SHANE PINNEGAR – WRITER
NEWSLETTER – ISSUE 1, FEBRUARY 2019
Hello folks, thanks for subscribing to my brand new writing newsletter, and welcome to Issue #1, just scraping in at the tail end of February. Don’t worry – I haven’t forgotten that I promised FREE BACON!! Read on…
2019 is set to be an exciting year. After wanting to write from a very young age, I have finally managed to overcome my emotional blocks and finish my first novel. Not only that, but I have the first draft of my second one finished as well and ready to start the arduous slog of editing!
I’ll have a presale info for the first one VERY soon – it’s taking a little longer than expected to get my head around all the ins and outs (including coming up with a title I love), but it won’t be long at all. You will be the first to know – and there will be some cool perks available to go along with pre-orders.
A couple of things to note: it’s a fantasy novel, set in a world similar to ours, but different as well, and in a time of swords and unicorns and monsters and warriors. The hero is an almost-twelve year old girl who is attacked atop the mountain where her clan live, and she must learn great courage to protect their unicorn herd and her family.
The tweenage warrior-in-training will need to draw on her mother & father’s wisdom, and learn about confidence, leadership and how to use her new-found magical powers she doesn’t yet understand if she is to defeat their attackers. She is given strength in this adventure by the return of her ‘imaginary’ childhood friend Bando, and the special bond she shares with a unique unicorn named Baby. As she goes into battle she discovers that in sacrifice and selflessness there can be found great power.
It’s a positive and uplifting teen/young adult fantasy that is a fun and exciting read for adults as well, and it’s full of action, adventure and some special messages about finding oneself and finding courage, with a little help from those we care about.
A note for parents: there is violence in the book. There are a couple of battle scenes where monsters and a few humans and even a unicorn or two are hurt or killed – but it’s nothing you wouldn’t see in a superhero movie, I don’t think. I’d classify it PG – maybe a very soft M at a stretch, but these things are so subjective. Also, there’s no naughty words or naughty shenanigans, so rest easy on that front!
Novel #2 is completely different – but more about that in a later edition.
Anything you can do to spread the word would be such a huge help – the hardest thing in our digital age is being heard above the incessant clamour of a million shinier things with bigger marketing budgets! If you think someone you know might be interested in what I’m doing, please share my website or social pages with them, encourage them to sign up to the newsletter, or when the presale link comes around (VERY SOON!), buy a book for yourself or a grandkid or niece or nephew or friend. I’ll be your BFF, promise.
In other news, I’ve been writing about a stack of movies old and new recently over at 100% ROCK MAGAZINE – you can read reviews of these films at the link below:
Cold Pursuit, Glass, Aquaman, Swimming With Men, Ghost Stories, The Old Man & The Gun, American Animals, Bad Times At The El Royale, Green Book, Harmony and Robin Hood; and on recently released DVD/BluRay (mostly through the excellent Shock Entertainment in Australia) Bordello Of Blood, Who Is Lydia Loveless, Fun With Dick & Jane, The International, The Great Outdoors and Revenge Of The Creature.
There’s also a couple of Perth Fringe Festival show reviews in there as well, both highly recommended – Trash Test Dummies and Idris Stanton: Wham Glam Circus Man!
https://100percentrock.com/category/reviews/movie-reviews
I wrote a library of book reviews yesterday, and they’ll be published in the coming weeks. Older reviews you can read now include The Beastie Boys Book, Harry Potter- Diagon Alley, Adding The Blue by Chrissie Hynde, Iguana Boy Saves The World With A Triple Cheese Pizza, My First Frida Kahlo, Korean Food Made Easy and Thanks A Lot Mister Kibblewhite by Roger Daltrey of The Who. Loads more coming soon!
https://100percentrock.com/category/book-reviews
Everyone knows music is close to my heart, and there are recent reviews by me of The Beatles White Album mega-reissue, Dom Mariani & The Majestic Kelp – Hi Seas, Billy F Gibbons – The Big Bad Blues, Bob Spencer – Saints + Murderers, Steve Perry – Traces, Piledriver – Rockwall, Shorelines – Blank Pages & Broken Records EP, Paul McCartney’s Egypt Station, Scarlet Drive – Echoes Of Apprehension EP and Legs Electric Two Sides EP, The Jangle Band’s The Guy Who Used To Care single, Palace Of The King’s Get Right With Your Maker, and hundreds more dating back six-and-a-half years!
https://100percentrock.com/category/cd-reviews
I also wrote an Opinion piece responding to criticism seminal punk legends Hard-Ons have received after announcing a tour with rock legends Rose Tattoo. That was received very well and I was warmed to receive a private message from one of the band members thanking me for a well considered piece – https://100percentrock.com/news/opinion/201901/249367
AND a live review of the mighty Bryan Ferry with I’m Talking, The Models and Stephen Cummings (with superb photos from Damien Crocker) – https://100percentrock.com/live-reviews/201902/250272
Back at www.shanepinnegarwriter.com I have been writing a few blog posts, including a piece about eating chocolate wrong all these years, what I listen to when I’m writing, and how wrong one of my favourite childhood pastimes now seems. Check ‘em out if you have a few minutes to spare and please feel free to leave me a comment if anything resonates.
Phew – I’ve done more in the past six weeks than I thought!!
So that brings us up to date. Sorry to harp on (I am excited!) but next time you hear from me I’ll have presale details for my novel and shall be able to share the AWESOME cover art, which has been done by the amazingly talented Dave Howarth, an artist you should know about. Further down the track, I’ll be working on editing my second novel for release (hopefully) later this year, and I have more ideas than I know what (or have time) to do with for future projects, both fiction and non.
To finish this newsletter on a high note, I’d like to share the title of my novel (did I mention it was coming out soon? OKAY, okay, I’ll shut up now 😀 )
JADA: MOUNTAIN WARRIOR
Have an excellent week, be wonderful to each other, talk soon.
Love and good stuff,
Shane
PS – FREE BACON!!
