Some mornings...

So, this is another one of those MakeME dolls that my daughter likes to make on her iPad. This is Katniss. So darn cute, right?

The day didn't get off to a great start. Well, it was great because I received my final copies of A PATCH OF DARKNESS, but then I found out some asshole had hacked my email account and sent out some bogus crappy message to all my contacts! I feel so violated, and pissed off. I mean, how dare anyone do this to someone else? What makes them think it's okay?

I think I caught it pretty early, think they were actually sending the emails when I signed in. Which is freaky and disgusting. I quickly changed my password and it looks like everything stopped. I just feel bad about anyone getting anything from these pricks. And I can't help worrying about whether they touched my other stuff. :/

This icky feeling really sucks. It's such an invasion of privacy. I've said it before and I'll say it again: spammers are the devil. They're other more crude things too, but I won't post those names here.

Sigh.

So, yesterday ended up being really relaxing. I spent most of the day on the couch reading a YA paranormal book and a zombie comic book. I also updated my Sierra Fox Series Bible, which I'd like to take another look at today. My head's already buzzing with the third book, so I'm going to start taking some notes... Not much more planned.

Today is the last day of school for my daughter and the last day of work for my hubby. Daughter's home for two weeks, hubby's home for 12 days. It's gonna be awesome. And my Internet time will probably not be as frequent as usual, but that's okay. I'll still be signing into Twitter at least once a day, and I'll continue to check my emails.

Still, I'm going to say Happy Easter now! Have a great time off. :)

Friday, I'm kinda glad you're here...

My daughter made this drawing on her iPad. I think it's lovely. I also like how she included Loki. So cute!

So, how's your week going? Mine's okay. I've spent most of the week working on the rewrite that's been haunting me for weeks, lol. I'm pleased with the progress I've made. Finally. I've managed to add several new chapters, giving the story a much faster, more action-packed, and much-better beginning.

Now I'm going through the rest of it. Adding, layering, and deleting. Oh yeah, there's a lot of deleting. Which is actually a good thing. One of the characters needs some major work, and I think she's already coming alive a lot better than she had before.

:)

I'm going to do a bit of that today as well. But next Monday, I'll be getting stuck into the second edit of Sierra #1. I received it last night and want to spend next week with Sierra and the gang. Looking forward to it.

I got a real kick out of this yesterday. If you scroll down, you'll see that A PATCH OF DARKNESS is included in this lot of new covers. So exciting! I love reading the All Things Urban Fantasy blog, so it's so cool seeing my cover there. And included with so many other awesome authors! :D

Makes me smile.

And I definitely need something to smile about today, because after watching this pathetic and very crappy ad, and hearing about what these jerks are discussing, I'm plenty pissed off. I have only one thing to say: WTF?? Seriously. These assholes really believe that a bunch of males who have no idea or understanding about the female body, can make such an important decision? They're just hiding behind some religious excuse. Something some men like to do a lot. And let's not forget what this asshole said.

I hate discrimination of any kind, and of course being a woman I'm especially sensitive about female issues. I don't want my daughter growing up in a world where women's rights go backwards.

Man, I need to stop reading this stuff, or it's going to affect my mood all day!

*taking a deep breath*

So, the weekend's just around the corner and I'm determined to enjoy it. Have you got any plans?

Have a great one!

Some Things are very Frustrating...

Haven't had a chance to blog the last few days. To be honest, hubby and I were going through a very frustrating time. I'll keep it brief, because I'm trying to forget about what happened, and how some companies don't give a crap about their customers. :/

/start rant

Last Thursday, we ordered this from here. This was done online. We were both excited about getting this. Monday, comes and goes. Tuesday, we're waiting for it and make sure not to leave the house. No one comes. I go downstairs in early afternoon and find a slip in there from the courier. WTF? The delivery person didn't even TRY to knock on our door. And the slip he left was blank. Had no idea what he'd done. After many calls, no one knew where it was or wanted to help. Seriously, this is really bad customer sercive. No, scrap that: no customer service whatsoever.

We went to bed that night not knowing what had happened, or where the package was. And in fact, didn't get an email from the courier until yesterday afternoon!! On top of everything else, the courier idiot took it to the wrong post office.

In the end, we picked it up and finally have it... but this was shockingly bad service. The fact no one wanted to help or even empathise with the problem really pissed me off. We continually hear Australian retailers crying about online overseas companies taking their business. It's no wonder! When there's no level of customer service in your own country and the prices aren't competitive, what other choice do we have?

Personally, we'll never buy anything from this company again--online, or otherwise. And if we find out this courier service is doing the delivery for another place, definitely will not order anything from them either.

Think I'll keep ordering from U.K. and U.S. sites, thank you very much.

Anyway. I just wanted to purge this from my system.

/end rant

Asides from this drama, nothing much has been going on. The week's flying by and I've started putting my Sierra Fox notes together in one notebook. Whenever I write a novel, I end up with a bunch of post-it notes and notepad papers with stuff on them. lol. Time to put everything into one place, so it's all ready when I start revision.

Oh, I've also caught up on some reviews, and am now trying to decide what book to read next--it's a toss up between three UF books. They're all the first in a series, and after reading the first chapter, all sound very interesting indeed!

Well. That's it for today. Have a good day!

Garbage & other stuff

Do you ever wake up feeling more tired than when you went to sleep? Well, that's exactly how I felt this morning. Actually, I've felt like that every morning this week. Lol. I've just been packing in so much into every day -- physically and mentally. I find that I'm mentally exhaused at the end of the night when I'm working on a first draft.

But last night the hubby and I had to drag a whole bunch of crap out of the garage and place it outside on the street for the council to pick up. It's an easy process: call the local council, arrange for a day to have them pick up your crap, take it outside the night before, and they'll gladly remove your unwanted furniture, bikes, etc. But for some reason, people never bother. All the stuff we took out there belonged to other people. Have no idea who, but former tenants, or people who just move in and feel that it's their right to dump crap in the common garage below the apartment block. I've got news for them -- it's not. They should take care of it themselves. Grrr.

But anyway. We busted our chops getting it all out there, and most of the stuff was totally gross. But it's done, it's gone. We took charge and now the fire hazard and potential rat/bug home has been destroyed. It feels good to clear out the garbage.

Anyway.

In other news, I've just finished today's writing session and have hit 48,149 words. Yikes! I'm so darn close. I think I've got one more chapter and an epilogue left to write, so it looks like I might go over the 50k mark, but not by much. I think.

Well, see ya!

***Just wanted to remind you that FAITHLESS is still available from Damnation Books for under $1. But that'll change next week. On December 1st, it'll go up to $4.50.***

Hello New Week! I'm kinda ready for ya...

Before I get started today, I just wanted to mention that I'll be over at The Pen and Muse this week. Denisse was lovely enough to interview me and will be posting it shortly. :)

Well, how was your weekend? Mine was great, but tiring. We continued our spring cleaning kick. Got rid of a lot of dust -- I don't think they were dust bunnies anymore, more like dust kitties -- and some garbage, as well as a lot of recycling. I always feel so much better about getting rid of stuff that'll be recycled into something else. I'm trying to think as green as I can. Too bad other people in our apartment block don't seem to care.

Today, I've had a shitty day in regards to the people around us. We live in an apartment block and a lot of the people who live here don't give a crap about keeping the place clean and tidy. Or even safe. This morning, when we got home from dropping my daughter off at school, we couldn't get the key into the lock downstairs because someone had stuck something into it. It's not the first time it's happened, and the locksmith pulled out bits of sticks that had been shoved into the barrel. Seriously, who would do that? And other people have been dumping their carpets and furniture into the garage area. Once again, WTF? Makes me so angry!

Anyway. I got back into my NaNoWriMo novel today. Yay! I've reached 25,025 words. So, I'm halfway now. Haven't gotten back on track with my own personal goal, but I'm getting there. Slowly, slowly.

Well. I'm all outta words for the night. See ya!

Not much to say... but enough

I can't believe how quickly the weekend went by! My gosh. Did I blink and it was over? Sometimes it feels that way.

I also don't undestand why the weather's gone all shitty and refuses to get any better. Woke up this morning to a beautiful blue sky. Now, it's overcast and cold. Ugh! WTF?

Anyway, enough complaining. :)

It's a new week and I've got a new to-do list.

I've already crossed two things off the list, which is awesome for a Monday. My main objective is to get the third draft of M-YA finished. I've now hit page 231/297, so it's moving along nicely. I'm really trying to get it done by Wednesday. See how I go. Since this is also the last week of my daughter's school holidays.

Well, there's not much going on. I'm still busy revising, reading, watching TV shows, going for walks, hanging out with my daughter & hubby, as well as trying not to think about that other idea I got last weekend. Lol. Got too much going on at the moment to add that. :)

Okay. I think it's time for a snack and another walk! Bye for now.

No title Thursday

You know, some days, finding the perfect picture to fit my mood is actually harder than getting the words out for a post. Strange. Very strange.

Still, I'm glad that I found this pic. Today I wanted something a little dark. I've been feeling a little on the gloomy side since yesterday, and having one overcast day after another with a good dose of rain and cold isn't helping. So, I think this one's good for today.

Yesterday we went to the doctor and when we got out I was shivering. It was so cold that my jaw was actually chattering. Can you believe that? Anyway. The doctor prescribed some antibiotics for me. There are a lot of reasons why winter doesn't suit me, and the cold is only one of them. Because I've got that whole ongoing nose prob thingy, I'm mostly blocked. All the time. The collection of nasal sprays I use help, but when the cold weather sets in and I catch a cold, my breathing prob intensifies.

So much that I can hardly breathe. Eating becomes a bit of a prob too, because my throat feels as blocked as my nose and I find it hard to swallow the food. Anyway, I don't want to gross anyone out anymore than I already have, so, let's just hope the antibiotics help clear me up a bit.

This morning I got stuck into the writing and managed to reach 29,010 words. I'm really happy with that because yesterday's effort fell a bit short of my expectation. No 4k day for Wednesday, but let's hope Thursday is much more productive. Although, I did finish reading this book. Wow! I really, really enjoyed it. The violence and rawness of it all matched my mood perfectly, too. :)

Okay. That's enough rambling for today. I have to get my daughter out of bed. Something strange has started to happen. Now that the weather is so much colder, she sleeps much longer. Until I wake her. Loki tries to wake her about ten times before I do, but she doesn't budge. Lol.

Have a good day!

SUPERNATURAL rocked again!

It's supposed to be spring! Hell, we're about a week from summer and the weather is too cold. It's constantly raining, and I even saw on the news that it's snowing somewhere in NSW. Really, that's WTF? territory.

I'm not asking for much. I'd just like each season to act accordingly. I had enough of the cold weather during winter. And that's how it should be, right? Darn it. Bring back the sun!

Lol. That's me whining about the weather. I knida do that a lot, don't I?

Anyway. I just finished my first writing session for today and have stopped @ 47,129 words. Gosh. I'm so darn close to the 50k mark. To be honest, I'm hoping to cross it tonight. Really. not sure if it's where the story will end, though. But I don't care about that, I'll keep on writing until the story's told. Still, my deadline for that is tomorrow. OMGosh! Yep. I love to set personal goals.

Speaking of which, I've been thinking a lot about that lately. My head is swarming with plans for 2009. I think the direction of my writing overall is going to change a little, but nothing's set yet because I'm saving that kind of planning for next month. Still, it's fun to get excited about goals for the new year. Is anyone else already thinking about 2009, or am I just getting ahead of myself? I find that December is a really hard month for me to focus on writing something new, so this year I'm going to fill it up with revision, planning, reading, and story note-taking.

Well, it's time to go. Gotta walk over to pick my daughter up from school now. See ya!

Mondays seem to suck lately!

Yep. They do.

The weekend was great. I had a great time with my hubby and daughter watching a few things, going for walks, and ducking into a few places. It was cool. I even managed to squeeze in the first round of edits for another one of my upcoming CP releases, THE CAT'S CHARM.

Then Monday rocks around. This morning was great - I got some yoga done, the hubby and I went for a nice long walk, we had a nice lunch, and hung out together before it was time for him to go to work. Then he leaves. I grab my NaNo notes and lappy and sit on the couch. But when I plug in my 2GB USB stick, nothing is accessible. Actually, the writing underneath each folder looks like gibberish. Nothing makes sense. So, I pull it out and try it on the other two computers we have. Nope, still the same incoherent type.

I'm screaming mad by this time because I'm slowly realising that the USB stick is totally stuffed and there are things on there that I haven't copied anywhere else. Not even onto my lappy. So, I've lost a bunch of pictures, the first chapter of a new novel idea I had a few weeks ago, and the first chapter of a new novella I started last week. That's all I can remember so far. I'm positive I'll think of other things soon... like all those freebie eBooks I downloaded. :/

Now, because of all this crap, I still haven't started my NaNo novel. I was so excited and ready to roll this afternoon and then later tonight, but now I can't concentrate on anything. All I want to do is update what I can remember/salvage onto my 1GB sticks. :/

I think the one thing I will concentrate on tonight is getting the second round of edits for THE CAT'S CHARM done. At least it'll be some progress and the day won't feel like a total waste. All I can do is cross my fingers and hope that tomorrow ends up being a better day, so I can finally get my novel started.

Luckily, there's still a lot of time before now and the end of the month...

Having a few connection probs...

Yeah. I'm sitting here listening to My Chemical Romance at the moment, really enjoying their tunes. Man, they're cool! And this album totally compliments my current mood. :p

Anyway. I'm a little pissed off with our internet connection at the moment. I haven't been able to check my emails for 24 hours. And that always makes me cranky. I mean, there might be no new emails at the moment, but I just like to know. Does that make sense? It's amazing how much I depend on the internet being up and running whenever I need it.

Let's hope all these probs get fixed up soon. Doesn't technology suck sometimes? It offers you all these weird and wonderful things, hooks you in, and then decides to malfunction and totally throws you out! :/

What can you do but wait? I'm lucky I even managed to log in now. So, I thought I'd take the opportunity to write a little post. I'm not sure if it'll be up and running later on. Lol.

How was your weekend? Mine was great! Like always, right? I just wish it was longer than two days. ;)

Okay. I think I better not push my luck anymore than I already have. This week is going to be all about planning. I'm going to sit down and figure out more of the novel I'll be working on for NaNoWriMo. And might even squeeze in some other planning. I don't think I'll do any actual new words this week, though. I'll save that for next week!

Have a nice day!

Halfway through...

You know, the first half of the day was pretty cool. The hubby has been working really long hours the last few days, so he went in a little later today. We hung out together and went for a lovely, long walk and even picked up a lovely cup of vanilla coffee from Gloria Jean's.

Heck, we even found time to lift some weights together. Very cool. Then, after he went to work, the sun totally disappeared, it got colder and even started raining. Yeah, the day went downhill after that.

Now, I'm totally irritated with both my daughter and kitty. Do they have to co-ordinate their 'let's be annoying' times? :/

Anyway, enough about that.

Let's move onto my writing progress:

This was the word count after I finished my session last night. I haven't added any new words today. At least, not yet. I'll be picking up my lappy and I'll get on with it later. I'm very excited with how the story's moving along. :)

We finally watched the BURN NOTICE season 1 finale. Awesome! And the best thing is that Aussie TV has decided to keep playing new eps, which means we're getting into season 2 next week. Yay!

Catch'a later!

Naughty Loki, Happy Feet and X-Mas almost done...

<------ This little furball is the reason why I only added 200 words to my story this morning. :/ He's so darn cute, but so naughty! Loki wants to explore every nook and cranny around the place, and loves to climb as high as he can. Cheeky boy.

It's actually my own fault, to be quite honest. He's got a routine - loves to have a nap as soon as the hubby leaves for work. And during the last few weeks I've been checking out the internet first, then writing. Of course, by then he's awake and wants to run around everywhere. So, from next week onward the routine for moi is going to change. Write first, internet later! Besides, my daughter doesn't sleep past 7am now. I lose another hour there. Damn, huh?

Anyway, enough whining for now.

Last night we watched Happy Feet. I really wasn't expecting much from this flick because the trailers I saw for it just had a penguin dacing. I had no idea what they were going to do with that, but I was pleasantly surprised. I loved it! The way modern music was used was fantastic and I loved the attitude the little Hispanic penguins had. It was hilarious. I really enjoyed it.

We watched March of the Penguins not long ago, so it was great to see how they mixed a fictional story with fact. Emperor penguins seem so organised, so this was great. Mumble was also a lovely hero. Very innocent and kind-hearted. Yeah, I thought this was a winner. I don't know what others thought of it, but I was very impressed! Very cool ending too. Both the hubby and daughter enjoyed it too.

Ah, the writing's going really well at the moment - asides from this morning, obviously. ;) I've now gotten to 21,294 words, so that's excellent. I'm very close to the end now. I'm on the final battle stage. When I write that, it'll be time to tie everything up between hero, heroine and everything else. Not sure how much will be involved in terms of word count, but I would definitely love to get this first draft done before it's time to head out to pick my daughter up from school. Fingers crossed.

Man, the weekend's almost here again. Hey, I'm not complaining but gosh it goes quick!

Looks like the lovely sunny day we had yesterday - after three days of non-stop rain - won't be repeated today. It's overcast again. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if it rains later. :/

Have a great weekend everyone!

Damn!

I've been having a terrible run with internet technology this morning! For god's sake! First I had trouble with the new version of Yahoo! Beta and now I just lost a whole post on Blogger. Don't you just hate it when that happens? :/

I certainly do!

Anyway, last night we got the grocery shopping done and even managed to lift some weights. It was really cool because I was starting to worry about how we'd fit in our workouts. Just need to get used to taking each day as it comes.

Well, I've already added another 2k to the story and am so close to finishing, I can feel it. Lol. But seriously, I don't want this one to go over 10k by much. Of course, I can always shorten it during the revision process if I have to, but still. The contest states between 2,500-10,000 words. I'm just happy with how the story is gonna come together in the end. I'm having some fun with it. Isn't fantastic when you can enjoy the tale you're writing, huh? It's certainly very cool.

Okay I better get going because my daughter will start asking for brekky soon. Unlike yesterday when I had to wake her, she woke up on her own today!