August Update!

Hey, how are you today? How's August treating you? Can you believe it's almost over? Yikes.

A lot of good and one not-good thing happened this month. It started with an incredible announcement: signed a contract for my first short story collection with Cemetery Gates Media, and the release of a very cool and unique anthology edited by Lauren Carter.

And then I found out a book that I got my rights back for (at the end of June) had been published anyway. I mean, WTF? That wasn't a fun experience, but with the help of Amazon and Ingram, I was able to sort everything out. I was amazed and so glad for their help while dealing with this copyright infringement. And now the book isn't available anymore. Anywhere. Which is what should've happened in the first place. Sometimes, if you want something done properly and professionally... you have to do it yourself.

On a much better note, the weather is warming up and the days are getting longer. Only problem is that we seem to be skipping right to summer temps. Good thing I love summer. 😅

So, what else have I done this month? Well, I've been enjoying the weekends with my husband, and making decisions about my homeless novellas/novels. I've subbed some things, proofread others, updated a whole bunch of computer files, and even decided to change Wings of Sorrow to another title. In fact, I've decided to rewrite/rework the 46k-word story into a novel. I have some new ideas and additions I want to make, and a few changes. I refuse to let one terrible experience ruin my enthusiasm for Thera and Hector's story, but it's not ready to face the world yet.

I'm also excited about a few things that I've been working on and sorting out with another story. Plus the announcement that was made yesterday made me smile: My novel, FALLEN DESTINY, will be published by Brigids Gate Press late next year. This is a cozy/urban fantasy about a demon who's hired by a mysterious nun to find an angel. Yeah, lots to unpack there. But I'm super excited! 😁

This week we watched the series finale for two of our favourite shows. EVIL is a fantastic show that, IMO, ended prematurely and that was definitely reflected in the finale. It was SO disappointing. Betrayed the character arcs and motivation they took so long to establish. Oh well. THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY, however, was brilliant. I loved every minute of the final season and the finale broke my heart, but it totally worked. There was no other way for things to turn out for the Hargreeves siblings. I'm gonna miss them.

So, I started the month with some great news, had to deal with a shitty situation in the middle, and am ending on a nice note. I really hope that September is a great month, packed with good weather, awesome news, and exciting writing projects.

My husband's having two weeks off during the middle of September, so that's a good start.

Have a good one!

Popping in to say...

OMGosh, I just realised that it's been quite a while since I last posted something that wasn't a book review.

So, here I am! ☺️

How are you? How's July treating you? What's new? Anything exciting happening in your life at the moment?

I have to admit that in some ways, this month hasn't been the best. Well, some things have been great because spending time with my husband, and going on suburban adventures with him, is always fun and exciting. Not to mention that July is my birthday month. And we got a new fancy washing machine!

We've also been watching The Boys (great finale), Evil, and discovered some 90s episodes of Columbo on Prime! Which are totally addictive. 😅🔍

Winter has hit really hard, which I don't like. I can't wait for the longer days to come back...

Between the stress of routine health checks and what happened online, I've been dealing with a lot of stuff.

Anyway, I don't want to get into the nitty-gritty details because if you're on social media you probably already know what happened, but a bunch of my books are no longer published/coming soon. If you've taken a look around my website you probably already noticed.

And I'm once again really sorry if you pre-ordered Wings of Sorrow because it wasn't released as previously scheduled. 

Yep. I now have a bunch of homeless horror stories, but that's okay. I think my hard drive is the best place for them at the moment.

Although it's taken me weeks to clear my head enough to really deal with what happened, I'm finally ready to think about what to do next. I have to admit that the experience has been hard on my mental health, has left me with some trust issues, and a lot of disappointment. It's funny (weird, not haha) how situations like this can bring out the worst or best in people. And I've taken note because I don't forget gaslighting or being tossed aside for no reason. 🫤

But I'm not here to dwell on any of the uncomfortable things I've gone through lately because the routine tests came back good, and I had a great meeting with my Film/TV agent the other day. 

I just want to move on from all the other stuff. It's time to think about the future.

Well, that's it. Just thought I'd pop in and say a few things about how the last two turbulent months have affected me. And I also want to say that I'll keep you posted on what's next for my stories.

Watch this space. ☺️

Thanks for reading and have an awesome day!

2023 Goals

Well, we've almost reached the end of 2023, so I suppose it's time to chat about my goals.

This year turned out to be packed full of stuff. My husband became a bus driver, which flipped our routine. I managed to get my writing back on track after spending so much of the last few years revising, which is fantastic. And sadly, we lost our beloved 16-year-old Loki, which broke our hearts. It's been nine months, but we still miss him every single day.

Loki was more than a cat. He was family. He was the embodiment of our apartment. And without him, it feels like something is missing.

Anyway, I don't want to get off track and get sad all over again. I'm here to talk about the personal goals I set in January.

Here's how they turned out:

• Go for two daily walks: LIKE I SAID ABOVE, OUR SCHEDULE CHANGED THIS YEAR, SO MOST DAYS I END UP GOING FOR ONE VERY LONG WALK (JUST UNDER TWO HOURS).

• Get back into yoga and schedule more workouts: ALTHOUGH WE DID YOGA, IT WAS ALL OVER THE PLACE. STILL HAVEN'T FOUND THE RIGHT BALANCE. 🫤

• Write between 100-200k words: I WROTE 190.934 WORDS.

• Read 100 books: I READ 102 BOOKS.

• Revise/finalise my NaNoWriMo 2022 first draft: YES! I ACTUALLY DID THIS IN MARCH.

• Write a novel or two: I WROTE ONE 65K NOVEL.

• Write a novella or two: I WROTE TWO NOVELLAS (45K & 30K).

• Keep writing short stories & subbing Try not to self-reject & submit stories no matter how much of a longshot it is: I WROTE THREE SHORT STORIES BUT DIDN'T REALLY SUB TO MANY OPEN CALLS BECAUSE I WAS WORKING ON LONGER STUFF.

• Take part in NaNoWriMo: OKAY, THIS ONE'S MESSY. I DID WRITE A FIRST DRAFT (65K) DURING NOVEMBER, BUT I DELETED MY NANOWRIMO ACCOUNT & WILL NEVER TAKE PART AGAIN.

• Continue playing Animal Crossing and get into some other cozy, cute puzzle games: I'M STILL PLAYING ANIMAL CROSSING EVERY DAY & PLAYED COZY GROVE REGULARLY AS WELL. I ALSO FINISHED UNPACKING, CONTINUED TO PLAY THE TETRIS 99 CHALLENGES & RECENTLY STARTED SUIKA GAME. ACCORDING TO MY NINTENDO SWITCH STATS, I PLAYED A TOTAL OF 681 HOURS THIS YEAR! WHICH IS AWESOME.

Well, that's how I did with my personal goals list! Not bad. I'm very happy with what I achieved.

Now, here are some other very cool writing highlights:

• I now have TV/Film representation! I'm represented by Alec Frankel from IAG. This is SO EXCITING!! ☺️🎉

• I signed eight contracts this year.

• Writer Firsts: I got some amazing blurbs from a bunch of awesome authors, had my first hardcover and audio book releases & my most reviewed story ever!

• I edited four novellas and two are already published.

• I wrote, revised & subbed two prequel short stories that are now available for free at DarkLit.

• The two novellas I wrote this year, I also revised & finalised. Which is a big deal because I promised myself that I would keep up with first draft revision.

• I made two covers for my own books. I made the BEAST OF BURDEN cover, and with the help of Andrew Robert, I made the cover for CHANGE OF HEART.

• I finally updated my website! This was something I wanted to do all year but didn't get to it until this month. And now that I've done it, I want to make changes when needed.

• I got the rights back for two books.

These are the novellas that were released this year:

These are the short stories available for free:

I have a Creepypasta shortie in this Cemetery Gates Media anthology:

As I mentioned above, now that I've updated everything here, I've decided to concentrate on my website/blog more. After what happened with Twitter, NaNoWriMo and Substack, I'm starting to get sick and tired of closing down accounts and starting over.

My website is my personal space, and I want to highlight it a lot more.

Also, I'm not going to bother with a newsletter for now, I setup my blog so that you can subscribe and get updates sent directly to your Inbox whenever I post here. It just makes sense, and serves the same purpose as a newsletter.

Well, this is how my 2023 goals turned out! I'm very happy with everything that I managed to accomplish. And I'm very excited because SUFFER THE DARKNESS happens to be one of the projects I worked on last year. It means that those eighteen months I spent rewriting/revising all of those forgotten tales on my hard drive was definitely worth it.

I better write up some 2024 goals soon. ☺️

A little writing...

How are you?

I can't believe it's already June! Yikes. 😳

In Oz, this means that winter is here. As you might already know, I'm not a big fan of winter. I don't like the cold and definitely have a hard time adapting to shorter days. But this year, I'm trying not to let it get me down too much. I'm also trying not to concentrate on the rising Covid numbers. I mean, no one else seems to care anymore, right?

Also, not having Loki around makes me sad because he used to get really affectionate during the colder weather. It's been over three months since he passed away and I still miss him every day. We used to spend most of the day together, so it's hard sometimes. There are a lot of reminders around the apartment, and I can't seem to shake the sadness whenever I think about him.

So much, that I ended up spending the last few weeks writing a story that first came about because of how much his loss is affecting me.

I think it's easier to add the tweet I posted about it because it explains what I mean:

Yep. In mid-May, after waking up from a horrible dream that made me so sad I spent quite a bit of the morning crying, my subconscious decided to do something about it. I wasn't thinking about a new idea because I was so distracted by the sadness, but my writer brain decided to present me with a new story concept. One that would probably be hard to write because it dealt with the loss of a cat, but that could help me get through this in the longrun.

I ended up writing the first chapter on my phone one night, but didn't get stuck into it until late May. I didn't want to put any pressure on myself. Even thought it might end up being a one-chapter writing exercise and that's all. And I was fine with that.

Well, this attitude sure helped because after a slow start, I spent the last two weeks writing the first draft. I didn't put any pressure on myself to add new words if I didn't feel like it, and started slow. But then I began to lose myself in the story, couldn't stop thinking about it. I picked up the pace and couldn't wait to get back to it every afternoon.

My head was full of ideas and situations. Problems the main character needed to overcome in order to move on. I was gripped and the words were pouring out of me every time I fired up my laptop.

I actually finished the first draft last night. The word count is: 45,078. During most of the writing, I wasn't sure if it was going to be a novelette or a novella, and didn't care. As long as the story kept coming, I kept typing.

So, what started out as a personal exercise to work through my own feelings of loss, turned out to be SO much more. This story, characters and world surprised me. A lot. What begins as one woman's grief after losing her pet companion, became a very involved tale about self-acceptance. About facing what she'd tried to avoid for years. It ended up being deeper, more emotional, pretty violent, and even a lot sexier than I expected.

I'm very happy with how it turned out. And the process really was cathartic. It really did help me, and I look forward to returning to it when it's time for revision. But right now, I'm going to enjoy the fact my sadness was able to produce a whole new (unexpected) story.

Besides, it's a long weekend right now and I'm going to enjoy it with my husband.

Have a good one!

Saying Goodbye to Loki

LOKI

2007 - 2023

I've been meaning to write this post for almost a week now, but couldn't bring myself to do it because it was too sad and very painful.

Last Monday we lost our beloved cat, Loki. 😥💔

Calling Loki a cat doesn't seem right. He was my writing buddy, our companion, a little comedian, our familiar, and a sassy boy with a huge attitude. He was the king of the castle. He knew what he wanted and because he was so cute, adorable and loud, he always got his way.

He turned 16 last month, but shortly after that he started changing. Loki was always an active kitty who loved to run around and jumped onto most surfaces. Even after he became a senior cat, he had a lot of energy. But he lost that spark recently, and when he started withdrawing, we got worried because he loved following us around. Especially me.

After he stopped eating, that was when we knew there was a serious problem. Eating was his favourite thing to do, so ignoring his food was not normal.

This was all very strange because he had blood tests in late December that confirmed nothing was out of the ordinary. 

Either way, we made an appointment with his usual vet. Who cancelled an hour before we were meant to go because their main vet was on holidays and the one covering wasn't sure she was up for the challenge. 🤬

It was frustrating, and we scrambled to get him an appointment at another nearby vet hospital. Fast forward to last Monday, and we got the bad news. There were too many problems. Age had finally caught up with him and there was nothing left to do but to put him out of his pain.

It was hard to let him go because even though we suspected things were dire, when the reality hit it was unbearable. But there was no other way. He was wasting away before our eyes. We were not going to let him suffer for the sake of keeping him around.

I'm glad I held him until the very end. Saying Goodbye to our sweet boy was horrible and there were many tears. There still are. Not having him in the apartment has created a strange void. We miss the everyday routines we had with him, and it's strange—and feels so wrong—to not have him around.

Even writing feels weird without him. He always sat nearby while I was on my laptop and reminded me when it was time for a break. I'm a little lost without his presence.

The apartment sure is empty without him. But we have to get used to this. I hate it and wish he was still here, but the wooden box of ashes is all that remains of our precious kitty. 

I'm glad we've got so many happy memories of him. As well as hundreds of photos taken during his long and happy life. We loved our little guy.

I miss you every single day, Loki. And will never forget you. xxx

A Bit of Writing

Hey! How's it going?

Well, the new year isn't so new anymore, is it? Actually, as far as the world is concerned, it's still the same old pandemic crap. 😒

Things in NSW are pretty bad. The case numbers are out of control, getting a PCR test is virtually impossible, RATs are sold out everywhere, the hospitals are full, too many people are dying, and these crooks passing themselves off as our state/federal governments don't care. I hope the country now understands that all these shitty things are happening because rightwing governments just DGAF. Ugh.

On a better note, we got our booster shot two weeks ago. So at least we have a better level of protection now. 

Anyway, I spent this week writing and revising a new short story that pretty much came to me fully formed. The main character, his problem/s, and the dark road he's travelling were all pretty much there as soon as I got started. And I enjoyed every minute of it! 😇

I was originally planning to get started on my next revision this week, but I'm really glad I decided to push it back to concentrate on new and shorter writing. It feels good to start 2022 with new words. The world is a very unstable place right now, but concentrating on telling stories always helps me feel better.

Plus, working on shorter pieces also means I have some reading and Animal Crossing time. Yay. And this week I read a fantastic horror classic, plus a poetry collection classic. 😁

It turned out to be a very productive week, so I'm going to enjoy the weekend. Hope you do too!

The Week After Revision

Hey! How are you today?

How's this week treating you? The world is still insane, so I know it's weird to ask. But still, it's nice to check in. To make sure we're all okay.

So, Australia is still on lockdown and is going to stay that way for another four weeks. The restrictions seem to be working. People are still getting this horrid virus, but the infection numbers have started to go down.

It's all sad and scary. Never-ending.

Personally, the danger is always there in the back of my mind. Sometimes it gets to me and I have a bit of an anxious meltdown, but that's expected during such unstable times.

Mostly, we try to stay informed but busy with the stuff we love to do. Spending time with hubby is always awesome. We only go out once a day for a nice long walk in the middle of the day, do plenty of yoga and sometimes just hang out checking out YouTube.

Hubby is still working his way through the Uncharted games. I find reading and writing work best for me.

Since I spent the last two weeks working on my self-imposed revision goals, I didn't have any writing plans. Now's the time to go through my Idea Folders. To see what catches my attention, add and remove things. But, while I was doing this, one of those Ideas really caught on. So much that I sorted the inspirational pics, started a Notes doc, and even wrote the first chapter. 👀

This is a SF idea I've had for a while, but it wasn't clicking. Then last weekend, while sorting the pics a lot of the stuff started to come together. A location change, a character profession switch, and the story's ready to be told.

Love when this happens, so I'm going to go with the flow and let the words come when they're ready. I already know this is going to be a novella, anywhere between 15-20k. 😊

Asides from this, I've been busy reading the books that I feel like. A lot of the books I've been reading lately are stories I've been interested in for ages. I did start reading an anthology for review last week, but after only enjoying one out of the six short stories, I've decided to put it aside for now. I'll go back to it, but I need a break.

Well, that's about it for this week.

I hope you're all staying safe!

What I'm Working On

Hey! How's everyone doing this week? 

I know that's a hard question to answer when the world is suffering through this horrid pandemic and we're all on some sort of lockdown... but, I hope you're all staying safe and doing wonderful things at home.

In NSW, all non-essential businesses are closed and we're only allowed to leave the house for four reasons in groups of two people who live together: medical care, exercise, grocery and work. Anything else will get you a hefty fine.

It's scary and awful, but I wish people would just listen and stop going to beaches, hanging out in parks, and acting like total assholes.

Personally, we only leave the apartment for our daily walks and grocery shopping. That's more than enough times to cross paths with people I want nowhere near me. 😬

Anyway, enough about all this depressing shit. 

This week I decided to tackle the two ongoing projects hounding my brain:

• Creepy monster short story (finished first draft over the weekend)
• Horror mystery novella (finished first draft earlier this month)

I even gave myself a deadline to have these finished by: April 10th.

So, this is how the week turned out:

• Monday: Transferred short story from phone to laptop & completed second draft @ 4,786w. 

• Tuesday: Started novella second draft & revised 18/48pgs + added 710w. 

• Wednesday: Continued revising novella second draft 38/48pgs + added 144w.

• Thursday: Completed second draft of novella @ 17,705 (50pgs).

• Friday: Completed third draft of short story @ 4,640w.

Considering the crazy state of the world at the moment, I'm actually really happy about this week's progress. And hope I can keep this momentum going into next week and meet the goal/deadline I mentioned above.

Asides from writing, I've continued to read a selection of books I've wanted to get stuck into for ages. March turned out to be an AWESOME month for reading. Unfortunately, on the first day of April I DNFd three books. 😒

Still, that bad start didn't last for long because I soon found myself totally hooked on a book called GODS OF JADE AND SHADOW by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

We've also gotten back into yoga and keep going for walks as much as we can. The walking's become a bit of a problem because too many people have decided to clog the river path. I don't have any problem with sharing the path with others, but these casual people don't seem to have any common courtesy.

Even during a fucking pandemic, people still have to act like assholes.

Anyway, I hope you're all staying safe.

Have a good weekend! Although, with the days all blending together, the weekends don't mean much anymore.

Our Awesome Break Is Over

As I mentioned the last time I blogged, my awesome hubby had a two-week break and it was wonderful. 

I love it when he takes a breather away from the office, so to speak. And hanging out together is one of my favourite things to do. So it was great!

We went for lots of walks (even though rain often tried to get in the way), slept in (which is great because we usually wake up at 4am-ish), we had our annual blood tests done (everything is a-okay, phew!), we relaxed, watched some stuff (Santa Clarita Diet is SO good), sorted through stuff, went to IKEA, hubby played a lot of Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on the Switch, we went to the city to watch Beauty and the Beast (which was pretty but I didn't enjoy as much as I thought I would) and I read. A LOT.

But now it's over. *cries*

Hubby's gone back to work and I miss him SO MUCH! :( We had such a great time together.

Sigh.

Now it's time for me to start thinking about what to work on next. I seriously toyed with the idea of taking part in Camp NaNoWriMo by writing the first draft of that YA novel idea I got earlier this month... but then remembered that my daughter has most of April off.

Yep. In fact, this is her last week before school holidays start. Not to mention that there are a bunch of public holidays happening this month as well. So I'd hate to be deeply involved in a novel first draft with that many interruptions. 

I think what might work out better is if I work on brainstorming/writing a few short stories, fleshing out novel ideas and allocating dates for other project goals this year. I might even squeeze in some reading, bookshelf organising, culling more unread/unwanted books and getting my TBR pile into some sort of order.

Yeah. This sounds like a cool plan:

• Brainstorming
• Short stories
• Ideas
• Setting goals
• Reading
• Sorting
• Clearing mind clutter

That way, when May hits, I can concentrate on writing the first draft of my latest novel idea.

Our awesome break is over, but at least hubby will have several public holidays this month. Not to mention that we've already got tickets for Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2.

Happy reading!

Scary Publishing Thought

The other day I posted this on Twitter:

Yep. This thought really hit me the other day. And it's kinda scary. 

I've currently got TEN books published, but--because they're all available at the one publisher--when Samhain Publishing closes at the end of this month, I will no longer have any published books in the wild.

O.o

It's going to be strange, that's for sure. But there's nothing I can do when the company is closing. At the moment I just want to concentrate on writing and starting again. 

Not entirely sure how I'm going to tackle that just yet...

Okay, while I'm here I might as well mention that if you're interested in any of my books, you can get them really cheap on their website:

SIERRA FOX SERIES

RECAST SERIES

HELL OF A RIDE

None of the above books will be abailable to buy anywhere after February 2017. It's sad, but it's a fact. And since I'm not sure what I'll do with them yet, you won't be able to buy/read any of these for a while. Maybe ever. I don't know yet.

There's a lot to think about, that's for sure.

Anyway. Just wanted to share this.

Staying busy & falling over

o_O

So. Another week is almost over, and I once again managed to cross everything off my to-do list. Yay.

Love that feeling!

We've had some strange weather lately. It's mostly sunny and the days are warming up, but there's also random rainfall and a fair share of dark and dreary. You know which one I prefer, but I'm just enjoying spring. ;)

Anyway, let's list what I wanted to complete this time:

• Proofread & revise my SF/horror short story
• Write reviews for 2 colouring books
• File & photo admin
• Brainstorm the next short story
• Go through stationery & writing stuff
• Read VIGIL by Angela Slatter

And here's what I actually achieved:

• Proofread, revised, finalised SF/horror story (4,109w) & subbed
• Wrote & posted reviews for The Throne of Glass Colouring Book and Supernatural: The Official Colouring Book
• Organised a bunch of writing-related files & photos & inspirational pics
• Scanned short story notes & filed the PDF with corresponding story
• Brainstormed 3 new short story ideas (one takes place in Sierra's world)
• Organised (or rather, moved around) my pretty notebooks & writing notebooks
• Finished reading VIGIL by Angela Slatter

Once again, there were a bunch of RL things I also had to take care of, but I'm super excited about this week's productivity. I'm liking this production line thing I've got going. Especially since I didn't let a little thing like tripping over a footstool in the dark--and landing on my face--stop me.

Seriously, though, I tripped right over! I gave myself a fat lip, a bruised right shin and scraped the back of my right hand. Then the next day my left side hurt too. Probably because I (luckily) cushioned the worst of the fall with my left arm. Still, it was OUCH! and OW! for several days. :(

In spite of the injuries, I consider myself lucky. It could've been so much worse. *shiver*

After working hard all week, I'm really glad that the weekend is here. It'll be nice to take it easy for a few days. Looking forward to napping, hanging out with hubby, going for walks, and just taking a deep breath.

Have a good one!

THE MEMORY BOOK by Lara Avery

Samantha McCoy has it all mapped out. First she's going to win the national debating championship, then she's going to move to New York and become a human rights lawyer.

But when Sam discovers that a rare disease is going to take away her memory, the future she'd planned so perfectly is derailed before its started.

Realising that her life won't wait to be lived, Sam sets out on a summer of firsts.

The first party.

The first rebellion.

The first friendship.

The last love.

This book caught my eye a few months ago, and thanks to Hachette Australia I was lucky enough to receive a review copy. BTW, isn't the cover totally awesome? I'm a fan of sticky notes, so I love what they did. Very creative.

Anyway, let's talk about this amazing book.

Samantha McCoy is a studious eighteen year old with a bright future. She's about to become valedictorian, has been accepted into NYU and kicks butt on the debate team. Sammie always does the right thing, has spent the last four years studying like a fiend, and is determined to become a human rights lawyer. She pretty much has everything figured out.

Until a disease gets in the way. Niemann-Pick is rare, but once diagnosed moves quickly.

Now Sammie's memory is threatened, which pretty much means all of her plans are at risk. She's determined to keep living her life with her family and looks forward to finishing what's left of high school. When she forgets what she's doing in the middle of the national debate championship, she not only realises that she's really not okay, but also ruins the one friendship she's really got.

Accepting that her brain and body could fail her at any moment makes life a scarier concept. It also forces her to step away from the books and actually live. Especially since she's finally caught the eye of her longtime crush. Spending time with Stuart is even better than she imagined, and if she doesn't tell him what's going on, Sammie might lose him too.

With so much to lose, Sammie decides to enjoy life to the fullest. And when she does, she reconnects with a childhood friend. She also learns a lot about herself along the way. Now only this cruel disease can stop her...

Wow. OMG. This book is a lot of things. Cute and clever. Wonderful and sad. Unique and intriguing. Amazing and devastating. Powerful and heartbreaking. Fun and interesting. Yeah, I could keep going but I'm sure you get the picture. For every positive, there's a negative waiting.

Told in the form of a .doc file on Sammie's laptop, she writes to Future Sam so she won't forget everything that's important. It's also an effective way of taking the reader along for the ride, to share her highs and lows as they happen. And to really understand how this awful disease is stealing her mind.

The Memory Book is a very emotional story, and Sammie's voice hooked me in right away. It's one girl's fight to remain herself while her body intends to strip everything away from her. It's a very well written book about strength, pain and never giving up. About overcoming life's obstacles and rolling with the punches even if they keep coming. But most of all, it's a beautiful story that worms its way into your heart and tears you apart.

And that ending... :(

I seriously loved this book. Even if it made me cry.

The Memory Book, July 2016, ISBN 9781784299248, Quercus Children's Books

I'm still here!

And it's about time I popped in, right? :P

See this picture? That's me as a Mii. Hubby introduced me to the Miitomo app and I have a lot of fun changing her outfits. Plus making cute/cool pictures I can post on Twitter. As well as here.

This one seemed very appropriate since so many of the things that have happened this year have left me with more questions than answers.

By now you've probably heard that Samhain Publishing is closing down. And since I have all of my currently published books over there--that's 11 books--there'll come a time when none of these will be available in the wild.

Yikes!

So if you're interested in my Sierra Fox or Recast series, there's still time to buy the books from Samhain's website, as well as other retailers. You can check out all the buy links HERE (SF) and HERE (R). The publisher hasn't actually set a definite closing date, so it's business as usual until she does. The thing that's affected me the most is that even though RAISING SOME HELL has a beautiful cover, it won't be published. Which means that HELL OF A RIDE will be the only Elsewhere book available.  

I find this really sad because I always visualised Elsewhere as a duology. Bummer. :(

The above is not an ideal situation to be in and it kinda feels like being stuck in Limbo Land, but I'm just glad that, for now, my books are still available for sale. When Samhain actually closes, I don't know what I'll do with them. I mean, the Sierra Fox series is done and I'd kinda decided not to continue with the Recast series, so... Who knows what I'll do. 

I guess I'll have to think about this. But not today. 

I've already mourned this situation and am ready to face whatever happens next with these already written/published stories. I think that the best thing for me to do now is to concentrate on new stuff. I need to stop thinking about this and just get on with the actual writing. It's so easy to get caught up in the negativity of publishing, and I don't want my writing to suffer again like it did last year. 

Anyway. Like I said, nothing I can do about the above. I'll just announce when any sales are going on and keep hoping that readers get a chance to experience these 11 books before they're pulled. :)

So, what else have I been doing? A LOT of stuff. I've been hanging out with my hubby more than usual since our daughter got a weekend job. I've also caught up on a bunch of shows, become hooked on others, read many books, and keep trying to figure out where to go from here. I mean, the publishing industry is in a very unstable position at the moment, so it's hard to determine which way to go. The best thing to do is just write and revise, get caught up in what I love the most: writing!

Thanks to my very supportive husband, I actually get the chance to do that everyday.

This week is going to be another bits and pieces kind of week, but next week I'm going to work on the third draft of my 1980s YA novel. I had a blast writing it during NaNoWriMo last year, and am looking forward to finishing it so my daughter can read it. After that, who knows? But the one thing I do know is that there are several stories battling to get out of my head.

I'd also like to start blogging about my word/page progress, inspiration, etc. while I'm actually working on a project. Think I'm starting to miss blogging. I used to blog daily, and it became a part of my every single day so much that I never neglected my website like I do now. :/

We'll see what happens...

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!

The internet's finally back!!

OMG. I can't believe it's back.

 

We've had a HUGE problem with our internet connection since early last Friday morning. We woke up, hubby noticed it wasn't working and it didn't come back until yesterday. That's 6 DAYS! Yep, 6 days without home internet access is enough to piss anyone off. Severely. :/

 

I have to say that the worst thing about it was the awful experience we had with our internet provider. In case you're wondering, we're with Telstra and their customer service is shockingly bad. I mean, I called them on the Friday morning, when the problem first happened, and got no answers. They even promised to call me back and didn't even log that on their system. On that day we ended up calling about 4 times and eventually found out there was an outage in our area. No one had answers about anything, though.

 

Then on Saturday night I found out the outage had been fixed--because I was complaining about the probs we were having on Twitter and someone decided to respond--but surprise, surprise our internet still wasn't back. By this stage, we were feeling like Loki's pic. It wasn't until Sunday that they FINALLY organised for a technician to come over--on Tuesday. Fast forward to Tuesday--which BTW was our 13th Wedding Anniversary--and the technician comes over and still can't fix the problem. So he had to organise for someone else to check it out at street level, or whatever.

 

He said this would take another 2 days!

 

By this stage I'd given up all hope of getting any sort of connection back by the weekend because it was very obvious that this company has no fucking idea about what they're doing. But when hubby got home from work last night and took a look at the modem--ta-da, it was miraculously working.

Once again, another WTF? moment.

 

So, the internet is back. Finally.

 

And what did I learn from this experience? Well, a few things:

 

• Telstra is hopeless and has no sense of customer service,
• Trying to get any answers proved that outsourcing call centres overseas does NOT work,
• Telstra is hopeless and doesn't care about its customers,
• No one should mess with our internet connection EVER, and
• Our smartphones--Samsung Galaxy Note (mine), Samsung Galaxy S3 (hubby)--are lifesavers.

 

I'm terribly disappointed with the way we were treated by Telstra/BigPond. No one had answers, they didn't want to accept responsibility, and just didn't seem to care. I know we're just one customer out of millions, but I think every single account deserves care and attention when something goes wrong. The error was on their end yet the only advice they had was "reboot your modem". The problem had nothing to do with the modem and everything to do with whatever the hell happened in our area last Friday.

 

Although the internet's back and I've spent most of today trying to catch up on things, I'm still very angry about the shitty experience. We plan to let them know.

But anyway. Enough about the horrid ordeal.

Other things have happened too...

My daughter got home from her school camp in the snow last Friday night. She arrived exhausted and sick--both of the homesick variety and the physical kind. It took her several days to recover from the sheer exhaustion and she's feeling a lot better now. I'm glad she's got this week and next week off school. Think she needs the time to take a breather.

It's good to have her home. We really missed her.

Oh, and I reached the end of Sierra Fox #3 on Monday. The final stats were: 95,123w/243pgs. So the third draft is now done. There's just one thing left for me to do, and that's read it on my phone to make sure there are no last-minute typos. Plus I need to write a synopsis. Okay, that's two things. But I don't think I'll be tackling them this week.

I also have a new Samsung laptop. It's awesome. Shiny, too. But I'll talk more about that another day, because I think this catch-up post is long enough. ;)

See ya later!

Stupid People & General Update

Yeah, stupid people annoy the hell out of me. So do racists, sexist pigs, bigots, and homophobes. Actually, I don't like anyone who thinks it's okay to be horrible to someone else because of their race, gender, faith, sexual preference, etc. Which is exactly what is going on at the moment.

I honestly can't believe that some morons decided to cast a negative light on a brilliant movie, just because of their own prejudices. It's pathetic, and very wrong.

We went to watch THE HUNGER GAMES the other day, and absolutely loved it. I thought it was one of the best book-to-movie I've ever seen. And the character casting was perfect. Every character in the movie lived up to my expectations from the book. And Rue--played by Amandla Stenberg--was one of them. She was perfect! Sweet, innocent, beautiful... everything she was in the book and more. I loved her interaction with Katniss, and the last scene she was in was heartbreaking.

So, why are people being assholes about it? I really don't know. Or understand it, to be honest. I've never been the kind of person to judge someone on the color of their skin. I just find it very disappointing to read the horrible, racist and insulting tweets that were posted against this sweet young actress. She did a brilliant job, and deserves to be praised not insulted.

Sorry for the heavy post, but I just had to say something about it. It disgusted me when I heard about those racist tweets. I also think that these pathetic people should be worried about their lack of comprehension skills, because they claim to have read the book. Something which I doubt, since they obviously didn't understand what they were reading, especially when it comes to character descriptions. :/

Okay... now that I got the heavy stuff out of the way, what have I been doing this week? Well, I've been very busy working on the FLE for A PATCH OF DARKNESS. I actually got it finished yesterday afternoon and emailed it back to my editor. Which is always an awesome feeling! There's only one thing left to do now: proofread the ARC. (It just hit my Inbox!)

I think I'll take today off, though. Asides from working hard on the edit, I've also gotten up at 4AM two days in a row, which takes a lot out of me. It's still early in the morning and I'm super tired, lol.

Have a great weekend!

THIRTEEN REASONS WHY by Jay Asher

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker—his classmate and crush—who committed suicide two weeks earlier.

On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he’ll find out how he made the list.

Through Hannah and Clay’s dual narratives, debut author Jay Asher weaves an intricate and heartrending story of confusion and desperation that will deeply affect teen readers.

I've wanted to read this book for a while, so I was very excited when I found it at the library.

Clay Jensen gets home from school one day to find a package filled with cassette tapes. They were recorded by Hannah Baker. Hannah was a classmate who killed herself a few weeks before. She was also the girl he had a huge crush on.

Unable to resist, he starts to listen to her tale. Every tape contains a story about a certain person and how they affected her life, and not in a positive way. It also answers why she decided to end her life...

OMG, this book was amazing! It was intriguing, mysterious, and very sad. It also kept me hooked from start to finish.

Hannah's story was haunting and filled me with rage at many points, because of the things this poor girl had to go through. It also broke my heart to see Clay's reaction to her stories. He really cared about her, but wasn't strong enough to show her just how much she meant to him. Which is quite a common thing, I think. How many times is someone scared to make the first move because they're scared of the other person's reaction? Or are afraid of getting rejected, hurt, or both? Many times.

This book also connects everything that led to this young girl giving up on herself, and her life. It's never just the one thing, but a variety of things that are all interconnected and can push someone over the edge.

I loved it! It's one of those stories that really makes you think about how your words--or lack of words--can affect a person.         

INCANTATION by Alice Hoffman

Estrella deMadrigal thought she knew herself: daughter, granddaughter, sister, dearest friend, beloved. She is Star in the Night Sky, Truth in the Darkness. But truth is rare and precious in this cruel and unforgiving century in Spain, when Jews who refused conversion to Christianity risked everything - love, life, family, faith.

Then: A startling discovery shakes Estrella's world to the core. And yet, it is something small and sweet that sets it aflame. A kiss. A kiss from someone she is forbidden to love.

As a new girl emerges from the cocoon of secrets in which she has been shrouded, passion burns and friendship crumbles - and betrayal unleashes a monstrous evil from the very deepest part of the earth. Estrella crosses over to a place she never thought she could be; she is someone she never could have imagined.

Remember the story she is about to tell you.

I started this book yesterday morning and finished it by the evening. It's not a long book, but it is a very heavy and emotional story. From the beginning, I knew I was going to be swept away into a very dark time in Spanish history. A time that always angers and saddens me so much.

And I was right. I felt every bit of Estrella's narration, very deeply.

Estrella and her neighbour, Catalina, have been best friends since they were babies.  Estrella always likes to say that they look like sisters, and even had similar pet names when they were little--Estrella was Raven, and Catalina was Crow.They do everything together, but when they're both sixteen years old, a great evil comes to their town. In the form of the inquisition.

It all starts with the burning books of a Jewish man who lives behind the gated part of town, where all the Jews who refuse to renounce their belief live. Then it becomes a physical threat as Estrella watches her neighbours being taken away to be judged guilt without a fair trial. After this, she starts to realise something about her own family. Little things, actions, and rituals she's known all of her life soon start making sense.

Estrella and her family aren't who she always thought they were. And because she falls in love with her best friend's cousin--the boy Catalina is suppose to marry--Catalina's true self comes through. In the process, she causes Estrella's family a very unfair and painful conclusion. It's amazing what jealousy can do to a person.

This book made me so sad. It's haunting and beautifully written, in a way that gets deep into your soul until you feel like all you want to do is cry. I loved it. I loved Estrella and her family, so when everything comes together, I felt it deeply. :(

The subject matter is very dark, but I found Esther to be a shining star...        

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.

Misunderstood

So, how was your weekend?

The weather could've been better around here, but we still got a chance to go for our daily walks, which is always cool.

Sigh.

Some days are better than others. And although I had an awesome weekend with hubby, daughter and kitty--hubby actually had the whole weekend off this time, yay--the weekend ended on a bit of a sour note. Sometimes, speaking up just doesn't pay off...

Anyway. I don't want to go into it. I actually want to concentrate on the fact that it's a new week, and I've got a whole new bunch of words I want to write. I'm still very excited about the book I'm writing and refuse to let anything dampen my enthusiasm. :)

As of Friday afternoon, my word count was 45,782. That's 5k over my goal for the end of last week. Awesome, right? I also had to stop in the middle of a chapter, and could've kept going... but it was time to head out to pick my daughter up from school. But it doesn't matter, I'm looking forward to getting stuck into it today. As soon as I drop my daughter off at school and get back from my walk, I intend to get stuck into it again. Cool!

I've also started reading this book. It's really interesting, so far. I was going to read this book next--because I can't wait to read it--but when I cracked it open and realised it's in first-person POV, I had to push it back. See, I'm a bit weird... but when I'm writing a story in first person, I make it a rule not to read any books in the same POV. And vice versa, when I'm writing in the third person POV. I know it might sound a little strange, but it's just a rule I've had for many years and will continue to stick with it. :) 

Y'know, I think I've used today's pic before. Oh well. lol.

Okay. I better step away from the blogging and get my daughter some breakfast. :)

Have a great day!