Room with a View (of the side fence...)

When my two girlies left home three weeks ago, I was far from celebrating *sniffle*. Another milestone and not one I espeically wanted to cross thank you very much. But there you go. On the upside, they moved in together with another friend, their house is only five minutes away by car, and so far I've seen almost as much of them as I ever did when they lived at home.

Their moving out left us with a couple of spare rooms. OMG. So much spare space, my poor brain couldn't quite cope. After moving darling son into the larger room, my husband and I decided we would finally Have Our Very Own Office. Hooray! Up until now we've both had our desks and computers at the back of the family room which makes it very, umm, cosy but horribly messy.

So over the last week we've been shifting stuff, he's been decorating like a thing possessed and at the weekend we moved into the back bedroom. It's fantastic. At last I've got walls where I can display all my incredibly important bits and pieces (aka pics of my babies when they really WERE babies) plus spread out my books! Oh yay.

Now all I need to do is buckle down and write something but alas I think my muse has buggered off.

le sigh.

Slave to Sensation

I've just finished reading Nalini Singh's Slave to Sensation and all I can say is Oh My God. What a fabulous start to a new series. Lucas is one totally hot hero, Alpha to the core but sooo adorably protective of Sascha I completely melted. I'm already chomping at the bit to pay another online visit to Rendevous so I can snap up book 2, Visions of Heat, which looks just as riveting. And can I just say I hope Hawke is going to have his story told... hmmm??

Here's the blurb:

In a world that denies emotions, where the ruling Psy punish any sign of desire, Sascha Duncan must conceal the feelings that brand her as flawed. To reveal them would be to sentence herself to the horror of “rehabilitation”— the complete psychic erasure of everything she ever was….

Both human and animal, Lucas Hunter is a Changeling hungry for the very sensations the Psy disdain. After centuries of uneasy co-existence, these two races are now on the verge of war over the brutal murders of several Changeling women. Lucas is determined to find the Psy killer who butchered his packmate, and Sascha is his ticket into their closely guarded society. But he soon discovers that this ice-cold Psy is very capable of passion—and that the animal in him is fascinated by her. Caught between their conflicting worlds, Lucas and Sascha must remain bound to their identities—or sacrifice everything for a taste of darkest temptation…

Claiming the Courtesan

Hooray! At last I've read Anna Campbell's debut, Claiming the Courtesan (an Avon Romantic Treasure), and oh wow. It was well worth the wait. If you love hot romance, dark, tortured heroes and heroines who are anything but meek and accommodating, I thoroughly recommend this fabulous book.

Here's the enticing blurb... have been trying to upload the book cover but for some reason blogger is hating me today. Ho hum!

He would marry her, and possess her in every way possible.

The Duke of Kylemore knows her as Soraya, London’s most celebrated courtesan. Men fight duels to spend an hour in her company. And only he comes close to taming her. Flying in the face of society, he decides to make her his bride; then, she vanishes, seemingly into thin air.

Dire circumstances have forced Verity Ashton to barter her innocence and change her name for the sake of her family. But Kylemore destroys her plans for a respectable life when he discovers her safe haven. He kidnaps her, sweeping her away to his isolated hunting lodge in Scotland, where he vows to bend her to his will.

There he seduces her anew. Verity spends night after night in his bed… and though she still plans her escape, she knows she can never flee the unexpected, unwelcome love for the proud, powerful lover who claims her both body and soul.

And for my Next Trick...

I was thrilled to get a request for the full the other day, and dutifully checked both paper and ink levels. yep okay there. Bought a huge envelope. Started to read through the manuscript (yet again. I just can't seem NOT to read through it every time it's requested which means of course I'm sick to death of the thing).

So today I start printing and what happens when I get to page 20? Well, the printer decides to go on strike. bloody hell. I can't believe it. I've tried being nice to it, shouting obscenities at it, and giving its lid a few well placed bashes, but all to no avail. It's so annoying and frustrating because I can't see what the problem is (apart, of course, that it's NOT PRINTING). The green light is flashing away, mocking me which means it's plugged in (first question my other half will ask... ha!)

So I'm pretty pissed off at the moment as I'd planned to have this in the post this afternoon. Now I have to wait until my techno genius gets home to figure it out (and I bet it will be something really simple which will just make me madder than ever!)

I Married A Genius

No I haven't quite died a cyber death, but man it's been close. Good thing I happened to marry not only a Sheer Genius but someone with so much patience he obviously got my share as well. Said Sheer Genius spent so many hours sorting out the computer and my website (which for some mysterious and very annoying reason keeps deciding to vanish everytime I upload something to it. Hence, I haven't tried to fiddle with it for the last three weeks!) it was giving me a headache. But unlike me, he doesn't scream at the computer screen, froth at the mouth or tear his hair at technical glitches. He just sits there and does all kinds of incomprehensible things until it's sorted. Like I said, I married a Genius. Heh heh!

On the writing front, I finished the YA romance within three weeks and then spent at least that length again honing the blurb. And as for the title, well let's just Not Go There. I've never had so much trouble over a title, and titles are always something I struggle with but this one - unbelievable. My daughter even ended up asking her boyfriend for ideas!

So now it's onto the agent search and wait. So far I've had a very nice request rate so perhaps my blurb was worth all the blood sweat and tears after all!

Gremlins in the Works

Okay not quite gremlins. More like spiders. In my computer tower. Like, eew!!!

No wonder I was having so many computer woes!!

As my sister in law said it puts a whole new spin on the term web site!

Hopefully I'll soon be sorted again, as currently I'm working on two different computers, backing up all over the place (which is not a bad thing, but with my memory is very stressful as I try to remember where my most recent version now is!) and my emails are landing everywhere.

On the writing front, I've been very bad and put Angel to one side to work on my YA. Hopefully I'll have that one finished within the next couple of weeks and then it will be back to Angel. At least that's the plan, and a girl has to have a plan doesn't she?

Revamped

It's not that I'm stuck on my wip, since I'm still loving it, even though I did just realise I'm not sure how it's going to end (details!!) but I must admit I've been spending several hours revamping my website when I should have been tackling the next chapter.

I loved the black background of my old site, but decided it didn't quite gell with the tone of my writing. So I thought I'd give it a face lift and brighten it up.

For a techno-twit like me, that's a lot easier said than done. At least it didn't need prints to identify me (ha de ha) but apart from that it's like trying to wade through superglue.

Anyway, I finally uploaded it last night if anyone would like to take a quick squizz and discover how the witches came to be.

XX and Proud of It!

Not that I'm paranoid or anything, but I'm starting to think there's some kind of conspiracy going on with the computers at home. Now the laptop's finally accepted that yes, I am human (well most of the time) and lets me on to play, guess what? My pc decides to have a sulk.

For the last couple of days my monitor's been very iffy. When I say iffy, I mean not booting up. It just sits there completely blank. SO frustrating. Last night, when dh got home from work he gave the cables a tug, jiggled the monitor a bit and presto. On it went.

So this morning, when it refused to co-operate, I jiggled the cables, wobbled the monitor and switched it on and off a few times. Nothing.

Gah.

This afternoon, when dh arrives home from work, he just gives it a quick tug and would you believe it. On the bloody monitor goes without so much as a squeak.

I'd say how annoying, but I'm not going to because at least it's running. But honestly, how bloody annoying!!!! What is it with computers and their relationship with the Y chromosone? Are they chauvinistic, or just plain slutty?

I am an Alien

My darling husband has desperately wanted a new laptop for over a year now (ever since one of our equally darling daughters managed to make our old one explode... hmmm) unfortunately there's always been slightly more pressing things we needed to do with the credit cards such as paying the gas bill (borrrring...)

Anyway, I have a writer's retreat coming up and have to confess I wasn't looking forward to using pen and paper to do my writerly writings. I mentioned, in passing, what a shame it was we didn't have a spare laptop floating around, and had all but decided that I'd use the upcoming weekend as a chance to re-read some of my craft books.

OMG. The other afternoon darling husband comes home with a brand new shiny notebook. Much excitement ensued, especially when I discovered it was one of those posh ones where you have to use a finger print for security.

What fun! He embeds his prints no problem then I do mine. Correction, I attempt to do mine.

The computer rejected my first few tries with a very unfriendly big red cross. How rude.

But then things got nasty. When I attempted again, it told me NO JOINT DETECTED.

Umm, excuse me???

I tried again. The computer kindly explained the problem. NO PRINT DETECTED.

Well duh. Things are only funny for so long. By this time my son was almost hysterical with laughter, and my husband grabbed my finger and jammed it on the display panel. Several times. With no effect. (and as an aside, my fingers hurt for AGES afterwards!!)

He told me I wasn't covering the entire panel. Well, how was I supposed to make my finger wider??

I even tried washing my hands but to no avail. The Computer Did. Not. Like. Me.

Ah. The wonders of technology. What's so bad about a good old fashioned password, that's what I'd like to know???

Barefoot Bride

Had some nice news this morning. I received an email from the lovely Jessica Hart saying I'd won her Harlequin Mills & Boon March release Barefoot Bride. Yay me! I love winning books! Jessica's website has recently been updated, so if you haven't visited for a while, pop over and have a look.

WA Writers Retreat

Angel is moving along and I'm up to just over 20k. My only worry here is I'm going to run out of words at the 50k mark. Then again, I thought that with Kill Lill and ended up having to cull several thousand just to get it under 100k. Hmm. Definite pattern there.

Nothing much else to report on the writing front, except to give a big shout out to Julie Anne from the Clayton's Conference fame. She's doing a great job of getting together romance writers living in WA, and is organising a writers retreat in a few weeks time, right on the ocean's edge. Talk about inspiration! Not only that, but she's also set up a brilliant website WA RWA. Pop along and have a look (and drool over the gorgeous setting of the retreat!)

But they ARE Real People!

Anna's comment the other day on how our characters are so real to us, got me thinking. Because it's true. My characters are real to me, not just figments of my imagination, but living breathing people, with hopes, fears and expectations of their own. I know every other writer will completely understand that, just as many non-writers will think I'm totally barking!

And they don't just take over and become real people when I sit down to channel their thoughts. They're in my head all the time, whether I'm ironing (tho I must be honest here - I so rarely use the iron it has cobwebs... ), burning dinner or being the on call taxi service to my darling off-spring. Occasionally other thoughts might intrude, such as - bloody hell, I've forgotten to buy the groceries again - but they are fleeting since let's face it, grocery shopping is borrrrrring! And listening to our characters is way more fun.

I have this huge fear that one day I'll wake up and there won't be anyone chattering away inside my head. Not only would I go insane if deprived of my writing outlet, but how in the world would I occupy my mind??? All that grey matter jiggling about with nothing to focus on. Nightmare!

Angel (no, not THAT Angel... hahahaa)

Last weekend a new idea hit me. Instead of the straight contemp romance I'd been planning (and which I have about a million scribbled notes about), this streetwise angel set up residence in my head and wouldn't budge.

Now, the germ of this idea first sprang into life about eight years ago but I hadn't thought about seriously revisiting it. Not too sure why, because it has all the slightly odd elements I enjoy writing about. I think it was psychological - a truly lovely editor spent a long time with me on that original manuscript and it was accepted for publication, only for the publishing company to go into liquidation.

Anyway, for some reason last Saturday it was all I could think about, and what's more this time around the angel wasn't taking any back seat in the story or being an ambiguous 'is he or isn't he really there' kind of character. Oh no. This time he has Issues, he has Attitude - and he also has a couple of secrets he's conveniently 'forgotten' to tell my heroine.

So this is good news for me, apart from the small fact that I'm flying into the mist with it - a truly terrifying prospect for someone who usually plans and outlines to within an inch of her life! The slightly not so good news is I've stopped querying agents on my last one. oops. This is getting to be a very bad habit. On the plus side, I still have requested partials out there on two separate novels, so I'm just going to see how it goes.

One last thing - the lovely Anna has mentioned my blog in her Favourite Things! Go check out her website and if you haven't yet, don't forget to read the excerpt of her upcoming Avon release, Claiming the Courtesan.

Name Tags

Sara tossed out a fun tag, so here's my effort:

1. YOUR REAL NAME: Christina

2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (first three letters of your name, plus izzle) Chrizzle. I could live with this one

3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three of your last) Cphi. I look like an element

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (fav color and fav animal) Lavender Kitty

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, Street you live on): Chrizzle Breaker. Convoy, anyone??

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name, first 3 letters of mom’s maiden name) Phichher try saying this without spraying everywhere

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (favorite color, favorite drink) Lavender Bacardi or whisky

8. YOUR STRIPPER NAME: (the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/body spray)Beautiful/Intuition/White Linen... just call me Estee

9. YOUR WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother & father’s middle name)Herbi Wood I'd be a nymph what else!

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.

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!

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...

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!