Busy weekend!

Some of the minxes have been wicked busy this weekend....

Kitty attended Totally Booked Blog's London Author Signing Event, where she was rubbing shoulders with other heavy-hitting authors such as Colleen Hoover, Jasinda Wilder, Alice Clayton (and many more), meeting readers and signing stuff...

And Lorraine was at the Festival of Romance in England where she was nominated for both Best Romantic e-book and also Innovation in Romantic Fiction.

Some minxes are doing Nanowrimo - some buried in the editing cave, and some writing their fingers to the bone...

There will doubtless be pictures and gossip to follow over the weeks ahead, but for now, I'd like to leave you with something pretty to look at, namely these incredible celebrity dolls by Noel Cruz. (See more at his website, http://www.ncruz.com/

These are my favorites....aren't they awesome?

November, Nano and Coffee

I love November. Here in Johannesburg the sun is shining (when doesn't it?), the days are warm, and the spring rains have cleaned the air. The shops are filled with Christmas decorations, but we're not yet so sick of hearing Christmas carols that we want to punch the next shopping mall Santa who says "ho! ho! ho!"

But best of all, November is Nanowrimo - National Novel Writing month. For professional authors (i.e. anyone taking this writing lark seriously, not just those whose monthly bills depend on it) every month is novel writing month, but in November we get to use the excuse of doing Nano to feed the family instant meals all month and to ignore the ironing.

If you've ever done Nano you'll know the feeling - that thrill of being so involved in your story that the words just flow. That amazing feeling when you crawl into bed (an hour later than usual) knowing you've achieved a higher than expected word count. The excitement when your fingers are moving across the keyboard and suddenly your characters do something unexpected and you think "yes! this is even better!"
(Can you tell I haven't yet hit the Saggy Middle of my story?!)

So for all you Nano-ers out there: may the force be with you!
(And what the hell are you doing reading this blog? Go write! Now!)