10:03 am - November 21, 2014 - sjcarlson

Pictures from the Great Ocean Road, Victoria, Australia

So my husband and I recently visited Australia for an epic road trip of awesome. We flew into Melbourne, drove west to Peterborough to catch some of the Great Ocean Road and the Twelve Apostles, then drove many hours to Sydney. n the way there, we hit up Wilson’s Promontory and Montague Island to see fairy penguins. After Syndey, we drove over to the Blue Mountains THEN back to Melbourne. I believe we put like 3000 km on our rental car. Covered a sizable chunk of Oz too 😛 And we had a manual, so my husband had to drive all.of.it 😛

This was one of the most beautiful coastal drives I’ve ever done. Though I will be honest, the Antrim Coast in Northern Ireland MAY be slighter better, which (obviously) is saying a lot!

What’s the most scenic drive you’ve ever done?

Category: Photography Tags: Australia, I'm going on an adventure, photography, travel

9:27 am - November 19, 2014 - sjcarlson

Non-writers just don’t understand: The joys of constructing a twitter pitch

Writer friends, have you ever participated in a twitter pitch contest? I’ve done a few now. I have to say, coming up with a pitch in 140 characters or less took longer than writing a query or a synopsis. How do you capture the essence of your entire novel in a tweet, especially if you’re a bit crazy like me and like writing dual POV with subplots? Thankfully, I met some awesome writers who helped me craft mine. On the plus side, I now have an arsenal of pitches, and creating them did help me focus my query letter.

Here are a few of my favorites for Hooligans in Shining Armour:

Seventeen-year-old Fiona’s dad may be a Northern Ireland terrorist; Danny heads into the Protestant paramilitary military. In this dual POV YA, they fall in love.

Star-crossed lovers Fiona and Danny inspire one another to fight for their futures; divided Belfast threatens to rip them apart.

Fiona’s on the track to being valedictorian. But when she is whisked away to Northern Ireland she gets more. She gets Danny.

17yrold Fiona’s dad may be a Northern Ireland terrorist; Danny heads into the Protestant military. In this dual POV YA, they fall in love.

Wherefore art my Romeo? In divided Belfast, protestant Danny has to climb the ‘Peace Wall’ to Catholic Fiona’s balcony.

Oh, and the best, best thing about participating in twitter pitch/other online writing contests? Making all kinds of writer friends. Since doing my first one in September, I’ve added at least 500 twitter followers, found a new online crit group, numerous CPs for chapters and query letters, etc. Awesome. Writers are awesome. Twitter has proved to be an excellent platform to connect, and contests are a venue to “meet.”

Have you ever done twitter pitching? What’s your favorite tweet about your MS?

Category: Non-writers just don't understand Tags: writing

9:28 am - November 18, 2014 - sjcarlson

Finally done gallivanting around America and Australia. Now back to life. Um… I can’t even….

Yeah, I said gallivanting again. I’m bringing it BACK!

So I live in Singapore… About a month ago I had to take an emergency trip back home to Madison, Wisconsin for a funeral. It was an expected passing, no need for apologies. Anyway, the funeral was in Maryland, so old school family road trip ensued, full of fall colors and misadventure. Oh, and that impromptu trip to my high school hometown for me and my friend’s WIP Rafa & Rose!

There for two weeks, back to Singapore for five days, then off to Oz, the land down under! It was like an Australian safari, so many cool animals. Oh, and amazing coastline and mountain climbing. More pics to come. I promise I did NOT ride a motorbike or otherwise injure myself. I came to the realization that I really should journal on on these trips…could be fodder for writing. But then I didn’t. Good story, right?

I actually got quite a lot of writing done. I plotted out Rafa & Rose chapters out through probably the end, wrote a new first chapter, about 5-6 completely new ones, and got started with some earlier revisions. My brain is scattered and crazy, don’t mind me… 😛

My body has no idea what time it is anymore lol.

Anyway, full steam ahead with my full-time, unpaid profession: writing my YA novels.

Here’s what’s on my writing docket:

1) Re-read and comment on four 3000-word writing samples for my new crit group.

New writing friend group hug! So excited to work with them. All of their writing is amazing.

2) Finish going through feedback from my writing partner on Rafa & Rose.

Cuz we cool like that.

3) Finish chapter 1 re-write on Rafa & Rose. Oh, and work on three other points in the MS I’m working on simultaneously cuz my brain is….

4) Fix up Hooligans query letter again based on professional feedback then send back for more feedback.

This is pretty much what I want to do. I’ve re-worked it so many times, but it must be perfect.

5) Go through feedback from crit partner on first 5 chapters of Hooligans.

God, again??? But must be perfect.

6) Continue building my social media empire. I may be stalking through the WordPress reader and twitter feeds, so watch out!

Haha, I’m a friend, not a stalker, right? Promise I’ll just be liking and commenting, not showing up to your house or place of employment :P.

Oh and I should probably do some real-life grown-up stuff like laundry and shopping and cleaning and various other errands to get life back in order.

UPDATE: Oh, and revise my Hooligans synopsis based on professional feedback, so make that seven things… LOL

My fellow writer friends, what are your writing goals for the week?

Category: Writing Tags: creativity, writing

8:39 am - November 18, 2014 - sjcarlson

Sunny day on Mount Oberon, Wilson’s Promontory, Victoria, Australia

Category: Photography Tags: Australia, photography

5:18 am - November 12, 2014 - sjcarlson

Non-writers just don’t understand: Sneaking in some writing time on vacay

So as I alluded to in previous posts, I’m gallivanting (yeah, I said gallivanting, love that word) around Australia with my husband. Epic South Australian road trip. Great Ocean Road, tiny coastal towns, hiking in Wilson’s Promentory. Kangaroos, Koalas, Emus, and now penguins and seals! We’re off to Sydney today to see that Opera House. I mean, cuz you have to, right?

But, but writer friends, I was at a critical point in my WIP and I was not able to get through it before vacay. I’m sure many of you appreciate my pain. So I’ve been sneaking in writing time after the hubby goes to bed and before he wakes up. ( I swear my body only needs like 6 hours of sleep) So I’m writing in the dark trying to, um, I don’t know, type quietly and in the blinding sun on the occasional boring car ride where there isn’t awesome rolling hills of pastures or amazing coast line to look at. And good news, I’m getting through what I need to; I’ve re-written the first five chapters and pounded out chapters 17.5-21. They’re rough, but after I get through them once, I’ll be able to send them on to my amazing WIP collaborator! So I’ve done that AND enjoyed Australia. I’m pretty much feeling like the (wo)man 😛

Life’s about balance, right? And having a patient, understanding, awesome husband who understands my writing is…um…an addiction? No, not addiction, it’s my job, right? 😛 Totally made me pancakes–not once, but twice!–while I was pounding out the WIP.