Once upon a time…

Once upon a time, a long time ago I had a dream – a desire – an inspiration to write a book about family bonds, adventure, friendship, a luxury yacht, and an evil doer. It didn’t take me long to write the book, but it has take taken me a long time to drag this book back into the light.

I know I haven’t been blogging recently – so consider this an update.

Mediterranean Dreams is just about complete. I have finished my final edit, and I’m currently doing my final read through. There are a few things I’m picking up on, and fixing in the process, but it’s just about there. Soon I will have to write the synopsis and cover letter, and let this manuscript go.

Is it scary? Definitely. I have only ever submitted short fiction before – never anything this ‘big’. Really the process shouldn’t be any different… but for some reason size matters to me this time round. I have a great team of people around me who are supporting me get through this – and I know that without them I probably would have taken forever to get this show on the road.

It’s funny, because I have read hundreds of blogs by different authors who all talk about their journey of the trials and tribulations of their road to publication, and I always thought that I wouldn’t blog about mine. But it’s taken so long to get where I am today due to other life commitments, and really – it’s this really huge thing that looms before me as a writer – just as it was a big thing for all those other authors before me.

I look at the past year, and wonder where it’s gone. I look at the past five years and wonder what on earth I was doing. But I know that I was writing and pumping out books. I just never prepped any of them like I have this one – for publishing.

This year I honestly thought that I would be able to get some serious writing work done while I was at home with Abby as a full time Mum for six months. Never did I expect her to not want to sleep for hours on end during the day. She is an active and engaging child, even when she was a newborn. Therefore I put all my 2012 writing aspirations on hold, without a moment of regret.

Now that I am back at work full time, life has become a journey into time management and coordination. I’m up at five am, Abby is up at six, I’m then on the train for an hour into the city, and writing my little heart out all the way. Then I walk a couple of kilometers to work, and start my day in the office. After work, I walk my way back to the train station, and head home – writing my way there, and once I finally get home at 6.15pm – I’m in the throws of sorting out dinner for us all, bathing, and bedtime. It’s insane. And then the very next day I get up and do it all over again. But I am getting results in terms of my writing. Some how, I can tune myself in and get work done while I’m on my way to and from work. At least it’s progress – even if it has been a bit slower than normal. It’s getting done.

I have also started writing something new. At the moment, I’m keeping it under my hat, but it is one of the ‘Night Series’ books. I can’t wait to get Mediterranean Dreams off my plate so I can turn my full focus to that project. I’m already four thousand words in – and I can’t wait to get to eighty thousand. At the moment it ‘feels’ good – probably because it’s all new and shiny. Good fun!

I’m going to get back into the blogging world just as soon as I can. I know that I have been slack on the blogging front – but I just don’t seem to have enough hours during the day to turn my attention and focus to it. Now that I have finished the major edit etc, I may be able to sort out my blog with a bit more coordination. In the mean time – you will all just have to bear with me.

This year is the first year in many that I am not participating in NaNoWriMo – but I will be cheering people on from the sidelines. Between working full time, Abby, my wifely duties, submitting Mediterranean Dreams, and writing my new book – I just don’t think I can juggle it. Those of you that know me, know that I am a huge and avid supporter of NaNoWriMo. I can’t wait to hear how everyone goes with it. It’s an awesome process, and you really can write a book in 30 days. Everyone knows that a first draft is crap, and usually it needs a thorough cleaning up job done on it – but its brilliant to be able to get down the foundations in 30 days.

And that is the end of my quick update.

For those of you who are unsure about whether to take the NaNoWriMo leap – here is a little image for you:

 

Parchment Place Celebrations!

I have been meaning to post this post for THREE WHOLE days… however, life just kept getting in the way. This is what happens when you are heavily pregnant and wrapping up your professional work life (EDJ)… and just trying to generally keep everything together. However… Today is my first day on Maternity leave, so I have a few spare minutes to think clearly.

First of all – I would like to say:

Yes – Parchment Place has officially turned 1.

It has been a hell of a year for Parchment Place. I have never run a blog before, so this has been a completely new experience. There have been times when it has been slow… and then even more times when it has been like driving a fast car. I have loved meeting people through this blog, and getting to know them. I have loved hearing everyone’s feedback. And it has spurred me into a different type of creativity… more of an entertaining ‘snippet’ type of writing, which uses a completely different set of writing skills. Some days I ramble on about writing (go figure…)… some days I ramble on about my work… some days I’m musing over Mondays… some days the posts are about me and my life or journey… but all in all – some form of it has to be entertaining.

Not only are we celebrating Parchment Place’s first birthday – but this celebration post is the 100^th post for this blog. So it’s a double celebration! And had I been a little more organised, I would have sorted something like a giveaway or presents for readers or something equally cool. But maybe that’s something to organise for another day.

And finally… there has been a lot of readership of this blog. Some days it has had larger than life hits on it.. other days it has been nice and quiet. But overall – this blog had more than 20,000 hits on it in its first year. I have absolutely no idea if that is good or bad – but it works for me. That’s 20,000 more clicks to a site related to me and my writing – so I’m quite chuffed with that result. Who knows what year two will be like!

So I guess this post is a triple celebration for this blog. 1^st Birthday, 100^th Post, and a 20k hit rate in the first year.

Cheers everyone …. I raise my Mocktail to you! *clink* I wouldn’t be encouraged to write this blog if it weren’t for the encouragement and love from all you readers and subscribers out there. You guys are the ones that keep Parchment Place alive.

 

2011 – Over and Out

Goodbye 2011!!

A friend of mine wrote a ‘wrap up’ blog for the year, and I thought it was a great idea – so here is my wee wrap up blog post for 2011.

This has been an awfully big year. I started the year forming a new team at my work, to take over all of the contract management and technical responsibility at my Evil Day Job. While it’s been full of huge challenges, it’s been great. Our team is humming along, and standing strong.

My husband and I at my 30th birthday

Then I turned the big three-oh. This meant having my enormous immediate family staying with us for a week, drinking a heck of a lot of booze in the hot summer sunshine, and generally having a blast. To top it off, we had a big garden party that raged throughout the night and into the late hours of the morning. It was a hell of a bash, and an awesome way to end my irresponsible 20s, and enter the 30s.

Straight after my 30^th birthday, I thought that I better get a little more serious about building my authors platform online. So I started my Parchment Place blog.

The big Christchurch quake rocked our entire world in February. Many dead, many grieving, and many homeless – including my friends, and members of my family. Some of whom are still suffering, due to another series of quakes that hit again on the 23^rd December.

When the February quake struck, two very special people had a big idea. Cassie Hart and Anna Caro put the word out on Twitter to compile a charitable anthology for all proceeds to be donated to the Red Cross Earthquake Appeal. So while our friends and family were trying to sort out their issues in a quake stricken zone, I put my hand up to help them find authors, rally support, and generally be supportive to them throughout this enormous task. And so – Tales for Canterbury was born. Eventually Cassie said that she expected me to submit a story into the Anthology as well… so before I knew it I was dragging an old story out of my dusty and very musty literary drawer, cleaning it off, and sending it through to her. And to my greatest surprise… they accepted it. So then I was officially published along with some pretty incredible writers.

The last time I had a hangover was in May, when I drank a little too much gin and tonic with my father when he was staying with me. Then I found out that I was pregnant, and so I stopped all intake of alcohol and nicotine immediately. Pregnancy wasn’t an accident… but I didn’t expect it to happen so damn quick either. I thought that it would at least take a few months… but I guess our little Bump was in a hurry to get the show on the road.

In the meantime on the writing front, I was busy trying to finishing off a novel, and start the editing of another one. But during this time, I was also quite unwell with the pregnancy, and that seriously hindered all writing ability… and eventually I stopped trying. They say that every single pregnancy is different – and no two are ever the same. It was a bad time for me. Emotionally, I was wreck… physically, everything was changing, and in the middle of all this I felt enormous pressure from my family. Each of them trying to give me advice… ringing/emailing me constantly… and with each passing day, I was becoming more and more reclusive.

Bumpkin's Big Foot

In the end, I didn’t want to talk to any of them at all. I just wanted to hide in my little hole, and wish like hell they would all piss off and go away. I just wanted them to let me be pregnant for a moment and get used to the whole idea that my life was irrevocably changing, and that both my husband and I had to get mentally used to it. But that’s not what families do. Apparently.

So you know what we did? Under the best advice given from friends, and our medical professionals – we ignored them. And this is the same advice I will give to all pregnant women who face the same issues in the future. While family is important… we are growing our own now, and it’s entirely up to us to walk our own pathway when raising a family, not the paths of those before us. I have learnt throughout this time that my wider family are never going to listen to me, since they will always know better (older and wiser, perhaps?), so I will just do my own thing, and learn from my own mistakes. This is the only way I’m only ever going to be fully satisfied as a parent, so this is how I’m going to do it. (Bugger the rest of the world. I no longer give a shit about their grand opinions and ways of how to do things. This is our family, and we will do it our way.)

When I finally realised this, my creative mind started to kick back into gear. I now know that it was the stress and pressure that stopped me from writing… and until I had actually dealt with that, I couldn’t release my mind from its little box and back into the creative world. But I eventually got there, and devised a NaNoWriMo plan to get an old manuscript – The Mediterranean Source edited into a more publishable state. (Don’t get me wrong, this book still needs further work, and hopefully over the next few days while it’s forecasted to rain, I’ll be able to do some work on it.) The point is… I managed to get there, and send it out to three amazing friends in early December for their final opinions on potential changes. It was a big goal, and while I ripped and shredded out more than twenty odd thousand words from this manuscript, I also rewrote just as many in some incredibly major plot alterations.

So here I am now, nearly 33 weeks pregnant, with not far to go. I have just managed to get through Christmas, which we were completely unprepared for… however, we managed to sort it out. Both Mike and I were totally distracted by the fact that Bumpkin will be born very shortly. We are mostly organised now and pretty much have everything that we need (if Bump comes early!). Bump’s room isn’t finished yet, but it’s not far off. Mike and his dad are currently building the wardrobe. The ceiling went up yesterday. And before long, it will be plastered, painted, and ready to rock and roll. Then I will have somewhere to put all of Bump’s stuff, which is currently stored in boxes all over the place. It will be good. A great start to the New Year, and new beginnings in 2012.

Here are some things that I learnt in 2011 that I never knew before:

• Turning 30 wasn’t actually a major. It was more of a great milestone, and one that I have great memories of.
• I never thought that my 30^th year would be such a rollercoaster of a ride.
• Getting pregnant was easy. Being pregnant is hard. Older people forget what pregnancy is like.
• Being published is not a life changing event… but it’s a pretty good one.
• The world is no longer an enormous place. Two of my best mates have also moved to Australia this year as well… and despite them now being in another country – I’m not sad! Well… not really. I’m so damn chuffed that they are living their own lives and dreams, and I’m even more chuffed that by having the internet… it’s almost as if they are sitting in the next room.
• I can do anything as long as I block out the bullshit and focus.
• Stress and pressure are only good in small amounts.
• I no longer have any tolerance for bad or rude behaviour. This is not a tolerance that I ever want to rebuild either.
• My job has been really good this year. I’ve really enjoyed the challenges, and the new team we have. I no longer tolerate the rubbish behaviour from my colleagues either, and they quickly know when they have overstepped the line.
• The hormone – Relaxin – is a total bitch to deal with.
• Taking everybody’s advice so you don’t offend people is impossible. Picking and choosing what advice you take is much more effective.
• It’s lovely getting to know your child as it grows inside of you.
• Three of my unborn child’s godparents now live overseas, and I’m okay with that. I know that this will be a good thing in the future, as the child will have supportive people in its life who live their own life, according to what they want to do.
• Pregnant women are hilarious. They no longer hold back, or have any qualms about saying it like it is. I’ve met some pretty neat people though our parenting class, who I never would have met if it wasn’t for Bump.
• Owning a Kindle has revolutionised the way I read.
• I have met writers who have deeply impacted my life in ways that I never could have imagined. By being with these amazing and incredible people, it has seriously helped solidify the fact that I am on the right career pathway in my life.

So… I think that’s probably it for this year. December has been a slow blogging month for me. I have no doubt that with the continuing distractions of the final stage of this pregnancy, etc, it could get even more sporadic. But I’ll try and keep it up.

In the meantime… I’m really looking forward to starting a new book in the New Year, editing another… and writing on. On the other side of life, I’m really looking forward to meeting our child.

Remember to set goals, not resolutions. J

2011 – Over and Out.

 

Mental Feng Shui

Some of you may or may not know what I mean when I say ‘Mental Feng Shui’… but I know what I mean. For me, one of the hardest things about being a writer is maintaining the mental feng shui balance within myself.

I find that writers are creatures of habit. Cups of tea and coffee are poured as part of the writing ritual. Chocolate is devoured. And every now and then we head towards nature to renew the inspirations. I also believe that we are a superstitious lot. An example of this is when I’m having a downright rotten day, and I decide to write – I light a candle to banish away all the negative energy that is circling around inside me. 

But each of these little habitual rituals is part of what balances our mental feng shui. It’s a bit like tuning a radio to get a good signal. You have to hit the right spot first before you will hear any clarity of sound. With us, it revolves around coffee, chocolate, or even lighting a candle to help us tune into the creative airwaves. This is a fine balancing act.

Sometimes, though, static gets in the way, and therefore throws out all sense of balance that we strive to maintain. This can come in an array of different forms. Some days, we just don’t feel like it, and suddenly the TV seems so much more interesting. Other days we pick up a really good book to read, and can’t seem to keep our noses out of it till we finish. And as much as we absolutely adore our friends and family who support and love us constantly, they get in the way as well. 

Invitations to parties, dinner, movies, lunch, anything… If we writers are in the middle of some sort of creative winning streak – we start turning down those invites. I know that if I drink too much alcohol, then the next day I will be completely incapable of anything creative. Some friends understand, which is wonderful, but others can start to get a bit fickle about whether or not they will continue to invite us to spend time with them. My Dad who was staying with me last week told me that my Mother has been complaining to him about not being able to get hold of me. This is probably because I turn all the phones off if I’m in the middle of writing new worlds, and the characters that live within them. I just can’t afford to be distracted by the phone.

Two weekends ago, we had a bit of a graduation party at our house for one of my closest friends. Did I get any writing done that weekend? Erm. *blush* No. Why? Because I was busy entertaining, chattering away, and when the people had left, I then cleaned, and put everything back together again. Then that same friend had an issue on the road about twenty kilometres north of where I live, and we had to execute a rescue mission. My father then arrived to stay a couple of days after that. Needless to say, that was a solid week where absolutely no writing work was done. Zilch. My feng shui has been right royally screwed with.

This coming weekend is a long weekend in New Zealand, where I would normally be very excited to be able to spend three consecutive days writing… however we are off to work on the holiday house. Some friends are even coming to help! Gah! It needs to be done, and believe me, I wouldn’t be miserable about it if I had some decent writing miles behind me for the month of May. But I don’t, and it’s seriously upsetting me.  I’m hoping that I’ll be able to rise early to get in my writing mileage without distraction. However, today is a new month.

Now, if I had the luxury of writing full time at home, then I could probably sort this mess out. Speaking of home, I have been getting more and more upset with my favourite room – my library. It’s a beautiful room, but it’s in such a pigsty. I can’t cope, and yet I don’t want to deal with it either. Some of the mess actually isn’t mine, but I’ll leave that ‘particular subject’ alone. But I will say one thing… When that ‘particular subject’ steps into my library, and proceeds to mess up this beautiful space that I have carved out of our house for myself, I get extremely pissed off. Yeah, I’m talking about the amount of crap that’s left lying around, equipment left on, dirty coffee cups, books moved about, or whatever. So, over the past few days I have been thinking very hard on my library, and the current tip that it’s in. And I think that I need to move it around to get a better sense of actual feng shui balance in there. I’m not happy about the state that it’s in, so therefore I would like to do something about it. If possible. Wish me luck on that one! I’m hoping that once I am happy with the room again, it will assist with getting my mental feng shui back in alignment.

In winter I am a hermit, and I’m happy like that. Even in the summer, I can be a bit of a hermit. I enjoy my own company, and I enjoy chatting to my characters in my head. And I love writing, because it makes me feel such an awesome sense of elation when things seem to be falling into place. It’s the way I have chosen to live my life. Friends and family are extremely important though, as they are the people you turn to when you need them. I think that I just need to find some sort of way to balance out my mental feng shui with those people included in there.