Barbara Truelove

• Back

Bio

Barbara Truelove is an Australian author and game designer.She graduated from Griffith University in 2015 with a Bachelor of Screen Media Production, spent most of the pandemic bouncing between various countries waiting to be allowed back into Australia, and currently lives in rural New South Wales with a motley collection of rocks.She started writing when she was nine years old and believes it's probably too late to break the habit now.Barbara Truelove is represented by Allegra Martschenko at Ladderbird Literary Agency.

• Back

Books + Games

Of Monsters and Mainframes

Demeter is a spaceship. Dracula is the vampire that ruined her reputation. It isn't in Demeter's programming to seek revenge, but for Dracula, she can make an exception.Of Monsters and Mainframes will be published in 2025 with Jaysen Headley at Ezeekat Press/Bindery Books.

• Learn More on Ezeekat Press

Blood Moon

Date Werewolves. Fight Vampires.Blood Moon is an epic 445,000 word interactive novel. Play as a werewolf as you defend your pack against vampires (and perhaps fall in love).Published April 2023.

• Available on Steam

• Available on the App Store

Thicker Than

The vampires bite back in this bloody sequel to Blood Moon.Play as a fledgling vampire, navigating the twisty and treacherous world of undead high society. Scheme, seduce, and sashay your way to the vampiric throne... or to an early grave.Thicker Than is the second half of The City of Monsters Duology and will be published with Hosted Games.Tentative release: Q1 2026.

short visual novels

A couple of short visual novels, currently free to download.Featuring: cannibalistic fairies, cannibalistic mermaids, and superpowered farm kids from space (who unfortunately aren't cannibalistic).

• Download all games free on itch.io

Other projects

Barbara Truelove's debut novel Crying Wolf is currently out of print.

• Statement on Crying Wolf

She's also currently working on a number of other stories, all at various stages of development.Stay tuned for updates on these, and other upcoming projects.

• Back

News

So... I'm going to NYC in June.

I booked the flights today, it's happening, and I couldn't be more terrified (don't worry, it's in a good way, but more on that in a sec). The details are still detailing, so I won't share any specifics, but the short version is I'm going to be in the city for the launch of my debut sci-fi book: Of Monsters and Mainframes.Which is an utterly insane thing to type let alone think about. Do you know how I spent the launch of Blood Moon? Hiding under my bed covers, pretending I didn't exist. And that was a book that a massive chunk of the audience had already read.Now I'm going to be at a party.Me. A party.As already stated, I'm terrified. I'm a painfully awkward and uncharismatic person in real life and I'm pretty sure my wealth of marine animal reproductive facts won't be as endearing in NYC as it is on tumblr (something else that happened today).But I am also excited. I have no idea what I'm doing, but I know when I'm doing it and I know where. June. New York City.

Posted: 23rd December, 2024

Of monsters and mainframes has a cover!

And it's beautiful.The journey to get to this cover was a wee bit scary. For a while, I really wasn't sure what this book was going to look like... but I couldn't have asked for a better result.The artist is Carl Cozier (@holymolyk on Instagram). It was that Instagram page that made me want to pick him as the artist we used on this project, so seriously check it out.I have been so ridiculously excited to share this for so long.I wrote Of Monsters and Mainframes back in 2022. It's about Demeter (a remarkably unlucky spaceship) and Dracula (needs no introduction). I had so much fun writing it and can't wait for more people to read it. It's very weird, very queer, and very much my vibe.

And it's beautiful.The journey to get to this cover was a wee bit scary. For a while, I really wasn't sure what this book was going to look like... but I couldn't have asked for a better result.The artist is Carl Cozier (@holymolyk on Instagram). It was that Instagram page that made me want to pick him as the artist we used on this project, so seriously check it out.I have been so ridiculously excited to share this for so long.I wrote Of Monsters and Mainframes back in 2022. It's about Demeter (a remarkably unlucky spaceship) and Dracula (needs no introduction). I had so much fun writing it and can't wait for more people to read it. It's very weird, very queer, and very much my vibe.

Posted: 20th September, 2024

A (somewhat delayed) announcement

Wait! Hold up! I forgot to post this here. My novel manuscript Of Monsters and Mainframes is going to be punished with Jaysen Headley at Bindery Books next year!

Posted: 26th April, 2024

Crying Wolf is out of print

My debut novel, Crying Wolf, is no longer available for purchase. I requested my publisher put it out of print and they kindly agreed.Crying Wolf is set in a fictional prison and stars twin brothers with South Asian and Middle Eastern heritage. There are strong themes of systematic oppression and injustice.Simply put, as a white author, this was not my story to tell.
My intention at the time was to write a book about siblings surviving a hostile environment (and the complicated family dynamics that can arise in those situations). I didn't think about how these themes could intersect with race. I wrote outside my lived experience, without a deep understanding of the issues being touched upon, or the harm that doing so could cause.This was ignorant. I should've known better, and I'm deeply sorry that I didn't.I'm grateful to my editor, publisher, and to the sensitivity readers for this book. I'm grateful to readers who purchased the book and to the people who have spoken to me about it since. This was my own decision, and I believe it was the best one. I hope you'll find that my newer projects reflect my continuing growth and thoughtfulness. Thank you for everything.-Barbara Truelove 💙

Posted: 30th October, 2024