Lordy me, that Anna Hackett is a busy one...

One of my talented and awfully good looking critique partners, Anna Hackett, has a new cover for her March Nocturne Bites release, ONE NIGHT WITH THE WOLF.

Now, one of the many perks of having such awesome critique partners, is that I get to read these new releases before they are grown, just little word documents looking for a home.  And I gotta tell you, this is one werewolf story you do not want to miss.  Anna is the a master of the short story (so much so that she teaches it!), but you'll want to read this for the chase-through-the-forest scene alone, which has become stuff of legend.

And all this while Anna is running her online course and penning a new werewolf story to follow up from this one.  Oh, and working a day job.

Can't wait for March!

Emmeline  :)

Anna Hackett's SHORT STORY, BIG IMPACT workshop

I've been remiss in telling you about Anna's course -- it's on now at Colorado Romance Writers. There were still places available last night, and the sign-up link is still active, so jump in!

Anna, fabulous CP to Rach and myself, is one very clever lady (her new Nocturne Bites, ONE NIGHT WITH THE WOLF, comes out in March), and can spot a story soft spot from fifty paces. I cannot tell you how useful she has been to me as I find my feet in this business. So, if your short piece is lacking in punch, follow the links from Anna's blog to sign up.

Take care, E x

Antidote for back-to-work depression...

Damn You Auto Correct

Not always *ahem* clean, but always funny. You might like to keep some mascara handy for touch-ups. And maybe spare underwear.

Thinking of Queenslanders

The south-east of the lovely Aussie state of Queensland is staring at the face of disaster tonight -- massive floods. For a country that considers itself only recently emerged from drought, this is just unbelievable. Flood levels in Brisbane and surrounding areas are expected to reach AND exceed the flood levels of 1974. We're talking over 5.45 meters of water in the Brisbane CBD, I understand. Thirty-two suburbs are expected to go under. The footage on the news and web is phenomenal. And frightening.

In '74, fourteen people lost their lives. The death toll of the current flood has just reached ten, with something like eighty people are unaccounted for. The tenth death was a four-year-old boy.

And still, the rain keeps coming.

We're thinking of you, SEQ.

Ho ho ho!

Breezing in, with a flurry of sticky tape and icing sugar to wish you all a very merry Christmas, and safe and sensational 2011.

See you next year!

E x

Bromance isn't a real word, is it? Is it?

Great news!  The Oxford Dictionary has released a new pile of completely legit words you can use in your next manuscript.

Here's a sample, shamelessly lifted from the Time newsfeed:

chill pill a notional pill taken to make someone calm down
chillax calm down and relax
turducken a roast dish consisting of a chicken inside a duck inside a turkey (Emmeline:  We're only just thinking of this?)
bargainous costing less than is usual or than might be expected; cheap or relatively cheap (I'm so using this one.)
staycation holiday spent in one's home country
fussbudget a fussy person (This wasn't a word?  Huh.)
vuvuzela long horn blown by fans at soccer matches
national treasure someone/thing regarded as emblematic of anation's cultural heritage
buzzkill a person or thing that has a depressing or dispiriting effect
social media websites and applications used for social networking
microblogging the posting of very short entries on a blog
netbook small light laptop
dictionary attack an attempt to gain illicit access to a computer system by using a very large set of words to generate potential passwords
paywall an arrangement whereby access is restricted to users who have paid to subscribe to a website
freemium a business model, especially on the Internet, whereby basic services are provided free of charge while more advanced features must be paid for
automagically automatically and in a way that seems ingenious, inexplicable, or magical (Love it!)
carbon capture and storage the process of trapping and storing carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels
geoengineering manipulation of environmental processeses in an attempt to counteract the effects of global warming
toxic debt debt which has a high risk of default
deleveraging the process or practice of reducing the level of one's debt by rapidly selling one's assets
overleveraged having taken on too much debt
quantitative easing the introduction of new money into the money supply by a central bank
exit strategy a pre-planned means of extricating oneself from a situation
overthink think about (something) too much or for too long
catastrophizing view or present a situation as considerably worse than it actually is 
soft skills personal attributes that enable someone to interact effectively and harmoniously with other people
matchy-matchy excessively colour-coordinated
LBD little black dress
frenemy a person with whom one is friendly despite a fundamental dislike or rivalry
cheeseball lacking taste, style, or originality
cool hunter a person whose job it is to make observations or predictions about new styles and trends  (Awesome!)
steampunk a genre of science fiction that typically features steam-powered machinery rather than advance technology
tweetup a meeting organized by means of posts on Twitter
bromance a close but non-sexual relationship between two men
wardrobe malfunction an instance of a person accidentally exposing an intimate part of their body as a result of an article of clothing slipping out of position
defriend another term for unfriend (remove someone from a list of friends or contacts on a social networking site)
Interweb the Internet

This particular list doesn't include some of my faves--BFF (do I need to explain this one?), LMAO (see previous comment), trampstamp (apparently, a tattoo on a woman's lower back) or hashtag (see brackets two and three).  

I resolve to weave at least three of these into conversation this week, even though, in my house an LBD refers to a cocktail frank (also known as Little Boys...)

E x

The schamozzle that is geographic restrictions.

I get a real kick out of reading the sales blurbs for new books, and knowing that I can hop onto the iPad and find these brand-new-releases at Amazon.com, whence I can download them to the Kindle app and get reading RIGHT AWAY!  Bliss, eh?

It would be blissful, aside from the fact that I live in Australia, not the US.  Which ordinarily isn't something I dwell upon.  Until I want to buy a new ebook.  Lots (read, most) new eBooks aren't available to us here in Oz.  I can order the print book and have it mailed, no worries.  BUT I WANT IT NOW!  :)

This blogpost from Jane at Dear Author went a long way to dousing my grump.  Thank you Jane.  There is hope, hopefully.  I await the day I don't ever, ever require giving over headspace to something such as this.

Take care all, E x

PS 07.11.10 - Jane's next instalment Geographic Restrictions, Take Two.