So Damn Tired & Other Ramblings...

►This post might be more me just rambling on about all the crap floating around inside my head at the moment. You know a problem shared and all that ━ let's see if it's true.

►I think my granddaughter has hit the terrible twos early. She was a pain in the arse the other day while we were at shopping. I can handle most things but not the screaming when she doesn't get her own way. I know she was probably just tired, but hell kid, so am I.

►Christmas is quickly coming up and I'm not prepared for it this year. I am so far behind on everything. I'm at the point where I'm deciding whether or not I can even be bothered decorating the house. The cats and the grandkid are only going to destroy it. More so the cats (Robson the youngest cat is a terror with the decorations).

►I worry about everyone who is in and around all the bush fires and other natural disasters. I mean, I have people all over the world who are facing some kind of dilemma or other. With us, here in Australia at the moment it is still the fires and dust storms. The air is filled with smoke and dust. I feel like I haven't breathed a clean breath in months. I heard on the news out of the last 22 fires in Queensland 18 of them were started by minors... what the fuck is the world coming to when someone thinks today will be a good day to go out and start a freaking fire... I just don't get it. The problem is we are already in a drought situation and now with fighting fires, it is draining what little water supplies we have.

►I totally suck at social media ━ why I hear you ask? Because I keep forgetting to do any. I am so fricken slack at this shit. I really need to get my head back into writer mode... 2020 is going to be my year, damn it! I need you all to kick my arse if I start to slack off again. Feel free to drop me a line on my ask me page and tell me to get my arse into gear. I have schedule carefully worked out for next year on the 2k a day method... so it should work and when I put it up on the 1st blog for the new year everyone will know what books I'll be working on each month and kick my arse if I slack off. Next year I have to wrap up a couple of series so I need to stick to my schedule like crazy. I'm even starting a couple of new series as well. Okay, maybe it's a spin-off of an already existing series.

►I hate distractions and bloody hell, wouldn't you know it. The cricket has started, and what did I do today? Watch the damn cricket instead of writing like I should have ━ Naughty NJ. I promised myself this morning that I was going to be good and then blew it as soon as we started feilding. I suck. Tomorrow... I'll get back to writing tomorrow.

Change Of Blog Colours

I know I usually wait until the end of December to change everything, but I decided I needed the boost early. So here I am changing it all today. I hope you like it. I was originally going to go back to red, but I thought blue might be nice for a change.

I promise I am trying to get better at this whole Blogging thing, and by next year I hope to be back to how I used to be. Where I blogged all the time until you were sick to death of me. 

Let me know what you think of the colours... or if you think anything needs to be changed, or if I've forgotten anything. I can easily remedy the situation. Unless of course, I don't have a clue how and then you'll have to talk me through it...LOL. what? It's been known to happen.

Beautiful According To Me...

Beauty comes in many forms, and everyone sees it differently. Here are a few people and other things who I think are beautiful... You can judge for yourself.

Jonathan Rhys Meyers ━ Need I say more.

My inspiration for Benj and Michael Marsden... Also Ray Connelly.

This Guy ━ No clue who he is.

But god I love all that red hair and the beard.

I've always loved these creatures.

Pity they don't make good pets ━ and it's illegal to keep them.

This person's hands.

I don't know why I like them ━  I just do.

Andy Sixx ━ Character Inspiration.

I reckon he'd make a great looking demon or vampire.

Wolves ━ Another favourite creature.

Probably why I love writing shifter stories.

We Can All Stop Looking...

I finally found that amazingly safe place I stashed my plot drafts book for all my storylines.  I was so fricken lost without it. Not that I actually follow what I've written too closely, but at least it gives me a beginning and an end. It also gives me a loose transcript of how to get there. The rest is entirely up to me. (Yes... I know I write them both... the plotlines and the stories), but I never follow the scripts I set out, my characters always seem to have other ideas.

EXAMPLE #1: Way back when I started writing The Lines of Marsden 1: The Rules are Meant to be Broken all those years ago, it was going to be Michael and Christian all the way. Benj and Doyle had other plans though and demanded I change things, or at least they bribed Vlad (the keeper/manager of the carnage inside my head) to divert the storyline to their way of thinking, (he's so easily bought).

EXAMPLE #2: I want The Connelly Chronicles 3: Because of You to go one way, and the characters keep messing with the storyline and sending me off in a whole different direction completely. So at the moment, we are at a standoff. I really need to get this one done by the end of the year so I hope one of us give in soon. I dare say Nate and Dan will win, especially if GG and Girly have anything to say about it

EXAMPLE #3: The boys in Sons of Evenmore 3: Fear The Scarlet Moon have decided to throw the script completely out the window and write their own, and now I'm trying to steer them back to where I need them to be at the end of this current story, or the next one won't make any sense. I wonder if I'll manage it. Phoenix, Linkin, and Cooper are fighting me the whole way.

EXAMPLE #4: Shane from  The Connelly Chronicles wants me to stop writing him as a douchebag, and give him his own story so he can redeem himself and get his happily-ever-after. I keep telling him it's not as simple as that, but do you think he's listening. I secretly think Vlad is egging them all on. No wonder I have a migraine most days.

EXAMPLE #5: Don't even get me started on the previously released books that I need to find new homes for as some of them want me to change them completely and I'm not sure that is advisable two of the main contenders are The Diamond Rose 1: The Gateway to Kalethia... and The Freedomers 1: Zephania's Chance (in this one some characters are demanding I change their sex for the rewrite) I'll have to enquire about that one.

Healing Nicely...

In the beginning:

This is me just after getting my neck cut open and a small nodule removed. My neck is all swollen and stinging and really it was really hard to swallow. I could hardly talk the next day. Though, I did bust it open the day after I got it done, so that could also contribute to the whole not talking thing.

A week later:

I'm healing nicely. I'm pretty bruised and it's still tender to the touch. all my stitches are internal and will melt away they tell me━weird if you ask me. I can't wait for it to be healed completely as it is annoying as hell. It hasn't started to get itchy yet. You know that crazy itch you associate with healing. I know it's coming and I'm dreading it.

Another Gorgeous One...

Firstly, I want to thank the amazing Lex Valentine for her fantastic work. I absolutely love my cover for the next instalment in The Lines of Marsden series. Meet Doyle Kerwin... well, my version of him at least. Lex has captured him beautifully. I couldn't have asked for anything better. 

You can find more of Lex's awesome work here

Winterheart Designs

This is Me...

I've just finished galley proof edits on Admetus Gaea 1: The Gaean Prophecy and sent it back. Hopefully, I'll have a release date to share with you all soon.

I'm still doing NaNoWriMo... though due to the galley proofing, I'm a couple of days behind so now I have to play catch up to be able to finish Sons of Evenmore 3: Fear the Scarlet Moon, & start Wardens of the Guild 3: Heartstrings... Wish me luck.

I'm having both good days and bad days with my back. I now have an exercise plan in place. Though, I want to run through it with my doctor before I start in case I have the wrong ones. There were two lots on the rehabilitation site and I'm not sure which ones I'm meant to be doing.

I'm not in the path of the fire that is going on around my area, so for the moment I'm safe and so is my family that live around here. We might not be getting the fire, but we are getting tons of dust storms. Everything is covered in dust in my house, which means once the dust has finally blown away and settled down we'll all have to spring clean and wash/wipe out the whole house again. I only did this about a month ago when the last dust storm rolled through town.

Though I have to ask... why is it when my life is so hectic, we could almost call it out of control. New story ideas are trying to push their way to the forefront of my mind demanding attention? Don't they know I just need a little space to finish off the current WIPS for the year without starting something new?