Tardy Behaviour

As of late, my blog entries have been a little lax, but I promise, I have had a good excuse.

The last month has been full of deadlines for university essays, final assignments, exam revision, work, manuscript edits and, in between, jotting down any ideas I may have for new and exciting new stories (they always, always crop up at the most inconvenient times!).

As of today I am three or four essays down, have one end of course assignment done and I only have one exam left. However, I do still have a whole manuscript to edit once more (this time in a very self conscious, technical kind of way), and I do have another novel to write.

I am on the final leg... yes, the final leg. ONE MORE EXAM! Can I hear a "whoop!" "whoop!". Yes. The exam is only a stone throw away and once I am done, I am grabbing that printed-out-manuscript and I am editing like you've never seen before! Bring on the grammar checks, the continuity checks, the line edits - you name it.

This will be my reward to myself.

And the reward for the edits? Getting to write that shiny new novel that is just bouncing around in my head as fragments of ideas and scenes. And I will probably also crack open several shiny new novels to read. Eek! Cannot wait!

This. Is. The. Life.

Loving it!

How do you guys reward yourselves? How do you keep motivated to do the regular stuff when the novel is calling? Tips please! :D

YA Writers are the nicest people!

I think that it should be universally known that YA authors are the NICEST people around. Not only will they chat to you about things like author photos, facebook likes and dislikes, twitter fun and the likes, but they will actually offer amazing support during difficult times (say, during the query process).

Lia Keyes is one such author, repped by Laura Rennert. I found her website, (see here and here, it's so much fun to navigate, people!) and thought that she looked like an approachable, interesting woman. So I added her on facebook. Not only has she been very friendly, but she is engaging, intriguing, honest, open and above all - happy. Happy faces are ones we like to see =D

So what is it about writing YA novels that makes us so chirpy and wonderful? Well, lets see... we get to write about whatever our hearts fancy; new worlds, interesting cultures, internal conflicts, intriguing characters—we get to play the match maker *swoon*. And, when we are blessed, we get paid for it. (Not yet, by the way). So while we devote many, many hours to our computer screens, we are actually in worlds we have created. We are all craftsmen/women.

We are all linked through our hermit-like periods, and we UNDERSTAND how hard it can be. How many tears, how much laughter, and how much SOUL is put into this.

So this brief blog is to say THANK YOU to all the wonderful YA authors I've met who make the world so much more intriguing to me.

Thank you.