Interview

Yes that's right I am doing an interview...

You can find it over here at miscellaneous yammering on the 30th... which is today for me, so I figured I should hand out the link now so you all can drop over and have a laugh before I get up tomorrow... at which time I shall endeavour to answer any questions that may have cropped up!

So, I'll see you there?

Amazon Author page

I have an Amazon author page , Amazon made it for me... here's the link (to easy to find by the way), You are supposed to be able to search for authors in amazon and the author page should become apparent... I couldn't and had to open a new browser copy the link from the business side of my author page and see if it worked for people other than me!

What a pain in the ass.

So what does one do with an author page?

No fucn idea!

Not a one!

Seems like it's yet ANOTHER thing to try and keep up with - and unless it has some kind of magical feature that pushes sales through the roof - I can't see a point to it. (yet)

I did note that one can have discussions - presumably with other people - although maybe just with ones self!

I'll let you know - no doubt I'll be fighting with myself in the discussion area shortly.

Okay I've been using this Google chrome shite for a wee while now... it's not working for me, the spell checker is rubbish and either not on, or not working the majority of the time, and when I turn it on, it seems to forget how to check spelling.

I'm about to can it and hope like hell the new Firefox build is BETTER than the last one. Which I ditched due to the slowness, crashing, and general pissing me off thing that it did so often!

It's best NOT to piss me off... and browsers are slow at learning.

You'd think my eye twitching for all it's worth would send a message to my pc to behave - before it meets the ground from a great height.

Apart from a day of general harassment at the keyboard of my computer, it's been a fairly quiet day.

Things that had to be done, got done.

The child with the specialness behaved quite well, considering. Yet another round of therapy on Wednesday - fun for her, dreadfully boring for me and Breezy. I shall pack better activities for us on Wednesday.

I finished the first pass edits on terrorbyte. Which was fun - tomorrow I'll go over it again with certain scenes in mind and have some fun with it.

I hear Ellie over my shoulder tonight, she's quite vocal at times... She's all full of herself at the moment and crowing about our awesome review from Bookwenches and also the cool review Tara wrote for Amazon.

Oh my I've got my first Amazon review! It's like I'm a real author now.

The last few days have felt all a bit disjointed and there is a HUGE surreality factor at play. I've yet to actually celebrate the sale of Terrorbyte, or the review, or the up-coming interview - not in true Connor style anyway.

It's all been a little too low key so far! -There were other things overshadowing the fun aspect, but they're now dealt with.

I think there will need to be a gathering of sorts in the weekend... I'm seeing a lot of red wine in my future and some fun had with friends.

Might be weekend after next - I shall make inquires and see who is available for a wee get together!

I'm away to my bed... there was a different brogue happening then - I really have to watch that, a neighbor already thinks I'm from Ireland. It's not my fault I'm susceptible to picking up accents! I cannot help it. I daren't tell anyone the date when it's the 3rd!

God almighty that'd be utter bollocks. Oh no, now I'm channeling a Father Ted episode.

Feck... arse!

I'm away to my bed before I start hunting for whiskey and playing Irish pub songs... my all time favorite is Gypsy Rover.

Hugging small children and the desire to knit?

I've been over at Bex place, well, hugging small children. It's rather fun. I do enjoy the time spent playing on the floor with the kids. Even better when it's not here and I don't feel the tug of work or the guilt over work.

**Matua sought me out the other day to tell me something about Deaglan. I've known Matua Wilson for more years than I care to say. Ya see, Dex is in the Kapa Haka group but more than that, he was chosen to learn the haka with Matua, only a handful of student recieve this honor.

So it thrills me that Deaglan is learning from Matua and doing so well and that Matua is so excited to be teaching him. What's more Matua taught Deaglan's mother and Uncle too and talks to Deaglan about them when they were kids and in his class.

It doesn't happen often in life any more, that a teacher gets to know and teach two generations in the one family. This is something to treasure.

So far so good for a Sunday!

Except now I want to knit. I hardly ever knit now - it's easier to sew! Plus my hands don't so much enjoy holding knitting needles these days. I'm sure it was just playing with the boys on the floor that made me think of knitting - winter, knitted sweaters... all kinda flows.

I left the girls at Bex this afternoon so I could come home and work. (They'll stuff themselves on birthday cake and lollies and come home happy.)

There were a few things that needed fixing in a manuscript. BUT. I can't open it. It's a weird assed .dat file not a .doc. Thought it looked a bit weird when I first saw it. I can't open it - and therefore am powerless to check the changes until the time zones shift to my favor.

Meanwhile - I could carry on with Terrorbyte edits. Which I may well do! Currently I have a nasty headache and don't feel much like using my brain for anything much. I'm almost done with the first pass edits - and now have to go back to the comments I left myself within the document - taken from emails from my lovely editor as she's mulled something over and fired it off to me for my thoughts.

These are things that require thought on my part - and sometimes a little play acting.

It's not uncommon for me to turn the house into a crime scene and do a walk through - or arrange things as I see them in a scene and be Ellie to see how she'd move or react in different situations.

No doubt my neighbors have giggled to themselves while I've been out the back or front yards working out a scene. Luckily these days at least one of them is okay with helping out and has no problem with my seemingly odd behavior! Body parts stuffed under a car in the driveway and pools of blood barely raise an eye brow around here.

It's rather chilly today - thought I'd mention it, cos it's 2 degrees. This so far is a VERY cold winter. And I believe the radio said earlier, "Reaching for a high of 2 degrees." So we're here... and I'm underwhelmed. I don't believe the weather is trying to improve. Perhaps some kind of weather bail-out? We'll let it off the hook and it can start over.

Instead of working - I shall get dinner started... and I really have to clean out the crock pot. I can't bring myself to lift the lid, I know it's going to be nasty. Ahh, I have a mask... that might be the way to go!!!

I hate when I forget about the crock pot for a few days (okay it could be a week - you wanna go there?...I didn't think so!).

Tonight's offerings will be cooked in the oven - imagine that! I think I had planned to do a HUGE roast tonight - but with all the birthday cake making and cupcake icing this morning I forgot to get the meat out. There is always tomorrow.

**I realize that many of you won't know what Matua means. We use it as a title and sign of respect for teachers who teach kapa haka. Sometimes followed by their surname ie: Matua Wilson, but using Matua alone is probably more common.

Now that you've learned something about New Zealand culture and I'm imagining you all trying to wrap your mouths around Maori words - yes it's amusing me...

On that note I shall go clean that crock pot...

e noho ra

I got it going on.

As promised I have some news to share.

As far as news goes this is way up there... with a squeal factor of ten.

Terrorbyte sold to Rebel e Publishers.

Yes that's right, I have the contract in my hot little hand.

Those of you who loved Ellie Conway in killerbyte will be able to go with her on her next adventure in Terrorbyte.

But wait there's more...

killerbyte was reviewed by book wenches... although I've yet to read it, as the site was down when I tried earlier.

Edited to add: I have read the review.. and there were almost tears of joy. I can't describe how awesome it is.

I will be interviewed over at Miscellaneous Yammering next week. (The 30th and yes I will post another link then)

There will alo be a video interview shortly. (oh god no!) And again I will post the link when it's up.

I have to get back to work... edits don't fix themselves (yes, I know, that's shocking and I'm very sorry if you weren't ready for that bubble to burst).

I also need to start hounding my husband regarding a new trailer... oh my that will be fun. He's learned much since our first attempt.

Be good y'all.

Cheesecake for breakfast..

Yesterday Breezy remembered she wanted me to make cheesecake - a week ago! I didn't make it, and as it happens it was a good thing, what with her being sick all week.

Yesterday- when she remebered and was obviously feeling better, I made the cheesecake. It could be described as 'best ever'. This is a lemon/lime cheesecake with dark and milk chocolate topping. Melted dark and milk choc beaten with cream and stirred through some reserved cheese mixture then spread over the cake.

The base is made with crushed malt biscuits. Perfect for breakfast - all that calcium and vitamin choc. :-) (can probably almost claim the lime and lemon juice has nutritional value -it is real!)

So anyway - I made it yesterday, Breezy knew I made it. She hasn't asked for any yet! No doubt come lunchtime she'll ask. As for me, well, I'm having cheesecake for breakfast. And might I just say... oh god it's good!!!

Last night I went to bed at 8:30. It was cold, there was nothing on TV (as usual), I couldn't be bothered working - and it was cold, kids were in bed, Chris was playing that GAME upstairs. Seemed stupid to heat the living area and sit there doing nothing. So I went to bed with three movies and the laptop.

I watched two: Destination Anywhere and then U571. I then proceeded to have the weirdest dreams ever!

These were seriously screwed up dreams. Hardly surprising really. I think the movies combined with the plot from Exacabyte. (Which is kinda like terrorbyte on steriods, and that description was of no help to any of you! - trust me all will become clear eventually.)

Some of what I dreamed was fueled by my loathing of ships. Which isn't quite right. I'm okay ON ships... I just cannot cope with being NEXT to one while it's either in dry-dock or tied to a wharf. I also will NOT go anywhere near lifeboats while on board a ship. I don't even like seeing them out a porthole. And you can forget any ideas of me visiting ship museums or wrecks. It ain't gonna happen - we tried visiting a partial wreck that's being restored.... I couldn't even get within 100 meters. The whole idea of it turns me cold.

Funnily enough I'm fine on the water (NOT in it!). I love being out in the Sounds any sized boat will do. As long as I never ever see a ship while out there! (I used to sail, the boats pictured here are Sunbursts - Dad and I had one years ago. I loved it!! Was good fun.)

Right moving on! The dreams were weird but I think I may have an idea for a scene fix due to them. Sometimes weird is good.

This morning we are meeting the boy-wonder before he starts work - he's putting his suit for this years ball on lay-by and wants me to have a look at it. It's silver apparently, but I suspect it to be more platinum. (I will let you know) I can't remember what type of shirt he chose. I know the dressmaker, who is making his girlfriends gown, is also making him a matching tie. (There is no way we were going to find a coral shirt to match the dress!!)

The little darling hoped I was going to help him pay for it, but seems to have forgotten he also needs a new ski-jacket (before the 28th) and goggles! There is a limit - and a reason why he works part-time. lol

Am looking forward to going out - feels like I've been stuck inside for a month - and I think it might be almost that.

Now I must away and shower - can't be going out in my jammies. I have seen a few people over the last year or so pop down to the local diary in jammies... I am not one of those people. Not now and not ever. (Okay it's more than a few, it seems to be a new trend and I find it ridiculous)

It's one thing to sit here working half the day in jammies - but to go out? I don't think so. That smacks of incredible laziness.

Hope you all have a wonderful day.

Don't be shy... tell me what you're doing this weekend...

*Oh and this is an odd fact: writing about Chlorine gas made my blog pop up quite high on a google search for info on chlorine gas. -I noticed it yesterday when I was trying to find some HazMat info. I think I need to work in a scene involving SCBA. Or at least mention the need for SCBA gear. It's just so cool. Especially the new HazMat gear we have over here now.

**One more thing, if you are at a loss this weekend and looking for something to do... go buy my book! Mobipocket or Amazon (unless you are in NZ then I'm afraid only Mobipocket will work- Amazon are geographically discriminating... and won't send kindle files to NZ or kindle can't access outside of America, whatever! Either way it won't work here so save yourself the annoyance and use the mobipocket link.)

Have a nice day. :-)

So where did I put them?

After spending a few days thinking about particular scenes in the new book I decided to haul out my research notes and add some more fabulously juicy information.

I can find all the hand written notes I made while on the phone to a friend who was looking up the stuff I needed on a medical site (that regular people can't access) but can't locate the printed version. (He dropped off a few days later) I'm sure the screeds of paper should be with the other research but no! I found all the ketamine (if you've read killerbyte -you'll know why I needed that), and then heaps of abdominal trauma, penetrating chest trauma, and abdominal gunshot wound information.

It's pretty cool stuff about how the injuries are managed in an emergency room. The need for that will become apparent at a later date. :-) Trust me you'll enjoy it.

Still despite the abundance of juicy research I've miss placed all my chlorine info!

Grrrr.

But never mind: I think the piece of information I need was uncovered on a HazMat web site anyway.

I think the person responsible for the car accident intended the car to explode but it didn't. They very rarely do in a crash situation. Or maybe she just hoped it would. Really to make sure she should've tossed a Zippo into it. And that gave me another idea. Ohh it's good. So now I want to scoot through this at the rate of knots and go write!

And back in the living room - it looks like a bomb hit! To be honest most of the house looks like that at the moment. Comes from having a house full of sick people for what feels like weeks!! (Might actually be WEEKS) I can barely keep up with the extra laundry let alone regular housework.

Wouldn't mind so much if I'd been having so much fun I didn't have time for housework (a state I aspire too!)... but it's been far from fun here lately.

Small rant about to happen: You've been warned!!

Seems Breezy wants a bath (good idea) - so I sent her upstairs (with older sister) to get daddy to run it for her... and he apparently said no! If I find out that's because he's playing that fuc'n stupid online game (WoW) I shall cause him harm!!

Ha, strange - I now hear the bath running.

Okay here it is and remember you were warned!

Seems the ten year old child who was sent with the 3 yr old - got yet another message wrong, imagine that! God she annoys me at times. It's not that hard, just TELL people what was actually said. Instead of adding her own spin to it all the freaking time. Yes I know she's special but there are times when the whole special thing just pisses me off.

Have just given her a note and sent her to tidy her room. Hopefully she'll follow the list and do it ALL. No good telling her what to do - everything has to be DETAILED and for long instructions, in writing. It's not like I can say to her "wash your face" nope.. I have to say "Use a facecloth, warm water and soap... WET the cloth and squeeze it out and wash your entire face." If I don't... she uses an almost damp spot of a facecloth and NO soap... and barely touches her face.

I used to have a list of morning and night things in the bathroom - but that only works for about three days. Seems that if the list isn't placed IN her hand EVERY TIME. She reverts back to doing nothing.

Okay -thanks for listening. I'm over it. :-)

Now off to add some detail to this most wonderful scene. (It's wonderful in a sick twisted terrorist type way)

Industrious days

Despite the best efforts of the children yesterday I made myself write. I wrote a lot more than I realised which probably accounted for the brain dead evening.

Surprisingly it wasn't the shiny new story grabbing my attention and words, but Satellite. Which I've been working away at for sometime now. (It gets shuffled sideways often - between Feb and April it was to allow me time to work with my super duper editor on killerbyte, then most recently I tidied up (did some re-writes) within terrorbyte before sending that off to my publisher and super duper editor. - crossing fingers and hoping they love it!

I can't give much away regarding Satellite and it's plot. I thought about it for quite sometime last night (while brain dead, so maybe today I can come up with something! I was trying to figure out if I can share ANY of this WIP without giving away the end of terrorbyte. Oh my - I fear I've said too much.

Of course the two of you who have read terrorbyte know what I'm referring too. (crikey aren't we the elite! Yes my eyes are rolling... it makes it very hard to see the screen)

Where was I? Ah, yes, full of the joys of having written for the first time all week! I could probably be less thrilled with myself later as I have yet to read the scene. Still it feels like quite an accomplishment especially early on a cold Thursday morning while I eat my Vogel's toast dripping with butter and smeared with a thin coating of Vegemite.

Sara mentioned yesterday that my Youtube trailer doesn't mention Amazon. She's right, it didn't. It's now been corrected. I have been quite remiss at sharing the Amazon link for killerbyte. Mostly because it's the kindle version and who the hell can afford a kindle? (especially in New Zealand where the exchange rate makes a kindle e-book reader almost the same price as a laptop!! Between needing a new laptop and wanting a kindle - I'm going to have to sell a truck load of books! Just trying to envisage a truck load of e-books, that's a LOT of books.)

I don't have the link in my email signature! I suspect I'd better do something about that too -before it's noticed!!

Maybe I'll send a bulletin, or Ellie will with both links.

We'll see how much time I have today. I've got a tad more time this week, with the Squealer not being at school... technically that gives me more time. I don't have the hour and a bit of walking cutting into my day. I REALLY miss my walk!!! I think Breezy does too, but after cleaning up the result of her running from the letter box to the house last night. I can wait on the walk and so can she.

How come I'm sitting here with Yo Yabba Yabba annoying me from the TV and there are no children in the room?

Switched to the news and MySpace slashes staff is a headline.

That doesn't sound good!

I love MySpace. I really do. Always have - well, not always... in the beginning it was slow and clunky and well rubbish really. But it picked up and it's a great place to hang out. I prefer it over Facebook and bebo and twitter. It's all warm and pretty and comfy. What's more I've made some very good friends there and most of them don't do Facebook or twitter or anything else but Myspace.

Let's hope MySpace hangs in there.

I hear my trusty neighbor starting his truck - he should get my 'have a nice day' text before he gets to the end of the street. Marvelous stalking on my part. (Cept he hasn't gone yet and is sitting in his truck replying, ha ha ha - and what do ya know -my phone just went!)

On that note... and after opening the curtains and revealing a drippy yuck day I'm off to have a shower. (I'm sure that was need-to-know info)

Have a nice day.

Finding a name for the story...

I can hardly believe it myself but this new story (the one that was going to be a short but has WAY too much plot) still has no name.
I'm not even a hundred percent sure it really is a before killerbyte story. No doubt that will work itself out as I write... but it NEEDS a name.
We have killerbyte, terrorbyte, exacabyte, Ethernet, and I'm working on Satellite (slowly kinda, when the mood grabs me). Now, they all follow on from killerbyte. No problem there. This one seems to come before (let's go with that for now) - and nothing has leaped out to scream "I'm the title!" So far.

Because it's earlier and not a web-based or even remotely chat room orientated story, I can move away from the more connected titles. (whew, cos I was really pushing it with Exacabyte!)
Ethernet and Satellite make sense - the stories fit those titles perfectly.
I see that I tend toward single word titles. So will probably go that way for this one but that's not a given. :-)

Okay after some true geeking... I found two possibilities. The first is Torrent. For those less geeky, here's a definition. It works for me because you have streams coming from different locations but ultimately creating one file. (In this case a story)
Now the second idea is Nybble. (I'm letting my geek out!) Definition here.
Nybble appeals to me because it's half a byte.

I'm leaning toward Torrent.

It feels better to have a few ideas!

So far today I've done bugger all. Kids are still sick. Which means little sleep is had at night. I think I may be sick too. (Okay I am sick, but ignoring it)

I felt the need to have a rant but have moved it to a safe forum. So unless you belong to Backspace you miss out. I suppose I could've moved it to Back Stage with Jon Bon Jovi - that too is a protected forum... but they don't know me yet and may not quite get where I'm coming from.

It's cold. Very cold. Quite miserable in fact.

I feel rather crappy.

Must go to the Stupidmarket and spread germs... I mean get milk... tonight, and drop some stuff off to Bex. Think I have some books she hasn't read yet too. no doubt she'll enjoy that.

I really can't be bothered doing anything now. But I suspect I shall - dinner needs cooking. Breezy needs somethng in her stomach before bed, so she can cough herself sick all over the bed clothes again! (Twice)

Take care, you lot!

I think Torrent? Yeah?

Bon Jovi and Richard Dean Anderson

It's Sunday - traditionally I don't like 'em. They suck. For a variety of reasons Sunday's tend to bring out the worst in me.
Not today apparently.

Despite not writing at all today (this doesn't count) and doing precious little writing yesterday - today doesn't suck. I'm even having quite a nice time.
I've been dropping my friends pages on MySpace and that's always fun. I'm listening to Bon Jovi - and well, shit, that's always good. And I did something random that amused me. I left a message for Richard Dean Anderson. (I think you get to a certain age and things dropping a line to someone famous is just like emailing a friend. They're regular people just like us. There is no mystique.)
He was a topic of conversation at dinner last night. He's always a topic when Rose and I get together. (him and then NCIS - new series is about to start here! Neither of us can wait. Currently watching re-runs)

It feels so good it ought to be illegal.

So last night we had friends over for dinner. Rose (as you may have already guessed) and my friend Andrea with her three kids. The kids played and had a lovely time. We had a few glasses of wine and laughed a lot!
Next time Andrea comes over we are going to set her up a facebook page. She's feeling left out. Might make her a twitterer as well, and may as well do Myspace too! I can't believe she's not there already!

And the servants to paint the sky blue

It's almost dark. Not even five p.m. yet. After I've made dinner I will get the Breezy bathed and then settle in for a few hours of Ellie's world. I'd like to get some of this new story written. Figure out why the chemical formula for RDX turned up and what a missing kid from 16 years ago has to do with a missing woman now. I'm betting the reason it all seems to tie to Holly (Ellie's best friend) is interesting.
Gotta feeling this story will be explosive. :-)

Ain't nothing she can't rise above

This a little rough but it's the opening of whatever this new story is:


I settled into cruise mode and plugged my mp3 player into the car stereo. The dulcet tones of Grange lead singer Rowan Grange sent thrills of pleasure through my ears. As I contemplated how good their latest album was the phone rang.

I turned the music down and hit the hands free button on my phone.

“Hello?”

“It’s Holly. You’re not in Rockbridge County are you?”

That was a peculiar question from my long time best friend. No one expected me back for a week or more. Yet here I was returning home early after wrapping up a truly crappy case in Richmond.

“I am. Heading toward Mauryville now.”

“Can you drop into the book store?”

“Sure. Any special reason?”

As hard as she seemed to be trying to keep her voice all regular and chit-chatty I knew her well and something was up.

“It’s probably nothing.” She sighed.

Sighing is never good, probably nothings were worse.

****


And no ones getting out of here alive



Seems the little Breezy is losing the plot! It must be bath time already. :-)

Save a hundred trees read an e-book. killerbyte is waiting for you!

I'd to thank Bon Jovi for providing the sound track for the afternoon, lol. Does anyone know what album, and which songs I listened to while writing this blog? :-)

killerbyte review and the weekend begins.

Morning world!

This morning I found a review of killerbyte in my inbox. It was one solicited by my publisher.

Here it is.

After a few thick moments (okay nearly an hour) and even an email from my editor wondering the same thing... I think where the reviewer says 'while sense' she meant 'whole sense'.
Which makes sense.

Luckily she liked killerbyte regardless!

And for those that are curious - killerbyte has fought it's way back from 24th on the mobipocket list to 17th. It's been jumping back and forth between 19 and 17 a fair bit and did a few days in the twenties... was dreadfully frightening!

Meanwhile it's Saturday - it's also Grocery day. (Yes BIG milk, for those that know me well)

Joshy is at work - the girls must accompany us... oh dear god! I'm still clutching the remnants of yesterdays migraine and so looking forward to the Stupidmarket.

Yup, can't wait! Haven't even written my list yet - ugh!

We have five guests for dinner this evening. Which I am looking forward too. Should be a fun night. (Note to self: Need more Merlot or maybe Shiraz, the migraine demands it!)
Maybe some more Mersyndol would be in order too.

Now I have to go make breakfast and hurriedly scribble a grocery list... some idea as to what I'm making for dinner would be helpful before I get to the stupidmarket.

Hope you all have an awesome day.
Don't be shy, let me know what plans you have for the weekend...

Keep the Faith!

Honestly it's to Keep the Faith than it is to keep the fuc'n CD! I was looking at the CD's I keep on my desk (all Bon Jovi, because that's what inspires me when I write) and Keep the Faith is missing AGAIN.
I only just replaced that CD a few weeks ago!!! What is it with that album? Why can't I keep hold of it??

Moving right along... it'll turn up. (Having a little faith)

Most of you know I've been working on a short story for the last week or so. Admittedly there was precious little actual writing going on until the last few days. BUT while I was procrastinating the story was percolating in my head. Unusually it has no title. That's is quite odd for me. I'm pretty good at giving my work (even WIP's) titles. - If you saw the ammount of stuff on my hard drive you'd know why!

It's now 18 pages long. Not finished. The 5k word count maximum is a distant memory. It could be that the plot is simply too big to be a short story. (novella maybe?) It could be that I've waffled on and it's utterly trimable bullshit. I got a feeling its not the last one. Thank god! I actually like the story. It's rather fun - I think we struck upon the problem... it is fun. It's early Ellie Conway. It's before Mac.

I'm not entirely convinced that this is the short story for the competition.

Time is running out and yet I want to follow this one to it's conclusion, regardless.

It's noisy out tonight. Slamming doors, people noise, cars, no clue why. Seems a strange night for it to be so busy and loud. It's Wednesday night. What is there to be noisy about?

I've also been reading a book by Rosemary Dew. The book is called No backup. And it is very hard to put down.

Am listening to Breezy coughing. She's already thrown up in our bed. Looks like Chris will be sleeping in the girls room again so Breezy can stay with me in our bed!

I'm off to go check on her.

Take care xx

Monday and Pizza bread

Monday started around two this morning for me: Breezy woke coughing and within a few minutes was in our bed - doing the same.
I actually think she would've been better to stay in her room, which is heated and warm to help prevent the Squealer having croup and asthma attacks on COLD nights.
Breezy being three didn't think any such thing - she wanted mummy to snuggle her up. Great!

There went any hope of sleep for me. She wriggled and jiggled, and coughed, and talked. I could've over looked everything but the non-stop talking. ;-)
At about four she announced it was morning time and by five was asleep.

I think I'll be a little tired later today.

She's tired now... not wanting a repeat of last night I walked up to the chemist after dropping Squealer at school this morning. (It's maybe 3 km.) Breezy required carrying some of the way. Good thing I'm used to carrying her tall, 22 kg self around. I got some Tixylix, which is a Pharmacy only medicine and requires filling in of the drug book. They know me, they know my kids, so luckily it didn't require a lecture on the use of the cough syrup! While there I remembered to get my migraine meds. Yay me! (also pharmacy only and requires filling in the drug book) AND I remembered post bags!
Now to fill them!! And post present to Jo jo and also present to Cheri in WA.

Breezy managed to walk all the way home. I think she received an energy boost by the little cheesecake I got her at the bakery.

Squealer was late for school this morning. Hardly surprising really. I wasn't entirely sure she should go, but took her anyway. I've asked her teacher to remind the child NOT to go running around like a lunatic. She's still sick and will cough up a lung if she does, especially in this cold weather. We're at the point where if she doesn't go to school now, she'll be home all winter! Sick she is, but she's going to miss too much school and that's not good. She's not contagious and spreading horrible , so I suppose that's something.
And quite honestly I need a break - so school it is.

Last night before Squealers bedtime I gathered the names of those who entered the competition to win a copy of killerbyte. I enjoyed it. Was good fun. I love giving stuff away.
I wrote them all on pieces of paper and let Squealer draw the winner. Turned out to be Winners. She said there can't just be one. As it was her bed-time and I wasn't about to cause a melt-down over it! So two it was.

Hopefully they've received their emails and pdf versions by now and will LOVE killerbyte!

I suppose I should get moving and clean! Or at least make the girls beds and throw some laundry in the washer...

I MUST WRITE THIS SHORT STORY TODAY. If you see me on twitter or facebook or Myspace, a gentle reminder (kick up the backside) to get back to work wouldn't go amiss!

Oh while I'm still here... Anyone know anything about audio books?

The joy of tweets!

This was the first tweet I saw on my list this morning "SaraJHenry@catconnor KILLERBYTE is #15 on the Mobipocket thriller list - BETWEEN TWO LEE CHILD NOVELS!!! How can you complain!?!? :-)"

What a way to start the day ... laughing. Because Sara is right! How can I complain? Admittedly I liked it better when I was number 7 on that list and it was really exciting when I hit number ten to start with.
But still #15 on a list that contains 1700+ thriller novels and names like Lee Child, Dan Brown, Tom Clancy, James Rollins, Michael Crichton, Greg Iles etc, is not to be sneezed at. Especially when killerbyte is on it and has been holding its own since the release on April 10th. And even more amazingly - killerbyte is the only debut novel that made it to the top ten, in the last 8 weeks.
And (but wait there's more) I'm over here in Upper Hutt!!
(yes it is as exciting as it sounds, and there is also a Lower Hutt - both are built along the Hutt River. It's New Zealand, it's how we are!)
I haven't yet perused the entire list to see if I can locate another kiwi! Maybe I should. (If you are a kiwi writer and have a book released in mobipocket format please contact me and let me know!!)
But for now let's say I'm doing pretty good for a debut kiwi author. and it's pretty freaking cool seeing my book up there with the big boys (and girls, Elizabeth George was there with me for a bit!).

Last night was Saturday. Thrilling... not.

I started watching Batman with the boy wonder, but grew bored quickly. We discussed Universities and such for a bit, then I headed to bed with my notebook. My intention was to work on this freaking short story.

Which I did.

I re-wrote it.

It's completely different.

Hopefully it's better.

After giving it much thought I found myself back at my original thought. I wanted it to be a back-story story and I wanted it to have a few of the characters that pop up in future Conway novels. I think I achieved that last night.

Although I left my notebook upstairs and have yet to read the pages of scrawl I wrote! It should work better than the story I was playing with all last week.
That was going nowhere, the antagonist was too weak psychologically and physically repulsive, and I simply disliked him so much I couldn't find a redeeming thing to use or the will to write more than a bullet hitting his fat head. Sometimes characters unwittingly take on the appearance and mannerisms of those we know or have known - and quite frankly that one needed culling!!

I just checked the mobipocket list, to check the spelling of Crichton. I have to report killerbyte is #20. TWENTY.

I'm having trouble getting my head around that, despite how very good I know that still is!!!

It's Friday! YAY

It occurred to me a few minutes ago that it really is Friday. Friday afternoon to be more accurate. Which is bloody marvelous really. I'm quite over this week. It started badly with an attempt to cause trouble from the sidelines and pretty much had nowhere to go but up from there.

Luckily it is Friday!

I'm half way through a killer short story. It's been a little too much fun to write, and I'm biding my time finishing it... for two reasons really. The first being, I've not been in a writing mood this week. (See above for the reason) Secondly, I want to savor the moment and not rush the demise, I mean ending... yes that's what I mean.

I made pikelets for the girls for lunch today. They're known as telescopes in our house, because for some inexplicable reason I walked into the living room a few years ago and announced to assembled family that I was going to make telescopes for afternoon tea. To this day none of us know why I said that, and hence forth pikelets became telescopes... but the truly crazy thing is they ALL knew what I meant!
Proving my domestic goddess status yet again - with telescopes for lunch and a beautifully clean, tidy, warm home. I suspect there will be some sort of delicious chicken casserole for dinner. I'll just get right to that. (right after I fold the laundry and iron... okay that was pushing it! I don't iron, unless it's a transfer that requires ironing onto something, or fabric paint that needs to be heat fixed -then I iron!)

Michelle and Marek are coming over tomorrow for dinner. I shall of course whip up something suitably vegetarian and a fab pudding to go with it. Michelle has recently returned from son-the-elders in London and brings gifts from him. The girls are excited!

At this point I could slide in a little something about how 16 is way worse than 15 and I'm about to curl up into a little ball and admit defeat... but I aren't, so I won't. I will work harder and sell more books. *Shakes fist*

Sara did point out that someone else needs to approach newspapers on my behalf... somewhat of an impossibility...

I happened on an idea, but can't quite see how to work the angle at this point. No doubt it will come to me. It's all to do with the South African/New Zealand connection and how the nations have rebuilt a relationship once soured by apartheid and now stronger than ever.

Every time I think about rugby I think about the 1998 Tri-nations. For good reasons, the Springbok team was particularly good looking that year! Ever seen the Springbok up close? Just so happened that we managed such a thing prior to and then after the Wellington game.
You haven't lived until you share an elevator with five very happy Springbok! Was hilarious.

All good fun.

Right reminiscing over - there is an idea there. It needs work but it's there.

Now Miss Breezy would like to play in the kitchen sink with her Polly Pocket. Which is not very well concealed code for making a big watery mess all over the kitchen floor. Oh well, it could do with another wash.

Crikey I have a headache. Not helped by all the "Wee, boink, weeeee, boink." noises coming from the child. She does nothing quietly, unless its something she shouldn't be doing!

Hope you all have a wonderful Friday - rest of Thursday - depending on whether you are in the slow half of the world or not!

Take care out there.

Cat x

Ellie on twitter?

Imagine that, Ellie is now on Twitter!

You can follow her here

Can't wait to see what she has to say!!