• Home
  • About

paulabeavan

~ The Occasional Blogger

paulabeavan

Tag Archives: RWA

Better late than never, I hope . . .

17 Monday Feb 2014

Posted by Paula Beavan in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

50K30D, back yard renovation, Clayton's conference, editing, Harper Impulse, laying turf, NaNoWriMo, retaining wall, RWA, sir walter buffalo, writing

Dear reader, I can only apologise for my long absence. I have no excuse except perhaps rebelliousness.

I have been busy, trying to continue to write, edit, keep our business going and assist in a major back yard blitz.

Back yard and chickens

Pre Backyard Blitz

2013-06-04 11.03.20

Until Dave came home with a mini excavator

2013-06-05 13.26.58

And it started to look a bit messy

Then came the dingo, that was a bit wild, with the thing almost tipping over, that may have been the operator though :)

Then came the dingo, that was a bit wild, with the thing almost tipping over, that may have been the operator though 🙂

Then we had rain . . .

Then we had rain . . .

retaining wall under construction

retaining wall under construction

Now let's have a go with the bobcat

Now let’s have a go with the bobcat

back filling, more wild moments

back filling, more wild moments

now for the topsoil

now for the topsoil

and turf- Sir Walter soft leaf buffalo- lovely

and turf- Sir Walter soft leaf buffalo- lovely

Beautiful new back yard

Beautiful new back yard

As you can see, it’s been pretty busy and I admit that visiting here and keeping in touch have been pushed so far to the back of the stove that it was in danger of falling off.But to bring you up to speed, I was so sick during NaNoWriMo and I kept writing to make sure I made my 50K. And I suffered for it. I should have given up and gone to bed, instead I persisted and burned out in a big way. December was full of trying to finish, restart, restructure and sort out the mess I’d made of the story. I’d done so much research for it and planned everything out meticulously only to have it come to a lot of incomprehensible waffle. Now I don’t even want to look at it all. It’s dreadful and garbage. But perhaps one day it will come to light and I’ll see if it’s redeemable. Just not yet.

On a good note, I received wonderful feedback for Something on the Water from Charlotte Ledger of Harper Impulse (remember I won a manuscript development in August with RWA’s Clayton’s Conference?), and have been slogging away at rewriting SITW for about the gazillionth time. At times I’ve felt like tossing the whole thing, thinking if it takes me this many goes to get the darn thing right I should just toss it. But then I realised it’s all good practice, and who knows, it may even finish up publishable. Wouldn’t that be nice?

And so that’s me, for the last two and a half months, I’ve been hiding, editing, trying my hand a little poetry and renovating our back yard.

I apologise for my slack friendship, and hope you’ll forgive me and we can remain friends.

Enough about me, what have you been up to? How was your Christmas and holiday season? Did you work through most of it like I did or were you laying back enjoying the sun, or the snow? I’d love to hear so please, share.

Winning and Grinning

26 Monday Aug 2013

Posted by Paula Beavan in Uncategorized

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

cathryn hein, Charlotte Ledger, Claytons, community, competition, development, Harper Impulse, manuscript, missed call, Paula Beavan, Romance, rural romance, RWA, winner, Writer, writing

Well hello reader, how’ve you been?

It’s been an awesome week for me. Frightening and exciting all at the same time. But I’ll come to that later.

The first thing I have to share is that last week was the Romance Writer’s of Australia’s annual conference. It’s held in beautiful Freemantle, Western Australia.  I wished I could have made it. Without being too worried about why I couldn’t, I’ll get on with telling you about what I was able to attend! The Clayton’s Conference. The wonderful people at RWA hold an online conference that runs over the same weekend as the live event, so that we, who couldn’t make it to Freemantle don’t miss out.

claytons2013logo

I signed up and I wasn’t disappointed! The online event ran from Friday evening to Sunday night and was jam packed with online sessions ran by several authors, an editor from Random House and the content developer for Harper Impulse. It was fabulous to be able to ask questions of these industry professionals in real time. Not to mention the fantastic questions that other’s asked.

I wrote last week about the wonder of the writing community and I consider myself blessed that I have found most everyone to be welcoming, encouraging and helpful. Well things have just got better.

Beyond my wildest dreams, better!

dream field

<image credit>

I won a three month manuscript development opportunity with Harper Impulse content developer Charlotte Ledger! I was so excited reader, I could barely speak! I know, hard to believe.

So, let me tell you how I came to be a winner!

When I first joined RWA I had no idea what a fantastic move it was going to be! I have Cathryn Hein to thank for recommending I join. (Cathryn writes fantastic Rural Romance, check her books out here)

Pretty soon after joining up, I saw there was a June write-a-thon about to start and I thought, why not? I had Festival barely started and going off track, so I signed up for #50ks30days and got stuck in. I met some awesome writers in the 50ks chat room and we clicked and clacked and kept each other company. Great fun and a 60K first draft done in 30 days. I was pretty happy with this, as you can imagine reader!

One subject that continued to pop up in the chat room was the RWA conference coming up! I began to wish I could go, but a only 2 months notice and lack of funds, I knew I couldn’t. Next year is in Sydney and I will be going!

Well RWA keep their members well informed and so I heard about the Clayton’s Online Conference and I signed up, I know, I’d already said that, but!!! Wait for it! An email appeared in the inbox and all the Claytoneers were invited to send in an email entry. Send in contact details with book title, word count, genre and where I was up to with the ms. I sent in Something in the Water, 65K, romantic suspense, 4th edit!

Whoo hoo, guess what reader?? Yep, I won!

winner is

<image credit>

Me, who has not won anything other than a leg of ham at the Christmas Raffle. I did! I won a THREE MONTH MANUSCRIPT DEVELOPMENT FOR SOMETHING IN THE WATER!

With Charlotte Ledger of Harper Impulse! Ha!

The funny thing was, I went to visit a friend in hospital and turned my phone to silent and missed two phone calls to tell me I’d won!

The next day I went to Sydney and on the way home I saw I’d a missed call so listened to the message! It was Dana Scully, of RWA not X Files, and she left a message to tell me that I’d won! I also received a couple of emails from her and another from Charlotte Ledger.

Anyway, I’ve sent off the synopsis for Something in the Water and the first three chapters for Charlotte to have a look at and now I wait for her response. In the meantime I’ll be finishing the 4th, or is that the 7th edit on SITW and trying to calm my crazy palpitating heart.

Have you ever won something reader? Do you even enter competitions? I don’t usually, which is probably why I never win anything. But this is one time I came out a winner. Please share your winning and grinning moment, I’d love to hear about it.

Paula Beavan Author

Paula Beavan Author

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 256 other followers

Recent Posts

  • The winding path into writing again
  • 10 Things About Being Published (That I Wish Someone Had Told Me)
  • Pictish Burial Practices and Remains
  • Going a-viking in 2016
  • In good times and in bad

Archives

  • January 2020
  • May 2016
  • March 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • October 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel

 
Loading Comments...
Comment
    ×