RWAus Conference

WooHoo! I'm off to RWA's annual conference today. I'm so excited.

There is so much to love about conference: catching up with friends you only get to see once a year, learning more about the craft of writing and the industry from some amazing people and getting to let your hair down (and leave the responsibilities of home - at home!).

Plus the opportunities at conference are priceless - pitching to agents and editors (which I am doing, keep your fingers crossed for me) and making professional contacts.

This year I'm also a finalist in one of RWA's contests, the Valerie Parv Award. So awards night is going to be a whole lot more exciting.

Above all, conference leaves me inspired. It's like an annual injection of enthusiasm for my writing. It reinvigorates me, reminds me what it is I love about writing, gives me hope and determination that I will be published.

I can't wait!

I Love to Write

I started writing in my teens. But writing books isn't a career (at least, I was never told it could be). So throughout the years I only wrote as a hobby. Then in 2008 my personal hero gave me a membership to Romance Writers of Australia. And he's probably regretted it ever since *grin*.

In September of that year I started to write, seriously. My dreams changed. Maybe this whole being published thing wasn't such a pipe dream after all. Maybe I could be a published author.

I wrote and wrote. Quickly and copiously. I loved to write - of course, I had no idea of craft back then, so writing was easy. But over the years since my writing has slowed. Every sentence, every word was weighed and considered. Was I telling not showing? Too much backstory? Don't use too many adjectives. Oh, no a passive sentence.

My internal editor was killing me, one word at a time.

But recently I've managed to take my internal editor and shove it in a box, with a big chain, and lock it in a cupboard. It hasn't been easy, but I've managed to do it. After all, as Nora Roberts famously said: You can't edit a blank page.

My words are starting to pour out again. Yes, I'm breaking every craft rule known to mankind, but I can fix them - I know how to. I just need the words there first.

And the wonderful thing about it is I've rediscovered my love for writing. It had always been there, but my internal editor had been bigger and badder. But good always wins over evil, right?

Contests so far...

I've entered both the High 5 contest (the first five pages of any category manuscript) and the Selling Synopsis contest so far this year. I'll be very interested to see how these go, as I have put in two entries in both: a new story and an old one.

I think my newest story shows growth with my writing, so am curious to find out how they go with the judges to see if they agree with me. I'm also curious to see how my old story (which has been entered in these contests previously) fares with different judges.

Seemed like fairly logical reasoning at the time.

50k in 30days Starts

Yes, it's that time of year again. 50k in 30days is run every June by RWA. Along the lines of Nanowrimo, we pledge a goal for the month and then write our socks off to meet it. There is plenty of support and sprints are run regularly (I lurv the sprints *grin* - and have blogged about them previously).

This year I'm going for broke and am aiming high. I don't think I'll get there (life invariably gets in the way) but I firmly believe the higher I aim the better the outcome. Besides, even if I don't reach my goal I will have a lot more words come the end of  June then I would have otherwise.

I'll be updating my word counter regularly throughout the month - nothing like keeping it in the public eye to feed my motivation *grin*.  Wish me luck!!

My First Kiss

Not my first kiss, but my hero and heroine's. I entered RWA's First Kiss competition (you submit the scene the first kiss occurs in) and I have just received my results.

Overall the judges liked my entry. There was no one place which pulled me down. Some common ground between the judges was:

• my characterisation is good
• my writing's very visual
• the internal thoughts of my hero slow it down (less thinking, more feeling needed)

I'll leave you with my favourite comment: I feel this writer's imagination is an asset to her writing career.

Eerie Weather

A combination of a strong cold front moving north, strong gusty winds and a heavy silt load at Lake Eyre from Queensland's flooding rains earlier this year, have together created one of the countries biggest dust storms.

Hitting Sydney early yesterday morning, it reached here (Brisbane, Queensland) later in the morning. Within 30 minutes we went from blue skies, to a dark eerie glow... car lights needed to be switched on, as did lights within the house.

The air was strong with the scent of red bull dust, evoking memories of when I worked in the outback. Even though I closed the house up, a thick orange layer of dust has still managed to coat everything.

The photos are taken from the same spot on my deck.

RWA Blog & Book Giveaway

RWA have a blog!

Only recently started, the blog features articles on craft, author interviews, book giveaways, information on Romance Writers of Australia (RWA) and much more.

As a member of the blog team, I'm very proud of how popular the site is becoming. My particular focus is the Blog Bite - a column where RWA members (both published and unpublished) answer 5 questions to reveal a little bit about themselves.

Today the site features a Blog Bite with CC Coburn who is giving away a signed copy of her upcoming release Colorado Christmas. Visit http://romanceaustralia.wordpress.com for your chance to win.

At the moment the 5 questions asked by the Blog Bite are:
1. My worst habit is...
2. It's a bit daggy but I love...
3. My first job was...
4. Three things people might not know about me are...
5. I write...

What do you think of these questions? Should the same questions be asked every time?
Would love some feedback.