Tabitha McGowan's Blog

It’s been five gruelling years since the brutal Federal Defence, referred to by its occupied citizens as ‘The Grey’, sent its feared Obsidian Battalion to wipe out most of the inhabitants of the village of Trecarn, and the tiny farming settlement is finally beginning to thrive for the first time in its unedifying history.

The rebuilding is led by Trecarn’s first-ever female Heradin, Savka Mec’honeth. After a feral childhood as an unloved and misbegotten peasant, Savka grew up to become a valued Resistance fighter and healer, and found that the range of skills she picked up along the way made her a highly effective, unorthodox – and spectacularly foul-mouthed – leader. Savka is also Gifted; a conduit for a powerful but rather unpredictable magical energy, although she’s never been sure if this is a blessing or a curse.

Following a surprise visit from Irin, Trecarn’s resident Goddess of Healing, Savka is given a mere year to assemble a new army to fight an as-yet unidentified threat. However, before she can get around to that little job, she has to deal with the return of her beloved older brother who’s just deserted from the Federal Defence (accompanied by the most beautiful woman in the world) and a risky mission to rescue Tor Korrigan, a broken and volatile Resistance fighter, threatens to upend her plans and test her resolve.

Out of the Grey is a story of survival, kinship, and bloody-minded hope, capturing the irreverent humour and resilience needed to find healing and purpose in a broken world.

Thank you for your faith, your patience and your unbelieveable support! UNBOUND, the sequel to THE TIED MAN is now live on Amazon <3

Sometimes love is not enough…
Blaine Albermarle is defeated, and if life mirrored the fairytales of our childhood Lilith Bresson and Finn Strachan should be free. But reality rarely provides a Happily Ever After, and now a lifetime of terror is waiting to catch up with a terrifyingly vulnerable and damaged Finn. Even the indomitable Lilith finds herself exhausted, and for the first time it looks like even she might be defeated by the task of building a safe and content life in Spain; before long their nascent, fragile relationship hangs in the balance.
When life-changing news summons the pair to Dublin without either of them knowing if they’re strong enough to deal with the trip, the pair are asked to risk all their hard-won healing for an uncertain reward. In travelling to his home city Finn will be forced to confront the demons of his childhood and Lilith will need to risk letting others see her true and unguarded self. With not everyone pleased to see them and old and new enemies lurking around every street corner there’s every chance that the return to Finn’s native city will be a journey too far. Even when it looks like happiness has triumphed the final challenge will stake all that Lilith and Finn possess against an evil neither of them knew was lurking, with no guarantee that either will survive.
(Please note that this storyline contains depictions of drug abuse, violence and non-consensual sex)

It's been *far* too long - and the longer I left it, the harder it was to come up with the words to explain how difficult it was to come up with the words and how months turned into years...

Instead, right now, I've posted a sample from Unbound on my Facebook page as a thank you and an offering, and a promise that I'm just about there. The priority is the book and after that I'll fill in the blanks for those who want them. Much love and gratitude, Tabitha McG

To all my readers and friends here on Goodreads: my lovely husband passed away yesterday. He was (and is) the love of my life for over twenty years, and I am bereft. He leaves an amazing daughter who made him proud every single day.

I will not be writing for a while. I cannot give a date for the release of 'Unbound', but I will return to it, and it will get completed. I promise.

Thank you for your understanding.

Tabitha xx

I had a really interesting morning this morning - a couple of months ago, I volunteered to be a living kidney donor, when someone (that I didn't actually know at that point) at work sent out an email saying that they needed one. On the basis that I've got two and one is technically a spare, I put my name forward.

Since then, I've had a series of blood tests to check for matching (I'm not a direct match, but my kidney will get put forward as an 'altruistic donation' to someone somewhere in the country and that will free up a donation for the woman at work, so it's all good...), and this morning I had a chest x-ray and heart trace, and more bloods taken. I think they may be secretly feeding a community of vampires, on the sly.

Next? Well, I need to lose about two and a half stone - part of my reason for telling you fabulous people is that you now know this, so you can encourage/cajole/nag me to get this done! - whilst I wait for the next series of tests in the next couple of months; this will be a scan of my kidneys just to check that I'm not giving anyone a busted one, and a medical history check.

The major reason I'm telling you this is as follows: my lovely transplant co-ordinator asked if I would be willing to tell people about the scheme, and the fact that you can actually be a living donor if you give a kidney (I'm happy for any of my bits to go to a good cause, but I *would* prefer to be alive for a good while yet). You don't even need to know the person you're donating to. Then I told her I was a writer, and I'd be able to tell a whole chunk of people about it. So I have.

If this has piqued your curiosity even the tiniest bit, I'd strongly recommend you getting in touch with your local renal unit to look at the next steps - they're trained to give you all the support and choice you need, so you needn't worry about waking up in a bath of ice with a note pinned to the mirror (urban legend reference, for you few non-geek followers ).

I'll keep you posted, because apart from anything else, it's *really* fascinating stuff (they've unravelled my DNA!!! I'll probably get post-surgery morphine!!! What's not to like?).

I've just taken a break from gardening/ferret-taming/vacuuming assorted bingies from the rug/drinking red wine from a jam-jar to consider launching The Tied Man in paperback. Because clearly, this is how a professional author operates...

A lot of readers have said they would love a paperback copy (apparently it would be useful to have in your zombie-proof bunker when your e-reader finally dies), so I mentioned it on FB. One smart reader suggested Kickstarter, which I hadn't even considered - now I am frantically researching crowdsourcing, because it actually looks like it could be a fantabulous thing!

Oh, and I would get to shoot a fundraising video and stuff, which may be the most hilarious thing ever seen onscreen. Especially if there's gin and ferrets involved. Which there probably would be...

I'd really appreciate it if you'd let me know if this is the kind of thing my mature, sensible and *entirely* sane readership would go for. If it is, watch this space - things could get interesting!

Finn and Lili makin' out and stuff, in a hot shower... That'll be chapter 2 shaping up nicely, then.

http://totallybookedblog.com/2013/05/...

The rather lovely ladies of TotallyBooked tied me to a chair and made me write the first chapter for them. Fortunately, they've shared it with everyone, so you can read it too. Along with a particularly honest interview (and the chance to win goodies. Including something chosen/signed/scribbled all over by me).

I've just re-read it, and I sound like an absolute nutjob.

Well, I've got the first chapter of 'Unbound' finished, and even by my picky, fannying-about-for-an-hour-with-two-sentences-and-the-cut-and-paste-feature style of writing, I'm really pleased with it.

The lovely, and hugely supportive, ladies at the TotallyBooked blog asked me if I'd share the first taste with them, and I was all too happy to oblige; I really wanted readers to know that I'm serious about book 2, and it's fitted beautifully with how I write. I'm not a writer who can just bash it all out and then go back and refine; I need to know that something's honed and edited and complete before I can move on.

This doesn't mean that there won't be tweaks along the way - there might be something in Chapter 20 that alters a detail in a sentence on page 3 - but I can sleep at night knowing that the full stops are all in the right place, and there are no rogue apostrophes!

I love knowing I've got a firm foundation for the rest of the story, and I've reassured myself that I can still write for Finn and Lili (and they still have plenty to say...).

Now all I need to do is keep hitting the keys, and get the rest of it told! I'll keep you posted. Promise.