Where, oh where is Running Scared?

Where, oh where is Running Scared? Nobody knows. Not the publisher, the distributors, the book shop owners, nobody. I've got my author copies now, so I'm reasonably convinced that it does actually exist. But, today I had an email, can't get any copies for the RWA Conference.

Sigh.

The gals tried everything to get copies for my party, but they were being told as late as September/October. Amazon is now telling people it'll ship in 4 to 6 weeks. Its a bit frustrating as I still can't schedule my author signing day, and everyone is so keen to read it.

Thank You

It has taken me a long time to write this post. There have been many attempts each worse than the last. But I felt it was important to write this before I went on and wrote anything else, in case the people concerned worry that I've overlooked them.

They had a party you see, for me. For months and months completely without my knowledge and in cahoots with hubby they plotted and planned a surprise party to celebrate the release of Running Scared.

Margo, Alison, Jackie, Ann, Diana, Megan, Linda, Jill, Naomi and Lyndel, words cannot express how touched and appreciative I am of your support, interest and enthusiasm for my writing, and also everything else that goes on in my hurly burly life. All of you are my soft place to land when life, children and the rest becomes overwhelming. I consider myself so fortunate to have so many spectacular women, with such a depth of experience and compassion, who I am able to call friend.

There, now that doesn't read too badly! I wanted to make sure people understood how touched I am (and I mean touched as in appreciative, not touched in the head!), but other attempts, dear oh deary me. They all ended up sounding like I have no friends, nobody likes me, my parents hate me, or what few friends I have don't like me... It just didn't come together. But now it has!

Slowly running out of patience...

Presently locked in battle of wills with small screamy person. Alas it appears she is winning. So, to distract self from enraged howls am blogging.

Sigh.

I'm sick (sore throat again), Beanie baby is sick (temperature) and Bugalugs is at that horrible stage when she's been sick, is now feeling a bit better and is inflicting her crabby temper on the rest of the household.

I'd have laughed bk (before kids) if you'd told me that babies could swear at you in gobbledegook, but they can. Miss Bugalugs is quite the expert. Right now she's in her cot turning the air blue with expletives, all aimed at her cruel mother who is merely trying to get a pair of trousers on her so that she doesn't freeze. She, apparently doesn't see things quite this way. I am, in fact, inflicting on her that bane of society, clothes, and in the process having no respect for her wishes or in fact her identity as an individual.

Yes, I am a bad, bad mother.

SIGH.

They're here! They're here!

Finally I have the evidence that I've actually managed to write a book. My author copies arrived today! They're very beautiful. I've already got to send half of them out to various competition winners, and have to say that today, am feeling a wee bit churlish about letting any of my babies out of my sight! Normally I love to give stuff away, but I've got the feeling its going to take me a couple of days.

Hubby is thrilled as well, and has read the dedication to all of those he has spoken to on the phone since he got home - sorry about that...

This is what it says:

With thanks to Nic. For your unwavering support, for the little sacrifices you make every day and for all those cups of tea.

Am rather chuffed with self!

Guest Blogging at Samhain

I'm guest blogging over at the Samhain website today.

Read the full story of how Running Scared came into being at http://samhainpublishing.com/blog/

Why, oh why, oh why...

Sometimes I read back over the contents of this blog and wonder why, oh why did I write that! Most of the time I don't, but take last Tuesdays post, Fang You Berry Much. Why did I call it that? I don't know. I really truely don't. I often blog when I'm tired, very very tired, so that may be a reason. I suffer a lot from 'it seemed to be a good idea at the time.'

Bit like the photo!

And no it isn't Hubby - despite what he's telling people.

sigh.

Running Scared launch

Its been a busy week. The launch of Running Scared was something of an anti-climax, I'm not sure what I was expecting, but a pathetic note from Amazon to my parents telling them that the book release had been delayed was about the highlight. In actual fact Amazon are just slow to get the books in. It always takes a month or so after the release date for the book to make it from the printer to the shop shelves.

I suppose releasing a book is a bit like having a baby, to you its a wonderful, miraculous occurance that changes your life, but to everyone else its a bit of an every day thing.

The Newsletter

Of course my first newsletter went around on the 17th. Am amazed at the great response to it! I did my prize draw, and am just waiting on my author copies of Running Scared to arrive before I post them off. I got a note from a courier company saying they'd tried to deliver a package whilst I was at work and now am beside myself with curiosity. Was it my books? Or was is just something really boring - like a computer part that Hubby has ordered and forgotten about. Have to wait until next week to find out now.

Dammit.

Guest Blogging and Diplomat's Bidding

Aside from that there's been a swathe of guest blogging going on, I'll let you know when I go up and where, and I've finished Diplomat's Bidding. Once and for all, edits done, no more time spent on it. Shall now just have to wait and see how my pitch goes at the Conference in August. Mum and Hubby have been giving it a proof read for me and so far they like it. I am rather proud of it, but still not sure I've hit the right Mills and Boon note. Well. We shall see.

That photo isn't hubby either. Its Andrew McCubbin, my Diplomat's Bidding hero.

What next!

High Speed is next on the list. Back to where I was two months ago. The pressure is on. I've given myself a deadline of 1 November, but, now there is an agenty type person intersted in it, so the sooner its finished the better. Phew! Can I do another 50,000 words in two months? Hmm, well not if I want to stay married! Still, I'll give it a try. Keep an eye on my word counter to see how I'm doing.

Like I'm not going to be moaning about it on my blog - HAH!

Fang You Berry Much!

This is it, here I am. I've done it. Become a published author. Who'd have thunk it? Not me that's for certain.

Despite my upbeat tone, I have to say I'm feeling a wee bit sentimental about the whole business. Thus I'm going to get all soppy and thank everyone from the fellow at the pizza place, who fed my family whilst I was editing, to my original editor who quit the day after she signed me - without you, person I emailed only twice, my life would probably be a whole different story.

See, said it was going to be bad. Best skip down now and read about the vege garden. My hankering for lettuces is going to be a lot easier to read!

How things have changed...
Me now: swish laptop, published author, mother of two.
Me last year: hunched over 40kg, 1,000 year old laptop with small bub clutched to breast.
Me year before: staring bemusedly at tiny screen of a notepad, circa 1981, trying not to be sick and cursing being pregnant.

First and foremost thanks go to Hubby, Beanie-baby and Bugalugs. Hubby especially. Without his support none of this would've happened.
Thanks as well go to all the girls at Mother's group. Awesome chicks everyone of them. Without them loving my emails and telling me so I'd never have written the book. Really I wouldn't have. You guys are the best.
Thanks to the rest of my family, for their bemused support. I am as surprised as you!
Thanks especially go to Rach! the first person to read my e-book and tell me she thought it was great. That meant more than any review! Thanks also to her for all her support since.
Thanks to Emma and Brian at work. Your enthusiasm and support, and willingness to listen when I need to download about, well about everything, is so very important to me.
Thanks to the incredibly patient Linda, my editor at Samhain. Running Scared needed much work, as I'd made every mistake imaginable! No sentence was left uncorrected. I look forward to future ventures together.
Thanks to the wunnerful gals at Romance Writers of Australia, from the wise advice of long published authors to the heartening enthusiasm of those yet to get there, you all made the journey easier.
Thanks to all the other Samhain Publishing authors, always ready to share advice on any topic you care to mention, from marketing to purple prose.

There. Now. Is that everyone?

No, of course not. How could I forget all the lovely readers, the people who buy my book and I never get to meet. Thank you for buying my book. I hope you enjoy it. Please, if you get a chance, join my newsletter group, I'd love to send you a prize!

Bastille Day - 14 July

Now you all know I do love a bit of a culinary celebration. Saints days, national days, festivals, I adore to celebrate Thanksgiving, Hogmany, St Patricks day etc, with food from the various countries. Who could forget my easter feast, based on Scandinavian traditions and including baked ham and herrings - certainly not my husband.

So imagine my dissapointment when I realised I'd missed Bastille Day. Now I once had ambitions to be a chef, and the cooking training I had was french, so I am doubly ashamed. We've all got The Cough you see and cooking has been pretty basic, in fact, on a bit of a health kick I'd tofu scheduled for tonight. Poor hubby. Alas at the moment I'm car-less. Yes the sodding Alfa has died once again. So there'll be no trips to the supermarket, to pick up a bottle of wine and use it to slow cook chicken in a rich buttery sauce. Oh no. Tofu it will be.

Hubby will be quite devastated when he reads this! He, he, he.

Vege garden update...

Now I know its been ages and ages since I whittered on about how the vegies are doing. This is because they've been sorely neglected. Its winter here, and though in Sydney it doesn't get cold enough to stop things growing in winter it sure slows them down a bit.

Nevertheless I have been harvesting celery, and my onions are slowly progressing. I've got a couple of tomato seedlings struggling away, the slugs got them and they survived, then the dog dug them up and they survived and then bugalugs stamped on them and they're still going! The most persistent tomatos ever!

Today the kids have been helping me plant potatoes. You see instead of showing off and growing things like eggplants, where I end up with about a hundred and don't know what to do with them, I'm going to grow things we eat a lot of, like potatoes. I haven't grown them before so feel am venturing into a brave new world. Hmm.

But what I really want to grow is lettuce. I hate buying it from the supermarket, its always so sad and limp. Yes, I can feel an afternoon of lettuce planting coming upon me.

Excellent.

Overwhelmed.

I've had a huge response to my yahoo newsletter group. Can't believe it. So far I've got 77 members. Wow! SEVENTY-SEVEN! I really thought the only people who signed up would be hubby and mum!

Anyway, I appreciate everyone's support.

Now I take my prizes very seriously. I've promised prizes and will deliver. I've put some photos of the jewellery, so that lucky winners can choose the necklaces they'd like. I'm a shocker of a photographer. Me? I write. Am not talented behind the lens. No siree.

The first draw will be on Tuesday - the day Running Scared is released in print.

The winners will be picked by random number generator, based on the order in which they signed up. I tested it this morning, hubby came first, I came second and Mum came third - no really, I'm not joking. If that happens again I'll just drop down the list to the next number. Hubby is not interested in necklaces, and if I have to read Running Scared once more my head will explode .(I mean its a great great story and all, but do you KNOW what I went through to edit it, do you KNOW how many times I read it, a million, at least a million - am quite fatigued just thinking about it).

Running Scared Book Launch

Update: Still waiting to set a date. If the books aren't shipped soon the launch will be pushed back to mid-August.

Thanks to everyone who has joined my yahoo group. My first newsletter will be coming around once I have the launch date.

Catch-up - Swimming, birthdays and the Wiggles

Its been a really busy few days. For starters Beanie had her first swimming lesson. She's old enough now that she can go in the pool by herself. So I joined the line of parents on the side of the pool and watched as she strode confidently towards the water, took one look at the instructor and legged-it out the door!

Sigh.

After some persuasion I lured her back, only to have her run-away again at the sight of the instructors. Now usually she's not one for running away, so I took a really good look at the pool, tried to see it through her eyes. I realised that the instructors looked a lot like floating heads, with no bodies. So I persuaded her back to the pool again and got one of them to show her his legs.

Worked a treat.

Comprehension dawned, and without hesitating any further she had her lesson and was blowing bubbles like a pro by the end of it.

THEN

On Sunday we had a birthday party at a friends. I knew that both my children had a large capacity for sweet things, but OMG. Have to say I was almost proud when Beanie rejected one slice of cake in favour of another, larger, one, then collected her spoon, sat herself at a table away from the other kids and ate the entire thing. Followed it up with her own body-weight in lollies and fizzy drink, and then spent the next twenty minutes bouncing on the trampoline.

THEN

On Monday it was Beanie's birthday. Now usually at this point I give a detailed description of The Birth, however, finally, I think I'm over it. Long, hard and forceps involved. That's about all I have the energy to remember.

Yesterday though was a good day. The Wiggles in the morning - now I love the Wiggles, but I have to say they're getting a bit long in the tooth. Is it just me or is Murray wearing a dodgy wig? And Anthony and Jeff are both going grey. Sam, the new Wiggle, looks about a hundred years younger. I reckon its time for the oldies to hang up their outfits and let a new lot start Wiggling.

Then in the afternoon, more cake and one very happy little girl. Her favorite pressy is her new scooter, and the house has been turned into a race track. Beanie on the scooter and Bugalugs on her bee (yes a bee, its on wheels), as we've got wood floors they can get quite a good speed up.

Sigh.

Setting the world on fire - well the vacuum cleaner.

Don't get me wrong, my husband is absolutely the best. Without his support and willingness to look after the kids, share the cleaning and all the other chores I wouldn't be able to write.

However, sometimes he does man-things.

By man-things I don't mean weeing standing up, finding interesting things to say about cars, or shaving faces.

But things that make perfect, logical sense, though in their execution go horribly, terribly wrong.

This was our house a couple of days ago.

Hubby was zipping around the lounge room with the vacuum cleaner, doing an outstanding job with the carpets, when his gaze rested on the wood-burning stove in the corner. It was out, hadn't been lit since the day before. We'd discussed that it needed the ash clearing out and he had an idea, so good, so completely brilliant, that, without thinking twice he opened the door and shoved the end of the vacuum into the dead ashes.

Only they weren't so dead.

Within seconds there was smoke pouring out of the vacuum.

Yes. We found out the hard way that if you put warm embers in a vacuum bag filled with dust and air rushing past you can have a cheery blaze in a matter of moments.

Sigh.

The Caitlyn Nicholas Newsletter

I love putting The in front of my name. Makes me feel a bit, you know, regal.

Okay, am very tired.

Newsletter. On Yahoogroups. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/caitlynnicholas/. Have just finished sorting it out, and now people can join. Those of you who I know and love will be press-ganged into joining so don't stay up all night worrying about setting yourselves up a Yahoo account.

I am bribing people to remember me with prize draws every couple of months. Cool prizes. Amazon gift certificates, books and so on.

Am also keen to let people know I won't be inundating them with newsletters. Frankly I couldn't be bothered, the website, this blog, oh and actually writing books, keep me more than occupied without putting together more drivel to email to people.

Not that what I write is drivel.

Okay, I said I was tired.

Front Page Girl on Coffee Time Romance

I'm up on the front page of Coffee Time Romance!