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I'm sorry I haven't called in here for a while. How is everyone going with their writing, or are you all too engrossed in Masterchef as I am? I have delivered the saga manuscript to deadline and pleased to say that I've already heard from Penguin with resounding positive noise. Hooray! This draft has kept me chewing my nails down so I'm thrilled that it's hit the mark and especially because it's been such a departure from my comfort zone. I did enjoy it and looking forward to writing more of these sprawling stories. But right now I'm walking again with my companions in the Denovian Empire where a new evil is stirring apparently! King's Wrath was begun yesterday and I'm on a very tight schedule so won't linger. I've set up my writing equation and know what my daily word count must be to achieve deadline. I have two deadlines of course....mine and the publisher's. the publisher's is more lenient but I'm being tough on myself because life can often get in the way of writing so I like to give myself a buffer of a few weeks, especially as I have quite a bit of travel scheduled in this second half of 2009. Best to everyone. Fx p.s. my money's on Chris or Justine by the way.

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I put my hand up! Guilty as charged, I've been watching Masterchef too. I like Julie, (I see her in a medieval  lace wt="on">Innlace>, serving up wonderful hearty dishes to her patrons, and it being the most popular place to stop on a journey because of her happy loving nature and food.) and the guy who wears the black hat all the time. (Can't think of his name off hand.) He has a clear vision of what his restaurant will be and I see it coming out in every single one of his dishes. I see him owning a 'Beer" style hall restaurant in Glebe t="on">lace wt="on">Sydneylace>... He's likeable and would make a good character in a book.>>

I've been doing a bit of writing, about an hour a night after the kids are in bed to unwind my mind and relax. I find it relaxing and its keeping my brain functioning in the way it used to when I was working. I have to think about details etc. I need to start reading more again though, so I'm buying some books that aren't parenting factual books so I can read for 1/2hr before I go to sleep of a night time. Looking forward to your period novel Fiona! It’s on my list of books to look out for...do you think you'll one day get a movie deal with it? You never know... >>

Anyway that’s me this week- hope you all have had a great week.>>

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"Plot is what keeps the story going when the characters are all fully clothed and not touching each other."

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I don't knwo what happened there... I did a cut and past from word and it all went hay wire!

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"Plot is what keeps the story going when the characters are all fully clothed and not touching each other."

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I have to admit that I've only seen Masterchef once of twice I was meaning to watch it more, but TV has been low on my priorities lately... sadly.

Same can be said for my writing. Everything's taken a backseat to my Uni work at the moment. I've been picking up more units so I can get my degree done quicker, which has put a lot of strain on everything but it's totally worth it - I'll now finish my degree half way through next year, then I'll start my double degree

As for writing, I recently came up with this really weird idea for a story... I might jot down a few notes for later.

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Ever since finishing Book 3 of my trilogy, I haven't really found a whole lot of time to work REALLY hard on writing anything other than my Major Work for Extension English 2 (which is presently entitled The Button Book.  I'm enjoying the experience of writing a shorter work, but I'm not enjoying it as much as writing novels.  I'm definitely a longer work sort of person.  As to my longer stuff, I've been trying to keep up with school work.  My HSC is coming in quickly, so I'm focusing more and more on my study.  I've just got to keep the thought in my mind that until November, the amount I can write will be very limited.  Once November leaves, I can dive right into writing once more while I'm waiting for University to begin (aaark!  Uni!  It's so so so close!).  I'm hoping to go to university in Melbourne, RMIT to be exact, so fingers crossed I get accepted.

My Holidays have just begun, and it is normally during this time I get about 10,000 words a week done.  But because of Assessment tasks I have to do, I doubt I'll get 2000 words done, which annoys me.  But again, study should come before writing.  AHHHHHHH!!!!!! I'm going mad!

As to whether I'm working on anything new, I have got something brewing, though I'm not sure how potent this idea is.  I'm poking it and prodding it, and so far I've only written 1000 words towards it and it has surprised me.  I got sent on a completely different path.

Anyway, I'm done for now.  I hope everyone's writing keeps going well.

And anyone interested should read this article from my local paper here about me and my writing.

Link

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Hey congrats Link, just read the article and think it's awesome! And don't stress too hard bout the HSC, it really isn't as hard as what they say! Might have to order myself a copy too...

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<Puts on a sheepish face> I'm afraid not very far. Have had a few family crises and a child about to enter uni so have been trying to help him in applications, etc.  This has all meant that I've been out of the country a lot and I don't have a notebook (comp variety) so I've mainly been working on my notes which now fill so many pages, it's hard getting it all organised. My computer was also out of commission for a while... Now really just doing some housekeeping on the notes that I wrote and trying to develop the characters a bit more. Did manage to complete 2 chapters before chaos descended and gave them to friends to read - they all thought it was worth reading at least and had some good criticisms. Once the younger boy is back at school (he's been hogging my comp while he's on holiday - he's out today so I've been able to get online!) I'll get cracking again.

And Link, really don't stress about HSC too much. My older boy went through it last year and my younger is about to go through it next year. The older boy didn't stress too much and put in a massive effort 6 weeks before exams and managed to get into one of the top unis in UK. His UAI by the way was pretty awful but the overall exam grades were good (still haven't managed to figure out UNSW's system)!

xshun