30 January 2007

Tagged

Actually, I wasn't but I like it so much I'm going to do it anyway.

1. Grab the book closest to you.
2. Open to page 123, look down to the 5th sentence.
3. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog.
4. Include the title and the author’s name.
5. Tag 3 people

And all the time the bell kept sounding its gentle lamentation on the air. The reiterated chimes sent the young woman's thoughts roaming among old memories of her childhood and schooldays. She remembered the altar at the convent, the tall candlesticks that dwarfed the flower-vases and the tabernacle with the little columns.

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

I'm tagging Ember, Emma and Nancy.

Back on Track

Well, the lawnmower got fixed and is working well and I've put a considerable dent in my current wip which is all to the good. But I've realised I'm bad at Book in a Week or Book in a Month marathons. The promise of them always drags me in, but then I get panicked that I don't do enough and get overwhelmed and jealous of how much other people do.

It's a writing style that just doesn't suite me. I do some editing as I go and I've finally worked out I need to do that to feel connected to my writing. So I'm slow but getting consistent. I wanted to have this 25k novella finished by 31 January but I'm about 3,000 words behind my goal. Not too bad. The first week of February I'll spend finishing it and starting the revisions which is where I add another couple thousand. Then it's birthday week in my family. Aquarians all over the place.

20 January 2007

On being a spinster

There are some days you should never try to do anything requiring thought. Particularly anything involving mechanics. Particularly when it's 32 degrees centigrade. You should just eat ice cream and drink beer in front of the television with the tennis on. Those muscled, fleet footed boys are great to watch in the heat, especially when running around is the last thing on your mind.

But I succumbed to guilt. I'm a gardener, but my garden has been neglected lately and I've always resisted getting a lawn mower. I usually pay someone to mow. In a sudden rush of blood to the head, I went and bought one, thinking it was false economy to fork out fifty bucks a pop for a mow every three weeks or so in summer.

So I bought it home, assembled everything and read the instructions. I dressed sensibly in tracksuit pants, Blundstones (who've just announced they're closing down their Tasmanian factory and moving off shore, the rotters. Boycott Blundstones!) and waited to the cool of the day.

You know what's coming don't you?

I poured oil into the fuel tank.

Sigh. There are days when having a husband looks like a good deal. Not for the sex, not for the intimacy (although that would be fine too), just for the lawn mowing.

Generally, I like being a spinster. As writer, I see myself as a spinner of tales, a crone, a wild woman so I don't mind the term. And I like living alone. But on days like these, I'd just want someone to mow the lawn.

14 January 2007

New web site

I've decided to go very minimalist with my web site. Cool green and white. And here is my new cover from Cobblestone Press! Just perfect. Don't know when it will be out, but I'll sure let you all know.

I wrote a story recently where the main character took me to a place I didn't want to go. It started out light, but she kept wanting to go to a place that was darker and more angst filled. As I was writing I realised she was a country girl and was tramatised by drought. I think we're all traumitised by drought at the moment. I can't remember it being this bad. It feels like it will never be any different, that climate change is with us for good, and this is not just a bad phase.

This issue is coming out in some other stories I'm writing too. I wonder if we'll see more apocalyptic work being published influenced by climate change?

08 January 2007

Sold to Cobblestone Press!

The New Year is looking up! I sold a story to Cobblestone Press. I'd been working on it for a while, teasing it around until I thought it was right. It's an erotic romance story about two people who have to get over their preconceptions about each other.

It's good to have a kick forward like this. It makes me keen to start on a some other projects. My book of the heart is still swirling around in my head so I think I'll have to write it so I can move onto something else, even though some people think it's unsellable. At the moment I'm working on it so I can move forward on a better understanding structure and plot.

01 January 2007

Happy New Year!

It's the New Year already and after a little to much of the grape last night I'm not exactly hung over but a little fragile. I hope what ever the New Year brings you is full of light, laughter and love. That's what I want for myself!

Just lately I'm finding myself being irritable on the variety of writing lists I'm on (New Years resolution, cut them right down). I feel bad tempered and cross with everything I'm reading. It's usually an indication that I'm not writing enough and reading too much of one thing. I feel the need for a good biography or some history. Something that's not fiction. I have Thomas E Ricks Fiasco:The American Military Adventure in Iraqi sitting on my coffee table, so a meaty tome might be good for me.