Summer 2013

Burleigh Heads, Gold Coast

I thought I'd share some photos of my favourite place where I walk regularly: Burleigh Heads. The weather has been rough this summer, so much that I haven't been in the surf. Not only have the wild storms washed a lot of the beach away, but the water is now brown from the silt that has filtered down from the Nerang and Tweed Rivers. At first glance the eroded beaches are devastating, and the rough seas make surfing and swimming conditions dangerous. This photo taken from the headland near Burleigh Hill was the most tranquil I'd seen all summer. The photo was taken just before the sun set. You can see the gold sunlight touching the tips of the waves. It was a great place to meditate.

Burleigh Heads, Gold Coast

 This photo shows some of the erosion of the beach at Burleigh Heads. Because of the protective Burleigh Hill this area wasn't as badly affected by the recent rough seas, however Surfers Paradise and other parts of the Gold Coast experienced major beach erosion with up to three metres and more washed away. The beaches are slowly recovering and the council is working hard to repair the devastation so that we have lots of sand again for our Easter tourists.

The cyclones wreak havoc along our coastline during the summer, however within a few months of normal conditions our beaches will return to their former beauty. There are a lot of similarities between how nature repairs the land and how people's hearts and minds are repaired after they have been through a storm. In time peace will come again. The important thing to remember is that there are lessons to be learned from the difficulties we experience. We often come back stronger and better equipped than before for the new challenges that are ahead of us.

How about you, are you battling a storm at the moment? I'm encouraging you to accept the storm and work with it, for in time it too will pass.

Good Writing Habits

Book signing...Web of lies

I've often been asked by many aspiring writers about my writing habits. It's as if by finding out about my daily writing routine they will be validated in some way regarding their own habits. If they're not yet published it's as if they try my routine then they will surely be published.

Every author has a different routine. Some write in the early hours of the morning before they go to their day job. Some work into the long dark hours after a full eight hour day or more. Another snatches bits of time when the baby is asleep (this was me when my son was young). Others write during their lunch hour, while waiting in the doctor's surgery, or sitting on the bus or train on their daily commute. I know of one successful author who only wrote on the weekends because she was a busy teacher all week.

It's the flexibility and freedom of writing that attracted me to this work. I am definitely not a nine to five worker. When I was in the workforce in my other life, working that nine to five shift, I felt I was in gaol for the whole eight hours. For most of that time I was stuck in a work area where I couldn't see the outside world. When I started writing full time I made sure there was light and the natural world around me. For variety, I go to the beach or a park or outdoor coffee shop to write. It's good for my health and it fills my creative well; double benefit.

As to my current routine, I write every day without fail. Week days, eight hours or more, while weekends for only a couple of hours per day. I believe it's important to keep the writing habit moving. I have this fear that if I miss a day, I may never get back to it. However, every year, I stop writing mid-December and don't come back until about mid-January. I may make some random notes, but that's all. This is my down time. Summer makes me come alive. It's my time to bask in the hot sun for a few minutes then take a cool refreshing swim in the surf. It's time to absorb the world around me into my heart and spirit and let nature take hold of me for those weeks. It's also a time to meet new people and make new friends whom I like to connect with in the year ahead.

Writing is my life, and  the more I write I'm finding out more about myself and how I relate to this wonderful planet we live on. Ideas are limitless, they are everywhere I go. As to that writing habit: I just do what feels right for me. I expect you will do what works for you.

Happy writing!

How about you? Do you have regular writing habits or do you have to squeeze time to write out of your busy day?

2013...Your Second Chance...or Third...

It's 2013 and despite the discussions last year that the world was going to end on December 21, we're still here. Does that mean we've all been given a second chance?

Sometimes we feel we've been thrown in the deep end of life and something bad has happened that rips our confidence out of the core of us. Have you ever been in that place? I guarantee every person on this planet has been there and sometimes it hurts so bad, we wonder if we will ever recover.

I don't know about you, I believe in second chances, or third or fourth. When I've been knocked down I have the choice to reach out and take hold of whatever is offered, a hand, rope, inner strength, whatever you want to call it, and know that I can get up and try again, or I can choose to wallow in my own self pity and let life pass me by.

Yes, you have worked your heart out in 2012 to write that novel and you received a rejection from the agent or publisher of your dreams just before Christmas. So now you feel you just can't get out of bed because you feel you've failed. Have you failed? Or you got the rejection because the market isn't ready for your work, or maybe you might just need a little more time to practise and hone your craft? When a publisher or agent says 'no', it's easy to feel hurt and unappreciated. Feeling hurt and unappreciated is the writer's life. Writers need to grow a thick skin.

When I started my writing career, I wrote five books. Hours and hours of time sitting at my desk handwriting, and typing my stories up on a portable typewriter, then I graduated to a basic wordprocessor and then came the computer. I lost contact with friends, I had to write ... nobody understood why I had to write. Some of my friends still don't understand why I leave the real world to enter my imaginary world to tap on a keyboard. I need to write every day, so that I feel sane and calm at the end of the day. It's an inner obsession I just can't ignore or I'm difficult to live with. Early in my writing career my compulsion had been fed, but my work was still being rejected. Why?

Rejection means I'll try harder next time.

In my next post I'm going to share how I overcame rejection and continued the journey into my writing life. Until then, keep writing!! Don't give up!!

Are you in the doldrums with your writing? Unsure of where to turn next? I'd like to hear from you. This year I want to help you achieve your writing dreams.

Merry Christmas

There's no doubt in my mind that Christmas is a special time of the year. I always look forward to this time of celebration. I work through my schedule so that I have time available to be with family and friends to reminisce, to chill, to share, to laugh, to cry and to wonder why. It's a time when I take time out from my busy life to reflect on the past year, my achievements and those things still languishing on the back burner and wonder if they'll ever come out into the light.

What I also love about Christmas is the energy I see around me. When I go shopping, the sparkle of anticipation in people's eyes as they choose gifts for their loved ones and friends, sends goose bumps down my spine. Yes, there's tiredness in their eyes, too, after a year of toil, but it's the love that's shining up from way down in their hearts that encourages me, leaving me with overhwelming tears of joy that yes, people really do care about each other. How about you, do you feel the power and energy of Christmas? I take this opportunity to wish all my readers a happy and spirit-filled Christmas, and I hope 2013 is a time of discovery and wonder in everything you do. Love to you all, Laura.      

It's Officially Launched

Web of Lies was launched last Sunday just in time for Christmas. Great gifts for grandmothers, mothers, daughters, nieces and sisters, or that special friend in your life.

Web of lies...hope for tomorrow

Here's the blurb:

High school sweethearts, Stephanie and Lachlan are torn apart by circumstance, bad decisions and a web of lies, leaving an unknown future for their son, Ryan.

Eight years later they reconnect, but the time apart has changed them. The family had made decisions based on lies and deceit and now must find a way to either reveal the truth or live with their mistakes. On the surface their arrangements seem flawless, but dig deeper, and the truth is not as it appears.

Lachlan and Stephanie are forced to confront the consequences of their actions and the entire family is compelled to reveal the truth, find forgiveness, and renew loving one another. but the hardest decision is still to come.

If you've been following my blog tour, thank you!

Here is where I'm blogging in the lead up to Christmas:

3rd December:  http://laussieswritingblog.blogspot.com.au/

4th December:  http://ishmarind.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/author-laura-oconnell-speaks-about-her.html?showComment=1354576020540

10th December:  http://nas-dean.blogspot.com.au/

10th December:  http://julietmadison.wordpress.com/

11th December:  http://internationalchristianfictionwriters.blogspot.com.au/

12th December: http://freshfiction.com/

19th December:   http://romancebookhaven.blogspot.com.au/

When you've read the book, I'd love to hear your comments, so don't be shy, leave a comment here or on my Facebook page. Thanks!