Author: Jenn J McLeod

Australia's nomadic novelist living on the road a purple and white caravan called Myrtle the Turtle. Come home to the country: House for all Seasons (#5 top selling novel in 2013), Simmering Season (2014), Season of Shadow and Light (2015), The Other Side of the Season (2016), A Place to Remember (2018), House of Wishes (2019)
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Any other nuts out there?

I must be nuts! Did anyone else enter 3 sentences into the Knight Agency’s Book in a Nutshell competition?

I did – one of 1200 entries it would appear!!!!!!! So I’ve been hanging around the Knight Agency blog waiting for results (they’d said by May 1). Here is the latest update.

Just wanted to let everyone know that the TKA agents are all busy whittling down the entries in the Book-in-a-Nutshell contest. Our fabulous Melissa Jeglinski has cut down the more than 1200 submissions!! to a much-less-scary 70 or so. Each of us is reading all of the remaining entries and we’ll be cutting it down further from there. We have some fabulous stuff, and everyone who entered should be commended for distilling their stories down to our three-sentence limit. Great job, all of you!

I’m not nutty enough to think I’ll make the cut, but I really did enjoy the challenge. It was a fabulous writing excercise.
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Don’t Botox Your Book

 

I just watched 60 Minutes – a story on women who botox their faces; young women with hardly a wrinkle in sight.
What caught my attention was a word of warning from one comentator in relation to this new botox fad. This is what she said about when to stop. “There’s good, better, and buggered.”
I immediatley related this to writing (I relate everything in life to my writing!).
Think about it.
You start out with a ‘good’ book and revisions make it a ‘better’ book. But you need to know when to stop, when it’s enough, when to accept it as the best it can be. That’s the time to stop (before it’s buggered) and maintain your integrity, and more importanly your expression!
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Is your mutt your muse?

My little muses (Strawberry & Daiquiri – left) sit and sit and sit while I write and write and write. So I made them a dog jumper each to keep them warm in winter while they sit and I write!

They are easy.
Just go to your local Op Shop and get a coloured kid-size sweater (not knitted). Cut the sleeves off for the front leg opening, cut the side seams completely (you will re-stiched the sides once you’ve fitted pooch), trim away excess over the chest and between their front legs (otherwie they either walk funny or stand like statues!).
There you have it – winter warmers for your best friend.