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The ninth free podcast episode of Silverbirch; A Tear in the Fabric of the Night Sky is now available for your listening pleasure from http://bit.ly/sb_ch09(.)  As well as featuring new music I wrote only last week, the last few minutes features a song I wrote with Jason & Dane Brown (from metal band Sunk Loto) two years ago when I was based on the Gold Coast.

As for future podcast versions of Silverbirch . . .  Chapter 09 will be the last update for at least 18 months for reasons that will soon become clear.  Rest-assured though, the remaining 14 episodes will commence being created and made available towards the end of 2011.  I had expected to have all 23 episodes created by now, but have found they take a lot longer to create than I could have ever imagined.  Chapters 01-09 are available now, for free, from http://bit.ly/sb_ch09 or http://bit.ly/itunes_sb(.)

I will be appearing at the Supanova Pop Culture Expo in Perth at the Claremont Showgrounds in June on Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th at the Borders Books official stand.  I’ll be signing copies of Silverbirch on both days, but will also be performing one live reading, so keep an eye on the website for the specific day and time.  That is, if you live in Perth, of course.

As for news about Robkaay Journals (Vol II); This is what it’s really like being in a band . . .  I have finished editing the book and it is slightly longer than the first, coming in at 472 pages.  The artwork and book cover has been completed by Ken Taylor and as far as I am concerned, it is ready to be released.  However, two separate team members behind Robkaay Publishing (my lawyer and distributor) have talked me out of releasing it in its current format, so at this point, I am leaving it in their hands.  Hopefully they get back to me later this year with a possible release date.  It’s frustrating from my side, but as I said, I have done everything I can with Volume II and am now moving on with other projects.  I’ll let you know once (if!) anything changes.

Although I’m not writing any heavy music at the moment (for the last two years I’ve written novels and soundtrack/mood music for Silverbirch) I still listen to heavy music every single day.  To quench my everlasting hunger for it, at least once a week I hunt for new bands or new releases from the usual suspects.  And this is what I’ve found so far…

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It’s hard enough finding the right idea for a book, let alone actually getting it written and put out into the world.  But that’s exactly what I did with Silverbirch, I created it, wrote it and it’s now available in every online bookstore across the world as a hardcover, paperback or e-book for your iphone, ipad or kindle, and now actual bookstores have decided to stock it too.  However, it didn’t happen overnight and I’ve just found that the best way to promote the existence of the book, is to still be all old-school – and get out there into the real world, into real bookstores and perform a live reading.
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G’day friends, followers and stalkers.  I have gently released Silverbirch on the interwebs for those of you who’ve been paying attention.  I have sat back and watched a few people stumble onto it, but over-all it’s been a humbling experience – you know, being a “writer“.  Especially after being a “musician“.  Often you’ll hear people say they’re writing a book and they’re going to release it.  For one, writing it is bloody hard.  It takes about two years (six months of writing, eighteen months of editing) and you’d better hope your idea is absolutely amazing, or the whole experience will be a waste of time, especially if people read it and think it’s shit.  And then, releasing the damn thing is a whole other experience.  Who’s going to read this thing you spent two years giving birth to?  How could it possibly be better than what all the other famous people have already written?  What could you possibly have to say to others to influence their daily life and thought process?  Besides your family and close friends, most people are lucky if they sell fifty copies.

Well.  I’m here to tell you I’ve done it!  I’ve made it!  I am now a professional writer.

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Chapter 6 from Silverbirch; A Tear in the Fabric of the Night Sky is now available for your listening pleasure.

[ Music from Ghosts I-IV by Nine Inch Nails. Ghosts I-IV is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license. ]

[ Words by Robkaay. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license. ]

[ Narration by Mem Kennedy ]

[ Also available for free from iTunes ]