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Thursday August 27
Are you ready to polish your manuscript for publication? Well, if ever you've needed an excuse to escape to Bali, this is it! Be warned! The following is a blatant plug and I wish I'd thought of it myself!
Friends of mine are running an editing and writing course in...wait for it...Bali. Yes, Bali, at the Tama Sari Resort, Pemuteran, from 12-18 October. Called Editing in Paradise, Selena Hanet-Hutchins and Shelley Kenigsberg have designed a six day program to help writers take their their work from being simply 'written' to submission-ready! YAY! FYI, Selena and Shelley are gorgeous, talented and very generous with their time. They're not scary and will not scream at you...they like an occasional cocktail (after hours, of course...)
It's really exciting news for all you developing writers out there! What do you need? Ideally you need to have completed your fiction or non-fiction manuscript to the first draft stage. Selena and Shelley will read 50,000 words of your submission before the retreat and once in Bali you'll get lots of advice re writing style, word choice, viewpoint, character, everything!
They're only taking twelve participants so if you want to go, be quick!
Check out their website at www.editinginparadise.com.au and see if this is exactly the kick along you need to make your publication dreams come true!
As for me, I'll still be sitting at my computer, tapping away, tapping away...
***
Friday August 21
First, a bit of Lucy news!
Lucy Springer Gets Even is heading for general U. K. release in November! November 5 to be precise. YAY! I'm not quite sure what that means, except that if you live in the U.K. and ask for it at your local bookshop, they'll be able to order it in for you. Again, YAY! 
The publishers aren't adapting it for the overseas market so it'll be interesting to see how the Australian-isms and local references are received. Still, I guess Lucy's story is universal. I just hope more than three people buy it.
Had a brilliant time at the Romance Writers Annual Conference up in Brisbane last weekend. There were about 250 delegates and all were incredibly welcoming and talented! My God! I'm flat out writing one manuscript a year, yet some of these women are up to their 40th, 50th, 80th published book! Impressive! I always wonder how they come up with new plot lines. How can you write a fresh story when it's your 81st? I know I will never get there. I get a headache just thinking about how to make my third manuscript entertaining. But these women are machines...very clever, well-oiled machines. I'm in awe!
***
Thursday August 6
I've just started writing a weekly blog at www.omigoddess.com.au, a brilliant new, online magazine about things that are important to all of us – relationships, work, kids, sex, money and so much more.
Omigoddess! is a first-of-its-kind fusion of magazine, directory and community with a mind, body and soul focus. It's all about inspiring readers with its positive, compelling, and entertaining cutting edge ideas for life.
I'm loving being involved with Omigoddess! so, check it out and tell me what you think!
*****
Tuesday July 28
Kiddies back at school today for another glorious 10 weeks so am doing my best to get organised!
If you're a Brisbanite or happen to be visiting in August, I'll be speaking at Hot August Nights, the Romance Writers annual conference:
Where: Sebel and Citigate Hotel, Brisbane.
When: 14th-16th August 2009
I'll be presenting a workshop, Finding Your Voice in the First Novel, (EEK!) which will cover topics including: How do writers find their ‘voice’. How do writers decide whether first person or third person narrative works best for them? How can they develop a distinctive writing voice? It will offer practical tips on how writers can strengthen their writing confidence so that their writing style is unique and engaging. I just hope that I'm unique and engaging when presenting!
I'll also be chairing the panel discussion, Humour in Writing. This will be a lively discussion (hopefully - otherwise, I'll have to prod the speakers!) about the role of humour in writing, How do writers engage the reader using satire, irony and wit and humour when dealing with complexities of real life - adultery, revenge, divorce, teenage angst? Is it a learned skill? Or natural instinct?
It should be a fun weekend, once I get over the fear factor!
Over the coming weeks, I'll post snippets from the Finding Your Voice workshop on my blog. See what you think!
*****
Wednesday July 15
An interesting snippet appeared in The Daily Telegraph the other day claiming that women most want to curl up with a book that features SEX. Almost 2000 women aged 45 -60 were asked about the books they liked and nearly two thirds said that they were keen on 'raunchy' scenes in novels.
Half said sex in books was 'titillating' and another ten percent said they actively chose books that featured lots of sex. (Women under 45 were obviously too busy actually having sex to respond to the survey!)
Romantic fiction was the most popular genre, chosen by 35% of women, followed by blockbuster crime or mystery, 33%, and general novels, 31%.
Turns out that reference books were the least popular section. Big surprise!
So what can I glean from all of this? I need to put more sex into my novels!!!
*****
Thursday July 2
Am now over the flu but was at death’s door for a good few hours a couple of weeks back. Kids go on school holidays today so am madly trying to finish a few projects that have been languishing in my in-tray for far too long. Still no word from Allen & Unwin re edits for next book due out at Christmas...no news is good news, I think.
Hot topic? Mistakes new writers make.
Character Motivation: Events and actions can’t happen for no reason otherwise it’s not credible. Readers are smart. If your characters are doing things that don’t ring true, readers will lose interest quickly. They’ll tire of situations happening by coincidence. A sequence of events needs to appear logical to keep the reader interested.
Lecturing: Never a good look in fiction. In the middle of a story about a teenager daughter who’s skipping school, that character cannot suddenly launch into a diatribe about saving the whales, unless it’s something her character would do. An author can’t push their own agenda – they can but they’ll lose readers.
Other trivia:
Don't show your character's motivation too early.
Don't ignore professional advice.
DON'T GIVE UP!
*****
Thursday June 11
At home, wallowing in bed, sick! Not with Swine Flu, something far worse, I’m sure. Though, possibly it’s just a head cold and I’m being overly dramatic because no one in my family is showing the slightest concern for my welfare.
Can afford to be slack because my manuscript is with Allen & Unwin and my editor hasn’t called flagging any concerns. Yippee! So now I patiently wait until I get the copy edit back and see how messy it’s become.
The other day a writer friend of mine was upset because she feels she can’t write as freely as she wants for fear of upsetting family and friends.
My advice?
You can’t worry about what friends and family will think, or your scenes and characters won’t flow. You’ll be too busy second-guessing others (who, let’s face it, might never read your work, anyway!) As long as the evil mother-in-law with a penchant for seducing young men in your story, is not actually based on your own mother-in-law and you’re not reliving word for word, the huge family fight that took place at Christmas a year ago, culminating in several restraining orders being issued (unless it’s memoir), you have to be free to create characters without fear of offending people.
Writing fiction is all about creating characters that are larger than life. They’ll do things that are far more outrageous than real people...and if Uncle Ted recognises himself as the slobbering bore in your novel? That’s his problem!
*****
Thursday May 7 (I really have to learn to be more consistent with my blogs!)
Am over my addiction to Brick Breaker and have almost finished my second manuscript, which is due at Allen & Unwin any minute!
It’s about Kate Cavendish, a married mother who rediscovers her passion for life amidst dealing with a distant husband, a rebellious thirteen-year-old daughter, a heavily pregnant and neurotic sister and parents who reunite after twenty years apart. Kate has a lot to deal with and her life quickly spirals out of control. I’m having a lot of fun writing her story.
Still getting asked lots of questions about Lucy, mostly about whether the characters are based on real people.
The short answer: NO!
Generally speaking, real people are boring – and if they are not boring and you do write about them, they’ll sue. Really compelling characters need to be created. The truth is a character might contain lots of different personality traits from people I’ve met but as a writer I’ll exaggerate these traits. To make a character three dimensional, you need to create their personalities so that they are larger than real life (that's the really fun part) but still believable.
In real life, people often do things for no apparent reason – or because they ‘feel like it’. In fiction, when a character I've created does something, like take off to Bali, there has to be a reason for their actions.
I wouldn't mind taking off to Bali about now!
*****
Friday March 6, 2009
I promised myself I'd write a new blog every two/three weeks and look what's happened -
Tuesday July 28
Kiddies back at school today for another glorious 10 weeks so am doing my best to get organised!
If you're a Brisbanite or happen to be visiting in August, I'll be speaking at Hot August Nights, the Romance Writers annual conference:
Where: Sebel and Citigate Hotel, Brisbane.
When: 14th-16th August 2009
I'll be presenting a workshop, Finding Your Voice in the First Novel, (EEK!) which will cover topics including: How do writers find their ‘voice’. How do writers decide whether first person or third person narrative works best for them? How can they develop a distinctive writing voice? It will offer practical tips on how writers can strengthen their writing confidence so that their writing style is unique and engaging. I just hope that I'm unique and engaging when presenting!
I'll also be chairing the panel discussion, Humour in Writing. This will be a lively discussion (hopefully - otherwise, I'll have to prod the speakers!) about the role of humour in writing, How do writers engage the reader using satire, irony and wit and humour when dealing with complexities of real life - adultery, revenge, divorce, teenage angst? Is it a learned skill? Or natural instinct?
It should be a fun weekend, once I get over the fear factor!
Over the coming weeks, I'll post snippets from the Finding Your Voice workshop on my blog. See what you think!
*****
Wednesday July 15
An interesting snippet appeared in The Daily Telegraph the other day claiming that women most want to curl up with a book that features SEX. Almost 2000 women aged 45 -60 were asked about the books they liked and nearly two thirds said that they were keen on 'raunchy' scenes in novels.
Half said sex in books was 'titillating' and another ten percent said they actively chose books that featured lots of sex. (Women under 45 were obviously too busy actually having sex to respond to the survey!)
Romantic fiction was the most popular genre, chosen by 35% of women, followed by blockbuster crime or mystery, 33%, and general novels, 31%.
Turns out that reference books were the least popular section. Big surprise!
So what can I glean from all of this? I need to put more sex into my novels!!!
*****
Thursday July 2
Am now over the flu but was at death’s door for a good few hours a couple of weeks back. Kids go on school holidays today so am madly trying to finish a few projects that have been languishing in my in-tray for far too long. Still no word from Allen & Unwin re edits for next book due out at Christmas...no news is good news, I think.
Hot topic? Mistakes new writers make.
Character Motivation: Events and actions can’t happen for no reason otherwise it’s not credible. Readers are smart. If your characters are doing things that don’t ring true, readers will lose interest quickly. They’ll tire of situations happening by coincidence. A sequence of events needs to appear logical to keep the reader interested.
Lecturing: Never a good look in fiction. In the middle of a story about a teenager daughter who’s skipping school, that character cannot suddenly launch into a diatribe about saving the whales, unless it’s something her character would do. An author can’t push their own agenda – they can but they’ll lose readers.
Other trivia:
Don't show your character's motivation too early.
Don't ignore professional advice.
DON'T GIVE UP!
*****
Thursday June 11
At home, wallowing in bed, sick! Not with Swine Flu, something far worse, I’m sure. Though, possibly it’s just a head cold and I’m being overly dramatic because no one in my family is showing the slightest concern for my welfare.
Can afford to be slack because my manuscript is with Allen & Unwin and my editor hasn’t called flagging any concerns. Yippee! So now I patiently wait until I get the copy edit back and see how messy it’s become.
The other day a writer friend of mine was upset because she feels she can’t write as freely as she wants for fear of upsetting family and friends.
My advice?
You can’t worry about what friends and family will think, or your scenes and characters won’t flow. You’ll be too busy second-guessing others (who, let’s face it, might never read your work, anyway!) As long as the evil mother-in-law with a penchant for seducing young men in your story, is not actually based on your own mother-in-law and you’re not reliving word for word, the huge family fight that took place at Christmas a year ago, culminating in several restraining orders being issued (unless it’s memoir), you have to be free to create characters without fear of offending people.
Writing fiction is all about creating characters that are larger than life. They’ll do things that are far more outrageous than real people...and if Uncle Ted recognises himself as the slobbering bore in your novel? That’s his problem!
*****
Thursday May 7 (I really have to learn to be more consistent with my blogs!)
Am over my addiction to Brick Breaker and have almost finished my second manuscript, which is due at Allen & Unwin any minute!
It’s about Kate Cavendish, a married mother who rediscovers her passion for life amidst dealing with a distant husband, a rebellious thirteen-year-old daughter, a heavily pregnant and neurotic sister and parents who reunite after twenty years apart. Kate has a lot to deal with and her life quickly spirals out of control. I’m having a lot of fun writing her story.
Still getting asked lots of questions about Lucy, mostly about whether the characters are based on real people.
The short answer: NO!
Generally speaking, real people are boring – and if they are not boring and you do write about them, they’ll sue. Really compelling characters need to be created. The truth is a character might contain lots of different personality traits from people I’ve met but as a writer I’ll exaggerate these traits. To make a character three dimensional, you need to create their personalities so that they are larger than real life (that's the really fun part) but still believable.
In real life, people often do things for no apparent reason – or because they ‘feel like it’. In fiction, when a character I've created does something, like take off to Bali, there has to be a reason for their actions.
I wouldn't mind taking off to Bali about now!
*****
Friday March 6, 2009
I promised myself I'd write a new blog every two/three weeks and look what's happened -
two months have flown by!
The holidays are done and dusted, my kids are well into the new school year and moaning about homework, lack of clean underwear and boring sandwich fillings - and my second manuscript is due at Allen & Unwin on April 1. And what have I been doing?
Not writing that’s for sure, too busy playing games. Once upon a time, I was addicted to Solitaire so I deleted it from my computer, then I discovered Hearts so eventually, I deleted that, too. I’m not completely silly. I saw a potentially bad pattern emerging so I bravely deleted every game from my computer. No more distractions.
But recently, I got a new phone and it has the best game in the world - Brick Breaker. I LOVE IT.
Have I so little to do during the day that I can spend hours on this game? No. But I can’t bring myself to delete it. Even as I write this, my fingers are itching to get back to it! I’ve even taken to pretending I’m texting Very Important Persons when in fact, I’m actually playing the game because my kids have started asking hard questions like, ‘Mum, WHY can’t you stop?’
I wish I knew the answer, truly!
Lucy News:
Lucy Springer Gets Even continues to sell well in the bookshops, though I do make a point of moving copies to the front of shop and placing them face out (of course!) whenever I’m browsing.
A recent review in SMH, Spectrum called LSGE, ‘a sprightly bit of chick-lit...well crafted and lively...containing sharp insights...’
******
Thursday Jan 8, 2009
Lucy Springer Gets Even has made it into the pages of this week’s Woman’s Day in their ‘books for the holidays’ pages, calling the book a ‘sharp, snappy lesson in survival and success’.
Thanks Woman’s Day!
Am thrilled to see Lucy in so many bookshops across Australia, well those I’ve been into anyway. But I have spies who have seen it at the domestic airport in Melbourne, Big W - Ipswich, K-Mart - Rosebud and Angus and Robertson, Shellharbour.
While I am excited, now when I walk into a book shop see the book on a shelf I think, ‘why hasn’t she sold out?’ I guess there’s just no pleasing some people.
I was in Borders, Pitt Street Mall, Sydney, a couple of days ago and stood for a good thirty minutes watching as punters walked in and out of the shop. No, I didn’t collar anyone and suggest that they buy Lucy but still, apologies to those people who thought I was a mad woman/potential stalker.
Am currently trawling the South Coast beaches...
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