Monthly Archives: July 2013

Life is good

29 Monday Jul 2013

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I have been reading a book to help me navigate the crazy maze we call social media. It’s called “Are you there Blog? It’s me writer.” by Kristen Lamb. You can check it out here There’s a chapter about what I guess is basically positive thinking.

It got me thinking!

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I am blessed to be able to work from home! Our transport company enables me to slot in writing time between processing invoices. I get to pretend to be efficient when answering the phone, even though I’m actually hanging tea towels on the clothesline. When I get sick of sitting at the computer, I go out and prune the roses. Yes reader, I have finally tidied them up. I’m hoping for a good display this spring, stay tuned.

I mean how good is that!

reading in sun

I get to sit in the winter sunshine and read books and call it working! Even if I do answer phone calls regarding loads from Melbourne to Sydney, between sentences. There aren’t many jobs where you can just pick up your work and carry it outside to take advantage of the sunny day.

So enough of me feeling sorry for myself. I have it good and I know it!

One of the perks of having a transport company I get to drive out west sometimes and I see things and countryside that inspire me. Some places inspire me to write romance, have you ever been to Hill End? I have an idea for a story set in the Gold Rush town. It’s a great place to visit, if you ever get the chance. I’d love to write a suspense horror story set in a place like the small town of Sofala NSW. That place is fantastic, you can almost here the Duelling Banjo’s. (no offence to anyone in Sofala, I actually love it, it has such an atmosphere and old world charm, your left with an eerie feeling of being lost in time.)

Deliverance

I’ve mentioned before, here, (last week) that I am planning a Rural Romance for my next story, and so have provisionally set it in the Dunedoo area. I’ve travelled through, and stopped at, Dunedoo many times. But to set a story there I will have to go out for a day or two and have a closer look. I also need to research the history of the area as my MC will be going on an emotional journey into her family’s history. She will search out connections with the Colonial settlers in her family tree. I can tell you here and now reader, this sort of thing excites me. I get lost in the hunt and sometimes don’t emerge from Google for days.

settlers

So, reader do you like history? I’m fascinated by the lives of our country’s earliest European settlers. I love to read about the contact between the northern invaders and the indigenous Australians. There were many heartwarming stories as well as the horrible events.

Do you ever wish to time travel back to see first hand what it was really like? I do. So I hope to perhaps connect with our forefathers via fiction, and perhaps we can share the journey. In the meantime, I am going to be grateful for what I have and enjoy the benefits. As there are always benefits. Sometimes we just have to look a little harder.

The things we do, a double whammy

26 Friday Jul 2013

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At heart, I am a country girl. My family moved from the suburbs of Sydney to the Hunter Valley when I was nine years old. From as early as I can recall, I was obsessed with dogs, cats, horses, cows and chooks. (I lie reader, I’m not into chooks, but I love fresh eggs.) I would sit for hours with my paternal grandfather, listening to his tales of growing up with horses and I dreamed of having one of my own. boots

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I begged for a horse from the age of three and we finally got our first pony when I about thirteen (though I had to share). In the intervening years I used to “borrow” horses from our absentee neighbours. True, I didn’t exactly have permission, but I always returned them! Then into our lives came Dolly. Dolly the wonder horse with excessive flatulence. Jet propelled, the old black mare was a nasty old stinker who was almost impossible to catch. I wasn’t allowed to have a saddle, we had to learn to ride bareback! I think that was just a convenient excuse for my parents who probably couldn’t afford a saddle.

Dolly

So began a learning experience that I am so glad I had. I learned to ride bareback on the bony old thing. Added to her other delightful habits was a dangerous tendency to bolt. Or in layman’s terms, to totally ignore the bit and take off in an attempt to rid herself of me. She taught me to hang on. Because if I fell off, I not only hurt myself, I had to catch her again, she would take off for home, leaving my stranded on the side of the road or in a field. Since then, I’ve had a few horses. Dabbled in dressage, at local shows, pony club, barrel racing and even western. I hung out with friends who competed in reining, cutting, rodeo’s and even three day eventing. I doubt I’d ever have done anything worthy of note with my riding, but I had tonnes of fun.

Cutting

One thing that I did get from riding was a friendship with a local blacksmith, cow-cocky, and cattle carter. Every sixteen year old girl need an old bloke to show her old fashioned respect and be willing to teach and guide her. We didn’t have a grandfather living close by, but Ray Hawkins was my surrogate grandfather. I learned to muster, castrate, drench and brand cattle. I went to the cattle sales, hung off the fence and chatted with the auctioneers and cattlemen. I bought and sold cattle. Poddy raised calves (that’s fed them milk from a bucket and became a mum) and sold them. I had a brilliant time in my teens and early twenties. I went all over the Hunter Valley with my mentor and learned so much.

All this leads up to telling you something exciting, two “some-things” actually. My next novel will be a rural romance, set on a cattle and sheep property. Now, in case you were wondering, I do have a very small amount of sheep station knowledge. I worked as a station cook on a sixty thousand acre property in the Riverina in my early twenties.

sheep99

Forward twenty plus years. My darling husband and I are excited about the prospect of purchasing a grazing property one day, and so have been scanning the real estate websites and dreaming. All this is leading to me sharing that, in a research and green-change learning curve combo, I am enrolling to do some agricultural courses both locally (Tocal) (link) and south of Sydney (Camden).

Cows

I have some experience in the dairy industry too, I love my cows 🙂 I didn’t like the 4am starts on mornings with the temperature in the minus’s, but I did love the cows.dairy

In the research stakes, I’ll learn some of what my MC will need to learn to be able to run a profitable station. In the green-change stakes, I’ll learn some basic skills in pasture care and improvement and beef care and handling. I’m excited.

dream view

So I’ll be able to research some valuable information for my two loves in life. Writing and the land.

Do you love the country too? Or are you a city chick (or guy) through and through?

Trying to be funny, usually isn’t

22 Monday Jul 2013

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Hello again reader. Today’s blog post is about humour.

laughing horse

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I’m usually pretty un-funny if I’m trying. I love books with humour and authors like Janet Evanovich, Marion Keyes and Dawn French are hilarious. I also adore PG Wodehouse, if you’ve never heard of Bertie Wooster, then you just don’t know what you’ve been missing.  I on the other hand am not, hilarious, that is.

Jeeves and Wooster

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Sure, I can manage to evoke a bit of a giggle at times, but it seems the harder I try the more lame it sounds. In real life I can keep the good folk in the kitchen giggling, take my juggling prowess for example. I cannot juggle three oranges, but I can juggle two oranges while holding the third in my hand at the same time. This, I can tell you, has provoked the odd chuckle. But it hardly qualifies as a comedy does it?

juggling oranges

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Reader, I’m sure there are online workshops and writing classes that will promise to teach me to writing amusing prose. But really? I mean, if I have to do a six week course to try to be funny I somehow think I should not bother. What is humour after all?

My funny may be poles apart from yours. I might like slapstick, you may be more cerebral. You probably are. I love clever funny, my darling husband loves stupid funny! What can I say? He is watching a ridiculous comedy while I write this! “Rock of Ages” It’s funny, in a really dumb way. (No offence to anyone who thought Tom Cruise was hot in it 😛 )

So, I hear you asking, are my books funny?

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My answer is that I hope so. At least enough to bring forth a slightly amused smile when reading. Sometimes when I read back through my writing I come across a paragraph that makes me chuckle. But perhaps that’s the answer for me. I can do slightly amusing.

How about you? Do you like funny stories? Stories with elements of humour? Or doesn’t it make a scrap of difference to you?

If I were to be interviewed

15 Monday Jul 2013

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I’m always reading writer interviews and I think about how I’d answer some of these questions. So I thought I’d interview myself. Weirdo that I am!

Question: How would you describe yourself?

I’m fun loving. 40 plus (I’m not telling). I love reading, writing and day dreaming. Happily married with hundreds of borrowed children.

Me NYE 2012

Question: Who’s your favourite author?

I love many authors, but my all time faves, writer’s who’s books I purchase as soon as they are out, are Diana Gabaldon, Kerry Greenwood and my new fave is Cathryn Hein.

Outlander Series

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Question: Why write?

I started mucking about with writing in my teens and have had several half hearted goes at writing a novel every ten years or so. Until we started our transport company that kept my darling husband away through the week. Then I began to consider writing in earnest. Writing has become an outlet, a companion and an obsession.

Question: You wish you’d wrote? 

Probably Diana Gabaldon’s “Outlander” series and of course, you know what I’m going to say, “Harry Potter” who wouldn’t like to have written those books.

Question: Something we don’t know about you? 

Mmm, well that’s a hard one, as you probably don’t know much about me in the first place. But, I lived on a sheep station in the Riverina when I was in my twenties and was a cook in the homestead.

sheep99

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Question: In one sentence tell us about your WIP? 

I’m editing Something in the Water at the moment and it’s a contemporary suspense romance set in the beautiful squalor of the Solomon Islands.

Question: Publishing? Are you? 

I dream of being published. So far though, I feel as if I’m still practising, I am unpublished. I am going to try for traditional publishing for Something in the Water, hopefully before the end of the year.

Question: What would you be doing if you weren’t writing? 

Likely, just reading and listening to audio books. My garden would probably be in a better state and I’d have a winter vegetable garden.

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(see what a mess my roses are)

So, there you have it, a mini selfie-interview.

If you’d like to know anything else, feel free to ask. I can’t guarantee I’ll tell you, but I will answer <wink>

Ideas, where I get them, and what do I do with em . . .

01 Monday Jul 2013

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I read a blog recently about what readers want to read about when they check out an authors blog. I’ve been to several events in the last few month, where authors are asked the inevitable question: WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR IDEAS?

This got me thinking, where do I get my ideas?

thinking

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After lengthy consideration, I have come to the conclusion that ideas are just random thoughts for me. Thoughts that, at some point, inject themselves into a setting that seems interesting.

For example, my current WIP is set around the Kurri Kurri Nostalgia Festival. I’d seen quite a few photo’s and I love the retro 50’s style. I saw a photo on Facebook of a girl dressed in a gorgeous 50’s dress and had her hair done up into a Victory Roll. I didn’t know what a Victory Roll was at that point, but it got me looking for more. Again, on Facebook I was scrolling and as I follow Tara Moss, when she posted a link to You Tube and how to fashion a Victory Roll on Diary of a Vintage Girl, I watched the video. Another seed to add to my ideas garden. All seeds are simply put aside at this stage, stashed, ready and waiting for the day with it all starts to come together.

Diary of a Vintage Girl

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Again, and again I visited the blog, Diary of a Vintage Girl and I had a little scenario roll out. Suddenly the season was upon me, the soil was dug over and my watering can was at the ready. Time to plant the seeds.

I use the Notes program on my phone to keep snippets of ideas and scenes until I’m ready to do more. Then as I have a MacBook Air and an iPad Mini they all sync so my notes are flung from device to device and I can access them most of the time.

I seem to have my best thoughts when I have no pen or paper or computer at hand, or even if I do, it’s not safe to use either. But there is a voice recorder on my phone, and I make good use of that. I can’t afford to miss a single thought or idea as I am not one who can keep hold of the slippery little wisps.

To get things started I begin a process that I learned from Roz Morris’ “NAIL YOUR NOVEL”. I scribble ideas onto pieces of paper and stick them in a little timber box I keep for just his purpose. These add up over a few days and up to a few weeks.

starting out

Next I go through the ideas and the ones that are in line with where I want my story to go are transferred to sticky notes that are stuck into a whiteboard (or two) and then I begin to shuffle. I colour code my sticky notes for characters or plots and subplots.

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While the shuffling process continues I do a little research. Or a lot as I tend to lose myself in the world of Google and almost forget to come up for air!

When the shuffling is complete and I see that the story threads and arc’s are close to how I want them, an even distribution of colours, I divide the ideas into scenes or chapters. These are then entered into Scrivener. Amongst all this I am usually playing around with character profiles and finding suitable pictures and pinning these to a board on Pinterest.

This process should take a month or so to complete, but I’m an impatient person so sometimes (last time) I raced ahead before I had the whole plot sorted and go myself lost. Here is the blog post about getting lost and finding my way again if you’re interested.

Then the fun begins. I come out of the starting gates a full speed and seem to maintain the pace for at least two chapters reader. Then I start to slow, and the subsequent three to four chapters seem to be hard work. Usually once I get past the fifth or sixth chapter I am on a roll and I can write quickly. I think that despite of the planning and character development, it isn’t until about the fifth chapter that my main characters have revealed themselves. So by chapter seven and onward I can canter along at a steady pace, just following their leads.

Nostalgia first draft

So there you have it. My writing process, such as it is. But what about you? Do you write? Paint? Draw? Where do you get your ideas?