Yes it's official. I'm completely insane, as I put my hand up a while ago to join the 50ks in 30 Days challenge, along with many other equally insane ladies! haha, just kidding girls!!
Actually this is exactly what I need, since my writing has been sluggish (that's putting it kindly) just lately. I did intend to plough onwards with my paranormal, but in the middle of this week I had an epiphany (I blame it on the Romance Roadshow!!!) and went back to my Bloody Dead Body Book.
The good news there is I've broken the block and I think the body has resolved itself. Hooray. I hate letting a book beat me. I've also written about 5k new words on that one over the last couple of days so it looks like that's the book I'll be continuing with for the month of June.
Of course there's still two days to go before we press our noses to the grindstone, or the computer keyboard, so who knows which book I might be writing by then... probably a completely new one!
Friday, May 30, 2008
Sunday, May 25, 2008
RWA Romance Roadshow 2008
The RWA Romance Roadshow hit Perth yesterday, and what a fabulous day it was. The full day's programme was hosted by Trish Morey, award winning, best selling author of Harlequin Presents, Marion Lennox, double RITA winner and author of both Harlequin Romance and Mills & Boon Medicals, and award winning, multi-published Prez of the RWAus, Anne Gracie.
We were split into two streams for some of the workshops - First Date for those starting out, and Serious Seduction for those who had been writing for a while and were looking to move to the next level. Or as the programme put it - time to meet mother. Ha ha!
Trish gave great workshops on how to create sexual tension and ending your novel with a bang no, not that sort of a bang!! although thinking about it, why not?! We also had Writing the Synopsis with Anne which I nearly chickened out of since I truly hate the things.
There were also goodie bags stuffed with exciting pressies, and lots of giveaways throughout the day.
It was great to meet up with other writers in WA, and put faces to names I knew through meeting on-line. I not only remembered to take my camera but I also took pictures! Five in fact. Hooray!
I was so knackered when I got home last night I was in bed by nine. Pathetic! Twelve hours later my gorgeous husband brought us coffee and croissants in bed. Yummm!
But when we plugged the camera chip into the computer, disaster struck. For a few brief glorious seconds I saw the photos - and they were fab (I can say that because of what comes next...) There was one of me being a total fan girl with Trish and Anne, and of Marion signing her book for me. Another good one showed me with Nikki Benyon (we got the train up together). Then... everything vanished. And I mean everything. All the pictures on the chip disappeared, not just the ones from the Roadshow but all the ones from when my aunt was over earlier this month.
Now that's terrible enough (and I had many wobbly moments) BUT what was even worse - in a way I suppose - was my husband's business accounts on the computer hard drive also vanished. Oh. My. God.
So that's why this post is photo-less and I am Deeply Distressed by that fact!!! and my husband is quite distressed too but for different reasons!!
We were split into two streams for some of the workshops - First Date for those starting out, and Serious Seduction for those who had been writing for a while and were looking to move to the next level. Or as the programme put it - time to meet mother. Ha ha!
Trish gave great workshops on how to create sexual tension and ending your novel with a bang no, not that sort of a bang!! although thinking about it, why not?! We also had Writing the Synopsis with Anne which I nearly chickened out of since I truly hate the things.
There were also goodie bags stuffed with exciting pressies, and lots of giveaways throughout the day.
It was great to meet up with other writers in WA, and put faces to names I knew through meeting on-line. I not only remembered to take my camera but I also took pictures! Five in fact. Hooray!
I was so knackered when I got home last night I was in bed by nine. Pathetic! Twelve hours later my gorgeous husband brought us coffee and croissants in bed. Yummm!
But when we plugged the camera chip into the computer, disaster struck. For a few brief glorious seconds I saw the photos - and they were fab (I can say that because of what comes next...) There was one of me being a total fan girl with Trish and Anne, and of Marion signing her book for me. Another good one showed me with Nikki Benyon (we got the train up together). Then... everything vanished. And I mean everything. All the pictures on the chip disappeared, not just the ones from the Roadshow but all the ones from when my aunt was over earlier this month.
Now that's terrible enough (and I had many wobbly moments) BUT what was even worse - in a way I suppose - was my husband's business accounts on the computer hard drive also vanished. Oh. My. God.
So that's why this post is photo-less and I am Deeply Distressed by that fact!!! and my husband is quite distressed too but for different reasons!!
Monday, May 19, 2008
A Snark by Any Other Name?
I just came across a link over at Shelley's titled ... Query Shark.
I'd never seen this one before so went to have a look. And my question is - IS it or ISN'T it her?!
***Edited to Add***
I totally pinched this link from Barrie. It's a tribute to the one and only Miss Snark by Patricia Wood. Miss Snark pops up in the comment trail - what fun!
I'd never seen this one before so went to have a look. And my question is - IS it or ISN'T it her?!
***Edited to Add***
I totally pinched this link from Barrie. It's a tribute to the one and only Miss Snark by Patricia Wood. Miss Snark pops up in the comment trail - what fun!
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Contest
Somehow, and I'm not entirely sure how, the witches have persuaded me to enter a writing competition. This momentous decision was made this morning, and I spent the rest of the day fiddling about with the entry.
I'm not exaggerating here, I'm being literal. Whenever I was at the computer, I was either tweaking my pages or shooting off rabid little missives along the lines of... how do I get my header on the right hand side of the page instead of the left (I had many far stupider questions, believe me, but I'm just not brave enough to display my ignorance here!!!) Despite feeling bad about interrupting Amanda because she's neck deep in the most amazing revisions, I still bugged her (because I'm nice like that!)
Truth is, I don't do contests because the formatting rules give me palpitations. I can get quite paranoid and at one point poor Sara actually printed out one of my pages, got a ruler and measured how many cms my margins were. *cough*
So, given all this drama, was this a competition for a full manuscript? Um, no.
It's for the first five pages. But in my defence, those first five pages are now sooo much stronger than they were yesterday!!!
I'm not exaggerating here, I'm being literal. Whenever I was at the computer, I was either tweaking my pages or shooting off rabid little missives along the lines of... how do I get my header on the right hand side of the page instead of the left (I had many far stupider questions, believe me, but I'm just not brave enough to display my ignorance here!!!) Despite feeling bad about interrupting Amanda because she's neck deep in the most amazing revisions, I still bugged her (because I'm nice like that!)
Truth is, I don't do contests because the formatting rules give me palpitations. I can get quite paranoid and at one point poor Sara actually printed out one of my pages, got a ruler and measured how many cms my margins were. *cough*
So, given all this drama, was this a competition for a full manuscript? Um, no.
It's for the first five pages. But in my defence, those first five pages are now sooo much stronger than they were yesterday!!!
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Locked Out
We've had no phone or internet access since early Saturday morning and I have been going insane. A few hours is bad enough but more than three whole days? If that wasn't bad enough our mobile phones decided that although they were quite happy to connect to the UK, they couldn't send a simple text across the ditch to NZ.
So what did I do with all this unexpected free time on my hands (when I say free time, I mean of course the time I usually spend replying to emails and blog slutting around). Now, in my mind I knew I should have spent it on my wip. And I did. Sort of. A little bit. Okay, not very much and now I have a severe case of the guilts.
Still, I have been progressing with the wip as per the witches crits of last week and have to say I'm much happier with the way it's shaping up, so hopefully that will be winging its way back to them shortly! (Yes I'm nice like that, I do like to share!!)
So what did I do with all this unexpected free time on my hands (when I say free time, I mean of course the time I usually spend replying to emails and blog slutting around). Now, in my mind I knew I should have spent it on my wip. And I did. Sort of. A little bit. Okay, not very much and now I have a severe case of the guilts.
Still, I have been progressing with the wip as per the witches crits of last week and have to say I'm much happier with the way it's shaping up, so hopefully that will be winging its way back to them shortly! (Yes I'm nice like that, I do like to share!!)
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Why I Need my Amazing CPs!!
I finally got back to my wip today, and it's a fantastic feeling to be writing again. Much as I enjoyed last week, I was becoming a bit frazzled around the edges at the prolonged absence from the computer!
The wonderful witches read through the first 70 odd pages of my current paranormal and sent back their crits last week. I was kind of stunned by the feedback. We've been cps for several years, and I can honestly say that in all that time I've never had such similar comments, noted in the identical paragraps, from the three of them. It was uncanny, and that's putting it mildly!
Thankfully it wasn't the plot they had problems with so much as the pacing. Strangely enough, I'd stalled on this one just before I sent it off to them but I couldn't put my finger on why I was finding it so hard to push forward. Their comments activated major light bulb moments and reassured me that, far from showing way too much of what was going on too soon, in fact I hadn't shown nearly enough. *Ahem* make that shown so little, they weren't at all sure what was going on at all!!!
Not only that, but it's also helped me to dig far deeper into my hero's psyche to discover what's making him tick, and hopefully this is going to help strengthen the core conflict with his heroine.
When I sent this off for critting, I went back to another (linked) para romance, but the suggested revisions on ms #2 have reignited my original excitement over this story - which is always a good thing - and I can't wait to tackle all the points raised.
I know not every writer wants or needs cps, but I definitely do need mine, and thank god they aren't shy about telling me straight when things aren't working for them!
The wonderful witches read through the first 70 odd pages of my current paranormal and sent back their crits last week. I was kind of stunned by the feedback. We've been cps for several years, and I can honestly say that in all that time I've never had such similar comments, noted in the identical paragraps, from the three of them. It was uncanny, and that's putting it mildly!
Thankfully it wasn't the plot they had problems with so much as the pacing. Strangely enough, I'd stalled on this one just before I sent it off to them but I couldn't put my finger on why I was finding it so hard to push forward. Their comments activated major light bulb moments and reassured me that, far from showing way too much of what was going on too soon, in fact I hadn't shown nearly enough. *Ahem* make that shown so little, they weren't at all sure what was going on at all!!!
Not only that, but it's also helped me to dig far deeper into my hero's psyche to discover what's making him tick, and hopefully this is going to help strengthen the core conflict with his heroine.
When I sent this off for critting, I went back to another (linked) para romance, but the suggested revisions on ms #2 have reignited my original excitement over this story - which is always a good thing - and I can't wait to tackle all the points raised.
I know not every writer wants or needs cps, but I definitely do need mine, and thank god they aren't shy about telling me straight when things aren't working for them!
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