I got lost on the way to my happy place...

It has been a week of menial tasks and attending to the needs of others. A week of to'ing and fro'ing, ferrying, and sitting in parked cars. On Friday I sat in a hot, airless car in a featureless carpark in an industrial area for two hours, waiting. Sometimes it is what you have to do. I read a lot but conditions were not conducive to writing. It is hard to create when you feel like your brain is melting and your hungry stomach is about to turn on you and eat you from the inside out. Navman could not give me directions to my happy place. But then last night I understood how to bring the hero in one of my three projects back from an impossible place. Man did that feel good. I hope I get the chance soon to put that thought into words in my manuscript. Solutions come when you least expect them. The important thing is to know that the solutions will arrive. I keep the faith. It is my job as a writer. And sometimes it is the time away from the computer and the writing that yields the best results.

I am a fan of epiphanies. Sometimes they arrive close together and it leaves you wondering if they are not as important and starry as you think they are. Or perhaps they are and it is just part and parcel of the creative life to have as many as I do. Yesterday I had two. One when I realised how to rescue my hero, the other when I read this. Nicola Morgan knows how to explain things. It is clever and enlightening stuff. Go read it, it will improve your writing.

My next picture book Made with Love will be out next April (yay!!).

And over at Tall Tales and Short Stories you can read a review of my young teen novel The Half Life of Ryan Davis.

On the surface the story seems fairly straightforward, but boy is there a twist that I didn't see coming.  With any good thriller you try to work it out and, yes, with hindsight the clues are there, but the denouement took me by surprise and I loved the dark, rather disturbing twist and psychological sting in this tale.


This book is currently available as an e-book from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and I-tunes and should be available for the Sony e-reader soon. The print version is currently available from fishpond.co.nz and should be in bookshops and on amazon soon. If you want a copy and are having trouble getting it let me know.

Epiphanies...

Epiphany - its a pretty word that sounds as luscious and sweet as its meaning. I think being a writer means you are liable to have more epiphanies than most. Epiphanies about story ideas, plot and character development. About timing, or rearranging of pieces of the puzzle to make the best whole. Epiphanies seem to come with the territory and I personally am extremely fond of them. My most recent epiphanies however have not been story ones. They've been about my writing life.

Epiphany 1) The children's writers community rocks (okay thats not so much an epiphany because I already knew it but recent events have only reminded me and strengthened the truth of this). Children's writers are supportive, encouraging, generous and caring. One of the best things I ever did was to join in with this community. I have made wonderful friends and learnt HEAPS. I am a better writer and a better person for belonging.

Epiphany 2) No matter how much you screw up your eyes and concentrate all your brain power on willing someone to reply to a submission or question or request for information nothing will happen. Sadly this is just wasted energy although sometimes it is a fun distraction. However be warned, too much of this activity messes with your head and, I suspect, ultimately kills brain cells (that may be the accompanying beverage consumption - I'm not sure). I suspect too that the length of time it takes for someone to reply to any of the above is inversely proportional to how much you want them to get back to you.

Epiphany 3) It is difficult to be a writer and be an author. In my experience being a published author means going out and meeting your readers, and publicizing your work. The bottom line after all is that there is a bottom line. Selling insufficient copies of your titles can be detrimental to your writing career. Meeting the readers is brilliant, a very happy side effect of the whole business but these other activities to promote yourself and your books cannot help but use up writing time. It takes me a lot of pfaffing around to knuckle down and write the few words I pound out on the keyboard to grow my WIP. Pfaffing time has been harder to come by and consequently I am behind on my writing. Writing is central but I appreciate that promotion is necessary too. I want to do both but I haven't yet found the secret to achieving both without having the other suffer. This is compounded by the need/desire to earn some money which means doing writing related activities (as writing is not generally known to pay the bills) such as teaching and visiting (and that doesn't even take into account life outside of writing, or exciting extras like sick children or their extra curriculur activities). Any advice on this will be gratefully accepted. Please keep in mind however that I'm completely flakey when it comes to being disciplined and organised. Maybe I just need another epiphany...