Answers at last

Well it's been a little while since I blogged and I gotta tell ya - it's cos I've been busy. But I say that every blog. I now go to Rock n roll dance lessons Mondays, Badminton Tuesdays (hilarious with 3-4 people per team, so you get hit with the shuttle cock a lot. Especially from a person who will remain nameless. "OMG, Sorry, sorry!" he starts the night with, but by the end it becomes: "I can't help it, it's SO funny." Hmm. And then I go to gym Thursdays and Fridays and I haven't found the time to do my mental health walkies in the evening! Except for the time I was wide awake at 2am and thought I should go but then decided against it. I was trying to make myself more tired, not more awake.

Uni is back - can't remember if it was or not in my last blog...anyhoo I'm read-read-reading but not the fun stuff. I'm trying to keep up with the 50 - 100 pages each class sets me for the week, let alone any FUN reading. Or writing.
And at the moment, this is my second week of placement in a grade prep-one class. I'm having lots of fun, really like the kids but they really can be exhausting.
It's especially interesting for me to do reading group with them every morning, and see what they think of the stories. If they can read them. They ARE grade prep and one we're talking about here.
The library got a shipment of new books today and I spent my lunchtime in there poring over them, looking at the publishers and reading the blurbs. Clearly I'm very excited about kids books and what's new in the market. What people are writing about, what kids are reading about and what publishers are buying.
I was interested to find that one of the grade six girls's favourite book at the moment is about a cane toad who's family is being wiped out by floods and people, and he stacks up his dead relatives in the corner of his room. It's by Morris Gleitzman, and though it sounds kinda disturbing, she says it's funny. It'd have to be, wouldn't it? :)

I received some good news and some disappointing news - after a lot of work and a long wait, Allen & Unwin have decided not to publish my book, Life was cool until you got popular. I was spared the moment of receiving the manuscript back in the mail, because I was at Uni and haven't seen it yet, but next time I go back to my parents place it'll be there waiting for me. It's disappointing cos I really thought this was it, this was the beginning, and I KNOW it's a good book, but clearly it wasn't meant to be. Not as a Girlfriend Fiction title. I can sort of see that it doesn't fit neatly into the Girlfriend Fiction mould, they're mostly serious books and mine's a little more out there. But she had lovely things to say about it and more constructive criticism for me should I choose to take it on.
I waited a day and sent it to another publisher and today I've sent it to an Agent as well. I feel I'm getting a bit better at criticism. :)

Continuing on with bad news, one of my dogs passed away. Horrible day. He's been sick for awhile and my parents decided it was time to have him put down cos he wasn't doing too well. So that morning my father met me halfway between our homes and I got to say goodbye and tell him what a good boy he was. And not twenty minutes later, on their way back home he slipped away. It makes me sad thinking about it again, but it's so much better for him to have gone that way, don't you think? And he was an old fellah, he'd had a good life.

Okay. Deep, calming breath.

Good news however, is that I'm being published, though not fiction. I have the movie review and another piece being published in Lots Wife, and a newspaper article in a local paper as well.
Plus, I found out something interesting about the Writers Digest contest I entered last year. I came 88th, which I was thinking, you know, that's average. But then I discovered I came 88th out of 17,000. Not something to be sneezed at, anymore, eh?

Since I can't concentrate on a long piece of work at the moment, as soon as I get some writing time I hope to start some chapter books and juniuor fiction. I have a gazillion ideas, as well as ideas for creative non fiction for kids on topics such as space and australian history. As a writer, I'm definitely learning that you can't pigeon hole yourself. You have to branch out and that's what I'm starting to do.
That's about it from me. Must go and cook and prepare for placement tomorrow.

Ciao,

Sairz

Crazy busy

WELL.

Things are happening. Alas, no news yet from Allen & Unwin as we pass the one month since resubmission mark, but I'm gonna go with the "no news is good news" philosophy.

I'm making the most of being at Uni, and the different ways of getting published and have to say was kind of sneaky, contacting the Clayton campus's magazine to see if I can write for them. Well it turns out I can.

My pitch for an article went well and I worked on it over the last couple of days and submitted it Sunday night.

I also got sent to an advanced screening of 17 Again

(teen movie, right up my alley) which was awesome. I'm not actually allowed to talk about what I thought of the movie yet (I had to sign something for Roadshow) but it was screened in Gold Class, and it was just professional reviewers and I had Pete Hellier and Carrie from Rove sitting -reclining - behind me. Guess they're having Zac Efron on the show when he's around for the premiere next week. Or late this week.

Was pretty cool.

So that's 2 bits being published. Plus seems like my campus's mag is going to be more active than last year, as there's a meeting on Wednesday about it so more publishing opportunities! No payments, but the advanced screening was a pretty good perk.

I've actually decided that movie reviewing is an area I wouldn't mind persuing as a way of making an income. However my inbuilt perpensity to think the best of people and things may hinder me a little. I'm likely to never say: "That was a shite movie." Which the newspaper may not like, but I'm sure production companies will love me for.

Yesterday was a public holiday which hindered my plans to send off my SCBWI work in progress grant application - wads and wads of papers - so fingers crossed, sending it today, the 10th will get it to America by the 15th. Hmm. Think I'm sending it express post.

Getting passport photos done today. Pretty exciting. :) Sure to be horrible photos - but aren't they all? But the PASSPORT is the exciting bit.

Getting a bit scared of my next placement at a primary school which starts next week. I shouldn't be, but I am. We have to teach small groups and report on it. And of course we're being examined as we do the teaching, and come up with lesson plans and stuff. Eep. Feel a little out of my depth here, but I'm sure it'll be fine. I worked with small groups last time, it just wasn't official and being assessed.

I'm determined to get back to writing Sam. I'm thinking about him a lot but haven't put fingers to keyboard about him for quite some time. What's stopping me? Probably the lack of research I've done. However, the need of research doesn't come into it for awhile so I should just start writing. I think that was a pep talk.

Okay, better get the day started.

Gonna go and see Watchmen today after class with some mates, and then make a fool of myself on the badminton court. Last week we played 4 against 5, so funnily enough there were others there to hit the shuttle cock when I missed it. Though I did get hit BY the shuttle cock alot. Huh.

Have a good day!!

Sairz

Back to the grind

As I write these words I am sitting in the library at my University on the first day of lectures, amongst lots of studious type students mostly looking at FaceBook and their uni timetables. It's good to be back.
I'm back on res with heaps of friends around and last night a group of 10 of us went house crawling, I guess you could say. As in we started in one house and decided to go and visit lots of random friends we hadn't seen since we'd all gotten back (most people only came back yesterday, I've been here for 3 days). It was interesting when this hoarde of people crashed the UBER exciting events in house 7. They were eating dinner.

I've re-decided (AGAIN) on what book to write, and I'm writing Sam Wyatt and his urban fantasy epic. So I've got lots of books about magical properties in stones and gems, espionage and natural magick in my bookshelves at the moment. And text books but they're not as important.

My character MJ will NOT go away, which is kind of annoying. I think the story about Ruby Vega - Ruby was actually MJ with a new name. She's constantly in my head and is demanding to have a book written about her, but I'm happy with my decision to write Sam's book instead. MJ needs to wait until she has the RIGHT book, because the ones I've been trying to write for her have not been working.

This morning I secured a venue to run creative writing workshops for kids in years 7-10, which is totally awesome but it's also a little scary cos it means I really have to do this. Teach teenagers how to write. It should be fine, I mean I'm so passionate about the subject and I've been to some workshops and observed how THEY do it, so I know it'll be good, but I'm still scared. I've set the beginning for a month away, to give me time to find some students and really work out what we're going to do. Should be a decent income, too which is the MAIN reason I'm doing it.

I have a meeting in a couple of minutes and then my first lecture for the year, so I better skedaddle.

Oh! Who's doing Script Frenzy this year? (www.scriptfrenzy.org)

Starts April 1st, lets get our game face on.

Sairz

Clearly not a night owl

Once again it is nearly one am and I am nowhere near heading to bed for the night. I'm still getting up at the same ol', but for some reason I work a lot at night. Not that I'm a night owl. I actually think I do my best work mid morning. When I'm, you know. Awake. Not exhausted.

Anyhoo.

I'm back in Melbourne aGAIN, sitting in my sister's unit, on the mattress on the floor. Actually this mattress is the only thing in the room. And there's a TV in the living room, but no couch or table or anything like that so it's a really fun stay. Well, I take back the sarcasm. I mean the two most important things are here, right? (she's moving out, if you couldn't guess)

Despite the humblitude (did I just make up that word? Regardless, it's my absolutely new favourite word.) of my digs at the moment, I've had a really great couple of days.

Let's see, three days ago I joined the Society of Children's Books Writers and Illustrators, and yesterday I went along to the Victorian branch's quarterly meeting and mingle.

It was really interesting and I met some fantastic people.

I am quite new-person shy so it took a bit for me to talk to strangers, but who am I kidding. All writers for YA and the little tackers are wonderfully friendly.

I made sure to go home and design some business cards though, because really - it's a nececessary part of the business if you want to be taken seriously. I learnt a bit about breaking into the education market from some fellow writers, as well as mentorships and being a professional writer and how to present yourself.

They also had Lucie from the Australian Booksellers Association come and talk with us (notice I said WITH?) about Booksellers and their general lack of training and fear of children's books. It was great to get that side of the picture.

Today I went along to see Simmone Howell and Justine Larbalestier in Conversation, which was hosted by Lili Wilkinson (yet another YA author) at the State Library.

There were lots of teenagers there, lovers of these authors' books and I was pleasantly surprised to find several big name authors in the audience as well, such as Melina Marchetta (Looking for Alibrandi, Jellicoe Road), Penni Russon (Undine) and Scott Westerfeld (Uglies, Peeps) in the audience as well. Scott Westerfeld is so successful and for some reason just assumed he was mostly in America so was VERY surprised he was there. However, I shouldn't have been because this evening I have discovered that he is Justine Larbalestier's husband. Good supportive bloke, eh?

Simmone and Justine were fantastically entertaining, talking about how they write, the publising business, their misspent youths and I like to say they bonded over learning they had both been expelled from public schools.

They sure showed me how it's done, interacting with their audience and being good speakers. Just being open and candid with their responses was great to see and experience and it was a successful day.

This evening I saw Slumdog Millionaire, which as the world has discovered, is a fantastic film. I didn't realise it was a love story as well, but it is and it's wonderful. I didn't realise it was based on a book called Q&A, but if the movie is this good then the book must be amazing.

This morning I finished my entry for the Celepene Press short story competition, and am in the process of culling it back to the word limit. I'm actually really proud of this piece, and am planning on sending it out as a possible chapter book. Or to some magazines, like The School Magazine or Comet etc.

I've also started doing a chapter summary of 2 books, as I'm letting them ruminate and rattle around in my brain for a bit. I will NOT start writing until I know the characters and story really well, dammit. I AM learning from my mistakes.

I'm also gearing up for Script Frenzy, which starts April 1st.

Though I'm not writing a full hundred page script in the month, but am finishing one I'm halfway through, I still find the deadline and tight schedule a good help. Especially since I'm only aiming for half the expected output. Though I haven't read my NaNo book yet, I cringe when thinking about it. It went in a completely different direction than I wanted and think of it fondly as "a mess". I'm a writer who needs to self edit as I go, I can't just write a crap first draft and fix it later. Because later I just don't know where to begin.

University is going back next week, and I'm moving back to campus pretty soon. My family have been mentally redecorating my bedroom and by the time I get back from Melbourne on Wednesday my bed will be in storage. I'm feeling the pressure to leave somewhat. :) Doesn't help that as I leave, my sister is moving IN.

I've been reading my text books lately, so not AS into the fiction because I want to get ahead in my studies, if only for a week. I HAVE been reading Are you there God it's me Margaret (I know - what's taking me so long?) and finding it to be very different to what I expected, and different to other YA books I've read. I thought it was banned because there would be sex. But I think it was banned because there is open and honest conversation about bras and menstruation. It's interesting though, she's definitely a great writer as the world knows.

I let my mother read Dewey first, and she's promptly been trying to tell me all the good bits and positively spoil the experience for me when I get to it. Charming woman.

Must dash and use this mattress on the floor for sleeping and not interwebbing. I'm hoping I don't eat any daddy long legs in my sleep tonight, because there have been a few come to visit me as I sit here. Squeal!

Sairz

Desperation makes me confuzzled

Okay,

So I've been getting very confused lately.

(This is a very inaccurate depiction of me. The Questions marks however, are correct. And the facial expression is pretty close)

So I'm learning something about myself at the moment. Something I sort of learnt last year, but has really clicked with me right now.

Before I can write a novel which I'm actually going to finish, I need to think about it for at least a month, if not longer before I start the book. Think think think. Get to know the characters, let the excitement dwindle so that if I'm still into it, I know it's a good book.

I finished my edits and have posted my new draft to Allen & Unwin and can't do anything more about the outcome, whether they choose to publish it or not. So I decided to be pro-active and write. I still have 3 weeks before Uni goes back so I'm making the most of the time I have.

HOWEVER. I have not done the necessary thinking about stories, choosing the one that really speaks to me the most and then, once comfortable, setting aside all other ideas and focussing on that one for the next 6-8 weeks.

So. I'm not all that happy with what I'm writing now. Not that it's not good, I actually think it's coming along quite well, the problem is that my heart's not in it. So I'm not looking forward to writing, thinking about the characters, plotting out the next scenes...I'm reading books and surfing the net and watching TV. Which is crap.

Actually one book I've been reading has been really good, and helping me flesh out the concept and character arcs of one of my novel ideas.




So my next move is this: Concentrate on writing a couple of short stories for competitions, to keep my self writing whilst ruminating on my next longer project. And I just received the next installment of my Certificate III in Business Administration, so I'll be working on that too. I just can't pick which is the most important, because they all are.

Also, I'm starting to get into writing magazine and newspaper articles, so I'm pitching some of these at the moment, at a source of income.


I've been at my sister's place in Melbourne for the past week and unfortunately have done a lot of shopping. Books and 2 really cute bags - both are messenger bags which will be good for Uni, one with Oscar the Grouch on it at the other with space invaders (remember the old arcade game?)

So I could use an income again.

On a closing note, Valentine's Day is tomorrow, and whether you're in a relationshio or single, I hope you have an enjoyable day. Whether it's special or the same as every other day, just don't let it be a downer.

And make sure:


Love Sairz

The Fires, reading and what the BLEEP should I write

My mini holiday to relax in a cottage and take in the history of the Gold Fields has been postponed due to the horrendous heat of yesterday (46 degrees Celcius) in which half of regional Victoria has gone up in flames.

"Poor me", right? I don't get to have a holiday. It's okay, I'm not that shallow. I can't believe that last night while I was hanging at a friend's house, and while I was sleeping I was blissfully unaware that houses, hundreds of thousands of acres of bush land, and worse still - people - were burning.

I'm in Melbourne at the moment, the highway back to my home was closed off at one point, but I think it's open again now. My family are seriously thinking about making a fire plan now. We should have done it long ago. However, if you're not home when there is a fire (i.e our kitchen fire mid last year) there's really nothing you can do about it, nothing you can save.

I feel for the people of Boolarra and Yinnar who are now surrounded by more fire - even in Churchill, where my Uni is. Churchill was under threat earlier today and I don't know how it's going now. My thoughts are with everyone living and working down there.
I haven't been back in the area since November, and I can't imagine what I'm going to find. I have a meeting on campus on Thursday, so I better prepare myself for the devastation. I feel for the animals that couldn't get out. I know there are a lot of wallabies and rabbits in the area.
Fire would be a horrible, horrible way to go.

Okay, let's shake it off. Shake shake shake, get onto a nicer topic. And of course, that would be writing.

I'm doing my head in at the moment as new ideas are flooding me and I'm getting so confused as to which is the best one, which one I want to write first.

Do I write the one about the Aussie girl who through a serious of circumstances gets swept up into Hollywood and the tabloid feeding frenzy?

How about the one about the girl who's twin brother is a huge gamer, and when he dies she decides to infiltrate the gaming world and try and win the championship he was so close to winning?

Or the one about the twelve year old who's family move a lot, and she doesn't have any friends - except for a stray dog that she meets in her newest town, that teaches her and those around her a lot about friendship and love?

Oh! Or the year 12 student who's finding her friends growing up too quickly, driving, moving out, having sex, and she's determined to make the most of her last year of her youth - and she's certainly not going to fall in love!

What to do what to do...

Well what I've decided to do is block my ears and say: "Nar nar nar nar nar" and read.

I went to Borders today - always an expensive exercise - and have a bunch of new books to start reading. I'm reading about 5 at the same time at the moment which sort of proves where my head's at. It's all over the place.

Ah well. What I'm reading today are:



I know, aren't I naughty? Are you there God I believe is the YA most banned book ever, for its racy content. It was written in 1970, and I'm gonna say their definition of racy writing is a bit different to ours today. For instance, Gossip Girl is not banned.

And TTYL was banned for awhile there, too I believe. It's a part of writing for YA and younger that I hadn't thought about, censorship. It's something I tend to do to myself, which I shouldn't. But that's a topic for another day. When I've finished these, I look forward to sinking my claws into:



Sink my claws into. Get it? Get it? I know. I amaze even mySELF at my sheer Dad joke abilities. It's a gift, it really is. How gorgeous is that cat though?

My parents have a ginger cat. Well, technically he's mine, because his mum was mine and she had kittens, so he and his sister are mine. But they live with my parents. Anyway, he's ginger and has a bit of a lion's mane like that and thick furry trousers, as Georgia Nicolson would say. So we named him Booffie because that's what he is. We should have called him Sir Drool-a-lot, because that's what he does. The point I think I'm trying to get at is he looks a bit like that cat, Dewey.

Okay, that's all for now. Gonna get to my books!
Sairz

First Fighting Bookworm of the Month!

Consider me chuffed.
Myself and the other Aussie and Kiwi Fightin' Bookworms have been honoured as the first Bookworms of the month.
We started a critiquing group, y'see, which is going exceedingly well, I must say. It's so nice to be getting feedback that isn't along the lines of: "It's great. It's perfect. Don't change a scene. No it's not cliche! They'd be stupid not to publish it right now!" I mean yes, that's lovely to hear, but not helpful for making your book better.

I agonised for a couple of hours about whether or not to delete Miles and Clover from Life was cool until you got popular. I know I said I was going to, but I've already deleted one character, and frankly I decided that the world does not revolve around Kaley. Yes, the book is about her, but other characters are entitled to have lives too. I'm leaving the decision up to my editor - sounds so cool to call her that. I mean she's not MY editor as yet. She still needs to love the second draft and sign me up.

I still have one last read through to do of my manuscript before I send it off to her. I don't know how much good that'll do, because I know the story so well and haven't had a chance to get much distance lately. The main goal is to notice where things are missing, cos there was a lot of chopping and rearranging in the editing process. Editing sucks, man. But ultimately it will have made for a better book.

I wrote the first chapter of my NEXT book, yesterday which is exciting. I've plotted out most of it, and alas, stolen some pretty integral stuff from my NaNo book, MJ's Blogiverse. That's okay, it was a bit of a mess, and I was scared to look at it again, so alot of the good MJ stuff is going to end up in Ruby's book. MJs life is supposed to be more suburbia, whereas Ruby is a rising star, so it fits better with Ruby.
The new book's working title is "What Really Happened - The Hollywood Life of Ruby Vega".

I've put the Urban Fantasy on hold, because I'm thinking maybe, JUST maybe, I may get asked by A&U "We loved your last book, do you have anything else like it?" and then I'd go "yeah I've got MJs Blogiverse" (cringe) or "Well, no...but I have an Urban Fantasy that's nothing like it at all that you might enjoy..." or I could say: "Yup, currently writing about an Aussie girl who gets carried along for the ride into Hollywood, it's about the tabloid rumours, scheming and conniving and working out what you really want." Okay so at the moment it sounds like all the other YA books about young hollywood, but it DOES have a different spin on it. I've gotta work on my pitching though.

Anyhoo, that's all for now.

Buh bye!
Sairz