Cate Ellink's Blog, page 54

Wildlife Wednesday - Shorebirds

So, a couple of weeks ago I was on the beach and there were all these birds feeding in the shallows. I thought they were dotterels but I'm not sure. You know I'm bad at this, plus they were a way off, and when I zoom in on the photo it's too pixellated to get a good look.

A few days later I stayed to read a book while Mr E did a big hike further along the beach. And this little guy was pottering around me. So I got some better photos...ARGH...I still can't identify him! Honestly, I'm hopeless at this!

I ruled out a Sandpiper because I thought his beak was too short, but this page for Birds In Backyards, has a common Sandpiper with a similar sized beak. There are two things making me question one is the speckles on his chest and the second is that they usually migrate to northern Australia, if not Eurasia for our winter and he was definitely here in winter - I guess you can't have everything :)

So, yes, another great photo, another unknown creature!

I should change the title of this column from Wildlife Wednesday to Cate's Unknown and Mysterious Wildlife!

But...I enjoy it, and I hope no one is here to learn from me! If you are - please go somewhere else. I can only teach you mistakes!

Sunday Story - inspiration

Lots of people are inspired by lots of different things for their stories. But my inspiration for Deep Diving played his 250th game of footy last night and there's a highlights reel here to celebrate that milestone. I thought you might want to see him from the start of his career to now :)

When I look at the gallery I can see why suddenly in 2012 I noticed him. There's a confidence about him  that wasn't there earlier. He has more of a presence, his legs are huger...but maybe I'm interpreting not just looking at the highlights!

Hopefully I'll pop in and tell you how his game went - but I'm setting this up early and I might forget! So here's my imaginary take on the game -

He had an absolute cracker. His kicking was pinpoint accuracy. He scored a couple of tries, one all on his own. He set up the ten other tries his team scored and they won convincingly. He won the man of the match award.

So how's that for a prediction! I'll probably be so very wrong.

Hope I remember to update this post :)

Phallic Friday - sexual assaults

The news stories this week seem to be filled with sexual assaults and awful things. Today there's even one about a woman being raped by another woman.

I suppose these happened all the time and our penchant for news 24-7 has just made them more of a focus and more discussed, but it's really quite an awful trend to see in the news.

I love the act of sex - which is kind of obvious considering I have fun writing about it - so I find it difficult to understand how people can choose to use it as a way to harm others. But I do know it happens.

When I was really young, probably only just 18 or so, I was a leader of a youth movement group and there was a kid in my group who had been assaulted by her own mother. It was horrific to hear. She was in the custody of her paternal grandmother when I met her, aged 7, so the assaults had occurred before then. And it horrified me on so many levels. How could a mother do that to a child? How could a child survive such horror? How did the father cope knowing what the woman he loved had done?

The effect on the child was awful. She didn't trust anyone. The school system was set up in 4 terms, and each new term meant the child going through the awful trust issues again. Her grandmother was exceptionally patient and beautiful. She came to our meetings and was always there for her granddaughter, always supported her and always cared. After a few weeks, the little girl could laugh and play with the other children but it took a few years for her to be relaxed around me - I was more her mother's age than the other, older leaders.

It broke my heart that this little child was so damaged and healing took so very long.

I don't know what became of her. I don't know that too many knew why she was in her grandmother's care and I never spoke about it to anyone. So I'll never know. But I hope she found something wonderful in life. I hope the nightmares of her youth left her. I hope she had understanding people along every step of her journey. But I know I probably have my rose-coloured glasses on. The effects of sexual assault, any assault, are long-lasting and horrible. I wish they never happened.

Wildlife Wednesday - Moorish Idol and Wrasse

Last of teh Lord Howe Island wildlife.


Moorish Idol Green Moon Wrasse
Red and Green Wrasse

Deep Diving Release Day

I think it's release day for Deep Diving! I'm not one hundred per cent sure because I'm a guinea pig trialling a new release process. So let's say it's today! Woohoo!


Things have changed between the release of The Virginity Mission and Deep Diving - and it's only 1 year! Some of these have been:
I've had net galley reviews ahead of releaseI've had a 99c pre-order thing going for a few weeksI've had lots of people retweeting and favouriting my meme things.I'm part of a bigger group of writers (the Naughty Ninjas)Escape have done some great promo things with e-book platforms and bloggersMy cover is not so naked, and therefore better received in the USI've got more of an author platform and feel a bit more confident than last time.
So, I'm interested to see how these changes affect sales. I'm not sure if I'll know which had a lasting effect, or the biggest effect, but I'll know if overall there's an impact.

I think the 99c pre-order is huge. I buy lots of 99c pre-orders because it's a bargain, especially if I'm going to buy the book anyway, or if I'm tempted to give a new author a try. The Virginity Mission never dropped in price from $2.99. That's kind of my cut-off point for buying a book, and TVM was only 41K so just bigger than a novella. I think the 99c pre-order is a great strategy. But I wonder if it works. If it does, I should see DD's ranking launch at quite a high point tomorrow because all pre-order sales are counted on release day. So that's what I'll be checking - what's my Day 1 ranking look like. But I won't know if it's directly attributed to the price, the early reviews, the tweeting or the memes.

That's one of the difficult things about the industry. I don't know what helps sales - no one seems to. And we all stand and shove our books at each other and hope a few buy. I don't like that type of marketing.

So, before my next book release, I'm challenging myself to think of 2 new ways to market that doesn't involve shoving my book at other authors. Now that will be a challenge!

If you've bought DD at the bargain pre-order price, I thank you very much and I hope you enjoy Sam and Cooper's holiday as much as I did (and they did)!!

Cate xox

Sunday Story - post conference thoughts

I'm leading this post with the warning - I came home with a bad chest infection, so my views may be tainted by that!

I went to the RWA conference in Sydney earlier this month. I think I went to a different event to that of what I've read about from everyone else! Although, maybe I have different expectations.

All my working life I've attended conferences (agricultural science ones before writing ones). I have a high expectation of learning, networking and facilities. At the venue I asked the girl at check-in if they were regularly 'like this' because it was chaos and no one seemed to know what they were doing. She smiled and told me they always had lots of big events. Yep, stunned me! Service was slow. Bar service was slower. And I don't think our room was serviced in our 4 day stay.

The Friday workshop was an event I did not attend. The speaker is a man whose books on writing craft I had heard great things about but when I read, they left me cold (or asleep). I was very very glad that I had not spent almost $200 when I heard these comments from attendees, "His examples are a bit dated. They're all from the mid 1980s. If you're under 30, would you have ever seen The Odd Couple?" and "I went to a talk he gave in 2010 at the American conference, and it's word for word exactly what he's presenting today."

The keynote speaker was an American big-name author. I had been told she was a cross between Phyllis Diller and Lucille Ball, which did not endear me to her before I heard her speak. But when a keynote speaker opens up by saying they haven't prepared a talk, I really get my hackles up. When it's obvious that they haven't, I'm left wanting. I thought maybe it was just her keynote...so I went along to a session about 3D Character Development. Ah, okay, not just the keynote. Sure she had notes about character but nothing I could use. You see, she plainly said that this was not for pantsers, about halfway into the session. Useful for pantsers to know that, huh? Why not put it right up front so I can go elsewhere? About three comments were made about pantsers and all of them derogatory. Then the class ended up doing plotting not character because she was sure she had a plotting session (but didn't).

I walked out, furious. Absolutely furious. I could not attend another session until I had wound down. And I was not alone. In the bar area a few of us debriefed the session and the waste of our time and money.

But do you know what she said in the final speech? She said if you haven't finished a book in 9 months, just kill it. Get over yourself and your dead baby and start a new one. (I've paraphrased because I was so incensed by her insensitive comment to a roomful of 350 women, a proportion of whom would surely have suffered miscarriage at some stage, that my mind has blanked her exact words). Political correctness, anyone?

There was another American guest who I did not see except for her session and there were photos of her at the book signing. Was she there? She certainly didn't make herself easily available.

The fourth American guest was brilliant. Thank heavens!

But when I'm paying $1000 to attend a conference (includes accommodation), I'm looking for brilliant nuggets I can use. I don't want rehash. I don't want nasty comments about how I write. I don't want only humour or inspiration...I want value for money...and 3 out of 4 of these American guests aren't delivering for me.

It's not the conference team's fault. You don't know what you're getting until they arrive. But why aren't these authors delivering? Or is it just me?

I went to a brilliant session by an academic on psychopaths. It made my conference worthwhile. He was current, relevant, presented a lot of information and gave great examples. The only part relevant to my writing was the sexual sadist component (which lasted a few minutes) but it was well worthwhile listening to him and watching a sharp presentation. (Sadly, I missed another session which I'm sure was brilliant too).

I went to a lovely Harlequin dinner which was fun, feel good and fabulous. They obviously spent money and time planning the event. And they made an effort to be all-inclusive, which hadn't been the case so much last year. I thoroughly enjoyed that evening - and it wasn't just the shirtless men!

I ditched the loud cocktail party for an evening meal with 4 others. That was really worthwhile too. The networking was great. I helped out at the pitch sessions and did a bit of chatting there too with editors and agents. I chatted with other authors. Caught up on new developments and progress on secret projects.

The Awards Dinner was lovely. Nice food, a pleasant atmosphere, nice group of people, and a lovely night to celebrate RWA's achievements.

So there were good moments and bad. But my experiences the last couple of years have left me questioning whether the cost of the event is worthwhile - especially when I come home and spend the next 2 weeks with a rocking horrible chest infection.

Maybe I'm too harsh. Maybe my expectations are too high. Maybe I'm just in a shitty mood. But I'm sick of seeing how fabulous everything was, when I think a lot of it was not worth my time or expense.

I'm happy for you not to share my views :) So, please comment if you think I've been too judgemental. I promise to respect your views.

Phallic Friday - sexual favours

There's an interesting article about a venture capitalist asking would-be clients for sex before agreeing to their funding/start up. You can read it here. Interestingly enough, his defence is that his email was hacked.

This type of thing has been around for years and it is great to see women standing up and saying "no". I presume it happens in reverse as well, with women propositioning men, but more often than not, it's the men doing the suggesting...and often they're older men picking on (up) young attractive women.

It's a form of prostitution, and if the women are happy, there's nothing wrong with it.

It's when the person being propositioned feels that it's a power play, or that they have no choice, that's when it's wrong. That's when you are entitled to say "no" and to call the person on their action. But that takes guts. Lots of guts because it may mean your dream is squashed, your character is brought into question, and your privacy is negligible.

So a huge cheer to those who are strong enough to say "no" when they're not comfortable. I hope one day we'll live in a world where everyone can respect another's choice and strong-arm tactics aren't the way rich and powerful get their way.

Wildlife Wednesday - Kingfish

Yellowtail KingfishLast week we saw Neds beach on Lord Howe Island and I mentioned the fish feeding held each afternoon. Some of the fish that visit are the Kingfish. Here are two milling around waiting for the feed. There's lots of information about the fish here at the Australian Museum website, and also a photo of one at Neds Beach where it is clear and stunning (not murky and green!).

On my first trip to LHI, I did a lot of snorkelling at Neds Beach between dives. Once I went out before the fish feeding and swam down the beach from the feeding zone. There were heaps of these big kingies milling around. I was in awe, snapping photos on my disposable underwater film camera (because this was a long time ago!). They were circling around me, heaps of them, it was the most stunning thing I'd ever seen. They came closer and closer and I was more an more in awe. And then they vanished and I was left with a shark swimming around me. Now most of the sharks are reef sharks, non-aggressive, but Neds Beach is open to the ocean so it could have been any type of shark and by now you know how useless my ID skills are! My heart in my throat, I snapped a couple of photos and then I backed up, keeping my eye on that shark, until I got to water I could stand in and I walked very quickly out of there!

One of the Admiralty IslandsWhat scared me most was that I was alone. Who would notice me gone? Would anyone see me eaten? How long would I be missing before my family found out how I'd gone? It was quite terrifying...not so much the shark, but the way my poor family would suffer.

Anyway, nothing happened and I got back in later to swim behind the fish feeding and there were more sharks, but also more people, so I felt safe (silly huh?).

The other photo is of one of the Admiralty Islands. They lie to the north of LHI and can be seen from Neds Beach, Malabar Hill and Kim's Lookout. There are 8 rocky outcrops in the group and are home to thousands of sea birds (sooty terns, noddies, masked boobies, wedge-tailed shearwaters, grey ternlets, white-bellied storm petrels, tropicbirds and little shearwaters). We dived out here once, when the weather was right, and it was stunning. The water so clear and blue, fish aplenty, and lots of corals. The girl I dived with (who worked for the dive company) was also collecting (and mapping) any crown-of-thorns starfish in the area.

Sunday Story - still sick

Sorry, no post today as I'm still sick. Be back Wednesday - that post is written ready to go :)

Phallic Friday - sharing

I'm afraid there's not a lot sexy about me at the moment. I went to the RWA conference last weekend. Women are good at sharing, and some kind soul shared a dreaded lurgy with me. So I'm hacking up my lungs, my throat is so swollen I rival a thick-necked front rower (nah, I'm way past that, I don't have a neck, just this mass beneath my head that jellies onto my shoulders), and energy is something I lost and haven't found again yet.
And when I say this to women, I'll receive comments like, "oh, you poor thing", "hope you're better soon" - sympathy, acknowledgment, because they know what it's like to share. 
Even if some bugger shared the damn thing with me first!
Hopefully I'll be back to normal transmissions soon...as soon as I find someone to share my germs with that is :)