First edit…DONE!!

Well, I have finally finished the first lot of editing on my story. After going through 413 pages its now in the hands of my BFF editor. Once she is done with it, it will be my turn to start again.

For those people who have best friends who will willingly go through their work, make sure its someone you can trust 100%. They is no point whatsoever letting someone do it who will tell you everything is great, keep up the good work. I’m sorry it just wont work.

So after falling in love with the characters from the first story I turn to book 2.

I have been thinking a lot lately about self publishing. About the pros and cons of doing it yourself vs trying to get someone professional take it under their wing. Its a hard decision to make and I personally have decided that is my book hasn’t been picked up by the end of the year I’m going to do it myself but I’m going to make sure I have 3 full stories before then. I started the book as a one off, but after falling in love with the characters I decided to make it into a trilogy.

So here is a snippet from the 2nd book in the series.

The main characters in this story are Max and Lacy, and this is from Lacy’s POV…

My first opinion of the teacher Tash and Shae had hired was ‘wow he is hot’, he was broad and sexy but then he opened his mouth…
‘Oh my frickin’ god, look at you!’ he literally squealed, ‘you are like a modern age princess.’ He grabbed my hand and spun me like a ballerina, ‘so petite and gorgeous with the most beautiful hair I have seen, since the week I spent with my boyfriend Ireland.’
Although I had been feeling below shit the last few days, I couldn’t stop the laughter that bubbled up.
‘Michael leave her alone so she can eat’ Shae laughed and practically pushed him out of the way before leading me to the table.
He followed and sat in the seat next to me pushing it closer and resting his face in his hands as he studied me, ‘please tell me you are not on the market, someone looking like you should not be unloved. Hell, if I was straight you would have a stalker on your hands. Amazing sweetie just amazing’ he grabbed my hand again and kissed it, ‘please tell me all about yourself I want to hear everything.’
I laughed again, ‘I’m Lacy’
‘Oh my god you even have a pretty princess name.’ He looked around the room, ‘where are her servants, please tell me you didn’t kidnap this beautiful piece of art and are making her fend for herself.’
Shae smacked him across the back of his head, ‘give it up already gay man, you making her uncomfortable.’
He looked at me with puppy dog eyes, ‘I’m not am I darling? If I am just tell me and I will knock the gay down a few notches. That is unless a certain sexy man comes in the door, who I have been missing like crazy, then I’m all gunna go gay craaazy.’
‘What sexy man would that be?’ I asked still laughing.
The door opened behind me and Michael sat up straight and flicked his head, ‘well hello again darling, where have you been all my life? I was just telling the princess here that…’

Well that’s it for now…

Stay Safe
R

Sharing…

So today as I passed the 250 page mark in my editing I thought I would copy and share a snippet from my story.
Shae and Timal are the main characters in this story and its about their journey in finding love.

Timal is naked from he and Shae having “lunch” by the river and she has ran off with his clothes.

I ran as fast as I could in no particular direction and hid behind a tree.
‘I can smell you Shae, and if anyone sees me like this your arse is mine’ he laughed quietly.
‘Oh no it’s the big bad wolf’ I cried out in mock fear.
He growled, ‘Little girl, little girl, please give in.’
‘Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin’ I laughed.
‘Then I’ll huff’ he laughed, ‘and I’ll puff,’ he grabbed me around the waist and turned me toward him, ‘and I will make love to you again’ he kissed me so fiercely the oxygen in my system forgot to travel to my brain. He then snatched his clothes back from me and ran.
‘Hey that’s not fair’ I pouted watching him dance away from me.
‘Life isn’t fair my love’ he laughed and looked at me, ‘and I now know your weaknesses.’
‘What, you?’ I smiled.
He beamed, ‘Yep.’

So there you have it. My arse is now numb from sitting in my computer chair for the last few hours but I’m happy I have share that, it almost makes it worth it.

Stay Safe
R

Push past the bad…

So my eldest son is 11. If your reading this and have had boys or have one this age you will know what I’m talking about. For people who don’t have experience let me just say, ‘no, girls aren’t the only ones who have mood swings bad enough to knock you down. and just when you are done crying and get back up…BAM, down you go again.’
Anyway, he is a fantastic kid, smart, handsome and has a big heart but for all those good things he also has a mean streak a mile long. He goes out of his way to stir people up and at the moment that person is me. I swear some days he hates me, the one person in his life who spoils him rotten by doing almost everything for him, (he still does some chores) and I’m the one who gets treated like scum on the bottom of his shoe. Yes, Yes, we hurt the ones we love but shit do I really need this crap lol. His dad has it easy, he barely ever sees the worst side of our eldest and when he does I’m at such a breaking point that I’m almost pulling my hair out, I get told I’m just as bad. I wish my darling husband would step in my shoes for a month and see how sane he is after dealing with the 4 boys alone as well as all the daily household crap. I love my husband more than anything, but he can be so oblivious sometimes.

So my plan for the day, after a shitty morning, is to push past the bad…
Last night I passed my 100 page mark on the first edit draft, only 309 more pages than to start it all over again. But its good, I personally really enjoy what I write and I mean that’s the point isn’t it.
I’m also in the process of scrubbing my walls, yes I know its fun…want to come help? 🙂

Well better get back to it, the washing wont hang itself and the walls wont wash themselves so a hard days work for me. And once I’m done I get to edit and may even pick a book to read for the first time in 5 days…WOOHOO, no really that prospect really excites me 🙂

Stay Safe
R

Not accepted…

Well after receiving a reply from a submission I handed into two weeks I finally have the answer I’ve been waiting for…you have not been accepted for publication. And do you know what, that’s okay…mostly. I still hurts but for me it always comes back to my punctuation, it is my kryptonite. I suck at punctuation and one of these days I will write something/finish something and it will get past the point where someone sees the story that’s in it and offer to help…maybe.

The story I submitted was a short story and that in itself was a challenge for me. I personally don’t usually like reading short stories. I love something that I can get lost in for hours and they just don’t do it for me. So me writing a fantastic short story probably wasn’t going to happen. It was a struggle for me to keep it to a 2000 words limit and even then I was 200 words over…it was fuuun. Maybe better luck next time.

Well this is the business I want to be apart of, and if they accepted every story from every man and their dogs, the business wouldn’t be worth being apart of…mine just aren’t that good enough….YET!!

Back to the drawing board

Stay Safe
R

Creative Inspiration

Today while doing my daily Facebook scroll I came across the post by JacksGap. Its a piece that has been put together for people who doubt their own work.

I loved it and wanted to share it.
http://jacksgap.com/gap-video-creative-people/

Another link I came across today on FB was posted by Aurealis – Australian Fantasy and Science Fiction. Its a blog by a woman who I believe has more wisdom in her little finger than I have in my whole body. I loved it and it has helped me already.
http://www.freyarobertson.com/1/post/2014/02/writers-workshop-keeping-motivated.html

On another note, I’m sooo sick of the Australian heat. Yea I get it, its summer, its what we expect, but there is nothing harder than trying to find a place in a house of 6 people to limit distraction while trying to write. I have my own space and while some cool air from the con gets to me I am still sweating 3 buckets a day lol. OK not really that’s just gross! So because of the heat my daily limit of 6 pages a day is getting hard.

Anyway time to get back to it…

Stay Safe
R

Re-reading and Self-editing

There is nothing I hate more than re-reading what I have written and changing things around. With so many new ideas running through my head all I want to do is get them down on paper. But…I sure as s*** aren’t going to get any where if I don’t try and polish what I have.

So, atm I am re-reading a romance I have written and fixing what needs to be fixed annnnd writing a new story to follow up from a short story I wrote during a creative writing course through TAFE. I have made myself commit to 6 pages a day but lucky for me I tend to get carried away and do more than that.

On a plus, I have recently read two books by Julia Garwood and omg what an amazing story teller. I have fallen in love with the characters I read about and there is no better feeling. The books are called The Secret and Ransom in the Highlands’ Lairds Series. There is another called Shadow Music and I am really looking forward to reading that one.

Stay Safe
R

The beginning of a New Year.

I am a mother of four beautiful boys and in my spare time I dream of becoming a world known author. One thing stands in my way…Me!

This year, while trying to get my kids through school, I’m going to try and push myself with my writing. I fell in love with the art of creating my own worlds through words around five years ago and have yet to have anything published. So this year its going to be all about trying to put myself out there and seeing if I can’t catch a fish with the best bait I have.
Already this year I have submitted a short story to an online company and while I wait anxiously for a reply I’m trying to talk myself into putting my head down and concentrating on editing the one story I want out there first.
I have a great support network of friends who basically thinks the sun shines out of my arse (sorry girls, but true) and if it wasn’t for them wanting to read more, I think I would just let myself go and write everything that comes into my head. unfortunately that would mean I would never finish a story and I would have a couple of crazed women wanting to hang me.
So here’s to a year of goals getting reached, for something I dream to do.

Ps. This is a first for me, so I hope I’m doing the Blog thing right.