New Years Eve 2011

Hello world,
It's New Years eve. The very last day of 2011.

Traditionally time for a recapping of the year almost gone and the accomplishments it held... we're going to bullet point it.

• Breezy started school in Feb.
• Exacerbyte was released in Feb. There was drinking and cake. :-)
• Squealer turned 12 on Feb 22nd.
• Christchurch was rocked by the most devastating earthquake of all: Feb 22nd.
• March was a month of group therapy for Squealer.
• Action Man's position at OfficeMax was disestablished on March 31st.
• Admin One, Admin Bubbles, and I arrived in the USA on April 7th.
• Admin Bubbles celebrated her birthday at Carmines in NY with Lorenza Ponce. A truly hilarious night!!
• We left the USA and arrived in Canada on April 29th. (I think!!)
• We arrived home the same day Osama Bin Laden was killed. My first text from Auckland airport was to Virginia to confirm what I'd heard when we got off the plane.
• Action Man started work at Fire Security Services in May.
• I signed the contract for Flashbyte in May - it was waiting for me when I got home.
• Dionne and Tim moved to Invercargill in June. The bottom of the world!
• We met, adopted and brought Romeo the retired racing Greyhound home in mid-June.
• The Boy Wonder turned 20 in late July.
• We met Anna, Dave, their kids, and Cleo (their Greyhound). Romeo and Cleo became best friends.Our kids became friends. Weekend dog runs and much laughter followed.
• Jojo moved back up here from Christchurch in August, hooray!
• Action Man celebrated a significant birthday in August - he had an entire birthday weekend as Admins were away skiing for his actual birthday!
• I released Torrent as a paperback on October 4th
• I released Torrent as a free eBook on October 15th.
• Then came the Romeo and the chicken story for kids and those who love Greyhounds! October 22nd.
• Also in October I asked Mark Valley if he would read Flashbyte and possibly write a blurb for me. (He said yes.)
• We hung out on a stand at the Pet Expo with Romeo and Cleo sometime in November.
• Killerbyte was awesomely reviewed on News Talk ZB in late November.
• In early December - bits and pieces of Romeo's sad past started to come to light. Anna and I did some research and concluded his former owner was nnnnuuutttttssss.
• Breezy turned 6 in December. Romeo discovered the joy of birthday parties.
• Squealer finished her last year at intermediate.
• I had a birthday.
• I finally got a cover for Flashbyte!
• Got the edits back for Flashbyte. Jayne said she didn't want them back until the New Year.
• School finished for Breezy. She'll be a year 2 in Feb.
• Just before Christmas another spate of earthquakes hit Christchurch.
• Christmas happened. I was over it long before it actually happened - big changes are on the cards for my publisher which somewhat killed Christmas!
• New Years Eve - I sent my finished/edited/manuscript for Flashbyte back to my editor and the acknowledgments too. Tonight the boys are staying - we were supposed to be camping but the weather is utter crap. Admins are also staying - as there will be no sober drivers! We are going to have a great night!!
• Romeo is hoping Cleo comes home from holiday soon... he misses his girlfriend. No one else can give him a run for his money like she can.

That was about it really... with all manner of crazy shit in between the bullet points that I can't remember!

Hope y'all have a safe and happy New Years.





Some of my favorite scenes...

Which I'm not sure anyone will ever see as a entire body of work...
These are scenes from Soundbyte - the as yet unpublished 5th byte novel and possibly the hardest hitting of all the byte novels.

Soundbyte
A scene with Ellie and Mac from Chapter one:

“Yes I do love someone else. But you are dead! A dead hero. What fucking use is a dead hero?”

“Dead but not blind.”

“Dead!”

“There is someone that loves you as much as I do. And you love him.”

“You left me. You. Left. Me.” I was on my feet, the anger I kept so close for so long spilled all over the room. Running down the walls like blood. Splashing onto the new carpet. A wave of foaming red rolled over the coffee table, swallowing the glass, lapping at the sofa. Mac was knee deep in frothy blood. “You took your vest off. You left me.”

“I did my job. I saved her.”

“Where was it written that you had to sacrifice us to do that?”

“You needed each other. You still do. You were meant to be someone’s mother.”

“Shut up!” I fumed. “You don’t know anything. You don’t know what it’s like without you.”

A figurative door closed.

“I know who you love. I know whom you like… a lot. But Ellie, it’s not him. I know you don’t love Rowan.”

“You don’t know shit,” I growled. I don’t need to discuss who shares my bed with my dead husband. That’s just wrong. “You could have saved her and yourself.”

Somewhere outside a car stopped. Doors opened and closed.

“Time for me to go.”

“You’re good at that.” Anger coursed unchecked. “Leave then, and don’t ever come back.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s too late for sorry.”

He started to stand up, as he did, my hand wrapped around the grip of my Glock. I lifted my arm. His face registered surprise.

“Ellie, don’t.” His words hung in the air. I fired twice. My bullets tore through his forehead. Blood sprayed across the back of the couch. The gun fell from my hand, dropping into the coffee table and sliding across the surface to tumble off the edge onto the silent carpet. I watched Mac fall in slow motion. He crumpled to the floor, just missing the coffee table. His words fell letter by letter and melted on the table surface.

A voice from the front door called out.

“Conway?”

A scene from Chapter seventeen:

And what did it have to do with the Bleich family? And the Sutherlands? And Maria Doyle was what to whom? And who was actually related to whom? I was starting to fully appreciate the Days of our Lives aspect of the case. All that was missing was someone lying comatose at the bottom of a set of stairs and another person buried in an avalanche and we’d have the makings of about ten new episodes. Which led me to wonder which one was Tony DiMera and which of the players was Roman Brady. Of course he could be played by several actors and lose his memory numerous times and chances are he was related to everyone. Then it hit me, Mark Valley wasn’t just Christopher Chance he played Jack Deveraux in Day of Our Lives. Intertwined relationships were everywhere. Pretty sure Deveraux was played by several actors over time.

The tangents spun on and on. The darkness climbing higher. Mac leaned over a thick concrete wall covered in graffiti, his voice echoed into a brick alley way, “Come on, babe. You can do this.”

I blocked out the soap opera aspect of my earlier thoughts and focused on one fact. One thing I did know. Four members of one family were dead. That, I knew was truth. Clawing fingers reaching for that last solid thought trying to drag it into the abyss. I watched as the Bleich parents contorted in agony as they were sucked downward into a fiery pit.

“Earth to Ellie.”

Flames leapt and the whole room smelled like a barbeque.

“Damn I’m hungry,” I said wiping my mouth with the back of my hand.

and finally a scene with Rowan and Ellie from chapter twenty-eight:

“Someone once told me he’d lay down his life for me but he didn’t think I’d let him,” I said. “He was right. That’s unnecessary macho bullshit.” A tiny bit of incensed annoyance crept into my voice. “Like I can’t shoot straight.”

“What happened to him?”

“He’s dead.”

He never flinched. “Did you?”

A little smile dabbled in the edges of my voice. “No, it wasn’t me.” Unless you can kill someone twice. “All that shit means is he couldn’t live with his decisions and the ramifications of whatever situation he was in. Dying for someone, that puts it all on them. No one wants to carry that. It’s not romantic carrying that guilt.”

Rowan’s breath brushed my hair. “Are you trying to say something here?”

“Yeah. Unless you’re a LEO or a soldier, it’s not your job to lay down your life for anyone else. More than that, doing so, is pretty fuc’n selfish. Being the one left behind sucks.”

“Are we talking about Mac here?”

"Kinda, he died but not for me. He died for Carla and she can't live with it."

Copyright Cat Connor 2011

I've heard there was a secret chord...

But fucked if I know what it is.

Christmas is over.

It's Boxing Day. Currently very early in the morning and I'm watching Bon Jovi's "When We Were Beautiful".
Why? Because I'm looking for something.
Direction. The way forward. A fucking answer.
Because on Christmas Eve all the work over the last fucking forever was pretty much shit-canned... I knew the changes were coming. I didn't know how fast it would all happen.
Now I'm left unsure of the next step and wondering how this affects my upcoming release or even the finishing of the edits.

Kinda put a damper on Christmas. Just a bit.

Doesn't matter how much you try not to think about it. Or that I know I have options. Or that I immediately went to a friend who has wanted me to say "Let's do this thing." to her for the last two years... because right now it's all gone or in the process of going and that's sad. It's the end of a great experience. I learned a lot. So very much. There are people I've LOVED working with and I'm going to miss them in that capacity. I know we won't loose touch - but the relationships will change. Still, it's sad.

Options.
Yep, they're there.
But also is the whole starting all over again thing.
Fuck that. Seriously, it's tough starting all over again in anything but with an already 'established' series it smacks of pushing shit up hill. Sure I know more about the industry.
I also know that way too much of this industry is about timing and luck. And that the wheels move so fucking slowly it drives a person like me insane. I've always worked fast, I am highly productive - because telling these stories is what makes me happy, therefore they're not hard for me to write, it's fun. (Sometimes I have to look really bloody hard to find the fun... not everything I write brings me joy but I am proud of every word.)

Which brings up the question... do  walk away from this series?
Answer.
NO.
I can't. It's too important to me.
And right now - it's the strongest body of work that I have.

There is an almost finished NZ book - but I'm struggling to finish it, struggling to fall in love with the characters and really don't want it to be the flag ship for a fresh start. For one thing... it's a KIWI novel. No matter how many people tell me that's hot in America right now... Americans will not be able to understand it. Seriously. It's not an American novel set in NZ, it's a kiwi novel... with ghost chups, Clinkers and pineapple lumps, jandals,Tuhoe, beached bro, don't bring your mates, nothing much, bloody legend, Watties tomato sauce and paddling pools for Christmas.
It may as well be written in a foreign language. And you know what? I'm not Americanizing it. Nope. It's a kiwi novel. It's about my town and yeah it's a mystery but it's set in my town and my town is a small city in the lower North Island of New Zealand. It's not an exciting place (for the most part). Our cops are not armed (for the most part). I have a Greyhound and he's in the book as his very charming self. It's a book about home and so much so that an Australian would probably struggle with the terms we use - let alone Americans.

As it stands right now - I don't feel much like writing anyway. I am supposed to be finishing the edits for Flashbyte but am not in the mood (in the light of recent events). I started a new Byte novel a few weeks ago - again, not in the mood.

I don't know what's going to happen over the next week or so. When I find out, I'll let you know.

(Little heads up though - if you've put off buying my books because of whatever, I advise you to go get them now, don't wait.)

I do know nothing will be as it was two weeks ago.

My part in all this... up in the air.

My career as a writer... who the fuck knows?

My work... again who the fuck knows!

Merry fucking Christmas and a happy New Year to you all.

Re-capping the last six months and life with a Greyhound!

Six months ago we bought Romeo home to live with us. He's an amazing, clever, loving dog who needed a forever home. He was not loved nor was he treated well, in his last brief home. He was injured, crated, and sad. He was very sad. He wasn't part of a family.
Today, I thought it would be nice to look back over the last six months and tell you a little bit about life with Romeo.

The day we brought Romeo home - he was exhausted from the car ride. And seemed quite delighted by his bed in the lounge.















He settled in quite quickly and loves Squealer.

He loves Breezy.

He loves The Boy Wonder (his is the only whistle that will bring Romeo back at full run!)

He loves us. That's cool, we love him too.

And we like to do stuff together.












He has a best friend: Cleo.

They love to play and just hang out. Romeo's favorite fun of all is to be at his favorite place with Cleo and his extended family.
 He keeps an eye on where everyone is. I suspect he does a head count.

He's a happy dog with a waggy tail. He's finally over his fear of small spaces. (Guess being crated for weeks on end will cause fear and anxiety.) He tells us what he wants, mostly by sign. He's quite the conversationalist but you have to be watching... or he will make you watch! :-)

Can we imagine life without him? No. Life with him is so much fuller and more fun.

He wasn't happy about his bed turning pink for Breezy's birthday - but he did enjoy the party!

There was cake. What's not to like?

And now - it's almost Christmas.

I've had six months of walking Romeo to school (almost every day) of knowing/ learning and understanding what scares him and how to coax him through his fears. Knowing that he will happily walk with Action Man, Squealer or Breezy but when he wants me back he will stop and look for me. If they don't get it... he will cry and look for me.

It's a security thing. Because I walk him so much I know the streets and houses that have dogs/cars/loud noises that spook him, so he trusts me to walk him safely past such things.

He knows to stop at the Fire station and wait. He knows to stop and wait at roads, even the hidden ones. He listens intently to everything I say on our walks. We play games. He has to make a hole big enough for both of us when come to crowds of people or are weaving our way through obstacles. It's fun for him, it must be, his tail wags a lot when he's told how clever he is!

Also - people who stop to chat and call him beautiful or other such nice things are rewarded by a prancing dog with a waggy tail!

He's learned how to manage his strider when running - it freaked us all out in the beginning but we've learned how to deal with it - he doesn't slow down much now! He is a vomiter though, if he's chasing Cleo too hard he will often vomit - due to his breathing being so hard. 

(I still don't understand how ANYONE could break a dogs trachea - it's certainly not possible in the way we were told it happened. I suspect he was kicked in the throat, not dragged by a martingale collar.)

Apart from leg cramps - which we massage and ice, and the occasional nicks on his legs from running on the beach with Cleo - Romeo hasn't been hurt at all. But then we don't do stupid or dangerous things with him.

All in all - it's been a wonderful six months.

Because of Romeo we have met some really great people and our kids have some awesome friends... you guys know who you are!

Romeo brings joy without even trying.

The Boy Wonder, who was unconvinced that a Greyhound would be awesome... loves Romeo.

(He was also quite taken by Cleo too.)

What else?

Oh yeah, Romeo, Cleo, the kids, and Missy the fat grey cat all starred in their own book. Romeo and the chicken. There is a link on the upper right to the book - it contains two stories about Romeo.

We're very glad to have adopted Romeo.

More than that - he's happy.

I love this photo - Romeo was pretending to be asleep while listening to Dave on the radio - he said something about Cleo!

And this - from this morning:

Merry Christmas from Romeo!

Last minute...

Not quite last minute I suppose... it's 4 sleeps until the fat  bastard man in red arrives.

Last night this short story idea popped up. I think it was last night. Can't actually be sure. The days are all blurring together.
Anyway - I was working on it today. It'll be done tomorrow or the day after, then I'll share.
If you recall there wasn't going to be a Christmas story this year.
Ellie apparently had other ideas.
Other ideas that involve some covert investigating and maybe, just maybe, I'll learn something about Doc.
That would be cool. He's kinda a dark horse. (Okay a blond horse... but that doesn't work as well now, does it?)
So expect a Christmas story - soonish.

Other than that - I installed Office Professional on my PC this morning. Outlook set itself up but didn't manage to import all my contacts. Brilliant. Have discovered Outlook 10 is not so user friendly. Took me ages to figure out where the import button was hidden. Plus the annoyance of going to all my mail programs and saving the contacts lists somewhere I could find them. AND then finding that the import didn't come with names - and not everyone has an obvious email address.
Bit of a pain in the ass production... think I kinda have it sorted now.
Wouldn't hurt for anyone who uses my main email account to drop me a line - just to make sure I have your email because some did not transfer over. (Paradise account, folks.)

So, now, it seems I have to re-write the kids computer schedule... prior to the holidays it was only from 3:30 that they could use the PC was no worries really. But now, with a cool new set of programs on my PC and me wanting to use it... it's the holidays, they're on it all freaking day.
Arghhhh!!!

On that note... I'm off to check my email and use MY PC.

Love the laptop...but the cool stuff is now on the PC. :-)

Five sleeps...

Until some fat old bastard squeezes down the chimney and leaves stockings filled with crap on the kids beds.

Hooray the madness is nearly over it's almost Christmas.

This is the time of year when people do bizarre things and very little of what comes from kids mouths makes any sense. (Which is only slightly different from normal.)

I'm in the middle of my edits. Which is fun for me and a shit load easier than writing the initial story (despite me having Ellie show me videos etc at every stage while I'm writing!)
My lovely editor doesn't want Flashbyte back until the New Year, which suits me fine. I'll have it all done and dusted by Christmas then take a week to tweak scenes and generally mess around with it before sending it all back.

Now, I can't remember if I told y'all about the huge pricing shift for Rebel books... ALL our eBooks are now $4.99 via Amazon.
I know... exciting.
So, those of you who were stuttering over paying almost $10 for eBooks can now buy ours at half that!! And, they're excellent books... all of them. You won't find better written or more entertaining stories anywhere. Even better... you can gift Kindle books. Yes you can! What are you waiting for?
Christmas would be a great time to start my series... you will have all three read by March and be caught up and ready for number 4 when it's released! (Subtle as a gold brick.)

This week is filling up fast.
Today we went to the park with my friend Rosebud and her son. Tomorrow is Eric day - must find out if he's calling in Christmas day on his way to work! Thursday night The Admins and I are taking the kids to see the Telecom tree so they can ring Santa. Friday night it's drinkies with Rosebud at our place - the cards might get a bit of a work out. Then it's Christmas eve already! (And that will pretty much be taken up with the making of desserts and stuffing of large birds.)


Today's pic of the day:

My week in a nutshell.

Yeah I know it's Sunday so new week right?

Well, let's catch you up on the last week first, yeah?

It went like this ...

Blah Blah Blah ....

No not really. Was more like this.

Fuck Fuck Fuck....

Nope, that wasn't it.

I'll get it right in a minute. Finding the words is interesting. (Yeah, yeah, I'm the writer.)

The thing is this is all in-house stuff - so the upshot is all that really matters, right? All the back and forth stuff was just that.
Long story short.
We had a narrow escape. Nearly lost our Jayne's super duper editing skills along with the rest of her awesome self but no one knew that until last night. I saw the worst contract I've ever seen in my life. Read some utterly incoherent bollocks. Also read some awesome emails from fellow Rebels and then I learned how to slay a dragon.
With the sky clear - not a dragon in sight... and some changes made with group consensus it's all starting to feel a lot like Christmas.
AND you can now buy all Rebel e's electronic books for $4.99  which makes us competitive... and... I now require you to rush over to Amazon or iTunes or wherever you buy your eBooks and buy them immediately! Mine especially because let's face it... this is my blog, ;-)
I want you all to prove that price was the stumbling block because we know it's not the content. The one thing all Rebel books have in common is that they are excellent stories. Excellent.
I dare you to show me a bad review of any of the books.
Go on.
Find one!
I dare you.

Thus far it's only the eBook prices that have dropped. Rebel is working on trying to bring the cost of our paperbacks down, but that's harder because of the way they're created. I'll keep you posted on that.

Meanwhile...
Friday night Action Man and I went to his work Christmas dinner. Was good fun. Really great bunch of people. First work function I've enjoyed in YEARS. Nice that he's finally working for a company that employs really great people!!
The Admins were babysitting for us. And the kids had a lovely time too. (More importantly they behaved well, which is to be expected.)

And yesterday we finished our Christmas shopping... I hope!!

It's exactly one week until Christmas.

ONE WEEK.

This year has been interesting. Very interesting. Sometime before the New Year I will run you through some highlights. (Of which there were many!)

You know what to do now though, right?
Buy Rebel e books... and yes, you CAN gift eBooks. So get on it, people.

Now... I'm off to craft an email to my mystery blurber and hope (cos I really am Pollyanna) that he gets it, reads it, and replies. (You know who you are... so, if you happen to stop by here... you know what to do!)

All I want for Christmas is...

a blurb.

Yep.

That's it.

That's exactly what I want.

Not any old blurb though. The one that took me ages to find the right contact details for and to dig up enough guts to ask... only to be completely blown away by the lovely response.
That's the one I want.

I've pretty much decided (except for that little piece of me who is very much a Pollyanna) that it's not going to happen, and really I could hardly blame him. Reading my part-way-through-the-editing-process-drivel is not easy. Not easy at all.
The part of me that likes rainbows and crystal chandeliers ... yeah that part - wants to send this person a copy of the cover and a Merry Christmas email, but the other part of me... the one that is a tad cynical and probably has both feet in reality is constantly reminding me that I should move on.
Give it up.
Kinda disappointing to realise that that is what I need to do.

Of course in my Pollyanna world of rainbows when people say yes they follow through... just a shame the real world never quite matches up.

If indeed you were thinking of getting me something for Christmas - an Amazon review would be awesome... I think I need to let the blurb dream go.

Meanwhile, I have a dinner to get ready for, truffles to roll, and Christmas spirit to dredge up.

Take care out there.

I hate this time of year

Yep, I do.

It involves too much yelling and way to much annoyance! (I'm not the one yelling - just to clarify, but I am the one who is annoyed by it!)

Children who have had enough of school already and yet it's not finished yet... and the impending jolly fat man in the red suit who causes all manner of crazy tantrums - these are the things sent to try me!

It seems that children lose their ability to hear and reason at this time of year. They become little shits who fail to see that their behavior isn't endearing them to their parents... and may in fact jeopardise the arrival of Christmas. I'm over it. Makes me wonder why we work so hard to make Christmas special!

But that's beside the point.

Today I found the Christmas tree and decorations - I set everything up so the kids could decorate after school. That went quite well.

Now the cat has taken up residence under the tree:
I think she's concerned that she'll miss Santa...

Which reminds me, I must make Missy and Romeo stockings. It seems only fair.
I've ever done that before.
Jake always had a present under the tree but he sure as hell never had a stocking.
Oh dear.
I think I may have lost my mind!

There was talk of Christmas songs as the kids decorated the tree... luckily it was only talk. It's well known that unless they're Bon Jovi Christmas songs I'm just not that into the whole Christmas song thing!
(Okay...some Christmas songs are okay - but not that freaking awful Snoopy one... yeah you know the one!)

So anyway - pre-Christmas craziness has fully gripped our house. Hope yours is faring better!

It's starting to feel a lot like Christmas... and it's starting to make me want to work!

Maybe I'll write a little bit for the rest of the afternoon?

Today is the tomorrow we worried about yesterday

Well it would be if I'd worried about it at all.

That was some Nana wisdom for you.
Hope you enjoyed it.

It's the day after my birthday - which was typically pretty crap really. It was the same as every other day. Which I suppose doesn't make it crap, it just makes it usual. So, it was pretty usual really.

Moving right along.

It's the day after.

I have a ton of things to do - because apparently there is only one more weekend until the fat man tries to squish his self down our chimney... well, bugger! I'm not ready for this.

Last night I finally finished painting the fabric I've been painting for what-seems-like months. So, yay!
Now I  just have to sit my backside down at the sewing machine and finish what I intend to make. Let's hope I can squeeze that in this week, between school events, cleaning, baking, buying presents, trying to decide what this years Christmas dinner will be - turkey is off the menu - it's too freaking expensive this year ($70 for a turkey, ridiculous!), hopefully I'll get some writing in somewhere and there is a Christmas party to attend on Friday.

Every other year I'm well organised by now, and all I need to do is get the kids decorating the tree... not this year.
This year turned to custard with work sapping my energy and will to do anything really.
Thankfully that's looking up now.
Here's hoping the improvement is rapid and there isn't another three years of frustration before I start seeing some results.

Meanwhile - today I need to get Christmas paper and wrap presents to send south - that needs to be a priority, along with getting K's present sorted/sent. It's easier this year, have his wish list, chosen the gift - just have to have it sent to him.

Seems to be hot and rainy - ick! Not looking forward to the walk to UH then!!

Hope you're all having a good week!

This is the cuteness of the day yesterday:

It's my birthday and I'll do whatever I freaking well like...

Okay technically it's not until tomorrow - but tomorrow is a Monday... so, it seemed smarter to celebrate my birthday today.

This morning we went up to see VilifyingAngel and pick up my cute zombie. Which I'd photograph if I could get to my camera. Suffice to say there will be a photo at some stage! Then we came home and took Romeo to the park for a gallop... he chases the kids, it's all good fun. :-)
Nothing more hilarious than kids screaming and running flat out while being chased by a Greyhound... now Romeo is sleeping.
Breezy is annoying Squealer and The Boy Wonder and Action Man are playing various computer & Xbox games upstairs.
We also went to the stupidmarket and got some pate for afternoon tea.

There are a lot of changes happening at the moment - you would know that if you read my blog with any regularity - if you don't, welcome to chaos. I admit to being slightly uneasy about the big changes - but really, when it comes down to it... things can't get any worse so this has got to be an improvement.
Plus- I have lot's of eggs... they're still good and they're not all in one basket.

Next year will be the year I take my kiwi novel and do something magical with it - because I'm listening. I don't know that I believe things have changed THAT much that big name agents will be interested in me this time around but I'm willing to give it ago because Sara believes it. And sometimes you just need a bit of blind faith.

So, it's my birthdayish - and I will do whatever I freaking well please...right now I'm going to go watch something that makes me smile and then the Admins are coming over for afternoon tea.
All is as it should be.

Oh yeah, I put the almond paste on the Christmas cake today. Tomorrow I will put the royal icing on, and it's done!
Guess if we're not having turkey we should as least have Christmas cake.

Meanwhile I have a really funky little zombie hanging on my key chain. Gorgeous kids -yes all of them, a great husband, fabulous family and friends... and let's not forget the best dog in the world!

The future...

December is full of birthdays and remembrances. Today was Nana's birthday. We used to say Nana would live forever - imagine our surprise when she died aged 97... I think I actually believed she would live forever.
It was Dad's birthday on Wednesday. Breezy's on Monday. K's on Saturday.
Mine is coming up after the weekend.
We have friend's birthday's too.
Tiaki was yesterday. Marek is tomorrow. Lee is the day after mine. Elaine is the day after Lee.
It's busy.
And it's full of Sagittarius's havoc.
But that's a good thing because after all - we're the coolest of all star signs. No point arguing it, you know it's true.

So anyway - things have been a bit up in the air this year - frustrating, annoying, difficult to negotiate and a few other things as well.

My card kept saying - new path, patience, you'll hear soon, everything will work out,  something big is happening and it's tied to someone of influence overseas - and so forth. Continuous messages along those lines... all the while insisting in patience and that I not reveal my whole plan to anyone as someone a 'friend' was jealous and couldn't be trusted.
Hmmm. If these things had come up once or twice I would've over looked them... but time and time again, now that means something. Something I wasn't seeing.

I listened. I learned a long time ago that listening hurts no one. Being forearmed is smart. So, I set about reversing negative energy that flowed my way from the jealous quarter and I asked some hard questions regarding what I need/want for my career and I got my answers.
I have my direction now. The path is split but it turns out even the familiar path becomes new. You'll find out in the New Year, until then... I've got some writing/polishing/editing to do.

In fact only one thing remains outstanding and I think I have to let that one go. Disappointing because the person who agreed to blurb is someone I really admire and have for a very long time. For all I know there could an email over the weekend with the blurb attached!  Oh look, flying pigs. :-)

And this is the possible new cover for Flashbyte:

and this is my preciousness all together:

What does it take?

Turns out I am patient, a lot more patient than most people. Also, loyal. It's been my downfall before. I won't let it be my downfall again .

My patience has run out. More about that in another blog when I know exactly what's happening.)

Right now I want to explore a VERY pressing issue. (That may or may not have something to do with the above.)

When books that get scathing/horrid/dreadful reviews sell and books that get awesome reviews don't - then it's time to re-evaluate the way things are being done. Yes? Where is the sense?

The time I gave a bad review to someone - I didn't mention the title of the book and didn't put it on Amazon, I did it here - because I know people will buy crap because someone said it was crap. They feel compelled to see for themselves. It's like watching a train wreck.

So, why doesn't that work for great reviews?

Why don't people go, "It can't be that good, I better see for myself."??

My question to you...

What does it take to get people to buy really good books?

As someone who (knock on wood) has only had great reviews (some so good I cried) and whose sales are utter crap. What does it take?
It ain't the products.
The products are excellent and well worth reading.
So what is it?

What's the magic thing that drives people to buy books??

Writing, maybe I do it oddly?

Over the weekend Anna commented that they don't teach the way I write in creative writing courses. It's not the first time she's mentioned this... and it got me thinking.

I can't be the only writer out there that has characters rock up and start telling me a story... can I?

I know lots of writers who have in depth character maps - they're so complete that they could create an entire life for them and some do - before they ever write a word in a story.
Maybe I'm too impatient for that.

I've never done it.

Just like I've never consciously created a character.
My main characters names pop into my head but the character has already shown his/her self to me.
I do sometimes use people I know as lesser characters but only as far as I will use part of or all of their name... the character is not like them, they just have the same or a similar name.

I do have a character book - but it's an after the fact thing and it was mostly for those cannon-fodder type characters and contained sketchy information. Not much more than a name, occupation, body type and height really.

But an in depth outline, any kind of idea who is going to pop up next... hell no. It's not how it works for me.

When my characters show up they want me to get on with the story - and I don't want to spend six weeks creating a beautiful profile and never write a freaking word toward the story... I learn about them as we go.

I knew someone once who wanted to write with me - she spent more time creating gorgeous profiles on a bunch of characters than she ever did writing - in fact to my several chapters she wrote maybe half a chapter and took months. Needless to say I scrapped that half a chapter and turned the stuff I'd written into a rather long short story. It was published somewhere but I can't think where right now!
That kind of dicking around and 'busy work' fucks me off. Seriously, just get on with it, the characters will come and be more interesting if they're allowed to develop on their own.

Does that make me different? Possibly.

But probably no different than me seeing video footage in my head (and yeah I hear music).

When I started writing killerbyte I did not know the main character was a chick called Ellie Conway, I knew she was female and what she looked like. As the story emerged I found out who she was and what she did for a job. It's always been like that for me.

I start writing - I write what I see - the characters show themselves as necessary and I learn about them as the story unfolds.

Right now, I'm writing the 6th Byte novel. I know my characters pretty well, but there were still some surprises for me. A new character rocked up in an alleyway and that surprised the hell out of me... I like writing the way I do it. I like that even I don't know what's going to happen next.
That keeps me interested.

I had no idea that Rowan Grange would become part of Ellie's life - he was mentioned a few times in killerbyte and terrorbyte, he was a fringe person. Not someone she knew. For me, that kind of thing is a lot of fun.

It's like how I didn't know Kurt Henderson was going to become a pivotal part of Delta.

Or that I had no clue when terrorbyte finished what they'd uncover next and how many people were involved in the Hawk situation or who would ultimately (and figuratively) stab Ellie in the back. I felt quite sick when I realised what was happening in Exacerbyte. Sick, but couldn't stop it. Because that's how it happened.

I didn't know because my characters show me what's happening in small sections and in order. There is no skipping to the end, or jumping to the middle. I can only see what they share with me.

Okay, that sounds a little nuts.
But it's how I write.
I trust my characters to show me the story and to resolve any given situation their way.

I use notebooks to keep track of what they're showing me - but I don't write plot outlines or character maps. It's pretty much all kept in my head. (Probably why I tune out of things around me when I'm writing... I don't need other stuff encroaching on the story.)

While you're all pondering over how you write or how your favorite authors write... here's a pretty picture or two from our awesome weekend. :-)

Breezy's birthday

Breezy had her birthday party today. Her 6th birthday party.

It went something like this and she had a lovely day!

Breezy and Romeo first thing this morning.

And she got just what she always wanted...

And she got just what she always wanted again... (This time from the Boy Wonder.)

Then Cleo and her family arrived... and the day became even more awesome for Breezy.

The Boy Wonder made balloon animals.

Cleo and Romeo hung out.

Jojo had something interesting.

And there was cake!

Tired happy kids and tired happy dogs...and yes, they took over the lounge.
Well, they hadn't but Romeo was on his bed and Cleo was trying to get comfy on the floor so Action Man ran upstairs and bought down Romeo's upstairs bed for Cleo... and she was one happy hound.

Next time - we need to do this with wine for the adults!






That was our Sunday... how was yours?

:-)

Really? We still on that?

I was up early - not unusual, I get up early. (kids = no sleep in ever)

While I drank my first coffee I had a look through my blog stats. Turns out people are still finding my blog by searching for "blood on concrete" "Dried blood stains" "Death from chlorine gas" and "cooked turtles."
A few other things cropped up as well.
 Like these:
"Jon Bon Jovi looking sad" - Seriously?
"Decadent thong" - Not even kidding.
"What to do when you're madder than hell" - I like to shoot things - how about you?
"Its not always the looks"
"Every time a coconut."
"How to feel in late November." - I don't know that I've ever told anyone how to feel, lol.
"Christmas cake writing."

Okay maybe that amuses me.
But I'm pretty sure I never wrote a blog about writing on or with a Christmas cake.
But maybe I will.

Currently Bon Jovi are playing on the TV.
It's a year since I last saw them live. So much has happened in the last year it's kinda over shadowed the awesome of seeing them live in Wellington. But the stuff that happened was awesome in its own right.

More about that later: Right now I have a migraine about to kick my ass and writing while trying to see around a freaking big grey hole is not easy.