SENT!

Two posts in one day!  Turn it up!

I just had to let you know I've just hit send on my latest Nocturne Bites sub, DARK SIREN.

Just got the acknowledgement email, which didn't exist last time I subbed.  Very cool to know my MS is in NY!

Wish me luck!  E x

Finish line in sight!

I've just typed THE END on TREASURED HUNTER this week - a WIP involving a kick-ass siren, a bitter treasure hunter and lots of sparkly things.

Yay!

Now, because I tore quite a few thousand words out of this one (um, three times), there are still many, many jagged edges. I kept thinking of better storylines as I attempted to pants (that is, write without the aid of an outline - by the seat of your pants, as it t'were), and I kept having to go back and alter what had happened before. Oy.

I tried pantsing, I really did, but I suck at it. Then I get shitey at myself for having to go back and fix stuff.

Part-way through, I broke and did character studies, a mind-map, and a storyboard (after the third fix that affected the WHOLE story) and I've even done a fair bit of a synopsis. Woo, that's big...

I work better this way.

How about you? Plotter or pantser? Any advice? Any fun/heartrending/entirely forgettable experiences?

Which segues not-very-neatly into another thing - authors and said authors coming to SA!

SARA (South Australian Romance Authors), in conjunction with RWA is bringing Romancing the Novel Seminar to little ol' Adelaide - a 2010 Romance Roadshow Event!

There are some very cool guest speakers in Anna Campbell and Yvonne Lindsay, plus SARA members like Elizabeth Rolls and Trish Morey. And much more...

I'm there! It's on May 15th.

More at the SARA website - and thanks to Eleni for bringing it to my attention! Just what I was waiting for, I think!

Take care, Em x

No, I'm not dead...

HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY!  Wishing all Aussies much vegemite, lamb, sunburn and beer for tomorrow!

Wow.  I haven't been here to post since November.  Someone shoulda told me that it had been so long!  I have been making it a practise to take December and January off writing - it's better for my family, but I still feel like I neglect the cyberworld when I do that.  Just call me ham (of the ham sandwich - get it?  Er, right.). 

Happy 20-10 to everyone!

I'm calling this the year I get published.  Which I did say last year, I know.  That's the beauty of unfulfilled yearly goals.  They're re-useable.  And I've got a bagful of the sodding things. 

Wanna hear about goals for 2010?  Sure you do.  Yes, nice save.  Okay, here goes...  In no particular order...

1.  Write 3 x 15 novellas to submission-standard.  This will require me sticking to a timetable, which worked well in the last part of last year. 
2.  Lose 20kgs.  Blah.  That sounds horrible - a cliche.  I'd love to say I'm one of those people who doesn't need to get fit, but I'm not.  I've been blaming the having of three kids, but I think it's probably just me.  I lost a bit from October to December.  Which I promptly re-discovered in the bottoms of numerous wine bottles over the silly season.  PLAN:  Walk four times a week.  Time to get out the audio books!
3.  Keep a daily journal - going well so far...
4.  Blog fortnightly - fear not, dear readers!
5.  Attend SARA meetings. 
6.  Spend time with my eldest child - she has some learning difficulties.
7.  Spend time with my second - she's just starting school.
8.  Spend time with the baby - because, well, he's a baby, and they can't fend well for themselves.
9.  Spend time with Mr L.  A man of great gorgeousness...
10.  THE BIG ONE - Find balance between the aspects of my life, which is essentially all of the above.

Sound good?  Okay.  Goals out of system. 

Now for some news:

Anna Hackett had a great start to 2010 - she sold another Nocturne Bites on the first day of the year.  It's a fabulous novella called HUNTER'S SURRENDER, out in April this year.

Check this little teaser from Anna's blog, Midnight Confessions.

Sixteen days later, I got my second R from Nocturne Bites for 'Firestarter'.  It was quick this time - only two and a half months.  Luckily, I was still a bit inebriated after searching for all my misplaced weight in those bottles and it didn't sting.  Much.  :)

I'm reader judging for the R*BY again, RWAs Romantic Book of the Year.  They should be here at the end of next month. 

Nocturne Bites is running another Pitch Contest!  I'm having another go this year.  Last year's winner, Nicola, has her winning entry, THE PROPHECY, coming out next Month, under the pen name Nina Croft.  Connie Hall also has TIME JUMPER available then, too.

Mel Teshco has a name for her Bites coming out in March - HER DARK LORD.  Mel's working title was "Blood Chance", which we all loved, but you know the title gods...

The Nocturne Authors have a new website.  It's so pretty!  Is it just me, or does the guy on the top banner look a hell of a lot like Hugh Jackman?  Maybe I wish...

Finally, Anna and Mel (and loads of other fab authors) are part of a cool eplace called LoveCats DownUnder, a blog for Aussie/NZ authors of category romace.  It's a fun spot, go have a look! 

In Australia, Intrigue Nocturnes in stores now are:

BEAST OF DESIRE - Lisa Renee Jones
MIND GAMES - Merline Lovelace. 
(Am slightly peeved I was on holidays when these came out and I missed them!  Would have loved the Lovelace.  Phooey.)

Nocturnes coming out in print in February are:
LAST WOLF HUNTING - Rhyannon Byrd
SCIONS: INSURRECTION - Patrice Michelle

and March:
LAST WOLF WATCHING - Rhyannon Byrd
DARK DECEIVER - Pamela Palmer

Right.  Well.  That pitch I mentioned is having some difficulty writing itself.  I'll go give it a hand. 

Take care, Em x

(P.S. Slip, Slop, Slap tomorrow!)

Nocturne Bites Pitch Contest Winners have been announced!

and I'm not among them...

I'm actually fine with it - it was a great experience, and a good opportunity to polish my skills.
And now, I have a little longer to play with my ms before I send it off to the NY slush pile...

Huuuge congrats to all of the winners, though. All seven of them (there were 60 entries).

And wow to Ann Leslie Tuttle for being so quick about chosing - must have been a mammoth task...

Didn't think I'd make it...

The last Bite I wrote took me over four months. It's in NY now...

The one I've just 'the end'ed took me a little over three weeks. Got a late start. Egad. Stressfest. But I had a lot of fun writing it.

I sent my pitch in yesterday.

Thanks to Anna for looking over the ms (love her work..), and good luck to everyone who is pitching.

Tired now. Can I go to sleep at two-thirty in the afternoon? Sure I can.

Oh wait, there are small children around who would love to fend for themselves, but probably shouldn't. There was a hair-cutting episode yesterday, that I could have stopped if I hadn't been busy pitching...

We await the finalists who will be announced on April 10th... In the meantime, revisions (and a corrective trip to the hairdresser....)

E x

Whipping up the WIP...

I love Anna Hackett.

And not because she writes very excellent stories (I have read the draft of one, and it rockED. Y'all get to buy one in July - 'Savage Dragon' ).

But because she is a very excellent CP. I can feel a girl crush coming on... .

I had come to a standstill on my Bites WIP.

I hated something, lost enthusiasm and fell into a dirty great mud-filled rut with big spikes in the bottom, like a tiger pit.

Anna made a few suggestions based on my blurb and a shaky synopsis - saw things I didn't/forgot to/was ignoring. I bounced an idea or two off her - and voila! WIP back on track...

So, thanks Anna. You are a rock chick.

What are your experiences with CP's?

GTG and write... E x

I looked away and 72 hours had passed...

Two words: new iPhone.

OMG. I am in love. Again (fickle, really). I adore this phone.

But it is a demanding master. I has held me captive for three days. Purrrr...

It started when my Dad said I should get one, because he loves his.

Okay. Done.

Then I spend the better part of the next week playing with the phone, adding apps, wrecking sofware, losing information off my PC, re-installing stuff, re-entering piles and piles of data and crying in short bursts, interspersed with giggling and screen-kissing .

I am going mad. Put it down, E. Step away from the phone.

Then, I couldn't get it to write the posts for my blog, and I plummetted back to earth. That, and I saw that eHarl is running a Bites pitch. Get to work, girlie!

I haven't done much in the way of writing. Will start work on the pitch tomorrow. Maybe I will write a new one and send in my current one the usual way. *Thinking* Yep, that works.

Going to do stuff...

PS - Fatalities from Victorian bushfires over 200. 201 was a firey who got hit by a falling tree while he was connecting a hose to his strike team's truck. He'd come from Canberra. Will it never end?

((Dee)).