Keziah Hill

Well, a generator or two is always fun. Sven starts today in my neck of the woods and wouldn’t you know it, I woke up with a blinding headache from a stiff and sore neck. Too much time on the computer.

Get Your Cyborg Name

Damn it! Nothing written this morning and probably none tonight. But a new character popped up yesterday who has great potential for lots of conflict between the hero and heroine, then result in some final redemption for the hero, who’s a bit of a bastard. All to the good.

I don’t understand Harlequin. I particularly don’t understand the marketing behind Sexy Sensations. I think they are available in the UK and Australia but not in the US. They also have another title, Modern Extra Sensual (I think). Why am I curious? Because Kelly Hunter has a Sexy Sensations on the shelves at the moment called Sleeping Partners and it’s one of the best categories I’ve read in a long time.

Set in Penang in a crumbling old hotel, it has fantastic dialogue, a hero and heroine with chemistry that lights up the page and a both sexy and moving story.

Now I’m even more confused. Kelly’s Wife for a Week is available in the US. You can get it at eHarlequin (it’s good too). That means Sleeping Partners will be available eventually too, yes? Whatever. Just get it when you see it.

8.17am. Off to work. 1,187 words done.

First there is the KIA Marathon that RWAOnline members undertake in October, then there’s Nano, now there’s Sven! So through the three writing challenges I’ve decided to undertake, I’m sure to get something completed. Right?

1,242 done today so far at 1.32pm (I have a day off from paid work).

Over at Crossed Wires, Mel has a post about the Doug Anthony Allstars, an Australian comedy troop from the 1990s (Doug Anthony was a Deputy Prime Minister of Australia in the 1970s - one of those situations where you have to live here to get the joke).

She’s put in a link to a clip of the DAAS singing Mark Seymour’s “Throw Your Arms Around Me” and I urge you to go watch it. This song is one of those anthemic songs for Australians in the 1980s. At every concert it’s performed at, and lots of bands still do versions of it including Pearl Jam, everyone sings along with the chorus. It’s a song about yearning.

I had a search on YouTube and saw the original Hunters and Collectors version (they were so young!) then watched a recent version with Mark Seymour, who’s one of those men who gets hotter with age. Ah me-o-my. What a blast from the past.

It’s October already and you know what that means…yes!

It’s time for Cobblestone Press’ 2nd Annual Octoberfest Celebration. Shifters, vampires, ghosts, and everything in between. Octoberfest is about celebrating all things paranormal and in celebration of their Octoberfest releases the authors of Cobblestone are having a MONTH long Blog Party.

You know what happens at parties, right? There are gifts and this party will be no exception. Stop by an author’s blog during thier week and comment and you’ll automatically be entered to win a copy of their Octoberfest title! Woot! And you’ll be able to read excerpts, some that may not be seen anywhere else. So let’s get to the good stuff.

Here’s the schedule for the first week. Starting us off with releases this coming Friday, October 5th are Sable Grey, Ericka Scott and Shelli Stevens.

So from October 1st to Friday, October 5th stop by their blogs and leave them a comment. The winners will be announced Friday, October 5th on the CP Blog and on each authors blog.

October 1st to October 5th, 2007:

Sable Grey’s Blog

Prize: ebook copy of Something Wild

Blurb: London is a city drowning in fear as a barrage of gruesome murders plague the streets in Whitechapel. Detective Baden Sikes is out to find the ripper but will his own secrets destroy him and those he loves most?

Ericka Scott’s Blog

Prize: ebook copy of Postcards from the Dead

Blurb: The dead don’t speak to her; they send her postcards. When Cassandra Moore receives a cryptic postcard from her dead husband, Drew Brinkman offers to help her discover the meaning of the postcard. But she doesn’t know he’s an investigative reporter out to prove the ghostly postcards are fakes.

Shelli Steven’s Blog

Prize: ANY ebook off of her backlist (Octoberfest release is titled: Primal Attraction)

Blurb: Old Centuron should have been a forgotten colony, but when Sarina arrives to do research, she confronts the brutal reality of how wrong she was. Now prisoner to a man who is both wolf and human, she faces a shocking truth and an undeniable passion.

The blog party invites will go out every Monday and the next one is scheduled on Monday, October 8th!

Don’t forget to go to Cobblestone Press for more great titles!

Haven’t been here much. Been co-ordinating contests and doing other life stuff. And I’m writing this on my shiny new Mac. It’s bewtiful! But it also meant that my internet life collapsed somewhat because even though I saved all my work and other files, I lost my email contacts. Very frustrating. And I’ve yet to work out how to get my ebooks onto my HP ipaq. I don’t think it’s possible. Luckily I have a windows laptop I can download ebooks to and sync with my PDA.

My artist’s date was to a new very swank stationery shop in Leura. I bought a notebook and a dark pink glass pen. The picture of the notebook doesn’t do it justice. It’s actually fuschia and black and has a linen and flock finish. I almost can’t write in it, but I have.

Working on a fantasy novella which I hope to have finished by the end of October. I’m doing a writing marathon with RWAOnline, which is training for National Novel Writing Month. I’ve never done it before. The aim is to write 50,000 words in 30 days. That means 1,600 per day. Can I do it? Don’t know, but I’m going to give it a go.

I want to use the experience as a way of reconciling myself to writing crap. Instead of starting my first draft and agonizing over every word, then getting depressed and giving up, I want to get into the practice of writing without thinking about it too much. It’s not what I normally do, so it’s an experiment. Part of my strategy is to disconnect my modem before I go to bed and put it in another room. Then when I get up in the morning, I don’t get tempted by the internet. The other strategy is to not have breakfast before I start writing. Just get up and get into it.