Lucky Number ‘13

And so we see another year out, and welcome another year into our lives. Every New Year starts out with a wealth of positivity and dreams of good fortune. I am no different in the hopes and dreams of my endeavours. And so, I lay before you all – a list of thirteen goals and objectives that I hope to meet or obtain for this 2013^th year. No – these are not resolutions, because I am not one to make resolutions… but these are the things that I would like to accomplish this year.

Whether they happen or not is a different story, and you can be sure that it’s a story that I will one day tell.

Some of these objectives are biggish, and some are a lot smaller. But regardless of size, they are still progress.

So here are the Lucky Thirteen for the 13^th year:

1. Write Venetian Nights. Currently 5k into it, and I can’t wait to get this highly charged thriller out to readers.
   

   Draft working cover

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.
3. Read a minimum of 50 books (I managed to get through 52 in 2012 – but I did read a big chunk of those while on maternity leave!)
4. Buy a new car (Somebody smashed into me in 2012, and wrote ours off…. Actually, my husband and I wrote both our cars off within three weeks of each other.)
5. Read, review, and make a few decisions about the Talent Trilogy, and decide what work takes priority.
6. Put together my graphic design portfolio, and do the odd piece of work for people in that field.  
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.
9. Take Abby overseas – preferably to Bali, but anywhere will do. (I’m feeling the need of a Balinese holiday this year)
10. Make it through my best friend’s wedding with Abby in tow, and me as the best man. (Yup – you did just read that correctly.) And also make it through my Mum’s wedding in April.
11. Teach Abby all that I can possibly teach her, and have fun doing it.
12. Let go of Mediterranean Dreams. Seriously.
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 there you have it. That’s the 2013 list…

Now let’s see how much of that I can actually achieve. (I can’t believe that it has actually taken me 6 days to get this post up on my blog! – but at least it’s there.)

And to launch the year off – I thought that I would share Abby’s favourite new song with you all. Quite appropriate, I think! 

 

 

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.

 

Deadlines…

Douglas Adams once said, “I love deadlines. I especially like the whooshing sound they make as they go flying by.”

S Dali - Persistence of Time

As I read this quote – I am shaking my head at myself because I set myself a good and achievable deadline to finish my current manuscript. I said mid-June. Oh, it’s still a good deadline if I knuckle down and get some serious work done – today. The reason why it is almost whooshing past me is because over the long weekend we had a couple of weekends ago, I had the good intention to get some serious writing time in. But between a toothache, and having to do other things about the place, as well as reviewing an ARC, I only managed to get 500 words down – and then I got stuck and put the manuscript down.

Oh yes, I can also just about feel that serious ass-kicking  my crit partners are going to send my way as well. Never the less, my deadline was still mid-June, and I’ll make it if I can crank out 20,000 odd words today. Ha! But you know what? I’m actually alright with this. I know that I shouldn’t be, but there has been a lot going on, and besides… the small part where I got stuck, well. Obviously my planning was out, and I smacked into the wall when I couldn’t decide who had to die. Yeah. Still thinking about that. Been thinking about this small compounding issue for the past week. Ah, the joys of being a writer. I think I’ve almost worked it out though.

And in the meantime, my library is looking great – and it’s a really nice space to work in. I just have to refocus myself to get this manuscript done. End of June – absolute latest. That is the new timeline I am giving myself, because at some point, I’m just going to have to stop so that I can start the final edit of The Mediterranean Source. That is one book that definitely needs to be released from my literary drawer. I actually know that it will only take me two solid weeks of quality writing time to finish this manuscript, so I just have to knuckle down.

I know that there are people waiting with bated breath for the next installment of this trilogy – and I don’t want to let them down and keep them waiting, now, do I? After all… these are readers and friends that are investing their time in me, my writing, my characters and my worlds.  

So. End of June it is. I give you all full permission to slaughter my backside if I don’t pull this off. I already know my critique partners will be smacking me around to get this finished.

 

Many ideas… so little time

I am in constant awe of those writers who can pump out blog after blog, and still have time to write novel upon novel.

Epiphany anyone?

There are some blogging challenges out there that are a ‘blog-a-day’ or ‘blog-a-week’ challenges. These are the challenges that some of my friends are actively participating in during 2011. Like many writers, they pluck their ideas out of the ether of their surrounds, and blog it out there for the whole world to read.

I am jealous. I find that when I have a blog idea, I think that I could never forget it. But once again… Much to my disappointment, I have. The inspiring blogging moment that had my creative brain in a whirlwind of activity has come and gone. Bugger. (ß Very common NZ slang…. I know that I probably shouldn’t use profanity on here…)

So I now know that blogging a lot of the time are fleeting moments of inspiration that I’ll just have to jot down in the future in order not to forget them. I’m going to have to start up a new system somewhere in my notebooks for it. There are so many ideas out there, it’s up to me to capture them, and store them somewhere until I have the time to write them out. If you ever want to read some incredible blogs – just take a look at my blog roll to the right hand side of this screen. Each of those people have extremely targeted and focussed blogs. And they publish new blogs, if not every day, then every other day. Each of those bloggers are incredibly talented, some even award winning.

Always on the go...

I read copious amounts of material. This is another activity that takes up huge amounts of time. During the day at my Evil Day Job (EDJ) I send home many links to information on the web of articles that I need to read to stay on top of my chosen craft. Do I get through it all? Not always. Each night when I get home from work, I open up my email accounts, and start reading my way through it all. Then I either file it away if I think it’s useful, or I dump it. When I’m not catching up on the reading, I’m normally chatting away to my writers groups, developing characters, doing research, or even just chilling out reading a good book. I consistently read novels at night before I drift off to sleep. And if I don’t get all my reading done, then I take it with me where ever I go, just in case there is a chance that I can harness a small snippet of time to inhale more knowledge and information.

And then… after all this, I have my own work to write as well. I have books to produce, readers to please, but most of all – the self-satisfaction and balance that it provides me. So not only to I work in the corporate EDJ world for forty hours a week… I like to be able to put in at least another twenty-five hours a week to the reading and writing that I have dedicated myself to. My husband, who is a sporty health freak, thinks that I’m nuts. He constantly says to me, “You spend eight hours a day in front of a computer at work… how can you possibly stand to even start up your computer at home?”

Easily. I’m on a mission.

“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” — Stephen King