My name is Sarah. And I'm a Twitter Addict.

Twitter is the new Facebook. No longer do I check Facebook constantly for updates from my friends who I may have just seen an hour ago.
Now I get up to the minute info from published authors who's styles I love, with quirky sensibilities that I'd love to have in my social circle as well as publishing houses, editors and agents I could possibly (a couple of whom I have already) submit to in the future. Wow that sentence was weird. Past and future all rolled into one.
Moving on.
I got the Tweet Deck app thingy the other day, which is awesome cos you don't have to press refresh all the time, it just pops up with a little message in the corner of my screen every time someone, anyone I'm following has said something. And I can group everyone, like authors, agents, friends, celebrities. I am a pop culture addict as well as a Twitter addict. Have I ever mentioned that?
Anyhoo. Twitter is awesome.

My online critique group has expanded all of a sudden, once I handed over the power to anyone to invite and moderate and administrate the group we've been growing and growing. We have 21 members, which is a bit daunting. But they're all really friendly, and it's probably a good thing that not everyone is posting at the same time.
I've been getting some good feedback, for what little I've been posting of late. Uni is taking it out of me, man.
I'm getting really frustrated. I want to do creative work. I want to write a NOVEL for God's sake, but I just...it's so...I can't do it when I have an assignment due every week. And in my down time I'm watching TV over writing stories. But I'm gonna try and change that asap. When I've finished this blog I'm working on my psychological studies assignment and THEN I'm going to start plotting out my book. Ooooh yeah. Looking forward to that. The ORIGINAL MJ book. Because my NaNo about her was clearly book 2. It's a long story how that happened and I don't think I've mentioned it before. And I'm really not gonna mention it now.

Oh! Another reason I'm not writing creatively so much is because I've been getting publishing opportunities, but for non-fiction. So I've been doing a lot of that.
My interview with Comedian Mark Watson was published in the local paper recently. It was a little annoying that when sub editting it they wrote 'Journalism student Sarah Billington...'. Yes. I'm taking ONE journalism subject as an elective. I already have the qualifications to be a journalist I've just never really used it. But anyway. Another clip. Nice big 3/4 of a page thing too.
I have a review of his show and a fashion review in Lots Wife and I'm not sure but I THINK also a Monash Abroad article in the next edition.

Speaking of Monash Abroad, I went along to the compulsory pre-departure meeting last week which was exciting. There were over 300 students there, all travelling to different parts of the globe.
The 71 students going to America had already embraced their inner American, and whooped and cheered a lot when the speaker asked where the Americans were. Twas funny.
A couple of past exchange students spoke, and one guy gave advice that everyone appreciated. "Just say yes". He realised what he'd said and took a bow. Then finished the sentence with "to all of the experiences you get offered, and places you are invited to go".
I met a couple of others heading to my uni, there are 11 of us in total and a couple are also applying for the same residence as I am. Mind you it houses like, 500 people so it's not like they'll be right next door. Necessarily.
Found out that a bus pass for 1 semester costs something ridiculous like 400 pounds. Considering the accomodation I want to stay in is a good 3.3 MILES away from campus, I was thinking I might need one in the winter - plan to walk when it's nice weather though. Hopefully I only have a couple of days on campus and can get away with single tickets. Or find a car parked in the parking lot and wait there for hours until the owner comes out, and I can be all desperate and make friends with them, just for the ride.

Paid for my SCBWI registration. Conversion into Australian dollars was painful. I think I'm freaking about financing this trip so much because at current I have no money, but I have to keep reminding myself that I'll be getting a bunch of lump sums while I'm away which will get me through. I might have to see less of Europe than planned though. And I'm thinking a part time job will be a necessary option for me. Back to retail. We'll see what happens when I get there.

I've joined a writing community, litopia.com which I'm finding to be pretty fantastic already, and I'm not even a full member which means I don't have access to most of the message boards etc. You join up and in the first month you have to be an active member of the community, posting 50 times at least, and then at the end of the month you get to submit some work and if it's deemed that yes, you are in fact a good writer, then you get full membership and meet heaps of other writers. If you don't make the grade you get to keep trying, resubmitting until you are deemed fantabulous.
It's really great, I'm not in a writerly bubble so much anymore. Makes me sad for people who wrote and felt isolated from the writing community back before the interweb. But it doesn't have to be that way anymore. There are millions of other fantabulous people out there to connect with. I hope one day I can find another contemporary YA writer who's writing style really clicks with mine and we can collaborate on something. That's down the track a bit, I guess.

Okay, time to work on assignment, me thinks! Most exciting Saturday night ever. Ooh, someone wrote something on twitter!
Buh-bye now

Sairz