James O'Keefe's Blog

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Whether I am writing or studying, I quite often have music playing in the background. My choice? Film and TV scores.

Why these? I find that the lack of lyrics isn’t a distraction. I have quite an extensive collection of scores on CD and digital formats, but a few months ago I bought a second-hand turntable. I’ve now since upgraded to a much better, newer model, along with a good amplifier and set of speakers. With this, I am now slowly accumulating a nice little library of film scores on vin...

[image error]Another book review for the year. This time, another ARC for Alan Baxter‘s latest novel Hidden City. Here’s the blurb:

When the city suffers, everyone suffers.

Steven Hines listened to the city and the city spoke. Cleveport told him she was sick. With his unnatural connection to her, that meant Hines was sick too. But when his friend, Detective Abby Jones, comes to him for help investigating a series of deaths with no discernible cause, Hines can’t say no. Then strange fungal growths begin to...

[image error]To kick off my first book review of the year, I am reviewing Faerie Apocalypse by Melbourne based author Jason Franks. Faerie Apocalypse has been published by the Australian arm of IFWG Publishing. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Jason in person at an Oz Comic-Con event a few years ago, having made contact via Facebook beforehand. When he placed a call out for an ARC of the novel for a review, I jumped at the chance. This is the first novel I have read of his and had no idea on what to expec...

2015. Well, a year of many changes. I had the short story published at the start of the year. Moved back to Adelaide. Started a TAFE course and a new job.

Not a great deal on the actual writing front but what I have written for TAFE has been well received (except for the Write Articles for Publication subject which was quite painful, but also gave me a greater respect for those who work in the journalism industry). But TAFE, oh TAFE, what a ripper you did just before our last assignment was d...

Right, I admit that I have been quite slack at keeping this blog up to date over the last 6 months or so. Lack of time and commitment to keeping it up to date.

To kick things off, the first semester for the TAFE course went well, with both subjects (Edit and Present Manuscripts, and Introduce Writing Styles, Techniques & Conventions) resulted with Credits. Very happy with those results and I really enjoyed doing the Edit and Present Manuscripts subject. I certainly learnt from that one and ha...

What resources do you have in your own collection?

As part of the Advanced Diploma of Arts (Professional Writing) that I am now undertaking, there are a number of resources that are required and a number that are recommended. In discussion with other writers, I have had some options as well. The first one that any writer needs is the Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers. I have already referenced this several times in the first assignment for the ‘Edit and Present Manuscripts’ subjec...

So 2015 is upon us well and truly. It’s already 11 days in and I’ve received two awesome pieces of news. More on that shortly. With 2015 comes a new year with many changes ahead.

First off, my family and I are moving back to Adelaide this month, so it’s been a mad rush of packing the house to move in the next few weeks. Writing time has been almost non-existent. It has meant that I am leaving a job to unemployment for hopefully a short while. If no work does come up, at least after doing job a...

I have seen a few other authors do this on their own sites, so thought I would do the same. 2014 has been a productive year. I have managed to write something every month, with a rough estimate or around 50,000 or so total words over that period. Most of the year was spent working on my eventual submission to the From Out of the Dark anthology. The hard work paid off with it being accepted for publication. It should see it out for sale sometime early this year. There was also a very late subm...

Decided upon a bit of a revamp of my blog. Funky new header image and design to streamline the site.

If you don’t follow me on Twitter, I have now joined the Australian Horror Writers Association.

On that note, this month is NaNoWriMo again. I’ve put a story that I have finished another draft on hold for a short bit that will be submitted by end of the year for another anthology. In the mean, I have put an idea that I was going to use for another sub that didn’t happen due to working on the Out...

Well, the submission for the From Out of the Dark anthology has sold. After the publisher sent me feedback, with some suggested changes etc to help make the story stronger, I resubmitted. I received an email a few days ago saying he was happy with the story and will buy it. That’s nearly 12 months of hard work now paid off. Publication should be sometime on December. As soon as I know when, I’ll be posting links to it ASAP.

In the mean time, it’s now time to turn back to my zombie novel to fin...