Tanya Lisle

Creative on a health break

Category: General

  • Laurence & Chico Cafe

    Keeping on brand, I went to a high tea place that is very inspired by Alice in Wonderland with just that bit of Lovecraft. This place is actually right by the day job and I’ve been staring at it for ages, but I finally managed to get a bunch of other people to come with me to go check it out.

    This is an experience. I feel like that’s something to know going in. You’re going in so that you can have something cool to take photos and post to various social media afterwards. There’s an aesthetic to the place and the food that means you’re in part paying for the ability to take photos of cool looking stuff.

    But the food isn’t bad! At least, I didn’t find it that bad. It’s a strange mix of flavours and a lot of them are a lot stronger than I was expecting. I remember mostly the egg cracker, which was a black rice cracker, quail egg, caviar, and roe, mostly because roe has an aftertaste that I’m not a fan of. The other strange one of note was the chocolate tart with a smokey cream on top that tastes almost like bacon, which was very strange and a little unsettling for the vegetarian in the group.

    They can, on that note, change things to be vegetarian if you give them a little warning in advance! We did not, but they did try to accomodate us anyway as best they could.

    Overall, I really did enjoy the experience. ((I also ate everyone else’s food.)) It was fun to go to and there was a lot of really cool things to check out. Even the bathrooms are decorated in the aesthetic and it was a lot of fun.

  • VCon Reading of City Without Heroes

    Back in October, I did a reading of a chapter of City Without Heroes while I was at VCon. And now I’ve finally gotten around to cleaning up the audio and uploading it with all the stammering glory that comes from a first reading!

  • Newsletter Ninja Review

    In my quest to do some personal and professional development this year, I’ve started looking into things like how to do more to treat writing and publishing like a business, and one of those things I need to work on is getting my newsletter ((Which you should definitely subscribe to! You’ll get a free book out of it right now!)) in order. Enter Newsletter Ninja by Tammi Labrecque.

    So I struggle a lot with my newsletter, as do a lot of other author folks I know. I don’t always know how to handle it, how I should think about it, and what exactly you do with it in general. This book was great to answer some of those questions that I’ve had.

    The book focuses a lot more on the philosophy of the mailing list. How to think of your list and your subscribers, and then taking that mindset and using it as a means of communication. It also gives a lot of interesting ideas for how to implement the ideas as well.

    Interestingly, it also uses some of the concepts in UX design ((I work as a programmer and UX dev, by the way)) like creating a specific user that you can then talk to, which I found particularly helpful to understand and, while it still hasn’t told me what I should be putting in the newsletter directly, it does help to guide what sort of content will go in there in the future.

    And, you know. Other super secret things. That you should subscribe to see.

    If you want to pick it up, Newsletter Ninja is on Amazon!

  • Dead Air is out!

    Dead Air is out now! Be sure to get your copy at your preferred ebook retailer or Amazon if you want paperback !

    Somehow, Harrison wasn’t dead. He wasn’t so sure about Max.

    Despite surviving his encounter with the newly reborn Luke, Harrison doesn’t have time to even process the loss of his boyfriend. The Harrish and Barrister Corporation, now under the control of the mysterious Doctor Gethen, has decided they must be brought back for further testing — permanently.  

    At least locked inside the walls of H&B, Harrison is safe from a resurrected Luke now hijacking Max’s body. Since coming back, Luke’s developed a desire to see Harrison dead, but there’s something  holding Luke back from finishing the job. It might be in his head, but Harrison swears he can still see just a glimmer of Max behind those eyes.

  • White Noise Infographic

    So apparently infographics are a thing! I’m currently working out how I can use them, and one of the first things I made was an infographic for White Noise. Enjoy!

  • More White Noise Trading Cards – Keepers Editions

    Since folks seemed to like the past bunch, here’s a few more trading cards I made! These are for the Keepers, all the ones who were from the first round of testing and have now been brought back to work for H&B.

  • White Noise Trading cards!

    I recently got it in my head to do some trading cards for various characters in White Noise, mostly because I thought it would be fun. And so I spent more time than I should have designing a card, looking for stock photos, and creating one for every character that is in the series. Well, the ones who do plot things, anyway.

    Here’s the main five! Let me know what you think. I’m thinking about what sort of things I can do with them.

  • If you’re looking for some swag

    I opened an Etsy shop!

    I started making some interesting items that are inspired by the books. I’ve only just begun, really, but do check out what’s there right now and see if you can find anything you like. And if you have seen any book quotes that you need on an item or a cover that needs to be made into a notebook, do let me know! After November, I’m planning to make even more.

    Even though that will absolutely miss Christmas. I am very good at this. 

  • Canzine in a week!

    I may be going pretty quiet for the month of November, but I will be taking a small break from incessant writing to be at Canzine on November 5th! I’ll be bringing the short story that inspired City Without Heroes, along with some other fun things, so be sure to come check it out! 

  • Thornebrooke for NaNoWriMo!

    The winner of the poll was Thornebrooke! I’m already deep into plotting and, as you can see, have come up with a cover concept. Thank you to everyone who voted for the book! I may be quiet during the next month, but be sure to check out the social medias to see what I’m up to. 

    And in the meantime, check out the playlist I’m working on for the book. At least, to listen to while I’m writing it.