Challenge & Website Update

After the excitement of the last week, I got a bit behind in my 50k challenge. On Thursday I decided to put aside the novel I'd been working on, and started a new paranormal erotic romance (thank you, Meat Loaf!!!) Yes, I'd once again been listening to Bat Out of Hell while burning the dinner. It's coming along nicely although I haven't quite worked out how the hero and heroine will end up together. Unless I kill them off. Now there's a thought!

My husband has always been very supportive of my writing, but on Saturday his support took on a whole new level. Before leaving for work he told our son he was not to watch tv in the theatre room today because Mum was working (my desk is in the corner of that room). It was a little thing, and yet huge. Just to be on the safe side I barricaded myself into my corner by angling the sofa so no one (iow my son) could creep up behind me and lurk over my shoulder. I still haven't quite recovered from the time he was in Year 3 and told his teacher and the entire class that his mum spent all day on the computer writing sex.

I've also updated my website. Yet again! The lovely Rach suggested I post my sale story, so that's up there now under Articles.

Thank You!!

Thank you to everyone who sent congratulations and good wishes on my blog and privately on my sale to The Wild Rose Press! I've been getting quite tearful over the last couple of days!

.

And I got all tearful again today, when the lovely witches sent me these beautiful flowers. Aren't they gorgeous? As if that wasn't enough they even specifically asked for irises (the irises are all in bud at the moment so I'm looking forward to them blooming tomorrow!

.

Because my editor uses track changes, and I've never got around to using them (and you can bet I now regret laughing at Sara four years ago when she tried to educate me in that direction!!) I've been taking a crash course. The online tutorial was in double dutch, but thankfully the ever patient Sara and Shelley (who both deserve medals of endurance) have come to my rescue. It's actually quite a cool function once I got past the freak factor!
.

My eldest daughter told her friends I had sold, and apparently they are in mild shock that Mrs Phillips *could* write such things. *cough* My brother, bless him, asked if it was autobiographical.
.

He was joking. I think.

SOLD!!!

MySpace Glitters

Yes, it's finally happened!!! Today I sold a paranormal erotic romance to The Wild Rose Press and I am so excited I can hardly sit still!

The email arrived this morning (on a Sunday!!) and after I recovered from a mild panic attack I bravely opened it up. To a contract!!! And to My Editor (omg I can hardly believe I have an editor!) saying lovely things about my story!!! She called it 'an interesting blend of smoky eroticism and a dramatic look into the dark world of vampires and witchcraft.' Squeeee!!!!!

Thankfully I managed to flush out the witches so we could all squeee together because it's much more fun that way!!

So now I'm waiting for edits! OMG!

Update

The first week of the challenge is going well and I've managed to clock up over 15,000 words. This puts me ahead of myself which is just as well as I never seem to get much writing done on Sundays.

Did you notice I was very clever and put the 50k in 30 days widget on my blog! Thanks to Sandie who created it (I have no idea how these things work, I just copy the coding!!)

And We're Off

Usually I don't manage to write a word on Sundays, seeing as it tends to be the only day my husband has off and I always do a full Sunday roast no matter what the weather. But yesterday I was very good and did 2410 words. I think they might even be quite passable words too!

We have word meters up on the Challenge blog and it does look good to see them slowly move upwards. Today, I fully intended to try for another thousand, despite the huge turkey I had to prepare for dinner, but things didn't quite go to plan.

My son had his friend round, and while I can just about tune out the sound of the tv in the background, combined with two thirteen year old boys laughing and carrying on about two feet behind my chair was pushing my powers of concentration too far. I got 771 words down and gave it up as a lost cause.

But I'm still pretty happy with the total so far so, and am even happier with the fact I had two fulls requested from two different publishers on Saturday!

50ks in 30 Days June Challenge

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!

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!!

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!

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!!!

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!!)

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!

Conferences

Well, I posted off my form for the RWA Roadshow which is coming to Perth next month, so am pretty excited about that. The other thing I'm pretty excited about is the strong possibility I'm going to the RWNZ conference in August! My husband truly is a saint.

So, only another four months until I get together again with Amanda and Sara and we can get happily plastered *ahem* I mean do plenty of brainstorming. It will also be great to see all the other ladies I briefly met last year. Hopefully this year I won't be so brain dead and will actually remember to take lots of photos of everyone!

Procrastination yet again... it's becoming a habit

The only problem with taking a hiatus from writing is... well, it can be kind of hard to get back into the swing of it again. Take today for example. I was all fired up to get out really early, take daughter #2 to catch the 7.30 train (ok so that's not really early, but close enough!!) go to the gym, get the shopping and be home before 9.30 to squeeze in a couple of hours writing before taking my son round to his friend's.

So what did I do?

Everything but the writing. Sigh.

Yesterday, just to refresh my mind, I read the last chapter and actually really enjoyed it. Unfortunately it didn't make me want to carry on writing it, just carry on reading it. But until I've put words on document that just isnt going to happen. Partly my reluctance to continue (apart from the fact I'm just a completely lazy moo, of course!) is wondering whether Nocturne will be even the slightest bit interested in my Bite. My wip is located in the same world, and the hero in this one was a minor character in that one.

I've decided that if Nocturne pass, I'm going to revamp the Bite into a full length novel and submit to agents, because despite evidence to the contrary (!!) I am very much in love with all these characters and the various strange plot ideas churning around my mind. All I have to do is work out in which order these events happen, and how on earth my hero and heroine are going to manage their HEA, considering the fate I have in mind for them at the moment...

Not that I'm Obsessed by Coffee... but...

We saw my auntie off to Brisbane this morning, where she's visiting other rellies for a few days before returning to WA, staying with my brother up in Perth before coming back to us for another week. I have to keep reminding myself she's eighty, because she sure doesn't act like it!!

In other news, my husband has finally given in to his baser urges and this afternoon turned up with... ta da... a coffee maker!! As I write he's out in the kitchen playing about with his new toy. I keep hearing it give loud splurting noises so I'm assuming all is well. The only problem is, it looks very high tech and shiny and I'm not at all convinced I'll be able to make the damn thing work. It took us almost five minutes just to find the ON button!

In writerly news, I'm thinking of going to the RWAus Romance Roadshow, a one day mini conference which is coming to Perth next month. It sounds huge fun and will be good to meet other writers in the state!

And happy Birthday Amanda, aka Baby Witch!!!!

Still Kicking

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth (not quite anyway) but it feels like it as I haven't been able to get online nearly as much as I should for my health! My lovely auntie is visiting from the UK today, so of course I had to make the house presentable. The only trouble is once you start down that dangerous road, it's never ending!!

Anyway, finally got it up to scratch after enlisting the assitance of two of the offspring and one darling husband. It's been six years since she's been over, so we're all looking forward to seeing her - but it does mean I won't be able to hop on the computer much over the next few days to check out what everyone's been up to. Friday afternoon and I'll definitely be there!!

(did I mention the writing... um, no I didn't... well, the good news is I think I've finally cracked the sluggy block I had. The not so good news is I have to wait nearly a week before I can get back to it!!)

Coffee Lovers Alert

Was I a happy bunny when I read this report on the BBC News website. Apparently, research suggests that a cup of coffee a day protects the vital blood brain barrier against attack by cholesterol. High levels of cholesterol, in case you wanted to know, can make this barrier leaky. But I'm not going there... where I'm going is here. Coffee is good for you!!!

So now whenever I buy a takeaway latte I can forego my pangs of guilt and greed, and instead drink it with pride, in public, because it's not just making me wobbly around the middle it's protecting my brain!!!

Guest Blogging Today!

I'm guest blogging today over at the fabulous Shelley Munro's blog, on the subject of Adventures of an Aspiring Romance Writer! If you have a moment I would love for you to pop over and say hi! Shelley is generously giving away a download of her first Middlemarch Mates books, Scarlet Woman, to one lucky commenter. Hope to see you there!

Luna anyone?

I hope everyone had a happy Easter and didn't scoff too many eggs!! I'm feeling very out of sorts with this early Easter, as the kids were off for the long weekend, are now back at school, and then will be off again for a fortnight in a couple of weeks time.

Anyway.

So I'm still slogging away on my full length Nocturne. My head is fit to explode with all the different threads I have, but last night a terrible thought occurred to me. Am I writing a Luna instead of a Nocturne??? And if I am, what should I do about it???

All I can do is carry on and see where this all leads me. Much as I love this story I'm finding it very hard getting the words down on the page/screen. A lot of it is because I'm still waiting to hear on the Bite, but I can't put too much blame on the waiting since I've spent the vast majority of my writing life waiting on responses, and that's never stopped me before!

Go Suzy!!!

Fellow Witch, Sara Hantz, has just found out her debut YA novel, The Second Virginity of Suzy Green, has made the New York Public Library list. To quote the NYPL, "This list, now in its 79th year of publication, selects the best of the previous year’s publishing for teenagers, ages 12 to 18. All the titles chosen have been read and reviewed by young adult librarians and recommended for this special publication.”

Hooray! Huge congrats Sara!

Just Because...

I read this report on the BBC News website last night and it gave me the warm and fuzzies, so I thought I'd share.

A dolphin has come to the rescue of two whales which had become stranded on a beach in New Zealand.

Conservation officer Malcolm Smith told the BBC that he and a group of other people had tried in vain for an hour and a half to get the whales to sea.

The pygmy sperm whales had repeatedly beached, and both they and the humans were tired and set to give up, he said.

But then the dolphin appeared, communicated with the whales, and led them to safety.

I thought that was just lovely. The full report can be found here.