Stick em up! I'm a Fightin Bookworm!

Well my edits are going well, but it seems I have developed a stupid habit. I did it when originally writing Life was cool until you got popular, I did it with my NaNoWriMo book, Miss Jem's Blogiverse and here I am doing it again.
When I get right near the end of my work, with 1k, maybe 2k to go, I slow down. Or stop for a bit.
I'm very close to finishing my edits, sending it back off to Allen & Unwin and then getting back onto my other book, but I've temporarily stopped writing. Okay, so it's been 2 days. It's not a drama, and I'm definitely going to hit the deadline. But what do you think...stage fright maybe?
Actually, I do have a little bit of research to do, and I can't get hold of a copy of A MidSummer Night's Dream the DVD which is frustrating. Yes. Watching a DVD is the homework I have. It's either that or decoding the original Shakespeare text.

I'm close to finishing up my summer job, which leaves me with a month off to get cracking on my writing, and become a poverty stricken bum again.
I'm looking into rectifiying the poverty stricken bum situation.

I've come up with a brilliant idea, and source of income, which is to hold Writing Workshops for years 7-10 students in my local area, for those that are interested.

I have a qualification, I'm in the process of getting another one, I've been published a handful of times and have a book in the "we liked it so maybe" pile at a publishing house.
And I've got heaps of ideas for activities.
I just need to work out all of the logistics, like organising an ABN as well.

I'm actually attending 2 workshops in melbourne, today and tomorrow which I'm looking forward to, but I'm not into the train journey. I hate public transport. I should really use the time to people watch though, shouldn't I. And eavesdrop. "I may just do that. Or sit with my diary in hand and try and organise the remainder of my week.

Onto other stuff, as you would have seen above, I'm a Fightin' Bookworm now!



I've been a member of the free e-zine for awhile, but made the plunge and am now a paid member of the Children's Book Insider. And it's great, the website is full of heaps of informative and interesting stuff and the part I particularly like is the forum, where I can communicate with other writers. A couple of us have developed a critiquing group. I know a lot of writers, myself definitely included, tend to write in a bubble. I'm the only writer I know, and I get a bit of grief for it. "God, you write EVERY day", "you're ALWAYS writing" and stuff like that. And I live in my own little world as well. My mother actually bought me a magnet that says: "I live in my own world, but it's okay. They like me there".
I'm reading Terry Brooks' book on writing, and apparently he very much lives in his own world too, so I don't feel weird anymore, I feel like a writer.

Alright, must go. Don't want to miss my train into the city for my workshop!

Til later.

Sairz

Happy new beginnings!

Happy New Year to everyone, whichI know has been said and said and said again by every random person you come across, walking down the street. But I do mean it. It feels good, don't you think? Like the beginning of something new.
It's the first day of the rest of your life (actually, EVERY day is, but January 1st really FEELS like it) so what are you going to do with it?

Me? I've decided to keep up the productivity. Though most of the time it really feels like I'm not getting anything done, I am, which is good.
This is the year when I get paid for my writing. I can feel it!

I'm in the process of making those edits to send in a second draft to Allen & Unwin with the fingers and toes crossed hopes that this will be it. My first "By Sarah Billington and no one else" book published. And I imagine there's probably some money involved.

But I gotta say, it's hard. Not just hard because I've added a new scene where the two main's actually have a good, honest to God talk...and then the bit after it one is really mean to the other, which now with the new scene comes out of nowhere and needs to be changed...but then with that changed what happens after it might need to be changed and it's just this big old spiral into helll....but it's hard because I have a bunch of other books I'm wanting to be writing, but feel I SHOULD be concentrating solely on Life was cool until you got popular. But I'm a writer! I need to be writing, too! But the books I'm writing are so vastly different that it might be a good idea to erm...not be writing at the moment. I have a YA Urban fantasy on the go and a middle grade book about a super hero as well as a middle grade book about a klutzy wizard's apprentice.

I go through phases of being really interested in history and then being into pop culture and which celebrity is dating who. I've sort of moved into the history side of things again at the moment. But surprisingly, that's not making it hard to write Life was cool scenes.

So because I'm not supposed to be focussing on WRITING a book, I'm getting into bad habits of not finishing one but writing millions at the same time.

Ack! Where was I?

I ended the year on a high, too. You know my before-New Year resolution, of wrting 5,000 words of my new book, and finishing one assignment? Well I got my 5,000 words done and wrote...check this...TWO assignments. So I'm on fire, wouldn't you say?

How did you end your year? I got home from work on New Year's Eve at 11:54pm, so I guess you could say I was being productive. And I've started the year productively too, by sending out a couple of short stories to publishers and magazines.
So we'll see.

The web site is purty, but I'm not able to get the 'my publications' downloads...erm...downloadable. Sit tight. I'll get there.

Enjoy the summer weather while there is some!

Sairz