My Blog Has Moved!

Please check out my new blog here.

=)

I've Been Tagged! (The Lucky 7 Meme)

All right, so I was tagged by Nicole L. Bates in the Lucky 7 Meme and it looked like fun so I decided to give it a go. I have to say, this exercise is really going to help me with the editing process because I've found out that it's far easier to notice the frailties in a certain paragraph when it's removed from the rest of the manuscript. The thought of exposing page 77 to the world at this point made me squirm (which means it needs serious editing) so I went with page 7 (still made me squirm, but less so than 77).

Here is the excerpt from my urban fantasy novel currently titled Bloodstone:

As Liam suspected might happen, the man's human façade slipped away as he dropped his magical disguise to reveal his true form.

Blue eyes became yellow, smooth skin became lumpy, and even, white teeth became sharp and mottled with green.

It wasn't a pleasant sight.

"Good call, Keeper," the demon said in a gravelly voice. "How did you know?"

Liam grinned, though there wasn't much humour in it. "Let's call it a gut feeling."


Now for the rules:

1. Go to page 7 or 77 of your manuscript
2. Go to line 7
3. Copy down the next seven lines or sentences
4. Tag 7 people

I'm tagging @TheKevinBasil, @SarahLBlair, @krista_walsh, @me_brady, @AbbyGeiger, @fortoldon, @THamiltonwriter

If you've already done this, just ignore the tag. And of course there's no pressure to participate if you'd rather not!

Why I Haven't Been Blogging

My poor blog has been sitting here neglected ever since I created it about two months ago. Why? Because I simply haven't known what to write about. But then I saw a post on someone else's blog (I wish I could remember whose blog but unfortunately I can't) that addressed my exact problem -- how to figure out what to blog about. The advice that I took away from that blog was that I should simply write about what interests me. Maybe that should have been obvious from the very beginning, but for some reason I needed to see it spelled out. I don't need to come up with some amazing, unique topic. I simply need to focus on things that I enjoy. So that's what I will try to do. And I'll try not to neglect my blog so much in the future!

Book Recommendations

Just thought I would share two excellent books I've read recently.

The first is Wildflower Hill by Kimberley Freeman.

This book was recommended to me on Amazon because I have purchased books by Kate Morton in the past, and I did find that Wildflower Hill is rather similar in style and general content to Morton's novels (which I also enjoy).

Wildflower Hill is about a prima ballerina (Emma) whose career comes to a sudden end as a result of a serious knee injury. Since her entire life always centred around ballet, Emma is lost after her injury. Leaving London to return home to Australia, Emma discovers that her late grandmother left her a Tasmanian sheep station. While preparing the estate for sale, Emma uncovers things about her grandmother that she never knew and, in the process, discovers the things that have been lacking in her own life (love, fulfillment and true happiness).

I really got into this book and didn't want to put it down. Freeman does a good job of weaving Emma's life and perspective with those of her grandmother, and I also enjoyed the fact that the book was set partly in Tasmania. I've read heaps of books set in Australia, but never Tasmania, so that was interesting.

The second book is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. This book consists entirely of letters written back and forth between various characters and is basically about life on the Channel Islands during the German occupation in World War II. At the same time as I was reading this book, I was also watching the 1979-1980 British tv series Enemy at the Door, which is also about life during the German occupation on Guernsey. I highly recommend the book (and Enemy at the Door as well!).