Watching, Revising & Reading

Hey, how's it going? I hope you're having a great day.

This week turned out to be great, as far as my writing goals and spending time with my husband, but it was the worst for dealing with people. I seriously hate that the general population doesn't seem to understand common courtesy anymore, or manners. Even customer service appears to be a forgotten thing. And I hate how most people don't understand the concept of criticism. Too many thin-skinned assholes out there who like to act like rotten bastards and don't want to be called out on it. And don't even get me started on companies who advertise about offering an easy way to transfer different currencies and then end up stealing all your money.

Like I said, it was the week of motherfuckers.

But onto other better things.

I finished watching the rest of DAISY JONES & THE SIX and really enjoyed it! The 70s aesthetics were as perfect as the music, and the ending hit as hard as the book. Overall, they did a great job at capturing the essence of the book and the characters. It was a trip to watch the band perform songs that could've easily fit into the 70s. Cool show! 😊🎶

Glad I finally watched it. 

The other great thing I did was complete the novelette I finished writing last week. I had a great time writing and revising this story, and everything that happened surprised me in many ways, but also made total sense.

Total word count: 13,001.

This is actually the tenth story I've written in this (vampire) world this year. And that doesn't include the two novels (90k each) that started all of this. Plus I still have a list of other characters waiting to tell their tale, LOL.

I also read a very cool novella, CRANBERRY COVE by Hailey Piper, and got started on the final proofing of my upcoming novel from Brigids Gate Press, FALLEN DESTINY, which I'll get stuck into on Monday.

Yeah, got lots of things to do. 😊

Have an awesome weekend!

Sorting, Sorting & More Sorting

Hi! How are you today? Even though the world is currently a bizarre mess, I hope you're able to find good vibes and happiness to make your days better.

I swear this timeline is the most ridiculous timeslip ever. It's like people had a chance to turn their backs on evil fucks, and instead decided to vote them in to screw everything up for the rest of us. Don't get me started on the anger I have for the ones responsible for a lot of what's going on at the moment.

Better not to fall down that rabbit hole.

So, my knee is almost fully healed. No more open wounds/scratches, and the irritation the constant band-aid wearing caused is almost gone too. It's still a bit messy to look at, but I don't care about that.

My husband went back to work this week (😢) and on Monday, I completed the final read-thru of the three stories I added to my Paperwhite the other day. All three are under 2k, so that's why it didn't take long to read each one and fix the final tweaks/changes. Didn't find too many things this time, but they're all finalised now.

As I've mentioned before, I'm having a lot of fun writing these stories set during different time periods, and featuring a variety of secondary characters. Another thing that I love about this world is how the ideas and characters are challenging me to write all sorts of different styles. Whatever suits the character/s.

I actually started another story midweek, but I'm taking my time with it. This one is going to be a bit longer. It's up to 3k so far, and nowhere near done. I'll keep writing until this guy's tale is out of my head. This is a tricky character because he's quite an asshole. Either way, I'm having a cool time visualising everything because the idea came to me in such a visual way that it keeps playing inside my head like a movie.

Asides from the above, I spent ALL week organising the two Kallax bookshelves we bought/built last weekend. The problem is that it's not a matter of just adding books and walking away. Nope. I had to go through every single bookshelf in the house, as well as the random piles I have everywhere.

It's a LOT of books, but I'm having a great time finding some titles I didn't remember I had! 😳

Asides from the books, I also have to go through the cute toys/figurines. Not to mention my stationery, because I'm trying to put things in easily-accessible places. I'm tired of never having a sticky note, notepad or pen available when I need it even though I have hundreds of all of them. LOL.

It's mentally and physically exhausting. Carrying books from one room to another and back again, while also packing Drönas full of stuff, is super tiring. My arms hurt as much as my legs. I mean, I'm still going for long daily walks, so yeah. SO TIRED. But you know what? It's definitely worth it. I'm so happy to have more places to display my books and cute things.

Unfortunately, going through all my books means that I've found some with foxing. It's so disappointing because I keep them in nice, clean shelves. And a bunch of them are from my Stephen King collection. 😫

Plus, once I find this, I get rid of the book. From what I read, it's not contagious, but I just can't keep them next to other crisp books.

That's what I've been doing lately. It turned out to be a very busy week! I packed as much writing/sorting/organising into every minute as I could. Great progress but still not fully done.

Only thing I didn't have time for was reading.

Well, have an awesome weekend!!

 

Taking a Break

Hey! How are you today?

We've been enjoying a fantastic week. My husband had an RDO last Friday that led into a week off, and we made the most of our time off.

We went on a lot of shopping trips to different shopping centres we don't usually visit, which always leads to cool walking adventures. As well as finding bargains and trying out new places to eat. Very cool and a lot of fun.

There was also quite a bit of lounging around and watching movies, catching up on shows, plus playing ACNH every day.

Sometimes, we watch YouTube to keep up with the crap that's going on in the world, but there's only so much I can take, so I usually end up grabbing my phone and start sorting my writing files. Or pics, maybe a bit of research. I ended up writing two new pieces, and finished the story in verse I mentioned last week. I even revised all three and added them to my Paperwhite for the final read-thru next week.

The stories that I'm writing are set in the VampNovel1 and VampNovel2 world. The characters just won't shut up, and since I'm having a lot of fun telling their stories, I reckon I'll probably end up with enough shorties for a short story collection.

Oh, we finally watched POSSESSION. An 80s movie that I've wanted to watch for years. And wow, what an intense trip that turned out to be. The characters were over the top and their marriage was totally broken. Not to mention how their son got lost in the insanity, and how these two wanted to change each other completely. There was a lot of insanity, but I mostly enjoyed it. Glad we finally watched it.

The other movie we watched was THE GORGE. This one hooked me in because I found the whole Gorge secret intriguing. It was cool to get the answers hidden within such eerie imagery. And the connection between the two characters was great, but the ending could've been better, to make more of an impact.

Anyway, we're finishing up the week with a whirlwind of buying more bookshelves from IKEA, donating some furniture to Salvos, and now sorting everything out. Yikes! It's been a crazy 24 hours and we're both sore and super tired, but getting more shelves is always an awesome thing!

Well, that's it for now. Catch you later.

Have a great weekend!

File Changes

Hello. How are you today? 

I'm actually taking a mental break at the moment because my last project muddled my brain quite a bit. 😵

It was TOTALLY worth it because I'm really happy/proud about how it turned out. But a break is definitely what I need right now.

This is actually my second week and I thought I'd post a little something because since finishing my latest Revision WIP, I've been making a LOT of Story File changes on my phone. And that always leads to a bunch of file updates on my laptop and external drives.

So, how/why did this come about? Although I'm still on schedule to complete at least two more revision projects by the end of the year, I'll be putting revision aside in November to take part in NaNoWriMo. That means I've been going through my Idea Folders to narrow down the possibilities... and that's when I realised that several ideas just didn't interest me anymore. Or there wasn't enough to justify an actual story.

I ended up deleting about five different ideas and merged two others. I'm so much happier now because all the story files are neat and tidy, plus getting rid of mind clutter feels as good as getting rid of actual clutter.

Yep. I'm totally in a spring cleaning kinda mood, because I also DNFd and donated 36 books! 😬 

It's definitely that time of the year.

Now that I've cleaned up all these files, I might be able to get stuck into some actual reading... LOL.

Anyway, have a great day!

PS. Can you believe it's the last day of August? 😳

Caught in the Middle of Weird

Hey! How are you today? How's life treating you during these hard times?

Just when you think 2020 can't get any worse, it fucking does. I mean, WTF is going on right now? Is our planet lost in some strange one-way cosmic highway of destruction? It's not enough to have a virus pandemic on the loose, we also have to add asshole racist killers to the mix? Seriously, I really don't know what to expect next.

If an alien invasion suddenly happened, or hordes from hell decided to ascend, I would not be surprised. Ugh.

Personally, I've been spending my days with hubby. Going for walks every day, doing yoga workouts, enjoying nice meals, staying up late, and reading lots while he plays a variety of games. It's fun and helps soothe my wandering mind.

There's a story hounding my brain at the moment and I've been sporadically adding new words to the Word doc on my phone. But I haven't fully committed because there's a pesky thing called jury duty that's like a really dark storm cloud hanging over my head that I can't clear away. It's smack-bang in the middle of the month and this thing's making me so anxious I keep having nightmares about it. 😲

I feel like I can't fully concentrate on my next project until this shitty thing is done.

You know, if this was taking place last year, I would've been fine and dandy with it. But during a pandemic? Not so much. This is screwing with my head and I'm caught between hoping it gets cancelled again and just getting it over and done with so I can fucking move on already.

This shit's been haunting me since February. 😣

At least it hasn't gotten in the way of my reading. As you can see below, I've been busy reading up a storm. Paperbacks, Kindle books, a combination--I'm picking up one book after another.

I even sorted some of the many piles of books I have around the apartment. Which reminded me about all the awesome books I want to read.

Anyway, it's been a few weeks so I thought I'd post an update about my state of mind and what I've been doing.

Hope you're all staying safe. And also, don't forget that people deserve to be treated as equals and with respect, and that Black Lives Matter.

Take care!

The Monster Book Ate My Brain

That's right. After a very productive week, this one slowed down a bit. I still got several things done, but it didn't include finalising two stories, LOL.

This week, my main goal was to finish reading IT. And to be honest with you, I tried to squeeze in some brainstorming but just couldn't concentrate. All I could think about was what was going on in the book, what was going to happen next, and looking forward to The End. Not because I wanted to be done with the book, but because I couldn't wait to find out what was going to happen.

Even then, it took most of the week to get through. Exactly three weeks after starting IT, I finished this amazing tome. And I loved every minute. Even after reading the last sentence yesterday, I continue to think about everything that happened. Keep going through all the stuff in my head. 

I guess it's hard to let go of a story that I've been stuck in for so long. Hard to forget all the shit that went down. Everything is still floating around inside my head, blending in together. I'm in awe, but haven't even written my review yet (which will be featured at Kendall Reviews) because I need a few days to get everything straight.

How can anything I say do the experience justice? 😬I plan to write it over the weekend and then proofread what I come up with on Monday.

So, asides from getting lost in this intoxicating read, we watched the second season of GLOW. Man, this show is so well written. I love how women are portrayed, the sisterhood and all the personal problems each one brings to the table. Not to mention that it's funny and so much FUN. Plus full of 80s and wrestling references.

I really hope there's another season.

When I wasn't reading or watching, I was sorting through my (many) books. In the last few months I seem to have doubled the amount of books I own and have to keep sorting them out. I also managed to trim my hair, which was long overdue. 😶

Anyway. It's getting late so I'm going to wrap this up now.

Have a great weekend!

Back to It

Hey! 

I hope you all had a nice week. Mine was a bit weird. 

After two (awesome) weeks of staying up late, sleeping in and going on adventures with hubby, getting back into the swing of things was a little challenging. 

It's not so much the getting up super early again. I'm cool with starting the day before sunrise, which means I'm back to walking the river path while most people are still asleep. It's more about changing gears in my brain. 

My head was all over the place this week. 

I knew it would be, so I didn't plan any real goals. Instead, I got stuck into stuff that didn't require too much thought. I sorted through the (many) bargain books we bought during our break, organised some stuff, squeezed in quite a bit of review reading, and even snuck in some file updates.

Asides from that, I formatted the story I started writing a few weeks ago. I'm not sure when I'll go back to adding more words, but I'm very excited because it'll be my first Victorian gothic ghost story with a twist. AND, the main character's voice is so strong I keep getting snippets.

Writing is such a strange and exciting monster.

Funny thing is that even though we're back into it, the thrifting hasn't stopped. I found a great pile of books this week, and even scored some free ones. For example, I found a free copy of MATILDA by Roald Dahl outside a thrift store (been meaning to get a copy for ages) & THE BLIND ASSASSIN by Margaret Atwood in one of our Street Libraries (always interested in any Atwood books)! Very cool.

As you can see, my book addiction is a never-ending obsession. No matter how many books I have to read, I'm always open to getting ARCs, review copies, thrift finds, Kindle bargains and specials from any/every bookstore I visit.

So, to make the transition from break to work, I decided to throw myself into writing thoughts, books, reading and walking. 

I don't have any definite plans for the coming week, but I'm planning to put some time aside to make writing plans for the next few months. 😁

Hope you have an awesome week!

Between Week

Last week I finished the third draft of the book I'm currently revising. So the next step is to read the draft on my Paperwhite after taking a break from it.

Only problem is that I started another Tweak/Add List last weekend. So, first thing on Monday morning I opened the doc and made the changes. Then, I was able to put it away for the rest of the week.

The story's so in my head that I needed a bit of distance.

I spent most of this week sorting my notebooks and random book piles. Plus I read a bunch of awesome non-fiction titles and wrote reviews for them. I'm really enjoying finding out about the many innovative women the patriarchy has buried through the years and unfairly left off the history books. 

It's about fucking time these strong, intelligent and brilliant women are celebrated for their many achievements!

By midweek, a surpise arrived in my Inbox. The edits for my YA horror short story came in! Have I mentioned that I had a YA story accepted and will be published in an anthology called Locker Shockers? I'm very excited.

Anyway, long story short: I got the edits done and sent them back. Yay.

I also read one of my most anticipated books ever. I finally read PRACTICAL MAGIC. And loved it. Adored the magical and gorgeous writing.

Why did it take me so long to read this book? Well, mainly because I was afraid to start it. I had such high expectations that I was secretly scared, in case I was disappointed. I haven't seen the movie so I wasn't sure what to expect, but Alice Hoffman is such an amazing author that I really wanted to check it out.

Really glad I loved it SO MUCH.

There you have it. My week was full of loads of washing, walking, review writing, stationery sorting, editing, review book checking, reading and updating. I updated quite a few files too. Phew.

Looking forward to the weekend.

Have an awesome one!

LOOT CRATE

It's that time of the month again! ;)

 

LOOT CRATE arrived last week but I didn't have a chance to blog about it.

 

So, February's theme was PLAY.

 

The box came in pretty good condition this time:

 

 

This is how it was packed: 

 

 

 And here's a closer look at all the goodies:

 

 

As you can see, the inside of the box is an actual board game. And while it's a clever play on words, I don't think this mystery box was that great. It's a little dull, to be honest. But we still had a cool time choosing what each of us was going to have.

 

I ended up with the book. Surprise, surprise!

 

My two favourite things were the book--READY PLAYER ONE by Ernest Cline--and the poster. I should take a photo of the poster and post it as well. It's a really cool Pac-Man cartridge, divided into layers. Very cool.

 

I really hope that next month's box is a LOT better.

 

 

Here are the other two boxes we've received so far:

 

 

 

 

I'm now (really) looking forward to getting HORROR BLOCK, which is on its way...

Reading Thoughts

The other day, I saw this on the Dymocks Twitter stream:

 

 

And it got me thinking...

 

As soon as I looked at the chart I labelled myself a MONOGAMIST READER because I love to grab one book and totally lose myself in it until I reach The End. And while it's true in most cases, I realised that I'm not always just this type of reader.

Sometimes, when a book isn't working for me, I'll put it aside and start a different one. Which definitely puts me in the POLYGAMIST READER label. And I usually stay that way until I decide that the first book isn't working for me, or wind up devouring the second book and sneaking in a chapter or two of the one I'm not so into. BTW, this also counts with my own writing. I often find myself editing/revising my book during the day, while rewarding myself with another at night.

In essence, that still means I'm reading more than one book at a time.

 

Then there's the EXTROVERT & INTROVERT READER. Okay, this is where things get a little weird. Although I love to read in a variety of genres, and I'm certainly not afraid to give a new story style a go, I'm also very much attracted to certain genres. I'm a HUGE urban fantasy and mystery fan. I can't go past a new book/series in these two genres and definitely analyse and ponder what I'm reading. But I'm also always on the lookout for new/different stuff.

 

And I'm definitely an ALTRUIST READER. When I love a book I rave on about it on my blog, Twitter and Goodreads. I tell my daughter all about it and because she's such a big reader she winds up getting stuck into it as well.

 

As far as the NEUROTIC READER... yep, this happens too. And it's usually when I'm either having a really bad run with books that I just can't get into, OR when I want to read SO MANY books at the same time that my mind can't stick with one story. :/

 

Well, there you have it. Depending on the book or my mood, I can be just about any kind of reader and fit into all six categories above.

 

What about you? What kind of reader are you?

Reading 2015

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

Well, 2015 is here and I've decided to set a new reading challenge at Goodreads:

 

I'm aiming to read another 100 novels, novellas, short stories, comic books, poems, etc. during 2015. This has been my target amount of books for the past few years and it seems to work, so... Here's to another awesome year of reading.

 

I also have a Mini-Challenge I'd like to achieve: Finish a bunch of trilogies/series that I have 1-3 books to go until completion. Don't know why I've been putting it off, but this year is the year that I actually GET IT DONE. ;)

 

You can read about my progress on My Reading Page, or at Goodreads.

 

Are you taking the challenge?

Hey! New Year!

So, how's 2013 treating you? Good, I hope.

Hubby had New Year's Day off, but everything's back to normal now. The festive season is done, and it's time to get back into the swing of things. Of course, I've got my daughter home until the end of the month, so my writing routine won't go back to normal until then.

 

If I receive edits, I'll be sure to work on them. Other than that, I'm going to have to put some sort of writing and revision plan together. After all, I do have Sierra Fox #4 to revise. ;)

 

During the last week I've also been going through my bookshelves because there are a bunch of books that I no longer want. Mostly it's books that I don't consider keepers, for various reasons. The main reason seems to be that I just can't be bothered starting whatever series they belong to. My reading tastes have also shifted a little, definitely away from one particular genre.

 

In the end, I've got about 80 books that I'm hoping the local secondhand bookstore is interested in. Fingers crossed, because I definitely don't want these books.

 

It's funny, because I still buy a lot of books, but nowhere near as many as I used to. I'm a bit fussier about what I buy, and don't buy a bunch of books in the series until I'm up to it. It's better this way, because it helps keep the impulse buys at bay. ;)

 

So. I read a short story yesterday. It was called DAVE SPEAKS by Jesse Petersen, and it was great, but it means that I can't wait to read this upcoming book. :) 

 

That reminds me, I've also gotta make some sort of reading plan because I've got a bunch of series that I want to catch up on, and some new books that sound awesome but I haven't had a chance to read yet. Not to mention the third books in a bunch of trilogies, lol.

 

Anyway, you know how it is when a new year hits--plans, goals, and all that. ;)

 

Have a great day!

 

 

Books, books, books!

I love to surround myself with books. Notebooks, books to read, eBooks... I'm not fussy. ;) But over the weekend, I actually bundled up just over 60 books from my bookshelf and took them to a local secondhand bookstore. Yay.

It was a HUGE load off my bookshelves. I had to get super tough with myself and asked myself: are you really going to re (or re-read) these books? And if yes, when? There were several books that the answer was 'yes', but for a lot it wasn't. They're the books I gave up. And not because they weren't good books, but some of them were genres that I no longer read. Or they were trade paperback size--which I really like to minimise on my shelves. They're just too bulky and take up too much room. I actually got rid of a few that I'm replacing with Mmp.

Anyway. It felt really good. And I think I should probably do a sweep of my shelves every three months or so. :)

Well, speaking of books... this week I'm working on the print galley for my own book, SPLIT AT THE SEAMS. It'll be released in print next July, so I wasn't expecting it to come to me so quickly but I'm glad it did. It means I get to read Book 2 one last time before getting stuck into the final draft of Book 3 in a few weeks. Busy-busy, huh?

Today I hit page 91/288. I have to admit that I was secretly hoping to have crossed the 100-page mark by today, but I seem to be working a little slower than expected. It's just a wonky week, that's all. Still, it just means that instead of finishing up by the end of the week, I'll have it done by Monday/Tuesday next week. No big deal, really. The deadline is mid-September.

Hubby and I watched the season 5 finale of TRUE BLOOD last night. I have to admit that I did get a few chuckles, and always enjoy seeing Alcide and Pam. Oh, and that SamFlyExplosion was pretty awesome. Still, it wasn't enough to keep us interested. I mean, WTF was all that crap with the faerie babies? Or the fact Sookie's pretty much a shadow of herself. What about Jason being all delusional about his dead parents? And the biggest WTFuckery has to do with Bill. I really don't get what they're trying to do with him, but it sucks. Pun intended.

So, we're done. Hubby and I will not be watching the next season. It's a waste of time, and there are plenty of other awesome shows to watch. Shows like BURN NOTICE, that just get better and better.

That's it for today.

These weeks, they keep goin' faster...

Oh yes they do!

Yikes.

 

Anyway, the week started out pretty busy for me. I was still working on the second draft of Sierra Fox #3, while putting together a to-do list and celebrating the release of Sierra's second book! Yay.

 

There's always so much to do, and as soon as I got the revision done I got stuck into a to-do list that desperately needed my attention. Most of the items have now been crossed off, but I suspect some will remain on there until the weekend. LOL.

 

Hey, what do you think of my latest stationery stash? We went to Officeworks last weekend and I picked up a bunch of reduced notebooks. They're so pretty. I'm tempted to go back again and grab more, because the pretty (oh, so pretty) notebooks will soon sell out. I'm so addicted to stationery. As addicted as I am to books! ;)

 

Actually, that's another thing I have on my to-do list: to go through my bookshelves and get rid of some books. It's a lot harder to do than it sounds, but I have to be tough about it. I'm running out of room, so I really need to clear as many books as I can! Well, I better get to it.

 

Have a great weekend!

The blog tour is almost over...

Today I'm at...



Chatting about 'Some of My Book Picks'.

A little sewing...

I mentioned yesterday that my daughter and I were going to be making a few of these. So, in the afternoon, we got all our felt pieces together and I started stitching.

<----And this is what we came up with.

As you can see, he's a little different to the one I've linked above. But hey, it's our first attempt! I think, Cy--my daughter named him--is pretty cute. She picked the felt colour, his button eyes, and positioned where she wanted his broken heart to go.*

I think he's cute, but I'm determined to do a much better job next time. ;)

Oh, and we ran out of time. So only made one. 

Anyway, asides from the sewing, I spent most of yesterday morning scheduling, and emailing a few guest blog posts I've got coming up. One of them is already live.

As for today--TGIF, btw--I'm hoping to tie up a few Sierra Fox notes that need to be added to the series bible. I'd also like to read more of this zombie book, and maybe pick out what books I want to add to my immediate TBR pile. I've got library books, Kindle books, and my own personal bookshelves lined with books I can't wait to read. So many books, so little time. lol.

And yes, the word of the day is books.

OMG. Next Friday, we'll be going to see MCR in concert. I can't wait.

Have a great weekend!

*The voodoo doll's right eye cracks me up every time.

TGIF

Yeah.

This has been a weird week. Not a real busy one, because I didn't really give myself any deadlines to meet, but I did do a lot of cleaning, reshuffling, moving, recycling, and reorganising of my bookshelves and writing stuff.

Phew.

There was a lot to organise, but at least now... most of the clutter is gone. Everything has a designated spot to go to, at the end of my writing sessions. What I'd been doing before wasn't working. I just kept everything handy. And by 'handy', I mean all over the computer desk and/or living room. lol.

Not anymore.

Of course, when I'm writing and/or revising, I'll still have post-it notes all over my calendar and folders and notes everywhere... but at least they'll have a place to go daily. Not even sure if this makes any sense. But this is the life of a writer without an office or desk. Which is fine with me, I write at the main computer desk on the main computer, or on the couch with the lappy. Plus, I can brainstorm and take notes on the couch and kitchen bench.

See, I've got it all worked out! ;)

I've also been doing plenty of reading. I'm almost finished this excellent book, and hope to get to the end by tomorrow. It's just so cool, I can't wait to see how it all ends...

Today, I'd like to get stuck into some more brainstorming for Recast #3. I started yesterday, by grabbing all of the notes I already have and putting them together. The story's been inside my head for a while--a bit disjointed--so it's just a matter of actually sitting down and getting the events outta my head in a linear way. Looking forward to it. I'm hoping to get started on it next week, see how I go. It's probably not a great idea because my daughter goes on school holidays soon, but I don't want to put this idea on hold. Not when it's so ready to leave my brain. :D

Anyway.

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Spring Cleaning

Yeah.

Every year, around this time, I get the itch to start 'sorting' through... things. My bookshelves get reorganised, my writing stuff gets shuffled and filed in a different way, we go through the kitchen, living room, and anywhere else that might need attention. Then we decide what we no longer need--whether it be rubbish, recycling, or things to donate somewhere.

Over the weekend, we went through our bills, warranty paperwork, etc. After getting so many new appliances this year, some of the paperwork had become obsolete. While new stuff needed to be filed, and some of the other, older stuff archived. It's a cool system. And as a result, we got rid of a HEAP of recycling.

I think we just about filled one whole recycling bin downstairs, lol.

Oh, and we got our new fridge delivered nice and early on Saturday morning. It's really cool, and doesn't make the strange noises the other one did. The delivery guys even took the old one away. Awesome. Thanks Bing Lee! :)

Let's hope every other appliance behaves for a while longer, huh?

So. It looks like this week might turn out to be a bit of a mixed bag of things to do. I'd like to: continue adding things to Sierra Fox's notebook, sort out my other series & writing folders, sort through my bookshelves again, remove the clutter I have around the computer desk, and keep reading THE BROKEN ONES. I'm almost halfway through, and I'm really enjoying it. Also, if the last round of edits of SINFUL hits my Inbox, I'll probably get stuck into them.

We'll see what pops up.

Before I go, I just wanted to take a moment to say: Ten years later, and the sadness of what happened still affects me deeply. My heart goes out to all the victims & their families... I took several moments yesterday to think about the people who were affected by this horrible event. It might have happened ten years ago and I might not personally know anyone who died that day, but my heart still broke when it happened. It still breaks now, whenever I see/hear it mentioned. And for that reason, I didn't watch any of the documentaries on TV about it. I just couldn't. :(

See you tomorrow.

Well, hello!

I can't believe it's Thursday already. My gosh, where have the last few days gone? Well, they've been packed with stuff. 

Firstly, I had my daughter home from school because she wasn't participating in something that was going on at school. And of course, that meant she was here 24/7. But that's okay, I made sure she got a balanced dose of online schoolwork, homework, and relaxation time. I even took her on an excursion to the the post office. Where she learned that the online postage calculator gives the wrong amounts. :/

It's time to go back to school today. She'll probably wake up at any minute now.

I just want to mention that today I'm over at Author Talk to Linda Sole. It's just a little blog post about me and the things I like to write. :) Feel free to pop in, it's a litle lonely at the moment. lol.

A few things have been going on... I signed two more contracts with Evernight Publishing. Yay. It's for two Christmas-themed novellas that feature an imp, a human, and the demonic. Lots of fun. Can't wait to see the covers for these ones. Yay. I also had two more stories accepted into two Static Movement Anthologies--Darkest Secrets and Oh, the Horror! Which means that I now have three stories in DS, and two in OtH! How awesome is that? And, it looks like they're both closing in a few days, too.

Thanks to hubby, I also found out that not only is there a http://www.thebookdepository.com/, but that the prices are several dollars cheaper than http://www.thebookdepository.co.uk/. Doesn't sound like much, but when you buy anywhere between two-five books/month, it adds up. I ordered my copy of Were-What and Madness of the Mind, as well as the US paperback version of Dead and Gone. Awesome!

Well, today I've got a bunch of smaller things to do: proofread and post my latest book review, revise and email another guest blog post (this time for Borders True Romance, where I'll be a guest on 30/9), finish writing a 1k shortie that I want to sub here before it's too late, type up another short story that's half-finished, and sort out what I'd like to finalise--writing wise--by the end of this year. Although, that's going to be a little wonky because I'm expecting a whole bunch of edits during the next few months and have no idea when they'll hit.

Okay, time to get stuck into one of the things I mentioned. Have a great day!

A bit of everything today

This morning, the hubby and I went for a nice drive after dropping my daughter off at school. On the way back we stopped by Officeworks to check out a few stationery items and ended up buying a few bits and pieces for my daughter. She's going to be very surprised when she gets home from school. :)

Anyway, we were checking out laptops, too. I think that mine's slowly dying on me. It takes a very long time to load a Word doc and sometimes doesn't even respond after the intial click. :( That makes me sad because I've got a lot of love for my lappy.

I'm checking out those really nice and compact ones, you know the ones I mean? They're small and cute, and very light. We'll see what happens.

It's back to revision now, though. I've reached page 155/280 already. Mostly, it's moving along nicely. Nothing huge needed to be changed, but I've moved plenty of sentences around, have added a few things I forgot to add during the first draft, keep deleting words that don't need to be there, and have often found myself replacing a four-word description with just one. Oh, and for some reason, my overuse of the word 'here' is driving me batty. Why, oh why, did I have to use it so much? *scratches head* Not to worry, I've been hacking them away.

I was hoping to reach page 200 by the end of today, but I'm not sure that's going to happen. I'll probably try to squeeze in another chapter this arvo and hopefully one tonight. If I do, I may just get close to it. Maybe.

Yesterday, I borrowed this book from the library. After reading this awesome list at The Book Smugglers website last week, this was one of the books that caught my eye. I checked my local library and reserved a copy. I think I might have to make my way through this whole list. I love futuristic/post-apocalyptic stories and have read some listed already, but others I will probably borrow or even buy.

Anyway, I won't be reading this book until I've finished the revision of M-YA because it's in the same genre. Instead, UNWIND is going to be my reading reward. Can't wait.

I think I need to do a few things before it's time to head out for the day...