Finito

At the end of last week I finally typed The End on Crazy. What a relief that was. I had nightmares of the final chapter hanging on until Christmas which would've made me right cranky. The lovely witches read through the whole thing over the weekend and can I just say a huge thank you girls! Especially re suggestions to bring the internal conflict forward. So that's something for me to tackle once the turkey's been scoffed.

Other news - I sent off my fee to join the RWNZ today, which is the first step towards me attending the New Zealand conference next year. I'm so excited!

Also thinking of resurrecting my shelved YA. The one that started off as a YA idea, but by the time fingers touched keyboard morphed into a paranormal romance. But I think it might work better overall as a YA romance. Hmm. We'll see!

Top Five Christmas Songs

I've been tagged by the fragrant Sara so here we go

Top five Christmas songs

Last Christmas by George Michael or was it Wham. I have a feeling it was Wham. Wow, does that one take me back. I loved the snowy video to this song as well.

Merry Christmas Everybody by Slade. Well just because it's sooo loud and happy!

Do They Know It's Christmas. Because it made me think.

Hark the Herald Angels Sing. I adore this carol. I can't sing to save my life, and my rendition of this sends brave men into hiding, but I don't care. It's just a gorgeous song.

Happy New Year by Abba. Okay no comments because I chose an Abba song!! And it might not strictly qualify as a Christmas song but New Year is close enough. And the words always send shivers along my arms. I can NOT believe this was in the charts way back in 79. It's totally not possible.

Prescription for Happiness

Received a couple of early Chrissy pressies today, when fellow witch Pat's most delicious Christmas cake arrived. Hooray! I brought it into the house, and my son sort of leapt on it. I kid you not. He said, 'Is this the cake we had last year?' and without waiting for a reply began to rip it open. 'I can smell it already!' he yelled (the alcohol, he meant... not that I'm raising a lush or anything...) and mmmm my stomach is rumbling as I type since I'm dying to dig in with a good dollop of cream!

Enclosed in the parcel was a copy of the People's Friend Story Collection, Prescription for Happiness by Patricia Posner, aka Our Pat! I'm hopping mad my digital camera isn't working, since I want to take a pic of the gorgeous cover and upload it here. But it's lovely, with the most adorable little girl on the front which is a good thing, since I'd always imagined little Pippa to be that cute!

So... Huge Congrats to Pat!

Hot or Not

I stumbled across the Cover Cafe Contest earlier, and spent way too long looking through all the categories. There are some truly gorgeous covers about, and then there are - um - well, to put it kindly, not so hot ones. Here's the link if you fancy a bit of a procrastination!

Halo Cover Analysis

The lovely Kate Allan has a very informative blog, Marketing for Authors. She's currently analysing the marketability, aka the BUY ME! factor of book covers, and yesterday cast her eye over Amanda's You Had Me at Halo. It's a fascinating read, and impressive just how accurately Kate assessed Amanda's book from the cover (which, let's face it, totally rocks!)

Proud Mama Moment

It was my son's Year 7 Graduation Ceremony this morning, so the girls and I got there nice and early so we could get a good seat in the front row. I told them I might shed a tear or two, which didn't go down too well but hey this is my baby we're talking about. It doesn't seem possible he's been at this school for eight years, and on Friday will be leaving for good. Where's that adorable little four year old with the cherubic face and golden curls?

So then onto the prize giving, and to my delight he won a Citizenship Award and the Guiness Book of World Records. Darling daughter #2 whooped - which was a bit embarrassing since nobody else whooped at any time during the ceremony! - but annoyingly the digital camera chose that very moment to expire. Grrr!!!

20 Christmas Things You Never Wanted to Know

Sara tagged me, so here goes!

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Never tried egg nog, sounds foul!
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? OMG definitely wrapped. With shiny ribbons and curly bows...
3. Coloured lights on tree/house or white? Used to be coloured, but a few years ago I tried to get co-ordinated, so now they are white candles
4. Do you hang mistletoe? No
5. When do you put your decorations up? First weekend in December. ARGH. That means this weekend...!
6. What is your favourite holiday dish? Roast turkey. Roast potatoes. Cranberry sauce. Try cooking that lot in 40 degree heat
7. Favourite holiday memory as a child? My brother and I opening our Christmas pressies early in the morning sitting on our parents bed (they were still half asleep at the time...)
8. When did you learn the truth about Santa? I'm still looking - cause the truth is out there...
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? No
10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? The kids do it now
11. Snow! Love it or dread it? Love it when I'm inside looking through a window. Dread driving in it. okay so I just totally pinched Sara's line for this!!!
12. Can you ice skate? No
13. Do you remember your favourite gift? Hard to choose just one. So I'm not going to. Ha!
14. What's the most important thing about the holidays for you? Family getting together
15. What is your favourite holiday dessert? Pat's Christmas cake... with cream! Chocolate liqurers, dainty little shortbreadish biscuits with cream...I like cream...
16. What is your favourite holiday tradition? Um, stuffing ourselves with Christmas turkey?
17. What tops your tree? Angel.
18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? Giving.
19. What is your favourite Christmas song? Last Christmas
20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum? Nah, they make my teeth scream

Gift of the Goddess

Phew, feast your eyes on this pretty boy, girls!

Being what you might call a bit of a virgin when it comes to erotica, I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I bought Denise Rossetti's Gift of the Goddess (well okay, I'd read plenty of excerpts on Ellora's Cave, but I'd never read an entire novel before!)

Oh. My. Goddess. This book is hot hot hot! Once I started reading I couldn't put it down or - since I have it as an e-book - couldn't tear my eyes from the screen. It wasn't just that the sex was scorching (it was!) or that I learnt a couple of things along the way (umm... I did...!!) there was also a cracking plot, fabulous fantasy world and wonderful love story. My personal fave hero (there are two and I'm going to leave that to your imagination...) was Mr Gorgeous, pic above, and I'm not surprised Denise loves her cover because it totally rocks!

Updates

Nothing much to report in my writing life, since I seem to have spent the last couple of weeks racing around like a headless chicken doing all sorts of non-writerly related stuff. At least I've managed to post off a couple of Christmas parcels to the rellies in the UK which is majorly amazing as usually I'm still panicking about doing that come15th December.

as for my ModX. Amanda once said her wip is the story that wouldn't die. Well all I can say about my wip is it's the story That Will Not End. After chopping out 21k, the word count is slowly creeping up again, and I'm currently at almost 62k with still three chapters to go (or thereabouts). On the plus side I still love this story which is surprising considering it's the third total rewrite I've given it!

Oops I did it again

Haven't blogged for ages again, I mean, so thought I'd better check in just to prove I'm still alive. heh.

Sooo what's been happening... lots of family stuff and children's birthdays, not so great news from rellies in the UK which is upsetting, and trying to get organised so Christmas doesn't rush up on me when I'm all unprepared, which is my normal MO!

Writing wise I am still wading through the last 40 odd pages of my Mod X. On the good side though I did manage to cut 21,000 words from the original - so now I'm 2k under the line's word count.

Two more fabulous agents requested partials of Kill Lil last week so I'm in a constant state of nervous excitement. More nerves than excitement if I'm honest but who wants tmi?!

Tagged & Tickled

Thank you Amanda for tagging me! And here we go...

To help other writers by providing access to a repository of information, all drawn from personal experience, I am to list five things not commonly known about me. If my personal experiences prove interesting to writers out there, published or unpublished, they are free to contact me to draw from my vast wisdom.

1. I was 8 months pregnant and at the christening of my dh's neice. I consumed 5 helpings of trifle (what can I say, it was delicious?) Towards the end of the afternoon I started to feel a bit... full. The indigestion got worse, we went home. Did I need to go to the hospital, concerned dh wanted to know. Nah, I assured him, I was fine and besides it was World Cup year and he wanted to watch the match. Went to bed. Settled down. I decided I needed to go to the hospital. hehe. Ended up losing all that lovely trifle (over the doctor. he was not impressed) and having an emergency C section. Aah sweet memories!

2. I've had 23 inches of intestine removed which is why I have to graze constantly on such goodness as chocolate, latte and pastries (er, well because stuff goes through me more quickly, see, and leaves me all empty and hungry?)

3. When I woke up after having my gall bladder removed, my dh was at my bedside. He gazed lovingly into my eyes and said, 'Guess what?' I began to sniffle with emotion, sure he was about to tell me how dearly he adored me. He raised his hand and showed me a plastic tube. 'The surgeon gave me your gall stones to take home!'

4. When I was a child I went to watch Crackerjack and got to go up on stage at the end of the show and meet the stars. All I remember is being told 'DON'T CROWD MICHAEL ASPEL!' I was so traumatised I completely ignored him after that!

5. It doesn't matter how many times I watch it, every time I see that clip of the baby elephant peeing and poo-ing all over the Blue Peter studio, I end up weeping with laughter. In fact I'm sniggering now as I type!

A note from Sharon, the creator of People Collection posts: "PLEASE LEAVE THE FOLLOWING IN ALL ‘PEOPLE COLLECTION’ POSTS:Remember that it isn’t always the sensational stuff that writers are looking for, it can just as easily be something that you take for granted like having raised twins or knowing how to grow beetroot. Mind you, if you know how to fly a helicopter or have worked as a film extra, do feel free to let the rest of us know about it :-)"

I tag Monica and Nell!

Sara has also tagged me, so will be back soon with more marvellous... er.... moments!

Two Weeks Notice

MySpace admin sent me a warning the other day which totally cracked me up. They'd discovered I hadn't put my right age on the profile (so who's to say I'm not really 100 years old then?!)

Anyway, I got slapped wrists for pretending to be older than I am and got two weeks to put it right. yeah okay! I got the impression they thought I was under 18 ( and I understand the reasoning, protecting under age users etc...) however how on earth can they really police it?

But it reminded me of the time when I was 16 and pretended to be two years older in order to get into see an X-rated movie. Ha. Catch me doing that now! That led on to me remembering the numerous Friday lunchtimes when my friend and I used to get happily plastered in local wine bars (I think I might have just given away how ancient I am!) before staggering back to work. And we were NEVER asked to show any ID before being served. At least, not until we went out celebrating my friend's 18th birthday when, for the first time ever, we were actually legal - and had to prove it. My friend was livid!

Things to Do

Omg. how totally cute is this cover? Look at that adorable little face!

I've been looking forward to reading the lovely Nell Dixon's Things to Do for ages. There's romance, suspense and laugh out loud moments as the heroine, Emma, gets herself deeper into trouble at every turn. I'm loving it!

As an aside, when Miss Snark ran her Crapometer for synopses a while back, this is one of the few that cracked her up!!

Off the Planet

As if I didn't already know, I've now been stripped of any delusion that I harbour a shred of techno-savvy. For the last few days (feels likes months!) I've been building a website on FrontPage. Hmm. After about an hour of trying to open FrontPage, I emailed Amanda to ask her how.

She told me.

Yay! I opened the page and subsequently had to email the poor girl every half hour to ask her what to do next! A.R.G.H. During the last week Amanda's held my cyber hand and poured gin laden tea down my throat to calm my frazzled nerves. I bet she wished she'd never encouraged me to do the bloody thing now!

Because I have no wish to embarrass myself further, I'm going to cut a Very Long Story Short (will just add that building the site on FrontPage faded into rose tinted nostalgia when I tried to figure out the mysteries of Freeparking, Godaddy and transferring my pages into the folder! NIGHMARE CITY is all I can say!) and am desperately relieved to announce my new webpage is now up and working!

Claiming the Courtesan

Wow. I just had to share Anna Campbell's cover for her debut novel coming from Avon in April 07, Claiming the Courtesan. Is this dark and sexy or what? I think the Cover Goddess is excelling herself just lately!

Phew

A couple of days ago I thought it would be a good idea to convert my blog over to the beta version. Umm, hello! Good idea not!

Okay I exaggerate. But my blog was in transit for two whole days! Two days when I couldn't log on and seriously thought it had got lost in the mysteries of cyberspace.

Thankfully, it finally arrived. And I have to say the people at Blogger are very nice and helpful, and whether it was coincidence or not within a few minutes of my third email to them this morning (Oz time) they had replied, said they'd looked into my account and the confirmation email was on it's way. In fact it arrived at exactly the same time.

So, I had a little play with the new features but haven't really worked them all out yet as I haven't a clue why some of the links and headings are odd colours. But to be honest I'm just so relieved I have my little blog back I'm not too worried about all the details!

OMG Halo Has a Cover!

Look at this fabulous cover! OMG it's absolutely perfect! I was so excited by Amanda's news I dragged my youngest daughter over to upload the pic for me!

Can't wait for August 2007 when You Had Me At Halo finally hits the shelves! Hooray!

Tweaking

The lovely witches are reading through Kill Lil again which is no small thing considering it's a hefty 402 pages in TNR. Eek! I've been through the whole ms once over the weekend, tweaking as per suggestions from Sara and I'm hoping to have this baby out the door on Wednesday.

Fingers crossed!

Good News Friday

Hooray. I'm so excited. A top NY agent just emailed and asked to see the full of Kill Lil. That's after having read the partial, so I'm stoked to know she likes my voice so far! And I only posted it off to her a month ago.

So now I'm off to read it (again...) and see if there's any more polishing/editing/tweaking that needs to be done. Hopefully there won't be too much, since I've gone through this ms sooo many times during the pre-submission process.

In other good news - I got my acknowledgement letter from Mills & Boon today for the Modern Xtra I sent them a couple of weeks ago. I was getting a bit paranoid, thinking my sub had got lost in the post but thankfully not. The editor ref is Sha, and being nosy I went and had a poke through the archives on eharlequin to discover who she is!

Pink Heart Society

There are some weird people out there. People who bash Romance because it has a Happy Ending. Well duh. What's so bad about that? I like reading books with happy endings. In fact I try to avoid books that I know are gonna make me cry since I hate feeling depressed - but that doesn't mean I bash books where everyone dies at the end. Or in the middle. Or even at the start (unless it's a romance. Then I'd get cranky).

It's the same with chick lit. I think that gets as much negative press as romances and why? Because they are hugely popular and masses of people (okay, probably masses of women) read and enjoy them. But is that any reason to look down noses?

Well. So I'm gonna say it here and now. I love reading romance. All types of romance. Historical, contemporary, hot and steamy (can't wait for Anna's book to hit the shelves!!) or tender and sweet and every flavour inbetween, including paranomal and time travel. I also happen to love Stephen King (he hooked me on my honeymoon. No, I am NOT going to say anymore about that... heh) where characters frequently die horrible deaths, and Tess Gerritsen (ditto), so it's not that I'm averse to bumping off fictional characters. Just depends on my mood at the time.

So, in honour of all books category, the Pink Heart Society was formed, and if I wasn't such a techno-dunce I'd put the little dancing pink heart up here on my blog. Unfortuately whenever I tried copying the code all it did was make the font go wonky. Sigh. As soon as I either work it out, or bribe my daughter to lend me her brain, I'll put it up.

Update Hooray! the lovely Ally Blake pointed me in the right direction and now I have my very own dancing heart on my blog!