One rejection closer to acceptance.

I recently submitted a short story for consideration for an anthology. It was and is the second properly revised and completed (or as completed as I can get it at this early stage in my writing career) piece I have ever written. I submitted the other one to a competition earlier this year. Anyway both of these short stories were unsuccessful, or as I like to put it, earth shattering failures of immense proportions. I'm fine really.
Anyway, after a little sulking, I've decided it's just one more rejection on the way to WORLD DOMINATION!!! MWAHAHAHAHA!! or acceptance. No writer (that I no of) has had their very first piece of work accepted, published and become epically popular, and so meh, those two rejections just make me more like them, it makes me more of a writer than I was before them and without them and probably many more I will probably never be successful. I need those rejections, I'm going to welcome them and all there little brothers and sisters with open arms and one day I'll be welcoming something quite different... I hope.

Out There

Oh my faithful, avid readers, I know you're out there, somewhere, beneath the pale MOONLIIIIIGHT, and I have let you down yet again. I can only hope that you're the occasional ducking in sort of readers rather the the religiously checking everyday sort of reader. This thought gives me peace of mind and freedom  from the guilt that so often creeps up from the bowels of the underworld to consume my soul.

I'm considering doing honours in English literature atm. I've had a meeting, I need to set up a few more, but I'm reluctant. I don't know if it's the laziness in me or fear of losing a year of my writing and crafting to a year of study I don't really want to do. I feel inclined to put if off, at least to 2012, giving myself a reasonable amount of time to try and figure the other things out. I don't know, what do you think?

On a higher note I'm about to add some exciting new products to my etsy store, including a few handmade notebooks. I found a brilliant online tutorial at http://content.photojojo.com/diy/make-your-own-photo-notebook-journal/ and I've been hooked ever since.
My mother signed up with Queensland writers centre and has been passing along the monthly magazines to me, in which I have found a number of exciting writing opportunities to help hone my (writing) craft. As a result I have written four short stories and have four underway. One is and vampire story set in Australia (that's the comps premise) I've set my story in the Gold Coast near where I live and based it on a vampire girl who is returning home for the first time after being turned.
My novel has been left to stew in its own juices for a while and next month is National Novel Writing Month (http://www.nanowrimo.org/) and so I'm giving myself the freedom to just write anything, 50 000 words (at least) of anything. I'll be doing this in the mornings and in the afternoons I'll be revising my short storied so I can get them submitted.

I'm really excited about all of this (except honours which makes me very anxious, but then I read somewhere that the scary things are the ones worth doing) grr I'm very confused and unsure right.

tlk to you later

What's the Story?

So I think it's pretty safe to say I am a bad blogger, inconsistent and infrequent, I have no excuses.

I did however recently go on holiday to... JAMBERROO... where you control the action, oh yes that's right, you hear d it here first, or maybe you didn't but who cares anyway really. Here is a pic from the extraordinary heights of Saddleback MOUNTAIN!!!

Technically Saddleback isn't in Jameroo, but it is near it, and from the next shot you can actually see it.

OK so this is where my cousin said it is so if that's wrong please don't lynch me. Also that circle is meant to be indicating that cluster of buildings I don't think Jameroo's actual dimension are representative of that circle.

What else have I been doing that's kept me from this blog for so long? Well you might ask but I don't have to answer any of you questions!

Sorry about that... I finished one short story and am halfway through another. If I remember correctly I'm near 30000 words through my novel but I've decided to bench that for a wee bit.

My greeting card business is a roaring success if by roaring you mean I still only have five different cards available for sale and if by success you mean no body's bought anything... yet. But I remain wildly optimistic.

And so I say goodbye and goodluck
Caio

Busy Busy Busy

I feel bad I admit it, it's been a while, but as you can see from the heading I've been a little bit busy.

First, the writers festival. The 2nd (My first day was the 2nd but it started on the 1st) to the 5th was non stop awesome with a few flecks of boredom thrown in, but that's hard to avoid when you're an usher. Any way I got to see some really interesting people speak and I made some friends and I bought a book, so all round I'd call it a success.

So following that high adventure  I had a few days of working on my novel while still feeling heavily inspired and then three days of catching up with friends.
Day 1: Shopping with Prya (an yes names will be changed) we met at garden city, looked at restaurants in South Bank and shopped in the City (I bought a dress and tried on another).
Day 2: Bus ride to Ormiston for morning tea (mmmm coffee) with Mona, we had a good 2 hour chat, very enjoyable. Train to the City for more shopping with Stella and a friend of hers from uni (I bough the dress I didn't buy the previous day). The real mission however was to find a silly hat for Stella's boyfriend, Max's 21st which was the following day. Finally we found something at South Bank Markets, which I decorated Mad Hatter style.
Day 3: Slept in and spent a lot of time getting ready for Max's party. God there early, helped set, proceeded to drink a lot of sparkling wine, threw up and crashed. I'd give you the details but unfortunately I no longer have them sooooo yeah.

Now for the big news my Etsy store is up and running, oh yes, get excited!!
Here is the URL and I urge you strongly to buy :)
http://www.etsy.com/shop/SarahFallonDesigns

And here is another pic of one of my card designs;

10027

The world was crashing around me. I was in a panic, I was depressed, I started talking to my stuffed bunny Dippy, the evil genius who constantly attempted to ruin my Easter but was always unintentionally twarted by his good natured side kick Marsh Mellow.

(Dippy is, of course, the rainbow coloured bunny on the left)

But now the world sees sunshine again (figuratively speaking, it's actually quite gloomy outside), the birds are singing (it's actually the warble of butcher birds as they pick at my dogs grotty old bone and the monotonous honk of the bronzewings as they fumble into flight).
But enough of this, let me tell you how I came from there to here.
My story was struggling and in turn so was I. I didn't know, like or understand my main character, she was a mystery to me and I was slowly growing to resent her A LOT. then one night whilst drifting into the bowls of sleep it occurred to me. "AH HA!" said I, startling myself into wakefulness, "She is a twin." How did I not realise this sooner, I do not know, but once I did everything started falling into place. Of course I had to discard almost everything I'd written up that point but it only took me a few days to make it back up and then some. I've done away entirely with my plan. It's still on my wall but that's mostly because I like the look of different coloured postits all over a blank wall rather than it serving an actual function.
Today I hit the ten thousand word mark and I couldn't be happier. "Onward and upward!"

In other news, I've applied for a gig writing for an online magazine, I went to the writers festival volunteer induction, and I've decided to sell my greeting cards online at http://www.etsy.com/ I'll let you know when they're available. In the meantime here is another example for you to admire.

Cards Are Wonderful Things

I don't particularly want to get a real job, and I don't really need that much money. What I do need is a way to support myself (and preferably enjoy myself), until I strike it rich as the next bestselling author.

So considering this I've decided the make an attempt at designing, printing and selling greeting cards at various local markets, Chandler, South Bank, Cleveland, etc.

Up above is an example if one of images I'm putting on cards.

I'm super duper excited about it and hope I manage to at least make a profit.

On the writing front: A couple of books on writing I'd ordered online arrived a few days ago, and I've been looking at those, doing a few exercises and making some notes about character (I hate my main character WHAAAAA!!) Anyway, things are coming along, I'm nearing the 10000 word mark. Also I'm def volunteering at the writers festival so that's really exciting to, though I'm also really nervous, worried I'll screw something up and be ostracized from the writing community FOR-EV-A bum bum buuuuuuum.

Dem Feet

Hi ho world.
I had a ripper of a day today... and the most special thing about it (besides meeting up with my old uni chum) I took multiple photo's of my feet throughout!! Ah is there anything better than a photo of your own feet; distorted grotesquely wide thighs in the foreground, little pointy pin-pricks of feet in the distance. I ask you, is there anything like it?

Just a little sidebar before I get into the beauty of my feet: I'm a little bit tired, so if I sound at all delirious just join in.

First I woke up. It's still a bit wintry in good old Queensland, so I slept in socks. And for some reason have a coat hanger on my floor, that was however the cleanest bit of floor I could find to take the photo without picking something up (heaven forbid).

It took about twenty minutes to get from my house to this, the nearest bus stop. I saw a heck of a lot of birds on my journey, as per usual, including a native pheasant which both my parents had seen but had managed to elude me. It was Pretty hot in the sun here, had to take my cardigan off for fear of sweating.

On the bus now. I took this photo with my phone because I was sitting in the open wheelchair area near the front and didn't want to look too conspicuous.

At the second bus stop. Do my jeans look really dusty or is just me? They weren't dusty I can tell you that, how odd. I forgot to take a photo of the second bus, and can't even remember where I sat now.

I met up with my friend, I'll call her Alberta (she'll love that) for anonymity's sake, at UQ. She's still doing honours so had some business there, while I had had to hurl abuse at the evil academic dress hire empire for attempting to screw me over (my may be exaggerating a tad). I had ordered my academic dress over the phone for my graduation over the phone, but on the day of my graduation they had no record of this and I had to order and pay again so I would have something to wear. At the time the lady was very helpful and polite saying that if I emailed her a record of the payment she'd give me a refund. I did. I didn't get a reply for a whole week! So I went in with record of both payments. She was extremely cranky and seemed to be looking for a way to blame me, which was very annoying. In the end I got my money back rather painlessly, all's well that ends well.

After all that hullabaloo Alberta and I went shopping at Indooroopilly.

We ate sushi and ice-cream! (I wanted a coffee but was too full).

We then went to the city where Alberta lives and where I can catch a bus back home.

The city also held a most wonderful surprise for me... Alberta bought me my birthday present, which was a DVD of... wait for it... Barbarella!!! So, so cool.

Then it was time to say our goodbyes. We'd laughed, we'd cried, but in the end we always knew it couldn't last, I wanted to go home and sleep, and she'd bought a video game she was dying to play. There was just too much against us in this world.

And now I'm home amongst the many magazine clippings on my study floor (I told you about the procrastinatey scrapbook idea right, well it's still going strong, in the sense that, it's still a mess I can't be bothered cleaning)

Happy Feet!

Somewhere in the 8000s

I'm chugging along slowly but surely, writing roughly 1000 words a day.

I got Go Girls season 2 on DVD the other day and true to my obsessive nature have already finished it. It was good but I'm thinking season 1 was better. One of the main characters vamoosed and that made me sad, I hope she comes back for at least part of season 3 which has been given the go ahead. For those who don't know it's a New Zealand show comedy/drama about four friends, in both seasons they set goals for themselves to achieve by the end of the year. It's very funny.

I discovered the woman who runs my gym wrote a book the other day (i discovered it the other day, she didn't write it the other day). Anyway it was very exciting, even though she wasn't published, she knows a few people, and I have someone who actually reached the light at the end of the tunnel to talk to.

On a final note I'm thinking of writing a mini essay on Spartacus: Blood and Sand, about the relationship between Lucretia and the blonde woman whose name escapes me for the moment.

Planning Plans Planned

My novels plan is coming together, my ideas are flowing, and everything's going well (except I'll have to rewrite everything I've written because it doesn't work now).

Planning Is actually quite fun, when it's working anyway. I've been sticking coloured postits on my study wall. Different colours for main plot, subplot and back story. I get to look at all my ideas at once which helps me come up with new ones it's great! It's times like these I'm really appreciative I have a study, a room of one's own and all that... now I just need the money.

Feels like I'm actually doing something

I just put my short story entry into the post box! I'm really happy with it and I'm really glad I've sent it of, taking an active step forward in my goals. It went through about three rewrites and two edits, and while it could probably do with another of both I had to send it today or miss out, and anyway... I'm happy.

I also had an interview today for a volunteer position with the writers festival so fingers crossed. It sounds like an amazing opportunity and really can't wait to get involved (if they'll have me).

On the the actual novel front things have taken a dangerously procrastinatey turn. I've decided to plan rather than just pray it comes to me, which is all well and good, but I'm not actually planning (or maybe I'm planning to the extreme) instead I'm collecting pictures and info so I can put together a scrapbook of ideas; what characters look like, what places look like etc. I think I might need to limit that excessive tasks to night time and make sure I focus on the actual novel during the day or else nothing will get done.

I've also applied for a few jobs which means two things
1. less time for writing and
2. more money to spend on writing workshops (and clothes)

Short Story, Shrek, True Blood

I’ve decided to turn my 2300 words of back story into a 2500 word short story for the Queensland Young Writers Award (link: http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/about/ppp/ywa ).
I’ve just finished reading through it and noting changes and am about to start my first revision. Entries for the competition are due the 16th of July so the clock is ticking, but I should at least have something ready to submit by then (unless I’m unbelievably lazy).

Unfortunately my word count for the main narrative is still 3988 but I did see Shrek Forever After today, so that’s something. I think it lived up to the first three (two of which I watched last night for funnsies). Funny and good animation. And I found out yesterday (though I have a sneaky suspicion I already knew and forgot) that it (at least the first one) is based on a book, but they’re very different.

Last night I got to feeling that all the decent TV shows are on hiatus. I’d recently been re-watching Angel, but was about to come to the ‘Conner’ episodes and found I didn’t want to see them. Maybe I’m just too used to DVD’s and find having to wait a week before I can watch the next episode of True Blood just a little too much to cope with (by the way did anyone else find the backwards head thing in the last episode a bit too weird and twisted, excuse the pun). I just want enough good TV available to me that I can watch a few episodes every night… is that too much to ask.

Maybe better than whining I should use all my available TV time for turning my half hearted back story into an award winning short story… we’ll see.

3,988

My title is my current word count (I've also written about 2300 words of back story but I won't include that until I add it into the main document).

Music: The Waifs. I nicked my parents CD to see if I like them and... I do. They probably wouldn't be my first choice but I haven't turned off my speakers in disgust. I like there tude.

Books: The Autumn Castle (Kim Wilkins). it's really good, gripping easy to read, enjoyable, and best of all, it has similar concepts to my novel and has therefore helped me see how these things have been dealt with.
Other books I’ve recently read are The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (now I can see how bad the movie is) and Story Structure Architect by Victoria Lynn Schmidt which helped me come up with soooo many more ideas to flesh out my narrative.

Movies: Howl's Moving Castle (Hayao Miyazaki). Many years ago I watched Spirited Away and loved it, so I decided recently to check out some more Miyazaki and again was thoroughly impressed. Howl's Moving Castle was beautiful and inspirational. I noticed a lot of connections to European fairy tales; the chicken legs attached to Howl's castle reminded me of Baba Yaga's own moving home which also had chicken legs, and there were definitely some Beauty and the Beast elements in there too. It was really amazing, I want to see Nausicaa next.

Yesterday I was all set to write all day, so I could reach my goal of 10000 words by Sunday but then my friend invited me shopping, and, well, I did need to go shopping. I bought two necklaces and a headband. The guilt did get to me though and I managed to pump out about 1000 words at 10:30 that night.

In The Beginning

Hello. My name is Sarah and more than anything I want to be a writer.
In this blog I will be recording my journey as I write (or attempt to write) my first novel, and hopefully (extremely hopefully since it is my first) get published.

As an important side note I think I should let you know that the title of this blog came from a complete inability to think of a title for this blog. Instead of coming up with something witty which reflected the theme or content of this blog, I flicked to a random page in “The Goddess Guide” by Brandi Auset and without looking pointed at a couple of random words.

Shakti is a Hindu goddess describe in the above mentioned book as “the primal force of female energy found within each goddess.” She animates the goddess Devi and liberates women from the trivial events of everyday life, leading them to enlightenment.

And

Ma Gu (also known as Ma Ku, but I didn’t point to that) is the Chinese goddess of longevity. Her name apparently translates to “hemp maid” or “hemp priestess”, so basically she’s the goddess of weed. But she’s also a protector of women and a goddess of rebirth and fertility.

It may be apparent that have an interest in mythology. I also have an interest in folklore, magic and fairy tales; hence the novel I am writing is a fantasy, at least in part.
I have yet to come up with a title, but it is based heavily on the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty/ Briar Rose/ Sun Moon and Talia and takes place partly in modern day ‘real world’ Australia, and partly in a fairy dimension of my own creation.
In this blog I won’t be giving specific details about my novel (I wouldn’t want to spoil it for you once it’s published and you can read it for yourself), but will mostly discuss how I’m going with it, what I’m reading (and how it helps), what I’m doing to improve my writing, what I’ve discovered through research, etc, etc, and hopefully it will be interesting for you.

Thanks for reading and I’ll check back in soon,
Sarah