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?

 

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.

 

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.