Celebrate the Small Things 18-7-14

This post is part of VikLit's blog hop, Celebrate the Small Things. Head on over there to join up! 

So, what am I celebrating this week?




Well, despite my big tease last week, I'm still not in a position to share my big news.  Which is driving me up the wall.  But hopefully soon.  And hopefully it will be bigger and even better than I thought it might be!

One of my favorite singers, Kristin Hersh, is coming here in late August.  I've been supporting her for years now through her CASH Music project and as a reward or perk for doing that, I get to go see her play free!  I was so excited to get the email saying I'd be on the door list!  I've seen her a few times and she's always awesome, whether she's doing a solo set or playing with one of her bands.



I haven't managed a whole lot of revising this week, but I'm feeling quite good about the stuff I have done.  I feel like I may need to go back and work a few threads through more strongly so by the time we get to this point in the story, the emotional connections are stronger.  But I'll wait to see what my CPs say before going back again.  At this point, moving forward is the important part.  I can go back later.

What are you celebrating this week?

Cloaked In Fur on sale!

One of my awesome and most long-serving (and perhaps long-suffering) CPs has had a book out for a while now.  I took part in her cover reveal last year, and was a part of her launch, so if the title Cloaked In Fur sounds familiar, that is why.

But now, Cloaked In Fur is on sale!  You can get it for just .99c right now.  So go out there and buy it now.

This is a fast paced, exciting spin on the werewolf genre. Daciana is a conflicted heroine, torn between her love of a human and her loyalty to her pack. With her final transformation to wulfkin only days away, the tension between her loyalties gives the story an urgency that keeps the reader turning pages.

With a mutant dracwulf loose in the Romanian city she lives in, the suspense and action remains at a high level throughout.

Daciana is a tough woman, but not to the point that she's essentially a male character in drag. Her emotions are explored fully, adding depth and tension to the story. We get a real sense of what's pulling her from each of the two worlds she inhabits. How she'll chose between them, or combine the two makes for a real page turner!

But don't take my word for it.  Go get it for yourself.  It's only .99c!

And to make it easy, here are all the places you can get it!


Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | iTunes | Googleplay

Celebrate the Small Things 11-7-14

This post is part of VikLit's blog hop, Celebrate the Small Things. Head on over there to join up! 

So, what am I celebrating this week?





My back is much better.  I can walk and move around without being in severe pain, and as long as my customers don't want white wine, I can work perfectly happily too.

I managed to get tickets to see Nick Cave play when he's here in December.  It wasn't easy either!  They sold out in no time.  I am SO, SO excited about this.  I have seen him a few times before, but given I've been an uber-fan for almost 30 years, not as many times as I would have liked.

My pitch was selected by the lovely Authoress for her blog-hop critique round and I've had pretty fabulous comments on both my logline and my first page.  If you're interested, they're in the post below.

I also got some other very exciting news this week, but I can't share it yet.  Which is always super frustrating.  But hopefully by next Friday I'll have all the wrinkles ironed out and will be able to tell you all.  So pop back then....

What are you celebrating this week?

MSFV's Blog Pitch contest

If you're a writer and you haven't yet found your way to Miss Snark's First Victim, the blog of the lovely Authoress, stop reading this and head over there.  Authoress is an unbelievably supportive member of the writing community, and her blog contests have got many an author out of the slushpile.

I was lucky enough to get picked by Authoress in her latest contest where she asked for Twitter pitches of our projects.  She picked her 10 favorites, and we get to post our pitch and our first page on our own blogs for critique.  I pitched my YA novel, STUMPED.

Logline: American Pie meets The Sessions as 16 YO Ozzy struggles to dump his virginity and prove he can be a man in a wheelchair.


First 250: I splash on too much of my brother’s aftershave. Shit. I reek of whatever the hell this stuff’s supposed to smell like. Pine trees? Whatever. I never smelled a pine tree that stank like this. No wonder Finn left it behind when he went to college. It’s so overpowering, it masks the scent of chlorine that clings to me after a four hour practice this afternoon. I glance down at my watch. It’s after six, but I guess I have time for another shower. I have to have time. I can’t go meet Lainey smelling like this. She won’t be able to get anywhere near me. Not without choking. I don’t know that I can stay near me. God, this stuff’s awful.

I shuck the towel from around my waist and turn the shower back on. The bathroom’s filled with steam from the one I took ten minutes ago. At least the water’s still hot. I climb in and let the liquid sluice over me. I don’t know if that’s enough to get rid of the awful aftershave, so I grab the soap and scrub my face and neck until they feel raw. That’ll have to do. For good measure, I soap the rest of me again too. Look at me, Mr. Clean. I lean back against the wall and think about Lainey. Those shorts she was wearing this morning should be illegal. At least on her. Damn, that girl has a hot ass. Her legs aren’t bad either.


http://misssnarksfirstvictim.blogspot.com/2014/07/blog-critique-tour.html

Equal Rights Blog Hop

Queertown Abbey is a fantastic site that is terrifically helpful to LGBTQ authors.  This weekend they're hosting a blog hop and I'm thrilled to be a part of it.  For this bloghop all the participants are talking about their first experience with the gay community.  To find all the other participants, head on over to Queertown Abbey. There are prizes too!

My first experience of the gay community?  I really don't know.  I can't actually remember.  I have always been aware of the gay community, but I don't think I really started taking part in it until I first started going to the Out Takes Film Festival here in Wellington.  Several years after first going to see films in this festival, I started running the theatre that hosts it and got to know all the hard-working, passionate people who organize it every year.

The films they select are diverse and interesting, particularly the documentaries.  The funniest thing is how segregated the audiences are - women only for the girl films, men only for the boy ones.  But the crowds are always great to deal with because they know how lucky they are to have this event reflecting their world and their interests.

When I lost that job last year, one of the hardest parts was knowing I would no longer get to be a part of this festival, one of the few festivals the community it's aimed at really gets behind.

Have you ever gone to a queer film festival?  Did you enjoy it?

Now, please go and check out the other blogs on the hop.  And don't forget to enter the contest.  There are some great prizes!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Celebrate the Small Things 4-7-14

This post is part of VikLit's blog hop, Celebrate the Small Things. Head on over there to join up! 

So, what am I celebrating this week?





Right now, I'm celebrating my new hot water bottle.  I hurt my back at the gym yesterday (warning, kickboxing is harder than it looks) and my hot water bottle is helping me to sit without it being agonizingly painful.

I've only managed 2 more chapters of revision this week, but hope to get another one or two done tonight.  But that depends on how my back is after a day at work.  I may need to lie on the ground with my hottie instead of working.

What are you celebrating this week?

Mid-Year check in

Every January I write myself a letter outlining what I want to achieve with the year ahead.  With half the year gone, I thought it might be time to check back in and see where I'm at with those goals...

Dear Me,

Before I launch into the goals for 2014, I think I need to reflect on 2013 and its successes and failures.  2013 was a year of highs and lows.  The same day I signed my first publishing contract, I lost my job.  Luckily I managed to find a new job within a few weeks, so it wasn’t a huge problem financially, but after over eight years in the one place, being told to leave hurt.

But on the upside, I have a published book now!  Or will on January 3^rd.  And that launches me into the first of my goals for 2014.

I will do whatever I can to make An Unstill Life a success.  I don’t expect to make a fortune, of course, but the idea that my book will be available to readers is a thrilling one, and I want to make sure as many readers as possible discover Livvie’s story.  I’m uncomfortable about promoting myself, so doing publicity for my novel will definitely take me outside my comfort zone.

Well, I've done some promotion and it's an ongoing process.  The book hasn't sold like gangbusters, but I thought I'd probably only sell 15 or so to my friends and family, so I've done a lot better than I feared I might...

Last year I wrote a book called STUMPED.  It’s YA, but deals with sex and disability in a way I’ve never seen in YA literature before.  I love this book.  It’s my favorite of all the titles I’ve written and I really want it out in the world.  I stopped querying when I got the contract for An Unstill Life because my writing time was suddenly taken up with revisions and edits and copy edits.  In 2014 I will resume querying this one and hopefully will find an agent brave enough to take me (and Ozzy) on.

Not yet.  It' been close a couple of times.  I did an R & R for one agent, but I still don't have a deal. It's still out with a bunch of people though, and I haven't given up hope yet.

I got 50K into a new book last year.  It’s title-less right now, so I’m calling it Lana.  It’s not the best thing I’ve written, but there are definitely some things I like about it.  In 2014 I will finish this story, revise it and throw it into the hands of my critique group to figure out how to polish it up.

Yup! Finished and in the processed of being revised right now with the help of my wonderful critique group.

While they sink their teeth into that one, I have a new story idea just itching to get out.  It’s based on something that my new boss has been involved with over the past few months, and I think it could be very interesting, not to mention emotionally draining.  It’s hard not to get too excited about new ideas, but I really want to finish Lana before I start this one.

Sorta... I have fiddled around with this story a little, but I found something else I never finished that reignited my imagination, and have had a couple of other ideas that are niggling at me.  When revisions are finished, I'll have to sit down and really think about which one to tackle next.  And which might be my NaNo project.

My critique groups are the best thing that ever happened to me, and I plan to be far more active in them this year.  With all the excitement and deadlines that rushed at me with my publishing contract, I don’t feel like I have been giving my CPs nearly the time they deserve.  So even if it’s just one review a week, I’ll become more active in my groups again.

Some weeks.  I'm not the best at keeping up with reviewing, but I do always mean to.  Some weeks I manage 4 or 5 chapters, while others it's hard to find time for one.

I’m not quite sure how I managed it, but I read 165 published books last year.  I did write less than I have in previous years, so I imagine that’s how I did it.  This year I plan to finish two novels as a writer, so I’m only going to shoot for 150 books read.  We shall see how that goes.  My bus ride to work is shorter now, so my reading time is a little more limited than it has been…

I'm on track.  According to Goodreads I'm 3 books ahead.

On a personal level, I will continue my regular trips to the gym. Between them and the steep uphill walk to work each day, I figure I’m in the best shape of my life.  But that doesn’t mean I get to be complacent.  I could still stand to lose 5-10Kg…

I've dropped to about 2-3 gym visits per week, but according to my new FitBit, I'm walking at least 8km per day, and some days I get close to 20km.  So I figure I'm in pretty good shape.  My scale is out of batteries, so I couldn't tell you about the weight.

Well, that’s about it for now.  I’ll check back mid-year to track my progress, and then again as 2015 begins sneaking toward us all.

Happy New Year!  And may you reach all your goals for 2014.

Love, Me.

How are you doing with your goals for the year?