Wahoo! Blogoversary Giveaway...

time to PARTY (& share a little bit of cake...)

A little smidgen ago inkcrush turned ONE!

Wahoo!

And it's been a pretty snazzy year hanging out with all you guys and chatting about books.

I feel pretty much humbled to be a part of this book blogging community and to have made friends (Aussie and international buddies) and also interacted with some of my author idols (!)

It's been BRILLIANT, yeah.

And I have a give-away to celebrate. Both give-aways will run until May 10

Open internationally via The Book Depository:

TWO winners can spend $15 @ The Book Depository*

(or around about ~ a smidgen over is fine...)

(I was going to make you choose between all my fave books, haha, but I know you guys have great taste anyway)

* or Better World Books if TBD doesn't ship to you (or you're after some second hand books)

ALSO

Aussie only

courtesy of Penguin Australia

I have one sparkly new copy of 

to give-away

It received a 5/5 review from the brilliant Alpha Reader: "I love ‘Strange Angels’. This is a dark, kick-ass young adult paranormal series." Danielle says if you love Vampire Academy you will love this series.

Along with DEFIANCE, I'll include an ARC* (if the winner is interested) of either:  

*NIGHTSHADE ARC is silver with dark purple swirly font. 

I AM NUMBER FOUR is an exclusive hard cover with a special slip case to keep it inside.

Thanks for celebrating with me guys :)

The Shoe House by me :)

This is an A3 size pic I drew based on "there was an old woman who lived in a shoe..."

I wanted to do something a little bit different with it - so I flipped the shoe upside down and then crammed it with enough mischeivious looking critters that would flip out any old woman. Mostly, I try to make my pictures fun and colourful and a little bit crazy - which is what I remember loving to look at when I was a kid.

It's super miniture here - sorry :(

Some features my students have loved: I put number 27 on the mailbox and there's 27 critters.
Also, on the blocks on the front path I put all the letters from my family's first names (and coloured the blocks to match each person's fave colour)

My Sam-boy loves the guy on the pogo stick the best & the fish in the fish bowl. The pogo stick guy is also featured in some other pics of mine (and now that I think  about it, I often have fish randomly in my pictures too). I try to give each little critter their own vibe and personality.

I don't do perspective well b/c I've never learnt stuff like that - but once my art teacher told me that my naivety is part of my magic. I'll take that philosophy and use it to do whatever I like, yeah? Haha - love my art teacher who was so cool to me...

I draw for fun and get into it for seasons and then don't draw at all for months. But I am working on a new project at the moment. OooOooh...

I also hide sets of eyes and scatter bugs around

two dudes hanging on the washing line...

I like the guitar guy ...

:)

Sorry for the poor quality. I didn't scan it - just took a photo and it's a little grainy...

Hope you're all having a grand week. The sun is brilliant here and the beach is sparkling.

x Nomes

My art and writing and dreams and stuff

Once upon a time, I wanted to be an artist when I grew up (or an actress or an author).

I'm actually a primary school teacher and busy with my family (three kids: Sam, Reuben and Carissa).

I spent some time tinkering around drawing illustrations for a children's book I wrote but just really struggled with what I envisaged in my head and my ability (or lack of) to produce the same thing on paper. I ended up having a break from the kidlit scene and moving onto writing YA.

Now,  I'm struggling with with the same thing in my WIP - knowing what I want my story to be and the gap between my vision and the actual words. I am such a harsh critic of my own work that I wonder if I actually hinder myself ever getting anywhere because I often focus on my shortcomings and not on my progress or strengths. Does anyone else ever feel like this?

Also, I keep reading some of the best writing out there and comparing myself to the most gifted of illustrators and just deflating at my own floundering progress. And feeling like the reality of me getting published is not really a reality at all.

Other times though - brilliant writing and artwork inspires me to stop being so lazy and stretch my creativity muscles and really throw all I can into accomplishing things.

What are you like? Does brilliance inspire you or sometimes get you down? or both, depending?

So last night I was feeling a bit flat about everything and I pulled out some of my own work and instead of looking for flaws I just felt kinda proud that I can start with a blank piece of paper and change it in to something. The same with my first MS - to take a story out of nothing an breathe life into those characters is something that only I did. And no matter how lame and cringe-y some parts are - I think it's worth celebrating  that I gave it a go.

I'm so up and down with how I feel about writing and I don't even know what this post is about. Maybe about dreams and getting older and still feeling so far away from things I felt I'd do as an adult when I was a kid. And about me learning not to be so hard on myself but also learning how to push myself.

I guess I just wonder if anyone else gets hung up on the same things.

And I just want to say, hey, me too.

And I love the thought of all you guys out there giving it a go and even though some of you are on the other side of the globe, your blogs and emails and own accomplishments inspire me to push through and hold onto that little kid seed inside of me that believes that one day I might be an author or illustrator when I grow up :)

And, here's a pic I drew for a book (ahh, that I've since abandoned...but am thinking maybe it's worth giving it another go?) and yay for the end of winter here! Spring in two days!

A cropped shot of my winter pic in progress

Cropped Sections

The left side

The right side

Centre

Sorry for my slightly ramble-y post. Love you guys :)

winter artwork...

The pic is a little blurry as I took it with a camera rather then scanning it in (don't have an A3 scanner). I used felt tip pen and my Derwent Artist pencils - love my pencils :). I often draw these little critters in my scenes rather than cartoon people. They're kinda a cross between a monkey and a teddy bear.

Here's a few close up's cropped from the picture:

It's winter here tomorrow :) Despite my snow pic, winter in Coffs Harbour is mild. We're still in shorts and t-shirts and when I walk along the beach, there's always someone swimming in the surf (and that someone will never be me. I'm happy to wait until summer). I've only seen snow a couple of times ever - when I lived in the Blue Mountains as a child. And it was cold (I had to wear gloves!). And kinda dirty (not pretty blue and purple like I've drawn it) but very very cool. 

And, despite it being winter - the next three books in my YA TBR pile all have summer in the title:

• Endless Summer - Jennifer Echols - pumped for this one!!!* Plus, it's two books in one - 'The Boys Next Door' and the sequel, so 600+ pages of Echolite Pleasure :)
• The Summer I Turned Pretty - Jenny Han - I have high expectations for this (due to universal rave reviews). One girl, two brothers, one summer, I'm feeling it already...
• Twenty Boy Summer - Sarah Ockler (recommended to me by a friend who has the best taste in all things YA...)

Tomorrow, I'll announce the winner of my Top Ten YA post - so leave a comment if you want a chance to own a copy of a book off my list. (I'll use The Book Depository - so open internationally)

x Naomi

*I am not an exclamation mark kinda girl - but! Jennifer Echols!