Monday Stuff

<--- Hubby surprised me with this top last week. How awesome is that? I'd mentioned that I wanted a tee with The Lost Boys on it, so when we got a package the other day and this was inside, wow! I wasn't expecting it.

We found it on eBay together, but then forgot all about it. I figured the time had lapsed and someone else got it. Well, yeah, someone got it alright. The hubby did. I wore it over the weekend and it's super cool.

Love this movie!

Anyway, who took part in Earth Hour? We did. It was so cool having the lights, TV, and computer off for a whole hour. We had a candle in the kitchen the whole time. The hubby suggested we use candles more often, and I agree. :)

Well, over the weekend we watched School of Rock. Man, this was funny! That Jack Black sure is hilarious. I laughed so much my cheeks hurt. Honestly, I love this guy's comedy. He's super cool. And this movie was really cute. Loved the kids, too. Very entertaining movie with heaps of LOL moments. Glad we watched it.

We also got through the last few episodes of Samurai Champloo. So, there you have it. We've watched the whole 26 eps. Man, I loved it! The end didn't go as I thought it would, which is totally awesome and unpredictable. Each character has to face their own final battle (so to speak) and then their journey is wrapped up. I won't say how it ends exactly, but it's not your typical HEA, that's for sure. It was a little sad, really. I know I was expecting it to end a different, happier way, but hey - this wasn't my story. This was someone else's creation, and I loved every minute of it.

The next anime series we're tackling is Berserk. This is the Amazon blurb: "In the castle town of Midland, a new king has come to power through treachery and violence. His demonic agents relentlessly victimize the townspeople, until the night a battle weary soldier enters the city. Covered in an array of weapons and countless battle scars, he calls himself the Black Swordsman. The sword he carries is as big as his grudge against the king. Blade in hand he hunts the servants of evil with unending vengeful fury."

Okay, I should totally love this show because you know, it's dark and violent. Did I mention there are demons too? Well, there are... but uh... I don't know what it is about this show, but I just can't get into it. I keep rolling my eyes, get bored, wish it was over already, and keep dozing off. Man, it's a little painful to watch. But I'll keep watching it, hoping that it gets better soon.

Anyway, that's it for today.

Marking things off the to-do-list...

Well, last night the hubby and I sat down to watch another four episodes of Samurai Champloo. Man, this series is so cool. We're about halfway through now and I can't wait to see if they find the "samurai who smells of sun flowers", or if he's just a myth. I did take a guess at who he might be and told the hubby. Who knows if I'm right, though. We'll just have to get to the end to find out, I guess.

Okay. I got through the 47 pages of revision last night and even managed to type in all the changes. I also deleted a bunch of stuff, but you know, the word count went up a little anyway. Not bad. I'm going to revise this novel one bit at a time. At the moment I'm just concerned with the beginning.

To test my I-hate-every-one-of-my-novels-during-the-second-draft-stage theory, I opened up the Word doc and started to read the first section of the novel. I wanted to see if it was as shitty as I thought it was yesterday. And you know, it's not. I think it's gloomy, bleak and throws the character into a mysteriously dark situation. So, I was right. Don't know why, but during the third draft, they never seem as bad as I think they are during the second. :/ Hell, is that weird, or do you writers do and feel something similar to this? Please, go ahead and share your quirky nature. ;)

The BIAM story I wrote back in January is finally finished. It ended up being much shorter than the first draft because I cut two sections that seemed out of place. It's now sitting @ 5,727. Not bad, and I've subbed it too. So, that's some good work done for today. I can cross that off my to-do-list.

I also squeezed in a little research. Nothing too major, it's about topics I kinda already know about. Not from personal experience - because it's of a paranormal nature - but I've read about these before, for other tales. Anyway, I've got a story idea brewing. One I'd like to write and sub to the new Nocturne Bites. I'm excited about it and can already see my main character. She's got an attitude, but is definitely going to need the help of an Alphaesque-type hero with his own probs.

And on that note, I shall part for the day.

Lotsa movies!

My daughter and I just got caught in the rain. Lol. Luckily, although I looked like a dork on my way to pick her up, I had the trusty umbrella with me. So it wasn't too bad.

Anyway, how was everyone's weekend? Mine was awesome! I got through the first draft of my BIAM before the weekend started, so I was already in a good mood. The word count ended up being: 40,059.

Then I celebrated my tenth release with Cobblestone Press, got to spend heaps of time with the hubby and daughter... and caught up on some movies and shows. Awesome!

We started out with the two latest episodes of Torchwood. They were both such cool eps, especially the flashback one. I always wondered how the team was put together. ;) Next week will be the last one for season two, and James Marsters is back in it. He's the bad guy. He makes such a cool bad guy, doesn't he?

Okay, what else did we watch? Oh yeah, we watched Death Proof. This was Tarantino's half of the Grindhouse anthology. This is what Amazon has listed for this movie: "A deranged stuntman stalks his victims from the safety of his killer car, but when he picks on the wrong group of badass babes, all bets are off in an adrenaline-pumping, high speed, white-knuckle automotive duel of epic proportions, where anything can happen." And this just about sums it up. In typical Tarantino style, the flick's got several uncomfortable moments. Of course, I kept waiting for the bad stuff to happen from the first minute. Lol. And when it did, ugh! Gross. Still, I really enjoyed the second part of the movie, it certainly made up for the horrid stuff in the first.

Yeah, then we watched Once Upon a Time in Mexico. Not sure why we hadn't seen this yet, but now we've finally seen it. I enjoyed Johnny Depp. The guy's just so versatile, and Banderas was good in this too. A lot of things had me laughing, and others cringing. The double crossing got a little old after a while, but overall it was an okay action flick.

Next on the cards was Lady in the Water. I really, really enjoyed this one. So far, I've enjoyed every single one of M. Night Shyamalan's movies. He's a gifted storyteller who captivates you with a fantastic tale and totally sucks you in. Yeah, this was a very cool movie.

We also watched Monster House with our daughter. It was a sweet and very creepy movie. I thought it was great, and I think she was getting spooked in all the right places. ;) But she didn't have any nightmares, so that's cool.

And last, but certainly not least, we watched eight eps of Samurai Champloo. This is an anime series made by Shinichiro Watanabe, the same guy who made Cowboy Bebop. Since we loved that one, we couldn't wait to see what SC had to offer. Man, it's so darn funny. I'm really enjoying their quest to find the samurai "who smells of sun flowers." Awesome.

So, after that great time off, I got back to it today. I'm now up to page 33/47 of the second draft for that novel I wrote in Feb. So I'm moving along quite nicely. When I revise novels, I always print them up for revision, so I'm working on paper at the moment. This can be such a pain sometimes, but it really makes mistakes stand out for me.

I would like to get through the second draft of these first 47 pages by the end of today. I've also been typing in the changes into Word as I finish each chapter, so that'll help me move along faster. I don't know why, but I just hate this part of the revision process. During the second draft (especially on paper) I hate every story. I know I've talked about this before, but I just don't understand it. I have much love during the first and third draft, but the second I just don't. Weird. Maybe it's just me.

Anyway, have a great week!

FULL MOON RISING

A rare hybrid of vampire and werewolf, Riley Jenson and her twin brother, Rhoan, work for Melbourne's Directorate of Other Races: an organization created to police the supernatural races and protect humans from their depredations.

While Rhoan is an exulted Guardian, aka assassin, Riley is merely an office worker until her brother goes missing on one of his missions. The timing couldn't be worse. More werewolf than vampire, Riley is vulnerable to the moon heat, the week-long period before the full moon when her need to mate becomes all consuming.

Luckily, Riley has two willing partners to satisfy her every need. But she will have to control her urges if she's going to find her brother.

Easier said than done as the city pulses with frenzied desire, and Riley is confronted with a very powerful and delectably naked vamp who raises her temperature like never before.
In matters carnal, Riley has found her match. But in matters criminal, she must follow her instincts not only to find her brother, but to stop an unholy harvest. For someone is doing some shifty cloning in an attempt to produce the ultimate warrior by tapping into the genome of non-humans like Rhoan.

Now Riley knows just how dangerous the world is for her kind and just how much it needs her.

Well, after that awesome blurb, I don't think I need to say anymore about the actual plot of this novel. It was an excellent urban fantasy. I'd been wanting to read this book for a while, but something always kept coming up, or I'd just put it behind other books on my bookshelf and kept forgetting it was there. Now there's no way I'll forget about the next four Riley books I already have waiting for me.

Everything about this tale clicked with me. Riley's a very likeable character and I loved her attitude. And Quinn, I sure hope we get to read more about this vampire later on. I really liked him.

Anyway, I liked everything about it - the plot, characters, pace, action... everything. And boy, was it hot or what? I'm definitely interested in other Keri Arthur books, that's for sure. :)

So You Think...

Let's start today with some progress. I'm now sitting @ 28,778 words. I think I can cross that 30k tonight. It should be doable, if my daughter goes to bed when she's supposed to. Lol.

Pretty bad things are happening at the moment. Lots of negative stuff that will lead to the end... and I do believe I saw the ending last night. ;) It's really strange because I've been meaning to jot some notes down for days, but just kept avoiding it for some reason. Well, after last night's session, I picked up my notepad and jotted down some stuff. You know, it ended up being almost everything that needs to happen from now until the end.

Anyway, how's everyone doing? It's very quiet around here at the moment.

So, the Aussie version of So You Think You Can Dance is now down to the top ten. Yikes! Last night they got rid of two very good dancers, but I think that's how it'll go until the end. I'm really surprised at how much I'm enjoying this show. I've never seen any of the American ones, though I'm sure they're cool too. I mean, I love to dance but have never looked at it as a professional thing. Just as a way of having fun and letting the music move you. So, this show is really cool. I like most of the dancers left, there are only two that I wish weren't there. And I certainly have my faves, too. Lol.

Okay, I've got a few things to do now, but just wanted to check in. See ya!

Planet LOL

Wow, we had a very cool weekend. The weather was beautiful, too. So we went for a nice, long walk in the city. We parked the car in Glebe and walked into Sydney. I love doing that. Though, we're still all pretty tired after several hours on our feet. Ouch! But it was well worth it.

I picked up two books that were waiting for me. Oh, plus while I was there I picked this one up, as well as this. Lots of cool reading up ahead. :) Last week I also got The Raintree Trilogy. I know these three books were released as separate Nocturnes in the U.S. but for some reason, we got them as a MIRA. And all three in one. I've heard good things about this one, so I'm definitely not complaining about being able to get the three for a very reasonable price.

Oh, remember how I said we were going to have a bit of a zombie movie marathon over the weekend. Well, we didn't get a chance to watch the three movies I was hoping for, but we did watch - Planet Terror.

Has anyone seen this yet? It's part of the Grindhouse anthology. Death Proof is Tarantino's, and this one was the Rodriguez half.

Man, I don't know what everyone else thought of it, but the hubby and I loved it. My gosh, there was a bit of everything in it. I mean, it's no secret that I love me some zombie flicks, but this had just about everything in it - comedy, gore, the yuck factor, wtf factor, story, love, sex, action, heroes, and comedy. Oh, did I mention that it was hilarious? I laughed so hard in some bits. It was awesome. I really, really enjoyed it. That bit where the reel breaks during the love scene was a total blast. Lol. Yeah, this movie rocked.

Like I said, I know lots of people probably thought it was silly in some bits and hell, some it didn't even make sense... but who cares? I, for one, absolutely loved it. I'm now looking forward to watching Death Proof. I wonder if it's just as entertaining? If you've seen these flicks, let me know what you thought of them. Oh, and tell me if DP is any good, but don't give me any spoilers. Lol.

Well, I got some writing done on Friday night, as well as earlier today. I'm now sitting @ 25,843 words and am hoping to get the bulk of my writing done after my daughter goes to bed. Of course, I was hoping to get to 30k today. Not sure if I will, but as long as I can get the first draft of this novella done by the end of this week, I will be happy. :D

Let's hope we all have a great week!

TIME TRANSIT

HER FUTURE

There's a reason Maude Kincaid is one of the best Time Rogues, and it's the same reason she's now dead -- or soon will be. Gut-shot and lying in a sub-orbital tram station reeking of brimstone, waiting for the atmospherics to give out, she's exactly where she intended: She's saved CORE, her friends and her reality. And only a woman willing to bend the rules could do it.

IS IN THE PAST
The time travel was nothing. That's been as natural as breathing since Maude became one of the 22nd century's elite cadre of protectors against temporal rifts. Jumps to Dealey Plaza and the old South were nothing. Taking the bullet was a little harder. Maude's only regret is about Gil. Gil, with whom she abandoned with his memory erased because he was from another time, another reality, and because Time Rogues can't afford to know love. Today, she can't afford to forget it.

Wow! What an awesome book. I gotta say, I LOVE these Shomis. They are totally awesome. This was the fourth one I've read, and have two more waiting for me. I can't wait.

This tale is about time travel and keeping the past safe. A totally cool concept. The characters were also awesome, and the connection between Maude and Gil stood out from the moment they met. There's just so much to this novel. The technology is vivid and explained thoroughly, without being too much. The future is an intriguing place and what they do to conserve the past is a marvellous concept.

Man, if you haven't read any of the Shomi novels yet, you totally have to. ;)

Writing, writing... and laundry

Oh, this pic is gorgeous. I love what the artist did with the glitter around the eye. I'm drawing inspiration from this pic. Awesome.

Speaking of the tale, I'm now @ 19,215 words. I wanted to cross the 20k mark tonight, but I'm a little tired. My right arm started to ache a little because of the position I was sitting in, too. I thought it best to stop at the chapter break, with a literal boom.

The story's really clicking into place now. Every character has their own personal thing to gain from the situation that's about to go down. Well, except for the hero and heroine. They just wanna be together. I suppose that may count as personal gain. ;)

Tomorrow, I aim to cross 20k. That'll take me to the halfway mark. Yay.

My arms are sore from my weights workout yesterday. But a good sore, not achy. I've been walking a hell of a lot during the last two days, under the hot sun. Ah, I love this weather. I hope we get a nice run of it. I've finally had the chance to catch up on the laundry. The basket is almost empty. It hasn't been that way for a long time. Lol.

Anyway, now that the day's winding down, I'm looking forward to the hubby getting home. We might catch up on one of our shows. Or I might read a bit while he surfs the net. Whatever we do, it'll be cool. :D

This and that...

I've decided that this pic to the left is the inspiration behind the hero in my latest novella. You all know who it is, right? I don't think I need to tell you. ;) Anyway, it's exactly how I imagined him. And this particular pose is just so him. It's amazing when you find a pic/photo which captures the very essence of what you pictured in your head.

As you can imagine, my talking about it means that I finally started the story. Yay! I sat down last night and wrote the first chapter. The beginning was there, playing out inside my head. Of course, I was in such a rush to get the main stuff out that I have to go back to add more emotion and description. You know how it is.

Anyway, the word count is now sitting @ 2,652. I'm going to work on the next chapter tonight. Lots of the main plot is already inside my head, and I know how the love story's going to go too. Just gotta get it all worked out and into the right sequence. I want this one to be fast, with plenty of action and a romance to soften all the dark/violent edges.

I think it'll be a lot of fun. I'm just not going to write it as fast as I usually do, because I want to separate my days this month into revision and writing. That little tale I wanted to read through yesterday has now been done and subbed. Now I just gotta wait to see what happens.

Last night we watched Burn Notice. Wow, what an esplosive episode. Literally. And hey, Michael and Fiona finally got it on. About time, too. Now I'm just waiting for the big bad thing that'll totally tear them apart.

Well, not much else to report... well, except that I've got a new cover I will share with the world very soon. It's absolutely awesome! If you're a member of my Bits & Pieces group, then you've already seen it. ;)

Catch'a later!

Vamps and stuff

Lana misses her daughter every single day, but after she became a vampire she had to walk away. When her ex-husband calls her and claims Christy was taken, she rushes to the house. But when she gets there, Lana is ambushed by a mysterious man with a wooden stake.

Hayden is a hired hunter that won’t give up the chase. When Lana realizes he might be her only hope to find her daughter, she plans to seduce him to get some answers. But will her plan backfire, and entangle both of them in much more than just a passionate encounter?

Okay, so this is the cover for my Vampire Oracle: DEATH novella. And the blurb. It won't be released until September 5, but I'm just so excited about it!

Last night, I emailed the final round of edits to my editor. It feels so good to get through the editing process and love the story even more than when I first sat down to write it. Because, as I've already mentioned before, there's just something about this tale...

The sun is so bright today. It's also very hot. Did I mention that it's Autumn around here now? Um. So, this is what it means to have totally screwed up our planet. Yeah. Global weather patterns just seem to be going haywire. I hear there's still snow in some places of the U.S. Is that normal? I don't know. I can tell you that the summer we've missed out on, we'll never get back.

Last year, we took part in Earth Hour. On a Saturday night, for an hour, we switched off the lights, computer and TV. It was actually a lot of fun, lighting some candles. In the end, Sydney conserved an awesome amount of energy. I think that this year, the whole world is taking part. You should get into it. We all should. If you want to know more about it, check it out here. It's a cool thing to do for our planet. :D We'll be taking part.

Anyway. Today, I haven't done too much as far as writing goes. But, I did wake up with the first scene for the novella I want to write for that challenge I mentioned. I know, it's the fourth day of March and I still haven't started. :/ Lol. I think tonight will be the night when I start it. If I can have 5k written on it by tomorrow night, that would be awesome.

I'd also like to read through a fantasy short story I have. It's only 11k, but it's one of my faves. I think it deserves to be out there, and features one of my most fave Norse gods. The love story between these characters is really touching. At least I think it is. ;) Anyway, these are my two goals for the next few days. I'll keep you posted.

Until then, have a great day!