6/16/2013
I’m off tomorrow on my research trip for the sequel to Mr Right and Other Mongrels so this Musical Monday had an L.A and an airport theme. Here first of all a very retro classic.
I love this Michelle Shocked song but I couldn’t find the original…this will have to suffice.
I suspect my blogging might be hit and miss over the next few weeks…I’ll try and pop in whenever I can. Happy reading!
6/14/2013
This week I was talking to mum about a specific incident from my childhood which made me remember how much of a daily issue my dog phobia used to be.
It’s less of an issue now because my phobia is less acute partly because we have better leash laws in Australia than we did in the ’70’s and 80’s so one doesn’t get chased by random dogs the way one did then.
Anyway, on this particular afternoon I arrived home to see a fire truck at the end of our driveway. The house was set back from the road at the end of a long drive that was shaded by an avenue of trees. You really couldn’t see the house from the street so all I could see was a fire truck. I knew my mother an sister were home so you can imagine I was a little bit panicked. (They were fine it was just a fuse box that caught fire!)
As we reflected on the events of that afternoon my mum said she had run up the drive several times to head me off, so I wouldn’t be worried but I took forever to get home from the station. That we concluded was because I was probably bailed up by a dog and sitting on the bonnet of a car until the dog went away….just like Allegra in Mr Right and Other Mongrels.
That happened to me an awful lot. There were two routes home from the station. One had two dogs and one had one but the one dog was more vicious than either of the other two but statistics were against you if you took that path. My sister and I deliberated the route often. If I was alone I ran the gauntlet without support.
You can see how a phobia can escalate under those circumstances can’t you? (If you were scared of snakes and had to face them every day I’m not sure you’d just get over it either!)
I had coffee with an old school friend of mine who always had dogs and we were discussing this. Sometimes you think you’re memory is exaggerated but she was able to reassure me that my phobia was as bad as I remember and that I regularly had a panic attack when her dog met me at their front door (good times).
My dog phobia was pretty crippling by my twenties. When I met my husband I would only picnic in two places in Sydney because they were dog free – on a sandy beach or in a National Park.
Luckily for me improved leash laws mean I no longer get chased down suburban streets and I can move about more freely.
If you’d like to read about how Allegra deals with a similar phobia in Mr Right and Other Mongrels it is free right now
5/23/2013
This weekend (which is I have learnt Memorial Day in America) I’m involved in a wonderful book promotion with lots of wonderful authors from all over the world.
If you like chick lit, general fiction or suspense then this is a great chance to try some books by some new authors and get some great summer reads.
All the books are only 99c including two of mine Mr Right and Other Mongrels and my new release Alphabet Dating. Sale starts 24 May according to the US calendar (but mine are already 99c because it is already on sale).
5/19/2013
The weather has turned rather autumnal this weekend in Sydney.
My backyard is a sea of brown, orange and yellow leaves that make an inviting crunch when I walk to the clothesline. The wind has picked up and there is a definite chill in the air.
I’m not really an autumn and winter girl. I should be I suppose with my Celtic colouring but the truth is I prefer to feel the warm sunshine on my back than just about anything else. I seem to have cold toes from May to September and when I sit and type my hands get icy cold.
Lucky for me in just on a month I’m heading to LA on a research trip for the sequel to Mr Right and Other Mongrels.
Lots of readers want to know what happens to Teddy and Allegra next and so I’m going to write their story. I never intended to write a sequel but now that I am I’m excited about it.
So, because that’s what I’m doing today, in here’s a little California Dreamin’.
1 Comment
MaryK
5/19/2013 12:36:38 pm
California is dreaming of you, too, Monique!! Just a month to go!!
5/19/2013
I’ve done a lot of research this weekend. Honest I have.
I looked up places for my various books on Google earth. Am I the only one who feels like superman when the globe spins and I go from Sydney to Los Angeles in a matter of seconds.
I also planned aspects of my LA research trip for the as yet un-named sequel to Mr Right and Other Mongrels, that has to be research right? I mean obviously I must know what is on the menu at The Getty in LA a full month before I visit it.
I might have also done some research on Serendipity 3 in New York because that places and it’s frozen hot chocolate may feature in an upcoming book.
As a writer you do need authenticity. If you describe a real place it needs to feel real and the only way to get true credibility is to visit or visit via the inter-webs. However, it is a fine line between research and procrastination.
It’s very easy to get sucked into the vortex and suddenly realise you’ve spent two hours on your computer and not written a word. (And that’s without twitter, Facebook and all their social media buddies). I think it’s a fine line between research and procrastination – it’s like when a teacher gives a child ‘busy work’ to occupy them but maybe it’s not advancing their cause any. (Any Aussie’s out there remember the SRA cards of the 1970’s – OK I just Googled them? How can they still exist?)
Anyway, if you’re a writer how do you balance research and procrastination? (I imagine for Regency writers or people writing historical novels this must be even harder to balance!)
5/10/2013
It’s just on a year since my first novel Mr Right and Other Mongrels came out on Amazon. Having your first book out is both mind-numbingly terrifying and amazingly exciting.
Putting yourself out there to be judged by the entire universe is a tough thing to do. Of course you’re going to make mistakes, of course some people won’t like your work, of course some people you thought would jump for joy over your achievement are ambivalent at best.
Then of course there are the triumphs. The positive reviews, the people you meet on the journey, the unexpected person who does marvel at your efforts.
Since then I’ve published two more books Hearts Afire and just this week Alphabet Dating so I guess that’s not bad going for a year. I had hoped to have my 4th book out by now but life isn’t that simple is it? Building Attraction will be out in July.
Anyway because it’s a year since the release, because I’m planning the sequel and because it’s Mothers’ Day this weekend the e-book of Mr Right And Other Mongrels will be only 99c for the next few days!
4/17/2013
I think one of the hardest parts of writing is keeping your focus on the most urgent project. I’ve decided I’m not very good at this.
At the moment my list includes:
– final edits on Alphabet Dating
– writing the first book in a new series
– making final edits on another project to send it to a publisher
– sending brief for the cover of the book I’m releasing in June called Building Attraction
– a series outline of my new series
– an outline for the sequel to Mr Right and Other Mongrels and planning for my research trip for that book to LA in June.
All those things are important but it’s lots of balls in the air in between my day job, organising a college reunion, managing a home (when my husband has hurt his back and therefore is lying flat doing nothing), running my daughter about these school holidays.
It’s why my blogging and tweeting and Facebooking has been a bit minimal of late.
Must FOCUS now!
3/11/2013
So far in my books I seem to have incorporated little bits of my own life into the lives of the main characters. In Mr Right and Other Mongrels Allegra and I have that dog-phobia in common.
In Hearts Afire Cassie found herself alone on a tropical island where she met got to know Jack. Well I met my own husband on a tropical island not at all unlike the one in Hearts Afire and we’re living proof that ‘holiday romances’ (as we call them in Australia) can last – because today we’ve been married for nineteen years. (Yes, yes I was a child bride!)
So how did I end up alone on a tropical North Queensland island? I was not left at the alter, I can tell you that much.
When I twenty two I got glandular fever. (It’s called mono in the US…or the kissing disease. Sadly I didn’t get it kissing anyone and I had already had it before and not even known about it, at least according to my doctor).
I had it so badly it turned into chronic fatigue syndrome or CFS….(we pretended I didn’t have that because there was no cure and back then if you said you had that people thought you were nuts…but I guess that’s another story).
Anyway, I had it pretty badly. After a couple of months in bed. I went back to work but only worked four hours a day for quite a few months. I literally got up, got dressed, drove to work and came home again. .That was my life. That and watching Beverly Hills 90210 on a Friday night. I was living at home and my mum threatened to hand out hospital masks to visitors. I’m happy to report visitors came anyway.
That was my life.
Still I had fantastic friends (one of whom is the model for Justin in Mr Right and Other Mongrels) and I started to get better although it was a rather slow recovery. One of my friends and I were also planning to go to Europe together back-packing the next year (refer to the bit about ignoring chronic fatigue above!) We planned to leave in about March and I was saving like crazy. If you ever find yourself sick make an audacious plan – somehow it always gets me through.
In late September she called me and said due to job changes she’d decided to go to Europe right away with her boyfriend instead of going with me the following year.
Of course I understood but to say I was devastated would be an understatement. You know how things hit your harder when you’re down? I didn’t have anyone else to go with. I needed a new plan and I desperately needed a rest.
A few days late,r in my lunch break, I walked down the street to the nearest travel agency and asked the girl there where I could go alone for a vacation that was warm and wouldn’t be full of too many young families or people in love. Seriously, it’s scary enough going on vacation on your own so you don’t want to also pick the wrong crowd to hang with.
She gave me a choice of three islands in northern Queensland and I chose one on the spot.
A couple of weeks later I found myself alone on a tropical island and I do draw heavily from that experience in Hearts Afire. For example I did phone a friend crying and wondering what I had done and she did send me to the bar to get a cocktail of the day. I did sit at “The Joiners Table” for dinner and I did make some really fun friends that week as a result. I had a great time and unlike Cassie I had no desire to leave early.
As an extra bonus I also met my husband…but that’s another story…and that part isn’t in any of my books…well, not yet anyway. And honestly if you hear him tell his version and I tell my version I sometimes wonder if it really was each other we met…it’s like we were on two different islands…
So from experience I believe you can find love on a tropical island and sometimes your negatives can become gr
Note: My friend and her boyfriend went to Europe and had a great time and they’re married now with three kids and we’re still friends.
Hearts Afire is available here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009V2UKWQ
Leighta Bennett
3/11/2013 03:08:19 pm
Love it! Well they do say ‘write what you know.’ And I love hearing stories that are based on fact, and ‘how we met’ stories.
Hearts Afire was a great book and I’ve got Mr Right on my kindle. Looking forward to your next one Monique.
Reply
Monique
3/11/2013 03:14:44 pm
Thanks Leighta,
I love hearing how people met as well…it fascinates me…
You are on my TBR on the Kindle as well…glas you liked Hearts Afire.
Patsy Collins
3/11/2013 08:16:40 pm
I think we need to believe that what we’re writing about really could happen, otherwise it’ll be hard to convince the reader of that. Using a little of our personal experience can help make a story believable.
3/6/2013
Sometimes when writers write a book they plan a sequel or a whole series. When I wrote Mr Right and Other Mongrels I didn’t do that.
Since publishing it I’ve had lots of people ask me about a sequel and so I’m planning on writing one. It won’t be out till next year, I don’t think.
Still I need to get started on it. I have it mapped out generally but of course novels take their own twists and turns when you write them and new ideas spring forth. Quite often the characters have their own ideas and you just have to follow them on their journey.
I am planning a quick trip to L.A later this year to do some research because at the end of the novel Teddy is moving to California to host a garden makeover show.
So if you have the novel do you have any thoughts on some fun things Teddy and Allegra might get up to in L.A?
I have a few good ideas myself but I’m always open to suggestions for fun dates or even some dramas.
If you haven’t read it click the picture below to buy it on Amazon.
2/18/2013
I know lots of authors who do character interviews with their characters and I thought now that Mr Right and Other Mongrels has been out a while I would do an interview with Allegra – just to check in and see how she’s doing.
1. Hi Allegra, thanks for agreeing to be interviewed. I know you’re quite private so I appreciate it.
No problem. It does feel a bit weird having all this attention, honestly. My friends say now that I’m going out with a celebrity I might have to learn to adjust.
2. So speaking of celebrities, how is Teddy going?
He’s fine. He’s in L.A. working on his new show, which is very exciting. I’ve been to visit but now I’m getting ready to make a more permanent or semi-permanent (I feel more comfortable with it when I say it like that) move.
3. So that’s a big move for you! How are you feeling about it?
You know I’m really, really nervous. I mean Sydney is my home. My bookshop is my home and all my friends are here. I’m going to miss the store, getting up and jogging every morning…everything. Still, everyone assures me I can do it and it looks like I’ll get lots of visitors because Justin has a trip planned already and so do the firls so maybe it will all be Ok.
4. I hear there’s some great vintage clothing in L.A. That has to be exciting for you.
Absolutely! I can’t wait to go shopping properly and find a place to live and explore the city.
5. I have to ask – what will happen to Muffin (that big old dog)?
Oh my goodness, that is a long, long story…you’ll have to read the next book to find out about Muffin, and about what happens with Teddy and I, because I can’t tell you because I don’t even know yet.
I’ll be doing a research trip to L.A for the sequel to Mr Right and Other Mongrels in June…so stay tuned for a release date.
Mr Right and Other Mongrels is available on Amazon.