Crossed Wires

The one with the last post

2011-02-14T19:51:00.003+11:00

Hey everyone, as intimated in my last post, I have a new (final) blog home.

So come on over to the new improved Crossed Wires.

I'll be leaving this blog up for awhile while to let everyone know what's happened but I won't be updating here anymore. All the archives are at the new blog, so I haven't lost anything (well apart from my list of aussie authors which is now on the website links page!).

If you were nice enough to link to me here (or subscribe to my feed) please update to the new blog for continued blogging insanity and occasional common sense from me!

Moving on

2011-02-13T08:43:00.002+11:00

Okay everyone, it makes me kind of sad, but this blog is making part one of its move to Wordpress.

It's temporarily relocating to a WordPress.com version which is here.

Please update any links.

I'll be posting new posts over there but will make one more post here as I'm going to be moving to WordPress.org once I change webhosts!

The temporary version is missing a few things at the moment like the blogrolls which will either reappear once I move again or will be transferred to my site!

A change is as good as a holiday (or necessary, even)

2011-02-12T16:06:00.004+11:00

I'm currently in the process of getting a new website designed (early in the process but still). I'm pretty sure that the new site will be WordPress based and that pretty much means converting the blog to WordPress as well. After some poking around the internet the less than exciting news seemed to be that one can only import blogger content to WordPress if your blog template is new blogger based.

Phooey. So, I have finally had to give up my claw hold on my classic template and convert and this is the result. I'm sure there will be tweaking etc in it's future but it's about as close as I can get to the old blog for now. Hopefully the white posts backgrounds are easier on the eyes anyway. So welcome to the new (for now) look Crossed Wires! Short may it reign and let me know if there are any issues you find!

February contest

2011-02-05T20:27:00.005+11:00

In true Chinese New Year do-over fashion I find myself starting my contest back up again in February rather than January but better late than never.

This month I thought I'd turn my attention to Urban Fantasy and one of my favourite series in recent years.

February's contest prize is Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews (who is actually husband and wife team Ilona and Gordon Andrews) who I share a publisher with (as unreal as that still seems).

Magic Bites is the first book in the Kate Daniels series which currently stands at five books, each of which gets better than the one before (and the first one is pretty darn good to begin with). It's set in a magic riddle Atlanta where vampires and werewolves and all sorts of beasties wreak havoc. Kate is a genuine kickass heroine and, even better, one who grows and changes throughout the series. The bad guys are genuinely creepy and bad in this series and Ilona draws in all sorts of interesting mythology. There is a romantic subplot to keep us romance types happy (with a hot hot hero in Curran) and really, this is one of the best true urban fantasy series going around. So if you haven't yet jumped on the Urban Fantasy train and want to start with a good one or haven't jumped on the Kate Daniels train, here's your chance. Simply comment on any blog post this month for your chance to win a copy of Magic Bites.

As usual, my reasons for the contest are here.

Enough

2011-02-05T20:23:00.002+11:00

Well, yesterday was not the most stellar writing day and today was worse.

Yesterday I wrote 700 words in a rush only to accidentally hit the off button on my netbook and lose it all. Then Cyclone Yasi's tail decided to drop about a month's rain on Melbourne in a day and I had more pressing issues to deal with like bailing out my backyard. I did eventually write another 1000 words or so but only by staying up too late.

After waking up every few hours to listen to what the rain was doing last night, I'm tired today and have been trying to get some heroine POV onto the page on and off all day. So far I've crawled up to 300 words or so but she's being unco-operative. So I'm going to give myself a pass for the day by saying an extra 700 yesterday counts. Or else I'll do 1700 tomorrow but either way I'm done for now!

Heh

2011-02-04T12:38:00.005+11:00

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Fumbling

2011-02-03T21:58:00.005+11:00

1011 words tonight. So goal is met. This book is proving interesting so far. Usually I'm pretty clear on my first scene and write it quickly. But this book, well, I've had about four different starts now and keep having to pull back and change tack. I started with the hero, thought perhaps maybe it should be the heroine, changed my mind again and went back to the hero in two different situations. Nothing felt quite right but today I think I might have cracked it. We'll see. Of course, that probably means juggling around some of the words I've fought for so far and going backwards in word count at some point but we'll deal with that when it happens.

Two things helped.

One, this post by Jenny Crusie is brilliant and made me realise I was trying to smooth out my hero too much instead of letting him be his acid tongued messed up self.

Two, I realised I didn't really know what his initial goal was. Some poking and prodding at the muse with pointy sticks at lunch today gave me a glimmer of an idea on that one and so far it seems to be working. Now I just have to figure out the heroine. Oh and how to wrap up all the pesky plot threads I've set in motion in the last two books. Why did I think writing a trilogy would be a good idea again? If there was a magic potion I could take right now to turn me from pantser to plotter I'd be on that thing faster than Neo and his little red pill. But given I'm pretty much stuck with my own brain and my own crazy process, I guess I'm just going to have to screw up my gumption and remember that it will all come to me eventually if I just keep writing and letting the weird storyteller part of my brain do its thing.

In other words, I need to remember to look at this which I have perched on my noticeboard near my desk!

(Get your own here)

And now, time for enjoying the results of some other poor writer's self torture aka curling up with a good book before I go to sleep! Catch you tomorrow when maybe I'll go crazy and write more than 1000 words!

Wednesday

2011-02-02T20:37:00.001+11:00

Was very busy but 1155 words were achieved, so all is good.

Back tomorrow, no brain left for blogging tonight.

It's a start

2011-02-01T20:35:00.001+11:00

1003 words achieved. Using the time honoured, write bits that spring to mind method. This is going to be one of those teeth pulling jigsaw puzzle books unless the muse and the girls come up with something brilliant in short order.

Do over

2011-02-01T18:12:00.000+11:00

It’s February. Which is a good thing in some ways and a bad thing in others. Given that January was pretty much a write off for me due to getting sick and various other things, I officially completely failed to do much of anything I planned to do in January. Including blogging. So I’m calling a do-over on the start of the year! (After all, it’s sort of Chinese New Year right now, so that’s good enough for me). We’ve had floods and fires and all sorts of weirdness here in Australia over January so I’m imagining there are quite a few people who’d like to join me.

In order to kick start my new new year, (and to claw back some lost writing time) I’m setting a goal of writing a thousand words a day in February and to keep me honest, I’ll blog my progress daily (or mostly daily)! I’m also trying to get back into some sort of exercise routine as the one good thing about being sick for several weeks is that I lost 5 kilos and don’t intend to put it back on (indeed I intend to see that I lose quite a few more), so I’ll report on that as well. The internet can keep me honest.

I will also be re-instating my contest which went on a longer than expected break over Christmas, so stay tuned for the next contest post!

A year in books (fifth anniversary edition)

2011-01-01T13:15:00.003+11:00

Well my annual reading review post is a day late. I finished up 2010 with a bit of a stomach bug (I think brought on by my fridge which has decided its job isn't to keep things particularly cold anymore), so no posting yesterday.

I've been doing a lot of re-reading for the last few months while I finished my book, so my total new books read is down this year (again, I've probably missed some on the list...this year I'm thinking about just keeping my list on GoodReads as I update there and here and it gets confusing as to which I've done). I've also rarely been reading on the train to the day job. Mostly I listen to audio books (most of which are re-reads) or podcasts as it's easier. Now that I have my e-Reader that might change a bit next year but given that the average audiobook is 9 hours or longer and I can read around 3 mass market paperbacks in that time, the audiobooks have definitely reduced the total books read.

I've also probably spent more time writing and doing craft this year, so reading time has had to give (even though I still read every day...just less). Hopefully I've found the good balance between my writing and reading for fun because I'm definitely not one of those authors who can't read while writing. Pretty much the opposite in fact.

Anyway on to my favourite books read this year (in no particular order).

Garden Spells - Sarah Addison Allen Magical realism done beautifully

Maybe This Time - Jennifer Cruisie Her first solo novel for a few years was spooky, romantic and a damn good time.

The Queen of Attolia/The King of Attolia/A Conspiracy of Kings - Megan Whalen Turner I adore this series and can't wait for number five!

Pegasus - Robin McKinley New McKinley is also good and even though Pegasus is slightly torturous because it's the first book of two and I WANT TO KNOW THE REST, it was fabulous.

Under Heaven - Guy Gavriel Kay - First new Kay for a while and it was lovely. This was actually a great year for my favourite authors having new books.

I Shall Wear Midnight - Terry Pratchett The witches have always been my favourite Discworld characters so continuing to follow Tiffany Aching as she grows into being a witch is awesome. As with all Pratchett, thoughtful, funny fantasy.

Singing the Dogstar Blues - Alison Goodman SF Young Adult which has been out for a while but I am late jumping on the bandwagon. Eon which is more epic fantasy by the same author was also pretty good. And she's an Aussie : )

How To Bake a Perfect Life and The Secret of Everything - Barbara O'Neal I loved both these. Gorgeous women's fiction with a hint of magical realism and glorious food. Don't read while hungry : )

Dark Road to Darjeeling - Deanna Raybourn The latest installment in the Julia Grey novels was fab.

Power and Majesty - Tansy Raynor Roberts Another aussie's debut fantasy novel with a different and ruthless world.

The Forbidden Rose - Joanna Bourne Another great historical romance by Joanna.

Special Delivery - Heidi Cullinan Wonderful smokin' hot m/m romance

Untameable Rogue - Kelly Hunter Kelly continues to be my fave category romance author. Wonderful sexy, witty, sparkling romance.

So there you go. I read lots of great books this year, so these are just the favourites. I hope your reading year was great and that 2011 is full of more brilliant stories for us all.

The nameless one

2010-12-27T13:54:00.004+11:00

Currently pondering cat names as this little cutie came home with me this morning.

After all the various cat dramas, it's lovely to finally have another feline member of the household. So far orange cat doesn't seem too fussed by strange cat smells or noises coming from the bathroom and the new girl seems pretty relaxed (if not outright keen to explore beyond her current bathroom hangout). So hopefully they're going to be good friends eventually.

The new girl is teeny (she's about 9-11 months old but nowhere near as big as Tabasco and he's not a huge cat) and smoochy and playful. She's an RSPCA cat and has already had a litter just after she came into the shelter (far too young...please desex your pets!)

Looks like I'll be having a fairly quiet week at home mostly while we integrate the household. Good time to write and spin and tackle the pile of tax paperwork looking at me balefully from the kitchen table.

Merry Christmas

2010-12-23T17:32:00.004+11:00

I feel like I should write an inspiring Christmas post but it's been a long and tiring year in some ways and I had sad news re my expected kitten (the upshot of which is that he won't be my kitten and I'll be looking elsewhere for another kitten/cat next week) this week and the orange cat has had a few extra yowly nights because it's been cold and I'm kind of just plain tired.

So I will keep things simple and just wish everyone a lovely, relaxing, safe holiday season!

May you have loved ones and happiness, good food and drink, naps and belly laughs, hugs and good times, inspiration and passion and the odd dream coming true! 2011 onwards and upwards we come!

Finishing

2010-12-13T10:25:00.004+11:00

The revisions are done! Bring me the finest muffins and bagels in the land. Or, alternatively, Numfar do the dance of joy!

Finishing a book is always a very very good feeling, no matter what draft it is. (For the record, we're on draft 5 of Shadow Kin, so far. Hopefully that number won't go much higher and there will only be line edits, copy edits and galleys to go.)

So hopefully that good feeling will carry me through fighting the crowds to do some Christmas shopping this morning! Then there will be rescuing of my house from it's current revision in full swing way too messy status!

Then I have to haul my brain back (or forward?) to Book 3. Whose hero is going to be lots of fun (In theory...you never quite know what they're going to do once they're given free rein on blank pages belonging to them!)

But for now I shall just bask in being done, done, done!

Gadgeting

2010-12-11T13:15:00.004+11:00

I'm a light sleeper. Light sleeping and the orange cat are not always the best combination (to be honest, they're not EVER the best combination it's a bit worse lately as he's still being "I'm lonely" yowly more than usual lately).

Anyway, to combat this, I've been falling asleep with my iPod and headphones listening to audiobooks (which necessitates much remembering of where one actually was up to when one lies down as generally I fall asleep after just a few minutes and wake up hours later in the book lol), or music or some BrainSync tracks. Now, I have mutant ears and cannot wear ear buds, as they fall out as soon as I breathe or even think about moving, so I've got fairly slim old fashioned band over the top of the head head phones but even with my memory foam pillow, they're still not the greatest things to sleep in (not to mention moving around while sleeping is shredding the foam covers like nothing on earth).

So today, when an ad for SleepPhones popped up somewhere I was randomly surfing on the web, I thought "WANT!" and ordered some. And now I'm also lusting after the summer RunPhones version as they might be a bit cooler for summer sleeping plus good for exercising without headphones falling off (plus I tend to wear a headband anyway on the elliptical, so why not combine the two?). But I shall wait and see what I think of the SleepPhones first. But if anyone else out there is like me and likes to drown out the night noises (I'm thinking these will be good for hotel rooms too) I thought you might like to know about them.

I shall report back once they've arrived. US types can by them at ThinkGeek but TG has pretty expensive OS shipping, so for me, buying them direct from the website was cheaper (only $5 or so shipping). I wish more US sites would offer a basic shipping offer. Lots of us would be happy to wear the slower times delivery times and increased risk of something going astray, I'm sure vs being asked to pay more than the cost of the item in shipping as seems to happen quite a bit!

Things I'm lusting after...December edition

2010-12-10T08:50:00.002+11:00

While I'm in revision and pre-Christmas work craziness...a selection of the desirable things whirring around my brain:

1. More hours in the day (for writing, for spinning, for knitting, for sleeping, for...everything really)
2. Fibre (of the spinning kind)
3. A DSLR camera
4. For my kitten to arrive (two and a bit weeks left in kitten countdown)
5. Summer clothes (no idea what I wore last summer because there is NOTHING in my wardrobe)
6. A gardener to transform the backyard
7. A portable airconditioner
8. The new teeny mac book air (so pretty, so far down the list of things I need)
9. To be past the point in revisions where I have no idea if the book is any good at all any more
10. For Melbourne to decide what season it might be
11. For everyone to be safe and happy and relaxed for the holidays
12. For the necessary winning lottery tickets and magical powers for all of the above to come true!

November contest winner

2010-12-05T19:45:00.004+11:00

Sorry, this is a bit late but the winner of the November contest is Tez Miller, so Tez, email me and I'll get the book out to you!

Given that December is the month of much craziness, not to mention revision finishing, which may yet equal not a lot of blogging, I'm going to skip the contest this month and bring it back in January, so stay tuned in 2011.

A study in orange

2010-12-05T19:20:00.010+11:00

We were talking about bucket lists/life lists at my crit group yesterday, which got me thinking about some of the things I want to do. Learn more about photography is one of them (along with buy a digital SLR). But given I've just paid for cat palaces and a new spinning wheel, the camera yen has to wait. I do have both a point and shoot canon and a fancier does more stuff without being an SLR Panasonic Lumix camera. The Canon and the iPhone tend to get reached for because they're either handy or little. The Panasonic does take better shots than the Canon but it eats its battery really fast plus the battery tends to die if you leave it out of use for a while. (to which I am applying the brilliant solution of buying some extra batteries!). But I shall have to pull it out and play with it some more to satisfy the photography yen for now.

Today, for a giggle, I bought the iPhone Hipstamatic app which makes your photos look like old film camera photos from the seventies etc which is fun.

So today I played around with that, and the recharged Panasonic and the orange cat being the nearest subject, I present...a study in felinus orangus.

First, felinus orangus hipster

And second, felinus orangus more really toastus these days, in close up

There were lots of other things on my list...the question is how does one get the time and/or money to do some of them??? Who's got something they'd love to learn/try/take up?

Random numbers

2010-11-30T19:41:00.003+11:00

The inside of my head goes something like this at the moment....

Raining! Cold! Work! Revisions! Christmas! Holy crap, it's December! Orange cat is meowing again! Cat palace! Garden! Raining! Sunny! Work! Revisions! Sleepy! Spinning is cool! Hot! Cold! Orange cat! Kitten! Chocolate! More caffeine! U2! Work! Revisions! Morning is too early! Christmas! Work! Bon Jovi! Glee! Revisions! Bump into something! Lose something! Did I do that other thing?! Forget something! Work! Revisions! Zzzzz! House is messy! Where's my clone army?! Revisions! Traffic! Remember something previously forgotten! More caffeine! Work! Socialise! Argh!

No wonder we all pass out after Christmas dinner, December tries to kill us!

It's good to be a cat!

2010-11-26T14:31:00.011+11:00

When my little Jessie girl passed away, I decided any new kitten needed to be a mostly indoor kitty. Jessie never went beyond my backyard and the orange cat limits himself to the front porch and the backyard but a young frisky cat might want to roam.

Because I don't like the idea of completely indoor cats (plus the orange cat would probably have a meltdown if I tried to keep him in completely), I decided to get a cat enclosure.

So I did some research and weighed some options. There's a couple of companies that do cat enclosures around (or if you're handier than me you could probably build one yourself). I however, went with the expert version. A process which has involved me completely digging out my garden beds, experimenting with bodgy paving and doing a fair bit of prep work.

Today, Dale from Catnip came to install the cat palace. Catnip do wire enclosures (there are other companies that do netting type things but I don't really have anything to enclose with netting. The good thing about Catnip, is the enclosures can be disassembled and move with me and they can also be extended later on down the track.

This way, the orange cat (and the fuzzy kitten when he arrives) will get fresh air and sunshine (and grass to nibble on once I plant some in pots) plus they can be up high (which the orange cat hasn't been able to do for a few years due to his arthritic knees). I'm sure there will be a bit of an adjustment on his part, and the cunning plan is to occasionally let him go out if he wants while keeping the fuzz ball in but it's safer for both of the and the pigeon and sparrow population will be safe (though as I've said before, any bird that gets caught by an old athriticky cat whose hunting technique involves meowing loudly probably is better out of the gene pool).

And here is the end result (and Tabasco's opinion so far in the vid). Excuse the garden rubbish, I'm still cleaning up.

Numbers

2010-11-22T20:26:00.004+11:00

I think the year has officially reached the completely-crazy-lead-up-to-christmas part where the to-do list and social things and the year's goals and a thousand other things start to form a hectic sort of tangle to conquer before it's time for time off.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

At this time of year, my virgo brains starts making list and calculations and numbers. Right now it goes something like:

1 revision due in 2-4 weeks
9 sleeps until U2 concert
1 election to vote in
2 parental birthdays in the next 10 days
1 orange cat to convince that 5am isn't breakfast time and sleeping all night is good
20 sleeps until the Bon Jovi concert
7 months til my next book is due
34 sleeps until Christmas
At least 3 big day job projects to finish
1 spinning class left
6 or so Christmas functions
1 complete nanowrimo fail
36 sleeps until Kitten day

And the list goes on. I'm looking forward to a well earned post Christmas collapse! Until then, caffeine is my friend!

Anyone else eyeing the silly season to-do mountain with a mix of anticipation and trepidation?

Princesses

2010-11-13T08:58:00.003+11:00

I watched The Young Victoria last night, which is something I've wanted to see for ages and really, I have no idea why I didn't get to it when it was in cinemas. I really enjoyed it even though it's bittersweet to think Prince Albert died fairly young and Victoria went on for 40 odd years without him.

I'm always intrigued by royalty. Being a princess ain't all it's cracked up to be. Sure you get gorgeous frocks and some spanking great jewels but there's a lot of politics and control and duty and what has to be a strange private life to go with it. Power and obligation vs the personal turns up in my writing a bit. In one of Barbara O'Neal's writing courses, we had to figure out our favourite fairy tale and mine was Cinderella (much as I fought that discovery for a while). Now, I think the appeal of Cinderella for me is the "finding the place where you belong and are appreciated" theme rather than the "be rescued by a prince" theme but it's undeniably a royalty/princess story, if somewhat from the other side and stopping before she has to deal with being a princess.

I've never actually written a princess (not many princesses in urban fantasy) but I have some ideas that might be close to princesses. We shall see. At the moment I have to focus back on my messed up assassin girl. She's definitely not a princess and would stab you if you tried to make her one!

So who likes royalty? Or who has a favourite fairy tale?

In other news

2010-11-11T21:29:00.003+11:00

Shadow Kin's publication date has moved to September 2011 (which will make a nice birthday present for me). So we'll all just have to be patient a few more months. Hopefully I'll have a cover to share soon!

October contest winner

2010-11-07T16:29:00.002+11:00

The winner of The Perils of Pleasure is Cyndie!

Cyndie contact me on my website address or via twitter and I'll get the book to you!

November contest

2010-11-02T18:55:00.005+11:00

Another month has zoomed by and quite frankly, I'm more than happy to see the back of October which was not the best month ever in Mel land. Hopefully November will be onwards and upwards. I'm learning to spin on a spinning wheel this month and am trying to get stuck into Book 3, expecting some more edits on Shadow Kin and I guess the pre Christmas madness will start soon too so who knows exactly what the month will bring?

Anyway, to start the month off in the right way, another contest. This month, we're heading back into sci fi territory though I guess technically this book is space opera. I stumbled across the first book in this series at some point in the 90's...not long after Amazon had come along, if I remember correctly because after reading the first book, I made my first ever big internet book purchase and bought all the other books then out in the series and glommed them all with delight. Hopefully you'll do the same and there's even more of them these days (plus some other series as well).

So November's book is Cordelia's Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold

which is the first book of the Vorkosigan series, which stars the irrepressible Miles Vorkosigan, who is a fabulous hero (though technically, Cordelia's Honor is the story of his mother but start at the very beginning as Maria Von Trapp would say). Lois writes funny, exciting, clever books about wonderful people who have real problems. Her world building is flawless and she's not afraid to make her characters, particularly Miles, squirm. So to win a date with the start of a wonderful series, all you have to do is comment on one of my posts this month.

As usual, I will draw the winner early in December and announce here and on Twitter and Facebook, so follow me somewhere to keep up with the news. The winner will have one week from the time I announce them to get in touch to claim their prize, otherwise it will be redrawn.

If you don't know why I'm giving away one of my favourite books each month, then the history of the contest is here.

Comfort

2010-10-30T11:24:00.003+11:00

I've always been glad that I'm a reader and a lover of story but I think it's during the tough times, I'm even more grateful. When I'm stressed, when I'm sick, when I'm sad, I know that I can take myself away from it all with a good story.

I've been doing a bit of comfort reading lately, old favourites like Diana Wynne Jones and Lois McMaster Bujold and Jennifer Crusie and Guy Gavriel Kay. Loretta Chase and Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. L.M Montgomery. Jane Austen. Stories to make me happy (and yes, there's been a fair bit of rom com watching and Big Bang Theory and Vicar of Dibley but TV and movies are just another form of story really) and give me a break. When I'm wide awake at 4am, I can read myself back to sleep (or audiobook myself back to sleep).

So I'm thankful for stories and my favourite authors who make tough times easier. Who are some of your favourite comfort reads?

If only he ruled the world

2010-10-25T13:59:00.006+11:00

The orange cat would like you all to know that I have RUINED his exciting cat jungle by getting the backyard mowed. How on earth is he meant to play King of the Savannah now?? If he ruled the world it would be off with my head!

I would subject you to video of him complaining but blogger doesn't want to upload it right now.

And now, off to see if book three wants to play!

ETA: Video!

No words

2010-10-18T12:42:00.004+11:00

RIP to my darling grey cat, Jessie, who left us today.

You stole a piece of my heart when you climbed up the side of the cage at the Cat Protection Society to get to me sixteen years ago and you've still got it. The world feels a little emptier today.

May you have sunshine to doze in and mice to chase and every good thing where you are now, little girl.

Be very very quiet...

2010-10-17T11:38:00.001+11:00

We're hunting edits. We're very close to our prey...the completed submission draft.

Normal blogging activity shall resume shortly!

Polishing

2010-10-10T14:09:00.005+11:00

So how does one polish a manuscript? That's going to be different for every writer but this is how I do it.

I'm a pantser so my drafts go something like this. Draft 1. Way too short and messy but gets the bones of the story down. Draft 2. Takes those bones, shuffles them around if necessary to fix them and expands the whole thing out to a reasonable length. And yes, I fix typos and any language I notice sucking as I go along but I can't do a full polish at this point because I'm too busy chopping and changing things plus it usually not until the end of draft two that I figure out what the book is really about.

Which brings us to Draft 3 (which is the one that gets sent to my editor and agent). This draft is the detail draft. So what do I do?

1. Put the manuscript together in one chunk. Draft one and 2 I tend to work in chapter documents. No idea why but it works for me.

2. Print it out in arc form so I can read it in hardcopy (I find it easier to spot typos etc on paper).

3. Copy the whole thing and dump it into Wordle. Wordle is something one of my crit buddies found last year when I was at this point with Shadow Kin. It's great. You dump in your text and it gives you back a picture of the most common words in your book. The bigger the word, the more times it appears. This is brilliant for two reasons. Firstly, it makes any the habitual weasel words you tend to use (that, back, like, just, slightly etc) that have been overused, stick out like a sore thumb so you can then go back and specifically search for them and kill them. And secondly, it tells you the other things that stick out in your book. This is helpful (if you're kind of visual) for getting a feel for character screentime (though in first person this is trickier), how your subplots are balancing and maybe spotting any other words that might be coming up a lot (clues to theme!).

4. Do a couple of passes to kill the weasel words discovered via Wordle. I sit down and do a find on each of the words and work through the manuscript for each. It doesn't take too long to do. I find this usually highlights a few other things that might be repeated as you work through (repeated character actions and phrases etc). After I've done this, I'll dump it back into Wordle and check again.

5. Read the whole thing and note clunky bits, typos, anything else that bugs me. I'm not looking for wholesale structural things (though of course, if I found something I'd fix it (and probably cry at this point!). I'll also look for worldbuilding things. Have I broken any rules I've set up? What new rules or mythology have I created? Have I got languages etc right? (If I'm clever at this point, I'll add this into my world bible). The last thing I'll look for in this read will be continuity. Names, clothes, hair color, eye color, places, timelines. Does it all make sense?

6. Reading will also trigger some story things to fix (hopefully only small things...plots to flag earlier, threads to weave in a bit more firmly etc).

7. Sit down and fix all the stuff from the read. While I'm doing this, I'll be paying close attention to my character's voices. Do they sound distinct enough? Do recurring characters sound like they did in the first book? Do the new character's sound different enough?

8. Possibly dump it all back into Wordle yet again, just to see if it looks right.

9. The last thing I'll do will be a spell check, a US language check and another typo hunt.

10. Send the darn thing to my editor and agent and crack open some bubbly.

11. Open up a new document and start Book 3.

And done!

2010-10-09T23:52:00.003+11:00

It's a book, it's a book! All 100,000 odd words of it. Sure, I need to do a final polishing pass, and god knows how coherent the forty odd pages I wrote today are, but the hard bit is done for now. I have written my first book under contract and (touch wood, throw salt, turn three times widdershins etc), it will be handed in on time, if not slightly early.

Now excuse me while I go pass out.

PS Done! Yippeee!
PPS. Don't write forty pages in a day. It's stupid. And most of me hurts now.

Preparing

2010-10-07T20:24:00.006+11:00

Okay world, I am having a night off tonight but tomorrow am attempting a three day deathmarch to finish this draft of Book 2. One of us will emerge victorious!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

I shall report my progress. I shall attempt to do this without eating chocolate. It could get ugly. You have been warned!

Just keep reminding me that I can buy an e-reader when I hand this book in!

October contest

2010-10-05T21:34:00.003+11:00

Once again, sorry for this being late. Sometimes life happens and in the last week there have been dinners with friends, a hens night with the obligatory male revue, a wedding, day job, family members breaking bits of themselves and various other diversions.

But we shall ignore all that and turn our attention to October's contest. After a very hectic September (last week was possibly the busiest month of that month but only just), I'm in the mood to relax with a bit of wit and sparkle, so I thought we'd return to regency historicals. Back in June, we did Loretta Chase (oops, that sounds a bit wrong!) and the lovely Rupert Carsington. This month, another brilliant regency writer.

Julie Anne Long writes gorgeous witty, sexy regencies but most of them have somewhat unusual settings and or heroes/heroines. Not necessarily the normal balls and Great Houses which is part of their charm. One of my favourites, is Ways to Be Wicked which features a ballet dancer and the owner of a somewhat risque London theatre. With mermaids and little people and French plots! What's not to like? But my all time favourite is the book I'm giving away this month.

The Perils Of Pleasure is a brilliant romance with an awesome heroine who has the very good fortune to be paired with another of my all time favourite romance heroes, Colin Eversea. Who well deserves his ballad! So if you want to discover Coliand find out just why he deserves his very own song (though sadly he doesn't get a hat like Jayne from Firefly, the other worthy fictional recipient of a ballad), comment on this or any of my other blog entries this month!

As usual, I will draw the winner early in November and announce here and on Twitter and Facebook, so follow me somewhere to keep up with the news. The winner will have one week from the time I announce them to get in touch to claim their prize, otherwise Colin will be redrawn and the mystery of the ballad will go unsolved.

And if anyone is a late joiner and wants the history of why I'm giving away one of my favourite books each month, then the history of the contest is here.

September contest winner

2010-10-05T21:21:00.003+11:00

Sorry, I'm behind on my posting. Weekend of crazy busy. I'll post the new contest shortly but the September contest winner of The Thief is Robyn! Who has the usual week to contact me to claim her prize.

Anyone else ever get jealous when you know someone is going to read a book you love for the first time? Or is that just me being weird?

Books I'm looking forward to - Spring edition

2010-09-28T19:22:00.005+10:00

Back in May I did a blog on books I was looking forward to for the rest of the year. Since I've read everything on that list that has been released and added a few more things to my "ooh, interesting/cool/yay book by favourite author" list, I thought I'd do an update. So here's a taste of some books I'm going to be reading in the next few months.

Cold Magic - Kate Elliott (Out now) (The world sounds intriguing and I love her Jaran books)
Graceling - Kristen Cashore (Out now) (have been meaning to read this for ages and found it at the library yesterday)
Blood of Ambrose - James Enge (read an excerpt thanks to the Big Brother so am hunting it down)
Bayou Moon - Ilona Andrews (Out today I do believe!)
Breathless - Anne Stuart (October) (Having devoured Ruthless and Reckless I'm waiting impatiently for the mailman to deliver this)
Dark Road to Darjeeling - Deanna Raybourn (October)
Butterfly Kisses - Jeanne Lin (October) (Just read Tang dynasty based fantasy by Guy Gavriel Kay so now for some Tang-y romance)
The Accidental Wedding - Anne Gracie (October) (Just scored an ARC of this but will no doubt buy it too!)
Pegasus - Robin McKinley (Not until November but new Robin is worth anticipating)
Cryoburn - Lois McMaster Bujold (November - new Miles, squee of frabjous joy)
Heaven's Spite - Lilith Saintcrow (November)
The Iron Duke - Meljean Brook (November) (Steampunk romance...intriguing!)
How to Bake a Perfect Life - Barbara O'Neal (December...which will probably push it to a Jan 11 read but it's a good way to start the year!)
Call Me Irresistible - Susan Elizabeth Phillips (January) (holy cow, that's next year...someone hit slow down on the year!)
Blood Challenge - Eileen Wilks (January)
Loose Ends - Tara Janzen (January)
What I Did For A Duke - Julie Anne Long (February)
When Beauty Tamed the Beast - Eloisa James (February)

I'm sure there are some I'm missing. I'll update as they come to me. How about everyone else? What bundle of storytelling joy are you eagerly awaiting?

Home stretch

2010-09-26T13:58:00.002+10:00

September has been the month of very busy all the time. I have one more week of the crazy to go and then I will be officially entering the writing hermit cave until the book is done. Which is getting close. Have basically three sequences left then the climax and resolution. So hopefully it will come together fast! Ideally I want to be done mid October so I have time for a quick fine tune the prose pass before it heads off to my editor.

Then there will be pondering of book three's plot. I know the start, I'm looking forward to throwing my hero and heroine together but the rest is a vague foggy blur. Hopefully fog lamps will appear and illuminate it all when I get there!

Also after the book is done, I get to learn to use a spinning wheel. Hey, the girls in the basement think it's cool, so I'm going with it. More about that over on the crafty blog (see the link at the side). The girls like colour a LOT so I think that's part of the appeal. Plus I find watching a wheel soothing somehow. Hopefully it's as soothing when I'm the one feeding it fibre!

So blogging may be a bit scarce for the next four weeks or so but I'll try and catch up while I can!

heh heh heh

2010-09-24T10:11:00.002+10:00

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

A note to me

2010-09-20T16:20:00.001+10:00

Next time, do try and write a first draft that's less like a jigsaw puzzle. There will be less headbanging involved in the revision!

Ta

Love

Me

Sunday fives

2010-09-05T09:57:00.004+10:00

A random Sunday post about things running through my brain.

Five things I'm lusting after right now:

1. An e-reader
2. A spinning wheel
3. Some sort of sneaker/trail shoe as comfy as my hiking boots (yeah, my feet are sore from yesterday) for the warmer weather
4. New carpet
5. A new iPhone

Five things I'm over:

1. The election
2. Football
3. My current klutzy phase
4. Weird tasting mouthwash
5. Things that are weird on my Windows netbook

Five things I am thinking about:

1. How to do six different first person POVs in three books and get them right
2. Drop spindling (including wondering if the girl I saw spindling at AussieCon was American because I've never seen anyone spindling in public in Australia before outside a fibrey type event)
3. Various AussieCon4 food for thought from panels
4. Music I like (thanks to a Facebook meme)
5. The next chapter in my book

If I had five wishes right now I'd:

1. Have a finished draft of book 2
2. Have a free two months in my schedule & the money to spend it traveling and relaxing doing various crafty and writing buddy things
3. Have a personal chef/maid/butler/trainer
4. Have a mac that is not sick
5. Live on a planet that wasn't going crazy with the weather and causing many people lots of grief
6. Solve the e-reader format wars & geographic restrictions/pricing weirdness overnight (okay, that's six but hey it's my blog)

Five things I need right now:

1. More caffeine
2. To find some bridesmaid shoes in the next few weeks
3. To write
4. To wrap my Dad's Father's Day present
5. September to magically expand to be about sixty days long so I can fit everything in!

Five things I'm happy about:

1. Lunch with the folks coming up
2. My spindling is improving
3. Having a backup computer
4. My book going pretty well
5. Spring!

What's on your mind this Sunday?

August contest winner

2010-09-03T12:03:00.003+10:00

The winner of my August contest is Aik!

Aik, you get a copy of Barbara O'Neal's The Lost Recipe for Happiness.

I'll be in touch with you shortly.

September contest

2010-09-01T18:08:00.008+10:00

It's Spring! Yay! Time for a new contest to go with the glorious (or rather soggy so far) turn of the season. Spring is my favourite time of year, so goodby winter! Hello blossoms and (hopefully) warmer days.

This month, we're taking a turn into YA. Well, kind of YA. This is one of those books that I think is classified as YA but really, if I didn't know that, I'd just call it fantasy. The hero is said to be young at the start but never definitely how young and given what he does, he can't be THAT young. But regardless of the classification, it's a fabulous book. Which is, by the way, The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner.

I'm not sure whether I first heard this book mentioned on Justine Larbalestier's blog or on Sarah Rees Brennan's blog (or twitter feed) but I do know it popped up several times in rapid succession in seemingly unrelated places in one of those weird moments of universal synchronicity some time last year. I didn't know much about the book but decided to check it out from the library. Then promptly went out and bought it and the next two in the series (The Queen of Attolia and The King of Attolia). I've since read all three several times, hooked my mother on them too and today am very happy because I just got Book 4 (A Conspiracy of Kings) from the library (which I will definitely be buying but not until it comes out in paperback...not because I wouldn't pay hardcover price for it but because I am weird and like my series to be all in the same format wherever possible and I have the other three in paper. Yes. I am strange. You should know this by now).

I love The Thief and the other books because they have one of the all time greatest ever trickster heros (Gen is so clever he's in danger of cutting himself) who is also remarkably human, it has a glorious difficult romance, some pretty ruthless politics and more twists and turns and surprises than one can poke the proverbial stick at. All written is a beautifully sparse style that somehow still manages to evoke the very unique world gorgeously. One of those series that makes you groan and bang your head on the desk because you'll never be quite so brilliant. So comment away on the blog posts this month to win (and if you don't, hie yourself to the nearest bookstore or library and get your hands on them).

I should also mention that Megan seems to have gotten herself some seriously good cover karma (or else an in with the good cover fairy) because the covers for the whole series are beautiful! If I was her I'd have probably died of happiness when I laid eyes on the first one. But luckily I'm not and so we have more than one book to enjoy!

As usual, explanation of why the contest is here.

Rules are simple, comment on any blog post this month to score an entry. Winner has one week after being announced here and on Twitter and Facebook to get back to me to claim the prize, after which I will re-draw.

Faith, hope and controlled insanity

2010-08-28T10:42:00.007+10:00

Joss was, not unexpectedly, awesome. I could have listened to him for far longer and he said many things that will probably make it into blogs at some point but there was one thing in particular he spoke about that I loved.

When asked whether he ever dreamed that his shows would be wildly popular/have huge cult followings, he said "Yes." He then went on to say that to be a writer, you have to be slightly megalomanical. You have to have the sort of controlled insanity that lets you say, "Yes, my stuff is very cool and people will like it so I will sit down and write a one hundred thousand word novel or a TV series or a movie," because without that faith in yourself and your stories, you're never going to survive the constant rounds of rejection and criticism that putting your work out there will bring.

Which I've heard other people say variations of before and which I one hundred percent agree with. But it's a difficult thing to talk about, that sort of self-belief. I would say it's even harder for an Australian because we have a deeply ingrained cultural prejudice against people who "talk themselves up". Tall poppy syndrome is alive in well in this country. And it's probably doubly harder on top of that for women, because women are also culturally conditioned to put everyone else first and not stand up and say "yep, I can do that and do it well." Even as I type this, there's a part of my brain saying "Mel, you can't blog about believing in your work, people will think you're up yourself."

But here's the thing. I do believe in my work. I love my writing and my stories and my worlds. I write the books I want to read. But that in no way means that I think "I am the Goddess of all writing and everyone else is a hack turning out dross and every word that drips from my pen is gold." Loving my work doesn't mean there aren't other writers out there that I love and other writers out there that I adore and would give my left arm to get as good as. There are. Plenty. I don't think Joss Whedon thinks he's God (well, he does but he doesn't believe in himself, so that's okay) and the greatest writer on the planet either. I think, to be a little Whitney about it, he believes in loving what you do. I think if someone had said "did you expect great success", his answer might have been 'no, but I hoped. I wanted it. I believed I was capable of writing something really cool'.

I don't think that my first book is going to be a number one New York Times bestseller because i'm just that damn good and I'm the best thing to hit the writing world ever. I'm not. Doesn't mean I wouldn't love that to happen, that I don't let myself dream that one day I will hit lists (because, to quote Joss again, "Dream Big" is another thing I believe in), I like to hope one day I could achieve that if I work hard and keep trying to be better.

Loving your work means thinking "I have a story to tell. It's a good story. I think other people will like this story". Loving your work means "I will work hard to write this story the best way I can write now and then I'll work harder to learn more and write the next story." It means "Okay, I got a rejection, what do I need to do to get better, or fix the story because damn, I believe in this story and I am a writer and I will crack this." It means that deep down in your gut feeling that this is right for you and the pig headed stubborness to keep writing for nine years (or five or fifteen or however long it takes) before you sell a book.

It means finding it within yourself to fight through the moment when what you're writing really is terrible (or at least feels terrible) and your inner critic tells you you're a hack) and you get the horrible critique or rejection or review and get back to the important thing, the love of your story. Which is what I try to do. I have many doubting moments. Many. Many. I had almost an entire year of doubting moments not so long ago. But I slogged it out. I'm lucky in some ways, I had parents who did bring me up to think I could achieve what I wanted if I worked hard at it (not that they ever said "hey, Mel, you'd be a great writer") and I've found ways that work for me to keep me going (which are going to be different for everyone but I like goal-setting and visualisation and meditation and sometimes sheer bloody mindedness, through reading books and doing classes and listening to other writers talk about tools they use) and get me back to "I am a writer. I love this story, let's get to it." How you do that is up to you but I do think you have to find a way because writing is a hard gig and you have to be your own best cheer squad.

Also, because Joss said so and because he was right.

Heroes

2010-08-27T17:24:00.005+10:00

Tonight I'm off to see one of my writing heroes....the man who created this:

and this:

which are two of my all time favourite TV shows, as well as many other things of geeky goodness.

Part of the reason you connect with any writer is the voice, and I do adore Joss Whedon's writing voice but I also love his worlds and characters. He writes strong women and strong men. He writes humor and pain, darkness and light. His characters are real even when they're facing the unreal. I'd probably prefer it if he gave some of his couples a real HEA once in a while (but that's partly a problem of writing for TV where such a thing is hard to pull off) but he does do romance and yearning pretty damn well, so we'll let that one slide.

And tonight, I get to go and listen to him talk about how he does it! So woot! And possibly squeee!

Slippery little suckers

2010-08-24T20:14:00.006+10:00

One piece of advice writers often get is to understand their process. Good plan. Trouble is, processes shift and change with each book. I've had books that have roared onto the page like a freight train, books that have come at a steady slog, books that have fought me, books that have come in bits and pieces like a mixed up jigsaw. Whenever I think I have a vague idea how my stories will work, they shift.

The current wip has mostly been coming in bits and pieces and not really showing me its hand. I knew something wasn't quite right as I could never quite see the last scene but figured I'd get to the end and work it out from there. In the background, I've been turning it over in my mind, trying to see a different angle. Seems that worked, because last night, the story woke me up at 1.30am, telling me the last four scenes and a whole lot about what I needed to tweak. So I wrote for a while in the middle of the night then got back to sleep. And now the muse seems to be saying that the discovery draft is done, we have enough of an idea and onwards to the next. Never done that before...I mean my first drafts are horribly talking head-ish and there are often some unfinished scenes and chunks but this is more like that than ever before. Plus I haven't actually written a few of the last scenes. But what the muse wants, the muse gets so onwards to the next draft we go. She's even kindly provided a rough synopsis.

Stories. They're slippery little suckers. So are writer's brains. You've just gotta hang on for the ride!

In brief

2010-08-21T20:40:00.003+10:00

Drive by update as I am somewhat brain dead after cranking out six pages after crit group. Muse continues to jump around in this story like a frog on steroids. Hopefully it will all hang together!

Progress - Holly

New pages - Six (yay, 13 more and we hit 300!)
Intriguing things - Ballsy sisters
Annoyances - Jumping around the timeline
Linear/non-linear - Non
Music - Various from the soundtrack.
Location - Desk. Write or Die and Think.
Taking care of Mel - Nap. Chocolate. Tulsi Tea.
Muse food - About to see what the muse feels like watching given there's nothing but the election on telly!

Pretties

2010-08-20T21:06:00.016+10:00

My books aren't steampunk...they're more gaslight fantasy (Steampunk is Science Fiction)...steam tech but with magic and critters not so much steampunky gadgets. Having said that, I do love the Steampunk Aesthetic and a conversation on Twitter today with BookThingo, kicked off some searching for a steampunk iPhone cover amongst other things, so I thought I'd share some pretties with the world.

First up, possibly the closest thing to mass market steampunk iPhone cases...gorgeousness from Exovault

I confess to being a little bit sceptical about how much shock these absorb if you drop them compared to a leather case but they are beeyootiful!

Then, possibly even cooler...this bit of wonder from Japan (Factron)

Now, over to the category of people are just very very clever....

Handmade steampunk iphone cases!

via Laura

Or

made by Lilibat on deviantart

Or how about a steampunk iPhone dock?

Freeland Studios

Then we got onto the subject of e-readers...how cool would a steampunk e-reader be? (Though Mel picks an e-reader is going to be a whole 'nother post!).

I haven't yet found an actual punked e-reader but I have found a cover....

Outside

Inside

Wishwords on LJ Steamfashion (hattip to @Misssteamstess on Twitter

And just because, this is awesome and one day when I own a mansion with a library the size of Neil Gaiman's, I shall work at a desk like this...

via Steampunk Workshop

Though someone would need to invent me an ergonomic steampunk keyboard! lol

So there you go, some pretties from the steampunk world. Don't get me started on the jewellery (don't type steampunk into Etsy! Danger Will Robinson!)

All very familiar

2010-08-20T20:59:00.003+10:00

Ladies and gentlemen of the internet, yes, we have reached that time again, the time when Mel needs to pull out the progress stats to keep her inner taskmaster happy and get the darn draft finished. Today I decided to write twenty pages. No idea why. It was a little bit nutty. But I did it. So that seems like as good a time as any to start this again. Technically, I'm in the last quarter of this book. Maybe I'll figure out what it's about soon. Though possibly not. That's why the powers that be invented second drafts, after all! Weirdly, usually I know the last scene of my books. This time, I think the scene I have in mind is more like third or fourth last...the muse, she is secretive at times!

Progress - Holly

New pages - Twenty
Intriguing things - Sneakiness. Things I thought would happen earlier, happening later.
Annoyances - Not many. More arms would sometimes be nice.
Linear/non-linear - Non
Music - Various from the soundtrack.
Location - Desk. Write or Die and Think.
Taking care of Mel - Chiro. Exercises. Tulsi Tea.
Muse food - Notting Hill about to be watched!

In other news, I am going to see Joss Whedon next Friday (woot and squee) and also going along to AussieCon 4 for a day the week after! Having never been to a SF con before, it should be fun!

Post-conference wrap up

2010-08-18T09:07:00.016+10:00

Now that the brain has recovered a little and I seem to be keeping the post conf crud at a low level, herewith my wrap up of the Romance Writers of Australia 2010 conference in the always beautiful Coogee. And given that I seemed to forget I had my camera with me or that my phone took pics at all times except when staring out at the view every morning, you get a conference in seascapes.

Day 1 - Wednesday

In which the view looked like this, just to emphasise we were no longer in cold, wet, soon to be stormy Melbourne.

Keri and I arrived early afternoon, caught up with some friends, began the dietary havoc by eating a club sandwich and hot chips (which sensibly we shared because it was HUGE), then she, Tracey O'Hara, Jenn Schober (Tracey's agent), Kelly Hunter and I went into town to Galaxy so Keri and Tracey could do a signing. Galaxy, might I just add, is a fabulous den of temptation (I mean, I am very fond of Minotaur and Of Science and Swords in Melbourne but Galaxy beats them for sheer volume of books on shelves) and the staff were lovely and very interested in my book (which is awesome but a strange concept to wrap one's head around...hey, these people will be selling my book next year!). I managed to restrain myself to only buying four books (willpower, I haz it). So that was fun. Then we all trooped back and ate burgers and more hot chips (conference calories do not count!).

Day 2 - Thursday (A-Day or Published Author Day)

In which the sea turned moody

A-Day began at the very civilised hour of 10 am, so I did some writing first (the new netbook behaving well, though Open Office did not seem to like my quotation marks, so I went back to Word for now). A-Day was fun and packed full of good presenters. Wendy Harmer ended up at the wrong hotel but found us eventually. She talked about chick lit, Jenn Schober talked about branding and professionalism (be nice, play nice), Dr John Barletta talked about finding the flow, one of the writers of Underbelly talked about writing true crime and finding a story's through line (sorry, her name escapes me for now), Deb Dixon talked about small press and what to look for, Jennifer St George spoke about media and then there were breakout sessions for the various types of books. All in all, most excellent. Keri and I snuck in a somewhat windswept walk along the beach. By the time we had finished, Chris had arrived and we all ended up eating (this time far healthier pizza and chocolate and caramel fondant pudding) at the hotel's Ocean Bar with various fabulous folks before sneaking off for more writing and an attempt to get enough sleep.

Day 3 - Friday workshop with Deb Dixon

In which the sea sparkled and gleamed

Friday morning started with the lovely Robyn arriving to join us. Deb Dixon did half a day on Goal Motivation and Conflict and half a day on the Hero's Journey. She's very much a plotter and uses all this stuff up front. I very much do not but I do use all these types of things in a stir 'em into the mix and see what works sort of way in revision (I'm always a little surprised when people seem to think pantsing means you don't revise what you've written...everyone revises what they've written...it's just when and how we revise that differs), so it's always good to hear people who've written craft books you've read talk about their theories in person. Deb was lovely and I came away with a few interesting ideas to try out. But our main task of the day was stopping Robyn putting on her costume and wearing it all day. *g*

Friday evening was the always fun cocktail party. Our cocktail parties are always fancy dress and this year the theme was fantasy island, so everyone came dressed as their fantasy. Well, most of us did. Look, I'm not a big fan of fancy dress (though it is fun at the cocktail party and works as an icebreaker) but I tend to do big effort in Melbourne when I don't have to schlep a costume on a plane and less effort in Sydney and Brisbane. This year, I figured I had the perfect excuse because my fantasy of many years came true this year and I sold a book. So I went as me lol. But Keri, Robyn and Chris made up for my slackness. Keri looked hot as a Dark Angel, Chris had made herself a fabulous coat of many book covers and she'd also made the most absolutely beautiful Regency gown and bonnet for Robyn to wear. (Once again, I apologise, I am slack, I did not get a pic...maybe Keri will post one! Or Robyn! hint hint.)

Day 4 - Saturday (or Day 1 of the actual conference)

In which there was rough sea and pointy sun fingers

And in which the day started in a very cool way because I got this:

(okay, so maybe I took a photo of one other thing...)

There were many awesome plenaries and workshops. I did Single Title vs Category with Vicki Lewis Thompson and a very cool Web 2.0 workshop with Kate Cuthbert (who would probably growl at me for having such a long scrolly post, sorry Kate!) and then got to do participate in my first ever author chat as an author (hopefully I did not babble too much)!

Saturday night was the awards dinner in which Keri and I sat with Kate Cuthbert and Kat Mayo from BookThingo and were very web 2.0 and twittered the awards dinner somewhat. Robyn won the STALI , Chris came third in the VP and loads of other awesome folks won awards and finalled. A special woohoo to Tracey O'Hara for breaking the paranormal curse when it comes to the R*BY award! After dinner there may have been a little drinking and celebrating and a somewhat late night.

Day 5 - Sunday

In which morning seemed to start extra early but at least turned on a very pretty sea...

I started with brekky with Valerie Parv and other former winners of the VP award then did another walk on the beach. After that more awesome plenaries and panels. Then a great workshop on taking the pain out of writing with Terri Green which was all about looking after your body as a writer and great stretches/exercises and things to do. Lunch on Sunday was the regular fundraising lunch. This year, we did Ovarian Cancer rather than Breast Cancer (the message for both is the same...pay attention to your bits ladies. If something seems off, get it checked out fast!) I believe we raised over $10,000, including Harlequin's great $5k donation.

Then a completely awesome, entertaining and slightly scary workshop on fight scenes with Ray Floro which included killing people with a magazine, why the vulcan nerve pinch type approach doesn't work and how to massacre a leg of lamb with very little effort. After that we wrapped up. Sadly I didn't win an iPad in any of the raffles but I did win Kandy Shepherd's book and a very cute lead and collar (is the universe trying to send me messages about puppies??). Post conference there was more drinking and chatting then Keri and I headed back to the airport where, miracle of miracles, we got bumped to an earlier flight. Though sadly, when I got home I'd reached the adrenaline/caffeine overload stage and couldn't sleep until 1am. But I made up for that with a two and a half hour nap Monday afternoon!

So that was Coogee. Next year the conference is in Melbourne (so I'd better start planning my costume). The keynote speaker is Susan Wiggs, Bob Mayer is doing the Friday workshop and Kristin Nelson is the guest agent. It shall be fab, so come one, come all!

Nice!

2010-08-11T07:47:00.004+10:00

This shall be my view for the next few days!

I'm off to the Romance Writers of Australia 2010 conference. So be good, internet people. There may be blogging and tweeting, it depends on how much fun we're having : )

Whoops!

2010-08-06T14:57:00.002+10:00

This week got away from me and I haven't yet announced July's contest winner! Bad mel!

Anyway, the lucky gal who gets the Dragon Variation by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller is none other than Australia's very own Golden Heart winner Kylie Griffin! (She obviously has the golden touch this month).

Kylie, drop me a line and we'll sort out your prize.

August contest!

2010-08-01T19:28:00.007+10:00

July is never a great time of year for me. Peak day job busy period keeps me on my toes, and it always seems like I blink and the month is gone. This year has proven to be no exception and here we are in August (which is yay for being the last month of winter and yay for being the month of the RWAustralia conference but still somewhat mind boggling in the where-is-my-year-going factor).

But time marches on and a new month means a new contest prize!

This month, I thought we'd do some women's fiction. And my very favourite women's fiction writer. Who just happened to win a RITA today because she is brilliant.

So August's book is The Lost Recipe for Happiness by Barbara O'Neal.

And just because it's truly gorgeous, here's the Aussie cover as well.

Many years ago when I was still just at the start of my writing path, a critique partner kept raving about a book called No Place Like Home, by Barbara Samuel. Eventually I caved and read it and immediately fell in love (plus bawled like a baby which is something I rarely do with books) with the book and the writing. I've since read everything of Barbara's that I could get my hands on (she writes as Barbara Samuel, Ruth Wind and Barbara O'Neal) and have never been disappointed. I still cry every time when I hit a certain scene in No Place Like Home.

Not long after I read No Place Like Home, I met Barbara at the RWNZ conference, where she was very nice to a nervous newbie (I think I sat next to her at dinner and probably made no sense at all because I was up for a contest win). And a bit later still, five of my crit buddies and I did one of her first Voice classes where we discovered that Barbara is not only lovely but also a great teacher. That course was part of the reason I finally gave into my fantasy/paranormal leanings in my writing, so I will be forever grateful for that.

I've done other courses with her since then and gotten to know her in real life and she remains inspiring and encouraging and generous. And even if all that wasn't true, I'd still be recommending her beautiful, lush, lyrical writing to you. Barbara evokes setting like a poet and her books will make you laugh, make you cry and probably make you very very hungry. She writes very real women and sexy men and adorable dogs and you should rush out and buy one of her books now. Or comment here and win one! The Lost Recipe for Happiness was Barbara's first book as Barbara O'Neal and someone gets to take it home this month.

As usual, explanation of why the contest is here.

Rules are simple, comment on any blog post this month to score an entry. Winner has one week after being announced here and on Twitter and Facebook to get back to me to claim the prize, after which I will re-draw.

Signed

2010-07-23T11:51:00.005+10:00

Sometime in late July 2001 I attended a talk at the Victorian Writers Centre given by Anne Gracie. I think she was pretty much the first real live author I'd met at that point. Fired up by what she had to say (and somewhat struck by the somehow-had-escaped-me-until-then fact that authors are just people and maybe I could really be one), I finished my first novel manuscript in September 2001.

Today, about nine years later from that fateful talk, I did this...

First contract signed and about to be delivered back to Penguin! Woot! It makes it all feel that much more real and another step towards seeing my book as a real live book!

Done!

2010-07-11T12:22:00.003+10:00

The revision is all finito. Let there be celebrations (or at least a day or two of mindless activities before we contemplate book 2!)

My first for-an-editor revision done. Feels like a milestone somehow, even though it could yet come shooting back to me for another round.

In the end it took me two months and 9 days which isn't too bad given I think I've cut at least 100 pages of old material out of it and yet the book is 90 pages longer in total. Plus every scene in the hero's POV went from third to first person (which is omg fiddly and time consuming....I'm hoping I've caught all the stray he/his/himself/they etc floating around).

But the work is worth it. I feel like it's a stronger book now and I feel like I learned some things in the process. Let's hope Jessica agrees!

And now, I shall take myself off to the movies to let the brain chill out...

On laughter

2010-07-08T19:36:00.003+10:00

Lately I've been thinking a bit about my work and romance and the elements of a book that make it appealing to me. In particular, what makes a believable happy ending.

When I first started writing, I was writing category and my books were mostly romantic comedies. Or at least, I had a fairly snarky/humourous voice. I think I'm pretty much incapable of writing a hero and heroine who have no sense of humour, who won't occasionally crack a joke or react sarcastically something or (hopefully) be quick with the witty retort because, for me, a shared sense of humour is something that's very attractive. And not just a sense of humour, but maybe also that sense of play, the feeling that a hero and heroine can have fun together in or out of bed, that they take delight in each other's company and that's there's that matched...something...zing/wit/intelligence/world view...that click. That, for me, is a key part of chemistry. It doesn't have to always be there at the start, sometimes the fun is that the hero or the heroine will bring out that side of the other, but I do need it to be there eventually.

My urban fantasy and fantasy books are much darker in tone than my categories were and go to some dark places but there's still humour and play in them. Because, I guess, when it boils right down to it, I can't imagine spending my life with someone who didn't make me laugh and I don't believe a happy ever after where I don't at least get a sniff of the possibility of that between the characters. A man who was completely serious would make me want to brain him with a coal scuttle and run off with Captain Jack (who at least would be entertaining before he was sidetracked by the next pretty face or treasure map). My heroines tend to share that world view. So even though I have to take my characters through some darkness, I want them to end up in the sunshine. Which is sometimes a juggling act but one that I love and one that I love in other people's work (there's a reason I'm a Joss fan, after all).

So how about you? Do you love a man who makes you laugh? Would you run away with Captain Jack or Miles Vorkosigan or Rupert Carsington or do you want to be swept away by a dark and brooding Mr Rochester or Heathcliff? Smiles or silent mystery? Or somewhere in between?

Happy

2010-07-03T17:41:00.003+10:00

I feel like I've got hold of the new shape of this book now. The weight of it is sitting right in my head and I can tilt it and turn it and see the whole picture nearly.

Sometimes writing feels like hiking up a heavily wooded trail. You get glimpses of the destination now and then but mostly you can only see what's right in front of you, the twists and turns hiding the next part of the path. And like, hiking, sometimes it's damn hard work and you doubt you'll ever get there and your mental feet hurt and you want to kick the next damn fallen log that gets in your way and everything you're carrying rubs the wrong way and all you want to do is sit down and not move and let someone else do it while you drink something and pass out.

Then you reach the top and the view spreads out before you and it's kind of gorgeous and well worth the blood, sweat and tears and it all falls away. Not sure there's a good analogy for the feeling like the end of book (or even nearing the end and feeling like it's all working out) but that one's kind of close.

And even though I'm not quite there yet, I think that's deserving of a glass of wine or two tonight while I'm out with the girls.

June Winner

2010-07-03T10:20:00.001+10:00

So who's the lucky gal who gets to take Mr Impossible with her?

Nicola Marsh!

Nic, email me and we'll figure out the details.

July contest

2010-07-02T11:10:00.007+10:00

Okay, so I'm a day late with this...I shall blame end of financial year and revision craziness and we'll just let it go.

This month, we're taking a swerve into Sci Fi. I read less sci fi now than I used to and not a lot of hard sci fi at all. I'm more a space opera kind of gal. Adventures and derring do in space. Aliens, space ships and giant turtles! If it comes with a hint of Jane Austen and a large dollop of true love, then all the better (sadly, this doesn't happen often in sci fi at all! Boo!).

However, this month's book has all of the above (well, you'll have to wait until later in the series for giant turtles from memory). This month, I'm giving away The Dragon Variation by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller.

Lee and Miller write one of my two favourite space opera series, the Liaden series (the other being something that readers of the blog can probably guess and that will possibly feature another month). The books are witty, fun, adventurous and romantic. And the world building is fabulous, the Liadens definitely have a touch of the Regency about them but in an even better way! I've read them many, many times and their heroes are some of my favourite fictional men ever.

Sadly this series had been out of print for a while (though there have been both a further prequel and two sequels out recently) but Baen have seen the light and are re-issuing them. Even better they're doing omnibus editions, so The Dragon Variation is actually the first three books of the series (bonus!). Or rather the first two prequels and then the first book of the series. (I'm not sure which order they were written in but I came to the series a bit late so read them in chronological for the characters order which is what this will be and it all works). So for one tiny comment you could get three books of Lee and Miller goodness - Local Custom, Scout's Progress and Conflict of Honors).

As usual, explanation of why the contest is here.

Rules are simple, comment on any blog post this month to score an entry. Winner has one week after being announced here and on Twitter and Facebook to get back to me to claim the prize, after which I will re-draw.

Details details

2010-06-28T20:11:00.005+10:00

The revisions are hopefully getting closer. Well for a "still a couple of weeks work" value of closer.

I've done the heavy lifting of inserting new scenes and changing plot and a POV. Like adding another wing and knocking out a few walls. Now I'm circling back to finish the rooms, paint the trim and make it all a cohesive whole.

I need to polish scenes, flesh out a couple that weren't quite done this last pass and weaving one or two threads in more tightly. Detail work. And as they say, the devil is in the details. But then it will be done and I can go back to book two until the next round of edits. Kind of the circle of life for books. Draft, edit, edit, edit, be loosed into the world.

In other writerly occupations, I spent the weekend doing a seminar with Michael Hauge and Steve Kaplan about writing romantic comedy. Not exactly the current wip but something I do love. Michael has a really good way of explaining structure and the character's inner and outer journey's. I could feel things going click in my head throughout the weekend, so hopefully its bubbling away in the background and will help when I come to sort out the plot of book two.

Day job wise we're about to hit crazy time of year (those Happy End Of Financial Year ads are obviously written by people who aren't accountants!) so it's head down and work on all fronts. Which should means July will fly by and I'll be at the RWAus conference in Sydney in August before I know it.

PS End of financial year is also end of the month, so two days left to comment on the blog and be in the running to win Mr. Impossible by Loretta Chase! Someone might as well have a happy end of financial year : )

Hmmph

2010-06-20T18:50:00.007+10:00

Sometimes, when revising particularly dumb things you've written, it's hard not to feel like this!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

And when wrestling with plots, I could do with some of this...

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Almost

2010-06-19T20:41:00.002+10:00

Heading into the home run of the structural part of my revision. A few scenes to reslant to make sure all the new threads are lining up, a few new bits to write and then it will be done.

I think it works but I'm at the point right now where I have no idea whether it does or not. I guess I'll find out once I hand it in. But first, I have to make it to the end then another pass to polish things up one last time....then it will start all over again with book 2.

Scheduled!

2010-06-09T07:34:00.002+10:00

We have a publication date, ladies and gentleman....Shadow Kin will be out in June 2011. Woot!

Twelve months will zoom by if this year is anything to go by.

Not big enough

2010-06-05T11:07:00.000+10:00

I went to see the second Sex And The City movie on Friday night. I was a fan of the series (what's not to love about female friendships, relationships and hot guys? Plus the whole Big and Carrie thing is exactly the right sort of on screen romantic relationship to suck me in and keep me watching) and really liked the first movie. But as much as the fan in me was excited to see the new one, the writer in me was nervous.

Turns out the writer was right. For me, the movie was uneven and just didn't feel like a big enough storyline for a movie. Leaving aside the advisability of the whole Abu Dhabi idea (which I'm not going to get into), the whole thing, despite some very funny and very poignant moments, felt more suited to a 2 episode TV arc maybe rather than a two hour plus movie.

Naturally, being a writer type, this made writer brain perk up and start wondering why I had the reaction I did. And, after much more pondering, I think it boils down to this.

Stories have natural end points. If you drag them on beyond said end points then they start to retread old ground and either feel tired or you feel like the characters are backsliding. Which makes writing an ongoing series a tricky, tricky proposition. Personally, I don't think I'd attempt an open ended series for this very reason. You have to be very very clever and skilled to pull it off. Of the ongoing open ended series I've read over the years, I think I can think of three that I still read and think still have legs after the 8 or 9 book point.

One of these is the Discworld series, which is probably a different kettle of fish as it's more a series of connected stories in a shared world. It jumps around between characters and focus and while the characters do grow, the books are more about the ideas than the characters. Pratchett is also a genius.

The other two are the Vorkosigan books by Lois McMaster Bujold and the Eve Dallas books by JD Robb/Nora Roberts. Again, two genius level writers. Both these series work because they have hugely hugely compelling protagonists who started off with an awful lot to learn and overcome. The Eve books have also had the added cleverness of only covering a relatively short period of time so far in Eve's life (a few years maybe) even though we're up to 20 odd books. But even these two series will have a natural stopping point I would imagine (though I would rather neither of them happened any time soon).

For most other series, I think it's better to have an arc in mind and then you have to give your characters their well deserved, hopefully mostly happy ending. Otherwise you circle around and around and no-one grows or changes and readers other than those who just have become completely enamored with the world and are the die-hard fans will wander off in search of other characters who are doing something. The same thing happens with TV shows. There's only so much stuff you can put a character through before they're either idiots for not figuring stuff out already or should be in a mental hospital because of all the life trauma. At least, imho.

There are some other open ended series that I still read off and on because I love the voice but I've pretty much accepted with those books that that is the reason I read them and they won't be blowing my mind. They won't resonate and stay with me. They won't give me the tingle a really great book does. They might feel comfy and nice and I'll like visiting with old friends but that's about it. Which is why I'm not attempting to write an open ended series any time soon.

But back to SATC2. I think the first movie worked really well because it did tie up some loose threads from the series (namely Big and Carrie's arc) and left you feeling like everyone was okay and they'd go on being okay in their little universe. So coming back to visit again and they're all having niggly problems does start to feel repetitive. None of the issues they were facing were big like in the first movie. And the problem is if they had been big (cheating or death or that sort of thing), then that ground had already been covered. So the writers made the other choice, to write about the ongoing hassles of married life and parenthood (which are worthy subjects, don't get me wrong but for these characters, it did feel like going back to old territory). Pretty much a case of damned if you do and damned if you don't. Which is probably a good test of should we keep doing this...do we have anything new to say that ups the stakes for everyone and makes them change in ways that they need to change and doesn't make them over into entirely new characters for the sake of keeping the story going (which is the other thing that can happen). If not, then someone has to make the hard call of letting things lie.

Which I understand movie studios and publishers and televisions stations have a motive not to do. Going out on a high point is a tough thing to do when fans and the people who pay you still love the characters.
And each writer has to make the choice for themselves and their vision of their stories.

For now, I think I'll stick to shorter series and hopefully avoid the problem all together! Though that brings a whole other set of issues...

This writing thing, it's hard, people.

May Contest Winner

2010-06-04T12:02:00.002+10:00

Is Keziah Hill!

Who wins Daughter of the Blood, by Anne Bishop.

Keziah, email me with your details and it's all yours!

Happy Winter

2010-06-01T19:22:00.011+10:00

Well, not really. I actually am not fond of winter. I feel the cold at the best of times without the weather adding to my woes. But I shall rug up and hibernate and keep warm by typing like a good little writer : )

How the heck it got to be the first of June already is beyond me. But hey, that means it's time for a brand new contest prize. Given we've done urban fantasy, contemporary and fantasy so far, I thought we'd zag over to another of my great reading loves, the regency historical romance.

And who better to illustrate the perfect divine witty romantic sexy delight of that era than Loretta Chase? Loretta writes my sort of historical. I'm not generally one for gothic and angsty when it comes to Regencies (though there are some exceptions). I like sparkle and bouncy repartee and gorgeous gowns and hot dudes in breeches. So when I first discovered Loretta Chase (thanks to the fabulous recommendation of Myrna from Rendezvous in Melbourne), I was immediately blissfully addicted. That first book was Lord of Scoundrels, which is wonderful but this month's prize is not LOS. Instead, it's my favourite Loretta book, mainly due to the sheer adorable sexiness of its hero, Rupert and the charm of the Egyptian setting). Rupert is a wonderful brawny hunk with a heart of gold and more brains than he gives himself credit for and his delight in Daphne's braininess and her in general is irresistible (hmm, maybe he should be Mr. Irresistible but he's not...instead, ladies and gentlemen, I offer you Mr. Impossible:

which is the second of Loretta's Carsington books and one of my all time favourite regency romances. (My second favourite book of hers, is the next book in this series, Lord Perfect, but Rupert won my heart first so he gets to be given away.) If you've never read Loretta and you love the lighter side of regency romance, then run to a book store and buy her. Or, as another option, simply comment on any of my blog posts this month to go in the drawer to win Mr. Impossible and be swept away by Rupert and Daphne and dastardly Egyptian doings! Then you can join the rest of us in eagerly awaiting her new book in August (unless you're too busy reading the rest of her backlist, of course!)

As usual, I will draw the winner early in July and announce here and on Twitter and Facebook, so follow me somewhere to keep up with the news. The winner will have one week from the time I announce them to get in touch to claim their prize, otherwise Rupert will be redrawn (poor Rupert, to be so snubbed!).

And if anyone is a late joiner and wants the history of why I'm giving away one of my favourite books each month, then the history of the contest is here.

Chopping and changing

2010-05-23T12:03:00.004+10:00

Sorry for blog silence, between busy day job days and revisions, I am Mel of boringness right now.

Currently working my way through the part of revisions which is the most amount of changing order of scenes and what happens so the going has been a little slow while I think it through. But so far it seems to be working. After this bit, the next few chapters are more tweaking so hopefully they'll go faster. Then there's a whole new bit to write. Which means I can boot up Write or Die and get my speed on. Yay! Drafting for the win. All this should result in a better book at the end (crosses fingers!) Trying to do a structural pass at the moment then I'll go back and do a (hopefully) much faster polishing/language pass.

Finding it hard to actually work out how much progress I'm making right now as I'm cutting things and moving things and writing new things and the chapters are a bit messed up. Usually I track my page count and word count for the day but page count isn't necessarily a good indicator when you're chopping and replacing chunks and word count isn't either. Which makes my Virgo side a bit edgy as that side of me likes to see progress meters etc zooming along. Sadly, that side of me just needs to chill out during this part!

Shall have to apply knitting and exercise to achieve said calming down. See if I can distract Virgo brain with watching socks grow or something ; ) Any other good tips for chill out diversions?

Books I'm looking forward to

2010-05-07T17:48:00.005+10:00

Given it's Friday night and the brain turns to thoughts of relaxation...I thought I'd do a list of books I'm looking forward to reading over the next few months. By no means a complete list lol

Magic Bleeds - Ilona Andrews (May, yay!)
I Kissed An Earl - Julie Anne Long (July)
Silver Borne - Patricia Briggs (Already out but haven't read it yet)
Mouse and Dragon - Sharon Lee and Steve Miller (June - their second new release this year, yippeee!)
A Kiss At Midnight - Eloisa James (August)
Last Night's Scandal - Loretta Chase (August)
Under Heaven - Guy Gavriel Kay (Hmmm, I thought I'd pre-ordered this, it was released late April, must check book depository)
Savour the Moment - Nora Roberts (May..need to order this one stat!)
A Conspiracy of Kings - Megan Whalen Turner (already out but another I haven't gotten to)
Naamah's Curse - Jacqueline Carey (June)
Maybe This Time - Jennifer Crusie (August)
Pegasus - Robin McKinley (Not until November but new Robin is worth anticipating)
Dark Road to Darjeeling - Diana Raybourn (October)
Cryoburn - Lois McMaster Bujold (November - new Miles, squee of frabjous joy)
Red Hot Renegade - Kelly Hunter (August)
Heaven's Spite - Lilith Saintcrow (November)
How to Bake a Perfect Life - Barbara O'Neal (December...which will probably push it to a Jan 11 read but it's a good way to start the year!)

As new books by many of my fave authors go, this is a pretty good six months coming right up!

How about everyone else? Who are you looking forward to (I'm sure I've missed many of mine!)? Always looking to discover fabbo new (or new to me authors)!

Re-visioning

2010-05-06T19:26:00.005+10:00

Given that I have revisions on the brain right now, I thought I'd talk a bit about them. I've probably done so before but hey, I can't remember right now (revision brain strikes!).

In general, I think writers fall into two camps. There are those who hate writing first drafts but love all the polishing and revision that comes afterwards and there are those who love writing first drafts but find revising harder work.

I tend to fall into the latter group. I love the freedom and fun of finding out what my story is in the first draft. A first draft that's flowing and working is pure joy to me. Then, when I get to the end, it's always a bit sad to realise "oh man, I just wrote x amount and now I have to go back and fix it all".

But given I write short first drafts with a severe lack of description and narration and er, lots of other things, I don't think I'm ever going to get away from having to do several drafts of my books. Even more so now I have an editor adding her brilliant insights after I've slogged away for a couple already.

Revision for me, consists of two main things:

1. Editing which is polishing and tweaking language and fixing up continuity and layering in some details and making character voices distinct etc. It's detail, small picture, word by word stuff.

2. Actual revising which is structure and plot and arcs and all that stuff that generally requires big picture thinking. This is the stuff that makes your book actually hang together as a whole. It's easy to write a lot of good polished scenes that don't work together if you don't spend time on the big picture.

So once I come to the end of my first draft, I put the book away for a bit but when I pull it out again, I need to do both types of editing. For me, I usually sit down and work out what I think the book needs right now. What's working, what isn't. What stuff appeared at the end that needs to be taken back and pulled through the book. What threads did I drop? How did the story change from what my initial idea? Am I happy with how it changed or did I lose my way? To help with this I might write the synopsis, or do scene lists. I definitely re-read the notes I made for myself throughout the manuscript as I was writing.

This stuff for me, is hard work, to force myself to be very analytical about the story but I've realised in the last little while as I've thought about this particular story that I do enjoy this part. It's not 'revising' which, to me, sounds boring. It's re-visioning. Redefining what the story is, what it can be. Finding where it needs to bloom or shrink. Working out how to make it shine. Giving myself a vision of it to work too. Of course, actually doing the work is still hard but I think I can get behind the concept that I'm re-visioning rather than revising. Which might just be a strange writer brain quirk but as in all things process, whatever gets you through the night (or draft).

Anyway after, I do my thinking, I sit down and do another draft. I do a reasonable amount of detail work (otherwise my betas and critique partners would likely be asking if I was on drugs) but it's mostly about fleshing out and making the big picture changes I've needed at this point. My draft usually grows by about 25 to 30 percent. This is the draft I send out to my betas and critique partners and agent for comments.

When I get those back, I do another draft to fix the stuff I've inevitably missed and make the story better still. And then probably do some quick passes through to really tweak language or world stuff (stuff like searching for US vs Aussie language, overused words, etc etc). I focus on one thing at a time and each pass might only take a few hours (the "find" feature in Word and speed reading are very very useful at this poitn). This sounds like a lot of drafts but I tend to revise fast because that's what works for me, so it's not months of work. Um, unless I've stuffed something up majorly.

After that, it goes back to my agent for submission (or I guess, from now on, to my editor!) What happens after that point depends on the editorial process. Most likely another draft then line edits then copyedits. At which point I will be thoroughly sick of the book and probably thinking it's complete dreck. Because that is also inevitable for me. Once you've read a book over and over, you lose all perspective (which is why you need betas and crit partners and agents and editors).

During all of this I'll also be working on drafting something new and then the whole darn process will just start over again. That's the glamourous writing life for you!

April contest winner!

2010-05-03T19:52:00.003+10:00

The lucky winner of Welcome to Temptation is Eileen, who commented on my April 5th post.

Eileen, contact me at mel @ mjscott dot net and let me know your details and WTT will be winging its way to you very soon.

I'll redraw the prize if I don't hear from Eileen in one week.

And now back to revisions for me.

It's that time again...

2010-05-01T07:40:00.001+10:00

Someone put the year on fast forward! It can't possibly be the first of May yet apparently it is. Sorry that April was a little light on blogging, not sure May will be much better as I am entering the revision cave but I'll try and come up for air now and then.

Anyway, the first of the month means it's time for a brand new contest prize.
For the history of my paying-it-forward contest go here.

I'll draw the April winner sometime over the weekend and post it here and on Twitter so stay tuned!

So what fabulous book is it this month? The first book in one of my all time favourite fantasy series...Daughter of the Blood by Anne Bishop.

Daughter of the Blood is the first book in the Black Jewels trilogy (well, these days there are more than three books in the world, which I am very thankful for). Like Sunshine, it's one of those books I kept picking up in bookstores then putting back down (I really should learn to just buy the book in those situations). But one day I finally bought it, took it home and completely fell in love. It's a very different dark fantasy world (though one with some lovely light moments too) and the hero is absolutely to die for, even if you wouldn't want to meet him in a dark alley! Come to think of it, you wouldn't want to meet the heroine in a dark alley either if you'd gotten on her wrong side. I love the world building in these books and the intriguing morality of the world as well as the gorgeous characters (and did I mention the hero? lol). I think I was back at the book store the very next day and bought the other two books in the trilogy and have eagerly devoured all of Anne's work since (with especial squees of joy whenever she returns to the Black Jewels world).

So this month's prize is Daughter of the Blood, and someone can win a brand new copy which I hope will one day look as battered (lovingly battered) as mine!

Here's a taste of the blurb...

"Seven hundred years ago, a Black Widow witch sees an ancient prophecy come to life in her dazzling web of dreams and visions.

Now the Dark Kingdom readies itself for the arrival of its Queen, a Witch who will wield more power than even the High Lord of Hell himself. But she is still young, still open to influence - and corruption."

Same rules as April but with one tweak....comment on this or any other of my blog posts this month and you're in the running. Simple. Winner will be drawn early May and announced on the blog and via Twitter/Facebook and will have one week (this is the tweak, one week only folks) to claim their prize or there will be a re-draw.

Making a start

2010-04-26T19:24:00.003+10:00

It's a long weekend here in Australia, and I've been having an at home weekend, puttering around doing things that needed doing (well, apart from hanging out with my awesome crit buddies on Sunday...minus the fabulous Keri who is swanning around in Ohio, getting ready to party at the Romantic Times conference).

One of the things I tackled was clearing out my spare room, which had become pretty much full of junk over the last few years. A task I've been avoiding forever because it seemed like too big a job. But this weekend I reached that point of "enough is enough", girded up my virgo loins, grabbed my handy dandy kitchen timer and attacked.

And here's the thing. It took nowhere near as long as I thought. I still haven't finished completely, I need to sort through two bookcases to identify books to go to the Salvos or somewhere so I have a bit more space but tackling the junk took maybe 2 and half hours. (Trust me, there was plenty of junk!) In fifteen minute spurts so I'm not exhausted at the end of the weekend and I had plenty of time to relax and do other things. I've probably spent far longer over the last few years looking at it and thinking "too hard".

Getting rid of stuff is good for the brain. It gives you space to breathe. And Nike has it right. Just do it is a pretty good motto. Starting something gets rid of the niggling "I should do x or y, or I need to tackle x or clean" thoughts that take up so much space in our heads.

I don't think it's a coincidence that Saturday night, after I'd finished, a shiny new book idea popped into my head. Sure, I don't have time for it right now but new ideas are always a good thing. Space is a good thing for writers. It's easier to be creative when you're not worrying about everything else you "should" be doing.

So that's my wisdom for the weekend. Getting started always makes you feel better and you can tackle anything (even something huge like writing a book) in fifteen minute bursts and it will get done. You don't have to kill yourself putting in twelve hour days (well, maybe sometimes on a deadline you do..but even then if you're in the regular habit, you shouldn't have to do so much to meet a deadline), it doesn't have to be perfect straight away, you just have to make the effort to start and keep going. Maybe not particularly earth shattering (particularly if you've ever listened/read any Flylady stuff) but well worth remembering when writing or anything else seems overwhelming. Just do it.

Hopefully I'll remember all this if I have to disappear into the depths of the revision cave over the next few weeks!

Little steps

2010-04-18T15:20:00.004+10:00

Given we've whizzed through a third and a bit of the year already, I thought it might be helpful to revisit my yearly goals (the radical thought being that paying attention to them during the year helps keep them on track!).

So back in December this is what I had to say about my 2010 goals.

So how have I done so far?

1. Writing

Obviously the big achievement for the year has been selling a book (it still seems quite surreal to say that!) so that started the year off right. But it also changed my plans as I now have official deadlines etc to meet and will have a whole lot of extra stuff to do. So the new goals are to meet my deadlines (beat them if I can) and still try and write some extra bits and pieces and enjoy the process : ) I've been working away at book 2 while I'm waiting for my revisions, so I'm on track so far!

2. Get healthier. So far mostly good. I've lost about 6 kilos this year but will confess to falling off the exercise wagon in the last four weeks or so (a combination of post book sale adrenaline crash and being crook and day job getting a bit crazy). But this week I started again with baby steps and next week will get back on the elliptical. I'd gotten up to week 7 on c25k, so might have to back track a bit. One thing I realised in getting to that point was that I vastly prefer interval runs on the elliptical and the last few weeks of the program are pretty much three long runs a week so I might do a variation where I do 2 interval runs and 1 longer steady state run a week. Not sure why but it's easier for me to do 30 mins of intervals than 30 mins of "just run". So let's go with what works. The shoulder which was bugging me most of last year has been a lot better but not perfect which is making it hard to pick up other things again but I'll keep working on it. And I've gotten back into tracking my food this week too after having my adsl out for 11 days got me out of that habit.

3. Filling the well. Still doing bits and pieces of craft and relaxation so that's good.

4. Organisation. This was definitely a 'needs improvement' area from last year. So I've been taking small steps there too. Trying to get my routines back in place to get my little house ticking over nicely and declutter. I mostly use Flylady's techniques with a few variations of my own as I'm a big fan of the do things in little bits and pieces and build up habits approach. Plus the whole "just get back on the wagon whereever you are" is a good thing to remember in most areas of life. Things (the To-Do program I blogged about back then) has been really good for me in keeping things more organised, so that's a Yay. I haven't been using Tumblr or Evernote quite as much as I probably could but I still really like both of them.

The other area I'm reorganising is my finances. Given I'll have some writing income (yay), I have a need to be paying closer attention. One day I'd like to be a full time writer which will mean living on unpredictable and variable income so time to really knuckle down and get good habits in place.

A few years back I was using Quicken and doing okay with tracking everything but then the day job decided we couldn't put any additional software on our work computers and I was on a Mac at home (and they don't sell Quicken for Mac in Australia) and at the time, there wasn't anything much around that worked well for me Mac software-wise so I went back to just keeping tabs on things on paper (after all, I am an accountant and a Virgo so I had to use something). But keeping it on paper is kind of tedious and leads to a "well, let's put some money aside for various big bills" and the rest is just a big pile of money approach to finance (at least, for me it does). Which doesn't really work for either personal or business finances and leads to much time being put in at tax time to file and organise all the business stuff (of course with Flylady back in place I'll be filing all along this year ; ) ).

Luckily, a piece of software I'd looked at and liked back then (that didn't have a Mac version at the time) called YNAB (or You Need A Budget) which combines both register type functions like Quicken etc with sensible, zero based budgeting has recently brought out their Mac version so I've put that into place. The only thing it doesn't do quite as fancily as Quicken is reporting but it does export to excel and I can produce all the fancy reports I want for tax purposes etc from there, so that's good enough for me (if it turns out I need something fancier down the line I'll address that with something else like Moneydance or iBank or whatever is needed and use it just for the writing side of my finances). This is not a personal finance blog so I won't rave on about how much I already like the YNAB methodology for really making you pay attention to what you are and aren't doing with your money but it's well worth checking out if you are interested in that sort of thing. They have lots of resources on the site about budgeting etc that you can read and access without buying the software (which is much cheaper than Quicken etc anyway) if it is something that interests you.

The other thing I'll be doing is seeing an accountant. Yes, I am an accountant but I am NOT a tax accountant or a day to day running a business type accountant so I'll be getting advice up front to confirm (and hopefully improve on) what I think I need to do business-wise. I'm lucky in that I do understand the business side of things given my background but I also know enough to know what I don't know and that I'll need advice. Writer's income with royalties and overseas income and things like income averaging is not straightforward and I'm sure now that I'm actually earning some proper income over and above the odd comp win, there are probably more deductions I can claim. Getting advice now and using an expert will save me/make me money over time (much the same way having an agent does : ) ). To any writer (whether pubbed or pursuing it seriously) I'd say you need to know about the business stuff and keep good records (In Australia you can claim your expenses before publication, and I think the same is true in the US, but there are rules and things you need to do to not fall foul of the Tax Department/IRS so get advice! Which this is not). So you either do it yourself or farm it out to someone else if it's not your thing (and get advice either way!)

So my goals for organisation are to keep Flylady habits going and keep the finance tracking/systems going (including said accountant consultation/s once I get a cheque).

So all, in all, I think I'll give myself a green light so far. Even though I haven't been perfect (and really, life isn't perfect so it's not that big a deal, I've been moving forward and making the changes I want to make. So now I can keep taking little steps and getting to where I want to go over the next few months!

She lives

2010-04-12T20:49:00.004+10:00

Yes, I am indeed alive. Bad blogger. But I have been suffering from a horrible cold which decided it should bring its friend razorblade throat and consequently have done little worthy of blogging for a week. Catalogues of pills and potions and tissue count are not very exciting. I haven't even read a lot due to foggy brain. I have watched a fair amount of DVD (Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and most of Glee if you care) and slept a lot. Perhaps I'm turning into a TV watching cat.

But today I am starting to feel human again and have managed ten pages. Yay. The muse is throwing up disconnected random snippets but at least they're snippets that are flowing easily. So given book has decided to talk again, I'm figuring Murphy's Law will dictate that my revisions will hit any second now and I'll have to switch tracks. But oh well, nice problem to have : )

Winner!

2010-04-05T09:17:00.004+10:00

Hope everyone has been had a good weekend.

I've drawn the winner of my March contest and it's Jo Mc!

Jo, contact me at mel @ mjscott.net (without the spaces) with your details and Sunshine will be winging its way to you.

If Jo doesn't contact me by the 19th, I'll redraw the prize.

Don't forget, this month, it's Welcome to Temptation by Jennifer Crusie up for grabs!

April fool (well, not really)

2010-04-01T17:43:00.000+11:00

Apparently March has whizzed by already and that means it's time to announce April's contest. For the history of my paying-it-forward contest go here.

I'll draw the March winner sometime over the weekend and post it here and on Twitter so stay tuned!

And now onto April. This month, the prize is Welcome to Temptation by Jenny Crusie.

Way back in hmmm, 2001, when I had decided to give this whole writing thing a serious go, one of the first things I went to (thanks to the sharp eyes of my flatmate at the time) was a talk given by the always lovely Anne Gracie at the Victoria Writers Centre about writing romance (sensible given that was what I wanted to do). Anne was fresh off the plane from the Romance Writer's of America New Orleans Conference and probably jetlagged as a jetlagged thing but she was entertaining and educational and full of enthusiasm for what she did (and alliterative, apparently). She was pretty much the first real! live! author! I had met in person and because she was so nice, something clicked in my brain that authors were people too rather than superheros (though Anne is a superhero) and maybe I could do this after all and I came away all inspired. I finished my first manuscript which had been languishing at three chapters for quite a long time about two months later. Anyway, at the talk Anne had spoken about different genres of romance and one of the contemporary authors she mentioned was Jenny.

Welcome to Temptation had been out for a little while in Australia (I remember wandering past the bright green cover in various bookstores several times - picture the above cover kind of Granny Smith apple green) but after Anne's talk, I finally gave in and bought it (there may yet be a recurring theme in these tales of books Mel has resisted for no particularly reason then adored once she bought them). I took it home and started to read and fell in love with contemporary romance all over again. Witty, sexy, intelligent romance. I became a Crusie fan on the spot and remain one to this day. I own every single book she's written and some of them twice but I think Welcome to Temptation remains my favourite mostly because Phin is a hero who is right up my alley. Still not sure why as generally I don't do blonds.

Jenny is also a great writing teacher and I've belonged to her loops for ages and can be found hanging out on the Cherry Forums from time to time.

Other favourite books of hers include Manhunting, Tell Me Lies and Agnes and the Hitman (co-written with Bob Mayer) though really, I love 'em all.

So this month's prize is Welcome to Temptation, another book I have read too many times to count, and turn to as a treasured comfort read. Anyone who hasn't read it and loves great contemporary romance is in for a treat. Now, to continue the tradition..here's a taste of the back cover blurb from that very green book I bought.

"Sophie came to Temptation, Ohio, to help her sister make a movie. Now she's making trouble for the town council, love with the mayor and lemonade for a murderer...Welcome to Temptation. Population 2158. And falling."

For April, it's the same rules as March. Comment on this or any other of my blog posts this month and you're in the running. Simple. Winner will be drawn early May and announced on the blog and via Twitter and will have two weeks to claim their prize or there will be a re-draw.

On Golden Hearts

2010-03-28T13:02:00.004+11:00

This week is always a big week in the romance writing world because the RITA and Golden Heart finalists are announced. The RITA and Golden Heart awards are run by the Romance Writers of America and are essentially the Oscars for published and unpublished romance writers respectively.

So big congrats to all the finalists...especially the Aussies (yes, slight bias) Kelly Hunter, Bronwyn Parry and Elizabeth Rolls for the RITAs and Robyn Enlund (extra woot for my crit buddy), Kylie Griffin, Vanessa Barneveld and Gabrielle Luthy for the Golden Heart.

Enjoy the ride everyone.

Being a finalist in the Golden Heart is pretty exciting stuff. It's a big credential for your writing when querying agents and editors and winners and finalists have a good history of selling. What's interesting though is that, anecdotally (not sure if anyone has ever actually done stats) is that winners and finalists also have a history of quitting writing after the Golden Heart.

So here's the thing....don't give up. There's sixty odd finalists each year in (currently) ten categories each year. I was a finalist in 2007 and we probably had the same sorts of numbers...maybe a few more. Now, most years, a couple of you will sell the GH book or another book before results come out, at least one winner will sell the book at conference or very close to and there will be other sales throughout the year. I'd like nothing better than for everyone to sell their GH book (and snag themselves a fab agent as well) and have it be the kickstart to a glorious career. But most likely, that won't happen. Not everyone will sell their GH book this year, or maybe at all. Not everyone will pick up an agent out of it. And I think that for those who give up at this point, the fact that they don't sell or don't get the agent somehow equals "this is never going to work for me if I can't sell a book that finalled in/won the freaking Golden Heart".

In fact, finalling or winning means the opposite. It means you are a good writer. It means you have what it takes. But you might still have to grit your teeth and keep writing and keep walking the bumpy road of publishing a bit longer before you get that perfect combination of agent, book, editor and market that equals a sale. I sold this year...not quite three years after I got the finalist call (and I was a double finalist, though granted, I switched focus and have only really pursued one of the categories I finalled in since). It wasn't my GH book that sold, it was a few more books down the path. I would still love to find my GH book a home one day because I do love it but to date, it hasn't sold.

Of the gals in my GH year, there's been a steady stream of sales, some of Golden Heart manuscripts, some of other books. Some of other books then Golden Heart manuscripts but not everyone has sold yet. But I know they will if they just keep going. Because GH finalists have what it takes. How do I know? Well, of the 2007 gals, there are five RITA nominations this year. Not too shabby for a bunch of gals who were all unpublished three years ago.

So good luck to everyone, I hope you all sell fast. Enjoy the fun of being a finalist but keep writing and don't give up!

After the call

2010-03-21T17:42:00.007+11:00

So I thought I'd keep a record of when various things happen between getting the call and my first book actually hitting the shelves. With the caveat that every publisher is slightly different, so this is how it works with my editor (Jessica Wade), my agent (Miriam Kriss) and Ace/Roc (I'll just call them Ace for now until I know which arm I'll be in). Also, I'm in Australia, so I'm 15-17 hours ahead of New York depending on the time of year. So I'll give the dates that things happened for me but don't get confused if some of them are Saturday morning because that's Friday afternoon NY time.

For my actual "call" story go here. The actual call for me was Saturday February 20th after which there was a weekend of much celebrating and smiling and telling my news to lots of people and pinching myself to believe it was real.

23 February 2010 - My agent asked me if I had dates in mind to hand in book 2 and 3. At this point I had about 100 pages written of book 2. I will admit I wasn't expecting to be asked, I thought the publisher would probably "suggest" dates. It wasn't an easy thing to figure out without knowing what the revisions on Book 1 were going to be like. (At this point I found out the revision letter date was probably going to be around 1 April). So I consulted published friends and pondered and eventually came up with some dates. Given this is my first go around, I gave myself a fair bit of wriggle room, figuring that I'd never written a book while dealing with revisions and line edits and copy edits and all that other stuff. I also asked my agent to check if Ace were fine with M.J. Scott as my pseudonym.

26 February 2010 - Miriam confirmed M.J. Scott was okay with Ace and that she'd passed my details onto Jessica, so that I should hear from her soon (I will note that I had spoken to Jessica during the acquisition process). At this point I blogged the news, though I'd already told people on various loops and on Twitter). I also updated my website.

27 February 2010 - Got an email from Jessica to say hello etc. I replied and we organised a time to speak in person.

5 March 2010 - Spoke to Jessica (hopefully more coherently than during the acquisition process lol). She confirmed I could expect my revision notes around 1 April and went over what would happen throughout the process. We spoke about the title and biz stuff like international taxes (not an issue if you're in the US) and general answering of my newbie questions. We also spoke a little bit about covers and I got her okay to put a pre-official blurb blurb up on the website.

23 April 2010 - Miriam receives my contract.

29 April 2010 - I receive my revision letter.

30 April 2010 - I think a lot about the revisions and how I might address the points and send some ideas off to Jessica. (Luckily this was one of my no day job days!)

1 May 2010 - Jessica and I talk about the revisions and my ideas on how to proceed with them and come to some conclusions and then I start getting stuck in.

9 June 2010 - Started talking some more about the cover and found out my publication date is June 2011! Exciting!

22 July 2010 - Got my contract via email, asked my agent a couple of questions and ran around Melbourne finding a printer who'd print it for me on US Legal paper (which is a very odd size to we Aussies!)

23 July 2010 - Contract signed and mailed back to Penguin.

27 September 2010 - Miriam got the signed contracts back (and btw, finally got paid after um, three years and nine months of working for me)!

4 October 2010 - I got my copy of the signed contract from Miriam.

17 October 2010 - Handed in book 2

6 November 2010 - Another round of revisions of Shadow Kin.

11 November 2010 - Found out my publication date had been moved to September 2011

10 December 2010 - Got the first look at the cover copy and discussed with Jessica

17 December 2010 - Handed in my second lot of revisions for Shadow Kin

22 January 2011 - Another look at the cover copy with more discussions

8 February 2011 - Got my first look at my very first cover (yippeeee) though not allowed to share it at this point

And that's what's happened so far...I'll keep updating this post as stuff happens!

Still marooned

2010-03-21T09:24:00.003+11:00

Still without home adsl. Apparently it's meant to be fixed tomorrow. At this point I'm sceptical but fingers crossed. On Thursday I got sick of trying to keep up with everything online via the iPhone (not to mention was getting concerned about my data allowance for the month) so I decided to go buy a prepaid mobile wireless internet modem. Have to say, so far it works pretty well. Pity that we get so severely ripped off for mobile data in this country. But it will come in handy for travels within Australia in the future plus I guess is tax deductible, so not a complete loss.

In other news I have given myself a week to ponder my plot and the best the girls can come up with is "it's mostly right but we don't know much more than that" so I'm going to just keep writing while I'm waiting for my revision letter (eeek!) and see what happens. (The joys of pantsing!) In the meantime the muse has wanted to watch Gossip Girl and Bones and read J.D. Robb. No idea what that combination is likely to produce in the brain but should be interesting.

Yesterday was the first ballet of the year - The Silver Rose - which was interesting but not the world's best music I have to admit. The costumes were gorgeous (all art nouveau inspired) and the dancing was fab but the music was just a bit meh which spoils some of the drama. And it's a very "operatic" (as Terry Pratchett would say) plot. Given it's inspired by Der Rosenkavalier this makes sense but the plot doesn't, really. Never big on the "man dresses as woman and another man falls for him instantly" plot. Still, well worth a look if you're ballet inclined and in Australia.

Marooned

2010-03-13T10:07:00.005+11:00

Thanks to the gods of communications who decreed that fixing my landline = breaking my adsl I am without Internet at home and can only get online via the iPhone (have I mentioned how much I love my iPhone?)

So I'll be tweeting a bit and checking emails but otherwise scarce as things like blogging are tricky on teeny screen. Plus I can't update my template on the phone so here's the latest wordcount....45k!!! Yay that is hopefully over half way of first draft page count! Aiming to get to 50k by tomorrow night which should be doable given have less ways to procrastinate with no Internet on the computer!

More when I'm back in the land of the wired.

Teaser

2010-03-10T20:35:00.002+11:00

Just a quick post to let you know that I've posted a quick teaser blurb for Shadow Kin on my website.

Hope you like it!

And now, having violated the pages before other stuff rule, must knuckle down to do my pages for the night....hopefully Write or Die and the girls will come to my rescue!

Nearly

2010-03-08T21:07:00.004+11:00

Well, I didn't quite make it to 40k which was my goal for the weekend, thanks mainly to a fit of the tireds yesterday and a fit of the generally uninspireds today. But I did still manage 7 pages today so that's not a complete write-off. If I do six tomorrow I'll hit the 40k mark.

The words are still coming but still not entirely sure how this book is going to hang together. There are a few different goals being pursued which are pulling people in completely different directions and I still haven't had the flash of inspiration as to how it all fits. Hopefully that will still arrive, otherwise there will be much revision whining to be had.

Otherwise the weekend has contained crit meetings and dinners out and wrestling with recalcitrant fridges and recalcitrant phones. I can claim (I think) victory over the fridge but we're waiting on the repairman to check out the phone line. Luckily whatever is affected the voice calls doesn't seem to be bothering my ADSL so I still have internet. So as long as Melbourne doesn't have any more completely crazy weather (which luckily my little house survived unscathed) which makes using a mobile phone ill advised, I'll just have to rely on the cell for awhile.

This week I have a couple of presentations to do at the day job, including one Friday morning which means my day off will be shortened so all will be busy busy but I'd still like to get another forty or so pages written. At times like this, when you're not sure what's going on with the story, being a pantser means just keeping on putting one damn word down after another and trusting that the girls know something you don't.

I also need to get a bit more focused back on the food and exercise. There have been many celebratory dinners and lunches and I think the indulgence is one reason I'm feeling tired. Plus I didn't get my last run for the week in yesterday or today so have to make sure that happens tomorrow to try and pep myself up again. And cut off the cravings for cake and chocolate and champagne which are rearing their little heads a bit too much after being allowed out too often! I've still been pretty good but pretty good can slide to not so good and then before you know it to really not good if you let it. I feel better when I'm eating healthy most of the time and doing my exercise so it's back to the routines this week.

And now, I think I'll go watch Big Bang and get an early night because the first of those presentations is tomorrow!

The awkward stage

2010-03-04T20:25:00.005+11:00

If my wip were a person right now it would be a teenager. A slightly sullen, earphone wearing, far-more-interested-in-texting-their-best-friends-than-talking-to-someone-as boring-as-the-person-writing-it teenager. It's at that awkward stage. It happens every book.

I'm not a plotter, so I tend to plunge into a book with a shiny crunchy idea and see what happens. What usually happens is that the shiny crunchy idea and initial book rush gives me enough momentum to get about a bit less than a third of the rough draft in (around 100 pages for one of my long books) and it gets tricky. I start to realise I have no idea what's happening, feel like there's no plot and can't really remember what was exciting or interesting about the idea in the first place. It all feels flat and dull. The words come more or less (though there will be a point where I'm just stuck for a bit and have to keep circling back through what I've written while I think) but they feel off kilter (even though when I come back to revise they'll be no better or worse than the rest of it). It's the bit where my analytical side starts to try and take over and say "we NEED to know what's going on. you NEED a plot. The sky is falling etc etc".

Depending on the book, this means brainstorming or whining to my crit partners or just ignoring it and plowing on or skipping ahead to some of the bits further on in the book that I do know and getting those down in the hopes of shaking something that will pull it together loose. This particular book, I have only the vaguest idea of later scenes. I don't even have a very good idea about the last scene (and I usually know that) though I'm starting to get glimpses. And I've done some brainstorming but haven't yet had the lightning bolt idea. So I'm thinking that I just have to put my head down and keep writing.

Of course, for this book, for the first time, I know that in a few weeks it will have to be put on hold for a bit while I do revisions on Shadow Kin. And I know that what changes in SK will have an impact on this book. But that's really just going to be situation normal from now on. I will be interrupted to do revisions or copy edits or whatever publishing throws up. I will have to chop and change. So I'm using this as an opportunity to learn how to do it. Learning how to plot in advance might be more useful but I've been doing this for eight odd years now and have never really managed to find a way of plotting that doesn't send the muse screaming from the room...I know I'll probably have to do outlines or proposals in the future but I'm not under the illusion that the books will end up much like those proposals. Or that I will enjoy doing them.

So for now, it's much like dealing with a teenager, stay positive and just keep moving forward. My goal for the next four days is to get to 40k. Should be do-able. I might even get the blinding flash of inspiration.

So what about everyone else? Do your books have awkward stages? Are you pantsers who sometimes wish desperately for an industrial strength flashlight to show you the way like me or do you wrestle with the story in advance while you plot and then just write your way through? Any tips or tricks for coaxing a story out to play?

PS Don't forget: comment on any of my posts this month and you're in the running to win a copy of Robin McKinley's Sunshine (details here).

Paying it forward or Contest!!

2010-03-01T13:12:00.006+11:00

Like most writers, I came to my love of stories by reading. I learned to read young and haven't stopped since. I have even, in the past, been accused of eating books. My favourite authors have provided me with countless hours of pleasure, distraction and comfort when I've needed it. They've also taught me a lot about being a writer and what makes a good story. They're the ones who make me want to write better, who inspire me and keep me on this path. There is almost nothing in the world I like better than discovering a new fabulous author or sinking into the world of an old friend book.

It's still a little hard to believe that sometime next year people will be able to pull my book off the shelf and (hopefully!) enjoy their time in my stories. But it's true and to celebrate that fact, I've decided to celebrate some of the authors who've given me so much enjoyment over the years and have some role to play in the type of writer I am today.

So every month until my book comes out, I'll be giving away one of my favourite books on my blog to hopefully introduce some old and new favourite authors to some new readers. To be eligible to win all you have to do is comment on one of my posts for the month. If you comment on more than one post then you get more than one entry into the draw (though multiple comments on one post still only get you one entry). Each month I'll post the giveaway book around the 1st or 2nd and draw the previous month's winner. (I am reserving the right to vary the rules from month to month as hey, this is my contest : ) ).

Given I read in a wide variety of genres, there will be a variety of books...books I hope you'll love like I do but as with all things in life, taste is individual : ). I'd imagine a large percentage of them will end up being fantasy, romance and urban fantasy but you never know what might turn up.

Eventually I'll have other contests to do with my books but until then...let's get the ball rolling...

This month's book is Sunshine by Robin McKinley. A book that Neil Gaiman describes as "Pretty much perfect" and I tend to agree.

I've blogged about Sunshine before but it's a book that I resisted for a while. I kept picking it up in the bookstore, reading the blurb then putting it back down. But one day I thought "there's a reason" I keep picking this up and I bought it. That was probably in 2007 and I hadn't read anything else of Robin's at that point. I took Sunshine home that night, opened it up and pretty much didn't move from my couch until I was done, so smitten was I with the book. I've re-read it many many times since then and I love it more every time. I own two copies because I'm wearing out my first rapidly.

Sunshine is one of those cross genre books that's hard to describe. The closest I can come is alt-earth paranormal with a smidge of horror fantasy romance. It's funny and scary and romantic and full of food that will make you starving hungry every time you read it. The heroine is cranky and delightful and very real. It's a very unique world and Robin has a wonderful voice. Sunshine is definitely one of my all time favourite books. Since reading it I've read all Robin's other books. Other favourites of hers include Chalice, Dragonhaven, Spindle's End and The Blue Sword. I'm eagerly awaiting Pegasus, her next book which is due out in November this year (way too long to wait, so I'll just have to keep re-reading until then).

To whet your appetite..here's the start of the back cover blurb...

"There are places in the world where darkness rules, where it's unwise to walk. But the lake had been quiet for years... She never heard them coming. Of course, you don't when they're vampires."

So comment away this month and a copy of Sunshine could be winging its way to you next month!

PS I'll be posting the winner and will give them two weeks to claim the book after which there will be a re-draw of the prize. So if you don't want to miss out, don't forget to check back or subscribe to the blog or follow me on Twitter so as not to miss the announcement.

The call

2010-02-26T09:59:00.003+11:00

Sorry there has been blog silence but there have been great things afoot which I have not been allowed to blog about...

Some of you may have heard the news already but people, I have sold a book! In fact, I have sold three. On the 20th of February I finally got "the call" and am beyond thrilled to announce that I'll be writing as M.J. Scott for Ace/Roc (Penguin USA's SF/F imprint). Ace/Roc publish a very high percentage of my favourite fantasy authors so I'm going to be in some very illustrious company.

Anyway, the actual story....

Those of you who read this blog know that after a year that wasn't really the highpoint in my writing life, I finished a new book and Miriam sent it out on January 21. We had some fairly immediate encouraging feedback that week and then some even more encouraging feedback the following week (at which point my nails started to fear for their lives). I was trying not to get too excited after all, publishing can move very slowly. And it's been a bit under three years since Miriam sent out my first book and the last twelve months or so have really not been the greatest time to try and sell as a debut author (note to aspiring authors out there...try not to have a Global Financial Crisis during your submission process) despite Miriam's untiring championing of me and my work. So I know that it's a long haul business.

However it seems the publishing gods finally decided to let me switch to a faster track because early the following week we got an offer. An offer from a house that has always been on my dream list. So Miriam went to work talking to the other houses who had the book, I stopped sleeping and started avoiding people so I wouldn't have to explain the stupid grin on my face and the waiting began. We got a second offer late on Friday in the US (Saturday morning for me) from another house that was on my dream list so then we knew there would be some sort of auction!! The US then had a long weekend which felt like the longest four days of my life (being ahead of the US here in Oz I knew I wouldn't hear anything until my Wednesday morning) where I had to walk around pinching myself a lot and swinging between happy and very very nervous.

The auction and various agentish things took until late Friday their time again but finally Miriam called me early Saturday morning my time and we talked and then she called the winning editor and then I got the official "call" from Miriam to say it was a done deal. So in the end it took just under a month. Plus the eight odd years of writing and submitting prior. Since then I've been walking around (or maybe floating around) in a bit of a daze, smiling a lot and still not sleeping very much as my brain comes up with a thousand and one questions and a thousand and one things to do, most of which have to wait.

As a piece of trivia - the number one question you get asked when you tell people you've sold a book is "when does it come out". Depending on who you've sold to, you probably won't know this straight away. At the moment I know it will be in the second half of next year but nothing more definite. The number two question is "when are you quitting your day job" (or maybe..does this mean you're resigning if you tell people at your day job). The answer to that one is easier. "Not right now and probably not for a while."

So it seems for the next 18 months or so there will be much learning about being a paid writer, much writing and hopefully much blogging about the process between the call and publication. I'll be posting news about release dates, titles, covers and all that good stuff as it comes to hand here and on my website (just updated...go see).

Until then I'll be working on book two (and book one revisions when they land), snoopy dancing and hopefully returning to a normal sleep pattern!

PS If anyone links to my website, it's now www.mjscott.net rather than .info (though .info will redirect) so please update your links.

PPS As a final comment WOOOHOOOOO!!!

Spinning around

2010-02-12T11:56:00.004+11:00

Sorry, I've been awol. Last week I got unexpectedly sick (does one ever get expectedly sick?) in the middle of the week then spent the rest of the week trying to catch up. This week a combination of hot hot hot days and horribly humid nights, looming deadlines at the day job and some unexpected night time activities (plus one late day job call with the UK) has meant I've been officially frantic, knackered and just plain not around much to exercise, write or blog!

Tomorrow I head down to the folks to dog sit for a night while they go on an Antarctic sight-seeing flight (how cool is that? Australia is actually close to somewhere after all : ) ) but given it will be just me and the big black pooch, I'm hoping for some uninterrupted writing time. Unlike the orange cat, the big black pooch does not try and sit on one's lap while at the computer.

Despite the general life craziness, I have spent a lot of time thinking about the book, especially last weekend, because I was getting that words-coming-like-sludge feeling that generally means something is not quite right still. So I've been poking and prodding the muse and the girls in the basement and think I now have an idea that raises the stakes. I often do this circling through the first 100 pages or so a couple of times until I feel like I have the push the book needs. Although, every time it happens, I forget and go "Argh, why stuck? why? Nice shiny idea should work easy peasy". Today starts the process of working through what I've got to weave the new idea in and see where that gets me. I'm hoping I can get through most of it this weekend and start charging forward again.

PS Happy birthday for yesterday to this little man who is now one (and where the heck did that year go??), much bigger than he was a year ago, ridiculously cute and out to conquer the world any day now.

100

2010-02-01T21:22:00.002+11:00

Yay, have cracked one hundred pages...hopefully a bit under a third of the way through the draft now!

Would like to be around 250 at the end of the month, so let's see how that goes!

A pause to ponder

2010-01-30T22:08:00.003+11:00

After my big push over my five day weekend, I took Wednesday and Thursday to think about where I was taking the story and Friday to do a bit more brainstorming and working out what I needed to nail down a bit more in the 20k or so I've written before moving on. The upshot is that I think the direction is okay but I'm taking the next few days to take a pass back over that 20k and flesh a few things out so I can move forward from a more solid base. This often happens to me about this stage, but this time because I've been sprinting and not going back over what I'd written, I do need the pause and a fast loop back. I'm not aiming to make what I've written perfect, just make sure I've got the bones of everything I need in place. We'll see if I need a few more pauses as I go given that I intend to keep using Write or Die as much as possible to get through this zero draft.

Today I spent most of the day at a patchwork class but then I came home and made it through Chapter One (and added some pages so technically, I'm still making progress). Tomorrow hopefully I'm get through a couple more chapters and add some more pages. It would be nice to finish the month with 100 pages done! Still aiming for zero draft done by the end of March.

In other news, it's hot, I've been doing pretty well with the diet and exercise portion of my goals for the year and niggly shoulder keeps on improving. Woot all round!

The simple things

2010-01-25T21:10:00.004+11:00

Having Monday away from the day job always feels kind of decadent (even though it's a regular occurence with my schedule). It's nice to go to sleep on Sunday night knowing that one doesn't have to get up early, even if the grey cat apparently begged to differ this morning and demanded breakfast at six am. After which I went back to sleep.

Another lovely sunny not too hot, not too cold day in Melbourne. I have swum, caught up with the VT and eaten of most excellent orange and ricotta hotcakes at her cafe, caught up with other friends, done grocery shopping so that I can eat for the week and made my page count (hopefully after tomorrow I'll be somewhere in the closing-in-on-ninety pages vicinity, at which point I shall most likely have to stop and think a bit). Not a bad life really, even if the current influx of small boys in my street combined with school holidays means that it rather more punctuated with boy noises (ie strange thumps, yells of triumph during street cricket and the sounds of bike tires whirring around the court) than usual which can prove distracting at times.

Still it's good to see kids outside playing rather than stuck inside with a video game. I grew up in a street full of boys so have had more than my fair share of strange thump creation, cricket and football matches and hair raising bike chases (our street was bracketed on either end with two quite substantial hills which meant one could get up quite the speed burst...the trick being able to stop afterwards - I have a scar on my right knee to prove this).

And now, the daily report...

Progress - Holly

New pages - 11
Intriguing things - Unexpected plot directions
Annoyances - Not many.
Linear/non-linear - Linear
Music - Soundtrack
Location - Write or Die and Think.
Taking care of Mel - Swimming! Orange and ricotta hotcakes (hey treats are good too)!
Muse food - Soon to be administered

Not so lazy Sunday

2010-01-24T18:25:00.003+11:00

Reporting in (which I forgot to do last night but I was distracted by the interesting vocal talents of the band playing at a neighbours party and Iron Man).

So far we have stuck to the plan, so go me. Exercise wise yesterday I did my last c25k run for the week on the elliptical and today I did Cardio Coach on the elliptical and then in a fit of sunshine inspired craziness, went for a swim too. So go me lol. Am officially starving though and ready for a big dinner which is next on the to-do list. Have met my page goal each day too. I think I deserve pancakes tomorrow so will head on over to the VT's cafe and try theirs.

Progress - Holly

New pages - 11 today and 13 yesterday
Intriguing things - Reluctant knights
Annoyances - Not many.
Linear/non-linear - Linear
Music - Soundtrack
Location - Write or Die and Think yesterday. Word and Think and Write and Die and Think today.
Taking care of Mel - Swimming! Running. Salad galore.
Muse food - Robert Downey Jr. Though he's more muse food for the next book...

Five by five

2010-01-22T20:53:00.004+11:00

Yay, it is the weekend. And an extra long five day weekend at that. My goal is ten pages a day (with the theory that this will bootstrap me up to something like 80 pages which is almost one hundred pages which is almost a third of a book...oh the strange mind games writers play lol) and to do some exercise every day. Today I went swimming for the first time in forever having had the physio sign off to do a limited amount of backstroke and sculling. Still, was nice to be in the pool on a warm morning. Tomorrow will be Day 3 of Week 2 of the Couch to 5k challenge.

And writing wise, I can give myself a tick as well. So onwards and upwards to Day 2 tomorrow.

Progress - Holly

New pages - Fourteen
Intriguing things - Very very mean fae. Bad fae! Who likes Comfortably Numb (the Scissor Sister's version...go figure)
Annoyances - No attention span this afternoon but then things flowed nicely after dinner.
Linear/non-linear - Non
Music - Soundtrack, mostly Scissor Sisters
Location - Write or Die and Think.
Taking care of Mel - Swimming! Quinoa! Lovely blood orange sorbet for treats!
Muse food - Er, I'll think of something...but bought (after seeing a recommendation on Justine Larbalestier's blog) Gurrumul by Geoffrey Gurrumul Yurupingu and it is a beautiful CD. Sad and soothing at the same time.

Wednesday, full of lots of stuff (but no woe)

2010-01-20T20:36:00.002+11:00

Good enough for a sleepy Wednesday evening after a busy day at work. Need an early night!

Progress - Holly

New pages - Seven
Intriguing things - Very mean fae
Annoyances - Minimal
Linear/non-linear - Non
Music - Soundtrack
Location - Write or Die and Think.
Taking care of Mel - One early night coming up. More enchiladas (yum!)
Muse food - Hopefully can keep eyes open long enough to read a bit.

Onwards and so forth

2010-01-19T21:40:00.004+11:00

So the last book is starting it's journey out into the world today and we've had a few weeks of light writing and brainstorming and kicking around of ideas but I have enough now to get stuck in and ideally, I'd like to have a draft of this by the end of March, so time to get back to the routine. I'm at 5k now and the draft should be around 80ish if things run true to form, so need to crank out 310 or so pages in two and a half months. Which is perfectly do-able (knock wood, throw salt etc). For one thing head down and write is a distraction from what's going on over there with the other book (fingers crossed!) : )

Therefore, herewith, metrics are recommencing.

Progress - Holly

New pages - Seven
Intriguing things - Mean Fae
Annoyances - Minimal
Linear/non-linear - Non
Music - Shakira and Scissor Sisters
Location - Write or Die and Think.
Taking care of Mel - Physio. Elliptical (week 2 of couch to 5k commences). Chicken enchiladas.
Muse food - A smattering of Grey's. Soon off to bed with good book.

After some technical difficulties

2010-01-19T19:32:00.001+11:00

I'm back blogging today at Nobody Writes It Better (now that we've defeated a virus attack, honestly...aren't there better things to do with your time?) on gadget love, stationery love and balancing the two!

Come visit me!

For those looking for a good coffee fix...

2010-01-17T21:49:00.003+11:00

Check out Miss Marmalade in Brunswick (126 Union Street) which is the newest venture of the lovely VT and her hubby. I can vouch for the awesomeness of breakfast but am not a coffee drinker so I'll toss you to the experts who will vouch for the awesomeness of that!

Open 7 days a week and best of all, that awesome breakfast is of the all day variety.

Slowly slowly

2010-01-09T15:22:00.003+11:00

The brain is starting to recover from post book-ness. Have taken a few days off writing and lolled around but am now starting to circle back to the wips. The one I think I want to write first is a bit of a mystery at the moment. I know the hero and heroine. I know the world. I just don't know what the big external plot thing is. And even, though I rarely know that when I start a book, I always get to the point where I think I should know and then I freak out. It just seems to be happening early this time.

It doesn't help that I'm also getting snippets from the book after this one...but that one definitely is after this one in time and I can't imagine how stuck I'd get trying to head into that one without knowing what happens in this one lol

So I will sit down later and do some brain dumping and see what happens. Which will most likely be followed by more scratching of the head. Until then, I shall just keep circling the story in my head and listening to the scene snippets it's telling me and let things brew. And try not to freak out.

Books read in 2010

2010-01-09T13:57:00.050+11:00

These are my read for the first time books in 2010. Newest at the top, oldest at the bottom.

(e) means, funnily enough, read in e-book. I read e-books on the iPhone and my brand spanking new Sony Reader.

Books read in 2010

How to Bake a Perfect Life - Barbara O'Neal
With This Fling - Kelly Hunter
Death at Wentwater Court - Carola Dunn
Little Fuzzy (e) - H. Beam Piper
The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever - Julia Quinn
Nine Rules to Break when Romancing a Rake - Sarah MacLean
The Best Laid Plans (e) - Sarah Mayberry
Creation in Death - J.D. Robb
Pegasus - Robin McKinley
Mind Games - Carolyn Crane
Strawberries for Dessert (e) - Marie Sexton
The Iron Duke - Meljean Brook
A Dangerous Thing (e) - Josh Lanyon
Heaven's Spite - Lilith Saintcrow
Fatal Shadows (e) - Josh Lanyon
Double Blind (e) - Heidi Cullinan
Cryoburn - Lois McMaster Bujold
The Search - Nora Roberts
Cold Magic - Kate Elliott
Love is Hell - Anthology Scott Westerfeld, Justine Labarlestier, Melissa Marr & others
Innocent in Death - J.D. Robb
Dark Road to Darjeeling - Deanna Raybourn
Graceling - Kristin Cashore
The Accidental Wedding - Anne Gracie
Breathless - Anne Stuart
Moonshine - Alaya Johnson
Under Heaven - Guy Gavriel Kay
I Shall Wear Midnight - Terry Pratchett
Sizzling Sixteen - Janet Evanovich
Earth to Hell - Kylie Chan
Power and Majesty - Tansy Raynor Roberts
Reckless - Anne Stuart
Blameless - Gail Carriger
Maybe This Time - Jennifer Crusie
A Conspiracy of Kings - Megan Whalen Turner
Wicked Intentions - Elizabeth Hoyt
Her Secret Fling - Sarah Mayberry
Eon - Alison Goodman
Ruthless - Anne Stuart
My Reckless Surrender - Anna Campbell
Singing the Dogstar Blues - Alison Goodman
Unholy Ghosts - Stacia Kane
Last Night's Scandal - Loretta Chase
A Kiss At Midnight - Eloisa James
Revealed - Kate Noble
I Kissed An Earl - Julie Anne Long
Savor the Moment - Nora Roberts
His At Night - Sherry Thomas
Naamah's Curse - Jacqueline Carey
The Forbidden Rose - Joanna Bourne
Mouse and Dragon - Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
House Rules - Jodi Picoult
The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest - Stieg Larsson
Red Hot Renegade - Kelly Hunter
Silver Borne - Patricia Briggs
Magic Bleeds - Ilona Andrews
Blue Dragon - Kylie Chan
The Girl Who Played With Fire - Stieg Larsson
Red Phoenix - Kylie Chan
Changeless - Gail Carriger
The Queen of Attolia - Megan Whalen Turner
White Tiger - Kylie Chan
Saltation - Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
The King of Attolia - Megan Whalen Turner
Blood Magic - Eileen Wilks
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
Enchanted Glass - Diana Wynne Jones
The Changeover - Margaret Mahy
Wild Ride - Jennifer Cruise and Bob Mayer
Untameable Rogue - Kelly Hunter
Something About You - Julie James
Shalador's Lady - Anne Bishop
Intertwined - Gena Showalter
The Dark Griffin - K J Taylor
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms - N.K. Jemisin
The Dead Travel Fast - Deanna Raybourn
Special Delivery - Heidi Cullinan (e)
Skinwalker - Faith Hunter
Victory of Eagles - Naomi Novik
Silver Falls - Anne Stuart
Lover Avenged - J.R. Ward
Peeps - Scott Westerfeld
Committed - Elizabeth Gilbert
That Summer - Sarah Dessen
Dzur - Steven Brust (Not sure how I haven't managed to read this before, as I am a Vlad fan...but somehow I did)
Plum Lucky - Janet Evanovich
Proof By Seduction - Courtney Milan
Bed of Roses - Nora Roberts
Lead Me On - Victoria Dahl
Garden Spells - Sarah Addison Allen
The Secret of Everything - Barbara O'Neal
Demon Night - Meljean Brook

If I were...

2010-01-06T19:13:00.004+11:00

Not a writer, I might be coherent but having handed the revised version of the book back to la agent on Monday, I now officially have post book brain...therefore a meme (as spotted on Tumblr via un-sate-able)

If I were a month, I’d be September.
If I were a day of the week, I’d be Sunday.
If I were a time of day, I’d be 9.07pm.
If I were a planet, I’d be Neptune.
If I were a sea animal, I’d be a sea otter.
If I were a direction, I’d be South.
If I were a piece of furniture, I’d be a chaise longue.
If I were a liquid, I’d be expensive champagne.
If I were a gemstone, I’d be an emerald.
If I were a tree, I’d be a Jacaranda.
If I were a tool, I’d be a drill.
If I were a flower, I’d be a cornflower.
If I were a kind of weather, I’d be a perfect spring day.
If I were a musical instrument, I’d be a cello.
If I were a color, I’d be aqua.
If I were an emotion, I’d be inspiration.
If I were a fruit, I’d be an orange.
If I were a sound, I’d be laughter.
If I were an element, I’d be water.
If I were a car, I’d be an convertible (most likely an Aston Martin)
If I were a food, I’d be a cheese cake.
If I were a place, I’d be the Discworld.
If I were a material, I’d be satin.
If I were a taste, I’d taste like margaritas.
If I were a scent, I’d be Red Roses by Jo Malone.
If I were an animal, I’d be a black cat.
If I were an object, I’d be a novel.
If I were a body part, I’d be an eye.
If I were a facial expression, I’d be a grin.
If I were a song, I’d be One - U2.
If I were a pair of shoes, I’d be long black boots.

What would you be?

Ugh but amusing

2010-01-02T01:13:00.008+11:00

Just had one of those fallen-hard-asleep weird dreams that was getting progressively less pleasant and picking up speed towards nightmare territory. Luckily I woke up (but now I'm staying awake long enough for the brain to re-set so I don't just fall back into it as I sometimes do hence the late night blogging) but after a part where I was trying to get back somewhere (and being thwarted (cancelled flights, flooded roads complete with "drive here signs" that led into deep rushing water and resulted in floating cars, though also very apologetic valet service by the road traffic/car hire folks) I got to where I was going (a big old house partly under construction) where I was either daughter of the house or head of security or both and the patriarch of the place was under threat (not sure who that was).

An unpleasant someone was outside with some sort of big gun but I was fairly sure I could outsmart them. But the (only) very amusing part is, they had accomplices inside, who I'd just uncovered and the message the shooter was telling them to pass on to lure the patriarch out (transmitted via some sort of steam punkish ticker tape machine) was "Tell him the latest Pratchett is out in Omaha". To which I replied "Oh for God's sake, he already HAS the latest Pratchett!"*laughs and laughs and laughs* At which point I woke up.

So yes, my subconcious is weird (or wine and popcorn and Mamma Mia followed by Diana Wynne Jones don't mix or the thunderstorm outside is messing up the ether or I'm about to write a steampunk western set in Nebraska (the mind boggles)) but at least the people populating it have good taste in reading material! I'm still laughing.

And now, back to bed.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T00:18:00.004+11:00

Happy 2010 everyone. It's been a wild and stormy New Year's Eve here in Melbourne but the fireworks still looked fab from all accounts.

I hope this year (and decade) brings you dreams come true, new adventures, pampering, naps, wonderful friends, peace, love and happiness!

Let's make 2010 awesome!

The year in books (4th anniversary edition)

2009-12-31T12:05:00.000+11:00

When you're onto a good thing, stick to it, so once again, to wrap up the year, we shall talk about books.

Reviewing my reading list for the year, it's sitting at about 125 or so new books this year. So down a little from last year (though I know I've missed some along the line...). I've done more craft this year which has probably eaten into the reading time but also once again, at the end of the year (and particularly while I'm deep in writing and revising my own book) I've been re-reading.

This year I've been reading more e-books though I do get frustrated with the iPhone as an e-Reader. It's just that little bit too small plus, I find that when I buy books not in the eReader format and use Stanza to put them on my iPhone, things tend to go a little haywire with the formatting which distracts me. I also find it easier to forget I'm in the middle of a book when it's on the iPhone and not physically lying around to remind me. I've been quite ADD with my books this year, rarely reading only one at a time. I'm not sure why, just that it's been harder to find books that really absorb me (or else there has been too much noise in the head to really relax into them). But I will continue to read e-books and am hoping the format wars, the ridiculous geographic restrictions and other annoyances (like Amazon's ridiculous higher pricing for international Kindle books) resolve themselves and that someone releases the iPod of e-Readers (the long-rumoured Apple tablet perhap?)

This year, I've also started listening to more audiobooks, which I talked a bit about here. Most of which still holds true, only more so. I still haven't listened to a new to me story on audiobook as they are so much slower than my natural reading speed and I still prefer male narrators due to the doing voices thing. And I'm still very picky about narrators in general. So audiobooks add to my re-read list but aren't boosting the new book list.

I think I've probably read a bit more non-fiction this year (but don't always include those in the list). I continue to re-read ad infinitum. I'd imagine my total books for the year would remain around 300 or so.

So what were my favourite new books this year?

Uglies - Scott Westerfeld - I'm somewhat late to the party on this series but glommed it all down quickly. I'm looking forward to reading Leviathan, to get his take on steampunk and going back and reading more of his backlist.

She's Got It Bad - Sarah Mayberry - A Blaze with a bad girl heroine and a bad boy hero with somewhat tortured pasts. Hot and emotional, Sarah continues to deliver. I'm going to have to try her Special Editions too.

Revealed: A Prince and a Pregnancy - Kelly Hunter - who yes, is a friend but I truly adore her books and think anyone who likes witty, sexy contemporaries will adore them too. The first book in this duo (Exposed: Misbehaving with the Magnate) is pretty damn good too.

Start Me Up - Victoria Dahl - Speaking of hot contemporaries, this was a great read and I'm looking forward to number three.

Soulless - Gail Carriger - Fun, steampunk romance with a wonderful heroine and a fabulous vampire fashionplate sidekick.

A Duke of Her Own - Eloisa James - A lovely ending to her Desperate Duchesses series. I'm looking forward to her new fractured fairytales very much.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer - Slightly off the beaten track for me but I was intrigued by the name and then loved the book. Have pimped it out to quite a few others already. Sadly Mary Ann passed away just before the book was published : (

Fledgling - Sharon Lee and Steve Miller - Having followed along as they did their first draft live on the web (brave stuff), it was fascinating to read the final product. If you've never read Lee and Miller, they write wonderful romantic space opera and have several new books coming out next year, so hasten to a book store and start at the beginning of their Liaden books (which is Local Custom, chronologically in the Liaden verse or I believe Agent of Change in order of writing).

Corambis - Sarah Monette - The last in the Doctrine of Labyrinths series and another great book. Can't wait to see what she does next.

Chalice - Robin McKinley - Robin is one of my auto-buy authors who writes intriguing and varying fantasy.

Vision in White - Nora Roberts - Nora rarely fails to deliver and this start to a quartet set around four friends who plan weddings was great with a lovely lovely hero.

Coraline - Neil Gaiman - Neil is a genius, what can we say. Somehow I missed seeing this at the movies but will get the dvd asap. I've actually read quite a bit of YA this year and lots of it was great.

A Cousinly Connexion - Sheila Simonson - Traditional regency in the style of Georgette Heyer. A lot of the trad regencies that are no longer published by the big houses are being re-released in e-books, so yay for that!

Since the Surrender - Julie Anne Long - I have a feeling I am going to adore all the Eversea books. Chase is not quite Colin but he's pretty damn close. Mysteries, comedy, old flames, secret societies and puppets...what more do you need in a historical romance? July feels like too long to wait for I Kissed An Earl.

Flesh Circus - Lilith Saintcrow - Her Jill Kismet series is getting better and better. It may lack a Japhrimel but Saul has his own appeal. Plus there's the deliciously wrong Perry and a brilliant world to compensate.

Magic Strikes - Ilona Andrews - Another urban fantasy season that keeps getting better (and keeps ratcheting up the ST between Kate and Cullen so lets hope Ilona takes pity on us soon!). On The Edge was also a good read.

I'm not going to talk about my re-reads much. Those following along should be able to guess my favourite authors by now (if you guessed something like Jennifer Crusie, Lois McMaster Bujold, Terry Pratchett, Sharon Lee & Steve Miller, Eloisa James, Kelly Hunter, Julie Anne Long, Barbara O'Neal/Samuel, Nora Roberts, Robin McKinley etc you'd be doing well). I know some people don't re-read but I love curling up with a well-loved book and letting it seduce me all over again. Great new books are wonderful but great favourite books are like great old friends...to be treasured.

I wish you many of both sorts in your 2010 reading!

The year to be

2009-12-31T11:21:00.003+11:00

Continuing on...so what do I want to focus on in 2010?

1. Writing. In which my goals are to write two books, to play around with some shorter form stuff to see if I can write short stories or novellas (given the novels seem to keep getting longer and longer) and keep the biz side from interfering with the writing.

2. To get healthier. This means sorting out the sore shoulder and before, during and after that process, doing what exercise I can. Before, I think that means doing my elliptical, my Nia tapes with modified arms and some pilates at home and taking the pills and icing it afterwards. During and after is to be determined based on the diagnosis. It also means eating healthier which is mainly a matter of planning and organisation.

3. Feed the well. Keep doing what I have been doing with the craft and other stuff.

4. Get organised. 2009 has felt like a year of routines slipping away and stuff not quite getting done at times. I'm a Virgo, I like lists and notes and checking stuff off to-do lists. But I don't have a good system right now for keeping it all organised. I have notes in my iCal, to-dos and goals in various notebooks and stuff in my head that gets remembered at random moments when the brain decides to cough up. I need something to co-ordinate it all and given that I seem to be increasingly outsourcing brain space to my iPhone and computer, I'm looking at technology tools.

I've started using Tumblr to capture images etc that take my fancy but that's more a muse thing (the electronic equivalent of my old habit of ripping pictures out of magazines). I've just got an Evernote account with a view to using it to capture all the stuff I currently capture in bookmarks and jotted notes and, once I get a scanner, backing up my writing notebooks electronically.

I do have a to-do type program on my iPhone but it's not exactly what I want so the other thing I'm looking at is Things. Which will sync with my iPhone and my iCal and hopefully allow me to dump stuff out of my head and remember where I dumped it more easily. I'm going to download the trial version of Things tomorrow and buy the iPhone app and see what happens from there (you know, some of the more expensive iPhone apps should have trial versions too!).

So that's my plan. I guess in twelve months we'll see how I've done. The big dream remains, as always, to sell a book but that I can't control other than by doing the best I can with my writing. Still, I hope the publishing stars align this year!

How about you, oh great interwebs, who's got plans and dreams for the tenth year of the century?