Meeting You On The Web

There's only a couple of weeks until the official release of Web of Lies. I'm blogging at various sites throughout the web from today as follows:

• 16 November  -  http://jemifraser.blogspot.com.au/
• 20 November  -  http://serenatattistoryeditor.blogspot.com.au/
• 21 November  -  http://romanceuniversity.org/
• 23 November  -  http://romancereader-riya.blogspot.com.au/search?updated-max=2012-10-11T03:00:00%2B12:00&max-results=2&start=2&by-date=false

Drop by, leave a comment and go in the draw to win a copy of one of my books.

I want to leave you with a quote from the Bible, Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 to meditate on this weekend.

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

A time to be born and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

Start writing the next exciting chapter.

A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace."

The life journey is different for all of us. Where are you in your journey at the moment?

Jigsaw Puzzles and Writing

A Christian Riese Lassen Puzzle

Did you know there's a lot of similarities between doing a jigsaw puzzle and writing a book?

Several years ago, I completed a jigsaw puzzle of an orchestra. It was all musical instruments, bald heads and red noses. It was a challenge and it was fun. I worked the jigsaw to keep my mind quiet and focused during an extremely busy time in my life. Putting all the pieces together helped in reducing stress when I felt my life was out of control.

I also found the shapes, splashes of colour and the slotting together of all those shapes and colours aided my creativity as I planned my manuscript. Ideas for my work come to me at different times and places. I jot them down on loose pieces of paper or in my trusty notebook with its worn, grubby edges. When I'm ready to start a new writing project, I have my puzzle pieces to hand, ie., the research content, characters, plot ideas, and setting. I sort and swap, change and rearrange all these elements together to make the plot of my new novel. I approach my jigsaws in the same way. I paddle my fingers through all the pieces, searching for all the straight edges and when that outline is finished, I start filling in the middle.

While I'm writing and puzzling, I have my earphones on and listen to my favourite musician, James Andrew Black. These two activities keep me focused and in the world I've created until the work is done. An added bonus is being able to rest the eyes on colour and shape, which is a great relief after looking at black and white text for extended periods.

Recently, I understood why the travelling around Australia exercise sabotaged my writing. I had no jigsaw puzzle time while writing Web of Lies and this project took much longer than I'd planned. Now, I'm one hundred percent focused on my new novel, Broken Dreams, working title. My new jigsaw, of two swimming dolphins, a Christian Riese Lassen puzzle, is laid out on my dining room table, ready for me to place random pieces whenever I get up and walk around to release the tension in my shoulders from hunching over the keyboard. By the time I finish writing my first draft, the puzzle is done, too. It's also a great visual tool to monitor the progress on my novel, as the puzzle comes together so does my manuscript.

How about you, do you have an activity you do while you're writing or performing your work?

Inspiration for Web of Lies

Web of lies

I believe all writing is inspired by experiences in our lives. Certainly, African Hearts and my soon to be released, Web of Lies have been inspired by my life experiences.

The countdown for Web of Lies is on. Thirty-one days to release date on 1st December in bookstores and on Amazon. This novel was inspired by my teenage years when I began to think more about my world, the people in it, and why they do the things they do.

In the late sixties and seventies, I lived in a country town and was aware of teenage girls who suddenly left town for several months and then returned unexpectedly with no explanation for their absence. Eventually, my curious nature got the better of me and my investigations revealed that the young women had gone away to have babies which they gave up for adoption. I was horrified to think this sort of thing was happening in the town in which I lived.

Back then there was no government assistance and the responsibility had to fall back on the families. Also, unwed mothers were ostracised and often thought of as having loose morals in some country towns. The only option available to these young women who’d made a mistake was going away to have their baby and give the infant up for adoption.

I then wondered, what if some of the children secretly came back to be reared by a member of the unwed mother’s family, as in an aunt or other relative. This thought was the germ that created Web of Lies.

Through reading this novel, I hope you, my readers, will be encouraged, and realise mistakes can happen to anyone at any time. Lies can be told with good intentions to cover up mistakes, but what happens in later years when lies are revealed and the trust that has been with a family is destroyed? Can the knowledge of the truth bring a family back together so that all can be forgiven, or are the relationships destroyed forever? Read my novel to find the answers to these questions. Copies can be pre-ordered from Even Before Publishing, Amazon or from the "Books" page on this website.

My website is in the process of being upgraded and should be finalised this week. In the meantime here are the links:

http://evenbeforepublishing.com/lauraoconnell.html

http://www.amazon.com/Web-of-Lies-ebook/dp/B009LJH8A6/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1351486835&sr=8-13&keywords=web+of+lies

I'd also like to know if you've told lies trying to protect those you love. Leave me a comment.

Living In The Smog

The smog will kill you if you don't rise above it.

Sometimes life can be tough. We get caught in the daily grind of living, making decisions that affect the rest of our life. Some of the decisions are good and some send us into a spin. Usually, the decisions that send us into a spin are the ones that have been blurred by stress and not taking the time to think the situation through.

I've suffered more than my share of making myself miserable because I did something without thinking. I brought my son up encouraging him to think, think, think about everything he does and before he says it. He does it all the time, somehow I don't always heed my own advice these days. Am I too busy, too lazy, too caught up in what others might say or have I lost some of the self-confidence I've had because of life's struggles? Possibly all of these.

During the last four months I've been on a journey of self discovery. I thought I knew myself pretty well. I've always had a sense of adventure and an insatiable curiosity about others' lives. Six months ago I was given the personal papers of a woman who died last December. I glanced at the contents of the boxes knowing I would get to them sometime soon. I've just completed my third book which is under consideration with a publisher as I write.

I'm about to move house again, so it's time I looked at that box. This week I sifted through the papers and the bits and pieces and found some interesting information. However, my head is in a space where I'm not thinking clearly. The person who gave me the boxes phoned me recently to say she was closing her second hand store and would I pass on the boxes to the historical society when I finished. Yes, I would do that. Aware of my fast approaching move, I picked up the phone to see where the historical society contact lived. Can you believe she lived across the street?

Deep inside of me I had doubt about giving the boxes back, but because I'm stressed at the moment, I ignored that feeling and thought the story wasn't interesting enough. Our son is visiting this weekend. I found a phone number on a loose piece of paper. He insisted I phone knowing my head wasn't clear. The person at the other end of the phone was the deceased woman's daughter. She gave me the contact name for a person in Mackay who has researched the deceased woman's husband's family.

Extraordinary! All the pieces of this story are coming together because my son insisted I stop a moment and think about what I'm doing. I thank him for his commitment to me and my career and his own career, and for seeing things that I can't because I'm caught in the smog of life.

Are you missing opportunities because you're living in the smog?

New Release - Web of Lies Cover

All the hard work of writing has been done. All the hard work of designing the cover has been done. Web of Lies will be released on 1st December, 2012. Throughout the next few months I'll share with you my inspiration for writing this novel.

Hope for tomorrow and begin the change you desire.