23 June 2006

Ups and downs

What a roller coaster the last half hour has been! Australia tied 2 all with Croatia in the Soccer World Cup which means we go onto the second round. We play Italy next. This a fantastic result given soccer in this country is just getting on its feet after years of division and lack of focus.

But then I came back to my computer to browse my favourite blogs to find Magdelena over at Myths and Metawhores has been vandalised. What bastards there are in the world! Lena is a sex blogger with a strong spiritual bent and I loved her lyrical posts on life. She says she'll be back and I hope she will. Many hugs to you Lena.

Kathleen Bradean also reports on some nasty blogger behavior at her site. I had a blogger lift something from me once and it was almost impossible to get Blogger to do anything about it. In the end I think the blogger in question decided to take off my and a few other writers work from his/her site without any intervention from Blogger.

But on another up, check out the contents and contributors to CREAM which will be out in August. My story is first cab off the rank! It's such a thrill.

19 June 2006

Take a quiz






Which of Henry VIII's wives are you?
this quiz was made by Lori Fury

I'm appalled that a silly quiz could be so accurate - sigh. I'm a Taurus too.

Fear and the need to keep going

I'm getting a lot out of The Writing Coach (thanks Jacqui). I needed a reminder about fear.

The moment we allow our fears of the value judgments of others to affect our work, we are lost as writers.

and

If you don't allow yourself to write regularly because you fear writing badly, then you will certainly write badly. Not writing ensures you will be permanently disengaged from your work.

(Both quotes from Day One on The Writing Coach blog).

I'm working on a short story at the moment and it's not going so well. This is the point to either work through it or abandon it. Part of the problem a lack of the senses. As I write this, realise I need to go back and put my protagonist into the physical world. I have a vision of him standing in a dim study watching the dust motes drift on a pale stream of sunlight while someone lectures him on the need to avoid the pleasures of the flesh.

There is a hint of desperation in the lecturing voice which makes my protagonist's skin prickle with anticipation. And so it goes.

Australia lost 2-0 to Brazil. Not so surprising. Next game is against Croatia.

13 June 2006

Good news!

I sold a short story called Ghostly Desires to Forbidden Publications! Don't know when it's coming out but I'm so thrilled.

To top it off, Australia won 3-1 against Japan in the Soccer World Cup! We were down 1-o until the 84th minute then scored three goals in the last 6 minutes. It's the first time we've had a team in the World Cup in 32 years and first time we've ever scored.

Good news day!

04 June 2006

Good advice

Over at Murder She Writes guest blogger J Carson Black posted this. I've probably read this advice in different ways over the years but some combination of words made this version hit home for me. More and more I've had to get back to writing work that gives me pleasure and not what I think will give other people pleasure. Which isn't to say I'll be off in some tower somewhere writing only for myself, but means I'm working fairly single mindedly at the moment on writing stories with a voice that comes naturally for me rather than a voice that I think other people want to hear.

This is good. This is what I need to do. And in the end being true to myself will make my writing better.

02 June 2006

It's not summer here

I keep reading all these posts about summer in the Northern Hemisphere and what people are going to read while they're on vacation. I have to tell you folks, it's bloody freezing where I am. There's sleet in the air and it's dark and miserable. All the more reason to read and write I guess.

My story is still going slowly but surely. I'm reading Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters and finishing off Best New Erotica 2004.

I'm also checking out the blog of Jacqui Lofthouse, and English writer who's running a writing coaching service through her blog. She has an approach I like. I need constant reminders to sink into the pleasure of writing and not make it a rod for my back. She seems to think that's a good idea too.