Surviving in Style--2012 Reflections

Most of us are great at self-critiscm. I'm not talented, smart, productive, funny, thin enough. Good old January 1 has perfected the art of cashing in on our insecurities as we all plan how we can be BETTER in the new year. As artists--whether we write, draw, paint, build macaroni figurines--we strive for constant improvement. That elusive location of 'there', I'm almost there, I'll get there, one day... What about now? What about here? How about appreciating and celebrating all that you've already achieved?

Before I make my resolutions (and yes, I'm weak enough to give into the list of improvement) I like to reflect and review my past year. Here's my celebration list of 2012:

• Survived an apocalypse--so that's kinda cool.
• Moved from our country cottage in Yass to an inner-city suburb of Brisbane. Swapped views of cows and hills for trains and skylines. I've learned I can happily adapt to any environment and now love city-living as much as I loved country-living.
• Joined the Queensland Writers Centre (bonus to the move).
• Formed a writers group and we meet every week. Best thing I ever did for my writing!
• Studied via writing courses and workshops. I couldn't even count how many writing classes/workshops I did this year!
• Finished four first draft manuscripts.
• Wrote flash fiction and short stories.
• Increased my pool of online buddies.
• Taught creative writing workshops for kids by volunteering at local schools.
• Was invited to read My Zombie Dog with Year Six kids when they chose it as their class text (that was so awesome!).

Write your list and pat yourself on the back. Post your achievement list, after a few days offline, I'm itching to get around to your blogs. 2013 is looking pretty exciting!

Happy Holidays

HAVE A WONDERFUL AND SAFE CHRISTMAS!

I'm offline for a couple of days while I suffer enjoy the Christmas bickering spirit with the family.

To all you white Christmas peeps, this is what we can expect in Australia, and yes, I've seen Santa's butt many times.

Holiday Spirit Blogfest

Here comes Christmas! I've always loved this time of year, the tacky decorations, lights in yards and the glorious food. But, the last few years I started to lose my Christmas spirit. Started to seem the last few occasions had me running around madly the day before, looking for the perfect present for my kids. And each year our gifts would get more and more expensive, trying to outdo the year before. We'd spend thousands. Don't even get me started on the trend we had for a while buying a pet each year! Got me down.

I'm a big one for challenges. I sign up for them online, but I also try to implement them at home. We have family meetings and someone will suggest a new challenge. We've had fun with no electricity days, spend nothing days and no tv month. But my Christmas challenges were shot down this year. I started with the 'no presents' idea. Ha. Then I tried the 'handmade gifts' idea. Raspberries. But, I am happy to say we settled on a limit. The kids could spend up to $50 of their own money on each other and we would choose gifts for them up to $100 each.

The kids'll still get their sack filled by Santa, but at least now I feel Christmas has become more about our family gathering than the gifts. Looking forward to the Turkey, ham, plum pudding and hosting family and friends.

The Holiday Spirit Blogfest at romanticfridaywriters prompted me to do up a flash fiction piece. I guess that longing for Christmas to be about family and not money influenced me:

Home for Christmas

Jade poked at the dirt with a stick. Midday sun scorched her dark skin and burned her scalp even through her thick curls. Her cotton shirt stuck damp to her back, sweat pooled under her chin and ran into her cleavage. She swatted away blowflies and took another swig from her water bottle. The water was warm and did not satisfy her.

‘We’ll head back soon, I’m nearly done here.’ Her father emerged from his one man quarry. ‘I’ve found some good stones today aye luv. Gonna get a good bob for these.’

No he wouldn’t Jade thought. He never did. Always the same. Go out to the lot, fossick for stones, opals being the prized goal. He’d get them home and those promising flashes of colour would turn bland under the kitchen light. He’d talk up the find. ‘Gonna get a hundred quid for this one, easy.’ Most were worth just a few dollars. He’d return, a burger and fries for Jade and a heart-full of shame. He’d drink and cry and promise to move back to the city. Get a job.

At first Jade believed him. She’d secretly pray for his findings to be short,  so they could leave. A few times she even packed. Back to the city, back to school and Janine and Tracy and all her friends. Back to see her mother and her grandmother. He’d go back out for one more find, just enough money for the trip. He’d get all excited about another useless rock. 

She stopped packing. She’d go back to the city, soon, without him. But for now, he needed someone to share his shame with. Someone to pick up the empties and pretend to believe him when the next rock was dragged up from the ground. 

Next week was Christmas, he’d need her to get through that. After Christmas she’d go. Or maybe after New Year.

10 Best Writing Workbooks

You can get great books on the craft of writing and learn to write a novel at home, but there's so many, how do you pick? My favourites are the workbooks providing exercises to try yourself. Here are the top ten workbooks for writing that I couldn't do without:

Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook by Donald Maass

You could write your whole novel with this workbook. Now don't be confused, there are two releases under this title. Writing the Breakout Novel is probably a good book too, but I prefer the workbook. It's condensed on the chapter lengths but has the added bonus of exercises for you to complete.

Steering the Craft by Ursula Le Guin

At first glance this seems like a run of the mill how-to book on writing. Nope. Le Guin has a magical way with words that transcends her fiction and makes a technical book a pleasure to read. She tackles the usual devices for good writing, but goes beyond and looks at elements that make beautiful writing. For example, her first chapter is on the sound of your writing and includes an exercise titled: 'Being Gorgeous'. It's not all airy-fairy though, you will cover punctuation, syntax, sentence length as well as some fun things like repetition, switching your point of view and using adverbs and adjectives (come on, we could all use some improvement with those). Her examples come from some of the greatest writers. I could read this book again and again.

The Writing Book: A Workbook for Fiction Writers by Kate Greenville

I use some of these exercises in my writing group. The book's a bit wordy for my short attention span, but good if you just use one section at a time (each section looks at a writing skill, such as dialogue, character, description, etc). The topic is explained, examples given and then you are asked to try your hand at writing with a guided exercise.

Don't Forget to Write: For the Secondary Grades by 826 National

Created by an amazing writing centre for young people, this workbook offers lesson plans for high school teachers wanting to offer their students some amazing creative and persuasive writing workshops. You don't have to be a teacher to use it, try the exercises yourself. There is also a Don't Forget to Write: for the Elementary Grades, if you've got some younger writers at home (5-12yrs).

The Art and Science of Light Bulb Moments by Tom Evans

Evans is an amazing speaker, just look for him on YouTube and you'll find many interviews. This is a writing manual with a difference, it's not about technique it's about sparking amazing creativity and ideas. You'll get amazing exercises but also find out the psychological or scientific reason these exercises work for us. Even simple acts like breathing can inspire creativity and kick start our imagination. 

The Artist's Way Workbook by Julia Cameron

Whenever there's a workbook available for a text, I'll just buy that. This is great to get you living the creative life rather than making small slots of time for creativity. Do the exercises even if they feel silly--my experience has always been the tasks I'm reluctant to try always harvest the best results. Each week you'll be assigned small tasks to promote creativity.

Specialist Subjects: 

Writing and Selling your Mystery Novel by Hallie Ephron

I'm still working my way through this workbook but it is perfect if you're writing a… well mystery obviously. Learn all the tropes and gain an insight into the necessary structure of a well-planned crime novel. There are charts for you to fill in and exercises that will take you right through the planning stages.

The Writer's Guide to Crafting Stories for Children by Nancy Lamb

This book is such a good guide it could be helpful for writing any kind of novel, but does offer a lot of insight into the children and YA book market. Find out exactly what kids expect from fiction. The text was suggested to me during a writing course I took and I'm glad to have discovered it.

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain Workbook by Betty Edwards

I know what you're thinking: 'But this is an artist's workbook!' Yes it is, and trust me, I'm no artist, however, drawing inspires creativity. Try a drawing exercise right before you sit down to work on your manuscript. There's something about allowing the pencil to flow over the page that helps release the words.

Adventures in Fantasy by John Gust

Another resource for the classroom but just as good for adults. This book is a whole workshop starting with planning your fantasy setting map to filling the world with characters and conflicts. Great for someone setting out to write their first Fantasy novel. There's lots of sheets to print or copy, so I recommend getting the physical book rather than the ebook version.

Ancient Spells & Crazy Kings

 

Today I'm happy to be hosting Laura Pauling on her amazing blog tour for her new Middle Grade novel: How to Survive Ancient Spells and Crazy Kings! I love a bit of Egyptian mythology, so enjoy Laura's post and enter to win prizes!:

    

Published by Pugalicious Press

When Bianca and Melvin brave the jungle to rescue their grandfather, they stumble upon the ancient Maya city of Etza, where the people haven’t aged in 2,000 years. They must learn to work together as they face loincloth-wearing skeletons from the underworld, a backstabbing princess, and an ancient prophecy that says in three days the city will be destroyed. No problem. They’ll find Zeb and zip right out of there. The fact that a crazy king wants to serve Bianca up to the gods as an appetizer is just a minor technicality. But this ancient evil dude has finally met his match.

Weaving mythology into a story.

How To Survive Ancient Spells and Crazy Kings is a middle grade time travel. I didn’t plan on adding fantastical elements to the story, other than time travel. The characters would go back in time, solve the mystery, and return home alive--hopefully. But while researching the Ancient Maya I learned about some of the driving forces dictating their cultural decisions. The Maya strongly believed in the afterlife. They believed in an underworld. When kings or queens were buried, their tombs were filled with treasured items to help them on their journey in the next world. Kings in particular were driven to sacrifice their own blood. When their earthly lives passed, they desired to rise up into the heavens and become a god. During their sacrifice rituals they would seek answers from their gods and past kings in the rising smoke from bark soaked with their blood. Most commoners didn’t ascend into the sky and become gods. No, they traversed into the depths of the underworld. So when my characters, Bianca and Melvin head down into a deep underground cavern, it was easy for me to connect that to the underworld of the Maya. So guess who they run into? That’s right. The undead. Thanks, Charmaine, for hosting me on the tour!

How To Survive Ancient Spells and Crazy Kings released in November. Pugalicious Press did a fantastic job, and I’m extremely happy with the results. This book would make a fantastic gift for boys or girls who enjoy adventure stories with lots of excitement! You can purchase it on Amazon or Barnes and Noble. You can read the first chapter here. Check out the teacher's guide. Thankfully, my journey is just beginning and I’m excited to see where it leads. Click here for the list of blog tour stops! Enter to win these prize packages!

Prize Package One (signed paperbacks)

Prize Package Two (signed paperbacks)

Prize Package Three

 

  Refresh the page if you can't see the Rafflecopter form! a Rafflecopter giveaway

Zombie Picking & FREE Kindle Book!

My Zombie Picks
Zombies are actually the only monsters I am really afraid of. They give me the total heebies! I originally wrote My Zombie Dog, after writing a long, long list of all my phobias for story prompts and shuffling, staggering, festering, brain-sucking creatures were on top! I'm most scared of them just touching me with their rotting flesh.
But, to challenge myself, I did write a zombie story which has now turned into a series. Undead Kev (sequel to My Zombie Dog) will be released to Kindle in February and in paperback in March. I also try to challenge myself reading zombie literature (I tried to play The Walking Dead game on the iPad, but the intro was too scary for me).
Here's my top zombie picks:

The Forest of Hands and Teeth. This novel is so lyrical you'll forget you're reading about undead creatures wanting to tear at your flesh. Not a fast-paced story, but beautifully written. My only gripe with this one is the Kindle book is way overpriced, so go for the paperback!

Chasers from the Alone series. Not your typical zombie story, because technically, they're not zombies. But they are very zombie-like and they're everywhere! Follow a group of teenagers as they try to not only survive, but find out what's happening to everyone around them. Your jaw will drop when you get to the twist at the end. VERY CLEVER! Undead. Hilarious. During a high school trip, everyone except a couple of students (who were left on the bus and of course would never in a million years get along) turn into zombies. 

Don't forget for the younger zombie lover (9-13) you can't go past My Zombie Dog ;). The book launch was a blast and the kids loved having the face-painter turn them into zombies. As a special promotion for the holiday season, you can download the Kindle version of My Zombie Dog for free, just for December 7th and 8th.

Insecure about Indie Publishing?

Insecure Writer's Support Group is hosted by Alex Cavanaugh. It's a great idea, once a month we post about things that make writers insecure and offer advice and tips for overcoming those issues. 

Here's my insecurity. Sometimes I still feel awkward saying I'm an indie author. Not online, because here, we rock! But around the book shop circles and when I'm in writing workshops. At one seminar a speaker said don't bother self-publishing or no one will ever hear of your book. When you chat to people at workshops they almost always ask who you got to publish your book. There also seems to be an attitude that you only produce your own work if you can't land a publisher.

I didn't go lightly into indie publishing, I registered my business (Hot Doggy Digital Press), got my ABN and an EIN to avoid any tax problems (you need an EIN to get paid from Amazon if you're a non-US author here's a site with all the instructions). I put a lot of effort into my cover, studying popular releases, then I hired a professional to help pull it all together (Book Cover Cafe helped me produce the book). Read DIY Book Covers for some hints and tips. I accepted a lot of feedback on my story and worked on it until it felt right.

I'm fighting these feelings of insecurity. I'm proud of my debut novel, My Zombie Dog, and I'll be proud of the next few I publish too. One thing I've learned is readers don't care about the publisher, mostly it's just other writers who care.

There are steps I'm taking to lift the stigma of indie or self-published books. Let's face it, the standard needs to be lifted before the public's expectations will be lifted. I need to improve. I've made mistakes, but I'll be darned if I repeat those mistakes.

When I first uploaded my book to Kindle I was in too much of a hurry. The work had many errors. Lot of tense errors, typos. Took another three goes and a professional editor (again, Book Cover Cafe) to get it into the shape it's in now. 

I aim to be a darn good indie published author. 2013 will see me spending a lot more time reading and promoting other indie published writers as well. 

To start, here are some new releases from awesome blogger authors. I'll post some reviews soon, for now, just click on the cover to visit the Amazon site:

Fun kids book for Christmas

Amazing fantasy novel

Anthology of stories by awesome writers including Lynda Young

Curing the NaNoWriMo Hangover

K.M. Weiland's new book launched today: Dreamlander

It's a great read for fantasy lovers, I've reviewed the book on Goodreads and Amazon. 

Just 99c, check it out!:

December's here and NaNoWriMo is over. Long live NaNoWriMo.

In my pre-NaNo post I listed 8 things to give up to get those 50k words. I didn't go completely without. I did stay away from television for the first few weeks and haven't watched very much since then. My fav' shows at the moment are Castle, Bones, Justified and The Walking Dead (okay the last one is a love/hate relationship). I did give up a lot of social media time. I was almost non-existent on Twitter and Google+ and I only wrote one blog post. 

My days revolved around the word counts. All I could focus on was the 50k prize. And I did it. I finished the first draft of Undead Kev and have almost finished Warracknabeal Kids. Now it's over, I've taken a couple of days to shake the daze from my tired mind and it's time to get on with things. Here's a list of my plans for December. Did you take part in NaNoWriMo? How do you plan on recovering from the crazy?

• 3 pages - before NaNo my routine included writing three pages longhand first thing in the morning. These pages can be garble or clear story ideas. It doesn't matter. You can use the words to plot or just to dump all thoughts crowding your mind and blocking your creativity. I gave up my 3 pages during November, but I find it a refreshing way to start my writerly day.
• Meditation - visualisation techniques and guided audio recordings help me to clear my mind and plan my words. It's just 5-10 minutes out of my day but really sparks the creativity.
• Short Stories - novel writing has exhausted me over November. I'm taking a little break and concentrating on short stories for a while. 
• Blog - I can't wait to get around and visit blogs again. I'm gonna be a blog-reading machine!
• Reading - I decided to try some books off the high school reading list. Finally got around to reading Catcher in the Rye and now I'm working my way through some Steinbeck classics.
• Educating - Learning grammar rules via Grammar Girl, workbooks and my good friend Denise Covey (a grammar guru).

I know many NaNoers are jumping right in with their editing. I'm going to take a little break and look at  editing in the new year.

I've also got my Christmas tree up - what do you think?