I swear to God the birds from the oval at my old house have sent word on the grapevine that I was coming.
Went for a walk today. I'm an hour and a half from my old place, and the birds SWOOPED ME AGAIN. They hate me. They really do. And I didn't do nothin'!
Though not as much exercise as I'd hoped, I got what I mostly wanted out of the work, and that was some fresh brain activity on my novel front. There was an iffy bit a week or so ago when I wasn't sure I was going to finish it - but that's over. 9,000 words to go in 7 days to win NaNo. I can SO do this. The book isn't getting wrapped up in 9,000 words though, it's got a fair bit to go, mum goes into labour, someone gets caught in flagrante (gasp!) and there'll be a bit of a hissy fit and tanty to come as well.
As I haven't had any readers as yet, I have NO clue how it's going. but that's okay. I think it's going well.
I'm psyched to write my NEXT book idea when I finish this one, which is going to be a COMPLETE turn around with juvenile delinquents and monsters. I seem to write more about character than plot, and I have a goal of writing a plot based book and this is it. I only got the idea yesterday so there's a lot of fleshing out to do.
Website - yeah, well. I've done everything right that I can see, but it's still not showing up. I'm gonna get back onto that after Nov 30.
Tomorrow is an exciting day for my family. Due to the house fire that descimated the kitchen and has also destroyed a lot of belongings, we've been given a shopping list of electrical goods to take to Harvey Norman tomorrow and we can go mental on a shopping spree.
I'm getting a new laser printer, 3 disc cd player and mobile phone. You have no idea how excited I am about the mobile phone. I hate my phone. I've had to send it back 3 tmes to get a replacement (refurbished - 3 don't give brand new) and they won't let me out of the contract.
I lost my old phone and called 3 and they said I was eligible for a free upgrade so in I went to get a snazzy new one - it's white with a touch screen and very ooh la la. They didn't tell me I was on a NEW 24 month contract, with my free upgrade. I'm ut of it this coming April and I gotta tell ya - it's not coming fast enough. I LOVED my old phone. Which I found the day after getting my upgraded phone. My mum uses my old one (she's never be able to handle a touch screen) and I get exceedingly jealous whenever my parents marvel at the simplicity and superiority of my old phone.
But tomorrow I get a new one, so tra la la!
Still haven't heard back from Allen & Unwin, who currently have Life was cool until you got popular and are perusing it for suitability for their Girlfriend Fiction collection. I have my fingers crossed. I haven't received it back in the mail yet, so that's a good sign, but I haven't received a phone call or email from them either, so that's NOT a good sign. I'm going with no news is good news.
Alas, the potential fantabulous agent declined. I'm not sending anything out to agents at the moment, since the book I'm pitching them is currently with a publisher. Not really fair if I tell them: "You can make money from this book!" and then they sign me, but I've already sold it and they get bupkiss. Soon I'll have ANOTHER fantabulously publishable book finished to be enticing agents with - after some serious editing, mind you. It's a tough industry. But I was made for it.
I've been doing lots and lots of reading at the moment and was very impressed with myself that in 2 days I read 3 books: Knocked out by my nunga nungas and dancing in my nuddy pants by Louise Rennison as well as Better off Famous? I can't remember who by at this very second, but I enjoyed them all. I'm ALSO currently reading City of Bones, Star Power and Nightmare Academy because I'm a big ol' book whore and share myself around, wanting to enjoy as many books as I can at once. I've switched back from watching heaps of movies to reading heaps of books, which is nice.
Okay, that's it from me!
Sairz
Showing posts with label house fire. Show all posts
Showing posts with label house fire. Show all posts
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
The fire
Okay, we're not a fire family.
My theory is that every family has their thing, you know, the bad thing that happens to them a lot. Some families have cancer, some get burgled, some have fires.
My family, we're car people. Cars hate us, they break down at really inconveniant times (my last car was quite vindictive, because the day before I got a new car, the battery completely died as I was driving in the country between acres of paddocks. In the rain. At night. Alone.) we have car accidents - not always our fault, and acts of God - God killed one of our cars, by dropping a whole tree on it.
So we're car people.
We are NOT fire people.
So when, hanging at my sister's place in Melbourne having a social butterflyable 5 days away (and not getting much writing done, but we'll get to that) my sister received a phone call.
There had been a fire at my parents house. The kitchen was completely gutted, and there's smoke damage and melted items all throughout the rest of the house.
It was ironic, because this was 2 days after one of the builders came in for something completely unrelated and commented that it was 5 years to the day that the kitchen renovation was completed. Reckon the warranty ran out just then? :)
My parents and the animals were all safe, and the insurance company have been absolute troopers, they set up my parents and the animals in an empty holiday house two houses down, and EVERYTHING in the house is being hauled out, all the clothes from wardrobes are being cleaned, and then the house will be fixed, walls scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed and the kitchen will be rebuilt...it's been made so easy for my parents, which has been amazing.
And the chick who saw the fire!
At the same time as calling 000, she grabbed the hose out the front, ran up the ramp and was hosing through the window. Then the glass blew out. Can you believe that? She was fine - didn't get hit by it, which is a miracle, but we're all so amazed that she did that. My sister and I think we would have called 000 and stood back going "Oh my God, oh my God oh my God...", praying that the fire brigade arrived soon.
And boy did they arrive. 4 fire engines blocked the road, emergency services, police...
Seeing the fire damage has been a really interesting experience for me, as a writer. I'd never thought about how the whole house would be coated in black soot. That the paint on the ceiling would melt and dribble down the walls. And the outside of kitchen cabinets and drawers were destroyed, but the contents of the drawers was all fine!
Really interesting. I reckon I could write a convincing fire scene, now. :)
Plus - I've been summoned to Jury Duty! I'm so psyched. As a writer, this will be awesome. Probably really boring in actuality, and a huge responsibility, but it'll be interesting all the same. Stay tuned!
Writing wise, I've got maybe 2,000 words to go. Very much on the home stretch and trying to not think too hard about which project to work on next, until I'm done.
Uni starts back next week, which I'm looking forward to, seeing everyone again.
That's it from me for now. I'm knackered.
Sairz
My theory is that every family has their thing, you know, the bad thing that happens to them a lot. Some families have cancer, some get burgled, some have fires.
My family, we're car people. Cars hate us, they break down at really inconveniant times (my last car was quite vindictive, because the day before I got a new car, the battery completely died as I was driving in the country between acres of paddocks. In the rain. At night. Alone.) we have car accidents - not always our fault, and acts of God - God killed one of our cars, by dropping a whole tree on it.
So we're car people.
We are NOT fire people.
So when, hanging at my sister's place in Melbourne having a social butterflyable 5 days away (and not getting much writing done, but we'll get to that) my sister received a phone call.
There had been a fire at my parents house. The kitchen was completely gutted, and there's smoke damage and melted items all throughout the rest of the house.
It was ironic, because this was 2 days after one of the builders came in for something completely unrelated and commented that it was 5 years to the day that the kitchen renovation was completed. Reckon the warranty ran out just then? :)
My parents and the animals were all safe, and the insurance company have been absolute troopers, they set up my parents and the animals in an empty holiday house two houses down, and EVERYTHING in the house is being hauled out, all the clothes from wardrobes are being cleaned, and then the house will be fixed, walls scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed and the kitchen will be rebuilt...it's been made so easy for my parents, which has been amazing.
And the chick who saw the fire!
At the same time as calling 000, she grabbed the hose out the front, ran up the ramp and was hosing through the window. Then the glass blew out. Can you believe that? She was fine - didn't get hit by it, which is a miracle, but we're all so amazed that she did that. My sister and I think we would have called 000 and stood back going "Oh my God, oh my God oh my God...", praying that the fire brigade arrived soon.
And boy did they arrive. 4 fire engines blocked the road, emergency services, police...
Seeing the fire damage has been a really interesting experience for me, as a writer. I'd never thought about how the whole house would be coated in black soot. That the paint on the ceiling would melt and dribble down the walls. And the outside of kitchen cabinets and drawers were destroyed, but the contents of the drawers was all fine!
Really interesting. I reckon I could write a convincing fire scene, now. :)
Plus - I've been summoned to Jury Duty! I'm so psyched. As a writer, this will be awesome. Probably really boring in actuality, and a huge responsibility, but it'll be interesting all the same. Stay tuned!
Writing wise, I've got maybe 2,000 words to go. Very much on the home stretch and trying to not think too hard about which project to work on next, until I'm done.
Uni starts back next week, which I'm looking forward to, seeing everyone again.
That's it from me for now. I'm knackered.
Sairz
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