Nicole MacDonald's Blog, page 19

Thursday's Writing Tip - Let go of fear!

Everyone has their own things that 'scare' them with writing. For me, it was the thought of writing two or three things at the same time. I just couldn't fathom creating such wildly different (or even similar) stories at the same time. But over the past couple of months it's been happening.. Slowly and sneakily other ideas have, or are, gathering form quicker than I expected or even wanted.Why have I been scared of this? Well I've been worried that it'll take the 'passion' out of my current pet love (BirthRight) and that it'll stop me reaching my desired deadline of Christmas. But I'm beginning to realize a few things.
The more I create, the more I can create. When I get stuck on a scene in Awakening I'm finding that if I shift to something different (can't get much more different than A Wet & Wild night ;p) it allows other ideas in and then I can solve the dilemma in a way that just didn't occur to me before.
Now the next thing that made me nervous was 'but if I'm working on something other than Awakening, how will I finish it in time?'
To which one of those 'other' voices in my mind (and if you've read The Arrival, you'll be familiar with this concept) quietly pointed out.'would you prefer to be stuck with writers block for a week, doing nothing. OR. Write something else for an hour, which breaks the writers block and allows you to work on Awakening. 1 hour lost compared to a week's worth of writing time.'And that other voice isn't wrong. It adds up well.
I'm still fighting off the panicky silly voice at the moment, it's doing a lot of hyperventilating and has major butterflies - which SUCK! But slowly and surely, all my projects are developing. And I'm getting the beginnings of a rush of adrenaline as it all works. I have to say, my motto in life really is
'Feel the fear and do it anyway' It's just that sometimes it takes a while to 'recognize' what your fears really are.
Take care all! Nic The Arrival, on Amazon or UK Amazon or Smashwords Special price of .99c for May ONLY!

Tueday's Riddle! Win a FREE e-copy of The Arrival

Want a good laugh? I flicked that erotic short story up on Amazon two days ago. It's out-selling my novel... There are a dodgy bunch of readers out there *chuckle* Or maybe because it is a short story people like it? I know with a severe lack of time at the moment short story's are all I can manage (and thank you Nancy for providing yours for critique! They're the only reading I actually do at the moment, so much enjoyed). I did make sure that I emphasised the word count (a scant 9,800) so that I don't get any of the 'it was very short' comments - well duh! I will be most amused to read the first reviews on it and am some what perplexed at the concept of having to explain to people that 'no I didn't make my fortune on my novel, but my naughty short story..' *grin* That'd be bizarre!





Here is the riddle for Tuesday, you know the drill - first to solve it wins a free copy of The Arrival (or A Wet & Wild night, if you prefer ;p)


'What has a mouth but can't chew?'


Take care all!Nic The Arrival, on Amazon or UK Amazon or Smashwords Special price of .99c for May ONLY!

Character Monday - Introducing Sabyn

Ok so I've been a little slack with the posting last week - but that's cause I was getting that short story up on Amazon, which it now is *yay* so no more worrying about that.

I've chosen Josh Holloway to play Sabyn, one of the Griffon Guards (there are five in total, you've met two so far, this is the third). Sabyn is meant to have longish (for a guy) blonde hair that he keeps in a neat plait and glacial blue eyes - I think Josh works nicely *grin*. Sabyn rides Tomiar a beautiful female griffon with light tan wings that have a greenish sheen to them. Tomiar has a gift for seeing things that may come to pass. Sabyn is actually Alek's cousin and rather like a brother to him as Alek has no siblings. Sabyn has twin sisters who are going through the 'boy crazy' stage and embarrassing the heck out of him - but he still loves them *grin*. Like his cousin he can often be seen as overly quiet and studious but as part of his job entails keeping the Kingdom together, surely that's understandable! He is a keen fisher and knows how to 'tickle' fish, so can catch them with just his hands. Sabyn is attracted to Laura (Loi) from the moment he spots her, standing dishevelled but ready to fight when they first landed around them. His ebony haired goddess proves more than a little hard work but with two younger sisters, it's nothing he can't handle. 


Take care all!Nic The Arrival, on Amazon or UK Amazon or Smashwords Special price of .99c for May ONLY!

Another beautiful review!

Deed's won my book via the Tuesday Riddle comp I run each week and she's since reviewed my book. Which is very sweet of her as I certainly don't expect it! With her system she gave me a b+ and I think this is one of my new favourite reviews!! Pop over to her blog for a read.


I just love the owl's on her blog. My mum sewed me owl curtains when I was a baby and they've been a favourite creature since. Actually the first 'proper' cross stitch I tackled was a snowy owl, took me forever but I still have it on my wall (now a little yellowed *lol*). 
Have a great weekend all!


Take care all!Nic The Arrival, on Amazon or UK Amazon or Smashwords Special price of .99c for May ONLY!

Thursday Writing Tip - Know when to take a break

Especially if you've been doing really tedious data entry all day and the computer screen is making you nauseous! A not so fun day at work but these things happen. Hence also my rather slack post *grin* but this is a valid post. So how are you all? Anything exciting happening? Pop a few words on the comments, I love knowing what everyone is up to (yes I'm inherently nosy, need you ask?).I'm finishing the erotic short story and intend on publishing it this weekend. Please don't feel the need to buy it unless it's your thing *grin* I'm going to make sure I mention the word count in the blurb so buyers aren't mislead at all (happened to me once, left me fuming..). Basically in essence it's a 'short, sweet, erotic read', and of course is R18! Actually I did wonder if that's the reason they're so popular now (the erotic stories) because you can't see what a person is reading on an e-reader..I have heard a rumour that Amazon is looking at a colour version of a Kindle - that would be AWESOME! I'm intending on buying one for my birthday and if I hear confirmation about this before hand I'll sit on the cash till they come out. And have you entered the competition I'm running (previous post), 5 blocks of Whittaker's delicious chocolate!! All you have to do is blog/tweet/facebook about my special May price of .99c. Also if you're wanting a free copy of The Arrival, the Tuesday's riddle hasn't been solved yet.Take care all!Nic The Arrival, on Amazon or UK Amazon or Smashwords Special price of .99c for May ONLY! 

The re-edited version of The Arrival is now available! And Tuesday's Riddle

And to celebrate this fact I'm making it .99c for the month of May.I want to spread the word far and wide so am appealing to you, my lovely fellow bloggers, for help. What's in it for you? A colossal quantity of New Zealand's own Whitakers Chocolate!!Five full size blocks of your choice will be sent to the winner of this competition.
How the competition works. To get an entry to win our very drool worthy chocolate you just need to blog/twitter/face-book etc about the special price and new version of The Arrival. Every single time you blab about it, it counts as an entry. At the beginning of June I will do the draw so make sure you keep track of how many entries you've made!If keeping track sounds daunting then let me know when you do it i.e., include @DmslinaDrtyDrss in a tweet and make sure I follow your blog/facebook page. And if you stick the picture below on your blog (and link it to Amazon) I'll count that as 5 entries - super easy! Hit the button below to drool over the flavours you could have winging your way! And of course it is Riddle Tuesday, first to solve the riddle wins a newly edited e-version of The Arrival. Good luck! If I say "Everything I tell you is a lie," am I telling you the truth or a lie?
Take care all!
Nic The Arrival, on Amazon or UK Amazon or Smashwords Special price of .99c for May ONLY!

Character Monday - Introducing Alek

I've chosen Henry Cavill to play Alek. Just imagine him with black hair *grin* - though as he's apparently the next Superman, that shouldn't be too difficult very soon! I first saw him in The Tudors and a quick internet search shows his next 'big' film (next to Superman) is Immortals.



Alek is the head of the Griffon Guard and rides Loushka, a tan female griffon whose coat has red undertones. Alek is my favorite of the Griffon Guard (nothing against the others, he's just my fav) and was originally inspired by a character in an anime show I adore, Darien, from Sailor Moon (laugh it up ;p) hence his blue/black hair and deep blue eyes. But that's about all the similarities or at least all the intended similarities.
His love interest in the trilogy is Catherine and she helps to loosen up his rather serious nature. Prior to Cat he was known for been a bit of a heart-breaker. But that aside he is very serious about his role as head of the Guard and protecting Elion from those who wish the great realm harm. A very practical man he can deal with pretty much anything that is thrown at him (though a certain red-head brings her own unique challenges…) and he can be rather cold at times. This is partially to do with losing both his parents when he was young. Alek was raised at the castle after his parents passed and is very close to Elena and Yakov, who acted as his guardians. The majority of Alek's time is spent in training, patrolling and dealing with diplomats. When he does get free time he enjoys riding his horse Urell and exploring Elion. He's also an avid reader so makes use of the castle's enormous library. Most the time however as the head of the Guard he is very busy so free-time is often just spent as quiet time away from the chaos of the castle. He is very driven to ridding Sytas of Jenviet as she was directly reasonable for his fathers death and possibly (though not proven) his mother's too.Take care all! Nic

Friday funnies! Funny/cute etc pictures

And I sincerely hope none of you are affected by those awful storms ripping through America. If you are, my thoughts go out to you. Tornado's are something we only see in miniature in NZ (compared to USA) so to look at those pictures of towns destroyed, I actually can't imagine what it must be like to survive through a storm like that. So I hope these pic's make people smile - we need a laugh when things get tough!



Siany, this pic is for you : ) Ooo and so is the 'batman' one  


 Okay so the kitten below isn't in costume, but it's in the spirit! You sort of forget that Halloween or Samhain is actually seasonal so we didn't really just have Easter (Ostara) here in NZ we had Samhain - the shift from Autumn into Winter - BRRR! 


If you're hunting for my book on Amazon and can't find it, DON'T PANIC ;p I'm re-uploading it this weekend and took the old copy down because I don't want people buying it now that I've fixed the typos. So keep an eye out on this blog because there are going to be some yummy prizes for the people who help me out in advertising the new edition! More about that later though. In the meantime have an awesome safe weekend and enjoy this gorgeous video of Sharky & Bully dressed up for Halloween : )






Take care all!Nic

I'm back!

We managed to get out on Monday even with the river being in partial flood. I will say that I'm very grateful Glenn's strong enough to weight us both down - the current was damn strong and I wouldn't have been able to cross it by myself.The weekend itself was quiet and peaceful and I got lots done.  The Arrival has now been re-edited and I will upload it shortly along with a special price for a month.I got the draft for A Wet & Wild night finally hashed out and now have to type it up which will result in a re-write at the same time - the only bonus there is for writing by hand (in my opinion).  I'd like to say that I got heaps of reading done but doing this edit was very time consuming so that didn't happen.  It is a fantastic feeling though to go through and fix all the silly mistakes!  I've also re-formatted the layout in the hopes that it will make the changing POV's more straight forward for readers.  It's worth a shot! Check out these beautiful pictures of my 'writing space' in the bush.  Even my work view can't compare with this (I love bush!).  My writing! Supplemented with coffee/salt n vinegar chips and most importantly Footrot Flats *grin*  The view on the left..  Glenn reading in bed : ) The view on the right (and also the 'lounge') and below is the view straight ahead, onto the deck
How was your weekends? Did you get much done? Eat lots of chocolate?
Take care all!Nic The Arrival, only $3.99 on Amazon or UK Amazon or $3.99 on Smashwords Buy it today!

Gone Bush!

And I'll be back on Tuesday : ) Everyone have a safe and happy Easter.  Also did you notice Nancy's book is now up on my blog?  Unfortunately Amazon won't let her put it up for free (but you can on UK Amazon... weird) so she's got it at a mere .99c if you want a lovely story for the kids!
And yes! That is actually where I'll be staying *grin* For the first time in about 7 years Glenn and I will be up there with no dogs or anyone! Our friend Loi is house sitting and looking after the furbabies.  Because Easter is a really popular drive-in we thought it might be best to leave them safe at home (also the Roar for all hunters out there ;p).  So yay! A weekend solely for reading and writing (I'll write, he'll read) and lots and lots of yummy food.  Can't wait : ) we walk up tomorrow morning and will be having our lunch at the hut (cabin).  I'd love to hear your Easter plans!Take care all!Nic The Arrival, only $3.99 on Amazon or UK Amazon or $3.99 on Smashwords Buy it today!