TV Interview - Close Up

Close Up Current Affairs interview is here

Holy Cow - have you ever tried pitching to an editor - with TV cameras on you? The pitch goes out of your head - in fact, all words go out of your head. :-) Thank goodness for Alex Logan (Grand Central Publishing) - she understood!

The interview was conducted at the Romance Writers of New Zealand conference and features:

Me :0)
Toni Kenyon
Abby Gaines
Soraya Nicholas
Emily Gee

Maree Anderson

Alex Logan (Editor)
Laura Bradford (Agent)

RWNZ Annual Conference

The Romance Writers of New Zealand Annual Conference was on last weekend.

One word - Superb!

From the minute I arrived on Thursday night I was immersed in the romance genre and didn't surface again until three days after I returned home.

Workshops with Chris Vogler (Hollywood Script Guru), Stephanie Laurens (Historical Romance Queen), Natalie Anderson (Sexy Sensation), Nalini Singh (Paranormal Extra-ordinaries) , Dianne Moggy (HM&B), Laura Bradford (Agent), Alex Logan (Editor, GCP). Absolutely inspiring, approachable and generous with their time.

Successful pitch with Alex Logan for my urban fantasy and a successful cold read with Dianne Moggy (first chapter of medical ms has now been sent to HM&B - nervous wait - will they like my story arc???)

I'm on a high! Membership in such an incredible organisation is mandatory if you want to be a success in the romance genre. You can't beat 'face time' with the best of the best.

(Also spent the 'spare time' at conference brainstorming with my critique partner, Kamy Chetty. We have a big year ahead of us.)

Synopsis - Aaaargh

Writing a synopsis is an art form in itself. There are those who are brilliant at it - in fact they're better writing the synopsis than writing their manuscript...and then there are the majority who find the synopsis a chore that MUST be done - no matter how much procrastination is put in its way.

Gracie O'Neil's blog http://romanceshewrote.com/ has a fantastic craft piece about writing a synopsis. It turns the art form into an equation that, if followed correctly, renders any synopsis "do-able" and in a very good way.

It also breaks down 'High Concept' into an equation that can be mastered.

At the moment I'm working on my synopsis for the Paranotte Series. This has caused some headaches as I need to work out the right mix of synopsis for the series story arc and also the first book - which is a complete story arc in itself.

Thank goodness for Gracie O'Neil!

Golden Heart - Kylie Griffin

Woo hoo - celebrating today. Kylie won the GH - what an achievement!!!!!

Spelling in English

I'm sitting with my family listening to Mr take our girls throught a surprise spelling bee.
The groans to begin with were funny but now it's all on. Competition is a great motivator.
Of course it would help if we spoke, and spelled, in a language that made sense.

Haven't moved an inch

Worked hard this today to add 1500 words to WIP. Then stopped to go back and edit chapter three, four and five for my critique partner.

Net total after I chopped out the excess fat and sharpened up the Prose? 100 words. I literally did not move an inch down my manuscript.

The up-side is that I figure my editing must be good if I'm able to be that ruthless (and it deserves a chocolate). I also haven't completely lost those words. The majority have been put in a cut and paste file - they're foreshadowing and enlightenment that were in the wrong place at the wrong time. And I'll have better chapter(s) to put them in either for this book or a later one in the series.

Which brings me to the important points of this blog post:

1) Never just "delete" your words. If they're good writing that you feel sorry to cut, then put them into a separate file. They could be what you're looking for later, or they could give inspiration when it's what you desperately need.

2) Never be afraid to cut the fat out of your ms. It slows the story down (no matter how important it is!)

I'm talkin here!

"I'm talkin' here!" is my favourite expression to put unruly, know-it-all characters in their place.

You know the type. They're supposed to follow the plot I have in mind and not wander off on their own, taking my story to hitherto unimagined regions that put all my pre-story-processing to waste.

It doesn't seem to matter how clever I think I am, and what foreshadowing I've engaged in, my characters tend to rule the roost. Frustrating!

At the moment I'm grappling with a scene where the lovely, but tough heroine is infiltrating a building. She's supposed to do it with stealth but on the way she gets annoyed with some drunken louts who had the cheek to whistle at her. Now, three seriously maimed guys lying in the street does not 'stealth' make. I suddenly needed to have a busy street that for some reason went quiet for a two minute time period - urghhhh!

Still, she kicked arse - so I'm not entirely unpleased with her...