Yia sou 2011

I just wanted to say bye to 2011. You have been a strange year with good things happening with some short stories being published, and some not so good things happening with family and friends.

It was the year of me starting to get back into exercise after a few attempts, and that has hopefully sunk in with a combination of Curves, Pilates, and Tai Chi.

It was the year of being part of the Clayton's Conference and the whirlwind that was that, and working with wonderful people to put it all together.

It was the year I decided to go into design as well as writing, with book covers and banners being created over at HelzKat Designs.

It was the year of learning more about design by doing, and applying for a course so I can learn more.

It was the year I allowed HD to rest and be away from me. The poor thing.

It was the year I did my first podcast for a short story (Dragon's Quest).

It was the year of volunteering - yep more volunteering with RWAus.

It was the year of reading more books by my writing buddies.

It was the year of selling two short stories to Musa.

It was the year of blogging more in feature format.

It was the year of still having chronic fatigue (and all that means) and learning more coping mechanisms.

It was the year called 2011.



Now, it's on to 2012 in less than a day.

Thanks 2011. You may not always have brought good things, but you made me appreciate what I do have in my life.

Thanks to you all for being with me through this year. I hope to see you back next year.


Yia Sou 2011!

Reading Challenges

I've been talking Reading Challenges over on my reading blog, Eleni's Library.

But one I'd like to draw your attention to is the......

Yep, this is my own challenge that I will be hosting over there. It is to read books by the DarkSiders (ie the Dark Side DownUnder folk). There are different levels to the challenge - 6, 12, or 24 books.

Come along and join in.

You can read the challenge post here.



~yia~

Tuesday Tunes: The Blues Brothers

I hope everyone had a great Xmas and is now recovering nicely. Because yesterday also marked my brother's birthday, I have a little bit of The Blues Brothers (Happy Birthday, bro!).






Youtube link



From Blues Brothers 2000. The song New Orleans.





Youtube link

I dare you not to bop your head.


And of course it wouldn't be The Blue Brothers without a car chase....



Youtube link


~yia~

Merry Xmas!!!

It's officially Christmas here  Down Under. So I want to wish you all a

Merry Christmas  and have a fantastic 2012. 


If you don't celebrate Xmas, have a great <insert relevant celebration here>. 

How's that for incorporating everyone?

In Super Sunday fashion, here are a few pictures to hopefully make you laugh, chuckle, snortle, giggle...

Have a brilliant day!!!! And don't worry about those calories!! They don't count today. It's a scientific fiction.....

~yia~

Tuesday Tunes: White Christmas

I dream of a White Christmas since my Christmases are in Summer here in the land of Oz.

Here is Michael Buble and Kelly Rowland singing White Christmas. 'Tis after all the season...

(the clip is jerky but the song is lovely)



YouTube link

~yia~

Super Sunday

I'm a fan of the Men in Black films. I love humour added to my sci-fi, and the first two films did this so well. Now, there's a third film in the franchise. I didn't even though this was being filmed, so it was a nice surprise to see the trailer. Which being the kind person I am (hic), I've added for your viewing pleasure.



YouTube link


And for a little giggle....

Have a great week. Try and avoid the stresses of the pre-Christmas/holiday rush.

~yia~

Stunning Saturday

Artist: Bram Lee Chin

Artist: Dan Dos Santos

Artist: Laura Diehl

And my favourite this week: Fan art

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.

~yia~

Writing Buddy Wednesday hiatus

Being so close to Christmas, life is getting more hectic. I am going to take a little break from my Writing Buddy Wednesday posts until sometime in January. Then I will have this feature every fortnight. Weekly has been great, but I'm finding it quite hard to keep up. And I'd prefer if I can to read some more of my buddies work that sitting on the TBR pile. It's wonderful to see my buddies do well, but it's hard to keep up with. A nice problem to have :))

In the meantime you can find all the posts related to this column HERE.

~yia~

Tuesday Tunes: Lady Gaga

Just in case you think I don't listen to pop, I do. And I can bop along. There are some artists I like more than others, and I think Lady Gaga is a good performer. I've seen her on the telly singing only to a piano accompaniment and she does have a lovely voice. She's interesting visually as well.

So a bit of Poker Face today.



YouTube link


~yia~

Super Sunday

"When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That's relativity."
~Albert Einstein

Here is a short film I found some time ago. Thought it was cute and funny.



Youtube link


Have a great week.

~yia~

Stunning Saturday

I'm going to show you a mix of things today because I'm in one of those moods.


The art...

The covers...

The photography...

The characters...

The Tudors - Charles Brandon

Haven - Duke, Nathan, & Audrey

Conan

Guy of Gisborne - Robin Hood

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.

~yia~

The Royal Family

I saw the link to this on Facebook (sorry can't recall who had it) and it turns out to be very fascinating. What's the true cost the UK to upkeep the royal family? You'll be surprised... check it out.



YouTube link



~yia~

Writing Buddy Wednesday - Anna Hackett

Anna Hackett is a Nocturne Bites author, so she writes hot, steamy paranormal romances. She's had wolves, vampires, vampire hunters, dragons, assassins, and keepers of the winds in her stories. These are all novellas and she manages to write such intense, passionate, and fast moving stories in a shorter form. She's fantastic at it, and I can say she is one writing buddy that I've just managed to read all their work. Yay!

I met Anna online via visiting her blog. New to RWAus, I followed her blog and got to chatting by leaving comments. I met her in Brisbane in 2009, and I can say she's just as lovely in person.

Anna's doing a new project now - mum - and she's been travelling with her family (brave woman). I'm sure as life settles, there will be more Nocturne novellas for her. But they will be Cravings not Bites as they have changed the line.

One Night With the Wolf is Anna's latest release. Here's the excerpt:

"I need a man. Just for one night."

Werewolf Jade Thorne needs a man—a young, virile man to give her love and pleasure. As a rare female alpha, she must keep her pack safe by pledging herself in marriage to an aging leader from a rival pack. Until then, she wants to experience the raging passion of a wolf in his prime. She even has an ideal lover at hand: her Second, Christian Tallant.

But Christian is a wolf who will demand to dominate her body, mind and soul. Now Jade must decide if she can afford to submit to his desire—and if one night with the wolf will really be enough....

You can visit Anna at her website, and her blog, Midnight Confessions. She also blogs with the LoveCats DownUnder.



Now for some cover love...

 

You can get Anna's books online at Harlequin ebooks - as well as the UK and Australian sites. Whichever is your region.

~yia~

Tuesday Tunes: Foo Fighters

Celebrating Foo Fighters touring the country, and seeing them last night (yes, they were just fraking awesome. Dave Grohl is just full of amazing energy as well as being freaking talented!), here is  The Pretender.



YouTube Link

And here is These Days:



YouTube link

It was so great to see a rock concert that, well, just, rocked! It's also got me thinking of an idea I thought of way back when I saw KISS play Memorial Drive. Yep, many, many, moons ago.

Thanks Foo Fighters. Rock on!


~yia~

Writing update...

I've been catching up on a range of things and yes, now with everything set out in lists (yes, I AM a list person), I can see in regards to my other project work what I have to do.

Which brings me to starting a list for my writing and editing. It's short because if I was to list everything I wanted to do for my writing, I would put myself off, and it will just stay on the list, and nothing will get done.

At the moment I have five writing projects on this list.

1. editing of HD. Yes, the BIG checking on focus of the story. But it's right now I'm looking at chapter two and the prologue.  I don't want to think about the rest.
2. A short story I wrote in 2000 and haven't really looked at since. It's for an anthology.
3. GTH novella - submitting.
4. Making notes for Warder 2
5. Read over Shadow Tale.

There are also a couple of things like - get ITIN, and do a recording for a podcast due in a couple of weeks. So, as you can see, this list will keep me busy for a bit.

The list probably looks familiar. It was in my November monthly goals. As you can see that didn't work out. And I've come to realise that I don't have deadlines other than the short story which is due in April. So while I don't have deadlines, I'll work at my pace. Oh, I'm good with deadlines, but not self imposed ones. If I was to have deadlines because it was expected from a publisher, yep, I'd work with them to get the job done. I don't know why my brain works that way, but it does. :))


I hope next time I have an update that I would have progressed with each project.

Time will tell. Wish me luck!

~yia~

Super Sunday

"Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy."
~Norman Vincent Peale

Here is a little card trick for you...

Youtube link

Have a great week!

~yia~

Stunning Saturday

Back to some artwork this week...

From cbhub and Fantasy Art Design.

There's always room for shoes!

Don't you just love the cheesy smile.

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.

Enjoy!

~yia~