Nikky Lee's Blog

I'm delighted to share that Te Pae Tawhiti Awards have launched for NZ and Pasifika speculative fiction authors.

Confession time, I've been working on a secret project. Not going to lie, it has a pretty gory opening chapter (as is the way of...

I'm delighted to share that I've had three works shortlisted in the Sir Julius Vogel Awards and another three shortlisted in four categories in the Aurealis Awards!

I've lost count of the number of times I've told fellow writers to stop and take a moment to reflect on how far they've come. And as is often the way, I'm also quite terrible at following my own advice—I haven't done any sort of wrap up post in years. But NO MORE! 2024 was the year to get shit done, so by gods, muses, and all that is wordly, this wrap is happening albeit in a rambling, I-must-get-these-words-down-or-so-help-me kind of way.

(Also, putting this together has made me realise just ...

Following on from my recent Award Eligibility post, I'm delightly to share that The Rarkyn's Fall and Once We Flew are through to the next round of the Indie Ink Awards! Massive thank you to everyone who nominated these works—and in so many categories!

What's next?

Now that the books are nominated, it's time to vote. But you only have one vote per category! To make things easier, I've included links below to each of the categories the books are nominated in.

The Rarkyn’s Fall

Best book cove...

The 2024/25 literary award season is kicking off again. There are several awards open—or will soon be opening—that my stories are eligible for. If you loved any of these works, please consider giving them a nomination to see them celebrated and promoted!

Eligible worksShort stories

"Once Upon An Automation", Cursed Shards: Tales Inspired by Dark Folklore, IFWG Publishing, 27 May 2024.

Novellas and novelettes

"We Who Remain", A Night So Dark And Full Of Stars: Twelve Tales Inspired by the Zo...

Title: Clocks Locks Corpses! And Other Epic Horror Poems

Author: S. Jayne Bradley

Publisher: Rookery Publishing

Genre: Horror, Poetry

Page Count: 139

Series Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Blurb

Beside the fire we warm our hands

We tell our tales of distant lands

The midnight hour is surely here

It’s time to fill our hearts with fear!

Clocks Locks Corpses! is an anthology of stories that plunges you into a world teeming with

vampires, werewolves, cyborgs, and hordes of the undead. You'll encounter bootlegging...

With the launch of The Rarkyn's Fall (book two of The Rarkyn Trilogy) only a few weeks away, it's high time for a quick blog to talk (read: tease) in greater detail about what’s inside. One element I'm especially keen to share is how this book starts to explore different kinds of strength. 

 

If you've been around the writing mill for even a brief amount of time, then you've likely heard the "write strong characters" advice phrased in some way or another. While this is valid advice for writing a...

Below is a list of content warnings for all of Nikky's solo authored works. Please note, this these warnings may include spoilers.

The Rarkyn Trilogy1. The Rarkyn's Familiar

Mild: animal cruelty.

Moderate: swearing, grief, blood, confinement, mental illness (anxiety), PTSD, trauma, violence, death of a sibling.

Graphic: gore, death, death of parent.

2. The Rarkyn's Fall

Mild: arranged marriage.

Medium: swearing, violence, confinement, illness/disability (scoliosis), inflicted injury/wounds...

I'm delighted to share the cover of A Night So Dark and Full of Stars: Twelve Tales Inspired by the Zodiac, my upcoming short story collection coming out with Deadset Press!

This collection has been a mammoth task in the making, mainly because it began life as a series of stories for Deadset Press’ Zodiac anthology series over the course of several years. The collection contains ten of the original twelve zodiac stories that were published in the series—including two Aurealis Award finalist ...