It's Winter

It's Winter and there is nothing I love more than curling up in front of a warm and toasty fire sipping on hot chocolate (or a red wine) snuggled into my blanket to read a good book and perhaps nibble on a nice chunk of chocolate.

Now back to our regular viewing chanel.
Reading a book in the quiet in front of the fire doesn't happen that often, firstly I have children. My time is spent chasing after them, cleaning up after them, driving them somewhere or feeding them(hopefully not my chocolate). Not that I mind, that is what I signed up for when I became a Mum.

Oh dear I think I have veered off the road.

Lets get back to dreaming about wistfully spending the day, (or night) in front of that warm and toasty fire, with a good book.

Some people may enjoy reading a good book on a warm sunny beach, or by the cool inviting water on a hot summer's day. But here in Australia it's winter

I love to read about other authors, their books and also reviews of books, sometimes its hard to get a good review of a book. The other day I came across a fabulous blog that reviews books and interviews authors. Of course I am here to plug away at it because I think it's a really good insight into a book. I am tired of the reviews on Amazon as they seem...... I'm not sure what the word is that I am looking for. Fake would be one, biased, would be another. I know that you can buy reviews and I am sceptical about reviews especially when one says it fabulous with 5 stars and one says it's trash and wouldn't even give it one star.

 

So without further ado. Here's the link. (This is the link to one of the interviews and reviews I guess you could have a look at her main blog if you, like I, liked the blog on this review).
http://bookswithwineandchocolate.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/leave-of-absence-by-tanya-j-peterson.html

Books with wine and chocolate, you could not be more apt than this, especially in winter!

To everyone.
May you enjoy your winter, (Summer in the Northern Hemisphere).
And a big Cheers to great books.

til next time
Happy Reading.

Editing

Editing, Editing, Editing.

This is what I have been up to lately. Editing.

Do I like it? Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. It's a relationship that I have with my writing that I have a love/hate relationship.

Sometimes I find it tedious and boring whilst sometimes I love it, when I love it I get to fall in love all over again with my characters. I once put it out to cyber world whether people fell in love with characters in a book.
I was surprised to find a fifty/fifty split, and I guess it depends on the story and whether the characters are portrayed in a way for you to fall in love with them or hate them.

So at this moment I am editing the next in my Crystal Hart Series, "Stolen in Action". Re-reading it (editing) I get to mix and mingle with the characters again, and I enjoy it. I admit that I think my characters are great and yes perhaps a little bias in my perception. But I am enjoying it, there is a lot going on in the book with the most of the characters and most especially the main character Crystal.

Without giving too much away, I feel that she has grown as a person, or at least that is what I hope to project.

She is up against a tough situation and when we as a person push through those tough times we grow stronger more resiliant, if we learn the lesson.

So I look forward to getting this next in the series out there, and hopefully it is not too far away.

Til next time

Happy Reading
Valissa

In the land of............

Once upon a time there was a princess (everygirl wants to be a princess!). She wanted to write for a living.

Her dream was to be able to make up magical stories that would impress thousands of wonderful people in the kindom she lived. She lived in a wonderful place she liked to called Earth.
For many years the princess dreamed that one day, one day she would be a super star and adored by many who loved her stories and willed her to make up more magical stories.

She had written some and published a few, her few fans that had read her stories so far enjoyed them and she was eager to write more.
The words flowed onto the screen of the laptop before her, coffee was drunk and chocolate was consumed by the truckload.

Then along came an evil prime minister who bought along taxes to her land increasing the cost of living, so much so that the princess had to go out and help her prince plow the fields and bring income into the castle so that they could eat and sleep in a comfortable castle.

As she plowed the fields her neck ached, her shoulders burned from the tension of being hunched over all day as she earnt the few gold coins that would enable her family to eat. She kept dreaming of the day that she will be able to sit at her desk overlooking the mountains and write on her laptop with coffee in hand, spilling out a wonderful magical story that will entertain an audience.

One day the princess will get her dream, she is working on it, bit by bit. Day by day.

As we all know. Fairytales all have a happy ending.



Happy Reading

My trip to Sydney

Last month I went to Sydney for no other reason than to enjoy and relax with my best friend! (Thank you to my husband for giving me a leave pass.)

It was windy on the sightseeing cruise.
 

Arghh!!!! (With a smiley face )

Yes it was nice.
Very nice indeed. I enjoyed it immensly.



The gorgeous view from my room.

I had a great room with a fabulous view.


Cruising passed the Opera House.

Got to see the Harbour Bridge (even went under it) and went passed the Opera House. It is wonderful to be able to see these sights and say yep done that and tick it off the bucket list.




Very late in the evening after a few glasses of wine.
 

After the cruise we began to look for some places to grab a bite to eat, but all we kept finding were places to drink. (Of course we obliged!)

They always say that holidays go too fast and this was no exception. We were planning on doing a few other things around Sydney but after a big night and a little hangover in the morning. A sleep in and a massage and a trip to the hairdressers was called for.

 

 

Hair done, dressed up and out for a gorgeous 5 Star restaurant meal.

 

 Holidays are always special and I was lucky and grateful to have had this special holiday with a long time friend who is a very generous person.

Well that was my holiday and now. Back to the bum on seat regime.

Til next time

Happy Reading
Valissa

 

Get Ready, Get set.... Almost NaNoWriMo time!

So tomorrow is the start of NaNoWriMo.

What is NaNoWriMo, I hear you ask.

Well NaNoWriMo stand for National Novel Writing Month and it happens every year during the month of November to encourage writers to write. (Possibly because the most of us procrastinate)

The aim is to write a 50,000 word novel in one month, that being the month of November.  On facebook there are a few support groups designed for this and writers groups who also support it including my own writer's group.

Last year  I tried, but only got out a mere 1300 words. Hmmmm...... Can I do better this year? I certainly hope so. I really am going to try for it this year. I havent signed up on the official website, but I am going to have a damn good go at it anyway. 50,000 words I am fairly sure I can do this in one month. Time will tell.

Not quite sure what I am going to write. I don't een have an idea which for me is unusual. I was thinking that I may write a horror thriller, something along the lines of zombies and ghouls, ghosts and such. That may be because it is halloween and I am influenced.

I may write a another romance story, I love romance stories. I think the world needs more of them, more love all around. It makes everyone feel good.

Perhaps I may do a children's crime and detective story, when I was little I loved reading mystery novels. Trixie Belden, Famous Five, Secret Seven, I even read Agatha Christie and I loved them all.  My son aged twelve, nearly thirteen is into shows at the moment that involve solving a crime and each time my dog disappears he looks for clues as to where his whereabouts might be.

So with less than twelve hours before NaNoWriMo begins, I am up in the air as to what I am going to write.

That is a mystery in itself!

Til next time

Happy Reading

Addicted to Pinterest

I have to admit this. I am addicted to Pinterest.

I love the ideas that come from there and if only time would permit to make all the great arts and craft stuff on there, not to mention the food. OMG the food, some of the food looks so damn delicious that I could eat it right off the screen if it were possible.

So yes I am on there and I have pictures of my books and pictures of books that I have read and liked and then there are some stuff for dreaming and wishing. Things like that dream home, you know the one you will buy when you win tattslotto or marry that rich billionaire, and lets not forget the fantastic ideas for getting fit.

Hmmmmm...........

Yes I think I spend way too much time on the computer, *nerd alert* or at least it was when I went to school, nowadays I'm probably in with the cool group for spending so much time on the computer. I like to call it research if I am not writing.

The pinterest thing has me captivated I try a few of the things on there and some that I say 'yeah I'm going to do that'. 'Yeah I'm a gunna'. Gunna do this and Gunna do that. One day I will surprise everyone and actually do something. My Dad's is surprised that I've written a book, well actually I've published two, written four (two at the editors) and three on the go. I'M DOING THAT!!!!!!

So back to pinterest, I love it. I think it is the best thing since sliced bread it brings the world that much closer, but its a big world and we don't have a lot of time to test all the ideas out and then recently I came across a website/blog ,funnily enough on Pinterest about a woman who tries some of the things on Pinterest, let me say that she holds nothing back on her thoughts about the idea or product, whether it worked or not or whether it was hard or easy or just plain stupid.  I find her to be funny with a dry sarcastic wit, but I believe that she is being totally honest and sometimes in this world its hard to find someone who is honest.

Have a look at her website, if swearing offends you, the "f" bomb in particular, then may I suggest that you don't look.

http://pintester.com/

Till next time
Happy Reading

Valissa

New book out soon

Hello all,

Not sure if I have shown you the cover of the new book that will be out soon.

Chance at Love.

I love the cover.

I will be posting more about the book soon.

I just wanted to show you the cover. :)