AtoZ Blog Challenge: F is for FAVOURITES

When I made a list of my A to Z Blog Challenge posts, I promised to add a more personal flavour to my blog. So here is a list of some of my favourites:

• Coffee: We all like coffee (it is as essential as oxygen to a writer) but my favourite is
  
  what we call an Americano here. It is known as a Tall Black in other countries. Yip, espresso topped with hot water. I drink it at home too - simply can't live without the stuff! 

• Vegetable: Ha, you didn't expect this one, did you? As a child I was a fussy eater, to my Mother's biggest frustration. No amount of bribing could convince me to eat veggies I didn't like...ever. But as a child and to this day, my favourite veggie is lettuce. All of the varieties, sweet to bitter - love 'em all! And am I still so fussy? Not at all. As a student I realised that I had nothing against the vegetables at all, I just hated them because of the ways they were cooked back then. When my Mother changed that (and she is a great cook, by the way) I converted with a smile.

• Colours: My favourite colour is black. I wear black, sometimes with a splash of something else, more than 90% of the time. The only time when I divert from that, is for a practical reason: my job requires spending time in one of the hottest parts of South Africa, and then my black clothing stays home.
  My second favourite colour is purple. I get ribbed about that one quite often, since I had my hair coloured purple and blue. Which reminds me, it is time for another touch up.

What are you favourites? Favourite food, your all time number one spice to cook with, and kick-back to relax alcoholic beverage?

Voice Recognition Software and I: Part 3

As promised here is Part 3 of my experiences using voice recognition software (Links to Part 1 and Part 2). At first I thought it was going to be easy, I write therefore I can dictate, right? Wrong. I might be the exception, but making the transition from typing to dictating took longer than I thought.

For one I am not a talker, meaning that I am not overly fond of hearing my own voice the whole time. It took some getting used to, and it was easier when I was alone at home. Once I got more comfortable with that stage, I could continue doing it when my husband was home. Weird I know, especially since I have been married to him for twenty years. But then again human behaviour in unusual situations can be unpredictable.

Contrary to how it might sound, it took me only about three days to overcome that hurdle, so the writing flowed much easier by then.

Then came the scenes with intimacy, and that is not just sex writing. Extreme intimacy can be emotional and I have found that I get so involved with my characters that I cannot dictate these words fluently.

Since I also write erotica and the kind of language that can be associated with that, can be difficult too. It slows down the flow of words where I had to spell words not in the software's dictionary. So I decided to type the words for those kind of scenes. Fortunately, in erotic romance stories there are fewer sex scenes than people think.

The last and most difficult thing that I had to learn was “writing” while talking. I can think and plot and visualise my words while I type. It had been a big hurdle to overcome to do the same while dictating. It is still not an easy thing to do, and the software makes mistakes because of the way that I dictate as a result.

It takes a lot of practice to use voice recognition software and I will need to get back into it from the start, since my preferred writing computer has been out of commission for several weeks now. I have an old notebook that I have been using, and it is perfect for type writing, if you will excuse the pun, but it is not sufficient for the software.

If you decide to try out voice recognition software, Dragon Naturally Speaking or any other, do allow yourself the time to learn to use it properly. Find your groove with dictation by being patient with the computer, it is truly only a dumb machine. Also be patient with yourself and you will not be sorry when the words start flowing by at least double your normal word count targets for the day.

I can type about a thousand words per hour, but with DNS I upped that to 2500 without any additional effort, after I did the training of course :)

I am happy with using Dragon Naturally Speaking and will recommend it to anyone who wishes to write by means of dictation.

AtoZ Blog Challenge: E is for EMAIL Subscription

If you are like most of us these days, you are very selective when subscribing to any email

Image: Pinterest

list. And if you do there is either something you get for free, or you like what the host is telling you. I can already hear you thinking, what kind of freebie will be offered, or epiphany am I going to tell to you about to get your attention, and get you to subscribe--the answer is...neither.
There are many people out there offering all kinds of advice, or something like a free e-book to get your subscription, and there is nothing wrong with that. If you are happy with your subscriptions and you have the time to read the ones popping into your inbox, then keep them and read them, otherwise why waste your time?
As you might know April is also the time for Camp NaNoWriMo and I am working to finish the first draft of my third novel, Michael's Mystery. While it is still an incomplete first draft, ie full of plot gaps and grammatical errors, I will let you in on sneak previews of what is to come, hopefully later this year.
You can read such a scene here and if you want to feast your eyes on more to come, now would be a good time to subscribe to my mailing list. And no, there won't be daily emails, neither weekly or even monthly. I have other projects going on as well, and respect that your time is as valuable to you as mine is to me.

What is the mystery that has Michael so intrigued that he remains on Kryane even after the court case?

AtoZ Blog Challenge: D is for DREAMS

My post today is not for the kind of dreams that we have in repose, but for those we have

awake. Daydreams, dreams of the future, dreams of what we wish to become. Even animals dream, but what distinguishes us from our furry or aquatic friends, is the ability to dream of what we want to be.
Of course, we cannot become birds flying about in the sky, but dreaming about it, made flight possible. We became...more.
In dreams we overcome our limitations, it is then up to our desire to make it happen. To be the more that we dream about. Whether it is to be a painter, a sculptor, a writer, a pilot or a teacher.
Our successes in achieving these dreams come with our commitment to make it happen. Our sacrifices, some big, some small, to do the time will determine our level of achievement.
How do you define success? Fame? Money? Recognition?
Do I see myself as a Nobel laureate? Hey, that would be nice, but that is not what I need to be happy as a writer.
I write, therefor I am a writer; therefor I am happy.
I do not write full-time, reality dictates that I have financial obligations that needs to be attended to, but I make the time for my dream. What I sacrifice to make it happen, is what makes it worthwhile. That is how I define success.

You can read more about my dream - Chasing the Dream

Do you still chase your dreams?
 

AtoZ Blog Challenge: C is for COURSE

Fiction writing is my passion, but to some extend so is teaching. For a long time I didn't realise that it was exactly what I had been doing when I worked as a consultant - I taught people the requirements for exporting their products.

In case you were wondering, I would make a terrible school teacher, but sharing knowledge, that is a different story altogether.

Last year I wrote non-fiction for NaNoWriMo in November, and found it more difficult than fiction writing for that particular challenge. My project is the development of a Course for Indie Writers, that includes everything except writing. There are many local and international courses on creative writing and another is definitely not needed.

The course is aimed at the South African indie author, because the stigma of "traditional is better than indie", is very much alive and kicking in this country. Sad but true.

With the exception of one or two small details, the course can pretty much be used anywhere. The manual for the course will be published to be more accessible to a wider audience, but it is still aimed as part of a three day face-to-face interaction.

I have learned loads of things on my journey as an indie author, and hope to keep learning more.

If you have any pearls of wisdom, or useful links, to share, please do not hesitate to add them to the comments.

AtoZ Blog Challenge: B is for BLOGGING

Of all the possible B's that I could have chosen, biography, bomb or broken heart, blogging was the first that came to mind.
Twitter recently celebrated its eighth year in existence by asking people to re-tweet their

very first tweet. It was fun to see that at least my first was worth another RT ;)
So I had a look at my first blog post (you can see it here) and tried to recall where the name Butterfly on a Broomstick came from, and to be honest, I don't think there was ever a reason for the name. It just popped into my head and it stayed. In fact, I like it more now than I did when I came up with it!
I like the idea of promoting other people's books. Not that I have the time to read them all, which is a real shame since I love reading. My own reading list today is more than a hundred books long, paperbacks and e-books. Sounds terrifying even to me, then again I can't wait to read the next one.
I don't often post reviews, but when I do it is because I really liked a book. I love romance and it takes a really special story to get me out of my normal routine to write a review. There is one coming soon - a romance that was the complete opposite of what you would expect - and I love those.
I do share some personal experiences from time to time, but keep the private stuff, private. Is my life that interesting that people would want to know every single detail? I doubt it, so I keep to the things that could be considered interesting, such as parts of my country that I travel to that are not part of the regular tourist beat.
I am still working on convincing my husband to drive, instead of fly, to our annual holiday destination this year. Why? Because I have never been to the country and would like to see some parts of it besides the nature reserve where we will be going on a photographic safari. Which reminds me, I really need to get my passport renewed.

Which blog(s) have you found to be the most inspirational or useful to you? Please share the link in the comments, it might just be the site that someone has been searching for ☻

AtoZ Blog Challenge: A is for ANTHOLOGY

I can almost hear you roll your eyes, when you saw the word anthology, since I have been going on and on about this project of our writers' group launching in June this year.

And when I came up with the idea for the letter 'A', that was exactly what I had in mind. However, when I sat down to write this post, something else came to mind. In fact, for the purpose of this post, A stands for Friends.

I am not the kind of person that makes friends easily, nor do I go around accumulating thousands of friends on Facebook. Maybe I am not as likeable as I think I am - no, I wasn't fishing. What I am trying to say is that a writers' group can be more than just people with a common interest. We do not have to live in each others' pockets, but we can do things. We can create things. And we can create together.

Enter the anthology.

As enthusiastic as I was when I came up with the idea, there had been hurdles to overcome. Big ones and small ones, and writing ones too. But we did. We pulled together, and the passion we have for writing, and the project is increasing.

Yes, the stories are done. Yes, we are in the process of final formatting for e-book and print publication, but it is not the end. There is marketing to be done, and books to be promoted and launches to be arranged. And we are working towards doing that. Together.

Friends.

In May I will introduce you to each of my awesome friends. Guess what? We wrote a book together. It is called STORM and it will be available soon.

Do you like to read? Do you support indie authors? Why not help us tell the world about STORM. Check out the details and join in the fun...here.