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The God-Wife Reborn: out NOW
Latest News:
January 2025: Twas my goal to be brave and get myself into more places to chat to more readers! I am excited to report that I was accepted into Warwickcon (regional pop culture festival) in April as well as into a book signing event at Books@Stones in Stones Corner Feb. I am updating my events page with where I will be, when!
January 2025: Black Hare Publishing accepted a brand new short story. Travel, The Boy and The Anchor will appear in one of their projects soon. Contract SIGHNED, details about the project and the publishing date soon!
January 2025: publishing day for any of my pieces is so exciting. I create a heap of blogs and social media pictures in advance and bite my nails down as I wait for my words to appear in print. Twas a bit of a laugh this week as I spent a few few days checking a publisher's website, fussing over time conversion programs, all ready to launch images and blogs the moment the story appeared... Only to realise it would not! The Tension Between is NOT publishing 9th of Jan 2025, but 9th of Jan 2026. Oh dear! I have quite a long time to wait. Our eyes do have a tendency to read what expect to see!
December: I had some beautiful news this morning, with magazine Crow & Cross Key accepting a reprint for publication in their magazine in May 2025. I love the look and vibe of this beautiful online magazine. More details about the story they are publishing closer to the publishing date!
December: Nanowrimo update! I stepped out of the Nanowrimo space last year, concerned by some of the things that were happening in that space. 2024 had some more complexities inside the Nanowrimo business but I still love the concept - writers and writing communities coming together to challenge themselves to do something crazy. This year I completed my goal of 15 brand new short stories completed to a clean first draft level. I also completed my word target, 50k-80k new words, coming in around 75k words.
Of the fifteen short stories I wrote, I think I will be chasing publication for 14 of them. Of those 14, one is already out. A second and a third should be out inside a week!
December: It has been a quieter year, publishing wise, which has not been a very nice feeling. Rejections pile up and you start to worry and wonder. BUT in the gloom, this amazing sparkle: 96th of October finally accepted one of my stories (having rejected 11 others, most of which have now been published elsewhere). 96th of October is FREE to read here: https://96thofoctober.com/articles/fish-or-chips/
November: my next BIG event is ARRA's A Romantic Rendezvous Sat 22 Mar 2025. You can book tickets HERE: https://www.trybooking.com/1209908
November: short story Affordable Resurrection (previously published Mar 2023 in Teleport Magazine, then as a reprint into Metastellar Magazine) has been accepted into Metastellars Best of Year Four anthology. Eeee! Contract signed. The editors think it may be out as early as June 2025!
November: A magazine I particularly liked has short-listed one of my 5000 word stories. This means it has made it through three rounds of reading. It will be held for 3-5 months, with about a 1 in 20 chance of being published. Whether it makes it into the magazine or not, its a WIN! It was in the ball park. They were considering it! WHOOT!
November: November is National Novel Writing Month. Due to some of the issues in this space for the Nanowrimo brand and business itself in previous years, I have celebrated a 'Creative Month' instead. This year, I returned to Nanowrimo itself, willing to see where they go and how they better position themselves with each learning opportunity. I have a number of novels out chasing publication and several finished/almost finished that will need editing so I decided AGAINST writing another novel this November 2024. Instead, I set a ridiculous goal: 50-80 000 new words, fifteen new stories! It is a ridiculously ambition stretch goal that is going to be a really hard push BUT I love an ambitious goal and I am giving it a red hot go. Is it even possible to write 15 new short stories in a single month? My record I think has been about three lolll. Let's find out!!!
November: I attended Supernova Brisbane as a stallholder, sharing a table with a mate and attempting to sell books. I sold SO many more then I expected. It was a fabulous three days. We both launched our brand new banners and I was able to spend three days talking to other writers authors and readers about books books BOOKS! I got some amazing books, and lovely feedback from some of the folk who brought my books! We have booked in for Brisbane Supernova 2025!
October: so excited to announce 96th of October Magazine has accepted a 2000 word piece, Fish or Chips, publishing 1st of December 2024. I have submitted 11 other pieces to this magazine, which have been unsuccessful. You could have blown me over with a feather when they said "okay". So excited about this piece. It should be in another FREE to read space!
October: after huge and ridiculous amounts of procrastination, including being frozen in place unable to take a single step forward on this for about six months, I finally managed to scrape my bits together enough to organise an Author's Banner. A big thank you to Paul and Kathy at Rogue Printing for their kindness in working with this nervous, jittery completely clueless author as we created my first ever really big promotional item!
September/October: my elderly desktop (I suspect it was about 20 years old) died a few years ago, after being pulled apart and patched up many, many times. My favourite memory is the part where it would not switch on when the temperature was below 5 degrees outside in the early hours of the morning (it would need to try to come on a few times to warm up!!!). I get that! Luckily, we don't get that many mornings as cold as that where I live. With the desktop down, I leant very heavily on my laptop these last few years, doing all my writing (25hrs+ a week) on that poor little laptop. I wrote whole novels on that laptop! When it started to glitch, I panicked. I brought a new desktop, hoping to get some more months out of the laptop. A day after that, the laptop NOPED it. RIP laptop and desktop. I will miss you! The fun through the end of September and into October? Setting up new systems, arguing with devices about where I want to store things and how I want things updated, logging back into EVERYTHING and organising myself to work off two systems. Wheeeee! I am happy to report (5/10/24) I think things are just about back to normal...
September: working to set up my Amazon Author account. I seem to be running into challenge at each step of the way, but I am continuing to plod my way through. One day I expect it to be all sorted out and linking all the right books to the right me at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nicolewalshauthor
August: I did my first ever travelling event to wave my book around, driving out to Roma to support RomaCon 2024. I spotted this event on FB (thank you author Tjalara Draper!) and I decided to be super brave and practice my YES and reach out. This was such a positive supportive friendly AMAZING event. It was also the first chance I have had to waveThe God-Wife Reborn, at readers. I am not exaggerating when I say it was life-changing. I have a lot more confidence now to reach out to other events and see where else I can travel to meet new people and see new places and chit-chat with readers and fellow creatives. I suspect this little holiday has set me on a new path attending as many cons as I can in 2025, AND whetting my appetite to do some writing retreats in some of our gorgeous, friendly rural QLD towns!
August: a journal of feminist faerytales, Corvid Queen, accepted one of my new short stories, The Tension Between. This is a darker, slightly unsettling, end of the world style fantasy piece with themes of mythology (Janus gates, Adam and Eve) as well as reflections on time and cycles and our place in the vastness of time. Release date now announced: January 2025.
August: The God-Wife Reborn hit the final step on its road to publication, with its formal launch date through the publisher's Winter Gala 4th of August 2024. My book baby is now out and about in the world!
July 2024: expressions of interest have closed for ARC (advanced reader coies) of the God-Wife Reborn. This was a really interesting experience and I learned a lot.
June 2024: Snoogle Hunt is now PUBLISHED in Metastellar Magazine! As mentioned below (April), Snoogle Hunt is one of the few stories I have had published first submission out the gate. It is also one of the few pieces I wrote specifically for that opportunity that then got published. In other MetaStellar news, the magazine asked if I would consider being a judge for the next round of new flash fiction. I have never been a judge before, but I am keen bean to support fellow writers AND this gorgeous, super supportive magazine!
June 2024: a small publisher who included one of my short stories in one of their anthologies reached out (to all their authors, I presume) to see if they were keen to respond to some interview questions as part of their blog. My interview will be on their blog late December 2024. I will post once its up!
June 2024: Gosh, what a month! Metastellar Magazine, who has published several of my short-stories, emailed to say they have selected Heaven-Sent for their read-aloud series. Yay! This is only my second piece to feature in an audio project. More to come, including link to where you can access this! (Note: as of October, still in progress!).
June 2024: my darker more reflective sci-fi fantasy mashup short story Resurrecting Tessa (2000 words) published 1st of June in Luna Station Quarterly. This is my very first time in this magazine. Yay! What a beautiful cover and magazine. Check it out here: https://www.lunastationquarterly.com/issues/058/
June 2024: it's happening! The God-Wife Reborn is beginning to launch this weekend (1st of June 2024). The publisher has the ebooks up on this site: https://ipoz.biz/product/god-wife-reborn/, with paperbacks on pre-order. Eeee!
May 2024: We may have some ARC (advanced reader copies) opportunities in the pipeline for my new novel, The God-Wife Reborn, through June 2024. Is anyone keen? If you are, the form is at: (removed). If you have any dramas with the form or you have a question, email me at nicolewalshauthor (at) gmail.com to register your interest so I know to flick you an application form :-)
May 2024: after much anticipation, my brand new novel The God-Wife Reborn (coming out June 2024) now has a cover! Cover reveal in all social media spaces 12 May 2024.
May 2024: the publisher of my brand new novel, The God-Wife Reborn and I are completing the last tweaks on the manuscript, ready for it to go to publication. Unfortunately, it looks like another delay, with the piece now expected to publish June 2024. It is looking SO good though. The Interactive Publications editing team has helped me get this piece better then I could have ever imagined!
April 2024: Luna Station Quarterly Magazine, a magazine that I have unsuccessfully submitted to many times, accepted a short, darker piece of sci fi/fantasy. Resurrecting Tessa (2000 words) will be published in Luna Station Quarterly on 1st June 2024.
April: the publisher of my brand new novel, The God-Wife Reborn and I have been back and forwarding with the typeset version of The God-Wife Reborn. It is looking so good. They have worked so hard, helping me edit this piece into something I am really proud of. I am so excited for this piece to launch! Still no word on covers, launch party or release date yet, but I expect to hear something soon :-)
April: Metastellar Magazine, a highly supportive and extremely professional magazine, has published a lot of my reprints. They open for submissions of unpublished pieces only very rarely, and I have not had any luck. Guess what? They just accepted Snoogle Hunt, a 1000 word piece I wrote ESPECIALLY for their open call! Their feedback was it passed through multiple rounds of judging from hundreds of submissions. WOW! This is one of the few pieces I have written that have been accepted immediately! Whoot!
Zoetic Press Non-Binary Review publishes interviews on all its contributors, every issue. This is my first ever interview. Yay! I started an 'interview and extras' page on the website!
(Older news removed :-)
What's in the pipeline?
My goal for 2023 was: to have many things published in many places. After a very slow start, it seems to be kicking off in the second half of this year!
What's in the pipeline?
Novels:
- Three completed novels in the editing/submission stage. One had a deliriously beautiful near miss with a fabulous publisher. I will dust myself off and get it back out there.
- I completed a fresh new novel-length piece for NaNoWriMo 2022, a 100k novel that is refreshingly different - its... comedy spec-fic! Well. Hopefully it's funny. It cracks ME up. This piece has undergone a solid round of editing and further edits through two beta readers. I have begun querying agents for this piece in 2024.
- Completed ANOTHER novel for NaNoWriMo 2023 :-) Enemies to lovers, marriage of convenience, one bed, based in my Hell Colony world. It has wiggled about in my mind for over a year and BLASTED out in Nanowrimo 2023 (over 91 k of new words) into an almost completed manuscript (short the final few scenes, which are mapped out). I feel like it may not go anywhere (it skated into a romance piece, which is not my jam - I do not love it). Note: wrote a second version of this, which I like better. THEN started a re-write on the first piece. Expecting to close 2024 with TWO brand new novels written!
Short stories/Novellas:
- One longer short story/novella completed (20k words) and in the editing/beta reader submission stage. This is a piece of adventure fantasy.
- My goal this year is to have 20-25 pieces (shorts, novels and reprints) out chasing oportunities at all times. Which means: no more sooking over rejections.
- How is this going? Not so well. I have been putting 20-25 hours into editing old work, resubmitted, celebrating published pieces and working on completed novels. I need to create MORE new stuff I feel a "Creative Retreat" coming on when I ditch all my editing and completed work and focus on new stuff!
- I need to continue to improve my writing and step outside my contemporary urban fantasy comfort zone and dabble in other genres, including: lit fic, fantasy, horror and fantasy/adventure. I also plan to work on adding diversity to my POV characters. Short stories are a fantastic place to explore characters, genres, worlds and practice new things! Will it work? Lets see what gets published!!!
There's also a lot of writing... ideas, fragments, half-completed pieces with their wheels off and grass growing over them and crickets chirping. Every now and then I stab my toe tripping over an old piece and kick the muse into gear :-)