Australia’s Answer to J.K. Rowling??

An Australian current affairs show had a story last night about a Sydney housewife and mother of four who had recently published a novel. She’s being called the Australian J.K. Rowling, but I suspect it is because she has made a nice sum of money rather than the topic of her book, which is a psychological thriller.

Apparently, after over 50 rejections in Australia and many in the UK and United States, now the novel is being published all over the world and translated into 30 languages. Author Rebecca James is said to have earned 1.4 million dollars so far for her novel, Beautiful Malice.

Rebecca said she only hoped that it would earn her and her family $50,000 per year and said she didn’t start writing until she was thirty-five, writing one paragraph at a time when her children were watching TV for an hour.

I say good on her and its very inspirational for all those writers that start late :)
For more info about Rebecca or to read a blurb of Beautiful Malice visit her webpage.

Author Rebecca James - from http://www.rebeccajames.info/

Write or Die

Since I am doing the NaNoWriMo I trhought I would benefit by using this little program called Write or Die online. You simply enter how many words you want to write and a time limit and it has a number of settings aimed at encouraging you to write. As the NaNoWriMo encourages no self-editing and to just type away, I thought this program would help.

Settings available are:

Consequences / Grace period

Gentle Mode / Forgiving
Normal Mode / Strict
Kamikaze Mode / Evil


I have been working on the Normal/Strict mode, which causes the screen to flash red, and play a horrible sound whenever you stop typing for about 10 seconds, ie: a baby screaming or the chorus of a really bad song that just repeats over and over. Gentle/Forgiving mode does the same thing only it takes longer, around 15 or so seconds. Kamikaze/Evil mode flashes red after one second, and after about 12 seconds, starts to delete your words. There is also an Electric Shock Mode but I was unable to select it. Also, you can mix up the consequences and grace periods to suit your needs; these are just the examples I tried.

It is important to note that you need to save your work in a word doc or whatever, so don’t forget to do that. I was originally saving my work section by section, as a precaution in case the power went out or something. I realized today that I missed a bit, so my word count is less than it should be :(

Also, I notice that the Write or Die word-count is more generous than the Word word-count. Weird I know but Write or Die told me I’d written around 1500 words and Word told me it was around 1300. I have been going with the Word word-count. Only because if the NaNoWriMo word-count is different again, I feel that it’ll be closer to the Word word-count than the Write or Die one. Did that make sense, or have I succumbed to the ‘turn off your inner-editor and meet your word-count’ motto for all my writing??

Signed Up For NaNoWriMo

Ok, so due to my fear of failure I waited until almost the last minute to sign up for NaNoWriMo. I have been being very slack with my creative writing and I am hoping this motivates me and teaches me some discipline. I have a tonne of excuses for why I’m too busy, see my previous post on the subject, and while it is already causing me to stress; I really wanted to do it. I am worried that I’ll lose steam halfway through or that I’ll write absolute crap. But you don’t get anywhere from NOT trying, right?

I also still need to make sure that I meet my Mammals Feature Writer requirements for the month, so I have written a couple of blog posts and an article in advance. I hope to get another article or two done tomorrow, but I have prior engagements tomorrow that mean I’ll be pretty busy. And aside from my mammal articles, I probably wont write any other articles for the month, so my last post about weekly writing goals is pretty much gone to heck.

I wanted to share a funny paragraph that I found on the NaNo site:

Part of the reason we organize NaNoWriMo is just to get a book written. We love the fringe benefits accrued to novelists. For one month out of the year, we can stew and storm, and make a huge mess of our apartments and drink lots of coffee at odd hours. And we can do all of these things loudly, in front of people. As satisfying as it is to reach deep within yourself and pull out an unexpectedly passable work of art, it is equally (if not more) satisfying to be able to dramatize the process at social gatherings.

This is the real reason I joined NaNoWriMo. So I can act like a brat all month and demand people make me coffees because I’m a waaaay important writer and I don’t have time to boil the kettle *evil laugh*

Weekly Writing Goals Vs Daily Writing Goals

I have been taking note of my writing, which is more sporadic than I would like. I have the 500 Words a Day Challenge widget for which you are supposed to write 500 words a day, 6 days per week. I decided that I would take the widget down, for now at least. I had thought that I would write an article every weekday, and do some creative writing on Saturdays, however, I am finding that several days during the week I write a lot, and other days I may not write at all.

For example on Monday I did a veterinary nursing shift so I didn’t write that day. Then yesterday I did some housework, went grocery & book shopping, visited my mum and suddenly the day was over and my boyfriend was arriving home from work, so I didn’t write yesterday.

What I am finding is that I often have days where I am in the ‘writing zone’ and work well, so I think that rather than aiming for an article every weekday, I’ll aim for 5 per week. Life gets in the way sometimes and while I’d like to have my schedule finely tuned and write everyday, it just doesn’t always happen that way, so I will see if weekly goals work better for me.

This Writer Took A Break

I extend my apologies dear reader/s for my lack of posting. I had taken a week off to visit relatives interstate and it is taking me a few days of catching up on paperwork (bills) and housework (mostly laundry) and of course I need to spend time bonding with loved ones (the pets), so I haven’t written any articles or blog posts.

It is also the countdown to register for the NaNoWriMo and I still haven’t decided if I am going to do it. It appears I have some issues with time management. My Mum is encouraging me to do it. I’m sure she thinks that I will write a fabulous novel, have it published, and make lots of money. Bless her :)

Got My Yahoo Account Back!

I’m pleased to say I have gotten my yahoo/work email back! Woot. I am still not entirely sure as to what went wrong but it appears to be sorted now and I am happy to have the account up and running again.

It’s amazing to think that 15 years ago I would barely use a computer and now it forms my livelihood (writing), entertainment (MMORPG’s) and a big factor in my communication with friends as well as editors and other writers.

I definitely cannot live without it and anytime there is a problem it totally stuffs up my day and how I function. While losing that email account for several weeks wasn’t the end of the world, I did find it incredibly inconvenient.

Anyway, all’s well that end well.

The Loss of an Email Account

Recently I have had problems with my email account from yahoo. They closed the account for some strange reason. Not my personal yahoo account, but the one that the sites I write for are linked to, any short story submissions I send and sent from there and basically any writing related email is sent from that account.

I received an email claiming to be from yahoo a day or two before asking for me to verify my account by replying to the email with my account name and password. Now in yahoo's FAQ’s it says that yahoo will never ask for your password, so I sent them an email via their contact form asking them about this email I received.

But alas, they closed my account. So I have been trying to find out what happened and whether I can have my account re-opened or something for the last 3 weeks. And it is really frustrating. I finally get an answer from them saying I violated one of their clauses. I read it again, and I didn’t violate a thing.

Now I’ve had my personal yahoo account for about 10 years with no problems, but being without my ‘work’ email account is a real pain and I am unsure if I should go through the effort of beginning a new ‘work’ email, and changing all the sites that have that email listed etc etc. What if in 2 weeks time (because they are so slow to respond), yahoo says “Hey sorry ‘bout that, here’s your account back”.

It’s also inconvenient because, while I can check my blog, constant content and suite 101 sites individually to check for comments or messages, anyone that I emailed a story submission that emails back, well, I wont see. It is also the address where all my google alerts go to, so I have been unable to follow up on that. So it is affecting my work somewhat and I wanted to vent.

I am also wondering if I should try gmail, or just use Microsoft outlook for future ‘work’ emails, as I suspect yahoo will ignore my request to have my account back. They don’t care, the cruel bastards :( It's a shame though because I quite like the look of yahoo.

Literary and Professional Writing Studies

Before, during and after I did my Science degree, I contemplated doing and Arts degree and majoring in literacy or professional writing or something similar. I also thought about doing a postgraduate diploma either in science or arts, but I really don’t want to do any more science study at the moment. I want to focus on the arty side, but degrees cost money and I don‘t have a lot yet :)

Anyway, the other day I received snail mail from Uni and it had several brochures on postgraduate study. As I opened the envelope and let these brochures fall to my lap as I read the letter, I was not aware that the one on top of the pile was possibly there as an omen. When I picked it up and flipped it over to read it, much to my delight it was a brochure for postgraduate courses in writing and literature.

Choices include graduate certificates and graduate diplomas in children’s literature, literary studies and professional writing. So I filled in the “do you want more information form” and popped it in the mail. I just think I would benefit tremendously from more writing related studies, so I shall await the information and go from there.