Sarah's Store of Awesome!

Oh my God you guys...

I'm so psyched I can do this. Amazon Associates has this thing where you can make your own shop so as a way to help you get to know me, I have made a shop of my favourite things (that are available on Amazon).

It includes books on writing and the publishing industry I have found really helpful, obscure but amazing and completely underrated books as well as TV series that everyone loves - including me - and TV series that were brilliant but cancelled early. Oh - and my ebooks, of course!

So if you're looking for something new to enjoy, by all means, click here!

Amazon gave me a username of Sarah Billieboop. I kinda like it. :D

More later,

Love Sairz

The perils of pay day and UPDATES (down the bottom)

I got paid today.
And I went out to lunch with some girlfriends at a shopping centre.
And while at the shopping centre we went into some...you know...shops.

I got paid + shops = Sarah bought books.

Check out my haul:

Lord of the flies with Beauty Queens

A love story with Zombies

Classic YA with characters I know and love

I almost bought:

but figured a) Today was payday. I have to last another week yet. b) I'm not going to get through all this in a week so it's not like I NEED to buy it today... and c) I'll definitely be buying it later. It's not like it's going anywhere. These books are hilarious. I can't wait for the movie...only I'm not sure about the casting. I'm trying to keep an open mind.

Anyway, I'm pretty psyched about my bookies. I love contemporary lit. Plus I've just discovered the TV show Friday Night Lights so you know what I'll be up to for the next couple of weeks.

In work-related news:
a) the shop I work at was robbed last night. It's my usual shift but I wasn't there, I was lucky. The guy that WAS there is fine though, and he tells me there were 3 police cars, CSI and a police helicopter involved. I guess this finished off the ATTEMPTED robbery about 6 weeks ago. I really hope they don't come back. AND...
b) I have updated my editorial, ebook cover design and ebook formatting details in the little tab up the top, with rates and everything!

Have a great weekend everybody. Is it too early for that?


Sairz

The ups and downs of lately.

Well.

I didn't think I had anything too interesting to write of late because it has mostly been filled with the torture of writing a 2500 essay for my Authorship and Writing class. It's worth 50% of my mark, and since everyone in the class agrees that it is the most hideous question of all questions ever, it's been really really hard to write. Which is why I'm here and not writing my essay. Because I don't understand my essay. And if I don't understand it, then I doubt my lecturer will understand it.
So now I'm here.

There have actually been some ups and downs of late, nothing too dramatic, or I'm just riding a perpetual wave of "meh, whatever" like calm. Aside from the constant moaning and complaining about my essay.

Received my passport. Yay!
Crappy photo - of course. Boo!

Went shopping with my sister and bought a new phone that is made of awesome and does NOT turn off mid-phone call just cos it feels like it. Yay!

Also bought lots of snazzy new clothes so that I don't feel quite so much like the country bogan that I'm ever so slowly turning into. Yay!

Spent lots and lots of money. The Rudd Stimulus package money that I erm...haven't received yet. Boo! (Or - you're a tool, Sarah!)

Had my feature article on Uni students and financial woes published in Lots Wife Magazine in Melbourne AND The Star Newspaper in Gippsland. Yay!

Did I get paid for either of them? No. Boo!

Have been officially accepted into Leeds University for next semester. Yay!

Have been going around checking out flight details for my little sojourn across the USA with Eleanor, and then over to Europe. We're talking $3800! Boo!

Student Visa for the UK is $290! Boo!

Tourist Visa for USA is free! Yay!

Application Visa for USA is $180. Boo!

Have been writing "The In With Santa" in Script Frenzy which I started writing 2 years ago, but never finished. I'm pleased with how it's going. Yay!

Have stopped writing "The In With Santa" until I get these stupid assignments finished. Two due on Monday, one due on Friday. Boo!

Bought tickets to see Mark Watson and Danny Bhoy at the Comedy Festival next week. Tres excited. Yay!

Will have to miss some classes and Badminton to go to them...meh. I can live with that.

Went home to celebrate my birthday early with my family, we went to Dutchie's Stone Grill Restaurant on Phillip Island. I'd never been there before. You cook your food in front of you, on - surprisingly - a stone grill. Was fun and different. Yay!

My sister is paying for half of my passport and my parents are paying for one of my visas for my birthday. Yay!

My doggie Tessa gave me a birthday card, showing that even though she tries to fake me out sometimes, she really loves me. Yay! (The card was written in my mum's handwriting, so I guess mum helped her).

Decided to go out and buy dinner tonight in congratulations for writing...erm...200 words of my assignment. Yay!

As I was rounding the roundabout, a single mum with no car insurance ran into my car and put a big ol' dent in my door. Not exactly Boo, but aw... I feel bad for her. NO CAR INSURANCE.

Tomorrow is my BIRTHDAY! I'm turning 25! Yay!

I will be spending it writing and stressing about assignments. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

That's all.

Love Sairz

Birds hate me.

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