Ash Oldfield's Blog

Following the release of Heart of Dragons, Book 3 of the Rachaya Series, I decided to book a stall at Supanova this year. All things going well, I look forward to catching up with many of my readers at this event. Supanova Melbourne will be running May 22nd and 23rd following the Victorian government Covid safe guiidelines.

I look forward to seeing many of you there!

Hello all! This is just a quick message to let you all know that I will be taking pre-orders for anyone wanting to get a signed copy of Heart of Dragons. I have set up an Esty store that I will keep active for the next couple of months for anyone wishing to complete their signed collection. I have been absolutely blown away by everyone's enthusiasm following my announcement of the release. Thank you all for your support :)

https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/97703...

I have finally set the date for the third and final instalment of The Rachaya Series. *drumroll*

Heart of Dragons will be available to purchase in paperback form on APRIL 15th 2021!

I cannot wait until my book is in readers' hands. It has been a long journey and I am sad to say farewell to Rachaya and her friends, but I also feel that I have done their story justice.

Keep an eye out for further updates about the release.

Love to you all,

Ash

I am officially back writing after a bit of a break to spend some much-needed time with family. In fact, I have been back working for a few months now and I have not been idle.

I have finished writing The Rachaya Series (book 3 is in the hands of my beta readers as I type this). Heart of Dragons proved to be far more difficult to write than I had anticipated. Long story short, my writing was interrupted by a bit of illness and family stuff. This interruption turned out to be a really good thing. In fact, I would say it turned out to be the best thing possible for my book. During my time away from writing I realised that I had been forcing the story based on my original plan for it, rather than letting my characters speak for themselves. I handed over the reigns to Rachaya and friends. The story they wished to tell was far better than anything I could have come up with myself.

It's actually just hit me now how much I am going to miss those characters. My husband wants me to write further stories in the world of Escoria in the future. I don't want to force anything so we'll just see where The Muse takes me next.

I currently have a character in my head for my next story that just will not leave me alone. She is following me around all day, nagging at me incessantly to write down everything she wishes to tell me. Never one to ignore the voices in my head, I have been madly taking notes, developing characters, plotting story arcs and generally just having a grand-ole-time researching. Sometimes I think I became a writer just for the thrill I get when researching.

With my renewed energy and excitement I have also started up a Patreon page for those who wish to support my writing. You can check it out at: https://www.patreon.com/AshOldfield . I'm offering exclusive blog posts where I share updates on my writing, explain more about the writing process and share some of my findings from my research. For higher-tiered patrons I will also share first drafts of bits and pieces that I am writing.

That's it from me for now. Hopefully I will not be away from here for so long next time.

Another Melbourne Supanova has been and gone and I had such a fantastic time talking to people who are as crazy about dragons as I am. I would like to say a special thank you to those of you who came over to say hello after meeting me last year.

This Supanova was a very special occasion for me because it doubled up as the book launch for The Lost City, book 2 of The Rachaya Series. Many copies of this shiny new book made its way home with readers over the course of Supanova, and I am so happy to see it finally out in the world. If you missed out on your copy, it is also available for purchase online.

I also had many people enquiring about Fyrebyrne Island as an ebook. It is available here on amazon. Even if you don’t own a Kindle there is an app for your phone and tablet. The ebook for The Lost City is coming soon.

We had many winners for out knitted dragon competition this year. Congratulations to those of you who drew the lucky token!

My email competition had two winners, who have been emailed privately. Congratulations to Miriam and Hannah. Your dragons will be posted to you shortly.

For those of you who are fans of podcasts, don’t forget to check out The Book Stash, where I look at books from a writer’s perspective, provide writing tips, talk a little about my own writing and offer some writing prompts.

Thank you once again to all of you who made this Supanova experience so fantastic. I look forward to seeing you all again at my next convention.

For the release of The Lost City I will be at Supanova Melbourne this Saturday and Sunday (April 21st and 22nd). Make sure you come along to The Alley, booth 23, and say hello!

I've recently been working on a podcast about books and writing. The first episode, where I talk about Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and explain how writing prompts can be useful is now available on iTunes. Please give it a listen and subscribe :)

https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/t...

As I (mostly) sign off from social media for the year I would like to take the time to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thank you so much for your support of Fyrebyrne Island throughout 2017. You guys rock!

For all of you tech-savvy readers out there, Fyrebyrne Island is now available in ebook form on Amazon.

On another note, Book 2 of the Rachaya Series, "The Lost City" is now with my wonderful editor. I believe she will begin work on it at the end of this month. I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed the process of writing it.

Once again, I wanted to thank everyone who has purchased Fyrebyrne Island and taken the time to leave a thoughtful review. You make this little author very happy :)

Aodfin is a loyal supporter of Rachaya in The Rachaya Series.

Aodfin is the son of the earth dragon leader, Ardhan. He has a lot of his father's natural gravitas and dragons tend to follow his lead. He was told by his father to keep an eye on Rachaya, and he does this with deep seriousness.

Hobbies: studying the ancient dragon runes, weaponry.

Appearance: Aodfin is incredibly muscular, like all earth dragons. He is a tall and imposing figure and very rarely smiles.

Key qualities: Aodfin has magical strength. His is loyal and quick-thinking. If he is ever witness to bullying behaviour he puts a stop to it immediately.

Elemental type: Earth dragon