Yeah, it's been a while. Lots has happened. I've had a blast.

Yep, I have an agent. How fine is that? I've signed with Marlene Stringer from the Barbara Bova agency in Florida. So far we seem to be a really good fit. I can't say enough good things about the advice and encouragement she's given me, and the work she's already done on shopping the ms around.

I've been to the RWAust conference in Melbourne, just this weekend gone. It was a real rush for me to be surrounded by so many supportive and enthusiastic writers. Did some great workshops, drank too much coffee, stayed up far too late. It's all good.

Oh, and I made that pitch I've squandered so many words whining about. It went okay. She asked me for a partial. Here's hoping I never have to do that again ;)

I believe I mentioned a while ago my MS made the final of a contest? The winners were announced at the conference dinner and yay! I won. I win a year's mentorship with Valerie Parv, about which I am stoked.

This is a bizarre experience, winning an award at a conference. Everyone is so nice to you it's almost like a creepy dream. Total strangers come up and congratulate you. I have a business card from an editor at HM&B London marked 'as requested' ;) not relevant to me because my MS isn't category, but many unpublished writers would cheerfully slit my throat for that card. It's surreal.

Yeah. So when things happen, they happen in a rush. About the only thing that hasn't happened... is me writing any new words. Sigh. Tomorrow I have a show to play, and then on Monday I start writing again at last. I have a whole week of empty-house selfishness ahead...

My enthusiasm, for some reason, is bubbling over ;)

I've found an agent for WYD.

I queried. She liked it. That's it.

:)

When no one's here but me, I lose track of time. Which means things actually get done, without me having to worry about when stuff needs to happen or when the fuck dinnertime is or when I should go to bed so I don't piss people off. I love it :0 who cares if I don't start writing until 4pm? There's so much of the day left.

So the zombie book is progressing. And they're shagging again. Who knew? ;)

Also more queries for WYD, now it's a respectable length. More contests to enter. More ideas to scribble down for next book. Same, same...

Oh, and apparently everyone hates the new Stephenie Meyer book. Grin. Ms Meyer, if you're out there, I have nothing against you personally and I wish you well. But as someone who's been standing about with a quizzical frown going 'huh?' ever since Twilight... well, it's nice not to be the only one.

I've finished some revisions on WYD. It is now officially a Real Book, ie. it's over 80K. I ended up adding about 7,000 words. Easier than I expected, but that seems to be my method for getting things done -- have a good long whine about how impossible it is and how I don't wanna, and then just go ahead and get on with it.

Still haven't nailed the conference pitch, though. Obviously I haven't whined about it enough yet for my method to kick in, so this post should help :)

In other news... I have the house to myself this week from Tuesday. Yay! Having had my madselfish writing time foiled twice this month by the same visitors, I shall guard this one jealously. I don't care if Johnny Depp calls and says he's coming over for red wine and shagging. The answer's no.

Actually, the answer's hell, yes ;) just not until next week, okay?

What I learned this year:

1. We love Cadel Evans, even if he headbutts the occasional journalist. Ya done us proud, mate.

2. Stuart O'Grady is a legend and feels no pain. Bring on the Olympics.

3. The race is more exciting when no one's on the juice. Wow. Who'da thunk?

4. I shall continue to be surprised and disappointed every time someone tests positive. I will suspend disbelief. And Ricco still rode like a demon in the Giro, where he tested zip. Go figure.

4. Some guys just look cool in lycra. Some guys don't. Alejandro Valverde, you are most definitely the former. You can come back any time. Learn to time trial, and you might even live up to it ;)

Bring on la Vuelta.

I take it all back.

Well, maybe not all. But writing a pitch for a conference is much more painful.

It's a group pitch -- maybe -- so I don't know how long I've got. I don't know what to include and what to leave out. I don't even really know why the hell I'm doing this, other than that to go to the RWAust conference and not pitch seems cowardly and pointless.

Still, I'm excited about my book. With luck, that will shine through.

...but I was barracking for the Spaniard on le Tour de France last night. Holy hell, what a ride.

I love Cadel Evans. I want him to win. But how can you not cheer for a guy who skims up l'Alpe d'Huez like that?

It'll be a tense few hours on Saturday night. I believe I woke up the neighbours cheering for Cadel at 1am on last year's time trial. They can damn well stay up again this year :)

Haven't had much to say for a while, I guess. It's been a bit of a messed-up month as far as getting anything done goes. I was meant to have a week with the house to myself (yay!) and had big plans for a selfish writing marathon.

Then my sister and her family decided they'd visit for a week. Of course it was the same week, wasn't it, so I got nothing. But they've come all the way from France and they're going home in a month and have loads of other people to squeeze in visits for, so it wasn't like I could tell them not to come.

But I got nothing done. For a week. Great to see them, and all. But... whimper.

Now they're gone, and of course I'm finding it hard to get back into things. This always happens when I'm forced to take time off. The demon of laziness possesses me -- the bastard! -- and I mooch about for a few days complaining about how hard it is. Then I get back into it.

I'm nearly up to 30K on zombie. It's coming along okay, I think. It may be a steaming load of tripe, of course. But hey, it's about dead people. That has to count for something.

Check this out this test at www.helloquizzy.com. So much more interesting than Myers-Briggs. Hell, I feel a whole lot better about myself now.

Your result for The Personality Defect Test...

Spiteful Loner

You are 86% Rational, 14% Extroverted, 71% Brutal, and 43% Arrogant.

Not a huge week in terms of achievement.

I'm up to 10K-odd on the zombie story. Still querying the other one. It's cold and windy here.

Pleasing news.

My succubus MS (gotta stop calling it that, it's named Want You Dead now) has finaled in the Valerie Parv contest run by RWAust. I think I can safely brag about it here, as I can't imagine Valerie is an avid reader of my LJ ;)

That makes 5 whole people who've liked my book just this week. It's nice.

Made a few hundred words on zombie yesterday. Nothing yet today... but, my nice computer is back from the shop, all fixed and shiny and like new. I put it in because I thought one of the fans was making an unusual noise. Turns out the hard drive was faulty. Who knew? Lucky for me it's under warranty, and they replaced it for free.

And ya gotta love Macs -- I plug in the Time Machine drive and five minutes later it's the same as it was before, applications, data, preferences, updates, everything. I'm so nostalgic for the days of spending six hours reinstalling Windows and Office and virus software, and messing about with missing mailboxes and... yeah. NOT.

Tagged by shade53:

Turn to page 123 of the nearest book, and blog the 5th sentence.

"Slowly, so slowly, he backed out of the room."

Hmmm. A few unnecessary words there ;)

I tag... hell, I tag everyone on my flist who hasn't already done this one. Can't be many.

Today must write. Will not waste time...

Been away for a few days. Went skiing at Perisher.

Before all you northern hemisphere types die laughing, yes, we do have ski fields in Australia. Not our fault our highest mountain is only 7000-odd feet, okay? Not a lot of snow yet this season, it's all the fake stuff, but who knew?

I've never even been to the snow before, let alone tried to ski. I expected to be dead hopeless at it. I wasn't actually so bad ;) didn't fall over at all on the gently sloping bits where they make you learn. Landed on my backside a few times when I tried the steeper bits, but hey. It was big fun :) might go again someday.

In other news... a girl from my RWAust crit group just sold a story to Harlequin Spice, so yay! for her! and for our group, it's our first 'real' sale.

And while I was away, I got a request for a partial from an agent. My first ever. Go me ;) I sent it straight on. Maybe she'll like it. Ya never know...

I've started my new book. It does begin in a bar, kind of ;)

This is still the best part. Starting, I mean. New PoV to play with, new characters to torture. Bwahahahahaaa...

Marathon madness at my place ATM.

1. Carnivale. Now this is the kind of mad atmospheric stuff I love. Here's some freaky shit. Carnies are just plain weird to start with, and anything with that dwarf dude from Twin Peaks in it has my vote.

2. Spooks season 4. Just keeps getting better. Is Adam the coolest guy in London or what? I am a closet Harry fan though. Love that parched sense of humour.

3. Robin Hood season 1. Okay, so I'm behind on this one. First things first: man candy. Oh. My. God. Y'all know what I'm talking about ;) I will admit to having to rewind a few scenes featuring the beautiful Mr Armitage because I wasn't paying attention to what the fuck was going on the first time round... Apart from that, I like that the bad guys are intelligent as well as amusing. I like that the good guys are selfish too in their own way -- it's serious drama dressed up as light fluff. I like the random acts of sheer irredeemable nastiness from said bad guys, just when you're starting to like them. In fact, what's not to like? Really?

The UK had the worst song by far. Kudos to Latvia for doing a pirate song. Points for Spain and Bosnia for being just plain ridiculous, ditto the French guy in the golf cart. A big hello to Vlad from Romania for that voice, and I love the guys from Finland with the vikings. Don't know what they were singing about but they sounded angry.

And a big kiss to the singer from Russia for being the prettiest thing I've seen in a long time.

But my vote goes to the angel with the amazing voice from Azerbaijan. I wanna take him home :)

OKay, so it looks as if people like the Lazuli revisions. Seems like I've done the right thing there. People didn't think the ending was too over the top, which is the main thing. I was kinda out of ideas there if that didn't work.

Guess I'll have to send it now... what is it about submitting that suddenly makes me think I have neither talent nor hope? I know this book is good. Part of me's sorry to see it go, and another part can't wait to see the end of it.

Here's hoping the editor likes it too. I mean, I know she likes it. She would't be spending all this time and effort with me if she didn't think it was at least okay. Here's hoping it fits her guidelines better now. Because I'm not sure what to do with it if it doesn't.

Anyway. Back to the genie and the zombie...

I was due a day off, right? For getting stuff done this week? So, today was it. Didn't do a damn thing. Chatted the morning away with a friend from my crit group. Brainstormed a bit on possible next book. DVD marathon.

Things I have learned today

1. A hot chocolate with marshmallows, three fat pieces of raisin toast and a hash brown is too much for breakfast.

2. The genie isn't in a bottle, she's in a basket. Like a snake charmer's snake, you know?

3. The only man in the world who looks cool as shit wearing a Bluetooth headset is Captain Jack Harkness ;)

Had a good run at this yesterday and got through the whole thing. This is what happens when I stop complaining and get on with it ;)

I've added about 1,500 words. Changed the ending. Obsessed over details a bit more. I need someone to read it to make sure they buy all this self-obsession from this character, but otherwise I'm pretty much done with this, because I don't know what else to do.

I'l take another look in a few days and then it's gone. Yay! On to something else. I have this mad idea for a genie-in-a-bottle story...

That's what they said about my novella. Okay, I said. Here I go. I'm printing it out, I'm going down to the cafe with a big wad of paper and my green editing pen.

An iced chocolate, a big plate of nachos and a glass of lemonade later... how on earth does one 'romance up' a novella where she thinks about him at least once if not more often on literally every single page, even when he's not in the room?

There's nothing in this book but romance. There is no external plot. There is no setting, or nearly none. There is no faffing about with minor characters... well, maybe a bit, but only to compare and contrast.

I'm struggling with this. Truly. What I can do is heat it up. And I'll do that a little bit. We'll see.

On a positive note, people like my succubus book :) a few folks from my local crit group have started reading it and they reckon it's good fun. I don't believe any of them have reached the end yet, so we'll see what they think then... IMO the last third is the weakest.

But it's nice that no one thinks it's awful, at least not yet...