Shiny and new: My first post

Well,

Here goes it, it's my first blog, it's 11:52pm on a Tuesday night and I should probably be tucked up in bed. I was gonna go for one of my favourite "mental health walks" but the wind is blowing with just a bit too much of a chill so I've decided to stay snug indoors.

Plus I wouldn't want the wind blowing through the trees to make me kill myself. (Have you seen the Happening?)

Actually it's minutes before Wednesday in the first of 3 glorious weeks of holidays before semester 2 of Uni starts, and I have no finite plans tomorrow so may as well be a night owl. What the hell, right?No - wait, I do have some plans. 2 plans, actually.

One:

Buy hangers.I don't seem to have enough, here on Res at Uni. I end up with clothes all over the floor and then divide them into clean and dirty. The dirty I bung in the washing machine whilst the clean get hung up. Voila. Tidy room. However, when the NEWLY clean washing arrives back in my room (not by fairies - they don't work here) they stay in the washing basket because I don't have anything to hang them on. Then newly dirty washing ends up on the floor and on top of the clean washing in the basket and the cycle reverts to the start again.So yeah. I'm buying new hangers.

And Two:

Keep writing my fantabulous YA novel 'Life was cool until you got popular'.It's coming along really well, I have to say. But I'm getting myself confused at the moment cos when I get stuck on important scenes (and I was stuck on the MOST important scene for 2 days) I'm just plodding ahead with writing other scenes, some of which I want to pop in somewhere before the part I was writing. So I'm getting myself confused a bit as in - so Kaley and Mai are going to the open mic night, but is this before or after that whole non-date thing with Harvey...and should Kaley be the sugary sweet Kaley or embarrassed get-me-out-of-here Kaley when she goes to talk to Travis? (It'll make sense if you read the book) Anyhoo, I'm getting myself confused and having to tweak bits I've already written, so that the stars align and I have a coherent first draft.I'm over the 30,000w mark now, which is uber exciting, because the goal is 40,000 words. I'm writing it with the hope of getting it published in the Allen & Unwin "Girlfriend Fiction" range of books, which are 40,000 words. If I put in everything I WANNA put in, I might just go over the word limit though. Hmm.But anyway. I sent queries to two big NY literary agents today, which is exciting. One is the agent for Janet Evanovich (they'll so get my sense of humour) and the other sounds really impressive and like we'd be a good fit too. So we'll see how they pan out. Meanwhile, I have a couple of other agents I want to apply to as well, for when the time comes that I'm rejected. I'm slowly slowly getting used to that part of the writing process. I'm just starting to get into the swing of sending them off anyway. Can be an expensive process when you're not getting paid, mind you.

I go through phases of being strong and confident enough to send it off, and of being a bit too shy and with an attitude of "why would they want ME?"The question should be: Why WOULDN'T they want me? I have ideas coming out the wazoo, and I've been writing for a good sixteen years...yeah, that's about right. Since I was eight. So I've sure had the practice!And I've had a couple of publications too. I'm just waiting for that ellusive one I get paid for....I've also had a nibble by an agent, but unfortunately, not a bite. Hell, I wasn't ready then, anyway.

So that's me in a nutshell at the moment. With less than 10,000 words to go, and just under 3 weeks until my deadline. Self imposed deadline. Semester 2 starts Monday 14th July. I really feel I can do this. Novels aren't as huge and scary as I thought they were. And they're heaps and heaps of fun!

For now, I leave you with a taste of one of my favourite websites: http://www.ihashotdog.com/

How funny are they?! I swear - when you're feeling down go to that site or http://www.icanhascheezburger.com/ for funny kitty pictures and you'll come out of it in a MUCH better mood.

There's more where they came from. But for now...

G'night!

Sairz