Hi there
I forgot to let you know about my guest post over at The Rest is Still Unwritten blog. There is a give away of YA books from Escape as part of the Escape Publishing’s first birthday celebrations. The post is about writing what you love. Let’s hope it’s an inspiration to some of you.
Here is the link.
Here is the URL.
Happy New Year!
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A bit of personal news about our move to a new house. Matthew and I have moved into together and bought a rather large house, which we have named Dweebenhiem (Dweebhiem by Matthew). It’s a bit grander than what we are used to. I lived in a normal four bedroom house with lovely views over Queanbeyan and Matthew lived in a two bedroom flat with books oozing out of it. There was a path to the bed, the bathroom, kitchen and computer. Merging houses is an interesting experience. We aren’t quite there yet. The books are still in the garage, along with shelves and various other bits.
So far we’ve had a housewarming and Christmas celebrations here. We aren’t quite settled yet. Matthew said to me last night it feels like we are in a writing retreat house. We explore all the bits but it feels like we will pack up and go home. I’ll post some pictures of the view etc in a bit. While we are quite happy here (and we are managing to keep it clean), there were issues. The first morning here, Matthew was in the shower and I went downstairs and water was pouring through the ceiling. We’ve been very lucky as the company that did the house inspection (they are compulsory here in the ACT (Canberra)) is organising to repair the two upstairs bathrooms and the damage to the ceiling downstairs. It was missed when they did the inspection. I was a bit traumatised at first but now I’m okay about it. It’s being fixed. We’ll get passed this.
The other amazing thing was the buses. There is a bus stop at the end of our street. One route, the 788 takes me to Barton and it’s a short walk to work. Matthew can take three buses as he works in Civic. Two expresses or the normal bus. I was so excited about being able to take the bus. It’s so convenient and cheap with a Myway card. On my first ride, a fellow traveller said that the route 788 was being cancelled. I wrote to Action buses and they said the decision was under review. Thank god for that. Convenience at price get people like me out of their cars and onto public transport. That’s better for the environment, traffic congestion and hip pockets. People of Banks, Gordon and Conder get on your bus or you’ll lose it and it’s fab.
Now that I have found a bus, I’m on leave until February. But then I have to make the call, give up my parking spot and commute regularly. I can do it if there is a bus.
Now for views. The house is two story and we face the Brindabellas. This is the view right now from my office.
The ensuite in mid repair. Tradies are on holidays until early to mid-January.
The lounge room or TV nook. We have names for all the rooms, I think.
The dining room, with my new knitters loom, yarn and other guff scattered about.
The garage full of stuff and mess from Christmas (yet to be disposed of)
The games room. Spot the pink coffin shaped dolls house we bought the grandchildren. It’s a vampire villa.
The guest room. Suspiciously normal looking.
The front of the house.
And the gargoyle.
So we are here in this big house, hoping we can fit all our crap inside it. We have yet to unpack the bulk of the books. We are yet to decide on where all the shelves will go, and we’ve bought new ones. One day, we’ll be settled and we can kick back and relax. Right now we have to change our Drivers licenses over before we get a fine.
I’ll have another couple of personal posts before I resume the author interview series.
Cheerio.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Action buses and all their glory, Domesticity, Dweebenhiem | Leave a Comment »
Author spotlight
It’s my pleasure to bring to you an interview with the lovely Ingrid Jonach. I was very fortunate to read this novel before it hit the press. Donna.
Ingrid tell us a bit about yourself.
I live in the national capital of Australia – Canberra – with my husband and my pug dog Mooshi.
I have always loved to read and write, so when I finished school I decided to study creative writing at university as part of a degree in professional writing.
While I was at university I self published a picture book called A Lot of Things.
I signed a two book deal with Pan Macmillan Australia soon after for my children’s books The Frank Frankie and Frankie goes to France. I most recently had a young adult novel published called When The World Was Flat (and we were in love).
How did you get the Strange Chemistry deal?
I had a wonderful agent working to sell When The World Was Flat (and we were in love) and it was quite a quick process from submission to book deal with Strange Chemistry.
We had knocked on a lot of doors before that book deal though. I just about burst out of my skin when we got the offer. I think it came through on email about five in the morning due to the time differences between my agent in the US, Strange Chemistry in the UK and me in Australia.
When the World was flat (and we were in love)? How did that story evolve for you?
I had very clear characterisations for each of my characters from the get-go. The story, however, developed organically around the characters. It even transitioned from contemporary romance to speculative fiction during the writing and editing process. That was a significant rewrite, as the first draft had already been written when I decided to inject some science fiction.
The book has a very complex set up. How did you keep track of that?
Aside from a timeline of events to ensure no one went to school on a weekend, it was all in my head. I am not very organised, so a few scribbled notes or a couple of comments through the manuscript served as reminders of plot twists or missing information.
You’ve been writing children’s books previously. How did you end up writing for young adults and is that where you’d like to be writing?
I loved writing for children and I expect I will do it again down the track, but I decided to write a young adult novel because I wanted to tell a love story. I have always been a hopeless romantic and when the mood struck one day I started writing When the World was Flat (and we were in love).
I am working on a couple of other young adult novels, but I can see myself writing in other genres down the track. For example, the former journalist in me would like to write non-fiction.
What is your writing process? Are you a planner or a panster?
I am normally a pantser, but I am desperately trying to reform!
I have actually been spending the past month meticulously plotting my next manuscript using palm cards. I thought I would find it frustrating, but I absolutely love it! I think it will save me a lot of time with revisions.
I used to try to write everyday, but I have a demanding day job and I am usually a bit brain dead by the end of the day (and I am not a morning person). Unless on deadline, I generally write on weekends, which involves sacrificing a lot of time with friends and family unfortunately.
What do you prefer drafting the story or revising and reworking?
A couple of months ago I would have said revisions, but now I think it is plotting!
I just love dreaming up scenes for my work in progress and I think I am enjoying it even more now that I have a system (palm cards). I used to just scribble scenes on pieces of paper (that I would promptly misplace) or in my phone (which would never be read again).
What part of writing do you find hardest?
I do really love revisions, but they can be very difficult. It is like rewiring your brain. I admit I often forget which characters or scenes were removed from When the World was Flat (and we were in love) during edits with my agent or Strange Chemistry.
What do you plan to work on next?
I am looking forward to writing my third young adult manuscript, which I am currently plotting. I am also hoping that my second young adult manuscript, which is with my agent, is picked up for publication. It is a bit early to tell you about them, aside from them both being young adult sci fi romance and being loosely linked to When the World was Flat (and we were in love).
Book Details
When the World was Flat (and we were in love)
Author: Ingrid Jonach
Publisher: Strange Chemistry
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15767908-when-the-world-was-flat
Available in hardcover, paperback, ebook and audio through all good bookstores and online.
Blurb
Looking back, I wonder if I had an inkling that my life was about to go from ordinary to extraordinary.
When sixteen-year-old Lillie Hart meets the gorgeous and mysterious Tom Windsor-Smith for the first time, it’s like fireworks — for her, anyway. Tom looks as if he would be more interested in watching paint dry; as if he is bored by her and by her small Nebraskan town in general.
But as Lillie begins to break down the walls of his seemingly impenetrable exterior, she starts to suspect that he holds the answers to her reoccurring nightmares and to the impossible memories which keep bubbling to the surface of her mind — memories of the two of them, together and in love.
When she at last learns the truth about their connection, Lillie discovers that Tom has been hiding an earth-shattering secret; a secret that is bigger — and much more terrifying and beautiful — than the both of them. She also discovers that once you finally understand that the world is round, there is no way to make it flat again.
An epic and deeply original sci-fi romance, taking inspiration from Albert Einstein’s theories and the world-bending wonder of true love itself.
Author Bio
Ingrid Jonach writes books for children and young adults, including the chapter books The Frank Frankie and Frankie goes to France published by Pan Macmillan, and When the World was Flat (and we were in love) published by Strange Chemistry.
Since graduating from university with a Bachelor of Arts in Professional Writing (Hons) in 2005, Ingrid has worked as a journalist and in public relations, as well as for the Australian Government.
Ingrid loves to promote reading and writing, and has been a guest speaker at a number of schools and literary festivals across Australia, where she lives with her husband Craig and their pug dog Mooshi.
Despite her best efforts, neither Craig nor Mooshi read fiction.
Find out more at www.ingridjonach.com
Posted in Interviews, Science Fiction Romance | Tagged Strange Chemistry | Leave a Comment »
The other week I was interviewed by the lovely Helen Stubbs for Galactic Chat. We talked about a range of writing related things, Rayessa and the Space Pirates, the difficulties writing the sequel, using a pseudonym for my paranormal romance work, using dictation software and also about things I’d either watched or read. With regard to reading, I mentioned reading Anna Cowan’s Untamed, a fresh and interesting take on Regency Romance. I think it’s more fringe Regency, with a cross-dressing duke and a barely there lady. I was mesmerised by it. I had also just bought A Single Girls Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse by JT Clay, out with Momentum Books. A zany sounding book, packed full of fun.
Anyway, I have to get to work. I am moving house over the next week. I’m moving in with my partner of four years in a big house in Canberra.
Here is the link to the Galactic Chat interview.
BTW Did I mentioned I handed up the last of my Masters of Creative Writing assignments? All done!
Posted in Dictation software, General excitment, Interviews | Leave a Comment »
I’m jumping on the bandwagon with NanoWriMo too. I’ve not signed up yet, but November is usually productive for me. The tax is done. Christmas is looming. Now if I didn’t have this uni work to do, I’d be acing it.
However, I do have uni work to do. It is writing though so that’s kind of awesome.
I had hoped to finish Into the Dark Glass (first draft) this year, but I didn’t. I’m about 35,000 words in and I’m polishing the first 20,000 words, which I have hand it. Better get to it.
Happy writing
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I’m going to try. I have a novel project idea, which I’d love to pursue. I have my uni assignments to complete and I’m moving house later in the month, but I’m going for it.
I haven’t registered on the NanoWriMo website yet. It’s still day one, right?
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I first tried to write a novel when I was 19 or 20. I’d thought up a Star Wars story and as I sat down to write, with pencil and paper. Then I thought I’m not smart enough. I had no idea what it was to be a writer and my love for reading was only a few years old. I had a young son and I think I was pregnant with my second. So I put down the pencil and chucked the paper away.
When I turned 40, I had just changed jobs and my youngest daughter was 18. My life was at a turning point. I was locked in traffic and I asked myself, what do you want to do with your life? My answer was I want to write. My first attempt then was a Scottish Historical Romance, which I loved reading. I wrote probably 700 words and thought -this is crap. Again i gave up. I didn’t have what it takes. That was in May 2000. Around November, I had an idea, a character appeared in my head and wouldn’t let me go. It was a science fiction story, with some alien sex (lol). I started writing, and writing. About 20,000 words in, I bought a book called ‘How to write a novel’ and it was basic. It talked about length, about number of chapters and I sat down and worked out I had enough plot for a novel. I wrote about 100,000 words in 6 weeks. It was shit though. A download from my brain. But I’d written something with a beginning, middle and an end. The next 13 years have been about learning the craft, about exploring writing, building up skills etc.
I sent Relic (the name of the first novel) out for a manuscript appraisal and I started a fantasy novel, which was really hard work. Somehow fantasy was harder. I wrote that while waiting for the feedback. I wrote short stories. The first of which Trent Jamieson published in Redsine. Short stories were my thing for many reasons. I had lots of ideas. The genie had been let out of the bottle. Short stories were a good way to improve my writing, learn writing and being edited and getting feedback.
I kept writing. Revising Relic was a huge task a first, seeming much bigger than actually writing it. I mean there were incomplete sentences, wrong words and it was very first novelish. What do I mean about that? Well the character was in a room and the pacing was so slow, too detailed, that’s very first novelish. There was also info dumping etc. I probably revised it 50 times over the years. (more on Relic and its future journey in a later post).
In my early years, I had romance novel ideas. I never wrote them. I didn’t research romance writing, markets, conventions nothing. Because Relic was supposedly SF and feminist SF at that, my career seemed to be in the speculative fiction vein. Argenterra, which is the second novel I wrote was a fantasy with romance, rather than a fantasy romance. You see, I did enter it in a competition in the US, Rowena Cory Daniels back then used to feed information into the spec fic networks so I entered. Again I thought I’m not good at this. I kept writing. I had more stories in the back of my mind. Category romances. SF romances. I kept telling myself that one day when I’m a full time writer I’ll be able to try romance too. I even joked with myself as another novel remain unsold, that wouldn’t it be funny if I was actually a good paranormal romance writer. I dabbled in some paranormal shorts in spec fic markets. They were published but it was just something that I might do in the future.
In November 2011, for NanoWriMo I start writing a contemporary romance (again encouraged by good friend) . I think the MS stinks. I didn’t finish it as I got RSI. It was hard. I kept wanting to put a ghost in there or a vampire. I’d been working on a paranormal romance for a couple of years, mostly not working on it. I thought it was too hot for publication. (it was before 50 Shades of Gray) That MS is completed now though.
Fast forward. No novels in spec fic published. Publishing going through major upheavals and structural changes. My friend, Nicole Murphy encourages me to go to the Romance Writers of Australia conference in 2012. Enter Harlequin’s Escape Publishing and I have Rayessa and the Space Pirates published. Wham. Bam.
Flood gates open. I am writing whatever I like. I still have a dark epic fantasy there looking for a home, but I just write. I’ve written a paranormal romance coming out 1 February with Escape ( http://danikristof.wordpress.com ).
I have another sexy paranormal novel out there looking for a home. I’ve got an agent representing my young adult/steampunkish/Victorian gothic horror/romance. I’ve had to publish the paranormal under another name, but OMG!!! I’m writing romance, paranormal romance, science fiction, whatever. I’m writing.
That’s the funny thing about writing. Just write. Don’t hold yourself back for silly reasons– like I only write this genre. Do it now. Don’t wait. It’s like saying I’ll paint landscapes when I retire. Why wait? Just go for it?
Do I regret not pursuing the romance writing earlier? Maybe, I’m not sure. Regardless I had to learn how to write. I cut my teeth on speculative fiction. But maybe, just maybe, I’ll earn an income from writing romance. Watch this space.
Posted in Paranormal romance writing, Sales, Writing, Writing advice | 2 Comments »
It’s amazing how absorbed you can be in stuff and you lift your head up and realise you’ve been absent (smack, smack) from your blog for an unforgivable time. The main culprit has been the activity and effort involved in preparing my house for sale. Long nights after days at work. Weekends spent painting, packing, cleaning. Then when it’s ready there’s house hunting. My partner, Matthew Farrer, and I are moving into together. It’s a big commitment and a lot of work. Finding a house is difficult. We were gazumped on the first house, just a day or two before were were to exchange contracts. Right now we are biting nails to see if the current deal goes through. I was so active during the last couple of months that I lost 5 kilos (without the gym). Go me. Mind you now that I’m not so active I have to watch the weight. I’m also addicted to a clean and tidy house. Imagine that. (it’s tidy because half my possessions are in storage and my study is naked of books).
I’m in the last four weeks of my Masters so I’m pretty flat out there and also in the last and important stages of my work project. At least my masters involves some writing and that story is coming along nicely. We have an intensive class tomorrow. I need to work on my presentation tonight and I have to go to work in the morning after all, beforehand.
Due to illness in the family, we’ve had to call off our trip to World Fantasy Convention in Brighton. I’m sad about that as I had been planning it for two years, but it also didn’t go well with buying and selling houses. So early Saturday morning I’m heading off to Genrecon in Brisbane. I’m looking forward to showing off my under bust corset at the Cutlass and Kimonos banquet. We hope to rebook our trip next year. There is a World SF convention on in London in late August 2014.
In writing news, I sent off the sequel to Rayessa and the Space Pirates to the editor. I guess I’ll hear in due course. This weekend I’ll be signing a contract with Alex Adsett Publishing Services. Alex is very lovely and is going to represent a few of my manuscripts. I also signed a contract with Escape for one of the paranormal romances I’ve been working on. That will be coming out under another name next year. I’ll keep you posted. It’s going under another name because my young adult stuff is under my name and the sexy paranormal has, you know, sex in it.
All in all everything is busy but positive.
Posted in Genrecon, Masters of Creative Writing studies, Paranormal romance, Rayessa, Science fiction conventions, Writing | Leave a Comment »
It’s July already and I wonder where half the year has gone. I get to this point and look back over the year and think what have I done, usually in the sense of what have I written. Now that Conflux 9 is done and almost dusted (I’m doing the accounts for Conflux Inc), I’ve been free to write.
I drafted a category length paranormal romance late last year and have revised it a number of times, particularly after Conflux 9, where my wits were standing all on end and I really didn’t have the brain space to polish and you can’t get away from the having to polish. I haven’t had it acquired yet, but here’s hoping. A bit of finger tapping going on.
Over the June long weekend, I started writing the sequel to Rayessa and the Space Pirates. I finished the draft over the weekend and it’s now with Nicole, my faithful beta reader and good friend. She sometimes wears leather when she critques, which is good. So I’m drumming my fingers on the desk about that too.
My first royalty statement is due, but has been delayed. More fingers are tapping.
Late last year, I also finished a longer paranormal/urban fantasy novel. That’s what I’m meant to be working on this month. At work though I’ve been drafting the early stages of a report, which means a lot of time in front of the computer. I have the excuse that I don’t want to do it and I’m a bit brain dead to be thinking about sex scenes and make them zing. (thanks Nicole!) So I have that to do. Not tonight though, even though I think I’m bored out of my wits. A bit of head banging on desk over this. I have the guilt warring with good sense.
I enrolled in uni so I’m set to complete the Masters in Creative Writing this year. We don’t start till August so I have a little bit of time to play with my paranormal fantasy before I get back onto my young adult, steampunk, romantic fantasy that I’m working on. I nod my head. I think a break is a good thing sometimes.
I spoke to my boss about leave for RWA in Freemantle in August. He was happy about that until I pointed out that the deadline to get the issues papers out coincided. I need to check the date, maybe it’s the week before. Still that means some hard work between now and then and a bit of angsting about leave. I’m currently working full time so I should be able to get through everything to meet my deadline. The operative word is should.
The biggest news of the week is that I bought our tickets to go to the World Fantasy Convention in Brighton UK. Finally, we made the commitment. So now we just have to plan who we will visit when we are there and maybe fit in a trip to Ireland. We’ll be gone for a month. Some of the travel overlaps the uni work, so it looks like I’ll have to have assignments done before time, again. Oh well. I’ll see what I can negotiate.
At this point in time I don’t know if I can negotiate, but it’s an option.
Somewhere in there I sighed up to be an Aurealis judge in the graphic novel category. Nothing to read just as yet, but I am looking forward to the awards ceremony being in Canberra.
That’s all my little news.
Posted in Aurealis Awards, Science fiction conventions | Leave a Comment »
It was tough going. There were a few good entries. To solve the dilemma of who must win, I wrote out the answers and read them to Matthew Farrer. He didn’t know who wrote them so it was a good way to choose.
In the end, he chose Simon Petrie’s entry about Captain Skyhook with a telescopic titanium pegleg, a carbon-fibre prosthetic hook, and a pathological fear of space crocodiles …
Simon has an Amazon gift voucher for $20 heading his way and a copy of Rayessa for someone (as he already has a review copy).
Thank you all for participating.
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Donna Maree Hanson, Author, Phd in Creative Writing 