Big Moves

Have you ever had to make a decision that will take you away from everything you know and are familiar with? Well we've just made it. We're moving to Houston, Texas USA. We are moving for my DH's job. Great career opportunity for him. For me I'm dead scared about leaving all I know behind.

We've spent the last week there and it was great and exciting but as we were driving back home from the airport yesterday it hit me that next time we go it could be well over a year before I see the familiar streets of Perth. How am I going to cope? There will be no more spontaneously lunches with my parents, no family parties. I love my family so leaving them behind will be hard.

But on the upside I will have my own family with me. My unit that my DH and I have created. It will be our chance to tighten our family unit. Make us a stronger team. It's perhaps what we need to cement us together tight. We will only have each other and we will have to love and give each other strength and support.

With technology nowadays, extended families aren't that far away, not like they used to be.

So as we embark on this new adventure I know that there will be times when all I want to do is get on that plane and come back home but there will be other times when I'll be having so much fun that I won't even think of what we've left behind. It will always be there and really, just a couple of flights away.

JN

RWA Roadshow

Well the RWA Roadshow has come and gone in a flurry of learning, making new friends, reacquainting yourself with old friends and spending time doing what we love - writing!

I acted as MC, a role I loved doing. I prepared an opening which incorporated the speakers and the workshops they would be presenting. I presented it like it was an anthology of 3 books by 3 different authors, each story unique, each author unique. I think it was well received.

The energy for the whole day was incredibly high, even though the weather was a bit lousy. Everybody had a great time and hopefully learnt a lot.

One of the highlights were the visitors, we had 3 people come from interstate and one international guest from Denmark - very exciting.

So planning will begin for next year's Roadshow. It's sure to be just as successful as the past two.

JN

I'm Live!!!

I know I've been very remiss and have not posted for a while, but now I have to. I have a website!!! I've finally got around to getting it setup and now I'm live. My website is http://nicoleflockton.com

I think it looks very pretty!! But then of course I did choose the page design :-)

It's a busy time for me, I'm in the middle of editing my full manuscript requested by Desire and waiting on news of a partial I sent to M&B Medical. But in between all of that I'm helping to organise a one day writing workshop. Romance Writers of Australia are putting on the roadshow again in Perth - very exciting. Make sure you check out RWA Perth Roadshow. The line up of speakers is going to be fabulous.

Hope everyone is happy, healthy and writing up a storm.

Hugs
JN

Falling Love Again

Kind of appropriate title considering today is Valentine's Day. I'm sitting here singing along to all the love songs that the music video tv stations are playing. Some are making me well up with tears others are bringing back memories and others I'm singing loudly along too. Goodness there are some great love songs and some really corny ones.

So in the months since my last blog life has been going along steadily and during that time I've been attempting to edit my manuscript that has been requested by Desire. I've also been writing my new medical story for the request I got at conference. You get so attached to your work that you make excuses for why you badly want something to work. Well for me I kept getting told that my medical was a lot better and more enjoyable than my Desire. I used the excuse that my hero in the medical wasn't Alpha. But it wasn't washing. Who wants to discard over 30,000 words as useless!

At the beginning of the year I thought perhaps it was time to listen to my crit group, maybe they were onto something. So I decided to submit a brand new chapter instead of trying to edit old, old, old work and if they didn't like it well then it was my characters not my writing. Well what can I say I think it turned out to be the best idea ever. By the end of the first week of February I had re-written 3/4's of the book and finished it!

I had fallen in love with my characters again. And if felt fabulous.

The words flowed out of me and I think this is their story not the story I had written 5 years ago. I also think it's a better story.

So now it's a matter of editting the new 7 chapters and then taking the plunge and sending it out. I also plan to finish my medical by the end of March.

I've got a renewed spirit with regards to my writing and am loving the whole process again. Simply because I fell in love again.....

JN

Friends

So it's Friday night, DH has gone away, what's the perfect thing to do - watch a chick flick of course. I'd bought 'Sex and the City' Movie last night. I'll admit I didn't really get into it until late in the last series. I loved it and wished I had a group of girlfriends like that. Ones that will support you in the highs and lows of your life.

So I'll admit and say I cried most of the movie. There were so many touching scenes and made me wish for that group of girls that I could rely on. It's also like the TV series 'Friends' the dynamic the group generates. The sad thing is, it's probably not real, it's all staged and written by clever writers and then transferred brilliantly to screen. Having said that I'm sure there are groups like that out there - well I'm going to believe that there are :)

Imagine knowing that all you had to do was call and within a short space of time your support network is there, helping, listening, laughing and crying with you.

I know I do have the Wink Girls that will be there to share the highs and lows with me. We've just had a brilliant high with one of the girls selling her first book. Congratulations Loretta! Can I say that I'm super happy and I'm super jealous as well, I wanted to be the first to sell - doesn't everyone. LOL Guess I have to submit more for that to happen. :) But I am happy for Loretta and know that it's the first of many from our group. The time has come for the Wink Girls to celebrate!

Well the editting and writing is not getting done and if I'm to be the next one to sell then I need to get my butt into gear and get my work in the post!

JN

Me so bad!

I should have blogged long ago I promised myself I'd be more punctual but you know life just gives you stuff that you have to deal with.

I had some exciting news the other week. I received a letter in the mail from Diana of Desire. She has asked to see the full manuscript of the story I pitched to her online! I squealed the news down the phone to my DH. I'm still not sure what he made of it all :)

So now I'm in edit mode, whilst still working on the submission to HM&B for the Medical I pitched at conference. I want these babies to sparkle so I'm not rushing. Only thing is I have changed some plot points so I need to do a bit of rewriting - but that's okay because my writing has improved so much.

I'm now wishing for more hours in the day, a big lottery win so I don't have to work and can spend my days at home writing and the evenings with the hubby and kids. It's a dream I know but hey, life would be boring if we didn't have dreams.

My dream of becoming published is a little closer - well being asked for a full is huge when you think about the fact that this time last year I'd done no submitting at all!

Well back to the real job.

JN

So what's new

Well I thought I'd post while I was away at conference but I swear time went by so fast and I was so busy that I wasn't able to catch up with people that I wanted to!

Conference was such a buzz. There were 6 of us Wink Girls at the conference. A really good number for a WA group. Actually I think WA was represented really well this year. I was bandying around the idea of having a conference in Perth. There seemed to be a positive response from some authors and other attendees. We will have to a proposal forward and see how it goes down, but just say we will give it a great go to get the conference over here.

I was still deciding whether or not I wanted to pitch my story to HM&B. I thought it was an opportunity that I won't get again for probably another year so I should just do it. Well lets just say the pressure was mounting! The reason the pressure was mounting is this.

Our group had a total of 10 pitches. Some of the girls were fortunate enough to have two pitches to two different publishers. I only had one as that's all I wanted to do. Well anyway at afternoon tea on the Saturday 6 of the 10 pitches had been completed and there were 6 requests. I was pitch number 7. Can I just tell you I was panicking. What if I was the only one that didn't get a request? Sure I was in two minds before I landed in Melbourne but once I was there, of course, I wanted a request!

Anyway my time came and at the end of my 5 minutes I had in my hand a business card which I had to attach to my partial and synopsis. Was I on a high? You bet I was. Anyway by 10am Sunday all 10 pitches were completed and the total number of requests ...... 10!

It was a wonderful outcome and one I'm not sure we can't top but lets just say our little group is going to be extremely busy over the next couple of months.

So now I'm busy re-working my 3 chapters after my discussion with the editor and then I'll do some deep editing and send out to the girls then off to the editor. Goal is to have it out by the beginning of November which means I have a lot of work to do.

I'm also going to enter a synopsis contest and also look at another proposal for a Desire project.

It's an exciting time and I just have to get rid of the procrastinating voice in my brain.

Hope everyone who reads my blog is happy and healthy.

JN