Kindle, NoooOOoooOOOoo!

As of two days ago, my Kindle hath broken.

It was an accident, and although I was lucky enough to receive it as a gift (and didn't have to pay for it), I'm wondering if getting the new one, which'll be so much smaller, will be weird, as I'm now used to having a 9-inch screen to read off of rather than 6 inch. I'm going to head down to Dick Smith's at the end of the week to pick up a new one. It's my reward for finishing all of my new scenes, and since I have one new scene left to write, and then it's rewrite time.

I'm so excited, out of all of my book left, I've got about 8 scenes I need to do some fiddling with, then I'll be printing out my book to do a full pass at it. Yay!

Agent hunting commences at the end of this month. I refuse to be late to that deadline.

It's funny how once something becomes serious to you, how willing you can be to make it work. And build a routine. It's been a long, hard road to get back to a place where I'm ok sitting down and writing every day, due to so many personal issues coming to fruition at once, but I'm so glad I'm here.

In unrelated news, holy heck it's getting hot here. I've never had a warm, let alone hot Christmas, so this is going to be one weird set of holidays for me. In some ways, my brain doesn't fully comprehend that I should be awaiting Thanksgiving. Turkey day isn't celebrated in Australia - they don't even have their own version, but the plethora of other parties they have makes up for it.

Writing Successes and Goals

Last week was filled with many writing successes as I pounded out a hefty 10k new words for my novel. I'm working to finish the major edits, which includes adding a few scenes, before the end of the month.

Currently, I'm mostly on schedule. Flogs will ensue if I go off. :)

Happy Birthday to Me!

As of today, I'm officially twenty-seven.

I moved!

One of the joys of living here in Australia has been finding my own place. It took almost two months to find a place as the first rental company we tried to work with never came back to us with anything. It was horrible, I can't imagine them actually managing property. So we switched companies, found a place, and actually received responses and a confirmation within two weeks.

Lo and behold, we've moved to a lovely two bedroom unit that's newly renovated.

I won't get into the internet saga, but let's just say it took over two weeks to get the phone connected and then another week to get internet. Ugh. We were charged over $400 for the privilege in total. I almost went into shock at the connection fees. Australians can never see what Americans pay for their stuff, or they'll all rebel. :P

Great Writing Advice and Update

My latest article is out on inloveabroad.com. I hope you enjoy it!

Also, my friend sent me this video advice for writing. It's great, everyone who wants to write should watch it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nl953qNcHIc&feature=youtu.be

This is the sort of stuff that gets repeated time and again, yet no one listens. So often, new writers assume there's some sort of magic secret where those of us who have published sit down, magically flow out 3000 words in an hour, then head off to our book clubs. It's not like that. It's butt in the seat, staring at the screen, and typing it out no matter how terrible it sounds. And then editing as much as it takes for it to shine.

Let's Get Personal

I've now lived in Australia for two months, and things are going well, if a bit crazy. In that time, I've travelled along New South Wales's coast, enjoyed eating Australian style food, and learned that kangaroos are kamikazes around cars. I've started a part-time job, worked on my book with an eye towards being done in August, and I've been setting up my life here. I've read about a dozen books since getting here, and I'm working on plenty of others.

Oh, and I've been writing these nifty articles - and yet another one is out.

Sometimes when I give myself grief for not having enough done, I realize I've done more than I realize. Yes, I wish I had more writing done, but not having a writer space and still working means I'm overcoming my obstacles, one bit at a time.

New Article out and Some Chit-Chat

Business first: my article about long-distance relationships and figuring out how to close the distance came out on Sunday.

I've been getting good feedback, but here's hoping more people will keep reading and responding with enthusiasm or sending the articles on to people they know - this pleases my editor, who in turn is happy with me. We like a happy circle.

Second of all, I know I haven't been chatty much lately, and certainly not as much as I'd like to be. Ever since I landed here in Australia, it's been a whirlwind of setting up my life and making myself get into a writing routine - which has been a struggle, since everything is still a tad chaotic. In a good way, but still chaotic.

A good writer who wants to get published gets their bum in the seat and writes what will be sent off to agents. Writing also requires a good amount of reading - not just for the obvious assistance in writing, but also to check out the competition, and for fun and relaxation when you can get the writer mind to stop critiquing every sentence. Ha!

My big find this year is the Fever series by Karen Moning. It's an urban fantasy set in Dublin, and is all about a girl who goes through this amazing personal journey as she rises up to save the world from an evil Unseelie (read: fairy) artifact. I'm partway through the fifth and final book, and I just have to gush for a moment about how much I love this series.

When I read the first book, I almost put it down, which is the kiss of death for my reading. There was a lot of repetitive back and forth with the primary characters as they attempted to figure one another out, and it was - well, annoying. But I kept reading past those chapters because the world hooked me, and I'm so glad I did. The characters grew into people and breathed life into a complex, yet easily understandable world. There's so much going on here.

Suffice to say this is my series recommendation of the year for someone looking for an excellent urban fantasy to get sunk into, who likes a more thriller-esque, dark tension with fairies, strong sexuality (not softcore sex scenes, just plenty of tension), a story that's not all rainbows and kittens, and yet manages to give us the happiness amongst the horrific happenings.

I can't wait to finish the last book.