Blank Pages. Fresh starts. New Beginnings. Bliss...

How can it be November already?  Seriously!  But here we are.

I can feel it in my bones.  Not merely in the itch of summer's nearness.  Or the final school concerts and plays and shows filling up my calendar.

It's that funny time of the year where I find myself wanting to put on the breaks as the final onslaught of family birthdays drag us all too quickly towards Christmas and the End of yet Another Year.

But I also start to get tingly about the Brand Spanking New Year ahead.

For isn't the thought of a New Year something truly special?

I know a lot of people don't like Mondays. So much so hating Mondays has its own anthem. 

But I adore Mondays. So much so I have a dedicated I Heart Mondays Pinterest Page ;). For me every single Monday feels like a fresh start. A new beginning. A clean slate.  Anything can happen!

The same way my very favourite part of writing is the very beginning. A blank page with nothing but Chapter One written atop. For at that moment the story sparkling so brightly at the edges of my mind is perfect. Unblemished by my effort to translate it from magical fairy dust into words tapped into a keyboard.

I feel the same way about reading too.  A brand new book - spine-uncracked, pages a little stuck together from the splicing of the paper at the printers - bliss! At the point at which you open the book you are hovering on the verge of so much possibility - this might be the best book you have ever read.

So while I begin in earnest to choose the perfect calendar for 2019, to decide which colour next year's Bullet Journal will be, I must make sure to savour every moment of the one that is barreling towards its final breaths.

What's your favourite time of year?  Day of the week? Do you love starting a new book or burning your way to the end?

Would you like to write a Medical Romance...

24 HOURS in M&B

1 chapter in 1 day!

Love medical drama and sizzling romances? Why not write your own Medical Romance!

Here at Harlequin Mills & Boon, we’re looking for fresh, new voices and exciting stories! From March 24th, we’re offering a lightning fast assessment of your manuscript – get a response in just 24 hours! 

Send us your first chapter and a synopsis between Monday 24th March and Thursday 24th April 2014 and the Medical Romance team will send you a response in 1 day! (Sadly we don’t work weekends, so if you submit on Friday, you’ll receive an answer on Monday).

Medical Romance is all about drop-dead gorgeous heroes and feisty heroines! Set in the Medical world, where sensual tension and emotionally-charged conflict runs high, your medical professionals are placed under pressure to save the day – leading to life-changing encounters.

So if you love strong and sexy medical heroes and heroines (see guidelines for more details), send your first chapter and a synopsis to 24hoursinM&B@hqnuk.co.uk and we’ll get back to you within 24 hours!

The Medical Romance team is looking for fresh, new, innovative voices, and at the end of the month, will choose their favourite 3 chapters to go through to a public vote and the chance to win guaranteed mentoring with a Medical series editor*! 

Want to know more details? Visit our website for more submission information:

www.millsandboon.co.uk/introducing-24-hours-in-m-and-b 

Send us your Medical Romance – Sheila, Laurie and Charlotte can’t wait to triage your chapter!

*Mentorship will be through one submission for a period of up to 6 consecutive months.

Tweet the team: @SheilaHodgsonMR, @lauriecprescott, @Charlo_Murs

What's your passion?

By Helen Lacey

A couple of years ago my husband said he wanted to buy a car. This wasn't your average everyday driver though. This was a 1979 Holden Torana...bright yellow, hatch, V8...and as I discovered when he bought it and brought it home on a trailer...in a thousand pieces. Okay, maybe not a thousand pieces...but lots of pieces much of which was in boxes. Fast forward to present day and the car was put back together and last weekend I accompanied him to my first ever interstate car show.

I wasn't sure what to expect...cars, certainly. But I guess I had a preconceived idea about who would be there and the people it would attract. I quickly discovered it attracted all kinds of people as I observed these enthusiasts ohh-ing and ahh-ing about the cars on display. What really struck me though was the mix of models and brands. There were Holden's and Fords and Chrysler's and Chevrolet's and it actually reminded me of a writer's conference where authors from different genres merge together to celebrate/talk/share stories about the craft. And this was no different. The car enthusiasts were sharing and talking regardless of make and model and clearly there was a strong sense of community amongst  them.

And it was fun...just like a writer's conference. So, sitting in my spot under a tent with a laptop on my knees (I was on a deadline at the time) I starting thinking about passion (not the steamy kind) and what drives us to to do things like attend conferences, or train for our favourite sport, or sit in the hot sun under a tent and watch as other people walk by and admire your car. it was passion that made these car owners travel interstate and get their vehicle's into the best condition they could be in and then proudly show them off. No different perhaps to the passion it takes an author to strive for publication or an actor to yearn for the lead in a Hollywood movie.

So, what's your passion? Climbing mountains? Reading? Writing? Fast cars? Cooking? What do you love to to? And more importantly, what makes you happy?

Life-long story telling

I've just spend a wonderful few days with family, celebrating my father's 72nd birthday. At the heart of the celebration were my two "nieces", five and eight years old. (They're not exactly blood relatives, but our families have been celebrating birthdays together since their Mum and I were younger than they are now, so they qualify. Also, I've changed nappies and given baths and supervised homework, so I figure I've earned the "Aunty" designation.)

I was conscious of the fact that the whole weekend was full of storytelling. Our family doesn't get together terribly often, as we're geographically spread around, so there's lots of the "what's been going on" kind of stories that needed to be told. Then, like many dads, there's nothing my father likes than a long, drawn-out joke with a terrible pun as the punchline. There were also bedtime stories to read (I'd forgotten how wonderful and twisty that Doctor Seuss prose is.) And there were plenty of kids' stories too, often starting with a breathless, "Guess what?"

One of the new artworks destined for my refrigerator...

I asked my eight-year-old niece to write me a story because I was interested to see what sort of thing she might come up with. (Okay, so it might also have also been motivated by the need to keep her occupied while we prepared a birthday dinner for 12...)

She wrote me the most wonderful adventure tale. It was about Emily, a (nice) monster who lived in a cave by a river and who was out one day playing with a ball with her brother, Jack. But then the ball accidentally fell in the river! Jack went in after it, even though Emily told him not to and then, oh no, he started to get swept away! But Emily thought quickly and found a rope and threw it to Jack so he was able to climb out. And everyone chorused, "Hooray!" (She didn't know how to spell "chorused" but she gave it a good try.)

I know everyone thinks their own child (or nephew/niece/cousin/etc) is the smartest, most brilliant child in the world. But seriously, my author's little writing heart glowed and thumped as we read her story aloud. A gusty female protagonist! A hero's journey! A satisfying, happy ending! Awesome word use and vocabulary!

I'm going to start training her now to see if I can turn her into an author.

Reading her story got my mother telling another story. About the time when I was a similar age and I wrote a story on the back of a cardboard box at my parents' shop. They were part of a franchise and I wrote a story about how it had been founded -- a fantastical tale about pirates and deserted islands, apparently. And the head of the franchise visited their store and he saw it, and he told them he was going to see how it could be used as part of their advertising campaign. Which never happened. But still -- perhaps it was a foreshadowing of my future double life in PR and romance writing??

My favourite bedtime story over the weekend was Dr Seuss's "Yurtle the Turtle" -- so much fun to read out loud. Do you have a favourite you like to read to the littlies in your life?

Finding inspiration

The doctor is in!

I'm in the midst of writing a different kind of book for me. It's got more than two main characters and lots going apart from schmexy times (although there's plenty of that too!).

But this week, one of my characters just won't play ball. She's confused, and complicated, and possibly a little annoying. (A little annoying is okay, I think. A lot annoying is a problem, and sometimes it's hard to draw a line between the two.)

So I've been soaking up as many characters in the past few days as I can. Reading. Watching TV. Movies. Even jumping on Facebook and social media to look at the way different people talk and interact.

No one told me this writing caper would involve having to inhabit the mind of a psychologist! Or perhaps, maybe, I'm the one who needs the psychologist? Nah, that's what crit partners are for, right? ;)

I think I'm probably at a point now where I need to just keep writing. Write and write and write until I get her to make some sense. It feels wasteful, but I guess if it helps me to make her more believable and real, then it won't be wasted effort at all.

What do you guys do if you get stuck with a story? How do you bring your characters into line if they're playing up and refusing to stay in their neat little boxes? Let me know your tricks!

Deadlines are a girl's best friend

by Emmie Dark

Right now I'm working on my fifth published book, but I still feel (probably rightly so!) like a total newbie. Each day as a published author seems to bring a new piece of information, or challenge, or discovery that I need to take in.

My newest discovery is what it's like to write a book while a deadline is hanging over my head. Don't get me wrong -- I've absolutely had to meet deadlines for a long time. In my working life in PR and communication, deadlines are a daily fact of life. So I understand deadlines. I get them.

But I've been fortunate enough that up until this book, I've been well along the way to being finished writing the book (or, indeed, already finished) by the time it's been picked up by a publisher. This book is the first time I've had a deadline before I've had "The End" (or even a good idea of what "The End" might look like).

It's actually kind of fun. I know, you were expecting me to talk about stress and tearing my hair out, but it hasn't really been like that. Instead I've just been very disciplined. I'm pretty disciplined to start with (I think all authors have to be, really) but having a deadline means I know exactly what I have to have done, by when, in order to get there.

Perhaps I'm just a structure-loving person? Another discovery I've made on this published author journey!

And on that note, I'd better get on and get some writing done today. That deadline is breathing down my neck!

The tricky task of giving advice...

Source

Someone asked me the other day what was my best piece of advice for newbie writers. First, of course, my ego responded with a chuckle and a straightening of my (non-existent) tie. Ah-ha! Yes, of course! I am published now. Which entirely gives me the right to give advice.

Well, not exactly.

In the scheme of things, I'm still pretty much a newbie, too. Yes, I've had the good fortune to have a few more experiences than someone who's just starting out, and I'm more than happy to share what I've learned in my journey.

So I mumbled something to that effect, but the person wasn't entirely satisfied with my response. "What, then," they asked, "was the best piece of advice you received when you were starting out?"

Ooh. That's a tough one. But it did make me reflect on the kind of information I was seeking out when I was new to the whole writing thing.

Mostly, I think, I wanted to know the "how". Not so much technically how you write a book (but that too) but more logistically and practically. What do authors actually DO? How long do they spend at the computer? How many words do they write a day? How many books do they write a year?

I listened intently to the stories of other authors, the confessions of their routines and struggles and approaches.

The ONLY way to write a book, I learned, was to sit down and plot it all out on note cards and pin them to the wall. But no, the ONLY way to write a book, I was then told, was to let it grow organically and not kill the life of the story with a too-structured plan.

Hmm. I was already realising that there might be more than one ONLY way to write a book.

I remember being told, frequently, that it was an absolute crime to re-read your work from the day before when you begin writing for the day. You must NEVER re-read, you must get straight into writing the new material. Editing is for after.

Then I read that Susan Elisabeth Phillips reads her ENTIRE book from the start before she starts writing each day. (I'm still spun out about that.)

I read Stephen King's book On Writing and for a short while thought I'd be famous in no time, because his habits were the closest I'd heard/read to my own. That . . . ah . . . didn't quite happen. (Yet.) But it was reassuring to read that such a successful author approached the task of writing in a similar way to me.

So what have I learned? What advice do I pass on when asked? I have boiled it down to two tidbits:

1. Ignore anyone who says NEVER and ONLY. They're wrong.
2. Ignore item 1. There is ONLY one right way for you to write a book, and that's the way that works for you.

If pressed, I could add a number three. (Because stuff like this is always better in threes.)

3. Read and learn from others, take inspiration from them. Keep what works, discard what doesn't. Keep reading and learning. Repeat.

Hmm. I don't think there's a craft book in that. Well, not a very long one, anyway. :)

Collaging

I was trying to get to grips with a plot the other day and was getting absolutely nowhere. I had the characters and a setting, I had a conflict- a great meaty one- but I couldn't 'see' how the story was going to unfold.

I remembered a workshop I recently attended where the speaker talked of getting inspiration in unlikely places- beg, borrowing and stealing ideas. And, being creatively challenged, I wondered how that approach might help me. But I was getting kinda desperate!

So I grabbed a couple of old magazines and started cutting out random pictures and words that somehow struck a chord without forcing the process- just seeing where inspiration took me. (And yes- the NZ Rugby magazine was purely for research purposes- honestly!)

After a while I lost myself in the process of it all, looking at the fashions, imaging my heroine wearing this or that, what type of house my hero might have- I lost quite a few hours but gained a lot of insight into what makes my characters tick, how the story might progress, and more importantly, how my hero and heroine feel about things. I don't know how it worked, but it definitely gave me a clearer vision. Maybe it was the chance to get away from the computer screen for a while and just play with no pressure. It's crude and basic- but I never set out to make art, just a way of collating ideas in a visual form.

Collaging isn't a new concept, I have friends who love to scrapbook important life events, and I know the great Jenny Crusie does a complex 3D collage of every story she writes but I've never understood the allure. Until now.

So now I have a story- I just have to write the darned thing!

Have you ever collaged or done scrapbooking? What do you find helps the creative process- or what creative things do you do to help you relax? 

The morning after...

Meh.

by Emmie Dark

I think I need to poll writers to see how they all feel on the day after deadline day. 

I think the poll would be multiple choice, and I think the options for answering would be along the lines of:

• Quite sad.
• Very sad.
• Extremely sad.
• Am crying into my fish fingers and custard right now.

Is it just me, LoveCatters, or is it a writerly thing? To me, it’s kind of like saying goodbye to house guests. You know, the really good kind of houseguests: the ones that do the dishes, provide entertaining company, and don’t make a mess in the bathroom. You stand in the driveway, waving goodbye as they back their car out into the street, and then you go back inside. But something’s missing. The house is too quiet. There’s a subtle kind of energy missing.

It’s a futile feeling, because of course my characters haven’t really gone anywhere. I could just open that document and visit with them all again instantly. But that special time has passed – the time when it’s just me and them, when I get to learn all about them and play with their lives like a devious, capricious god.

When I visit them next time, with my editor’s and copy editor’s revisions, it’ll be different. It won't be just us, and what will be happening will be far more "work" than those lovely first weeks we spent together discovering what was going to happen. 

I've just said "farewell" to my biggest book ever. It involves a wedding, dogs, vampires, Twitter, household accidents, a 1970 Ford Falcon XY GT, and quite a bit of steamy hawt stuff. I always love whichever book I'm working on at the time best. But I really really love this one*. 

And I've hit send. It's off to my editor. And now I'm here, at my 'puter, wondering what to do. The fact that I have a "to do" list as long as my arm filled with all the things I didn't do while I spent every waking moment writing (and some of my sleeping moments too), seems, well, irrelevant. Thank goodness I had you guys to come and chat to. Otherwise I don't know what I would have done! 

Luckily, Melbourne town has put on some sunshine today. I think I might peek out, blinking hard, and see what the outside world has got up to while I've been locked inside the deadline cave. Maybe go find a cup of tea somewhere in the sun. And then, maybe -- if I get really desperate -- have a go at attacking that "to do" list. 

Wish me luck! 

*Watch me say the same thing about whatever I write next in a couple of months' time!

The 'Room of One's Own' Needs a Name! by Natalie Anderson

A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.

So said Virginia Woolf. Well, happily hubby and I both earn, so I'm not starving :) - but for the last five years, in which I've written twenty books, there has definitely been no room of my own. We have four kids and during this period lived in four different houses (plus a couple of months homeless and crashing with family after earthquake damage to the house we had been in). And there was no 'room to write' in any of these houses - unless you count the laundry in one!

I did used to get up super early and sit just in front of the washing machine in that tiny room and tap away at the keyboard. I wrote in the car, in bed, at the kitchen table, in the car, at any cafe that would let me, in the car, I even went and spent a couple of night's at a holiday park locked up in a cabin to get a book finished once. But in recent time it was mostly the car - a portable office! My husband reckons I was the romance writing equivalent of 'The Lincoln Lawyer' - though I had no driver and only one car! I liked to go and park up somewhere scenic - either the beach or the Botanic gardens - somewhere green and with water nearby. But I've got to be honest, it was cramped (even though given there are six of us in the family, it's a fairly large car), it got hot and I got a bit sick of it.

Anyway, I'm so thrilled to finally be back in our own home in Christchurch to the wee house I just love. There still isn't a study/room to write, but what there is, is a tiny creek crossing the front corner of our section. About five years ago the council came along and did a beautification programme - gently landscaping the flow of the creek, putting in a new bridge and designing a native plant setting.

Here we are five years ago when the council put in
the new bridge. The kids LOVED watching
the digger every day so we had a 'construction' birthday
party for one of them :)

Well five years on and the plants were a bit of a jungle! But I loved them - kind of like a very mini Bot garden all of our own. And that's when I got the idea to put a teeny tiny shed out there. I'm used to the car, right?! I don't need a LOT a space - just something cute and with that view :)

So I got on the internet and found the perfect 'shed' and my WonderHubs (who loves a project) got busy...

Preparing the platform...

The platform (and little deck) is ready!

Getting the shed from the freight depot.

Unloading the shed.

My friend and her hubby came round.
I confess my friend and I went shopping -
came back two hours later and voila!!!

Making the roof weathertight (v. impt!)

Looking across to
The Far Side' of the creek.

And now - lunch is ready!

I go through the hebe bushes, down the little path, across the stepping stones over the creek (all two of them), then up onto the 'far side' to the shed. There are bright blue dragonflies whizzing round, I have a gang of six regular ducks, several neighbourhood cats, native birds drawn to the trees (and the feed I put in the trees for them), cockabullies (tiny fish) in the creek PLUS a rather large eel living between a couple of rocks that I discovered only the other day.

I do think I'm the luckiest writer in the world to have my shed. I am SO ecstatic and have become such a bore talking about it! So sorry - but let me just this week as it only went up last weekend so it is very new and exciting :) The kids in the neighbourhood all love it too. I think it's wonderfully hilarious that the reaction from writer friends and kids has been just the same - pure enjoyment :)

One very happy writer.

But I do need your help!!! My question now is WHAT TO CALL THE SHED?!?!?! My mother thinks it should be  'One's Own' - referencing that Woolf quote. Hubby thinks it should be 'Dun Roamin' - as I'm now permanently parked up. A friend on Facebook says it should be a 'Chalet' not a 'Shed', another says it should be 'The Love Shack'. What do you think???

PLEASE! I'd love you to LEAVE A SUGGESTION in the comments for a name for my shed - and be in the draw to win a copy of my e-book MELT. I can't wait to see some of your ideas!!!

Thanks so much!

~Natalie

p.s. I don't have any interior pics here today (let's face it, I've already ODed on the pics today) BUT I was going to take some this morning and put them on my Facebook page  if you're interested :)

Muse on the Move:

The Travelling Thesaurus!

by Sharon Archer


Reading: Anna Campbell's My Reckless Surrender - fantastic!

Listening to: Credence Clearwater Revival

Watching: Lie to Me

Making me smile: This great excuse... I mean this great reason to get out our trip photographs!




It's a whole year since our big trip and my questions are...

• where did all the time go!
  
• and , most importantly - when can we go again!

For those of you who don't know (and there can't be many because I'll bend anyone's ear given half a chance! ;D) we travelled around the western half of Australia for four months on the back of a motorbike, last year. It was WONDERFUL!! I learned that Australia is a huge and fascinating country!

And I want to see more!


I finished and revised book number three while we were away - BACHELOR DAD, GIRL NEXT DOOR.

Writing while we travelled was a bit like a work-in-progress -- challenging but ultimately incredibly rewarding. And with the passing kilometres, I learned what worked for me and what didn't.

For instance, it was much better for my back to sit in one of the camp chairs with the laptop on my knee than to try to sit at the table.

I needed a thesaurus in the hand - not one in the computer! Something I could thumb through, hop from word to delicious word at the flick of a page rather than the press of a button! I found this fabulous little gem in a book shop in Broome! It has a plasticised cover so it's quite robust. Don't tell my Roget's but I'm using it a lot here at home too!

Pencils rule! No worries about ink drying up, running out or not wanting to write on a grubby bit of paper. With a sharpener and a rubber to complete my kit, I was ready to scribble a snippet of dialogue, write up the diary, or fill in the sudoku.

USB sticks (thumb drives) for backing up -- because we all know how important that is, don't we! (Note to self - do back ups as soon as this is posted!)

My MP3 player! Great for tuning out distracting noises!

And since we've come home, I've discovered another must for a travelling holiday. A wireless plug-in for Internet connection. Love it! I've included it in my pic of travelling writer must-haves.

So have you got any tips, any must-haves for travel? And especially any tips or must-haves specifically for writing on the road?

I'll draw the name of one commenter out and send a copy of BACHELOR DAD, GIRL NEXT DOOR

PS And just because I can, here's a picture of us travelling by camel-power on Cable Beach in Broome.