it's almost christmas...

can you believe that? Where the hell has this year gone? I swear it must be a sign of age, this whole year zooming past so quickly. I remember as a kid thinking that the year between each christmas seemed to absolutely drag. But the older you get, the faster it goes. By the time I get to 70, it'll be gone in a blink, I swear. But I have finally started my christmas shopping! I precisely 3 presents bought :D (Don't laugh, this is amazing for me--I'm usually a last minute panic buyer).

In doggie news, we had to take Ella back to the vet. Her limping has been getting progressively worse again, and the vet reckons it's definitely arthritis. Ella's now on a series of four shots, and if these don't work, she'll be on anti-inflams for the rest of her life. And of course, she has to lose weight. As the vet said, she's "pleasantly plump' which, considering labs tend to run to fat far easier than other dogs, isn't all that bad, but she still has to lose 4--5 kilos. Right now, she's eating more veg than I do, but our biggest problem is the fact we can only walk her in spurts. Half an hour or so is about all she can take before the pain gets too much for her and she stops. Which, of course, then frustrates the fuzzy one (also known as the energizer puppy), who runs around and around her until she gives up and gets up. It's actually quite a funny sight. :)

As for book news... Well, there's not a whole lot happening at the moment. I'm trundling away on Destiny Kills, and each word still feels like teeth being pulled. Anne (my lovely editor) emailed me a few days ago to get an approximate hand-in date on this one (my last contracted book for this lot!) and I said January. So, I now have a deadline to work towards. Just watch the muse dry up and refuse to go anywhere. It often has those moments, just to piss me off.

struggling once again...

Writing Destiny is feeling more and more like pulling teeth at the moment. I know where I want the story to go, but getting there is so slow. Part of the problem is the fact that I've set the story up so that she's currently alone. Which, of course, means she has no one to talk to but herself. And in a first person story, that can bog down pretty damn quick.

But there's just no other way around it. To do anything else wouldn't have been realistic for the characters or the storyline thus far. And there's some good writing in the early parts of this, so there's no way I'd be rewriting anyway. I'm just going to have to suck it up and keep going, and hope like hell this section doesn't bog down too much.

And in extra good news for us Damien fans, he actually won Aussie Idol. Which was a total surprise, because all week the build-up had been for Jess, and I pretty much thought she had it in the bag. (She has a great voice, but I think she needs more time. She's only seventeen, and the last time we had someone that young win, they sunk real fast under the pressure.) Anyway, the net result is that Damo has his single out, and will be given months instead of the usual five days to do his album (yes, Sony BMG have finally learned a lesson). Thankfully, he's also re-arranged the single so that it's soft rock/pop rather than the usual crappy diva song BMG has forced on all our idols thus far. If you want to check it out, click this. It's not a brilliant song, but it's a hundred percent better than the previous ones.

aussie idol...

and the reason I think Damien should win...

check this out

and while you're there, check out Hellelujah, Creep, Crying, and the amazing Nessun Dorma

sometimes, I hate Word...

and I'm talking really, really hate it. Like, when it totally loses three pages of hard won words! One minute it's there, one minute it's not. And though I've set Word to save every five minutes, do you think it actually bothered saving anything in the five hours I was sweating over those three measly pages? NO!! I can find backups from the day before, last week, hell, I can even find backups for stuff I did a year ago. But current stuff? Not a sniff.

To say I was annoyed would be quite an understatement. Poor Pete had to listen to me whinging about it for at least a good hour. Which is mild compared to the whinging that used to happen when I was a cook working at the MCG. Man, his ears were blastered for a good two or three hours on my arrival home from that place. But then, certain people at the G had that sort of effect on you.

Anyway, today I had the task of trying to remember exactly what I wrote in those mising three pages. Which, as any writer knows, is just about impossible. So I read the scene before it, ended up deleting another page, then started writing the scene from scratch. I managed to reclaim the three pages, and do another three, so in the end, it wasn't too bad. But I swear I lost some great sentences in those three pages that disappeared!

new starts...

I started two new stories last night. After a day of doing absolutely zip in the way of writing, the perfect first line of a book I wasn't going to write popped into my head. Which probably sounds horribly confusing, so let me explain. I'd originally intended Destiny Kills to have a sequel, but as I actually got into the book, I began to wonder if the book and the characters had enough steam to stretch over two books. I even wrote to my agent and expressed my concerns (her advice was to finished the book and see what happens). Luckily, book two wasn't contracted, so it wasn't a worry that way. The book is sitting at 300 pages done, and up until yesterday I still wasn't certain the second book was an option. Which meant changing the ending I'd planned from the very beginning, but that wasn't worrying me. And then the muse came up with this great first line, and the story started unfolding. I haven't actually written more than half a page, but it's enough of a start to work on. And I even have the ideal last line for the end chapter hook :) So, it looks like book two is suddenly on the cards again.

The second book I started was the sixth Riley. I actually wasn't intending to start thinking about this particular book until after I'd finished Destiny, but the subconcious takes paths of its own, it seems. Anyway, a great first line for the start of the book popped into my head as I was going to bed last night. The computer was off by that time, so I wrote it out this morning instead. The muse must have been working on it while I was asleep, because what came blurting out this morning was two pages of information.

And the lines themselves that inspired?

From Destiny: Every child knows that monsters don't give up.

From Riley 6: Being thrown out of a tree was not my idea of a good time.

Now I just have to work on decent stories to go with them both :)

New York Post...

I've been mentioned in the New York Post! How cool is that? :) The article is called Scary Love, by Sara Stewart, and it talks about the dramatic rise in popularity of paranormal romance. Kissing Sin is mentioned, and I'm quoted. Shana Abe and Karen Marie Moning are also quoted, and it's quite amazing for this Aussie to think she's sitting in print right alongside those two great writers. In the New York Post, no less!

Amazing. :)

To check out the article, go here

still crazy down under...

the weather, that is. Four days ago we had rain, hail, and snow on the low mountains. And not just a little snow--they were skiing, for heavens sake. In November! Not to mention the fact it was truly cold enough to freeze your toes off. But yesterday and today it was so warm at 6 in the morning that I was running around with a t-shirt on. (I'm one of those annoying early risers. Unfortuantly, the rest of the family isn't, so me and the dogs have to keep quiet until they wake :))

Anyway, I finished the edits for Embraced by Darkness, and sent the story off to my editor and agent. I did warn Anne (my editor) that she'd probably have her work cut out for her on this one, simply because I'm too close to the story and just not seeing the mistakes I know are there. As I said last blog,I usually let finished stories sit for a good month or so, but the deadline for this one just made that impossible.

I am anxious to see what they think of the ending, though. It's not a happy ending at all--but it's an appropriate ending, given the situation. And more than that I can't say without going into spoilers. :D

In other writing news, I finally got my butt into gear, edited Eryn (an erotic paranormal novella), and sent that off to ImaJinn. For all those who have been waiting for my next ImaJinn book, it should be out in the early part of next year. I'll let you know when I have a definite date. After that, my next ImaJinn release is likely to be another circle story. Can't give you an idea of when that will be, though, because I'm only about a third of the way through it.

crazy...

that's what the weather is going to be today. We're two weeks from the start of summer, we've had a winter and spring that's basically had no rain and temps in the mid to high 30's (around 90 F) and what are they predicting today? Snow! On the Dandenongs and Macedon, of all places. I mean, these mountains are close to Melbourne and aren't particularly big mountain ranges, so you can bet your boots it's going to be cold in old Melbourne town today. I think me and the dogs will be staying inside were it's warm.

In writing news, I'm currently editing Embraced by Darkness, so I can choof it off to my editor at the end of the week. So far, I've only found a few goofs, but I am worried that I'm just too close to the story and not seeing the problems. Usually I let a story sit for a month or so before I go back, giving me fresh eyes to edit with, but the tightness of the deadline has made that impossible. It'll be interesting to see just how much worse the edits for this one are. But the good thing is that the two storylines seem to be holding together just fine. I was a bit worried when I was writing it that it might be slow in places, but so far, that doesn't seem to be a problem. Of course, I'm now near the section where I changed plot direction, so it could all go to hell in a handbasket soon :)

Once Embraced is finished, I'll finally be free to work on Destiny. I'm still not sure whether I'll be writing a sequel to this one or not--it just depends on what happens at the end. I've got a few ideas for the sixth Riley book perculating away, so once Destiny is finished, I'll swing onto that one. At least I'll have plenty of time to write it--no contract deadlines looming for that one just yet :)

Yay!

Embraced by Darkness is finished!! To say I'm happy dancing would be the understatement of the year, because for a while there, I just didn't think those two little magic words--the end--were ever going to hit the page.

I actually had a brilliant writing day yesterday--and all because I was stuck at our old house. We're getting the grotty old carpets replaced with a mix of new carpet and laminate flooring, and I had to be there to open and lock up. So, armed with my trusty laptop, a comfy camp chair and the kettle to make a cuppa tea (most important--the thinking process can survive without many things, but never without tea), I actually just sat there and wrote all day. With no distractions in the form of email, internet, or dogs wanting to be walked, I managed the 8 pages to finish off Embraced by Darkness, and then started a whole new story--and wrote 9 pages of that! :D The new one is going to be a short based on Riley's world and characters, and is set somewhere between the third and fourth books. But it's told from Quinn's pov. It's been a really interesting exercise to write from his pov, keeping within the boundries of his character as we know it from the books, but trying to bring more of him to life. I'm actually not sure if this story will go anywhere or just fizzle out and die, but at this point, I'm enjoying writing it. And it's interesting to write Riley from someone elses pov.

Anyway, Embraced ended up being 414 pages long, which is a little shorter than most of the other books. But I'm hoping that with edits (which I have to do next week) I'll add a few more pages. I think the lowest page count for any of my books so far was 428, and I'd at least like to hit that. The printing process reduces the apparent size of a book anyway, and I'd hate for readers to think I was short-changing them--even if by only a few pages.

getting there ever so slowly...

I finally got around to updating my website, so you'll find the UK covers up there now, as well as the first chapter excerpt for Kissing Sin. I'll put the Tempting Evil excerpt up a bit closer to the release date.

I still haven't finished my first newsletter, nor have I finished Embraced by Darkness, though in the case of the latter, I'm only ten or so pages off the end. Hopefully, I'll get a chunk of that done tonight, and finish it off tomorrow. At least then it'll be one more thing off my 'to-do' list!

House wise, there's still boxes everywhere, but the house is gaining some semblance of order. Half my kitchen stuff is still in the garage, and the majority of my office files are sitting in boxes in front of my desk. As for the books...there's boxes and boxes of them, and no where to put them. Not until we build some shelves, anyway. And we won't even mention all that stuff that's still in storage--we're avoiding even thinking about that at the moment.

we're finally here...

in our new house, and I have to say, I'm loving it. The peace and quiet is an absolute dream after Roxy. Waking to birds singing instead of car engines, neighbours screaming, and dogs barking is so much nicer :) And we have all sorts of birds here that we wouldn't get down Roxy--like rosella's, for example. Here's a pic (if blogger decides to play nice):




Of course, no move is without its hassles, and I swear, I'm not moving again. I mean it this time. Really. This is the third time I've done it, and it ain't happening again. Although all the big stuff is here in the new place, we've still got all the little bits and pieces to move--and we won't even mention all the junk we still have in storage. We have no room for it all!

Anyway, enough of that. Onto some writing stuff. As you all know, I was hoping to get the fifth Riley finished by the end of October. It turns out I got close--386 pages--but I didn't get there in the end. I'm now hoping to finish by the weekend. I've rolled over 390 pages now, and I'm writing the final big fight scene. Then I only have the end scene between her and Kellen, and it's finished.

I haven't got around to putting my UK covers up on my website yet, nor have I sent out my newsletter. They are coming, I promise! I've been restricted to dial-up until late last night, and it was just so frustratingly slow that it was almost impossible to get anything done. So, look out for those in the next day or so. I'll also be putting up some excerpts from Kissing Sin and Tempting Evil :)