Hiatus

Whoo... a month! In fact longer than a month. That's how long it's been since my last post. Every now and then I thought about this lonely little blog, mostly just to feel guilty about how I haven't posted and how pathetic it must seem hanging out there in cyber space with no readers and no new entries... Sort of comi-tragic, isn't it?

But I've been busy with other stuff, and the writing has been on a kind of holding pattern. The last two rejections made me start thinking about where I'm going with this writing thing, so I've taken some time to set some new goals. This interlude has coincided with a particularly busy time in my life, work-wise and personally, with a major building project going on in my back yard, so it hasn't been all about the writing.

Today, after much dithering (reading, re-reading, fiddling, making changes, re-reading, reversing changes...) I posted off the first three chapters of my latest manuscript. It's aimed at Harlequin Romance (Sweet, for Aussie readers), and was the manuscript I pitched at the RWA conference. Hard to believe it took me so long to get my act together, but the synopsis is never a pleasure to write, and neither is the cover letter. It almost seems as though they've been put there as two excruciating rites of passage that every unpublished writer must go through before launching their manuscript into the great unknown. Today I knew I had to get it off my chest so I could forge ahead with something new. There's something about having a finished manuscript hanging about that clutters up my head. Even when I'm meant to be doing other work, work that has absolutely nothing to do with writing, my thoughts are clogged, and somehow, I'm not as efficient.


Now that it's on its way to Surrey, UK, let's hope the vast space in my head created by the manuscript's departure can be put to good use. I am a few chapters into a new novel that I'm calling 'Take A Chance On Me', but I aim to start from the beginning and aim the story down a new road. Time for changes, time to try something slightly different. You never know what's around the corner.

Time Squeeze

It's been crazy lately. Lots on my plate in a particularly hectic cycle of my work. So there hasn't been much time to write, and with that, the fire begins to smoulder rather than rage. Sometimes I wonder why I'm putting myself through all this pressure. Trying to juggle family, work and writing, when it just seems to make everything so crazy, almost spinning out of control... to the point that sometimes it actually does.

This post should be about so much, but it's going to be about little or nothing. In the days since my last post, so much has happened that I could easily have posted every single day - and at length. But like a giant wave to an inexperienced surfer, my schedule has literally dumped me, leaving me overwhelmed, disoriented and exhausted.

Writing sessions have been meagre, usually on the tail end of 'Treasure Of The Deep' marathons. Not good. Crawling towards the end of chapter ten, currently. Looking forward to some decent writing time when my eyes aren't hanging out of my head... Maybe next week.

Interlude

Oh, what a busy few weeks it's been. I haven't posted because I simply haven't had the time. Work has been exceptionally busy lately, and probably due to an early Easter, a lot of things have had to be 'squeezed' in. Last week I worked my usual part-time fraction but continued to work on related projects at home, and by the end of the week, I had worked myself up to a killer migraine that saw me arrive home on Friday and go straight to bed.

So the writing took a back seat, and I've only just resumed. I think ten days went by with no writing, and the night I finally sat down to my laptop was divine bliss. Last night I finished chapter seven (out of twelve), and tonight I plan to go over it with fresh eyes and edit.

In the meantime, I've been enjoying a great book. My neighbour lent it to me saying that she'd earned her husband's wrath late at night because she just couldn't put it down. The book is "The Other Boleyn Girl", by Philippa Gregory, and I'm enjoying it very much. Don't know if it's "unputdownable", but pretty good nevertheless. Most importantly, it's a book from which I can learn a lot. One of my problem areas is pacing, and Gregory handles it beautifully in this novel. From a big picture point of view, nothing much is happening. No wide-ranging, fast moving plot, here, just a King increasingly tiring of his Queen and turning to the Boleyn girls, first Mary, then Anne, as diversion. But what makes the novel fast-paced is the complex behind the scenes plotting by the Boleyn/Howard family on one hand, and by the Queen and her Spanish and Roman Catholic allies on the other, as well as the many and varied small scenes that make up Henry VIII's courtship of the two Boleyn girls.

As I read, I try to store Gregory's tricks away so that I might practice "moving" my writing along at a faster pace than I manage to do now. She seems to pack a lot in by giving just a little visual/sensory detail, and relying on the reader to fill in the blanks. Such a good lesson, and one I sorely need to learn.

Back to work!

With my last two weekends spent away from home - one at Mt Buller and the other Phillip Island (returned home yesterday), I haven't had much time to catch up with the usual build-up of home/school/work stuff that clogs my life.

Today, with work looming and a novel that's pretty much stagnated for the last two weeks, I am going to attack the problem and GET ON WITH IT! The problem has as much to do with the summer wind-down as anything else, so I'm not going to worry too much about it. We all need time to be a bit bad.

So after dedicating a couple of hours to the various messes in my life, I will sit down and write. There is no better way than figuring my way out of a character crossroads than to dive right in and see what works best. Last night I made a kind of a start, waffled way too much, in my usual style, but even that was kind of useful. At least I read over the chapter and got a better sense of what needs to happen, how best to organise it, and where to go from here.

Writing? What was that again?

I am completely exhausted. The last few weeks have been full of activity, which have left me with little time to write. I tell myself I'll get into it in a few weeks, when I get past the mountain of work that's built up. I will get past it soon. A few weeks should do it, and I can already see the proverbial light...

While I've been doing that work, a lot of other 'stuff' has happened. Should I mention it? The list would be really long, and maybe it would be fun to even try.

Okay, I'll have a little go:

• Install word 2007 on computer - Hate it, but have to do it to be compatible with the rest of the world
• Ask for another year's leave from 'real job' - granted.
• Do tax return - two years' worth!!!
• Celebrate 13 year old daughter's birthday - big bash.
• Celebrate father's 83rd birthday - very quiet, but very special.
• Let hair 'grey' - the jury's still out.
• Buy some groovy clothes for summer - Yay!!
• Buy some fantastic shoes for summer - alas, only one pair.
• Make Halloween costume for 13 year old - black fairy.
• Listen to 90 presentations at work - each goes for about 20 minutes
• Grade said presentations.
• Write for money - non-fiction, instructional, and very, very boring.
• Catch up with doctor, dentist, vet visits long overdue.

I could go on, but I won't. You get the picture. Soon, very soon, the writing part of my life will get a run again.