2024 COVERS

2024 covers

Welcome to the Dark Side!

We are writers mainly from Australia and New Zealand who write speculative fiction with romantic elements. Be it fantasy, paranormal, dark urban fantasy, futuristic and everything in between.

Saturday 23 April 2016

Darklight On ... Marie Dry

Today's Darklight On is ... Marie Dry

Welcome, Marie




How did you come to write speculative fiction? What attracted you to the genre? 

I loved movies about aliens and strange worlds and creatures ever since I was a child. When speculative fiction became popular in the romance genre I was in heaven. I actually wrote a vampire romance long before editors would even look at it. 


Are you a plotter? Pantser? Or somewhere in-between?

I’m a pantser through and through. Plotting a story just doesn’t work for me. I do a lot of work on my characters but that’s about it. I go in blind and see what jumps out at me. Afterward I go back and do a kind of plotting, ensuring everything on the page is as clear as it is in my mind.


Do you have a favourite of your characters?

No, though my aliens will always be special to me because they were published first. Normally the character I work on is my favourite.


What are you currently working on? 

I’m editing my story about a very arrogant dragon, it is titled I am dragon. I am also editing Sabrina and the Gargoyle. A gargoyle story set in Cape Town.


What is your favourite part of the process of writing? 

I love every part. That first spark of an idea. The rough draft. The struggle during edits to make the story work. The editing with the publisher. Though if I HAD to choose I would say the editing. I love when I start to add nuances and I see the story come alive with every bit of improvement I make.


What can we expect from Marie Dry in the future?

Many stories I can’t wait to share. More Alien books, a dragon book and a cyborg book. After Alien Betrayed I will hand in Sabrina and the Gargoyle. I also have some contemporaries that I enjoyed working on.


Who are your favourite authors?

Jayne Anne Krentz and all her alter egos, G.A. Aiken, Georgette Heyer, Nalini Singh, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Christine Feehan, Cassandra L. Shaw, R. Lee Smith, Douglas Porch, Patrick Leigh Fermor, Kresley Cole, Laurann Dohner, Rachael Thomas.


What are you currently reading?

I am reading Hero with a thousand faces by Joseph Campbell and also The War of Art.


Do you have a favourite spec fiction movie or TV series?

Stargate Atlantis is my all time favourite. If I want to watch something and I’m not sure what I feel like I put Stargate Atlantis on.


Do you have advice for emerging writers? 

Write every day and write what you enjoy. Even if it is just a paragraph be consistent and write every day and soon you will have a manuscript. 


~~~

Thanks, Marie Dry!




Alien Mine

In a bleak future where government systems are breaking down and lawless bands of men terrorize the country, botanist Natalie Hanson fears for her life and hides in a cave in the Rocky Mountains. When she is captured by human raiders, a fierce alien appears and slays her attackers. Natalie is now held captive in her own cave by the sexy and striking alien commander, Zacar, who informs her that she will be his breeder. Natalie soon realizes that these aliens worship strength. So what will happen when Zacar finds out she has severe asthma?


About the Author: Website / Facebook / Goodreads / Twitter

Buy Links:  Amazon / Barnes and Noble

Friday 1 April 2016

Real Life Paranormal with Kim Cleary


Guided Home?



When I'm looking for something new to read, I often seem to gravitate to stories with ghosts, or at least something supernatural, in them. This post could be subtitled "Do you really need a ghost in every story you write?"And the answer is, of course, the same one I give when asked if every good story needs a dragon ... possibly not. But aren't stories with ghosts and dragons often more fun!
Have you lain awake at night and felt someone or something watching you? Walked into an empty room and seen flickers of black spots at the corners of your eyes? Felt an unexplained coldness cut to your core? There could be a perfectly sane scientific explanation. In fact various friends give me scientific explanations constantly! But could you have experienced something we don't really understand? Could something supernatural be stretching out to reach you?
Do ghosts really exist?
I think they might.
My grandfather died when I was four years old. My parents thought me too young to go to his funeral and he was whisked away by adults who spoke in whispers and pushed me out of the bedroom in which he died. But I never forgot him, he taught me to read and cuddled me while I read haltingly from my Children's Bible almost every evening.
Shortly after I started proper school, I must have been six or seven years old, I fought with my mother and ran away from home. It wasn't a well-planned escape, I had no money and only the shorts and T-shirt I was wearing.

At dusk I became disoriented and realised I was lost. I pressed myself into a smelly doorway and slumped to my knees. How would I ever get home? And what would my mother do to me when I did?
It felt hopeless. I had no idea which way to walk. Adults sped by, several older ladies tutted at me, as if unaccompanied children had no place in the street under the setting sun. But as I sat in that doorway I heard my grandfather's voice calling me.

 I followed the sound to the end of the alleyway, then along the street and across the road. At the busy intersection I didn't know what to do, until an elderly man crossed the road and turned into another street. As he disappeared around the corner, he lifted his cap and turned to smile at me. I sped after my grandfather; of course he wasn't at the corner when I got there. But the road to my house was.
Had Grandpa come to help me get home? My mother didn't believe me, and boy was I in trouble for both running away and lying.
I remember her anger.
"How can you have seen him," she said.
I'll never forget her flushed face just inches from mine.
"I've never seen him. Not once. And God knows I've begged to hear from him." Tears welled in her eyes.
I didn't know what to do. It was a relief when I was sent to my room without any dinner.
At the time, I was so sure Grandpa had helped me. I don't know how I would have got home otherwise. I didn't realise until I was much older that my mom wasn't angry with me. She was desperately upset that she'd not seen her dad, and I thought I had.
I wish I'd been old enough to share the experience with her rather than flee from her distress.
How about you? Do you believe in ghosts?




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 You can find and follow Kim Cleary on these sites:






Kim Cleary is the award-winning author of Path Unchosen, the first title in the Daughter of Ravenswood series, which earned a bronze IPPY award in 2015. She grew up in Birmingham, United Kingdom, studied medieval history and psychology at Adelaide University in Southern Australia, and has worked all over Australia and in London.

Forced to leave a successful career in marketing after multiple sclerosis damaged her hands and prevented her from typing, Kim learned how to write using voice software.

A self-described chocoholic, Kim loves writing, gardening, cooking, playing with her dogs, and spending time with friends. She lives with her husband and two dogs, an adorable Cocker Spaniel and a mischievous Moodle, in Melbourne, Australia.
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