Farewell Izzie....

Our cat died over the weekend which made me cry. She was a pretty wee thing, a cameo coloured moggy, dainty and sweet-natured. She lived permanently out-doors but knew which side her bread was buttered and knew who her family was, even the dog. Although still relatively young at about 6 and a half she got inexplicably sick and try as we might after a month was no longer the cat we remembered and there was no going back. I shall miss her. RIP Izzie.

Hi to the people who are reading my blog. Even though I sit here alone in my office, my tapping at the keyboard the only sound I hear, its comforting/reassuring/motivating/fun to know that I am part of a community of writers also sitting tapping out their stories, coming up against the same issues, pressing on despite the difficulties, wishing each other luck and best wishes. You are a fabulous bunch of folk and I couldn't wish for a better crowd to be a part of.

It is now officially September here in NZ and my picture book is out this month, it is NZ Book month for which I am doing a number of events at Auckland Public Libraries and the Auckland Art Gallery, my husband has a business trip out of town and there are cheerleading and dance competitions and other related events for my daughters. It will be a busy time and I certainly feel like I am at the top of an extremely slick slope wearing inappropriate shoes. I suspect I will be too busy to obsess over the things I usually obsess about but I hope I am not too busy to keep writing on the current project. I did a little bit of forward planning while exercising last night and wonder if i am going to come up a little short of my hoped for word count. The aim was around 50,000 but looking at where I am (18,000 words) and what I have left to write I don't think I will get there. Still, I am not going to stop now or change the synopsis so I will see what the result is when I get to the end.

Need Chocolate STAT...

Nothing much is happening. I've read everyone else's blog and although a few made me laugh (especially US writer Maureen Johnson at www.maureenjohnson.blogspot.com ) there was nothing particularly relevant to me today or inspirational either. I have two sick children at home who aren't that sick and probably should have gone to school, no news about any of my manuscripts working their little butts off trying to get noticed and I am no longer needed for that local school writing workshop. Yesterday I wrote about a thousand words on my new project which is a lot for me. And they were pretty good words. Most of them i was very happy with. I did about the same the day before. Those were two good days. I felt pretty chipper yesterday afternoon. Of course i haven't written anything yet today and the chipperness is all gone. Need chocolate stat.

I think i'm up to about 12 and half thousand words now with My Sister's Shadow, but i'm at that point where I'm thinking OMG, I'm like a third of the way through and i've only got 12 and a half thousand words, I need like twenty thousand by now. And once i finish and tidy it up it'll get a little shorter too. So I'm doing the time honoured tradition of panicking about something that hasn't happened yet. I'd really like the novel to be over 50 thousand when its finished. I guess I'll just have to finish it so I know whether I have a problem or not. Thats at least another 24,000 words. Eeeek. There are no distractions now either ( apart from sick children and a scratchy flea ridden dog) from my writing. I've sent in my funding application, my books aren't out till september/october and I no longer have to write a workshop plan. I NEEED a distraction. Maybe a publisher accepting a manuscript, maybe a request for an author visit or something unexpected but extremely cool. See! I'm not after much really. Chocolate and distraction STAT.

I did a slightly crazy thing yesterday too and now i'm worried bout that as well. I bought me a almost new mobile phone over the internet. On Trade Me. I's paid me monies and now i'm hoping, fingers and toes crossed, that the phone turns up. I will cry if it doesn't as it was a thing of beauty at a sparkly, fantabulous price that will meet my every need. I'm hoping it has other hidden qualities too like the ability to make dinner and pour me a glass of wine at the end of a fretful day. Chocolate, distraction and phone STAT. I shall report back later on phone and distractions. You don't need an update on the chocolate, suffice to say I got some and ate it STAT.