Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Quickies Writ in Blood

Hooray! Today I finished my Quickie and sent it off to the witches for their verdict. I'm not sure I've ever sweated so much blood over my writing in proportion to the final wordcount!

I'm especially happy since I'd given myself a deadline of Friday to have this one finished. But somehow once I got started today the words flowed, and that was another happy bunny moment since it's the first time that's happened with this ms.

Oh, and if you haven't been reading it already, hop on over to the eHarlequin site, where the lovely Robbie Grady has her Silhouette Desire online read up. Unfortunately it's a weekly, not a daily, which is soooo annoying when I wanna know what happens next!!

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Moving Tales

Mid week, my eldest daughter decided she was returning home after 7 months away. Hooray! The only down side is it means hubby and I lose our office. Sniffle.

So it's been a mad shuffle to clear out the office/bedroom and relocate all our officy-things back into the family room. It should be pretty straightforward I suppose, but nothing is straightforward in this house! It's like the furniture multiples and nothing fits, and turns into a massive manouvre of jiggling everything around. Like a huge jigsaw with far too many pieces.

I thought I'd take the opporutnity to sort through my paperwork. Well. Gulp. I admit I'm a bit of a hoarder but I discovered RWAus magazines dating back to October 2003!! And even though there are heaps of great articles in all the issues, (a) I would never remember off hand what they were to look for them, and (b) if I did try and look for them, I'd spend forever locating which issue said article was in... so. Out they went. I felt quite dizzy after that endeavour!

Oh yeah - then right in the middle of shifting stuff, my hubby announces he is going to redecorate the front room. Nooooooooo... but yes and not only that he also decided to get new internal doors while he was at it.

I haven't done any writing for the last two days. Sigh.

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Tagged continued (see below!!!)

Okay, because whenever I post pics my blogger goes all wonky and I never know where my actual writing bits will end up, I'm editing my previous post here!

So, all I want to say is, here is my Meme that Shelley tagged me with last week! And I've sort of cheated, as all the places of interest aren't in my home town, but they are in my state so I hope that counts!!

Tagged!!



Best Place to Eat


Well okay I admit it. We don't eat out much, so i really have no idea what the local eateries are like!! My fave place for breakfast (and takeaway latte at ANY time of day) is Dome by the foreshore, but for our daughter's 21st we went to the Hog's Breath Cafe and the food was yummy. Since we're home alone tonight we're going out for dinner there! No cooking! Hooray!!



Best Shopping Mall







Fremantle is one of the best preserved 19th century port cities in the world, with narrow side roads and cobbled pavements, town square and markets. There are continental delicatessens, bakeries, butchers, bookshops and boutiques, plus all the large department stores and pubs! So, not a mall, but I do love visiitng Freo because it reminds me of shopping in England!!









Famous Landmark The Swan Bell Tower







The Swan Bell Tower was built between 1999 and 2001, to celebrate the Millennium. I think it looks kind of odd myself, but I guess that's because I prefer more traditional looking bell towers!! However, the bells do have a very romantic history.







Found Only In...







One of the few places in the world where thrombolites (living rocks) can be found is at Lake Clifton in Western Australia's Yalgorup National Park. The thrombolites, which are built by micro-organisms, reach heights of up to 1.3m. they are among the only known form of life on Earth some 350 to 650 million years ago, and it's believed they were responsible for oxygen production which allowed life to exist on the planet. Pretty fascinating really! More info can be found here




Popular Outdoor Activity



Australia is renowned for its outdoor lifestyle, and is a very sports orienated nation. Unfortunately, I'm not at all sporty minded!!! However, we live just three minutes walk from a truly gorgeous beach and I'm quite happy to watch more adventrous souls enjoying the many varied water sports on offer, while I get very daring and paddle my toes in the shallows!








Best Tourist Attraction


Wave Rock, in Hyden WA, is an amazing 14m high and 110m long and is believed to have formed over 2700 million years ago through a gradual process of erosion of the softer rock beneath the upper edge. The colours of the Wave are caused by the rain washing chemical deposits down the face. I also think this is a breathtaking view!!!

Place for Kids

Got to be Perth Zoo. We took our kids there lots of time when they were little and it's a great day out.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Blogger Hates Me

For some reason blogger didn't let me comment on anyone's blogs yesterday. Instead it keep giving me a code to send to blogger to let them know what the problem was.

Um, yeah. That's a great idea in theory, but only when you can actually find their addy. Every time I waded through the Help section and thought I'd finally got somewhere, it would redirect me to yet another Q&A. Frustrating? Yes I think so. And annoying, because why give me a code if I can't even use it?!

Monday, November 12, 2007

What Type of Writer Are You?

I found this quiz on Shelley's blog, and as I'm always up for a bit of procrastination, I gave it a whirl. Yay! I love the answer I got!

This minor procrastination aside, I have been very good today on the writing front (despite the temperature hitting 32, with threats of rising to 39 degrees tomorrow...feels like the inside of an oven). But, back to the writing - I'm trying something new for me. Something I always said I would never do (which means of course it was only a matter of time before I succumbed!!) I'm not sure whether or not I can pull it off, but I'll see how I go this week. It's a story that haunted me for something like five years - but it was never novel length, just this one very vivid, starkly beautiful scene. I ended up writing it about three years ago and there it's been on my hard drive ever since.

So, I'm giving it a revamp. So to speak!



You Should Be a Film Writer

You don't just create compelling stories, you see them as clearly as a movie in your mind.
You have a knack for details and dialogue. You can really make a character come to life.
Chances are, you enjoy creating all types of stories. The joy is in the storytelling.
And nothing would please you more than millions of people seeing your story on the big screen!

Friday, November 09, 2007

The Waiting Game

I don't know what's going on, but my internet's been down again. Talk about feeling isolated! Things got so bad this afternoon I actually tidied up my office, just so I could keep one eye on the computer on the off chance it went back online. So, after two and a half months, I finally picked up my huge pile of conference books from the floor next to my desk and found room for them on the bookcase!

That's not all I managed either. My wonderful cps have been telling me for ages to get my butt in gear and submit to Nocturne. For one reason or another I've never quite got around to it, but having nothing better to do yesterday afternoon (ie. blog hopping and surfing...) I decided to give the partial one last polish.

So now I've printed out my para partial and synopsis and that'll be on it's way to New York some time next week. I'd forgotten how much I love that story!

In other news or rather non-news from Harlequin, it's now been over three months that another partial's been with Superromance.

Don'tcha just love this waiting game?

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Spring is Sprung

We've now had about four days of sunny weather! Hooray! It looks like spring's arrived at last. And about time too because I really don't like winter. The rain and grey skies are sooo depressing. Of course when we first moved to Australia everyone thought it hilarious I felt the cold so acutely. After all, I came from England, I should be used to freezing my bits off!

Although I still find it very odd to celebrate Christmas in the middle of summer. In my mind, the summer months are July/August (ok, so July and August in the UK can quite often be absolutely dire but that's not my point!!) Right now the cherries are out (yummm) the birds are nesting - and the Christmas decs are up in the shops. ARGH!!

Friday, November 02, 2007

Incommunicado

Whoops! I can't believe it's been over a week since I last blogged. I could've sworn I did that dancing girlie just a couple of days ago.

Anyway, yesterday was a non-starter as my internet went down and don't you just HATE that when you can't send or receive emails and every page you try is unobtainable. Drives me nuts. As for the rest of the week, my youngest's been sick with his third bout of tonsilitis in three months (the doctor is making noises about whipping his tonsils out - ugh).

It's also occurred to me I've spent more time in the car than anywhere else over the last few weeks running about after my girls, and to be honest my brain is starting to fry. Consequently, the writing has completely gone down the gurgler but once I've posted off the Christmas pressies to the rellies in the UK (YES! I have bought them, and wrapped them, and written the cards... does that make me anal) I'm going to whip this bloody story into shape if it kills me!