Jenni Merritt, BuNo, ABNA...and Helmet

Gotta love the acronyms! But "Jenni Merritt" is not an acronym of course. ;) It's a person! Or rather, she is a person. Okay, now that we've sorted that out, I want to mention Jenni Merrit's Race to 100 Followers. She's sooo close, and just needs a few more followers before the fun begins. Not that it's not fun already! Hehe. Anyway, just so you know, prizes are involved. And Jenni is worth following!

BuNoWriMo - I wrote a bit more last night. Today is the last day, and while I've already won in terms of getting past 50k, I have more work I can do on JUST ANOTHER DAY AT THE OFFICE. Yeah, it's a working title, and I'm okay with that. Hehe. I'm really loving the story. You can see some excerpts on my Lovin' the Language Blogfest entry, and also you can read the whole first bit (which may or may not have since been edited/expanded upon) over at the Chrysalis Experiment blog.

ABNA - I've decided (I think) to work a little bit on getting FIRE ready, and using that to order my free proof copy from CreateSpace. I did think about doing some kind of compilation thing so I could include some of my BuNo stories, Chrysalis stories, etc. But then I thought nahhh, I'd rather do a full novel. I contemplated doing DAPHNE, but I have a plan for how to completely revise that, so there's no point in ordering a proof copy of it yet. And speaking of DAPHNE, I'm really excited about my plan for that one!! So anyway...that's the plan!

And finally, I went to a gig on Tuesday night - yes, in my city even the big artists/bands tend to play on "school nights". It makes me maaaad! Anyway, I saw Helmet, who I've been wanting to see since I was 14 or 15 years old (I'm almost 31 now). You can read my rather lengthy review of that show here, if you are bored with nothing else to do. Hehe. But suffice it to say, it was one of the most amazing gigs I've ever been to! I met Page Hamilton, had a chat with him, and got his autograph. Very, very stoked over here.

And that's all I have to say for now! Gonna go check out some blogs, which I've been kind of slack at lately due to being overwhelmed by life's demands on my time.

How are you?? What have you been up to?

Lovin' the Language Blogfest

Yep, time for another Blogfest!! This time Jolene Perry at Been Writing? is hosting, and here's what she says about the blogfest's requirements:

"Pick any five lines or any five SHORT excerpts from one of your WIPs. If you're feeling shy, and don't want to share from your own work, share from something you LOVE." - Jolene Perry

So for my excerpt I decided to go with one of my BuNoWriMo projects (I've been working on a fair few...). This one is tentatively titled JUST ANOTHER DAY AT THE OFFICE, and I opted to choose 5 short excerpts from it, as per the rules above.

So here are my excerpts:

1.
     The banshee rushes at me in a blur of movement, almost too fast to see. I duck out of the way in time, but only barely. Her shrieking is incredible, a sound to threaten the eardrums and set the teeth on edge. No...not teeth. I don't want to think about teeth.

2.
     In the warehouse, we eat shitty beans and mouldy bread for dinner. Not all that appetising, but hey, it's food. There is no meat—couldn't find one single supplier this week that had anything to offer that wasn't rancid. There's not much conversation, either. Everyone's feeling solemn this evening.

3.
     Gwen doesn't look at me, and I don't look at her. Nobody is looking anywhere but straight ahead. Raids are a pretty common occurrence, but things have changed a lot since the early days. In the early days, we were curious, careless. Reckless. We've learned our lessons since then.

4.
     "You…don't touch," the banshee says, and I realise she's talking to me. Her glowing eyes are darting between me and Lazar, and I know what she means. I'm not to try and tackle her to the ground, attempt to rescue him in any way. As if I could tackle her on my own.

5.
     "So," Lazar mutters, after my laughter has petered out and I've been silent a few long moments. "You know you're fired, right, Mason?"
     I sigh loudly, then nod. "Yep. Kind of figured…"
     We sit in silence for a time, and then Lazar speaks again. "And…anything you want to tell me?"
     I look at him, and see him tugging at his own shirt, indicating himself.
     "Oh. Yes. You're fired too, Sir."

And now it's time to read everyone else's! Thanks Jolene for a great Blogfest idea! :)

Reading update...and other stuff

Okay, so including today there are 5 days left in June, meaning I have 5 more days of BuNoWriMo. My current wordcount is 42,380, and in the last four days I've written during two. My task today is to write at least 5k, maybe more. Problem is I have to figure out what the hell to write. I've hit a roadblock in all the stories I've been working on. But I figure the best way to go is to read what I have so far, in the hopes that it'll spark the next idea. :)

In other news, I finally received those BUFFY graphic novels I won back on March 7, 2011. Yep, they took a while to arrive, but they are here now, safe and sound!! I've taken some pics which I will upload and share at some later date. For now I want to say a big thanks (again) to Elizabeth Twist for hosting that contest which for most is really old news by now, but for me is still being celebrated. Hehe. I also received...lots of other books. I now have the complete set (to date) of Isobelle Carmody's OBERNEWTYN books, ready to read. But I'm wondering if I should wait till the last two are out. I sure have plenty of other books to be getting on with reading in the meantime. And I also received Holly Black's WHITE CAT, and HOURGLASS by Myra McEntire. As if I didn't already have enough to read! ;)

And now for the actual point of the entry - the reading update. My goal for this year was to read at least 25 books (last year I only read 21), and right now I am on my 25th. After I finished my last read - ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND/THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS, as part of the Classics Book Club I'm participating in this year - I tentatively planned to get stuck into Cassandra Clare's CITY OF GLASS. But as I stared at my TBRRN shelf (to-be-read-right-now, as opposed to the to-be-read-at-some-point bookcase), a slim lime-green title caught my eye. And it called to me. It was THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA by Gaston Leroux. I can thank Teralyn Rose Pilgrim for inspiring me to add it to my GoodReads TBR list, and in general for the fact that I'm now reading it. And loving it!

So I guess I can call that an update. Now I really have to get writing on something other than a blog entry!!

The Favourite Book Challenge Blogfest!

It's that time and here I am to talk about 5 of my favourite books. Let me tell you it wasn't easy to narrow it down from my original shortlist of 20, and those last few on the end were agonising to have to chop! Also, this may look like a weird list to most of you out there, but what can I say - I've got my reasons. And I guess I'm meant to share them with you, right?

So without further ado, these are the requirements of the Blogfest:

1. Pick your top five favorite books

2. Between Jun 20 and 22, write one line of what each book is about and then write one line of why you liked it. Think of it like a twitter pitch for other people’s work. Semi-colons are cheating, but you can use them anyway.

3. Go to other blogs and discuss the books.
4. If you do not keep a blog, put your challenge in the comments on the day of the event. - Teralyn Rose Pilgrim

1. Firestorm: The Zagor Chronicles (Book 1) - Livingstone, Ian & Sargent, Carl

A young wizard is destined to become the "top gal"
on the magical island of Sanctuary, after killing off
lots of evil demons and stuff; good thing she's got a sexy warrior
and some other cool friends to help her in her quest!
I loved this book (and the rest in the 4-book series) because
I fell in love with the characters and because my little mind
would NOT let the ending lie, so I just had to make believe that
two of my favourite characters did NOT get killed off...

2. Twilight Eyes - Koontz, Dean

Slim McKenzie was born with "the twilight eyes",
as his grandmother called them, meaning that he can see
that some ordinary-looking people have "goblins" living inside them;
he runs away from home after a traumatic incident which
alienates him from his family, and meets a bunch of new friends
including a stunning but troubled woman with dark secrets of her own.
I loved this book to absolute bits because of the awesome
concept of the "goblins" and Slim's gift,
and also because I totally ADORE the characters
(this book really felt to me like it could've been the start of a series...
and I still lament the fact that it wasn't).

3. Jane Eyre - Brontë, Charlotte

Jane Eyre grows up to be a governess in the home of brooding
Mr. Rochester, and falls in love with him only to find out he's got
a pesky secret that stands in the way of their unlikely love!!
I loved this book 'cause a) Jane wasn't a complete dolt who
sold her integrity down the river for a dude and b)
it all worked out in the end, awwww and c) Mr. Rochestor = yummo.

4. The Sword of Shannara - Brooks, Terry *

Shea and his brother (whose name I can't remember. Gahhh, the shame!)
leave home on a quest and what an epic quest it is too
(I know, that was a crap 'pitch'...hehe).
What I love about this book (and much of the Shannara series too)
is the absolute epic-ness of it, and the fact that I really do
love the characters (so sue me).

5. Pride and Prejudice - Austen, Jane

Elizabeth Bennett is known for being headstrong,
but it turns out she's pretty prejudiced too,
against the sexiest man in the history of literature
(wait, did I say that aloud? and am I thinking only of Colin Firth here...?).
Yeah, basically I loved this book because it was funny
AND I love how it ends, and I damn well love Mr. Darcy dammit.

BuNoWriMo update

So yeah. Been mildly slack lately with the BuNo writing, but I am DETERMINED that I will win! So have no fear on that. Still, there have been some nights when I've written nothing at all, and other nights where I've written 400 odd words.

Still, I've got a total word count (I opted not to include those 're-write' chapters I was cheating by including for a while there. hehe) of 36,456, which since I'm at June 19th right now averages out to 1,918 or so words per day. Not my greatest effort, for sure, but not doing too badly. The thing is I'm writing on all SORTS of projects. I haven't just stuck to one.

I finished the first one, titled LOST, MISSING, GONE, which weighed in at about 22k, and then was scrambling around for other stuff to write. The original plan, which was to work on THE NEW WORLD, sort of died early on, and yet I have done a little bit of work on that. This is going to sound funny coming from me, a renowned pantser, but I'm finding that one hard to write on when I don't have a plan... Anyway, I've also done work on this week's Chrysalis story, very temporarily titled JUST ANOTHER DAY AT THE OFFICE, which has blown out to 5,089 words so far. I've probably done about 3,000 extra on another Chrysalis story, titled "Sanctuary" (the start of which was my winning entry for the Power of Tension Blogfest). And I'm counting all Chrysalis stories written during June towards my word count. So I guess it's adding up. I just need to keep on top of it!

Usually with WriMos I like to be really ahead of the curve, and usually I am - by a long way too. I mean, some years with NaNo I've hit 50k by day 6, other years by day 11 or 12. Stuff like that. So this is slow going for me. But I'm still enjoying working on all the stories!

I want to say congrats to Donna Hole who got a short story accepted in the Open Heart Publishing anthology titled An Honest Lie. Congrats Donna!! And I want to say a big thanks to Susan Fields who apparently thinks I'm irresistibly sweet, and gave me an award to go with that! Yay me!! Hehe. Finally, hi to everyone who's a follower, and THANK YOU for following. :)

Qurious Quirks Blogfest

Once again, I missed the deadline, but oh well, I'm going to do this blogfest anyway! My friend Brooke is hosting it, and I believe in many parts of the world it's still the 15th, so you can still sign up & participate! Do that HERE.

The blogfest involves this:

1. Sign up in the Linky. You do not have to be a follower to participate nor do you have to post the badge on your blog. However, both would be appreciated.
2. On June 15th, post questions or a small writing prompt relating to quirks on your blog and challenge others to answer in the comments. You must accept your own challenge. You can answer using one of your characters, someone you know in real life, or yourself.
3. Go to at least two other blogs and accept their challenges. I will repost the Linky at the end of my own blogfest entry on June 15th. - Brooke

Anyway, onto my entry! I'm going to ask questions of my character Edgar D., who I really love even though he's a bit of a bitter and twisted bastard. I also want to ask the same questions of my character Ever B., who is...well, wait and see.

1. So, Edgar and Ever, how'd you get to this point in your lives?
   
   Ed: Shit happened, and then I...well, I did almost die a few times. But narrowly avoided that particular fate. Basically, though, time passed and now here I am.
   
   Ev: Sometimes I really do think I floated down on a rainbow - or was it a cloud - or maybe on the wings of a stork. Aliens were potentially involved...
   
2. Do you believe in fate?
   
   Ed: I believe in shit happening for no particular reason. So I guess that's a no?
   
   Ev: Fate is like the substance of one's soul unfurling into the light, and...questing. Ever-questing.
   
3. What do you love most about music?
   
   Ed: It's a way to purge the body of the poison that builds up inside. Plus, it pays the bills.
   
   Ev: It's like a weeping willow tree in a breeze... Or sometimes not in a breeze. Sometimes just standing there...rustling.
   
4. What do you love most about life?
   
   Ed: It's got to end sometime, right?
   
   Ev: It's just so full of beauty...
   
5. Do you have any pets?
   
   Ed: Hey, listen now...the rumours aren't true - I'm not completely evil. I wouldn't subject any living creature to my company.
   
   Ev: I've got pets in my heart. Pets in my soul. Pets all around... Is that what you meant?

So, have at it! Answer these if you want. :P

ABNA rears it's...err...pretty head again

No really, it's a pretty head! *Pats the pretty ABNA head* But I just got an email saying that since I entered ABNA this year (regardless of how far I did not get. hehe), I get a coupon for a free proof copy of my novel (any novel) at CreateSpace! Another one!!

I'm sure anyone else who entered has got the same email. I think it's kind of cool!

Now the only trick is to decide what novel to use my code on!! I have so many choices!

I could get a new copy of SUNDOWN, which has changed to a ridiculous degree since I got that original proof copy of it. Or I could go for something entirely new.

I'm leaning towards entirely new...

Woah, awesome contest!

Okay, so I have to blog about this 'cause it's just totally cool. The Bookshelf Muse has reached 2000 followers, and they are celebrating by giving us stuff!!! Of course, we have to win that stuff, and it does take a little bit of effort...but still, it's well worth the attempt!

So go and check out their contest!

P.S. Just a quick (thanks -E-) update on my goals - um, I did pretty much nothing for the entire weekend. So tonight I need to get back into it big time. I totally will, too!

Some upcoming blogfests & a contest

Hi all, quick entry today just to advertise some upcoming Blogfests:

June 15th - Qurious Quirks Blogfest

1. On June 15th, post questions or a small writing prompt relating to quirks on your blog and challenge others to answer in the comments. You must accept your own challenge. You can answer using one of your characters, someone you know in real life, or yourself.
2. Go to at least two other blogs and accept their challenges. I will repost the Linky at the end of my own blogfest entry on June 15th.

- Brooke R. Busse

June 20-22nd - Favourite Book Challenge Blogfest

1. Pick your top five favorite books
2. Between Jun 20 and 22, write one line of what each book is about and then write one line of why you liked it. Think of it like a twitter pitch for other people’s work. Semi-colons are cheating, but you can use them anyway.
3. Go to other blogs and discuss the books.
4. If you do not keep a blog, put your challenge in the comments on the day of the event.

- Teralyn Rose Pilgrim

June 27th - Lovin' the Language Blogfest

1. Pick any five lines (yes, it can be a few short lines that roll together. That's okay, and is probably what I'll do) from one of your WIPs. If you're feeling shy, and don't want to share from your own work, share from something you LOVE.

- Jolene Perry

So there you go, some fun blogfests in works!!

In other news, my fellow writer/blogger Jenni Merritt is having a Race to 100 contest, wherein as soon as she hits 100 followers somebody gon' get a prize! I follow Jenni's blog already of course, but I do highly recommend that the rest of you follow it too! Jenni's a great chick!

And that's all I have to say! No really, I'm serious!!

A reading/writing update

Okay, so I feel like I've really slacked off on my goals, even though I've written about 24,000 words already in June. 22k of those were for BuNoWriMo, but now that I'm done with that story I need to move onto something else. I've got other stories to choose from, but the problem is having too many. I could fill out the finished story here and there, but I think I need to just move onto something that I know I can churn out words for.

I'm counting my Chrysalis stories in my June wordcount, so those have added another 2k+ to the overall wordcount. I wrote this week's Chrysalis story last night, and kind of loved it. But it's another of those stories that feels like a beginning. I've written a fair few of those this year. I guess I could work on continuing any of them. But the problem is having too much choice!

Anyway...news on another goal of mine - reading. I'm nearly done with Cassandra Clare's City of Ashes, and then I'll move onto June's classic read, which is Alice's Adventures in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass. Yep, way overdue with starting that one! But I'm nearly there. So this is my 23rd book, and Alice will be the 24th. Then just one more book and I've met my yearly reading goal. ;) I set the bar nice and low, to be sure I'd make it. Hehe.

As for the other goals...yeah, gotta start cracking that whip!

But how is everyone else going with their goals/projects???

I won things, I won stuff, got awarded, s'all about meeee!

Ahem. Yeah.

So anyway, I like, won!!!

"Won what?!" you ask.

Well, let me tell you! Firstly, I won the Power of Tension Blogfest Contest. And this is pretty special to me, largely 'cause of the competition I was up against! Everyone did such a great job in the Blogfest and I am really honoured to have won! Thank you so much to Cally Jackson and Rachel Morgan for hosting this great event, and for everyone who voted for me! :)

Secondly, I won a prize in Rosie @ East for Green Eyes's What's the Score? Blogfest! So thank you so much Rosie!!

In other news, I also want to thank (in a big way!!) E.J. Wesley for the love he brought me and many others in this entry.



And finally, I want to say THANKS to Carolyn Arnold for the Irresistibly Sweet Award she gave me - which, incidentally, always reminds me of a pepperoni pizza and not a pavlova. :P


Don't you think?!?! Okay, so I guess it's just me... Still, that's why I keep thinking it should be called the Irresistibly Savoury Blog Award! ;) Either way, thank you Carolyn for thinking of me! :) *puts on her horribly sweet smile for all to see*

Basically, THANKS everyone!!! I lurve you! :D

Oops...missed a blogfest

So, I kind of missed yesterday's 2nd Summer in the City blogfest, hosted by Bess Weatherby, due to my internet woes. But I thought I'd address the topic anyway, even if a day late! These were the requirements of the Blogfest:

1. Sign up
2. Follow my blog
3. On June 6, 2011, post two things:

• What your current WIP looks like
• What your writing goals are for the summer

4. Go around to the other blogs to encourage -- together we can make it through the lazy months! - Bess Weatherby

So, I did sign up, and I am a follower of Bess Weatherby's great blog! Now I guess I'll talk about those two things in point 3!

What does my current WIP look like?

Yay! I have a new WIP, and it's actually a WIP, i.e. work-in-progress, not some complete draft that I'm revising into dust. It feels amazing to just be writing again, and to enjoy that. I'm writing in first person present tense, and that's a style I love to write in but haven't done much of. Sometimes I think my writing is better if I stick to this format. Weird, but true. My MC and her best friend do bear an interesting resemblance to another MC/best friend pair I've written about before. I mean, not physically, but personality-wise. Still, this is a very different work to that one. I'd call it contemporary, with a dash of murder mystery and a dash of romance. I'm about 20.5k in right now, and wondering how I'll manage to make it to 50k (this novel is my BuNoWriMo project), but I'm not too worried. I'm too busy enjoying myself!

What are my writing goals for the summer?

First off, I wanted to say it's not summer here. We're heading into winter, though the blue sky and shining sun I see today will probably make people from other parts of the world snigger, roll their eyes and go, "You call that winter, biaaatch?!?!" Still, it's winter for us. :P Anyway, onto the point... My goals? Well, they're the same-ish as on my Goals list. Except that most of those goals (besides the reading one, and Chrysalis) are currently on hold while I get through June and BuNoWriMo. I have yet to add June's project to the Goals list, but will do! So yeah, I guess my goals for the "summer" are to keep chipping away at that list, but definitely to complete BuNo and gear up toward NaNo! Woooo! Oh, and to stay inspired.

Now I guess my last task is to visit other blogs. Which I will certainly do. ;)

Newsflash: my internet kinda suxxxx

So yeah, just letting everyone know that I'll be scarce the next couple of days until I get back to...ahem, places that have better internet than I do (namely work :P). The only reason I'm here now is that I'm at my mum's place, scunging off her internet! ;)

It's a long weekend (HELL yes!!) and I'm enjoying it. Bought a new film scanner and so I'm scanning all my negatives. It's so awesome!! I've done about 95 photos so far...got countless more to go.

I'm also doing decently on BuNoWriMo. I've averaged about 2k per day so far in June. I'm enjoying my story, which is not the one I thought I'd be writing. Basically it's a...hmm, how to describe it? Contemporary I guess. With a dash of romance, and a dash of serial murder. Dash of humour too, or so I hope. ;) I won't say too much more about it for now, except to say it feels really good not to be worrying about revisions, and to just be writing. I think it's what I needed! Breath of fresh air kind of deal.

Hope everyone's June is starting out really nicely. :) Thanks to everyone for the comments lately, I know I haven't returned most of them but I WILL. I swear it!! Just as soon as I am able.

OH! I just realised I now have 300 followers. :) I will do something proper like about this at some point, but just want to say THANKS to everyone who likes me and my blog. :D I like you too!!! So very much! Muchas gracias and all that. Because my mum's internet is weird, I can't see my followers, so I can't see who the 300th follower is. But I will get to that later too. ;)

Power of Tension Blogfest - I'm a finalist!

Hey all. I'm excited, because I'm one of six finalists in the Power of Tension Blogfest!! There are a bunch of amazing other excerpts in the finals, and I encourage you to read all of them and vote for the one you like best! You can find links to all the finalists' excerpts HERE.

Voting ends by the end of June 7th AEST time (yay, Aussie time!! :D).

I also want to thank Cally Jackson and Rachel Morgan for hosting this blogfest, which was a lot of fun! I read so many great excerpts as a result of it!

I want to mention that my laptop is really not happy with me and won't let me do a lot of things with Blogger at home. Meaning I have to wait till I'm at work to comment on people's blogs. I'm not sure I should blame my laptop, but if Blogger functions okay at work it can't be Blogger's fault, right??

Now, a BuNoWriMo report for Day #1 (yesterday). I wrote about 1,900 words, bringing my total wordcount for this particular work to about 3,400. I have yet to get started on Day #2's writing session, but I'm almost there! Just wanted to post this first.

What's the Score? Blogfest

ARGH!!! BuNoWriMo has begun, only I haven't! But I've got to get this Blogfest (click on the picture above for details) done before I can get stuck in. But I...think I changed my mind about what to write. At pretty much the last moment. D'oh. LOL. Maybe I'll go nuts and try to write both! ANYWAY, Blogfest time!! Here are the rules for the What's the Score? Blogfest, in the words of host RosieC:

"On June 1st, post any number of songs, artists, composers, posers, who/whatever that you might want to include in the soundtrack to your WIP. YOU'RE IN CHARGE! You make the soundtrack the way you want it. Don't have a WIP? Is your WIP's soundtrack personal and not something you want to share? No problem! Take your favorite book, or the book your reading right now, or a book you remember well, and make a soundtrack for it." - RosieC

So for this blogfest I'm going to mention a few different groups of songs. Firstly, some songs that were mentioned in early drafts of SUNDOWN, before I decided to replace all real bands with fictional bands and their fictional songs (to avoid any copyright issues that may arise in future, basically):

• "Haunted" - Stabbing Westward
• "She Sells Sanctuary" - the Cult
• "Friendly Fire" - Jawbreaker
• "Touched" - VAST
• "Get Inside" - Stone Sour
• "Creep" - Radiohead
• "Let Down" - Radiohead

Then there were bands that were mentioned, but no specific songs (and yet in hindsight I've attached songs to these suggestions as I imagine them in my head :P):

• "Born Slippy" - Underworld
• "Everlasting" - Moby
• "Darkangel (Gabriel)" - VNV Nation
• "Love You To Death" - Type O Negative

And finally, there are some songs that really suit the storyline and inspire me on a regular basis, across many different genres.

"Flames" - VAST "Falling Again" - Lacuna Coil "Wish You Were Here" - Incubus "Spit It Out" - VETO "Waiting" - the Smashing Pumpkins "Droning" - Love in Reverse "6 Underground" - Sneaker Pimps "If You Really Want So Little From Me" - Love Outside Andromeda "Down In Your Valley (Dead Letter Disco Remix)" - Dead Letter Chorus "Your Voice" - Effigy "Casino" - the Honeyriders

"Sunkissed" - the Smashing Pumpkins "Sleeping Where I Want" - Veruca Salt "According to Plan" - I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness "A Current Obsession" - Lacuna Coil "Desire" - Life of Agony "The Darkest Night of All" - Lisa Germano "Sleepwalking Past Hope" - HIM "Spring On" - Purplene "Rainy Season" - Seam "Waves" - Holly Miranda "In the Arms of Sleep" - the Smashing Pumpkins

And really, I COULD probably go on for days... but I think I'll cut this short here. Hehehe.