Updates

I know I haven't posted either League (LAOS) or Sockboy in a few weeks. Rest assured, I'm working on it - I know the events of the next League chapter, and I have the next few Sockboy episodes written. However, I've just returned to work, and life is a little more insane than usual. Any spare time and brain power is being devoted to the novel. Hopefully I'll have an update on one or the other for you next week :)

Also, because I am CLEARLY AND CERTIFIABLY INSANE, I'm doing a course on Fantasy and Science Fiction through Coursera that started this week. You can do the assessment tasks and wotnot and get a pretty certificate at the end, but hello, work, baby, writing, LIFE, so I'm mostly just there to watch the lecture vids as I can and see what ideas I can glean. Especially since the course reading is a novel a week o.O But anyway, if I find any interesting insights, I'll post here :)

I'm Official!

Woohoo! I have an EIN! And I am here to testify that if you follow the instructions linked to in the previous post, the most trouble you'll have is understanding the operator's accent! *confetti*

Also, unrelated good news - the dog book, she is finished! I finally finished the MASSIVE AND EPIC re-edit (i.e. I rewrote 75% of the entire book from scratch >.<), it's been accepted, and it should be available in mid to late August. Yay!

Happy days indeed. B-)

Delays

Also, I know I owe you guys chapters of LAOS, and I know some of you are waiting impatiently for them. The last two weeks have been crazy - I was out of town last week helping prepare for Mum's 50th celebrations, and this week we are sick. 'We' thus far precludes the Minion, and I sincerely hope it continues to.

In the meantime, I have alternate entertainment for you that I'll post tomorrow morning ;)

Sorry! More LAOS coming next week, honest-to-goodness. <3

So, about the last two months...

I've not posted in two months. I have not died, I have not fallen off the edge of an inter-planetary rift, and I have not (alack) moved to somewhere warm and secluded wherein I can live out my days as a happyhappy hermit. I have merely, boringly, mundanely, been Busy. And pregnant, but *wavey hands of dismissal* to that O:)

I know, I KNOW I keep saying that I'll be better, that I'll recommit, that I'll try harder this time and this time, I REALLY WILL blog more often and BE A BETTER PERSON... And I hope you know that I do mean it. Just as I hope you all know by now that I'll probably fail dismally :P That said, however, with the Impending Doom of the Parasitical Minion (aka I'm due Tuesday next week), I have actually been somewhat organised, and I has guest posts for you! Guest! Posts! People to say interesting and coherent things, JUST FOR YOU! Which is EXCITING! And warrants the totally ABUSE of CAPITAL LETTERS and EXCLAMATION MARKS!!

I also have two exciting announcements which really and truly DO justify the use of excessive exclamation marks (not that my lovely guests don't), but I'll get to those later. For now, here's what you need to know:

Today, Jan 17: Blog comes out of hibernation. It is sleepy and it's skin is a little saggy, like an under-nourished grizzly, but we loves it anyway.

Tomorrow, Jan 18: Exciting announcement number 1: I has book.

Jan 19: Exciting announcement number 2: You can has book.

Jan 23: The wonderful graphic artist Clare visits to share her thoughts on creativity.

Jan 30: We are joined by the awesome aspiring-songstress Rebecca to discuss what to do when random inspiration hits you on the nose in the middle of the night.

Feb 6: Author Emily Casey will be dropping by to discuss fairytales, and why they are awesome. In fact, they are so awesome that she wrote a fracture fairytale of her own, and The Fairytale Trap is a) now available and b) lots of fun and c) you'll have the chance to win a copy during her visit.

Feb 13: Author Krista Ball is going to join in the 'creativity' theme and share with us how on earth she's able to actually be creative when in her non-writing life, she claims she can't even match colours.

After that, hopefully I'll have enough *brain* to return. And no doubt I'll pop in and out in between guests - I want to show off the chair that Boyo & I have reupholstered (nearly) and of course, I'm sure there will be an obligatory minion picture in there somewhere too O:) :) (hopefully sooner rather than later, *hint hint* minion).

Happy 2012! May it be a fulfilling year for all of you :o)

And The Winner Is...

The winner of an ARC of Maggie Stiefvater's incredible The Scorpio Races is...

Crys Hodgens!

Congratulations :o) We'll be in touch soon.

The Scorpio Races Contest Closed!

Hi all! Just a quick note to let you know the contest is closed. Thank you all so much for entering :o) We'll be announcing a winner soon, both here and on Nayuleska's blog!

Pictures and Linkies and Fun Stuff, Oh My!

If there were a prize for writing-blog-posts-in-your-head-then-never-posting-them, I can pretty much guarantee I'd be a winner. In the past week, I have written blog posts on looking for happiness, learning stuff from marking, why exercise is like writing, and of course, the two posts I've been writing and rewriting in my head for over a month, investigating self publishing and Holly Lisle's courses. Oi. *facepalm*

It's now like an hour and a quarter past my ridiculously early bedtime (hi, bump-who-drains-my-energy *significant look*), but I was DETERMINED to say SOMETHING today, so here I am, saying... something.

Actually, I have something I think is exciting to say :o) I've been messing around with the blog and the website trying to actually make the website look something like something I like. What that looks like, I'm still not 100% sure, which is part of the problem. I know what I want ON the site, just not how to prettify it, and it's driving me nuts o.0 Anyone know a cheap web designer out there? Apparently I'm in the market *eye roll*

ANYway, as part of this, you'll notice (if you click through) that the linkage across to the top of the blog has been updated, and there's this handy-dandy section called 'readers' now. Long time readers may remember that some time ago, I had a companion site that had projects I was working on, excerpts, totally illegally pilfered images, etc :P

Well, it's back! Only this time, it's legal! Ah ha.

Seriously, though, I have about 8 shorts up on Smashwords now and another couple to pop up there soonish, and the Dog Book (33 Worst Mistakes Writers Make About Dogs) is undergoing a major and gruelling revision in preparation for being re-released, and I thought it was about time I threw up some of the extra stuff I have for all these things. I have images, inspiration-trivia and deleted scenes/excerpts for the shorts, and the Dog Book will have a MASS of extra stuff: photos, appendices, linkage, video clips... All sorts of Really Awesome Stuff.

None of this is up yet, but I'll start putting it up in the next week (around marking, my favourite!) and sit back and let you all devour gleefully. Or maybe just devour. Or, you know, nibble around the edges. Either way.

And on that note, I'm really, truly, honestly, I-promisely, off to bed. *snore*

In Which I Say Stuff!!

Somehow, over the last few months I have acquired a couple of new followers. I've NO IDEA how this has happened, since apparently I am incapable of blogging and pretty much am only on twitter during school hols, but anyway, however you found your way here - hi! And thanks :o) And sorry. :D

Anyway, below is most of a post I started like two weeks ago, and then didn't finish. This is Me And Blogging at the moment - it's not that I don't think of things to say, it's just I never get around to saying them (although for a long time it WAS because I had nothing to say, mostly because I wasn't writing). So, without further ado, post:


So, it's been a long time since I actually had stuff to say on here. [no kidding; delaying this post by like 3 weeks made that even longer, woman!] I blame term 2 (I loathe term 2 with a passion; it's the busiest and most dismal term of all, not helped by ever-encroaching winter-lack of daylight) and the fact that my body has been preoccupied with other stuff. This, for example:



Rah. Crazy how much that thing messes with your brain.

But anyway, it's FINALLY holidays, and my brain is FINALLY kinda-sorta working again, and I Have Stuff To Say! Rawr.

First up, I just want to note that I've gone through and tidied all the meta pages; TBR Pile of Doom, Books Read, WIPs and Published Works are all now uptodate. Hurrahs! I just started Like Clockwork today, [being like 3 weeks ago] and I am LOVING it SO much. I honestly haven't been this enthused about writing since I wrote the first book in the series over a year ago. It's a really nice feeling. [but apparently not nice enough to get me past chapter one :P]

The fact that I have evil brain-washing clockwork fairies, plus friendship and learning to trust and broken promises and betrayals and assumptions-that-turn-people-evil, to look forward to helps. A lot.

[It does. Very much. But what DOESN'T help is realising that a few things need to be sorted out in the first book first. So drafting is on hold and I've just yesterday (like really yesterday) drawn myself up a revision timetable for Sanctuary, which has me finishing right on December, which is rather full of happiness. But more on that in another post.

For now, suffice to say that I am going to endeavour to post about once a week, now that I no longer feel like the living dead (just the living exhausted ;)), and if I don't, you're free and welcome to come after me with pitchforks, knives, and other uncomfortably pointy objects.

Thus concludeth perhaps the most pointless and rambly post I believe I've ever written. Oi.]

Happy New Year!

Hi, everyone!

I hope your holiday period has been wonderful. The blog will be returning to its regular (and somewhat theoretical) Mon-Wed-Fri schedule on Monday. In the meantime, if you're interested in more progress-reporty word-county kind of stuff, updates are ongoing over at the livejournal :)

Have fun, stay safe, and HAPPY 2011!! :)

For The Rest...

You know what? Blogging is kind of exhausting, sometimes.

I won't lie to you: I'm struggling pretty hard right now with anything creative or writing related. Work is intense, the new house is starting to come together, emotional decisions are happening with the dogglies (deciding whether to keep the 8 month old pup or not, *tears! sniffles!*), and my health pretty much sucks. I've been on a super restrictive diet since June and guys, it's killing me. I've lost more than 8 kilos since June. That's nearly 18 pounds, for you imperial people. And I'm not allowed to eat anything. URGH!

So. I haven't been writing. I haven't really been reading much either. And I've kind of been beating myself up about this, because really, that's what I do best :P

I've been beating myself up about not blogging more regularly, too. But you know what? I have so much else going on, I really don't need the extra stress that comes from self flagellation. Right? Right.

Only I keep going, "I'll just have a break for a week. Oh, just one more week. Urgh, I know I had a week long break two weeks ago, but I really think I need another one," and we all know that's totally counterproductive. So for once, I'm going to shove aside the guilt and the stress, and cut myself loose for a bit, and actually rest. To that end, I won't be blogging for the rest of the year unless I have oh-my-gosh-must-share-this-NOW stuff to say.

I will, however, definitely be back in the new year :o)

So I hope you all have a very happy holiday season; stay safe and have a whole bunch of fun. Enjoy what you have in the moment, your friends, your family, your self, because you won't ever have that moment again.

And if you need some time out - make sure you take it.

Happy writing!

~Inkles.

PS Finally have Word functioning again on the lappytop; with luck, this means I can start writing again. Yes, my brain is very particular about where we write and how. Irritating creature \: :D

Yeah, About That...

Life had jumped up and smacked me in the chin. Oh, no, wait. That was the dog. Never mind. O:)

I have a few more places to go up for Project Native (keep sending 'em in, people! Chocolate's still on offer!), I have some posts on the editing process I'm undergoing that I really want to get up, I have book reviews to do and comments to reply to.

I also have a full time job that's really hectic right now as we commence the final term for our school year (looots of marking, looots of extra curricular), dog showing that will take up at least half of every weekend between now and Dec 11, an interstate trip, a volunteer position for the week-long camp coming up in a couple of months for which meetings are gearing up, major renovation-type-stuff going on at home, and creatures who rely on me to deliver meals.

September was my third worst month in terms of wordcount since I've started keeping stats (Feb '07, in case you were wondering). I did manage to keep up with the editing, but honestly, the novel draft is not a priority right now.

I wish it was; I miss it. But I have to do the things I get paid to do first. And the food, since family members dying on me from starvation could earn me some questioning looks :P

All of which to say, I'll be back to regular blogging as soon as I can. Hopefully next week, maybe next month. I'll do my best, and hope you'll all miss me terribly and spend the interim pining O:) Bwa ha ha.

And if you don't, I'll hunt you down and give you something to pine about >:) *envisages invading people's homes with pine trees* *blinks* Yeeeah, I'll think of something sensible, never you mind.

Ha!

Website & Web Frustrations

If you're reading in google reader or some such, you'll need to highlight the following text to read it. Blogger's being stupid, so I have to manually colour my text white, which I believe means it won't show up in feed readers properly. Argh!

Okay, that's it. I've had it up to here with my blog templates randomly throwing fits. I don't know about you, but right now I can't read any of my previous posts unless I highlight them, because the text seems to have decided to become the same colour as the background. Grr!!

All of which means, I am renewed in my resolve to get my website up and running. Yes, that's right, I have a website! www.amylaurens.com, in fact. It's been sitting there for several months now, but I haven't directed anyone there yet because it doesn't look pretty. In fact, I don't like the look of it at all, which is why I haven't been working on it.

Yes, I am strange O:)

However, again, this irregularity of blogger template-ness has become most irritating, so I now officially hereby hencewith do offically declare (did I say officially twice? O:)) that I am GOING to get that website up and running. Gah!

*checks calendar* Okay. Would it be a total cop-out if I said by the end of the year? O:) Hehe.

Postless

Due to brain breakage there will be no mid-week post. Sincere apologies.

Awards

I've been meaning to do this for quite a while, but never mind. Thanks to everyone who's nominated me for blog awards. You're all very kind :) And thank you to those of you who read this blog; I would, quite literally, be nothing without you all.

The Superior Scribbler Award


From Danyelle over at Myth-takes. Thanks, Dany! :)

1. Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass The Award on to 5 most-deserving Bloggy buds.

2. Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author & the name of the blog from whom he/she has received The Award.

3. Each Superior Scribbler must display The Award on his/her blog, and link to this post, which will explain The Award.

4. Each Blogger who wins The Superior Scribbler Award must visit this post and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List. That way, we’ll be able to keep up-to-date on everyone who receives This Prestigious Honor!

5. Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog.

So, who do I think are superior scribblers? Actually, I'm going to totally cheat and nominate the same people for all three awards. See the list at the bottom ;)


The Honest Scrap Award


Thanks to Yuna, over at Nayu's Corner. Apparently I'm to list 5 honest things about myself, and pass the award on to 5 other people.

1) I can't stand raw tomato. This is bizarre, because I love tomato sauce (ketchup) (probably too much), and I adore Italian food - but for some reason, I just cannot stand the taste of raw tomato.

2) Besides writing, I also enjoy playing the piano, drawing (charcoal is my fav medium), quilting/sewing (though I haven't had time to do this in quite a significantly looong time), cooking, and drama - the acting variety, that is. Reading, I hope, goes without saying ;)

3) My husband & I are registered Labrador breeders. We're planning for our first litter at the end of the year :)

4) I have 'sinus issues' which mean I have a perpetually blocked up nose. No idea why. Hope to find out in October.

5) And finally, my birthday is the 31st of December. Huzzah for fireworks every year! :D


The Kreativ Blogger Award


From Liana Brooks. Thanks, Liana! You're a wonderful writing twin - best a girl could ask for - and I do heartily adore your series of posts on editing - and the fact that you rekindled my love of science.

Rules:

1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who nominated you for this award.
4. Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting.
5. Nominate 7 Kreativ Bloggers.
6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know they have been nominated.


1) I have a Masters degree called a Master of Studies. I didn't have to write a thesis to get it, and I studied entirely subjects that I'd never studied before in my life o.O

2) When I was little, my favourite animal was the elephant. Apparently I had to be dragged away from their compound at the zoo :)

3) I adore stuffed toys, and still have my two elephants (one grey, one white) from when I was tiny.

4) I've flown an aeroplane. My dad used to be a flying instructor :)

5) I've sky-dived. My husband and I got tickets as an engagement present. The morning of the dive I phoned my mum in a panic - not because of the dive, but because I had sudden second thoughts about my wedding dress :D

6) My favourite colours are anything in the spectrum from the middle of green to the middle of red (ie greens in the half towards blue, all blues, all purples, and reds in the half towards purple). I've never, ever been able to be more specific than that.

7) I'm a tactile/visual person. I have to touch, and anything with a funky texture, be it physical or coloured, can keep me entranced for hours. It never has, because sadly I've never had the time; but it can. :D


So, the 5 people I'm passing these awards on to are as follows. If your name is listed, feel free to consider yourself nominated for just one, or all of the awards above; pick and choose if you like :D

1) Michael Wulf, aka Wulfie, from his self-titled site
2) The team at Literary Lab
3) Danyelle Leafty from Carpe Mousa (Kreativ Blogger Award especially)
4) Dr Steve Shann of Birds Fly, Fish Swim (Superior Scribbler Award especially)
5) And Lisa Shearin, author of the Raine Benares series

All of these people write interesting, thought-provoking posts and share a lot of themselves with readers - and I personally value what they have to say.

I'll let them decide whether or not they actually want to put these awards up or not ;) (And I shan't be offended if they don't; as Liana Brooks once pointed out to me, too often, blog awards just don't match the decor.)

Which ponders me - what's your opinion on blog awards? I still can't decide if they're a good thing or a forward-like menace. Speak! Let me hear you!

Also, tune in on Monday for the second-to-last installment in the Jesscapades Editing series! :)

Oops!

Just a note to say that yesterday's accidental ghost-post is now fixed, and the thing actually has some content o.O :)

Blog Tour and Pitch Poll

First up, sorry the pitches weren't up when the previous post went up! They're up now.

NB: Sadly, the gadget doesn't allow me to change the colour of the text, and of course, the default colour is BLACK. Oi. I'll have to get my html monkey to play around with things and see if this can be fixed, but in the mean time, you can read them - you just have to highlight them with the mouse to read them o.O

Of course, they're also posted below in the same order they appear in the poll, so you could, for example, note that you like sentence #1 the best and click on the first little circle that appears %-)

These are the first three sentences:

• At her father's funeral the people of the sea and the creatures of the forest both arrive to claim the newly orphaned girl as their own - and neither side is willing to let her get away.
• A no-hoper teenage boy finds an abandoned mine, haunted by the ghost of his baby sister. When his family threatens to incarcerate him if he won't keep quiet, he becomes determined to get to the bottom of the family mystery once and for all.
• Torn from his home the night before his wedding, a young man is thrown into the Labyrinth Tower to be one of four that will lead dead souls to the afterlife.

Vote for your favourite in the sidebar! And a note to all you RSSers out there - consider this your official invitation to delurk!


In other news, I've been on a blog tour! Yippee!

On Sunday, I was over at The Innocent Flower with Michelle.
Monday I was obviously here, discussing the contests! Don't forget, you still have time to enter! :)
On Tuesday I headed across to Liana Brooks' blog.
And Wednesday, today, I've been over at Myth-takes!

Wow, I've been busy :D But lots of fun. Please go check out the articles for the sake of the wonderful women who hosted me - they deserve all the traffic they can get! :D

The Short Version...

...is that I can either spend the last half hour before bed (late, again) catching up on yesterday's missed post, OR I can go write.

Sorry.

I'm picking 'write'.

I do still love you all, I promise - I just Really Need to get my word count over four thousand for the month :S

Thanks for understanding :D

IMPORTANT

InkfeverPLUS is now found at http://inkfeverplus.blogspot.com

Please update your links.

Who Turned The Lights Out?

O:)

Oops, someone turned the lights out and the blog went dark... I sowwy *looks innocent and crestfallen and so positively adorable that everyone forgives immediately* O:) There, isn't that better? :D

Ok, so, I didn't sleep last night due to the Barking Menace, so there will be no meaty post today either. However, blogging will resume as usual tomorrow, and will continue until Christmas Eve, at which point I will take a break over the holidays and return to you on January the 5th. Deal?

Deal.

:)

Author Interview

There's a cool interview with Lisa Shearin up on Writing It Out.

And I've decided I'm going to stick a gadget in the sidebar for quick announcements like this. Look out for it :)

ETA: It's the pink link above my profile. I'll leave links up for a couple of days, and probably do something like change the colour when a new one goes up so it's obvious ;):)