Songster and Wordsmith

Day Three of my health kick is almost over. It's been easy to justify sticking to my plan now that I have to confess to everything I eat, drink, and do. I've been very exhausted of late, recovering from a virus I caught at Supernova in June. It has left me with less fitness than before the virus. But I think I'm finally get on top of it. I think my biggest thing to give up is drinking alcohol during the week. What happens when you work part time is that Wednesday is your Friday so you have a glass of wine. Then Thursday is also your Friday, so you have a glass of wine. Then the real Friday arrives. Then it's the weekend. I reckon I could easily lose a few kilos just from cutting out the wines during the week. We shall see. Often, when we give up one thing, we replace it with another. Wednesday Food: Morning: Small mango smoothie with soy milk 1 scrambled egg and ham on English muffin Morning snack: nothing Lunch: leftover pork mince, cabbage, carrot a

Day one of my health kick was easy. So far so good. Part of the commitment to shedding the winter kilos is to give up drinking alcohol unless I'm at a social event. I've had a rough day at work with a challenging payroll, and I'd love a glass of red wine, and I told myself to hold off, but I had a glass of red wine. Summer is coming and I need to do something serious about shedding those few extra kilos I’ve put on over winter and from being sedentary while editing and writing and gorging on Netflix.    Day Two Monday Food Breakfast:      Scrambled egg tortilla + black coffee Snack:           Banana + black coffee Lunch:           Lentil dhal with 4 microwaved poppadums   HEALTHY SCRAMBLED EGG TORTILLAS Tip to make healthy scrambled eggs is to whisk free-range eggs in a microwave container, add salt, pepper, and chopped chives, then heat on 30 second to 1 minute intervals (so they don't explode). You can also make healthy omelet tortilla

The best piece of writing advice I’ve heard is “Nobody asked me to do this”. The worst writing advice is “Make all your posts about your writing”. What a load of bollocks. I’m at my wit’s end trying to continually write about writing. I never started writing so I could write about writing. It’s quite liberating to throw off those shackles. I’d rather review movies, post photos of my renovations, and post about my boring life in general. Summer is coming and I need to do something serious about shedding those few extra kilos I’ve put on over winter and from being sedentary while editing and writing and gorging on Netflix. So I’ll start recording my daily eating on my blog as a way of keeping track of my eating and exercise habits.   Day One Monday Food Breakfast:      Porridge with soy milk and 1 teaspoon golden syrup + black coffee Snack:            Banana + black coffee Lunch:           Lentil dhal with 4 microwaved poppadums   RECIPE FOR SIMPLE LENTIL DH

The benefits of taking a break from positivity It's ironic that today's post is about unsubscribing from newsletters, Facebook, blog sites, websites, writer groups, etc but at the risk of alienating people, I don't want to lose you of course, but I wanted to share why I've done exactly this. There is too much positivity that it's becoming fake. I signed up to newsletters to help me become a better writer, to help me promote my works, to help! help! help! I'm drowning in help. All of it is positive, yet all of it is fake. Nobody really wants to help. They want to make money from helping. I joined a few Facebook groups to connect with other authors - successful authors - who've done it all before and they're happy to share their experiences. However, these groups quickly became damaging rather than helpful. 1. First of all, their fake coyness became infuriating. It became clear it was a marketing strategy that I don't care for. 2. Most of their posts

  My husband and I had a lengthy discussion this morning about dual citizenship. Australian politicians are seeking out our leaders who were born overseas, or who have parents or grandparents who were born overseas, and under the 'no dual citizenship' laws are forcing them to renounce their other citizenship.   This political discussion is happening all over the world. There are two parts to this controversial topic, and each form the basis of dystopian or futuristic societies when world building in fiction.   First point: The act of h olding dual passports.   I can see why it's an issue in today's climate. Identity fraud. Hidden bank accounts. Earning income from one country while claiming benefits from another. Terrorism. Economic cheats.   Did you notice the identifier in the above statement for building a dystopian society. In today's climate. Anytime you utter or hear those words, you begin to speculate what might happen if that pol

In the past few months I've published two novels. One is a 100K science fiction novel, the second book in a series. The other is a 30K novella, also the second in the series. I've sent them off into the world and I need to promote them to get them into the hands of readers. That's a given. Newsletters, blog tours, ads, social media blasts, the list is endless. Promotion can be hard, it can also be fun. It's a necessary evil and one that we're all trying and tweaking, because what works for one author doesn't work for all. But there's another step that always stumps me in this "what now?" phase. Writing the next book. Not just the next book in the series, but any book.   One of the hardest things I find about writing is moving on from a completed novel to a blank page. Writing the first draft is different to proofreading the final version, so much has happened to get a book from A to B.   I've drafted, edited, developed characters, de

  "Welcome to the Apocalypse" is going on a book tour AUGUST 1 TO SEPTEMBER 1, 2017 ​ Drop by your favourite site to win $10 Amazon gift card and read excerpts and guest posts ​ Aug 1 The Silver Dagger Scriptorium  – GUEST POST "Plants of the Apoclaypse" Mythical Books ​ Aug 2 Ourbookstars Rainy Day Reviews – GUEST POST (DID NOT POST) ​ Aug 3 Jamie Marchant, Fantasy Author Lisa-Queen of Random ​ Aug 4 Books Dreams Life Laurie's Paranormal Thoughts and Reviews ​ Aug 5 Yah gotta read this ​ Aug 7 Angels With Attitude Book Reviews Mello & June ​ Aug 8 Casey's Corner AC Squared Book Blog ​ Aug 9 A Mama's Corner of the World Book Bangers Blog ​ Aug 10 Circle of Stalkers Port Jericho ​ Aug 11 For Love of Books4 C Melanson Author Laurisa White Reyes, Author ​ Aug 14 Bound 2 Escape Indie Wish List ​ Aug 15 Queen of All She Reads Ramblings of a C