12 Tips to Market Your Book at Shows

My ISWG post this month is on marketing/selling your book at shows.

Regardless of your interest or niche, there's bound to be a show or exhibition to celebrate it. These events can be strategic opportunities to market your book. I recently attended Supanova, an annual expo on all things pop culture. I go every year with the kids, because they love the cosplay (visitors come dressed as their favourite characters from films, books, games, comics, etc). This year I took the leap and booked myself a stand. It was a great experience. Some things I did well, and I've learned a few tips for my next show.

Yoda... or some weird zombie dog?

Here's my tips on how to market your book at shows:

1. Choose the show carefully. Who is your customer and which shows would they attend? Romance novels based on weddings, would do well at a wedding expo, the visitors are mostly female and obviously interested in weddings and most likely romantics. Supanova was a great choice for me because of the zombie aspect of my book. I'd also be keen to do any shows where the visitors include a large percentage of children.
2. Stock up. I signed 74 books at Supanova and went home with only 6 copies (which I had to post out the next day for orders anyway). I did order more stock, but not in time. Make sure you won't run out!
3. Have freebies. I took along magnets to give away and promote the book. I get these printed through Vistaprint very cheaply, and each one includes my website address, or a QR code. I give them away freely. I am careful not to make the image look solely like an advertisement, because people (especially kids) would be less likely to even want them.
   
4. Follow up sales. I also have postcards printed up (Vistaprint), which promote the book, include a blurb and all necessary contact details to make it easy for someone to order books after the show. 
5. Signage. I have a good sign with bright colours, to promote my stand and books. I've decided the sign should be a little bigger for these events, but luckily, I can get one made up for very little cost (yup, Vistaprint).
6. Price wisely. I put a discounted price on my books just for Supanova. At $10, it's cheap enough for parents to happily fork over the dough without having to think too much about it. I also had signage announcing the price so people knew before they approached my stand.
7. Dress it up. A plain fold-out table looks unprofessional. I didn't plan this ahead, but thankfully remembered to bring some fabric. Mine was green fur (appropriate for the book), and I covered that with purple tulle just to make it stand out. 
   
8. Bring back up. My kids were keen to attend the show anyway. And although they spent most of the time off exploring, it was good to have someone to mind the stand for bathroom breaks and fetch me a cuppa every now and then.
9. Chat don't sell. When people came up to my stand I'd chat about the costumes and celebrities at the show. I don't jump into a sales pitch for the book. Just make them feel welcome to come and have a sticky-beak. Most people will then choose to turn the conversation to your book by asking questions.
10. Display the book. Don't leave all the books lying flat on the table. I'd have some books sitting upright on top of stacks of books, so they're easy to spot at a distance (these are my own copies that I feel comfortable bending). The other copies are stacked and fanned out at the front of the table, so no matter where a person stands, they'll be right in front of a copy.
11. Get to know the other stand-holders. It's such a supportive environment. I sold a few books to other people with stands at the show, and even did a couple of book swaps with authors. Another bonus for me was being right next door to some awesome artists doing caricatures. One of the artists did a great zombie dog drawing for me!
    
12. Build an email list. This is something I didn't do, but will include next time. By having an email sign-up sheet at your stand, you can build a list of future customers and let them know when you have a new book out. Anthony from Book Cover Cafe has all the best advice on how to create and use an email sign-up sheet: Building your email list at live events

That's it, it was a great weekend and lots of fun! The girls and I had a Doctor Who theme going, but some of the other costumes were very original!

Have you signed up for the Dognapped? blog tour?

I'll be emailing participants in about a week (give you time to recover from A-Z first) and aim to release the book about mid-May. There'll be competitions and prizes:

 Loading InLinkz ...

Read More

Supanova!

Big weekend for me! I'm heading down to the Gold Coast for the annual Supanova Pop Culture Expo. 

This is an amazing event where lots of people come dressed as their favourite characters from pop culture tv, books, games and film. The first time I went, I never even knew what one of these was:

But since then I've become a huge fan and what I want to see most this year is:

I'm also going to have my own stand! I'll be selling and signing copies of:

The kids love to dress up:

I won't, but maybe I'll just wear a cool hat:

My next big event? In May I release Dognapped?

Help me celebrate the release of Dognapped?

I'll be releasing Dognapped? in May and I'd love and appreciate your help! Dognapped? is a mystery novel for girls aged 9-12yrs. If you'd like to join the blog tour, sign up below. I'll email you closer to the release date to provide you with a fully-formatted post you can simply add to your blog to save you time and effort (or feel free to write your own, send me interview questions or provide a topic you'd like me to write about for your blog).

Will there be prizes? YES! I'm thinking... Kindle Fire and Amazon gift cards.

 Loading InLinkz ...

Read More

Zombie Picking & FREE Kindle Book!

My Zombie Picks
Zombies are actually the only monsters I am really afraid of. They give me the total heebies! I originally wrote My Zombie Dog, after writing a long, long list of all my phobias for story prompts and shuffling, staggering, festering, brain-sucking creatures were on top! I'm most scared of them just touching me with their rotting flesh.
But, to challenge myself, I did write a zombie story which has now turned into a series. Undead Kev (sequel to My Zombie Dog) will be released to Kindle in February and in paperback in March. I also try to challenge myself reading zombie literature (I tried to play The Walking Dead game on the iPad, but the intro was too scary for me).
Here's my top zombie picks:

The Forest of Hands and Teeth. This novel is so lyrical you'll forget you're reading about undead creatures wanting to tear at your flesh. Not a fast-paced story, but beautifully written. My only gripe with this one is the Kindle book is way overpriced, so go for the paperback!

Chasers from the Alone series. Not your typical zombie story, because technically, they're not zombies. But they are very zombie-like and they're everywhere! Follow a group of teenagers as they try to not only survive, but find out what's happening to everyone around them. Your jaw will drop when you get to the twist at the end. VERY CLEVER!Undead. Hilarious. During a high school trip, everyone except a couple of students (who were left on the bus and of course would never in a million years get along) turn into zombies. 

Don't forget for the younger zombie lover (9-13) you can't go pastMy Zombie Dog ;). The book launch was a blast and the kids loved having the face-painter turn them into zombies. As a special promotion for the holiday season, you can download the Kindle version of My Zombie Dog for free, just for December 7th and 8th.

Read More

Bookmarks as Promotional Tools

Designing bookmarks for the book - will have rounded corners when I'm done.

What a busy time it's been! My Zombie Dog ebook has been selling well on Amazon, and I'm now producing a paperback for the Australian market with help from The Book Cover Cafe. Exciting times. So, I've started thinking of different ways to promote the physical book. One popular idea is bookmarks.

Like most booky people, we love bookmarks in our house. Instead of giving birthday cards to their friends, my girls create bookmarks on the computer, print and laminate and usually finish off with a bit of ribbon through a hole in the top. These are usually treasured by the receiver. So, how do you do up bookmarks for your novel?

I had to play around with design. At first I tried putting the book cover at the top of the bookmark. I've seen this done before, but it didn't work well for me, the book looks too small. So instead, I put the title of the book on the front of the bookmark, and you don't have to stick to the traditional portrait direction (vertical), I went with a landscape (horizontal) look. I stuck with the same font as my ebook, because that's what will appear on the paperback book cover, plus I just love it. You can find out more about using fonts in this post: How to Font your Cover. I went with a bright purple background because it makes the font colour pop and... well, purple is magic.

You can design your bookmark in Photoshop, Word, almost any design program. I like to use InDesign and Photoshop. Before you start, you'll need to know what size your bookmark is. I've been a long time fan of Vistaprint, but sadly they don't do bookmarks (but if we all keep tweeting them about it, they might give in). I found this printer: Overnight Printing they print bookmarks and even provide a template for you to download.

If you go through a regular printer, you can choose your size. If you have a business that gets a lot of things printed up, you might be able to get them printed cheaply at the same time, because they are long and thin, they can be printed in the 'off cut' area.

If you only need a few to start with, you could always design them on your computer, print them yourself (you should be able to fit 4-5 to a page) cut them out and laminate. Home laminating machines are easy to get and quite cheap now, ours was under $20.

Back to the design; I also found too much text cluttered my bookmark. Now my novel is aimed at kids 8-13yrs (even though my readership seems to include a lot of grandparents), so that's another reason for me to keep it short and snappy. You want to make sure the design suits your genre. Mine is humour/horror, so I wanted a funny tagline. 

Some authors prefer to keep the back of their bookmark plain, so it gives them something to sign. It's a good idea, but I've decided to put the important details on the back. Here's some things you could include:

• Very short blurb, what's the book about?
• Testimonial from happy reader, or another author if you can get it.
• Who would like your book?
• Where can they buy your book? This is the most important.
• Where to find out more about the author and other books they may have, so a link to your website or blog. I chose my website, because my blog is aimed at writers, not really kids. I also have a QR code for my website, so if the kids scan it with a smart phone, it goes straight there.

Have fun with the design, something quirky is more likely to peak the interest of potential readers. You could play with shape, or try folded bookmarks with magnets... the only limit is your imagination! These will be great to hand out when you have book launches, or host a stall at a market/expo, or just when you meet people. And if you want to generate a QR code for your site, try: QR Stuff, it's easy, here' mine:

Do you have any other bookmark suggestions?

And it's that time again! Insecure Writer's Support Group - hope this post was supportive for you! You can find a lot more great posts by clicking on the picture and heading to Alex J Cavanaugh's site.

Read More

Z is for Zombies!

Zombies are the only monster that actually gives me the heebie-jeebies. When I was about five or six, my parents went to the drive-in to see a late night zombie flick, assuming I'd stay fast asleep on the back seat. I woke towards the end, just in time to see a mob of zombies rip through the wall of a house and attack the only survivors inside. I was not able to watch another zombie movie after that until peer-pressured to see Shaun of the Dead - I still shivered.

But I got tougher and after freaking out when Hubby bought home The Walking Dead TV series, I actually sat and watched it with him... if by 'watched' I can count running in and out of the room several times screaming. It's now one of my favourite shows (although I still can't look most of the time) and I am addicted to the graphic novel of the same name. I even have a PINTEREST board of ZOMBIES.

It might seem silly that I wrote a kids horror zombie story, MY ZOMBIE DOG, when I can't bare to even watch a zombie flick. But that's one of the ways this story came about. I had a fear sheet where I wrote everything that scares me. Plus I had that zombie dog that one time...

What freaks you out? (My list is very long).

Read More

O is for Onomatopoeia - Plus a Freebie!

O is for Onomatopoeia

Today's post is adapted from one I used previously - I've had a lot of dental work this week and am just not zippy with the ideas today. 

One of my favourite Onomatopoeia words at the moment is 'nom nom nom', the sound of Zombie Dog eating brains... and for just 2 days you can download MY ZOMBIE DOG for FREE! 

Descriptive words that sound like an action or noise when spoken out loud, create the effect of onomatopoeia. For instance, the word to describe water falling in small portions from a tap is called a drip - drip, drip, drip. Poets tend to have a natural talent for using onomatopoeia words, but they can be effective in fiction as well, especially if you're writing for a younger reader.

If you are anything like me, you can sometimes get overwhelmed by all these literary devices and rules that we should be including in our writing. My humble advice is... just write your story, when you go through in your revision you can tighten your plot, characters and writing style. These sound words are simply another way of showing instead of telling.

Imagine writing about a bad guy pointing a gun at his intended victim - instead of saying he shoots its, the simple word. 'BANG' lets the reader know what's going on and can make them feel like they are there. Here's an example of sound words I'm using in The Warracknabeal Kids:

THWAT (slingshot shoot at poor innocent chicken)

AUWK! (sound made by poor innocent chicken)

Sometimes I find examples that I don't think sound like the real action at all (like a dog saying 'woof' or 'Zzzzzz' for snoring). Really listen to actions and try to work out what sound they make, I've used: 'Hmmnn, Hmnnn?' for a puppy's whine. Have some fun with it :-)

Read More

K is for KDP Select

KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) is growing in popularity as a promotional tool for Indie authors. But is it the right tool for you? There are some benefits and drawbacks to this program, your book will boost in popularity, the free days will flow on to create more paid sales and your book will show up underneath other popular books, but, the more popular this program becomes, the less effective it will be for individual books. Also this program requires you to only have your book listed on Amazon, cutting out many other ebook sales sites like Smashwords or iBooks.  With the popularity of iPads growing, I'm not sure it's wise to keep your book off iBooks.

My experience? MY ZOMBIE DOG was downloaded over a thousand times on the one free day I held. The flow on sales were more in one day than the first month. My next promotion will last for two days to see if that works even better. I haven't decided yet if I will stay with KDP or list my book on some of the other sites as well.

If you want to try this program, read up on these helpful posts:

Why Amaon's KDP Select is God's Gift to Authors - The Creative Penn

Best Days to Promote Your Book - The Writing Bomb

The Writers Nook - How to Have the Very Best Promotion

K is also for Kev. Kev is a character who has a small role in MY ZOMBIE DOG, but turned out to be so popular the next book features his story. I'm working on Chapter One of UNDEAD KEV to add to the back of the paperback edition of MY ZOMBIE DOG. CreateSpace are putting the novel together for me and doing a great job, here's a sneak of the cover:

Read More

KINDLES FOR KIDS

Most writers that frequent the blogworld would be familiar with Danyelle Leafty, YA author. You might have seen her awesome new series on fairytales, beginning with the gorgeous CATSPELL.

But, did you know about her very generous ambition to donate Kindles to Kids? I love any cause that combines children and literacy so please go check it out at her site. You could even win some good prizes for yourself. You'll find details at this link:

DANYELLE LEAFTY

I'm probably not going to get any more posts in before the big A-Z Blog Challenge, where I will be crazy enough to blog every day, but on my first post for April I'll announce the winner of the KINDLE FIRE or KINDLE 3G. This was part of the MY ZOMBIE DOG Kindle release promotion. You just buy a copy of MY ZOMBIE DOG or blog about the book or the competition and you get an entry. If you want to try a last minute entry then see the details here:

WIN A KINDLE FIRE

My girls at PAPER DOLLS will be attempting the A-Z Challenge for the first time. They are going to try and do a book review for EVERY letter of the alphabet. You can check them out and cheer them on at:

PAPER DOLLS

Good luck with all the competitions and challenges!

Read More

WIN A KINDLE FIRE

March 1st is the big release date for MY ZOMBIE DOG and I'm promoting the book by giving away a free Kindle! (If the winner is a lucky US resident, they will win the Kindle Fire, for everywhere else the prize changes to a Kindle Keyboard 3G - due to Amazon shipping rules).

There's two ways to enter:

Buy MY ZOMBIE BOOK by clicking here and then fill in the entry form below. You will be asked for your receipt number from Amazon (it will be on the receipt Amazon email you - keep a copy of your receipt as proof of purchase if you win). Also, Tweet this competition with a link to this page and you get a second entry! You'll be asked for your tweet link, but if you're not sure how to do that, just use the hashtag #zombiedog in your tweet so it's easy to find.

or

Blog about this competition or about MY ZOMBIE DOG (you can review, talk about or interview) and then fill in the entry form below. You will be asked for your blog post link in the entry form. If you'd like an interview for your post, you can email me at charmaineclancy@gmail.com. Also, Tweet this competition with a link to this page and you get a second entry! You'll be asked for your tweet link, but if you're not sure how to do that, just use the hashtag #zombiedog in your tweet so it's easy to find.

Too easy! This competition runs from now until 31st March 2012.

You can only have one entry for blogging but if you blog and buy the book, you'll get two entries (plus another if you tweet about it!). Each entrant has the possibility of earning up to 3 entries.

Already own the Kindle Fire (I'm jealous!), it'd make a fantastic present to someone you love!

Why I'm doing this:

I love you guys and it's the blogasphere that has helped me to get serious about writing and learning the importance of a professional approach.

Also because of this book:

MY ZOMBIE DOG

On Zane’s 14th birthday he had to bury a dog. The next morning it’s in his room, tail wagging.

This is not the dog he wanted. No, Zane longed for a cool Collie or Shepard. Now he’s stuck with this scraggy, smelly undersized mutt. As if the dog wasn’t embarrassing enough, his mum wants to name it ‘Fluffy’. No way. Zane figures it dug itself out of the ground, so its name is Fossil. 

Fossil's a mean dog and will snap and bite at people... but why are those people bitten turning sluggish and craving strange food items like brains? Can Zane rid himself of this mutt and save his town from a zombie outbreak?

Now... Enter, and GOOD LUCK!

Read More

200 Word Challenge

The challenge from Rach Writes was to:

Write a short story/flash fiction story in 200 words or less, excluding the title. It can be in any format, including a poem. Begin the story with the words, “Shadows crept across the wall”. These five words will be included in the word count. 

If you want to give yourself an added challenge (optional), do one or more of these:

• end the story with the words: "everything faded." (also included in the word count)

• include the word "orange" in the story

• write in the same genre you normally write

• make your story 200 words exactly!

I needed this exercise, I've been busy formatting, compiling and converting MY ZOMBIE DOG into a Kindle book this week. It's been very educational for me, but my brain was techno-fried. In my next post I'll share what I learned and some links for formatting ebooks.

Here is my flash fiction and I'm proud to say I met every one of the challenges above - Are you going to give it a go?

Just the Wind?

Shadows crept across the wall. Hector sucked in his breath.

Just moonlight flickering through trees. Nothing more.

Creak, creak, creak. What was that? His eyes bulged. The covers were pulled tightly to his chin despite the humid night.

It’s just an old house. Old houses creak. Hector wasn’t scared. He was thirteen now, not a little kid.

Scratch, scratch.

Maybe his parents were home early? But they wouldn’t be. He was big enough to be left alone, they would not be home until well after midnight. Downstairs, the grandfather clock chimed twelve times.

Midnight.

He was a big kid, too old to be scared. He leaned to his beside table and grabbed his torch. The light glowed a soft orange. Great, batteries going flat.

Rattle, clink, clink.

Just the wind blowing chimes. Wait… did they have chimes?

Squeak, clang.

The front door? No. Just his imagination.

Thump, thump… up the stairs!

Hector leapt up, but tangled in bedclothes he tripped. Sprawled on the floor he gasped as the handle to his door turned. He scrambled to stand, thrusting the torch out as a weapon.

“Hector? We’re home early.”

“I was fine alone.” 

The torch light flickered once, then everything faded.

Read More

The Writing Business - My Plan

In my last post I spoke about the need for a writer to have a plan. This could be as elaborate as a detailed business plan or as simple as a list of steps you need to take to become published (and then don't forget the steps to market what you publish).

Today I thought I'd share with you my list - this is not complete, there are previous steps I've already completed (write an author bio, get a blog or website, get a good author pic... oh yeah, write a novel...). Maybe you'll find some helpful ideas on there, or maybe you can suggest some things I've forgotten! As I tick off each step I'll share my experience and you can learn by my (hopefully rare) mistakes. I'll be sharing my experiences organising book covers next.

From Manuscript to Book:

Edit book

• Check out professional editing organisations
• Circulate amongst Beta readers

Cover design

• Search contacts for artists, graphic artists and professionals at book cover design.
• Check Shutterstock or other photo sites for good stock photos.
• Check online resources.

Format e-book and Print On Demand book

• Check with State writers groups for contacts for digital publishers.
• Look at CreateSpace
• Kindle
• iBooks
• All others: Smashwords, Dymocks, Fishpond etc.

Advertising material:

• Bookmarks
• Postcards 
• Book Trailer - speak to Luke or Rhonda
• Slogans ('cause I have too much time on my hands):
• Zombie Dog hates your guts... loves your brains.
• Tell Zombie Dog to heel, and it’ll bring you a nice fresh one.
• Zombie Dog’s best trick: ‘play dead’ (Zombie Dog is not playing).
• Zombie Dog thinks you look nom nom.
• Zombie Dog, nom nom nomming her way into your heart (cross out, replace with brain).
• Brrrraaaains means I love you.
• (picture of two mafia guys tossing a body rolled in a rug to the doghouse) Sometimes Zombie Dog comes in handy.

Read Amazon guidelines

Decide on release date - promote book leading up to release

PROMOTE

• Check out books on promoting your novel.
• Read the John Locke guide
• Check out guides to ebook publishing
• Giveaway - Kindle?
• Organise blog hop
• Look up other promotional ideas
• T-shirts (overkill???)
• Talk to contacts in programming about creating a game app to pair with the ebook.

Read More

Dusty Manuscripts

While I'm working on the production, placement and promotion of MY ZOMBIE DOG (I promise to share the steps and any insightful tips I pick up along the way), I'm making some time for more writing. I've a couple of manuscripts that need editing but a few more that are only partially done. I've decided to revisit THE PIRATE GIRL, it's been years since I wrote anything towards that novel. Emily, my 13 year old writer and critic, suggested I spend some time reading through my notes and what I have so far.

"Nah, I remember it," I informed her, "that's the one about that girl... what's-her-name and it had that guy too, you know... the guy."

Okay, maybe I'll invest in a little reading time first.

Do you have any under-the-bed half-finished manuscripts you'd like to rework one day? Or maybe something you'll never let see the light of day?

Zombie Dog will be nom nom nomming her way into your hearts (or brains) soon.

Read More

Writing Secrets

I've been keeping secrets. Nothing too exciting, but the cover up and sneakiness has gotten me thinking about characters. I love having secrets in stories, either the main character is covering up a secret or they learn the truth about a long-kept secret. Sometimes I'm forced to wonder why they go to so much trouble. They can't swim? Big deal, why would that be a secret? I'm terrified of hairy spiders and am happy for everyone to know. I have abandoned a classroom of children in my frantic fleeing when a huntsmen has made his evil entrance - more than once. Even the big boys over 6ft tall know they can not intimidate me, but will squeal like a squeaky toy if a spider is anywhere near.

But there are some things I've hidden.

At school all the teachers know I'm moving to Brisbane at the end of this semester and won't be back next  year, but I find I just can not tell the kids yet. They keep quizzing me about classes next year and I've been very evasive, on the edge of lying, because I don't want to hurt their feelings. I'll miss the Yass kids.

There's another secret.

I'm scared of zombies.

Terrified.

I know, I wrote a teen story called MY ZOMBIE DOG, and yes, it has lots of zombies. But I'd never sat through an actually zombie horror flick because they give me the jeebies. I LOVE horror films, my favourite being HALLOWEEN (the original). I'm not squeamish and I find the slasher flicks funny. But there is something just WRONG about those glazed over eyes and the slow shuffling. 

I have so many ideas in my head for more zombie tales that I want to overcome this prejudice against the un-dead, so, in my quest to better understand zombies (sometimes called the living-impaired), I've started watching THE WALKING DEAD. Many brain-nomning fans will remember this as a pretty well known comic book series. Now we get to watch it on tv. I got so scared I kept running out of the room and all night long I dreamt of worm-filled zombies.

I have a couple of suspension of disbelief issues with this show - when shot in the head the zombies bleed. Many of them have been dead a long time and are rotting - where's the blood coming from??? And there is a scene where the cop comes across a home where the occupants committed suicide rather than become infected - on the wall above their bodies in blood is the message 'God Forgive Us'. Um, ok, maybe... but this would mean the guy shot his wife and then before completing the double suicide pact, dipped his hand in his wife's head and used her blood to write the message before shooting himself - probably having to re-dip several times. Surely a permanent marker would have been better???

So what is your character hiding? And most importantly - WHY is it a secret? Or is someone keeping a secret from them? Is it BELIEVABLE?

In MY ZOMBIE DOG, Zane's mother keeps a secret from Zane. She didn't get his dog from the pound. She didn't want him to know she got the dog for free... from a voodoo witch doctor.

Read More

Apples and Zombies

This week has been huge.

The Apple populated world suffered the loss of an inspiration and innovator, Steve Jobs. It has been an amazing experience seeing people respond to this incident in such a big way. Interesting to see a corporate leader admired and worshiped as much as a mega-movie star. I'm starting to think it would be disrespectful for me NOT to buy an iPad now.

But on a more cheerful note, October 8th was World Zombie Day. Queensland Emergency Services tested out their QLD Alert website with tweets and updates on preparing for a zombie apocalypse. 

It was lots of fun, you can see the conversation in Twitter by searching the hashtag #zombietest - even QLD Rail got involved so you'd know which escape route to take once it was already too late and the city was overcome by zombies.

I've been on school holidays and spent most of that time working on our house (getting it all pretty to sell, then I can pick out my next house in Brisbane, hopefully outside of the zombie-zoned areas).

Edits on MY ZOMBIE DOG are coming along, with the protagonist jumping from 11yrs to 14yrs old. I need to get more of a move on with that and send the revised MS back to the publisher for consideration. But school goes back tomorrow and I MUST finish marking about 80 newspaper articles written by Yr10 students. Ugh, I hate marking - anyone want to do it for me?????

I will not be distracted, I will not be... I wonder if I can find a cute little sign saying 'Beware of the zombie dog' online?

Read More

Writing Time

The real life Fossil aka my zombie dog.

This year I made time for my writing. It wasn't easy. Like a lot of other writers who also work and parent, I tried to write in my 'spare' time. Pfft! There's no such thing as spare time. So this year I started making 'writing' time. Spare time is for tidying the house, or watching a flick. This has paid off, I'm getting a lot more accomplished.

I've also been attending a lot more writing workshops and seminars. Last week I was at a science talk for writers and this weekend I'm off to the pretty coastal town of Merrimbula to attend another workshop:

The Psychology of Creative Writing

I started out my Uni years studying psychology, so I'm really looking forward to this topic. Of course I will let you all know how it goes.

This week I also finished my last lot of edits for MY ZOMBIE DOG. Yay! The book is now completely in present tense and I'm really happy with how it flows. My beta readers (all kids between 10 and 13) are all very positive about the story, and ask for more stories like this one. My main character is Zane, and he has his hands full with this crazy zombie plague, but everyone loves his loser mate Kev' the most. I'm now ready to start querying MY ZOMBIE DOG. I already have a pitch session lined up for a conference in a few weeks (shaking a little).

The best part of finishing a project is getting to work on a new one. I'm excited to get back into Warracknabeal Kids and finish off the first draft of this outback murder mystery.

Are you using your writing time, or still trying to find 'spare' time?

Read More

Blogfest - HATE

Tessa's Blurb hosted a blogfest on Friday, and although I missed posting on time, I decided to give it a go anyway. The idea was that we would all post a scene with a character showing hate. I hadn't noticed before, but none of my main characters express hate in my stories. I did manage to find a scene in My Zombie Dog, where Zane's mate Kev expresses strong feelings against the girl of Zane's dreams. Here's is Kev's hatefest:

I could get a real dog, a nice Border Collie like Max. Molly and I would have matching dogs, we could spend afternoons together down at the off-leash park. Perfect. Except, it seemed like I was forgetting something…

Then it hit me. Actually he hit me. Kev. He punched me in the arm and said, “Miss Seagull let you out huh? What do ya want to do? Handball?”

“You don’t have a handball.”

“We can confiscate one from the grade 2 kids.”

I gave Kev a look, then looked over at Molly, still sitting alone, head down staring straight at her uneaten sandwich in her lap.

“Um, I think I might go and talk to Molly.” I made it sound like no big deal.

“What? Why would you want to do that?”

I shrugged. No big deal.

“Molly O’Mally? I hate that chick.” Kev narrowed his eyes in her direction and kicked a stone on the asphalt.

“Why? She’s alright. She’s kinda… nice.” I couldn’t meet his gaze. No big deal, no big deal, no…

“Dude, she’s my nemesis.” Kev grabbed me by the shoulders. He could be dramatic at times.

I was sceptical. “Really? You have a nemesis?”

Kev swiped the question away with a hand through the air. “Yeah, haven’t you noticed how we match wits in class all the time?” He crossed his arms and looked back at Molly, like he was weighing her up. “I’ll give her this, she’s a worthy opponent.”

“Um, Molly’s really smart. I mean like genius smart.”

Kev shrugged. “Yeah, you’re right, we’re probably just enemies because we’re too much alike.”

The bell rang and lunch was over, along with my only opportunity to talk to Molly.

Hope everyone had a great weekend :)

Read More