Saturday, February 09, 2008

I've moved...

My blog has now moved over to a WordPress installation on my website. Please change your bookmarks and any links to:

http://bronwynparry.com/


And pop on over and have a look! It's still somewhat under construction, and the visual design will probably change to complement my book cover when I get it, but the basic structure is in place.

Saturday, January 26, 2008

We have a title...

After discussion and consideration between the team at Hachette, my agent, and moi, we have decided on the title:

As Darkness Falls

As Darkness Falls will be released in September, here in Australia.

I'm very pleased with the title, and excited that it's all starting to happen; the revised first two chapters are in, ready for production to start on samplers; the graphic designer is working on the cover; and I'm in the throes of completing final revisions, for submission next week. Then it will be head down on book 2, until the final edits come back. There's no word yet on publication in other countries, but Hachette will shortly be taking it to their international associates so we'll keep our fingers crossed that they want it!

And in other news, the workshop proposal that Valerie Parv and I submitted for the Romance Writers of America conference in San Francisco at the end of July has been accepted; so I've now registered for the conference, and will have to start looking at airfares. It will only be a quick trip to SF with maybe just a day or two of sight-seeing before the conference, but I'm looking forward to it!

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Round up

What's been happening since I last posted?

We had a pleasant dinner on Christmas night at the home or friends of ours, and a quiet New Year's Eve at home.

I had a lovely few days in Sydney, with my mother and my sister. Highlights included meeting my agent, the wonderful Clare Forster, and lunching with her at the Customs House restaurant with views of Sydney Harbour. On the Friday evening, Mum and I went and saw Billy Elliot: the Musical, which we both enjoyed a great deal. On the Saturday evening, after all three of us had had dinner, Andrea and I joined the crowds at the opening events of the Sydney Festival - free concerts on six stages around the Domain, Hyde Park, and environs. We just missed Paul Kelly, but saw Brian Wilson (of Beach Boys fame), and then wandered to Hyde Park where a salsa band was getting many people dancing - including me! (Can't resist good music!)

In between, we did some shopping, ate, visited the Museum of Contemporary Art, and generally had a relaxed time enjoying the sights and each other's company.

Since getting home, I've been working on the edits for the book, and yesterday I had a great meeting with a local police sergeant who was very helpful in providing advice and answering questions about police procedures.

And around here, the grass has grown high because of recent rains, the blackberries are ripening, there's still hyacinth orchids flowering, and the dams are full. Life is mostly pretty good!

Monday, December 24, 2007

Merry Christmas!

Best wishes to all for a joyful Christmas, and a wonderful 2008.

Our Christmas tree is only a simple. small one, but I think it's pretty:



And to continue in the seasonal traditions, I baked another batch of fruit mince tarts today - I wonder how long they'll last??

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Solstice surprise

My DH isn't much into Christmas, so I usually give him a gift, or a special dinner, for the Summer Solstice.

This year I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for, but I did come across some shelving on special at the hardware shop. Since we don't have a shed or garage, most of our shed-type stuff is stored in the carport, and it's been getting steadily untidier as we've acquired more equipment for our outback trips. The local black snake can find plenty of places to hide, which isn't a good thing.

So, on Friday, for a Solstice Surprise, I spent a fair amount of the day while the DH was at work putting together the shelves, sweeping out the accumulated dust, debris and spiders, and using the shelves to tidy up a large amount of stuff.



This is before the tidy up, and below is after:



Despite aching bits of my anatomy from hours of hammering together shelves by myself, I was pleased with the outcome, and so, too, was DH, which is what matters.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Snuggle time



No, this photo wasn't 'staged'. Ted lives in and around the basket; he's a favourite toy of our other dog, Tansy, who loves to play 'fetch Ted' (not to mention have a chew of Ted.) Jaffa, The Princess Dog, isn't much into games, but she does like to snuggle into things, and on this occasion Ted served the purpose.

This was taken not long after both dogs had been clipped, hence the shorter-than-usual fur.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Catching up, and cuteness

Oops. It's been a while since I posted in here. It really doesn't seem like two months, but that's what the dates say!

So, what's been happening? I had a great meeting in Sydney last week with my publisher, and met quite a few of the fantastic team who will be working on and marketing my book.

I went up to Sydney from Canberra, where I went to give a paper at the conference of The Australian Association of Writing Programs, and also to take the opportunity to see the family - especially my niece, who's off to France tomorrow for a 3 month stay with a host family. I had fun, shopping for shoes and clothes for her, and helping her to pack!

I've submitted my resignation from my day job, and will finish up there next week. I'm planning to take the opportunity to focus for the next 12 months on building my writing career. I'll probably be doing some casual work and maybe some short-term project work as well, but the writing will be top priority. I'm almost counting the hours until my freedom, next Thursday! I'm incredibly fortunate to be able to take this opportunity, so I'm intending to make the best of it. I have another novel to finish by July, and I'm hoping to have the third one well underway, if not almost finished, before the end of next year.

Spring is about to give way to Summer here, and as we've had good rains recently, the landscape has a fair amount of green, and the dams are close to full. The wildlife is doing it's thing - one of the two wallabies we see around has a little joey, the turtles are laying eggs, the swallows in the carport are raising their second brood for the year, and this afternoon, when I took the dogs for a walk, we saw this:



Koalas are very shy creatures, and hard to spot when they're up in the trees, so we only see them a couple of times a year. Today was my lucky day!