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Weird dreams are made of this…..

25/04/2013 by L.J. Diva Filed Under: Humans & Behaviour, Writing 2 Comments

Do you ever wish you could look into your future to see what it’s like?

Well I think in my dream the other night I looked into the past.

1950s/60s I think.

It was definitely some small town on the upper Queensland coast, and I definitely knew it was Queensland, and I definitely knew it was the 50s/60s.

I cared for an injured war vet (I don’t even know if we were at war back then, and he was played by a certain hunky blond Aussie actor who’s recently done Kellogs Just Right ads) but even though he seemed to get better, he was told he was dying. He wrote four letters, one to me, one to my grandfather (I have no idea why), and two others. Then poof, he disappeared.

I was told he was dead and refused to believe it, finding out I was pregnant to him and being made to move to the main city an hour away with my male cousin, (no idea who that was).

I had my baby and worked, saving what I could while my blonde, blue eyed son grew to the age of three. After his birthday I kept getting strange feelings that I should return to my home town. At first I didn’t understand why, as I never wanted to return to the place I lost the love of my life, but the desire to return grew until I packed our bags and head south to the town once again in our old Dodge truck. (I’m not sure it was an actual Dodge but I just kept getting the feeling it was).

I arrived and went straight to the garage I had either worked in, or my family owned, and after getting out and walking my son into the main area I saw him. The man that I was told was dead, kissing a girl!!!!!

They didn’t see me, see us, and I was in absolute shock at the sight of him.

He stopped kissing her, and looking into her eyes told her he didn’t have feelings for her and nothing was going to come of it. That’s when he turned and saw me, saw us, and looked like he’d seen a ghost.

He came over and muttered and stumbled and touched my face as if he didn’t believe I was there. He saw our son and knelt down while I told the girl (have no idea who she was) to leave and never interfere in our family again).

He and I talked, we had been lied to. I had been convinced he was dead and he had been told I had married and left with a son, never to return. He had recovered and spent two more years fighting in the war only to be back in town for a year, hence the deep feeling I kept having of needing to return to town.

We tracked down the “people” who had lied to us (mainly my family although I have no idea who they were) and I kicked the door in. I was wearing blue jeans and a blue check shirt (yep, I remember details in dreams) and we blasted them with our words before walking out and telling them to never come near us again.

As we walked back to the garage, with him carrying our son, we decided to go back to the city to get married as we never wanted to be apart again. It took an hour in, two hours to get everything done, and then an hour home, where we moved into the small house near the garage that he was living in.

It was perfect. Perfect for us, our family, our future. We tucked our son in and then spent the night conceiving our new baby (need I tell you how?), it was our first time together in four years.

My dream jumped to us living there, our son running around in the back yard, me being pregnant with our second baby, him saying he wanted to buy his family a house to live in and suggested an old man’s house about half hour out of town. I knew the place, and even though it was private it was remote, and with me being pregnant it was best to stay in town so I could get to the hospital if need be.

So the end of the dream was us living in our new home on the Queensland coast.

Now there are times I really remember dreams. I dream in colour, remember what I’m wearing, remember who played what. This time, as mentioned, a hunky blond actor was my war vet/husband, and while I have no idea why he was in my R.E.M. sleep, it could have been coz I went to bed thinking of him.

Dreams are weird. We dream about shit that’s happened in our life because it’s our brain’s way of sorting through shit that’s happened to us.

So I have no idea why I dreamt about living in the 60s unless it was a past life. I have no idea why I dreamt about that Aussie actor unless it was because I went to bed thinking about him. I have no idea why any of it happened unless it was either about my past, or a clue to my future………..

A future with a hunky blonde Aussie actor perhaps……….

The revolting language of morons!

12/03/2013 by L.J. Diva Filed Under: Humans & Behaviour, The English Language, Writing Leave a Comment

“I mean” – why start a sentence with this when it means nothing and you have not said anything to then try and explain because you think what you just said was confusing and that the person you were telling it to might not understand it.

“Like” – stop using it, Facebook is not real life!

“You know” – I actually don’t, unless you tell me. The Big Brother house used it a lot last year and it annoyed the hell out of me.

“Honestly” – I hate when people start a sentence with this word because seriously, I want you to lie to me and why do you need to say it in the first place unless you think we all think you’re a liar anyway!

“To tell you the truth” – again, I’m asking you to lie to me for fuck’s sake, get real.

“Look” – At what? What do you want me to look at? I don’t see the point of this word at the beginning of a sentence when there is nothing to look at unless you are actually pointing to something.

“Totes” – A tote is a bag to carry your stuff around in, nothing else.

“Amazeballs” – I get that it’s essentially amazing but fucking hell!

I know that some of the above words are used by myself (look and you know) and I am clearly aware of when I say it and am trying to break the habit. When people use honestly and I’ll tell you the truth at the beginning of a sentence they are so hiding something.

You only use shit like that when you are lying and want people to think you’re not, or you know you’re a liar and want people to think you’re not, or, you just don’t want people to think you’re a liar in general, either way, it don’t work!

As for taking two words and making one, it’s as bad as all the baby names people give their kids.

I am so sick and tired of the way people speak. There is no need to start a sentence with look, or you know. We actually don’t you bloody dickheads!

Hoping to get a grant for your writing? You may not be entitled to anything so don’t quit your day job just to write a novel!

28/10/2012 by L.J. Diva Filed Under: Business & Legalities, L.J. Diva's Books, Writing Leave a Comment

It seems if you google business grants in Australia, there could be dozens, depending on which website you come across. But there actually aren’t.

The government is closing funding, not adding any more, cutting back to save money because they spend it like it’s going out of style.

If only we all could!

If you have a local BEC (business enterprise centre) near you, check with them as to whether there are any. And not just for writing. If you’re a muso you may get one to do a tour or record an album.

Just remember, you don’t need to quit your day job just to write a book. It can be written at night, in the morning before work or on the weekends. It DOES NOT require your full attention 24/7.

Do writers get stage fright? I think I’ve got it!

04/06/2012 by L.J. Diva Filed Under: L.J. Diva's Books, Publishing, Writing Leave a Comment

The time that it comes to sending off a submission, or uploading your pdf to CreateSpace or Smashwords, or contacting someone to do a cover for you.

Stage fright for writers?

Not sure if we do actually get it, but unless there’s another name for it, that’s what I’m going with.

At the beginning of the year I made a plan. Get THE ROAD TO VEGAS edited and ready for self-publishing by July 1st 2012.

I did that. Set aside each Sunday for a month or two to go over and over and over it until I thought it was good. Then I sent it off for an assessment. Then I edited again and again and again until I thought it was ready to set into a CS template. I did that, and emailed people about covers which took awhile to get going as people have their own deadlines and computer issues, and all within my credit card monthly budget.

But time started getting away from me. Why? Because I was so far ahead on the editing that I didn’t think I needed to rush into the cover or template.

But was it really taking a break and not rushing? Or was it stage fright?

I got the cover going as you read last week, but here we are June and I still need to put it together in CS and then wait for a copy to ship to me. Behind in time? Absolutely. I should have had my cover done and a copy on its way to me before the end of May. But there are always setbacks.

My cover is near on done, and it won’t take long to set it up and ship a proof but I wondered about my lagging behind and what it had to do with.

All the hard work? Needing a break? Not sure I could get over the line?

I just have to keep pushing myself. It’s the way it works. Things don’t get done unless you push/force/make yourself. And that’s what I need to do. Am I scared? I don’t know but there is always this little nagging doubt and “oh no let’s not rush this” that seems to pop up in the last lap around.

Surely I can’t be the only writer to get it. I cannot be the only one to get this stage fright in the last leg of producing and publishing a book. Needing that little nudge over the line to get it done and out there. There must be others who experience the same fears or grand delusions and have to push themselves into doing it.

I cannot be the only one!

How my writing is going. My books are coming soon, I promise!

19/06/2011 by L.J. Diva Filed Under: L.J. Diva's Books, Publishing, Writing 5 Comments

In the weeks leading up to the release of my books I suppose I’d better start some writing posts.

Not so much about how, when where, although I suppose those questions will come up, but more along the lines of how far I’ve progressed to how far I’ve come.

When I wrote my first novel, THE ROAD TO VEGAS, back in July/August of 2006, I knew one day I’d be famous for it.

But no publisher wanted it.

I can see why.

While I believe the story is still good, it definitely needs an overhaul and will be the third book I release, sometime next year.

In Feb of 2008 I wrote my second, HOW I WON LOTTO, MOVED TO L.A. & MARRIED A REALLY HUGE TV STAR!

It took about three weeks of handwritten labour and then another three weeks of typing it all up. After two years of submitting a publisher wanted it, but also wanted to take another two years to publish it. After many a night of crying over either saying no, or paying an exorbitant amount of money to get it released this year, I said no.

Then last year came LIFE AND DEATH ADVENTURES IN LONDON, my third book which will be released at the same time as LOTTO.

I sent it on the usual round of agents and publishers and did think of digital, as Cyn-B-Demented suggested. But at the time, I wanted to hold an actual book in my hands, and see it on bookstore shelves.

Then one day, a few weeks later, I came across CreateSpace and realised I could hold my book in my hand, and not long after the realisation hit me, “Why am I waiting for a publisher to tell me I’m good enough?”

So I decided to do it all myself and have set the plan in motion. Especially since bookshops are a dying breed (my closest one has shut down) and the “BIG PUBLISHERS” don’t seem to want any new fiction from unknown authors anymore. But that’s a different story.

Back on the first of May my list was – get my books edited, get them formatted and get them uploaded.

Well, I’ve had one copy edited and the second has been sent off. I’ve decided to do the formatting myself, so that’s in the next few weeks. I’ve had covers done for some time but have tweaked them to the specifications of the places I’ll be selling. I’ve downloaded and printed all necessary info from all three places about formatting and selling. I’ve also set up Facebook pages for the books and they will go live when the books are published.

So, while I have done so much, there’s still so much to do.

Yesterday was the day for one last proof read of LOTTO, and then sending separate copies into three separate folders, I’m going to attempt the formatting by following the instructions.

I think it went well. The instructions were somewhat easy but I wasn’t able to do a table of contents and it took me well into the night.

In future writing posts, I’ll detail everything, but not down to the last crossed t and dotted i as that will be too boring, but I’ll definitely thank the other writers for their help and give links to their websites for future writers.

If you have any questions about my writing or anything to do with my books, let me know and I might start a FAQ page if anyone thinks that’s interesting enough.

Weird dreams are made of this…..

The revolting language of morons!

Hoping to get a grant for your writing? You may not be entitled to anything so don’t quit your day job just to write a novel!

Do writers get stage fright? I think I’ve got it!

How my writing is going. My books are coming soon, I promise!

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