HARD COPY by Fien Veldman

Hard Copy by Fien Veldman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When I stumbled on this book, while checking out a different one on Amazon, it grabbed my attention instantly. I couldn't go past a woman who has a deep connection with her printer.

Working inside a small, stuffy office at a company full of people she can't relate to, in a city full of tourists, a single woman finds a comfortable companionship with her printer. But when she's forced to take leave, she wonders how she'll survive without him...

I love checking out books that are a little strange. Odd and quirky tales that drag me into the heart of the narrative and keep me turning the pages.

Well, that's exactly what happened with this novel.

As soon as I started reading, I was hooked and actually read the whole thing tonight. It's quite the deep and meaningful tale about one working woman's existence. It's about being just another cog in a random company. About how people are treated when they're a bit different, or socially awkward enough to become a target without being aware of it.

Most of the characters in this story are nameless and are referred to by their positions. Or the status in the narrator's life.

She's a lonely woman with only one friend and a lot of memories to crowd her mind. She also thinks about her place in the world, and enjoys Greek mythology. She loves to tell stories and shares details about herself with the printer in her office. The printer who listens and doesn't judge. And even he turns out to be interesting.

I also really like the garbage man because he's such a genuine person. The only one who truly listens without judgement. He's such a lovely man.

This is one of those stories that manages to make everyday work/chores/ponderings interesting. It certainly raises a lot of valid points and introduces a character that seems so weak and small on the outside, but is strong and intriguing on the inside.

Great book!!


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REALITY BUT MORE FUN by Madeleine Swann

Reality But More Fun by Madeleine Swann
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Let me start by saying that the cover is absolutely fabulous. And the story intrigued me so much, I got stuck into it last night and didn't want to stop.

Jade and Louise are sisters staying in the surreal Belle Epoque theme park with their mother. They're not supposed to stay there long, but can't remember how long they've been there, and stranger things than usual start to happen...

Peculiar. Bizarre. Awesome.

I found this story to be utterly delightful in its quirky weirdness. It's quite the trippy ride and the imagery is bright and beautiful with a very dark veneer. I love stories where everything seems perfect and lovely, almost to the point of being a sugary utopian experience... but the ugly truth slowly pushes its way through.

First, it's a simple glimpse at the utter confusion about what's really going on, but it doesn't take long for the eerie truth to become clear.

The sisters were quite charming. Louise is married and trying to do the right thing by her mother. While Jade longs for adventure and finds herself in the clutches of an unsavoury individual with questionable intentions. I also really liked Samir and Gillian because they're quite the problem-solving duo.

I had a LOT of fun reading this charming slice of strange, and loved the descriptive writing style.

 

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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!

Bye, bye Substack

 

Last month, after finding out some gross things that were happening behind-the-scenes, I deleted my NaNoWriMo profile. After sixteen years of taking part, I thought it would be a hard decision to make... but it wasn't. It was the right thing to do. The only thing to do.

So, I dropped out of the challenge but kept writing. Decided to move on. And will never take part again.

What I didn't expect was to be facing another similar choice this month. 🫤

Yet, that's exactly what happened when I found out that Substack has welcomed/allowed Nazis to spread crap on their platform. And not just that, when people started complaining and demanding they do something, they made a pathetic statement that pretty much condones these disgusting creatures. I think this is an awful stance. Unacceptable. It makes me sick that companies are so greedy they're willing to allow such horrible people to spew hate and misinformation as long as they're making money.

Disgraceful.

I find it so gross that I deleted my account.

That's right, I no longer have a newsletter at Substack.

Before deleting my newsletter, I actually transferred most of my posts to this blog under the appropriate dates. I didn't want to lose all those thoughts, words and celebrations.

Ugh. Like I said, I can't believe it happened so close to the other incident.

Now I have a decision to make. Do I research other newsletter places and pick one? Do I even bother? Well, ideally I would prefer to stay away from all of that. I'm tired of setting up and having to move on because people can't be decent human beings.

I'd like to invest time in my own blog right here. I mean, I've had this blog for a long time and even after the rise of social media, I kept posting updates. I think that figuring out a way of blending blogging with subscribing to updates would be ideal.

I actually looked into it and spent a while reading about my options...

So, if you're interested in keeping up with my writing, you can now subscribe and an email will be sent your way with my latest post:

It's just like subscribing to my newsletter. You'll find out when I post news, post reviews, and everything else in between. I'll probably end up posting more often too.

Well, this is my choice for now. It could change in the future, or maybe it won't. But if you'd like to keep up with my upcoming projects, thoughts and writing stats, feel free to sign up! ☺️

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!

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...

Sometimes, plans change...

Yes. They certainly do.

 

Remember the last time I dropped in I mentioned that I was taking a week off and then would get stuck into writing a new story? Well, things didn't exactly work out that way.

 

By the time I reached the end of last week, I realised that I hadn't done all the stuff I wanted to do. I also didn't feel mentally stable enough to get stuck into a new story. So, after a nice chat with hubby--talking to him about my creative problems always makes me realise that the answer was there all along--I decided it was best to take what he's dubbing a small hiatus.

 

A hiatus from what you ask? Well, from the pressure of self-imposed deadlines. From starting a new story. From forcing myself to do something when I'm clearly not mentally ready. I usually experience this kind of mental lag after finishing a book, but I guess Willow's took more out of me than I realised. :/

 

I now have a new plan. Since my daughter has a two-week break during the first two weeks of July and hubby has the second week of July off from work, I've decided not to start anything new until  they go back to school and work. That takes me to mid-July. Which is fine with me. By that time I will be a year older, btw. :/

 

Now I can spend a month brainstorming, reading, thinking and watching. It'll give my brain a chance to have a break. By the time I start my next story, I will be itching to write. :)

 

Right now I'm in the middle of watching BITTEN. I watched most of Season 1 last week, and will be watching the last two eps in this season today. It's based on one of my most fave UF series, so it took a little adjustment. It always does when I watch a book series turned into a TV show. The casting throws me off, the changes make everything feel weird, and I start comparing. BUT, the best thing to do is to get over all of these things quickly, and get stuck into the show. After all, it's not a page by page recount of the book, it's an adaptation that will most likely take a different, untraveled path.

 

Once I came to terms with this--pretty much during the second or third ep--I started actually enjoying the show. And now that I'm almost at the end of S1, I'm really enjoying it!

 

The rest of this week is going to be a little wonkier than planned because Monday was a public holiday and that always throws out the week. I probably won't get too much done, but then again... isn't that the idea?

 

Last week I read this great blog post written by Nova Ren Suma about Filling the Well and it really resonated with me. Everything she says is true, and exactly how I feel at the moment. It's strange because if I'm not writing, revising, or editing I feel guilty. It's almost like I should be doing something writing related even if my mind's exhausted... and that's why taking this break right now feels so good. It's guilt-free, and will help me in the long run.

 

Sometimes things happen that are out of our control and that too affects our creativity. Well, something like that happened to me last week. A writing thing that came out of the blue and really threw me off because I wasn't expecting it. I still haven't gotten over the blow because it still makes no sense to me, but there was a solution offered so that helps. A bit.

 

Anyway. For the next few weeks I'm going to concentrate on other creative avenues in order to fill my main one to the brim. Because the ideas are churning. There are a lot of stories that want to be written, and right now I'm going to enjoy thinking, dreaming, and taking notes about them.

 

Have a great week!

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!

It's the end of the week!

I have to admit that I didn't get as much done as I hoped to.

To start with, I'm still reading the same book I started last weekend. And I didn't reach the end of the second draft I started on Monday.

As I mentioned the other day, I was moving a lot slower than I wanted to but I've just been so distracted lately. :/

Today, I was hoping to get to page 200 so that I could get this finished on Monday. I'm now done for the day and have reached page 170/234. The word count is now sitting at 91,076, which is why I went super slow today. Instead of revision on the latest chapter, I wound up pretty much rewriting it. I'm glad that I did because the barbaric nature of it, as well as the emotional impact, is a lot heavier and will actually change a few consequences later on. But still, I was hoping for more progress, lol.

Oh well, that leaves me with 64 pages to go. Probably won't get them done on Monday... but Tuesday seems like a possibility. That's right, gotta keep that positive thinking going!

I don't know what the hell happened to the weather today, but a perfectly beautiful cloudless morning has turned into a super windy and dark afternoon. WTF? I don't know what's going on with this weather, but I want my sunshine back. ;)

Okay. The weekend's just around the corner, and I think I need it. Hopefully a few days away from the revision will revitalise my brain. At least, I hope it does.

Ah-choo!

Excuse me. I'm not feeling 100% today. I've got a blocked nose and keep sneezing. Looks like it's my turn. Hubby and Daughter have already gone through it. :/

Anyway. Isn't this pic cute? It's another one made by my daughter on her iPad. She's really good at it. And the panda's so darn cute.

Well, I'm not feeling too motivated today. So I'm glad it's not a day where I had a bunch of things planned, or goals to meet. I think I'll just spend most of the day mucking around online, reading, and just enjoying the sun. I really don't feel like getting stuck into anything too involved.

Though I do have some goals to plan. And I keep checking my Inbox because I know there are emails I'm supposed to be getting. LOL. Just getting impatient, and hope I don't get forgotten. You'd be surprised how often this happens...

So, my daughter and I were walking home yesterday afternoon when we spotted some smoke in one of the parks we pass by. I knew something was burning, and so we got closer and found a log on fire in the middle of the path. I hate the threat of fires, and with the amount of trees, leaves, and grass around that area, we couldn't just walk away. So I ran to a random house and knocked on the door, asking for a bucket of water. The man was kind enough to fill up a watering can for me and so I ran back and drowned the log so much the flames were completely put out.

Phew. I thanked the man, gave him back his watering can, and continued on our way home. I'm just glad that we were able to do something before the fire got out of control. Not sure how it happened in the first place, but this isn't the first time something like this has happened to us. We walk around our neighbourhood a LOT, and so we see all types of strange stuff. And this is about the third random object-on-fire we've put out. Strange, but very true! O_o

Oh, check this out!! Do you see the cover for SPLIT AT THE SEAMS between two lovely covers?? Well, that's a Samhain ad in RT magazine. I actually had no idea about it, until the lovely Cassi Carver mentioned it on Twitter. Cassi, thanks for the link and also for posting a pic! It's SO exciting.

Okay. Have a great one!

Sometimes, things don't go according to plan...

No, they don't.

This week I was determined to get stuck into the (extensive) rewrite of a novella that needs my immediate attention. I brainstormed a bunch of stuff for it last week, I took heaps of notes, I've been visualising the scenes I'm going to add. But when I sat down to actually write it, I managed only three pages.

Three pages that I keep reading over and over again, only to change them. Then, change them again.

It's very frustrating for someone like me. I'm the kind of writer who likes to get totally lost in writing a story and don't look back. Not until it's time for the revision process. But because this happens to be an important R&R, I keep putting a tremendous amount of pressure on myself to deliver a perfect draft. Right away. Which is the problem.

I need to take a deep breath and tackle this rewrite a little differently. It's not until I spoke about all of this with my husband last night that he helped me realise something... this story needs a lot more structure before any writing actually happens. In other words, this pantser might actually need to plot every chapter before writing it. Gasp. ;)

It's what I need to do. 

The worst thing is that I can actually see the chapters play out inside my head perfectly. But when it comes to actually writing--what I know needs to be offloaded from my head and onto the screen--I just freeze. It's so bizarre. And hasn't happened to me before.

Still, I'm a determined person. This isn't going to defeat me. It might be upsetting me a little and setting my plans back, but it won't defeat me. I am determined to tell this story the way it deserves to be told, and it will happen...

In the meantime, I'll be scrawling exactly what needs to be written on paper, and reading plenty of books on the side, to keep the creative juices flowing. Oh, and I will not allow this cloud of pressure to burden me anymore.

Ah, it feels so good to get that out. I feel like all the negative feelings and thoughts are dissolving already. :)

Wish me luck!

The end of a wonky week

Yeah, this week has felt so disjointed that most of the time I didn't even know what day it was. Like yesterday, I was convinced it was Friday. Obviously I was wrong, because it's Friday today. O_o

The reason I'm feeling this way could be for several reasons:

* My ususal post-restless stage after finishing a novel,

* The fact it's my daughter's last week of school,

* Realising that 2011  is only weeks from being over,

* That I have so many awesome books on my TBR/Kindle pile I don't know which to grab first...

Then again, it could be a combination of everything. We're so close to the end of the year that I'm starting to feel the exhaustion of everything I've done. Phew. I really do feel so tired lately.

Anyway. I've managed to get a few things done, and even read/reviewed two Hachette books (see below) and I'll have to get myself a small to-do list for what's left of this month and for January. Realistic projects I can do while having my daughter home. Also, things that can be put aside if/when edits hit my Inbox.

But today, I don't think I'll do much. :)

Oh, and before I go, I'm now a member of the SFR Brigade. Check me out! ;)

Well, catch'a later.

Another Friday...

And this week feels like it's gone a little faster than usual. Not sure why, but it sure sped by. Yikes!

Is it just me, or do the weeks seem to be moving a little faster than usual? And according to Twitter, the world is going to end on Saturday. Uh. WTF? Seriously? Where's this information coming from?

Either way, I'm not ready for the end of the world just yet, lol. There's so much to do, so many stories still left to write, and too many books to read. And I won't even get started on the movies and shows I want to watch... or the time I want to spend with hubby, daughter and kitty. ;)

So. What have I been doing the last few days? Well, I'm getting stuck into some revision. I've got to do this in stages, though. First, I want to go through and address some issues, which means I'm going back and forwards in the story and adding/deleting stuff. Then, after I finish doing that, I'll be reading the novella from start-to-finish again. Just to make sure that everything I added fits in with the rest of the story and makes sense. Phew.

Sounds like a bit of work, but it'll be worth it. :)

I'm also reading the last book in The Aurora Teagarden Mysteries Omnibus. :( I'm kinda taking my time, because this is the last one in the series, and I'm going to miss Roe and her finding-dead-bodies antics.

Well, gotta go. Have a great weekend!

Tomorrow is my 11th Wedding Anniversary

Yay. So...

Happy Anniversary to Hubby and me! Awesome. :) Looking forward to spending a nice day together. We'll be going out for lunch, too. Probably to Sizzler. :)

Well, today, I'm over at Su Halfwerk's--Vivid Sentiments--Blog. You can check out my interview here. She had a great selection of questions to choose from, and I really enjoyed picking them, as well as answering them. :)

Check this out: My review of MONSTER HIGH is listed on the Atom Books Australia Facebook page. Yay!

Um, I still haven't gone back to Twitter.

Still a little scared to go back. I know it's probably all clear now, but I think I'll stay away until Monday. And I have to admit that it feels weird, almost like something's missing from my daily routine. :( I read that some stupid seventeen-year-old kid was responsible for the virus. Don't people have something better to do with their time? Do they really need to invest time on being evil? Seriously, I hate that! I was wondering, though... if you had something like Tweetdeck set up, did the virus still getcha? Curious.

It's Friday. My daughter's last day of school for Term 3. Starting Monday, she's got two weeks off, and doesn't go back to school until mid-October. Yikes! Wonder how it's going to be having her home while expecting/working on edits. lol.

Oh, I'll work it out. ;)

Okay... have a great weekend, guys!

Writing it out usually helps

I forgot to mention yesterday that I'm one of the Featured Authors over at The Romance Studio this month. So, if you'd like to find out a little more about my story WITHER, you can read the interview here. :)

I've been having a bunch of headaches this week. I'm not quite sure what the reason is, but they just linger in the background. Or blast through my brain. Funny thing is that I'm not the only one getting them. I was talking to hubby this morning, and he's been having headaches as well. WTH? All I know is that I'm going to not take any tablets for it. I think I've taken enough during this week. Strange.

Hopefully they'll clear up by next week because I've got revision work to do. lol.

So, what do you do when you've written a trilogy/series and you're pretty sure it's finished... then one day the characters hit you up with a new story. One that complicates their relationship a little more, throws them a new situation they might not be able to deal with, yet at the same time promises to tie up that loose end that refused to be neatly tied before. Yikes, was there supposed to be a question mark somewhere in there? I think it started as a question and turned into a rant. :D

Anyway. Since my muse was chatting last night, I picked up a notebook and before bed managed to write the first six pages of the idea I was just rambling about. I like where it's going, and I know that it won't be a long story. We're talking novella territory. So, why fight it? I think it's okay to give it a go, see where it takes me. Except, I've got revisions planned for next week. Then after that I have one more week before my daughter goes on holidays for *gulp* over five weeks! Now that I've written that, I think that sounds like a good plan: Recast #2 final revision next week, writing this story the week after that.

Sometimes, writing --or typing-- it all out really does help. Thanks Blogger. ;)

Well, I'm going to make good use of what's left of my alone (writing) time.

Catch'a next week. Have an awesome weekend!

Red Dawn

This morning, I woke up and noticed a bright orange tinge around our window. So, I checked my daughter's room. Same thing. Walked into the living room. Yep, there too. I made my way to the sliding door and looked outside. Yikes! It was bright orange outside. Seriously, like something out of a post-apocalyptic story. Or maybe Mars.

Anyway, I grabbed the camera and took this photo:

I actually took it from behind the sliding glass door, so if I was outside on the balcony, it probably would've looked a little sharper. But man, it could've been some sort of zombie dust out there for all I knew. So I thought it was best to stay indoors. :/
The weirdest thing is that last night I finished reading Z FOR ZACHARIAH, so it was really strange to wake up to a morning that resembled a post-war atmosphere. Lol.
Anyway, there are a lot of other freaky pics of Sydney HERE, if you'd like to check them out.
The red/orange tinge is gone but it's still ugly. It was a little uncomfortable breathing out there. And for someone who's got that whole breathing-prob thingy, it hurt a little when we went out to drop my daughter off at school and do the grocery shopping. Hope it's better by the time I need to go out again.
Well, yesterday ended up being very productive. I got the Sci-Fi synopsis revised. I also changed a few plot notes for story #3. While hubby and I were lifting weights last night, I grabbed some paper and a pen and got jotting. I just wanted to write the beginning of the story, plus a few things that popped into my head. I ended up with a dozen scribbled pages of stuff. In sequence. The only thing I didn't get to is the end. It's awesome when that happens.
Bad thing is that my muse is now itching to get started, especially since the hero's going to be based on Jason Statham. Yeah. I had the really hard task of looking up Jason pics the other day. Such a hard job. ;)

Anyway, that's how I'm going to sign off today:

(This lovely photo was taken by Walter White)

I can't believe it's already Friday!

Seriously, where has this week gone?

I think that taking this week off from most of my projects was a great idea. I mean, I've still been thinking about a bunch of them, added notes about some of them, and have been researching more info for M-YA (and its sequels) but mostly I've been trying to relax and even catch up on some YA reading. It's been great.

Last night, I picked up EVERMORE and am really enjoying it so far. I'm about 30 pages in and am totally intrigued about the story. Oh, and I love the narrator's name. Ever was a name that I wanted to use for one of my characters, which I got from the Foo Fighters song, Everlong. I remember singing to it on Rock Band and thinking how cool it would be to write about a girl called Ever. I guess someone else thought the same thing, lol.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to reading some more of the book later. I'm in a total YA-kinda mood at the moment. Which is a great thing because there are SO many awesome YA books out there, but it's not-so-good because it makes my muse itch to get back into the futuristic and odd world that M-YA takes place in. I know it sounds werid, but hey, I'm a writer. ;)

And speaking of that story, I think I've finally decided that this YA idea of mine is going to be a quartet of books. The first one's already done in first draft, the second one has a first chapter and the main plotline... I've also pretty much got the plot for the third one, and kinda know where the fourth one needs to go in order to end my heroine's journey. We'll see what happens, but for now, I'm working on the four titles. I've got the first, and possibly the last. Just need the two in the middle now.

Next week, however, I'm throwing myself into the second draft of DT. This one's definitely NOT a YA story, but it's one that I can't wait to return to.

On that note, I hope you all have an awesome weekend! Bye for now...

PS. Tomorrow, I will attempt to wear shoes on my right foot. Will let you know how it goes on Monday. Fingers crossed.

A thing or two about movies...

I've been a huge movie fan for years. When I hit my teens, I spent a lot of my time watching one movie after the other. It was also a time when I got stuck into any (and every) horror movie I could get my hands on. I actually became a huge horror freak, chasing them down so we could borrow the VHS copy as soon as it was released. I know, that makes me sound kinda old, huh? But when I was a teenager, video tapes and video shops were all the rage. And of course, there was a new horror movie every other week. It was so cool.

My other personal faves were post-apocalyptic futuristics. There were a lot of those then too. :) A lot of bleak stories about humans running out of water, or having to survive after a nuclear war. It was bleak, but I still loved watching them. Actually, around that time, my favourite book was CHILDREN OF THE DUST. We had to read it for school and I loved it. I also loved FAHRENHEIT 451. So much that a few years ago, I chased down and bought a copy of each. They're both on my bookshelf now.

But anyway, I was talking about movies. Not books. That's for another time. ;)

It's just strange to realise that the love for those genres - which started with movies - never faded. Most of my writing is still influenced by horror or futuristics in one way or another. I was always attracted to the dark side of a story, to the monsters that hid there and the gruesome things that can happen when we cross into the unseen world. That's how I got seduced into the paranormal and urban fantasy worlds. Because, urban fantasy pretty much caters for a bit of everything that I love to watch and read. They can even be set in the future!

Unfortunately, one thing that I've noticed about movies lately is that for some reason, they seem to be getting worse. The last movie that I REALLY enjoyed and had a lot of fun with was the second TRANSFORMERS movie. I know a lot of people gave it negative reviews and just didn't like it, but I really, really enjoyed it. As much as I enjoyed the first one. There was a bit of everything in and it kept me glued to my seat the whole time. Instead of rolling my eyes, like I've been doing for a lot of other movies lately.

Not even the horror movies seem to impress me anymore. The last horror movie I watched was MY BLOODY VALENTINE and I was terribly disappointed. I think that with so many brilliant TV shows nowadays, I'm finding myself swayed and addicted to them in the same way I used to feel about movies.

But then I watched this trailer:



And thought that maybe the horror that I used to love is back. I don't know why, but hearing that Sam Raimi has a new horror movie out makes me happy. :) Maybe it's because I absolutely loved the EVIL DEAD movies.

Of course, I've got a bunch of horror movies that I still haven't watched and need to catch up on. So, hopefully, I'll find several awesome ones in that bunch.

I know that the special effects are brilliant nowadays, but are we overlooking great stories at the expense of how realistic they look? There are a lot of movies that can blend both story and special effects to make them amazing - the Harry Potter movies come to mind. But I wonder if all that will take something away from the gruesome dodgy effects I used to love and laugh at in the 80s... Anyway.

But what about you? Are you finding yourself being lured away from the big screen and towards the small screen like me? Or do you totally disagree with me and think that movies are as great, or even better, than they used to be?

Leave me a comment with your opinion and I'll pull one person's name out of the hat... that person can pick whichever one of my currently available eBooks they want. I'll leave this open until Friday night, Sydney time and will pick a winner then.

I'd really love to hear your personal comments on movies, TV shows, etc.

Missing pages... where did they go?

I mentioned this on my LJ last night. I've been reading ANGELS AND DEMONS the last few days and I've been enjoying it. I thought I would because I enjoyed his other book.

Anyway, I'm reading along last night, excited because I'm almost halfway through and caught up in the tension of what's going on, when I get to page 304. Nothing strange there. Except, that the next page, right next to it, happens to be page 321! Okay, seriously, WTF is going on there?

I'm missing pages. In a very important scene. :/ And I can't help but wonder if every one of the paperback editions printed at the same time as mine are the same. Or was it just mine that missed out on these pages? Makes me wonder...

After debating about what to do, I've decided to put the book aside until I get my hands on a copy with ALL the pages. Lol. :D Will keep you posted, and I'll be heading over to my bookshelf to pick something else up soon.

Well, the writing is still going. A little slow, though. Yesterday I managed to hit 53,257 words. Which means I'm on track for, uh, Wednesday's goal. Yep. That's right. I'm about a day behind. Today's goal is 60k. Doubt I'll be reaching that today. But I'll be happy if I can get to say, 56k. That would put me in a good place for Monday. It also means that I get the weekend to ponder about the end. I already know how it's going to go, but need to think out the sequence so that I don't leave anything out.

Well, that's it for today. I've got a few things left on my to-do list. One thing (finishing the first draft) will not happen. The other two, I think I can do.

Have a great weekend!