A Few of My Favourite Things

Do you find that Valentine’s Day does silly things to you? Like thinking about your favourite novels or movies? So, I started to think about my all time favourite novels, and was surprised to find that I’m A Jane Austen nutter. Okay, I already knew that.

My Favourite Top Romance Novels

1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
2. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
3. Emma by Jane Austen
4. Gone with the Wind by Margret Mitchell
5. Emma by Jane Austen
6. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
7. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
8. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
9. The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
10. The Devil’s Bride by Stephanie Laurens

My Top Ten Romantic Movies

1. Gone With The Wind
2. Pride and Prejudice
3. The Notebook
4. PS. I Love You
5. The English Patient
6. City of Angels
7. You’ve Got Mail
8. While You Were Sleeping
9. Notting Hill
10. It Happened One Night

My Top Ten Heroes from novels, film & TV

1. Rhett Butler ~ Gone with the Wind
2. Mr. Darcy ~ Pride and Prejudice
3. Heathcliff ~ Wuthering Heights
4. Sir Gideon Trevithick ~ Captive of Sin
5. Christian ~ Night’s Cold Kiss
6. Mr. Knightly ~ Emma
7. Mr. Rochester ~ Jane Eyre
8. Gerry Kennedy ~ PS I Love You
9. Derek Shepherd ~ Grey’s Anatomy
10. Johnny Castle ~ Dirty Dancing

My Top Ten Heroines from, novels, films & TV

1. Scarlett O’Hara ~ Gone with the Wind
2. Elizabeth Bennett ~ Pride and Prejudice
3. Catherine Earnshaw ~ Wuthering Heights
4. Beth Marsh ~ Little Women
5. Lady Charis Weston ~ Captive of Sin
6. Jane Eyre ~ Jane Eyre
7. Emma Woodhouse ~ Emma
8. Antoinette Petrescu ~ Night’s Cold Kiss
9. Emma Hart ~ A Woman of Substance
10. Elinor Dashwood ~ Sense and Sensibility

Did you notice anything unusual? Yes, I have favourite Heroes and Heroines whose stories are not on my top ten list, but they are not far behind. I should really do a list of my favourite recent releases, I might save that for another day.

Honestly, did you really think I wouldn't put a photo of Mr. Darcy up? LOL.

Hope you have a wonderful Valentine’s Day with your special someone.

Sandie

Am I CRAZY????

Well blogging each week didn’t last long did it. Not even one week! Well not on here anyway. So, what have I been doing that is so important that I can’t blog. Beside the fact I’ve been sick not much. Had some sort of stomach bug most of the week, which is not fun let me tell you.

The RWAus ‘Cruisin’ the Blog’ is going well, some of our RWAus members are very busy promoting their new or soon to be released novels. Speaking of novels, I’m not getting very far with mine. Editing has come to a crawl, writing has stopped altogether and the planning for my November NaNo novel, yes well let’s leave that one alone. The problem with the NaNo novel is I keep changing my mine about what I want to write. Do I do the second novel for CC’s Scarlett House series? Or do I go with the Cosy Mystery I have dancing around in my head.

Yes, you read that right, a cosy mystery for crying out loud. I have the setting, a nursing home. Okay I admit I got this when visiting my Mum one day, they have it all there, the old busy body who knows everything that is going on around the home. She’s great, would make a great nosy sleuth. A lot of the other residence would make great sidekicks. They all make me laugh when I’m talking to them, and the things they come out with, cracks me up every time. I can just see them all tottering around getting in the way as police try to solve the crime. LOL. Have you ever sat and watched the elderly as they interact with each other? How their eyes light up when someone new comes to visit and takes the time to talk to them? The other day when I visited my Mum, one of the volunteers arrived with her two young daughters, look on the residents faces as these girls went from one to the other was priceless.

Anyway back to my cosy mystery. Okay, the setting is the Spring Ball in the nursing home, one of the entertainers for the night is found dead in the change room. Suspects are the bandleader, a woman jealous of the dead woman. The organ player, he had an affair with the dead woman who had moved on to another lover. I should point out that the dead woman is in her late seventies but still very active.

Another suspect is one of the guests, dead woman fleeced her father many years earlier. The final suspect is the clown, who would suspect someone dressed up as a clown? I have to say, this is the first time I have had this much information about one of my stories before I even start to write.

Anyway that's what I've been up to, nothing exciting.

Sandie

Monday Mayhem ~ Changes

The contracts for the sale of my Mum & Dad's home have been exchanged. While I am very happy that my Niece and her partner are buying the family home, I'm sad at the same time as it is now no longer a home I can walk into without first knocking. They have big changes in store for the old home and will only add to the value of the house, but it will seem different going down there now. I've said my final goodbye to that chapter of my life, now a whole new story is about to be written for the old house. A house that will once again build the dreams of a young couple starting out.

New Office
Another change in my life, is the fact that I now have an even larger office. I have all my books and novels around me, plenty of room to move about and space to walk and read over my manuscripts.

Old office






A view to inspire.

This is what I get to look at each day as I sit down to write, not bad is it?






I've also had a change on the Diaries of an Heroine blog. While I may not have been blogging here I have been working. Edits of 'If I Were a Rich Man', 'We Were in Love' and 'Baby Can I hold you' are still moving forward. Plus the screenplay I'm working on for Script Frenzy, while not moving in leaps and bounds, is progressing.

You can also find me on twitter most days, I post a few times a day, and trying hard to limit the amount of time I spend on there.

That's it for this update. I'm heading off to bed, in the hope that I'll get a bit more sleep tonight than I did last night.



Until next time. Happy Writing.
Sandie

Monday Madness ~ Seriously

Seriously, I really wonder about myself at times. I had a fantastic idea yesterday, after collecting more furniture from my Mum’s place (this is because I feel bad about throwing it out), I decided I would move my office into the spare bedroom. Seemed like a good idea at the time, a bigger room. I could move all my books in there and have all my writing related stuff together. Yep, what more could I want? Well some muscled men would be good. I forgot just how many novels I have, this is going to take me forever to sort out. On top of that, I also decided to pull the old wallpaper off the wall. Now I live in a very old house and we have been going to renovate for ages but what we want to do and what we can afford to do just do not work out equal. Grrrrrr.

So anyway, I started to pull down the paper, underneath the crappy yellow flower paper was more wallpaper, which wouldn’t have been so bad except it’s stained. Plus, the top lot of paper isn’t coming off all that easy in a few places. So now, I have a room with an assortment of different coloured wallpaper and a mile of books to move. At least I can get to my computer now.

As for the rest, well I’ll sort it bit by bit and see how I go. Oh and hubby suggested I sell some of my novels or give them away. Seriously, he has to be joking, I can’t part with my books. That is another thing, must stop reading said novels while I’m trying to get the room in order.

I better go check my emails. See ya.

Sandie

Terrific Tuesday

There is action going on all around me at the moment. On the home front, we have two mares ready to check to see if they are in foal. Its school holidays, so I have my grandson staying with during the week. Not a great deal of writing being done, but I am having fun. We had a day at a Cutting Horse sale on Friday. Can you believe that some fool would pay $85,000 for a horse? Lord, I could pay a new car for that much. Anyway, I have been in pain since. I think I may have put my hip out again, oh the joys of old age.

Let’s move on to my writing. I’m getting organized. Yes, I’m told I need to be more organized with my writing. Well just more organized in general. So, I have set up my boards, calendars and charts to keep track of where I’m going and how I’m going to get there. The picture on the left is my monthly calendar for October. Busy, aren’t I? Most of it is an on line conference I’m doing. Muse Conference it runs all week, lots of interesting workshops and chats lined up. The down side is that most of them are run in the early hours of the morning over here, like 1am to 4am. I don’t think I’m going to get much sleep that week.

As I said not a great deal of writing on my unfinished WIP’s being done, put I am slowly getting my edits and re-write organized on ‘We Were In Love’. I have also organized charts and calendars so I can keep track of where I’m up to with my writing. Plan for the rest of this month is to get edits and re-writes finished on ‘We Were In Love’. The picture on the right is my WIP tracking board. I have this one so I know what my word count is on each WIP, which ones I’m editing and doing re-writes on and if they are ready to go to my CPs or to submit. I am slowly getting a few into the editing and re-write sections. Hehehe.

This chart is for twelve months. The plan is to work out which WIPs I’ll be working on each month whether its writing, editing or doing re-writes. Of course, most of this depends on my characters and cooperative they are feeling. It will only take one and the whole thing could go pear shape. Down the bottom of the chart, I have a list of publishers I’d like to submit my works with; I have their word count requirements so I know which novels will fit where.

As November approaches, I will have my research notes to organize, time lines to write up and character and scene charts to write up. The novel I’m writing for November is ‘Chains of Love’. This is an historical romance; I’m aiming for about 100 to 110K. I’m going to try and do my character charts and scene notes ahead of time with this one, as well as a time line. I need to make sure I have the historical facts right before I start writing.

News on my fellow writing pals. Christina Phillips novel ‘Foretaste of Forever’ is due for release in October, just in time for Halloween. How cool is that book cover? Don’t forget to go and visit Christina’s blog and get all the information. In addition, a couple of my other writing friends won runner-ups with the ‘Feel the Heat’ competition. Congratulations, Felicity Rogers and Rachael Blair, I am so proud of both girls they have worked so hard on their stories.

I’ve also had a spring clean of sorts. I made the decision to delete one of my pseudonyms, I mean, really did I need two erotic romance pen names? The short answer is NO! I’ve delete most of my profile network sites as well. I wasn’t going anywhere near them and if I did, I felt I was spending too much time away from my writing. Speaking of writing, my hubby is back at work today (we just had a long weekend) & my grandson is having the day with SIL, I have peace and quiet, what better time to write.

Catch ya next time.

Sandie

I've Been Busy, Honest

Now I don’t want you thinking I haven’t been busy. I have, I’ve been very busy writing, editing, doing a few critiques and that has all been in the last two days. Yes, up until two days ago I’d been plodding along, coasting in a world of my own. Just doing a little writing here, a little editing there, but nothing solid, nothing in the volume that I needed to doing. Yesterday I did some word sprints with a few girls for the US and I have to say it was just the kick in the pants that I needed. I wrote over 3,000 words on one novel and edited a few pages of another.

Today I’ve edited a full chapter of one novel, critiqued two chapters for other people and written 1,500 words. I’m hoping to add to that later tonight.

Last weekend I went to a horse show with my hubby. It wasn’t a bad weekend; the horses settled in okay to their stables, ate and drank well which is always a bonus when you go away from home. Hubby won a couple of events and placed in others, so over all he was happy. The only down side was that I’d signed on to do a challenge to write 2,000 words in a genre I don’t normally write. Thinking I’d have heaps of time while hubby was off riding or chatting I was sure I’d shoe it in. Wrong, time got away from me; because, of course I had to go and watch him ride, take a few photos and video a couple of events. So instead of writing 2,000 words I came home with 100 and something. I decided I’d write in first person, an interesting exercise. This also caught me up a bit. But never the less Sunday night I sat down and wrote the rest of my story finishing at 10.45pm. I was quite pleased with myself. Sure that my slump had passed and I would be once again on a roll, I woke Monday morning feeling like I’d been tackled by a forward pack. Every bone in my body ached, I had headaches, earaches you name it I had it. But that is now all behind me. I’m back in my groove, ready to take on the world. Write up a storm. Blaze my way to publication.

What else have I been up to of late? Oh RC and I are running this year’s Clayton’s Conference for RWAustraila. That should be interesting. They have no idea what they have let themselves in for, Hehehe. We also have our own group at yahoo Romance In All Its Flavors here’s the link;
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Romance_In_All_Its_Flavors/
It’s a jointly owned group between Rhian Cahill, Diane Curran, Rachel Charlton, Mari Carr and me. We are just in our early stages at the moment. RC is flat out in edit mode and you already know what I’ve been up to. Diane is off at Byron Bay this weekend; she has just finished her novel she was working on during the 50/30. Mari has a few excerpts of her writing up on the site, if you’re interested in having a read.

Okay I need to go if I am going to get some writing done. I’ll catch up with you all later. I really need to do an interview with a couple of my heroes and post on my Hero Blog, or find some more yummy pictures. LOL. May be I’ll do both. So I couldn't wait, he is yummy, isn't he.

See ya

Sandie

The end is here, yes 50ks In 30 Days has come to an end. What a wonderful month with have had. We started with the month with 51 challengers and ended with 46 either completing the challenge or at least getting some great word totals. Everyone has said that they have enjoyed the month and have never written so many words in a month before.

RC, you know Rachel C/Rhian is hoping to reach 100k. I’ve decided to call her Queen of the Bionic Fingers. She has had an amazing month. The last couple of days we have seen a lot of the girls make the sprint home, a few had not been sure at the start of the month if they would make it to the 50k, but true to the Aussie sprite they continued on. Other just had the whole universe fighting against them and no matter what they did event from the real world just would not leave them alone. Yet they continued, continued writing determined to at least work towards a personal best.

So what was my final total? Well that would be 75,080. I now have three novels of 50k to edit as well as two of 15k. So July is looking at being another busy month, I’m thinking this editing may roll over into August which is fine, as long as at the end I have something that will be worthwhile submitting.

Well that’s me for another challenge. I have a few BIAW coming up, but other than that life may be a little slower. WOOHOO won’t that be nice.

Hugs
Sandie

I Reached My Target, But Not My Goal

I reached my target today, just not my goal. Well kind of, sorta I did. I finished the novel I was working on this passed week, but I didn’t get to the 50,000 words with it. I know when I edit it I’ll get there but at the moment I just really do not want to go back and add anything yet. The biggest thing with the story is that I started it almost two years ago, my writing has changed, I think, no I believe I have grown as a writer so there will be a lot of changes. Anyway with finishing that one up and doing a bit more to a couple of other WIP’s I reached my target of 50,000 words for the month. So YAYA me. I haven’t told the girls at 50/30 yet, I’ll do that tomorrow. I really didn’t think I’d get any writing done today but just plodding along I got there. I still have a couple more WIP's to work on before the end of the month, so I might get my goal yet.


I’m hoping to be able to see my chiropractor tomorrow. I pulled something in my back or shoulder the other day when I was doing some housework, dangerous occupation housework. Anyway if I sit for too long typing it gives me curry. So on that note, I’m going to say goodnight. Yes it’s night time here in the wonderful land of Oz. Happy writing.

Hugs
Sandie

More Good News

As you may or may not know another of our Aussie's had her novel accepted for publication a while back. Yes that's right Ms Suzanne Brandyn had her novel 'Passion In Paradise' accepted by
The Wild Rose Press.

Well now she has a cover. WOOHOOO for Suz. So drop over to her Website and have a look at her book cover, Suzanne Brandyn Romance Writer .

The good news just keeps coming. Have you got any good news you would like to share? I'm more than happy to hear about it.