Super Sunday

This week's quote is from John Cleese -

"If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play."

Today's Cheez -

~yia~

Stunning Saturday

This week the art work comes from cghub.com 

Apple's Kiss by Anne Pogoda

Yin-Yang by Hong Kuang

Grenth by Kekai Kotaki

Disclaimer: No claim is made on copyright for any artworks in the Stunning Saturday posts. I stumble across art works and save them for inspiration but can not always find the artist's name.

De-cluttering....

I'm part of a BIAM  (Book in a Month) from last Sunday. The first 3 days I almost got my weekly total. Then I hit Wednesday. I had a lot of running around to do and then I came home, looked around the study.

Clutter zone.

My name is Eleni and I'm a hoarder...

I didn't make a conscious decision to start de-cluttering in a bigger chunk than my 15 minutes a day. But I did. I got rid of old magazines, keeping a picture here and there, or an article or short story. And it felt great to do that. I believe the clutter has been cluttering my creativity.

Yesterday, it was another errand day as well as my weekly Tai Chi (very new to me). Again it was more sorting paperwork into piles to find things easier.

And today, after a little writing session, I did some more de-cluttering. There's still a long way to go.  But I can SEE carpet. Yes it was that bad. Still in one way it looks worse as I'm arranging and rearranging as space becomes available.

I did wake up this morning with more of a freer feeling because of my progress.  And while it seems like procrastination- in a way it is- I'm keeping my story in the back of my mind. This morning's session for example threw another plot point at me out of the blue. So I've been letting it churn as I have gone about my de-cluttering.

Some of the hoarding is the 'maybe will need one day' but a lot of it is from feeling tired and not having energy at times to deal with it all.  The spoon theory of CFS. I'd rather write, so if I do, I have to 'let go' of other things to concentrate on it. The housework for example including the study's junk piles.  Hence the time and energy factor was why I started with the 15 minutes a day.

With having done such a good total at the beginning of the week with my writing, it has given me the breathing space I needed....

And yes, I am breathing a little freer....

Now to do some more writing.

~yia~

Bloggiversary winner!!!

Thanks to everyone who came along and commented on my 3rd year blogiversary post last week.

Now using the trusty random generator from random.org, the winner is.....drum roll, please....

Shayne!!!!

Woohoo, congrats Shayne!!!


Shayne, drop me an email with your details- eleni @ eleni konstantine.com (no spaces)

~yia~

Super Sunday

This week's quote from Gene Roddenberry (all hail!):

"A man either lives life as it happens to him, meets it head-on and licks it, or he turns his back on it and starts to wither away."

Today's Cheez:

~yia~

Border woes....

If you haven't heard the Borders group in the US have filed for bankruptcy with over $260 million owing to publishers. That's what I call a bad debt....

Not only is it Borders in the US, but in Australia, Borders/Angus and Robertson have gone into liquidation.

What an 'interesting' time to be part of the publishing world.

Here are some blog posts talking about it-

Writer's Beware

Nicole Murphy

Vanessa Barneveld

John Scalzi

I'm sure we'll hear more in the coming weeks. 

~yia~

Stunning Saturday

The Meeting on the Turret Stairs
by Sir Frederick William Burton

I have a  small print of this one. Found on Photobucket.

Disclaimer: No claim is made on copyright for any artworks in the Stunning Saturday posts. I stumble across art works and save them for inspiration but can not always find the artist's name. 

SARA news....

It's been awhile since I talked about SARA on this blog....

Well some news is that the lovely Emmeline Lock is now going to be looking after the News page and already she's bolted out of the gate at high speeds, giving the page the vitality it needed.

I'll still be the webmistress.

Emmeline will also be looking after the Twitter page, because she is good with all this social networking stuff.

And we also have the lovely Tamara Gill on board, looking after our Facebook page. Thank goodness because I have no idea about Facebook. So look out for that. Hopefully we will have our own 'website' name soon for that....see what I mean, confused about Facebook. So if you are on Facebook, look for SARA - South Australian Romance Authors and 'like' us.


Come to the website and check it out. We have book covers, news, meeting topic list. And if you are in SA and interested in coming to our meetings, go to our Contact Us page, so you can register your interest.

Here are some of our covers....

~yia~

Little Gems cover

Here is the winning cover for this year's Little Gems Cover from Sheridan Kent. Congrats Sheridan.

It's a fresh and a lovely design.

~yia

Today is....

Well you know what today is right?

That's right, it's my 3rd year blogiversary!!!!

What? That isn't what you were going to say?

Oh, yeah it's that Valentine's Day thingy. Well Happy Valentines.

Now on to more the important matter at hand.

Eleni's Taverna is THREE today!!!!!

Can you believe it? I look back and think where has the time gone, and at the same time, I think 'wow only 3 years, it feels like I've been blogging forever'!

Time is a funny thing like that.

You, my readers, have gone through my ups and downs, through my constant blogging and not so constant blogging, and are supportive of this writing journey I'm on.

So to celebrate and say thank you for your support, I will be giving one lucky commenter a copy of Shapechanger's Song: The Chronicles of the Cheysuli Omnibus Volume One by Jennifer Roberson!!!! This includes books 1 & 2 of The Chronicles of the Cheysuli!!

Why this book?

Well it was the series that made me seriously think about writing quest fantasy. It's been a long time since I've read it, but during my university years it helped kick start my creative brain again. I read the first one (borrowed from my beloved local library service), loved it and special ordered the whole series - which was a fair chunk of my budget at the time.

I loved the introduction to another world, the characters, the fact they could shape change, and that it was a saga - spanning generations. Since the omnibus is still available, I decided to pay homage to Ms Jennifer Roberson and offer it as a prize.

Here are the blurbs:

Book 1: Shape Changes
This is the first novel in a superb fantasy series about a race of warriors gifted with the ability to assume animal shapes at will. Once treasured allies to the King of Homana, they are now exiles. And Alix, daughter of an ill-fated union between Homana princess and Cheysuli warrior, must answer the call of magic in her blood, fulfilling an ancient prophecy.

Book 2: The Song of Homana

For five long years, the land of Homana had been struggling in the grasp of a usurper king-- its magical race, the Cheysuli, forced to flee or face extermination at the hands of their evil counterparts, the sorcerous Ihlini. Now it is time for Prince Carillon, Homana's rightful ruler, to claim his birthright. To do this, he would not only have to raise an army but answer the call of a prophecy he never chose to serve!

Original covers

 

So just leave comment below to be in the running!!

It is open WORLDWIDE - well, the only restriction being where the Book Depository delivers. Check here if you are unsure.

Comments are open until end 20th February!


So celebrate with me!!!

  ~yia~

Flash fiction accepted

I'm happy to announce that my flash fiction story Dragon's Quest will be on the Antipodean SF site in the June issue, #156.

It will also be available in audio form.

I'll let you know when it goes live on the site.

~yia~

Super Sunday

This week's quote is from Aristotle:

"Happiness depends upon ourselves."

Today's cheez:

~yia~

Stunning Saturday

I've missed putting up art images by fantastic artists... so I'll bring  you some images of artwork and photos on Saturdays.

by Anthea Wright

I saw Anthea's work last year when I went to the Medieval Fair in the Adelaide Hills. Absolutely stunning work. This is one that I got a bookmark and I love it because of the small dragon (reminds me of a short story I have written).

by Anne Stokes

Love the colours of this one and of course the fantasy setting. 

at Fantasy Art Design

LOL...take that Little Miss Muffet.


Now for a photo caught at the right time.

Cute!!!

Hope you are having a fabulous weekend and don't forget to come back on Monday for a special blog post. About what, well come back and have a look....mwahahaha....

~yia~

DarkSide DownUnder - Help Me Decide....

I'm over on the Dark Side DownUnder blog today for Magic Thursday, where I talk about The Waiting Game and deciding on which project to write next.

There is a prize for Aussies, so come along and join in.


~yia~

What's up?

So what have I been doing?

I've entered both the Little Gems short story competition and the Little Gems Cover contest.

I can't remember if I've mentioned that the first draft of the Shadow novella is done - so that's another goal. Three in all reached.

So yay! Things are on track.

I'll be doing a BIAM with the DarkSiders and Bootcampers coming up this month. Not sure what the goal will be for that yet but it will be to write down words and more words. Thinking what the next project will be.


In other news, I heard back regarding my full request and it's a no go. Lovely rejection letter which always helps the writer's fragile ego. So while it wasn't the response I wanted, it was my first full request and that is another milestone. So onward....


Reading - I have posted a review of my January reads over at my reading blog.

Health - I have found out I am iron deficient so that is another reason (other than the CFS) why I'm really exhausted lately. And I've my fibromyalgia is playing up. That's muscle aches and pains.


And I was excited to find these in my mailbox!!!

  

Oh how I love The Book Depository.

Ok, that's it for me for now.

~yia~

Super Sunday

Today's quote is from Stephen King:

"If you don't have the time to read, you don't have the time or the tools to write."

~ On Writing, p. 147

Today's Cheez:

Have a great week!

~yia~

Bootcamper news

You didn't think now that the Bootcamper blog is not being updated, that I'd forget the Bootcampers. No siree!

Check out this lovely Nikki Logan trailer - promoting, you guessed it, Nikki Logan. It is lovely and goes to the heart of Nikki's works - A Romance with Nature






And check out Nikki's latest releases:

Nov 2010 UK / Jan 2011 - Aus/US

Jan 2011 - UK/ Mar - Au/NZ / Apr - US

And Fiona Gregory who is also my CP, has gotten into round 2 of the Emerald Award (Single Title). Go Fi!!!! I can't tell you what she's working on but it's fabulous!!!


Rachel Bailey has a book coming out in Feb in the US and March in Australia/New Zealand. Keep an eye out.

See the good news continues to roll!

And yes we continue to chat, email, brainstorm and do all those wonderful things. And we are all very busy gals, which is great to see.

 ~yia~