hello from RT!

sorry I haven't blogged before now, but the internet prices here at the hotel are through the roof. It's actually the first time I've been in a hotel where the business centre isn't free to guests. It's a true rip-off, and if it wasn't for the fact I'm suffering email withdrawal, I wouldn't be blogging now.

But enough whining. RT is fabbo! Hotel whinges aside, that is. I mean, no fridges in the rooms--what is with that? We've resorted to using an ice bucket to keep our milk cold--thankfully, there's a ice making machine down the end of the hall, and it is actually one of the few free things here. And I also had to go out to buy a kettle, because you just can't make decent tea in a coffee perculator (all they have here). But the workshops have been brilliant, and the atmosphere is so relaxed. Not to mention the parties--some the costumes at the fairy ball last night were truly amazing. I've also met lots of familiar faces--some readers, some booksellers, some other authors.

I was on my first ever panel this morning, sitting along side Miriam Kriss (aka super agent), Jim Butcher (who is so funny), Jennifer Armitrou, Charlaine Harris, Margorie M Liu, Vicki Pettersson, and Jeri Smith Ready. As you can imagine, sitting with such talented people was a little daunting, but I think my accent pulled me through. Seems people love to hear me talk, just to hear it (which maybe meant they weren't actually listening to what I said, and wouldn't have known if I was making sense or not :) ). It was a whole lot of fun though, and I'll probably put my name down for some more panels next year.

The biggest buzz so far? Having people walking up to me in the halls and telling me they love my books. I don't think I'll ever get sick of hearing that :)

We have the editor and agent panels this afternoon, which should be interesting, and the vampire ball tonight. I'm not dressing up--I'm intending to wear black, and I have this big silver bat necklace to wear. But I'll take photos of everyone else (I already have some great pics)

Tomorrow we have the bookfair, which will be a buzz. Hundreds of authors, thousands of people. Amazing stuff.

Sunday is psychic time--they have a whole heap of psychics, tarot readers, faith healers, stuff like that. A casual day, in other words. Then on Monday I begin the long track home. So not looking forward to that. But hopefully they'll have had some rain by the time I get there!

long plane trip...

here I come! Yep, it's that time of year again--the time to board the plane and head off over to the other side of the world. Well, practically ;) I'm off to RT for the next week and a bit. I'm hoping to blog while I'm there, but if I suddenly fall silent, you know I'm having too much fun to stop and write about it :) (either that, or I've forgotten the passwords again)

If you happen to be going to RT yourself, make sure you say drop by and gidday!

some pics....

having been a total slacker when it comes to writing of late (though I have an excuse--I'm getting ready for RT, and fixing various website for friends), I thought I'd put up some pics instead (and a thanks goes to Mel for sending me the lulu pics).


me swanning myself on the Queenscliff ferry, on the way to a very nice lunch. BTW, I don't normally squint, but I was looking into the sun.



Five Lulus toasting to Mel (the tall one) being a double finalist in RWAmerica's golden heart. Freya, the 6th lulu, wasn't able to make it for the meeting that day :(



Me valiantly trying to ignore the large bowl of delicious chocolates while sipping on some champers. Chris in the background, ignoring me and the chocolates. BTW, that bowl was full when we started out...



Robyn swears this face isn't at the size of my rear end, but you know...

the year of the golden piggie...

is turning out to be a good one for Lulus. First up, we had Mel double finaling in the Golden Heart. Now we have Chris coming second in RWNZ's second chance comp. This is a best of the best comp, so to come in second is a brilliant effort. And to top it off, she got a recommendation to an editor! Yay Chris!

Our other lucky golden piggie is Robyn. She came third in her category of the Great Expectations contests--and got a request for a full! Mucho congrats Mz Robyn. Mel also came third in her category of the GE contest, so it's been a fantastic week for the Lulus. Much celebratory chocolate and bubbles will be consumed next meeting. :)

And to add my own good news--Dangerous Games hit the New York Times bestseller list! (picture me happy dancing here...okay, don't picture that. It's not a pretty sight.)

Long may the golden piggie rule!

I just wish he could help me write this darn book...

well, okay...

apparently I can't read. The Fangs, Fur and Fey contests OPENS on the 13th, NOT closes. So, don't send all those entries yet, because they'll just delete them. Start sending on the 13th--and the contest closes on the 15th. Email your hook entries to fangsfurandfey@yahoo.com

Sorry about that!

In writing news, well, there's not been a whole lot. Riley 6 is still going slowly. Yesterday was one of those days where I wrote a scene, decided I didn't like said scene, deleted it, wrote another one, decided that one didn't make sense...etc, etc. Not a fun writing day, in other words. I think half the problem at the moment is that the muse is thinking about the Destiny edits and what to do with them--a fact confirmed last night when she woke me up at three in the morning worrying about certain scenes and whether I can actually fix them according to my editors comments. The muse isn't sure she can, and I think I'll need to talk to Anne (my editor) at RT before I can actually move on. I'll paddle on today with Riley, and hope the muse decides to knuckle down a bit. But my aim of having half this book done by the time RT rolls around is not looking flash.

attention writers...!

for all those writing paranormal romance or urban fantasy, there's a worthwhile comp happening over at Fangs, Fur and Fey. Here's the details from the site:

For those of you who've seen Miss Snark's Crap-O-Meter or Lit Agent X's GOT HOOK? extravaganza, you'll have an idea of the format. Writers are invited to submit up to a 300 word 'hook' to us describing your novel. What's a hook? Consider it a movie trailer for your book. It's a brief description meant to entice and interest someone into wanting to read your novel. A hook does NOT list every character, subplot or setting detail - that's a synopsis, and we don't want those. You also don't need to list your book's title or word count. Just list the genre, your name and email address (these will not count toward your total word tally) and then go right to your hook. That 300 max word count will be strictly enforced, too - anything over it won't be eligible.

All 180 hooks will be critiqued by our volunteer judges, members of Fangs, Fur and Fey. Now, though we love Miss Snark, these critiques will not be in her famous "WTF?" style, but will be overviews of what did or didn't work for the hook and why. The critiqued hooks will be posted online at FFF on Monday, April 23rd. The author's name and email address will NOT be made public. Instead, each hook will listed by number, and each author will be informed of their number when we receive his/her submission. Furthermore, the name of the particular judge who critiqued your hook will also not be listed, privately or publicly. Only the judges' comments, the hook, and the hook number will be posted. Due to size, most hooks and comments will be under a cut - we don't want to receive hate mail by clogging up everyone's Friend pages with an extremely long Hook contest post.

Watchers will also be invited to offer comments on what did/didn't work for them on hooks, BUT NO FLAMING, PEOPLE! This is supposed to be helpful, informative and fun, not rude, cruel or insulting. Any abusive comments will be deleted as fast as we see them.

You may be wondering, how can we call this a contest if there isn't a prize? Well, aside from the feedback given by the judges and your own peers, don't worry, we do have a prize! Out of those 180 hooks, judges will choose the best 12 to advance to the next round. Those writers will have thru Thursday, April 26th, to turn in the first 5 pages of their novel (double-spaced), also emailed to fangsfurandfey@yahoo.com . These pages will be critiqued by our judges and posted online Sunday, May 6th in the same manner as the hooks. Out of those 12, judges will choose the best one overall. The final winner will then be announced on Thursday, May 9th and he/she will receive...

Rachel Vater at Lowenstein-Yost has agreed to critique and offer feedback (NOT posted online at FFF, but directly to the writer) of the author's first three chapters/50 double-spaced pages of their manuscript, plus their synopsis, if desired. Since most authors very much want a professional agent's take on their novel, we think this is a prize that will really benefit the winning participant.

To check out the rules, the genres they're accepting, who the judges are and other contest related stuff, just head on over to Fur, Fangs and Fey. The contest closes Friday 13th April, so you'll have to get a move on if you want to enter!

it's easter time...!

can you believe that? This year seems to be going so fast...anyway, hope it's a safe and happy easter for everyone out there!

In writing news, there's some extra good news today. Piatkus has just purchased the Commonwealth rights for all my ImaJinn books, and they should start becoming available from 2008! Woohoo!

In other writing news, I've just gotten my Destiny edits back--and bang went my hopes of having an easy edit time! It needs a fair bit of work still, so that's probably going to be my priority for the next few weeks. Though I will try and continue writing Riley 6, because I can't afford to lose momentum on it.

it's release week...

for Full Moon Rising, Kissing Sin and Tempting Evil in the UK. All three books have hit the stores, and are also available from Amazon UK and piatkus itself. And in more good news, Piatkus have just bought the 6th Riley book for UK and Commonwealth release--woohoo!

I'm not sure of the exact Australian release date of Full Moon Rising, but I know it's coming out this month. As soon as I know for sure, I'll pass on the info

In writing news, Riley 6 continues to roll forward. I've hit 33000 words, so that's almost a third of the way through the book. Totally happy with that! The plot is still evolving, and my murderers continue to alter from what I'd originally intended, but I think its making them a whole lot more fun to write. Hopefully, that means they'll be more fun to read about, too--but I guess I won't know that for sure until I finish the darn thing.