Romeo and the Chicken: release day

Okay, so this is the day.

The official first day of summer and the release of my first kids book!

Exciting.

Romeo is so excited he's fast asleep. (He'll be excited at about 8AM, when he wakes up!)

There are two stories in this (the first book of Romeo) and they are suitable for 5-8 year olds (any kid really) and were rather well received by a selection of 12 year olds!


So, here is Romeo and the Chicken

First day back at school.

The joy of having two computers... I can play Human Target on one while blogging on the other. Sure, that would work with a TV and a computer too... but I'm at my desk and can't be fagged walking across the room. :-)

Breezy is finally back at school today! Hooray. Romeo and I are enjoying the peace. Doesn't hurt that it's a beautiful sunny day and we spent an hour outside enjoying the sun! I was reading  - he was lying beside me on his bed (with Fat-fat, who likes to lie in the sun with R.)

Can you say awesome?

Earlier - I was working. Also awesome.

The reading was also work... I'm re-reading Flashbyte getting my brain ready for the next round of edits.

I still can't show you the cover. Hopefully I'll hear soon if it's actually THE COVER!

A couple of things are still flapping in the wind... hopefully they'll fall into place soon too. :-)

Meanwhile - I have some changes to make to the file for Romeo and the Chicken. Then, we might just release it.
That's pretty exciting, right?

Right back to work for me... new chapter begging to be written in Pixelbyte/xtolbyte/Metolbyte/Digibyte ... whatever it ends up being called.

Oh, yeah, and I kinda want to watch this episode of Human Target. :-)
It's the one this picture is from:

It's all kinds of cool...

Yeah, really, all kinds!

Awhile ago I wrote a little story for some groovy kids I know. (Two of them are mine.) And y'all know I don't write kids stories. So writing one was not the easiest thing I've ever done. However, it was fun.

I'd already written a little story about Romeo and Missy the fat grey cat. Kinda a kids story but probably not what most kids would read. (This is largely to do with my refusal to 'dumb stuff down' for kids... if you don't use different words how are they going to grow a decent vocabulary? Also, the subject matter - Romeo is not your typical dog, he's just a tad up himself at times and Missy has a good measure of British Blue in her - hence she's got a lot of snooty trollop potential...)

So, ya see... I had this idea.

I thought (as a gift for the kids in the book) it would be cool to see it in print. You know with an ISBN and all the drama. And that is what I did.

And this is what it looks like:

I had two proof copies sent. One for me and one for Anna.
We haven't decided yet what to do with the book but I quite enjoyed creating this - which means there may be another Romeo/Cleo/Missy the fat grey cat book on the horizon. (And the fact that Breezy's class enjoyed the Chicken story helped with that thought!)

Romeo is quite pleased with it too:

Can you tell?







Sunny Sunday, by crikey I think the weather has its shit sorted!

Good morning.
Elections are over. Key is no doubt a happy camper - Goff is possibly licking his wounds. I'm just glad the bullshit faze is over.

Yesterday went from okay to crap and settled finally on hilarious. The glorious Admins arrived with pate, bread, and Dolcetto. Kane popped over with another bottle of Dolcetto as an apology for the fireworks that nearly scared Romeo to death a few weeks ago. Turns out it was Kane who was letting them off. Thought he looked a tad guilty when I was ranting about the wankers who were terrifying my dog and who kept us awake all night! Mystery solved. :-)

I sorted the print spooler issue with the PC and can now print from both computers. Yay me. I just had to be in the right frame of mind to sort it... ie. Not angry at the world.

While I was dicking with fixing the computer I obviously had to test print stuff. So, I chose the first pages of Flashbyte, Soundbyte, and Pixelbyte (yeah still not sure about that one either). Last night the Admins read the first pages. General consensus is the first page of Flashbyte now rocks. First page of Soundbyte met with approval. First page of Pixelbyte also rocks.

Here are the opening lines from all the byte novels (so far) - published and as yet unpublished, contracted and not:
killerbyte:

You’re gonna die – you bitch!
I looked at the words sitting alone on the expanse of white. A ridiculous thought occurred to me. The words were innocent. They had no volition. Just photons squirted out by a display system.

Terrorbyte:

“Are you sure this is the alleyway?” I stared down the dreary lane, hoping Lee would say no.
The whole place reeked of urine and discarded syringes. With a sense of foreboding, I pulled my badge from my pocket and hung it around my neck by the lanyard. My eyes flicked up and down the close walls of the alley, looking for cameras. I spotted a bracket that may have once held a camera. How handy.

Exacerbyte:

My phone chirped like a demented cricket. It was the second call in two minutes. Demented crickets are never good. I pulled over to the shoulder and stopped. Cars whizzed by me. The phone chirped again.

Flashbyte:

“You’re a smarmy piece of shit,” I murmured under my breath. My mouth was dry. I could barely swallow. Every nerve in my body was on edge.
I took a swig of water from my canteen. The cool liquid fought my tight dry throat until it won and forced its way down my esophagus.

Soundbyte:

“It’s late. We’ve got this organized?” I spun my chair to face my desk and stretched.

The face looking at me from my computer screen frowned and seemed to consider my words. “Yes, we’re all set at this end.”
I nodded. “I’ll see you tomorrow night.”

Pixelbyte:

“Fuck you!” I stormed from the building before I did something irreversible. My hand strayed dangerously close to the grip on my Glock several times in the last ten minutes.
Time to leave.
 What just happened?
I had a tantrum. One any two-year-old would be proud to own. I couldn’t stay around for the rest of the argument because I had no idea what was going to happen next.

* * *

And with that I shall leave you to your Sunday. Hope it's a good one. We're heading to the usual place with the usual suspects to make two dogs and five kids very happy. :-)

Saturday and all is well...

This morning I was pleased to find my foul mood from yesterday had buggered off. Yay - you all get to live another day. :-)

We just got back from voting. Decided to walk Romeo to the polling booth - kinda kill two birds with one stone (so to speak). He's now hot and panting behind my desk and we've voted.
Have to say I'm disappointed at the non-sticky stickers! Mine fell off before I got out of the school grounds.

Hmmm... Kane just vaulted over his front fence wearing board shorts? Now you don't see that every day! The vaulting bit, sure - but board shorts... nah. lol

So, yesterday I was in a filthy freaking mood for no apparent reason. Although being trapped at home for a week with sick child may have been a contributing factor.
Because really, it wasn't a bad week - work wise for me. I got to see the possible new cover for Flashbyte. I re-wrote the first two pages of Flashbyte because for whatever reason I hated the beginning - and finally figured out how to fix it. And there was a fabulous review on NewsTalk ZB of killerbyte. Plus I made some headway in the latest Byte novel. Gotta say I do love this story - no fucn clue yet where it's going, but the journey is fun! The new character turned out to make more sense than I first thought and he also surprised me. I like that in a character.

And for fun (because writing is sometimes more fun than I can cope with and I need to do something else for a bit) I decoupaged the sides of my desk mobile. (I have three, I chose to decoupage the one without handles on the drawers - cos handles are a pain in the behind!)
The Boy Wonder says decoupage is me tapping into my inner 16 year old self. He may be correct, pretty sure the parental units would not of been happy if I'd done this to my drawers back then... but this is my furniture, I can do as I like. :)
Here let me show you:
This the front - been like this for awhile now:



And this is the side that faces the room - a little more PC than the side that faces me! (Not by much though) And there is an extra special wee comment toward the bottom left that my Admins will enjoy.

I'm not going to show you the side that I see - at the moment. As I just found some more pictures to add. :-) There are a few expletives on my side.

So, how is your weekend going?

We're off to run Romeo tomorrow - must actually remember to get more batteries for my camera and use the thing!!

Got my Reddit Secret Santa match today. Brilliant. Will organise his gift next week!

Happy thanksgiving to all my American friends xxx.


Breezy is now singing "Work for the working man" Bon Jovi... for the last two days she's been singing songs from Lorenza's album Soul Shifter, so this is a change!

Why doesn't this look like my handwriting?

Well, not this obviously... because it's typed - doh!
But the pages I wrote last night. In fact everything I've handwritten in this notebook for this particular book. None of it looks like my writing.

None of it.

So who does this scrawl belong too?

Obviously I wrote it, the pen was in my hand. So it must be mine!

I picked up a notebook from Flashbyte - the hand writing is completely different.

Spooky.

Just found a scene that never made it into Flashbyte - well, I don't think it made it... but it freaking well should have and will if it didn't.
Shut up, Cat... you make no sense.

I guess when I wrote the possibly missing scene - judging by the content - I'd been watching a lot of YouTube videos.

Doesn't explain the very different handwriting in these notebooks though.

At least it all sounds like me - just doesn't look like me. None of it.

Ohhh and I'm waiting for the okay to flash the Flashbyte cover around! I'm hoping we're going with the 12th version - but I can't get all giggly over it until I know. (The hell of the last cover is still fresh in my mind ... )
So, meanwhile, I'm not thinking about it too much. The cover is the picture on both my desktops, it's very cool - but I am not overly attached to it... yet. Should you have access to my desktops you can see it -but that requires a physical presence at my desk! (And if you're a Backspacer you can see it there.)


Still no explanation for the weird handwriting.

Windy Wednesday, 12, review, newstalk ZB

It's windy! Which is not unusual at all. Wellington is known as the windy city for a reason. It's often a tad breezy. :)

Today was one of those gusty days. I reckon it's Mother Nature blowing the cobwebs out. It's all good.

Breezy (the child not the wind) was a little sicker this morning. She perked up by lunchtime though and did a full page of maths, wrote a story, and read. Then I made her rest for an hour or so. Which for her meant she got to watch a movie while eating ice blocks, then later she was playing Club Penguin on my PC.
I have to wonder if the reason illnesses like Scarlet Fever were so serious in the old days is because people were tucked up in bed and not allowed to do anything... (perhaps not having antibiotics was a big consideration too, lol)
We heal faster if we're active. Within reason of course. But having a kid with Scarlet Fever in bed, laying down all the time, is just asking for complications like pneumonia.
Just something I was thinking about as I watched Breezy playing. She's definitely ill. But not wallowing in it.
She'd sooner be at school and so tonight I need to come up with some more maths for her and a few story ideas. :)

My day was busy.

I've now seen many many versions of the potential cover for Flashbyte. I like the 12th one. When Admin One asked me if 12 was relevant to the story I had to think. It's not but 6 is. And 12 is my favorite number and next year my birthday will be 12/12/12 - how fucn cool is that??

I know, right? I haven't looked forward to a birthday like this since I was 12 on the 12th of the 12th. :)

Today had an awesome aspect... one that almost had me climbing the walls in the minutes prior though despite Anna telling me last weekend that she only had good things to say. Was funny cos Breezy new right away that I was nervous and why. (She's a very smart kid and she's a little like me, in that, until it happens anything is possible...)

Here's the link - skip to about two thirds of the way along (39 minute mark) that you won't miss Anna's reviews!

We're secretly very excited by the marvelousness within that link.

And yes, you can tweet Ellie using @EllieConwaySA
And check out her blog: Bounce  and no you won't find out what's happening in the books on Ellie's blog... not often anyway! She doesn't give much away... :)

Meanwhile, how is everyone?


Oh yeah... I really hated the first page of Flashbyte and I didn't know why. I do now. I re-wrote the first page today. *Shrugs* you get that sometimes.

Scarlet fever and magick

Who'd have thought I'd ever put Scarlet fever and magick together in a sentence? Yeah, not me either.

So today - Breezy said her throat hurt. (It's been sore since Sunday night but she's been okay with it, just says every now and then it hurts and then once she's had Pamol and Nurophen it's okay for a few hours.) I already had a doctor appointment for her, because she had a sore throat yesterday and was pretty miserable looking.
Today she developed a red rash.
I looked it up. Yay for Dr. Google.
But really, Scarlet fever? What were the odds? I hadn't heard of it in years. But that's what it looked like, and that's what her symptoms pointed too. Hmmm. I must've gotten it wrong.
Off to the doctor we went to be told - SCARLET FEVER.
Not only that, but our lovely doc looked at Breezy's throat and said she was VERY ill. The same kid that bounced along the road with me, talking non-stop. Sure she didn't eat breakfast. (But she ate all her dinner last night.)
She's on antibiotics for the next 3-4 weeks. The antibiotic that kills strep quickly, penicillin, is the one Breezy is allergic too  - so we're stuck with a slightly less effective antibiotic for longer time!
She can't go to school.
She now will miss out on swimming lessons. Her class started swimming yesterday. By the time Breezy gets back to school - swimming will be almost over!
Sucks to be Breezy this year.
It really does.
She's pretty much been constantly sick since June. We have no clue why or how she is picking up these very nasty bugs... actually we do. It's gotta be coming from school. Someone in her class is a little tiny Typhiod freaking Mary.
I'd like to dip the entire class in bleach.

I don't recall any of the other kids ever being this sick before. Breezy's not the kid you'd expect to be sick either. She's the one who does eat her veges and will try everything on her plate, she goes to bed at 7PM, she sleeps well, she spends more time outdoors than in, she's tall for her age and the correct weight for her height - in other words she's a perfectly normal kid who was always really healthy.

Her sister however would be happy if the entire world contained nothing but white food with no taste... that's a little unfair, she's almost 13 now and has in the last few months, begun to try different foods!!! Goes to bed at a reasonable time but has never really slept properly. Hates being outside because that's where the bees/flying insects/bugs/unpredictable things are and is painfully thin - admittedly the thinness is partly genetic... maybe 70% genes and 30% eats fucn nothing of any value.

Ironic isn't it?

So anyway - that will be the next few weeks for me. Sick child. No school. SAD Greyhound who is used to walking or running every day and hasn't been out for two days now.

About the magick.

Had to drag out some spell books today - (nothing to do with Scarlet fever or the germ carrying beasties at Breezy's school) - A scene cropped up the other day in the new Byte novel. Ellie considered that she may be cursed. Which led to me having to find a Hoodoo spell to remove a curse/hex/whatever. And let me tell ya, this will make Ellie cringe. :)

Right, I'm out of here.

Y'all take here out there.

Monday, Christmas cake, Writing, and stuff

I think I've tried to write this three times today between playing with the sick child, giving the sick child medicine, cleaning, installing a new printer (little more complicated than usual - little fancier than usual), making Christmas cake, cleaning up after sick child, doing a tonne of laundry, fielding phone calls, preparing roast chicken with garlic stuffing, and yeah, trying to get some writing done.

So, yay, finally got here and the post may get finished this time!

Where to begin?

This morning I had to finish making the Christmas cake - the fruit soaked over night. So, by 11am I was able to finally get to the cake making. I had a limited time frame. It takes four hours to bake a Christmas cake - and three hours to cook the chicken I had decided to cook for dinner.
So cake first.
I forgot how hard it is to mix that large a quantity of fruit and cake batter... the wooden spoon was not going to cut it. I ended up using my hands, was up to my elbows in delicious cake batter by the time it was ready to be spooned into the cake tin. :)
The cake is cooked and cooling on the bench.
Now the chicken (stuffed with garlic and peppers) is cooking. In about half an hour I'll add the veges.

A few times today I tried to work... it was both successful and unsuccessful. In the end it just became seriously annoying a little frustrating. The writing was going well but the constant interruptions were just not working for me. Then I couldn't remember some fairly important details from the end of exacerbyte, so had to pull the book off the shelf and read the last two chapters. Not exactly a hardship but frustrating because I couldn't remember. Who wrote it? Yeah, me! lol

I think I forgot to take my vitamins this morning.

Yesterday I exhausted the ink cartridges in my Canon printer. So it was time to install a brand new HP printer/scanner today. As stupid as it sounds, printers are disposable. They shouldn't be, but replacement ink is so expensive it's cheaper to buy a new printer. Especially when you can pick up a brand new printer for under $45.
Now that folks is nuts.
I didn't always toss printers. Action Man used to work for OfficeMax - so we got a discount on everything. But ink was still more expensive than a new printer.
So, anyway, today I installed the new printer/scanner - different to just plugging a printer in and expecting it to work by magic, this one actually had software! It's nice. It's HP and it's talking happily to my Compaq's. The Canon had recently decided to only speak to the laptop and not the PC. Stupid thing. (The Canon is the stupid thing not the laptop or PC - which are both Compaq's and awesome.)

I'm kinda hoping that tonight I can get some writing done (some sleep would also be beneficial). The new Byte book is amusing me at the moment. I just figured out who the new guy is. (He's the one I refer to as the FNG.) He's fun. I like him. He's giving Ellie a run for her money, and that makes him fun for me to write.
I still don't know that much about him though. I know who he is, what he does and what he used to do... but apart from that, he's quite the mystery. No music has popped up when he's in a scene or anything that gives me much insight into what makes him tick.
I'm a little fascinated by him to tell the truth.
A bit of a mystery is interesting.
No doubt he'll reveal more as the story unfolds... or not.

Saturday: Doesn't feel like late November

In a week and a half it will be December - we're still wearing fleecy sweatshirts and jackets. Summer has forgotten us here in Wellington.
It seemed as though summer was almost here - then today at the beach... the cold wind, grey sky, and general dreary outlook made me think summer may never happen. Quite frankly spring was a bit of a non-event too.
Quite glad I'd already had one (and a very warm lovely one) early this year in the other hemisphere.


Despite us humans freezing our bits off on the beach the hounds had their usual marvelous time. Romeo is now fast asleep under his blankets.

In other news:
I am banning all mention of occupying (anything, don't care what it is - don't tell me about it.) and tea (cups, pots, bags, or leaves.) - again don't care, so shut up. Suffice to say the political parties that caused this tea bullshit will not be getting my votes. The crap from the last week has fully convinced me to stick with my usual party, thanks for that.
While I'm banning things... considering a full seasonal ban of Snoopys Christmas. Squealer told Dave today that he made me yell at the radio by playing Snoopys Christmas. He, of course, thought it was very funny. (I obviously have to be more careful what I yell/say/do when Squealer is in the room, turns out she's a bit of a nark. lol)
Used to love that song but every year it gets played earlier and earlier... now, I'm over it.
Get BETTER Christmas songs!!
Maybe we should only have Bon Jovi Christmas songs. :)



So where are we now?
I'm in danger of becoming very Grinch like regarding Christmas.

I saw the first draft of the long awaited FLASHBYTE cover this morning. First draft. I have sent back my thoughts and what should be changed. It has potential.

Killerbyte will be reviewed by Anna Smart on NewsTalk ZB on Wednesday morning about 11:30.

We've all been sick this week, it has become apparent that someone in Breezy's class is a Typhoid Mary. There has been a constant stream of germs this year. I'm hoping whoever Patient Zero is that they aren't in her class next year!!

The latest Byte novel is coming along nicely. I'm enjoying it. A lot. It's definitely fun.

It's almost Breezy's birthday. We did the invitations last night. This time of year invites have to go out early... we're all running out of weekends before Christmas. :)

I am sick to death of grizzly children.

Over it.

Might be a bit cranky myself.

I suggest no one annoys me for the rest of the weekend.

The week marches on...

It's Thursday already - just that little bit closer to the end of November and the chaos that is December (in our house).

I managed to post K's birthday present yesterday - airmail, cost a bundle, hopefully he'll have it by his birthday. His birthday starts the December madness and is followed quickly by Breezy's. :)

Today there is a fun new interview out over at Authors block: Where my lack of quirks and favorite morning radio station are discussed. That's right... not quirky.

Oh and here are the three guys who live on my desk:

It's relevant to the lack of quirks in my interview. As it would be.

What else is new?

Nothing much - that I can think of.

Working on the new shiny exciting Byte novel that none of you will see until at least 2014 - because 2012 is Flashbyte, and hopefully the next one will be Soundbyte (probably 2013)... and the one I'm working on now slides in after Soundbyte... so it's a wee ways out yet. It is fun though. I'm really enjoying it. Although I do need to find myself an expert. Similar to how Lorenza Ponce was my go to person for Exacerbyte and all things rock starish - only this time I need a different type of expert. That's all I'm saying. I kinda know a guy... hopefully he'll say yes.

This week, we've all been sick. It's been kinda crappy in actual fact. Some nasty throat virus that makes voices disappear on and off, starts with a sore throat and comes with a headache. Luckily the sore throat only lasts about 24 hours - the disappearing voice and croakiness lasts much longer. Fun.

Breezy was home Monday. Action Man yesterday. Squealer today. I gave it to them all... but apparently don't get a day off. How sucky is that? :)

Saturday, culling, writing, ranting

Hope you all are having an awesome weekend.

Mine's been pretty good so far.

Started with the beginning of the Facebook personal page cull [which is now done - 700 people have gone], so don't be upset if you find you've disappeared or I have disappeared... nothing personal.
I have a Facebook page - which is for people who aren't family or who aren't people I actually know. Feel free to join us over there and hang out with me and the Admins. Half the fun is trying to figure out which comment is mine and which belongs to one or other of the Admins. :)
Cat Connor Facebook page.

What else did I do today?

Well, we did the groceries. [Big Milk - to those of you who've been around since Squealer was a baby.]

Then we took Romeo out for a run with Cleo at the new usual place - which is by far his favorite place. He had a ball, as usual. [It's the usual place so really the usual things should happen.]
The kids buried a dead bird.
JoJo found half a set of dentures. Didn't look close enough to determine if it was an upper of lower set... and we never found the rest of the person.
Not sure if that's comforting or not.

I had a brief thought before we left to meet the usual suspects that I should grab a copy of terrorbyte for Anna - but that seemed kinda presumptuous. And I ummed and ahhhed then got side tracked... as it happens I should've. So will have to remember next time.

My panic over Anna and Dave reading killerbyte has subsided. [I know Anna will like the next two - because IMO they're far better than killerbyte... killerbyte is an awesome book - no two ways about it, but it's the beginning. I know the characters so much better now and they've grown so much, it's just how it is. If terrorbyte wasn't better and likewise with exacerbyte then I'd truly suck at my job. ]

Of course it remains to be seen how Flashbyte stacks up. The closer we get to release date with that the more panicked I'll become... but right now, it's a ways away so I'm fairly calm.
[As calm as someone waiting to hear back from someone she really admires and who agreed to blurb for her as a person can be.]
That's all. Not telling you who it is. You'll find out when the person has read Flashbyte and gets back to me.
No pressure, it's only been a month and it's not like he the person doesn't have a really fucn cool day job.

In case you missed my rant and Ellie's rant regarding research - here they are;
Cat's massive rant about the phrase fuck-all.
SSA Ellie Conway's rant about research why writers need to research.

Now that's out of the way, I'm going to slide back into Ellie's world and see what the FNG wants now.

:)

Few things annoy me more than...

Phrases used in the WRONG context.

Seriously. Fucks me off.

Case in point - the book I've been wading through the last few weeks. Always sad when a sequel doesn't cut it... but I was determined to get to the end and find something redeeming.

I found annoyances.

Weeks after an apocalypse supermarkets are not going to be full of FRESH food, they're going to be full of rotting food... thank you!

Cell phones, power, Internet still working? That's awesome... because they all seem to fall-over regularly and require constant human intervention in the world as it is now. I guess in 3 years time we've perfected the art of communication and thousands of people will be out of jobs? Won't need maintenance personal or techs because it'll just all work perfectly despite an apocalypse. Nah, not buying it.

Look harder, Cat... there has to be something here that can save it.

Then I came upon yet another use of the phrase 'fuck-all'.
How the hell can someone get THAT wrong??

It's means none or nothing.
Let me demonstrate:
"Hey Bro, whatcha been doing?"
"Fuck-all mate, you?"

or:

After scouring the TV guide and finding nothing of interest to watch. "There's fuck-all on telly tonight."

Get it?

That is the only use for fuck-all. It doesn't mean lots, or good, or anything else... it means none or nothing or sometimes, very few.

There were fuck-all biscuits after Action Man raided the tin.

Even the urban dictionary has a definition:
Fuck all

So, why use it to mean whatever the hell this author tried to make it mean.

You cannot "run like fuck-all". (run like nothing?)
Not sure how you can "toss fuck-all to the wind" (Toss nothing to the wind?)
The wind was fuck-all cold. (The wind was nothing/none cold?)

Oh dear God... doesn't make any sense at all!!

I am disappointed, because the first book in this series was fun. It was. I enjoyed it. I looked forward to the sequel with interest. How was he going to write a female main character? What was going to happen to everyone?

This one however was waffly. I was constantly pulled out of the story by way too much internalisation and too many 'blog posts' which seemed to be extensions of the internalization's - which were a tad too touchy feely for my liking and went on and on. (I'm not stupid, I get it.)
I'm sure some woman do that, but none that I know.

The main character in this book was a character I didn't like in the last book. Well, not even that, I didn't feel much for her at all. She won't stay with me. To be honest I can't remember her name! Because there was nothing to latch on to and she didn't make me feel anything except the urge to smack her and the writer upside the head.

Disappointed is the over all feeling.

Now moving on.

Usually when I read something I don't like, I stop and ditch it. I don't tell anyone.

I'm not mentioning the author or the book here. Just my annoyance at it.

I'm not going to finish my coffee and contemplate a day or work with my new character who is really ticking Ellie off. (Awesome!)

Bookmarks!

Pretty, pretty, pretty.


I am feeling rather generous today - if anyone would like a beautiful Rebel bookmark and/or a Kindle version of 'Torrent: a collection of short bytes' - send me a message or leave a comment.

First come first served... this offer will expire on Friday November 11th.

You can send me a message via Facebook (link on the 'contact' page, twitter @catconnor, or over on G+.

Have you joined the Rebel eClub yet?
No?
Goodness... off you go through the looking glass and join up... lots of awesomeness up for grabs over there. Here's the looking glass link. (Including wine!)

I was going to write a blog...

But decided I'd sooner write another few scenes in this brand new shiny and exciting _Byte novel with this fun new character. He has much potential. Am quite glad he came along.

So - don't mind me.

I've got work to do.

Here are some pictures to keep you guessing occupied while I disappear into Ellie's world for the next day or so...

Look what arrived today!

Thought I saw a courier outside this morning. But I didn't look out the door properly so completely missed the box on the porch! The kids found it when we were leaving for school. So I put it on the table for later... thinking it was the new cap and tee shirt I'd ordered. It wasn't! I'd completely forgotten about the copies of Torrent I'd had printed. LOL. Seriously, life gets busy - who remembers these things? 

So now I need to decide whether or not to make these available to everyone. At the moment Torrent is available as a download via Smashwords - see link over at the top on the right.

I don't know that it really needs to be a paperback as well?

Am having some blogger formatting issues today - that's not unusual, it is annoying though... grrr.

From Saturday night until this morning, we've had a VERY upset dog. He was so scared I thought his heart was going to give out. He won't go outside for anything after dark... even during the day a door banging or someone dropping something terrifies him.
Why?
Fireworks.
Fucktards who let off fireworks ALL FUCKING NIGHT on Saturday night. Not those pretty sparkly ones but booming fucn explosive ones that scared the bejesus out of Romeo. And last night... more of the same but thankfully further away.
We've never had this kind of extreme fireworks around here before - let's be honest who the hell can afford to burn money like that? Well, it seems some people can... shooting fireworks at each other - that's real smart.
So anyway - I was up with the dog on Saturday night... consequently last night I fell asleep at quarter to eight and didn't wake up until 6! Action Man was on dog duty last night. Reassurance and hugs is what Romeo needed.
The cat (who never used to care about fireworks but this was extreme) got so scared she vomited under my desk -- she was hiding under there.

Quite glad this fireworks stupidity is now over... as Action Man said over until New Years, at least.

Okay so back to fondling the pretty copies of Torrent I have in my little hands.

Got some work to do today - now that the house is quiet.

And Romeo looks like this instead of shaking and panting...

:)

Usual place, Pet Expo, pandas, _byte?

Saturday.

What more needs to be said? lol

This morning we went back to the 'old usual place' with the usual suspects - Romeo and Cleo chatted, chased, played - had a jolly good time. Romeo's tail just wags all the time he's with Cleo. He adores her. So sweet!
Romeo even went and played with another dog while we had a picnic lunch. (Not sure what breed it was, but maybe some kind of Pointer.)

After lunch we all piled back to our place - think Anna was a little disappointed that none of the 'boys' down the end of the street were out wearing their patches. :)  (I suspect she'd be even more disappointed if she saw them - aged, worse for wear, and friendly - which of course makes them a lot less intimidating than they'd like to think they are.)

Then it was off to the Pet Expo - to show off Romeo and Cleo at the Greyhounds as Pets stand.
Trouble started almost immediately. Dogs settled quickly - but Squealer showed early signs of losing the plot... too many people. She wanted to go see the other animals but didn't want to go with Dave who was taking the other kids, because she wanted to go with me.
So, I went too.
In hindsight - that was probably a mistake.

See, the thing is, Squealer had a map of the exhibits and in bold lettering it said PANDA first floor (or whatever floor it was)... In my defence (and Dave's too) IT SAID PANDA.

(Now you might remember how excited I was to see Panda's at the National Zoo in Washington, DC?) 

Yeah, well, let's just say... I wanted to find the Panda's. :)
It turned into a green milk situation.
(You know - me saying green milk comes from green cows and Squealer, well, squealing about how that's NOT TRUE and there is no such thing... all the other kids think it's hilarious when I say stuff like that. But they're not Squealer and they don't have a Sensory Processing Disorder or Aspergers Traits or any of the other interesting things that our Squealer does.)
So, we were looking for the panda's... and well, Squealer was crying... because even though it said Panda that's not what it meant. It was the name of the building (or something). She's VERY literal. There was no room for .. "but maybe, or what if... or hey, it says pandas I wanna find pandas."
Green milk!
And there were LOTS of people.She doesn't cope well with people especially that many. And Jojo wanders, and she was worried he'd get lost... really? I've never lost a kid yet, and it's not been through lack of trying some days!! I'm pretty good at keeping track of small people in crowds.
Up shot was - a pretty controlled meltdown. (Helluva improvement to what would've happened 2 years ago... which would've been a monumental hysterical fit.)

So, no pandas.
Disappointing.
No chinchillas either - very disappointed about that. How am I supposed to find out how many it takes to make a full length coat if I can't find the chinchilla exhibit?
Just sayin'.

But tonight, while I was telling the Admins about the expo and the disappointing lack of pandas and how I couldn't locate the chinchilla's so am no closer to a snuggly winter coat - Squealer laughed about it!!!
WTF? Have we made progress without my noticing?

So anyway - was a busy day. Romeo is knackered. He got no naps today - and usually he sleeps for 3 hours plus after his weekend run with Cleo... today he had to stand around and be patted by strangers for 2 hours after his run! (It's not easy being fabulous.)

Admins got home from snowboarding today and came for an afternoon visit - then stayed for dinner tonight - Admin One and I made Toad-in-the-hole! So easy and yummy
We also sat around brainstorming photography bits and pieces looking for the perfect title for this new _byte novel - which has to do with photographs and so forth. we ended up Googling photographic chemicals.
And have added: Xtolbyte, Metolbyte, and FXbyte to the list of possibilities. (I'm still bouncing back and forth between pixelbyte and digibyte... kinda like the sound of metolbyte or FXbyte too.)

This is one of the pandas from the National Zoo in DC.
Admin One took this lovely shot.



Stirrer? Me? Surely not.

A gamer??? Oh God no....

This morning I settled into working on the NEW BYTE NOVEL. Yes that did require all caps, so there. (And I might've poked my tongue out...)

We have a tentative title.

Digibyte.

I was reading last nights work - and quite pleased with how it's shaping up. (It's early days and so far the character and story are playing nice - as nice as any of my characters play... oh, shut up - don't question me!)

Anyway, I was reading... Mr. New Character was trotting out some fine performances - I was pleased with his progress. Then it hit me... I don't know what music he likes.
This just won't do.
My characters all have music - something that helps me write them.

I wasn't overly worried - it's early. I've only written about 15K. If at 98K I'm still clueless as to the inner depths of this guy, then we'll have a problem... and a crap character who needs substance - but that's beside the point.

I'm sitting at my desk, writing... Ellie and the FNG (= F------g New Guy) are getting on quite well. That's a little scary. She's not the most welcoming of people when it comes to FNG's.. and he's not your normal FNG -not even close.
That's when it hit me.
When he's not doing what he does (and it's not something you'd think of, trust me.) .... he's a gamer.
Oh dear God, noooooo.
This is worse than having a character who likes rap.
A gamer!
He's a Modern Warfare player. Loves his Xbox. (If I find out he's tea-bagged anyone I may have to hurt him - really hurt him.)
How'd this happen?
Seriously? How? I don't get it.

Although I should be grateful - it could be worse. (If I tell myself that often enough, it WILL be true.)

But - he is funny.

Funny is good.

It could be worse  - he could have been a WoW player.
If that were the case I'd probably blow him up. Yep, I think I would. Guess he doesn't want to leave in a body bag?
Be more like a sandwich bag - what with the C4 an' all.

There might be a sneak peek at the first page by the end of the weekend.

AND:

Coolness...

I was invited to be part of this: The Girl's Guide To Surviving The Apocalypse. I'm so excited to be part of what will be a fabulous collaboration.

Going to be working on my first post over the weekend.

Squeeeee.

Sometimes you just need to laugh

This week has been busy. Awesome busy. New book busy. OMG, it's so great to have this new byte book unfolding in front of me.
Yeah I know - I'm always writing a new book. Because, yeah, here it comes... I'm a writer. I know, right... how great is that? :)
There is a good chance that I might be a little bit of  a smart ass, as well.

Okay so here's the thing.

This book hit me upside the head with an opening line that I just love and a brand new character. A new character.
He makes this so much fun that in the last three days I've written 13K.
It's a guy by the way.

That's it, you don't get any more.

This kinda smack-me-upside-the-head-wow-I-love-this-character hasn't happened for me since exacerbyte. For good reason, in both Flashbyte and Soundbyte there are no new main characters or characters that are likely to make a return appearance... except for the new one in this book... but he wasn't really in the last two I wrote. He is mentioned, and he is Soundbyte but not.
It was high time someone fresh and new came on the scene and not just a new bad guy - they're a dime a dozen.

Wrap that up in an enigma then try unraveling it with a riddle, why don't ya.

So far - it's looking like the new book might be called Digibyte. That's not definite, because I can't make a decision right now. I'm still messing with titles that end in byte and somehow make you think 'images'.

I was working tonight - big scene, lot's of gunfire and scary shit... then Rove LA came on the TV, and LLCoolJ was one of the guests. It is not possible to write a serious 'you're about to die, first person, home invasion scene' while laughing - yes, laughing and why? Because LL's laugh is extremely infectious.

In other news:

SSA Ellie Conway interviewed horror author and friend of mine, Brandon Ford, over on her blog.

AND:
My publishers, Rebel ePublishers have started a book club. How cool is that? Pretty cool, huh? But wait there's more: killerbyte is the book of the month and they're giving away 50 downloads of killerbyte. I actually don't know any real details, because Rebel's marketing people are doing this. But go here Rebel eClub and sign up, you'll find out what it's all about!

I think that about covers my week so far.
Crazy busy writing  - which is what I love to be doing.
Just don't expect me to be capable of holding a conversation or to get to weeding the front garden... I'm sinking into Ellie's world quite quickly and it's hard extracting myself.

Can any of you remember how many books I've written this year?
You can't count Flashbyte, that was mostly written at the end of last year and only finished earlier this year. (Due out Feb/March 2012 people)


:D

Little help?

Good morning!!
It's Wednesday. Once again please ignore the date and time on the top of my blog. Every time I change it - well, it changes back. My blog likes to operate in Eastern time, just quietly, it's my preferred time zone too.
Now on with Wednesday.

So, you may or may not be aware that a new character emerged over the last few days. I knew he was coming, but even I didn't know the extent of his awesomeness. Oh, and yeah that means I'm working on a new Byte novel. (Having finished the 5th Byte, Soundbyte, a month or so ago - finished enough that I can shelve it and let it mature some before I hook it back out for a last tweak and submit it to my beloved publishers.)
So this is new. Thought maybe it was a short story - wrong. Way too big to be a short. Way too big. And it starts with a bang. The only issue I have is - the name. I'm kinda stuck on pixelbyte.

Action Man suggested Picabyte - which is hilarious to say. (Go on, try it...) BUT - a pica is a typographic unit of measurement and I need something that makes you think images, photos - that kinda thing and preferably related in some way to computers. (PICA is also the Photo Imaging Council of Australia. - doesn't quite work for me, there are NO Australians here.)
It's also a bizarre eating disorder - that has nothing to do with the new book and will probably confuse people who see the name Picabyte.

So, something that indicates images are involved and sounds good with byte tacked onto the end. Even better if it is close to a real word!

Little help here people. I'm stuck!!

So, how's our week?

Yeah, that's all I got!
Apart from a very cool new character who I am enjoying - a lot. He is awesome. And this is fun. BIG FUN.

 :)