The lovely Rowena Cory Daniels has interviewed me, along with Nicole Murphy about our book releases and the running of the Australian National Science Fiction Convention, Conflux 9, in April.
Dynamic Duo run National SF Con (Conflux 9)and have new books out…
Rowena has a done a great job scouring the internet for extra photos and images.
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What a fun day it was yesterday. It was launch day and all seemed right with the world. After gym, I met with Rydges to discuss Conflux 9 arrangements. That went really well and you know April isn’t that far away. I needed to sort a few things so we can finalise the program. I know we had this idea of it being nice and compact and well shit that doesn’t cut it. The program is so jampacked, it’s splitting its packaging. BTW to find out more check out the Conflux website, which is now http://www.conflux.org.au
Then after a bit of work at home, I drove to Young, which is about 2.5 hours away by car. I’d never been there before but I wanted to have coffee with Valerie Parv (the amazing romance author). Valerie used to live in Canberra and used to be handy. However, she abandoned us for the lovely town of Young. I must say I was very impressed with the place. Valerie is now also writing science fiction. I’ll tell you a secret. In her younger days, Valerie was an SF fan. I found her name in some old fan stuff a few years ago. So I thought I’d let her know about Conflux natcon because she has a book out called, Birthright. Here is the link to Amazon. Some great reviews there. http://www.amazon.com/Birthright-ebook/dp/B00A0C07BK/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1357853906&sr=8-13&keywords=birthright
And both Nicole and I thought that Conflux is the place for her to come and shout out about her book.
Anyway we had a great natter together for a couple of hours and then I came home. I love driving and I love seeing new places.
Posted in Conflux 9, General excitment, Romance, Science fiction conventions, Science Fiction Romance | 4 Comments »
So over on the Australian Romance Readers’ blog, I have a release day post.
Head on over and check it out.
There is a give away for ARRA members. Leave a comment to be in the draw.
It’s a very cool day today.
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As Rayessa and the Space Pirates comes out tomorrow, I have to make some changes to this blog, such as putting up a page for ‘My Books!’ So I do a happy dance. It will be listed on Escape’s website here.
The week has not been all smooth sailing. I have teenager issues. Just picture a very ripe thunderhead inhabiting a bedroom at the other end of the house. Picture the forks of lightning that lash out randomly. Hear the growls of thunder, enough to shake you to the core and make your heart stutter. Lovely.
I sent out invitations to the party to celebrate the launch, which will be on the 19th. Unfortunately, I got distracted by MS Publisher software giving me grief over the document and didn’t see the typo. So over half of the invites went out with a silly typo. That just inspires confidence in me doesn’t it?
Early this week I got a rejection for a novel I’ve put my heart and soul into. I thought it might make it but it wasn’t quite what the market requires. I’m still thinking about that one. However, I think trying to make it fit the market is a big job and it would be easier to write a new story. So I promptly got an idea for a romantic fantasy, called Into the Dark Glass. I have the opening in my head but I’ll have to jot down notes when the idea forms up a bit more. I have the beginning in my head. It’s going to be dark and gritty, ya, romance (not erotic).
Then this morning I got the HarperVoyager rejection for Dragon Wine. Hey I was expecting this when the announced how many submissions they had. How does one stand out in such a big crowd. Kudos to those who do. I’m so glad they wrote to people as they hadn’t intended to originally. Sending that particular MS to HarperVoyager’s digital call was a difficult choice for me because it meant (at the time) giving up the dream of a traditional deal. It didn’t help that the editor had it all year and didn’t get to read it either. I’d revised it and cut 50,000 words from it. But that’s life. It’s my job to make it better and keep on submitting. So I did already.
I had another MS and that one was wait for a month, then it became three months and I haven’t heard so that’s means it’s the silent rejection or maybe stealth rejection. But that’s fine because you know I sort of changed my mind about submitting it there.
On twitter this morning I called these rejections ‘daggers of spurn’ and if I get another one this week, I’ll be a porcupine of spurn. (Picture me with daggers sticking out of my back). The spurn word comes from Ian McHugh. He was showing us (the CSFG group) his submissions’ spreadsheet. Instead of ‘rejected’ under result he had ‘spurned’. The group thought that was pretty cool.
This week, I’ve been caught up with Conflux program set up. (if you are coming to Conflux9 in April and haven’t told me you want in, your time is running out). It’s taken me a lot longer than I thought. Tinkering and checking is more time consuming than the initial set up. I’d pretty much given up the thought of doing any writing this week. I had planned to write the whole week but the Conflux stuff just derailed me. Logistics vs creativity. Logistics wipes me every time. It’s like doing your taxes. All creative thought goes out the window as your jaw clenches and your eyes narrow as you start the quest to find all your receipts etc. However, I surprised myself today. I’ve been doing revision and getting through it.
Revision is like clipping toenails and reorganising your bookshelf. Satisfying as you cut the excess, but requires one to be logical and make sure things are sorted where they should be. Having beta reading comments helps.
So until tomorrow.
Posted in Book launch, Conflux 9, Digital Publishing, Rayessa, Rejections, Science fiction conventions | 3 Comments »
Life has been busy is chez Donna. Nicole and I spent nearly 6 hours working on the Conflux program today (not counting all the other hours we spent). This is getting the whole weekend down on paper, checking the balance, adding extra panels, shifting them around etc.
I started before she got here so technically it was 7 hours. It was intense but hey, we have a working draft of the program and it’s awesome! Some of the panels made us squee. It’s so not fair that we’ll be so busy with running the convention that we’ll be lucky to get to the panels at all.
We even talked Matthew Farrer into to panels. (If you knew Matthew you know what a feat this is). He also helped us with ideas when we came unstuck, such as realising that we should have a topic about x but didn’t. We were texting people, checking emails that came in with suggestions, going over emails people already sent.
We’d come up with names of panelists to add to the topics and I loved it when Nicole did a little wiggly in her seat and said. I so want to go to that panel session.
We have a lot of workshops and a lot of the writing craft stuff is covered in those, so the program has lots of other interesting stuff!
The Conflux 9 program is jam packed. It really is and in a few weeks we’ll share. Right now, I have to type it up and then pass it on to the lovely Maxine McArthur who is doing the logistics of emailing the proposed panelists to see if they want to do the panels etc. (My joke to Nicole is: I so want to give this to Maxine and say “Make is so.” We both laughed but we’re geeks!). The logistical part a lot of work, but for Nicole and I, getting the program down on paper is a major hurdle. It’s not like we can sit on our assess and swill champagne until the convention starts, but for the both of us the core of the convention is the program. Get that right and everything else hangs together.
Then after a quick nap and very good steak, I had to write some guest blog posts for lovely people who are inviting me around to talk about Rayessa and the Space Pirates. That’s on top of some Conflux emails and various other bits. I’m going to have a cuppa now and rest up with a book. I’m currently reading Twilight. My lecturer suggested the class do it and I was lucky that Trudi Canavan had given me a copy. After two sweeps of my book shelves I found it.
For the record I have very sore hands. So we did the work in my A3 sketch book by hand. It now has to be transcribed. It was better for me to do it that way than try to sit at the computer all day. I’m hoping the hand thing is the heat. I have sore feet too. Please god, do not let it be RSI.
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Yesterday was a bit of a loss in the writing or doing anything stakes. A quick trip to the mall for coffee ended up taking 4 hours and when I finally got back it was so hot I completely flaked the whole day. I was meeting a new friend for coffee and she had a turn and is now in hospital. I went without a car and caught the bus home (a new experience). That’s why it took so long. In the evening, I watched Vampire sucks and read JR Ward’s Lover Revealed and finished off an MS I was beta reading. Come to think of it, maybe I’m being hysterical. The day doesn’t seem that wasted does it?
Thanks to the teenager, I had a 2.00 am trip to the cop shop and so today is not looking too crash hot either. Well I thought it wasn’t but I wrote an outline for the next Rayessa story and that’s an excellent thing! I wrote Rayessa in 2003 originally and back then I did have an idea about the next story and the opening scene. Things moved on. I wrote other things and Rayessa was having a snooze in my hard drive. Like a backpacker, she changed nesting places as computers were replaced or died. Now with Rayessa coming out into the world, I need to think about putting more words to paper. The first step was to do an outline. It’s not a careful outline. It’s rough and meant to get the ideas that have come to me recently meshed with the ideas of old. It also means I can now swill it around my head (something like mouthwash) and then when I’m ready I’m going to spit it out, possibly into a word document. Writing the outline also stops me from carrying the ideas around in my head, relieves me of the guilt that I just don’t sit down and do it and allows me some freedom to play with my other projects.
So today I’ve opened up The Sorcerer’s Spell and I’m revising, polishing, tweaking etc. You know, I’m really enjoying it. I’m putting no pressure on myself to get word count. I’m happy if I get through chapter one and really happy if I make it through chapter two. I want to savour this, enjoy the process of taking something a bit rough looking (maybe a cake that doesn’t look pretty) and smoothing it out, embellishing and making it beautiful (like putting fondant on a cake and decorating it).
It was probably very therapeutic to read a bit between finishing Bespelled and diving into revisions of another novel. Reading something like JR Ward’s Lover Revealed, makes me appreciate the complexity and the thought that is going into that book and that series. It is also very cool so it’s great fun to read it. Beta reading Nicole’s MS was a good experience too. She does her characters so well. They have depth, darkness, a past and that’s a good thing for me to be thinking about when I work on all my work. I want to make my characters as real on paper as they are in my head.
Anyhow, time to saunter off and pretend I’m working and not having a fun time. I must keep the image up.
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I’ve sent the first draft of Bespelled out to two beta readers. I’m very happy and doing a happy dance!
I had a tough time with my hands over the last few days. They were swollen and achy. They are much better today. I had to resort to anti-imflammatories and voltaren cream. My feet are sore too, so I’m not sure if it is the RSI or the heat and arthritis. Who knows. (It’s done though. Yay!)
This means that in 2012, I finished first drafts of two novels- The Sorcerer’s Spell at 80,000 words and Bespelled at nearly 50,000 words (both paranormal romance). That means I’ll have two more books to shop around in 2013. This brings a smile to my face. I have to revise them, of course. I have comments on The Sorcerer’s Spell to start on with, which should keep me busy.
In 2012, I revised Ruby Heart and it’s ready to head out into the world and so is Dragon Wine. I feel like I’m ready for 2013.
I have a national science fiction convention to run with Nicole Murphy, but after that, I’m head down on the writing side. There is a degree in there somewhere.
I have some outlining to do. After I finished Bespelled, I started getting ideas for two more stories in the same setting, using different characters. I shake my head at myself. I think I’m addicted to being in the worlds I create. I haven’t yet thought up ideas for more stories in The Sorcerer’s Spell and I have yet to write down the ideas for a sequel to Rayessa and the Space Pirates. I have had ideas for Rayessa since I first wrote the book (nearly 9 years ago), but I haven’t written them down and have to drag them from my subconscious.
It’s been a fabulous first day of the year. Quiet, warm and relaxed. Matthew’s been doing stuff on his PC and I’ve been hooked into mine. I had a lovely visit from Ella and her son, Oliver and we had date scones and a lovely catch up. Something about having a young child in the house on the first day of the year. If felt very nice. He’s very cute too.
Posted in General excitment, Having a sore arm day, Paranormal romance, Paranormal romance writing, RSI, Science fiction conventions | Leave a Comment »
Over here on the Australian Romance Readers Blog a teaser for the January releases, including Rayessa!
Woot!
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Instead, I did a few things on my checklist, particularly doing stuff for Rayessa’s blog. I’ve done the welcome to outpost 311, hard tack, Rae’s emergency checklist (fun) and Rae’s list of her favourite vidmovies. These were things I was going to do for the launch party and I am, but I also thought they’d be good on the blog too for a bit of fun.
The last remaining thing besides the party itself is getting the trailer done. I’ve not put one together before. Apparently I need a script so I’ll do that tomorrow maybe. I’m waiting on Taamati TeRata to do the animation of the cover. He’s very busy doing paid work so I have to wait.
Now I’m going to take a break and then come back to the writing. I had insomnia last night and that means I’m a little hung over. Although I made it to the gym and feel great now, I’m fuzzy headed. Also, my timer says I’m overdue for a break off the pc.
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When I think of this time last year, my life is so much better. I had a lot of work stress and I had the RSI at this time last year. The year continued to drag and I was down. I went on a writers’ retreat in January, for the first time without a writing goal because of the aching hands. The year got slowly better, but it wasn’t until the latter part of the year that things looked up in many ways. I still managed to do my uni course with an HD in English Grammar and a D in Writing for Young People and I applied to do a Masters in Creative Writing, which I will finish this year if all goes well.
The RSI settled. I’ll always have it, but it’s not acute and I have to exercise at the gym to keep it at bay and use dictation software and take breaks. It could be worse but it’s not. I’m grateful for that and for the support I received.
I changed work areas and I really like my new one and I’m looking forward to my new project. This makes a huge difference to me and the future outlook.
Somewhere during the year Nicole and I put up our hands to run a natcon (actually did we do that the year before?). It could have been insanity, but hey we are so looking forward to it and also looking forward to when it is over. Mostly because both of us have had excellent news on the writing front.
Since August I have been writing like my life depended on it. Lucky for my sanity that is slowing a bit. I will be writing until January 14 and then it is full work, Conflux Natcon and study mode. Writing will go on the back burner until May and then I’m off on a week long writers retreat/Conflux wind down, before really getting into the year. Looking back over the year, I revised Dragon Wine and cut it back by around 50,000 words, I revised and cut back, Argenterra, not by as much but I did it. I completed a novel (first draft), called the Sorcerer’s Spell and it is on the to be revised/polished list, I also revised Ruby Heart. I wrote a couple of short stories but only published two during the year. However, I need to get those stories out there and not take rejections so hard. I also started a short novel called Bespelled. I hope to finish the draft of that by New Year’s Eve.
In August, I discovered my romance writer side and embraced it. I enjoy writing romance and particularly cross genre works. I feel like a dam has burst and all those ideas that were in my head for ‘one day when I become a full time writer’ are now climbing over one another to be written. I don’t need to wait I just need to do. It’s a great feeling really. To be here where I feel my writing has come into its own.
Who knows I may get more publications or I may get none. I have to look to 2013 for that, but in 2012 I’m not saying to myself: another year and no novels picked up.
I have appreciated the support of friends, family and the bigger writer circle. A particular shout out to Nicole Murphy, Matthew Farrer, Ian McHugh, Kaaren Sutcliffe, Maxine McArthur, Sam Phillips. Russell Kirkpatrick, Kylie Seluka, Glenda Larke, Trudi Canavan, Kaaren Warren, Ingrid Jonach. Chris Andrews and many of the tribe. There are too many to name.
I went to some great conventions/conferences during the year and met new people and caught up with old friends. Continuum, Conflux 8, Genrecon, Romance Writers of Australian Conference. Each one provided me with new learnings and new opportunities. Maybe next year I’ll get to World Fantasy in Brighton UK, but I’ll have to dramatically change my spending habits and convince Matthew to come too.
On a personal level, I’ve had my ups and downs. My body is changing, winding down and that provides its own challenges with hormone swings, weight gain, fatigue among other things. Keeping positive and appreciating those around me is something I’ve been trying hard to do. I can’t help but at times to be anxious (about work, manuscripts, family members, the state of the economy and even politics) but I do try to control it.
Perhaps I have even discovered that I’m a bit OCD. This relates to the sheet set episode where I couldn’t make the bed with odd sheets and had to go buy some.
My credit card is a basket case. Savings have been hit hard. New central heating unit and just life really. It’s been a tough year for the spendthrift me. I’m hoping things will improve during 2013. Finance and 2012 have been a bugger.
Some people close to me have been hit by cancer. That is hard for them. Also hard for me as I am powerless to help. I think that is where I get challenged when I can do nothing, just be there, be positive and that’s sometimes the hardest.
There is probably more I can say, but 2012 you’ve been difficult and brilliant. Here is hoping 2013 is better and brings new hope to everyone.
Posted in Romance, Romance Writers Australia Conference, Writer conventions | Tagged Year in round up | Leave a Comment »
Donna Maree Hanson, Author, Phd in Creative Writing 