Merry Christmas!

This is the best Christmas movie ever.

Nanowrimo 2009 is over, and to my great delight, I actually succeeded this year! I finally wrote a novel! It's a steampunk romance, set in the Old West. It still needs a title, not to mention some serious editing before it sees the light of day, but I have proved to myself that I can actually make time for writing when I need to, and produce longer works than I have ever previously attempted. Already I have an idea for another novel in mind. Further details to come once I actually put pen to paper for it.

For the time being, though, I have some short stories to get cracking on. I kept coming up with ideas while I was supposed to be working on my Nano novel. I often get a lot done when I'm procrastinating. Somehow even cleaning the toilet doesn't seem like work when it's not what you're actually supposed to be doing.

Upcoming stories include something Christmas themed, and a were story I've been working on on and off for a while. I'll continued sending off submissions, but I also plan to write one or two short pieces just to post up here. I don't have a formal posting schedule for this blog, I'll just continue to put stuff up whenever I can.

Congratulations to my fellow Nano-ites! Whether you 'won' this year or not you've done some writing and that's what it's all about.

Still struggling on...

...with my Nano novel. Wish me luck!

Bad Sex Awards

I just saw this via Neil Gaiman's twitter. *shudders* It's good to see that even well-respected, prize-winning authors can get it so wrong.

In other news, I am STILL way behind with my Nano novel. Nine days to go, and I'm not even halfway done. Ah well. I'm giving it a red hot go.

Gay Unions Now Legal in Australia

Well, in part of Australia, anyway. It's definately a good start, but the exclusion of transgendered and transexual couples is bizzare.



In other news, Nanowrimo continues. I'm still behind. I'll see how far I can catch up at tomorrow's Write In.

I went to a Nanowrimo 'write-in' for my region today. Typing in a cafe made for a nice change of scene. Strangely, I got a lot more done working in a noisy, crowded public place than I ever seem to at my desk at home. I'm still behind with my word count, but getting less so.

A House Divided

A House Divided

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I love vampires, I really do. I persisted with Anne Rice's series as far as The Vampire Armand, but Lestat's ever increasing Mary-Sueperpowers got on my goat so much that I gave up. I enjoyed the Victorian spookiness of Dracula and Barbara Hambly's Those Who Hunt the Night and Travelling With the Dead, and the quirky Southern weirdness of Poppy Z. Brite's Lost Souls. I've watched everything from late night SBS vampire lesbian erotica to The Lost Boys and enjoyed them all.


BUT-

Werewolves. What can I say? I don't know what it is about them, they're just sexy as Hell. I'm a big fan of the Kelley Armstrong books featuring the female werewolf Elena (and I just found out that there's at least one more about her I haven't read yet. Joy!) and it occurs to me that I haven't read much else in the way of werewolf fiction. There just doesn't seem to be as much of it around as there are vampire stories. Well, I guess it's time to investigate what's out there!

I'd be grateful for any recommendations.

Photo by Jelaga.

Edit:PS, check out this nifty progress meter from Write Or Die. Must get back to my Nano!

Nano has begun!

Nanowrimo 2009 has begun! I am somewhat behind with my word count already, partly because I seem to have contracted Peruvian Death Flu (or something) and currently have lymph nodes the size of grapefruit. Ah well. Hopefully I can catch up when I'm better. I don't want to push myself too hard just now.

Good luck to my fellow Nano-ites!

Scholastic reverses decision to ban gay friendly books from fairs

It's always nice to see sanity prevail.

Thanks to Erec for drawing my attention to this.

Often Inspired

I've got loads of ideas bubbling away in the back of mind, ready for Nanowrimo, and have come up with the beginnings of a plot outline and some character descriptions. It's going to be a Steampunk Erotica story. With zeppelins. I'll be sharing the journey with the folks from the forum at Often Inspired, a fun and supportive community of writers. Now I just need dedication, hard work and a lot of coffee.

Nanowrimo

I've taken the plunge and registered for this year's Nanowrimo. This is probably a completely mad thing to do, since I have quite a number of other time consuming commitments at the moment, but so does just about everybody else who signs up for it, and really, what do I have to lose? My mind, my family's patience, but other than that?

Now I just need to figure out what the heck I'm going to write about. I've had an idea for an historical novel in the back of my mind for a while, but I've left it a bit late to get the research done in time this year. Hmmm. Maybe some steampunk? We'll see... Wish me luck!

The Pronoun Problem

I have a pet hate. You know when you're reading a story and the author feels the need to use the characters' full names every single time they're mentioned?

John Featherington-Smith looked up at the sky. "Hmm. It looks as though a storm is on the way," mused John Featherington-Smith. "I had better close all the windows." With that, John Featherington-Smith walked home to the neighbourhood where John Featherington-Smith had lived in all his life... Etc., etc., etc.

I don't know if the authors do that because they are particularly proud of the names they came up with, or if that's just how they talk in everyday life, but the repetition really annoys me, and being annoyed distracts me from the story. To keep from breaking the narrative flow you can just use a pronoun instead (or at the very least just the character's first name- Surely if we get to share a steamy sex scene with him we're on a first name basis by the end of the tale!). This works okay in a heterosexual story, but I found that when writing lesbian erotica (and presumably the same apples to m/m action), all the 'she did this' and 'she did that' can get confusing. How do you make it clear to the reader which 'she' you're talking about each time? I try to get around it by describing the women (it helps if they're very physically different, or at least have different coloured hair), but it's tricky. If there are any other writers of girl-on-girl out there reading this, what do you do? I'm open to suggestions.



Photo by Ignacio Leonardi

Recent Reads

Since I'm not ready to talk about my own work just at the moment I thought I'd post about what I've been reading recently.

Everyone Worth Knowing by Laren Weisberger
Novel
Genre: Chicklit/Romance(contemporary)

This is the second novel by the bestselling author of The Devil Wears Prada. There aren't as many laugh-out-loud moments as with her first book, but it was a lot of fun, and had me hooked on page one. I comiserated with Bette's struggles to balance her crazy new job with her personal life (though thankfully I've never had to deal with that kind of overlap between the two myself), and any romance reader could relate to the heroine's coming out of the closet as a romance fan. I'll definately be checking out Weisberger's next book.



A Twisted Bard’s Tale~ Selena Kitt
Genre: Erotic romance (lesbian)
Short Story (ebook)

This little story was a different take on Romeo and Juliet. I was expecting an alternate story with the two young lovers as women, but Selena Kitt takes a different, more interesting tack than that. It was amusing and original, and the sex scene was pretty darn hot. I recommend it as a fun, quick read.

Sweet Escape

I have a couple of stories in the pipeline at the moment, but nothing to show just now. However, I did want to share a random shopping tip. I've just been enjoying a couple of days of self pampering, and I am absolutely in love with this facial scrub from Ocean of Bubbles.com. Citrus, shmitrus! Why would I want citrus when they also have chocolate or Vanilla Liquor (the one I'm enjoying at the moment, which smells divine!)? They're all made with natural ingredients, mostly food, which makes sense since if you can't eat it you shouldn't really put it on your skin.

Great, now the subject heading of this post has put the Pina Colada Song in my head. It's a little early in the day to go in search for cocktails. Maybe tonight...

Somebody think of the children!

The Australian Government's mandatory internet censorship scheme still threatens to become a reality. If it does, it will slow down our internet and block access to thousands of sites deemed "harmful and innapropriate to children" to all households, whether there are any children living there or not. Even where there are kids, couldn't parents, I don't know, try supervising them? At the very least they could use one of the optional filters that are already freely available instead of a universal filter inflicted on everybody.

Get Up.org is running a campaign to try and stop the scheme from going ahead. If you're a fellow Aussie and you believe in freedom of information click here to sign the petition.

Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too. -Voltaire

Sinead's Hand

This video is so clever, and a great way to approch a sensitive topic.

Tag! You're it!

The talented EdBeale tagged me for this game. That was almost a year ago, so she may have long since forgotten about it, but now that I’m back online I may as well fill it out.

In this game of Tag, one has to list 7 things about him/herself and pass it on to 7 others, who in turn list 7 things. Should be simple enough…

1. I find glasses terribly sexy, on men or women.

2. Sometimes evangelical Christians spam my MySpace page wanting to save my soul. The last one said he’d had a dream about me, which is flattering, I suppose. I asked him what he was wearing in the dream, and what I was wearing, and did he mind if I invited a friend to watch. He didn’t reply. I guess I’ll never know.

3. If I find any change (down the back of the couch, under a chair) while I’m cleaning the house, it’s mine, regardless who it originally belonged to. Of course, this is irrelevant when you live alone.

4. When the planes crashed into the towers of the World Trade Center I was asleep in my bed.

5. I’m a terrible gardener. I can’t even keep pot plants alive. I have such good intentions when I buy potted herbs, imagining serving my guests pasta with fresh basil, or Thai with homegrown coriander, but then I forget to water them or the cats eat them.

6. My favourite ice cream flavour is choc mint. Or maybe Cookies and Cream. Or Rum and Raisin.

7. As you can see, I am often indecisive.

Well that’s that. Now for the tagging part. I tag…um…

Giselle Renarde
Laurie's Laudanum
Stacy
Deliciously Naughty
Jennifer Muirhead
Sasha White
Tales of a Fantasy Scribbler

I don't know some of them very well (or at all, I just follow their blogs), and of course there's no guarantee they'll want to play, but I had fun.

Whoa...long time, no post. A good friend of mine threatened to, and I quote, "poke [me] with a stick" until I updated this blog, so here is an update. I don't have anything much to report, except that she and I have made a pact to try harder to get some more writing done. I've just sent off another submission, so we'll see what happens.