A Teensy Preview

As I think I've said previously, I don't make new year's resolutions because I know I won't stick with them... however these last couple of days I've been thinking again about confidence and the difference it can make.  Whether a person is right or wrong, if they're confident in what they're doing, saying and so on, they're far more likely to succeed.

This Christmas I was sitting down talking with someone I hadn't met before and she asked me about my book.  I should have appreciated it and been dying to tell her the details (isn't that what normal people do?  Maybe not?  Anyway...) but instead I felt like crawling behind the lounge and hiding.  Not because I don't like my book or because I'm embarrassed by it, but rather I worry too much about what others think.

I put it on Kindle over a year ago and at the time I was happy for the world to know about it.  I then thought more about it (I'm a serial overthinker!) and the more I thought about it the more I doubted.

Someone I'm very close to inspires me in this way regularly.  I won't name names, but I love the confidence he has.

It's not in relation to writing, but it's still a confidence in what he's doing.  I'm sure he has moments where he worries what others think, but he shouldn't.  He's doing what he loves, he's good at it; it's great.

I look at him and realise that you will always have critics, you will always have people who are more interested in having an opinion than anything else, so I think you just have to learn to get on with it.  Having said that, the feedback I have received for Out Of Her League together with the reviews online have been far better than I expected.

So, in the spirit of confidence and keeping within Amazon's guidelines of not posting too much, here's a small sample of the start of Out Of Her League.

I'm currently around 10,000 words into the second book and so far haven't lost enthusiasm unlike the several other drafts I've started since my computer was stolen so fingers crossed.

I know the start seems a bit depressing, but I can assure you she's not like that the whole way through!

Until next time, be confident, have fun and have an awesome new year's!

(I think perhaps in my last blog I said that thinking I wouldn't be writing another post before the new year but oh well, I guess I was wrong!)

One

Guns blazing, tyres screeching, the Jeep careened around the corner and came to a grinding halt outside the embassy.  Dan McDonald ducked as bullets sprayed the wall behind him and shattered the windscreen of the car.  Standing, he brushed himself off, looked at his attackers and smiling, said…

“Nothing because the bad guys shot him and the writer knew it was the end of a beautiful make believe friendship.”  I groaned and plonked my head onto my desk.  I might as well have been killing off my character; the last book I wrote had killed off my career anyway.

I stayed with my forehead pressed hard against the solid desk for a long time; perhaps if I didn’t move for a couple of days my agent would stop harassing me for my next ‘masterpiece’.

I am Caterina Boston, writer extraordinaire.  At least that’s what the reviews used to say.  One failed book, one misjudgement on my part and the critics were all over me.  Lucky thirteen.  Isn’t that what they say?  Well okay, maybe not.

The critics described the book as ‘old fashioned’ and ‘out of my depth’.  They asked how a writer who had never left South Australia could possibly know what it’s like to travel to Africa and discover long forgotten artefacts whilst trying to fight off a head cold and be home in time for their mother’s 60th.

This they were critical of?  I had previously written books about Dan McDonald scaling the pyramids and discovering the forgotten underground city of the pygmies (for which he had to spend a lot of time with a hard hat and a sore back).

The loud purring of my large tabby cat Maui brought my mind back to the present as he jumped onto the desk.  Like me, he isn’t the most co-ordinated and before I could stop him, he swished his tail and sent my laptop crashing to the tiled floor.  Startled, he jumped down and disappeared into the bedroom, leaving me with the mess and hopes of having everything backed up.

I sat staring at the pieces of laptop for a long time; I didn’t miss the irony of the situation.  Shattered.  That’s what I was.

I leant back in the chair and stared at the ceiling, determined not to cry; I had been working on a story I knew would probably never see the light of day.  I had had a moment of inspiration but that had disappeared hours ago and was yet to return.

My phone buzzed in my pocket.  Hoping it would distract me from my latest catastrophe, I pulled it from the pocket of my jeans and shuddered when I saw it was a message from my agent:

Don’t forget the writer awards tonight.  Pick you up at 6.

Sighing I thunked my head against the desk again, determined to stay there all night instead of face my peers.

~

“So the moral of the story?  Have a moral to your story.  And a plot line.  And enjoy the ride while it lasts because one little mistake; one moment of miscalculation regarding a plot line and you’re out of the club.  Thanks for having me and enjoy your night.” 

The room was silent, the air tense as I spoke these words.  Finally, as more of a matter of courtesy than genuine encouragement, the room erupted in scattered applause.  The most enthusiastic was the waiter who had served me before I made my way to the stage.  He hadn’t read any of my books, but appreciated that I had agreed to pass his novel on to my agent.  Little did he know that there wasn’t a great market for zombie killing super models; but then again what did I really know about writing anymore?

As I made my way off stage and back towards my chair I heard whispered comments like ‘well that was encouraging’ and ‘it’s not the audience’s fault she hasn’t got it anymore.’

I rolled my eyes at my agent as she made her way down the aisle of brightly coloured tables to greet me and take me back to my seat.  Since I didn’t have a date she had decided this would be a good move, in her words to ‘show that I still had friends’.

I would like to say I work as a writer by day and a supermodel by night, but the truth is, I don’t know if I’d pass for a standard model, let alone a super one.  I guess you could say I ‘scrub up okay’, I wear makeup and do my hair at every opportunity, but I’m not confident enough to call myself anything but average; although I suppose I’ve been called worse.

Perhaps you could say I’m a little dramatic, a little over the top, and maybe even a tiny bit paranoid, but it’s endearing… right? 

I prefer to think of myself as passionate and conscious of my world and all that is within it.

I once worked at a doctor’s surgery but didn’t love it there; that and they decided to let me go after they discovered my vaporising hand sanitiser.  In hindsight I suppose spraying nearly every patient as they turned around to sit in the waiting area and talking with my hand over my mouth and nose and making the evil sign when they coughed wasn’t really great for business.

I’m not good with germs.  I don’t mind going out and having some drinks with friends and generally enjoying myself, but I’ll admit I’m a bit of a clean freak.  I spent some time weeding the community garden in my unit block last spring with Maui.  It was all going well until I pulled up a weed and saw the huge caterpillar hanging off it, grinning evilly at me. 

The neighbours called it shrieking, I called it vocalising my fears.  However you want to look at it, before Maui could blink I was upstairs with the door shut washing my hands with soap; lots of soap. After that I decided I would rather pay for the other tenants in the unit block to do my share of the gardening.

Something not well known to the public is that I have a degree in archaeology, so I do know what I’m writing about.  The problem is I’ve never seen anything much in real life, although the Egyptian exhibit did come to the museum a few years back and I did pay to visit it more than once.

As my agent Mary approached I recognised that familiar forced smile as she tried as hard as she could not to hurt my feelings and send me on a downward spiral.  It’s not easy to get me down but once I’m there it’s even harder to get me back up.

“Can we talk?”  Her perfect body fit snugly into her perfect suit, to match her perfect hair and nails.  I had made the effort, I looked presentable, but not nearly as perfect as Mary.  My dark hair never behaves and the curls regularly get in the way.

I knew by her tone it was bad, because she made it sound extra good.

“But we’re right in the middle of the writer awards.”  I managed to stutter, taken aback by the fact that she had walked to meet me to tell me bad news.  I pointed helplessly towards the stage as she smiled and guided me towards the back exit.  “I can’t leave now, what if I win an award?”

She smiled, “Oh I don’t think we need to worry about that dear.”

I scowled at this comment but made my best effort to look happy as she pushed me through a throng of people and out the back door.

“Where are we going?”  I demanded, hands on hips, I turned to look at her.

She sighed and let her shoulders drop, “Cat, it’s been good but let’s face it, it’s over.”

“What?”  I couldn’t believe it; this was like high school all over again.  “What do you mean it’s over?”

“This.”  She gestured between the two of us.  “This business relationship we have going.  It’s done for.”

Six months earlier when my book ‘The Heights of India’ had reached the tops of the best seller lists in New York Mary had called our business relationship a ‘friendship’; she had said she would always be there as my agent and my friend.  I had known it was a lie then, but I had been so caught up in the hype of being on the best seller list again I had let it pass.

Now I stood in an alleyway behind the awards ceremony knowing that my dreams were gone, banished by one bad review.  Well okay it was more like 101 bad reviews, but that wasn’t the point.  All of a sudden the people I thought were my friends were just people on the street who would look at me with that vague recollection of ‘don’t I know her from somewhere?’

Okay so I’m being a little melodramatic, but at the time it felt as though my whole world was falling apart.  As a little girl I dreamed of being an astronaut; that dream had failed me too.

Merry Christmas

Hello and Merry Christmas!

I can't believe how fast the year has gone.

In my personal world this year I've been pregnant since May (and can't wait to meet baby in February), been on a great holiday to Tasmania (if you haven't gone, I recommend you take the time) and thanks to some great friends, we finally have a backyard that's not just dirt!

In my writing world, I've been a little bit distracted, but have still managed to keep up writing where I can.  I've continued writing for Weekend Notes and Recipe Yum, have almost finished an urban fantasy story I'm currently a little bit stuck on even though I know exactly how I want it to end, and have written several different drafts of the second book in the Caterina Boston series and I think this week I've finally settled on which way I'm going to go with it.

In January 2013 I had six days off work because I brilliantly fell and hurt my ankle (can you say 'co-ordinated'?).  In that time, I wrote almost the entire first draft of Out Of Her League.  I can't remember the word count, but I think it was somewhere around 47,000 words in a week.  Okay, so that wasn't the whole book, but it was a good chunk of it.

I start leave until November at Christmas time and although I know I'll be busy with baby, I will (hopefully, unless baby is early) have several weeks at home; something which hasn't happened in my twelve years since leaving school.  So, it will be interesting to see how much I get done.

When I was young I remember wanting to write stories.  I was reading Enid Blyton and realised someone actually wrote these stories; a normal person with potentially unusual ideas; but still just a person.  I wanted to write stories, I wanted to entertain people and I wanted to give it a go regardless of  whether I succeeded or not.

As time went by and I continued to write, read and love books, I began to develop more of a sensitivity to what people thought and decided my stories were just for me to read.

So what changed?  Why did I decide I shouldn't have confidence in my own writing?  I'm not saying my writing is in any way perfect; in fact I will probably look back on what I've published and cringe, but I do think this is how we learn, regardless of how old we are.

I don't make new years resolutions, but the year we signed the contract to our house I started the year off determined it was going to be a good one, and it was.

This year has been great without me even expecting it.  Therefore, in the spirit of not making resolutions, but going into the new year with a positive outlook, I say, have a great Christmas, a happy new year and an amazing 2016.

It's Been a While!!

I was just sitting back, thinking about writing and realised something... I haven't published a blog post since April this year.  That seems like forever ago!

I'll admit it, I've been quite distracted these past few months.  Baby writer is on the way and due early next year and worrying bubs is going to be healthy, I'm doing the right thing etc etc seems to be taking up all my spare time.  Well, that and working full time and buying ridiculously cute (but possibly cruel?) outfits for my poor child...

I've continued to write recipes on Recipe Yum and have published the occasional article for Weekend Notes but I have definitely been distracted.

I know what you're thinking - 'you think you don't have time now, wait until you have baby!'  I agree.  This is why I'm trying to use my time wisely and put my overactive imagination to good use.

Since writing my last post, I have put Out Of Her League back on Kindle, have written the next book in the series, decided I didn't like it and went back to planning out an alternative second book.  After losing the entire second book when my computer was stolen back in March, I'm finding it hard to rewrite it and have decided perhaps it's time for a break.  Hence, why there is still only one Caterina Boston book online.

So what have I been doing in the meantime?  I've been trying something different.

I'll admit it, I've always been quite traditional in my style of writing.  I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing, but I've had people tell me I 'write a lot older than I am'.  Again, undecided if that's good or bad.  Perhaps that's because I've grown up with a weird mixed up love of Enid Blyton and Clive Cussler books, but whatever the reason I decided to try something else.

So far, the reception has been quite good.  I wrote one urban fantasy novel which is currently on Wattpad sitting at around 2,000 reads and good reviews, and the second one is in the process of being written and uploaded to Wattpad.

Before I go any further, I should probably say this.  There are mixed opinions regarding Wattpad in writing circles.  Some people think it's worthwhile whilst others think it's just a forum for fan fiction.  Both of these opinions are true - to an extent.

Wattpad is great for publishing your work without feeling like you're being too harshly judged (okay, you do get the occasional troll or know it all but overall if people don't like your story, they just won't continue reading), like you're trying to meet expectations and so on.  You can also choose to be anonymous if you prefer.  Okay, I lie, you still need a user name, but it doesn't have to be your real name.  What's that they say?  On the internet you can be anyone?

The new genre and writing style I decided to try isn't something I'm normally interested in which made me think it might be a new challenge.  I was surprised at how easy it was and how well it flowed.  Or perhaps it's just me?

I will do my best to get back on here before the end of the year, but Christmas is fast approaching and I have a lot of online shopping to do (who wants to go to the actual store if you don't have to??).  So until next time, continue writing, forget about the errors, and worry about the final product once the story has been written.

I think I've shared this quote before, but it's one of my favourites.

I was going to share an excerpt from my latest story, but I apparently have more scented candles than I do confidence.  Maybe next time... I'll work on that. 

Whoa! Back it up!

So lately I've been a bit distracted from blogging.  Well I don't know if distracted is the right word so much as 'had my computer stolen, lost a heap of work and didn't have a computer for a while'.

Yep, that's right.  Someone broke into my house in the middle of the day when I was out and stole my tablet.  

Needless to say I was creeped out, annoyed and upset that someone had the nerve to come into our house (through our window), pull everything out of our bedside drawers, go through the house and open cupboards etc.  But to add to that, as I said earlier, I lost a massive amount of writing work as well as photos and so on.

My point to this other than the need to rave?  Back it up!  Everything you have on your computer, back it up!  I had sometimes wondered what I would do if my Surface stopped working, but it hadn't occurred to me that it would be taken out of my bedroom.

Yes, I know, I should have backed up.  I should have stored it all to an online server or at the very least, backed it up to a USB key, but I didn't.  So there's no point me dwelling on what I could have done differently.

Thankfully, due to me having way too many social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr - although this one is very new, etc) I haven't lost a massive amount of photos.

I had however just finished the first draft of the second book in the Caterina Boston series and was getting it ready to put on Kindle.  I unfortunately don't have a copy of that and haven't found the enthusiasm to rewrite it at the moment (I'm probably just sulking, it will pass).

On the night we discovered the break in I tried to think about how much stuff I'd lost.  I'm told (and Google confirms) that it would be quite difficult for someone to access my Windows Live account and there are other reasons it's unlikely someone is looking at my stuff (SO not putting info on here re how to get around things like this because definitely not going to assist anyone in their endeavours around this!).  I also doubt the person or people who stole it broke in so they could read my latest book, so I'm not too worried about this part.

So how much did I lose?  Around 200,000 words.  I'm not going to pretend that all of those words were gold (highly unlikely) or were even necessarily usable in the future, but it's not the point.

So writing this post to remind people of the importance of backing up your computer.  Whether it's because of photos, personal information, or writing work from the past eighteen months, if it's important, get something like Drop Box and start backing it up!

On a side note, if anyone does consider breaking into our house again, we now have a super fancy alarm system with laser beams crisscrossing the hallways, a team of highly trained ninjas living in the roof and a giant dog with three heads like the one below.

We were going to get sharks with laser beams attached to their heads but it turns out they can't chase people unless they're in water - and I didn't want to have to clean their tank all the time!

(Some creative licensing may have been used for the above however no ninjas were harmed in the writing of this blog).

Until next time, read, write and continue with the geeky fandoms! 

Hashima Island

I started this blog earlier today with the plans of writing about what a great year it has been and wishing you all the best for 2015.  So let me start by saying, happy new year!  I hope that you all have a great year.

I then went on to say it was a year ago this Sunday I fell over (very gracefully of course - and before you ask, no alcohol was involved - the doctors didn't believe me either, but it's true) which means it was a year ago I sat down and wrote around 50,000 words in five days. 

I was unable to go to work in this time and although watching episode after episode of my favourite TV show was appealing, I decided to write.  The weather was particularly hot, the air conditioner was particularly cold, I was stuck in the one place; it was the perfect opportunity.

Okay, well I now realise that despite telling you I was going to tell you all of this, I now have told you this anyway.

The reason for my digression and possibly unusual title if you don't speak Japanese is because I discovered something very cool online whilst procrastinating.  I have to ask the question - have you heard of Hashima Island (also known as Gunkanjima and Battleship Island)?

If you have and you're like me, your mind has already started racing thinking about the possibilities as the stories practically flow from the dilapidated buildings, if you haven't heard about it, I suggest you Google it or click on the link a couple of paragraphs on from here.

I'm sure I've seen photos of Hashima Island in various emails and probably on Pinterest, but I've never really taken the time to look at it properly until tonight.  It has captured my imagination no end. 

I won't try and give you a history lecture as I definitely haven't read enough about it yet, so instead I'll just put up some photos and the link to this awesome website I just found where you can 'walk' around the island (thanks Google Street View!). 

[Click here to 'walk' around Hashima Island]

I was honestly considering throwing Caterina Boston (my main character for those who don't know) into a Japanese setting to see what happens, I'm pretty sure this is now necessary - and gives me an excuse to research into this fascinating place - not just the island, the whole country. 

On a side note, I can speak enough Japanese to get myself into trouble but not nearly enough to get myself back out, so I have downloaded an app and have been practicing.  Not related to anything, just felt the need to share.

This entry isn't really writing related, but I couldn't go past a good abandoned island story and for me it's a writing prompt in itself. 

Having said that, I think it's places or events like this that inspire.  My fascination with South American history was the inspiration for Out Of Her League (it has nothing to do with the fact I also am not a fan of dirt, bugs or being blown up).  One of my favourite books (alongside The Neverending Story) is Mark Honigsbaum's 'Valverde's Gold'.  I've read it so much and carried it around on the train so many times the writing on the cover has worn off - I kind of like it that way.

Before signing off I should probably say something about my books.  Notice the plural there?  I have started and stopped the second book so many times I'm surprised I haven't made myself car sick (for those of you who know me, this wouldn't be difficult).  I have spent time on the weekends and after work for the past couple of weeks editing Out Of Her League to within an inch of its life (do books have lives?  Sure they do) and I can say that all 76,294 words are now done with.

So... with no further excuses, I'd better crack on with the next 50,000 words or so.

For those of you attempting to keep writing, I apologise for the distraction and say I will not distract you again.

Hey!  Look at these pretty pictures (you're welcome).

Happy 2015 everyone!

 

 

 

 

All photos found on www.pinterest.com