Hold on, you’re moving too fast…

Today I turn 40-something – way too close to F-for-fifty. But before you run screaming from the room (I did!) let me tell you, it’s not all bad.

…even if birthday cakes are beginning to look more like weapons of mass distress than anything resembling a celebratory food item.

But a crazy-lady blog wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the M-word. If you hate PMT, just wait for menopause, dahling. Joy!

Whoever came up with the whole ‘power surges’ thing was a victim of too much positive thinking. Imagine sticking a fork in a power point (usually in the middle of a meeting) and making THAT fun.

But let’s look on the bright side – and with all those surges, we’ve sure got enough power for illumination.

There are good things about menopause. Like giving your daughters every last sanitary product you have left over, and NEVER having a tampon fall out of your handbag at a stranger’s feet again.

Thinking… thinking… okay, I’ll get back to you later on all the other fabulous things about menopause.

Right now I’m being whisked off to a secret location for my birthday celebration. Which this year doesn’t involve dangling from hangliders or jumping out of a plane, I hope.

Elle (still crazy after all these years)

Resolutions, adventures and writing progress

Well, the year is speeding along at full pace again – after only slowing down for a quick bite at Christmas. But I’m not letting myself get sucked into the frantic pace this year, after really burning out in December last. My NYRs are not to take life too seriously and to have more adventures.

So far I’ve got sore shoulders from shrugging and saying “oh well”…and I took adventures one step too far when my first attempt at sea kayaking (on holidays in NZ) ended up with my partner and I paddling frantically in 2 metre swells.

I admit, it was a blast - especially when we finally made it to our destination in one piece. There’s something about near-death experiences that put you right in the moment…

Enough about adventures, the big news is I’ve written 14,000 words of a new novel. It’s supposed to be about being a ‘wicked stepmother’ but I’m having such fun with the divorce and recovery process, I think it might become a series… then again, it may never leave the house.

I’ve also joined Romance Writers of Australia - not because I’m writing a romance, but because there’s a little romance in every story, and I may as well learn how to write it from the experts.

Did I mention I’ve given up alcohol for three months because of allergies. Why can’t I be like a normal person and have a gluten or dairy intolerance?

Well, I can’t hang around here chatting all day – there’s adventures to have and work to be done…

ciao for now

Elle

Golden Compass

Does any film ever live up to the book? Not this one. It was beautiful to look at, the acting was mostly very good, but who went and put this one through an Oblation Board experiment and ripped its soul out?

It’s also been a long time since I read the book, and I didn’t check out its rating first. This is not one for the kiddies. I’m definitely in for a long night of children having bad dreams about polar bears.

Sash.

Rewriting

There is a most excellent piece on rewriting at Justine Larbelestier’s blog.

procrastination is the thief of time

Take the test and find out if you’re a true procrastinator.

New Scientist’s Dec 15 issue (I’m catching up on my reading now that the Christmas madness has passed), has a quiz to find out just how bad a procrastinator you really are. I was surprised to find I am only an ‘average dawdler’. Yay! The year is looking up already. (Sorry, you’ll have to buy the mag to do the quiz, but the site’s worth checking out if you need some interesting stories to base your own work on.) 

One suggestion for dealing with procrastination is to have somebody else to push you into action. So for all you fellow procrastinators – go! stop reading this and write something.

Sash.

Writing resolutions

It’s the first day of the new year and I will definitely be counting my blog contribution as part of the day’s word count. Why? Well really, it’s a difficult day, filled with so much hope, so many resolutions and not a few expectations. And what a disaster if we fail at fulfilling our resolutions on the very first day? Tragic.

That said, I have pulled out my trusty, dog-eared copy of Dorothea Brande’s Becoming a writer. First published in 1934, the book is one of those gems you come to rely on as a writer… just to remind yourself that it’s about the writing and not some magical process the novel writing fairies forgot to tell you about. Brande recommends writing every day and training yourself to write when required, instead of waiting for the muse. Perhaps this is where blogging can actually be a writer’s tool, rather than the inanity Doris Lessing suggests it can become. If a blog can get us writing every day, can make us think more about the writing than the potential audience (because for all the people passing their days reading blogs there are still an awful lot unread), can help us develop a habit that could improve our skills or just make us think a bit more, then isn’t it worth doing?

Well I’ll give it a go and see what happens.

Hopefully this month you’ll get to read a review of Simon Higgins Tomadachi. It’s published by Pulp Fiction Press and I was lucky enough to be given a copy last time I visited the fantastic Pulp Fiction bookstore. I also picked up the Uglies series while I was there, so perhaps I might write something on that for the few people left who haven’t heard of this great series by Scott Westerfeld.

Enough for today. I don’t want to peak too early. And I suppose I must write a bit of the novel if word count resolutions are to be met.

Good luck with all your resolutions, especially those involving word counts.

Sash.