Saturday 24 October 2009

Eleni-fest: chatting with Nikki Logan




Today we have fellow Bootcamp 101 member, the talented Nikki Logan as my special guest on Eleni-fest. Nikki writes for the Harlequin Mills & Boon Romance line. Her debut book, Lights, Camera...Kiss The Boss! will be released in February 2010.

Welcome Nikki to Eleni’s Taverna and Eleni-fest!







Thanks for having me along, Eleni, and for a great month of writing-related festivities.



Congratulations on your upcoming debut release LCKTB in Feb 2010. How has the waiting been like?
Ugh. I’m terrible with delayed gratification so waiting has been hard! There’s a fourteen month gap between sale and shelf for this one because the book was bumped from its December slot into February to take advantage of a promotional month.

There’s no shortage of things to do in that time, though—writing more books, not the least—but the published journey is all learning curve for me and I like to learn faster!!


What attracted you to the Romance line?
The offer of a sale?? LOL.


I confess to having had the wrong idea about what Harlequin Romance was all about. I’d see those brides and babies on the cover and run a mile. When Kim Young was working with me on pre-sale revisions she gave me the option of Romance or Sexy Sensation but she nudged me toward romance and recommended a bunch of contemporary titles for me to get my head around the diversity in the line.  One of the 20 books I read was Liz Fielding’s Wedded in a Whirlwind in which almost the whole book takes place in the dark. Completely, utterly in the dark. I figured the line that could tolerate that kind of risk would cope with my creative eccentricities.

And Kim was right. There was such a range of emotion, plot, theme—something for everybody. Ultimately though it was the ‘it could happen to you’ promise. I’m not much on a steady diet of sheiks and playboys so the broader ingredient list possible in Romance really grabbed me.


What are you working on now? And what’s in the near future for Nikki Logan?
I’m in the final edit stages of a 25k novella for a UK-release-only ‘new author’ anthology. It features a stalked heroine with a bit of OCD going on.

I like to write slightly edgy characters which push the envelope, and this seems to be becoming my ‘thing’ so my future books will probably be the same. I’d like to stretch the boundary on what is and isn’t considered ‘heroic’ for characters. When my editor says ‘its risky, but…’ I get excited. The challenge of pulling off a risk.

  
Who is your favourite character from your books?
Great question! Impossible to answer. LOL.  Okay… hand-on-heart I have to say that I fall for every hero I write, I think you have to in order to communicate that on the page. So my ‘favourites’ list tends to be populated with them. 


Interestingly the heroine that won’t let me go was a minor character in Lights, Camera… Cadence the goth. I would love to write romance’s first goth heroine and she’s pushy enough to want her own space on the page.

  
How many books do you produce a year?
I have another deadline in December which is also my one-year anniversary of signing with Harlequin. I’ll have produced four in that time, which is pretty much what I imagined I could do while still working full-time. It was my goal in order to turn over sufficient books to get closer to writing for a living.



How long does it take you to write a book?
Again, because of the full-time work, about three months for a category. I’m a fast writer, slow editor so my first drafts can be anywhere from four-to-six weeks but then I need another six weeks to edit.

The ability to write fast, strong stories is so important in Category if you want to do it for a living. You have to have the volume. 



You have a real love affair with nature. How important is it for you to convey this in your books?
Extremely. I studied film-making at Uni because I wanted to make wildlife documentaries in order to communicate the importance of preserving our natural world. I ended up working in a conservation agency, doing the same thing by different means. I now work with amazing people who work in the field hands-on with wild animals. I felt like my contribution wasn’t as ‘real’ as theirs. One day, it dawned on me that I didn’t have to trek the Indonesian rainforests to make a difference, my tool was my words. It was something no-one else had.

Harlequin gives me a fantastic platform to share with thousands of readers what I find inspiring and beautiful about our natural world.

A number of really savvy authors suggested I should hold off on the ‘nature thing’ until I was established because publishers might be leery about an ‘issues’ author. But I took a risk and created my whole brand around the nature-based thing (although I was very careful to be moderate about it) and it paid off. The brand is supported by Harlequin and all of my stories will continue to be set in amazing places and my characters will have positive attitudes about nature.


How do you think your writing groups and associations have helped you in your writing?
Writer’s support is essential. Not just because it’s such a solo/isolated occupation and because there’s so much to learn, but because it’s really important to remember that readers are diverse. If you were to go it alone with your writing it would be too easy for your world to shrink to the 20mm around you and you’d only feed your own type of reader. And your writing would implode.


I was one of the lucky ten to take part in RWAus’ Romance Bootcamp 101, the inaugural year. That two-day workshop only cost me fifty bucks and it was worth ten—twenty—times that in terms of the way it gathered all my loose creative strands and pulled them together and tethered them. Before then my writing was accidental, like I’d picked stuff up by osmosis. It’s also where I met my closest writing friends who are critical to my ability to keep writing. We support each other, we nudge each other (or shove, if we really need it!), we celebrate and commiserate together.
(EK: Bootcampers Rock! *wink*)




You were competition queen. How did this help you?
Doing well in a competition is great for the ego (which takes a beating in a creative, competitive field) and great for gauging your work against your peers’. But the true advantage of competition is that doing well allows you to bypass the editorial assistants that patrol the editor’s moat and mean only 1% of submissions ever get on her desk. Comp wins put you straight on an editor’s desk. And if you choose your comp well, it also gives the un-agented author access to editors that would not otherwise look at their work.

  
Working full time, how do you fit it all in? Do you have a set routine?
I’m an all or nothing type girl. When I made the commitment to write I had to slough off other activities that I enjoyed in order to make time to write and that is more important than ever, now, because the timeframes are so much shorter in published-land. You just can’t work on something for months on end until you’re 100% happy with it.


I gave up TV, I’ve greatly reduced the number of people I see socially, I dropped out of a band I really enjoyed performing in. My house is usually dirty, my garden is overgrown. My DH only ‘sees’ me a few times a week.
I approach it like a second job. Just because I’m home doesn’t mean I can slack off.
I write on any evening when I don’t have something pressing on. This means usually two or three nights a week. And I write on both weekend days. In theory it’s half of each day (with a long stint into Saturday night) but I tend to blow that every week and write longer.
I have the greatest respect for women who can raise families and write. And I bow completely down before those who can do family, and a job, and write.
  
What do you love about being a writer?
Everything. Absolutely everything. Even the bad days are challenging and interesting.

I love being able to be at home with my boys (four-legged kids), I love being able to tell stories, I love being able to sell those stories. I love that people are interested in what I say or think and would pay money for it. I love the rush I get when I’m on a writing roll, I love the emotional rollercoaster that comes with writing a romance. I love being able to share my passion for nature.

I love having achieved something many people only dream about. I love the revolving door of ‘firsts’ that come with writing (first book, first comp win, first pitch, first sale, first title, first ISBN, first cover, first shelf, first reader mail, first review, first RITA…)

When I eventually get to write full time I know I’ll love not having to face traffic, not having to put on real shoes for the office. I’ll love being able to catch up with a friend for a 1pm coffee because it’s the only time her toddler is asleep. I’ll love staying up late when I’m in the zone and then sleeping in the next day.

*sigh* really, what’s not to love.


Many unpublished writers believe once you get the Call you’re in. What is your experience with this?
I guess I’ll find out!  Tracey O’Hara commented that one minute you’re a big fish in a small pond and then suddenly, wham!, you’re a tiny fish in an ocean of competition. She’s right. The scale of the romance industry is inconceivable and every one of those books is up there against yours. Every author is now competition, you can’t look at your favourite authors the same way again. Every story you write will be measured against thousands now, not just a handful. And some of those will be a lot, lot better than yours.


Publishing is a tough business. You are only as secure as your last contract and if your books don’t sell, you’re out. ‘The Call’ feels like a monumental moment but it’s really just the bottom step on a complicated and political escalator. Wait… not escalator, because that implies that it will all just ‘happen’ from the moment you step on and that’s not at all true. You have to climb those stairs, sometimes shoving against others on the stairs. You have to put in the effort or you just tumble off the side.

Wait.. did I just say there was nothing about writing I didn’t like…?  ;)



You went to the recent RWAus conference. As a pubbed author do you still get lightbulb moments?
Anyone who no longer gets lightbulbs about something needs to pick another trade. We all learn. We all evolve. The industry around us changes and we have to flex with that. If the lightbulbs stop… it’s time to stop.

There were lightbulbs galore at ‘Hot August Nights’. Hundreds of years of collective experience in one place. How could there not be.


You gave yourself a time limit to get published. What would have happened if you hadn’t been published by that time?
Yeah I’m pretty much all bluster when it comes to playing hard-ball with myself. Nothing would have happened if I hadn’t made it. I would have kept working hard and pushed that deadline back accordingly ;) I’m nothing if not flexible.

But having that very concrete and tangible goal (‘published by forty’) fuelled me when I would otherwise have slacked off, and it drove me to study the industry and take some risks with my writing and with my life.

Nikki at the First Sale presentation at the RWAus conference


You use a pen name. Can you tell us why and how this came about?
I decided to use a pen name way back when I first had the urge to write a book. I would have used a pseudonym even if I’d written non-fiction, I think, just to keep my work separate from me.

As it happens, it was the first thing Harlequin asked me because my real name was not Googleable. Word-of-mouth marketing is big business and if readers can’t find you when they type you into a search engine you’re losing a potential sale.

I kept Nikki in the advice of just about every author who ever picked a name that wasn’t theirs (and I’m glad I did) and Logan came off a billboard in my suburb and was subsequently available as a domain name.

That simple.


What do you do in your ‘down’ time?
Bwahahaahhaaaa… down time. You crack me up.
(EK: I aim to please....*wink*)


You are blogging over at the eHarlequin Romance blog. How are you finding blogging?
It still amazes me that people care what I have to say. I’m getting better at realising you can blog about anything (not just your book or something to do with your book) but I have a long way to go in feeling really natural about it.

I’m terrible about inviting people to read my blog. The secret to effective social networking is that you don’t have to keep harassing the same people to visit your blog. It just kind of drifts out into the ether like a dinghy that’s come free of its mooring. I have a lot to learn about doing that effectively. But I’ll get there.


And until then, there’s always Eleni to help get the message out. *grin*




Thanks Nikki for joining us at the fest and it's my pleasure getting the message out! Nikki has kindly offered an e-copy of Lights, Camera...Kiss the Boss! as a give away. (So you will have to wait for the release but it’s well worth it!)






To win an advance copy of Lights, Camera…Kiss the Boss give us a ‘green tip’ something unique you do in your household to tread more lightly on our planet. Nikki will pick the most unique for the prize.


Comments are open until the end of 29th October.


Comments for prize are now closed. Congratulations Jenn J McLeod!


Good luck!

And thank you Nikki for your generosity.





~yia~


(LCKTB graphic done by Eleni as no cover available yet)





46 comments:

Leah Ashton said...

Fantastic interview Nikki and Eleni, really enjoyed it!

I particularly like how you described the "broader ingredients list" of the Romance line - yep, that's exactly what is about the line that appeals to me, too.

Hopefully one day I'll be climbing up the stairs, too!

Unknown said...

Hi Eleni & Nikki :)
Thank you for the fantastic indepth interview. One of the best I've read. Thanks for sharing Nikki, I enjoyed learning more about you & your writing.
All the best,
RKCharron
xoxo

Sue BT said...

Hi Eleni and Nikki,
Have you tweeted about this great interview yet Nikki?

One of the green things we do at our house is keep our garden attractive to native birdlife. We keep our four legged darling in the backyard and in the front yard we have natives and a bird bath.

This way we have a lovely variety of birds nesting every year.

I especially like that we get some of the tiny honey eaters and the gorgeous flame tailed finch. (Sorry for getting a bit bird nerdy on you).

AJ Blythe said...

Hey Nikki and Eleni

*just an aside... Eleni, how you are managing to maintain such great interviews for such an extended period is beyond me -congrats :o)*

Thanks for the insight Nikki. Stories like yours are so very inspiring. Gives hope to those of us still with our 'wanna be' goal stuck to the top of our pooters.

As for a green tip, hard to pick just one! Um, getting rid of all our nasty cleaning chemicals and reverting back to all the old fashioned methods. So my cleaning products now consist of vinegar, bi-carb, ti-tree oil and my old cloth nappies.

Becca said...

Hi Eleni and Nikki!
Another really interesting chat. Thanks!
I don't think we do anything unique to tread more lightly on the planet but we do what we can. We managed to put a new 5000L rainwater tank in for our little vege garden just before the rain came to SA so it's full and ready to ease summer where we can.
=)

Nikki Logan said...

Good to see you here Lea and RK. Thanks for dropping in. Yep, plenty of room on those stairs for those ready to elbow their way in.
*wink*

Nikki Logan said...

Sue - hail a fellow bird nerd! Fauna friendly gardens is a great and simple thing people can do to help ensure that our housing needs don't happen at the expense fo every other species in our environment. If the plants are native, the insects come, if the insects come the birds come.

Good one!

(And no, haven't tweeted yet but that's becasue I'm here ;)

Rachael Johns said...

Fabulous interview Eleni and Nikki!

Don't put me in the draw but my green tip is have lots of little boys in your house who refuse to learn how to flush the toilet! Great water saver! Of course... let's not mention all the extra water needed to keep them in some state of clean!!

:)
Rach!

Nikki Logan said...

Hi Anita, hi Bec.

Anita you get a double thumbs-up for dumping all the chemicals in your day. Better for the environment and better for you, too. I applaud the effort that must have taken.

Bec - whaddaya mean you don't do anything? 5000L!! That's a lot of something. We're trying to sort water tanks out at my place but we're on such a small block... I will prevail!

Thanks, Ladies, for coming and for commenting.

Ooh, this is going to be hard to pick from....

Rachel Bailey said...

Hi Nikki - great interview!

Re: green tip, we do the same things as Anita with the cleaning products - vinegar, bi-carb etc. Also, we're on tank water so every drop is precious and we save the water from the shower when it's heating up and other bits and pieces of water.

Can't wait to see Lights, Camera...Kiss the Boss on the shelves!

Nikki Logan said...

Two Rachels in a row. Hi Bailey!

Actually the Bailey household is possibly the MOST green of anyone I know. Not only are your cleaning practices gentle, and your water habits conservative, but you live in sympathy with your environment, too.

It is scary how much water we send needlessly down the drain letting a tap run until it's warm.

Leah Ashton said...

Whoops, I forgot my green tip :) Not sure if this counts, but I'm a firm believe of cats being indoor-only, so they don't spend their days killing native wildlife. My cat is a very happy indoor cat, and has been her whole life.

Tracey O'Hara said...

Eleni - you are a goddess - I love this month. Mwah.

Nikki - I so can't wait to see your book onthe shelf - I will be sqeeeing my arse off and pointing at it going - I know her :D. Can't wait to read it either.

okay I definately want to go in the draw - If you don't have a grey water set up, use a bucket in the shower to catch some of the water of your short shower and use it to water the garden. Also hand wash instead of using a dishwasher, you use much less water.

hugs and kisses to Eleni and Nikki. And I think RKCharron deserves the most consistant poster award - hugs RK.

Nikki Logan said...

LOL Rachel (Johns). Ah, boys...

Apparently there are toilets in Japan that only use one cup of water in the flushing process (but its a foam-treated water so..hmmm..)

Tell you what, because you've already read LCKTB I'll leave you in the draw and send you my next book ("Their Newborn Gift") if you win. Hurrah!!

See... flexible...

Eleni Konstantine said...

Thanks everyone for making Nikki feel welcome.

Lea - go for the stairs! And indoor cats can't escape.

RK - thank you for your compliment :)

Sue - go the native birds

Anita - oh thanks and it's been quite a ride.
- go getting rid of chemicals (we're slowly doing that)

Becca - hi there fellow SAer! Great on the rainwater tank. Used to have one when growing up.

Rach! - hi there - LOL about your little boys not flushing the toilet

Rachel - Yes, that shower bucket comes in real handy in our house. And it'll be great seeing your and Nikki's books on the shelves!!

Nikki!!! Thank you so much for such an informative topic and telling us your journey. Truly you are an inspiration to me and I've watched your journey this past couple of years with pride.

Green stuff we do - it's bits and pieces really. Reducing waste by getting refills and buying in bulk so packaging not so much (sounds like an oxymoron but if you buy more toilet roll packages, in the long run, the packaging is less), using clothes and towels as rags when they are no longer for it's initial purpose, shower bucket, washing with fuller loads as much as we can, turning lights off when leave a room, using the half-flush in the toilet, green bags to go shopping (go SA), and then off course what can't reduce, reuse, then recycle....

Love reading everyone's tips and taking things on board.

Janine (Bootcamp) said...

You must write a book about your goth heroine, Nikki. That idea really intrigues me. Congrats on another great interview, Eleni.

Eleni Konstantine said...

Tracey - aw shucks ma'am. Thank you for the mwahs and glad you are loving this month.

And hasn't RK been great! Deserves a gold star for sure!

Janine - thanks and doesn't the goth heroine sound fab. That would be a really different Romance heroine but one I'd definitely love to read about.

Nikki Logan said...

Wow Lea - that's taking the 'leave cats in at night' message and really running with it, but you are right. Cats can be perfectly happy as indoor cats (if raised that way) as long as they have heaps of enrichment and stimulation. Statistically, every cat in Australia hunts 18 creatures a year (average). Does't sound like a lot until you do the math: 9 million cats...162 million little animals being killed.

LOL. Sorry everyone... can you tell I work in the conservation industry??

Ms O'Hara... how lovely to see you along and the bucket tip is a GREAT idea. Was sitting here imagineering how I could set up a system like Rachel Bailey's for water capture and it was all getting bigger than Ben Hur in my head and...duh!... a bucket, of course. Would take just about 9L to get warm. Perfect bucket size.

Thanks for being as excited about my book as I was about yours!

Shayne said...

Excellent interview.

Nikki, Huge cheers and clinking of bubbly glasses that you set yourself such a precise goal and not only stuck with it but surpassed it. Churning out four books a year with a full-time job is an amazing feat.
And you are a woman after my own heart. It absolutely makes my blood boil that over 20,000 tonnes of oil has leaked into the Timor Sea and it's barely noted.

Can't wait to read your first book.

Shayne

Nikki Logan said...

ELENI!! the Queen of 'Reduce, Reuse, Recycle' my pet soapbox. Most people go straight for the 'recycle' and forget about reducing and reusing (in fact I've just heard they're adding 'rethink' to the front of that... do you REALLY need another XYZ?

Writing has been great for reducing my overall consumption. I'd go out and buy things because I was bored or had nothing to do. I think since I started writing so intensively I've saved heaps of money and I no longer bring stuff home to clutter up the house.

And I do basic (big) grocery shop once a month so buy bulk by default, but..yes..bulk may have more packeging but it is less in the long run.

Storage is an issue for most people but you can join 'cooperatives' where someonje goes out and buys a 40box of toilet rolls and then just gives the coop members their even share. A great system financially and environmentally.

Actually, I'm going to capture all these ideas and put them on my website - showcase what great environmentalists romance writers and readers are.

Nikki Logan said...

Hi Janine - thanks for dropping in. I'm going to be really interested in reader response to 'Cadence'. I personally think she was fabulous in all her surliness (surly on the outside, an angel on the inside). EMOs tend to be popping up in romance but it looks like Gothism is something we're generally expected to grow out of.

Tell that to all the adult goths wandering around out there.

As soon as I get a green-light on a goth heroine, the Bootcampers are the first I'll tell ;)

Shayne - I know! It seems that if the oil can't be seen on our beaches it doesn't exist. That oil rig has been spewing crude oil straight into the water for soemthing like three months now and they just get to keep 'trying' to patch it up.

Wow, look how many soapboxes i actually have *LOL*

Eleni Konstantine said...

Shayne - I know isn't Nikki's output unbelievable - can you imagine what she would be like if she worked part time in her day job?

And I haven't been watching the news but saw the story about the oil into the Timor Sea. Sad, truly.

Nikki - no I wouldn't call myself Queen, maybe a Lady-in-Waiting *g*. Seriously have a long way to go. Helps when you're a hoarder to some extent! But every little bit helps in the long run.
-Oh, couple of things...if you open the packet carefully on packaging you can use it for rubbish. And those using buckets, my pilates instructor said a lot of people are having more shoulder problems so careful carrying those buckets of water.
-in the spirit of honesty, I used to work in the library of an oil & gas company. 9 weeks spewing oil is just so wrong.... stuff shareholders, get it seen to!

Christina Phillips said...

Can't wait until I see your book on the shelves, Nikki! So exciting. And yay for edgy characters - I hope you get the green light for your Goth heroine!

I do the reuse/recycle as much as possible and have this cunning plan when it comes to gardening. I don't, and then we get the most amazing variety of gorgeous birds nesting in the tangled bushes and trees at the bottom of the garden!

Sandie Hudson said...

Nikki & Eleni, great interview.

Nikki thank you for sharing your writing tale, I LOVE learning about how other writers manage to work full time and write.

Eleni, you have giving the RWAus members and your blog readers so much this month with your interviews. Thank you.

Sandie

Eleni Konstantine said...

Sandie - aw shucks. I hope everyone has been enjoying the fest. I've loved learning more about our authors.

Eleni Konstantine said...

Christina - I love that cunning plan!!

Nikki Logan said...

LOL Christina. "But honey, it's for the wildlife!"

But yes, a feral garden will often bring in all kinds of goodies. It's a fact that ANY habitat is better than no habitat, so bring on the weeds and tangles.

Thanks to you for dropping in and to SANDIE (waving). Great to see you here.

Tina C said...

Hey Nikki and Eleni

Nikki this is your fault I am having to confess this one: At the butcher I am known as the lady with the crabs.... now its not a bad thing, just that every time they ask me if I want the off cuts for my dog when they cut up a rump, I say no dog, just crabs so throw it all in...

They also get our meat/chicken/fish/any bones/pasta/bread scraps from our house, gets put in the canal and fed to the fish and the crabs. That way there is less 'smelly rubbish' in the bin... kind of like a worm farm, only with water.

So my greenhouse helper, reusing the throw away rubbish that creates methane gas... making the crabs fat!

Congrats on your contracts, and can't wait to see your book in my grubby hands. You know I am totally nature -nutty too.

Thanks Eleni for having Nikki visit.

Bye 4 now
Tina

Eleni Konstantine said...

Crab lady eh Tina! LOL! But that really is something different.

And my pleasure having Nikki to visit.

Mel Teshco said...

Hi Nikki,
great post - love your environmental attitude!
Living on a small rural acreage, we bought another 5000 gallon tank, and put in a 10 metre deep dam to help water the garden - the ducks love it and it's beautful! I also scoured the sunday markets in search of native trees and shrubs - bottle brushes and grevilleas etc on a long, steep bank beside our driveway that was once just chunks of crumbly rock. (great privacy screen too!)
My husband is also planning to attach the dam water to our toilet to save even more water - it's so precious! (and we use it for our pool)
Aside from grey-water running into our small paddock to help keep water the grass, I've run out of 'green' things I do everyday =)

Jenn J McLeod - Australia's small town storyteller said...

NIk-I love that post. I love those starfish. How cute are they??
My house is turning into a wildife sanctuary as a WIRES carer. Possum course, Koala course, bird course. Just built a 'hospital' cage in the backyard and preparing for a busy summer - we are told. We have possum dreys hanging everywhere and we grow the nicest nectrines (just ask the flying foxes that wiped them ut in 2 nites - oh well!!!)
As for green ideas. My fav (being on rain tank) is "If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it dowm." We also put in a worm farm especailly for dog poo and we are educating the people who stay at Wagtail Cottage about enro-friendly poop disposal. Phew!
Do I sound like I REALLY want to be in the draw for your book LOL Yee-hah Bootcamp rocks

Eleni Konstantine said...

Hey Mel and Jenn, sounds like you both are doing quite abit for the environment. Well done to you both.

Rachael Johns said...

This GREEN discussion is so interesting!!

And yes please Nikki re putting me in the drawer to win 'The Newborn Gift.'

I'm jumping up and down for a story for Cadence too. Have you raised the idea with your editor?!

:)
Rach!

Nikki Logan said...

Tina - crabs! A great spin on worm-farming.. They would pretty much eat anything organic, wouldn't they... And yes, less stinky rubbish to deal with. That's brilliant.

Nikki Logan said...

Mel & Jen - rural properties present so many challenges but so much potential. Both your places sound great! And you're both doing so much, I'm impressed.

Jen - I used to use a worm farm for dog poo and it was great but no-one told me you couldn't use it to process the poo of a dog that had been wormed that week :(

Wormicide.

I felt terrible about that for years.

Jenn J McLeod - Australia's small town storyteller said...

Wormicide!! (I want to LOL but I can't - too sad.) We did hear about that before we set up our farm, so we (I mean, our worms) were lucky, I guess!!! Think of it this way, heaven is probably a blessing after a diet of dog poo!

Eleni Konstantine said...

Jenn - good way to look at it.

Nikki you shouldn't feel bad - you didn't mean it.

Sharon Archer said...

Hi Nikki and Eleni

I'm late to this party! Nikki, I love that picture of you with your fur-kid - it's gorgeous.

We're on tank water too so we've learned to be very water aware. And being on a septic means being very aware of keeping chemicals to a minimum. Like Rachel and Anita, I use good old vinegar and bicarb as much as possible.

Another eco-tip is to turn off at the powerpoint at night where you can - it's amazing how much powere those electrical appliances can gobble on standby.

I'm so looking forward to seeing your book on the shelf downunder next year, Nikki!

:)
Sharon

Eleni Konstantine said...

Sharon - isn't that a gorgeous photo. He looks so cuddly.

Great tips and I'm so glad that we have the powerpoint that has the switch on them. Apparently it's not a feature everywhere - I know Italy and Greece surely didn't have them, so they have to remove (what a pain). A flick of the switch is so much easier.

Nicky Strickland said...

Nikki & Eleni - that was a wonderful interview to read through. Great name btw Nikki ;)

Eleni - I'm amazed at the high energy you have been keeping up at Eleni-Fest. Fantastic job indeed!

Nikki - Cadence definitely tweaked my interest that's for sure & I'm a sucker for the secondary/cameo characters as much as the leads. Always prefer an ensemble cast.

I loved reading through all the comments on green tips. I already do a fair few of them that have been mentioned.

But for my 'odd' one (just because I can share *lol*), I'd say my biggest green project is reforming my partner. We've been living together for er, (brainsnap)...oh yeah, 3 years *lol*.

When he moved in - no green could be found. He knew of the concept but he would forget about recycling anything (only acknowledging the box to empty in the appropriate bin), would not compost (or at least stop putting scraps into the bin) & myriad other things. Slowly but surely he is becoming aware of what he must do......

Eleni Konstantine said...

Nicky - LOL indeed Nikki does have a good name
- as for the energy well I've just had nana nap. Boy have the helped especially the longer the fest has gone on.
- love your green project - that's a good one - what is it they say about breaking old habits? something about it taking time to undo.... ;)

Nikki Logan said...

Hi Sharon, hi Nicky: thanks for visiting. I've nicked in on my iPhone while I have a few mins so please forgive the brevity (tired thumbs)...

Sharon, I was hoping someone would mention the standby thing. Thanks for being that someone. I remember being horrified to learn that my microwave used more power than my air con because while the aircon chews up power it's only on 20 days of the year whereas the m/wave is on 24-7-365, chugging away in standby mode. Secret consumer.

Nicky - I note your use of past tense, hopefully that means you've mended his bachelor ways :) Sometimes it all seems too hard until someone shows you how easy it can be. Getting the boulder rolling us the hardest part ... Once the momentum kicks in....

Angie Peters said...

Hi Eleni and Nikki,

Thanks for a fantastic interview.

Nikki, good luck with your upcoming debut :)

In terms of conserving energy and green tips, I don't really do anything special - just a lot of the day-to-day stuff that others have mentioned already.

We have lots of trees, especially around the parts of the house that get very hot in summer, in order to conserve energy by not using the air con. We also like to reuse the grey water from the washing machine, and also have a rainwater tank.I'm loving these tips, as I've picked up a few I'm going to start implementing...

Eleni Konstantine said...

Hi Angie, thanks for dropping in. It's been great getting all the new tips hasn't it. Nikki is going to have such fun picking the winner ;))

Nikki Logan said...

Angie! Welcome and thanks for mentioning passive design. Gardens full of trees really can cut house heat (and therefore need to cool).

And they bring critters and look nice, too.

OK, I'm off to pick a 'best' greentip. Will be hard ..!

Eleni Konstantine said...

Nikki has had an agonising time deciding the winner of her prize.

It's Jenn McCloud for 'if it's yellow, let it mellow' and her dog-poo worm farm.

Congrats.

Jenn please send your details to:
eleni-fest(AT)elenikonstantine(DOT)com

Thanks everyone for commenting and for all the handy tips.

Nikki thanks for being a guest and for a fascinating topic.

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