Little steps

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!

More please

Quote of the day

"In the midst of the process of writing, inspiration falls through one's brain in tiny, continuous drops as well as in tidal waves. Word size, paragraph size, scene size and up. You just have to be ready with the bucket. My bucket generally takes the form of a three-ring notebook and a No. 2 pencil."

Lois McMaster Bujold. You can read the whole thing here.

Schmapped

No, that's not the noise one's brain makes just after finishing a book (that's more like zzzzzzzzzzzschnfargl), but today I found out that one of my photos has been included in Schmap's guide to Brisbane.

Check it out.

Mine's the pic of the lighthouse on the right. See, you never know what can happen on the big wide internets.

What I'm going to do on my vacation

Almost five weeks of glorious no day job time stretch before me. Much as I'd love to read and nap for five weeks, there's actually some stuff that needs to be done. So herewith, Mel's to-do's for holiday time (napping, reading, movies and the odd margarita are a given).

1. Get the exercise routine going again.
2. Figure out this darn stuck point in my book and get to half way.
3. Some de-cluttering/early spring cleaning.
4. RWAus conference in lovely warm Queensland
5. Start the cardigan I bought wool for or else I won't get to wear it until next year.

Let's see how all that goes!

Green (or possibly yellow) power

I tried this today and was very surprised by just how well it works! So I'm sharing.

To clean a microwave

Put juice of one lemon and 1/2 cup water in microwave proof bowl, uncovered. Heat on high for 3 mins then let stand for five minutes.

Then just wipe down with hot damp cloth.

I had to rub a little bit with the cloth and rinse it out a few times but my microwave definitely needed a good clean and this got 95% of the gunk off with no evil chemicals! Apparently the acid from the lemons loosens the gunk/grease. Worked as well as any of the chemical cleaners I've tried for the same purpose.

Pink power

Pink rocked the house last night. I've seen her before and would see her again. In fact I'd pay a lot to see her in a smaller setting doing more acoustic/bluesy stuff because she really does have a blow the roof off voice.

She's very popular here in Australia and I think it's because she's got that "let's not get too serious about ourselves", self deprecating irreverent sense of humour that Aussies like. Personally I like her because she's talented, she's fearless, she's sexy and she does things whatever the hell way she wants to do them.

Once again she did some jawdropping aerial acrobatics during the concert (and sang beautifully while upside down or spinning around and no, she wasn't miming).



She always reminds me to just go for it.

In other news, Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book won an Audie for Audiobook of the Year, so woot! to Neil. I've heard him read at a signing, I have the audiobook and have watched the free videos of him reading online and I can only say well deserved. He has a lovely voice, he reads well and from what I've seen is a model of how to do "best selling author" with grace and charm at signings. Plus he has beautiful old cats. Hopefully I'll get to do signings one day and hopefully I can channel him.

And in also other news, I present my first very wonky granny square lol. Though actually I added another round after this one. I'm actually learning to crochet to try amigurumi like my vampire which I think are mostly single crochet but it can't hurt to learn a classic. You never know when you might get the urge to make an afghan after all. And it's shaping up to be a cold winter here.



And now, given I'm kind of tired after the late night (though the cold seems to have retreated a little again), it's back to the couch for another relaxing day of tv, naps, crochet and knitting (I am my grandmother when sick apparently : ) ). Maybe the girls will kick up some story stuff if I wake up a bit more, they seemed quite taken with Pink's creepy carnival/fun house stage set. Then there's the first of the four last (why oh why oh why, sob sob sob) David Tennant Doctor Who's on tonight.

Haven't seen one of these for a while

Some rain at last! Yay!

Sartorial math

Like most women I have clothing in a couple of sizes in my wardrobe (insert stupid non standardised sizing rant here). Some of it due to weight ups and downs and some due to aforementioned non-standardised sizing.

I managed to put on about five kilos over the social whirl that was November and December last year but I've been doing pretty well with my diet and exercise resolutions this year and have taken most of it off so today I tried on some jeans in the middle size range and hey, the biggest of those fit fine again and the smallest are almost there (another kilo or so and they'll be tight but on lol). So yay (and sigh, yes, the way to lose weight is sensible not-100% perfect eating and regular exercise).

Of course there's another level of jeans in the cupboard which need another five kilos or so past this point to go but I'll get there. In fact I'm planning to get there and pass them by on my way to my goal weight. At which point I'll need still more clothes and will be happy to buy them.

Shaking it up

I've been pretty good with the exercise lately, getting in four sessions a week on the old elliptical trainer and sweating along with Coach Sean plus doing once a week pilates but for awhile now the girls have been thinking "some dance would be fun". Actually they want tango lessons but I think that will have to wait for a bit.

But Barbara has been talking about Nia and how much fun it is, so tonight I tried my first class. And now I know what she's been raving about. I've not done many exercise classes where you find yourself grinning away during the process. I love my pilates but it doesn't often evoke smiles (unless it's relief when you're allowed to stop doing something painful lol). This did. I was still smiling driving home.



Nia is part dance, part yoga, part martial arts, part tai chi, part pure play. And still a pretty damn good workout. But you don't need to be super co-ordinated like aerobics or even super fit (you can do all the moves at your level and it's all about finding the movement that feels good to you). I'll be going back (and next time I might be nerdy and wear my heart rate monitor just once to see what it says).

If you'd like to know more about Nia then the international site is here, the Australian site is here and this is the site for Melissa Page, who taught tonight and made it a great experience.

Back to the real world

Tomorrow it's back to the day job and the real life routine. I didn't get everything done that I wanted to get done - the garden remains a wilderness and my writing was slow (then again, it's always slow over Christmas even though I conveniently forget this fact every year) - but I did get other things done, got completely off caffeine again, saw all my friends, did lots of lazing around reading and watching dvds and, best of all, stuck to my exercise routine which has a way of vanishing when I'm on holiday. I've even cranked it up a notch or two.

Given that 2008 has to be dubbed the year of inconsistent exercise for me (partly due to health reasons but partly due to slackness), I'm hoping this is a trend I can continue. I've bought some pilates dvds so that I can still do a session even on the weeks I miss class (and have done them over the break so I hopefully will not have the usual oh-ow-ow-ow-ow-I-have-not-done-pilates-for-a-bit that usually comes after a brea) and (miracles do happen) I've found that I'm really enjoying my cardio sessions thank to my Cardio Coach mp3s. Normally I listen to music or occasionally my Brain Sync walking meditation tapes (which are good for steady walking but don't really make you push). But I used to always find I got bored and it's hard to push yourself. I wanted to add some interval training sessions to my cardio to help with the general fitness and weightloss goals and I'd downloaded Cardio Coach Volume 1 ages ago after reading about it on Dietgirl's blog but due to said year of inconsistent exercise hadn't tried it until a few weeks ago. Funnily enough I love it even though it's longer and harder than I've ever done on ye olde elliptical before. I sweat a lot and get that good exercise buzz at the end (like I used to get from Spin or Step only without the sore butt from spin or sore knees from Step). So I've bought a few more (thanks to convenient buy two get two free sale they had recently) and my cunning plan is to try and add a volume each month (they seem to get generally longer and harder though you can tailor them by skipping sections). So by the end of Jan my aim is to be able to do all of Volume 2.

I know there will be weeks when I fall off the wagon when you add the day job back into the mix but I feel better and sleep better when I exercise so I'm going to try and do my best to minimise these this year.

And now I see

The other week I finally stopped resisting and admitted that perhaps I needed prescription sunnies (my close up vision is fine, I am in no way Mr Magoo but the street signs in the distance were getting fuzzy). Fortuitously I also received a voucher for quite a chunk off glasses or prescription sunnies at the optometrist so I toddled off and ordered a pair. These, if you're interested.

I picked them up on Thursday and I have to say I am LOVING them. Not just because of the fuzziness begone factor but also because I paid a little more to get polarized lenses. I don't think I've ever had a pair of polarized sunnies before (I tend towards the cheap sunnies because I lose them, hence the prescription resistance). I wear sunnies a lot because I'm really sensitive to glare and these are really good at cutting out the glare. Why has no-one told me this before? It's fabulous.

Now all I have to do is not lose them because even with the voucher they were still way more than I've ever paid for sunglasses.

Hope

I am not a terribly political person. I rarely find politics and politicians inspiring, particularly in Australia politics. Kevin Rudd finally saying sorry to the stolen generation was about the only time I've heard an Aussie politician give a speech that gave me goosebumps.

But I've been following the US election, drawn in by my friends and relatives who live there and and out of the interest of a pretty much liberal Australian for who's running our most powerful ally and I have to say, I have heard several speeches by Barack Obama that have had that effect on me. He seems to have that something more. He looks to the light. He makes people hope and unite. So I will say congratulations Mr President-Elect and all power to your presidency and achieving the things you reach for.

PS To the Australian radio announcers out there, afaik, his first name does not rhyme with "barrack".

Made of win

Blatantly snitching this from amazoniowan but she's right, this dude deserves an award.

I don't know a lot about singing a capella but four part harmony with yourself on video with added bonus awesome geekery! The force is strong in this one...

More

Now that I am no longer a bear of little brain thanks to about 11 hours sleep (why are conferences so tired making?).

Firstly some pics:

The lulus at the costume party (we should've got best dressed crit group)...left to right The Dark Fairy (aka Keri), The Scarlet Pimpernel (aka Robyn), The Mysterious Fortune Teller (aka Chris), The Bright Fairy (aka Carolyn), Captain Jack Sparrow (aka moi who people didn't recognise thanks to much bronzer on this pale gal..or maybe the beard and moustache!) and The Punk Fairy (aka Freya).



The lulus at the awards dinner looking gorgeous. Left to right (Robyn (who did a brilliant job MC-ing, Carolyn, Freya, Me, Keri, Chris)



Carolyn with her Emerald (somehow I don't seem to have a Chris with her Clendon though I'm sure I took one...will have to steal one off another lulu).



It was a good weekend for the Lulus with Carolyn taking out the Emerald, Robyn being a great MC at dinner, Keri rocking the panels and chats, and I think about five editor requests being garnered between us (not bad when only two of us actually pitched!). Let's hope some of those requests bring sales...

Apart from that, the conference generally was fabulous. The Langham is a beautiful hotel with very seductive fluffy pillows (though I resisted buying one in the hotel shop). The Friday workshop with the always brilliant Barbara Samuel was great. Something about the way she talks about writing seems to always connect in the right way which is important. You not only have to find your own process in writing but find the teachers that work for you too. Not everyone will. For instance, Stephen King says something along the lines of final draft should be first draft less 10%. If I did that, I'd have a very short book with nothing but dialogue. Obviously his first drafts are long. Mine are short so I have to add in later drafts (I cut and tighten too but generally need to replace what I cut). So if you ever hear writing advice that makes you instinctively go "NO", then just ignore it.

The cocktail party on Friday night. I don't usually like dressing up but being a pirate was cool. I want pirate boots like I had for my Captain Jack costume though I have no idea where I'd wear them. Sadly the real Johnny did not turn up to tell me he admired my imitation. There were many fabulous costumes, many people apparently have the hots for Captain Jack, and as always, it broke the ice nicely.

Saturday I did Deep POV with Anna Campbell and Deep Editing with Margie Lawson (there must've been a deep theme going on). I pitched and Cindy is interested so yay. Sadly my pitch meant I missed half of Barbara's plenary but the bits I heard were great. Stephanie Laurens gave a thought provoking speech on romance and the survival of the species and Jo Beverley's rakish and romantic voles illustrated why you need your characters to be madly, crazily in love.

Then dinner which was fun and followed by more wine and chocolate to celebrate Carolyn and Chris's brilliance. Sadly much wine and a late night made Sunday a bit of a slow start but it was also a great day once the caffeine kicked in. Jenny Hutton from M&B gave a brilliant short speech about cliched openings and Fiona McCarthur's Shrek Side of Writing and Anne Gracie's Reading the Rejection Letter wrapped up the workshops with more wisdom and inspiration. Hopefully I'll have more time to put it all to use now that I've stepped down from the RWA committee. It's been a great three years helping run such a wonderful organisation and I hope the new committee just keeps taking it from strength to strength.

The sun will come out...sometime

Melbourne has not turned on the greatest weather for our conference weekend. It's cold. And WET. Wet is good but not for sightseeing. But oh well, raincoats and brollys and gumboots for all. My new waterproof hiking boots are looking like a good purchase!

Have pretty much finished all my pre-conference stuff and my case is packed. Today we had a tour of The Costume Place which was great. Beautiful, beautiful clothes...a mix of history and torture (particularly for Chris who is a fabulous sewer/dressmaker/crafty person and wanted to see how it was all done). And the VT may have drooled on the odd book or two. I'll post some pics when I'm more organised.

And tonight was Bron's book launch which was fun and exciting and heaps of people came, so big WOOT for the lovely and talented Bron and may her book baby (and those that follow) find many fans and have many profitable adventures around the world.

More from conference if and when I get back to the internets, now it's time for a little relaxation after several days of much running around.

Worth a look

Lois McMaster Bujold's Denvention Con Com Guest of Honor speech about romance and SFF and genre stuff amongst other things.

In other news, Anne Stuart is going to write more historicals.

Also, for Melbournians...there are three cool things coming up at the Dymocks city store over the next three weeks. And no, I'm not just saying that because they involve friends : )

Lastly, in case anyone missed it...Romance Writers of Australia conference, next weekend at the Langham Hotel in Melbourne too.

As for me, it's now breakfast, perhaps a walk and then back to revisions (so I can go to the last two with a clear conscience).

Friday

Am I the queen of imaginative blog post titles or what? lol

It's even more confusing when I'm posting this on Saturday here in SF but blogger thinks it's Sunday as my time zone is set to Australia. Hence the boring title.

So Friday (btw it's quite warm here today...almost summery!). Friday started with breakfast (bagels and fruit) where I ran into AA and Tracey. Then a little bit of writing time before I did the morning workshops (Writing in the Pressure Cooker which was good and the Spotlight on St Martins which just solidified my desire to write for them one day).

Next was lunch with Connie Brockway who did a brilliant speech on writers as superheroes using the hero's journey to illustrate the writing process. After a yummy lunch, I went to Eric Maisel's very interesting 2 hour session on Creativity for Life. I could've listened to him for a lot longer and took lots of notes. Luckily it was taped. I topped all that off with Jane Porter's first person POV workshop which was also great (Jane is always a fab speaker and she had some cool insights in first person, stuff I hadn't thought about from her particular angle).

Workshopped out, I headed back to my room, changed for dinner with Char and the gang from various online classes. We had fabulous mexican and fabulous margaritas and I discovered that my weird naturopathic diet has um, reduced my alcohol tolerance, so I had to drink lots of water and eat the pringles from the minibar and write a few more pages before going to bed lol. And that was Friday and now I have another workshop to run to, so the Saturday report will be tomorrow but think good thoughts for all our fab Aussie and Kiwi RITA and GH finalists tonight.

The running out the door update

Over half way now on the revision, yay. I've added 33 pages in the first 11 chapters which gives you an idea how talking headish my first drafts get. I figure I'll add around another thirty in the last 8, which will get me somewhere near 97k. Good enough.

In other news, yesterday I scored an iPhone! Yay. Precioussss. Mine. All mine. But not in my pocketses, at least until I get a case. It is very pretty and shiny and does cool things. Go Apple.

And now, off to Mamma Mia because there is never too much Abba in the world! You can dance...you can jive...you know you can : )

Confused

Can someone please explain to me why this darn book, which insisted on a long and arduous hunt for witchy demon techno music and was very picky about what it would accept in the course of said long arduous soundtrack hunt, suddenly insists on nothing but Dixie Chicks?

Colour me puzzled. But I don't argue, I just hit repeat on the iPod. And avoid the weird looks at work when I start humming The Bitter End.

In other news, despite its whiplash musical morphings, I'm so far quite liking what I'm reading and the revision process is moving along and has not yet (touch wood and all other anti-jinxing materials known to man) degenerated back into sucking.

Random objects of lust this week:

The return of the Time Phwoarrr! (Yay, ABC).



And also this



Want, want, want. Precioussssssss.