Done!

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...

Muesl-ings

As it's getting hotter down under, I though there might some folks out there who would appreciate this.

This has been my fave breakfast for a few months now and I'm sure it will be even more appreciated in warm weather (and if it's cold where you are, you can nuke it for a little bit to have it warm apparently!)

Mel's Bircher Muesli (adapted from a Weight Watcher recipe somewhere)
2 serves (you do the math for more)

1/2 cup natural yoghurt (I use low fat, choose your poison)
1 small apple or half a large apple, peeled and grated (I prefer a sweeter apple like Golden Delicious or Royal Gala or Sundowners. If you like things a bit tangier, use a Granny Smith)
3/4 cup uncooked rolled oats
5/8 cup apple juice
1/2 cup fresh or frozen fruit (berries or whatever you like)

Optional
Some slivered almonds (or other nuts and seeds of your choice but remember, the more of these, the higher the calorie count, again your choice. Ditto chopped dried fruit)
Ground cinnamon (I love cinnamon and put lots in. You could use nutmeg or mixed spice I guess if you wanted).
Splash of lemon juice (I don't usually do this as I've never had an issue with the apple browning)

If using frozen fruit, then simply put everything in a an airtight container, mix it all together, seal it and whack it in the fridge overnight. It keeps fine for two days, I've never tried keeping it longer than that. It will be a bit watery but just stir before serving. (NB if you add any dried fruit you might want to add a little more yoghurt or juice for more moisture either when serving or initially).

If using fresh fruit, then mix everything else together in the airtight container and refrigerate over night and then serve with the fresh fruit on top.

Yummers as Bertie and Oliver would say. Also, pretty darn healthy!

Library bags

So last week I said I was going to make some library bags for Beyond Pink and Blue's Rainbow Comfort Pack drive for kids who are victims of the bushfires.

So last weekend I bought fabric and today I made my first bag:



I followed Nicole's pattern idea. This is teen sized...I cut out rectangles 52 by 40 (yay for patterns with straight lines that you can cut with a rotary cutter - speedy). It took me about half an hour to measure up and cut pieces for two bags and probably an hour to sew (maybe a bit longer as I figured out the compartment pocket at the front and the mobile phone/cash and card/key sized patch pocket inside) and the second one will be faster as I've already done some of the prework on the pockets and know what I'm doing now.

I'm going to make another one in this fabric (I liked the grey and blue camo, I figured it would appeal to boys or girls who don't like pink or girly stuff), same size and I've bought another fabric to make two more girly ones. I think I'll make those slightly shorter and thinner so they come out a little smaller for girls, so I'll probably cut them 48 by 38. I'll post a pic of those when we're done.

It was dead easy, all you need to know how to do is sew straight stitch and zig zag.

I bought a metre of each fabric and there'll be a bit left over...I'm rapidly developing a fabric stash. Yikes. I see more plastic storage tubs in my future.

The flow

Turns out Mamma Mia is still fabulous. And still hilarious. And still makes me want to run away to a Greek Island and dance along a pier with my best friends and possibly Pierce Brosnan and/or Colin Firth. Le sigh.

As day one of a holiday goes, today has been pretty good. I've done all the errands bar one. I've done most of the housework. All of the laundry. Thought about what to pack. Did Mamma Mia. And then, I succumbed to the siren song of this book and sat down and now I have fifteen pages already and I really like it and it's all flowing beautifully. Contrary muses. I'm meant to be having a break. Not getting sucked in to another whole new world. But one argues with the flow at one's peril so I guess there will be more typing tomorrow and I guess I'll be taking a laptop with me to San Fran....

Sometimes it's the little things

Today I ate a Tim Tam (okay 2 Tim Tams)...and some chips! Yes, hooray, the evil diet is dead (or at least terminal, there are still a few no-nos). Of course, now that I've had my junk fix of things I've been craving (apart from cheese, I'm trying not to go crazy and eat everything I haven't been eating at once), I have to still be mostly good. After all, I still want to keep losing weight.

In other news it's been a jammed packed week of stuff other than writing, chief of which is a upcoming work trip to Germany! Only for a week but still, lots to do. Tomorrow is back to the revision, so more about that soon.

Thankful

Happy Turkey Day to those in places who celebrate such things (it's still Turkey Day there). Eat pie for me : )

I'm thankful because I'm off to the beach for the weekend with the lovely lulus, where there will not be pie but will be lots of other yummy things and naps and writing and general silliness....so catch you later!

And now for something nice

I hear via Nic's blog that the gorgeous and talented Ally Blake has had a baby girl!

Congrats, new mama!

Better

Well, something worked overnight, I feel a LOT better today, despite the fact I don't think I slept terribly well. I kept dreaming about people having babies...no idea what thats about but it wasn't me having them, which is good : )

The cold is still there, lurking a little, but I no longer feel like a limp dishrag with a head stuffed full of cotton wool. In fact, I've had quite the productive day. I've finished the draft of my partial revision and sent it off to be looked at by wiser heads. It'll get another polish before it goes off to Miriam in a few weeks. I've even done (ssssshhh) housework and gone for a walk. And the business cards are sorted and ordered.

Soon I'm going to the mall for a poke around Borders to see if anything takes my fancy and to pick up my tickets for Dallas!! Yay. Less than 7 weeks now (counting days? who, me?). Then I'll come back and see whether the wolf might be ready to come out and play.

Happy Friday!

PS Anyone know why blogger isn't emailing my posts to me? Anyone? Bueller? Confusion reigns.

Friday ramblings

First of all, Zokutou has arisen from the ashes! Happiness has returned to the hearts of overly motivated by wee wormy progress bars writers everywhere lol.

Second of all, a big YAYAYAYAY for fellow lulu Chris who has finalled in the RWNZ Second Chance comp and whose work is winging off to Paula Eykelhof. The second chance comp is comp for all the finalists of various RWAus and RWNZ comps, so tough competition. Go Chris : ))

Third of all, last night I went to Fifteen for dinner with the VT and her husband. For those of you who don't know, Fifteen is one of the Jamie Oliver foundation restaurants set up to train disadvantaged young adults as chefs. It was fab! The food was lovely, the place is funky, the number three cocktail was delish, the wait staff were excellent and the when the VT joked that the only thing that would make the divine chocolatey dessert thing better would be another one, one appeared (not bad for a set course menu!). It's not cheap but I go to the odd restaurant of the la swank variety with work and I'd have to say this is one where I think it's worth the money. And it supports a great cause.
So if you're in the market for a treat yourself dinner in Melbourne, give it a go.

Of course, I now must eat vegetables for about a week : ) Worth it!

And now I must write. And collect packages given that Murphy's law was operating yesterday and no less than two different courier companies tried to deliver me stuff. Of course they couldn't do it today when I'm at home. And they can't redeliver until Monday so collecting is the option. Hopefully one is my new modem to complete my switch of ISPs (after changing my email addy in forty billion locations). My old one works after much gnashing of teeth but the new one I think will be speedier and will allow ADSL2 if my exchange ever gets upgraded....

Celebrate

In case you were wondering, this is what a bunch of romance writers look like hyped up on good food, good conversation and good news : )



Here's hoping we have lots more reasons for nights like these this year!

Noice

Had some good news yesterday. My experimental, different for me, what the heck am I doing, wolf book has finalled in the Romance Writers of Australia Single Title and Loving It comp. Yippee. The final judge is Shauna Summers, so I'm very pleased.

It's still out there in the ether doing some other comp rounds and the agent query thing but it's nice to find out that other folks like it too.

Fingers crossed this is the beginning of a trend.

A good weekend

Take one copy of Madam Mirabou's School of Love (great book, beautiful cover, Barbara Samuel rocks).
Add a second dose of Temaraire and the dishy Captain Will in Throne of Jade (Naomi Novik rocks).
Season with a crit session, including the consumption of far too much chocolate.
Stir in more episodes of Mr Darcy is a spy (aka Spooks)
Top with 16 pages written today (see, miracles do happen).

There was even exercise and sleeping in.

Earlier in the week there was new Sharon Lee and Steve Miller too.

What more can a girl want?

PS Happy Mother's Day to all the mum's out there (particularly mine because she rocks and no, I'm not biased : ) )
PPS Have a great trip Ms Keri. Romantic Times will be a blast and we're looking forward to the pics.
PPPS 11 more sleeps until Kara. Wheee. Off to NZ, land of kiwis, hobbits and pineapple lumps.

Happy Easter

Not such an original blog title but sincerely meant. I hope you have all partaken of the buns of hot cross goodness and received mucho chocolato from the bunny. Plus hanging out with whoever makes you happy.

I've been down at my folks and have only been back a few hours, which means I am still enduring the orange cat's 'you've been away' ritual. Which mostly consists of him stomping around shouting at me. I figure I know what he means - they are more than usually indignant yowls about how I left HIM behind and he was stuck inside and only that Jo and Dave pair came to see him and feed him. Though he also goes outside and shouts as well. I've never figured out whether that bit is "watch out world, the boss is back" or more along the lines of "free at last, free at last, thank god in heaven I'm free at last" but it's pretty funny.

I'll be forgiven by the time he gets dinner.

So home was good, hot cross buns were eaten, pink champagne (Hardy's something or other reserve - very nice) was drunk and I was taught a valuable lesson in remembering to check what you've set iTunes to when you burn a disc lol aka if it was data last time you need to change in back to audio before burning audio discs - sorry Mum.

I managed to write a few pages as well so that's good. And Mum made lamb roast for lunch. Yum. Yum. Yum.

So now I'm having toast, made with Dad's homemade light rye, for dinner. Dad is the son of a baker and makes very good bread and muffins. My Pa died when I was only three so I don't really remember him - a few vague memories of a short, smiling man always causing mischief (and even then I don't know how much of that is from home movies, photos and stories rather than my own memories) - so in a way, eating bread made by Dad feels like a connection. And a reminder of who I can blame for my own love of bread and baked goodies.

The lulus are coming tomorrow for critting so I'd better get cracking and print something out. And do some writing before I attempt to excavate the surface of my kitchen table which is currently covered in RWA stuff.

I had a massage last Thursday, something I always promise myself I will do more often and then invariably delay. It was fabulous. I want to make a concerted effort to keep the stress levels down because stress = bad sleep = cranky = less writing. So resolution number one to have more massages.

Resolution number two is to keep the stress down in other ways as well (this is the bit where you can stop reading if new age stuff bores you or makes you go "rubbish"). : ) To that end I've also bought a couple of mediation cds - another thing that interests me and I always say "must learn more about". These are by Brain Sync (someone on a writers list mentioned them - so thanks Karen!) and are meant to contain the frequencies to evoke the correct sorts of brain waves for various activities (ie Theta for meditation, delta for sleep and other sorts of ones (go read the link if you want the details) for other activities.

I've read a bit about this stuff over the years - the fact that expert meditators put themselves into theta states which is meant to be a very good thing so I figured what the heck. I got a meditation one, a concentration one (I'm hoping good for work and writing in those can't think times - it worked well last night letting me write 3 pages longhand in half an hour in the living room while the folks watched TV. That's faster than usual plus I don't usually write well with my folks in the room) and a sleep one. I don't know if the frequency thing actually works or not but I've drifted off twice now to the sound sleep one and it's very relaxing. And the meditation one is good too. I'll keep you posted on what I think.

And now I'm really going to write!