Or how to exhaust yourself and start yelling at your family. — So my life has all been about the house, or rather houses, lately. The good news is we found a bigger, cheaper house in the nearby town of Gawler. The bad news, to secure the loan we had to get our house on the market immediately. Our plan to take…

My agent still likes my book, mostly. — I have a cold. A minor one, not the spicey cough but enough to make talking to people all day tough so I have taken the day off of work and now I find myself wanting to do something productive, to get some writing done but really I should be…

Or rather I am very busy getting ready to move house instead. I feel like I should call this Diary of a House Hunter this week because that is what I have been doing. Looking for a new home and getting the current one presentable to sell. There has been…

I finished the latest edits. Now we wait for the next ones. — We just had a long weekend, so we sent my step kids to their grandparents and I had the time and space to finish my edit. It was hard to know when to stop. In the end, I stopped after listening to a horrendous computer generated voice reading the whole…

Still not quite there yet, folks. — Okay, so maybe we should just admit this has turned into a monthly blog rather than a weekly one. Between work and the kids bringing home every cold going around (although not the spicy cough again, yet) and really wanting to spend any spare energy or time I have on…

Still Editing. Still Learning. — I didn’t even realise that it had been a few weeks since I had written here. Understandable, I think. I have been busy with work, life and editing. Oh, and I started another crime writing course, this one is fantastic. I am only two weeks in, and it is a…

Editing continues not quite apace but a lot… — I did not know I had it in me to be so ruthless. With my agent’s notes to guide me and a strong desire to make Dawn the best it can be, I am “killing my darlings”. That Rocky Horror Picture Show joke that out of context seems inappropriate, gone…

My Agent has sent back my manuscript with editorial comments. — Day One My agent has sent me her notes on my manuscript. She has also sent the reader’s report. It is 5 am. I should go back to sleep. I can’t. I have a sneaky little look at the reader’s report on my phone. It seems positive, but the are some questions that…

It’s over. Back to Work. — Today is the last day of my self-styled, budget-friendly, at-home writer’s retreat. Despite its lack of a picturesque cottage nestled in the hills with gorgeous views and a break from my family, it was still a wonderful luxury. Not having to interrupt my headspace with anything else during the day was…