Inspiration

I love going to author talks. I love listening to them talk about their writing styles and how they plot and plan their books from start to finish, what gives them ideas, even where they write (I’m a huge sticky beak and love seeing other writer’s workspaces too).

Last night a friend (also a writer) and I went along to listen to Kate Morton give a talk at our local library. She’s a fellow Aussie and I’ve read both of her books, The Shifting Fog and The Forgotten Garden, both gothic mystery type books that I very much enjoyed.

Kate was an excellent speaker and very down to earth as she described the process of writing both books. What really inspired me though was the way she spoke about writing her first published novel, The Shifting Fog (after writing two other manuscripts that she assured would never see the light of day) by putting down on paper everything she wanted in a book, everything she loved and what she wanted to read.

I sat there thinking that we struggle so much to try and remember all the “rules” of writing and trying not to forget everything that sometimes we’re not writing what we truly want to write. Well, that’s how I sometimes feel anyway.

So, after I’d met Kate and had my books signed I went home and made notes for myself for my novel to keep me on track, to remember why I started writing Kiss Butterfly and what I love about it and everything I want in a book. That’s got me all nicely inspired and ready for some weekend writing.

Pain Free

My dentist is my new best friend. I got to his surgery yesterday (by this time I had a sharp pain shooting up the left side of my head) and by the time I reached the waiting room he could have drilled directly into my skull for all I cared.

It’s been so long since I’ve been to the dentist (am too embarrassed to say exactly how long as I’ve harboured horrific memories from my childhood of the dentist looming over me with a gigantic drill, throwing his head back and emitting an evil laugh before he gouged out my teeth) but he was very good and there was no pain after the numbing cream kicked in. The tooth in question was filled with little discomfort and I left in a pain free state. Apparently if I'd left it too much longer the tooth was turning abscessed so it could have been a lot worse. How much worse than yesterday's pain, I wonder.

Anyway, I got home and managed to get in a little editing before the Oscars started.

Toothache & Kiss Butterfly

It was good to get back into Kiss Butterfly over the weekend. I really love this story and can’t wait until it’s in final draft. I edited two chapters and started on another, and am pretty happy with how it went.

On a not so good note, the toothache I’ve had for the last few weeks took a killer turn around lunch time yesterday and I’ve had pain shooting up the left side of my face all night. Its my own fault for putting it off for so long but am going to the dentist today so hopefully he’ll be able to fix it all up and take the pain away. Normally you would have to drag me kicking and screaming to the dentist (lets just say its been a few years since I've been) but today I don’t care what torturous looking equipment he uses, I just want him to fix it.

Tomorrow I will report on my journey to hell, I mean the dentist.

A Writing Weekend

I hate working on two things at once. I know some people can switch back and forward but I just find it harder to focus. I got a really good first draft of my short story finished last night, so that means this weekend I can work on Kiss Butterfly. I’m out tonight and tomorrow night but both days I’m home so I’m going to take full advantage of the time to hopefully get two chapters edited.

Awake

I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night or the night before so I’m feeling as hostile as Nurse Ratched after a round with Randall McMurphy. I’m on my lunch break at work at the moment and I’m not usually a clock watcher but today I’m counting down the hours until I can go home.

I had a good weekend of writing though and The Baited Psychopath is coming along really well. I think I’ll have a bit of a nap (hopefully) when I get home and then write the ending which is playing out in my head right now.

I also did some work on my novel Kiss Butterfly on the weekend. I haven't touched it in a while and it took a bit to get back into it again but I really want to get the second draft done sooner rather than later. I think I've set deadlines on this before but I'm going to give myself until 30 June to finish 2nd draft.

Now, back to internet surfing...

CURRENTLY READING: Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane

Dreams

Most of the time I love my dreams. Sometimes they freak me out a little bit, and sometimes they're a tad bizarre, but generally they're good, and let's face it, good fodder for the stories.

Last night I was having dinner with friends and I was telling them about this dream I'd had the other night where someone was knocking on my door. They were really bashing as though it was urgent and it was so real that it woke me up and I actually thought someone was knocking on my door.

I got out of bed, went to the window and looked out over the cobbled path (I live in a townhouse complex), listening, waiting, but there was nothing there (it was three o'clock in the morning). I knew it was only a dream, but it had seemed so real.

So then I got to thinking about all the creepy reasons someone could have for knocking on your door in the middle of the night and bingo, one of the scenes I've been having trouble with in my short story came to me just like that.

So now I'll hopefully be able to finish that story this weekend.

Victorian Bushfires

Victoria is ablaze with the most horrific fires in Australian history.

It is one of the biggest tragedies this country has ever seen and the worst thing in my memory that has happened here. The fires have claimed so many lives and ruined so many others. It’s so hard to comprehend the enormity of it and the total devastation.

It is good though to see Australians banding together and donating anything they can to help people who have lost so much. The heat wave down south over the last few weeks was bad enough, but the fires themselves are heartbreaking. Some of them have been deliberately lit and I can only wonder at what type of monsters would do something like this.

This photo of a koala that has been doing the rounds of email and was taken during the heat wave. The odd thing about this picture, and it explains exactly how hot it, is that koalas usually keep away from water. They don't even usually drink water but get their moisture from the gum leaves they eat.

We have raging floods in far north Queensland and fires in Victoria. I don’t have any family or friends who are affected, but my heart goes out to everyone who has lost their lives, livelihood, loved ones and people who have literally lost everything but the shirt off their back.

Am Writing

After giving myself a bit of a slap around last night and sitting myself in front of the laptop I managed to get down a very very rough draft of a new short story, The Baited Psychopath. At least everything that was swirling around in my head is now down on paper. And I am definitely going to work on it when I get home from the movies tonight :)

Procrastination Is Thy Middle Name

I remember a Garfield cartoon I once read where Garfield was lying in his cat bed and motions to the hair on the floor around him and says, “Laziness and procrastination go hand in hand. See this hair? It’s cats hair I never got around to shedding last year”.

Procrastination is my middle name.

It's the bane of my existence. Face it, why do something now when you can put it off until tomorrow?

Hell, why not put it off until next week, or next month, or even next summer.

I have a bad attitude.

This is why I didn’t get my short story written over the weekend. I have the whole story in my head, but I’m so easily led by friends phoning to go out, TV, shopping, reading, internet surfing, watching a psychotic possum dance along my back fence (what it is with wildlife lately?) etc., that I barely got a thing done.

At the beginning of last year I decided I was going to become more dedicated and disciplined about my writing. I’d been traveling along, submitting here and there but having no success. I decided it was time to change the idle path I was coasting on.

As a result of this I was published last year. However, I need to make sure I write every night, even if its just a few paragraphs or editing one page. Otherwise I’ll fall back into bad habits. I need to pull my finger out and get down to working instead of talking about it. Which is what I am going to do. This week. Nothing else but writing for the whole week. Except tomorrow night as I’m going to the movies.

And that’s it for my semi-lucid rant in the midst of a severe case of Mondayitis.

The Jay Walking Turkey

I was driving to work this morning and after I’d left the motorway I was driving along a side street, happily day dreaming, when a turkey ran across the road in front of me.

That’s right, a turkey.

Now, I live in the city and we do have wildlife around the place in certain foresty areas, but its not every day you see a turkey jay walking. I didn’t hit it, luckily, and it made it safely to the side of the road. I think it was probably a baby scrub turkey as it wasn’t as large as the other ones I’ve seen the few times that I’ve been to the state forest (where all sane scrub turkeys normally reside, I imagine).

The other week it was a man standing in the middle of the motorway, and now turkeys are making mercy dashes across the road.

What next, I wonder.

Last night I shelved the short story I’m working on, just for a week or so, as its frustrating me to the point of screaming. It’s missing something and for the life of me I can’t work out what it is. It’s probably something simple, so I’m going to give it to some of my writer friends to read and see if they can’t figure it out. It’ll probably be so flaming obvious I’ll be hit over the head with it. In the meantime, I’ve decided to move onto something else and have started writing the Genie story that I had an idea about a few weeks ago.

February

This month as well as submitting short stories (I’ll aim for 3 again) I’m going to get stuck into my manuscript, Kiss Butterfly, which is really screaming out to be edited (am currently only on Chapter 4). Need a slap over the wrist for that one. Mind you, I could have been working yesterday afternoon instead of lying on the couch watching Lemony Snickett's A Series of Unfortunate Events. I loved those books when I was a kid and it’s such a good movie, and Jim Carrey is brilliant.

Anyway, January was a pretty good month, until the last week or so. I submitted three short stories and jotted down ideas for a few more. I have 3 others that I’m currently editing and they’re the 3 I’ll be sending off by the end of the month.

And I’ll edit Chaps 4, 5 and 6 of Kiss Butterfly.

On another note, Atrum Tempestas, the anthology publishing my short story The Child Villain, aims to be out for Easter, so that will be a nice little Easter present.