Reverse procrastination

Something wonderful happened yesterday. I sat down to write a blog post, and couldn't think of what to write so I ended up procrastinating by writing a page of my novel.

Ridiculous, I know, but a tactic to consider in future!

Meanwhile, I saw an ad in the paper this morning for 'The 7 minute work day' ebook, which got me thinking. The idea of getting all my work done in 7 minutes a day seemed a stretch. I'm all for efficiency, but when it takes 5 minutes just for my computer to boot up. . . and then I have to check my email, surf the procrastinet, and by then it's morning tea time.

7 minutes? What secret am I missing?

As it turns out, when I looked up the website, the 'work' in work day involves dodgy share trading of aussie dollars guaranteed to make you rich by working just 7 minutes a day (don't ask me why it's dodgy, but NOTHING could be that easy).

So no tips on how to speed type, hyper-multi-task, or mind map your way to an instant novel. Unfortunately. Once again, it looks like the only way is the hard way.
Has anyone ever found any shortcuts that work?

Short success

A small success!

I have had a short story 'merit' listed in a short story comp. Although it doesn't win me any prizes, it does mean my story has been published in an anthology put together by the competition organiser.

It's my first published piece of fiction, so I'm quite pleased with myself. The best part is that they actually put out a hard-copy version, as well as an ebook, so I'll get to see my work in print on paper! (Both available here.)

This is the blurb from their website:

The Umbrella’s Shade and other stories from the Stringybark Short Story Awards

This unique anthology brings together 27 short stories from established and first-time writers. The themes are many and varied. They are united by a common passion and curiosity for exploring the Australian character and how Australia’s big, broad land affects those who live here. Dip your toe in and sample the very best entries in the Stringybark Short Story Award 2010 as selected by David Vernon, Gina Meyers and Andrew Perry.
    For readers, these short stories are clever, poignant, witty, amusing, sometimes sad but always well written and give an insight into Australia and Australians.
    For writers, these short stories illustrate what makes a great short story. You can’t write short stories unless you are familiar with the genre. Buy a copy today and be entertained by quality Australian writing.
   
So there you go. I'm still waiting for my copy to arrive, so haven't read any of the other stories. But it will be interesting to see in what other ways people have written about this 'big, broad land'.