Hey! Stuff happened!

See this cute pic? That's exactly how I feel today.

 

*yawn*

 

So tired. I'm feeling a little crappy today. I keep yawning, have a huge headache that I can't shake, feel wonky and can't stop thinking about taking a nap. Maybe I should do that.

 

Maybe.

 

Anyway. I think I'm mentally exhausted. Looks like the last few weeks of being totally engrossed in the third draft of Sierra Fox #4 have finally caught up with me. It kinda feels like my brain's telling me I need a few days off.

 

I'll try, but I'm not the kind of person that can do nothing. Or stop thinking about things. Like I mentioned last time, my head's already full of Sierra Fox #5 snippets. But I won't be writing it yet. I need a little down time to catch up on some reading and take plenty of notes about this book I'm itching to write in May. :)

 

So, like I mentioned earlier... the fourth book is done. The synopsis is done. And I've emailed everything to my lovely editor. Now comes the worrying. Funny how you can be so excited a second after finishing the book and sending it in, then the worry starts to cloud your judgement. O_o

 

Oh well. I'm not going to think about that. Best to concentrate on other things.

 

Man, writers sure can be a weird, neurotic lot...

 

Hubby and I watched the second last ep of The Walking Dead last night... it was AWESOME! I love this show so much. I can't wait to see what happens next week, but don't want it to end. Think I'll have to get stuck into the comic books again. I've fallen behind a bit.

Oh, and did you hear the terrible news? MCR broke up! I can't believe it. I was shocked, and sad. I love this band and everything their music meant to me. Personally, I've found a lot of inspiration in their music and was looking forward to more. Guess I'll just have to listen to their past albums over and over again, which is fine with me! :)

My Chemical Romance lives on...

Time to go. See ya!

Hey, it's a new week!

And almost February. Yikes!

My daughter went back to school yesterday, so I'm still trying to get myself into the swing of having the whole day to myself. I wound up finishing the book I was reading and writing a review for it. I know, very productive. Not. ;)

Remember how I made this voodoo pincushion for my daughter a few weeks ago? Well, I forgot to post a photo of the second one I made for her...

<--- So, here it is. What do you think? I like it more than the first one. But I suppose the more I make, the better they'll turn out, right? Maybe. Still, I really like this one. :)

Oh, on Friday night hubby, daughter, and I went to the MCR concert. OMG. It was fantastic! My ears were ringing for a few days and I kinda lost my voice because I was singing along so much, but it was so worth it. They were awesome, and we had a lot of fun! Now we've seen our two favourite bands live in concert. So very cool. And my daughter's only 11. LOL.

We were all on such a high after the concert and having a 4-day weekend with hubby, that it was hard to settle back into a normal working/school week yesterday. O_o

Anyway. Today, I'd like to do some brainstorming on the R&R I'm going to be working on next. That's my first project for this year. I really want to make this story stronger, make better sense of it, as well as setting a more romantic mood in it. It's going to be a lot of hard work, but I believe in this story and want to do it justice. So, that's what I'm hoping to make some headway on today...

Well. I hope you all have an awesome day!

'Twas a dark and dreary day...

But this gorgeous picture of my cat, Loki, should brighten things up. :)

Seriously, isn't it beautiful? My daughter took it. We surprised her last month and gave her a digital camera for her 11th birthday, and she loves it. She takes heaps of excellent photos, but most of them happen to be of Loki. Lol. She chases him around the house with the camera, waiting for a cute pose. And well, since he's pretty much always doing those... you can imagine. I call her the 'Loki Paparazzo'.

As you can probably tell from the title, we've been having a pretty dark and rainy start to the week. Boo! It pretty much rained most of yesterday, and I found myself walking in the rain when I dropped and picked my daughter up from school. I have to admit it was kinda nice during my walk in the morning--I like getting the river path all to myself--but in the afternoon it was a bit of a drag. Oh well.

I just hope it stops soon. I don't mind a few days of spotty rain, but nonstop rain for more than that starts to make me twitch. I need me some sunshine during spring. ;)

So, I actually had a great day yesterday. I didn't have any tight daily deadlines, but worked on research and updating my Sierra Fox Series Bible for most of the time. I even spent the morning listening to music while I read about some myths and legends. I've now (finally) cleared something up about one of the villains in the second book, which I'll have to fix during the final draft. And have found/figured out which calendar moon cycles I'm using. Never mind about that, though. It's mostly background stuff that I need to know in order to make sense of the timeline.

I'll be doing more of the same today. I've got an ominous name to choose, the interior of a house to figure out, and some werewolf/full moon research to do. I've also got to read a little more about crime scenes and might even need to eventually pop into the local police station to ask them a few precise questions about certain Australian procedures. I don't usually have cops in my books, but these two popped out of nowhere while I was writing--just like the unplanned scene they were in--and now I need to make proper sense of everything. Yeah.

OMGosh! I found out the other day that MCR is actually doing one sideshow in Sydney when they tour as part of The Big Day Out next year. They're going to perform at the same place as 30STM did, when we went to see them live last year. We're gonna try and get tickets. I expect this show to sell out real fast, but I'm certainly gonna try to get hubby, daughter and myself there. :D

Well, that's it for now. I'm going to get a few things done before my daughter wakes up and it's time to get on with the day... Take care!

Last day of the week!

This week has become a blur of words, trouble, and constant thinking about my current WIP. Yikes! It's totally consuming my mind. Which is actually a great thing. :)

I love getting so wrapped up in a story that the characters constantly whisper inside my head, and new scenes, conversations, as well as twists keep popping into my brain when I least expect it.

Yesterday, while I was walking with MCR plugged into my ears, the end of the book played out inside my head. Awesome! 

Actually, the soundtracks for this book are: Discovery by Daft Punk and The Black Parade by My Chemical Romance. Both are absolutely perfect for the story, especially MCR's TBP, because some of the songs relate directly to some of the chapters I've been writing. :) Love that.

The Sierra Fox #2 word count has hit 40,653. That's my word count goal for today, so anything I add during my writing session when I get home from dropping my daughter off at school is extra word count. It'll put me in a good place for next week. And if hubby works tomorrow, I can squeeze in a few more too.

I'm loving every minute of writing this story, and am already thinking about the next installment...

Oh, you know what happened the other day? Just out of the blue, our LCD TV decided to play up. For some reason, there was this horrid smudge on the right side of it. Like the image was flipping. We thought it was odd, but what was odder was the fact that after a while, it would disappear and work just fine again. Yet, it did it every day after that. Yesterday, someone came in to look at it--it's under extended warranty--and we were surprised to hear him say it was a serious problem. He reckons the screen's gone.

WTF? Anyway, he took it with him and said he'd get back to us soon. Now, we've got our daughter's much smaller TV in the living room. It feels so strange, like something's missing. lol. Still, it's better than no TV at all, I suppose. Hope we hear back soon, and I'm wondering if it's something that'll be fixed, or if it'll need to be replaced. O_o

Okay. I need to get ready. It's time to head out, drop my daughter off at school, go for a walk by the river, and then get back to get stuck into some writing! Hoping for another productive run...

Have a good one!

This is awesome!

I love this song...

Save Yourself, I'll Hold Them Back

That happens to be the song I'm listening to at the moment.

It's a good thing that I'm not working on any edits today. There's someone nearby doing renovations (as they've been doing for what feels like forever, but might actually be two months) and it helps to blast the music to drown it out. :/ And this is great music.

Anyway, how's everyone today? I'm catching up on some bits and pieces. I finished off an interview for my (most) excellent Evernight Publishing editor, which she'll post over the weekend. Yay. I like doing interviews.

Other than that I've been updating... stuff, and will probably pop into my website later on so I can remove all the NaNoWriMo icons and post my WINNER badge. *beaming* It's just so cool to have done this for five years in a row. It's become a tradition.

Now, I just need to really sit down with a calendar and slot certain goals into the upcoming months. I've been meaning to do this for a while now, but really need to do it ASAP. My daughter only has a few weeks of school left for the year, and then she'll be home for almost six weeks. And we all know what that does to my productivity, lol.

Have a great day!

The Aftermath Is Secondary

Hey! How's everyone's week going? Mine's cool so far.

It's really starting to feel like summer here in Sydney and I'm loving every minute of it.

I hope it sticks around for a while, because I'm totally over the dreary rain. The sunny days are lovely this time o' year. ;)

Well, it's midweek and for the first time all month, I'm taking it a little slow today. Yep. After doing so many rounds of edits, starting and finishing my NaNoWriMo novel, reading, and just keeping busy... today's the day to slow it down a little. Just a bit.

So I'm just catching up on a few bits and pieces that are either due soon, or I just want to sort out before I get hit with another round of edits. That's as much as I want to achieve today. Oh, and there's that MCR interview that I want to watch... for inspiration, of course. ;)

I also wanted to mention that DEMON OF CHRISTMAS PAST will be available tomorrow. Actually, it's already available for pre-order. And you can read an excerpt here.

Have a nice day!

Look Alive, Sunshine

Today is the release date! The Killjoys are out in the wild.

That's right, DANGER DAYS is now available. I'm so excited! And I absolutely LOVE this album. It's fantastic, awesome, and very inspiring.

Actually, it's already inspired a totally crazy idea that I intend to take notes for very soon.

I'm really not surprised, though. I love every single one of MCR's previous albums, and this one's just as awesome. I've been acting like a giddy girl since I saw the teaser for Na Na Na. I love that every song is super cool... plus I'm totally digging the story that connects them all together. So very awesome! :)

So, what else have I been doing? Asides from watching MCR film clips and live clips for inspiration, of course. ;)

Well, I just finished the first round of edits for my second (upcoming) Christmas novella from Evernight Publishing, DEMON OF CHRISTMAS PRESENT. Yep. It took me a few days to get done, but that's mostly because I was adding/making so many changes that the page count kept going up every time I sat down to work on it. Seriously. But I'm very happy with how it's turned out.

Well, not much more to say for today.

Oh... except that I forgot to post the SING clip the other day:

Na Na Na...

Well, hello there new week! How are you? I personally wasn't quite ready to say goodbye to Sunday just yet, but what can I do? It's not like I can stop time or anything. ;)

We enjoyed another chillaxing Sunday: caught up on a bunch of shows and even managed to squeeze in a movie. Yay. It was very cool. And the weather was so summerlike. Which I'm absolutely lovin', because I'm totally over the rainy crap weather we've been having lately. :(

Bring on the sunshine, I say! (Just looked out the window... looks like we're heading into overcast territory. Boo!)

Anyway, I've got some edits to tackle today (and maybe tomorrow). At the moment I'm sitting on pg24/85, which is a pretty cool headstart. I'm going to spend the rest of the day on this first round of edits, so I'm going to push as far as I can. Of course, I'm secretly hoping to get it outta the way by this arvo, when I head out to pick my daughter up from school. We'll see.

Hope you all have a great week! :)

Killjoys, make some noise!

The Killjoys rock! ;)

Hi, on a Saturday!

Well, I've been up since about 4AM this morning, so I might be a little loopy right now. lol.

Plus, I've been listening to MCR all morning. Well, okay, that's not all I've been doing. I got started on my latest lot of edits: the first round of DEMON OF CHRISTMAS PRESENT--which is the sequel to DEMON OF CHRISTMAS PAST--featuring Noel & Natala. I managed to get 14/83pgs done. That's not bad for a start. I had to stop when my daughter woke up, so I squeezed in a little yoga, too. :)

Anyway. That's it for now.

The Killjoys rock! ;)

MCR are rockin' my world!

Here are the stats for Day 3 of my NaNo-slash-editing:

•NaNo word count: 8,128

•First round edits page count: 62/88

But of course, that's not an accurate-up-to-date account because I spent this morning adding some new words to the story. I managed to add over 2k before my daughter woke up, so the new word count is: 10,358.

Awesome! Very excited to be over my word count goal for today. And because of that, I might just take the rest of the day to finish the novella edit. I have 26pgs left to do, and although I might not be able to get that done before lunchtime today, I might just keep working until I do get it done & email it in. That'll mean that I can spend all tomorrow adding new words to NaNoWriMo.

Man, I had a reward lined up for today, too. As soon as I got my required morning word count and my daughter woke up, I was going to listen to the new MCR single on their website. And man, it's absolutely AWESOME! I am so loving what they've shared with the world so far. I mean, I'm a huge fan anyway, so I've been looking forward to this album, but seeing what's on offer is very exciting. I love the story so far.

Here's a trailer for the upcoming clip:

Awesome, huh? I can't wait to watch the whole thing. I'm really lovin' this futuristic story they're telling with their songs, it's totally awesome. :) Oh, and I'm really looking forward to getting my raygun, lol.

Well, see ya later!

Just thinkin'

You guys already know about my fascination with 30STM, right? But I'm not sure if you know that I have a very similar fascination with MCR. There's just something about these two bands that gets my creative juices totally flowing! It's awesome.

So when I drop my daughter off at school, I always switch on my MP3 player and listen while I walk. The last few days I've been plugging back into The Black Parade. Before that I was listening non-stop to Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge. Both albums are totally awesome, I can't get enough, but this is also a way for me to gear up for their next album. We've already pre-ordered it. And I just can't stop listening/watching Na Na Na. It totally rocks! And I love the fictional angle that Gerard Way gives his albums/songs. He's very creative, and even writes comic books.

So, there you have it. These bands are two of my biggest musical influences, and I've gotten several story ideas just from listening to their songs. Just thought I'd share. ;)

We've hit mid-week again. Yikes! Today, hubby started work super early so we got up at 4m. We'll be doing that again tomorrow. And even though I kinda feel like a lightheaded zombie waking at that time, it also gives me a lot of extra time to do stuff before my daughter wakes up. Like this morning, I wrote/proofread/scheduled my upcoming Samhain blog post. It'll go live on October 29, but I wanted to get it done a few days before. It's a little post about NaNoWriMo. I'll post the link here when it's posted.

I also received the final round of edits for my upcoming Evernight Publishing novella, THE SOUL DEALER: Redemption. Instead of throwing myself into it all day today, I'm going to tackle the beginning of it, and then plan to have it finished by tomorrow afternoon. Friday, at the very latest. I've just got a small list of other things that need doing as well, especially for my upcoming NaNoWriMo novel, which I'm now super excited about! Yay.

Either way, looks like I'll be pretty busy for the rest of the week. So, I better get started, huh? See ya later!

MCR is back & I'm lovin' it!

I absolutely, effing love this:

I can't wait to get my hands on their new album!