WEEKLY ROUND UP

I've been pretty busy working on the second book in The Bloody Crescent series. I thought I had the entire plot laid out but I've decided to take a totally different route that will leave my readers going 'OMG! I didn't expect that...' :). I hope it will anyway! So it's been quite a bit of work making changes and adjusting scenes but I think it will be well worth it in the end.

I've also just joined Goodreads - http://www.goodreads.com/ - and I've discovered some fantastic books. Although I'm still getting the hang of the site I am happy to say that Therian has been added to three 'to-read' bookshelves! I can only hope that that number soon grows.

In other news, I won a fantastic prize through loot.co.za's Facebook page. I will soon be receiving an omnibus of  "The Morganville Vampires" series.

I can't wait to get reading!

So a big shout out to Carlilse and co. for making me a winner.

I have also just pre-ordered 'Carrier of the Mark', debut novel of Leigh Fallon. A brilliant writer who was discovered on Inkpop. Really excited to read this book. I have followed Leigh for a while now and she is such a wonderful person and author who deserves all the success! I've no doubt that her book will make it onto all the No. 1 bestseller lists. Check out her website - http://leighfallon.com/

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

I've always loved to read. I think there is nothing better than to sit down on a lazy sunday afternoon with a good book to escape the realities of our world by getting lost in a time, place and setting that someone has created. I love anything supernatural and paranormal so I'm always scanning the book stores for names like Laurel K. Hamilton, Melissa Marr, Melissa de la Cruz and Stephanie Meyer, just to name a few.

I've written a few short stories in my life, most for English class, but it wasn't until my world was turned upside down that I actually decided to start writing for real. I used the pain that stemed from a very emotional, personal breakup to create characters and a story I never imagined would get to the point of being published. To me it was my outlet, instead of crying or screaming, or even feeling sorry for myself, I poured my emotions into every word of my story. The more I wrote the clearer my characters became! I felt apart of their world, but I guess that can be expected considering I created it :).
I continued to write, enjoying every minute of sitting in front of my laptop, tapping away at the keys because it had become a way to relax at the end of a long day of work. And then the day came when I stumbled across http://www.authonomy.com/, a brilliant writing community site set up by HarperCollins.

I was tentative at first after having read such amazing stories on the site, thinking mine was no match but when I finally did upload the first 10,000 words of my story I was thrilled by the great response I got. Such wonderful comments were posted and I thrived on the mountain of critical feedback I got. It made me want to write even more and so I thank everyone who gave me advice and posted a critique ( good or bad ) because it helped me become a stronger writer. A few months in and I learnt about Authonomy's sister site http://www.inkpop.com/ , also created by HarperCollins but aiming at more of a YA audience. Again I posted my manuscript on this site and received wonderful feedback and comments. I wrote my heart out and by November 2010, one year and one week after having started my novel, it was finally complete! :)