The fabulous Sara Foster, author of Come Back to Me, Beneath the Shadows and most recently, Shallow Breath, recently tagged me in the Next Big Thing book meme – so here goes:

1. What is the working title of your current/next book?

I am working on a couple but the most advanced is Friday’s Fortunate Life.

2. Where did the idea come from?

I have a couple of girlfriends who are newly single and dipping their toes (and bodies) into the online dating scene. It seems a hot topic so I thought ‘why not do my own research and write about it.’ It’s been a lot of fun. Oh, and when I say ‘my own research’ I mean I have been interviewing women (and men) who have ventured into online dating. Phew.

3. What genre does your book fall under?

Chick-lit; women’s contemporary fiction; plain old fiction. Take your pick!

4. What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

Friday – Isla Fisher;

Friday’s husband – Richard Roxburgh (but he’d have to grow his hair) or Ben Mendelsohn – he’d also have to get his hair more mussed up and shaggy!

5.What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Newly separated Friday Jones rediscovers her passion for life when several suitors compete for her affection and attention and she suddenly goes from sad to sexy. (At least I think that’s what it’s about!)

6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I hope it will be published by Allen & Unwin, who have published my four previous books.

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft?

About nine months!

8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Friday’s Fortunate Life has a similar humorous tone to my other books…Friday is written from a first person POV whilst the secondary characters’ stories are told via third person POV. The light sub-plots are balanced by serious topics surrounding split families, raising teenagers and finding our authentic selves.

9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?

My girlfriends, advertisements for RSVP.com and eharmony! I am very curious.

10. What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?

Hopefully there are plenty of surprises along the way. For example, Friday’s best friend runs a divorce party business. Those scenes were great fun researching and writing. Friday’s Fortunate Life has a lot of humour (I hope) but also examines what it is like to be an older single  it’s complicated parent in the always changing twenty-first century.

That’s me done. Keep an eye on the flowing authors who I’ve tagged to talk about their Next Big Thing!

Dr Anita Heiss, www.anitaheiss.com/

Lisa Walker www.lisawalker.com.au/

And Fleur McDonald fleurmcdonald.com/blog

In the meantime, you can read lots more about Sara and her awesome books at www.sarafoster.com.au/

Escape Publishing, the digital-first imprint of Harlequin Australia, launched on November 14 and I was lucky enough to be invited to the party!

Here I am with the very lovely Juliet madison.

And here with equally fabulous Anna Maguire!

It was a great event and I got to chat with launch authors including Keziah Hill (Chains of Revenge) and Rhian Cahill (Christmas Wishes).

According to the Escape website  http://www.escapepublishing.com.au/about

Escape’s mission is to “connect readers all around the world with the stories they want to read. We love romance, all romance, so when we imagined Escape Publishing, we imagined an imprint without restrictions, where romance readers can find the romance they want, in the style they want, at the length they want, whenever they want. In short, you want it – we’ve got it.

“If it’s science fiction, fantasy, contemporary, historical, erotic, gay romance, inspirational romance, urban fantasy, paranormal, or YA romance – or any mixture of the above, Escape Publishing’s got it. We offer all levels of sensuality from the sweetest kisses to the hottest encounters. We offer different lengths, from short stories through novellas to full length novels. Our novels are standalone, loosely connected, or part of an ongoing series.”

What makes Escape different from other digital-first publishers is the focus on Australian romance – Australian voices, characters, settings, and stories! And while keen to build an Australian presence in the international romance world, Escape is happy to accept submissions from international authors and settings outside of Australia.

Sounds  quite fabulous, hey?

Escape is publishing anything from 5000 words to 250 000 words, so budding authors should check out the website: www.escapepublishing.com.au.

What are you waiting for?

Say it’s Not True!

We are almost half way through November which means all those NaNoWriMo –ers out there should be approaching the 25,000 mark.

Excuse me? 25,000?

Sadly, that’s not the case with me. I’ll admit my month started off slowly because I attended fanatabulous GenreCon http://www.genrecon.com.au/ where I got to hang out with talented authors like Kim Wilkins, Anna Campbell, Helene Young, Christina Brooke and P.M.Newton,  and talk books and writing.

I also participated in The Great Debate: Plotters Vs Pantsers. Team Plotter featuring Kim Wilkins, L.A. Larkin and Narrelle Harris had done their homework and were prepared, as well they should have been, being plotters and all. As for Team Pantser (Anna Campbell, Daniel O’Malley and moi) – let’s just say we should have spent less time drinking at the bar, believing we could ‘wing it’ and more time actually coming up with complete and coherent sentences.

It was hilarious – and the absolute highlight? Daniel kissing our stunned moderator, the lovely Kate Eltham.

So anyway, after faffing around for a few days at GenreCon, I finally sat down at my computer determined to get on with NaNoWriMo and Lily’s Little Flower Shoppe.

To date I have written 13,000. Not a stellar performance.

So what’s the problem?  As noted above, I’m a pantser.  I never know how my plots are going to advance or what my characters are going to do until I’m actually there with them writing their scenes. But at the moment I seemed to be trapped by a fear of moving forward. I have NaNoWriMo performance anxiety.

I’m caught up in the whole I can’t do this because I don’t know what happens next scenario…and anyway it’s all going to be crap so why bother? I know that all this dining out on negative self talk only leads to a downward spiral so I have to pull myself out of it and get on with it. (Also my professional reputation is at stake! I don’t want to fail at pantsing and prove those plotters right.)

Okay, I guess I could give up. Who’s looking my way, anyway? But I really don’t want to.

So yesterday, I took myself off to my friend’s gorgeous flower shop in the Blue Mountains and drilled her ad-nauseam for information. It was fascinating  - the revelations about funeral flowers, Valentine’s Day disasters and cheating husbands, alone could fill a book – and now, I feel truly inspired to write Lily’s story – whatever that may be.

I just have to shut up all the nay-saying voices in my head and let the characters speak for themselves –

So, for all the NaNoWriMo ers out there struggling to achieve their daily word count, here’s my ten cents worth:

Assuming you have no other pressing issues: child rearing, grocery shopping, dog walking, earning a living, etc, make yourself stay at the computer until you’ve written 500 or a 1000 words. Then reward yourself with a treat: chocolate, a walk in the park, a vat of vodka etc. I’m encouraging myself, (bribing, in other words) with an ‘okay once you’ve written a thousand words you can watch The Real Housewives (I didn’t say my rewards were particularly intellectual but you get the idea).

Reward yourself with whatever works for you, just as long as you keep WRITING.

There’s another two full weeks of NaNoWriMo. It’s not too late to give it a go!

*PS This 558 words is being added to my word count for the day!

People who know me have heard me bang on about NaNoWriMo in years gone by…well, it’s that time of year…again!

For those of you not familiar, NaNoWriMo (www.nanowrimo.org)  is national book writing month and the aim? To write a 50,000 word novel from scratch starting November 1.

To achieve said 50,000 words, you really do need to drop everything else – the occasional shower and bathroom break is acceptable, as is stopping every so often for food (and to watch Homeland and The Newsroom but that’s it!) (And a dirty martini)

1667 words a day?

Yes! November becomes an all consuming word count – 1667 words per day, 70 words per hour, 24 hours a day, for 30 days.

This year, in preparation, I have a title – Lily’s Little Flower Shoppe – Woo Hoo!

I am assuming the story is about a woman, Lily, who owns a flower shop and all that owning/working in a flower shop entails:

* Preparing bouquets for loved ones, dead ones and far away ones…

* Is there romance?

* Is the Lilster running away from someone?

* Why a flower shop?

* Who the f^*k knows?

But come November first, I’ll become consumed by ‘what ifs’… obsessing about my new characters. Who are these people? Does Lily, in fact, have any friends? Enemies? Frenemies?

I have no idea!

And I’m not kidding myself that I’ll wake up every November morning loving the fact that I have a word count to achieve and making myself sit at the computer until it’s done, but I’ll give it my best shot.

Why NaNo works for me…

Because I’m forced to write. I’m not disciplined like other writerly friends who plan their stories on white boards and take copious character and plot notes. These geniuses write their entire novel in their head before they’ve committed one word to their MacBook Pro. I admire these people, but I’m not one of them.

I have no idea how Lily’s story will end but I’m looking forward to it unfolding.

Tips for a successful NaNoWriMo?

1. It’s okay to be totally bewildered and have no idea what you are writing about. That’s me, most of the time.

2. You don’t need to cast aside huge blocks of time to write. I used to think I needed at least two un interrupted hours to write so that my scenes would flow. I had to get over myself very quickly. In the past, NaNoWriMo has forced me to write whenever I got the opportunity. Fifteen minutes before breakfast, half an hour in between other jobs or idling in the car line waiting to pick the kids up from school. Now days, I jot down notes whenever I get a few spare moments. It’s okay to write in short bursts!

3. Tell family and friends you’re doing NaNoWriMo. If nothing else, you’ll be shamed into producing a few thousand words, lest you look like a complete failure. During the lean writing times when you’re staring out the window, fantasising about your summer holidays, pride and humiliation will keep you going.

4. NaNoWriMo is all about the words. Get them down and keep moving forward. Throw fear and self-doubt aside and keep slogging away towards your end goal, i.e. the beginning of a brand new manuscript!

5. You WILL get frustrated. And cranky…and hate everyone. Or is that just me? No! You’ll want to run away from your real life to focus on NaNo. Here’s the thing: Unless you’re…well let’s face it…not you…you won’t be able to. Deal with it. Write when you can, even if it’s at 2am. Not that I recommend that. The words I’ve written at 2 am? Not a hope in Hades that I can decipher them the next day .

6. Restrain yourself from re-reading, editing and deleting – do that in December when you’re avoiding family togethers where babies, toddlers, teenagers and short-tempered aunts are present. (Ditto for office parties with dubious workmates.)

7. Write through the highs and lows – the times when your head is exploding with new ideas and the times when you’ve got absolutely nothing to work with.

8. Don’t give up! If writing is your passion, stick with it. Even if you only write 20,000 words in November, it’s 20,000 more than you had at the start of the month.

Finally:

DON’T BEAT YOURSELF UP BUT GIVE IT YOUR BEST SHOT!

Good luck. xx

Recently, I had the pleasure of being invited to the Sydney Writers’ Centre’s seventh birthday, run by the extraordinarily generous Valerie Khoo.

It was a fabulous day, held at the American Club…

American Club!

Stunning views…

And the room was filled with entertaining and inspiring writers including Allison Tait, Kerri Sackville and Kate Forsyth.

Kerri, me and Allison!

We were each presented with our own personalised mug…which I adore but am too afraid to use because I am clumsy and don’t want to risk breaking it. Instead, it is sitting on my desk as a reminder of the great day.

My priceless mug!

I could spend every Friday doing this lunching gig…although I was a tad hung over on Saturday and I did lose my phone. Such is life…

By the way, my next Write a chick-lit novel weekend course will be held on October 20^th and 21^st. You can read all about it here:

http://www.sydneywriterscentre.com.au/chick-lit.htm

Sydney author, Justin Sheedy, and I met in May at the Gloucester Writers’ Festival and hit it off immediately. I particularly like his wicked sense of humour and am thrilled that Justin has taken time out to chat about his latest novel, Nor the Years Condemn.

Lisa: Thanks for popping by, Justin. Tell us about the writing of Nor the Years Condemn.

Justin: Writing is a world of creativity, hard work and fear. When I was writing Nor the Years Condemn I feared, given its subject matter, that it might be considered a “boys’ book”:

It’s an historical fiction based on the true story of the young Australians who flew Spitfires against Nazi Germany in World War II. So it’s to my huge relief that this story of shining young men has proven a story with profound appeal for female readers. And the young men on whom my story is based really were the “shining ones”; to fly the iconic Spitfire they could be nothing less. And what do you get when you write about how the “best & brightest” of a generation ironically picked one of the fastest ways to die of the War? You get a heart-rending read.

My story’s main character is 20-year-old Sydney law student and rugby star, Daniel Quinn. Flanked by the often hilarious young men of his elite ilk, he leaves his peacetime life behind to fight tyranny in my portrait of doomed, brilliant youth. I’m passionate to tell their story as it’s Our story – a story in our great Anzac tradition though which remains untold and which is so exciting, so tragic, in a word so dramatic as to defy belief. Yet it’s true.

Lisa:    When you were writing Nor the Years Condemn, what was your inspiration? Your hope for the story?

Justin:  My hope with Nor the Years Condemn is to bring to life this stunning chapter of our history by putting readers “in-the-cockpit” with white-knuckle flying sequences based on the things that young Australians actually DID. But more than that.

Nor the Years Condemn is equally a portrait of the mothers cursed to relinquish their wonderful sons to war, of first love, of strategic deception and betrayal, of brotherhood and once-in-a-lifetime friendship on a knife’s edge. As per the title, it’s a story of shining young men destined never to become old, and of those who do: the survivors ‘condemned by the years’, and to their memory of friends who remain forever young.

Lisa: Kathy Mexted, Australian pilot, media presenter, journalist and mother, recently reviewed Nor the Years Condemn. As she began to read it, her own son had just applied for the modern-day Royal Australian Air Force. Kathy writes…

“I scrolled through the first couple of chapters and dissolved into tears when I got to the part about the recently graduated RAAF pilot arriving home for Christmas and greeting his mother. ‘…and in that instant she knew she had lost her Danny.’”

Getting anyone to cry, especially a reviewer, is a huge endorsement.

Justin: I’m delighted that Kathy enjoyed what she calls my story’s “strong female characters”, particularly Daniel Quinn’s mother, a figure I was adamant to include as for every shining young man who flew a Spitfire there was a mother who had to let him go.

I also feature Daniel’s (first) girlfriends, both dominant characters within the story in ways that expose the underlying nature of war itself and its true “pawns”. The sexual aspects of the story also serve to highlight the extreme young age of its key characters, many of whom must go to war, tragically, without ever losing their virginity. Indeed, I intend the story’s sexual angles to highlight what its young characters SHOULD have been doing instead of going to war. (Those with a penchant for a degree of raunch should appreciate my based-on-fact portrait of “life’s-too-short” wartime England.) Though one of my personal favourite characters within the story is Virginie Piquot, a French girl in her early teens whose character serves to portray the nature of injustice, resistance against it, and the plight of the innocent victims of war.

Lisa:    There really is something for everyone in your novel.

Justin: I hope so. Nor the Years Condemn is a story of the magic of flight and, in addition to Kathy Mexted’s quite emotional response to it, she calls it “informative, entertaining and fast”, describing it as “moving along like a film”. Her verdict? “What a ripper!”

Lisa:    And reader reviews have been positive too, again, not just from male readers but women too?

Justin:            Yes, I had one from Rochelle Lancaster, Melbourne who wrote: “Not only for the boys, everyone will take something away from this. Could definitely see this made into a miniseries or movie… very hard to put down.”

Lisa: Though Nor the Years Condemn is an ‘Australian story’, it has also been well-received by international readers too:

Some of the reviews:

Celia Byrnes from Iowa, USA, calls it “A gripping story of war, love, loss and survival.”

Denise Boneham from the UK writes: “I laughed and cried” and pleads for the Sequel.

Lisa:    is there a sequel in the works?

Justin: Yes, I am currently working on it!

Lisa:    Great to hear.

We’ll let Stephanie Speakman of Cape Cod, USA have the last words: “A war story, a love story and, above all, an historically correct, beautifully crafted novel. The darkest days of 1943 are resurrected by the memorable characters as the plot moves from Sydney to London and the skies above. Five stars!”

All I can say is THANKS, girls. Especially to Lisa Heidke. Who is fabulous.
– Justin Sheedy, July 2012.

Lisa: Thanks Justin!

Nor the Years Condemn is now available at Dymocks, George St, Sydney, also as a print-on-demand paperback at Amazon and in all ebook formats at Smashwords. See all reviews mentioned plus many more at Amazon and at Justin’s blog, Crackernight.com.

A couple of days ago the lovely Jenn J McLeod tagged me, daring me to take part in “The Lucky Seven”.

The challenge: Post seven lines from an unpublished work of fiction.

How could I refuse?

It freaks me out having to debut lines from an unpublished piece of writing because I am a complete and utter scaredy cat but here goes.

I have chosen seven lines from my new manuscript Second Shot a story about two sisters on the professional tennis circuit.

The Golden Rules of this challenge:

• Go to page 7 or 77 in your current manuscript
• Go to line 7
• Post on your blog or Facebook page the next 7 lines, or sentences, as they are – no cheating
• Tag 7 other authors to do the same

‘We lost the match in sixty-eight minutes. It was the first time in over three years we’d been thrown out of a competition first round. On top of that, I received a warning for intimidating a linesperson.

I screamed at myself.

Raged at Annie. And yes, I yelled at spectators to the point where I was almost jeered off the court. Momentarily, I wondered what it would be like to have eight thousand people booing me, instead of a vocal handful.’

So that’s me!

Now to Facebook to tag seven writer friends to do the same.

I’m thinking Fleur McDonald, Kylie Ladd, Kirsty Eagar, Paula Roe, Jess Dee, Annarosa Berman and Desney King!

One of my favourite quotes is ‘The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time unlike, say, brain surgery.’ (Robert Cormier)

I love it because it’s so true. Very rarely do writers get it right the first, second or fifth time, but there are techniques and strategies you can develop to give yourself the best chance of completing your novel and being satisfied that you have crafted the finest story you can.

I am thrilled to be teaching an Intro to Chick-Lit course at the Sydney Writers’ Centre, June 16-17. http://sydneywriterscentre.com.au/chick-lit.htm where we’ll spend the weekend discussing all things Chick-Lit including but not limited to:

• An overview of the Chick-Lit genre, examining popular elements.
• Common author characteristics and making them work for you.
• Plotter or a pantser? What works for you?
• Honing your writing voice so it is uniquely yours.
• What makes a great Chick-Lit character?
• Do characters determine plot or does plot determine character?
• Point of View. Can readers connect better to stories told in first person? Are third person stories taken more seriously?
• How do you create active readers?
• Dialogue. How to write a compelling, intriguing conversation and make sure your characters all sound different.
• Why do middles often sag?
• Writing endings that satisfy your reader.
• Editing and revising

Okay, so that’s a rather brief overview, but rest assured the sessions will be fun, informative and slightly exhausting…but it will be worth it…

Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking at the Gloucester Writers Festival with Lisa Walker discussing the topic, Chicklit does not mean dumblit. This is the gist of what I said…I think…

So what is chicklit?

If you believe the criticism, chicklit is light and unimportant, stories about shoes, shopping, champagne and sex. In other words, all fluff.

Clearly, that’s not true. In the main, these books have great emotional depth. They are about relationships, not just romantic relationships, but about women and how they relate to friends, parents, siblings, children…about the relationships, crises and circumstances that challenge us every day.

Perhaps chicklit is a lazy term used to lump everything written by and for women together. For me personally, I write about themes that interest me and hope that my readers find them interesting too.

Generally, the themes of well-written chicklit or modern women’s fiction, revolve around issues real people face every day. For example, I primarily write about women in their 30’s triumphing over adversity. My books deal with real life issues like infidelity, divorce, teenage sexuality, flagging careers and aging parents honestly, but with humour and there’s always a hopeful ending…the ending won’t be perfect because real life never is, but it’s generally hopeful.

I like to think that my characters have learned something along the way and are better placed to face the future.

Other Australian authors exploring these themes include Dianne Blacklock, Liane Moriarty, Anita Heiss, and of course Lisa Walker. We may be covering similar ground albeit with our own particular brand or style.

However, we seem to cop a beating from the critics. These novels, like novels written by men such as Nick Hornby and Nick Earls deal with similar issues…yet do we call their books ladlit or dicklit? Occasionally, I will if I’m trying to make a point, but generally, their books are just called fiction. Nick Earls gets a lot of print reviews, media coverage…mostly positive…would he get as much attention if his name was Nicola?

Maybe publishers don’t pigeonhole male writers because there’s perceived to be less of it written…or it’s classified as action or adventure …or just fiction, but never men’s fiction or romance.

Maybe it’s all about marketing, but there doesn’t seem to be an existing stigma against a book written by a male about a guy trying to deal with a messy breakup, career struggles etc where there is one against a book written by a woman dealing with similar issues.

And I’m not sure why…

How is chicklit evolving?

I believe women’s fiction and chicklit as a genre is constantly evolving. These books are now regularly dealing with meatier, weightier issues because as writers we like to push boundaries.  For example in Claudia’s Big Break, there’s a lesbian theme but my publisher was quick to play it down…I could keep the story line re two women falling in love, however, they were only allowed a couple of kisses. Perhaps the publisher believed my audience wouldn’t take to lesbian love scenes…

In my latest book, Stella Makes Good, the central plot revolves around the repercussions of a girls night out when they stumble upon a sex party and discover one of their best friend’s husband there.

However the back cover blurb for that book makes no mention of the sex party for fear of turning readers off…But as the entire narrative springs from what happens there, it is somewhat odd! The girls hit the sex party on page 16 so readers are going to find out pretty quickly.

However, I do believe that readers are demanding more from these stories: more depth, more intrigue, and more humanity. Writers are embracing and enjoying the challenge of dealing with challenging subjects within the confines of a good story, with realistic, likeable characters.

In the last couple of years we’ve seen the emergence of ‘Romantic Suspense’ headed up by authors such as Bronwyn Parry and Helene young.

We’ve also seen an explosion in a new genre: Rural- lit, farm –lit or chook-lit. These are predominantly stories about women in the outback and on farms, triumphing over adversity…Rachel Treasure, Fleur McDonald, Fiona Palmer, Nicole Alexander, Karly Lane and the list goes on…these books are selling incredibly well not just in Australia but in countries like Germany.

Where to from here?

Trends will come and go. But regardless of the label  – chicklit, henlit, farm lit – women’s contemporary fiction or plain old fiction – people will always love a good story that addresses deep, universal themes – love, loss, family, and the meaning of life. For me, writing chicklit is about keeping a balance between what I want to write, what readers want to read and what publishers believe will sell a novel.

I don’t think I’ll run out of tales because everywhere you turn, conversations are taking place. Inside every cafe and pub, bus or train, in the school yard and in the papers, relationships are falling apart, hearts are being broken while new romances are just beginning…and there’s an opportunity for a story…just waiting to be explored, written and read, especially if you’re good at eavesdropping.

I hope that when people read my books they can relate to at least a couple of the characters and that the experience brightens their afternoon.  That’s the best I can hope for!

So, no. I don’t believe chicklit is an inferior form of fiction, nor is it dumb or unimportant. The majority of it is well-written, relevant and engaging, with storylines and characters that stay with me long after I have finished the last page.

The Gloucester Writers Festival is just around the corner – May 4-6 as a matter of fact.

Lindy Dupree and The Gloucester Bookshop are delighted to invite readers and writers to a weekend of stimulating and inspirational workshops, discussions & conversations.

Workshops include a Fiction Essentials masterclass, Getting Published and The Art of the Poem.

There will also be panels on Writing for Children, Speculative Fiction, Travel Writing and the all important pitching session with publishers.

You can read all about the exciting programme here:

http://www.gloucesterwritersfestival.com/

I am thrilled to be on a panel with Lisa Walker – http://www.lisawalker.com.au/

Author of Liar Bird (Harper Collins)

Our topic:     Chicklit does not mean dumblit

It most certainly does not – Chicklit is a genre that is attracting millions of female (and male) readers around the world to buy its books and Lisa and I  will be chatting about why we believe this is so.

If you’re in the area, we’d love you to come along and join in the discussion.

In the meantime, any thoughts?