My Writing Process Blog Tour

Last week I was tagged by Lorna Suzuki for this blog hop - and according to my recently checked junk mail, also Will Hahn a few weeks ago.

What am I working on?

I am in the first round of revisions on Stalking the Demon, the second book in the Seven Circles of Hell Series, and sequel to Confronting the Demon.

I’m also almost 70% of the way through an epic fantasy novel In the Company of the Dead.

You can check out excerpts from both of them in my Monday Morsels.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I’m not sure anything is ever completely unique, but things that differentiate my work (I believe) from large parts of the epic fantasy genre are:

• Protagonists don’t necessarily have fantastic magical powers (although some do) even though magic is a prevalent theme of the books;

• The use of equal numbers of male and female supporting characters (to buck a general trend of token females in many genres);

• Detailed and original world-building, rather than creating a Tolkien-esque world;

• Blending mystery and paranormal themes.

Why do I write what I do?

Write what you know, and write what you love. I know fantasy because I love it, although pinning down why is harder. It has to do with the way fantasy (and the speculative fiction genre in general) deals with real world issues in a safe setting. It is also, in part, because of its aspirational nature.

I don’t write ‘gritty’ fantasy because it runs counter to what I love most about fantasy. It is said gritty fantasy is more reflective of the real world, but I think classic epic fantasy is reflective of humanity’s soul – a deep desire to rise above, for good to triumph, for right to win. When reality depresses me, the yearning of fantasy’s audience for some of the values embodied in the genre reminds me that humanity isn't totally a lost cause.

How does your writing process work?

How long do you have?

A story usually starts with a core idea. A female assassin with an abiding distrust of men. A wizard whose addiction to satisfying his curiosity gets him into trouble. What happens when a man falls in love with a woman dedicated to a goddess of death?

Usually I develop the main characters at this point, including character profiles and doing extensive goal, motivation and conflict charts. This helps me to then do a full plot outline and chapter breakdown.

If this is a new world, I would then usually pause to draw a map and world build, including establishing for each country a political structure, racial appearance, language, currency, clothing, main trade items, architecture and religion.

Then, I begin to write. I may have new ideas along the way which need to be blended in with the original outline.

When I’ve finished, I revise. If revisions are extensive, I’ll do another read-through and tidy up before sending to betas to assess things like plot consistency, continuity and characterisation. Feedback prompts another revision, and what edits I can do myself.

The story then goes to my content editor, after which I do more revisions, then my line editor, and finally proofreaders.

I'm tagging Safireblade and M. E. Franco - although I admit I'm massively sleep-deprived and have not given either of them advance notice of this fact. By all means check out their blogs, but I can't guarantee either of them will participate!

Lorna Suzuki Interviews Ciara Ballintyne, Author of Confronting the Demon

Lorna Suzuki, author of the fantasy series The Imago Chronicles, generously invited me to interview on her blog, All Kinds of Writing, and I was delighted to accept.

We talk about my new book, Confronting the Demon, publishing, my writing process, inspiration, and my writing plans for the next 5 years - including the Demon sequels. In Stalking the Demon, Alloran must venture into the very bowels of the first circle of hell!

Join us at All Kinds of Writing to read the full interview.

Lorna Suzuki is the author of fantasy series The Imago Chronicles and The Dream Merchant Saga. Book One of The Imago Chronicles, A Warrior’s Tale, was optioned for a major motion pciture in 2011 is now in development.


You can find her at:

The Imago Books Fantasy Realm Website
All Kinds of Writing Blog
@LornaSuzuki - Twitter

Character Movement and Fight Scenes

Last month, Dionne Lister and I attended GenreCon in Sydney, Australia. One of the workshops was run by fantasy author Karen Miller (also writing under the pen name K.E. Mills) on character movement and action scenes. 

She explained we are now a culture steeped in visual imagery and story-telling. If you’re a fan of Dickens, Tolkien, or other classic authors, sorry, this doesn’t cut it for the modern audience. Modern fiction has shifted away from that style of story-telling to meet the more visual expectations of the modern reader. As far as visual imagery goes, it’s also worth knowing that people will believe something if they see it, even without explanation, but that in a novel plot holes will be more readily questioned. This explained to me why I’m not able to be as critical of movies as I am of books!

Despite the fact your audience is visual, you can’t just take a fight scene (for example) and transcribe it into words – this will create a boring description which does not in the least engage the reader. Instead, you have to translate what you see into words that create an impression. The scene must be fast enough to ensure the reader is not bored, clear enough so they understand, and real enough they feel they’ve experienced it. 

Relatively speaking, you should incorporate very little actual physical description because this will bore the reader. It’s also unrealistic. When someone is in the middle of action, they can’t and won’t notice everything. At the same time, they can experience time distortion and time will seem to slow down so that person may notice quite a bit in what actually took only a split second. These are qualities you should be sure to note in your fight scenes. 

Action scenes should be anchored through the viewpoint of a particular character to help place the action (unless you’re using omniscient POV, you should be doing this anyway). You should include emotions, thoughts, and sensory impressions of the viewpoint character as to what’s occurring around them. Short, punchy descriptions and verbs will help you to keep the energy going. Choose words that tell us something about the characters, words that make an impact and are energetic. 

It’s very important to get your characters moving even outside of a fight scene or an action sequence. If you don’t, you’ll create a static scene in which people do nothing but talk to each other i.e. talking heads. To avoid this problem, try including body language to bring a scene to life (what Karen called the equivalent of subtitles for books). Not only does this help to define the action, it also helps you to flesh out the characters.

When doing this, try to work out what actions go properly with the dialogue i.e. there may be automatic actions and responses you associate with the dialogue. Think about them and try to identify what they are. You may find there is more than one correct interpretation, in which case you need to decide which is the impression you actually want to convey. This will depend on the plot, the story you want to tell, and the level of conflict you generate. 

While long speeches are uncommon in genre fiction, sometimes characters need to say a lot. If you let one character just ramble on, this can have the same effect as a ‘talking heads’ scenario, and the reader may get bored and wander away. To avoid this, either have the character interrupted a lot, or find the right moment, a lull in the speech, to interrupt and include a physical action on the part of the character. 

Some other words of wisdom from Karen included:

• Use said almost all the time – it becomes invisible;
• Dialogue tags like retorted, objected etc. should be used judiciously and ‘he ejaculated’ is not recommended any more;
• There is a school of thought that it should be clear from the text how the dialogue is presented, but this is not always the case, and then sometimes you may need a descriptor or an adverb – but this should be used carefully;
• Exclamation marks can be useful, but don’t overuse. Don’t use multiple exclamation marks or exclamation or question mark combinations;
• Be vigilant about unintended repetition and sentence construction – don’t use repetitive sentence rhythms, as it will put the reader to sleep;
• Try to give each character their own rhythm and speech patterns (easier said than done!).
• Including everything slows the pace too much;
• All you can do is the best job you are capable of at that time, with all the input available to you. You cannot control how the reader will interpret it;
• Every reader’s view is correct – subjectively speaking;
• Remember every character is the star of their own show. Give each character a thumb-nail sketch of realness. Don’t ever treat a character as a cardboard cut-out;
• Use italics to stress a word of dialogue judiciously – only do this when needed to clarify an ambiguous line where it’s important the reader get the correct message;
• It’s said that you can get the reader across the galaxy, but you can’t get them across the room.

Karen is a brilliant writer, so I strongly recommend taking her advice into consideration. Not only did she read us a fight scene from her draft WIP, which was good enough to turn me green with envy, but I read the book she gave me in two days flat. It’s not often I have the time to do that these days, and when I make the time, you know that book’s got my attention. 

If you enjoyed this post, please feel free to check out my previous posts if you haven't already. If you're finding yourself here often, you might as well join as a member, sign up to the blog through RSS or email, or sign up for the newsletter.

Don't forget to share the love and spread the word on Twitter, Facebook or StumbleUpon (or other social networking site of your choice) if you know other people who might also enjoy this.

Thanks for stopping by and visiting with us. 

Six Sentence Sunday - Do You Love Enough?

OK, I've been absent all of April while I had to focus on the A to Z Blogging challenge on my other blog, but I am back with an excerpt from one of seven short stories I have committed to finishing and finding homes for!

Annael's flawless face turned towards him, tear-stained and broken. In the unplumbed depths of her eyes, he saw that she knew. Like him, she was helpless as a leaf in a waterfall. Like him, she was a victim of the magical curse; the ardesco, an obsessive compulsion to love to which any Ishafal or demon might succumb. ‘You must.’ Her voice cracked; one discordant note in a perfect symphony.

You can find more Six Sentence Sunday writers here. I'm entered in the Best Australian Blogs 2012 Competition for both Flight of the Dragon and Somebody Has To Say It. If you like this blog, or Somebody Has To Say It, I'd be eternally grateful if you'd be so good as to stop by and vote for me here.

If you enjoyed this post, please feel free to check out my previous posts if you haven't already. If you're finding yourself here often, you might like to join as a member, sign up to the blog through RSS or email, or subscribe to my newsletter.

Don't forget to share the love and spread the word on Twitter, Facebook or StumbleUpon (or other social networking site of your choice) if you know other people who might also enjoy this.

Thanks for stopping by and visiting with us!

Interview with Dionne Lister, Author of 'Shadows of the Realm'

Today I'm welcoming Dionne Lister to Flight of the Dragon. Dionne has just self-published her debut novel Shadows of the Realm and I've invited her here to talk a little about herself and her work.

Dionne is a Sydneysider (for our overseas readers, Sydney, Australia) and she is currently studying an associate degree in creative writing.  When she's not writing, she's trying to keep fit or she's on Twitter. Dionne co-hosts a hilarious podcast called Tweep Nation, which can be found free on iTunes. 

~

Thanks for joining us today, Dionne, to talk about your new book Shadows of the Realm and your life as a writer. I'm always fascinated to learn more about the way others write. Do you write an outline before every book you write? 

Never. I have an idea in my head about where I want to end up but I never know how I’m going to get there.

I used to write like that but I confess the lawyer in me overpowered the creative and now I outline like mad. There is something very free about writing the way Dionne does, though. What authors have influenced your writing?

Stephen King and David Eddings. I just love how you get totally swept away in their worlds. I used to love being scared as a teenager and David Eddings writes characters you care about and uses humour, which I like.

We have that in common! I love them both, although I don't think I write like either. I still find David Eddings very funny. Have you ever hated something you wrote? 

Ha, ha, yes. I tried to write a romantic short story once and it was an absolute disaster – it made me cringe.

Everything I wrote before about 2005 makes me cringe, so if that's all you've got, you're doing well! Can you tell us who designed the cover for Shadows of the Realm?  

You gave me a few questions to choose from but I had to answer this one. Robert Baird is an Australian artist who does sci fi and fantasy art. He has done the most amazing cover. We picked a scene from near the end of the book and the cover he has done has exceeded my expectations.

I love the cover, and as you know, I am SO stealing him if/when I ever need a cover done. Did you learn anything from writing your book and, if so, what was it?  

The most valuable lesson. That we are not born as amazing, bestselling authors. It takes a lot of work and then some. I’ve enjoyed the process and become a better writer as well. The only scary thing about this lesson is that you know if you keep writing, the book you write in a year will be much better than the one you published today, but there’s comes a time you have to let it go.

Ah, yes, letting go... Let me know how that works, will you, I have some trouble with it. What was your favourite chapter or part of Shadows of the Realm to write and why?  

Without giving too much away, there’s a chapter that has horror and gore, and I loved writing that. It actually scared me so I had trouble going to sleep that night; it creeped out Tonya, my editor, as well. After I wrote it I was thinking, “where did that come from.” I imagine it was from reading too much Stephen King as a teenager.

Crivens! I'll have to keep an eye out for that one! Is there anything of you in any of your protagonists, do you think? 

Yes, he, he. One of the main characters, Bronwyn, has trouble forgiving people after an argument. I used to be a grudge holder, but I’m not so much now. A lot of my characters try to see the funny or positive side to a situation and that’s something I usually do.

I think if I said there was anything of me in my protagonists I'd frighten a few people. It's great you can say you've moved on from your characters' flaws! Do you have a day job you do as well as writing? 

Yes, I write and edit content for websites and edit books.

Every writer's dream day job! OK, now we're going to ask a few fun questions, so bear with me if these seem a little out of left field. If you were a tree (or animal) what kind of tree (animal) would you be? 

I know it’s not very original, but I’d be a Siamese cat – elegant and pampered whilst being able to leap tall fences in a single bound.

Pfft, you don't always need to be original to be cool! What would I find in your refrigerator right now? 

Fruit, veges, biscuits, yoghurt, eggs, milk, easter eggs – my fridge is bursting at the moment and there’s probably only one mouldy thing in there!

Easter eggs! You still have Easter eggs? I'll be round in just a minute...  OK, last question before I raid your Easter egg stash - what is the last book you read? 

Wanting by Richard Flanagan. I had to read it for Uni and I enjoyed it.  It’s not normally a book I would look for but that’s what uni is about, expanding your mind.

Is that what uni is about? Uh, yes... of course. Well that's the last of our questions, any last words you'd like to share?

Just wanted to say thank you so much to my wonderful friend Ciara, for having me as a guest and to let everyone know that she gave me wonderful feedback which made my book a lot better than it would have been.

Aww, thanks Dionne. I don't purport to be perfect or a brilliant writer, but what goes around comes around and I try to help out other writers as and when I can. 

Shadows of the Realm is available as ebook and paperback here at Amazon. 

About the Book: Bronwyn and Blayke are two strangers being drawn into the same war. Their world is facing invasion from the Third Realm. While they move unknowingly toward each other, they are watched, hunted, and sabotaged. When the Dragon God interferes, it seems their world, Talia, will succumb to the threat. Can they learn enough of the tricks of the Realms before it’s too late, or will everything they love be destroyed?



The young Realmists’ journey pushes them away from all they’ve known, to walk in the shadows toward Vellonia, city of the dragons, where an even darker shadow awaits.

If you'd like to know more about Dionne, you can find her here:

Twitter: @DionneLister
Blog: www.dionnelisterwriter.wordpress.com 

 

Dionne and I are both entered in the Best Australian Blogs 2012 Competition, dionne for her blog DionneLister - Writer and me for both Flight of the Dragon and Somebody Has To Say It. If you like this blog, or Somebody Has To Say It, or Dionne's blog, we'd be eternally grateful if you'd be so good as to stop by and vote here.

If you enjoyed this post, please feel free to check out my previous posts if you haven't already. If you're finding yourself here often, you might like to join as a member, sign up to the blog through RSS or email, or subscribe to my newsletter.

Don't forget to share the love and spread the word on Twitter, Facebook or StumbleUpon (or other social networking site of your choice) if you know other people who might also enjoy this.

Thanks for stopping by and visiting with us!

On the Care and Feeding of Muses By Toby Neal

Today I'm welcoming Toby Neal to Flight of the Dragon to talk to us all about nurturing our precious muses. Toby is not a fantasy author, you've busted me there, but hey, fantasy authors have muses too!

Toby Neal was raised on Kauai in Hawaii. She wrote and illustrated her first story at age 5 and has been published in magazines and won several writing contests. After initially majoring in Journalism, she eventually settled on mental health as a career and loves her work, saying, “I’m endlessly fascinated with people’s stories.”

She enjoys many outdoor sports including bodyboarding, scuba diving, beach walking, gardening and hiking. She lives in Hawaii with her family and dogs.

Toby credits her counseling background in adding depth to her characters–from the villains to Lei Texeira, the courageous and vulnerable heroine in the Lei Crime Series.

You can find Toby here at her website. Enjoy!

~

Your creative Muse is fed and cared for by a rich diet of sensory input, and time taken to fully experience life. 

I woo my Muse by taking periodic, tiny “retreats.” It’s going to seem like cheating when I tell you I live on Maui, but I work a regular job and live a regular life, with work that gets tiring, a mortgage, and exceptionally high gas prices. Still, when I get out in nature, it really is amazing.

Today is an exceptionally clear, warm and gorgeous day at the park on the side of Haleakala. The ocean, glowing blue mystery, merges with the sky in the distance and holds the floating green/purple island of Lanai, and the striated majesty of the West Maui Mountains, draped in cumulus. I really do live in paradise.

I am in my little tent under the trees for an hours-long creativity retreat. The tent is an open container for me, making fragile definition of that which defies boundaries. The vista is so swelling and magnificent I shut my eyes for relief from it, my perception overwhelmed. I am anchored here, pointed out into vast space.

With my eyes shut I hear the singing of the meadow larks, and the rustling of wind in the invasive black wattle, rumble of some far-off construction equipment, the bark of a distant dog.

I smell the slight mustiness of the tent, carelessly bundled away by the kids on their last camping trip, and the faint sweetness of the wattle bloom.

The afternoon clouds are beginning to gather, and cool wind, the same wind that gyrates and swirls the paragliders in bright arcs above me, reaches in and touches my cheek, soft and kind. I feel restfulness creeping over me, the need to sleep that usually comes over me first thing when I arrive for my “date” with my Muse, as if slipping the bonds of my hectic life is so exhausting that the first thing I can do when I’m free is fall asleep- and wake up with my Muse awake within me.

She’s my creative self, and while she doesn’t mind being disciplined and on a schedule, she likes it best when I make time for her, feed her with beauty, nurture her with praise, and present her with the occasional rose.

Do I need to think of her this way? Do I even need a Muse at all? No. But it’s more fun to have one, a useful mental construct. Externalizing and personalizing a source of creativity is a way of removing performance anxiety. (Elizabeth Gilbert explores on her Ted Talk video of 2011, check it out on YouTube.)

Muse or no muse, creativity flows from depth of exposure to sensory input. Let me say that again: creativity flows from depth of exposure to sensory input. 

Without sounds we’ve known, where would music come from? Without images we’ve seen, colors we’ve boggled at, shapes we’ve felt, where would new works of art come from? And, without stories, legends, fairy tales, poetry, and even journal articles, where will original narrative spring from?

New work arises from the bones of old—just as new life arises from a remix of DNA.

With a dearth of exposure, how can new ideas emerge? In a hectic, overstimulated world with too much of one kind of input (like electronics) from whence will rise the next Michelangelo? Without time—time to wander, and putter, and percolate on rich sensory input, who could give birth to genius? 

And by this, I’m not talking about retreating for six months to Esalen in Big Sur, meditating naked—(though that could be fun) I’m talking about walking in nature for awhile, letting the eyes wander where they will, picking out the butterflies trying to fly while they mate (not graceful) and the mynah bird hopping on a roof.

 Breathe deep that smell of moss under a tree, a scent like the underside of a mushroom, cool and slightly sour. 

Listen to rain falling, the parrot next door saying “Pretty bird!” Cars honking. Kids splashing in the neighbor’s pool.

Take a shower, feeling water define every nubbin and hair, watch it purl away between toes. Touch a loved one, really taking in the sensations. Roll around in fresh linens. Aah, touch.

Process all that information from each of your senses. Something will emerge later from what is deeply felt and fully experienced. They say write what you know—and if you aren’t fully occupying your own skin, inhabiting your own environment in a conscious way, ideas and descriptions will be forced, wooden. The Muse is a creature that is wooed rather than forced, and when fed and cared for properly by conscious living, she’s much more liable to come sit beside you and play—because nothing she does feels like work—and what you together write out of the richness of sensory input is going to be quality. 

Try it and see. Write about all those little moments as they happen. Carry a notebook for a day and try to notice, really notice, everything that’s happening. You’ll be surprised by its power—and you’ll have the added benefit of never regretting a moment of your life lost to distraction and never fully experienced.

~

Thanks, Toby, that was a fascinating insight into muses because I can't say it's something I, for one, ever really think about. 

Toby's latest book, Blood Orchids, is FREE April 28 and 29 and available here. Blood Orchids is currently rated 4.7 stars with 73 reviews! About Blood Orchids:

Lei has overcome a scarred past to make a life for herself as a cop in the sleepy Big Island town of Hilo. On a routine patrol she finds two murdered teenagers—one of whom she’d recently busted. With its echoes of her own past, the murdered girl’s harsh life and tragic death affect Lei deeply. She becomes obsessed—even as the killer is drawn to Lei's intensity, feeding off her vulnerabilities and toying with her sanity.

Despite her obsession with the case and fear that she's being stalked, Lei finds herself falling in love for the first time. Steaming volcanoes, black sand beaches and shrouded fern forests are the backdrop to Lei's quest for answers—and the stalker is closer than she can imagine, as threads of the past tangle in her future. Lei is determined to find the killer—but he knows where to find her first.

I'm entered in the Best Australian Blogs 2012 Competition for both Flight of the Dragon and Somebody Has To Say It. If you like this blog, or Somebody Has To Say It, I'd be eternally grateful if you'd be so good as to stop by and vote for me here.

If you enjoyed this post, please feel free to check out my previous posts if you haven't already. If you're finding yourself here often, you might like to join as a member, sign up to the blog through RSS or email, or subscribe to my newsletter.

Don't forget to share the love and spread the word on Twitter, Facebook or StumbleUpon (or other social networking site of your choice) if you know other people who might also enjoy this.

Thanks for stopping by and visiting with us!

An Evening of Books with Brandon Sanderson

This week I attended a book signing by Brandon Sanderson, author of the Mistborn Trilogy and the Stormlight Archives, and the man responsible for completing the late Robert Jordan’s legacy, the Wheel of Time. 

In the course of the evening he chose to share some of his writing process with us. I felt like I should have been taking notes and didn’t have anything to do it with! So if I’ve forgotten anything, or get something wrong, I do apologise to Brandon, who was so totally cool and awesome that he was still signing books at 10pm when I left and he’d been going for two and a half hours!

First off, how many drafts do you think you should do of your novel? I know some people think they can publish a first, second or third draft. Brandon talked us through some of his drafts:

• Version 1 – This is the absolute first cut. Brandon tends to write each character arc from start to end independently, so at the end of this process the different points of view are not woven together.;
• Version 2 – This is where the storylines are woven together, revisions done to make them fit and to correct continuity errors;
• Version 3 – Brandon’s own line edit, where he focuses on sentence structure and polishing the prose. It then goes to his editor for his or her line edit;
• Version 4 – After the line edit by his editor, it comes back to Brandon. Version 4 is working through the line edit and making corrections line by line;
• Version 5 – this is beg revisions the editor asked for – new scenes and the like which have to be written from scratch. Then it goes back to the editor again.

It certainly made me feel better about the four versions I worked my way through on Deathhawk’s Betrayal last year. Out of curiosity, I asked him how many drafts he does total. The answer was a staggering twelve drafts for a Wheel of Time book (the series is so monstrous the extra drafts are required for consistency) and eight drafts for his own works. So if you think one, two, or even three drafts is enough – think again!

It's also worth noting that his drafts come back from his editor covered in red scribbles - this is always going to happen. If you don't get your work back from an editor covered in scribbles, the editor is not doing their job.Even if you got most everything else right, an editor will look for passive language, the chance to use stronger verbs, and to improve specificity e.g. oak door instead of wooden door.

I know there are those out there who expect an editor to tell them how wonderful they are and not change anything, but I'm sorry, it's never going to happen. If this is really how you feel, you might like to consider another career. Receiving feedback can always be a very demoralising experience, and Brandon admitted it is for him as well, but it's part and parcel of the job and it's never going to change, no matter how successful you are. Your job is to write. The editor's job is to scribble all over your baby.

Interestingly enough, Brandon said one of his weak areas is his prose. He doesn’t have naturally beautiful prose, which I found completely amazing. While being lectured about editing and prose, I happened to be reading the Stormlight Archives and noticed Brandon’s style is very effective. I asked my editor and she said yes, he is virtually technically perfect. Apparently, though, that’s something he has to work hard at! So there is hope for me yet. 

One of his stronger points is characterisation and he says he often has to dial back the characterisation. I think the lesson here is balance, people! Work on your weaknesses and don’t let your strengths get so out of hand they take over. Too much of a good thing is bad. Everything in moderation!

Lastly, if you are a Wheel of Time fan, Brandon told us a little story about the death of Asmodean at the end of the Fires of Heaven. If you don't know (and I didn't) the killer is revealed in the glossary (of all places) of The Towers of Midnight. I'm not going to tell you under which entry, but I'll wait while you check *taps foot impatiently*. If you really can't find it, let me know.

Anyway, the reason behind putting it in the glossary is that when Robert Jordan's notes were handed over to Brandon Sanderson, there was a post-it note stuck to one page which said simply 'X killed Asmodean'. No how, or why, just the name of the killer. Because all these other details are lost with Robert Jordan, Harriet McDougal (Robert Jordan's widow and editor) decided the details would only be disclosed in the glossary. Brandon did try to slip it into a scene but it was removed during editing.

I’m sure there were other pearls of wisdom but I’m afraid for the moment they have escaped me. 

I should also mention how cool Brandon is – Tuesday night he was free and he issued a Twitter invitation for people to go and play ‘Magic’ with him. Apparently that’s a card game. I would have gone along if I had any clue how to play, but my friend was most impressed he gave out his hotel like that. Definite cool points. 

Lastly a shout-out to @goddessmallie, whom I had the pleasure of meeting at the book signing. We waited 2.5 hours to have our books signed, with no phone reception, and therefore no Twitter I might add (AARGH!!!), and I'm sure we kept each other sane. 

I'm entered in the Best Australian Blogs 2012 Competition for both Flight of the Dragon and Somebody Has To Say It. If you like this blog, or Somebody Has To Say It, I'd be eternally grateful if you'd be so good as to stop by and vote for me here.

If you enjoyed this post, please feel free to check out my previous posts if you haven't already. If you're finding yourself here often, you might like to join as a member, sign up to the blog through RSS or email, or subscribe to my newsletter.

Don't forget to share the love and spread the word on Twitter, Facebook or StumbleUpon (or other social networking site of your choice) if you know other people who might also enjoy this.

Thanks for stopping by and visiting with us!