A step or two backwards...

Many apologies for not blogging of late.  Considering my last post I’m not doing very well am I?  I was all geared up with Twitter, facebook and building my author platform…so where is it?  I haven’t taken a hiatus from social media intentionally. 

I’m sorry that I haven’t been communicating.  Life simply has got in the way of creative pursuits, much to my annoyance, as my life is mostly made up of working full time with ridiculous starts at 4.30am.  For those who know me personally – you know that this hour of the morning is normally my bed time…talk about a challenge!

I have been researching website options, hosting, vlogging and doing a ton of reading on the subject but and there’s a big BUT!  I find between juggling the full time job and family commitments it all very time consuming.  I know you’re supposed to be able to set up a blog within a few hours – I think I’m too fussy.  I spent hours scouring templates and happy with none of them!  Do you see the problem here? 

So my planned activities for Easter just didn’t happen.  The new blog is still not up and the website not even close to being built. 

How about you?  Did you achieve all that you planned over Easter and did you rest and relax and enjoy?  We have another long weekend here in BrisVegas so for us Brisbanites another chance to catch up on things that got missed last weekend.

I’m still in the process of creating some groovy slideshows of my travels to Egypt from way back in 2008.  Still not completed yet as we speak and I need them for tomorrow night for travel movie/photo night at friend’s house…nothing like a deadline to get me moving.  I really need to address this.  Really – it’s almost three years since that glorious trip and I still don’t have it all up and ready to present.  I will have by tomorrow morning though.

I’m uploading and burning as I write this to you J And after tomorrow night, the plan is to get a 'new look' blog up and running by the end of Monday night.  Fingers crossed I can make this happen and fingers crossed you no longer have to read my posts on this site.  I’m planning on something new, fresh and maybe even a little funky J

Best keep going…I will check in with you on my progress over the weekend…so maybe one more post on this site J

Midnight rambler slowly making progress…

Ten reasons why every author should blog...

This post believe it or not has been surrounded by a lot of indecision.  Last weekend I had the good fortune of attending a workshop at the QWC on Blogging and Social Networking with Joanna Penn

Why the indecision? because it was damn amazing and insightful it really reinforced why I need a new blog/website – like NOW!  So the question was: Do I build a new blog site before I make anymore posts or keep posting on the existing one until I have the new one up and running?  It’s all fraught with problems because if I keep posting to the old format while working on the new one – my old one continues to grow when in fact I want to archive it. 

And since now I have returned to working full time with a 4.30am rise and shine, and sadly no, not to write (I wish) my routine is totally out of whack.  I was working nights so you can see what this might be doing to my body clock let alone finding time to build a new blog/website. 

So I’ve decided to post on the old blog for this post (new one is coming) because the things I learned from the workshop was just too good not to share. 

Ten reasons for starting and/or improving your author platform:

1.       A blog is a website with special powers

2.       Bloggers are a powerful community

3.       Every writer should blog – here’s why

4.       People connect with faces – Vlog!

5.       Online networking with other Authors, Bloggers and Marketers 

6.       Online presence with quality content

7.       Baby steps…it all takes time to grow your business

8.       WordPress, Blogger is all free and great to get started but as your business grows consider owning your site – here are some of the reasons why

9.       Social Media isn’t a fad, it’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate. Check out this amazing video.

10.   Embrace the Twitter – its power is extremely effective for online networking and promoting your business/brand.  Here are some great tips

What are you doing to promote your author brand?  Please share your tips and/or ideas - I still have soooo' much to learn :)

Midnight Rambler embracing the twitter...

Been rejected lately?

About a week or so ago I received yet another rejection for a short story that’s been out and about for a bit with pretty favourable feedback but not getting picked up and I had one of those moments – you know how it goes: ‘You’re crap – give it up’.

I drank coffee, as you do, and sat in silence, staring at the wall.  I think I might have even sighed in there a few times J and thought:  ‘Give it up – give writing up because it’s just too bloody hard!  The hours, the sweat and tears, to what – get rejected yet again! ‘

How many times would you put up with your best friend or lover, husband or wife – reject you over and over and over?  You wouldn’t right – so why do we keep writing?

I don’t know about you, but for me I think sometimes I’m just plain and simply, quite mad.  Crazy loon, insane, lunatic!  So where was I?  Oh, yeah, sitting, staring at the wall.  I mumbled and grumbled a bit and I definitely swore a few times – Mitzi my cat understood and then it was like – ‘okay, so when was the deadline for that play?’



Mitzi practising the art of patience...



Yes, I told you I’m insane.  Here’s why – I’ve been working two jobs of the day job variety in recent weeks - if you count writing then I was juggling three.  Anyway, I’ve been pretty knackered of late, with working nights in one job and getting up at 4.30am for another and of course writing towards this deadline!  The deadline was the 31^st March and I was running out of time – oh hell, I hadn’t even finished the play on Tuesday and it was supposed to be gone on Thursday and oh, wait – I need to sleep coz I’m working two jobs!

Somehow, I pulled it off.  I made the deadline and even rewrote the ending twice, and still woke up in time for work!  I can’t testify to the quality of the play but I was passionate about the story when I wrote it, so from an organic level it was good work.  From an editing, and beautifully polished masterpiece level – well probably not so.  But there ya go – it’s gone.  I was happy I pushed through even though I’m severely sleep deprived but that’s pretty normal for me anyway.

And what was the point of this blog post?  Oh, yeah – seems I don’t let rejections get to me after all.  Just when I think I’m ready to give it all up – I just shrug and get back to work.  Unlike the rejection of a friend or lover, of which I would not put up with, I find the rejection of my stories as the universe’s way of letting me know I have to work harder!  That’s just crap, I know – haven’t I worked hard enough?  Of course, but then it’s all subjective anyway – so sometimes it just means getting on with it, not rewriting it, or ditching it, but getting on with the next project.  Persevering and rising to the challenge which in the end just makes me increasingly determined.  So I do what I know my peers would advise me to do.  Write. Edit. Submit.  And do it again and again and again until…

Yep, I told you I was insane.  How about you?  How do you deal with rejection?

Midnight rambler getting ready for the next project….

2010 Aurealis Awards - Finalists announced!

Huge congrats to all the nominees.  There are just so many great names on the list - I want to give a 'shout out' to all of you!  Such an impressive list. 

Oh, how I look forward to these Awards every year and while it is sad to see them leave Fantastic Queensland in BrisVegas - it will be exciting to see them in Sydney under the new umbrella of SpecFaction NSW and organisers: Nathan Burrage and Susan Wardle.

And while I say it will be exciting to see the awards in Sydney there are no definites yet that I will be attending.  I don't even want to think about that possibility although I know I could be leaving it a little late to buy tix and find cheap accommodation.  If the universe is on my side - I will trust that it will be possible and I will be winging my way there come May J

Don't be like me and risk missing out. Check out all the details here:

And the nominees are:

2010 Aurealis Awards --‐ Finalists
CHILDREN'S FICTION (told primarily through words)

·         Grimsdon, Deborah Abela, Random House

·          Ranger's Apprentice #9: Halt's Peril, John Flanagan, Random House

·          The Vulture of Sommerset, Stephen M Giles, Pan Macmillan

·          The Keepers, Lian Tanner, Allen & Unwin

·          Haggis MacGregor and the Night of the Skull, Jen Storer & Gus Gordon, Aussie Nibbles(Penguin)

CHILDREN'S FICTION (told primarily through pictures)

·         Night School, Isobelle Carmody (writer) & Anne Spudvilas (illustrator), Penguin Viking

·          Magpie, Luke Davies (writer) & Inari Kiuru (illustrator), ABC Books (HarperCollins)

·          The Boy and the Toy, Sonya Hartnett (writer) & Lucia Masciullo (illustrator), Penguin Viking

·          Precious Little, Julie Hunt & Sue Moss (writers) & Gaye Chapman (illustrator), Allen &

·         Unwin

·          The Cloudchasers, David Richardson (writer) & Steven Hunt (illustrator), ABC Books(HarperCollins)

YOUNG ADULT Short Story

·         Inksucker, Aidan Doyle, Worlds Next Door, Fablecroft Publishing

·          One Story, No Refunds, Dirk Flinthart, Shiny #6, Twelfth Planet Press

·          A Thousand Flowers, Margo Lanagan, Zombies Vs Unicorns, Allen & Unwin

·          Nine Times, Kaia Landelius & Tansy Rayner Roberts, Worlds Next Door, Fablecroft

·         Publishing

·          An Ordinary Boy, Jen White, The Tangled Bank, Tangled Bank Press

YOUNG ADULT Novel

·         Merrow, Ananda Braxton--‐Smith, black dog books

·          Guardian of the Dead, Karen Healey, Allen & Unwin

·          The Midnight Zoo, Sonya Hartnett, Penguin

·          The Life of a Teenage Body--‐Snatcher, Doug MacLeod, Penguin

·          Behemoth (Leviathan Trilogy Book Two), Scott Westerfeld, Penguin

BEST ILLUSTRATED BOOK/ GRAPHIC NOVEL

·         Shakespeare's Hamlet, Nicki Greenberg, Allen & Unwin

·          EEEK!: Weird Australian Tales of Suspense, Jason Paulos et al, Black House Comics

·          Changing Ways Book 1, Justin Randall, Gestalt Publishing

·          Five Wounds: An Illustrated Novel, Jonathan Walker & Dan Hallett, Allen & Unwin

·          Horrors: Great Stories of Fear and Their Creators, Rocky Wood & Glenn Chadbourne,McFarlane & Co.

BEST COLLECTION

·         The Library of Forgotten Books, Rjurik Davidson, PS Publishing

·          Under Stones, Bob Franklin, Affirm Press

·          Sourdough and Other Stories, Angela Slatter, Tartarus Press

·          The Girl With No Hands, Angela Slatter, Ticonderoga Publications

·          Dead Sea Fruit, Kaaron Warren, Ticonderoga Publications

BEST ANTHOLOGY

·          Macabre: A Journey Through Australia's Darkest Fears, edited by Angela Challis & Dr Marty

·         Young, Brimstone Press

·          Sprawl, edited by Alisa Krasnostein, Twelfth Planet Press

·          Scenes from the Second Storey, edited by Amanda Pillar & Pete Kempshall, Morrigan Books

·         Godlike Machines, edited by Jonathan Strahan, SF Book Club

·          Wings of Fire, edited by Jonathan Strahan & Marianne S. Jablon, Night Shade Books

HORROR Short Story

·         Take the Free Tour, Bob Franklin, Under Stones, Affirm Press

·          Her Gallant Needs, Paul Haines, Sprawl, Twelfth Planet Press

·          The Fear, Richard Harland, Macabre: A Journey through Australia's Darkest Fears

·         Brimstone Press

·          Wasting Matilda, Robert Hood, Zombie Apocalypse!, Constable & Robinson Ltd

·          Lollo, Martin Livings, Close Encounters of the Urban Kind, Apex Publishing

HORROR Novel

·         After the World: Gravesend, Jason Fischer, Black House Comics

·          Death Most Definite, Trent Jamieson, Orbit (Hachette)

·          Madigan Mine, Kirstyn McDermott, Pan Macmillan

FANTASY Short Story

·         The Duke of Vertumn's Fingerling, Elizabeth Carroll, Strange Horizons

·          Yowie, Thoraiya Dyer, Sprawl, Twelfth Planet Press

·          The February Dragon, LL Hannett & Angela Slatter, Scary Kisses, Ticonderoga Publications

·          All the Clowns in Clowntown, Andrew McKiernan, Macabre: A Journey Through Australia's, Brimstone Press

·         Darkest Fears

·          Sister, Sister, Angela Slatter, Strange Tales III, Tartarus Press

FANTASY Novel

·         The Silence of Medair, Andrea K Höst, self--‐published

·          Death Most Definite, Trent Jamieson, Orbit (Hachette)

·          Stormlord Rising, Glenda Larke, HarperVoyager (HarperCollins)

·          Heart's Blood, Juliet Marillier, Pan Macmillan

·          Power and Majesty, Tansy Rayner Roberts, HarperVoyager (HarperCollins)

SCIENCE FICTION Short Story

·         The Heart of a Mouse, K.J. Bishop, Subterranean Online (Winter 2010)

·          The Angaelian Apocalypse, Matthew Chrulew, The Company Articles Of Edward Teach/The, Twelfth Planet Press

·         Angaelian Apocalypse

·          Border Crossing, Penelope Love, Belong, Ticonderoga Publications

·          Interloper, Ian McHugh, Asimovs (Jan 2011)

·          Relentless Adaptations, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Sprawl, Twelfth Planet Press

SCIENCE FICTION Novel

·         Song of Scarabaeus, Sara Creasy, EOS Books

·          Mirror Space, Marianne de Pierres, Orbit (Hachette)

·          Transformation Space, Marianne de Pierres, Orbit (Hachette)

Midnight rambler visualising plane tickets, Aurealis tickets and a lovely room near the venue :)