Celebrate the Small Things 27-3-26

 

It's the end of the week, so what am I celebrating?

It's the weekend!

Well, except it isn't really for me.  I have to work this weekend because the orchestra is going to Christchurch and I'm going with them.  I haven't been to Christchurch for many, many years - more than 20, I think.  Definitely not since the earthquakes.  So, that should be interesting.  One of my colleagues from the Film Commission has moved down there recently, so I'm going to catch up with her in the afternoon, before I have to go to the venue.

I finally had an idea for a new book.  It's a little like A Stranger to Kindness in that I'm not sure I'm a good enough writer to pull off the character that's coming into focus, but I'm willing to give it a shot.  Weirdly, I'm also thinking this one needs to be in third person present tense which I've never attempted before.  It's not one I particularly like reading so it's weird that this story feels like it has to be written that way.

But, I've done this enough times now to know not to argue when my brain starts putting things out there.  I just have to go with it and see how things turn out.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: Careering

I really related to this book on so many levels.  It's about a very specific time in life, one I remember very vividly and kind of perfectly captured the emotion of that time.  

Imogen is in her twenties.  Not the early part either.  She's wanted to work in magazine publishing forever and has done the hard yards, interning and being a junior and working without pay to get that valuable experience while working menial other jobs to pay the rent.  Her real love, writing, is channeled into her blog which she writes between her jobs in a factory, a pub and her internships.

Harri is on track to be the editorial director of glossy fashion mag, Panache.  Until she isn't.  The company is taking the magazine in a new direction and Harri and her years of experience aren't needed.  To soften the blow, she's offered the chance to start a new online product for younger women: The Know.  She thinks the outrageous content on Imogen's blog might be just what this new product needs and invites her to be part of her new team.

Imogen is thrilled.  As an intern at Panache, she's long admired Harri and thinks all her dreams have come true.  Especially when one of her first stories for The Know goes viral and puts the new product on the map. 

It seems like a fairy tale but why is Imogen still so unhappy?  And how can Harri impress upon the business owners that she does know what she's doing with this?

Following two women at opposite ends of the their careers, this book explores ambition in an interesting way.  It also shows how cold and uncaring business can be, where even huge successes aren't enough to be praised because that level of revenue needs to be maintained.

I related to Imogen's struggle because I remember that time of life very well.  Working three jobs, just to get a foot in the door of the industry I wanted to be a part of while struggling to support myself doing anything else.  Working long hours for nothing - in my case it was for a film festival - because it was something I loved and believed in and wanted so much to be a part of.  And the disillusionment when that thing I wanted so much, wasn't quite what I thought it might be.

Harri's story also resonated - that realization that you've worked your whole life for something that doesn't really belong to you at all.  That doesn't care about you and will go on without you after you're gone.  I've never been in quite that position, but I've certainly been in jobs where I knew I'd be forgotten five minutes after I left.

So, while I enjoyed the content and premise of the book, I really didn't love the characters.  Which kid of ruined it for me.  Imogen was kind of whiny and judgmental.  She felt privileged, yet pointed out everyone else's privilege and whiled about how she'd grown up with nothing.  And the way she treated her parents and friends was appalling.

On the other hand, Harri seemed totally unaware of the effect her actions had on her staff and how terrorized they felt by her.  As someone who had lived the struggle they'd been through, I'd have thought she might have more compassion - even with the evil overlords from head office breathing down her neck.

So, reading this was a mixed experience.  I'm not sure I can wholeheartedly recommend it, but I didn't hate it.

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

Imogen has always dreamed of writing for a magazine. Infinite internships later, she dreams of any job. Writing her blog around double shifts at the pub is neither fulfilling her creatively nor paying the bills.

Harri might just be Imogen's fairy godmother. She's moving from the glossy pages of Panache magazine to launch a fierce feminist site, The Know. And she thinks Imogen's most outrageous sexual content will help generate the clicks she needs. But Imogen's fairy-tale ending soon sours as she finds herself putting more and more of herself into writing for a company that doesn't care if she sinks or swims.

Neither woman is aware of the crucial thing they have in common. Harri, at the other end of her career, has also been bitten and betrayed by the industry she has given herself to. Will she wake up to the way she's being exploited before her protégé realizes that not everything is copy? Can either woman reconcile their love for work with the fact that work will never love them back?

Weekly Goals 23-3-26

 It's going to be a busy week with the season opening on Thursday, so I'm not going to make too many plans for the week outside work.  Especially since I go back to teaching at the gym this week as well.  I did a full spin class yesterday, and while I probably wasn't up there in terms of the gear I put on, I did make it through.  Which gives me hope that I'll be fine teaching my 30 minute class tomorrow and Thursday.

I also plan to ride my bike to work as much as I can this week too.  Getting my fitness back is very important to me and daylight saving ends in just a few weeks so I want to get as much riding in as I can before it gets too dark in the evenings.

Still haven't got any burning idea for a new book, which is unusual.  I think maybe my brain is telling me I need to take a break after writing two in such quick succession.  I'm getting quite a stockpile of unsold books piling up in my hard drive!

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 21-3-26

 

It's the end of the week, so what am I celebrating?

It's the weekend!

It has been a long week, so I'm looking forward to a little down time.  The orchestra season starts next week, so it's going to be busy from now until December.

I rode my bike to work for the first time since my surgery and it felt good.  I did feel a little tired and sore when I got home, but not too bad and I didn't hurt the next day.  This weekend I plan to do a spin class too, just to make sure I can before I go back to teaching on Tuesday.

I've managed to write flash fiction four out of five days this week, which is pretty good.  Not sure I'll be able to do the same next week, but we shall see...

The new (well, the old library that's been closed for earthquake strengthening since 2019) opened this week and it's a really beautiful space.  I can't wait to go and spend a day writing there.  And they have all but my newest book on the shelves in the YA section.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: Daisy Darker

Set over one night in a house on a remote island only accessible at low tide, this was a very creepy little thriller.

After many years apart, Daisy's family gather at Nana's house to celebrate her 80th birthday.  As kids, the three girls spent a lot of time here, especially after their parents divorced, yet their memories of their time on the island are not all sunny and fun-filled.  So, each family member arrives with a lot of baggage (and I'm not talking about suitcases).

At midnight, when the tide is at its peak and the island is cut off from the mainland for the next 8 hours, Nana is found murdered in the kitchen.

As a storm rages outside, the family gather to try and figure out who could have done something so heinous.  When, an hour later, another body is found, it becomes increasingly clear that a killer is among them, determined to bump them off one by one before the tide goes out.

The book does a good job of weaving together the present-day mystery with their secrets from the past, creating an ever-ratcheting tension as the bodies pile up and the list of suspects narrows.

I enjoyed this one.  I always like a book with a compressed timeframe and a ticking clock. It really makes every detail important.  And in this book, there were so many details I kind of overlooked as being unimportant before the twist at the end revealed exactly how important they really were.

While definitely contemporary, this book felt like one of the old mysteries by Agatha Christie I read when I was a kid (I went through a period when I was 12 where I read everything the Queen of Crime wrote) and that's not a bad thing.  There's a reason why she was called the Queen of Crime.  And the setting was perfect for this kind of mystery where there's absolutely no possibility the killer isn't among the people in the house.

So, I'd recommend this for people who like a good mystery, especially one that takes place over a single night in a unique, creepy locale.

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

After years of avoiding each other, Daisy Darker’s entire family is assembling for Nana’s 80th birthday party in Nana’s crumbling gothic house on a tiny tidal island. Finally back together one last time, when the tide comes in, they will be cut off from the rest of the world for eight hours.

The family arrives, each of them harboring secrets. Then at the stroke of midnight, as a storm rages, Nana is found dead. And an hour later, the next family member follows…

Trapped on an island where someone is killing them one by one, the Darkers must reckon with their present mystery as well as their past secrets, before the tide comes in and all is revealed.

With a wicked wink to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, Daisy Darker’s unforgettable twists will leave readers reeling.

Weekly Goals 16-3-26

 I don't have a whole lot of goals this week.  

I got my RevPit entry in over the weekend, which was good.  I still don't think I've 100% nailed the formatting for that manuscript, but I guess it doesn't matter too much, so long as it' s readable and understandable.  It's just tricky because of the way it's written, it kind of demands to be formatted differently to a regular MS.

I have a busy week ahead of me.  The Arts Festival is over, but the Symphony season kicks off next week for the year.  I'm ahead of the game and have everything ready to go up until mid-July, but I should probably start looking at what I need to get done for the second half of the year so I can get a jump on that before things get crazy.

Otherwise, it's kind of a waiting game.  I have some manuscripts out with agents, a whole lot of unanswered queries out and I'm waiting for a new book idea to sweep me off my feet.  I just don't have anything big enough to start writing yet.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 13-3-26

 

It's the end of the week, so what am I celebrating?

It's the weekend!

I've had a busy week and dealt with some rather difficult people as part of it, so I'm looking forward to having a couple of days to decompress.

I'm getting my materials together to enter RevPit, a contest I have entered the last couple of years.  I've never won, but I have got some really useful feedback on my query and openings pages.  I'm going to enter Street Smarts this year, since it's the most raw of my completed manuscripts and could benefit most from a professional edit.  I hadn't really finished writing a query, or even started thinking about a synopsis until now, so that's going to be my weekend...

I got to go to the dress rehearsal of a beautiful dance work this week.  One of the pieces is by a very well known New Zealand choreographer and I saw a performance of it in the '90s when it premiered.  At the time, it was quite shocking and groundbreaking and made a huge impression on me.  Now, when so much contemporary dance has adopted these techniques,  it's less shocking, but still a very hauntingly beautiful piece.

I've managed to stave off the cold I thought I was getting, but my partner got hit hard.  I have my fingers crossed it was me who brought the germs into the house and that I won't get it now.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: The Bad Angel Brothers

I've always enjoyed Paul Theroux as an author, so when I saw this at the library, I just had to pick it up.  Even more so, because I always enjoy reading about the relationship between brothers.

Cal and Frank Belanger - known around town as the Bad Angel Brtothrs - could not be more different and their relationship is troubled from the time they are children.  Their mother dotes on Frank and feels he can do no wrong.  Cal does not agree, all too aware of the way Frank manipulates the truth and steals other peoples' stories to make himself look better.

As they grow up, their relationship becomes more distant.  Frank becomes a successful lawyer and a pillar of the community it their small hometown.  Cal becomes a geologist and works in the mining industry, usually outside the States.  Yet, despite the contentious nature of their relationship, Cal is constantly drawn home for visits with his mother and Frank.  Visits he tolerates, but rarely enjoys.

As they grow into middle age and are forced to deal with first their mother's decline and then her death, what has been a distantly unsteady relationship, becomes a full-blown war in which there can really be no victor.

I enjoyed this book.  Cal was a delightfully slippery narrator and I was kept wondering through most of the book if Frank was as truly awful as he was through Cal's eyes.  Especially since everyone else in their small town from their mother to random people on the street all seemed to think Frank was some kind of saint.  I started wondering if Cal was an unreliable narrator or if Frank really had this entire town duped into believing he was a good person.  It makes for compelling reading.

As I expect from Theroux, the sections about Cal's travel to far-flung places as part of his mining work were detailed and well-drawn.  And while demonizing Frank, Cal was under no illusions about his own failings as a man and a husband and father.  But, by the end of the book, you really feel Cal's pain as he struggles to find his feet in a life Frank has all but destroyed.

So, I'd recommend this one.  It's a distinctive portrait of two people and a lifetime of struggling to negotiate each other.

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

An evocative novel about two brothers whose rivalry as youths in the Massachusetts town of Littleford reverberates throughout their lives, with striking consequences. As they grow into men, they develop into very different people on very different paths - Frank becomes a successful lawyer, and Cal becomes a geologist - but they are constantly drawn back to one other. As they grow into middle age, their relationship reaches crisis point after the death of their widowed mother. The Bad Angel Brothers is an intimate portrait of family, resentment, and the bonds that shape our lives.

Weekly Goals 9-3-26

 I had a very busy weekend with Arts Festival shows and a powhiri and various other events, so now I feel like I need a weekend!   But, no rest for the wicked, as they say.  Thankfully, the cold I felt like I was getting seems to have changed its mind and gone away.  Must've been all the vitamin c and echinacea I've been taking.

It's going to be another busy week at work - when isn't it? - so I'm not going to set any really heavy goals for myself.  Especially since I said I'd help out the Festival with some front of house stuff since they're short staffed.

I haven't managed to get my daily flash fiction done every day recently; it's been more like four times a week, rather than six or seven.  This week I'd like to aim for five, but we'll see.  Time is kind of at a premium at the moment.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 6-3-26

 

It's the end of the week, so what am I celebrating?

I made it through my first week at work and am feeling okay.  I suspect I may be getting a cold, but I'm trying hard to ignore it.  Maybe if I don't pay attention, it'll go away.  Not being able to do any exercise other than walking is beginning to get to me a little - walking takes a lot of time which I don't have.

The Arts Festival I worked for in my previous job is currently on and I've been to a few shows and have a few more to go to this weekend.  Saw a very thought-provoking one-man play called Nowhere which I thought was great.  Going to music things both nights over the weekend, and hopefully to a dance show during the week.

Got another couple of rejections for Stranger this week.  Maybe it just isn't the right time for this book, no matter how good it is.

What are you celebrating this week?

ISWG- March 2026

 It's the first Wednesday of the month so it's time for the Insecure Writer's Support Group..

This month's hosts are PJ Colando, Ronel Janse van Vuuren, and Natalie Aguirre, so let's give them a cheer!

This month's question is one I'll be interested in reading other peoples' posts about:

What elements do you include in your book launch? Or what do you have in mind for your future book launch? Or what advice do you have to offer to others planning to launch a book?

I'm actually pretty useless at releasing my books and I'm not ashamed to say it.  I have a company I work with (Itsy-Bitsy Book Bits if you want to know) who help with social media and stuff which I'm useless at.  They also have a big stable of in-house reviewers and that helps at release time too, especially since about 90% of the reviewers I approach directly usually turn me down.

Finding reviewers is usually the biggest part of my launch strategy and I spend a lot of weeks reaching out to bloggers and reviewers who read contemporary YA.  Most never respond, and the ones that do are  usually too busy with other books to accept anything new.  But I still feel like this is probably the best use of my time because reviews are so important when a new book is released.

I try to do some interviews if anyone will have me, and write some specific blog posts.  I also try to put together some kind of social media campaign of my own that's different to the stuff the company does - usually some graphics with the cover of the book and some quotes from the story and maybe some good early review stuff.

I make sure there's a page for the new book on my website with links to where to buy it, any good review quotes and other useful stuff to know about it.

And.... that's kind of it.  I don't have the budget to invest in ads or anything like that, and my publisher doesn't do much other than a couple of social media posts, so my books end up launching into a void.  My latest release also suffered from Amazon assigning it some truly bizarre keywords that hasn't helped that one at all.  I managed to get the non-fiction tag taken off, but it's still listed as sci-fi and fantasy which, as a contemporary novel about brothers, is probably not helping the right readers find it...

I'd be very interested to hear what other authors do to launch their books, especially if, like me, they don't have thousands of dollars lying around to spend on ads or billboards or anything like that.  So tell me what you do to launch your books into the world.  I'm listening!

Weekly Goals 2-3-26

 Ack!  It's March already?  How did that happen?

I'm back at work today for the first time since my surgery, so that's my main goal for the week - to get through it.  I have a few extra things to do too, since the Festival of the Arts is on and I have tickets for a few shows.

So, I'm not setting myself any writing goals on top of that.  It seems silly when I'm likely to be pretty exhausted by Wednesday...

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 27-2-26

 

It's the end of the week, so what am I celebrating?

I'm feeling much better after the surgery.  I haven't taken any pain meds since Monday and have been doing longer and faster walks every day.  I still don't feel 100% myself, but I think that might take a few weeks - I do still have four little wounds in my belly that are healing (and itchy as heck) and things inside are probably still settling down too.  I have to go back to work on Monday, so I'm going to try and keep resting as much as I can over the weekend so I'm ready.

Had a couple more rejections for A Stranger to Kindness. No new requests this week either.  I'm getting the new book ready to enter in a contest that will get me the chance to work with an editor if I win, so that's kind of my focus for the first part of March.  I need to come up with a compelling longline for that one...  What do you think of this?

Street Smarts is a platonic love story between Arlo, a homeless rent boy and Devon, the Catholic schoolgirl he rescues when the park is raided.

I feel like it could be snappier, even if that is the essence of the story.  I'm not quite sure how to wrap in that it's told through journal entries either, or if that's even relevant when it's clear once you see the first page.

Any (and all) feedback is welcome.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: Really Good, Actually

 

I picked this one up at the library because it looked like it might be funny and light, and because the author was one of the writers on Schitt's Creek.  And while it was amusing in parts, It wasn't really as funny as I think the author thinks it is.

Let me just preface this review by saying I did read a large chunk of this book directly after I had surgery and was on a lot pain medication and probably a little doolally from anesthetic... 

The main character in this book is Maggie, a 29-year-old grad student and newlywed.  She and her husband have been together since the early days of college, but only decided to tie the knot about a yer ago.

So, it's a shock when Maggie discovers her marriage is over and she's facing life as a single woman again at such a young age.  After the initial period of inertia where she can barely lever herself out of bed, Maggie starts making tentative steps toward life again.  With help from her supportive group of friends and their group chat, a fellow newly-divorced woman and her tough, lesbian thesis advisor Merris, Maggie is determined to get back out there and grab life by the horns.

The book follows Maggie through this first post-divorce year as she tries to take up hobbies, moves house, experiments with dating apps and might just find a new guy she could give her heart to.

Some of the stuff she ends up in is quite funny, but in kind of a tragic way because Maggie herself is actually a truly tragic character.  She's completely lacking in any self-awareness, even as she's so totally wrapped up in herself and her self-improvement that she can't see anything outside her own sphere.  I found myself actively disliking her in so many places during the is book, especially the way she treated her friend group who were nothing but supportive of her.

And the way she constantly texted and called her ex everyday, even when he never responded was, again, tragic.  One of the most uncomfortable scenes in the whole book is one in which she goes to a couples therapy appointment, certain her ex is going to show up, when it's so obvious that there's no way he's ever going to do that.

But really, that's just one of many super uncomfortable scenes...

I'm not saying I didn't enjoy this book, but to call it laugh-out-loud funny is a bit of a stretch.  It's a more uncomfortable, strained kind of laughter, when the odd moment of hilarity ensues.  I found myself cringing through a lot of it, humiliated on Maggie's behalf.

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

A hilarious and painfully relatable debut novel about one woman’s messy search for joy and meaning in the wake of an unexpected breakup, from comedian, essayist, and award-winning screenwriter Monica Heisey

Maggie is fine. She’s doing really good, actually. Sure, she’s broke, her graduate thesis on something obscure is going nowhere, and her marriage only lasted 608 days, but at the ripe old age of twenty-nine, Maggie is determined to embrace her new life as a Surprisingly Young Divorcée™.

Now she has time to take up nine hobbies, eat hamburgers at 4 am, and “get back out there” sex-wise. With the support of her tough-loving academic advisor, Merris; her newly divorced friend, Amy; and her group chat (naturally), Maggie barrels through her first year of single life, intermittently dating, occasionally waking up on the floor and asking herself tough questions along the way.

Laugh-out-loud funny and filled with sharp observations, Really Good, Actually is a tender and bittersweet comedy that lays bare the uncertainties of modern love, friendship, and our search for that thing we like to call “happiness”. This is a remarkable debut from an unforgettable new voice in fiction.

Weekly Goals 23-2-26

 Five days post-surgery and I'm feeling pretty okay.  I've been for a few walks - short and slow, but walks nonetheless.  I need to go to the library today, so that's a slightly longer walk again.

I'm not really setting any goals for this week other than to rest and recover.  I have this week off from work, then I have to go back, so I want to be as strong and rested and pain-free as I can be by then.

That said, there are a lot of hours in a day to fill and I can't just sit around reading and watching movies or I'll go a little crazy.  So, I'm aiming to write a flash fiction each day and to do reviews for my critique group, one a day this week.

I have a ticket to go to the ballet on Thursday, and I'm hoping to be able to go to that.  I had hoped I'd feel well enough to go to the first Film Society screening tonight, but that seems a little ambitious, I think,

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 20-2-26

 

It's the end of the week, so what am I celebrating?

I made it through the surgery and am home.  Turned out to be a more complicated procedure than anticipated - apparently I was full of endometriosis as well as all the stuff I already knew about.  But it is over now and so far the pain hasn't been too bad.  I'm just really tired more than anything else.  So, I'm taking things easy and resting a lot.  I plan to go for a walk today though.  Not sure how far I'll get, but even if it's just around the block it will be good for me.

Planning to make the most of the time off I have and do a lot of reading.  I haven't tried sitting at my desk yet, but I'll do that today and see if maybe some writing and reviewing will help fill in the time.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: The Spare Room

This one was a frustrating read.  The main character was annoying and ignored so many red flags it's amazing she ever made it to adulthood.  

Set during the pandemic, Kelly and her fiancee are trapped in an apartment in a city they're new to and where Kelly has nothing to do and no friends to call her own.  When Mike calls off the wedding they've been planning, she decides she needs a break and takes up an offer from an old high school friend she's recently re-connected with online to go and stay.

Sabrina is a best-selling romance author with a glamorous,  if mysterious, husband.  They have a spare room at their place in a gated community near DC and are happy to open their bubble to include Kelly and her cat, Virgo.

Kelly is enchanted by her hosts who are fun and sophisticated, if a little secretive.  The house is beautiful and the grounds give plenty of space to wander and exercise. So what if the neighbors act a little weird toward them?

One night, things get a little crazy and Kelly winds up as part of a threesome with her hosts.  It's exciting and risqué and offers Kelly something new that she never thought she'd do.  She finds herself falling for these two people who open their marriage to include her.

But things start to become weird when she discovers she's not the first person they've opened their marriage to and the first woman is now missing.  She starts to wonder if the people she's with are who they say they are and if, in fact, she's safe in this place she's never felt more at home in.

Kelly is a very frustrating character.  Throughout the story both Natan and Sabrina do things that throw up huge red flags about whether they are who they say they are, whether they're being honest or whether their intentions are what they say.  And every time Kelly ignores them, or brushes them away with some excuse.  She loves them, she claims after about three days in the threesome.  And apparently that is enough to excuse even the most suspicious behavior.

I didn't buy it.  I doubt many people would buy it.  I understand that the pandemic made it more difficult to get out of a situation like that, but when it was convenient for Kelly to be out of the house, she had no problem finding a hotel to stay in.  Plus, she go out of her home bubble with her fiancé in the first place.  Not a good enough excuse.

Not to mention, Kelly isn't as good a person as she claims to be.  She snoops through peoples' things and makes judgements on them without all the facts in place.

So, yeah.  I didn't like this one much.  I think it's supposed to be a sexy, provocative thriller, but it didn't;t work on any of those levels.  It wasn't sexy or nearly as provocative as the author probably thinks it is, and the thriller part wasn't very thrilling.

But don't just listen to me; here's the blurb:

Staying with a friend and her husband is sexier—and deadlier—than anyone could have imagined, in this provocative domestic suspense novel from the New York Times bestselling author of the Reese’s Book Club pick We Were Never Here. 

Kelly’s new life in Philadelphia has turned into a nightmare: She’s friendless and jobless, and the lockdown has her trapped in a tiny apartment with the man she gave up everything for, who’s just called off their wedding. The only bright spot is her newly rekindled friendship with her childhood friend Sabrina—now a glamorous bestselling author with a handsome, high-powered husband.

When Sabrina and Nathan offer Kelly an escape hatch, volunteering the spare room of their remote Virginia mansion, she jumps at the chance to run away from her old life. There, Kelly secretly finds herself falling for both her enchanting hosts—until one night, a wild and unexpected threesome leads the couple to open their marriage for her.

At first, Kelly loves being part of this risqué new world. But when she discovers that the last woman they invited into their marriage is missing, she starts to wonder if they could be dangerous . . . and if she might be next.

Packed with Andrea Bartz’s signature tension, twists, and toxic relationships, The Spare Room marks an edgy, boundary-pushing new direction from the “master of the ‘feminist thriller’” (Los Angeles Times).

Weekly Goals 16-2-26

 I'm having surgery on Wednesday, so I'm not making too much in the way of plans or setting any real goals for the week.  I don't know how I'm going to feel or what I'm going to be up to doing, so it seems silly to set a whole bunch of goals I might fail to meet.

So, my main goal is to get through the surgery and back on my feet as quickly as possible.  I only have 11 days off work so I'm going to use those to rest and recover and hopefully do a bunch of walking so I don't lose too much fitness.

I've taken four weeks off from the gym, but if I feel okay, I might go back sooner.  I guess I just need to listen to my body and not push myself too hard in any area.

If I'm feeling okay, I'll try to write flash fiction every day and do some critiques for my crit group each day.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 13-2-26

 

It's the end of the week, so what am I celebrating?

It's the weekend!

It has been a pretty crazy week at work, so I'm looking forward to a couple of days off.  Not that I can complain too much.  I'm having my surgery on Wednesday, so I'll have a couple of weeks off after that. I just have a lot to get done before then,

Only a couple of rejections this week, but no requests to balance them out I'm afraid.

I still don't have any burning idea for a new book.  Just something tickling around the edges, but I don't feel ready to start writing yet.  The characters haven't fully introduced themselves and aren't demanding I tell their story yet.  I guess I just have to be patient.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: Just Friends

I got this one out of the library because I haven't read much YA recently and I miss it.  I thought it was a new book, read the whole thing, then discovered, when I went to add it on Goodreads, I'd already read it.  Have absolutely no memory of that at all.  Usually when I've already read something, it feels familiar and I'll remember at least a little bit about the story.  This one - nothing.

It's about Jenny, a smart girl who makes perfect grades and has very few friends and her friendship with the school bad-boy, Chance.  They meet by *ahem* chance in their oral communication class when they're paired up for an assignment.  Chance spins a lie that Jenny easily and eagerly picks up - she and Chance are childhood besties and have spent all their important moments together.

The lie is fun and soon spills out of the classroom and into the rest of their lives.  Jenny finds herself enjoying spending time with Chance who might not be quite the bad boy his reputation would have him painted as. Through Jenny, Chance gets a chance to live a more normal life than what he gets at home.  Through Chance, Jenny gets to experience all the high-school things she's seen on TV, but never experienced herself.

 The more time they spend together, the more true the story they've been spinning becomes - they really are best friends.  But maybe that's the biggest lie of all..

I didn't think this was a particularly well-written book and some parts of it really strained credulity.  Jenny's single mother is painted as being overprotective, but there is no blowback when Jenny and Chance stay out all night at an old barn.  More than once.  Chance's parents are supposed to be selfish and fight all the time, but we never really see that.

It's one of those books where miscommunication and misunderstanding provide all the conflict and you know the whole thing could be resolved- and is, toward the end of the book - with a single conversation.  Which is always frustrating.

So, while there is a fun premise here, the execution isn't great and I fund myself questioning the veracity of so many things the characters did and said.

So, I probably wouldn't recommend this one unless you're looking for something quick and easy to read in an afternoon for some reason...

But don't just listen to me; here's the blurb:

A new spin on the classic smart-girl-and-bad-boy setup, this witty contemporary romance shows how easily a friendship – even one built on an elaborate lie – can become so much more.

Jenny meets Chance for the very first time when she is assigned as his partner in their Junior Oral Communications class. But after they rescue a doomed assignment with one clever lie, the whole school is suddenly convinced that Little-Miss-Really-Likes-Having-A’s and the most scandalous heartbreaker in school have been best friends forever. It’s amazing how quickly a lie can grow―especially when you really, really want it to be the truth.

With Jenny, Chance can live the normal life he’s always kind of wanted. And with Chance, Jenny can have the exciting teen experiences that TV shows and movies have always promised. Through it all, they hold on to the fact that they are “just friends.” But that might be the biggest lie of all.

Debut author Tiffany Pitcock delivers a spot-on depiction of first love and the high school rumor mill in Just Friends, chosen by readers like you for Macmillan's young adult imprint Swoon Reads.

Weekly Goals 9-2-26

 It's going to be a busy week this week.  I have only nine days before my surgery so I need to make sure all the important things that need to be done at work are done before I'm off for two weeks.  Plus, I have a bunch of social things going on this week too and I'm teaching some extra classes at the gym.  Phew!  I'm tired before I even start the week.

I'm not sure how I'm going to feel after the surgery, but I'm hoping it won't be too bad I can use some of that time off to write.  I'm not sure what I'll write, but I can play a bit with the idea I have for a new book or work some more on the MG book I started last year, or just write flash fiction if that's all I can deal with.

So, this week's goal is to get all the stuff done at work so I don't have last minute panic next week.  And to think a little more deeply about this new story idea I have.  I can probably knock out a pretty decent hunk of a draft in two weeks if I can write a few hours each day.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 6-2-26

 

It's the end of the week, so what am I celebrating?

It's the weekend...  Well, almost.  But it's a public holiday today, so it feels like a weekend.

I went to see one of my favorite bands play last night and it was amazing!  I managed to get myself into a really good spot about a row back from the stage so it was super intimate when the singer came down the catwalk to sing to us.  And it was an epic concert - four hours.  That's a long time to stand in a hot room with a crowd, but I loved it.  I'm going again tonight with a group of friends so it will be interesting to see what it's like a second time.  I'm curious if they'll play the same set or id they might change a few things out.

I got a partial request for A Stranger to Kindness yesterday which made me happy.  I also got a rejection, so I guess it all balances out.

Work has been particularly busy this week, so I'm looking forward to having three days off to recover.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've read: Under the Stars

I read this one over the weekend, and while it wasn't a bad read, I feel a little bit like the author couldn't

decide exactly what they wanted to write and threw everything they could in there.  It's part romance, part family saga, part mystery and part historical fiction.  With a little bit of thriller thrown in there for good measure.  It kind of works, but it does kind of give you whiplash as a reader.

Audrey has recently been abandoned by her husband and left with a pile of debts after he didn't;t tell her the restaurant they owned together was tanking.  Still trying to dig herself out of the financial and emotional hole this has left her in, she agrees to help her mother, Meredith,, a famous Hollywood actress, dry out before she reports for her next role.

They head to the remote New England island where Meredith grew up for some privacy and isolation.  Neither she nor Audrey are thrilled to be there, but in terms of privacy, they can't fault it.  Plus, Audrey's father still lives there, running the local bar like his parents did.  Having grown up off-island, Audrey's relationship with him is tentative, at best, but she's curious enough to make some effort.

When she finds a trunk full of old paintings in the basement of the bar, it excites curiosity, even among wealthy neighbor Sedge Peabody, one of the wealthiest residents of the island.  The mystery of how a trunkful of unknown paintings from one of America's leading artists came to be hidden in the cellar of the local inn is one demanding to be solved.  As is the question of who the woman is in all these paintings.

Told in parallel with Audrey's story is the story of the woman in those paintings, a woman who fled Boston with the law on her heels in 1846 and was one of the survivors of a catastrophic shipwreck.  Who this woman was and why she was on this ship the night it sank with the detective in charge of investigating the mysterious death of her employer makes up another strand of the story.

The third strand is Meredith's story, about growing up on Winthrop Island with one goal: to get away and never come back.  A goal that becomes more and more difficult to imagine as life throws obstacles in her wake at every turn.

I didn't hate this book.  There was so much going on, it was easy to keep turning pages to find out what might happen next.  But that's really the problem with it:  there was so much going on.  Murder and deception and blackmail and theft and kidnapping and... well, it goes on.  And somewhere in there, were three romance stories too.  It was just a bit much!  There was enough plot in this one book for about three books.

So, if you're looking for something that will keep you turning pages and might make your head spin from how quickly the mood changes from one thing to the next, this one might be fore you.

But don't just listen to me. Here's the blurb:

Audrey Fisher has struggled all her life to emerge from the shadow of her famous mother by forging a career as a world-class chef. Meredith Fisher’s glamorous screen persona disguises the trauma of the tragic accident that haunts her dreams. Neither woman wants to return to the New England island they left behind and its complicated emotional ties, but Meredith has one last chance to sober up and salvage her big comeback, and where else but discreet, moneyed Winthrop Island can a famous actress spend the summer without the intrusion of other people? Until Audrey discovers an old wooden chest among the belongings of her estranged bartender father, Mike Kennedy, and the astonishing contents draw the women deep into Winthrop’s past and its many secrets…attracting the interest of their handsome neighbor, Sedge Peabody. How did a trove of paintings from one of America’s greatest artists wind up in the cellar of the Mohegan Inn? And who is the mysterious woman portrayed on every canvas?

On a stormy November night in 1846, Providence Dare flees Boston and boards the luxury steamship Atlantic one step ahead of the law….or so she believes. But when a catastrophic accident leaves the ship at the mercy of a mighty gale, Providence finds herself trapped in a deadly game of cat and mouse with the one man who knows her real identity—the detective investigating the suspicious death of her employer, the painter Henry Irving. As the Atlantic fights for her life and the rocky shore of Winthrop Island edges closer, a desperate Providence searches for her chance to escape…before the sea swallows her without a trace.

In Under the Stars, the destinies of three women converge across centuries, as a harrowing true disaster at the dawn of the steamship era evokes a complex legacy of family secrets in modern-day New England. Williams has written a timeless epic of mothers and daughters, of love lost and found, and of the truths that echo down generations.

Weekly Goals 2-2-26

 It's a short work week this week because Friday is Waitangi Day.  So, I have a lot to pack into four workdays.

One of my favorite bands is playing here twice at the end of the week and I'm going to both gigs, once on my own (although I have a ton of friends going that night too), and once with a friend who has a milestone birthday this week.  Very excited for that!  It's been years since they last came here.

Writing-wise, I'm still waiting for some idea for a novel to slay me.  I have nothing that's burning to be told, just a few odd ideas floating around, but none of them are big enough to start writing yet.  I don't think it matters since I have three complete novels still waiting to be sold, and I'm still working through Street Smarts with my crit group.  I think that will be my entry for Rev Pit this year.  See if the query and first pages work.

With the three-day weekend coming up, I'm going to have plenty of time to get everything done that needs doing, so I swear I will get that garden weeded.  I didn't get to it over the weekend,

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 30-1-26

 

It's the end of the week, so what am I celebrating?

It's the weekend!

And can you believe it's the end of January?  That's crazy!

It's been a busy week, but I've had the chance to catch up with some friends I don't see often which is always good.  I've also ridden my bike to work almost every day.  Tuesday was too wet, but the rest of the week I managed it, even if it was pretty windy a couple of days.  Long may that continue!

I have nothing planned for the weekend, which is good too.  Next week is going to be fairly mad, so a quiet weekend is just what I need.  I have a lot of work to do for my critique group, so I'm planning to get into that.  And if the weather's okay, maybe do a bit of gardening.

Only one rejection this week, so I'll take that as a win.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: Hard Girls

This was one of those frustrating books that should have been better than it was.  All the elements were there - great characters,  compelling storyline and some good twists, but somehow the book fell flat for me.

Set across different time periods, the book is about twins, long estranged, who reunite to solve an old mystery about their mother who disappeared when they were young.  Jane, who as an adult lives a quiet suburban existence, being a good mother to her daughter and as a good a wife to her husband as she possibly can, keeps her past cleanly buttoned away.  She takes care of her father the best she can, but their relationship isn't particularly close.  

When Lila, the twin she hasn't seen or head from in many years makes contact and says she thinks she's found their mother, Jane's safe, suburban life is irrevocably disrupted.  She initially thinks she might be able to ignore Lila, but what happened with their mother back then has had such a profound effect on both girls' lives and on their father, she has to know the truth.

Woven into this story about the now-adult girls seeking the mother who abandoned them is the story of their teenage adventures and the act of violence that changed both their lives, and their relationship with each other, forever.

This book wasn't hard to read and the plot was compelling enough to keep me turning pages, but I really didn't like or sympathize with any of the characters.  Except, bizarrely, the twins' father.  Everyone made choices that didn't make sense for who they are and the reveals of why they made these choices never really satisfied.

So, while there is plenty to like here - espionage, secret identities, action and adventure - it's not a wholly enjoyable book.  So I won't recommend this one.

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

Two estranged twin sisters as they hunt down their elusive mother in this razor-sharp crime novel from "master of the dark arts" J. Robert Lennon. (Kelly Link)

Jane Pool likes her safe, suburban existence just fine. She has a house, a family, (an infuriating mother-in-law,) and a quiet-if-unfulfilling administrative job at the local college. Everything is wonderfully, numbingly normal. Yet Jane remains haunted by her her mercurial, absent mother, her parents’ secrets, and the act of violence that transformed her life. When her estranged twin, Lila, makes contact, claiming to know where their mother is and why she left all those years ago, Jane agrees to join her, desperate for answers and the chance to reconnect with the only person who really knew her true self. Yet as the hunt becomes treacherous, and pulls the two women to the earth’s distant corners, they find themselves up against their mother’s subterfuge and the darkness that always stalked their family. Now Jane stands to lose the life she’s made for the one that has been impossible to escape.

Set in both the Pool family’s past and their present, and melding elements of a chase novel, an espionage thriller, and domestic suspense, Hard Girls is an utterly distinctive pastiche—propulsive, mysterious, cracked, intelligent, and unexpected at every turn.

Weekly Goals 26-1-26

 I had both a productive and restful weekend this weekend, so that's good.  Feeling at least somewhat ready to face work this morning.  It's not going to be a fun week, I suspect, with all the "change proposal" meetings happening and people feeling uncertain about their jobs. I'll just keep my head down, and get on with my own work and try to be supportive if people need someone to talk to.

The weather is looking iffy again for some of the week, but I'm hoping to ride to work most days.  It will be a miracle if I actually get to do it five days out of five.

I've started clearing out my WDC portfolio and have a little more space.  I want to continue with this project, especially if I settle on an idea for a new book to work on.  Or even if I just keep writing flash fiction for a few more weeks while that novel idea germinates.  It's still pretty vague, but I'm thinking it will be set over one 24-hour period and it's a romance.  Think, Before Sunrise, but set behind the scenes at a low-rent kind of music festival or county fair.  I know who the girl is, but the boy's still a little out of focus. But I know that if I wait, he'll tell me who he is.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 24-1-26

 

It's the end of the week, so what am I celebrating?

It's the weekend!

And yes, I know it was a short week with a holiday on Monday, but it's been super busy and I need a break.  I have quite a nice quiet weekend planned this week, so I'm looking forward to that.  Lots of writing stuff and maybe a movie.  The weather is pretty dreadful, so even though the garden needs some attention, it's going to have to wait.

After the flurry of rejections I received early in the week, there have been no more, which is good.  No more requests, either, which is less good, but I'll take whatever wins I can get.

The new book is continuing to get good feedback from my critique group.  It doesn't follow any of the rules of storytelling and novel structure, but somehow the characters are compelling enough to keep people reading despite the lack of an inciting incident in the right place and no real antagonist.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: Day

This was another of the books I really enjoyed while I was on vacation.  I picked it up because I enjoyed The Hours which is by the same author and was interested to read something else by the same person.  I was also curious if the author might be interested in time as concept, considering the titles of both books...

And Day is about time, sort of, but mainly about family.  It's set across a day with sections called Morning, Afternoon and Evening.  The wrinkle?  The morning, afternoon and evening are in different years, so the book actually spans 2019, 2020 and 2021, following the same family.

In the morning of 2019, Isabel and her husband Dan are struggling with the fact they need to kick Isabel's younger brother out of their loft where he's been living while recovering from his most recent break-up.  Amid the morning chaos of getting kids off to school, we see the strain their marriage is under and the deep affection both of them have for Robbie which is making it harder to ask him to move even though they know their ten-year-old son needs the space to begin asserting his independence.  Robbie, who is unsatisfied with his life, has created an online persona much more adventurous and glamorous than himself and revels in posting and watching followers eat it up.

In the afternoon of 2020, the world is locked down and the family is stuck in the apartment.  Violet, the youngest child is terrified of the virus and berates anyone who leaves a window open, certain that's the way the virus will get in.  Nathan, the older son has now moved into Robbie's attic and uses his newfound privacy y to break the rules while distracted, his parents suffer through their fracturing marriage without really speaking to one another.  Robbie, who left the country just prior to the COVID outbreak, is trapped in a cabin in Iceland, still posting from the perspective of his glamorous alter-ego.

I won't go into detail of what happens in the evening of 2021, but it beautifully wraps up this family's story and shows how they've made it through this time of crisis and through an the other side.  There are glimmers of hope for their futures and a certainty that their resilience will allow them to move past this.

I really enjoyed this book.  I thought it might be fragmentary and frustrating in that it's episodic, but the three sections ft together so beautifully, following characters you can't help but feel affection for, even while you're frustrated by some of their actions.  The decisions made in one section echo through the next, showing us how things we do can ripple through our lives, across years and affect everything.

So, I'd recommend this one.  It's literary, but not a challenging read.  The characters are very real and flawed, frustrating you at every turn with their choices or inertia in making choices.

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

As the world changes around them, a family weathers the storms of growing up, growing older, falling in and out of love, losing the things that are most precious—and learning to go on—from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Hours

April 5, 2019 : In a cozy brownstone in Brooklyn, the veneer of domestic bliss is beginning to crack. Dan and Isabel, troubled husband and wife, are both a little bit in love with Isabel’s younger brother, Robbie. Robbie, wayward soul of the family, who still lives in the attic loft; Robbie, who, trying to get over his most recent boyfriend, has created a glamorous avatar online; Robbie, who now has to move out of the house—and whose departure threatens to break the family apart. Meanwhile Nathan, age ten, is taking his first uncertain steps toward independence, while Violet, five, does her best not to notice the growing rift between her parents.

April 5, 2020: As the world goes into lockdown, the brownstone is feeling more like a prison. Violet is terrified of leaving the windows open, obsessed with keeping her family safe, while Nathan attempts to skirt her rules. Isabel and Dan communicate mostly in veiled jabs and frustrated sighs. And beloved Robbie is stranded in Iceland, alone in a mountain cabin with nothing but his thoughts—and his secret Instagram life—for company.

April 5, 2021: Emerging from the worst of the crisis, the family reckons with a new, very different reality—with what they’ve learned, what they’ve lost, and how they might go on.

From the brilliant mind of Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Cunningham, Day is a searing, exquisitely crafted meditation on love and loss and the struggles and limitations of family life—how to live together and apart.

Weekly Goals 19-1-26

 I have two main goals this week and I kind of hope to get through both of them today since it's a holiday.

Firstly, I've spent a lot of the weekend prepping my deck to be re-stained, so my goal for today is to stain it.  I may not have time to do two coats (I can't remember how long you need to leave them to dry between coats), but if I can get one on today, I can get the second on next weekend.

My second goal is to finish the beta read I'm doing for a friend in my critique group.  I've done a lot of it already - I probably only have 100 more pages to go.

Apart from that, I want to try and ride my bike to work every day this week, but it looks like the weather may not cooperate with that one.  I swear, this summer has been diabolical.  If the wind hasn't been howling, it's been wet and/or cold.  I mean, it's 13 degrees here this morning!  This is not the summer I signed on for.

And, that's about it for goals this week.  What are you trying to achieve?

Celebrate the Small Things 16-1-26

 

It's the end of the week, so what am I celebrating?

It's a long weekend this weekend.  And I've take Friday off as well, so I have four days off.  That's something to celebrate!  Even if I have a big home-maintenance project I need to get done over that long weekend.  Fingers crossed the weather improves because it's an outside project - I need to get my deck prepped for staining, and then hopefully, stained.  The house is being painted in late February,  so I wanted to do the deck before than so it won't matter so much if I get a little deck stain on the house like I did the last time I stained the deck.

I've had a few readers finish the new book (Street Smarts although I need to find a better title) and they've all been super positive about it which is great because I really wasn't 100% sure the structure or the story worked.  But, apparently it does.  I'm going to wait for more feedback before diving back into revisions because I'd rather have all the feedback on hand before I make changes.  I have a few things I want to change, but they're not major.

Got another request for A Stranger to Kindness too, which makes me happy.  

And I finally got a date for the surgery I've been waiting for.  It's really soon - Feb 18 - but that gives me plenty of time to recover before the season at work starts and I have to travel and stuff.  I will probably miss some stuff in the Arts Festival I have tickets for, but that's a fairly small price to pay.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've loved: Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore

 

This was one of the books I picked up to read on my holiday, a kind of random selection off the library shelf because I liked the title.  And it ended up being my favorite read of the vacation!

Set in San Francisco,  the book is about Clay, a young man still trying to find himself after college.  He's had a brief moment of glory as the wunderkind behind a viral marketing campaign, but since then, he's failed to find the career he feels he deserves.  Broke and desperate, he takes a job as a night clerk at Mr. Penumbra's 24 hour bookstore, working from 10pm until 6am.

The bookstore is odd, with tall shelves that can only be accessed by ladders.  There are only a handful of books in it that anyone has actually heard of, the bulk of the stock being obscure volumes that customers "check out" and return based on some archaic system only Mr. Penumbra understands. Without much else to occupy his mind or his time, Clay begins an analysis of the customer behavior, thinking he may uncover whatever the strange store is a front for.

What he discovers is far stranger, and when he brings his findings to his eccentric boss, things take a turn toward the bizarre.  Clay finds himself on his way to New York and the headquarters of an ancient institution where people engage in a centuries-old quest for immortality.

Mixing conspiracy theories, ancient texts, font analysis, big-tech, romance and more, this book was a total blast from start to finish.  The characters are unusual, yet for the most part, endearing and I found myself ripping through the book in a single afternoon, desperate to discover the secret to eternal life alongside the characters.

I won't reveal the ending or much else because it would ruin the joy of reading the book.  Just know that this is a fun romp with a lot f surprising twists and turns.

Definitely recommend.

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

Global conspiracy, complex code-breaking, high-tech data visualization, young love, the secret to eternal life. Mostly in a hole-in-the-wall San Francisco bookstore.

Clay Jannon tells how serendipity, sheer curiosity, and the ability to climb a ladder like a monkey has sent him from Web Drone to night shift at Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. After just a few days on the job, Clay realizes just how curious this store is.

A few customers come in repeatedly without buying anything. Instead they “check out” obscure volumes from strange corners of the store. All runs according to some elaborate, long-standing arrangement with the gnomic Mr. Penumbra. The store must be a front for something larger, Clay concludes.

He embarks on a complex analysis of the customers’ behavior and ropes in friends to help. Once they bring their findings to Mr. Penumbra, it turns out the secrets extend far outside the walls of the bookstore. A quest to New York City dips in a world conspiracy for eternal life. The current of romance pulls Clay onward.

Dear Me 2026

 Last week I looked at how I did with my 2025 goals, so this week, it's time to write myself a letter outlining the things I hope to achieve in 2026.  So, here goes.

Dear Me,

I did a lot of writing in 2025.  Far more than I expected to.  I wrote a couple hundred pieces of flash fiction (one most days) and also started and completed a new novel.  Even after a few weeks' break, I'm feeling creatively limber and ready to keep writing in 2026.  I haven't quite got back into the swing of the daily flash fiction yet, but I hope to manage that at least five days a week.  It's such a good way to keep that writing muscle in shape when I'm not actively working on a project.  It also really stretches me because I use the Writers' Cramp prompts for these flash fiction pieces and they're often not the kinds of thing I'd usually explore on my own. 

My portfolio on WDC is too full for me to add any more stories, so I've been deleting old stuff to make way for new stuff, but a lot of those stories exist only on the site, so I'm planning to spend a day or two downloading all the old stories into a laptop folder so I can work on them and maybe submit the better ones to publications.  Most of my flash fiction was written in 30 minutes or less, so it needs some tidying up, and often the endings are somewhat rushed because I realize I'm running out of words and need to finish.  But a few of them are really quite good and I should do something more with them.

I finished the novel I'm tentatively calling Street Smarts late last year.  It didn't exactly turn out the way I expected it to and I'm not 100% sure it works the way I've written it.  It's out with my critique group at the moment and so far they've been, maybe not enjoying it because it's not actually that enjoyable, but appreciating it.  I mean, calling it not enjoyable is probably not the right way of talking about it, but the subject matter is tough.  One of my crit group couldn't take it and has only read the last section. I know I will need to do some more work on this one, but I'm going to need that feedback before I can move forward.  I think I may also need to do some thinking about whether I want to try and sell this as YA or not because it's even grittier and darker than my usual stuff.  And my work is always gritty and dark...

I will continue querying A Stranger to Kindness even though it is beginning to feel a little futile.  I just feel so strongly about this story and these characters. I re-read the book over the holidays and it is definitely the best book I've written.  Yeah, I'm probably a little biased, but I really enjoyed reading it as a reader, not as an author, and I think there are other people out there who will enjoy it too.  I understand that it's a tough sell with a 15-year-old boy narrator and no real romantic subplot to speak of, but I know there are readers out there who would welcome a story about relationships without them being romantic.  So, I'll dig my heels into those query trenches and hope for a few more full manuscript requests.  I thought having previously had an agent was supposed to make it easier to find a new one, but that does not seem to be the case at all.

Weirdly, I don't have any new novel ideas clamoring to be told right now.  There are a couple of things brewing at the back of my brain, but they're not ready to be written yet.  So, I'll wait.  I know a new idea will come.  They always do.  Usually at a time I'm not really in a position to be able to write them.

Outside of writing, I'm still teaching at the gym so keeping fit is a must.  While the weather is good I plan to cycle to work every day too.  It's been so windy here the last few months it's been  kind of a challenge, and the wind is even more crazy today.

I still have a lot to learn at my new job and it's going to be a very busy year.  My goal is to try and get everything done at least two weeks before any deadline so I have time and space to check things properly before they get put in place.  There are so many elements to the system we use, it's easy to think things are working as planned only to discover something wrong a little way down the track.  And sometimes they're not easy to fix...

My word of the year is "yes" and my goal is to say yes to everything unless there's a really compelling reason to say no. And I mean, a really good reason.  Not just because going home and curling up on the couch feels like a nice idea.

I think I've finally broken my lifetime nail biting habit, so my goal this year is to keep them looking good.  I'm not great at filing them so they keep a consistent shape, so I need to work on that.  I think they'll be a lot less tempting to bite f they're all nicely smooth and even.

And finally, I plan to keep going to the movies and supporting the cinema business.  Streaming has really messed with the business and if we're going to keep having the opportunity to go to movies, we need to support cinemas by going.  After spending the bulk of my career working in movie theaters, this is something I feel very strongly about.  I do watch movies on streaming platforms, but the experience is not the same as sitting in the dark with a bunch of strangers and sharing something.  I'd hate to see that experience disappear.

I think that's all my goals for now.  What do you hope to do in 2026?

Celebrate the Small Things 9-1-26

 

It's the end of the week, so what am I celebrating?

I guess I can't really say "the weekend" when I've only been back at work for three days in 2026...  But you know what?  Those first days back after a break are always the toughest, so I am celebrating the weekend. So there!

I had a good break.  It rained a lot while I was at the beach, which was a bit annoying.  On the plus side, I did manage to read 11 books, so it wasn't all bad.  And because it was just me and my parents, it was relaxing. 

I have a bunch of house-related things to do over the next few weeks.  It's being painted at the end of February and before that, I want to re-stain my deck which means scrubbing it, waterblasting it and scrubbing it again before I put the stain on.  So, I figure that's at least a couple of weekends taken up, given it will need to dry in between.  Pray for good weather...

And that's about it for celebrating this week.  I'm not quite back into the swing things yet, so I'm a little all over the place.

What are you celebrating this week?

IWSG - January '26

It's the first Wednesday of the month (and of 2026), so it's time for the Insecure Writers' Support Group.

Our lovely hosts for the January 7 posting of the IWSG are Shannon Lawrence, Olga Godim, Jean Davis, and Jacqui Murray.

This month's question has me kind of stymied...

Is there anything in your writing plans for 2026 that you are going to do that you couldn't get done in 2025?

You see, I haven't made any real writing plans for 2026 yet.  For the first time in years, I don't have a new book clamoring to be written.  And I don't want to force it.  I know something will come to me eventually.  And in the meantime, I have edits to do on the book I wrote last year, and I'm still querying one I finished at the end of 2024.  So, I won't be bored. 

The one thing I'd like to continue in 2026 is writing flash fiction every day.  I've had a wee break over the holidays, so this week I plan to get back to writing one each day if I can.

But that's not answering the question...  I did start an MG novel last year that I only got a few chapters into, so maybe, while I wait for a real novel idea to appear, I'll tinker with that and maybe get it finished.  

Are there things you have hanging over you from 2025 that you're hoping to get to in the New Year

Dear Me 2026 (part 1)

Every year I write myself a letter outlining my goals for the year.  I try to do a check in on how I'm tracking mid-way through and again at the end of the year.  So, before I get started on goals for 2026, let's see how I did with my 2025 goals.  My comments are in purple...

Dear Me,

I did pretty well with 2024's goals, so here's to doing as well in 2025.

Despite having got absolutely no traction so far in querying Guide Us, I will keep persevering with it.  I know this is a good book and I'm really weirded out that it hasn't had any requests.  The last book I queried was the same, but at least with that one, I knew there was something in it that might prove difficult for agents and/or publishers even if I didn't advertise it in the query.  With Guide Us, I don't think there's anything too controversial in there... I guess religion could be controversial though.  Especially questioning it.

I didn't really do this.  I did a little half-hearted querying at the beginning of the year, then set this one aside.  I've re-read it recently, and I still think it's good, so maybe I'll do something with it this year.

I have a book - Standing Too Close -  coming out sometime later in the year; I'm still waiting for a date for that.  Hopefully I'll find out soon because I'd like to be able to start things rolling as far as publicity goes as soon as possible.  I'm also waiting on edits for that one and would like to get through those before I dive into revisions and editing on A Stranger to Kindness.  They're both boy narrator books but the voices are very, very different.

Well, Standing Too Close came out in August and has received some great reviews.  I haven't had a royalty statement yet, so no clue how it's selling, but the fact Amazon has it listed under some really weird meta-data probably isn't helping it get sales.  My publisher managed to get the non-fiction tag taken off it, but it's still listed as sci-fi and fantasy which it very, very much isn't.  I imagine Amazon is outsourcing these kinds of thing to AI and this just proves how unintelligent AI really is.

And talking about A Stranger to Kindness, the plan for that is to get it revised and ready to query before the end of the year.  I feel like that's going to be a tough one because I love this book so much and if it winds up getting the same response as Guide Us, it's going to be somewhat devastating.  I need to mentally prepare for that.

I did this.  I've been querying for about six months and have racked up an impressive number of rejections.  I recently re-read this one too, to see if maybe I was wrong about it being good, but it still wrecked me the same way it did when I wrote it.  So I'll keep persevering until there is no one left to query.  I have had a couple of requests, so fingers crossed one of those agents will love my boys as much as I do.

Luckily, by the second half of the year my work will have ramped right up so I will probably be far too busy to get too upset.  Here's hoping anyway...

I have been busy. I actually ended up changing jobs midway through the year, just at the time my old job would have started getting insane.  So, I wound up stepping into a new role with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra ten days before they went on sale with the 2026 season.  To say I've been too busy to get upset about rejections is kind of an understatement...

And as far as non-writing goals go, I suppose they're much the same as they have been for the last few years.  To keep exercising, to keep reading as much as possible and to see films at the cinema least every two weeks.

I did this.  Mostly.

The exercising should be easy enough since I'm now an instructor at the gym and I'm hoping to pick up a couple more regular classes this year.  I've been teaching only 30 minute spin classes, but I'm starting to learn the hour-long ones now too, so will probably pick up some of those classes in the next little while.

I'm still teaching.  I have two regular classes and most weeks I have picked up at least one more, either an 30 minute or a one-hour.  I've even taught at a different gym a couple of times as a reliever.

I've lowered my reading target for 2025 to 110 books since I've failed to meet my goal the last two years running.  I've been reading more adult books than YA recently and they tend to be both longer and more complex than my usual YA reads, so they take me longer to get through.  Here's hoping the large number of books I got through during my holiday last week - the weather was not great so there was a lot of time to read - kickstarts things well.

I didn't hit my reading goal this year.  I only managed 83 books.  I have done a lot more writing in 2025, which I think cut down on my reading time, but also I read a lot more adult books again.  The YA section of the library doesn't seem to be getting much love in the form of new books, and I've read pretty much everything there.

There are a lot of films opening the next few weeks that I want to see, so I should be able to keep up my film-going at least in the early part of the year.  Things might get a little more challenging once the Award Season movies dry up, but by then the Film Society should have started up again.

I managed this pretty well.  I think I only missed one or two Film Society films in the whole year - because I'd already seen them enough I didn't feel like I needed a re-visit - and I went to something at a cinema almost every week.

I finally managed to (sort of) break my nail biting habit in 2024, so I will endeavor to keep my nails nice in 2025 too.  Preferably without having to pay for expensive manicures every few weeks.  I do like having my nails done properly, but it does become expensive.

I have managed to keep this up.  I have also paid to have my nails done more often than I really wanted to, but in the name of keeping them nice, I feel like it's not too high a price to pay.  Just something I can't really afford.

What are your goals for the New Year?