always chasing words

bye bye blogger...

2007-11-28T08:46:00.000+11:00

I've finally changed over to my wordpress blog, so this blog will no longer be active. I'm not sure how to do a automatic forward, so if you just click this link, you'll be switched over to the new blog.

Hope to see you there!

finally...

2007-11-19T07:22:00.000+11:00

I got some book writing done yesterday. It might have been done between bouts of watching the cricket, the V8 supercars racing, and playing Fear, but at least it was done. Of course, it was on Mercy rather than Riley, but with the way the muse is at the moment, I'm not complaining. Writing is writing. And I have to say, I'm really liking this story so far--the hero is dark and dangerous, and the heroine has a sarcastic edge and a tough outer shell (though you just know she's a marshmallow inside ;) ). I'd be happy enough if the muse stayed with this one, but she's still rather flighty at the moment. Which means I'll probably be writing Riley or the Quinn short today.

the new look...

2007-11-17T17:54:00.000+11:00

website is now up and running. And it looks smashing, if I have to say so myself. Many thanks to Justin from Stonecreek Media for doing such a great job. The only thing left to do is to switch over my blog--which may take a couple of days. Until that happens, the blog link on my site won't work--it'll just give a 404 error message. But I'll keep updating this one in the meantime.

In writing news, I've been asked to submit a story for a UK vampire romance anthology, which will be released middle to late next year. The muse got all excited about this, and started working on a short that's been sitting there for a little while waiting for inspiration. This one (unlike the other two anthology stories I've submitted this year) is actually based in Riley world, and is told from Quinn's pov. The story itself is set between Tempting Evil and Dangerous Games, so at this point in time, Kellen's in it as well. Whether he stays will depend on how the story goes.

edits and games...

2007-11-11T07:51:00.000+11:00

I'm still totally enjoying playing FEAR, so I'm afraid the writing is coming along at a slower pace than it should be. The same can be said for the website redesign--though I've got the majority of the pages swapped over now, and it really shouldn't take that much longer to get everything up and running.

Except for the fact that I have more Riley edits in. Thankfully, there's only one page of them this time, and it's more sharpening up the motivations of some of the characters and fixing the ever-present spelling errors than anything else. (I do wish you Americans spoke and spelled the same as us Aussies. It would make my life so much easier. lol ) I'm planning to get the edits done today, so I can do a read-through tomorrow and ship it back to my editor on Tuesday.

Then, maybe, I can get back to writing Riley 7. If the muse can tear her blood thirsty self away from FEAR, that is :)

the problem with....

2007-11-04T21:48:00.000+11:00

having a large website (or rather, a website with a lot of pages) is the fact that when you decide to update the look, it takes forever to transfer the information over. And it doesn't help when Frontpage decides to play funny buggers. Yeah, I know, it's a microsoft product, therefore I shouldn't expect it to do what I want, but Frontpage has been out for a while now and you'd think they'd have at least sorted some of the bugs out. But no...

For some damn reason, it took a disliking to the excerpt for Chasing the Shadows. Every time I put the excerpt in on the right hand column, the links block on the left hand side moved down to the end of the column. I have no idea why--it didn't do this on any other page, and most of those excerpts are longer. I couldn't see any problem in the coding, but just in case there was a gremlin I couldn't see, I saved it as a text file then pasted it in. No difference. The links box still travelled down. Very frustrating. I thought maybe I'd stuffed the template somehow, but when I did the excerpt for Kiss the Night Goodbye, it behaved itself. For some odd reason, it's just Chasing that's the problem. After spending three hours on the flaming thing, I have officially given up. The excerpt for Chasing is now rather short. Sorry about that, but blame stupid Frontpage.

I've still got lots of pages to transfer over, so the site isn't going to be up any time soon. But it does look great so far :)

Writing wise, I've done exactly zip. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get back on track.

I don't get it....

2007-11-01T08:00:00.000+11:00

Halloween, that is. I know it's an American tradition, but it's never been an Aussie one, and it's really only been in the last few years that the whole idea has grabbed a foothold here. Why, I have no idea, because--as I said in my intro--I just don't get it. Oh, I know the history behind the celebration and such--I wrote about it in one of my books--what I don't get is its relevance in today's society. Or rather, I don't get the relevance of the way it's celebrated in today's society. I mean, think about it. For three hundred and sixty four days of the year, we tell our kids not to talk to strangers, not to take candy from strangers, blah, blah, blah, but on Halloween it's suddenly okay for them to beg for candy off strangers? Am I the only one that sees the wrongness in that?

And yeah, in America it may not just be about the candy, but here in Australia, that's all the kids care about. Bugger the pumpkins, bonfires (which we're not allowed to light anyway) and the costumes, just give them the candy. We had several lots of kids knocking on our door last night (I'd actually forgotten it was Halloween until then) asking for candy, and there wasn't a parent in sight. Now, some of these kids were barely in their teens, and I'd certainly never seen them before. Yet there they were, knocking on the door of a stranger, asking for candy. Sorry, maybe I'm an overprotective parent, but there's no way on this earth I'd be letting my kid do that in this day and age. I never let Kasey do it when she was younger, and we knew just about everyone who was living in our street at the time.

Now, if Halloween was more like Christmas or Easter--a time for families getting together and having fun--that I could handle. It's just this whole walking the streets taking candy from strangers that creeps me out.

games ahoy...

2007-10-28T23:11:00.000+11:00

I felt the need to run around and shoot things this weekend, so I got Pete to load up a new shoot-em-up on my computer. There's a few he's got that I haven't played, mainly because I really haven't had the time lately. But with Riley 6 handed in and a slightly more relaxed schedule ahead of me, I've finally have the chance. I love shoot-em-ups--but only the kind where you don't have to think too hard. I hate the ones that throw up puzzles and make me think--games are my relaxation from the strain of writing (yeah....it's an excuse, but hey, it sounds good :) ). Duke Nukem was one of my favs, simply because it had a sense of humour, but the more recent ones like Soldier of Fortune, Unreal, Half Life and Far Cry feature good game play and great graphics. So, what did Pete load? A game charmingly called FEAR--and can I just say that the bloody thing is living up to its name? I've only reached the third level, and it's already creeping me out. Pete reckons its not a game to play at night, and I think I'll be heeding his warning. And that weird little kid who keeps popping up gives me chills...

When I wasn't running around shooting things, I spent time watching DVD's. The Magnificent Seven TV series, to be precise. I bought it mainly because it had Michael Biehn in it, and I just love that man. Luckily, it turns out that the series wasn't all that bad--not fantastic, but very watchable. It also had Eric Close in it, who's not too bad on the eye either :)

Between the game and the DVD, I did surprisingly get a little writing done--six pages, in all. The plot track that carries through this book and the next has began, and tonight someone walked into Riley's life who she's going to have a mighty hard time getting rid of. Does she want to? Oh yeah. Well, maybe.

And that's about it for spoilers tonight.

the greys are gone...

2007-10-27T07:59:00.000+10:00

I didn't do any writing on Thursday. I had to go to the quack for the usual yearly check-up, which generally means sitting in the waiting room for several hours bored senseless, because our doctor never runs to appointment times and I'd forgotten to bring a book. I went to gym afterward, and decided while I was there that I'd really had enough of the grey. I may be heading towards the big five-0 at a rate of knots, but that doesn't mean I actually have to look like it. So, I jumped into the car, drove back to Wallan, and walked into the local hairdresser and said do something. And she did. :) I now have a new colour, new foils, and a new cut, and all is good.

Isn't it amazing just how much better you feel with a new hair do?

I did write yesterday. Because I'd managed to write 5 pages on Mercy Burns on Wednesday, I decided to open Riley 7 and have a go at that. I'm still switching between the stories, just to keep the muse on her toes. I have to admit, it was a bit of a struggle at first, but I think that's mainly because the bad guys are still forming for me in this one. I'm not entirely sure where I want this story to head--although, oddly enough, I do know how it ends. But then, I know how book 8 ends, too, and I can tell you, it isn't pretty. If you think I've been mean to Riley up to now, just wait to you read that book. lol.

so okay...

2007-10-24T07:40:00.000+10:00

it took me a bit longer to read through The Darkest Kiss than I thought it might. Half the problem was the fact that Sunday was such a glorious day, and I just couldn't make myself sit at a computer and read. We may be in the middle of the worst drought in recorded history, we may not have any drinking water a year or two down the track, but when the sky is so blue, and the day so warm, it's sort of hard to worry about things like that. Especially when the spring flowers are everywhere and the garden is such a pretty place to be at the moment. Which is why we're putting water tanks in--we want to keep the garden that way, and having water tanks might be the only way we can water soon.

I haven't got much else to report. I haven't done any writing, but hope to start that again today. I did order a heap of stuff from Cafe Press, just so I can make sure the quality is okay. I'd hate to be selling stuff that is dodgy--not that I expect it will be. Cafe Press has been around for a while, and I haven't heard any complaints about it. It'll be interesting to see if the designs look as good on clothes as they do on paper, though. If they don't, expect to see a lot of sudden changes!

edits are bye-bye...

2007-10-21T07:26:00.000+10:00

well, not quite, but all I have to do is a final read-through, then I can attach them to an email and send them off to my editor. As I said in an earlier post, there wasn't anything major in this lot of edits--which is a huge relief, given Destiny and Embraced had more than their fair share. I didn't want to go three bad books in a row. This time around it was more clarification stuff--you know, I'd written something but didn't follow it through logically. Plus there was the usual spelling goofs. In one case, I switched spelling of the bad guys race mid-way through the book and hadn't noticed. And yes, I did edit the damn thing before I sent it off. Several times, in fact. Just goes to prove, we authors are blind when it comes to our own work--thank heaven for tough editors. :)

There's no other writing news, thanks to the fact the Darkest Kiss edits have been taking up all of my writing time. But I've still managed to keep some fun 'online' time to myself, and have set up a small Cafe Press site. It's only a basic site at the moment, and there's only two Riley designs available there, but if it proves to be popular, I'll roll it over to a premium site so there's more choices. (I actually want a large mug in both designs, so I may just take up the premium option anyway). I'm also in the process of shifting over my website to the new design. Justin from Stonecreek Media has come up with a wonderful template--it's along the same lines as what I have now, but much, much fancier. It may take me a week or so to shift the content over, but I'll let you all know when that happens. I'll be shifting the blog, too, which not only means that this site will no longer be active, but my blog will finally fully match my site.

Back to writing tomorrow--yay!

cover!

2007-10-16T14:04:00.000+10:00

Bantam just sent me the cover for The Darkest Kiss, and I have to say, the cover artist has done a brilliant job once again:

isn't it beautiful? :)

edits ahoy...

2007-10-10T21:08:00.000+10:00

I received my edits for Riley 6 today. Anne always sends me an email first--I think so its not so much of a shock when I see the full printed version attached to the manuscript, which is always filled with little red squiggles everywhere. Squiggles that are a bonus to the edit letter. lol. It's actually not as bad as I thought it might be. Most of the comments relate to stuff I simply hadn't fully thought through, and can be easily corrected. The remainder will require some rewriting, but not a whole lot. Overall, I did pretty good on this one. :) Now I just have to wait for the manuscript to arrive on my doorstep, and get down to work.

I did manage to get some writing done on Riley 7 today. Only three pages, but overall I'm very happy with that. I did some fine-tuning--the bad-vampire she's following in the first chapter somehow morphed into a zombie, so I had to go back and fix that. And then she suddenly had a gun, so I had to go back and add that. But I also got a couple of plot ideas jotted down, and the story is finally starting to form in my head. I also got some brilliant ideas about the romantic entanglements in this one. Can't say any more, because that would spoil things, but the muse is rubbing her hands with glee and that's always a good sign. I'm back writing Mercy tomorrow. I'm not sure how long I'll keep switching between the two, but for the moment it seems to be working, so I'm not complaining. :)

it feels like summer...

2007-10-09T22:06:00.000+10:00

right now in Melbourne. Blue skies, gloriously warm days. Not a rain cloud in sight. Of course, this is not good news in many ways, simply because we desperately need the rain. The eight year drought is rolling into year nine, and there's no end in sight. We've had enough of the wet stuff to make everything green and bring the major city dams up from 27% to 40%, but things are still pretty dire. Especially for many farmers, who haven't got half the rain that we city people have. They're already warning people to get ready for massive hikes in fruit, meat and milk, simply because the price of feed is going through the roof. I wouldn't mind paying steep prices if the money went to the farmers, but it doesn't. The supermarkets and distributors seem to grab the majority and the poor old farmers get practically nothing....but I guess that's a rant for another day. Along with the rant about our do-nothing-lets-hope-the-rain-appears state government...

Onto some writing stuff. The muse is still playing games. I sat down to write Riley 7 today, and ended up writing 5 pages on Mercy instead. I have to say, I'm loving this story so far, and I really don't want to let it drop. So I'm thinking that I'm going to write both--Mercy one day, Riley the next. Maybe the muse will settle into some sort of rhythm, and we'll get some decent writing done. And if we don't, well, at least there's some decent TV shows coming back on. The Bionic Woman, Heroes, & Life all appeared this week, and the cute boys from Supernatural are back next week. Yay!! I got the season 2 dvd of Supernatural the other day, so if I disappear for a few days, you know I'm doing a marathon. It's research, you know :)

good news...

2007-10-03T11:19:00.000+10:00

As I noted over on my website, there's been some most excellent news on the Riley front...Bantam have pushed forward the release date for The Darkest Kiss (Riley 6). It'll now be released at the end of April rather than the end of September. Yay!

And while we're on the good news front, Piatkus have picked up the as yet unwritten Riley 7, and will be releasing it in the UK and Commonwealth, so more yays!

But with the good news, comes the bad--the release date for Destiny Kills has been pushed back. I currently have no idea when it'll be released, but as soon as I do know, I'll announce it on my site and blog.

Conflux, LLB...

2007-10-02T07:33:00.000+10:00

Conflux 4 turned out to be fabulous. As I said in an earlier blog, I've never been to an Aussie fantasy con before, and I really had no idea what to expect. I didn't know anybody there, either, having little involvement with the fantasy community before now (reason--there just weren't any fantasy crit groups near me when I started writing, and the only online site I found was the Delrey one--which I stayed on until they started charging. Plus, of course, my books are only now being released in Australia.) There were some great guests there, including the fabulous Kevin J Anderson and his wife Rebecca Moesta (I did their workshops on increasing writing productivity, and it was brill), Graham Joyce, Garth Nix and Simon Brown. There were lots of interest panel discussions and one very funny debate on the benefits of being an evil overlord versus the hero. But it was great fun meeting and talking to everyone, and I met some lovely people I hope to remain in contact with (waves to Jane). All in all, well worth the effort, and I hope to get back there next year.

Onto other stuff....Laurie from All About Romance/Laurie Likes Books has written a wonderful article on Urban Fantasy in her 'At the Back Fence' weekly column, and the Riley books are featured rather heavily in it. Head on over there to check it out, and feel free to participate in the conversation, because Laurie's asked a heap of interesting questions at the end of the article.

I also managed to get some writing done. Eight pages on Mercy, which isn't a whole heap, but its better than nothing. The reason I didn't get more writing done was actually because I spotted the new Dick Francis (Dead Heat) when I was up in Canberra, and I just had to get it. It was fabulous. Like a lot of his more recent novels, it's more character driven rather than action (which is not saying there wasn't action--there was), but it was still a great read. Evidenced by the fact that I finished it in three nights (reading only a couple of hours each night). I haven't read that fast in ages!

conflux...

2007-09-28T08:12:00.000+10:00

I'm off to Canberra for Conflux this weekend, so I won't be online much. I've never been to an Aussie fantasy con before (actually, I haven't been to any fantasy cons before--something I aim to fix in coming years), so this should be interesting. I'm slated to appear on a couple of panels at this one. The first panel is the Urban versus Paranormal one, which I can talk quite easily about, but the other two should prove interesting. One is running under the title The Dead Body - how to kill someone heroicly, and given that personally I don't think there should be anything heroic about killing, we could get into some interesting discussions. The other panel is Love, Crime and Spells - cross-genre work, which I should be okay in. I mean, I don't do the whole spell scenario in many of my novels, but I definitely have crime and love.

In writing news, I've finished the final edits on The Darkest Kiss (riley 6) and the book is now in my editors hands. Now the wait begins--hopefully, it won't need drastic edits like Embraced did. At least I had a little more time to work with The Darkest Kiss, so hopefully it'll be tidier. I've also managed to finish the first chapter of Mercy. I'm quite happy with it overall, and hopefully, given that I'm taking the alphasmart up with me to Canberra, I'll get the chance to do some more writing on it.

a good weekend...

2007-09-24T07:55:00.000+10:00

It was a watching rather than writing weekend this weekend, and I enjoyed every minute of it :)

It all started Friday night, when we headed off to see the live version of Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds. I absolutely loved that album when it first came out (27 years ago!) and I have both the vinyl and cd versions to this day. Let me tell you, the live version sounded even better than the album. The music, the singers, the effects --they even had a Martian fighting machine that descended from the ceiling! -- were just brilliant. Original singers blended well with the new, and the computer generated Richard Burton (looking a whole lot younger than he actually was when he did this album) was just great. All in all, a brilliant show.

We also go a new sound system installed on Friday, so most of Saturday and Sunday were spent watching movies. The Bose system is so crystal clear that I've heard sounds in LOTR that I've never noticed before--and you can have it up really, really loud, and it doesn't distort. Good thing we don't have close neighbours, I can tell you :)

So, not a lot of writing was done. I got a couple of pages written of Mercy, but that's about it. Today I've got to finish printing out Riley 6 so I can give that a final read through before sending it on to my editor on Wednesday or Thursday. I'm hoping I won't find too much wrong with it. Then, hopefully, the muse will settle down with one of these stories and I'll be able to get some serious writing done. :)

perverse...

2007-09-20T21:59:00.000+10:00

that's what my muse is. She's self-willed and obstinate, and it's damn frustrating right now. Just when I'd decided to settle down and write some of Riley 7, she up and decides that she wants to play with Mercy some more. Of course, flicking from one book to another isn't ideal, because the last thing I need is to get the voices mixed, but when the muse is like this, there's just no reasoning with her. Even chocolate doesn't settle her orneriness (and I have enough weight on my hips as it is, thank you very much.)

So, after scratching out another three pages of Riley 7, I've now written another 5 pages of Mercy and I'm almost at the end of the first chapter. I'm liking the feel of this one, but whether I'll actually get to write the second chapter any time soon is anyones guess. With the muse in this mood, anything could happen. Hell, I might even start a new story...no, let's not even go there.

I think half the problem is that for the first time in almost a year, I haven't got deadlines breathing down my throat. The muse is enjoying the freedom to do as she pleases--and she's fully intending to abuse it. I guess as long as I'm making progress on at least one of the novels, it's not a problem.

Maybe I should take a leaf out of the muse's books, and simply enjoy the rest while I can. :)

the muse...

2007-09-18T07:48:00.000+10:00

is playing games. No matter how many times I've settled down to write Mercy Burns over the last couple of days, I get as far as doing a read through of what is already written and then stopping. It's not as if I don't know how the rest of the chapter goes--I do. It's just the muse doesn't want to go there. I thought for a while it might have been because I couldn't pin down the hero's name, but I decided on Mak over the weekend and that hasn't helped at all. The words just refuse to transfer from my brain to my keyboard.

So yesterday, in a fit of annoyance, I opened up a blank page and decided to tackle Riley 7 (currently going by the name Deadly Desire). After a few false starts and lots of word erasing, the muse kicked in, and suddenly I had three pages written in less than half an hour. Which doesn't sound much, but it's probably more than I've written on Mercy in the last week. So, I guess I'll be working on Riley 7 for a while, even if I haven't entirely worked out the bad guys for this one yet.

there's an interesting discussion....

2007-09-14T16:48:00.000+10:00

going on over at Smart Bitches at the moment. It was sparked by a blog the marvelous Charlaine Harris made about the writing process on Aug 26th. Part of what Charlaine says is;

I’ve noticed lately that quite a few readers seem angry if books don’t turn out in a way that would have made them happier. That’s an attitude I find hard to understand. (Maybe it’s my age? I don’t know.) The writer is determiner of fate for his or her characters. Writing is a lone pastime, not a group endeavor. It doesn’t take a village to write a book. It takes one person, shut up in a room for hours on end.

I know that readers have every right not to be happy with the way a book ends, or with the way characters meet their fate. But to be angry with the writer? The characters belong to the writer. I know in a certain sense they belong to the reader, too; but the characters live in the writer’s mind and at her/his will.

Certainly I’m not saying that writers are above criticism; certainly I’m not saying that you should buy a book by a writer in whom you no longer have faith. I’m saying that the writer is God, as far as the characters go. The writer’s decisions are final. That’s part of the connection the writer has with her world.

I agree in part with what Charlaine says. The writer is the God of their world, and our characters are ours to do with as we please. However, once we release those books out into the wider world, those characters are no longer wholly ours. They also belonging to the people who buy our books, who love our characters, who believe in our worlds. If we, as writers, (and this is probably a problem more to do with a continuing series than a stand alone novel) take those characters down an unexpected--and unwanted--path, or make them do something that goes totally against previously described character or world rule, then who else is the reader going to blame but the writer? As Charlaine said, we're the Gods of our worlds. Therefore, we are responsible for the grief or anger of a reader who feels betrayed by the path a series has taken.

I'll use Embraced by Darkness as an example. I've been getting a huge amount of emails about the ending of the book. More so than any other book in the series. Some people just wanted to make sure there was a sixth book coming (there's actually another 4 planned) but a lot of people actually hated how I ended it, and they let me know in no uncertain terms. And yes, some of them even went as far as saying they hated me. And you know what? I'm okay with that because the ending was unexpected. I wrote that end scene fully aware that some readers were going to be upset. But it didn't go against character or worldbuilding, and I'm hoping that the readers who were so disappointed will trust me enough to follow the rest of Riley's journey. Because it is a journey, and it's not over yet.

Writing may be a lone pastime, but most writers write to sell. And if we're writing a series, then we can't do so in a vacuum. We owe it to our readers to at least be aware of their thoughts and opinions. Does that mean writers should blindly follow what the reader wants? Of course not. A writer has to be true to her world and her vision first and foremost. But they just need to be aware of the readers that have made the series possible in the first place.

And they should be prepared for not only anger, but for the reader never to pick up a book of theirs again if they break the reader's trust.

stage one...

2007-09-12T07:50:00.000+10:00

of the Darkest Kiss edits has been completed. And I have to say, the novel wasn't the total mess that I thought it would be. I'm still a little worried by sections of the story though, but I've sent it off to Robyn and Miriam for an opinion and I'll wait to see what they say about it. Once I get their thoughts, I'll print it off, do another edit run-through, and it's basically ready to be sent off to Bantam. Then it'll be a matter of keeping my fingers crossed that I don't have to do a massive amount of edits on it. Though, with the way my luck with edits has been going of late, I'll probably have to rewrite every single word. (don't get me wrong--I know edits are important, I know they make the book so much stronger, and I know I wouldn't be where I am today without my editor's quest for perfection. It doesn't mean I can't whinge about them, though! lol.)

Anyway, with the first lot of edits done, I'm now free to work on Mercy Burns. Or the next Riley book--whichever takes the muse's fancy. My next deadline isn't until March next year, so I actually have plenty of time to write for a change. Maybe that's why the muse is dithering over which book to write--for the first time in ages, it actually isn't under pressure to write. I think its forgotten what that feels like :)

slow progress...

2007-09-07T07:31:00.000+10:00

I'm slowly getting there with the edits for The Darkest Kiss. Right now, it's simply a matter of rearranging sentences and taking out extra words. I suspect, however, things might get a little more arduous once I get further into the book. For some reason, my first few chapters of a story always seem to be okay. It's the latter half of the book where things get messy and the plot goes to hell (as proven by Destiny Kills.) One thing is certain though--this book isn't going to get into Miriam's hands by the end of today. I'm now aiming for Monday.

I haven't done anything on Mercy Burns, but I have decided the hero's name (Luke) just isn't working for me. He just doesn't seem like a Luke. I been searching through just about every baby name site google can throw up, and nothing is catching. I have names like Wilder, Damon, Blake, Blade, Trask, and Kai, and while I like them, it's just not firing the muse. Maybe it's the muse's way of saying, nope, sorry, not ready to work on this one anytime soon. Right now, I'm leaning towards Mac. Simple, but strong. However, I might change my mind once I have another cuppa tea. Yep, my muse is that contrary right now

for writers...

2007-09-03T16:13:00.000+10:00

if you're a writer and thinking about going the e-publishing route, there's a really interesting discussion going on over at Dear Author. The two Ja(y)nes, with a little help from Angie of Samhain, have provided a list of things to look out for when considering an offer from an e-publisher or small press. And read the comments below it, because some of them are really insightful.

Writing wise, not a whole lot has been happening. I couldn't concentrate on Saturday--it just felt too stuffy inside--so I took myself out with the alphie into the sunshine and managed to get five pages done. I don't think they're brilliant, but this is not only first draft, but the first chapter, and I'm still feeling my way into the character. Yesterday was father's day, so not much was done, and today I was running around seeing doctors and making appointments for the annual check-up. I'll probably start editing The Darkest Kiss tomorrow, simply because I want to get it off to Miriam by the end of the week. Kiss needs to be handed over to Bantam by the end of the month, so I need to leave Miriam time enough to read it, and me time enough to correct the mistakes she'll probably find. :)

Mercy begins...

2007-08-31T13:12:00.000+10:00

I've officially started the follow-up book to the currently unapproved Destiny Kills. Mercy Burns (my working title) features Mercy, the reporter sister of the hero in the first book (she's also mentioned a few times in that book) and Luke, our sea dragon hero who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and who is now kinda mad and determined to get revenge. Sounds like fun, huh? :) I really like the starting few lines of this one, but I'm not so sure about the other bits yet. There's been lots of deleting so far, even though I'm only 8 pages in, but that's not entirely unusual. I'm still trying to get a feel for the heroines voice (and trying to make her not sound like Riley, which is a little hard after so many books in Riley's world.)

Of course, I've also got ideas for riley 7 hitting thick and fast, but I'm missing an idea for the big bad, so until I get that, I really can't start writing. I may be a seat-of-the-pants writer, but seven books in, I really need at least some idea of where I'm going. I do know where the emotional plot is going in the next three books, but I still need the big bad. Looks like I'll have to start googling old myths and legends again :)

well....

2007-08-27T08:02:00.000+10:00

Yum Cha was delish, Freya enjoyed her prezzies, and a fun time was had overall. I went home determined to sit at the computer and write, but the muse and I had a fully belly, and I'm afraid I dragged my heels a good part of yesterday afternoon. Actually, I was cruising the net looking for nice places to go for a holiday--it seems to be a recurring theme of late. Maybe the muse is trying to tell me something. Like, give me a friggin' break! lol.

Anyway, it was late afternoon before the muse got serious, but I think I rewrote the beginning of the last scene a half-dozen times before I found one I was reasonably happy with. Even then, the writing was stop-start. There were some moments where everything flowed, and I loved what was hitting the page, and then there were other bits where I thought, nope, that's not right, and I hit the delete and rewrote the words more than a few times. And of course, I had to stop and watch Australian Idol in the middle of it all. (and as Mel said, the judges had to be on drugs last night, because they were raving about people I thought were either just okay, or absolutely sucked.)

Anyway, the upshot of it all is that I finally managed to finish Riley 6--YAAAAAAYYYYY!

Now I can let it sit and brew for a couple of weeks before I go back and edit. Then we'll see just how big a pile of do-do it really is. Lol.

sad news and hill tops...

2007-08-26T09:00:00.000+10:00

First off, I'd just like to send big hugs and kisses to Robyn, who lost her gorgeous little dog yesterday. She'll be sadly missed, Mz. Robyn, and I'm sorry I wasn't around to lend a shoulder.

Yesterday, I flew up to Brisbane to do a signing at Rosemary's. Lots of people were there, and it was fun not only catching up with Rosemary and Wendy, but chatting fellow author Kylie Chan (who totally deserves to have her books released in America--hear that Harper Collins!) Because it's a two hour flight each way to Brissy, I took my alphasmart along, and did some writing on the plane and in the airport. And you know what? Without the distractions of email and web, I actually managed to get ten pages done. Which means the final fight scene has been completed and I'm rolling down the hill towards the end. YAY!

We're off to yum cha today to celebrate fellow lulu Freya's birthday, so I'm not sure how much writing will get done, but either way, this book is going to be finished in the next day or so. Woot!

I feel that little train...

2007-08-23T22:08:00.000+10:00

you know, the one that chugged up the hill chanting I think I can, I think I can...

I'm in the middle of the final fight scene and the words are finally coming a little easier (having said that, you watch, tomorrow everything will crap out again). Kade's a bloody mess and is about to get thrown out a second story window, and Riley is about to confront an image of herself. Which should make things interesting. Better yet, I've rolled over the 95000 word mark, and I'm slowly creeping toward the magic 100000 mark that this story needs to be. Even if I'm slightly under that, I'm hoping once I edit it, it'll go over. And usually, once Anne (my editor) gets her hands on a story, more pages get added through corrections and clarifications, so I'm no longer that worried.

I know what I have to do with the final fight scene, so then it's just a matter of tying the loose ends up. And don't worry, this one won't end in any sort of cliffhanger--emotional or otherwise. Once was mean enough. :)

the snail pace continues...

2007-08-22T08:30:00.000+10:00

normally, once I get to a fight scene, I zoom along. Usually it's the romantic/emotional scenes that cause me problems. (which says a lot about me, I guess. But then, I was a tomboy as a kid and never one to pursue 'girly' activities.) Right now, however, I'm writing the final fight scene and the muse is struggling with it. It just all seems very dry and mechanical--not a new feeling, because the whole damn book has felt that way. Of course, when I've gone back to read the beginning of it, it actually reads okay. I think I've done so many rewrites of the last couple of books that the muse's confidence has been shaken. I just can't believe I'm writing good at the moment. But then, don't most authors feel that way about their stuff?

Anyway, Kade and Riley have just entered a warehouse and are about to get their butts further kicked by the big bad. Iktar may or may not come to the rescue--haven't got that far yet. I'm still hoping to get this thing finished by the end of August--and given I've only got 25 or so pages to go, it is a totally achievable aim. I just got to boot the muse into a higher speed than snail pace...

oh, and I didn't resist temptation. I watched the first three episides of Robyn of Sherwood, and they were good.

slowly, slowly moving on...

2007-08-17T22:16:00.000+10:00

This story seems to be taking forever--and I'm hoping to hell it doesn't read as slowly as it's being written. (I can see lots of rewrites in my future...) But at least I am getting there. I hit the 360 page mark tonight, so I'm really only 40 or 50 pages off the end. Though I'm not entirely sure I actually have 40 or 50 more pages of story to go. Still, if I get somewhere close, I'll be happy.

I think half the problem is that the muse knows where she's going. I wrote the ending months ago--in note form, granted--but it's still an ending. And the muse hates that--it's part of the reason I don't normally plot. If I plot, the muse considers the story already told, and wants to play elsewhere. Right now, she wants to play with Riley 7. We've got lots of good things (meaning bad things for Riley) planned, and she wants to get to it. But without book 6, there is no 7, because a lot of the stuff that happens in books 7 & 8 is set up in six (and also in 5). So, 6 has to be finished.

I'm still hoping to get this finished within the next week. A task that would have been easier if Amazon hadn't delivered my DVD's so quickly (I really can't get over just how fast Amazon UK are--none of this ten day rubbish like Amazon US. They're brilliant.) Anyway, today I got the complete series of Robyn of Sherwood--the best telling of the Robyn Hood legend ever, as well as Alias Smith and Jones, an old US western series that was both smart and funny. Right now, I'm considering them my treat for finishing, but I was never one to deny myself a treat, so who knows how long that will last. lol.

home again...

2007-08-14T09:09:00.000+10:00

well, the RWAustralia conference was just brilliant. As much as I love the American conferences, they just don't beat the aussie ones. I guess that's partly because I just about know everyone at the aussie one, but also because it's much, much smaller (230 compared to over 2000). It's much easier to talk when there's not so many women gasbagging! :) Of course, my sunny opinion of the conference this year was probably helped by the fact that my room was upgraded at no cost, and I ended up with a one-bedroom suite! How cool is that? :)

Jenny Cruisie was a brilliant speaker--warm, funny and informative. Writers never stop learning, and Jenny certainly made me think about some of the stuff I do. Which is a good thing (despite what my brain might say at times... lol). Anne Stuart was also fab, and she and Cruisie made a fantastic double act. Sydney itself pulled out a brilliant weekend weather wise--it was so very nice to come up from Melbourne and temps that barely reached 10 degrees C into temps of over 20 and sunny blue skies. But I still love Melbourne--we have better restaurants and service. lol.

And despite all the fun that was had, I still managed to get some writing done. Woohoo!

here's some pics :)

here's the now-traditional shot of me and Mel. This was taken at the awards night on Saturday (where Mel won the Emerald with The Wolf Within)

fellow lulus--Chris on the left, Robyn on the right--in a very serious discussion

the drinks that started it all off....Freya (left) and Mel (right) taking pictures of the other lulu drinks

Mel, Robyn and the Emerald award at the awards night

another shot of Mel and the award

I'll be putting more pics up on my website tonight or tomorrow :)

more stop than start...

2007-08-08T07:26:00.000+10:00

I finally got a decent bit of writing done, though as the title suggests, there was a whole lot of stop-starting involved. The problem was, I was writing one of the big fight scenes, and while I normally have no trouble with them, this one involved one of the main characters getting their stomach sliced right open. Now, I love google, but yesterday it just wasn't in a giving mood. Finding emergency first aid details about a stomach wound was more difficult than I thought it would be (though I did find some fascinating articles about neck wounds, arm wounds, head wounds, & thigh wounds that I'm sure will come in handy in the future.) I eventually found some basic instructions in a medical journal, but other than that, everything I found said get them to a hospital ASAP. Well, gee, even I'd figured that one out. What I needed to know was what to do when their intestines were spilling out everywhere....

Yes, yes, I'm gruesome woman at times :)

Anyway, the scene is written, and if I've made any medical mistakes, it's not through lack of looking, okay? Now I've just got to write the aftermath scene at the hospital, then get Riley back to the other investigation. I was actually hoping to have this book finished by now, but if I can get it done in the next couple of weeks, that still gives me plenty of time to let it sit before I do corrections and hand it in.

Tomorrow I'm off to the RWAustralia conference in Sydney, so I may not be online as much for the next four days. So if you send me an email, and don't get a reply, that's why!

it was one of those weekends...

2007-08-06T07:23:00.000+10:00

you know, the one where life says, nope, your mine, no writing for you, young woman (okay, so I'm not exactly young, but hey, I don't think of myself as old, either. Even if I am getting there)

Friday I was running around checking out dog kennels (the dogs need to stay somewhere nice when we go away), buying birthday presents for my mum, and stocking up on food for the weekend. Saturday was mum's birthday(Happy Birthday, Mum!), so mum, my sister and her family came over for lunch. Saturday night I yakked online with the Conflux folk, who were running a mini, online conference in the runup for their conference in September. Then yesterday was lulu day, and all the girls made the long track up to the country for a spot of critting and a lot of yakking. And cake. And chocolate...

So, all in all, it was quite busy. But I did manage to get a little writing done last night. I'd tabled my new short story for the lulus to crit, and with their comments still fresh in my mind, I thought I'd try and finish it. Which I did. So now I'll let it sit until the next lulu session, let the girls see the end bit, then edit and choof it off to Miriam for an opinion. Hopefully, it'll get accepted for the anthology (can't tell you which one yet, because it may all fall in a hole)

and in other news...Aussie Idol is back. Yaaaayyyyyy! (and even better, Dicko is back as one of the judges--woot!) :) They've got singer/songwriters in again this year, and, so far, it looks likes they've got some fab talent. Time, of course, will tell. I can't wait!

release day!

2007-08-01T14:10:00.000+10:00

Embraced by Darkness is officially released today! WooHOO!

And I've already received several emails from readers (one who was emailing at two in the morning, having just finished the book!) who were desperate to know if this was the last in the series (and hoping it wasn't.) The answer, of course, is no. There's another four planned. What happens after book nine depends on Bantam and whether you all like the direction it's going to go. (Not that it's going in a bad direction, it's just that Riley's life will continue to get worse before it gets better. But it does get better, I promise!)

And of course, with the book released, I've been checking the net and Amazon to see what is being said. I don't expect a whole lot to be out there just yet, but I have gotten my lowest ever amazon ranking with it--159! woohoo! (I know, I know, with the way amazon ranks things, it could just mean I've sold a whole two books, but it's still fun to watch the numbers go up and down)

I also received a review from the lovely ladies over at Coffee Time. You can read it in full here, but they say, in part;

Ms Arthur’s fifth guardian novel is just as fabulous as the first. Her expertise at depicting the interaction between characters like a smart-mouthed clerk and a bossy werewolf insures breathless excitement on every page. Fast paced and attention grabbing, Embraced by Darkness is a must read and a necessary possession. ~ reviewed by Brenda.

Cool, hey?

In other news, don't forget I'm featured author over on Coffee Time's Reader Retreat, so head on over there if you feel like chatting, or if you have some questions about the series. Just hit the link on the right (down slightly), and it'll take you straight there. You have to join, but it's free.

slow progress....

2007-07-31T15:15:00.000+10:00

although I'm writing a little faster now that I've finished shooting things in Half-Life 2. I've actually finished the entire game (guess what I spent all day Saturday doing?), so I have no choice but to sit down and write.

Although I could load another game. The muse is seriously considering playing Far Cry again. We did like that one :)

So I've crept my way up to eighty thousand words done, and only have another twenty thousand to go. Eighty more pages will do me, though I suspect this will go slightly longer. There's lots yet to happen (they haven't even found Liander yet, so there's lots of drama still to write.) We learn a bit more of Quinn's history in this one too--not something I actually intended, but he suddenly became all verbose in the scene I just finished. So, we ended up with a chunk of his past. I love the muse when she does things like that :)

Still no word from my editor about the latest Destiny edits, so I have no idea yet whether this round makes the grade or not. I'm afraid you'll have to keep your fingers crossed a bit longer!

Reviews? Yes. Writing? No.

2007-07-26T16:52:00.000+10:00

Went on a bit of a search today and found some reviews of Embraced by Darkness to share. Click on the link to view the whole review:

From The Good, the Bad, and the Unread:

Ms Arthur’s storytelling is getting better and better with each book. As with the other books, Embraced has suspense, interesting concepts, terrific main and secondary characters, well developed story arcs, and the world-building is highly entertaining. ~ B review. Reviewer Gwen

From The Romance Reader.
Without the usual multitudes of men floating about her and her twin, this book gave the reader an opportunity to know the Jensons better. A little more ingenuity (or maybe even just a little more strength to the sub-plot), and this would easily have been a five-heart review. As it is, the slightly cliff-hanger ending is sure to leave fans old and new waiting with baited breath for Riley’s next adventure - be it work - or relationship-related. 4 Hearts. Reviewer Sarrah Knight

From Romantic Times (not up on the website yet)
Since we last met her, Riley's life hasn't gotten any less complicated as this latest first person adventure clearly demonstrates. Arthur has made a name for herself by delving into dark tales filled with terrible voilence, dark passion and scorching sex. If you like your supernatural thrills dark, these are the book for you. 4 stars. Reviewer Jill.M.Smith.

From Darque Reviews (July 17 entry. There's also a review for Lifemate Connections; Eryn on July 22):
Embraced by Darkness is the fifth book in the Riley Jenson Guardian series, and there’s never a lull in the action and danger that surrounds Riley’s life. Though estranged from their pack, Riley and her twin brother Rhoan team up to meet the alpha’s demands and through the bullets and blood remain an amazing force. Ms. Arthur is positively one of the best urban fantasy authors in print today. The characters have been well-drawn from the start and the mysteries just keep getting better. A creative, sexy and adventure filled world that readers will just love escaping to. Reviewer Kimberly Swan

Writing wise, well, I spent all of Tuesday, then half of Wednesday reading Riley 6, because I couldn't actually remember everything I'd written (living in another characters head for a few weeks will do that to a gal.). Then I did manage to write my allotted 7 pages. I think the muse burned out doing it though, because all she wants to do today is shoot things. So, I've been playing Half-Life 2 for the better part of the day. But I'm sick of being killed right now, so we'll see what I can get done tonight :)

back to the grind...

2007-07-23T15:47:00.000+10:00

not that writing is a chore compared to other jobs I've done, but some days things just seem to grind along. You know, the days when the words won't come and the muse just wants a holiday. Which is what I've spent the better part of the afternoon doing--looking at island holidays. I might actually treat the family to some time away together once I get all my books written. :)

This morning I was a little more industrious, though. I finally finished the Destiny Kills edits and sent them off, so now I just have to hope that Anne likes the changes, so it can move on to the line-editing stage. If she doesn't, I think the muse and I will both cry, because I'm just not sure where else I can go with the story. With that sent off, I then did my tax, which had to be up to tax guy this week.

So, now, I'm sitting here looking at Riley 6, feeling less than thrilled. Not sure why I feel this way, I just do. Maybe the muse is still feeling a little jetlagged. Whatever the reason, she'd better start moving her well-rounded butt--I need to get this finished within two weeks, so that means I have to write a minimum of 7 pages a day.

I think the muse just fainted...

some pics...

2007-07-19T15:58:00.000+10:00

from the Dallas conference:

note--the pics with a * were taken by Mel

after 6 hours of waiting in fog-bound Melbourne, we're finally on our way.

Aussie author Anna Campbell at the literacy signing

Kelley Armstrong and the queue to get out at the literacy signing

A pic to show just how large the literacy signing was

Mel and I all dolled up for the awards night

*Myself and Miriam standing beside a very sad looking John Wayne at Fort Worth

*Mel and her Golden Heart certificates

*Mel and me (with me looking like trouble waiting to happen)

now for the good stuff...

2007-07-18T11:56:00.000+10:00

I've spent the last couple of blogs whining, so it's time for a chat about the good things.

I had a blast at RWA. Not only did I get to chance to catch up with friends (waves to Rachel and Jenna), but I was able to chat to some of the lovely people I've met at previous RT conventions--I just wished I could remember everyone's names rather than just remembering their faces, but my brain doesn't seem capable of such of feat. It was also great to catch up with (super agent) Miriam. She took Mel and I out on a scenic tour of Fort Worth and the Star Wars exhibition on Sunday, which was just brilliant. (and it was nice to see more of Dallas than just the hotel and the train line below our hotel window.) I also finally met lots of Bantam people who'd I'd spoken to (or emailed) over the year, but had never met--like Shauna Summers (editor), her assistant Jessica, Shawn O'Gallager (publicity) and Sarah (Random House sales) as well as some fabulous Bantam authors like Kelley Armstrong, Madeline Hunter, Tara Janzen, Shana Abe, Lara Adrian, and Sherry Thomas. It was also lovely to meet the Levy sales people, and the many bookstore owners and representatives that were there.

There were a ton of great workshops, though I didn't get to many of them (a lot of the ones I wanted to do clashed with publisher commitments). I did get to two on creativity and how to keep writing when the muse leaves--though I can't tell you the actual names of the workshops, because the program is in my bag, which hasn't made it back into Australia yet. I also talked to Stoney Creek Media about redoing my website, so expect a new look towards the end of year. The Rita and Golden Heart Awards were fun, simply because everyone dressed up and looked absolutely smashing. Mel didn't win the two sections she was nominated in, but making the finals makes her (and everyone else who made the finals) a winner in my books anyway. Especially when you consider just how many people enter the Golden Heart. Bronwyn Clarke (another Aussie) did win her section, and we all cheered like mad as she was walking up to the stage looking rather shocked. And we also cheered like mad things when Barbara Hannay (yes, another aussie) won her Rita.

Another plus was the food--conference food tends to be pretty bland, simply because it's hard to feed that many people, but I thought the food was pretty darn good. The desserts after the awards were smashingly good (says she who sampled far too many things :)). The literacy signing was fun--and even bigger than the RT signing, which I thought was awesome enough. And the Bantam signing went well--though I ran out of books way too soon! Luckily, I'd bought along some bookmarks, so at least I could sign those for people.

All in all, I enjoyed RWA, and look forward to heading back there next year. (and it’s San Fran next year, and I love that city)

And just as an aside, I finally have a title for Riley 6. It’s going to be called The Darkest Kiss. Pretty cool, hey?

so, the conference trip...

2007-07-17T14:41:00.001+10:00

finished the way it started. Badly.

Air New Zealand sucked this trip. Seriously. I know the fog in Melbourne that started this whole mess off wasn't their fault, nor was it their fault that we missed every flight because of that fog. And it's certainly wasn't their fault LA Airport sucks great big donkey balls when it comes to clearing customs (an hour and a half? Seriously, why not employ more people to handle the overload?). However, given they combined three flights (two LA flights and one San Francisco flight) into the one later LA flight, they (Air NZ) must have had some inkling that maybe they would have a good three quarters of the plane needing assistance before they closed up shop for the night.

But getting stranded at LA and missing connecting flights we didn't know about wasn't the end of it.

Coming home, when we least needed it (hey, conferencing, and being wined and dined is hard work :) ), the Air NZ fun started all over again. We actually got to LA okay, and wandered around to the Air NZ terminal. Where we waited. And waited. Ten or fifteen minutes into the waiting, every AIR NZ staff serving at the counter got up and walked out. Just walked out, leaving over a hundred of us standing there wondering what the hell was going on. Twenty minutes later, with a line that snaked around the terminal and out the doors onto the footpath, the Air NZ folk calmly wandered back in. Apparently, they take their smokos (morning tea) very seriously over there. An hour and a half later, we finally got tickets (though Mel losing her baggage check from Dallas caused great concern to the woman at the counter--she was convinced that the baggage handlers wouldn't know what to do with the bag, even though it was completely checked in and tagged right through to Melbourne from Dallas.) An hour after that, we get through LA customs (again, what is with the three or four gates open? Seriously, when you get that many people hitting the airport at one time, employ some people to handle it.) So, we get to the plane with little time to spare...except that the plane ended up taking off late, though communication as to why it was late was none existant. We did make our Auckland-Melbourne flight, but again, it was late taking off.

And then, to top everthing off, they lost our cases. Apparently they're still over in NZ.

If my cowboy boots don't arrive in one piece, I will be annoyed. Or more annoyed than I am.

Tomorrow I'll blog about the brilliance of the conference, how wonderful my agent is, and how well Mel and some of the other Aussies did at her first conference :)

well...

2007-07-12T10:56:00.000+10:00

the trip to dallas started off well--we got to the airport on time. But things went rapidly downhill from there.

For a start, Melbourne was fog bound. Wallan wasn't, but the rest of Melbourne was in a pea souper. Which meant, of course, that no planes were getting in or out of the airport. So we got our tickets, and waited. And waited. Three and a half hours after the plane was supposed to leave, we finally left. But of course, that meant we missed all our connecting flights. The worst was in LA. Air NZ apparently decided they couldn't be bothered dealing with customers who needed flights re-booked and went home before we'd cleared customs--leaving us to wander around, getting wrong directions and generally trying to figure out if anyone in LA airport actually knew what they were talking about. We ended up getting into Dallas around midnight on Tues, and then had trouble finding a taxi driver who'd heard of the place we were staying at (not the sort of news that you need to hear at that hour--we were having visions of having to come here to the Hyatt and parking on their couches for the night). We finally found an airport bus guy who knew it and arrived at the hotel at the grand hour of two in the morning. (I would have taken a pic of the two of us, but it would have been far too scary)

So, we're here at the conference and it's huge (I keep getting told it's one of the smaller ones, but compared to the Aussie conference, this is massive.) The literacy signing has just been completed, and that was awesome--bigger even than RT, and I thought that was huge. I've met up with Rachel (Vincent)and Jenna (Black) and we're doing the cocktail thing soon. (I so need a drink)

Tomorrow the conference starts for real, so hopefully I'll have some goss then :)

(hey, peanut--aka Vicki Pettersson--we're missing you!)

leaving on a jet plane...

2007-07-09T17:27:00.000+10:00

well, not right now, but it's close enough. My bags are packed (almost), the chocolate and Tim Tams are in, and I have books and edits to take onto the plane with me. I'm just about together--woohoo. I think my case is going to go close to the limit, though, so here's hoping they don't charge extra.

I'm also hoping to get onto a computer and do some blogging over there, but it just depends on whether the prices are as outrageous as Houston was. If not, you can check out RWAmerica's website--they have a blogging page with regular updates, and are covering the Golden Heart and Rita awards. Fingers crossed for Mel, Marion and the other Aussies nominated!

In the mean time, have fun while I'm away, and I'll talk to you all in a week!

so....

2007-07-08T22:32:00.000+10:00

I should have been writing Riley 6 over the weekend...but I didn't. I wrote a brand new one instead. I got this invitation to submit a short story for an upcoming anthology (can't say who or what, because nothing is definite. I don't even know if the story will be accepted) and this idea hit, and away the muse galloped. It was actually a nice change, writing brand new characters in a brand new world. The muse and I are totally enjoying it--a fact proven by the 30 pages I ended up writing. That sort of page count hasn’t happened for the longest of times.

I’ve only got another ten pages or so to write on it, and then it’s done. I’d love to finish it before I head off to RWA Nationals, but given I’ve still got bucket loads to pack and get ready, I can’t see it happening.

Tomorrow I’m off to the hairdressers to do something about all the grays multiplying in my hair, and then I’ve got to do a bit of final shopping. After that, it’s packing, and triple checking I have everything--like passport, tickets, plane book (most important), my editing, clothes….chocolate! Can’t forget that ;)

it's done....

2007-07-05T19:21:00.000+10:00

after a marathon effort (and several side trips into panic over the fact that it was going to end up too short), Destiny Kills is finally finished--for the third time. And the panic amounted to nothing, because this version actually ended up being slightly longer (by two pages, but hey, that's better than being two pages shorter). I ended up writing two new scenes near the end, one a rescue scene that ties up changes made earlier in the book, and the second an epilogue scene that ties up the remaining plot threads. I just couldn't see any way around doing this, so I hope my editor likes it. I know epilogues annoy some people, but I think in this case, leaving it as it was would have annoyed people more.

So, now I have to do a quick read through to see if there's any obvious problems (I already know of one I have to fix, because I changed the motivations of one character about half way through), then I'll print it out and take it on the plane with me to do a more thorough editing. Hopefully, by the time I get back, all I'll have to do is fix some minor problems, then send it off.

As far as Riley goes...I did manage to squeeze in three pages. Not much, but better than nothing. Riley and Rhoan are no longer at each others throat, and are now working to save Liander, who's in a spot of bother (to put it mildly). Quinn is assisting them, so there's all sorts of dymanics happening. And they're about to visit a young vampire who lives off emotion. She's going to get quite a lot more than she bargained for with this lot :D

writing continues....

2007-07-02T16:26:00.000+10:00

at a somewhat rapid pace. I actually decided last Friday that I needed to get Destiny finished by the time I leave for Dallas, because I could use the long and boring hours of flight time to correct the thing. So, I spent the whole of the weekend working on it. We did go see my dad on Sunday (it was his birthday--happy birthday old man!), but I wrote before and after the trip, so that made up for it.

I'm now 310 pages into the third rewrite, and hoping to finish it by Friday. Well, it'll be finish as far as the old sections go. I'll have to write an epilogue over the weekend, as the ending I currently have just doesn't fit with all the changes I've made. But once I've done that, I can then print the whole thing out ready to be packed in with my hand luggage. Hopefully, I won't find too many mistakes, and I can ship it off once I get back.

As far as Riley goes, I did my allotted 5 pages today. Rhoan has just punched Riley, and Riley has just broken Rhoan's leg. There's nothing like a little sibling rough and tumble :). So, now they've got to get their act together, go find some missing people, and beat up on the bad guy instead of each other. I love writing this sort of stuff!

battling on...

2007-06-27T20:27:00.000+10:00

that's what the writing feels like at the moment. A battle. Not so much Riley 6, because I have that plotted out, and know where I'm going with it, so it's just a matter of finding the right words. And I've loved the last couple of scenes--mainly because Quinn's back, and it's such fun writing that vampire. And I'm leading up a big turning point in Rhoan's and Liander's relationship (the shite is about to hit the fan big time) and I can't wait to get there.

No, the battle I've been having is with Destiny Kills--or, as I'm starting to call it, the story that never ends. That's what it feels like at the moment--it's just going on and on and on. Don't get me wrong--I love this story--but right now, I hate it, too. This is the third major rewrite its undergone, and I have absolutely no idea what I've written into the story and what I haven't. It's all just one big muddle in my mind. I'm sure the end result will be worth it, but for the moment I can't see the forest for the trees. Or the plot through the mess.

Of course, it doesn't help that Destiny is due ASAP, and Riley 6 has to be handed in by September. I'm currently working on both the books each day--doing 5 pages on Riley, and 20 on Destiny--and switching between the two different voices and styles gets a little confusing. But if I can keep up that pace until I leave for the RWAmerica conference, that'll mean the Destiny edits will be finished--and ready to be printed out and corrected--and Riley 6 would have hit the three-quarters of the way mark.

Keep your fingers crossed for me! I need all the help I can get at the moment :)

finally!

2007-06-25T15:48:00.000+10:00

two hundred and fifty three pages into the book, and my werewolf has finally given in to her hormones and done the deed. Yep, after pages and pages of saying no, she's finally made love to someone. And I, for one, am glad. It just wasn't the same, writing about a celibate werewolf--but that's what the character demanded, so that's what she got.

Of course, this is also the book that begins to ring in the changes, not only for Riley, but for Rhoan, too. Riley has good reason for not following her hormones up until now, and while she appears to have made a decision, fate isn't about to let her love life get any easier. And that's about as much of a teaser as I can give :)

damn heroines....

2007-06-20T07:21:00.000+10:00

I hate it when they just won't do what you want them to. I've been leading up to this nice big scene with Quinn, planning to them get them all hot and heavy...and what does Riley want to do? Talk. Talk! The woman has no sense. At least she did kiss him--and it was a really good kiss--but then she talked again. My sex-loving werewolf heroine has gone strange, I tell you.

Of course, you hear lots of people scoff at characters taking control of scenes, and yeah, in some sense they are right. Characters can't control scenes because the characters aren't flesh and blood, but creations from the writer's mind. But if the writer is doing his or her job properly, then the characters become real to both the writer and the reader. And the wise writer will learn to listen to the characters--forcing them to go in some pre-conceived direction that doesn't suit the scene or the character often means you end up with a rather crappy scene. So yeah, it's not the actual character forcing the direction--it's the muse. That part of the writer's brain where weirdness and good things come from.

So, Riley has now run off to chase a bad guy, and I have to figure out a different way to get them into bed. So much for plotting out the end half of this story.

I never knew...and congrats!

2007-06-18T07:55:00.000+10:00

I never knew just how addicted I was to email. Or how much time it actually wasted. And now that I'm not getting much email, my world just doesn't seem...right. It's weird, but I feel like I did when I was weaning myself off full-strength tea (I drink so much tea when I'm writing that I really did have to switch to decaffeinated. I was simply getting too many headaches). I'm all twitchy and restless, and keep checking the inbox although I know there's not going to be anything there. Definitely a sign of addiction.

But the good news is, the muse is starting to get motivated. I wrote 9 pages yesterday, which wasn't a bad effort considering I spent all morning working on the RWAustralia website doing much-needed updates. I'm currently in the midst of writing Quinn's first scene in this book, and I have to say, I'm loving it. I missed that man, and it's nice to be writing him again. :)

And while I'm here, I just want to send a huge CONGRATS to Mel, who won RWAustralia's STALI competition with The Wolf Within. Yep, this is the story that has also finaled in RWAust's Emerald Comp and RWAmerica's Golden Heart. The lulus have been telling her for ages it's a great story, but it's nice to have outside confirmation. Now, we've just got to get one of the editors who judged it to buy it, so you can all read it too :)

decision time....

2007-06-16T19:37:00.000+10:00

well, I got another round of edits back for Destiny yesterday, and it's another major rewrite. Which has forced me to make some hard decisions, simply because I just haven't got the time, between deadlines and edits, to do everything I need to do. So, as of tonight, I'm going no mail on all the lists I'm a member of, and I also won't be answering emails unless they contain specific questions. Sorry everyone, but I get hundreds of emails a day and, at the moment, I just can't afford the time needed to answer them all (and I don't like sending out generic, impersonal email replies). Of course, if you've sent me an email in the last month or so, you'll know that I've been rather lax in answering anyway--but again, this is just a result of not having enough time. So, again, I'm sorry everyone, but for the next four months, I just have to concentrate on getting the books done.

Of course, I'm still intending to blog, and I'll still be chatting weekly on the forum, so I'm not totally cutting myself off. I'll be around, just not as chatty as I normally am :)

the half way point...

2007-06-13T08:04:00.000+10:00

has finally been reached! Yay me! :)

I rolled over the 50000 word mark yesterday, so I'm officially on the downward slide to the end. I'm currently hoping to get to the 75K mark by the time the RWAmerica conference rolls around. Originally, I'd been hoping to finish this by then, but the Destiny edits bought that to a screaming halt.

When I first started this story, I wrote a half-page outline about the duel plots as a guide. I don't always do this when I'm writing, but the last couple of stories have been complex, so I've needed something to check every now and again, just to ensure the muse and I know where we're going. Well, yesterday I did something I rarely do--I plotted out the remainder of the book to the end. It wasn't a detailed plot, just one line prompts more than anything, but I just felt the need to sort this story out. It felt like I was rambling on and on, and while I'm sure that's probably not the case, I still felt the need for direction. So, I now have a page of notes to follow and, hopefully, that'll stop the muse from feeling a little lost and rambly.

funny stuff....

2007-06-10T08:32:00.000+10:00

saw this over on It's My Blog, and had to steal it:

In other news, I managed to get six pages done yesterday, and I'm hoping for about the same today. But in between the pages, I cruised the net--or rather, youtube--for previews of new shows. How many great paranormal-themed shows are there coming out soon? Love it! Here's some preview links to shows that caught my eye:

New Amsterdamn -- about New York City homicide detective John Amsterdam who is cursed with immortality

Pushing Daisies -- a blend of romance, crime procedural and high-concept fantasy in a forensic fairytale about a young man with a very special gift. From Bryan Fuller ("Heroes") and Barry Sonnenfeld ("Men in Black")

The Reaper --a 21 year old guy discovers his parents sold his soul to the devil and that he's now a reaper, collecting escaped souls for the devil.

Moonlight -- follows Mick St. John, an immortal vampire and private investigator and his struggle to exist with the curse of being undead. It also follows his internal torment as he falls in love with one he should not

Torchwood -- a BBC production that follows the adventures of a team of investigators as they use alien technology to solve crime; both alien and human. (this one starts here in Oz on July 18th--yay!)

and of course, I can't wait for the third season of supernatural--how good has that series gotten!

slow steps

2007-06-07T21:27:00.000+10:00

I managed to write 5 pages Tuesday night, and another four tonight. I'm not exactly sure what happened yesterday--I fluffed around, looking at website designers, doing other stuff on my computer, and went shopping. Basically, writing time just didn't seem to appear. Not that the muse had any intention of ever looking for writing time yesterday.

But the plot in this continues to involve. The vampire bad guy has morphed into something a little different. He's sort of a vampire, but a different kind. Seems to be something of a theme in this, because I've also introduced vamps who feed off emotion. And we don't know yet whether she's good or bad--but I like her character, and might have her appear in future novels. Our bad guy vamp just attacked Riley, so I'm hoping a good fight scene will get the muse motivated a little more. Otherwise, this book is going to drag for a little while yet.

bludging....

2007-06-05T08:05:00.000+10:00

that's basically what I've been doing for the last week. After completing major rewrites on both Embraced by Darkness and Destiny Kills, as well as all the lines edits etc for the other books, I think the muse and I were just burned out. The thought of turning around and writing yet another book so quickly was making my brain ache. So, I took a week off from writing and just did whatever I felt like doing. I played around designing a bookmark for Embraced, caught up on most of the Supernatural episodes I'd been taping but not watching, watched a few nice movies (2 weeks notice and Something New) and caught up on some overdue web updates for the RWAust website.

Of course, the bludging has now ended. Yesterday I dragged the muse back to the computer (she was kicking and screaming all the way, I tell you) and started reading what I've already written on Riley 6. I've spent so long in Destiny's head that I now can't remember the Riley stuff, so I needed a refresher. Once I finish that, I'll start writing it again. Hopefully by then, the muse will be a little more enthusiastic.

just a quick one...

2007-05-30T08:00:00.000+10:00

I'd like to send a huge congrats to fellow Miriam devotee, Rachel Vincent, because her very first book is out today. Go Rachel!! :) Here's the cover for those who haven't seen it:

Go check it out, folks. It looks absolutely brilliant. I have it on order :)

yay me!

2007-05-29T07:24:00.000+10:00

I finished the edits that didn't want to be finished! To repeat, yay me! I rock :D

I didn't think it was ever going to happen, because it was such a massive rewrite. The basic structure of the Destiny story is still there, but switching it from the first of a continuing series to the first of a stand-alone series (each book featuring a different hero and heroine) was way tougher than I thought it would be. And it just goes to prove--you should always follow your instincts. When I was first writing this book, I got about half way through when the muse waved a frantic hand and suggested this wasn't going to work as a continuing series. It needed to be a stand-alone. But it had been sold as a two-book series, and that's what I felt I had to write. Even Miriam said I had to finish it as is, and see what happens. So, that's what I did, and back it came with a ton of edit comments, including the confirmation that yep, it stunk as is, and really needed to be a fantasy romance stand-alone.

The rewrite is great though--sooooo much happier with it now. Love the ending, and love all the extra world-building information I've put in there. And I also happened to get a couple of great story ideas for follow-on books, which is always a bonus :)

So now, all I have to do is a final read-through, then this baby is out the door. Then I just have to hope my editor likes the changes as much as I do. And now, finally, I can get back to writing Riley 6

Happy (belated) Anniversary...!

2007-05-23T07:27:00.000+10:00

nineteen years ago yesterday, I got married. Shame neither Pete nor I remembered that fact until his mum rang up to wish us a happy anniversary. Lol. We tend not to celebrate the day all that much, and not simply because we don't remember the date. We'd been together ten years before we decided to 'make it official', and I tend to remember the day we became an 'item' more than the day we actually got married. And really, the only reason we did end up getting hitched was because we'd decided to have a child. (although making the decision to finally get married did at least stop people asking when the heck we were going to get married. That question gets tiresome after the first three or four years :) )

Anyway, happy belated anniversay Pete! :) Next year it's the big 20 (or 30, depending on which date you're counting)

On writing news, well, there's still not a whole lot to report. I sent back the line edit queries for Embraced, and I'm still clawing my way through the rewrite of Destiny. I'm hoping to finish the first edit run-through by the end of this week, which would give me a week to go through all my editors comments--so not looking forward to that, because there's a ton of them!

no comment, just a link...

2007-05-21T08:28:00.000+10:00

why Joss is my hero

yet another plug...

2007-05-20T15:19:00.000+10:00

this time for a good cause. I'm not sure how many of you have heard of Brenda Novak's Auctions to benefit Juvenile Diabetes Research, but it's a brilliant idea that raises some serious money for a great cause. Here's the blurb from her site:

Join me as I work to raise money for those suffering from diabetes. My youngest son, Thad, lives with diabetes, so this is a very personal cause for me. I appreciate the support of the many people who have come together to make this happen. What an inspiration their generosity has been! In year one, we raised $34,982 that went directly to research. In year two, we nearly doubled that amount at $63,000. This year I was hoping to reach $75,000, but we've already blown past that. We're at $88,000 as of May 16th, so I've readjusted my goal to shoot even higher. I'm now hoping to raise $110,000! To encourage your excitement over this event, the person who places the most bids over all (even if that person doesn't win a single item) will receive some amazing prizes.

There's some amazing items up for auction, all donated. For example, for writers there's things like critiques from editors and agents, web site design, lunch with various top authors or editors, etc. For readers, there's things like a ton of rare and signed books or having your name in the next book of a top selling author. There's also stuff like paintings, televisions, jewelery, and home-made quilts. There's even fun stuff, like a day of bridge with a world class player, or wine tours, or a pillowcase signed by 75 top-selling romance and fantasy authors (me included :) )

In other words, there's something there for everyone, so if you have a bit of cash laying about and are feeling a little generous, how about hopping over to see if there's something that tickles your interest? As I said before, it's certainly in aid of a worthwhile cause.

To check out the full list of items available, and for details on how to bid, head on over to Brenda's site.

And head here if you'd like to check out the pillowcase.

still plugging away...

2007-05-19T08:42:00.000+10:00

on the Destiny edits, so there's not a whole lot to report. I'm 280 pages in on the first edit run (which is where I self edit according to the comments on the edit letter) and once I finish that, I'll actually go through the line edits and fix all those. So, a fair bit of work ahead of me yet.

Because I have nothing else to say, I thought I'd plug a friend's book. Steve Perry is one of the sock monkey's, an online crit group that's evolved into more an online support group. His novel, Darkside, has done the rounds of publishers and agents, and it keeps getting rejected. Not because its no good, but because the publishers and agents don't believe there's a market for humorous fantasy. (apparently, no one has ever bothered telling Terry Pratchett this). Anyway, Steve's basically said enough is enough, and is offering Darkside online as a free read (though you can paypal a token of your appreciation if you care too :) ). So, if you enjoy a spot of wryly humorous fantasy, head on over to his website and check it out. And don't forget to check out the reviews--esp the ones from his family--they're a hoot :D

happy mum's day....

2007-05-13T19:52:00.000+10:00

to all the mum's (or mom's, whichever spelling you prefer) out there. Hope it's a day filled with love, cheer and family for you all. :)

Me, I spent the day with my mum, brothers and sisters, and it was all rather nice. Loot wise, I did rather well this year, and ended up with a Nelly Furtado CD (great), a Michael Buble CD (some good songs, some so-so songs) and a pair of sheepskin ankle-length moccasins that were made locally (gotta do our bit for the local industry :) ) Here's a pic (complete with faithful fuzzy hound giving me the look):

here's some pics...

2007-05-10T07:27:00.000+10:00

from RT. There's a couple of more over on my website, but as I mentioned before, my camera battery decided to crash 2 days into the event, so there's not a whole lot this year. (though hopefully I'll be 'borrowing' some from others. With permission, of course :) )

Miriam's mob--from left to right:
Rachel Vincent, Miriam (standing), me, Jenna Black (standing) and Vicki Pettersson

Myself and the lovely Sunny

Myself and DN Simmons

In writing news, I'm working my (big) butt off trying to get the Destiny edits done, so nothing else is happening writing wise....Which reminds me. I have a ton of email sitting here waiting to be answered, but I'm not going anywhere near it until I finish this book. So, apologies if you've sent an email and I haven't answered it yet, and advance apologies to anyone who might send an email sometime in the next two weeks!

still recovering....

2007-05-09T07:15:00.000+10:00

the week of not sleeping properly at RT and on the planes has finally caught up with me. I don't think I've slept this much in my entire life! I'm even having afternoon naps, which is something I've never been able to do.

Of course, between all the napping, I've had to do a whole heap of work. The first pass proofs for Embraced by Darkness came in while I was at RT, so I've had to move my butt to get those read and back over in time. And of course, there were more mistake than normal in this one--I think someone was trying to see how awake I was ;)

Right now, I'm working on the total rewrite of Destiny. I've got two weeks to do this one, which means that Riley 6 is on the back burner for a while. Which is a pain, considering I'd only just sorted out several problems I was having with its direction. That's the problem with plotting beforehand--the muse feels restricted to the plot, and it takes forever to work out where it's going wrong. But it's sorted now, and I think it's going to work in lovely with what I have planned for the next couple of books. (Yes, I'm a pantzer, but I'be always known where the emotional plot was going, and what would happen in the end. Let's just say that Riley's trials are far from over just yet!)

I should be able to get some RT pics up soon. My camera's battery went dead, and I haven't had a chance to recharge until now, meaning I haven't been able to grab any of the pics I took. It's charging now, so start looking for some pics tomorrow :)

home from RT...

2007-05-03T07:41:00.000+10:00

and it's nice to be here, too. As much as I had a blast, it's great to be home with my family again. Especially after over 24 hours of flying. I tell you, I'm seriously considering the whole business-class option next year--particularly after being stuck in the plane on the run way for over 40 minutes at Houston airport, thanks to the storm that hit just as we were getting shunted away from the terminal, and then being shoved next to a space invader on the Auckland--Melbourne leg of the jaunt. I mean, not only did this idiot spread his legs as wide as he could (not sure why--his packaging didn't look anything to be so proud of ;D), but he kept jiggling his legs up and down. And kept poking me in the ribs when wriggling about. There was no point saying anything--he didn't understand english (I was stuck in the middle of a Japanese tourist party) and he certainly didn't understand the many evil looks I sent his way. Mind you, the guy next to him was really nice, so I think I got the bad penny of the group.

Any way, seeing I didn't get to blog much about RT, I thought I'd make a list of the good points and the bad :)

Good Points:

Eating, drinking, gossiping and generally having a good time with Jenna Black, Miriam Kriss, Vicki Petterson and Rachel Vincent (now known as Miriam's gang, because super agent represents us all). Miriam obviously has fantastic taste in clients (after all, she had the good taste to pick me up! lol), and we all got along like old friends. Can't wait for RWA in July for the repeat!

The Mr. Romance contest. As corny as hell, but also hysterically funny. Especially when you're sitting next to Anne Groell, Miriam Kriss, Jenna Black and Rachel Vincent. The snarky, funny comments were flying thick and fast, and it was just brill. I hope they get the same MC back next year, but I think he might have done his dash with his whole marriage and divorce run of jokes. Sections of the room (the sections taking it all way, way too seriously) did not appreciate it.

Meeting and chatting to fans. It was great to be able to finally meet many of the people I've chatted to via email!

Workshops. I know RWAmerica has the rep for catering for writers needs, but RT had some fantastic workshops and panels this year. And there were plenty of editors and agents to talk to, as well.

Being stuck at the bottom of an escalator, with my agent on one side, and my editor on the other, both of them loudly saying (to a packed line of people waiting behind us to get into the party) that I was a New York Times bestseller, that they could vouch for me, and that I really wasnt trying to sneak into the party unpaid. It didn't work--the stickler guarding the gateway still made me go upstairs to get my name tag so I could get into the party, but hey, it was worth it :)

Meeting and chatting to authors like Sunny (such a lovely lady!) and DN Simmons (who I've chatted to via forums but never actually met)

The book fair. Hundreds of authors, thousands of books, all in one room. What a buzz :)

Free books! There's tons of them at RT--just about every party had free books on offer (and there were a ton of parties). Plus, there was a goody-bag room as well, where you could have six books, and as many of the Ellora's Cave and Red Sage novels as you wanted. There were people walking out of there with thirty or so books!

Being finally able to buy hot tea that wasn't herbal at American restaurants! Okay, this may not seem such a big deal to some, but the first time I went to America (ten years ago now) restaurants used to give me the look that suggested I had three heads when I asked for regular hot black tea. I lived on that lipton iced tea stuff in bottles on that trip, and that stuff is revolting.

Bad Points:

Waiting up to 25 minutes to get a lift in the morning. Not RT's fault, I know.

Lack of information when it comes to what is required of authors when authors are giving book packs etc away at club RT. Authors need to know they have to provide the entry forms and the entry box for these giveaways. I wasn't the only one running around like a headless chook trying to come up with these items at the last moment.

Organisers need to leave at least a five minute leeway in the starting times between all the sessions. Many authors and attendees were late for workshops or panels because it was simply impossible to get from one session to another on time (especially if they were on different floors)

Hardly any shops or restaurants being open on the weekend. I know there's nothing RT organisers could have done about that, but hey, what is with that? Walk through the middle of Melbourne any time you please, and you'll find a ton of shops and restaurants open!

Having my case smashed and rendered unusable by the baggage handlers. Though I guess I should be grateful that the lining of the case prevent my dirty laundry leaving a scattered trail from Houston to here.

Pittsburgh 2008, here I come!!

hello from RT!

2007-04-28T05:06:00.000+10:00

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...

2007-04-23T22:09:00.000+10:00

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....

2007-04-18T15:33:00.000+10:00

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...

2007-04-13T08:35:00.000+10:00

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...

2007-04-10T08:49:00.000+10:00

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...!

2007-04-09T08:01:00.000+10:00

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...!

2007-04-08T10:27:00.000+10:00

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...

2007-04-03T15:40:00.000+10:00

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.

just a quick one...

2007-03-29T07:30:00.000+10:00

the lovely ladies over at The Midnight Hour invited me to be a guest blogger this morning, so feel free to pop in and ask a few questions. I'm giving away a signed copy of Dangerous Games, too :)

it's out....!

2007-03-28T07:42:00.000+10:00

Dangerous Games is officially released today, so for those who have been hanging out to see what happens, now is your chance :)

Piatkus have lined up Full Moon Rising, Kissing Sin and Tempting Evil for an April release, and in Australia, Full Moon Rising will finally hit the shelves! I can't wait to actually be able to walk into a store and see my book sitting on a shelf. Expect pictures, lots of pictures :D

In writing news, The Taste of Death (Riley 6) is rolling along nicely. Slowly, but nicely. I'm a little bit worried by the fact that there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of murder and mayhem in this one as yet, but I'm not going to rewrite anything until I finish the book and see what the whole thing reads like. It's not like there's nothing happening, after all. And maybe Riley deserves a slower paced investigation after all the hassles I've put her through over the last few books...nah. It's more fun throwing crap her way. lol.

a HUGE congrats...

2007-03-27T08:18:00.000+10:00

to my friend (and fellow lulu), Melanie Scott for being a finalist not once, but twice, in RWAmerica's Golden Heart award! Her werewolf story finalled in the paranormal category, and one of her category novels finalled in the short contemporary category. That's totally amazing, and so totally well deserved! Fingers crossed for a win, mate!

In other news, Dangerous Games is out tomorrow! It'll be interesting to see how this one goes, as it is the first book that doesn't involve the main clone/DNA splicing storyline of the first three books. Of course, it does have one main plot thread that carries over--in the form of Gautier. And he's at his evil best in this one :D

Writing wise, the sixth Riley book continues to trundle along. I've finished writing the female vamp scene, but I'm not sure if it hits the mark or not, so I'm going to take it along to our lulu crit session this Sat, and see what the girls think.

In doggie news, Ella went back to the vet yesterday, because we discovered she's got a rash around the top of her tail. Turns out the rash caused by her constantly licking the site due to the fact her renal glands were swollen. So, the vet unblocked them. (and just a note here--if you can avoid being in the room when renal glands are being cleaned, do so. The smell is DiSGUSTING. And it stays with you all damn day, no matter how many times you wash!) So the upshot is, Ella now has a shaved butt (to match her shaved shoulders, a left over from all the scans and x-rays she had for her leg), and she now has to have tablets and creams for the next seven days or so. And she's not talking to me because I took her to those people again.

invaded..!

2007-03-23T08:15:00.000+11:00

as the title says, we were invaded. By ants. The little buggers were everywhere. Our white kitchen benches were black, there were little black lines spreading out over the floor (much to the delight of the rather large huntsman spider that was running around these lines excitedly), and there were black line going up the wall to our pantry. And in the pantry. Thankfully, their little foray into the foodstuff had only just started, because they hadn't even gotten into the sugar yet.

So, a rather large amount of spraying followed (the spider we caught in a jar and threw outside. I generally don't kill huntsman unless they try to get into bed with me). But it makes me wonder why they decided to invade today. It used to be that ants invading were a sign that rain was coming, so lets hope that old saying holds true. Of course, it could be that the little buggers were just hungry.

Writing? Well, that's plodding along slowly at the moment. I'm still writing the scene with the female vamp boss, and that woman is trying to seduce Riley. Not what I'd intended at all, but characters do have a habit of throwing up unexpected ideas when you're writing them. Of course, Riley is not at all impressed with said atttempts, so it's all quite interesting. But it's slow going, because I don't want the scene to be too...tacky.

oh, and here's a pic of a huntsman for those who have never seen one;

Rain!

2007-03-20T08:48:00.000+11:00

yesterday I had a long whine about the lack of rain, and what happens today? It rains! Maybe I should whine a bit more often :)

Of course, as lovely as this rain is (and it's been raining steadily for three hours now), it's not drought breaking. No where near it. We'd probably need months of rain like this to ease the situation--and just watch, if that happened we'd all be whining again :). But at least it's enough to give the trees a bit of a drink, and maybe help them survive.

And it is lovely to sit here in my office, and listen to the sound of the rain on our tin roof. There's nothing like writing to the music of rain :)

Speaking of writing--I finally hit the 100 page mark yesterday, so I am officially a quarter of the way through the sixth Riley (which has the working title of The Taste of Death). The novel continues to curve away from what I'd originally planned, but it's all good. For example, the scene I wrote yesterday. Originally, I was intending to have a secondary plot line about a rogue vampire revenge-killing gay men. It's now morphed into a rogue vampire going after men who seem to have no common link except one--they all know the same man. But is he the reason they're being killed? You know things are never that simple :) I'm now in the middle of a scene where Riley is meeting her first female vampire boss. I think it's going to be an interesting meeting!

where is the rain...?

2007-03-19T07:47:00.000+11:00

they keep predicting it, and it keeps not coming. At least not in my part of Melbourne, anyway. They did finally get some falls over the major dams over the weekend, which is good, but while that might help stave off level 4 restrictions for a day or so, it doesn't help those of us who are battling to keep gardens and trees alive. And if we do hit stage 4, all our efforts will be for nothing, because with stage 4, there's no watering outside at all. Of course, the water predicament wouldn't be quite so dire if the damn government had listened to the right people ten years ago and built another dam to cover Melbourne's growing population. But no, they listened to the greenies, who told them they couldn't destroy the forests and that we didn't need another dam because we had five already and why wouldn't they cope with any drought? And hey, the fish needed the water more than we humans did...(as an interesting side point, the government has only just stopped flushing millions of gallons of fresh water from the dams to keep the rivers 'healthy' for the fish. I think the fact that we have little more than a year of water left to supply for the entire population of Melbourne has finally sunk in.) I'm all for green living, but I'm also for a little common sense. Yeah, okay, trees would have been destroyed in building the new dam. But trees all over the state are now stressed and dying, not just gums but other imported trees that have been here as long as the white population (Melbourne has some of the oldest elms surviving in Australia). If we'd had an extra dam, maybe we'd have a little more water to use to help some of the old trees survive. (not to mention saving the backs of countless grannies out there who now cart buckets of waste water from sinks and showers in an effort to save their own gardens).

And why am I suddenly going off on a bit of a rant? Because I'm sitting here listening to the song of a chainsaw. The beautiful old tree that lost its limb several weeks ago is being heavily trimmed today in an effort to save it. The tree is close to a hundred years old, and if we don't take the weight off it, the entire tree could come crashing down. I just hope it'll be enough to save it. We've already got two dead trees on our property--I'd hate to see another one go.

Anyway, enough of that--onto some writing news. The edits for Embraced by Darkness weren't as bad as I thought they might be, so I was able to get them done in record time. But I think all that fast thinking blew a fuse somewhere, because I basically fluffed around most of the weekend, doing anything I could to avoid the subject of writing. The muse just wasn't in the mood. It still wasn't in the mood yesterday afternoon when I decided enough was enough, and I really had to get something done. I sat down and wrote 5 pages, but the story just felt flat and uninteresting. So, I went for a walk and climbed some hills. I think it cleared the cobwebs, because after tea, I sat down and wrote another 10 pages. And they're good! (actually, the five pages I wrote in the afternoon weren't that bad, either. They just felt that way.) So, in the end, I'm only a few pages off my stated goal of 100 pages, and considering I had the edits to do, I'm pretty please with that. I'm even more pleased with the fact that the story line is rolling along nicely. While it has deviated a little from my original ideas, it's still following along roughly the same path--and I think this one is a little more interesting. Which is why I'll never be a plotter--my muse just can't come up with good ideas until I really get into the story.

well, it seems...

2007-03-15T08:21:00.000+11:00

I was just a little hasty with my aim of hitting 90 pages yesterday. I'd kinda forgotten I was sitting at 75 pages, not 85. So I wrote 6 pages, which isn't bad overall, but no where near the 15 needed to hit 90. Ah well. The scene I was writing yesterday was pretty cool, though--and not what I'd originally intended to write at all. In this scene, Riley's been called in to rescue the friend of a new character (you meet him briefly in Embraced by Darkness). I'd originally intended it to be a short, sharp fight scene that ends when the vampire runs, but instead it has become somewhat more complicated. It turned out the friend lives not in an ordinary apartment block, but rather a 'vampire commune'. Now, it's been a stated rule in my books that vampires don't live together, but rules are made to be broken, and this is one of those times. It's been fun to write this scene, and hopefully it'll end up being rather creepy. And of course, having all those vampires around gives Riley a good reason not to chase down our would-be killer and knock his pointy little teeth out. :)

I won't be writing much for the next couple of days, though. The line edits for Embraced by Darkness came in yesterday, and the due date to get them back to Bantam was actually yesterday. I'm like, well, I work fast, but not that fast. Anyway, it'll be bum glued to seat for the next couple of days in an effort to get these edits done.

writing once again...

2007-03-14T07:37:00.000+11:00

Last weekend was a long weekend for those of us here in Victoria--not that it actually bothers me much any more, as I work from home, so every weekend is a long weekend for me. :) But there's something about long weekends that seems to bring out the crazy in people. Especially people in cars. Maybe they're just being more aggressive because they want to get to their holiday spot ASAP so they can then sit down and relax...

Anyway, I didn't do all that much myself. I avoided the crazy people by just not going out on the roads. We had family over on Saturday and Monday, and inbetween I did the galley edits on Eryn (man, it's amazing the simple goofs you pick up even at this stage, after then novel being read I don't know how many times) and finished the ARC of Jenna Black's The Devil Inside. The end of the book lived up to the promise of the start, and I've already asked (begged) my editor to send me the ARC of the next one when she gets it. I need to know what happens! The book comes out in December, and I'd definitely recommend everyone who loves their heroines kick-ass and sassy to get it.

So, today I'm back to writing the sixth Riley again. I'm hoping to creep over ninety pages today, and to hit 100 by the weekend. I like hitting milestones, and being a quarter of the way through the book at this early stage would be good one. As ever, I'll let you know how I go :)

snoopy dancing once again...

2007-03-08T20:14:00.000+11:00

my editor (the marvelous Anne) gave me a call today. Unfortunately, I was at the hairdressers, so Pete took the call, then phoned me. The news? Tempting Evil has debuted at no 14 on the New York Times bestseller list.

WOOOOOHOOOOOO! :)

(which is basically what I said at the hairdressers, only a whole lot louder. I don't think those ladies knew what hit them :D )

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to every one who bought the book and made the dream possible. I'm amazed, I'm stunned, and so, so grateful.

now I just have to bug Anne or Miriam, and see if they can send me a copy of the Times when the list is officially printed. I'm going to frame it, just to prove it really did happen.

happy birthday to me...

2007-03-07T07:20:00.000+11:00

happy birthday to me, happy birthday to meeeee.....you get the picture :)

yes, I turn another day older today (and celebrated by putting on several kilos, according to those wretched scales. They lie, I tell you. LIE!!)

Anyway, because I fully believe no one should have to work on their birthday (and yeah, blogging isn't really work, but same principal), here's some pics instead.

Large gum trees have a habit of dropping branches--so if you ever hear a gum creaking, get the heck away from it. It's about to drop something on your head. This one fell on a perfectly fine day--no wind at all. Mind you, most of the old trees in Melbourne are severely stressed right now because of the drought. And thanks to water restrictions, there's not a whole lot anyone can do to save them. Except hope for the rain they keep saying is eventually coming.

another angle of the branch :)

the view out the window from my office chair. You can't see it in this pic, but I actually have a little bird bath near the lavender, and I can sit here and watch all the birds come in for a swim. On a hot day (which we've had plenty of) it can get rather crowded.

This was taken at the Crown Casino during Chinese New Years. I just loved the colors in it :)

just a few quick comments...

2007-03-04T08:06:00.000+11:00

for those who happened to wander over to DN Simmon's chat on Thursday (Friday here) and couldn't get in--turns out there was a huge server problems that ended up crashing the whole system, so DN is going to redo the chat either Monday or Wednesday next week. Hopefully, Kelley Armstrong will also be able to come along again. I'll post the chat details here as soon as I know them.

Also, Vampire Romance has my interview up online, so head on over there if you want to check that out. They've also a review for Tempting Evil out, so you can read that too.

I've also been sent an ARC for Jenna Black's The Devil Inside--a book that's coming out with Bantam Dell in December this year--and though I'm just a 100 pages in, I'm loving it. I think this is going to be a keeper for me. I'll report more when I finish reading it, but if the book keeps going the way its going, it's definitely one you should all be getting.

another good day...

2007-03-03T08:16:00.000+11:00

at the office. I've not only rolled over 50 pages, but I'm now over sixty. The next milestone moment I'm aiming for is 100 pages--one quarter of the book. I'd actually be happy if I could get close to half the book done by the time I head off to RT in April, but whenever I say something like that, crap happens. And of course, I won't be doing much writing this weekend--I'm off to Iris's for lunch today (and that always ends up being a late afternoon chatterfest) and the Lulu crit session is tomorrow.

And speaking of Lulus, a huge congrats to Mz. Chris, who made it into the final three of RWNZ's Second Chance contest. As the title suggests, this comp gives a second chance to all those who finalled in any RWNZ and RWAust comp, so the competition and the standard is high. All three finalists now have their work being winged over to judge Paula Eykelhof, so my fingers and toes are crossed for you, Chris!

back to a regular writing program...

2007-03-01T07:19:00.000+11:00

finally. I didn't actually do any book writing on Tuesday, but I did do a lot of writing. I had a couple of email interview requests from vampire romance and dearauthor that had to be answered, so I spent all morning doing those. And in the afternoon, the revisions for Eryn--my erotic paranormal novella that's coming out with ImaJinn late March--came in, so those had to be done straight away.

Even Wednesday morning didn't see a whole lot of book writing done. I had to write a backcover blurb for Eryn, which oftens feels harder to do than actual book writing. Here's what I came up with (remember, this is in 'as is' form. My editor will probably tweak it to smoothe out the rough edges):

Eryn James was a medical secretary, not a police officer, but when the police came calling for her assistance in tracking down a killer, she jumped at the chance. Not because she had any real desire to hunt down a killer, but because the task involved playing bait in Lifemate Connections--one of the most exclusive and expensive bars in town.

In a world where men outnumbered women ten to one, and long-term relationships were frowned upon, bars like Lifemate provided a safe environment for women and men to meet and ‘test drive’ possible suitors without the initial risk of taking them home. Only five patrons of the bar had recently been murdered, and as a shifter with a keen sense of smell, it was now Eryn’s task to track the killer down.

But no matter how much she trusted her nose to get her out of trouble, she wasn’t about to go in there alone. The club was full of security, and there were cops sitting in a van outside the club, listening to her every word and move.

How dangerous could playing bait actually be?

Then she met Grey Stockard…a man who oozed sex appeal and danger with every movement.

A man she wanted with every ounce of her being.

A man she just might end up dying for.

See, there's not a whole lot of words involved in that blurb, but it still took me an indecent amount of time to do. But finally, in the afternoon, I was free to work on Riley 6. The plot is still shifting away from my original ideas--though it is currently following a similar plot line. It's just the settings and the characters that are changing. I'd originally planned to set some of it in a brothel, but the brothel as now become a group on rich, bored women known as the Toorak Trollops. They're much more fun to write about that ladies of the night, I can tell you :) Anyway, I ended up writing 8 pages, which wasn't a bad effort. I'm closing in fast on 50 pages done, which is always a good milestone to reach--the books starts feeling real by about page 50 :)

oh, and while I remember, I'm taking part in a chat today over on D.M. Simmons site, along with Kelley Armstrong, DM Simmons (of course), Skylar Sinclair and Dana Littlejohn. So if you're got nothing to do around 7pm, U.S. Central time (midday Aussie time), then pop in for a chat :)

I hate frontpage....

2007-02-26T18:30:00.000+11:00

I use it, but I hate it.

As you can probably gather, Frontpage turned out to be a major source of the problems I had once I loaded up the new site on Sunday. After a very restless night of sleeping (ie hardly any sleep because my mind refused to forget about it, and I was laying there half the night wondering what in the hell had gone wrong), I got up this morning, opened up the webpage, and looked at the source files. The coding was all over the place-- font tags were breeding like rabbits through the entire html, I had these weird ////file////whatever/ tags that were almost as popular, and all the links were pointing to a file in e-drive rather than being actual links to other pages or to the image folder.

Why?

Ask the wonderful designers of Frontpage, because I sure as heck don't know. I certainly didn't put it all there. I ended up just bringing up the html and fixing all the code by hand. Luckily for me, I did teach myself html--in fact, my first ever webpage was coded entirely through notepad. It was basic, but it worked.

Of course, I'm now trying to teach myself CSS, and the new site is designed using one of the many free CSS base templates out there (code-sucks is a good site for these--the link is in my links page). One of the more minor problems I had was getting the header pic on the site using css (I tried doing it via html on the page itself, and it went everywhere but where I wanted it. And the CSS styling was half hidden underneath it). Of course,I had no idea how to do this via CSS. Once I googled the answer, I could have hit myself, because it was so damn obvious. Still, that's how I tend to learn--being dumb, then uncovering obvious answers.

So, the upshot is, the new look website is mostly loaded. I haven't checked all the links, but most of the main pages and links are all working. To all those folks who hated the links on the last design, hope this one is easier to read!

aaaarrrrrgggggghhhhhh...!!!!

2007-02-25T22:43:00.000+11:00

yep, I'm screaming here.

Screaming in frustration. I just spent the whole damn weekend designing a new website, based around the header currently sitting in blogger. It's also sitting on the index page of my old site though heaven only knows why. It shouldn't be.

Anyway, it's nearly eleven at night, I'm loading up the pages, and everything seems to be going all right. So I click over to my page to check the result.

Not what I expected. It's scattered. Far and wide. Bits and pieces all over the page, and I have no damn idea why. It all works in my computer just fine, on both IE and Firefox, but I load it up and it just goes everywhere.

I going to bed now, before I'm tempted to throw the computer out the window in frustration.

finally, a little bit of progress...

2007-02-24T08:33:00.000+11:00

after mucking about all day yesterday designing a new look for my website (which I hope to unveil next week sometime), I finally decided at about 9 o'clock last night that I had better get my rear end into gear and do some writing. Which I did. I don't think it's the greatest prose I've ever written, but at least it's words on page. If I decide it's total crap later on, I can fix it in edits. Right now, I'm just happy to be going forward, rather than staring at a blank page.

But, as usual, things aren't going to plan. This almost always happens when I have a rough plot outline--the story just doesn't go where I've planned it to go. I know a lot of people can't understand the concept of a story controlling events, but that's just the way it works for me as a pantzer. I can plot all I want, but it's the way words come out, what is said between the characters, that actually control where a story actually goes. I could be aiming for a plot point, but something one of the characters says or does has ideas leaping to the fore, and that's what I follow, rather than the predestined plot point. So when I say the story and the characters control events, what I'm actually meaning is the words I'm putting down is what is controlling direction. Not the actual characters. I'm not crazy. Really. :P

In other news, Tempting Evil has received several more good reviews. There's too many to blurb, so I'll just give the links:

All About Romance
Coffee Time's review
Fresh Fictions Review

And here's some new reviews for Full Moon Rising and Kissing Sin:
Vampire Romance Books
Coffee Time's review of Kissing Sin
Romance Reviews Today review of Kissing Sin

thankfully...

2007-02-22T21:17:00.000+11:00

I'm back in Melbourne. Sydney might be a great place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. It's far too muggy for me to handle. I hate walking out of a building, and instantly feeling hot and sticky. Melbourne may get hot--often hotter than Sydney--but we don't often get the high humidity. It's more a dry heat in good old Melbourne town, which I can cope with better. But the food was good, the company even better, and we even had time leftover from committee duties to do some sightseeing :)

Writing wise, not much has been done. Not for lack of trying, mind. I've sat at the computer every day since returning home, and I just haven't been able to type more than a few words. The story wasn't working for me, and I had no idea why. Up until late last night, that is. It was then I realised that it wasn't working because what I'd written just wasn't logical given what had happened over the last two books. In many ways, Riley's not the same person--she's been hurt, emotionally as much as physically, and her carefree attitudes to many things would have at least taken a bit of a dive. She'd still be hurting, and that would change how she interacted with many people.

Once I figured that all out, it was a matter of changing the two offending scenes. Which I've now done, so hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to do a decent amount of writing.

I'm off...

2007-02-16T07:23:00.000+11:00

for the next few days to Sydney. The Romance Writers of Australia have their face to face meeting this weekend (the only time of the year the committee actually meets--besides conference time) and as webmistress and general committee dogsbody, I get to be there and join in the fun...er, hard work ;)

writing wise, nothing much has been happening. I've been readying the new website designs for the committee meeting, and testing out a new password system, and discovered in the process that I can be very, very dumb sometimes. But it all worked out in the end, so I've stopped swearing at my computer, whose fault it never was anyway :)

Kissing Sin is still sitting on the New York Times extended list, this time at number 32. And it's 51 on the USA Today list, which is all pretty cool. And Tempting Evil got it's first review the other day. Susan, from CoffeeTime Romance said, "Tempting Evil is an amazingly awesome book that completely blew me away. Ms. Arthur's world building skills are absolutely second to none. Her take on the legends of vampires and werewolves is utterly unique and mind bending. Riley and the men who inhabit her world fascinate me totally. I did not want this stupendously superb story to end and I cannot wait to see what happens to Riley Jenson next. I simply must have more please, as soon as humanly possible."

have a good weekend, everyone, and chat to you all next week!

Happy Valentine's Day...

2007-02-14T06:55:00.000+11:00

to everyone over my side of the world. Hope the day is filled with good times and loved ones :) I'm not a big believer in the whole roses and prezzies part of Valentine's Day myself--I think all that is just a commercial beat-up. So how am I spending Valentine's day? I'm taking the leaping lab to the specialists. As I've mentioned in previous posts, Ella's been limping for a while now, and we've all presumed (us and the vets) that it was arthritis. But treating her with anti-inflams did nothing, so they decided to take x-rays. Which showed up the stunning fact that there was hardly any arthritis in her front legs at all--a little in her toes and a little in her elbows, but certainly not enough to be making her walk like an old woman. There was a bit of odd blurring along several disks along her neck they weren't sure about, so they sent the x-rays to Werribee (the major vet facility here in Victoria). They came back saying there was nothing there to worry about. Great, except that she's still hardly able to walk. So, we got referred to the specialists at Werribee. Here's hoping they can find out what the heck is wrong and make her the leaping lab again.

In other news, Karenne--webmistress extraordinaire for the Coffee Time Romance website--has set up a Coffee Time forum for all things Riley. So, if you feel like a chat about the series and the character, head on over there. I'll be popping in regularly to answer any questions that might arise, and there's also a Riley news section with all the latest goss about the series.

it's back to the business...

2007-02-12T07:33:00.000+11:00

of writing, now that all the good news is a few days old. Not that the silly grinning has stopped yet--I mean, it's not everyday an aussie gal gets to hit the New York Times extended (except if your name is Stephanie Laurens. And if I ever get to be half as successful as Stephanie, I'll be one happy lady.) Anyway, I managed to finish the first chapter of The Taste of Death on Saturday (which sounds better than it was--I only had to write one page to finish it ;) ) and I did my required five pages yesterday. So,TToD now totals a whole 31 pages, and I'm slowly getting into the main story. I have to say, this one is starting out a whole lot more light-hearted than the others, which is somewhat surprising considering the way book five finished (and yep, that's a tease, and no, I can't say anything more). But I don't think the book will remain that way--the focus is off Riley's lovelife a little in this one, and is shining Rhoan's way--and the result is not going to be nice. Well, that's the plan at this stage, anyway. Given the book is only 31 pages in, anything could yet happen.

And here's another pic for you. This one is of the lulus out celebrating my good news on Saturday night. We're minus one in this--Chris had a wedding to attend. Missed you, Chris! On the left, there's me and Carolyn. On the right, there's Mel, another of Miriam's (aka the super agent) clients, with Freya next, and Robyn at the back. As you can tell by our faces, a good time was had by all :D

some pics...

2007-02-11T09:43:00.000+11:00

of the birds that surround our house :)

First off, a rosella (on the right) and a king parrot (on the left). They're a bit hard to spot, but if I'd gotten any closer, they would have flown off
Next, a cockatoo. We actually ended up having to shift this bird feeder, because the tree it was hanging in is a very soft-wooded tree, and the cockys were stripping it bare--which is why the farmers hate them. They do the same to crops.

Next, a magpie. We have a family of five maggies that I feed in the morning and at night. The maggies have the most beautiful song, but they can get noisy if you miss a feeding! This maggie is the one I can handfeed.finally, another cocky :)

bestseller lists...

2007-02-09T08:15:00.000+11:00

my editor (the lovely Anne) emailed me today with some exciting news. Kissing Sin has debuted at number 29 on the USA Today bestseller list...and at number 18 on the extended New York Times bestseller list! As the youngest caped cruisader might have said, holly freaking hell, batman! I think my cheeks are beginning to ache with all the silly grinning I've been doing this morning. Of course, I've downloaded the USA Today list to print and frame (just to prove that, see, I was there), but the New York Times list apparently isn't released to the public until the 18th. So, I'll have to wait another week for my printable evidence . But a huge THANK YOU to everyone who went out and bought Kissing Sin. You really have made my day :)

In writing news, the muse has decided to play games. After me saying in the last post that Destiny's Thief was rolling along so well, it all came to a grinding halt yesterday. Every word felt like teeth being pulled. After I spent an entire morning writing three pages, I switched to The Taste of Death in the afternoon, and the muse decided, yep, this was the one she was going to play with today. So the writing roared along, and I ended up doing ten pages. Of course, it did help that I was writing a Kade scene. He's always fun to play with ;) It'll be interesting to see what happens today--although, with all the good news, it'll be a miracle if the muse will actually settle down and write today :)

the journey begins...

2007-02-08T07:49:00.000+11:00

again. Yep, I've finally finished everything that was due--novels, essays and edits--and have started writing new things. Two new things, actually. The sixth Riley--the title of which is currently The Taste of Death--and the second Destiny, which I've called Destiny's Thief. Even though I've written more pages on The Taste of Death, I actually feel like the second Destiny is flowing better. Not sure why, when I actually have a fairly good idea where the 6th Riley is going to go. Maybe that's half the problem--the muse simply wants to play around for a while without restrictions of any kind. Anyway, I got progress meters up for both of them, so you can see at first glance just how well (or not) both stories are going.

New Review! Tempting Evil received a four star review from RT this month--woohoo! Jill M. Smith, the reviewer, says, "Book two in Arthur's gritty, dark and scorchingly sexy paranormal trilogy reveals some more of Riley's burgeoning psychic skills. Riley is a fascinating female character who's completely at home with her highly sexed werewolf nature. For those who love erotic paranomral action and adventure, it doesn't come any better than this!"

Of course, it's actually book three in the series, but otherwise, that's a damn good review!

Free stuff--Don't forget to enter the sweepstakes over on the scifi site if you'd like to win a copy of Kissing Sin and a Riley T-shirt. And Mania books is also giving away a copy of Kissing Sin. And I have a Bad Taste Vampire Bear and some Aussie goodies as the giveaway over on my website, so check that out too.

upgrade...

2007-02-04T09:16:00.000+11:00

so, blogger is forcing everyone over to the new system. Me, I was quite happy to continue playing with the old style blogger, but that is not to be. Still, it means when I change my website look -- which will happen when I actually finish Destiny and have time to play again--I'll be able to match the look of the blog a whole lot easier. So they tell me, anyway. Guess I won't know for sure until I actually try.

In general writing news, I just have to sending a huge CONGRATS to my friend, writing bud and fellow lulu, Mel. She picked herself a fantabulous agent last week (can't say who because Mel doesn't want to announce that much until she signs the contract. She's a bit like I was when it first happened--worried it's all a dream that she's going to wake up from at any moment). We kept telling you the wolf was brill--maybe now you'll believe us!

In personal writing news, well, there's not a whole lot happening. I didn't actually do anything yesterday--I headed on over to Iris's place for a good, old fashioned natter--which took the whole day, because we're both good at yakking--and last night was watering night. (for those who don't know, Victoria--my home state--is in serious drought conditions, and right now in Melbourne, we're on stage three restrictions. Which means we can only water twice a week and at set times. No one has lawns unless they have tanks installed or are using grey water, and most of us are battling to keep gardens alive.) Anyway, I'm continuing to edit Destiny, and getting lots of good ideas for the second book, which I'm faithly jotting down for later. I'd actually like to be writing the second book right now, except that I need to get the sixth Riley done. If Bantam do want more books, that's probably going to be the one they want next. Still, given I'll have breathing room after the Destiny edits, maybe I'll be able to do both. I used to write two books at a time all the time--it amused the muse, who was easily bored. Of course, with the sheer amount of edits that came in last year, concentrating on two books at the same time was just impossible. Actually, concentrating on one was hard enough--as the number of edits I've already done for Embraced proves!

I'm totally chuffed...

2007-02-02T07:44:00.000+11:00

because I found out last night that Full Moon Rising was nominated for a PEARL Award in the Shapeshifter section. For those who don't know it, the PEARL (Paranormal Excellence Award for Romantic Literature) is a reader's choice award for the Paranormal Romance list--a list that is nearly 3000 strong. With all the great paranormal and urban fantasy books that came out last year, I really didn't think FMR would make it, as it was only out in hardcover--and that's an expensive choice for many. So, for FMR to actually be nominated--that's totally amazing. And a huge THANK YOU to everyone who voted. Very much appreciated, guys :)

In other news--as I mentioned over on my website, Bantam's podcast are now up and running, so if you want to hear me yarn on about Full Moon Rising and all things Riley, check that out

In writing news--well, I sort of hit a major snag with my Destiny edits. When I first wrote it, I'd blythely written that our hero, Trae, was originally from Washington. As in, Washington DC, not the State. Of course, I wrote that before I'd finished the novel--I could write anything I liked up to that point, and it didn't really matter. Except that it did matter for the sequel. You see, it just made no sense that a whole clan of shapeshifting dragons could be living in Washington DC and nobody be aware of them. Hell, security alone would mean there'd be several fighter planes in the air at the merest hint of something large and unknown flying about in the skies. So, I had to find somewhere else. Somewhere a large amount of dragons could fly unnoticed. Close to the sea was an obvious option, so I began searching the net for real estate places with large ranches available. Do you know how many ranches are for sale in the States? And some of them were just absolutely beautiful. Anyway, after about a day and a half of searching, I finally hit the perfect place. A nearly thousand acre ranch 200 miles out of San Francisco, in this little place called Stewart's Point. From what I can see, there's actually not much more there than an old general store that's been in the same family for generations. The ranch itself has a good mix of treed and pastured land, and, best of all, it has absolute beach frontage. It was perfect. So, the ranch has gained a new name, and is now the basis for the home of my California dragons. And now, I can finally get back to editing properly :)

another review...

2007-01-31T17:07:00.000+11:00

this time from the Romantic Times. Reviewer Jill M. Smith gave me 4 stars and says, " Riley and her twin brother Rhoan, from the sizzling Full Moon Rising, are back, and Arthur heightens the sexy thrills and supernatural chills by chronicling their deadly adventures in a trilogy of back-to-back releases. Get ready for one heck of a ride!"

apparently, Tempting Evil has also received a four star review in the March edition of the mag, but I haven't received my copy yet, so I can't tell you what that says.

And while I know watching the Amazon numbers go up and down is the way to madness (because Amazon have their own weird way of working sales numbers out, and it often doesn't relate to the rest of the world), it's very exciting to see that, as of this very moment--5.15pm Oz time--Kissing Sin has the honour of holding my lowest ever Amazon ranking (325). I should save the page, just to prove it did happen if none of the others get down that low :D

it's done...

2007-01-30T09:05:00.000+11:00

well, I hope it is, anyway. I've finally sent Embraced by Darkness back to my editor, so keep your fingers crossed that this time, the changes all make sense and I don't have to add anything else. I'm really over this story right now (and I really, really, want to write Riley 6. I have whole scenes replaying over in my head, and I need to get them down on paper!)

But that's not going to happen just yet, because first I need to concentrate on Destiny. Hopefully the edits won't take too long, because I've just got to add in -- or rather, clarify -- the magic of the world, where the hero comes from, stuff like that. Minor stuff, in the over scheme of things. Everyone who has read it so far said they've been too busy reading--needing to find out what happens--to see any major mistakes, so that at least means I've got the pacing and tension just about right. There will be tweaks, of course, but nothing major.

In other news, Kissing Sin is just about out (or, in the case of some bookstores, already out), so it'll be exciting to see how that goes. I'm running a website contest to celebrate its release, so if you're interested in a Bad Taste Dracula Bear, and some Aussie goodies, head on over to my site and enter.

same old same old...

2007-01-23T07:00:00.000+11:00

I'm still working on the never-ending edits of Embraced by Darkness (book 5). My editor loved all the changes I'd made in the previous round, but the only trouble was, with all those problems cleared up, an obvious plot hole which both of us had missed because of those other problems became even more obvious. So, I'm tidying that up right now--and it means major rewrites and scene cutting in some areas. One of these days I will be finished! (I have to be -- the book comes out in July!)

Speaking of coming out, Kissing Sin is only a week and a bit from release. And it has its first reviews. Mandy Burns from Fresh Fiction said "I am addicted!! KISSING SIN, the second book of Arthur's fabulous guardian series is phenomenal. FULL MOON RISING, the first book, is just as delicious and erotic, and both of them leave you excited and impatient to read the next one, TEMPTING EVIL, coming in March."

And Harriet Klausner says "KISSING SIN is a fast paced action packed romantic fantasy that takes place on an earth so descriptive readers will feel they must have visited it."

Woohoo! on both reviews :)

And for those interested in giveaways, the scifi site is running another sweepstake, with a copy of Kissing Sin and a T-shirt as the prize. And Mania Books is running a contest with a copy of the book as a prize.

Have a good day! (or night, as the case may be for those not on my side of the world.) I'm off to do more of those dratted edits

lots of stuff...

2007-01-18T13:34:00.000+11:00

It's a bits and pieces sort of day today. I've got the second lot of edits back for Embraced (more problems--yikes!) so I thought I'd post about all the bits that have been happening (or are happening).

First off, I have the cover art for Embraced by Darkness and it's great! Check this out:

I love the theme they have running through all the covers, and the colors they've used are just fantastic. The red in this one really stands out--and it's a brighter red than the one they used for FMR.

Have you been over to the Scifi site yet? Bantam's running a huge Riley Jenson Guardian series promotion over there , and you can enter sweepstakes (to win a book and a guardian T-Shirt) and fill in a character poll. The sweepstakes are only open until the 17th, so you haven't much time left on that one!

Mania.com are also doing a giveaway--the prize being a copy of Full Moon Rising. That can be found by clicking here.

Jason Nahrung from The Courier Mail up in Brisbane did a great article on the rise of paranormal romance, and I've got several good mentions in it. You can check it out here.

I'll have another website contest up and running soon, so look out for that one. The prize will be a Dracula Bad Taste Bear and Aussie goodies including a cap, a calendar and some chocolate.