ABNA, other & Inspiring Sounds #1

ABNA & other

• I entered ABNA with SUNDOWN II (latest revision), but with new title. The story was set during the Sundown Music Festival, a fictional festival, but now the setting has changed, so I need a new title. But a permanent title is a dilemma for another day.
• Next project (decided on a slight whim) = revise DAPHNE II. It's NA, but I'm not sure what else. Not romance, but with romantic elements. Women's fiction? It seems more like...general contemp. "General" though feels like a bit of a cop-out.
• I always struggle with genre labelling. Is this because I don't know my stories well enough? I thought so, but maybe I just don't understand genres. Do I need to attend genre school?
• The is a year of revision (I hope). I'm already committed to BuNo and NaNo for writing new stuff (though possibly I will do rewrites). The ludicrous thought of working on RAGEWATER has occurred to me. But...I dunno. Daunting. But I do love this vast realm of possibility!

Inspiring Sounds

In other news, here is the first bit of music I want to share this year:


Kauan is a band I found on Last.fm. Of unknown origin (except that I'm pretty sure they're from Earth), they are currently Anton Belov (guitar, vocals, keys and programming) and Lyubov Mushnikova (violin). Somebody on Last.fm asked, "Are they Russians that sing Finnish?" You can download "Föhn" for free, courtesy of the band. So what is it that I love about this music? Well, I guess it makes me think of some magical land where all sorts of haunting things are happening. I also saw someone on YouTube mention they were listening to it while watching a snowfall outside (jealous! we never have snow where I live!). It's interesting, too, because I don't understand the lyrics, so I can't dwell on them. Usually for me, meaningful lyrics are a must, so this is a different experience.

Lunar Lovin' hop & Reintroduce Yourself blogfest

For the Lunar Lovin' blogfest, we had to go outside on January 27th and take pics of the full moon. Below are the results of my experiments with my "even more crap than most crap point-and-shoot cameras" camera:

With flash

No flash

Through the tree branches

Through the tree with flash

Now onto the and Reintroduce Yourself blogfest, and here are the basic guidelines:

Simply take a moment and tell us something interesting about yourself. Anything. It can be about writing. Or blogging. Or a hidden talent. Perhaps you’re in the Witness Protection Program.

For my post I thought I'd just expand on what's already visible on my blogger profile description:

• I'm a Western Australian writer - yep, been writing since I was a little kid, and I've got the archive of hand-written stories to prove it
• , singer-songwriter - singing also runs in my family, which is notorious for harmonising. I grew up singing, and in my mid-20s started songwriting
• , fine artist - another thing I've done since I was a kid, and for longer even than I've been writing. One of my goals this year is to get back into my fine art
• and traveller - I've travelled since before exiting the womb, and either it was in my blood to begin with or was a gene I inherited from my dad. ;) I've travelled a lot, including 2 world trips, but I still have a lot more to do!
• . I'm also a cat lover - indeed I am a cat person, maybe because I grew up with them. I also claim it's 'cause I'm a Leo, but I know Leos who aren't cat fans. I think I'm becoming allergic, but I persist 'cause j'adore ze kittehs
• and a rabid music fan. - as a non-religious person, I had to have something to cling to - ha - and I guess it turned out to be music. Music is my religion, it's my oxygen and I spend quality time with it every single day.

Travel Series: U.S.A. part 3 - Washington

It's been a while since I posted part 2 of my U.S.A. travel story from 1998. In fact, the last post was back in May 2012! But here I am to continue the story.

Last time, we had reached Philadelphia, and you can read about that here. We checked out the steps Sylvester Stallone ran up - or was it down? - then headed off to find ourselves a truck stop for the night. The next morning we headed for Washington D.C., passing through Arlington, VA. You'll be intrigued to know that we stopped at a laundromat at 10:57 pm (these are the sorts of details I recorded, while skipping out on the more massive general details. Go me).

On our first day in D.C., we visited the Museum of Natural History, and I nearly got us hit by a bus while driving. Woo!

I really loved Washington, and would love to go back!

We met a guy called Ed Segal who was a photographer like Dad. Well, okay, not like Dad. Ed used tripods to capture well-arranged images. Dad was more into finding natural tripods, i.e. resting his camera on stone, or a bench, or against a tree.

Ed kindly offered us a parking spot at his home (since parking was a bit of a nightmare in D.C., according to him). So we parked at his place and went off to explore more of D.C. We visited the Jefferson, Lincoln and Washington memorials. I glimpsed numerous groups of school kids on outings around the city. I went to the post office and spent a fortune sending stuff back home.

Washington D.C. - distant blossom trees.

Ed and his wife Louise invited us to stay the night at his place - yes, I was forever surprised at the kindnesses of strangers. They took us out to dinner for Mexican food. The next morning, we were set to depart. Ed roused us early (basically before the sun was up, which was horribly early to seventeen-year-old me) to head down to the water and check out the cherry blossoms. Ed took a photo of the cherry blossoms. Dad took a photo of the cherry blossoms.  I wasn't sure if I had too, but one particular photo told me I did - not that you can tell at this resolution! ;)

After the cherry blossoms, it was time to move on. We bid Ed and Louise farewell and got back on the road, beginning our trek back across the U.S.A.

"Back on the road again..."

Tune in next time for more travel adventures. ;)

Elizabeth Seckman's HEALING SUMMER - a blog tour stop

It's an exciting day for Elizabeth Seckman, whose book HEALING SUMMER is being released. To celebrate she's hosting a blog tour, and my blog is one of the stops! Today she's here at my blog today to talk about where her story ideas come from.

Hi Trisha! 

Thanks for having me over. And for taking it easy on me. I mean where do I get my story ideas from? That’s a piece of cake! 

I get them out of thin air. I mean ideas are EVERYWHERE! To catch them all, I carry a purse size notebook with me everywhere I go. If I think of an idea, I jot it down. I have blog ideas, book ideas, and cool colors for my basement in there. And I keep them all. I have looked back over things I have scribbled years ago and I’ve been amazed…sometimes at my genius; sometimes at my stupidity. But out of every pile of trash, there is bound to be a treasure. 

See, my problem isn’t the ideas. My problem is reigning them in and forcing them to be still long enough to set them in any sort of sequential order that might resemble a plot. It’s like going from lightning strike to brain storm to setting out sand bags to reinforce the brain levees and prevent flooding. 

I have to use a narrowing down process, and I do this mainly while I’m working on mundane tasks. Mowing the lawn is my favorite place. I need time with my thoughts without interruption. A quiet room, I go to sleep. Doing dishes, someone asks for food. Take a walk and people stop to say hi. Yard work is the perfect escape. No one interrupts a lawn mower. You might give him the job! 

Other good places are: driving in the car (alone); waiting on the sandman; waiting on the doctor; waiting on the dentist; waiting in line at the DMV…or just anywhere that daydreaming is allowed. 

That’s pretty much all writing is. Daydreaming. 

Imagine it. Write it. Edit it. You’re done. 

Hope that helps ;)

It sure does! Thanks so much Elizabeth for stopping by - it was great to hear more about where you get your inspiration for your lovely lurve stories. Thanks for having me as a blog tour host!

Maybe love, not time, heals all wounds Ditched at the altar…biopsied for cancer… Mollie Hinkle is having a bona fide bitch of a summer. When life sucks so hard it takes your breath away, what's a girl to do? Pack a bag, grab a few friends, and leave the past and the worry in the rear view mirror. What wounds can’t be healed by a drive across the Heartland, where quarter flips at cross roads determine the route and the future? All roads lead to Craig, the second son and bad boy of the haughty Coulter line. Has fate brought her to the miniscule Montana town to find happily ever after or will it just break her heart? Author Elizabeth Seckman. “Healing Summer” is the second book in the Coulter Men Series. Links: Facebook GoodReads Amazon Healing Summer blog tour

Enter the contest by earning points in the Rafflecopter below - there are great prizes up for grabs, namely a GoodReads copy of Healing Summer and a grand prize of $100!!! In short, brilliant!

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