Perfection Personified

Song on my iPod: Pretty Brown Eyes by Mint Condition

My current hero is quite a handsome devil (as most romantic heroes are). He's physically beautiful with a face made for GQ magazine, and body made for all sorts of naughty stuff *swoon*.

Although the package is perfect, he has internal flaws (of course). But I'm having a bit of dilemma. I'm wondering if I need to make him MORE flawed, and add a bit of a physical imperfection, otherwise he may be too perfect for readers.

I'm not talking a lump on his back like Quasimodo, but maybe a scar on his chest from throwing knives around in the boardroom? Or from a romp in the hay that went horribly wrong when he landed on a pitchfork? Maybe a stiletto was embedded in his chest after he ditched a lover, and now there's a dent in his rippling pectorals?

The question I ask is this: do you mind a physically perfect hero, with loads of internal scars/imperfections? Or do prefer a physically imperfect hero with battle scars, a whopping great tattoo or a third nipple?! Lol.

RIP Farrah and Michael

Song on my iPod: PYT by Michael Jackson

I'm still busy editing, but had to blog about the passing of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson.


It was incredibly sad to hear the reports of Farrah's illness, and her slow demise. Farrah was best known for her role in Charlie's Angels (and for her fabulous locks!), but she was also a mother and the much loved partner of Ryan O'Neal. Apparently, Farrah and Ryan were to wed before she died, but it never came to be. How heartbreaking.


And what can I say about Michael Jackson? I must admit I was in quite a bit of shock this morning when I heard the news. I've been a big fan of Michael's since I was a child, and the first album I ever bought was Thriller. I also had a bit of a crush on him during the Thriller days before all that plastic surgery, and I regret never seeing him perform live.

My children are also fans of his songs, and my son enjoys watching Michael's dance moves and video clips on the web. I'm a little concerned about how he'll react to the news of his death, and hope he handles it well. It was a hot topic of discussion at the playground today, so who knows what will be said amongst the kids?

Michael's life was disturbing and tragic in parts, but his talent will be recognised and celebrated for many years to come. I'm also extremely sorry for his children, and hope their lives are less troubled than their father's.

RIP, Farrah and Michael.

Editing Update

I'm in the process of editing my manuscript. It appears to involve painful amounts of chopping and rewriting (you know what I mean!).

I decided to do a bit of research into the most effective ways to self edit, and came up with the following links. Hope they're of use to you as well:

• http://www.eclectics.com/articles/selfediting.html
  
• http://www.barbaradawsonsmith.com/selfedit.html
  
• http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Write-Tight---Self-Editing-Tips-to-Make-Your-Manuscript-Ready-For-Publication&id=2410394
  
• http://home.earthlink.net/~jdc24/selfEdit.htm
  
• http://www.bookdoctor.com.au/self-editingchec.html
  
• http://www.literary-liaisons.com/article025.html

I apologise for being a bit lazy with my blogging of late, but I'm quite preoccupied with editing. Really struggling to wrestle my manuscript into some sort of decent shape, but I'm determined to tame it and make it shine :-)

Blogs/Website of interest...

I'm having a very busy weekend this weekend, but popped in to post some links to two great blog posts and a website I've just looked at.

The first is from an agent, and talks about conferences http://www.thebentagency.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=60. Very timely info for those of us attending the RWAust conference, and for anyone pitching to an agent.

Jenny Hutton has again listed the hero character traits required for Harlequin lines. Check it out at http://www.iheartpresents.com/2009/06/mills-boon-editors-hero-checklist/.

Lastly, there's been some discussion on our loop with regards to the differences between the Harlequin lines. Someone posted this link to Ally Blake's website http://www.allyblake.com/writingtips-sexyvssweet.html which makes the differences between sweet/sexy/sexy sensation very clear. I wish I'd seen this before my e-pitch, but never mind!

Well, off I go to do some housework. Not very exciting, but much needed in the Wood house :-)

Enter The Parrot - Lock up your daughters, TF and Cedric are here!

Song on my iPod: Sweet Dreams by Beyonce

I've just finished reading Kiki Lon's Enter the Parrot which will be released by the Wild Rose Press this Week. It's YA fiction, which isn't what I normally read (or write, for that matter), and I must say I was blown away by how brilliant it was!

It's a tale about Jade, a girl from a Chinese family. But there's a twist: she's white. Or as she puts it "I'm the white girl in the Wong family." The premise is funny, and it leads to a bit of chaos when Jade has to do some detective work on behalf of her grandfather. She deals with missing parrots, kung fu, mysterious messages, secret societies, cultural confusion and nasty high school students a long the way.

I loved the character, and thoroughly enjoyed reading about her escapades. Jade is tough yet sweet, and just trying to get through school unscathed. But her life isn't simple, especially when she has two hero hotties to choose from - TF, the bad boy, and Cedric, the golden boy. I can understand why she fancies both of them, and I imagine many young readers will fall in love with them as well.

The girls at the We Love Ya blog are discussing the book this week, so check it out at http://weloveya.wordpress.com/. And if you know of any teenage girls, make sure you get them a copy, because they'll love it!

I wish Kiki the best of luck with the book, and look forward to a sequel. Not that there's one planned, as far as I know. But the book has unresolved matters, so I'd really like to see how crazy Jade's life will become. Hint, hint, Kiki! :-)

'D' Day... as in 'Do it, Damn it!'

Song on my iPod: Whenever You Feel Like it by Kylie Minogue

Today is the day I'm going to send in my e-pitch. It isn't due until tomorrow, but I'm starting to get sick of the sight of the thing!

I've been fiddling and mucking around with it so much that it barely resembles the original version. And there's a limit to what I can do right now with two sick kids at home, so making major changes isn't an option.

Yep, today is 'D' day. I'll do it today... at some stage. Maybe this afternoon after I've read it again about 100 times? Will I have the guts to press the 'send' button?!

Pitch Perfect... or Close.

Song on my iPod: Love, Sex, Magic by Justin Timberlake and Ciara

A few days ago my CP and I received news we were amongst the 40 people to get an e-pitch with Harlequin.

For those of you who don't know, Harlequin aren't able to send an editor to Brisbane for the RWAust conference, so they're offering the e-pitch alternative to members who expressed an interest in pitching. This is a really big deal, and a great opportunity for us.

I'm trying to polish my pitch until it's perfect - but what is perfect? I know my pitch will be good, but whether it will be spectacular or even compare to the other pitches, I have no idea. It's rather like submitting to a competition and not having a clue what the standard will be. I'm sure the standard will be extremely high, because the talent of our members is amazing. I should be very, very nervous!

I won't lie, I AM nervous. Just writing this blog post makes me feel a bit sick. The butterflies are swirling around, and the thought of being ready by next week... well... it makes me want to pass out and/or vomit. Doing a direct pitch probably would have ended in disaster (can you imagine ?!) so doing it this way is a much better alternative.

I probably won't be blogging much for the next week as I have to polish, polish, polish! And to all the members who get the chance to pitch, I wish you the best of luck. Let's show Harlequin how much we Aussie authors have to offer!

Things that make you go 'Hmmm'

Song on my iPod: Love Today by Mika

I was driving to an appointment yesterday, listening to the radio and minding my own business (should have been listening to my iPod) when I was verbally assaulted. No, not by some mad driver on the road, but by a radio advert.

It was advertising laser hair removal, and the gal promoting the clinic/product announced the service was the 'unhurtingest' laser hair removal out there. What the?! She may as well have reached through the radio and punched me in the ears. I'm sure I cringed and swerved as I heard the bold announcement using a non-existent word. Aaaargh!

What is it with advertisers, the media and companies using bad, bad, bad language? Or rather non-existent language which teaches kids it's okay to make up words, or better yet, these fictional words actually exist? There are people who don't comprehend these words are, in fact, made up by marketers to make people remember their stupid campaigns.

It's like those 'Un' ads with the NRMA. Grrr. They don't UNannoy me, or UNworry me. They make me very UNhappy. It's very poor English on the part of the marketers and, in my opinion, bad judgement by the NRMA.

Then there are companies that name themselves without any concept of grammar. Every time I drive past Fishing-R-Us (displayed in giant letters on the side of a building) I want to park my car, get out, and give them an earful. Yes, yes, it might be dramatic, but how dumb can these people be? Apart from trying to rip off the Toy-R-Us concept, they get it so VERY wrong.

I probably need to get off my high horse, but stuff like this drives me nuts. We all make mistakes, but these are unacceptable. I think crimes against language should result in punishment - in the form of a spanking using a dictionary and/or a thesaurus. The bigger and heavier the better! Lol.