January Round Up

You might have noticed I’ve been doing Six Sentence Sunday for the past couple of weeks. As Sunday in the US is also Monday in Oz, for now I’ve been giving Motivation Monday a miss so as to leave the Six Sunday post up. This has caused me to rework the blog schedule. So I’m taking the opportunity to cut my blog posts down to two per week. After Six Sunday I’ll do one other post in the week, which could be hump day honey, from the vault, a teaser post or something completely different. Yes that sounds specific doesn't it?

In addition I thought I’d do a little round up at the end of each month, sharing the interesting or funny stuff I discovered around the web. You might have seen some of these before if you follow me on twitter or facebook, but then again maybe not if the timelines don’t match, or if like me you can't be on social media all the freakin time. BTW, if you’re not with me on twitter or facebook…. Why the bloody hell not? The links are right there on the sidebar.

What I discovered in January:

I had completely forgotten to follow Annabel Crabb on twitter. Mistake now rectified. For anyone who doesn’t know, Annabel is a totally awesome Australian journo who specialises in political news and expressing her opinion articulately and with class and elegance, even when she’s totally dissing some doofus politician. Here’s an example of her brilliant mind at work in the article behind every successful woman there's a wife. Go read it, it's awesome, or follow Annabel yourself @annabelcrabb

The most terrific discovery is.... I have, yes I HAVE signed a contract for that little novella I mentioned a few weeks ago. Woohooo! Two books slated for publication in 2012. I will talk more about that story in a separate post soon but I’m working with two of my best writing buds on a series and it’s going to ROCK.

I've also seen a the draft cover for Erica's Choice, and my oh my, is it gorgeous! Watch this space for the big reveal in future.

What made me laugh:

Best thing I read:

Lisa Heidke's Stella Makes Good. She's nice, funny, and she writes a mean women's fiction novel. I'm officially jealous. Feel free to friend me on Goodreads if you're interested in what else I've read or want to let me know about a great book you love. I've just set up an actual author page, not just a regular page. Look at me the professional.

What got my goat:

More and more I grow concerned for my girls and their views of themselves. When I'm wearing my angry mummy hat I check out organisations like Collective Shout. When K Mart tries to sell slutty undies to tweens, orgs like this actually give a crap.

What else I’ve been up to:

Along with the Down Under Divas I had a great chat in the Samhain Cafe last week. It's fun yahoo group where authors meet readers all the time. If you want to join here's the link.

I was also lucky enough to be a guest on Rachael Johns' blog Ramblings of a Romance Writing Mama. I wrote about writing, all it's associated neuroses and Stephen King's book On Writing, which honestly changed my life. Check it out now if you missed the post before.

1 month down, 11 to go!

Sami