Showing posts with label about this blog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label about this blog. Show all posts

04 January 2013

New Year... New Name... New Me

Image courtesy of mrpuen / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
My life is in a transitory phase at the moment. I'm doing my best to forge ahead, focusing on my dreams. A big part of that is my literary dream, and I hope to have more time over the next few months to focus on my second draft... although there are more transitions to endure.

With the new year, I thought it an ideal time to create a new identity for myself, as my old identities seem somewhat inappropriate for the new me. My first name is my own, but my surname needs a makeover. I need something of my own. This will be my online identity, and I also intend to publish (fingers crossed) under this name.

So it's out with the old and in with the Brentwood. I have no idea why I chose that particular name. It just dropped into my head and seemed just as good as any other. A google search revealed no author competition. 


If anyone has been generous enough to bookmark this blog, please update the link.

On a different note (see what I did there?), I'm loving this song at the moment, even if it does me cry on occasion.

32 and still growing up now...


01 February 2012

It's My Bloggiversary!

Image: Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
My blog is one year old. And what a year it's been. As well as quite a bit happening in my personal and work life (most of which I have not shared), I feel as if I have grown immensely as a writer.

When I started off of course no-one was reading my posts, but as I reached out to others I've started to form some rewarding writer friendships. It's lovely to get comments on my thoughts; to know that others share the same struggles and triumphs. A recent highlight for me is having actual authors comments on my posts.

I started the blog when I'd finished a draft. Since then that MS was edited, critiqued, edited again, queried, submitted and now put out to pasture. Along the way I've continued to study the craft and I've had some real "a-ha" moments. Now as I work to complete the next draft of a very different book, I'm more confident in my abilities and even more excited about the future ahead.

Thanks everyone for reading :-)

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27 January 2012

Sharing the Love

Thanks to Jen for passing the Kreativ Blogger Award on to me this week :-)

Apparently I need to pass the award onto 6 bloggers, and tell you ten things about myself. Ten! I don't think I can think of ten interesting things to say. Well, here goes...

Never again
1. I am the youngest of two daughters, my mother is the youngest of two daughters... and my grandmother is the youngest of two daughters.

2. I didn't venture overseas until I was twenty, and it was a full-on 100 day backpacking adventure through UK/Europe with my best friend.

3. I prefer potatoes over meat.
Totally crystals

4. Once I had a long-standing argument discussion with a friend over whether the sparkles in the ocean were more like diamonds or crystals.

5. I have naturally curly hair - that is, hair with random waves all over the place and a permanent halo of frizz. I've worn it straight for the last five years and it's been a revelation. Such freedom in being able to run your hands through your hair without them getting stuck!
Bella

6. I have owned two female ginger cats (most gingers are toms). They are/were very special girls.

7. I like spotting and identifying transporty stuff - like planes and cruise ships, and I love reading maps.

8. My grandparents were all Scottish, so I grew up with bagpipes and tartan in my blood.
Yum yum

9. I cook a mean spaghetti carbonara (no, it shouldn't be swimming in cream).

10. I like being in high places - like on mountains, up towers and look-out points... anywhere with a view. Maybe being vertically challenged has something to do with it. I hate the feeling of falling though.

And now for your bonus semi-interesting fact...

11. I believe I just may be the only person in the world with my (first and last) name.

I've also sort of been remiss in not passing on the Liebster award I got ages ago, because at the time I didn't have enough blogging friends to pass it on to. Thanks again to Loree for giving it to me, and congrats again for recently landing an agent!

Now to share the love for the Kreativ Blogger award...

1. Anne Gallagher
2. Glynis Smy
3. Lynda R.Young
4. Sierra Gardner
5. Jen Daiker
6. Susan Bergen

You all rock :-)

19 March 2011

The Best and Worst of Times

I spent last Friday hiking and then climbing up a peak in the Grampian mountains of Victoria, then gazing at kangaroos grazing in the evening warmth. Reminders of the January floods were everywhere - Halls Gap is the only town you can get to in the entire region, after 194 landslides have made the rest of the state park out of bounds. But Halls Gap was flooded too - luckily it was only the businesses nearest the river and they are all open again. We ate dinner at one of the cafes there. Upon returning to our rented cottage, I flicked on the TV to see those horrible pictures of the tsunami tearing through Japan. And you just feel like, "OMG, what next?" We try to go on with our lives, trying to find joy in experiences and with those close to us... but sometimes, it just feels like there's no way you can avoid feeling depressed. Do you know what I mean? Now I am more relieved than ever about New Zealand's nuclear free stance.

Anyway, we had a fabulous time on our holiday, so much so that the post-holiday blues really took hold on Sunday night. It was our first time to Melbourne, but we felt right at home straight away. Our trip was split between city exploring, airshow attending and driving around the Mornington Peninsula and Great Southern Touring Route.

On our return I discovered that the lovely Sierra had nominated me for the Write Hard blog award. Thanks Sierra! I'd like to nominate my other original followers, Writergal24 and Brooke.



I'm getting settled into my new job, and now I'm looking forward to having time to catch up with friends, tidy up the garden, plan our trip to my sister-in-law's wedding later this year, and of course, work on the second draft of my WIP. I want to give my beta readers the first couple of chapters yesterday!

And now, the shameless parade of holiday photos - enjoy!

Melbourne City














25 February 2011

It Never Rains But It Pours

It's been ten days since I lasted posted, and it's been an eventful week by all accounts.

Of course there was the Christchurch earthquake, the horror of which is still being revealed. Thankfully no-one I know was killed or seriously injured, but it is still very distressing.

That happened in the middle of my second day at a new job. Having been there a week now, I feel like I'm settling in and beginning to get used to my new horrific commute. Both the mental effort and physical exertion have rendered me comotose for most of the week.

Prior to that we were away for a long weekend, after an incredibly hectic last four days at my old job. The good news is we're actually away on holiday in Melbourne from next Thursday, so I'll have time to recover from everything (or rush around like a lunatic tourist). We're going to the Avalon airshow and driving The Great Ocean Road. So there'll be another quiet patch on the blog, but hopefully some great photos in a couple of weeks.

In the middle of all this, I've been despairing over the lack of any time to work on my WIP. I'm trying to plot the chronology of the story onto a calendar. Certain parts relate to things that actually happened, and I want to make sure that it seems realistic to those in the know. Also sometimes I'm a bit fuzzy when I mention when things are coming up in the future, or my characters need to think about specific dates, and the only way I can think to do this is with the calendar. In the odd snatched half hour this week I've been toiling away, stuck on a particular sequence where real-life happenings just aren't lining up the way I want them to for the story. Very frustrating. I hope to get it sorted this weekend, but I have a huge to-do list. Fingers crossed!

01 February 2011

Why So Blue

I thought I’d explain how the blog came to look like it does. I’ll also give an indication of what I want the blog to be, in terms of tone and message.

The first thing to decide on was the name. I didn’t just want to call it after me, and for a while I had no idea what to call it. Then as I was working on my WIP, trying to finish reading a book in my genre (this particular one being a chore), and also researching a forthcoming trip. My life was all about pages – the goals I was setting myself around how many I would read and write each hour or each day (or usually, before a given mealtime). So I thought about something to do with pages, like “Living in Pages”. That sounded a bit boring, so I thought what about “Breathing in Pages” or “Dreaming in Pages”. None of these were floating my boat.

I was reading an article which was completed unrelated (I can’t even remember the subject now), and it mentioned “la dolce vita” (Italian for “the sweet life”). And for some reason it clicked in my brain, and I thought “I wonder what ‘The Writing Life’ in Italian would be”. Then I looked it up, along with some of the other titles previously mentioned, and settled on La Scrittura Vita. Why Italian? I’ll explain my background another time, but suffice to say anything sounds more romantic in Italian.

31 January 2011

Welcome to my blog!

I am an aspiring author, and I (very) optimistically hope this blog will document my journey to publication. I’ve tried and failed before, but I have a good feeling about 2011. And if I don’t succeed, then that means that hardly anyone will find this blog, so my failure can remain in obscurity.

I told myself that I couldn’t start this blog until I finished the first draft of my current WIP... but I was a bit naughty and broke that rule by a few days, because I got caught up in different designs and I just couldn’t wait to put the template together, because I have a bit of a thing for graphics and typography. Yes, I’m a bit of a geek – I’ll proudly admit that right now.

However, I did refrain from posting this until my draft was done, right on my self-imposed deadline of 31st January. Now I have 92,000 words of women’s fiction, ready to craft into shape, and another 13,000 words of oprhaned scenes and dialogue, ideas I’m yet to use, and notes on themes and plot strings that I need to remember as I work my way through the edits.

The blog won’t be just about my writing, firstly because that’s not interesting enough to sustain a whole blog (not yet anyway), and second because I like to blab about other things that are going on. I won’t talk about specific things I’m doing in my personal life, but I will express my opinions on happenings in my world (and the wider world). Beneath my shy exterior, I can be very opinionated ;-)

If anything good ever does happen with my book, I’ll engage in shameless self-promotion. You have been warned if that miracle ever comes to pass.

It’s not easy for me to put myself out there with my real name like this. For one, I’m the very definition of an introvert. Social interaction wears me out, and I’m very private. Anything I’ve done online before has never had my real name attached to it (except for LinkedIn). Also, there’s only so many Charlotte Sannazzaros in the world (in fact, I’m yet to come across another one). So I have to be very careful that I don’t reveal too much about what I’m doing, just to be safe.

If you want to know more about me, read the About Charlotte page. If you want to get an insight into my psyche 4-5 years ago, you can look at my old blog.