lunch, and zip writing...

Went out for lunch with the Melbourne mob yesterday. The mobbers are bunch of Melbourne-based writers (natch) who are primarily romance writers. I'm the odd one out (as usual) because I write mainly urban fantasy these days--and even the romance I do write tends to be a little more graphic in the blood and gore ratio than what is deemed generally acceptable in the romance field ;) Lots of good food and excellent gossip was shared, and a fun time was had by all. Writing is such a solitary pursuit and, for me at least, it's an absolute must to get out there and mingle with other writers. I love the daily email contact with my crit group (even though we tend to gossip more than talk about writing), as well as the regular meets with the mobbers. It just makes me feel less cut off from the rest of the world (esp now that I'm a full time writer.) Lets face it, most of the time we writers are stuck in front of a computer screen, battling characters and plots who just don't seem to go where we want them to. Or prose that sucks a whole lot more than we want it to. It's nice to know that we're not alone, that every other writer out there has gone through--or is going through--the same problems. Whatever that problem is.

Right now, my problem is text that sucks. And a story that still seems to be on a 'go-slow'. Part of the problem is the fact I was forced to stop writing Destiny Kills when Bantam bought the hand-in date for Embraced by Darkness forward five months. I've spent the last 3 months in Riley's thoughts and world, and I'm finding it difficult to make the switch back to Destiny. The momentum has been lost, and it's hard to keep going. But I will, of course. Deadlines are a wonderful thing when it comes to reluctant muses. And as the old saying goes, sucky words on a page can be fixed. Blank pages can not :)

BTW, I now have a live journal page. It's basically just an echo of what's written here, but lots of people seem to prefer LJ, so I thought I'd better set a page up over there. Plus, lots of my friends have LJ pages, so joining up makes it easier for me to keep in contact with them. So, if you prefer LJ, you can now keep up with the latest gossip on my books over there. The address is http://kezarthur.livejournal.com