A slight blogging slump

This was a screenshot from a few weeks ago,
but we do see a touch of it here and there still.
Summer can last almost 6 months here,
and I hate almost every second of it.

I actually wrote the bulk of this post near the end of January, but took it down when I realised I had another blogging commitment that very day. But I thought I'd post it now as it still feels fitting, considering I haven't put up a post here in 6 days!

Soooo, I am not in any hurry to post here at my blog lately. Maybe I'm still struggling to emerge from the daze that was the Christmas/New Year holidays. We also just had another public holiday here (Australia Day, for those who are curious, falls on Jan 26th every year). So I had yesterday off work and did yet more lazing about watching DVDs.

But probably one of the biggest miseries right now is the weather. To say the last I'm feeling a little drained - maybe baked or fried or desiccated are more appropriate words? Like every year in January, I am dying for autumn to come back around. I've shared my sentiments on this matter before, i.e. "I ... hate the sun (though I know I need it)". So far this year, WA's summer has been pretty mild, but we've still had some revolting 44c (111f) days. Plus, it seems to get more humid every year. One might consider that an effect of global warming, which our wondrously 21st century Prime Minister denies the existence of. Or maybe it's just the natural cycle of climate change. Either way, it blows. And it's one more reason why I just want to hide out till autumn comes.

Maybe as the weather cools and my holidays get further and further away, I will switch over to being more motivated to write here. I think it will definitely help when I actually get stuck into rewrites/revisions properly. I'll have something to talk about then - even if it's nothing good. ha.

So that's my update for now - just wanted to touch base. I hope you guys are all having a great January!

Update now that it's mid-February - I still get this 'slumpy' feeling, and am struggling to do my revision work. I think what happens is I might have a night or two in a row where I can't do the work because I have other commitments, and then I just lose the plot after that. But I'm determined to get some work done today - it's Sunday and after I come back from my body balance class, I don't have anything else on all day!

Happy New Year everyone!

It's nearing the end of my first day of 2014, and what have I got to show for it? Well, so far today I have:

• eaten a big and delicious breakfast at a friend's place following NYE celebrations last night;
• finished re-watching all the Harry Potter movies, and become suitably depressed as a result;
• taken my cats for a walk - or rather, been taken for a walk by my cats; it's a thing with them (yes, my cats are weirdos);
• eaten really bad take-out for dinner;
• thought about the fact that after this week I'm back at work!

I'm sure I did other things, but I'm in a bit of a holiday haze right now so those other things are escaping my thoughts.

I hope you all had a great New Year's Eve. Probably the highlight for me was when the Bon Jovi DVD reached a live version of "Always" and we all started dancing around my friend's kitchen and singing to each other about how we will love each other, aaaaalways.

It's been an uncharacteristically cool Christmas and New Year's around here, even if our friends in the Eastern States are sweltering. I have to say it's a really special treat when temps only reach, say, 25 celsius at this time of year.

I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts!

Anyway, I guess I just wanted to put up a simple post without any pictures (because I have none at the ready to put up), just to say Happy New Year to all of you - and let's make 2014 a great one!

I think I'm going to go and set my yearly GoodReads goal, at least if the widget is available yet.

[O&AM] I...hate the sun (though I know I need it)

"Out & About Me" is a monthly blog series in which I tell you guys a bit more about me. I'll focus on a particular topic each month, and let you all get to know me a bit better than you already do.

Today I'm going to talk about the weather. I know a lot of you will have received comments from me over the years about how I hate summer, and I've also mentioned it in this blog now and then. But today I am focusing entirely on the weather and my sheer hatred of (the Australian) summer. I'll admit I don't mind a bit of Norwegian summer, what with its dramatic rainclouds overhead and the threat of a shower or two. Yeah, that's what I saw in Norway back in 2004, and the friend I was having lunch with that day indicated it was quite typical of that part of the country in summer (it was actually fairly reminiscent of a Western Australian winter). But the Australian summer is a different beast.

A friend from the US recently posted a link to this story on my Facebook page, about how in some parts of Australia it's so hot they had to add a new colour to the weather map - purple for the extreme heat of up to 54° c (129° f). Thankfully where I live it gets nowhere near that revolting sort of temperature (max temps tend to be around 43° c = 109.4 f). I live on the coast, and we get the sea breeze in the afternoons (called the Fremantle Doctor). But on days when that precious breeze fails to arrive, everything pretty much sucks around here. I always comfort myself with the fact that some people in the world have it worse than us, hot weather-wise.

I do have better reasons to hate the sun than most - I am susceptible to skin cancer and have already had a few cut out of my face. Not only is it physically and emotionally traumatic to go under the knife like that, but it's costly as well. And yet I know that the sun is life-giving, and that I need it to survive! Thankfully I recently got my Vitamin D checked and, surprisingly to myself and all who know me, my levels were within the healthy range. I guess around here you can't help but get some sun exposure no matter how hard you try to avoid it. It bounces off the ground and the walls and the leaves, no doubt, and finds you even in your shadiest hidey hole. ;)

WIPs, goals, music and the weather

I had a dream in recent times that stuck with me after waking, and I just knew I had to write it up as a story. I've written a little bit, and yet I don't really know how to proceed. This is one of those situations where I think some sitting and some stewing on the idea for a while may be in order. I've already shared my dream with my CPs who are awesome at giving me direction for my plotlines. So right now I'm just sort of feeling my way through the story (as it unfolds in my head, not yet on "paper"). I will say that it's a love story but there's a lot more to it than that. It requires world-building. And it could be steampunk-ish, but I'm pretty sure it's set in the future. Maybe an alternate reality? Anyway, as you can see I'm not sure where I'm going with it. But I love being inspired, and I love my cool dreams.

In other news, I finished my rewrite of SUNDOWN, and I'm quite happy with how it went. I'm not quite satisfied with the ending, but that's yet another project I'm letting sit for a while. My CPs have already given me plenty of inspiration for revisions/partial rewriting, so I'll be making use of those ideas when I get around to revising. For now, I'm happier with where the story went this time. My MC, I believe, is more likeable (including by me, her writer) because she's stronger and more independent (I always intended her to be that way, but somehow she turned out whiny and passive. Passive! No MC of mine should ever be passive, unless s/he's planned that way. ;)

What I'm focusing on mostly right now is my music project, the collaboration involving me putting vocals on a guy's songs for him, and in return him making my simple acoustic numbers into proper songs with drums, bass and all that (which I also then put vocals over). Then I need to get back into my actual goals that I set myself this year, because I have fallen behind with many of them. Shouldn't be long before I can get stuck back in!

It is now springtime over here in Aus, and I wave a sad goodbye to winter for another year. I love spring, don't get me wrong, but I cower in dread of what follows after it. ;)

What inspires you?

The view from the driver's seat.

Sunset over a gorgeous,
if fleeting, lake.

I think a lot of writers are used to getting inspiration from all over the place. Personally, I find weather pretty inspirational. Blue skies are boring if they're just on their own. They have to have something alongside them to make them interesting. For me, the coolest skies are those full of huge, artful clouds. I love a rainy day, but then that's easy for me - we don't get a heap of rain where I live. Crazy storms are the stuff of daydreams for me. So some of the weather we've had lately has put a huge smile on my dial.

My pants are not usually shiny.
The rain made them shiny.

Just over a week ago, I got caught in a torrential downpour on the way to my car from work (it's a twenty minute walk). Most of the photos in this post are from the moments just after the rain stopped - and stop it did, abruptly, leaving behind a spectacular sunset. New temporary lakes had formed in the streets, and the carpark was awash. In my opinion, a post-storm sunset is far more spectacular than a boring, run-of-the-mill cloudless sky sunset.

A few days after this freak downpour, I went with family to the airport to pick up my brother and co., arriving from Canada via Sydney. We collected them not long before the airport was closed down due to crazy stormy weather. Phew, their flight landed just in time! On the way back home, we saw a huge tree that had blown into the road (and a car underneath it). Then, as we drove along the Esplanade in the city, we saw this:

The mighty Swan River floods its not-very-high banks.

I peered eagerly out of the car, hoping to see more roads in ruin. I've always been a winter girl (at least, the Australian winter...which for some nations elsewhere, basically constitutes a fine summer). But sometimes I wonder if I'm a bit of an Apocalypse enthusiast, too. ;)

What inspires you?

Awards, round #1

This is what happens when you are a slacker like me. You get an award, and months pass. You get another award, and maybe another month passes. Then there's a sudden rash of awards going around (probably not the nicest way to put it! My excuse is it's gross and hot today and the weather is affecting my brain!) and you get more awards. And then you have to do this single post because it's just getting a little bit silly collecting awards.

Except I'm not going to do them in a single post anymore, because there is one award I want to wait to post about - simply because it would be much easier for me if my top commenters widget was working!! (I've tried three different ones today, and none of them work...what's up with that?) So I'm going to talk about the some of the awards today, and the rest at a later date (hopefully not months and months from now!).

In recent times, I got these awards:

The Thumbs Up from Skunk award, from Brooke R. Busse

What it's about: It's named 'The thumbs up from Skunk award' since "we all feel like stinky, stinky skunks some days" and there are people who "make us feel (and smell) a lot better".

What I have to do: Name one thing that you love about yourself, then pass on the award to as many bloggers as you want to! One thing I love about myself is that I'm creative in so many different areas!

Who I'm passing it onto:

1. Laura @ Daily Dodo
2. Jenni Merritt
3. Ruthie @ Live, Love, Laugh, Write
4. Lara Schiffbauer
5. Danette Baltzer

The Versatile Blogger & Irresistibly Sweet awards from Tanya Reimer

What they're about: Well, obviously they're about gorging yourself on pavlova and sitting on grass so green I know for sure it can't be Australian grass...right?

What I have to do: I have to share 7 things about myself...and while I've done this before, I figured it's been so long I may as well do it again:

1. I detest the hottest of summer days, but love going to the beach when the sun's nearly down
2. For some reason, people are surprised by the fact that I loooove metal
3. I was born on July 25th in the U.K. at somewhere around 6:00pm, which kind of means I was born on July 26th in Australia (but my birthday is still July 25th - do NOT want to share a birthday with Australia's ex-PM John Howard. YECH!!)
4. I always vote for the Green party, and I don't care who knows it! I believe that in this country nowadays, it's the only way I can sleep at night!
5. I love music festivals but am now thinking I should give them up because they're almost always on disgustingly hot days, and I've got a skin cancer problem (benign, but still, a problem)
6. The first food I ever ate as a baby was avocado!
7. I don't like eating any animals that still look like animals. If we had to kill our own food, I'd be vegetarian in a flash. For now, I get to be a hypocrite and eat meat other people killed for me.

Who I'm passing them onto:

1. Laura @ Daily Dodo
2. Akoss Ket
3. Jordan McCollum
4. Kari Marie White
5. Elizabeth Mueller

Aaaand I'm done (for now). But before I end this section, I want to thank everyone who has given me awards - I really really love that you thought of me! So thank you! :)

In other news, it's Australia Day today! I want to wish my fellow Aussie bloggers a very happy Australia Day!! Here in Perth, we're having hellishly hot weather ("very hot" and "sunny" is a disgusting combination, in my book), and I'm huddling in my air-conditioned living room until the moment when I have to venture out into the inferno for an Aussie Day bbq. I hope the rest of the country isn't frying quite so thoroughly! And that you have a safe and happy Australia Day in which nobody gets punched in the face.