Update 10/25/2011
 
Quick update because I'm flat chat but it was pointed out to me that it's been nearly a month since my last post. Sorry about that... I have started another blog for my random non-writing related stuff. If you want to check it out the link is http://peanutmusings.blogspot.com/

I promise I will make you laugh at least once =)

As to the writing, it's kicking along very nicely. My opera singer historical is under a revise and resubmit and my courtesan is out with an agent and a few editors which is super exciting! I'm waiting on placings for three contests - The Rebecca, The Molly and the IGO. Penguin, NAL and Carina are the final judges for these.

I attended a one day intesive with Christopher Vogler which was awesome. That man knows what he's talking about! I'm a bit too brain dead to really tell you all about it right now (plus I can't find the notebook I took the notes in) but I will do a post on it soon. The most interesting thing about him for me is that he's worked on a heap of Disney movies and I love Disney. You should see the drawer of DVD's I have (not the kid's, they're mine)and all animations, pretty much.

My head space is taken up largey by wedding preparation at the moment and it leaves little room for anything else althought I did start a novella type short today to submit to Avon Impulse's Yellow Ribbon line they're doing next year. I also started my next Historical since the courtesan is done and you'll love this one! It has some plot issues to sort out but we're making headway thanks to the wonderful gals at SARA. I'm thinking of giving Deb Dixon's GMC another crack since I wasn't really paying a lot of attention the first skim through.

Anyway, that's it for me. I have a Fairies concert to get ready for, five year old twins to buy presents for, a baby shower to organise for a friend, another friend having her 30th and her son's 1st birthdays, a wedding (not mine), and heaps more fun! Adios Amigos!
Add Comment
 
Wedding brain 09/30/2011
 
Okay, I admit it. I have wedding brain. We aren't getting married until next year in June but I feel like everything has to be done yesterday and it doesn't help that I'm flighty enough to keep changing my mind. Needless to say, I haven't written much. I am still writing and have started a brand spanking, sparkly new Regency so stay tuned. I have contest entries out and over the weekend I'm going to print off about 80 pages to send to an agent in New York. Busy, busy, busy.

On the writing front, I'm doing some articles for an online magazine called Beauty and Lace. If you hit the wedding pages, you can follow the preparation and madness involved in saying I do... And then there's a new blog I'm associated with called Historical Hearts. On Monday, Cassandra Samuels is going to tell us all about the history and language of the fan and let me tell you, I had no idea! Did you know in the Regency period, a woman could invite a man to her bedroom with a flick of her wrist and a wave of silk? Easier than the come hither finger =)

Enjoy your weekend and have an eventful week! If you want a giggle go and check out http://thebloggess.com/ but be warned, she will make you cry at the least and wet your pants at the most... I won't even go into what might happen in between.

Peace out!

Add Comment
 
 


This is going to be another one of those rambling posts about my completely random thoughts. But before you get bored and fall into a coma on your keyboard, I want to give you the details for a new blog I’ll be participating in with nearly twenty other Historical Romance Authors from Australia.

It’s called Historical Hearts and this week is our launch so we’re having a five day virtual party where you all get to meet us and find out what we write and why we write it. I’ll be on Friday (saving the best till last) and I’ll be giving away Candace Camp’s Scandalous and a contest critique to two lucky people who comment. There will be giveaways every day and general madness and mayhem you get when a heap of romance authors get together on any level. So the link is http://historicalhearts.blogspot.com/

It’s going to be great! And it would be wonderful if you could drop by and check it out.


Now onto the ramblings. Let me set the scene. It’s freezing. If there was a fierce wind, I would get knocked over (little exaggeration but not much). And because I’m lazy, I don’t do much to stay warm (housework wise-yuck!).

So there I was last night, after crawling out of the sleeping bag cocoon I made myself while I worked on my Regency (73k and still going), and I was cold. Really cold. Lucky I had to foresight to already have switched the electric blanket on to warm up my side of the bed. So I got dressed in the bathroom, crouched in front of a tiny blow heater that sucks more electricity than five plasmas, and then practically ran to my bed. My feet were so cold I couldn’t get to sleep for ages despite the fact it was midnight. So then I lay wondering what would happen if I got electrocuted by the electric blanket. You hear it happening. Pensioners houses burn down due to faulty blankets all the time. This is what my brain does to me in the dark, in the middle of the night. It gives me the worst possible scenario to fall asleep with.

Then I started thinking about what I did before I had an electric blanket. My parents never let me have one. Until I got to high school I didn’t even know it was possible to create a heavenly warm haven so you didn’t have to shiver yourself into fitful dreams where you were stuck in Iceland with no sunshine. The truth is, back then, I wore socks to bed. And trackies. And a jumper. And a long sleeve, high necked shirt. You see, I’m a super light sleeper and if I'm cold I can't sleep. And I’m not a touchy feely cuddly type of gal either so I can't tuck my cold feet around the man and wait for him to warm me up. I know I’m not the only one. Not all chicks are into being smothered in their sleep by their men who may or may not have heavy, muscled arms that twitch when they dream (mine does). His arm always happens to land right across my middle and then I’m awake. And it’s not comfortable. (Also, Doug I know what you’re doing at 5am when you pretend to be asleep). And then I’m cranky because sleeping is my most favourite part of the day. It’s the only time when I’m not stressed, I don’t have to wonder where everyone is and what they’re doing. I don’t have to worry about what to cook for tea or what to pack for lunch. And because I have a bad back, lying down at night is like no other feeling. Add to that the fact that I only fell asleep sometime between midnight and 1am. Don’t get me wrong. I love sharing a bed with a man I’m hopelessly in love with but this is why they made electric blankets. So gals like me could stay warm and get some sleep! It's nothing personal about his hygiene or anything like that. it's all me.

So now I want to know two things. How do you stay warm when it’s so bloody cold and is my brain broken or do you to think about stupid stuff when you also should have opted for the safety of counting sheep? Oh and are you cuddly? I'm not and most people look at me like it's a disease. It's not. I just really like my own personal space and don't feel the need to hug everyone I meet!

Anyway, the answer that makes me laugh the most wins a prize since I got to the all important 2000 hits last week! Thanks to Cherie Thomas for being the 2000th visitor! You win a prize too!! Not sure what yet but it’ll be cool =)

2 Comments
 
 

I'm not going to start this post off with an apology. I do it all the time so I don't feel so guilty about the length between one blog post to the next. This time I haven't blogged for ages because I'm writing. Yep, you heard right. Quitting the crappy day job has certainly worked for my creativity and lessened the time constraints. So all this writing brings me to this question; What is your favourite part of a book?

Some say it's the beginning when you get to meet the heroine and hero and make your judgments, enjoy the thrill of their ride, lose yourself in their world. Others say it's the ending with the guaranteed happily ever after required of a good romance. Then there are other genres like fantasy where the worst part of the book is the end because it either means the end of that world or the interminable wait for the next book (I have to agree there! Robin Hobb needs to write quicker!). For me as a reader, the middle is my favourite part. It's the time when all the introductions have been made and the scene is set and they're off and racing. This is the time where the obstacles rear their heads, the twists get ready to make their turns and the action keeps you hooked. For me as a writer, this is the suckiest part. Ever heard of a sagging middle? It's not around your waist and you can't fix it with diet and exercise. It's the part of the book where if you don't write it right, the ass falls out of it and you lose the reader. Absolutely not a good way to end up!

My favourite part as an author is the ending. This is where all the little pieces of string (plot) get tied together in a neat little bow and you go "ahhh" or "ohhh" over the whole package. Or at least you should. This is also usually my fastest writing stage because I know what's going to happen and now I know how to get there. At the beginning when I'm world building or bringing in the characters, it's hard. It's hard to keep their characteristics and names straight. It's hard to avoid info dumping and back story deluges. I do use a chart of sorts until I get a feel for the characters and how they all look in my head. I don't do collages and probably never will but the chart is essential.

Anyway, by the time I get to the end, I know who she is inside and out, I know who he is and what he has to do to get her. All I have to do is make sure it's believable and satisfying and voila! The story is done. Well, except for the million rounds of edits, the word fillers and the making sure everything is tied up and not left flapping in the breeze. So this is where I'm at at the moment with my Courtesan story and I love it! You want to know why? Because the next story has me soooooo excited that I keep wanting to run off and write that one but I can't. You have to finish a book to submit a book and a half done book will never get read. So that's it for me. I have to go and get to the end so I can do a round of edits and then put it away for a few months while I get to the next one. I hope you're going to love it too! It involves a nobleman, a pirate's daughter and a mad dash to Gretna...

Oh and I nearly forgot. I'm only 80 odd visitors away from the magical 2000 hits to the site so when I get there, there'll be another contest! Last time I gave away Haighs Chocolate and books and all sorts so pass the good word for me and I'll get some stuff ready for you =)

 
Add Comment
 
 

On the 13th of September, Mills and Boon will launch their New Voices contest for a second year. Very exciting stuff if you're looking to be published in category length fiction. I have some thoughts I wanted to share with new writer's looking to enter for their first time. Keep in mind that this is only my opinion and that I'm neither published nor did I final (although my entry has since gone onto win one USA contest and final in another two).

First of all, make sure you get someone to read your entry before you send it. Don't email you favourite author and ask them but equally, don't email it to your mum and ask her advice either. You absolutely have to get another writer or author to check it over for grammar, pacing and plot. But before this step, you actually have to write it. The rules say that your entire entry, if you make it through all the stages, should be no more than ten thousand words (make sure you read the rules at least three times and maybe once backwards too). As a general rule of thumb, each chapter should only be about three to four thousand words in Category length, longer for Single Title.

So, chapter one needs to start somewhere exciting. Don't start with your heroine waxing poetic about her surroundings unless she wakes up and has no idea where she is or how she got there. Start in the moment with your heroine being chased down a dark street or meeting your hero and hating him off the bat. Number one is to write the story that needs to be written. Don't pick up ten Mills and Boon and try to write a cross between all ten that you think will sell because the others did. Hopefully you already have a story written or started. This is a contest that calls for chapter one and two and then the pivotal moment. If you have no idea how your story will end or what your characters will get up to, it's going to be super hard and maybe almost impossible to get that final chapter.

Before you freak out and get all stressed that you're not ready, last year, the finalists got to work with a mentor for chapter two and the pivotal moment. With a few months left to go, get to work on an idea that will blow everyone away. Make sure you write it with voice! Lots and lots of voice! If you have no idea what that means, Google it or check out the following websites.

http://www.kyliegriffin.com/Home.html
http://www.annegracie.com/links.htm
http://www.heidi-rice.com/
http://www.natalie-anderson.blogspot.com/

And Romance Writer's of Australia and Romance Writer's of America are fantastic resources too. Mills and Boon New Voices are on Twitter and Facebook where you can ask questions and meet up with fellow entrants. Make sure you check back regularly to the New Voices website and check out the tips and updates.

The last thing you need to remember is that not everyone is going to love your entry. Last year there were some toxic people who posted comments meant to dishearten and discourage your dreams. Ignore those ones and don't retaliate. They aren't the ones you have to impress with your entry. Also, there can be only one winner. Thousands of entries, one winner. That winner could be you! You can't win it if you're not in it =)


I'm off to a conference next week but in the mean time, I'm going to offer to help one lucky commenter with their entry. Remember that I'm not published and my opinion my not count for anything but it can't hurt right? So leave a comment before the 24th of August with your name and maybe something like 'Pick me!!' and I'll draw a name out of a hat (or rather one of the kids will to keep it fair). The winner can email me their first chapter and I'll give you some feedback and maybe some help if you need it. 
17 Comments
 
 
It occurred to me that I've never thrown the floor open to you. So ask me anything! I won't promise to answer it if it gets really weird but if there's something you want to know, ask away! I'll start by telling you that I love to sleep in monkey pjs, if I could live in my ugg boots I would and my favourite food is anything with salt on it =)

Oh? Serious stuff?

My favourite author right now (changes a fair bit) is Anna Campbell for romance and Robin Hobb for fantasy. Does that help? Good.

Now your turn...
Add Comment
 
 


I realised today that even though this Romance Writer’s of Australia conference will only be my third, that I also have some conference tips. Most of them you would have already heard and with RWA’s US conference just wrapped up, they aren’t new. This is just my spin on classics...

Dress nice. Even if you aren’t pitching or looking to rub elbows with an agent or editor, others will notice the effort you make with your hair and makeup and clothing. You don’t have to wear sequins to Bob Mayer’s workshop but don’t wear trackie dacks either. Me? I’ll be rocking the heels every day much the same as the last two years. Mind you, they look uncomfortable to the height, age and conservatively challenged, I could run a marathon in them if I had to. And let’s face it, I’m going to be on my bum for most of the time so I could wear 5kg clogs and still be good.

P.S. Sorry in advance if you have to bend your neck to look up at me.

Dress up! The cocktail party on the Friday evening is one of the best kind of icebreakers I’ve ever been to. Even though sessions start running from about Thursday, by the time Friday night rolls around, most are only just starting to catch up with conference buddies, more are finally putting online names to real faces and so on. If you haven’t organised a roaring 20’s outfit yet, what are you waiting for? Do you think more people will notice you if you don’t dress up? Think you’re too old, too young, too introverted, to unnoticeable? You’re not. The perfect start to a conversation last year for me was, “Do you want to see my guns?”

P.P.S. My gun is even better this year!

Caffeine. If you’re anything like me, you love coffee but caffeine is not necessarily your best friend. Ask for decaf. If you’re into instant, every hotel and conference venue will provide it. If it’s not on the table, ask for it. They don’t bite and I won’t laugh. I promise. At my first conference, I was so worried I wouldn’t be able to have eight cups of coffee without throwing up that I packed a little container in my handbag with decaf Moccona. There, now you’re probably laughing at me.

Introductions. If you forget names easily—in one ear and right out the other—try using their name as soon as they give it to you. “My name’s Mary.” “Hi Mary, I’m Bronwyn.” Get it? Got it? Good!  

Business cards. Are. Awesome. I love mine but don’t hurl them at people. I always have a few special ones with my mobile number on them just in case but the rest I only give to people who either ask me if I have a website or ask for my email addy. Otherwise, put those badboys away. This doesn’t count for bookmarks and postcards. Get them out but put them on the freebie table where others can grab the ones they want.

Mingle. This one is very important for me. I love the gals at SARA (South Australian Romance Authors). They rock but I can see them anytime, converse with them anytime and be blown away by their helpfulness and brilliance anytime. I can’t meet new people and hope some of their cleverness will rub off on me every time. Approach a stranger, tell them your name and take it from there. Awkward silences are a given but are easily filled with silly giggles and lots of head shaking.


And finally...

Pitching. Please don’t be scared. Agents and Editors are there to take your pitch, not blow up your dreams or shoot down your ideas. They don’t eat aspiring authors for breakfast with their bacon and bagels despite what you may have heard (unless you pitch to them while they’re in the loo, they don’t like that). Do some research. One of the visiting OS eds, who I’m not pitching to this time, drinks decaf, likes pink stuff and buys alcohol mostly based on the pretty bottle rather than taste (don’t buy one for a bribe, they may like it but conference organisers might not). One agent has only ever taken on two clients from conferences and would like it if you asked questions once she’s done with hers. Also make sure they represent your genre!

One of the most important things to remember is that not every agent and editor will love your idea. Just like not every reader will love your book and not every person you meet in the world will love you. Don’t get upset and pour your coffee on her head. Say thanks for your time, back out respectfully and save it for someone who does love it.    

Oh and if you buy a stack of books or win heaps on raffles or whatever, don’t despair and think about the squillions in oversized baggage it’ll cost you at the airport. The bookseller at the conference usually has post paid red satchels for the books you get from her (she comes well prepared) and since we’ll be in the centre of Melbourne, find a post office and send them to yourself. I had to post 5kgs of books and I had another 5kgs in my carry on last year but I just had to have every one of those books! That’s my type of hoarding =)

I think that’s it. I’ve already started packing my bags (so I don’t forget the iPad for the Firefighter’s raffle. BUY HEAPS OF TICKETS!!). I’ve worked out my costume and nearly all of my outfits too so I pack them away early. Now I’m off to unravel another of the plot kinks my manuscript seems to be attracting.

8 Comments
 
Good, Bad, Ugly 07/04/2011
 
If you want to see how I fared to date in contests, check out my new page Good, Bad, Ugly. There you'll find scores and some of the feedback I've had over the years.

I really like entering contests despite not always doing well. It is a great way to get a feel for how your story will do with agents and editors but it's also a good way to have your dreams crushed. You need to have a thick skin and be able to handle very constructive (and sometimes destructive) criticism with a smile and thank you. When you do final or win, expect to happy dance for hours if not days!

Enjoy!
Add Comment
 
Changes 06/26/2011
 
Oooh, how ominous huh? Change can mean so many things, good, bad, ugly. But this time, it is good, fantastic even!

So many of you know that I quit my job at the beginning of June *high five* and I could not be happier. I only worked about three nights a week as a manager in a department store but it was enough to send me into a weird tailspin that I couldn't come out of. It didn't help that my boss was a nasty... anyway, that's a blog topic for another day.

Needless to say, misery is not a good emotion to motivate a body to write beautiful love stories. Or any stories really. So I'm out, I'm free and the great thing is the words are coming back. Even better is that I double finalled in Charter Oak's The Golden Acorn contest in the Historical category. So the next month is going to be jam packed with writing and honing and working on my pitch for the RWAus conference in August where I will hopefully be pitching to Avon Agent, Erika Tsang. Writing wise, I'm over the halfway mark for the manuscript that won the Linda Howard earlier in the year in the Historical category. I have to finish it so I can pitch it to Erika and I'm so excited for this one. Even more than the Opera Singer! There's just something about the plot and the characters that if I was a reader of this particular story, I think my heart would sing (modest much?).

Another change coming up is that I'm going to have a contest page where I will list my contest finals and wins and add some of the judge's comments. This isn't going to be a page to make my head bigger than it already is, a friend of mine suggested it and I think it might help some of my fellow writer's. The good, the bad and the ugly =)

Anyway, that's it from me until I come up with something more intelligent to say...
Add Comment
 
Freedom. 05/22/2011
 

I wrote this post about a month ago but it never felt like the right time to post it. On Friday I put my resignation in at my part-time job so I can spend more time writing and being with my family and that got me thinking about life and how we spend it. For those people who know me personally, you know I love to work. I love the responsibility, having money of my own, contributing to the household but I’ve been absolutely miserable for too long and it began to affect my home life and the way I did everything, even the mundane became even more hard work. When I went two weeks and only saw my man twice and when my kids cried because I had to go to work again and again, enough was enough. Facing this newfound form of freedom, I thought about this forgotten post and decided now is the time to share it. Enjoy.

 

I want to know what you think about freedom. Freedom of speech, freedom to move around, go where you want and do what you feel like doing. Do you live in a free country, state, city, village, town? Do you have the freedom to laugh, love, live? Maybe you’ve restricted your own freedom without even knowing it by becoming a slave to your work, career or job? Maybe you just feel restricted due to finances, relationship or family? I live in Australia and like to think we as a people have a fair measure of freedom. It’s up to us to choose the path we tread. I have the freedom to write what I want, where I want, when I want so long as I follow a publisher’s guidelines, work around my family, my kids, school, my part-time job. Where I want usually means the stolen hour after bed, which is when I wrote this post, freehand to use later. It got to 11pm and then I forgot my point...

I think it was something about the fall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that prompted this topic. It surprised me no end when the six oc‘lock news announce that Cairo was under curfew (which in the history of man has never gone down well) and then the next day or so, the same reporter told me their internet had been turned off. Well, the quickest way to get news out and about these days is via Twitter or Facebook and even if you try to cut it off, word still travels. Put it on the net and a second later it’s gone viral. The juicier the topic, or injustice, the quicker the news spreads.

The world then glued itself to the telly and the net and waited for what would come next. The tent city, the riots in the streets, Hosni refusing to step down. Egyptians were fighting for their freedom even though they knew the next leader or government might not have been much better than the existing tyrant, it had to be better than what they were stuck with. So many Middle Eastern countries are in this fight on a daily basis, African nations ruled by guerrilla leaders and factions yearning for justice to break free, right over to North Korea living in their very own nightmarish hell the citizens don’t even comprehend. Most houses have no TV let alone computers or internet. News doesn’t go in and it rarely comes out. Then there’s the western world whose citizens democratically choose a leader through a (mostly) fair vote that says we are entrusting our safety to them. But in Australia, I don’t think about freedom in terms as an Egyptian or Afghani or a Korean. I’m already free in that sense of the word. Are you?

So what do you think about freedom? Do you come from an oppressed race of people who are told what to think, do and say? Are you reading my blog post from work, stretching the rules so you can snatch a minute to yourself? Do you think about freedom as I do in my safe, stable little world or do you think of it as going to the market without getting shot or blown up? I’d like to know what your definition is? What it really means to you.


Add Comment