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The Next Big Thing-interview series

December 17, 2012 by donnamareehanson

Thank you to Amanda Bridgeman for tagging me. I’m afraid I’m going to let the side down because every author I contacted had been tagged already so I don’t have the full complement of five authors.

1)      What is the working title of your next book?

This is a hard question as I have a few things on the boil. Rayessa & the Space Pirates comes out on the 10th of January and I have a few other things in the works. I’d have to talk about the book I’m currently drafting I think. It’s working title is Bespelled and it’s a romance with a paranormal slant. I’m aiming for a category length work (50,000 words) and I’m just over half way. I’m hoping to finish it by the end of December. I was going to say Christmas but that’s probably pushing it as that’s a week away and I don’t go on holidays until Friday.
2) Where did the idea come from for the book?

I was at the Romance Writers of Australia Conference in August. I had a fab time btw. In one of the panel sessions an editor said she’d like to see more stories with witches. As I was leaving the conference I got the idea about a story featuring a witch and I wrote an outline on the train to the airport, in the airport lounge, on the plane etc. I have to admit to being influence by Bewitched with this one. By the time I landed in Canberra I had written the 3000 word outline. Funny I don’t usually do outlines but I knew I couldn’t start it straight away. Interestingly, I deviated a little from the outline in the way I revealed things and the timing. However, what I’ve written is better than the outline I reckon.
3) What genre does your book fall under?

Paranormal romance, category length.
4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

Ooh that’s tough but fun. I borrowed the images from IMDB. I went with Australian actors as the story is set in Australia.

Alex O’Loughlin as Jake, Abbie Cornish as Elena, and Rose Bryne as Grace, Elena’s cousin.

Alex O'Loughlin Picture.Image of Abbie CornishRose Byrne Picture
5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Suburban witch, Elena Denholm, has to mind top flying lawyer, Jake Royston, who has been hexed by a love spell, except she’s finding it hard to keep him out of her bed.
6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I haven’t finished it yet but I’ll probably submit it to a publisher and go from there or maybe by some miracle I’ll have representation. I wanted to have a couple of new manuscripts to shop around in the new year. I’ll have two newly written ones and some other ones that I’m trying to sell.
7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

Hahaha. Not very long but it’s not finished yet. I started it in October during my visit to New Zealand and then picked it up again mid-to-late November, I think. I was working on another novel before that. I seem to be on a paranormal romance gig at present. I was hoping to finish it in 6 weeks but I didn’t. You could say I was slack.
8)  What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Actually I have no idea. It’s  hot and may even be classed as erotica, depending on the publisher and what final form it takes.
9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?

Well let me see. Romance Writers of Australia, Nicole Murphy because she encouraged me to go there. My editor, Kate Cuthbert, indirectly because she acquired Rayessa & the Space Pirates and that encouraged me to try writing romance. Also, I’d finished writing a longer single title work, which was a paranormal romance and that worked out well so far. The beta reader comments say so.
10) What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?

It will be compact, sexy and funny too. All set in Sydney.

So that’s my Next Big Thing interview. Around the 26th of December you will be able to see the interviews from my tagged authors.

Ross Hamilton

http://rosshamilton.net.au/

Maxine McArthur on her new blog.

https://maxinemcarthur.wordpress.com/

And others who might be found before the 26th.

Posted in Interviews, Paranormal romance writing, Romance Writers Australia Conference | 3 Comments »

Rayessa & the Space Pirates’ blog

December 16, 2012 by donnamareehanson

This morning I created a dedicated Rayessa & the Space Pirates’ blog, which is to be focussed on readers. All the fun stuff I am doing for the launch will end up there and maybe a kind of diary of Rayessa’s life until the time when the story starts.

I’m happy for you to pop over and take a look. http://rayessaandthespacepirates.wordpress.com/

Posted in Book cover, Book launch, Science Fiction Romance, Young adult | Tagged | Leave a Comment »

Getting the promotion machinery going

December 15, 2012 by donnamareehanson

Now I have a cover and a release date (10 Jan 2013) I can plan what promotion (mostly celebration) is going to happen. Today the lovely Nicole Murphy (http://nicolermurphy.com/) came over to do some Conflux organising and launch party brain storming.

For those of you who don’t know, Nicole and I are running the National Science Fiction Convention next year in Canberra over the Anzac Day period. Today we were scheduling the 20 diverse workshops we will be running as part of the convention. We are very excited about it. After we had settled that, we got down to brainstorming my launch party.

The launch party planning became a big thing. Here I was thinking I would have a themed party with people dressing up as space pirates or slaves. You can tell from the title there are space pirates and there is also a Centauri Slave Market featured. The lovely Matthew Farrer (http://matterfarrer.wordpress.com/)  also piped in with his ideas and now I’m doing a ‘Welcome to AllEarth Corp induction pack’ including a few novelties I will have to create or supply. (this means I have some work to do). We discussed props/house decorating stuff, food (including meatball asteroids and chocolate crackle asteroids), a purple coloured punch served out of haz chem bucket (Matt’s brilliant idea). I was thinking it would be a punch bowl and have been told a bucket with a haz chem symbol is what I need. There is going to be a lucky door prize, a pass the parcel prize, a trailer viewing, a reading (apparently I can’t outsource that part).

Because I have no physical book to display, I’ve been thinking hard about what I can do to let people take away something. My idea was a book mark thingy, with space on the back for an autograph. So I have that ball rolling. I’m just hoping Nicole doesn’t tell me my design is sucky, because it’s TOO LATE , Nicole! Also, as Conflux is coming up, the bookmarks can go into conbags. I’m sure I’ll get a discount, Hey Nicole? I’ll possibly have enough for another convention I’m going to in June.

While I was at the supermarket after Nicole went home, I also had the idea to make a cake in the shape of a space ship, my version of a space ship. So that’s all happening on the 19th of January and now I have to put my thinking cap on about the invites. As the launch party is at my house I have limited space. As it is in January a lot of people will be away so maybe it will work out.

I’ve already been on http://www.thinkgeek.com to get a few things I’ll need. The trouble with to do lists is that they give you things to do.

Also, promoting your work in this digital age is a new and exciting frontier. Will it work? I have no idea.

Posted in Book launch, Digital Publishing, General excitment, Promotion, Science fiction conventions, Science Fiction Romance | Leave a Comment »

Cover love-Rayessa and the Space Pirates

December 12, 2012 by donnamareehanson

So my earlier post mentioned that I was waiting for the cover and then I flicked back over to my email and it had snuck in.

You can imagine first cover and high anticipation levels.

So its romance and science fiction, a light-hearted escapade.

Behold:

Rayessa and the Space Pirates_cvr

PS there are no man titties (thank goodness or Smart Bitches Trashy Books would be onto it).

PSS. To be published by Harlequin’s new digital imprint, Escape Publishing, January 10 Here.

Posted in Book cover, Digital Publishing, General excitment, Science Fiction Romance | 10 Comments »

Rayessa and the Space Pirates

December 12, 2012 by donnamareehanson

So I believe since my editor has mentioned the title during her blog tour, I can now mention it here. Kate Cuthbert is doing a blog tour and the interviews are interesting. Somehow she manages to vary the content or the particular personality of the interviewer puts a different slant on things. Links the her interviews are available here. I particularly liked yesterday’s one with Novels on the Run here.

So my young adult novella, Rayessa and the Space Pirates, is going to be released January 10. Nicole Murphy and I are going to brainstorm on the weekend about how I can celebrate the occasion with my friends. As the story features space pirates and a Centauri slave market, I’m thinking of a themed party where people come as space pirates (with a funny name to go with it) or in a’ I dream of Jeanie’ type costume (or male equivalent). I will have to think up some punch to go with it. (As a bit of history I am renown locally for themed parties, such as the Bad Taste Movie night (no dress required), Daggy Zombie Party (dress in clothes you wouldn’t be caught dead in) and the time travel theme for my 50th.) I’ve been busy of late with work so I haven’t done anything themed for a bit.

Where was I? Rayessa and the Space Pirates. This story started as a short story for a local anthology from CSFG Publishing called, Elsewhere edited by Michael Barry. However, at the time it was the longest short story I’d ever written (early days back in 2003) and I was thinking about how to end it when the space pirates turned up. I thought to myself, well that’s not helpful and gave up on it as a short story. I kept writing though wanting to find out what happened next. I ended up with my first novella. I sent it to couple of beta readers, young people mostly but their parents read it. I got feedback on the title, which was Lost Heritage back then and prior to that Space Audit. One parent said it was soft porn (which was shocking because there is no sex-though that might have been the tentacle reference) and the other parent suggested that a character was a bit risque at the end (one of the walk ins). Another beta reader, lovely Chris Andrews, gave me feedback. The most important dealing with a side character Gris. His suggestion was very helpful and made my main character better rounded as a result. Then it sat in my hard drive for many years.

I submitted it to a science fiction anthology looking at novellas. The comment was I liked it but not right. ( I thought year right. Humouring me). I sent it to a big publishing house where it was sent to the children’s section. Nice comments but rejected. I sent it to a small publishing house, which after many, many months I got a standard rejection. That’s it. That’s all it took for me to lose heart.

Over on the Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild’s email list we’ve been discussing rejections and how many times people have been rejected before getting sold. I learned that I’m an utter wimp and that I give up way to easily and for many years words of encouragement were disregarded. I thought those editors were humouring me, just being nice. So for nine long years Rayessa and the Space Pirates didn’t get out much at all. My partner Matthew read it and liked it, but you know I didn’t believe him either. Most of my other friends haven’t read it. It was that deep in my hard drive.

There is a story here. Don’t give up. Don’t let negative self talk get in  your way. I did. I was my own worst enemy.

I wrote Rayessa and the Space Pirates as an adventure story. It was only at the Romance Writers of Australia Conference in August that I also saw that it had a romance arc. (so I have cognitive issues as well so bite me). It was Harlequin’s announcement of Escape, their new digital imprint, that made me go back and look at the things that I write. There’s romance everywhere.

Digital publishing-so Rayessa and the Space Pirates is going to be digitally published. You know, I hadn’t given that medium much thought either until (the conference) and talking to Nicole Murphy. I have read ebooks, of course, mostly Angry Robot titles but I hadn’t thought about it. It’s growing of course, but I understand for romance it is already big.

I get with the Escape Publishing’s vision of bringing more titles to readers, of taking risks because there certainly has been a contraction in the print market. I’m grateful Kate and Keran inspired me to submit something. For me, a novella, is a toe in the water. I have other stuff hiding in my hard drive and other more recent stuff looking for agent and that dream deal. Fingers crossed I’ll get more published in future. I like the versatility of the digital medium. Put an ereader on your Christmas list.

A Rayessa and the Space Pirates teaser? Rae has been living on asteroid refueling station with just Gris, a brain damaged fellow, as company. They eke out an existence selling scrap from the station and a small hydroponics bay. One day a ship comes in, bringing an auditor from Allearth Corp and Rae’s life becomes very complicated.

This story was so much fun to write. I love the characters and the jokes and I love the imaginary world of the future where humans are living out in the solar system and beyond. Yes, the hero is an auditor. Odd I know. But I’m an auditor so I guess it’s a bit of write what you know.

I don’t as yet have a cover. (You can’t imagine the anticipation I am experiencing right now waiting to see it) but when I do and when I’m allowed, I’ll be sharing that with you, whether you like it or not.

Posted in Annoying advice, Digital publishin, Romance Writers Australia Conference, Science Fiction Romance, Young adult | 8 Comments »

Dictation Software Breakthrough

December 4, 2012 by donnamareehanson

I’ve been meaning to post this for some time, but events got in the way.
I’ve done a couple of posts about dictation software and how I used it to save my arms, by dictating emails and blogs. I felt it wasn’t that easy to write fiction but okay for work stuff, particularly audit reports.

Well I was working on my novel a couple of months back and my hands hurt but I really wanted to keep writing. So in desperation I put on my headset and started dictating a scene and it worked and I did it. Just like that. I made the cognitive leap. I’m not saying I prefer it over using my hands to type, but that I could dictate a scene.

The way it works for me best is to stop after a couple of paragraphs and make corrections. My version of the software reads back what I said and that helps a lot. It will also read what I’ve written, which also helps with picking up small errors.  If I go too far (and I did) the play back function gets dodgy if you have edited the text. That is, it won’t play back and you have to work out what you were trying to say.

Basically, I dictated the last quarter of the novel and it was quick too. I could do 6000 in a day with no aching hands. I use my hands to edit, but that was okay.

Later, I found out that my aching hands wasn’t a resurgence of the RSI but low Vitamin D. It causes inflammatory type reactions in things like your hands and feet. Now I’ve been gulping down a double dose of Vitamin D, the aches are gone. (It had dropped to 39).

Dictating fiction is possible. I found dialogue the easiest and the program  didn’t mind me talking like my characters. I don’t like anyone being around while I write. I’m a bit self conscious about it. I’m the same with practicing presentations and readings.

However, to make it work, I have a souped up laptop with 8 Gb of RAM, a $300 headset (wireless) and the premium version of Dragon Naturally Speaking. All this combined helps make the program work better and reduce errors. I still have errors but not the same level of frustration I’d have if I wasn’t packing mean machinery. I also had lessons and trained the software.

Posted in Dictation software, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Blog interview with me

November 29, 2012 by donnamareehanson

So over on Nicole Murphy’s blog, I’m being interviewed about how I got a publishing deal as part of Nicole’s ‘The Call’ series.

The blog interview is here.

 

In other news, my son, Taamati, came over to take some author shots. He’s pretty busy at the moment but he has to do things to them, including cropping and colour correction etc. So I could only choose 3 author shots.

Here is one that didn’t take the shot. I like it because it is out there.

Me in my not author shot

Posted in General excitment, Interviews, Publication news | Leave a Comment »

Interview- Rebekah Turner

November 28, 2012 by donnamareehanson

I am very pleased to bring you this interview with Rebekah Turner, an exciting Brisbane writer on the scene with Harlequin’s new digital imprint, Escape Publishing. I was introduced to Rebekah at Genrecon, as a fellow author. (Yes, there is a gleeful squee in that) and I was looking forward to read her urban fantasy, Chaos Born.

Chaos Born is a good example of the difference between paranormal romance and urban fantasy. Love is not the central driver in this story. There’s some sexual attraction and some ‘pinch and tickle’ and a maybe a promise of a happy ever after in a later tome. This story is hard hitting, gritty and complete with a quirky female, kick-arse heroine with attitude. The heroine, Lora Blackgoat is flawed, funny and frankly in a lot of trouble. Rebekah takes the tropes and puts them through a mangler, then she twists them, smashes them into the pavement then slaps them onto her broad canvas.  She has goblins, elves, half-angels, witches and demons and she makes it work in this fantastical place.

I had trouble putting this book down. This book rocks and the production is good. Congratulations and well done to Rebekah.
You can get Chaos Born from the Escape Publishing website here. Or from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, ibooks and other retailers of digital books. It was on special but it is now $4.99.

Rebekah thank you for letting me interview you .

So tell us a bit about yourself.Chaos Born

I live in Brisbane with my husband, two kids and a psychotic Boston Terrier. In my past I’ve worked as a graphic designer in the corporate world. I now work part-time and spend rest of the week being a child-wrangler and house-witch.  

How long have you been writing for?

I started writing when I was young, maybe around primary school. I loved creating stories and usually had illustrations that accompanied the fantastic tales of magical horses and snarky dragons.

What kind of genres to you write?

I enjoy making things up, so all things paranormal interest me. I also like a tasty romance. My first big story was a bloated fantasy mess, called Bane of the Flamebird. I wrote it in high school in my lunch break. It was about a girl in high school (cough, cough) who gets transported to a magical fantasy land. Once there, she had to find some magic McGuffin to get back home.
When did you start writing Chaos Born?
I wrote Chaos in 2008, when doing Year of the Novel with Kim Wilkins. It was originally straight up fantasy, and written in third person. After it was finished, I let it rest while I tinkered on other stories. Then I gravitated back to the story, because I’d had a lot of fun creating the world and the characters, but knew the story wasn’t quite right. In particular, the protagonist, Lora Blackgoat, was flat and uninteresting. So I re-wrote the story from her point of view and she emerged as a cranky anti-heroine that I found hilarious to write.

Do you have other novels in progress or is Chaos Born you first? (If you have others tell us a bit about those).

Other than a few short stories and book 2 in The Chronicles of Applecross series, I’ve been working on a sexy paranormal romance. The working title is Biker Werewolves in Tasmania and involves an ex-homicide detective who comes to her home town to recuperate after job burn-out, and a disgraced werewolf pack enforcer.

The Weald is a very fantastic place, with creatures from legend, steampunk, magic, half-angels and religion all blended in. Was this how it started out for you or did you end up with that mix?

The world evolved as I edited the story, but the creatures from legend and the religious aspect were always there. I used a few techniques I found online to flesh the world out more and did up a kind of scrapbook to help visualise what Harken City looked like. I wanted the city to be fantastic, but in a realistic sense.

Lora is such a likable but flawed character. She sounded fun to write? How long and how hard was it to get her just so?
Lora took a while to develop. I knew the type of anti-heroine I wanted, but she was difficult to get a handle on at first. The male characters came easier to me, while Lora read very flat. But I persevered and finally her voice came through after I re-wrote the story from her POV.

Her circumstances are quite out of the ordinary even for an urban type fantasy or even fantasy. She was adopted by a Satyr and an elf witch. I’m sorry to ask this question but how do you think that shit up?

Not sure. Though I didn’t have a television set when I was a kid, and had no brothers or sisters until I was seven years old. So I read. A lot. I used to wake up at 4 am so I could read more. I was also a huge C.S. Lewis and Robert Jordan fan-girl.

So how many goes did it take for Chaos Born to get accepted?
I submitted Chaos Born to publishers and agents when they had their doors open. Took about a year of rejections until it was accepted for publication by Escape Publishing, which was VERY exciting.

How did you manage to get through the disappointments? Did you have mentors and support groups to keep your spirits high?
I’m a member of a writing group called Sisters of the Pen and their support was fantastic. Chaos Born was a finalist in the 2010 Hachette/Queensland Writers Centre Manuscript Development Program. While Hachette didn’t pick Chaos up for publication, it was validation that I had a good story. The constant rejections were depressing, but I always managed to bounce back.

Where did you hear about the opportunity with Escape Publishing?

At the 2012 Romance Writers Convention at the Gold Coast. A panel of publishers pitched to the conference on why writers should submit their manuscripts to them. After hearing the Escape editor say they had a two week response time, I jumped at the chance to submit.

How did it feel to have Escape Publishing accept the MS?

Pretty awesome. It happened very fast and took a long time to sink in.
I believe you are working on a sequel? Can you give us any hints (without spoiling Chaos Born?)
The second story revolves around Lora killing a crazed griorwolf in self-defense. His grieving mother hires Lora to find out what happened to her son to turn him into a killer. Lora’s investigations put her into the crosshairs of the violent Reaper Street Gang and a corrupt city official with a taste for blood sport. Lora’s relationship with Roman deepens, and Seth, alarmed at the deepening affection between the two, redoubles his efforts to win Lora.

Thank you Rebekah for taking the time to be interviewed. I just hope you know that you interrupted my writing today ( on my writing day) because I had to finish the book. Now I have to hang out for the next one. I know you won’t mind, Rebekah, if I say I have a girl crush on Lora.

Here is a shot of Kate Cuthbert and Rebekah resting their feet after a hard day during the launch of Harlequin Escape in Sydney on 14  November.

Kate Cuthbert and Rebekah Turner

Posted in Interviews, Steampunk, Urban fantasy | 3 Comments »

Genrecon

November 25, 2012 by donnamareehanson

Sorry this is a bit overdue. Genrecon was at the beginning of November and now it is nearly the end of November. It’s really scary how I seem to be on a roller coaster heading smack into Christmas. My head is still firmly in fiction writing land and I picked up the paranormal romance I started in New Zealand and it’s like I’m obsessed. I want to find out how it ends. I have the outline I wrote on the way back from the Romance Writers of Australia conference, but I’m quite ready to toss it as the characters have taken off. I think perhaps I had too much plot but we’ll see.

Now back to Genrecon. What an amazing convention that turned out to be. It was a convention aimed at developing writers from crime, romance, speculative fiction, including horror writers, held in Parramatta. I’m not sure how many people were there. I’d say around 200.

We were late for the opening cocktail party as we had to drive up from Canberra after work. It was still going strong by the time we arrived. Matthew took refuge in our suite and I headed for the bar. Two panels sessions started, which I didn’t realise until I was ensconced in the bar. I caught up with people I new from SF cons, Jason Nahrung, Peter Ball , Chris McMahon, Jodi Cleghorn and others.

Breakfast was included in our room rate and when we went down, we found out it was combined with the conrate as well. (I’d booked too late to get the con rate so I got a priority awards rate instead). So the restaurant contained plenty of people we knew. Jane Virgo, Chris Andrews, Nicky Strickland and Damien Cavalchini.

My memory is a little frayed after a few weeks had passed. I remember it all worked really well. The mixture of genre writers created a new kind of tribe. Many were new to cons and others not. I caught up with Jodi Cleghorn, Abigail (@BothersomeWords) and met new people, such as the lovely Rebekah Turner @RbkhTurner, whose debut urban fantasy was released by Escape Publishing last week. To get the book ready for launch both Escape Publishing and the authors worked hard. Rebekah told me on her very quick turn around on edits and proofs. Her cover looks amazing. I met up with Kate Cuthbert (who I can now say is my publisher), Alex Adsett wonder person who gives advice on publishing contracts and is now an agent and I scored at pitching session with Ginger Clark, editor from Curtis & Brown NY.

I introduced myself to Dan O’Malley at breakfast. I’d written to him about Conflux 8 and 9 and I was hoping he would honour us with his presence. He was really nice and very popular as a panellist and the spontaneous kiss (Kate Eltham) during the debate knocked everyone’s socks off. If you caught the twitter feed people were saying he was pure gold.

At lunch I caught up with people. Here is a shot of Alan Baxter and Andrew McKeirnan.

Alan Baxter and Andrew McKeirnan

 

And Jodi Cleghorn and Alan Baxter

Jodi Cleghorn and Alan Baxter

There were three streams of panels during the day with main sessions combining all rooms. Genrecon had a lovely format for community partners to talk about what they  had to offer, Sisters in Crime, Australian Horror Writers Association, Romance Writers Association and Conflux. We all had 15 minutes to strut our stuff. The Conflux session was on Saturday afternoon and we had a prize draw. A stack of books, which I put together from our authors and from Angry Robot. That went off like a charm because the first person drawn preferred books to a membership. And luckily the second name was Amanda Bridgeman, who is a writer coming out with Momentum next year, won a membership. She was waiting in the wings to talk to me about coming along and wouldn’t you know she won a prize.

Later I had a pitch session with Ginger Clark. She was awesome but threw me a bit by telling me to sending her 50 pages and I’d only been there a minute. So I chatted to her about the Air NZ Hobbit themed safety video and blah, blah until the hook came to drag me off stage.

I went to the Pistols and Parasols banquet. I went to NZ so had to rush my bustle dress but I was pleased with the result. I also had a very pretty parasol. See picture that Matthew took below. I totally wanted to do ‘bustle punk’.

Me in my bustle dress

The food at the banquet was very good. The entertainment was awesome. First up Kim Wilkins, who was the MC, interview Kate Cuthbert about Harlequin’s new digital imprint Escape. Kate is awesome. She is an editor who likes to dress up!

Here is a shot of Kate Cuthbert and author Daniel O’Malley

Daniel (Fez) O’Malley and Kate (Cut throat) Cuthbert.

A shot of Alex Adsett and Dan O’Malley. Life is pretty awesome when even agents like dressing up.

Alex Adsett and Daniel O’Malley

Then Sarah Wendell from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books did an amazing talk including a cover snark of how Australia is depicted in US romance books. Absolutely awesome.

As I was leaving the banquet, I had to admire this dress. The lovely lady works for the Queensland Writers’ Centre and I think her name is Aimee (correct me if I’m wrong).

Aimee in her Edwardian gown

What was amazing about the gown, as well as looking fab, was that Aimee saw the dress in 1915 magazine and drew the pattern herself and then made it. How talented and patient. She said it took a month for her to get the pattern drawn well.

 

Here is a shot of Chris McMahon and one of Chris Andrews and Matthew Farrer (my Dweeb!).

Chris McMahon, author

 

Chris Andrews and Matthew Farrer both from Canberra

After the banquet we were moved on to the bar, except the normal people, (people from Rosehill Racecouse) were still occupying the bar. Apparently, it gets nasty and there are security guards etc. We had a letter and a pass delivered to our rooms in the morning to advise if we left the hotel we’d need a pass to get back in, because they tried to keep people out. It was very educational watching the drunk normal people behave very oddly. Eventually we got back in the bar.

While we waited I caught up with Cat Sparks.

Me and Cat Sparks

And I got to meet author, Charlotte Nash, who wore this Firefly inspired number.

Charlotte Nash

Matthew and I had to duck out because our room deal came with wine and a chocolate fondue. So we ducked up to our room and then I went back to the bar.

I snaffled a shot (a selfie) of me and Rose from @Fangbooks in the bar.

Rosie and me

Sunday it was one of the nerve wracking things were there were three panels I wanted to go to but could only get to one. I went to Sarah Wendell’s one about social media and blogs and marketing. I also went to a session on planning your writing career and copyright and contracts, which was a double header with Alex Adsett and Peter Ball. I haven’t written my plan yet but I’m onto it. Joe Abercrombie was interesting to listen to. I totally lost my smooze mojo when I spoke to him. I happened to mention that his first novel had very little romance. Things sort of dived from there and he choofed off quick and proper.

So overall a great atmosphere. It was totally catered, which I didn’t realise and I had bitched about the price so felt a tad stupid, particularly when Peter Ball told me it was all over the registration page. You don’t get that with cons normally and I wish we had enough $$$ to do at least one meal at Conflux 9. Conflux 8 did a lunch on the Saturday and it went down so well.

So thank you Genrecon for a great time. I totally enjoyed myself and thought it was very well done. The hotel was fab and the logistics of opening and shutting concertina doors was spot on. If I’m in Australia during the next one, I’ll be there. The next Genrecon will be held in Brisbane, backed once again by theQueensland Writer’s Centre and the Australian Writers’ Marketplace. Genecon you rocked.

 

Posted in General excitment, Genrecon, Steampunk, Writer conventions | 9 Comments »

Edits

November 23, 2012 by donnamareehanson

I received my edits for my YA space opera novella on Tuesday night. I had a stinking headache so couldn’t even glance at them. Wednesday being my writing day, I flexed by fingers in the morning and charged right in. I read the document through first to get a feel for what I was up against and I was pleasantly surprised.

I’m happy to say the edits were rather light. There was no taking out Australian idioms. Apparently I over used ellipses in this particular piece. I don’t normally over use them so I was surprised. I had to cut up a few chapters to make them similar lengths to the rest, which included new chapter titles and dovetailing the ends and the beginnings of those. Some very minor tweakage and I was done.

It’s short, 30,000 words so I finished the edits in the day. However, I printed it out to have a read over, which I did last night.

I do feel pressured so lucky for me my first time was only 30,000 words. I will probably freak when I get edits for a larger work.

The edits came in track changes, which I really hate mostly because of the RSI. However, I had something up my sleeve and also made the edits go rather quickly. My dictation software has a macro so that all I have to do is highlight the correction with the cursor and say
‘Accept change’ or ‘Reject change’. However, in my case I had just to say ‘Accept change’.

So last night, I emailed them off.
Time to go to work now.

Posted in Edits, General excitment, Science Fiction Romance, Young adult | Leave a Comment »

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