Category: Uncategorized (Page 1 of 3)

No, not from writing (it’s been a tough last four months but far from how bad it would need to be to make me do that!). I’m retiring from being president of my writers group.

I’ve been the president of Vision Writers for the last four years. It’s been a wonderful time, and the group has had several changes I’ve had the privilige (and sometimes the challenge ;p ) to undertake.

We’ve had so many new members join over my time, and a surprisingly large amount of them to stay on. An anthology was collected too (the ebook Darkest Depths can be bought from most ebook retailers, the print is a limited edition run however.)

It’s been a good time, but a combination of my own time becoming more scarce (and therefore me worrying I can’t devote the time the group deserves) and a desire for others to step up has made me decide now is the time to step down.

I’m remaining a member of the group – you’ll have to drag me kicking and screaming from them ;p  – just now, only a member.

At the Christmas party on Sunday, the last group event in which I was still president, I was given a beautiful hard cover version of The Blade Itself. Best of all it’s filled with many of the members well-wishes. I usually mock when people say they feel ‘blessed’ (thanks to the ridiculously overused hashtag), but this is one case where I do feel it.

I’m sad to leave the position, but I’m also excited to keep going and see how, in 2019, it will be different.

Blogging again over on the Vision Writers website today while riding the high of watching the first episode of the new season of Game of Thrones. What I’m blogging about however is one of those ‘filler’ shows the networks put on before and after to try and rope in the viewers and how that filler show might actually prove helpful to writers (both myself and others).

Understanding Powerful Scenes with Game of Thrones

Hi guys, just a little post to let you know things are going to be chopping and changing a bit around here, so if things look a little weird, it’s not permanent – I’m playing around with the themes and look of the website.

The content is still the same, and (mostly) should still remain visible if you want to keep browsing, but things might not look as pretty as they should ;p

I’ll let you know when things are finalised.

OK, OK, the post I’ve made on the Vision Writers blog for last weekends meeting isn’t about cheese demons… entirely. Cheese demons is just a new in joke as Bel from Belinda’s Baubles referred to  our ‘two Stephens’, but in my sleep deprived state I heard ‘cheese demons’.

The whole group got to meet Harlequin too as I brought her along. I’m confident she is the youngest person to attend a meeting in the group’s 19 years.

Anyway if you want to know what I thought was the biggest take away from the meeting check out the post on Vision Writers.

This is more a brief update for you all. Things have been tougher this pregnancy than last time, including but not limited to edema making my fingers swell so even typing is a painful exercise. That’s why there have been very few posts lately. Also why I haven’t been slaying my goals as I originally intended before the birth.

Don’t panic, I’m not going away. I’ll still be posting monthly writing prompts on the Vision Writers site (and linking to them here) and working (though mostly mentally) on more new stories. However there may not be a lot of posts since my due date is less than two weeks away and the first 6-8 weeks… well if you don’t know what the first 6-8 weeks of raising an infant are like here’s one article I loved reading which will give you an insight into it (language warning)(missing a few details, but with a few things I suffered through less, but that’s the thing, everyone has a slightly different story).

Anyway, I look forward to posting more soon, but how soon… we’ll see ;p

a salute to the dearly departed DTL

Some of you have been following (probably not with much interest) my posts about my duct-taped together laptop. I got a few messages expressing surprise that it was still working even a year later!

Unfortunately around the time of my anniversary poor old DTL(Duct Taped Laptop) decided that was it, he’d limped across the finish line at long last and could sleep in heavenly peace.

And he was promptly replaced with SNL(Shiny New Laptop) as an anniversary present.

There were discussions before the purchase of SNL about what to get. We’d been keeping our eyes out for quite a while, knowing DTL could pass away any day. My husband was convinced a tablet was the best idea, but a lack of storage (anything less that 500gb is just, pffft, right?) and my weird issue about typing without a real keyboard made that unappealing to me.

We compromised and bought a laptop with a flip around screen so it can be a tablet, then transform back into a laptop. My storage, my keyboard, his desire for a tablet (BTW, he has his own tablet, so I have no idea why he was trying to ‘bowling ball for Marge’ me). Everyone’s happy.

But let us all shed a tear for the passing of DTL.

Yesterday I passed the 30,000 word milestone for NaNoWriMo. This was in no small amount thanks to the local NaNo retreat I went on and the 12,000 word day I had on Saturday.

12,000 words! In one day!

Oh man, I wish I had more days where I could sit down and do nothing but write. It makes me want to be a full-time writer even more.

Also, stickers are still an amazing incentive, even in your thirties ;p

Thanks to the Brisbane municipal liaisons and all their effort organising a fantastic weekend.