I’m an addict

All sorts of exciting things have been happening in my life lately.

In the past few weeks, I have managed to read through the first two books of my YA trilogy, and take a good serious look at them. Now I am in the process of launching into the revisions and editing of the first book. Eeeep! I would totally love to say that its ready to go out to the world, but there are so many gaps to fill in this manuscript, and much to add to strengthen it. What is good about it though, is that the bones are there. It’s a good start to the trilogy, and a great introduction to a huge cast of complex characters. So because I have been thinking a lot about new scenes, and delving deeper – I have also been writing! Like, actually writing. Not just talking about it. And I’m loving it. New scenes keep turning over in my head, and then suddenly I want to spit them out. I’m seeing my thoughts come to fictional life again, and I have to say – I’m totally addicted to writing. It’s a buzz. A fix to my mental dependency of creativity. I just guess I forgot how much I was craving it. Now I really know that I need to keep getting my fix.

Book II has some seriously awesome moments in it too. I read through it with completely fresh eyes, thinking that I would need to figure out the ending to this book. But once I got there, I sat back and thought, ‘Why am I trying to figure out the ending, when it’s already finished?’ Isn’t that bizarre? For the past two years I have been thinking and mulling this book over in my mind, when subconsciously, I already knew that I had finished it. Interesting, huh?

Book III is going to get its plan reworked once I finish the editing of these books, and then if it’s really lucky, I’ll try and write it this year. If it’s lucky.

But it’s actually really exciting rereading over some of my stuff. Some of it was utter rubbish – don’t get me wrong. And it was funny, because some of the really seriously rubbishy parts was some of the bulk prose I was writing during NaNoWriMo a few years back. I must have been seriously floundering around during that November to spit out the amount of ‘internalising’ rubbish that I did. Ah well – the good thing about Nano is that it means getting words out on the page. Some are crap – that’s just the reality.

In other news, I gave my library a good makeover the other day. A friend of mine wrote a blog post about the Benefits of a Standing Desk, and so I thought that it would be a great option to have a Standing Desk in my workspace at home too. You should all go and read her blog post, as she raises some pretty important points for us – not just as writers, but for a bunch of humans who now lead a relatively sedentary lifestyle. In amongst the makeover, I threw a load of stuff out. And I feel so much better for clearing it too. Environmental harmony creates good mental feng shui, which in turn, will hopefully help me produce some good books. Well… that’s the theory I’m sticking to.

 

New Light Casting Shadows

There has been a lot going on in my world lately – mainly surrounding my books.

I, strangely enough, am sticking to my plan. I set out to read my Urban Fantasy drafts this year, and I’m doing it. And there is a boatload to adjust and amend. But there is some good guts there, with some real gems woven within them. Good characters, evil characters, and so-so characters.

Both books definitely need work, but so far – I’m actually quite happy with it. Bear in mind that this is the first time I’ve actually reads them since I wrote them years ago, lol. They have never been edited or even revised. Raw drafts.

So my plan is after I finish reading the second book of this Trilogy, I’m going to look at my original plans for the third book and have some major adjustments inserted. And then I’m going to start my edits on Books I and II.

You see… there is so much happening in this world that I have created. And there is still a heap of things that my characters need to get through before the trilogy can end.

And then there is my friend, and she has suggested that perhaps I might like to keep writing stories set in this world – and you know what? She’s right. I would like to do that. It’s a world that I have built from the ground up. It’s a world that I love. But how many stories can really stem from just one world?

Then I look at all my other books that are all thrillers based in the real world, and I wonder why I couldn’t do this with my Urban Fantasy stuff. After all – it’s real world based.

Over the past couple of days I have been basically bed ridden with a super nasty head cold, but it has also given me a load of time to think about this world. And I have officially changed the title of the series from The Talent Trilogy to The Divitis Trilogy. (Divitis means Talented in Latin – don’t you think everything sounds so much better in Latin that English?) And I have also changed the Book titles.

So. It’s going to take a lot of work to bring these books up to reading scratch, but I think I can do it. No… I know I can. Wish me luck!

Here is a little taste of what could possibly come – sometime in the future…. Maybe.

 

 

 

 

Where in the world do you want to be?

I know that I haven’t blogged in ages here at Parchment Place – but believe me – it hasn’t been without lack of trying. There have been numerous posts that were drafted and never finalised sitting on my laptop. One day I will go through them and set them up to post…

However, that all aside – I thought that I would give you all a little update on me. Life has been busy. Really busy. This year I set 13 goals to get through, and so far, I have managed to get through a few of them. This is how I’m going with my goals so far:

1. Write Venetian Nights. Currently 5k into it, and I can’t wait to get this highly charged thriller out to readers. (Still 5k into it! Argh!)
2. Renew my commitment to Parchment Place. Everything lapsed in 2012 due to the arrival of Abigail, but 2013 is the year to re-establish my blogging drive. (As you can tell, I haven’t been too diligent about this!)
3. Read a minimum of 50 25 books (Adjusted this figure down considering how busy I have been lately! So far I have read about 10 books this year, plus a couple of critiques for friends)
4. Buy a new car
   (Complete! Got a new car in Jan)
   
5. Read, review, and make a few decisions about the Talent Trilogy, and decide what work takes priority.
6. Pull together my graphic design portfolio, and do the odd piece of work for people in that field. (Work on this has begun! The portfolio has been partially pulled together, my Interior Design Portfolio is being worked on, and work has been done for some people.)
7. Publish, or secure a contract to publish a piece of my longer work.
8. Clean up my email accounts, and unsubscribe me from stuff I never read. All it does is clog up my virtual world. (Work on this has started too – however – it’s going to be a long road ahead to try and sort it all out!)
9. Take Abby overseas – preferably to Bali, but anywhere will do. (Not on the books yet – although we do talk about it a lot)
10. Make it through my best friend’s wedding in Jan with Abby in tow, and me as the best man. And also make it through my Mum’s wedding in March.
    (Done and dusted!)
11. Teach Abby all that I can possibly teach her, and have fun doing it. (This is awesome. I never knew being a mother could be so much fun! She changes and grows every day – and watching that makes me happy)
12. Let go of Mediterranean Dreams. Seriously. (Have sent this book to a friend to proof – partially let go!)
13. And lucky number 13 – Win the lottery. (You always have to chase after something a little unrealistic, but something that could potentially be real… right?)

So far, I think I’m going okay. But everything has been rather full on, not to mention working full time as well – which is going well, by the way. Naturally I would much rather retire on all my well-deserved lotto winnings, lol.

While I dream of disappearing to other places around the world all the time, at the moment I am so busy trying to do all these other things that I would much rather just focus on them and get through the goals I have set for this year than flit around the world. I have always written books to enable me to mentally escape.

There are many many books that I still want to write as well. Those of you who have read my work know that I based my books in areas that are either known to people as a luxury location, or they are based in a little known are… So here is a little poll for you all, dear readers… if you were to read a book – based on the below photos – where would you want to escape to?

 

Characterisations…

I have been reading a lot recently, as well as watching lots of different things, and what really intrigues me is characterisations. What traits or characteristics do authors pull from themselves and those they love around them to build their characters?

Every author wants to create the perfect characters – because by doing that, they then hope that everyone will love that character, just as much as the author does. Naturally we want our characters to have the best of the best characteristics and traits – after all – they are our creation, and in some way, we are playing ‘god’ with our books. We are the creators of these worlds. Some authors set the characters up to have no flaws, lots of money, perfect features, etc etc, and therefore a reader can then feel the character is a bit ‘plastic’. Fake. False. They have thoughts about that character of – ‘how unrealistic; no body acts like that,’ and so on.

The author can become quite baffled by this sort of response, and in turn, they utter such phrases as: ‘How can you say those things?’ ‘This character is amazing – obviously you have no idea what you’re talking about.’ ‘They are the perfect creation!’

And if you really really get down to the nitty-gritty of the matter – perfect characters are boring to read. Who the hell wants to read about perfect people all the time? The world is not full of replicas of Ken and Barbie.

By writing flaws into characters it can enhance interest in your plot, character drivers, and if you really hit the nail on the head – you can create someone that everyone adores and loves – regardless of the flaws that you weave into them.

Nobody is perfect. No one. We love those around us who have flaws, so make sure that you let your characters have flaws as well. Let them even flaw themselves with their own flaws and working through the issues. That’s what makes them believable. That’s what gives the book depth with character plots.

Give your characters strengths, but more importantly – give them weaknesses.

Lance Armstrong – Far from flawless. Definitely an interesting character that one could write.

 

Writing Quirks and Must Haves

Today I have the pleasure of having T.G. Ayer (Tee) hanging out with me at Parchment Place. Tee is a good friend of mine, a fellow kiwi (with a few african accents), and an amazing writer with a hell of an imagination. I have been hanging out with this woman for a couple of years now, and have treasured every moment.
Tee is a machine when it comes to pumping out books – and here she talks about the little things that keep her focused. I must admit – I do share a few of the same quirks – and I have no doubt that many other writers out there in the world also have their own little writing habits in varying degrees of severity. It would be interesting to hear from you all to find out what they are, and what gets you all in the mood to write.
In the meantime – I’ll hand over to Tee:

T.G. Ayer’s Writing Quirks and Must Haves
Until I thought about it I hadn’t realised that I do have a few ‘writing quirks’. Amazing what you figure out when you are forced to examine your process.
To start off with, I always need a good pen- my favourites is a LAMY Ballpoint – a gift from my dear friend Kim.
Because I am so easily distracted by emails, the Facebook and the Twitter, I prefer to go through them before I start writing, otherwise it will just bug me and mess with my concentration.
Part of my routine is to chat with my 2 writing buddies Patti and Cassie- we chat several times a day every day on Skype- have word wars and sometimes do butt-kicking duty
I must have my chap-stick right beside my keyboard; I hate having to get up and go look for it.
A bottle of water- absolutely necessary.
I usually make my lunch when I prepare the family lunches every morning. So it’s all wrapped and ready to eat when lunchtime comes around. If I have to do more than unwrap and chew then I get annoyed and might not eat lunch at all- which is definitely a bad thing.
A pair of fingerless gloves in winter.
Writing music- During the day, when the house is empty I write without music, unless the neighbours are yelling or annoying me with their own loud music or screaming kids. Then I use my music to drown them out. Once my girls are home, and because my ‘study’ is located in my lounge, I drown out extraneous sounds by sticking my earphones in my ears. Of course, when I am writing an intensive action or emotional scene I listen to Linkin Park or Daughtry or Melody Gardot- whatever suits the scene.
Editing music – When I am editing, my music preference is different. When I first started writing I used to listen to a playlist of all the Coldplay CD’s I owned. Now, for some reason, I always use that CD to edit to. It’s calming, and not intrusive enough to mess with my concentration while I edit.
I don’t snack while I write, amazing ideas come to me in the shower and I have an aversion to my treadmill which happens to occupy space in my study and which I just happen to not use on a daily basis. And that’s it as far as I can think of.

If you would like to know more about Tee, please go and hang out with her at T.G. Ayer.com, where you will discover her awesome Urban Fantasy worlds of Valkyries, Skinwalkers, and many other insights into her wonderful imagination.

 

Things are happening

It astonishes me how neglected I have been towards my writing and my blog over the last six months! To bring it back to life a little, over the next wee while I’m going to have some guests hanging out here with me at Parchment Place, who will not be at all dull or boring. I’m sure there will be entertainment all round for the masses.

Abby officially turned six months old on Sunday, and to be honest, that scares the crap out of me. I simply can’t believe how fast it’s gone. It was also Father’s Day here in New Zealand – so a couple of weeks ago, Abby and I had a special photo-shoot for the occasion. Here is a picture of the gift Abby gave her dad for his first father’s day. I find that a little bit of effort goes an awfully long way, and her Dad loved it. That said, he still said that the best present was her of course!

In terms of my writing – well – now that I have started to catch the train relatively consistently, I am starting to power through some work! It’s fantastic, and I’m feeling really good about the progress that I am making with my edits. I have decided to change the name of The Mediterranean Source to Mediterranean Dreams. I am a bit sad about losing the old name, but too many people didn’t quite ‘get it’ in terms of the storyline, so I’m changing it up. With the title Mediterranean Dreams it sort of collectively shows that each of my characters in the book all has their own dreams and goals. So that being said, I think that this new title fits a little better.

I have also been working on new cover design for it – not with self-publishing in mind at this stage, but more to keep my head in the editing/revision game when I have had interruptions or not any long amounts of dedicated time. This book is definitely one that will be going out on submission to publishers as a first option. Call me lazy, but at this stage in my life I simply cannot be bothered with the work required to self-publish. Perhaps if I didn’t have a baby, or worked and travelled long hours, then I would probably consider it as more of an immediate option. One day it may even become an option… but for the moment, I’m sticking to traditional.

The Nights Series that I have been thinking about and planning seems to be growing and growing. I’m looking to getting this backlog of work out of the way before I officially start. I did start writing Tijuana Nights back in January, however, that has been put on hold until I work a few things out with the series idea. Let’s just say that Mack (McKenna) my main character is full of klutzy awesomeness.  She is a right piece of work, but I feel my character planning of her needs to be a bit more rounded out with the planning of the series. After all – most books are character driven with a character journey. So I guess this means she is going to have a few journeys throughout this series.  

I think that’s about it from me at the moment. I will start coming up with better blog posts shortly about all sorts of interesting things, so there will be some decent fodder to read, instead of all my updates! I will also have a few guests here as well. Onwards and upwards – time to reopen Parchment Place properly for business.

 

Some days are better than others…

Some days really are better than others. So here is a quick update of my news over the past couple of weeks:

Since I have been back at work, I have been trying to settle in. Some of my colleagues say that it doesn’t even feel as though I have been on leave for six months. There is only one new person at the ooffice… but a few of the old staff have left, so I miss their presence.

I also miss Abby! But she’s having such a great time in care, that I really needn’t of worried like I did. But I do feel as though I’m missing an appendage of sorts. I’m pleased that she did have a good routine already set in place, and that with the help of my Mother in Law – we taught her how to take a bottle. She seems to be happy as to be away from me during the day.

Abby has been the utter centre of attention for everyone as we have had lots of family visiting over the past couple of weeks. Was really lovely to see them all, and for them to finally meet Abby for the first time. I can’t believe she is now five months old already! Motherhood is sweeping by very fast.

I had my very first car accident yesterday morning… What a great start to the week! A chap was pulling out of his driveway, and didn’t see me driving past, and smooshed my passenger doors with the nose of his great big Mercedes. So this afternoon I have to go and pick up a rental car to tide us over while ours gets fixed. (What is really annoying is that we only just sold my husbands car on Sunday, so I could have been using that!)

I have started catching the train to work, and each time I feel utterly elated at the amount of writing work I am accomplishing again! After 6 months of basically having a break from it, I am now immersing myself into my writer’s world for at least an hour per day. And it is FABULOUS! I’m smashing through my editing during my dedicated train time. Feels amazing.

One of my Critique partners has moved to China, so that’s a bit tough. Gonna be awesome for her – and it will start to feel a bit better when she’s back up and running online again.

Another Critique partner is about to release her next book, which is exciting!

Anyway – I better get back to the Evil Day Job (which is actually going quite well) and earn my keep.

P.s. Can’t wait to get this damn book off my desk and onto the desks of publishers.

 

Inspirational luck

Everyone has good days and bad days. Some of us get a whole lot of bad days in a row… and that in itself isn’t too inspiring. I’m not saying I have had ‘bad’ days – In fact – they have all been great! I’m just saying that I have been so damn busy with my daughter that I haven’t had much of a chance to even look at my writing, let alone attending to my emails, blog, etc.

I thought that I was back on the band wagon with my writing… but it hasn’t happened. That’s okay though, because as my husband said to me when I was complaining to him about it – “You have a much more important job to do at the moment, so stop beating yourself up about it.” And he’s dead right. Every day Abby makes me laugh and smile a million times. Every day she pushes my boundaries. Every day she inspires me to be a better person. Every day I couldn’t imagine life without her.

I was talking to a good friend of mine last night, and was throwing some ideas around with her about writing a series of standalone thrillers using my main key characters from Tijuana Nights, and she said that she thought I could pull it off. I did talk about doing this many moons ago when I was originally planning this book, but I never went any further with the idea. But now… I think I might look into it.

I’m going to call it my ‘Night Series’ and set the locations of each book in a different spot. For example, the next book could potentially be called Parisian Nights or something along those lines. I know that it’s going to mean a crap load of planning and different character development/arcs etc… but just perhaps I might actually have what it takes to do this.

Now I just need to find the time, energy, and motivation to actually do it.

 

Award Winning…

No, no, not me personally – but I did contribute to an Anthology that has just won an award. An award for Best Collected Work, no less!

Tales for Canterbury was entered into the Sir Julius Vogel awards earlier this year. When it was nominated, we were all very chuffed about it, but never ever expected that it would actually have a shot at winning the award. But it did. It’s not that I don’t have faith… it’s just that it was up against some very big competition, and yet it still managed to pull through.

Anna Caro and Cassie Hart pulled together this Charity Anthology almost in record time last year after the February 22^nd Canterbury Earthquake. This meant sending out word to authors all over the place, reading through and accepting or rejecting work, then having the joy of editing it, and finally pulling it into a beautiful polished piece. Now as the crowning jewel, it has won the Sir Julius Vogel award for Best Collected Work.

So… A huge congratulations goes out to all of my fellow authors in this collection, as well as to our amazing editors – Anna and Cassie. I feel very privileged to have worked with them to be published alongside this brilliant collection of authors.

Go check them out: RJ Astruc, Philippa Ballantine, Jesse Bullington, Anna Caro, Cat Connor, Brenda Cooper, Debbie Cowens, Matt Cowens, Merrilee Faber, AJ Fitzwater, Janis Freegard, Neil Gaiman, Cassie Hart, A.M. Harte¸ Karen Healey, Lynne Jamneck, Patty Jansen, Gwyneth Jones, Tim Jones, Kim Koning, Jay Lake, Helen Lowe, Kate Mahony, Tina Makereti, Juliet Marillier, Angel Leigh McCoy, Linda Niccol, Ripley Patton, Simon Petrie, Grant Stone, Jeff Vandermeer, Mary Victoria, and Sean Williams

There are still a few copies of Tales for Canterbury left if anyone wants to buy one. But you only have until the end of June to get your hands on it. After that, Tales for Canterbury will be wrapped up and finished.

That’s all for now… much excitement, happiness, and satisfaction on a job well done J

 

Back on the wagon

Yes, you all read that correctly. I am officially back on the writing wagon – that same wagon I have been trying to climb back on for the past two months. However – introducing my new daughter to the world was a much more important job. But now that she is ‘sleeping like a baby’, it means that I can get a little writing work done!

So – this is a little update for you all since the last post I wrote on my writing stuff – Having a little faith…

Last week I rewrote the opening scenes for The Mediterranean Source. I’d had some feedback from one of my critique partners that I needed to bolster up the main character motivations. This was some seriously good feedback as the main character only really became the main character when I re-edited the book last November. So to give her more motivation for doing what she does was something that I really needed to work on. And – I am happy to say that my critique partner had a read of it, and thought that it was a much stronger opening for the book. It was excellent to have that feedback as I’ve been feeling a little rusty on the writing front lately. I need to re-sharpen my writing claws!

Needless to say, after rewriting the opening scene, I dived into editing again. Man, it felt amazing. It felt so damn good to be immersing myself back into my own world and story. I had to drag myself out of it whenever Abby woke, but it was just so damn good to be back.

So – that’s what I am doing right at the moment. Editing. Yippeee! And it’s a lovely way to ease myself back into the game as well.

Tijuana Nights is really sitting at the forefront of my mind, and I really want to get back into writing it once I finish editing The Mediterranean Source. So while I edit, I will be thinking about that story, and what I think it needs. I think that I will redo some of the planning on it, but structurly – the storyline remains the same. There are some characters that need a little work done on them to round them out a bit better, so I will probably start with that before I continue writing the book.

The Second book of the Talent Trilogy needs to be finished. Gack. I know. Honestly, I only have a couple of thousand words to write on it, and it’s finished, but something has been holding me back with it. That book had a number of alternative endings – any of which I could use. However, I’m going to go with the one that seriously ramps up some emotions I think. Once I complete it – I need to throw myself into some serious planning for the third book, and that’s gonna mean re-reading the first and second book for me to do it. (Thank god I have a Kindle!) When I originally planned this trilogy years ago – it was a good plan – it just wasn’t robust enough for the world I was creating. I never expected the Talent world to get so big. Now it needs to be broken down and sorted out before I continue.

In other news, I have been reading books like a fricking machine. My goodness, I can’t quite believe how many I am cranking through! It’s all this downtime while I am feeding Abby that is allowing me to read so much. It’s amazing. Once again – thank god I have a Kindle (or else it would be a real pain in the backside trying to turn the pages.)

Abby is growing like a wee mushroom. Every day is different. Some days are challenging, others are a breeze. She’s sleeping well through the night now, and it’s a hell of a relief for us. Every day we thank our lucky stars that she sleeps for decent periods through the night. This week she is transitioning into her own room. It’s a scary thing for me! When she finally has her first night in her own room, I know that I’m going to feel a bit off-key about it. I guess any new mother would be the same – even if it is only across the hall! Last night I had a chair delivered that is now in Abby’s room so I can sit in there with her to feed and settle her when needed. It’s a relief knowing that I can stay in there when I need to. When she’s older and she has her own bed – I’ll put the chair in my library.

She smiles loads now, and every now and then she even has a giggle. When I sing to her (off key, might I add!) she smiles, coos, and tries to sing along with me. It’s rather gorgeous. These are moments that I never want to miss… and ones that I’m afraid I will once I go back to work at the end of July. However – if I win Lotto, I guess I won’t miss a thing. *fingers crossed* It’s just so lovely seeing her grow and develop.

Life is very busy being a mother, wife, and writer. Every moment is worth it though.