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

A bit of SARA love...

I went to my first SARA (South Australian Romance Authors) Group meeting last Wednesday night at the SA Writer's Centre.  What a fabulous bunch of people!  It's really gratifying to sit amongst like-minded people and just BE.

We were planning a holiday at the weekend and the first thing I checked was that it didn't coincide with SARA.  :)

There's a really active email loop, and a badge, too.  Plus, there was chocolate and wine.  Really—perfection!  I've set goals and resolved to send in my latest ms.  Just composing the email now...

Stoopidness and Mountains.

Life has been zipping past at warp speed lately--the most noticeable thing is that since we hit winter (seven days ago) it's sodding freezing here.  I am currently wrapped in a doona.

I downloaded some eBooks this week.  The May Nocturne Bites, Michele Hauf's HALO HUNTER and Mel Teshco's ICE-COLD LOVER, which is the second book in the Winged and Dangerous series.  I reviewed Mel's Bites HER DARK LORD a while back, and am really looking forward to this new release.  If I can stop looking at the cover.  How pretty is it?

I'm currently fiddling with MkIV edits of DARK SIREN.  I swear, I get dafter with each pass, but I am pushing through.  It's times like this I feel like a just started this writing caper last week, not nine years ago.  So much to learn!

Anna and Rach have been absolute GEMS when it comes to critiquing for me, if I've gotten any better as a writer over the last year, the credit has to be mostly theirs.  

I love having two CP's--lots of the time, they pick up on the same things, which are must-fixes.  But every now and then, and especially now that we're into small niggles with the WIP, they disagree, which I find fascinating.  It's a reminder that you don't have to please everybody (and really, it's an unrealistic expectation), but if you just happen to appeal to the editor you're targeting, you're in your way. 

I've been looking over motivational writing stuff this last week during a particularly bad "I'm sooo STOOPID!" stretch, looking for something, and I re-visited Chiron O'Keefe's motivational/inspirational blog.  Anna had pointed Rach and me to this last time we had a dull spot *hehe*, and I think Chiron is quite wonderful.  I thought this bit was about me at the moment:

Here's the thing. Published writers don't have a special key to unlock the doorway to success. They simply knocked longer and harder until someone opened the gosh-darn door and let them in.

Another thing to consider… The journey is damn important. I know the thought of being published is the dangling carrot that keeps our mulish self plodding forward, one page at a time. But I believe writing is more than a means to an end. I believe writing is an act of self-discovery. Each page you write is a testament to your strength, your courage and your perseverance.

"Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance." –Samuel Johnson

While much credence is given to those who can do everything from Dance With The Stars to Surviving on Creepy, Crawly Bugs in this Reality-Show driven decade, few of those characters could ever accomplish what we do. We Write Books. This is our mountain. Every time we complete another novel, we are planting a flag. Visualize those flags fluttering in the breeze and feel a tingle of pride because We Are Writers. Damn, but we're lucky.

"It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves." ~Sir Edmund Hillary 

Thus, I pick up Captain Pink and I keep going.  I feel lucky because I KNOW I'm learning and getting better.  I can see that myself.  It keeps me going, because at some point, I am going to have learned enough to write something that an editor wants to publish.

I PROMISE MYSELF THAT.  

And I promise Rach and Anna, because they've done the hard yards with me.  It's funny, but in ways, I keep going because I don't want to let them down after they've ploughed through at least three of my WIPs.  And ploughed is the word.  Or trudged.  Hacked with razor-sharp machetes?  

So, how's the mountain-conquering going for you?

If you write, what do you do when you get stuck/morbid?  What works to keep you scaling that mountain?  

Take care, Em x

RWA'S RTN aka Romancing The Novel aka Rockin' The Noggin.

I might officially be a real writer.

"Cods!" you might say. "You've been writing seriously and submitting (and being rejected - sorry about that bit) for over a year now!"

True. But last Saturday I felt like a real writer.

On May 15th in Adelaide, our fair and only slightly grimy city, Romance Writers of Australia held one of their Australian Roadshows, called 'Romancing the Novel'. SARA (South Australian Romance Authors) hosted it at the SA Writer's Centre.

Yvonne Lindsay and rapt attendees. How pretty is the Writer's Centre?

I've met a few of the SARA people before, and thought I should like to go along (aka I was DYING to go).

Moi, and Anna Campbell

Yvonne Lindsay and Anna Campbell were the main drawcards, and there was also some very excellent local talent - Elizabeth Rolls, Trish Morey, Claire Baxter, Anne Oliver & Christina Carlisle.

Trish Morey

So, I duly downloaded a few eBooks from these authors (I had previously only read Anne Oliver). I got stuck on Elizabeth Rolls' LORD BRAYBROOK'S PENNILESS BRIDE (I didn't want to rush it - very good), and was only a few pages into Yvonne's DEFIANT MISTRESS, RUTHLESS MILLIONAIRE when the highly-awaited day arrived.

The aforementioned 'rapt audience'. That's me in my most romantic pink jacket, far right. :)

Eleni had hooked me up with another local writer who was also new to SARA, the very lovely Carol, and we drove in together. That is to say, Carol drove and I talked. This required a 6:50am house departure. Something I wasn't entirely certain I could do, what with kids and stuff. But, I was actually early! How about that? :)

We found our doorway when we met Amy T Matthews & Maggie Mundy:

The day started with a cracker-bang and just got better and better.

Anna and Yvonne started us off with a 'Secrets of a Best-Selling Romance' session. I have been reading Deb Dixon's GMC (Goal, Motivation, Conflict), and they spoke about just that, and had us looking at those elements in our own works in progress, which actually made me question the GMC in my current wip more than reading Dixon's book did.

Yvonne and Anna spoke about Flimmers (Flying into the mist, Pantsers) or the opposite, Plotters. Funnily, Yvonne is a master plotter and Anna at the other end of the spectrum. These two spoke together really beautifully and it was interesting to see their differing working/speaking styles. They both had us giggling all day long!

Without going into fan-girl detail, there were sessions on characters, and and excellent one on Emotional Punch (incorporating Deep Point of View) with Anna that was excellent. I have always tried to keep right inside my characters' heads, running the risk of bogging the story down. I'm now going to be more mindful of where I am doing what kind of writing - keeping the Deep POV for more emotive scenes, not just delving into it whenever I fancy.

Yvonne & myself...

Anna also had a great section where she talked about writers' tendencies to concentrate on those senses that were most prevalent in their psyche (eg sight, touch) in their writing. We talked about a major scene in out wips and made lists of the things the character felt, heard, saw, tasted, and smelled. My biggest list was definitely sight, the others were dead even. So, I know now to use the other senses in my writing as much as I talk about what the character's SEE. Wow. Great stuff.

In fact, there was so much superb stuff to take away, that my head was spinning, but it was all GREAT information. Luckily, I took copious notes on loglines, high concept, great authors, writing styles, resources, filter words, voice, genres and publishers.

Told ya - was lots. :)

Christina Carlisle held a quick but meaty session on ePubs - I really wanted to meet her, as I'm friends with her nephew. She was delightful, and a fountain of knowledge.

I met some lovely people, aside from the authors, including Bronwyn Stuart who lives close by, and is responsible for some of the fab pics on this post. Thanks, Bronwyn. (My pics are the fuzzy ones, let's just get that straight. :) You can see more on her blog at her webbie.

This is Bronwyn with Anna Campbell, who affectionately calls the former "Stalkey"

SO - the intention is - get my tush to SARA meetings and join RWA (GASP! I know! But, if I'm a member, they won't let me judge for R*BY, which might make me cry - I will join soon ((see above re 'real writer')).

Sadly, I could not join the crew at Eros restaurant for dinner, but I was home on Twitter when news of Anna Campbell's massive ARRA gong came through, so that was cool...

Fortunately, lunch was very tasty, as were the morning and afternoon teas. Donuts? No argument. :)

Speaking of tasty, there was also the goody bags and the novel stash. Ten books, nearly half of them author-signed. With MY NAME in it. SQUEEE!

Congrats to SARA and RWA for holding such a fabulicious seminar. See you next time.

Romancing the Novel - SA Roadshow is nigh!

Yeeek! It's on tomorrow. I'm very excited, this will be my first ever seminar with like-minded writery people.

I leave the house at 6:50am, drop the kids to my mum's and GO!

More soon...

The earth moved...

and it woke me up!

Whilst being cranky-pants at myself for being an indifferent blogger (this, despite having the app for that...), I knew I wanted to blog about the earth moving at my place recently.

No - nothing to do with the love of my life. He was asleep, and indeed, had to be woken to be informed the earth had trembled.

Yep, I'm talking earthquake.

On April 16th, at not quite 11:30, the we experienced tremors. In our little 'ol burg! We were quite famous there for a day or two.

So I was reading (Let's see, I think it was Gena Showalter's THE VAMPIRE'S BRIDE - excellent, excellent, FYI) on the iPhone (also known as the second love of my life), when I was jolted out of a particularly gripping passage by a truck driving through our bathroom.

That was what it was like - a big truck, or a four-million people strong pipes and drums band.

It lasted for about ten seconds. The WINDOWS rattled.

I gripped hubby, slightly disoriented form leaving Showalter's sexy vampire in a hurry, and I said, "What the f*&k was that?"

He said, "Earthquake." And went back to sleep. Good guy to have around in an emergency, my boy.

As I'm laying there, stunned (by the quake, not by hubby, he's always like that), a friend texts me, "What the f&%k was that?"

"Earthquake" I texted back. I had it on good authority.

So then, I get online (in bed, have I mentioned how much I love my phone?) and yes, there had been a quake. By 111:50, there was a 2000 strong group on Facebook called "I survived the Adelaide Earthquake 16/04/10". Amazing.

Of course, I immediately joined the group called, "I said, 'What the f%&k was that?' when the earthquake hit."

I had mostly forgotten about it the next day, until a man with a camera was roaming our paddocks. I was inclined to let the dog eat him, but the kids were watching out the window, so I went to see him and his female sidekick.

Apparently, the quake epicentre was in our paddock, and had I had a near-death experience last night when the terrible, terrible quake occurred?

I didn't think so, but I had been VERY sleepy...

I realised then that I was wearing tracksuit pants that were two inches too short in the leg, and a puce polo with chocolate stains on the front. In front of a man with a very large, shoulder holstered camera. My hair? Think uncooked rice noodles.

So, of course, I said, "What quake? I dinnent hear nuffink (honest, guv)." And I ran away, leaving them filming our paddocks and our monochromatic cows like they were on the red carpet at the Logies.

I proceeded to tell all my friends about how the quake started at OUR HOUSE! Do you think hubby didn't love that?!

Anyhoo, turns out, the 3.8 magnitude quake was actually three kilometres out of town, not two, and was actually under the Strawberry Farm up the road. Boohoo. Silly ABC News.

Anyway, here's a lovely link to a dramatic, "That might not be the end of it - aaargh!" article (also the source of the image above). Look out for the very excellent quote from a Mr Buckley. :)

Ta-ta. And remember to strap yourself in your bed tonight. You never know what will happen...

Em 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