Several of my friends are getting involved in the 1 Million Kilo Challenge

It looks as if Channel 10 is behind as well as facebook

They have starting off 2012 by asking all Australians to pledge themselves healthy. More than half of all Aussie adults are overweight, so let’s "Work this down by working out.” Register your weight-loss goal individually or in groups and together let’s lose 1 Million Kilos.

Visit the 1 Million Kilo site below to get started!1 Million Kilo Challenge! www.1millionkilochallenge.com.auThe home of the 1 Million Kilo Challenge!

I stayed up very late last night but I went to bed happy having finally done the hardest part of my novel the brief parts of the book proposal to send to agents and editors.

I have my 7 word, 25 word and 150 word descriptions down pat.  Now I just need that fantastic book deal :-).


“Children begin and then try to stop an escalating culture of payback in this compelling story of treachery and love during European settlement of Australia.”

My book is called Dreaming Billabong. It is complete and consists of 100,000 words.

Dreaming Billabong fits firmly into crime genre.

Type of Book:  Crime fiction involving an inland Australian family.

 

Readers of my book would also read, The Help by Kathryn Stockett, A Painted House by John Grisham and To Kill a Mockingbird by Lee Harper.

Brief 150 word description of the plot:

            1880-81, The Peaceful inland settlement of Fife Springs erupts following a chance encounter between a naked Alan Fife and Charlotte both 10.

Following the birth of his half brother Aboriginal Australian Kanga, Alan swears vengance.

            1945s -1953’s --- Eight years in the life of Kanga’s grandson, Jarrah 13. --- Eight years punctuated by the Stolen Generation and post-WW2 European migration. Alan and Kanga are now embittered old men. Alan’s grandchildren Emily 8, her brother, Harry 14 are in danger. Alan’s son, Ian Fife, the Cattle King, wants to protect them but it is Jarrah’s cultural heritage and Emily’s innocence that combines to end the terrible culture of payback.  

            Dreaming Billabong explores big themes, and Shell chooses to tell it by showing the effects crime has on children. The result is a tough and tender novel of the struggle for justice for race and gender, and the pain of growing up.

_ The proliferation of the wattle, and the annual blaze of gold at the base and along the top of Fife Ridge, had been a mocking torment that near sent the grazier insane. His son Ian had the resilience to emerge relatively unscathed, emotionally, from a man whose mind never recovered from a trauma in his youth.

Those are words above have just been eliminated from my novel in my current editing process. Far too much telling my reader. It is much more fun for both reader and writer to show the story though actions instead of telling the story.


If you ever study writing course you will hear the words “show, don’t tell.”
Here are some tips that will help make your writing involve more showing and less telling of the story.

1. Use dialogue
Dialogue allows the reader to experience a scene as if they were there.
Don't tell your reader that Bill is angry make him say something that indicated this and kick the dirt as he says it. Let you reader hear the anger for themselves:

2. Use sensory language

Involve all six senses in your story. Let the reader see, hear, taste, smell and touch the world and the extra sensory  around them. Use language that incorporates several senses, not just sight.

3. Be descriptive

Don't use weak descriptive words like little, nice, seek out words that convey emotion. How is the hero feeling? Does unhappy say it? of is he desolate. Skip adding unnecessary words that weaken phrases. he isn't very unhappy he is inconsolable.  Being descriptive is more than just inserting a string of descriptive words. Choose the right word and know one well chosen descriptive word carries more punch than a string of descriptions. 

I'm happy i survived Super Saturday then working though til 3 am to catch up on my work. Having completed yet another edit and reduction of words in my novel-now close to 111,000 thousand words and getting more 'polished' with every edit. Pretty pleased with how it is looking at this point. Loads to be happy about here :-).

Super Saturday this week is a 'long story.'

I'll try to tell the short version.

I never volunteered for the job but I found myself yesterday with a truck load of bread that was either going to be dumped or I could distribute it to 'the needy.'
OK I did stick a weeks supply of bread in my own fridge and Reg and I ate bread for breakfast before we set out on several trips pushing a huge cardboard box in a large wheelbarrow around a rural retirement area visiting pensioners homes.  Surfice to say - it was a bigger job than I expected and my health issues made it tough going - I had just about bitten off more than I could chew - but I did it, with rests in between trips.  Both Reg and I had more than 'done enough,' by the end of the day. Then I needed to work until 3 am to complete the work I had planned to do before I found myself with a truck load of bread to deliver. 

I had a good 8 hour sleep and this morning I am eating grapes picked fresh off the farm for a 2pm breakfast which was delivered to me 'with compliments' by a neighbour I delivered bread to yesterday. I cannot describe the flavour - but it is nothing like the store bought and several day old variety. Ambrosia. Perfection,
\Oh YUM! Is this smelling the roses or what?

I am 2/3 of the way through my Dreaming Billabong manuscript doing yet another read and listen to it polish up. Removing an occasional sentence or word and occasionally inserting another. I have 2 x 300 word pitches and first chapters in publishers unsolicited submissions piles and I've made a 25 word email pitch to another.
I must be 'old and tough skinned,' writer. I LOVE getting criticism. I see it as a learning tool.

I am probably desensitized to public praise and criticism as I have been exhibiting my creativity in public now for decades not only in art galleries but outdoors in public venues on tressel tables beneath awnings attached to a whispbar roof rack

I am relaxing in the writing studio today working in a novel and plan a walk to the lake for my exercise later.
I was talking to friends today about the absolute rite-of-passage for any creative person, the rejection letter.

Every published author has had to deal with rejection. But how do you get over it?
 See:- In the writing studio today.
_

Nice plot line for a novel in this and a great story.
Gee it makes my reaction to an attempted robbery, look violent by comparison. When 2 youths approached me and told me to give them my purse or they would kick me in the teeth, I told them, 'try to take it and I'll kick you in the teeth and walked on and they stood with mouths open in shock.
I think this man acted far better than I did.
Even I was shocked at how I reacted.
A Victim Treats His Mugger Right : NPR www.npr.org
Julio Diaz ends his daily subway commute one stop early, just so he can eat at his favorite diner. One evening, his routine was broken when a teenage mugger took his wallet at knife point. But neither of them could have predicted what happened next.

Understanding this simple equation is fundamental to losing weight. It is the basis of any good  weight loss program. What you have to understand is energy in versus energy out.

Our bodies need a constant supply of energy to function. We take in the energy stored in food and drink and then our bodies convert it into our own energy through the amazing biochemistry of digestion, nutrient transportation and energy metabolism.

• If we ingest the same amount of energy as we use each day, then we are in ‘energy balance’. Our weight remains stable.
• If we ingest more energy than our bodies can use, then we have a ‘positive energy balance’. We store the excess as fat. We gain weight.
• If we burn up more energy through normal functioning and physical activity than we ingest, then we create an ‘energy deficit’. Our bodies draw upon our fat stores to provide the extra energy. We lose weight.