Ingrid Jonach's Blog, page 3

The grass is ALWAYS greener on the other side of the hairdressers

When I was in my final year of high school, I got a perm. I guess you could be forgiven for thinking I went to school in the eighties—or maybe even the early nineties. Unfortunately, NO. It was 2001 and perms were definitely NOT in fashion. Perhaps, I can claim to have been fashion forward. Maybe I was channeling a bit of Sarah Jessica Parker from Sex and the City. Alas, this would be a LIE.

My dancing was probably about as good as SJP’s though.

When I walked into the hairdresser, I actually...

Why you MAY want your own angel-superhero (AKA literary agent)

I think I was even more excited when I got my literary agent, than when I got my book deal for When the World was Flat (and we were in love). My novel was repped by Meredith Kaffel of DeFiore and Co, but due to the closure of the publisher and sale of its parent company, I later opted for a reversion of rights and for self-publishing. You can read about that here.

Basically, to get a look in at any major publisher you ABOLUTELY need a literary agent. The vast majority of publishers these days...

There’s NO shame in being bullied. ONLY in bullying

I was a SUPER shy kid. Like frog-in-my-throat, petrified-of-telephones, let-my-brother-speak-for-me kid. To make matters worse, my family moved around like a band of gypsies. It was seriously as if we were on the run from the law (sorry if I’ve blown your cover, mum!).

This meant changing schools at least every couple of years, if not more (in year three I went to THREE different schools). By the time I graduated high school I’d been to eight schools. EIGHT. Six of them were because we moved....

There’s no shame in being bullied. Only in bullying

I was a SUPER shy kid. Like frog-in-my-throat, petrified-of-telephones, let-my-brother-speak-for-me kid. To make matters worse, my family moved around like a band of gypsies. It was seriously as if we were on the run from the law (sorry if I’ve blown your cover, mum!).

This meant changing schools at least every couple of years, if not more (in year three I went to THREE different schools). By the time I graduated high school I’d been to eight schools. EIGHT. Six of them were because we moved....

There’s no shame in being bullied. Only in bullying.

I was a SUPER shy kid. Like frog-in-my-throat, petrified-of-telephones, let-my-brother-speak-for-me kid. To make matters worse, my family moved around like a band of gypsies. It was seriously as if we were on the run from the law (sorry if I’ve blown your cover, mum!).

This meant changing schools at least every couple of years, if not more (in year three I went to THREE different schools). By the time I graduated high school I’d been to eight schools. EIGHT. Six of them were because we moved....

The nearly ALWAYS occasionally BORING task of plotting a story

As I pointed out in this post, the problem with plotting is that it can be SO BORING. My plotting up until a couple of years ago consisted of some hastily typed notes at the beginning of my manuscripts. I’ve tested out a few methods over the years with no luck, namely the Monomyth (commonly known as the Hero’s Journey) and the Snowflake Method. It was seriously a YAWN fest.

When washing your hair suddenly looks SUPER exciting.

More recently, I tried writing software—namely Scrivener (it basic...

My former life as a vegetarian zoo keeper

When I was a teen, I turned vegetarian.

My oldest brother bet I would last about a month. I lasted SIX YEARS (go me!).

Becoming vegetarian was a snap decision brought on by a song—Spawn Again by Australian band Silverchair. I was sixteen and OBSESSED with lead singer and vegan Daniel Johns. I was also an animal lover. I think I’d owned every kind of pet on the planet, including a goat, a mouse, a guinea pig, a cat, a dog, a rooster and ducks. Oh, and a caterpillar called Gutsy.

I genuinely th...

My former life as a vegetarian zoo keeper.

When I was a teen, I turned vegetarian.

My oldest brother bet I would last about a month. I lasted SIX YEARS (go me!).

Becoming vegetarian was a snap decision brought on by a song—Spawn Again by Australian band Silverchair. I was sixteen and OBSESSED with lead singer and vegan Daniel Johns. I was also an animal lover. I think I’d owned every kind of pet on the planet, including a goat, a mouse, a guinea pig, a cat, a dog, a rooster and ducks. Oh, and a caterpillar called Gutsy.

I genuinely th...

In The Beginning There Was Us BOOK BLITZ

A HUGE thank you to all of the bloggers who participated in the book blitz for In The Beginning There Was Us. It was so exciting to see the word spreading through the interwebs! Here are the links to the blogs I owe a debt of gratitude to:

Brittany’s Book Rambles
Read-A-holicZ
JeanzBookReadNReview
TeamNerd Reviews
Please Another Book
Mythical Books
RurouniJenniReads
The Best Books Ever

And, of course, a GINORMOUS thank you to blogger Dianne from Oop! I Read A Book Again, who organized the who...

Plotter vs Pantser. The Final Countdown (cue Rocky music)!

For years, I’ve considered myself a slow writer. I can sit at my computer for an hour and knock out three sentences. Even on the days when I manage to write a couple of thousand words, I end up deleting half of them and then rewriting them, and then cutting and pasting them into another section of my manuscript before deleting them again. SIGH.

This is like some kind of medieval torture!
Just bring out the rack already!

My debut novel When the World was Flat (and we were in love) took abo...