How did October get here?

Halloween is nearly upon the world and that means the DarkSide DownUnder blog is due a birthday. How time flies. Two years in fact. Some great celebrations are going on over there, complete with blog hops and giveaways. Go and have a squiz at what the Darksiders are getting up to, or under...or through for that matter (one never knows with paranormal writers).

I’m off to the inaugural GenreCon being held in Sydney over the coming weekend. It’s a coming together of multiple genres, primarily speculative fiction, romance and crime - my three favourite beasts. I’m sure there will be more pondering thoughts to come from what looks to be a great line up of guests and panel topics. 

A year of changes. I knew 2012 was to be one of those. If you told me what some of these changes would be I’d be disbelieving. Living in interesting times is well, interesting. A lot of fodder for the mill of my brain which is still being chomped through. 

Not to mention this house has a new resident in the form of a Ninja Kitty.

Song Break via way of Playdate

I have completely lost track of time this year. Today I'm having a playdate over at Kylie Griffin's blog discussing the hows and whys of what I write.

Kylie is a lovely lady who I met via  Romance Writers of Australia. She is busy working on her books with Vengeance Born due out in February 2012 (an awesome time to be doing anything in my opinion). You can find out more at her website http://www.kyliegriffin.com/Home.html

I'm looking forward to catching up in person again at the August conference. Much celebrating will be had!

Dark Side Down Under

Time is flying. I’m certain this year someone, somewhere, wound up the clock to see how humanity copes with the speed. I’ve essentially been recovering from all the trips taken, cons attended & workshops undertaken. As well as absorbing all of those experiences.

Something else that has been stirring is the creation of the Dark Side DownUnder blog. Eleni Konstantine & Keri Arthur have been the masterminds behind this outing of the RWA Australia Paranormal group.   

We’re being let loose on the world…on Halloween no less. The group has on many occasions been a wonderful place of support and encouragement (as well as a place to discuss essential topics like who is the hotter Dean or Sam).

Romans and Druids at Christina Phillips Blog Party.....Forbidden

Life has been hectic and is not slowing down for another few weeks. Show’n’tell posts will be forthcoming about what I have been and am getting up to (2 cons & one fangirl trip). The short version is the annual RWA conference, AussieCon4, and Joss Whedon at the Opera House.

Once I work out how to get photos from my iPhone to the computer I'll post some pics from the recent Romance Writers of Australia annual conference. While there, I was able to meet in person many friends made online which was fantastic.

I've made many writer friends over the years and haven't been able to work out the how/when/technology to share in their launches/releases (other than attending their blogs, or in person launches). Christina Phillips has the honour of being my first "go look and see". 

To help celebrate the release of Forbidden, Christina Phillips's debut Roman/Druid Ancient Historical Romance from Berkley Heat, she's holding a launch party with lots of amazing authors and fabulous giveaways! In addition, Christina's giving away a signed copy of Forbidden to one lucky person who helps spread the love. All you have to do is mention the party (you can copy and paste this blurb), being held from 1st to 6th September at http://christinaphillips.blogspot.com.

You can Tweet about it, blog, Facebook, MySpace or anything! And then drop her an email at ChristinapPh @ gmail dot com (no spaces) to let her know. Please put Forbidden Launch Party (or something similar) in the subject line. The winner will be drawn for that on Monday 6th September.

Winter Hibernation

*blows dust off the blog*

So, the monthly blogging fell by the wayside. Life happens. Teaching is tiring. It can also be a wonderful experience filled with lots of good moments but for me, it is draining to the point of exhaustion. I’ve always known this but never really understood why. My other half pointed out something that I’ve known, but never truly thought through to the logical ending. I’m partially deaf. Always have been. Since birth (though not picked up until kindergarten where it was thought I may be a) have an attitude problem or b) be deaf. No doctor has ever worked out why. The best I managed to find was an explanation when working at the university and talking to a PhD student developing hearing aid technology. His explanation gave me an understanding of why when I’m tired you could be speaking Icelandic to me and I’d understand you just as well as if you were speaking English. How does this tie into teaching? Well, teachers need to listen. As in hearing listen not that “Active Listening” stuff you are taught to do to show understanding and getting along better with fellow humanity. So, teaching for six hours a day = six hours of concerted effort in the act of listening. No wonder I am exhausted on those days to the point of wanting to sleep about half-an-hour after I’m home.

It also meant, the longer the teaching went on, the more exhausted I became. Which meant life moved to prioritising Must Do/Essential Life Stuff. I wish I could say I kept writing a lot. Over the duration of the contract I managed around 5,000 words. Sounds like a lot until the context of 5,000 would be about ten days worth of work usually.

I’m still recovering. I knew July was going to be “downtime” month when I agreed to the gig (which by the way didn’t end until the end of June). I need to rebuild my energy up for “conference season”. 

In three weeks time I’ll be at the annual RWA Australia conference. Really looking forward to it. Love meeting and talking writing. Dressing up – both in costume and for the gala night. Good times. Then a fortnight after that I’m dropping into Aussiecon4, the annual science fiction world convention. The original plan was for myself, the other half and the teen to all attend the entire con. However, it is not a good time in the school calendar (especially for a teenager reaching the pointy end of schooling & doing subjects at advanced speed).So, instead, the other half is going for the entire duration, the teen is staying home and I’ll go down on the Friday evening (once The Teen is at his father’s) and come home Sunday night.

As I said at the beginning, Life Happens.

Time Vortex

I seem to have fallen into one this year. So much for the year being quiet. I really should know better by now. I did have a quite relevant reason for missing March online. During the mad preparations that was the Emerald deadline my laptop died. Died as in replacing the hard drive. Luckily for me, the m/s was in email land waiting for my reader/edit . One thing it did teach me, I must really want to pursue this writing thing. I could’ve quit. I could have in the tears and swearing, sometimes simultaneously quit. Stopped. Walked away. I didn’t.

The computer going kaplooey did throw a spanner in the works of my life. It didn’t help the computer was physically away for some time and when it did come home it wasn’t right. It still isn’t completely there but at least now I’m not so gun-shy of coming back online. My Google reader was approaching scary proportions with many still to be caught up on.
I’ve been amazed at how online many lives have become. Not just for writing but also socially and professionally. I had HR, pay office and all manner of things caught in emails I could not access (until recovery had occurred).


This brings me to the other reason for my absence online, or rather, my minimalist approach to online time. I have taken on an extra contract. I have no idea why given my plan this year was to write two books and get much more serious about sending the stories out into the world (I’ve whittled it down to one book to be written now). Life happens. So I’m now back in an adult classroom as well as my usual factory playground for work.


Making me organised is the way I’m seeing it. I’ll be this way until the end of June (or until the teacher I’m replacing returns, which I’m guessing will be early). Just in time for my event planning to take place.


So April is past the half way point. Least living in Australia I don’t have to worry about my taxes (that would be September for me) but juggling work x 2, engagement/birthday event planning, family and oh yeah, writing is keeping me out of any kind of mischief.


Til next month. Ciao.

What a week it has been. Wow!

I'll say it again. Wow. What a week it has been.

Saw my mentor the very lovely Louise Cusack a fortnight ago to sit down with a mind to layout the 2010 writing plan. Having finished my edits on Firewalker I was umming about what next. I have six ideas that perpetually play around in my head and figured a break (for awhile) from the Elemental Worlds was a good idea. Louise agreed and without further ado, I began researching, mulling and forming ideas for a book from the kernel of an idea. The goal was to start the dirty/zero draft beginning of March. The goal is still there, however it may now be slightly delayed.

On Wednesday morning I opened my emails and discovered I had made it into the 2^nd round for the RWA Australia Emerald award. I was floored. Completely gobsmacked, speechless and stunned. I stayed like that for most of the day. I think writing this post it is only beginning to sink in as I realise I now have until the 17^th to get Firewalker scrubbed and polished and sent back out again.

It was the first time I truly felt like I may be doing something, albeit small right. My goal for 2009 was to write and edit and submit a book to the Emerald. Purely for the feedback it offered after the first round (I actually had to go look up what happens next on Wednesday much to my partner’s amusement). Making it to the 2nd round had not really been on my radar. The warmth and support given by members of RWA has been amazing and I am truly humbled by it all. 

So, Firewalker is back in front of me and I’m madly getting it ready for my two readers. Then it will be a life of red frogs, coffee and no sleep as I absorb their feedback and embrace the art of polishing (it's a challenge even in my housework lists). This was the plan for Firewalker – only to be done in two months time. My pushy salamanders, mermaids and elementals are making themselves heard.

Congratulations to the other wonderful ladies who have made the 2^nd round with me. I know we are all now heads down not coming up for breath except for occasional feeding.