Here's to the good times...

My eyes are burning in my skull. Nice.

Think I might be a little tired, it's been one of those weeks.

But it ended well.

Last night Kane and I cracked open a bottle of Dolcetto & Syrah - it was going to be a bottle of Obikwa -but I poured him a glass of Dolcetto (already had an open bottle) and got him hooked. It ruins you for all other red wines... it really does.

A few glasses of wine and a couple of interesting discussions followed. Was a good night. Time disappeared, as it does when we get together.

So anyway we were talking about killerbyte and terrorbyte, and the ideas that spawned via someone's misguided comment regarding chapter titles. While I write this I'm trying to remember if I have a sheet anywhere with the killerbyte chapters listed... I think I do. (other than the actual playlist) It doesn't really matter anyway - cos the idea that hatched in my little head is to do with terrorbyte.
And that's all I'm going to say about that for now.

All in all -a damn fine night.

It seems like an exceptionally busy week - which it really was.

I pushed through the final edits of terrorbyte (first and second passes) to be able to send the ms back to my editor.

Flew to Christchurch Wednesday night, typically the plane was late leaving. We discovered that air hostesses (is that what they're still called???) were a tad grumpy. Okay VERY grumpy. Wouldn't have killed them to smile -the once! The boy wonder commented (very quietly to me) that he thought they were supposed to be pretty - he then considered they probably were, back in the sixties. I think he might have been right. They might have also left their smiles back in the freaking sixties... we pay a fortune to fly down for a day - the least we could get is a SMILE.

Anyway we got to Christchurch VERY late for the kids. To their credit they did really well. It was four hours past Breezy's bedtime before we even got to the hotel.

Thursday was sunny and warm. (not bad for mid winter in the south) we ate breakfast at the hotel - then went for a walk in Hagley park with cousin Stuart and Lorraine. Very pleasant. Breezy bounced around like a loony and burned off a lot of surplus energy.

Then it was off to tidy up and get to the funeral. (Nana never liked tardiness... so it was best to be on time -)

Breezy coped well with the singing (dreadful) and the service (very nice) and the relics, old friends, and more vibrant family members. - she did ask "When Nana was coming out of the box?" and fair enough too. Seemed crazy to have the minister talking to her and such while she was in a freaking box!

We went over and knocked on the lid - while 'placing flowers' on the casket - giving her one last chance to escape... but she appeared happy where she was. (Whew - could've been a nasty scene if she'd knocked back)

Then it was nibbles and cups of tea at the wake... then it was the real thing back at the hotel bar. Much more like it. Sitting out in the sun with friends and family - drinking... taking pics. Listening as various family etc discussed how clever I was... no really, that part was truly hysterical.

If only they knew that I keep waiting to wake up and discover I can't write and the whole last 6 months has been a wonderful dream.

We finally made it back to the airport and home - this time the air hostess person was all smiles and very friendly. Ah the joy!

We arrived in Wellington one item short - having left CHCH with two pieces of luggage we were slightly perturbed to discover only one came home with us. Luckily it was the one with Squealers meds in it... BUT the car seat for Breezy was missing. Without that we couldn't get home, as she legally is required to be in a child restraint!

We were loaned one by Air NZ. Ours arrived home latish Friday night and was courier out. No clue where it went - but Squealer is adamant she saw the bag loaded and car seat taken off somewhere else while we were waiting to board in CHCH. I think she's right. We weren't surprised it didn't make it to Wgtn with us really. Home late again... this time Breezy was just starting to lose the plot.

Poor kid.

Friday - no one woke up until after 8:30 in the morning. By the time we'd lurked about and done very little it was a mad panic to get ready and head to Lower Hutt hospital for Squealers therapy session. We made it with seconds to spare!

So - yes a busy week. I'm glad it's over.

Today has been rather quiet - I may or may not be feeling the effects of quite a bit of very nice red wine over the course of two days...

Oh and Ellie has a twitter page as does Mac... Mac is a person in his own right -by day he doubles as my trusty neighbor guy - but it'd be difficult to find someone more like Mac -without digging up the dead! You'll find him here. http://twitter.com/Elliesmanmac

And Ellie here http://twitter.com/EllieConwaySA

It's a different account to the one Ellie used to have -simply because I lost the password with the computer changes... and twitter can't seem to organize themselves to send me a new one -despite several requests.

Feel free to add them and twitter away - presuming you don't find it odd talking to fictional characters. (and why would you? It's perfectly normal)

Now I'm off to do something amazing - yes I am ... and no I'm not sharing yet.

Hiding the interview link in the title: sneaky huh?

It's Wednesday morning and I shan't be here to blog later or tomorrow. So I thought I'd write one now then fuckoffski and leave you all to it.

Today is exceptionally busy - everyone has a half day to get organised for the trip to Christchurch tonight.

I need to take Breezy on a LONG walk (which will cut about two hours out of the day) -she's been couped up for five days and is driving me crazy. This manifested at midnight and continued until 2:30 am - at which point daddy took her downstairs for a little chat about how we sleep at night and how she was going to go back to bed and be QUIET. She then fell asleep and didn't wake until 7 am.

Children need to be cleaned! God knows that's not a quick nor simple thing. Especially with the one who gets sidetracked by counting things and doesn't see the need to use soap every day -or why hair needs washing properly, or even brushing!

I need to get myself clean - and wash my hair - which means drying my hair! (That takes about 45 minutes) The thing is during those 45 minutes Squealer will forget what she was supposed to be doing and do something completely irrelevant. - she will become sucked into something, usually her own mind. Although she has taken her medication - so maybe she'll actually follow the instructions I'm about to write down. :-) I live in hope.

I managed to remember to order ink for the Pixma printer. Yay. So this morning I printed the backs of a bunch of killerbyte postcards. I'm traveling from airport to airport - I see promotional opportunities. Chris is slightly perturbed at the thought of me handing out promotional material at the funeral. I'll do it anyway, as to be expected. Of course as were in NZ the URL on the postcards are killerbyte: mobipocket. No sense putting the kindle link on for kiwis.

I really need to get some blurb type things written for terrorbyte and pop that on the bottom of the bigger cards. Coming soon:

I had hoped to have more time between Friday and now - ha. As if!! Funeral's don't allow much time for getting organised.

I did however managed to get through the edits in terrorbyte which is fabulous. I have sent the ms back to my editor and hopefully she'll like what I've done.

I have to confess to not being entirely sure if I got everything or not. Mostly because everything came through at once and there was repetitive stuff in emails and stuff I'd already done was mentioned again in the manuscript- and that served to annoy me somewhat. Okay it annoyed me a lot, because I couldn't follow the new changes... apparently I'm not over that yet! lol

So anyway - I hope it's okay. I haven't read the entire ms through since the edits were finished. I've been so immersed in it that I can't see the wood for the trees and am hoping my editor has fresh eyes.

A few other things have encroached on my 'getting on with terrorbyte time' that have served to either make me appear disinterested or bitchy. I'm neither. BUT when I'm fully immersed in edit mode of one story I can't pull out of it and answer questions regarding characters behavior in the future or listen to plot descriptions of another -sort of related- story. If I let things like that pull me out, then it takes me a while (a week or more sometimes) to get back into Ellie's head and finish what I WAS DOING.

And if I don't get this done -then any future stories are mute anyway!

So having someone hammering me with plot ideas is not good - just let me get on with my work and get through this so I can start writing again.

Meanwhile my thoughts have now moved to Exacabyte - I didn't want them too, not yet. But some changes made in terrorbyte have started the ball rolling and I know I'm going to open the Exacabyte file in a few days and tweak relevant scenes... but I don't want too. Because we're not done with terrorbyte yet.

Damn you mind!! Can't you just stick to terrorbyte without jumping to the next book??

Right I'm off to get on with this busy day and take a long walk with a cute child.... to get some phenergan as a preemptive strike! It doubles as antihistimine (NEEDED in Christchurch), sedative, and prevents motion sickness - should cover all bases!

Take care out there...

Cat x

Fantabulous interview

Yes that's right I said fantabulous - deal with it.

My latest interview is up over at Bookwenches. Yes the same place where the lovely Bobby gave killerbyte a totally kick-ass review that I am going to frame. (There are no pictures on my walls any more - I haven't got around to putting any back since the painting and re-decorating two winters ago... but I'm gonna hang this review!)

The morning after the night before

Well what a week.

Of course The Boy wonder's 18th was my focus all week -then Nana up and died at the ripe old age of 97. She wasn't ill for any extended period. In fact she was unwell Wednesday night and gone lunch time Friday. If you're gonna go, go quick. In our family we like to spin our lives out as long as possible but not make to much fuss at the actual end. (It's the way we operate. It's either death at someone else's hand, accident, or LONG life)

So Nan'a untimely demise threw me a little, I never actually believed her death was a possibility. (This is a woman who NEVER had a flu or cold - seriously. She was a child in the great flu pandemic and it competely missed her, her two sisters and her parents. - The theory is we're repllent to germs. Or at least Nana was!)

Onward - We shall journey to the center of the South Island for the funeral next week... well more the middle but on the edge really.

Now- last night was The Boy Wonders 18th birthday party. What a marvellous affair that was.

I cleaned almost all day... needn't have bothered... No, that's not true at all. Apart from a lot of bottles, the only casualty was my pristine sparkling lino in the kitchen, dining room, downstairs bathroom, and laundry.

It took two buckets of HOT water and felt like an old Handy Andy commercial this morning as I cleaned it until it once again gleamed!

Seriously that was the worst part of the night - and that was this morning!!

We had about 50 (mostly young men) kids here and 7 girls - but apparently I counted as a girl too, so 8.

We even had the joy of meeting some of the Irish first 15 who are currently being bulleted by our first 15. My joy was complete when Ross (from Belfast) insisted on hearing some Irish music. Shame I didn't know he was coming... I could've moved the rabbit cage and handed over all my Irish pub song CD's. He was great fun - and not above saying 'Third and thirty third' for us.

We had a wee chat about Father Ted. (as ya do)

I wish Squealer could've met him, she'd get a kick out of hearing her name spoken by him. (I have a feeling he wouldn't need a phonetic spelling to do it.)

The only minor incident - was Squealer related. The boys were clammering for cake. So I got the Boy Wonder to light the candles - now - these guys love to sing happy birthday... they put everything into it. (we're talking mostly Jocks here - they're loud and have deep voices) They SUNG. Then the chanting began. It was fabulous, almost raised the roof and thankfully short lived.

The sudden noise was what woke the Squealer - with her Aspergers, ADD, and co-morbid anxiety - things like that can cause quite a melt down. Which it did. But thankfully it was short lived. I just popped downstairs and explained to the boys that I didn't want them out in the hallway (where the noise travels directly upstairs) and why, and they did their level best to comply.

I did have a bit of fun - walking up behind a young man or two - it wasn't intentional, me just trying to get through the throng. But several thought I over-heard something I shouldn't have and were embarrassed and apologetic - hilarious. I only wish I HAD heard whatever it was.

ha ha ha

As for drunken behavior - I removed one drink from someone because they spilled it on my desk - I was a touch paranoid about my new PC. And I really liked the kid too - so no hard feelings there. There was only one person I considered to be really drunk. He was staggering and engtertaining. The others were drinking but not stupid about it. (My how teenagers have changed) None of the girls were over the top drunk. No one had cars here. Everyone either walked or arranged rides from parents. A few of the rugby boys caught a taxi on after we booted everyone out at one.

That was the easiest thing out - turned off the music, told Josh is was goodbye time... we thanked everyone, hugged many of them, and ushered them out the door. A few even offered to help tidy up.

I got to see a few boys I hadn't seen for many years. One hadn't changed a bit - still the same grin on his face he had at the ripe old age of 4!

All in all - a bloody marvelous night and yes, I'd do it again. These kids are AWESOME.

And guess what? I managed to get through the evening without insulting any of them ... I think. Most had been warned of my lack of tact so were prepared.

The quickest disappearing food - FAIRY BREAD, followed by ricebubble cake. I made a cob loaf dip (Rosanne's recipe and truly yummy) - it garnered much attention and the kids got stuck into it - lots of comments about how delicious it was.

Apparently the cake was damn good too. It was a chocolate and coffee layer cake.

I shall now endeavor to get pictures off my camera without the software? Can't find the Kodak disk, so may have to go upstairs and get Chris's.

Be good y'all.

Breakfast would be good too. (I think Cheesecake)

Oh and someone reportedly thought I was a third former (year 9) ha ha ha ha

Gumboots -for Phil

I can't find my gumboots!!

Seriously - I can't find them. It's freaking pouring with rain (and is suspect COLD rain -the windows have fogged up) and I cannot find my gumboots. They're magically disappeared... probably under the million boxes in the laundry that someone was supposed to take to the dump in the weekend.

Anyway - how the hell are ya?

I'm about to get VERY wet. Have to go get the squealer from school.

Bollox!

Apart from that - I have seen my new cover. It's freaking AWESOME. I love it. LOVE it. It's so pretty in a bloody kinda way.

Absolutely drool worthy. I will share it soon.

I just got to the end of terrorbyte - and am now about to read it again and look for the things I missed or wanted to tweak but forgot.

I have given up trying to use the twice edited file from my editor - mainly because I was too far into the edits when I got the second pass edit file. And all the edits from lovely editor are the same color... so I dunno what's new and what isn't. I can't just merge the files because that ends up a soupy rainbow mess and makes me wanna kill people.

In the interest of my sanity I've closed that new file and will NOT compare it to MY version - not even manually. It kills my head to try go line by line doing a manual comparison.

If there was anything important that wasn't discussed in email or the first pass- it will show up in the next round.

I hope.

I really hope.

What crap is this that passes as customer service?

This weekend has been a trial of sorts from beginning to end.

The hassles involved in buying new computers have been ridiculous. It seems that customer service is hard to find these days.

If you know me at all, you know how this irks me... and how very cross I get with slack service and sales staff who refuse to listen and worse, don't do their damn jobs.

The upshot of this is we will NEVER deal with Noel Lemmings U/Hutt again. NEVER.

On Saturday - we went to Lower Hutt - and the Noel Lemmings store there. Explained the problems we had - got a discount of Office 2007, and then several questions answered. Important ones like, "What happens if the PC falls over and I need to reinstall Vista - how do you do that without disks?"

They carefully explained how to make system recovery disks -Yeah - one of the many important things that SHOULD have been explained to us when we bought the machine!!

We popped back in several times as we thought of questions and found the staff fabulous, caring, and prepared to answer all questions.
(They also weren't surprised about the useless salesman in U/Hutt - my guess is they've had a few complaints.)

That brings us to the next joy - Chris bought his PC from Dick Smiths in Queensgate. Apparently the guy who sold it to him didn't know the PC came with speakers - Chris bought an extra set (crappy ones for using on Vent). Hmm get home put PC together and find it has got speakers.

Right - we plan to return speakers today.

So - easy peasy - we head off to Lower Hutt, this is a five minute job -walk in get money back and get aerial for PC (cos it's TV capable -with a remote and everything). Well - after being ignored by all the staff for about 5 minutes -someone shows up (guy 1). Takes the speakers and heads for the Freeview tuners.

No.

We want an aerial.

Oh says guy 1, I'll get someone else and buggers off.

We wait.

We wait.

We wait.

5 minutes passes.

Guy 2 comes along. We tell him someone is supposed to be getting someone else to help us. We want an aerial for a PC.(That one over there - we bought it yesterday.)

Oh he says and goes away.

We wait.

We wait.

I put back the blank DVD's I was going to buy.

5 minutes later

Guy 2 comes back. He can't find the guy. What does he look like?

We look around and spot Guy 1 standing over the far side of the store... just standing there.

We point him out.

Guy 2 tells us he's waiting for the computer guy. (we'll call him Guy 3)

But we only want an aerial. Guy 2 goes away, leaving us at the counter.

Five minutes pass.

Guy 4 sees us at the counter.

Chris says we've had enough and want our money back now.

Someone who works there that we know turns up. I explained to him (guy 5) graphically how pissed off I was with the slackness in customer service and how all we freaking want is an AERIAL. He was still on a break and walked away.

Guy's 1,2,3,4 converge. Guy 4 gives us our money back. (and is annoyed at one of the others)

Guy's 1, 2 and 3. Still have trouble understanding that we just want an aerial. Guy 3 keeps telling us to plug it into the same thing as our TV. Even though he was told we have cable TV -No aerial, and the TV is downstairs, a floor away, from the PC.

Okay so finally guy 3 says just get an aerial from over there, and waves in a general direction.

I don't fucn think so buddy!

I explained to him in short words how very sick I was of there slack-half-assed non-service. That it shouldn't take 4 people to serve us. We only wanted to get our money back on speakers and buy a freaking AERIAL. How hard is it?

He at least had the good grace to look sheepish. BUT none of them apologized for dicking us a round, keeping us waiting, or for the very poor service.

So Dick Smiths in Queensgate YOU FREAKING SUCK! - and we went to the Warehouse and got a $14 aerial that does just fine thanks very much! Oh and we got served.

Super duper new computer

Happy Saturday to you all. (Freaking catch up will ya? It's Saturday afternoon... move on world!)

You'll have to bear with me here as I grow more accustomed to my new keyboard... for some reason my hands want to sit too far to the left and keep hitting the caps lock, calculator, and internet buttons! Most frustrating.

Apart from the sales man at the Upper Hutt branch of Noel Lemmings being a complete idiot who couldn't sell his own mother something useful... it's going rather well. We trotted down to the Lower Hutt store this morning and explained how stupid U/Hutt were - funnily enough they weren't surprised. So - we now have the answers the questions we really needed to know - like - if Vista shits itself how the hell do you reinstall it?? (no disks) Why don't I have Outlook -no one told me Outlook was now optional!? What the hell is windows mail? and a few others that cropped up.

I also got Office 2007, and got it discounted. Thank you Queensgate Noel Lemmings for knowing what customer service is and fixing the cock-up made by Upper Hutt.

Guess where we will be going again?

That's right - Queensgate.

So anyway - Office is installed. I'm about to back up my system. Have this fancy smancy new DVD drive that draws on the multi-million dollar disks? Too cool.

Play nice folks... I'll be back soon

A busy week at the bottom of the world

It's mid afternoon Thursday.

This week has been horrendously busy yet I feel like nothing's got done. Tuesday the girls and I were in Lower Hutt - in search of slippers for Breezy (who is growing like a weed). That takes a fair chunk out of the day. (Most of the day actually) Then I worked late trying to finish a particular scene in Terrorbyte. (that needed expounding upon)

Yesterday we had to go get Squealers script from Silverstream. It's quite the walk. We left here just after 1 and arrived back home at 4:30. Goodbye day!

Today - we left home at 9 to go see Bex and the boys. I baby sat while she went off to an appointment. When she got back I cut her hair. It was most satisfying as prior to me taking the scissors to it, her hair came down past her butt.

Must be something in the air regarding hair and cutting. I cut the boy-wonders hair yesterday. (he was most delighted with the result - apparently I'm not bad with a pair of scissors) And best-friend-of-all-time chopped her own hair off!!

I won't be following suit. I HATE having my hair cut, and the most I will allow is my fringe (bangs) to be trimmed. Which I think I did recently but there seems to be hair in my eyes again -so maybe I forgot?

Breezy is now having a screaming fit in the hallway. Dum dee do. She will learn - but it might take a while, Do not EVER throw things at me!

I have a feeling this bout of utter bullshit behavior is something to do with the eating of Twisties. Which we very RARELY have. I doubt she will ever be allowed them again. Ain't no way the orange coloring in Twisties is natural.

She seems to be winding down now. Good!

Ah my Breezy is back and sorry. It's a good sign that she understood what she did and why it's naughty. She's n ow sitting down with a manderin, apple slices and a banana. let's hope the fruit counteracts the Twisties she ate earlier!!

Have Beef Strogonoff in the oven for dinner - mmm - yummy. And fresh crusty rolls to go with it. I think it will all go rather nicely with a nice glass of red wine. Might go for a Merlot.

Hoping to work tonight- I can see some late nights in my near future.

I heard something really nice today from my publisher. This : "We think you have a big future and intend doing everything in our power to help you get there."

How fucn cool is that?

Yeah, that's what I thought too.

So work - here I come. I'm actually looking forward to finishing the edits for Terrorbyte because I would really like to get stuck into Satellite and Torrent again. (Before I find myself polishing Exacabyte and Ethernet!!)

I'm outta here ... take care!

The red notebook

Great title for a blog huh?

The red notebook.. if any of you knew how hard it tis to find THE RIGHT NOTEBOOK, you'd understand the title.

I search far and wide- if the notebook doesn't feel righti n my hands - back on the shelf it goes.

The best-ever notebook can never be repeated. I didn't know if was going to be the best-ever and only bought one. I should've stocked up. Silly me.

But then in thinking about that - I purchase notebooks with their contents in mind. So had I stocked up on the "best-ever notebook' it probably wouldn't have worked for this project.

(They really are project specific things)

Now I which I had a spelling specific spell checker -why oh why does the spell checker in Chrome act so fecking retarded?

So anyway - I have a lovely red notebook. It's hard covered and has red fabric on the cover -so it feels nice in my hands. It's the perfect size and it works.

Last night I cracked a scene that was really annoying me -mostly because I couldn't get comfy with my old notebooks -and I tried several. But last night, oh the joy, I filled ten pages. I got it. It worked.

Oh how I heart my new red notebook.

Then I made notes (comprehensive ones) for several other scenes... and how fabulous it will be to write them up later.

Today is the crappiest day we've had in a long time... I can cope with rain, but it's windy as well... wind sucks!

I have to go to Silverstream today to get Squealers script - it's a long way. Too far for gumboots. Cos they aren't made for walking... (hang on while I get Billy Ray out of my head - okay we're good. Am hoping Breezy didn't notice she's really on a Billy Ray kick at the moment and entertained everyone at the bus stop yesterday with 'Achy breaky heart')

I shall leave the Silverstream trip until later in the day - I remember TV3 weather last night and there was a promise of this rain and murk disappearing by lunchtime. Hoping they're right? They're always right. I have faith.

Ohh must remember to order a new toner thingy for my printer. I will not forget. I will write in on my orange notepad that sits on my day planner... I will not forget!!!

We have an extra child today - already the noise is getting to me. And it's not the extra child making it, it's the Squealer. Oh it will be a long day.

The giant eyeball talks to Quinn Cummings.

This is the coolest thing ever – I got to interview Quinn Cummings. How cool is that? Coolest thing ever right?

So welcome, Quinn, to my little corner of cyber space ... ignore the BIG BLUE EYEBALL. I promise it doesn’t follow you as you move.

You’ve come quite a distance to be here today – please try not to jump around too much least you fall off the bottom on the world. (That would be messy and embarrassing.)

Having read your blog on several occasions, (and giggled like a loon), I am delighted to be able to have you over for a chat.

Any erroneous commas are safe with me – and mine will enjoy the company. (I was away the day they taught punctuation and grammar in high school)

So with no further ado here is my interview/chat- with the talented Quinn Cummings (and she wasn't even freaked out by the Giant Blue Eyeball!)

Me:

I know how I juggle life with kids, husband, and animals and still find time to write… but how do you get through the day and find time to write? Do you have weekends off? Have a structured workday? Or wing it and hope you get all you need done by the end of the day and everyone makes it to bed unscathed?

Quinn:

Some days I write after the kid goes to bed. Although she's a night person and it's the summer holiday and sometimes her bedtime only precedes mine by about fifteen minutes. Some days I write when she's watching "Sponge Bob Square Pants," and I then I wrestle her away from the television when I'm finished writing, because "Sponge Bob" never actually stops playing. Right now, I'm writing because we have a four year-old over and my daughter is enjoying the simple pleasure of being revered as a deity by a smaller girl. I think they're having a tea party in my daughter's room, and I believe the tea party includes, among other things, capers and cold pasta. As long as no one actually vomits, this will qualify as "Quinn time."

Me:

Book promotion is one of those necessary evils: no matter how good the writing, books don’t sell themselves. Do you have a set plan in place for promotion? Are you enjoying the promotion side of the business? (Do you find the demands of promotion eat into everything else and begin to take over your life… or is that just me?)

Quinn:

This week, promotion is definitely the high-maintenance second child. But, the advantage of nearly all of it currently being blog-book tours is that I'm at home. It's hard to take anything too seriously you can do while telling your child she doesn't need another popsicle. Oddly enough, I'm kind of liking these question and answer sessions, but let us all note I'm in day four. Ask me again in week four.

Me:

What’s the strangest question you’ve ever been asked? (I will of course see the answer as a challenge.)

Quinn:

"Do you know Quinn Cummings?" It seemed this person thought it was an uncanny coincidence that my name was Quinn Cummings and there was this child actress whose name had been Quinn Cummings, and since we were just about the same age and lived in the same city, maybe we had crossed paths.

Some moments, you just want to feign a coughing fit and pretend the lose consciousness. There's no other way out of the conversation.

Me:

Every time I hear the name Quinn (which, by the way, I love!) I hear Bob Dylan singing Quinn the Eskimo in my head. Is there a story behind your name? (And should I know this already?)

Quinn:

You shouldn't, as no one has asked this yet, you clever antipodean. My mother wanted her then-unborn child to have a name which was androgynous and didn't lend easily to a nickname. My parents were at a dinner party when she was about eight months gone, and the hostess found her two year-old son doing something two-ish. In frustration, she shouted "Thomas Quinn McCoy, I swear if you don't get back into bed..." My mother internally placed "Quinn" with "Cummings" and voila, a name was born.

Me:

I recently discovered an interviewer had a misconception regarding one of my characters and I had to correct her. I felt awful, it took me ages to figure out how to do it tactfully. (People who know me well, know tact doesn’t come naturally.) How hard is it for you to correct someone like that?

Quinn:

It's not easy, because if they get something wrong, they're not only misinformed about a character, they're misinformed about a loved one of mine. I try to sigh only inside my head, but total honesty would force me to admit that a few exhalations of annoyance have slipped out.

Me:

There are people out there who actually believe books are written perfectly first time without the benefit of a loving caring editor. (I kid you not I have met people who believe this. They scare me.) How do you cope with making editorial changes? Do you enjoy the process? Is there anything you will passionately fight for in your writing? (For me it’s dialogue – how my characters speak is non-negotiable – mostly and within reason, I mean I’m not totally pig-headed or anything.)

Quinn:

I had some experience with an editor, as Consort has been functioning as my editor since the blog's inception. And look, we haven't killed one another! The enduring power of love. Anyway, my hard-working and talented book-editor, Brenda Copeland, gave notes which were a lot about "I think there's more here" and "Can we get here faster?" which can be summed up, "Make this longer" and "Make this shorter." That, I could do. The only thing I got mulish about was the placement of the last two stories; they couldn't move and they couldn't be separated. Wait, one more thing. Consort had to maintain that as his name, because I can't think of the written version of him as anything but Consort. Although it has led to people commenting on what an unusual name Consort is, because we here in the States rarely use the honorific for the non-royal husband of the Queen.

Me:

Does your family mind being blog fodder? Do people "recognize" them and mention blog entries to them? (This can be quite a concern especially with blogs being so public) I use my kid’s nicknames: Breezy – who is 3, Squealer – who is 10, the Boy-wonder – who is so close to his 18th you can spit on it. My husband’s first name gets bandied about – it’s so common we all know at least three and probably have one or two in the family – seriously how many Chris’s do you know? I rest my case.

Quinn:

Consort has the incredible grace to laugh when I goof on him in the blog. We've had a couple of experiences in the last year where someone has recognized me in public and turned to him and said, "You must be Consort." He beams. The cat already assumed she was world-famous and the dog is just happy to be noticed. As for the kid, she hasn't had someone say "You must be Alice" yet, and I'm not sure how we're going to handle it. I've had a couple of people try to talk around me to her, saying things like "You know you're Mom is famous?" which made me absolutely see red. I can promise you two things; in the near future, someone will recognize me and, by extension, her very soon and I won't be prepared. I'll probably also look a mess, but that's always a safe bet.

Me:

We’ve mentioned family – but what of the creatures that share your life? Are you primarily a cat or dog person? I’m a dog person with a cat and a rabbit. Our rabbit lives inside and loves the cat… it’s not right and we don’t discuss it, and we sure as hell don’t leave them unsupervised.

Quinn:

Oddly enough, I have a friend with a rabbit who has been trying to court her Golden Retriever for a year. As with you, everyone just averts their eyes and tries not to mention it in polite company. I think of myself as a cat person who must have a dog for balance. Were it not for Consort and his allergies, there would be an unseemly amount of cats around here; my allergies are just something we ignore and rise above, like rabbits lusting for Retrievers. For the moment, we have a cat, Lulabelle and a dog, who goes by Rupert. Usually each spring we have a foster-kitten or two, just to keep the cat irritated.

Thank you for risking a tumble off the bottom of the world AND the Giant eyeball to come by and answer my questions! The eye and I loved having you over.

Mind how you step on the way out, those eyelashes can be tricky.

Quinn’s smart and hilarious debut: Notes from the Underwire.

Quinn’s blog: The QC report.

PlastiCuffs and Duct tape

It's amazing how much dicking around I can do when I should be freeing Ellie from, well, PlastiCuffs and duct tape! Duh!

The poor woman has been trust up like a freaking turkey in the back of her own car for almost four days now - I'm pretty sure she's not enjoying it. Probably why she's been harassing me to finish writing the scene. And yet - here I sit blogging! Un-freaking-believable.

In my defense I have practically finished the scene and just need to type it in to the manuscript. It's all here, in the large notebook open next to me. I just can't be bothered opening the file and doing it right now. Partly because Word is sooo slow at opening it's painful. And partly because I've had a few glasses of wine and that may influence my writing. (badly - she's trapped, she's not happy - but if I write it now it'll either get way way worse or she'll be a giggling mess. let's not go there)

The funny thing here will be - people goggling PlastiCuffs and Duct tape will find my blog tonight! I wonder if that will get more hits than Chlorine gas? It's late, I've been drinking, and that amuses me!

So anyway -how was our day? (this is my interested face... deal with it.)

Mine was pretty good. I took the Squealer and Breezy to Lower Hutt to meet friend Denise and her lovely boys. We had coffee and a long chat. Loved it. Really enjoyed meeting Denise. It's so nice to be able to put a real person to the twitters!

I dabbled in a spot of stalking (waves to Kane). That was most satisfying and jolly good fun... although I'm thinking he's as good at it as I am.

I probably did other things too. I... ah yes.. I came up with my very first interview questions. So there might be an interview here shortly! Cross something... (Just make sure you can still walk and stuff.)

Bed is calling - it's saying drink a glass of water and curl up in my snuggly warmth. I can hear it it's quite loud and insistent.

Tomorrow I will finish this scene. It obviously needs to sit for another night - I can only hope it has a good reason. Maybe Mac's pissed at Ellie and this is him getting his own back...

Uh oh, distraction.. Supernatural is on. Which means Jensen Ackles.

Anyone who didn't yet call me Princess or mention a song by my fav band and get their free copy of Archive (a short story collection) can still do so. Just leave me a comment or email me... or twitter me. :-)

Be good.

If you haven't already go buy my book! It's fan-freaking-tastic. Would I lie?

Mobipocket.

kindle.

iTune app.

Make mine a stalker

I figure I've got about an hour to write this blog before I get to chat with someone I haven't seen in weeks despite the proximity of our houses. Ridiculous tho it is... it's winter and therefore we don't hang out on the deck at night (like we did this last summer and autumn) so we don't get to have our nightly chat over shooting stars.

Sigh.

BUT - ya see, I got a text tonight that made me smile. His computer is fixed... that means he can be Mr. Interactive-neighbor-guy. (Well more interactive than texts and the occasional phone call! I mean interactive in a now he can see what I get up to online kinda interactive -quick hide all the comments... )

Now I did come up with a cunning plan today - it was just the cleverest thing out. Now I have assembled a small short story collection titled "Archive" this is in a PDF. (I am sad to say that I've almost run out of cool geek words to manipulate to my own end for titles and had to go with an actual word!).

Now this collection is all previously published work and all mine. There are five stories, one of them is even set here in New Zealand, Christchurch in actual fact! - there is a chance someone will even recognize a street name! (Incredible) -Markie if you find this -yes it's the story that made you a household name at....well, Chrissy's place... lol.

At some stage there will be another collection of another five published stories.

Now the thing with this collection is - it's not for sale. No one can buy it....

The only way to get a copy is to call me Princess.

No, that's not it. Although let me tell ya, it won't hurt. :-)

I'm actually feeling very generous at the moment.

To get a copy of Archive. (BTW this is not a suitable collection for under 16's due to one story being a little graphic with the violence - justified tho - just let me say! It ain't gratuitous.)

Name the band I listen to when I'm working. You can put it in comments or email me if you so desire. Don't worry about giving the answer away - trust it's not hard and anyone who has ever read my blog will know it.

Answer is mentioned in the previous blog, in fact. (oh hell it's even in the tags!)

I'm hoping that when I wake up tomorrow I can contact everyone and fire off your copies.

Meanwhile... Have a nice day.

A wee treat for my very cool neighbor -yes this is him - see... cool!

Never say goodbye

Yes I'm listening to Bon Jovi. It's early. It's freaking cold. I NEED to work. The only way I can get into the right head space is with Bon Jovi.

This is for four reasons:

1. The stories inside the music often work with what I'm trying to do/say - some songs act like a jump start for tricky scenes.

2. I like them.

3. I can disappear into my work and write more easily with music playing - it either drowns the kids out or soothes them!

3. More importantly Breezy doesn't get tired of hearing Bon Jovi (or singing along)- she does tire of The Rolling Stones and Aerosmith, and she even tires of country music. (Which begs the question, how is she my child?)

So this morning I came up with this clever idea. Maybe.

I feel the urge to give something away.

Then it came to me... a collection of short stories. I have a few that have been published in various places. It's not difficult to gather them together and create a pdf or mobipocket file thingy - (okay the mobi thing isn't as easy as it could be, but I can figure it out!)

For fun I may even toss in a few of my favorite recipes.

Anyone got any thoughts on this?

This collection will have an R16 rating. Due to one story (a favorite of mine) being a little too graphic with the violence for youngsters. (quite honestly there are days when it's too graphic for me too)

So anyway that was my brilliant idea for the morning.

The rest of today will be spent going over Terrorbyte AGAIN - and finishing a scene - that was a little tricky but I got it! I almost succeeded without having to act it out - almost.

I try to keep my crazy behavior to a minimum, especially in school holidays - when children that aren't mine could witness it.

I'm sure everyone cringes when a small person says "Why is daddy in the bath covered in blood?" Right?

Or

"Mummy can I have some more blood, my syringe is empty?" or my favorite. "It's my turn to shoot him. I want the gun!!"

Oh now there's an idea... the recipe in the book might be my super blood recipe. (it's really good, and sooo yummy)

Ya see, sometimes writing is a family game we can all play. :-)

This is especially true when we're shooting scenes for a trailer. Which we will start filming next month. It's really the only time my work becomes fully interactive... and everyone wants to play!!

Hope you're all having a fun day.

I shall now bury myself in writing - while Livin' on a Prayer

:-)

Latest fabulous interview

Miss it at your peril.

No really... go read my interview.

There might be a pop quiz... you never can tell with me.

So drop over to Mysterious musings and have a read. Go on!

You can't get there by 'willing it so' I know this because I have been willing myself into the shower and clothes for at least an hour...and I'm not there yet! Ridiculous! And I thought our minds were capable of marvelous things... so clean me dammit!!

iphone applications!

What a title for a blog.

Considering I don't have an iphone or an ipod... and don't feel in any danger of suddenly acquiring one either! (although it would be cool)

But killerbyte is now an iPhone app.

This is pretty cool.

Today is usually a day when good things happen.

It's the 3rd of July and a significant date in my life. (that's all you need to know) Once again something on the good side of intersting has occurred... which makes me wonder just how good this iphone app thing is going to get.

Although I saw a 4+ on the iTunes page with killerbyte on it... and clicked to see what that meant. It means this... "Applications in this category contain no objectionable material"

That to me seems a little bit of a stretch.

I kinda expected it to have a warning "Prepare to be scared witless, contains gore and occasional use of the f-word!"

hmmm life is a funny ol' thing.

So anyway the boy-wonder is thrilled to bits that I'm now an iPhone app. (as he would be)

Sadly being an app. doesn't get the dishes done, or the vacuuming... doesn't even make beds! I'm pretty damn sure it won't help cook dinner either.

Although - if some kind of sales miracle happens it may well provide dinner... :-)

This afternoon is yet another round of thrilling therapy for the Squealer... which translates into an hour of boredom for me and Breezy. We've read ALL the books in the playroom... we've played with ALL of the toys. So today we're bringing daddy to play with.

He's actually meeting us there which is instead of arriving at 5 to take us home, (he's taking off from work early) and joining us for the wait. Oh the wait!

I have to remember to pick the Squealer up early today -it's not our usual day and I'm having trouble retaining the change in my mind.

Maybe I should get Breezy to remind me on a constant basis throughout the day? She does good nag.

I suppose I should go fire off a Myspace blog/bulletin/something about this iPhone coolness - can you feel my enthusiasm today?

Well if you can, could you please find a way of injecting it back into me? I'm running on fumes over here.

Haven't even really twittered today... *pulls finger out of you-know-where*

Off to work I go. :-)