Now, I don’t think I am necessarily judging a book by its cover… no – it more that I refuse to even read into the book unless the cover stimulates my mind. So for the past few minutes I have been pondering the notion of why that is. Why is it that I am not interested unless it catches my eye?

Because I am a visual person.

My mind needs visual stimulation to engage. (Go figure that one!) But the fact of the matter is – about a third of the world’s population are ‘visual’ people. And if a third of the world’s population are visual, and if they are anything like me and refuse to look at a book unless it engages my visual mind – then the authors who wrote those books are missing out on a massive readership. The books could be bloody fantastic for all I know. But since they aren’t capturing my attention, then I’m not looking at them. No… I’m off looking at some other book with a pretty cover – maybe even a book that could possibly be the crappiest read I have ever picked up.

I wrote a post back in January on Sexy Designer Covers. And I still stand by my thoughts and opinions in that post. But in that post – I showed everyone gorgeous covers that all had ‘cover girls’. (Possibly because the majority market the authors are aiming at are female.) But there are many more covers out there that are different and unusual that will capture my eye.

I don’t care what market you are aiming for, as long as you show me something I like. Give me something smart… something different… something that tells me a little about the book without me even having to make the effort of picking it up. If you can do that, then you have halfway sold me the book before I even read the back cover blurb.

Be ‘cover-smart’.

So – I’m going to show you some more covers of books I have read that have most definitely caught my attention. These books are a few series that come as highly recommended reads from me as well. If they ‘look’ like your cup of tea – then pick them up for a read.

THE GRAVEYARD QUEEN series: Not only are the covers unusual and engaging – these books are thrilling and compelling reads from an extremely talented writer – Amanda Stevens. If you like ghost stories, anything paranormal, or just a damn good read that you seriously can’t put down – then pick these books up. They will keep you up through the night reading, and you won’t regret the experience.

THE MATCHED TRILOGY: I know that YA dystopian fiction is a really hot topic at the moment, but this is a fantastic series. (I must admit – I haven’t read the third book yet – but I can’t wait to get my hands on it.) I would never ever have bothered to pick these books up if it weren’t for the covers. There was just something that drew me to the girl who was trapped in a glass bubble.

THE BLACK MAGICIAN TRILOGY: How amazing are these covers? They are so different from anything else in the fantasy genre at the moment, yet they are also very balanced.  If you enjoy fantasy books – then definitely pick up this series as a nice introduction to how Trudi Canavan writes.

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.

The rules are that you must post an excerpt from one of your books and this excerpt has to be seven sentences, lines or paragraphs from page 77, seven lines down.

Now – how cool is that?

So here is a small snippet from my book The Mediterranean Source for you to have a squizz at.

She heard someone clear their throat, and froze. As she pulled away from Tom, she saw his eyes harden as he turned towards the door.

“Um…” Brooke said with embarrassment, refusing to look at them directly, “Josh wanted me to tell you that he has cooked up the steak, and dinner is on the table.” She quickly backed out the room, and they heard the door latch shut a moment later.

Ruby sighed with irritation, and sunk against him.

“Fuck,” he muttered under his breath with annoyance. He looked into Ruby’s eyes with defeat and sighed, “They were bound to find out sometime.”

I also get to tag seven other authors in this post for them to play this game as well. So here they are – and I can’t wait to see what everyone else has written.

1. J.C Hart
2. Meredith Rose Ashe
3. Amber Craig
4. Cat Connor
5. Lisa Flaus
6. Patti Larson
7. Sacha de Bazin

This is in memory of my grandfather, Sir Andrew McKee – a determined man who fought hard, and lived hard. While I will always miss you – I only wish I could’ve known you better.

Many things have been circulating through my mind over the past six weeks. What projects I need to complete, what books I need to edit, and what books I need to plan. Believe me – the list seems to be continuously growing. I guess that is what creative people do though– they constantly generate and process new ideas. I know that there are many things that I really need to complete before I start the next new thing.

In January this year I started writing Tijuana Nights. I hadn’t been writing properly for a long time due to my addled pregnancy brain… and I loved writing it. I loved sinking my teeth into new territory, and exploring old and new ideas that I had been stewing on for a long time. And then I had to stop that project because I need to give birth to our daughter.

The other day I was talking to a friend, and she was telling me about her book success. Then she turned around and said, ‘I just know Talent will make waves in YA once you are ready to put it out there.’ Yet another project that I need to complete. I really need to complete this one. It’s been hanging around for far too long. Besides – there is going to be a lot of editing and rejigging once I finish writing the trilogy. All that aside – it was really lovely to hear my friend say that about those books. Really lovely. She has faith in the trilogy.

I also need to do one last edit on The Mediterranean Source. Some readers may remember that I did a really big edit on it in November last year. Well – after that I sent it out to a couple of readers and they provided some seriously valuable feedback on the book. This is the last lot of feedback that I think I will incorporate into the book before submitting it out into the world. But yet this is another task that I need to set my mind to completing.

But I have faith. I have faith that I will finish off these things. I also have faith that whether or not they are ever published in the future, I know that I will be happy within myself just for being tenacious enough to get through these enormous projects. And I also have faith that one day in the future… my daughter may just pick up one of my books and read it. Whether or not she enjoys it will be another story all together.

Abby is growing loads, and is flaming heavy to cart around. But she’s gorgeous – and loads of fun when she’s not yelling at me.

My writing life has seriously come to a standstill… but I have been think about it a LOT! That is one task that I seem to have loads of time for at the moment.

I read a really great blog post earlier from a friend – on the six lessons that she has learnt as a writer. I thought that I should share Michelle’s words of wisdom with other writers out there… as they are important to note. So – here it is: 6 Things I Wish Id Known About Being a writer

And now I can hear that Abby is awake – Again. Time to be Mummy.

I have no doubt in my mind that Abby’s journey into the world was much like everyone’s on this earth. She just followed the light, and here she is, weighing in at 9 pounds and 13 ounces on the 2 March 2012 at 4.44am.

There were times when I felt like this was never going to happen, even though it was inevitable. Especially recently, when I would wake up every morning and wonder why on earth I wasn’t in labour yet. Finishing up work was a good idea, but it also gave me an extra 40 hours a week to think about Bumpkin/Abby and when she was going to arrive into this world or not.

So… here’s to sleepless nights, permanent exhaustion, and being an on-demand feeding machine. But despite all that, here’s to the satisfaction of finally being a mother to a real little human being, and not just to our great big fluffy cat. It’s going to be an awesome journey for us as a family and introducing Abby to the real world outside of the womb.

Thank you to all of you with your supportive words and advice while I have been impatient about the impending arrival. There will be times from now that Parchment Place may get a little neglected – you’ll just have to bear with me though for the time being.

Xoxo LkH and Baby Abby

There is something rather reassuring to know that you can bounce ideas off the people around you, and know that you are going to get an honest opinion. Whether that opinion is aligned to what you think is irrelevant. It’s the honesty behind it that encourages you to think from an outside perspective.

There is just something so damn refreshing about having that there, whenever you need it. But these are not just ‘take, take’ relationships. They are ‘give, take’ relationships. The reciprocal action is what makes it work. There are days when I need specific sets of advice from certain people who I know have more experience than I do… and it’s awesome to have those special people there to help me clarify ideas.

This works particularly well with my amazing critique partners. Seriously – these women are something special. Each of them all have very different experiences in the writing and publishing world… much like I do within my literary world as well. The very cool thing about this little team that I have surrounding me, is that each of those critters all write in different genres to me, and therefore with one book that I give to them to read and seek opinion on, I can get a great reader and writer perspective from them. The honesty is in the feedback.

Some days I get feedback that I really don’t want. And I think that every single writer in the world gets feedback like that. The book you write is never the book that is read. Seriously. Everyone’s perspective of your book is their own, and it is up to you as the writer to decipher what feedback will work for you and what wont.

The thing I like the most about having critique partners is the thanks that I get for supporting them. I have a good friend/critique partner who has just released her debut novel, and I am just so damn proud of her. She has worked so very hard – and I can’t believe that I’m going to be able to walk into a bookshop shortly, and see it sitting there on the shelf. I will stand there proudly gazing upon its gorgeous cover, and know that I have contributed to the development of that book by reading, critiquing, and supporting that author to get through this arduous process. Then I’ll end up buying it for my special collection.

I have another friend/critique partner who has just released her trilogy, and soon it will be in paperback. And I seriously can’t wait to see those books sitting proudly upon my bookshelf in my home library. These are the moments in time when I will look at these massive achievements from women I know, and know that as a critique partner, and as a good friend, I have done my duty. I have given feedback and support to these authors, and they have chosen what they can use, and what they can’t, and they have created from that.

Just over a year ago, when the Christchurch earthquake struck on 22^nd Feb, I developed an amazing friendship with someone who was calling out for writers to come together for a charity anthology. Usually I would never have responded. Seriously. I am not that sort of person. But because this was for such a worthy cause that was so close to my heart, I felt I had to respond. And all I was offering at the time was to help her round up writers and support her with the development of this massive project. Throughout that time, the friendship that I developed with her was amazing. I class this woman as one of my closest friends, and we talk every single day. I’m not kidding. I know everything about her, and her family. She knows everything about me and mine. And it’s amazing that we have only known each other for just over a year. Without Mother Nature enforcing her power over Christchurch that day, we never would have met.

Friendships are built on the foundations of trust, honesty, and communication. Usually there is a bit of commonality thrown in there as well for good measure… Friendships provide you with support, and a supportive relationship with people is the only way to live.

Reblogged from Kristen Lamb's Blog:

To prologue or not to prologue? That is the question. The problem with the prologue is it has kind of gotten a bad rap over the years, especially with agents. They generally hate them. Why? In my opinion, it is because far too many writers don’t use prologues properly and that, in itself, has created its own problem. Because of the steady misuse of prologues, most readers skip them.

Read more… 1,497 more words

I am one of those people who often write prologues, and then I end up editing them out. I am also one of those people who hate reading them, unless they are done really well. Epic fantasy novels often have amazing prologues. Young Adult novels – I could probably pass on. A damn good thriller often has a damn good prologue… And after reading Kristen Lamb’s blog this morning – I agree with her on almost every point – so I thought that I would repost her blog to serve as a good reminder to all of us writers. There are 7 deadly sins with prologues, and there is damn good reasoning behind them. Take heed… pay attention.

I look at my manuscript, The Mediterranean Source, with a bit of uncertainty at the moment. A book that has been years in the making, and just recently, has had some pretty serious rewriting done on it. Admittedly, the rewriting has made it a lot stronger… but it needs more.

I have had some really awesome and solid feedback from three trusted sources on this book after the last major revision… and now that I look at that feedback – I just have no idea where to start. In early January when it was relatively quiet in the office since only about ten staff had returned to work after the Christmas break – I managed to map out some crucial changes that needed to happen to this book. And where on earth I put those notes – I have absolutely NO idea.

For the life of me, I cannot remember what on earth I wrote in those notes either. (Thank you very much Babybrain!) However… What I had mapped out initially was a damn good start to the next lot of revisions that I wanted to get done on this novel.

How many drafts has TMS gone through? I have no idea. Seriously.I think that a part of me wants this book to be perfect in every possible way before I release it out to the masses for their opinions. But in saying that – I am afraid that if I don’t perfect the damn thing, then no one will want to read it – publishers included.

So why do I keep throwing it back into draft and not releasing it out to the world? Essentially, I think it’s because with each passing day, week, month, and year – I learn to see more and more fault with it. I seem to be stuck in this vicious little cycle. I want this book to be perfect, so I will just keep rewriting, revising, and editing it.

I don’t want this manuscript to be another big piece of work that I have done only to be thrown back in the musty old literary drawer. I think that it deserves more than that! So much time and research went into writing the damn thing, that I just don’t think I can file it away for the rest of my life. Action thrillers are what I want to be known for as a writer.

So far I have quite a few complete and incomplete manuscripts that are all sitting in that dark drawer… Many that I seriously need to finish up, and start the edits on them. They are good ideas. They have great plots and little thrills. But they aren’t ready – and for some unknown reason, I seem to be mentally unready to start tackling the pile. A while back I printed all of them out and bound them together to start making my way through. Perhaps this will be one of the onerous tasks that I try and complete while I’m on maternity leave. To read each one and allocate it to the priority list.

You never know what sort of gold I might stumble upon. Who knows – with some of it – it may be cast aside forever, but the ideas could be recycled into new work.

Those are options that are definitely worth considering. In the meantime – I’m going to go back to the drawing board of The Mediterranean Source, and see what I can do with it, and where I should marking my thick red pen all over it. After this round, I’m not sure I can do this process all over again with this book… So I had better make it worth my while.