Sunday, January 28, 2007

Jenny Crusie is a Goddess

Last night I read through the online writing workshop Jenny Crusie and Bob Mayer are doing on their blog - He Said, She Said. OMG. If you haven't dipped your toe over there yet go at once! It is amazing. I became really sucked into the protag/antag lesson and then followed the discussion over to Jenny's Cherryforums. It's absolutely NOT procrastination, I promise.

So I'm reading through and then I got one of those total BAM moments. Literally. It was just one little sentence but it really jiggled my brain. Jenny was talking about the antagonist, and this is the line I had to read three times... and then copy down. '... the antagonist is NOT the bad guy, he's a character who has his own goals and motivations.'

Bing! I know it's obvious to everyone else but in my head (which as the witches are well aware is a very scary place to be) the antagonist = villain. NO!! Oh wow. This is a personal revelation. I always have characters doing their best to screw things up for my heroine and hero, but I just hadn't realised that was my antag. Duh. It's amazing how one little sentence can clear the fog from the brain.

Friday, January 26, 2007

On the Hunt

Phew. It's hot. Knocking 40 degrees for the last couple of days and more of the same for the next week. Even when I sit right next to the air con, it's like I'm in an oven. Not very conducive to writing! haha. Oh well that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it (literally... eww ok too much info there)

Well it's That Time again. When I start looking for agents. I recently realised that when it comes to agent hunting, I am a bit of a wimp. I have a list of about 15-20 and that's about it - I then move on to my next project. I just heard of someone landing their agent after querying over 150 agents. Eek! After I picked my eyeballs up off the desk and adjusted my specs (and rearranged my brain which was having a fun time squelching inside my head) I decided this time I really have to be rather more proactive. So we'll see how I get on with that!

It's Australia Day today so it's barbeques all round. I'm off to light up the barbie and slap on the steak. Yum!

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Happy New Year Again!

Another year over. Welcome to 2007 and hope everyone has a happy, peaceful and successful year. Hmm yes I know it's a week late but you know what they say...

So what have I been doing? Quite a lot, but unfortunately not a lot on the writing front which is why I've been a bit quiet on the blog.

Hubby's neice had her baby last week which was lovely news. Of course officially that makes me a great aunt, but since when can a twenty nine year old be a great aunt... so we'll just forget about the generational thing I think! The baby looks adorable and it's times like these that we really miss not being closer to family.

I joined the RWNZ just before Christmas, but am just waiting for confirmation. Hope it didn't get lost in the post since this is the first step for me making it to the conference in August. It's going to be very special, not only will we be able to celebrate Amanda and Sara's debut books hitting the shelves but my birthday falls right in the middle of the conference weekend (oh and did I mention my dh is also accompanying me?!)

By the way what's with the new blogger thing? I thought I was on the new blogger but now apparently we are out of beta...