Award Night photos

It was the RWAus' Night of Nights - the Awards Dinner, and yes finally I have some photos to show you. These photos first appeared in the September Hearts Talk, and I must say I'm quite proud of them.

Marion Lennox, R*BY winner
Amy Andrews, & Robyn Grady

Bootcamper 109ers -
Shayne, Mon, & Anita

Tracey O'Hara with
her R*BY win

L-R: Paula Roe, M.J. Scott,
Keri Arthur, Kylie Griffin

Alexis Fleming, Kelly Ethan,
& Bronwyn Stuart

SARAs Becca J Heath
& Trish Morey

Kiki Lon & Diane Curran

Conference MC Kerri Lane

Elizabeth Rolls &
Robyn Aldridge

Me (middle) with SARA gals,
Trica Schmitz and Amy T. Matthews

Roseanne Smiles, Denise Rossetti,
& Alison Leake

Daniel DeLorne & Nikki Logan

Me with my certificate for
the Little Gems Cover

Bootcampers Fiona Gregory
& Tracey Turner

Little Gems co-ordinators
 - Elisabeth Rose & Joanie McNeil

~yia~

Night of the Living Trekkies

Oh goodness, I couldn't stop laughing when I watched this. Though fair warning - it's Trekkies reliving the Night of the Living Dead - it's a book trailer. Oh that is SO on my To Read list!

Back to the trailer, yes, there's some gore. So if you are sensitive to any of that, look away now.

Everyone else - enjoy!


(Thanks to Natalie Hatch, who put this up on her blog. It reminded me that people who follow this blog will like it.)





YouTube link


~yia~

Count down to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

The latest trailer has been released. Check it out!





Youtube link


Squee, I can't wait!!


How about you?




~yia~

Go, go, go....

That's how I feel my life has been lately and while I've had down times (well I have to or I will crash), it's been go, go, go in all aspects of my life - appointments, catching up with people, writing, errands, housework (always that - urgh!), reading, projects....

Phew, just tired thinking about it.

The next couple of weeks are going be 'those' weeks - non-stop. Every day I have an appointment of some kind and it's going to be school holidays, so everywhere will be busier.

Still writing related things that I would like to get done:

• polish off the final chapters of a manuscript
• enter a couple of US competitions due in October and November
• review short stories and sent to relevant markets
• add short stories published to my website. Looking them over I've noticed how much my writing has grown technically. I think the voice is there but I'm always improving, which is a good thing for  a writer to constantly do. 
• I've got a number of projects on the go, so working out which to focus on next. I can realistically work on a first draft and then a second draft of two different manuscripts because they are vastly different stories and they won't get mixed up. 
• Write a short story for a competition. 
• Continue preparing for my seminar on blogging, which is in November
• Get my study into some sort of order - yes, I know this is the never-ending battle. One day, one day. 

Yikes, my study is not far off!

That should keep me busy for awhile. I also do bits and pieces for RWAus, Bootcampers, SARA, and the Paranormal group I belong too. So I factor that in as well as blogging, blog reading, emails etc. I've been actually cutting back on blog reading and twitter. Some days I hang out more than others but I try and spread things out and take how I feel in a day into account. Finally, I'm getting somewhere with listening to what my body is telling me. Huzzah!

OK better get back to polishing.

~yia~

Oh the reading, the reading....

You all know about my huge and I mean HUGE TBR pile.

Well over at Eleni's Library, I show off what I have recently got at the RWAustralia conference and AussieCon 4!

~yia~

An Outlander Graphic Novel!

I knew it was coming but it will be out this week. Jamie's story from Outlander in graphic novel form.

It is called The Exile.

Woohoo!!!!

I loved Cross Stitch (or Outlander as it's known in the States) by Diana Gabaldon. The first 3 books in that series are my favourite, and Jamie is a fantastic hero. I don't think anyone who has read the book can not help but admire him.

There was a deleted marriage night scene that didn't make the final cut but will be in the "making of" apparently. You can see it here.

And here is the book trailer....



YouTube link

And also there is a Outlander The Musical. A CD based on the work of Outlander. There is a sample track on her website called Blood of my Blood (you need to scroll down to July) but basically it is the track that is used for the book trailer.

So it's on my to buy list. Is it on yours?

~yia~

And the winner

... of Forbidden is......

(selected randomly of course)



Allison'(s) Reads!!!!!


Congratulations & Happy Reading!!!

Berkley Heat
ISBN 13: 9780425238080

Please email Christina at ChristinapPh @ gmail dot com (no spaces) with your details.

Thanks everyone for joining in, and thanks Christina for the giveaway.




~yia~

GMC in reading

You writers know what I'm talking about when I say GMC right. But for those uninitiated it's Goals, Motivation, Conflict. Basically it's what a character wants, why they want it, and what stands in their way to get it.

Recently I realised that I had been my reading and people's opinions like this. So what have I been GMCing. I read a blog post by Urban Fantasy author and pal Erica Hayes on AussieCon 4 (aka WorldCon) and about how this con is different to our experiences in the romance writing community as people do say what they really think. In the comments section I said, yes but people don't back it up with why they don't like something.

I've been thinking about it for the last couple of days and I realise - why do we have to have a why? Why can't we like or not like something because it just wasn't our cup of tea without verbalising what that cup of tea is?

As a writer when I give feedback to another writer, I try to say the whys (what in my opinion works, doesn't work etc). But as a reader can't I just enjoy or dislike something? I think we can do this. It's like I love chocolate - I don't have to go into the whys of it. So I've become too analytical in one sense, and that's great for the writer in me but how about the fan in me?

An example, I enjoyed reading The Twilight Saga. Oh shock horror. It seems that it's cool to hate it, and people have their views which is their right. But why did I enjoy reading it? Firstly, I didn't know about the hype until after I'd read it, secondly I took it as a YA book, thirdly, I was swept away with story and the easy nature of the writing. Was it the best book I have ever read? - no, but it entertained me therefore it did it's job. So really it comes to not the why but how I came away from it - in this case I was entertained by the story.

I never used to consider the whys and was swept away from a work. So maybe I need to lose the writer hat when I read to enjoy. I can always go back to a work and analyse it for writing purposes.

See deep meaningful thoughts going on. Yes, my head does hurt, thanks for asking.

So do you think the whys are important when people say they don't like something?


~yia~

Christina Phillips is in the Taverna!!

My good internet buddy Christina Phillips is here today - yay!!!

Christina's debut novel, Forbidden, was released this past week by Berkley Heat. She had a rip roaring success with her Forbidden blog party (remember the one I mentioned & was a part of just last week?).

Christina at the Cocktail Party
at the RWAus conference 2010

I finally met Christina in person this August at the Romance of Australia conference after forming a friendship online via different groups. Christina was also here last year as part of Eleni-fest, and it's great to have her back again.

So without further ado, here's Christina......*applause*


Hi Eleni! Thank you so much for having me on your blog today!


Congratulations on the release of your first novel, Forbidden from Berkley Heat!!! I’m squeeing for you – how are you feeling?

Thank you, Eleni!! Before Forbidden was officially released, I thought I'd be a complete nervous wreck on The Day. But as it turned out, I was so exhausted I didn't have any energy left over for nerves! Also, I'd decided a while back to just try and enjoy the process without getting too worked up over things I have no control over and it's working (although my long suffering CPs would probably raise an eyebrow at that confession!!) So, my very long-winded answer to your question is I'm feeling very happy, slightly stunned and every now and then I stop what I'm doing and think, OMG, my book is really out there!!!


How did Forbidden come about? 

Despite my love of historical romances (I cut my teeth on Victoria Holt when I was ten) and the fact I wrote several gory historical stories for English assignments while at school, it never occurred to me to actually write one with the aim of publication until very recently. I had just had two erotic novelettes published with The Wild Rose Press, and was wondering what I should tackle next.

I have no idea why, but one night in the middle of doing admin on the computer, this hot Roman centurion fell into my mind, and he was single-minded in his determination to find his druid princess. Riveted by this unexpected diversion i waited to see what happened, and was rewarded when the High Druid came on the scene creating an intriguing aura of menace. And that was it! The images faded, leaving me with about a million questions. So there was no help for it but to find out who these people were!


What is the attraction of this time period? 

I love the myths, intrigues and cultures of ancient historical times but I have to say I don't think I picked this era to write about - it definitely picked me with that glimpse into Maximus and Carys's lives. Having said that I absolutely loved writing about the first century, mainly because it gave me the freedom to explore a little known culture - the druids - against the backdrop of massive change to their world. There was so much inherent conflict I had a ball :-)


How do you tackle world building?

 Before I started Forbidden I read up about the hierarchy in the Roman Legions so I had a very basic understanding of the career path a patrician was expected to follow. I also researched the Celtic gods and goddesses and immersed myself in that belief culture to better understand the world of my druids. Apart from that the world unfolded in a very organic manner, as if I was there living it and seeing it through my characters' eyes. One thing I found challenging was trying to find out what was indigenous to England at the time. A lot of animals, plants and foodstuff that I'd taken for granted had been there forever were, in fact, either imported by the Romans themselves (so might not have been immediately familiar to my heroine and her people) or later than the first century AD - some didn't arrive until Medieval times.



What would be your ultimate research trip? ;)) 

Hahaha! Yes, I wonder :-) Well I will have to say a leisurely tour of the ancient historical sites in Europe is high on my list!!!


The cover art of both your Berkley covers are fantastic – did you have any input into how it would look? 

The covers are amazing! I've been very lucky. My editor asked for my input on both covers, and came back to me several times during the process for more specific details. My vision for both covers was this - I wanted there to be no doubt about when the books were set, so I was very keen for the heroes to be dressed appropriately. I also wanted both hero and heroine on the covers and for them to evoke an overall feel for the book itself. With Forbidden this was the waterfall and Carys's sacred glade, and for Captive there's this incredible sense of foreboding and dark secrets. Plus, I just about fell off my chair when I saw the fabulous font on Captive!!

What are you working on now? And what’s in the near future for Christina Phillips? 

Right now I'm working on some revisions for Captive, and after that I'm expecting some revisions from my agent on a different project.



Your Forbidden blog party was amazing and well attended. Congratulations. Have you any tips for blog parties? 

Thank you! The party was awesome and I want to thank my wonderful guests for their generosity and time, and to all the visitors who stopped by and made it all such a fabulous success. I wanted to do something special to launch my debut with Berkley and decided a party was the way to go. My two CPs, Amanda Ashby and Sara Hantz, held blog parties for their debut YA releases and I thought it looked a lot of fun :-)

As for any tips, to help spread the word about the party I made a Youtube trailer highlighting Forbidden, the party and my lovely guests. I then held a contest for people to post details about the party and/or the Youtube on their sites to go into a draw to win a signed copy of Forbidden. I also mentioned it on Twitter, Facbook and my newsletter. I made sure to introduce each guest and post links to their website, and respond to every comment left on every post. I also posted updates inbetween my guests and of course there were a LOT of hot warriors to keep entertained during the week!! It was a lot of work, more than I'd anticipated, but I really enjoyed it and I hope everyone who popped by enjoyed themselves too. It certainly brought a lot more traffic to my blog and, I hope, more attention to my books than I might have generated otherwise.



It's always such a pleasure having you here Christina. Thanks for joining me.

Christina is kindly giving away a copy of Forbidden. Thanks Christina!! Just make a comment below to be in the running. 

The comments will be open until the end of Saturday 18th September (Australian CST).


comments for giveaway now closed.

~yia~

Some piccies

Well I did post a couple of pics from the Melbourne Aquarium that I took with my iPhone, here is a few more - I have get to upload the photos from my digital camera. I'm in catch up mode but also have had breaks to get some rest in. The importance of 'filling your well' is always brought home to me by conferences and conventions. But here's a snippet of my time in the fair city of Melbourne.

View from the hotel room

Different weather -
it is Melbourne after all

Walking along Southbank

Another view of Southbank at night

Southbank during the day

Penguin enclosure at Melbourne Aquarium

The Emperor Penguins being posers as usual.
Quite funny really.

The equally funny Gento Penguins
- who build nests with the pebbles
and love swimming.
Feisty and cheeky. Sounds like my dog.

These are not the best shots in the world but they are great for memories.

~yia~

On my way back again....

Today I'm scheduled to be back in Adelaide after my 9 day visit to Melbourne.

More zzzzzz's to be had when I get back I am sure.

Talk soon....

~yia~

Guess where I am...

Having a couple of days of sightseeing while in Melbourne. Just sitting & watching x and thought I'd blog.

So can you guess where I am?






- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

And more from the Quotable Bitch

"That woman speaks eighteen languages, and can't say No in any of them."

~Dorothy Parker, writer and poet

"Men say they love independence in a woman, but they don't 

waste a second demolishing it brick by brick."

~Candice Bergen, actress

"A great band like that and they have to play with Ella. 

That bitch!"

~Billie Holiday, singer, on singer Ella Fitzgerald

"Do what you feel in your heart to be right--for you'll be

 criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, 

and damned if you don't."

~Eleanor Roosevelt, first lady of the United States

"The argument between wives and whores is an old one; each thinking that whatever she is, at least she is not the other."

~Andrea Dworkin, female activist

"If you want to say it with flowers, 

a single rose says:  'I'm cheap!'"

~Delta Burke, actress

"I survived because I was tougher than anyone else."

~Bette Davis, actress

"I'm no lady; I'm a member of Congress, 

and I'll proceed on that basis."

~Mary Norton, U.S. Congresswoman

Some yowzas there!

~yia~

Diaspora

Diaspora = a scattering; a dispersion; 
The scattering of any people from their original homeland


This is a flash piece I wrote a long time ago as part of my first Clayton's Conference. The theme had been being left behind. I thought I'd share.

Diaspora

The land cried out for all those who had dispersed from its shores.  The old woman sat on the wooden stool knitting with a tear in her eye, blistered hands trying to work a delicate pattern into shape.  It is for her grandchild, half a world away.  The seeds of a generation lost to this land, who had taken root in another.  Here was her life and her world; she could not go with them.  She was lucky – she still had family with her.  But like the land, while it lessened the loss and the ache, she still missed them.

This is a video at the Gabby Awards. 

"Created and hosted by Greek America Magazine, the nation’s most widely-circulated periodical for Greek Americans, the Gabby Awards were founded to celebrate excellence amongst Greek Americans and to reward those who embody it. The word “Gabby” evolves loosely from the acronym Greek America’s Best and Brightest Stars". ~ the Gabby Awards website

It has the song Diaspora by Glykeria, one of Greece's best female voices. This song is very emotional and is sung so beautifully. It is about the Diaspora of Greece (the film clip accompanying the music is about Greek Americans). 

Here are to all those who had to leave their shores and go searching for a new life elsewhere.

~yia~

Worldcon

2 days down and 3 more to go. The amount of choice is amazing! There are about 10 plenary sessions running concurrently as well as book signings, kaffeeklatsches (coffee chats with an author - max 9 people to a session), a dealer's room and an art show. You can do as much or as little you like. My feet are
already killing me - went on a 2.5 hour ghost walk last night and the Nightmare ball tonight. It's very late and I need sleep, but I did say I will try and blog. Since I'm only on the iPhone it is hard to type up a long write up.

~yia~

Book covers

And here a blog I prepared earlier....

For me a good book cover is a bonus when buying an author you know - you will buy the book if it has or hasn't got a good cover.

But how about those authors I don't know? I would have thought, no it doesn't make a difference. If I recognise the name (i.e.. have heard of the author but not read anything), it might not, but maybe it matters more to me than I thought. I'm a visual person so I love looking at artwork and of course an appealing book cover would make me more likely than not to pick up a book.

I have always tried to abide by 'don't judge a book by its cover' but who knows. Next time I'm at the library or the book store I might have to check what I do and do not look at, and how much the covers actually influence me. Though I don't think it has any influence on  me in category. But single title?

Some fab covers from writing friends:

  

 

   

 

Do covers influence you?

~yia

Over at Christina Phillips' blog today

Please join me at Christina's blog party today to celebrate the release of her ancient historical romance Forbidden.

I may be a bit slow responding as I'm at WorldCon, but I'll try :) There is a copy of the Little Gems Topaz anthology up for grabs.

And don't forget to pop in and see the wonderful line up of guest authors.

~yia~

I'm outta here!!

OK, so I love home and family but I'm so looking forward to some time in Melbourne!!

So I'll see y'all when I get back. I have some scheduled posts and I may even try to do flash blog entries from my iPhone. I shall see how it goes.

Melbourne at Night
source: Wallstock photos

~yia~