Five Things You Did When You Were Twenty

Today I've turned 40. There's no denying it any longer, I'm middle aged :). Happy birthday to me. Today's from the vault is something from 1971. ME!

Five things you did when you were 20 that you can't do when you're 40.

1.   Come home at 5am after dancing all night, catch a couple of hours sleep then get up and go to work.

2.   Grab a works hot dog at the dodgy little van parked out the back of the pub at 3am and eat it walking home, with no discernable tightening of your waistband, nor any fear of food poisoning.

3.   If by chance you do not finish aforementioned hot dog, a twenty year old finds it perfectly acceptable to put it in the fridge and have for brunch the next day. The 40 year old in me shudders.

4.   Collect your pay on Friday (cash in an envelope people!), stick it in your purse, see the purse empty by Sunday and not worry a bit. Because more was coming next Friday, after all.

5.   Think to yourself: Hey I've got years before I worry about that yet! That only happens to old people.

Five things you do when you're 40 you never imagined you'd do when you were 20:

1.  Bitch at the cost of everything from petrol to bananas.

2.  Take special vitamins with pink labels that claim they'll elevate everything from your mood to your IQ. Then bitch that you wouldn't have to take this stuff if you could just afford to buy bananas.

3.  Exclaim 'Oh God is that the time?!' when the clock strikes 10pm, then rush off to bed because you've got to get up early the next day.

4.  Get up early all the time.

5.  Say things like: 'I'm only trying to help you'/'I've got 34 years on you kid, don't mess with me'/'I can't do that I'll put my back out'/'I remember when I could buy a banana for 20cents'.

Have a great weekend people. I'll be celebrating--well, as much celebrating as I can get in before 10pm.

Sami

5 Things That Made Me Say WTF? This Week.

1. Oprah ate vegemite on a sao and said she liked it. Then washed it down with Penfolds Grange. Seriously, we DO NOT DO THAT HERE.

2. Shane Warne caught snogging Liz Hurley. What is her deal? Hugh the hooker loving cad, that other guy who tried to disown their baby and now Warnie. She must have very complex issues.

3. Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens split up. Actually that one just made me go WGaS (Who gives a shit?).

4. Nine msn hit a new low. A 'true' confession about a phone sex operator who recognises one of her clients as her 16 year old brother and decides to go through with the call. Ick. Shudder. WTF?

5. The Hurley-Warne saga continues. Now she's dumped him over sex texts to another married woman. She didn't see that coming? Surely this whole 'relationship' was a beat up for publicity.

And now I've just talked about them. Oh well.

I have deleted so much this week that I can't post anything. It's becoming demoralising. I have a big gap between Ch 3 and 4 where I'm not sure how to link the scenes. I've written this in bold in the ms:

I simply don’t know how to stitch this up. I can’t find the right emotion. I am now going to leave it and ask the goddess muse to help me at a later stage.

Oh Goddess muse, where for art thou?

Sami

Hanging On

A much slower week writing-wise than last week, but I still managed to get 1200 added to the ms tonight, after a long days work, shopping and all the etc. that pops up. A short post to say I'm still going on this no nano nano thing. I have maybe 10-12,000 to write before the end of the month to finish draft 2 of Erica's Choice. I don't like the title, BTW, but I'll worry about that later. For now I thought I'd motivate everyone with five of the best (de)motivational gems I scored off 101 reasons to stop writing (note: the last breaking news update on this site is dated Sept. 2009. Perhaps he stopped blogging too?)

Happy final week nanoers!

Sami

Kisses and Giveaways

I'm over at the Samhain Cafe chatting about myself (shouldn't take long eh?). I'll be talking first kisses and anything else that comes up. Come over and join me and you could win a book or a gift voucher, or you could just have a good time. Why don't you find out.

Also, I've blogged over at the Divas about movie kiss scenes, with pics and all. I was going to load them here to my blogger started having a heart attack of some sort and time is short here today. Kids are occupied with Dora, but who knows how long that'll last?

If you want to go in the draw to win a copy or any of my backlist titles or a $10 gift certificate from My Bookstore and More (that’s two separate prizes) all you have to do is leave a comment here or at The Divas. Vote for your favorite kiss or tell me the one you wish was on the list and you’ll go into the draw... or just say hi. It’s that simple.



Thanks for stopping by!



Sami

Five Reasons I Haven't Blogged

1. Our internet connection was out for a couple of weeks while we moved. It was supposed to be one week but then our telephone provider, whose name I won’t mention (it starts with a big T and ends in a little a), chose to dick us around when reconnecting so the time stretched out.

2. Okay, so that was a couple of weeks ago. Excuse number two is called school holidays and having Princess Five (OMG she’s five already!) and Cherub Almost Two constantly underfoot. The Princess grows quickly bored with any fun activity I think up and the Cherub wails inconsolably if she is shoed away from the glitter glue and scissors.

3. During the enforced post lunch nap time (for the girls, not me unfortunately) an amazing thing happened. I actually started to get some words down. I wanted to focus solely on that.

4. Another after-affect of the time without Net connection was a bit of an epiphany. I spend too much time on world wide web. Duh, I hear you say. Don’t we all? But really, this was a great discovery for me. It’s one thing to know something logically and quite another to have it demonstrated. The couple of weeks I was MIA, do you know what happened? Absolutely nothing. The world went on without me (shocker!), not an email that landed in my inbox suffered from the wait and whatever publishing industry goss I missed during that time was easily caught up with later. It was, quite frankly, no big deal to me or anyone that I was lost in the wilderness for a couple of weeks.

5. So, as per point 4, I’ve been making a serious effort to cut down my Internet time (this when I’ve just joined Facebook. Guess I’ll be off my face for a while… hardy har har). I’m finding that silencing that chatter of cyberspace is allowing the stories back into my brain. They’re finding the time and space to ‘cook’. I want this to continue for as long as possible, hence I haven’t gotten around to blogging until now. Don’t get excited. I will continue to blog, even if it’s just to annoy you :).

Sami

2010--A Plan

Yes, yes, I've been getting around to writing the sequel to my 2009 wrap up post, but January has been a haze of heat and post-chrissie guilt, not to mention much organisation in the run up to Princess 4.5 starting school. January is bound to be a little slow. But I'm on track now. Seriously.

So goal for 2010: I'm going to write a book. I know, what a shocker. Like that hasn't been my goal every year for the past five, six... or seven. Sami's going to write a book--you're all really suprised. But this time is different. This time I'm sticking to a schedule.

I'll ignore the way you're chortling into your coffee right now. Very impolite of you. Your mother should have taught you not to pooh-pooh the dreams of others. The thing is I've come to a realisation. The way I've always written is no longer working for me. Obvious, yes, but it took me a while to get it. You see I loved my 'process' such as it was, and was reluctant to give it up. Writing without a destination or clear path was the great adventure I could take without ever having to actually jump out of a plane (I'm not really a jumping out of a plane kind of gal). But alas, my responsibilities accumulate daily, leaving me without the luxury of the time I once spent playing with words, pondering plot twists and rewriting as the whim struck me. Work, the kids, a million errands. Even the dog looks at me when I give him a quick pat as if to say 'what? that's it?' I can't waste time meandering through what ultimately become unrealised manuscripts, not if I want to be a professional about this writing gig. And I do. In order to achieve my goals I have to make use of every rare and precious writing moment. I can't meander, I have to walk in a straight line, with occasional bursts of sprinting.

I have to change my ways, so that's what I'm going to do.

Easier said than done I'm sure. But if last year taught me anything it taught me habits can be changed. It's one of the things about life we can control--our own attitudes and behaviour. Here are the five steps I'm going to take:

1. Write outlines for all manuscripts--haven't I been here before? Yes, but in 2010 I'll stick to it, by golly!

2. Set aside a specific time to write--same time every designated writing day for between 1 and 2 hours.

3. Cut out TV--the only time I can consistently set aside to write is when both kidlets are asleep, and 4am is just not workable. Too foggy. That leaves the oft wasted hours between 8-10pm, otherwise known as veg out time. Sigh. I'm going to miss that.

4. Scale back on the blogging--I don't mean this blog, I'm staying here til someone asks me to leave. This public admission process is all that keeps me honest some days :). But I have to severely limit my visits to other blogs, it's a huge time swallowing distraction. So to those whose blogs I visit regularly, 2010 won't be like that. Sorry. I still love ya.

5. Set deadlines--I've never been late getting revisions back to my editor, not even when I had a baby right in the middle of the editing process. Why do I let myself get away with slacking off on a first draft? My boss needs to smarten up (oh yeah, that's me).

So that's it. Nothing new there but this is the list of stuff I always moan that I should be doing, instead of actually doing it. I'm hoping I'm finally mature and responsible enough to change the things that have been holding me back. Mature? Responsible? Organised? Does this mean the apocalypse is on its way?

Sami

Celluloid Sex

I’m participating in Samahin’s e book appreciation week and will be taking control of the Samhain Café chat on March 11 from 5-6pm US time (7-8am March 12 Oz time). I’m also blogging at TRS Blue on March 12 US time, so it’s a mini media blitz. I didn’t plan it this way, so imagine my surprise when the reminders popped up in my outlook!

I’m be running a competition over the next few days. Anyone who comments on this post will be in the running to win a free e-book, your choice of any of my titles. I’ll announce the winner here and in the Samhain Café on the weekend.

I’m triangulating on this topic of favorite movie sex scenes. Or love scenes, if you prefer to call them that :). Here’s my top five list – what do you think I’ve missed?

1. An Officer and a Gentleman – If you’ve read this blog before you already know I have a Richard Gere thing. It’s not a stalker thing, honestly. I just think he’s sooooo cute and sexy and I could eat him with a big ol’ spoon. And this is probably my favourite of all his movies. The scenes between him and Debra Winger were so steamy it proves the only thing better than a man in uniform is a man out of one.



2. The Big Easy – I love the mood of this movie. The sultry atmosphere, the southern accents… and Denis Quaid’s abs aren’t bad either. There’s a scene when he’s seducing Ellen Barkin and he tells her that things are done nice and slow in the big easy that makes me want to hope a plane and go there. And not just for the Gumbo.



3. Bull Durham – Kevin Costner and Susan Sarandon put some interesting visuals to the musical lyrics ‘Sixty Minute Man’. There’s actually no nudity, only very strong suggestion of what’s going on. Is there such a thing as explicit suggestiveness? Who can forget the bath water sloshing over the side of the tub, or Kevin tying Susan up to… paint her toenails. Now that’s a pedicure.


4. Unfaithful – When I first heard about this movie I didn’t get it. The character played by Diane Lane is married to a character played by Richard Gere. My Richard Gere thing raises it’s head again. How could anyone cheat on him? Then I saw the movie and I got it. The picture pretty much says it all.





5. Titanic -- whatever you or I might say about the movie, i.e. that it’s a tad long and a manipulative tear jerker, that scene in the car is damn memorable. Kate Winslet’s hand sliding down the window, all that panting. It’s pretty sexy and made the three hours I spent at the
cinema worthwhile—if not the experience of that song. My poor, poor ears.


Sami

How Did We Cope?

Well only four days over my intended deadline I finally 'finished' Sunset Knight. Was able to type THE END anyway (last Wednesday 4th Feb) and it is currently residing with a trusted friend who will give me the good or bad news on whether it really is finished or if it still needs rewriting. I'm expecting the latter but am still happy with my overall achievement -- from go to woah I wrote a 60k novel that I'm relatively happy with in just over 4 months. This is faster than I've ever done it before and considering Christmas came in the middle and I have two littlies now, I think that's plenty speedy enough for me. All this without an outline or any true idea of where I was going, which is my preferred method, if you can call it that. Hell, it might just be my only method.

Yay for me. The downside is I'm utterly shattered. Had the past two days off writing and spent some time reading for a change, figuring I would take a break from my computer. Not so simple, as it turned out. When did it happen -- when did almost my entire life take up residence on my hard drive? Writing is only one thing I do on the trusted laptop. I might not be creating romance masterpieces at the moment, but am still a slave to Bill Gates' empire.

Top five reasons I can't live without my laptop:

1. Writing of course. Once upon a time I used to do it by hand in exercise books. I even used to cover the finished product in pretty paper and design a book cover. Boy I had a lot of time on my hands BC (before children).

2. Syncing my ipod (I'm so down with the lingo). Only five years ago if I wanted to have music while walking I had to take my portable CD player, this huge thing strapped to my waist that skipped every time I tried to jog (at least that was my excuse for not jogging. I'm sticking to it).

3. Reading. I'm so into ebooks now. Love the variety of length, genre, style available from publishers like Samhain, and a few others that I won't mention because Samhain is the BEST of course. Grin.

4. Emailing. To think, a long time ago in a galaxy far far away, if I wanted to rant and rave to a friend about my life, ask advice, get info or make enquiries of any kind, I had to pick up the phone and actually talk to someone. I love the lazier, less requirement for meaningless chit-chat, email method of communication. Call me anti-social.

5. Surfing. I wish I could be cool and coordinated enough to be able to do the real kind, but my sense of balance ain't impressive. You know I'm talking about the lazy type of surfing. I love visiting industry blogs the most, other authors' websites and searching for random info whenever a question arises.

I'm also building a new website, which hopefully will be unveiled in the next month or two. So much to do, so much that couldn't be done without technology. Not sure if that's a good or a bad thing...?

Sami

Where Do They Get These People?

A list of the world's top 25 sexiest men has appeared and surprise surprise, David Beckham tops the list. Sorry soccer fans, I just don't get the fascination with David Beckham. Most of the other guys I haven't even heard of, so fail to understand how they could earn the title of sexiest men in the whole WORLD. How many people did they ask? Methinks they didn't go any further than each guy's publicity rep.

This has inspired me to share my own top five list. This is a little thing I like to call my 'infidelity wouldn't count list'. I think that's pretty self explanatory. Not sure if hubby knows I have it, but seeing as these are guys I will never meet let alone inspire lustful behaviour from in my lifetime, I think he's pretty safe.

1. My Daniel Craig obsession has been documented previously. Or perhaps it's just a James Bond thing. It's the icy stare, the tux and the ability to defuse a bomb without breaking a sweat. Oh, and the blue swim trunks.

2. I've had a major crush on Richard Gere since An Officer and a Gentleman, and over the years nothing has changed. Has he aged better than any man in Hollywood or what?

3. It's Keanu's mesmerising brown eyes that do it for me. Definitely the eyes and the nice, lean body. Point Break is one of my guilty pleasure movies, and I think I'm one of the few people who adored The Lakehouse. Might have been the Reeves factor.

4. I thought Matt Damon no more than mildly cute at first. Then he did the Bourne movies, and went right up my list. The whole ass kicking action is pretty hot, plus from interviews I've seen of him in real life he's really smart and funny and charming... sigh. A soft squishy nice guy in a hard body package.

5. This is going to expose my shallow side. It's purely physical -- Vin's guns do it for me. Yummo. I kinda like the chrome dome look too.

Now that's a sexy list.

Sami

Five Things I Swore I'd Never Say

1. Quiet down, I can't hear myself think. (Then I hear myself and realise I wasn't missing anything life altering)
2. You're going to break your neck if you don't stop jumping on the couch/bed/stuffed toy/insert furniture item here.
3. Your eyeballs will go square if you don't move back from the TV (Still waiting for mine to do that)
4. If your friend said you should jump off a bridge/eat sand/scream like a lion/spit water out of your mouth, would you do it? (apparently the answer's yes). Drumroll for the big one...
5. Because I'm the Mum, that's why. Therefore I am the boss. The autocratic dictator of this little universe. The giver and taker of sweet treats. Provider of food, clothing, shelter, kisses, hugs, bedtime stories and nursery rhymes complete with realistic animal noises. The master of all I survey. The end of the line. The place where the buck stops and no correspondence will be entered into. The wicked witch who won't brook having her absolute dominion questioned. If I say it's so, it's so.

If only motherhood were like writing, that last point might hold up.

Sami

Getting (Re)started

I've made an attempt to get back into some writing the past week. Intending to take things very slowly at this stage - not much choice on that score, anyway. Am finding myself very motivation rich but time poor. Definitely ready to get stuck in but, fussy babies aside, it's also overwhelming to think of all the things I would like to get done, and get done pronto.


So in the spirit of giving myself permission to achieve small goals and hope they eventually pool together and make larger ones, I've decided to list my five biggest writing achievements of the week. Gosh, hope I can think of five WRITING achievements. Getting dressed in the morning and brushing my hair doesn't count (even though I probably should get credit for that):

1. Wrote a query letter to M&B London, enquiring after status of my ms, which has now been holidaying at their lovely offices for going on 15 months. Must have seen the sights of London by now. Actually also SENT the letter. Have been known to avoid post office like proverbial plague, so this is a big deal.


2. Wrote a synopsis for follow up ms which they will surely ask for the second my initial ms is accepted :).


3. Edited first three chapters of Sabrina's Secret.


4. Read through The Honeymoon Effect, admiring handywork, adding occasional comma and experiencing surprisingly few 'what was I thinking?' moments. Perhaps if I read it on more sleep I'll be more suitably horrified. Time will tell.


5. Hmm..... If only the category was called top fours. Okay, I read two whole romance novels. Short categories, but still, two whole books. Come on, it's research (at least that's what I tell the tax man). It was either that or point five was going to have to be 'wrote this blog'. Not sure which one of those is a bigger cheat.

There you have it, evidence of actual writing work done.

Now, writing this blog has completely sapped me of already scarce supply of energy. Time to put back the recliner for Nanna Nap before littlest cherub starts complaining (Princess rarely stops).

Cheers,

Sami

Those Movies

My Princess just came and told me she put her baby (aka her doll) in the corner. I couldn't help but reply that 'no one puts Baby in the corner'. My laughter at my own joke was met with mystified silence, but perhaps a few of you out there might recognise the Dirty Dancing reference. Maybe you have to be from my age group, ie you were a teenager in the '80's and you actually went to the cinema to see the movie, and you actually thought it was GOOD.

I'm out of the closet now... I'm a bit of a movie buff. And the cornier a movie is, the more I seem to know about it. This is not a skill that I've developed on purpose and probably not one I should be proud of. But I am who I am, that is a yet-to-be-reformed couch potato. Heaven is a comfy couch and a stack of books sitting right beside an even higher stack of DVD's. So in deference to Johnny and Baby's secret love/dance affair, I have my list, in no particular order, of top five 80's movies that I thought were FANTASTIC, but which on closer inspection... weren't.

1. Dirty Dancing - There was some really great dancing in this movie, but does anyone else think it a tad creepy that Jennifer Gray was playing a sixteen year old girl and Patrick Swayze already looked to be nearing forty?

2. The Breakfast Club - They were the coolest of the cool, all the up and coming young stars that have now disappeared somewhere into the ether. Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, Anthony Michael Hall, Molly Ringwald and Judd Nelson, the bad boy who walked off into the night to the refrain of "Don't You Forget About Me". Still a great song. The movie, not so much. And no, I didn't have to google any of those stars' names. Sad isn't it?

3. Caddyshack - I remember splitting my sides at this movie the first time I saw it. What could be funnier than Bill Murray having a homicidal obssession with a gopher and Chevy Chase playing golf inside the clubhouse in his bathrobe? Actually some of those bits are probably still funny, but everything in between is a badly acted explosion of pastel polo shirts and curly mullets. Seriously unfunny stuff.

4. Flashdance - I loved this movie so much. Being a welder by day and a hot dancer by night seemed like a fantastic goal for a teenage girl. This movie was on TV a while back and talk about laughter. My sides were hurting and I don't think it's supposed to be a comedy. All the reasons I loved it are the same reasons it's laughable. A hot girl who works as a welder during the day and a dancer by night! Ha! I'd put Footloose in this same category. A crazy minister who enforces a no dancing policy on an entire town? But both these movies did have great soundtracks, I have to say.

5. The Karate Kid - Who can forget Mr Miagi's soliquoy on not standing in the middle of the road, lest you be squashed like grape, whatever that meant. It was as meaningful and unforgettable as wax on wax off. Who'd have thought washing cars would make the unpopular kid in town a martial arts superstar? And what about the one legged crane jump thing Ralph Macchio did at the end, with a broken foot and all, to win the tournament (after which his mortal enemy is so imbued with respect he is compelled to become his instant best friend. A very popular '80's plot twist - think Iceman's 'you can be my wing man anytime' in Top Gun. The only reason it's not on the list is because I never liked it the first time).

So there you have it. There are so many more but I won't prattle (ah, anymore). Neither do I want to give away all the bad '80's movies I actually still love (Come on, An Officer and a Gentleman is an enduring classic, right up there with The Man With Two Brains).

Any excuse... He could be my wing man anytime.

Do you have any movies that you'd be embarrassed to admit you used to love?

PS. Thank you Princess for the blog topic. I had nothing until the baby in the corner thing.

Sami