Seven days of Saturday

"...is all that I need, got no use for Sunday cos I don't rest in peace..."

No prizes for guessing what I was listening to last night -that got firmly lodged in my head. I'm not entirely sure why "I'll sleep when I'm dead" made such an impression. Maybe because I wasn't tired, I pulled out a chapter and was working on re-writing it, almost ditched it completely - I couldn't get it to sound like me. (As odd as that may sound, it didn't and wouldn't sound like me) Then it occurred to me - I was writing with TV going in the background.
I flicked to channel 99 and stopped as I heard the opening bars to 'Bed of roses'. Muttering things like 'What a dumb-ass' - I knew why nothing was working. What was I thinking trying to work without music?
I put Crush in the DVD player... and finished the chapter. I didn't have to throw it away. It worked, it sounds like me, it will probably still need a little tweaking but considering what I started with - it's pretty fuc'n good.

So - a successful night.

This book lets some secrets out. I'm rather enjoying that aspect.

I spent sometime over the last few days - working on a Valentine story. It's coming along rather nicely. :-)

Today I am heading off to Spotlight - Breezy requires new jammies. We're off to locate some flannelette and some pj satin. Should be fun. Of course that means I have to sew later too! Which means fighting the cat. She likes to lie on the fabric so I can't cut it, eat the patterns, slap the cotton reel off the machine, and generally be a pain in the ass. She will have to be locked out of the living areas while I sew -again.

Before any of that happens I'm going to check into Twitter and see if the kiwi girl/Yank/Javert story has has any breakthroughs while I was sleeping. Lauren Baratz-Logsted, A.S.King, Sharen Ford and I were playing with an idea Lauren had... cos A.S King calls me 'Tomorrow Girl' (for obvious reasons), and that sounded like a good title for a book.
Yes it did.
Especially good title for a YA serial killer type book... where the kiwi girl kills her BFF for teasing her about her accent. (Her BFF is an Australian, what with the well-known Aussie speech impediment that turns SIX into SEX she really had no cause to taunt the poor kiwi girl!)

So that was yesterday afternoons bit of fun.

See y'all later.

Be good out there.

Yep, me again. (It is all about me!)

I was interviewed a few weeks ago by Jo Linsdell - the interview is now up over at Writers and Authors.

I'll be around over the next few days to field comments etc, so drop by have a read and comment away! :-)

Other news...

Don't really have any this morning. I do however have a migraine - lucky lucky me. Which means I didn't get much sleep.

Bex and the boys are coming over later -that'll be fabulous. Hopefully my head will behave and I will be able to enjoy the visit. Must make some cupcakes too. The boys LOVE cupcakes.

Be good y'all and go wade through the interview... you never know, you might learn something new! :0)

Bells of Freedom

Or maybe it's just really really late and the bells are in my head? Actually I think it was an ambulance siren on River Road.

Someone's night ended badly.

I'm usually in bed by now -but today was such an utter piece of shite, I'm not.

Squealer is damn near impossible to deal with at the moment. Although her and I had a lovely afternoon yesterday watching dressage at the park. She's horse crazy. Frightening how much she knows about horses. If only she could read people as well as she does animals.

She hasn't had a therapy session in two months - it's showing, in fact she's gotten steadily worse as the new school year approaches. I wish they'd hurry up and get a new therapist for her. Think I'll call ICAF's tomorrow and find out how long we can expect to wait and what they suggest I do in the meantime... cos quite frankly at after today I'd like to take Breezy and go away for a week or two.
Tomorrow we're supposed to go get her uniform and find out who her teacher is and set up an appointment with the teacher, ICAF's and me, A-SAP. No one wants a repeat of the last four years. Especially me.
I'm very tired of having to deal with all of it.

I'm in the middle of revising (re-working, re-writing) Exacabyte. It's going well. I'm enjoying it. There are too many distractions for me to work for any decent hunk of time on it at the moment.
Got some answers today to some medical questions that bugged me in the book. Looks like I can take the entire scene and bin it. Yes!
Sometimes I HATE asking the questions. Even though I am always very specific about what I want to know - I find that people get over excited and want to change stuff. But all I want is to know which meds would be prescribed, and if I can get away with the injury I want to use in the particular situation.
I just know that this subject won't lie down now the can of worms is open.
It will come back to get me on Wednesday with vast detail and thoughts added, "I thought this would be cool, and you could do this, and this and then this!" and I'll get cross. (It's pretty much a given, lol) What I hate more than anything when I'm working on something is other people making suggestions  -this is precisely why I don't talk about my work.

So this is quite the midnight ramble, huh? Maybe I'm a Midnight rambler? Now there's a song I haven't heard in awhile. Time for some Rolling Stones, me thinks.

Time to call it a night.
Before the philosophical bullshit starts to fly. :-)

Goodnight y'all.

Oh don't forget to read the Christmas and New Years stories so you're up to speed for Valentines day!

Confusing - don't click too fast!

So I decide I'll conjure up a blog while I drink my coffee on this miserably wet Sunday and jump into blogger, my mouse hovers for a second over two blogs and I almost click the wrong one. I did it last time too, only last time I did click the wrong one but realized as soon as I saw the name at the top of the new post page!

It makes me LOL every time. One day I think we all know that I'll end up posting a totally random accidental blog on Un:bound and Hagelrat will growl at me... and she's taken up fencing so it could get messy! ;-)

What's new I hear you ask... well... we have a publicist. How exciting is that? I was leaping with joy when Joan told me on Friday night. Freaking fantastic news. Hopefully that will mean we can spend more time writing and less time dealing with marketing/promotion and people who offer but don't follow through.
As y'all know dealing with those types was getting up my nose big time! And maybe, just maybe, New Zealand will stop ignoring me. (not holding my breath there though!)
Even my gorgeous little A5 orange boxes with cover art, press releases, magnets, blurbs and pens were ignored by local news papers. (and I made the boxes myself...talk about being shunned!)

Today we're heading out, not for long I fear but for a little while. Down to the hunting store in Alicetown.

Might be time to sort out my labels here too. It's getting out of hand. I think I shall have a spring clean - I'd have a summer clean but it ain't summer here. More like winter at the moment. Maybe it's a winter clean?

Breezy is recovering from her bout of German Measles (alway tempted to channel John Cleese when anyone says German - "don't mention the war."). She's not so rashy anymore. You can still faintly see pink but it's not obvious. She's no longer whiny and grizzly - yay for that.

Right back to work before we go out- am removing a chapter today among other things.

Why is it?

Odd question time.


1. Why is it that I come up with the best solutions or ideas for scenes while I'm drying my hair?  We're talking absolute revelations not just, man that's a cool idea... lol.


2. Is it normal for a person to have 30 firearms on their Trademe watch list? :-)  (Is this when I should say we have a new hobby? No it's not putting guns on a watch list, lol.)


3. Why do some girls go over-the-top months after a break-up and send ridiculous texts to boys they once dated? 


4. What is it with ASD kids that makes simple stuff we do every day so damn difficult to comprehend? What really goes on in their heads?


5. How did Breezy get Rubella (German measles) when she's fully vaccinated, and what other vaccines haven't worked that we don't know about yet?


6. What screwy factors are at work to cause this kind of spread over a week: Saturday: killerbyte #18, terrorbyte # 64. Sunday: killerbyte #18, terrorbyte #65. Monday: killerbyte #157, terrorbyte #7. Tuesday: killerbyte #18, terrorbyte #40. Wednesday: killerbyte #19, terrorbyte #27. Thursday: killerbyte #22, terrorbyte #28. Friday: killerbyte#28, terrorbyte #26???  
Monday was especially weird and exciting all at once!



Plug time: 
Songs I listen to most at the moment: 
Casual girl - Lorenza Ponce (available on iTunes and cdbaby)
Lost Highway -Bon Jovi (available on iTunes and Amazon)
23 Days - Jimmy Maguire (available on iTunes)



Books you should immediately buy:
(This is totally self-serving btw)
killerbyte - Cat Connor: available at Mobipocket, Amazon kindle,and  iTunes.
terrorbyte- Cat Connor: available at Mobipocket, Amazon Kindle, and iTunes.

Walk this way

It's all been rather up and down the last few days.

On Sunday KILLERBYTE was #18 and TERRORBYTE was #65 on the Mobipocket best seller suspense & thriller list. Yesterday TERRORBYTE was #7 -yep top 10 and KILLERBYTE was #157.
Today KILLERBYTE is #18 and TERRORBYTE is # 40. So it looks like they're coming closer together. Wonder if they'll both get to top 20 or even top 10? Wouldn't that be awesomeness?

Today we had a visit from a new (to us) psychologist. Squealers psych left suddenly, after working with her for a  year. Not great timing. Especially with a new school year and new school in two weeks! So it all went well. Looks like we'll get some decent support this year. YAY - it's been a long fight to get help for Squealer. Now she'll have a resource teacher - and cognitive testing, so maybe, just maybe we'll know how she thinks and how to teach her. (Squealer is an interestingly frustrating mix of ADD, ASD, and a co-morbid anxiety disorder.) The hour and a half with the psych was really good. Assessments all done and referrals in place.

Next up was to get Miss Breezy to the doctor. She developed a rash on her face yesterday and now - well -now it's down her arms, legs, torso... looked like measles but she's not sick - she has slight temp and slight sore throat. I thought how odd, measles make you sick and she's been immunized.
Doc had never seen anything like it. He had to research the rash and symptoms.
Turns out she has German measles. Which explains the lack of high temp etc. We have to keep her away from preg women for ten days, otherwise she's mostly fine.

Not sure how well the spots photographed! She's said no more pictures so this is the only one. :-)

I snapped it while she was playing with Bratz.

Hoping that tomorrow is more conducive to working!

Have heaps of revisions I want to get done. This 3rd Conway book is so much fun. :-)
Exacabyte rocks! (I seem to be over my terror that it wouldn't measure up - but I suspect that's only because I haven't slid it across my publishers desk yet!!)







Plug time: 
Songs I listen to most at the moment: 
Casual girl - Lorenza Ponce (available on iTunes and cdbaby)
Lost Highway -Bon Jovi (available on iTunes and Amazon)
23 Days - Jimmy Maguire (available on iTunes)

Be good y'all.

Of mice and men, actually make that rats and girls...

We've had a sunny hot day here today - a marked difference to yesterdays coldness. It was 27 degrees (that's Celsius folks!) when I last checked the Trentham weather station.

The only hiccup in an otherwise lovely day was a meltdown by the Squealer. She wants a rat. Daddy told her he wasn't buying a cat snack. Despite loving rats himself. It would not be fair to stress a rodent out with Missy the great grey hunter, prowling around just waiting for a chance to chow-down.

Kids next door got two female rats today.

Oh the meltdown.

Then Kane reminded Squealer that the rats are right next door and she can play with them whenever she wants. Jo Jo eventually hopped the fence and brought back one of the rats for Squealer to play with. So she stopped sobbing and played happily with ratty. (I can't recall it's name, but it's pretty and silvery and likes Squealer A LOT.)
Other than that - nice peaceful day. Kids next door most of it!!  Got lots of work down early this morning. Which was awesome.

Here's a pic of the rat.

 

It just came over for another visit... and now I must make dinner. 

And decide whether to work tonight or just chill out. Gotta say I'm heading toward chilling... BUT uncovered a really cool plot twist (that I didn't know was there earlier -but of course it was - I wrote it!) and I'd kinda like to get back into the revisions tonight.

We shall see.

Hope y'all had an awesome Thursday. 

Nothing wrong with orange...usually!

This time I started writing my blog with no title in mind, it's quite odd. Something usually pops into my head before I start -but not today!


I also seem to have some issues with font size etc tonight. Oh well, makes life interesting!!


Was a busy day today which followed a long night. I printed Exacabyte and then promptly proved to myself why printing is stupid. By eight this morning I'd already made a series of huge changes to the first 7 chapters. Fabulous! :) Meanwhile - I am really sorry trees and environment. I shall endeavor to prevent any future cock-ups in the form of printing entire manuscripts! (If I promise not to do it again, can I still drink Columbian coffee?)


Breezy was happy tonight - she got to go somewhere. (By somewhere she means the $2 shop.) She purchased pink sunglasses. It was less of a mistake than the orange nail polish I bought. Just, quietly, I rather like it. It's more on the yellow side of orange and makes my nails look fake. Which is amusing. Why does nail polish have to smell so bad?? Seriously don't ya think that by now they could come up with a non-stinky nail polish? 


Now let me help you with your next impulse buy - although providing excerpts from reviews kinda takes the impulse out of it huh?


Right that's it then - I'm now going to disappear back into Ellie's world - she's in a spot of bother and needs a hand... I know! How surprising, right?


Excerpt from Book Wenches killerbyte review --"In all, I found killerbyte to be an excellent read. The tension created by the suspense is so heavy as to be almost tangible, the action is both exciting and gruesome, and the mystery is extremely well-executed. Add to this Ms. Connor’s polished and enjoyable writing style, and you have a book that is almost guaranteed to please."

killerbyte - mobipocket
killerbyte - amazon kindle
killerbyte -iTunes

Excerpt from Book Wenches terrorbyte review -- "This is one of the best suspense novels that I have read in a while. It is very well-written, the plot is intricate and perfectly managed, and the characters are fascinating and wonderfully developed. Since so much of what goes on in Ellie’s head revolves around music, it seems quite fitting that each chapter is named after a Bon Jovi song. I thought this was a clever touch and felt as if I ought to be listening to these tunes as a soundtrack to the story."

terrorbyte - mobipocket
terrorbyte - amazon kindle
terrorbyte - iTunes

"Pain don't hurt."

It's Saturday Jan 9 2010.

Last night I finally had a chance to watch/savior Road House. It's one of those movies I've watched many times over the years... then discovered (to my horror) we didn't buy it on DVD when the VHS died a few years back. After a year long hunt, Chris found Road House at Marbecks at the airport. There was no question of me not buying it. 

Once I had it. I found no urgent need to watch it. Funny that. But last night I put it on and I'm delighted to say it's stood the test of time. It's still the best freaking movie ever. 

No one is cooler than Patrick Swayze as Dalton. (Or the very drool worthy Sam Elliot as Wade Garrett...)

I've had the best week - I really have. A fan letter that made me teary eyed, stupendous review, finished an interview that will be out on Jan 26th - links to follow,  killerbyte hitting #17 and terrorbyte now on #113 of the Mobipocket Suspense& Thrillers list, and Readers Poll votes for killerbyte going strong. (I encourage you to pop through the link and cast your wee vote... for killerbyte!)

And then I topped it all off by watching Road House! Does it get any better than this? 

I wrote a few scenes and tweaked some too. There is a certain amount of pressure being felt regarding Exacabyte because I'm shit freaking scared that it won't live up to terrorbyte... I think this terror is a good thing. 

Because this is book 3, I decided I needed to introduce Ellie - but I can't tolerate dry prologue type intro's. So - it required an entirely new first chapter. Which means the original 1 is now 2 etc - I know at least one person who will be laughing about now. My inability to re-number chapters without screwing up is a long standing one. I have to write down the chapters as I do a find and replace, and tick them off as I change them! And even then it can go horribly wrong...Who knew chapter numbers would be so damn tricksy?? (Ah, Gali where are ya when I need ya? lol)

I'm going to leave you now with this excerpt from BookWenches review - I am spoilt for choice, so will be popping in others as the days go by!

"terrorbyte drew me in immediately and kept me intrigued and fully involved throughout the entire novel. It made me think, alternately amused and saddened me, and impressed me with its intelligent and well-crafted narrative." - from BookWenches review Jan 7th 2010

Stupendous?

I freaking think so!

Here was me thinking yesterday was splendid. And it was.

This here is the icing... oh yeah... great big gobs of chocolate fudge icing...

Bookwenches review of terrorbyte


Just in case y'all need to rush right out and buy both books... here are the links you'll need. (and a pic of the lovely Breezy! - just kidding, no pics today - need to upload them from camera)

killerbyte - mobipocket
killerbyte - amazon kindle
killerbyte -iTunes

terrorbyte - mobipocket
terrorbyte - amazon kindle
terrorbyte - iTunes

Everytime a coconut ...

What does that even mean? I'm sure that phrase came from something originally.. but what?
I suspect it's from fairs and that game where you throw a ball at a coconut balanced on a pole. If you know for sure where it's from - leave me a comment. (Ya know this is gonna be one of those things that wakes a person at 3 am!)

Moving on ...

Today has been spectacular. That's right I said spectacular. Not nobtastic or stupendous. But spectacular.

I got fan mail. REALLY awesome fan mail. (I made someone cry. Yes I did. Go me! Well not me exactly cos that'd be kinda mean, but my writing and terrorbyte...)

Needless to say the fabulous letter is now stuck in my scrap book... I am in no way old enough to know how to scrap book effectively. I got an OfficeMax directors notebook for Mother's day last year and have managed to stick cool stuff in it since then - like interviews, reviews, guest posts, and such like. It's held together with gold ribbon, cos sticking stuff in a book - even a spiral bound one - stops it closing. I don't like things that don't close. Seriously. Freaking hate things left open or even ajar. (Wanna drive me crazy leave a drawer or cupboard open and see what happens!)
One day I'll be old and will have the scrapbook knowledge - I think it comes with the blue rinse.

How was Breezy today I hear you ask... well she was joyful. She is mostly filled with joy. She sang, she danced, she invited Lorenza Ponce and Jon Bon Jovi to dinner. Now that would be hysterical - because she hid behind me rather than talk to a police officer and his dog at the airport yesterday - a sudden attack of uncharacteristic shyness.
Although she assures me she would not be shy if Lorenza and Jon turned up on the doorstep, because she's sent Lorenza messages on twitter and Facebook.
Yep - that's our Breezy - unflappable. (This kid is excellent, she really is.)

Managed to get another interview done today. Yay. It'll be out on the 26th, I'll post the links etc.

Oh and this is fun...

Don't screw your nose up like that -it is fun. (The wind will change and you'll be sorry...)

Pop over to the Preditors & Editors Readers' Poll to vote for killerbyte! Voting is open until the 14th of Jan.

Road House and other coolness

After a year of searching - yes a whole freaking year... Chris found Road House at Marbecks at the airport.  Woo hoo! That was Saturday - haven't watched it yet -but reveling in the joy that I can, whenever I freaking well want to!

Actually waiting to watch it with Kane. We were both looking for it.

Currently drinking my way through a bottle of Lindauer bubble stuff with Chrissy.

The bottle's empty.

Going to have to open the second one shortly. Despite me calling this shite -'headache in a bottle', I'm drinking it. Already had a headache so figured I may as well. :)

Managing to drink it while listening to country music, cos I needed to. Had 'Amarillo' stuck in my head this afternoon - not on any of my CD's will shortly resort to YouTube.

Now - have a little something I'd like to share. Lorenza Ponce's new single, Casual girl. 
I'm loving it and Miss Breezy is a big fan of Lorenza's since the Lost Highway album. She loves that Lorenza plays the violet. :)
Now you know you'll have to at least go listen, cos Breezy has marvelous taste in music!

And does anyone want to disappoint that face? I think not!

She'd also like you to go buy mummy's books.

(Is that wrong?)

It feels so right, so I suspect it is wrong... lol

killerbyte
terrorbyte

Didn't sleep last night - but I did write a brand new first chapter for Exacabyte -book 3, in my head. I knew the book started mid-action and needed an explanation as to how the action came to be. So it has, PLUS - this new chapter gave me an opportunity to introduce Ellie without going through some kind of dry prologue intro thingy. Win win. Best of all - I didn't forget any of it, cos I didn't sleep (I'll sleep when I'm dead - springs to mind) so I managed to write the entire thing this morning as it was in my head, and it works!

Now to go send some fun text's to Kane -cos I'm half-cut and that's what stalkers do.

January second 2010.

New Years eve for me was a right-off. It's rare for me to be bored. But New Years saw me scale vast new heights in boredom. We had cancelled all thoughts of New Years due to Chris being ill. Yet I still found myself trapped in hell.
And led to this New Years resolution list:


1. Drink more red wine - cos it makes the world a funnier place.
2. Live long and prosper. (Thanks Spock.)
3. To never allow anyone to talk about World of Warcraft in my presence again. Not EVER. Certainly not for four hours while I am sober. Especially NOT on New Years eve.
4. To try not to plan the torturous deaths of people while they are rabbiting on and on about World of Warhammer. (that should be easy -see #3.)


That about sums up New Years eve for me. 


Thank the Universe - I have moved on!! :-)


Jan first was spent doing an interview. The fab folk at Un:bound. (The very lovely Hagelrat) asked if I would be the first for the year. So I am. (And surprisingly thankful that I didn't drink New Years eve ...)
She came up with some hard questions - caused me to mainline caffeine early in the morning and think!! But I taunted her with brownies so I guess we're even... go read and enjoy. 
Un:bound


What else do I have for you? 


A wee Ellie Conway New Years short story - see right >>>> or click here


And Eric text me just a few minutes ago to tell me killerbyte was #27. 
Squeee!!


Guess you folk with e-readers for Christmas are book buying! Well done you lot!  - Here's hoping you love killerbyte and go back for terrorbyte. 


Love you long time... mean it. ;-)