomper.

Schatell even created a series of ‘folk art Holmeses’, with the very recognisable figure rendered in the styles of Central African, Iranian, Mexican and even Egyptian statues and carvings, before rounding off the collection with some of those envelope-sketches mentioned earlier.

The only down side of the book is that Schatell’s handwriting has been reproduced, as-is, to describe some of the cartoons – and sometimes the writing is cramped and messy and very difficult to read, which is a shame. A larger reproduction or retyping the text might have helped those of us who are a bit more myopic than the Great Detective.

Nevertheless, the cartoons usually speak for themselves and the whole thing is enormously fun.

Buy The Lighter Side of Sherlock Holmes