I've moved over to Wordpress.com. Don't ask. I haven't finished the blogroll yet - I read way too many blogs.
When I finally decide upon and sort out the domain/hosting issues, I'll redirect, but for now I've moved here.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
ROW80 Round Two Sign Up
Round two of ROW80 begins on April 4th, so don't forget to sign up! Read the goals of the participants here.
I have to list my goals and I'm trying to learn my lessons from last time. I'll set some goals for the whole round and then choose specific goals for April. I'm sure I'll change my goals along the way but there are certain things I'd like to aim for. I'm currently editing Taunt so any goals for April will begin on April 4th. School holidays will start soon after round two ends so I'm going to try and pack in as much as possible into this round before I have to go live outside for a few months. :)
Round Two - Main Goals:
Round Two - April Goals:
Looking forward to round two, hope to see everyone again as well as some new faces. :)
I have to list my goals and I'm trying to learn my lessons from last time. I'll set some goals for the whole round and then choose specific goals for April. I'm sure I'll change my goals along the way but there are certain things I'd like to aim for. I'm currently editing Taunt so any goals for April will begin on April 4th. School holidays will start soon after round two ends so I'm going to try and pack in as much as possible into this round before I have to go live outside for a few months. :)
Round Two - Main Goals:
- Write (and finish) first draft of Tempt
- Work on untitled WIP
- Edit Soul
- Edit Taunt
- Outline a project
- Complete a short story
Round Two - April Goals:
- Aim for 10,000 words a week
- Work on first draft of Tempt
- Edit Soul - a full read through taking notes, then one chapter a day
- Complete a short story
Looking forward to round two, hope to see everyone again as well as some new faces. :)
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
The Good, The Bad, and The Pukeworthy
Firstly, sorry to the ROW80ers I haven't visited yet. I'm moving - slowly - forward. A plague descended upon my house again; the day after ROW80 ended, I found myself drowning in kid vomit - gave myself the most awful mental image there, that wouldn't be a good way to go. (BTW, the sickness began after one of the twins locked the entire family into a bedroom - scariest fifteen minutes of my life). I'm not used to kid vomit, despite having five kids. Sex education should involve cleaning up kid puke, just saying.
I've missed lots of news online, apparently. Much writerly drama about trad and indie and people crossing over and everyone having an opinion and *snore*, sorry. Then much amusement and cringing and eye-rolling over an indie flipping the lid over a bad review on a blog I subscribe to - except the review itself wasn't even that bad. It's like the blogging version of the American Idol/X-Factor tryouts up in here sometimes.
However, as much as I detest writers complaining about reviews (it's like picking a scab, leave it alone people), I felt bad by the end because there are lots of relatively more successful writers who have acted much the same (and worse) on their Amazon reviews yet managed to get away with it without a score of one star reviews popping up. I keep rewriting and deleting what I was about to say next so I'll leave it there, I think.
After reading a lot of nastiness, I got to the blog of Sean Sweeney/John Fitch V. He's trying to make a sales goal of 350 copies this month and needs 19 more sales to reach that. After all of the negative dramaz, the air needs some good karma so if anyone would like to help a writer out, his books are priced from 99c.
I've missed lots of news online, apparently. Much writerly drama about trad and indie and people crossing over and everyone having an opinion and *snore*, sorry. Then much amusement and cringing and eye-rolling over an indie flipping the lid over a bad review on a blog I subscribe to - except the review itself wasn't even that bad. It's like the blogging version of the American Idol/X-Factor tryouts up in here sometimes.
However, as much as I detest writers complaining about reviews (it's like picking a scab, leave it alone people), I felt bad by the end because there are lots of relatively more successful writers who have acted much the same (and worse) on their Amazon reviews yet managed to get away with it without a score of one star reviews popping up. I keep rewriting and deleting what I was about to say next so I'll leave it there, I think.
After reading a lot of nastiness, I got to the blog of Sean Sweeney/John Fitch V. He's trying to make a sales goal of 350 copies this month and needs 19 more sales to reach that. After all of the negative dramaz, the air needs some good karma so if anyone would like to help a writer out, his books are priced from 99c.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
End of Round One Check-In
Last day of ROW80's first round. Well done to everyone who took part and I hope we all meet again in Round Two. Say congrats and farewell to all here.
Today is my 28th birthday so it's nice to end the writing challenge in time for a minor celebration. In the last 80 days I've edited (and rewritten the second half of) Verity, rewritten Taunt and finished the first draft of STS. I've outlined Tempt and finished a couple of short stories and a novellette. I've stuck to my weekly word count for the most part and tried to form a writing schedule and plan I can stick to. I'm happy with the progress but I feel like I didn't push myself. One of my aims for the next round will be to stretch my limits a bit more.
I'm not sure what my exact goals for the next round will be - I have five novels calling out for edits, I need to get to the first draft of Tempt before I finish editing Taunt and there are five stories waiting to be written that have been shouting a lot louder this year. Well, they have been waiting for quite a while. Ideal goal would be to work on a first draft and an edit simultaneously as well as preparing outlines for the stories that can't wait much longer but I keep forgetting about that other important five - my children. All of the fives feel like a good sign. ;)
When I was born, Bonnie Tyler was already topping the charts in Ireland and MJ's Billie Jean was number 1 in the US. Billie Jean is one of my son's favourite songs now - strange!
Today is my 28th birthday so it's nice to end the writing challenge in time for a minor celebration. In the last 80 days I've edited (and rewritten the second half of) Verity, rewritten Taunt and finished the first draft of STS. I've outlined Tempt and finished a couple of short stories and a novellette. I've stuck to my weekly word count for the most part and tried to form a writing schedule and plan I can stick to. I'm happy with the progress but I feel like I didn't push myself. One of my aims for the next round will be to stretch my limits a bit more.
I'm not sure what my exact goals for the next round will be - I have five novels calling out for edits, I need to get to the first draft of Tempt before I finish editing Taunt and there are five stories waiting to be written that have been shouting a lot louder this year. Well, they have been waiting for quite a while. Ideal goal would be to work on a first draft and an edit simultaneously as well as preparing outlines for the stories that can't wait much longer but I keep forgetting about that other important five - my children. All of the fives feel like a good sign. ;)
When I was born, Bonnie Tyler was already topping the charts in Ireland and MJ's Billie Jean was number 1 in the US. Billie Jean is one of my son's favourite songs now - strange!
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Mrs. Van Winkle
I'm not sure if I've met my goals this week, probably not. Visit the others here.
Last weekend, I started feeling sick and I ended up sleeping for most of the week. For example, on Wednesday I slept for 20 hours so I just gave up on the ROW80 thing (and the everything else thing) for this week. Still sick but feeling better than before so I'll try to put in more of an effort visiting and commenting. After I've had a nap. :)
I did get some reading done, and read a book I really enjoyed - One Insular Tahiti by Thea Atkinson. Really impressed me. I'd been saving it for when I had some time because I had a feeling I'd like it. The first couple of chapters didn't grab me at all but I kept reading and found myself unable to put the thing down so, yeah, win. I'm definitely going to read the rest of Thea's books and I'll just say how annoying it is when this good of a writer isn't selling books by the bucketload. The product description can't do it justice, it's beautifully written and the characters are really well done. *Impressed face*
Last weekend, I started feeling sick and I ended up sleeping for most of the week. For example, on Wednesday I slept for 20 hours so I just gave up on the ROW80 thing (and the everything else thing) for this week. Still sick but feeling better than before so I'll try to put in more of an effort visiting and commenting. After I've had a nap. :)
I did get some reading done, and read a book I really enjoyed - One Insular Tahiti by Thea Atkinson. Really impressed me. I'd been saving it for when I had some time because I had a feeling I'd like it. The first couple of chapters didn't grab me at all but I kept reading and found myself unable to put the thing down so, yeah, win. I'm definitely going to read the rest of Thea's books and I'll just say how annoying it is when this good of a writer isn't selling books by the bucketload. The product description can't do it justice, it's beautifully written and the characters are really well done. *Impressed face*
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Brief Check-In
Check-in: Hit my word count goal on STS. Support the rest of the gang here.
Writing daily and hitting word count goals. Thinking about my goals for next round and how I'm going to edit and work on first drafts at the same time. Managing time will be important.
Finally a Kindle owner - anyone know if it's worth getting some early reader books for the Kindle?
Writing daily and hitting word count goals. Thinking about my goals for next round and how I'm going to edit and work on first drafts at the same time. Managing time will be important.
Finally a Kindle owner - anyone know if it's worth getting some early reader books for the Kindle?
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
For Love of Enid
Check-in: Word count goal met while working on STS. Soak up the sanity here.
March is my giddy month so I'm trying not to post the blog equivalent of hysterical giggling. Been working on STS, minding my own business when all of a sudden the MC unleashed a crapton of backstory - now I see why she's been making so many dodgy choices. Have I mentioned how much I love writing?
I haven't been nabbing as much writing time as usual. Mostly because bedtime is taking up all of the freaking night. Right now, I can hear two kids having a show-down upstairs and the twins in the next room doing their best Charlie Bit Me impersonations. I'm hiding in the dark so they won't see me laughing. It's my fault for having five kids - babies are so easy, they just eat and sleep and poo and look cute all day long. Then they start walking and all hell breaks loose. If I decided to write Mammy Fiction, I'd have decades of material. :)
I was reading up about Enid Blyton earlier. She was (despite motherhood) scarily prolific and popular and yet panned by critics as being a mediocre writer. Her books are still being sold - not bad for a mediocre writer.
When I was a kid, I devoured her books - she made me think I could be a writer. Roald Dahl taught me that writing could be dark and fun. I know there's a lot of old-fashioned terms and ideals that people like to censor but I definitely didn't grow up racist or thinking that men should rule the world. Quite the opposite, in fact. Although I'm very firm on the cheating is awfully bad stance. :D
Blyton's books were quite preachy though (which is kind of amusing considering her personal life), and I'm not sure why I loved them so much - maybe the lack of adults was the draw. Maybe it was the fact I kept waiting for George to smack Julian. Maybe it was the homeless circus boys who owned friendly monkeys, the circus girls who could ride wild horses or the ordinary girl taken in by the circus who could tame anything. (I soooo wanted to join the circus). Let's not get started on the tuckboxes and the snobby posh girl at boarding school. And the Faraway Tree? Beat that if you can. That kind of book is absolutely one of the first stories that drew me to writing. Think of anything, create it, and there's a ready-made world for you to jump into. Anything can happen because you make it so.
March is my giddy month so I'm trying not to post the blog equivalent of hysterical giggling. Been working on STS, minding my own business when all of a sudden the MC unleashed a crapton of backstory - now I see why she's been making so many dodgy choices. Have I mentioned how much I love writing?
I haven't been nabbing as much writing time as usual. Mostly because bedtime is taking up all of the freaking night. Right now, I can hear two kids having a show-down upstairs and the twins in the next room doing their best Charlie Bit Me impersonations. I'm hiding in the dark so they won't see me laughing. It's my fault for having five kids - babies are so easy, they just eat and sleep and poo and look cute all day long. Then they start walking and all hell breaks loose. If I decided to write Mammy Fiction, I'd have decades of material. :)
I was reading up about Enid Blyton earlier. She was (despite motherhood) scarily prolific and popular and yet panned by critics as being a mediocre writer. Her books are still being sold - not bad for a mediocre writer.
When I was a kid, I devoured her books - she made me think I could be a writer. Roald Dahl taught me that writing could be dark and fun. I know there's a lot of old-fashioned terms and ideals that people like to censor but I definitely didn't grow up racist or thinking that men should rule the world. Quite the opposite, in fact. Although I'm very firm on the cheating is awfully bad stance. :D
Blyton's books were quite preachy though (which is kind of amusing considering her personal life), and I'm not sure why I loved them so much - maybe the lack of adults was the draw. Maybe it was the fact I kept waiting for George to smack Julian. Maybe it was the homeless circus boys who owned friendly monkeys, the circus girls who could ride wild horses or the ordinary girl taken in by the circus who could tame anything. (I soooo wanted to join the circus). Let's not get started on the tuckboxes and the snobby posh girl at boarding school. And the Faraway Tree? Beat that if you can. That kind of book is absolutely one of the first stories that drew me to writing. Think of anything, create it, and there's a ready-made world for you to jump into. Anything can happen because you make it so.
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