Release Date!!!! of Stone Cold Lover!

Whoo Hooo. Opened my emails this morning and the editor sent the news I've been waiting so long to hear! My debut release date is the 14 August 09!!! Yipppp! And is it a good sign I'll be at the conference when it's releaseed! hee hee...

Book of the month & July reads

I haven't read stacks of 'how to' books, but I loved this one, which was recommended to me by Sue (a great gal to ask about workshops as well ) Angela Knight not only writes deliciously hot, steamy books, she writes 'how to' write them, in an easy to read way, with lots of passages as examples from some of her other books. Great advice here for anyone who wants to write a decent love scene (I think they're one of the hardest scenes to write)

July Reads:

Politically Incorrect: Stalked: Jaid Black,

English Doctor, Italian Bride: Carol Marinelli

Blood Rose: Sharon Stone

Twitter

Well - with lots of help and patience from Tracey O, I've finally joined the Twitter phenomenon and I have five - yep - five!!! followers =) I'm still trying to work out the nuts and bolts of it, but guess I'll work it out slowly...very very slowly....

Cover of Stone Cold Lover

My very first cover WHOOOO HOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!! Isn't this man gorgeous!? I did hope for some nice black bat wings, but oh, I really don't care now =) Who could quibble over such a fine specimen of manhood hee hee!

Business Card - Stone-Cold Lover

I just wanted to share my, ah -rather hot! - business cards I've just ordered in. I only hope they're posted to me in time for the conference in Brisbane this August!

Goodbye Rufus

Writing has taken a back seat this week. Between coming down with the flu and saying goodbye to my beloved dog of ten years, Rufus (after many vet visits) I decided this just wasn't meant to be a productive writing week.

I can't upload a photo of Rufus, so I wanted to share some verses the vet gave me to say goodbye to my doggy friend (Rufus had a bone tumour).

My Friend

When the time comes if it should be that I grow frail and weak

and pain should keep me from my sleep,

then you should do what must be done

for this last battle can't be won.

You will be sad, I understand.

Don't let your grief then stay your hand.

For more this day, more than all the rest,

your love and friendship stands the test.

We've had so many happy years,

what is to come can hold no fears.

Would you want me to suffer so?

When the time comes, please let me go.

Take me where my needs they'll tend,

only stay with me till the end

and hold me firm and speak to me, until my eyes no longer see.

It is a kindness that you do to me.

Although my tail its last has waved from pain

and suffering I have been saved.

Do not grieve, it should be you

who must decide this thing to do.

We've been so close, we two these years.

Don't let your heart hold any tears.

Blurb of Stone-Cold Lover

Though not yet fully proofed, I'm really excited to be able to post my blurb (and a snippet from my excerpt of Stone-Cold Lover at a later date). I'm yet to know the exact release date - and unfortunately the cover is not yet ready (understandable, this has happened all so quickly!!) but I will post this info too the moment I'm allowed!


Blurb:

Heiress Loretta Shaw is notorious for her loose morals and sexual needs. Trouble is, it’s taken her one too many one-night stands to realize that no man can extinguish the sexual fire she feels toward her guardian, Cray Diamond.

A long-ago curse made Cray immortal—a gargoyle, a guardian, who is impelled to protect a human chosen by the curse. He is imprisoned in stone during daylight hours but the dusk returns him to flesh and bone to carry out his immortal duty.

That Cray can shift between human and living gargoyle at night, bothers Loretta not one bit. She’s seen him naked many times and her desire for him—in any shape or form—knows no bounds. She’s tired of his resistance. He’s her gargoyle and she wants him in her bed.

Plot Chart...

I am so relieved and exhilarated to have finished my edits on Stone Cold Lover... though perhaps I shouldn't count my chickens before they hatch! Anyway, so inspired by the fact I've F I N I S H E D this novella, I've taken some precautions to *hopefully* ensure my next story will be even better. (well...that's the plan!) I'm a total panster - a seat of the pants -into the mist writer. I literally pick up my pen and write whatever comes into my head - usually a first scene I've envisioned and built. layer upon layer, in my mind. Of course, writing isn't all creativity! It's damn hard work at times too, hours and hours of every day making the words stronger, the writing more refined. And going back and fixing all the plot holes that being a pantser entails...
I don't think I'll ever be a true plotter, but I'm experimenting with a method I think could work, a mix where I write the first chapter - full steam ahead, no story line planned - then work out a plot chart with the hero and heroines internal and external Goal, Motivation and Conflict (GMC) Wish me luck!!

Free Rice

I love this site - a real time waster, but for a great cause! Every answer guessed correctly will see ten grains of rice donated towards world hunger. Helpful to improve English Vocabulary too...

http://www.freerice.com/index.php

A Writer's Journey

Doing edits for Stone Cold Lover has opened my eyes to how much us writers have to learn, how no matter how many books we may or may not have published, how many years we may have been in the writing game, and how many writing comps we've won or finalled in, the learning never stops. Perhaps that's what makes this so endlessly interesting, the knowledge yet to be gained, the twisting, winding journey that never ends. And the writing friends you make along the way...

July: Quote

Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.

~Cyril Connolly

Book of the Month & June reads

My pick this month would have to be Charlaine Harris', Dead Until Dark. The writing may not have been totally amazing, but it hit the right notes for me. I love the world building, where the vampires have come 'out of their coffins' so to speak, and where the heroine, Sookie, can read mortal minds. Clever and believable. And now I have the first season set of True Blood, I can double my research value! lol

July Books I've read: (since this blog)

You'll See It When You Believe It: Dr Wayne W Dyer

The Slave: Issac Bashevis Singer
Dead Until Dark: Charlaine Harris

The Perfect Heroine

- would be so boring!!
I guess that's why I'm really enjoying writing the heroine in my current WIP, loosely titled Ice Cold Lover. She's totally *not* perfect (though she may look it) and she'd totally die before allowing the hero to discover her, ah, imperfection...
Having such a heroine made me realise almost all of us have flaws - real or imagined - that we like to hide from the world, even ourselves. What better way then to explore this, than with a woman whose physical deformity (in her opinion) is her biggest defect.