death warmed up

That's what I feel like this morning... due to Kuffer waking me up in the small hours, 'announcing' that he'd come in after a nocturnal jaunt. He seems to like to know that we know he's back. Even if it is around 4am... And waking up acquainted me with the fact I had a sinus headache, so had to get up and get pills to sort that out. So now I'm feeling distinctly under par.

After a day of doing nothing at all, letting the latest edit of Gothic Heat 'set' I started back into work again yesterday and had a most productive day. Caught up on accounts, replied to some emails, did a bit of web work, sent out some parcels to prize draw winners and reviewers, and even did a K of story I'm thinking of sending to a magazine. Pretty rough stuff at the moment, but writing all the same. And different to Gothic Heat, so refreshing in a way. I flipped back to my contemporary first person present tense voice and really enjoyed the change. I'd forgotten how much fun it is to write that way, and I'm wondering whether to return to that voice for my next book. It certainly worked quite nicely in Entertaining Mr Stone and Suite Seventeen, and readers have said how they liked it too.

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Don't forget Portia's Promos - new stuff being added all the time!

I've been editing....

Quite intensely. Which is why I've been quiet here for a day or two.

I got the bit between my teeth and pushed on to the end of the first round of editing Gothic Heat yesterday. I'd anticipated lots of things to change, and there still will be changes, both self initiated and stemming from whatever my wise critique partner says about it. But, it didn't seem quite as dire as it did when I was actually writing it. I thought I'd produced a real turkey, but it didn't feel quite that bad. Shades of Suite Seventeen there... I thought that was a mountainous pile of horse pooh at one time, but it ended up getting four and a half stars from Romantic Times! I can only hope for a similar phenomenon with Gothic Heat. Maybe not all those stars, but at least a fairly respectable showing.

Found myself grinning at GH's extremely sappy and traditionally romantic - sort of - ending. But I'm a traditional and old fashioned girl [girl? don't make me laugh...] I like the together forever, rose tinted HEA. It's what I want to read and it's what I want to write... I don't apologise for that. And I don't apologise for creating characters that are sort of nice, despite their quirks and the bad traits and acts they have to overcome to get to being 'good people'... It's fashionable in some quarters to pour scorn on niceness, but I don't. I like nice people, and if there were more of them about, this world wouldn't be in the shitty mess some parts of it are... My Rafe in Gothic Heat has done some very questionable things in his life, and he does some questionable things in the course of the book... but underneath, his heart is true and he becomes a hero. As well as falling for a girl and loving her forever...

Awwww......


--
Telly: various crap
Choc/Yummy: guylian
Mood: strange
Writing: just finished editing
Reading: in between books
RSI/FMS: tired, sore, fuzzy


Don't forget Portia's Promos - new stuff being added all the time!

my Bank Holiday in Spain and France...

with the rough but delicious Major Richard Sharpe! UK TV History has a Sharpe marathon over the long Bank Holiday weekend, and despite my intentions to work at writing and catching up, I've got drawn into Sharpey's Napoleonic War adventures. Gosh, he's so fit, it's hard not to... Odd to think that but for a footballing injury, Sharpe might have had a different face. Instead of the splendid Sean Bean, it might have been another of my faves, Paul McGann, who I was spending the weekend with...

I must say there's something particularly hot about a handsome dashing soldier... My Nathaniel in OBJECT OF DESIRE is a super fit ex serviceman turned academic and in EYES OF DESIRE, Guy is an elite special forces operative on leave. Yum yum!!!

--
Telly: Sharpey
Choc/Yummy: Thorntons Fruit and Nut
Mood: lazy
Writing: nothing yet
Reading: Flatliners
RSI/FMS: so so


Don't forget Portia's Promos - new stuff being added all the time!

Five kisses for OBJECT OF DESIRE

OBJECT OF DESIRE has just received a glowing five kisses review by Kerin at TWO LIPS REVIEWS! Here's a snippet...

"Object of Desire is a sexy hot little story packed full of eroticism and bits of humor that’ll keep you entertained from beginning to end. Portia Da Costa is a veteran author who knows what her readers want and doesn’t fail to deliver it. Object of Desire is both evocative and earthy and left me well satisfied by hot love scenes and the sweet and sexy ending."

You can read the full review here and buy the ebook from Total-E-Bound!

And don't forget the wet men and the chance to win naughty sex toys!

--
Telly: Sharpe-a-thon on UK History
Choc/Yummy: Turkish Delight
Mood: good
Writing: not yet
Reading: Flatliners
RSI/FMS: so so


Don't forget Portia's Promos - new stuff being added all the time!

do you like wet men?

Well, I don't like them any more than dry ones, but the above specimen is pretty tasty... However, if you like saturated dudes, nip on over to Lustbites for a butchers at a selection of prime examples. While you're there, leave a comment and you can win one of the kind of naughty toys that might come in the package below... nudge nudge... you know what I mean...

fun interview

Here's a fun interview with me!

Portia Da Costa at Lovehoney!

Why not leave me a comment while you're there... and maybe treat yourself to something naughty from their splendid selection of merchandise.... ;)

it's all a bit sporadic, innit?

Sorry that posting has been a bit hit and miss recently. Have mainly been channelling all my writing energy into fiction and now, into editing Gothic Heat. And my life is pretty boring... except last Thursday when I met my dear writing buddy, Saskia Walker for lunch and we had a fabulous gabfest and bitching session! Now that was fun, and I bet a lot of people's ears were burning that day... we love to dish it! LOL

Am now about a third of the way into editing Gothic Heat, and it's still not too vile. I can see a bit of tweakage ahead, but so far, so good. I'm even beginning to think a little about what I'll do next. It'll probably be something contemporary, but no firm news on that yet. When there is something to tell, you'll be the first to know, faithful readers. [All three of you.]

One good bit of news is that the Magic and Desire Black Lace novella collection, containing my offering ILL MET BY MOONLIGHT, has just appeared on the Amazons, due out 8th May 08.

Can't wait to see the cover... but in the meantime, here's my version.



--
Telly: UK TV History
Choc/Yummy: Hotel Chocolat
Mood: very tired
Writing: editing Gothic Heat
Reading: The Unsung Hero/Suzanne Brockmann & Flatliners/Leonore Fleischer
RSI/FMS: see above, tired and extremely achy


Don't forget Portia's Promos - new stuff being added all the time!

The New Rafe

Here's the 'new' Rafe from Gothic Heat... looks suspiciously like Mr Blue's slightly less psychotic twin brother, doesn't he? ;)

Have now begun my first round of edits, and even though it's early days yet, the bits I've done so far don't seem too horrible. Sadly, though, despite being 2K over budget wordswise, it hasn't reduced much in length yet. I haven't found anything thus far that's so crap that I can gaily rip it out...

Screencap of Vincent D'Onofrio as Mr Blue from The Taking of Pelham 123 TV movie courtesy of The Velocity of Vincent.

Here's the side by side....

I'm gonna have to cut Rafe's hair!!!!!

He was going to have long hair... but I can't square that with the cover... so I'm going to have to do a bit of hairdressing... But I think it might work better... I'm kind of seeing him as Mr Blue now...

Two Wild New Reviews!

I've just received news of the first two reviews for WILD IN THE COUNTRY!

The first is from the splendid Mrs Giggles... who awards it 78/100 and describes it as "a pretty amusing - if silly - sex romp"... which sums it up just about perfectly. It's a fairly daft book designed purely for light hearted entertainment, and I think it succeeds in its purpose pretty well.

Go here to read the rest of the Mrs Giggles review

At Night Owl Romance Book Reviews, 'Wild' gets a solid 5/5... which is brilliant! Dee describes it as "sexy, lusty, juicy, and splendid with color" and you can't ask for a nicer plaudit than that!

Go here to read the rest of the Night Owl Romance review


And here's the info about the book...

WILD IN THE COUNTRY - Portia Da Costa

Published by TOTAL-E-BOUND - a contemporary super length novel

Available from now!

Blurb

There's something in the air...

Flora Swain is a newcomer to the village of Marwick Magna, renowned for the inspiration it provides to painters and poets. Impetuous and strong-minded, Flora is no artist – yet. But there are creative urges within her, she is convinced, and she has come to the country to give them life.

The strange thing is that Flora’s urges turn out to be almost entirely sensual. Is it the undoubted physical allure of her new neighbour, Declan McKenna, that’s driving her wild? Or the explicitly sexual messages which appear daily in her post? Or could it be that country life has revealed to her an insatiable, highly erotic new self?

Read an Excerpt

Available now from TOTAL-E-BOUND

out of sorts...

Have been feeling a bit out of sorts these last couple of days... Maybe it's a sort of 'dislocation' from finishing the first draft of Gothic Heat? Maybe it's health/fibromyalgia issues? Maybe it's health/fibro issues due to 'dislocation'? Who knows? But basically, I just feel as cranky as Predator chappie here...

I should be pleased as punch with myself, but I feel grumpy and curmudgeonly and disillusioned with so many things. And I feel a great difficulty in communicating, which is a bit of a drawback for somebody who, basically, communicates for a living. I feel as if I should be stretching myself as a writer, moving up a gear, moving up a level... or summink. Not just festering along, never really making a big name for myself. I've been writing a long, long time and I've seen lots of writers come along since I started and become pretty big names, while I just moulder away in the backwoods. I've always thought that it's because I can't plot well and can't generate ideas easily. But then I read stuff by bigger names, and sometimes, I think... well, I could have thought of this, but if I had done, I would probably have dismissed it as too silly and too superficial for an editor to take it seriously... And then, of course, I read other stuff and my heart just sinks because it's so good, and the author is clearly a quantum leap beyond me in terms of her imagination and her ability to interpret what's in that imagination as a book that people will want to read and having read it, end up adoring it...

Sorry to seem gloomy, but my hips are aching and I feel like crap today...

On a film note, watched Predator 2 last night, and while I think I prefer the first one, it's still a deliciously crass and bloodthirsty escapist flick. It's sweaty and violent and silly, but I did enjoy it. I just wish some bright spark hadn't put the Alien skull in the Pred's space ship, and generated the whole Aliens v. Predator phenomenon that led to a film that basically crapped on two iconic sci-fi movie franchises. They've ruined both now with AVP... stupid sods!

--
Telly: Time/Michio Kaku
Choc/Yummy: Cadbury's Turkish Delight Bar
Mood: horrible
Writing: nowt
Reading: Fantasy Lover
RSI/FMS: awful at the moment


Don't forget Portia's Promos - new stuff being added all the time!

Finally...

I finished the first draft of Gothic Heat today... the book I sometimes wondered if I could ever finish. And it's weird... part of me feels that it's still never really got started. I'll be honest, it's not been my favourite book to work on, because it wasn't one I actively sought to write. It was a book I was encouraged to write by my editor... based on a wild statement by me ie. 'maybe I could write a sequel to Gothic Blue?' when I'd never really *seriously* entertained the idea.

The first draft is rough, and will need a lot of work. But that's the function of first drafts... to be edited and refined and reworked... and improved! And I'm sure I'll see what can be done when I return to the story after a short break to 'refresh' my mind.

I think Gothic Heat can be a good book. Maybe not a great piece of literature, but certainly an entertaining read. One thing it won't be though is *like* Gothic Blue in a lot of ways. I'm a different writer now, and I've moved on, and learnt a lot, and improved, I hope. My characters are more realistic now, I think, and more complex and more ambiguous. Deeper, hopefully...

So, watch this space.

--
Telly: Uncle Buck
Choc/Yummy: Turkish Delight
Mood: strange
Writing: Gothic Heat
Reading: Fantasy Lover - Sherrilyn Kenyon
RSI/FMS: bit sore and achy


Don't forget Portia's Promos - new stuff being added all the time!

I got it!!!!

I'm a guest blogger today!

Hey, I'm guest blogging today... over at Milady Insanity's place!

Find out just how mad I really am, and why I have so many dumb pseudonyms... and comment for the chance to win a prize!

Watching the Detective... today!

WATCHING THE DETECTIVE is out today in the UK!!!

Okay, you'll have to buy an anthology with stories from a bunch of other writers in it to get The Detective... but they're all good authors and I'm sure they're all excellent yarns... even if there are no gorgeously big and strapping NYPD detectives in them. :)

Here's an excerpt and the buying links and whatnot....

--
Telly: World at War
Choc/Yummy: Carrot Cake
Mood: slightly better
Writing: bit of Gothic Heat
Reading: just finished Lover Awakened - JR Ward
RSI/FMS: fairly sore


Don't forget Portia's Promos - new stuff being added all the time!

how I feel...

This is a bit how I feel at the moment... I'm so zonked out thinking about writing, web design and promo, and so completely incapable of doing any of them, due to the aforesaid zonkedoutness... that I was reduced to scrubbing out the shower and mopping the kitchen floor this morning because my brain just couldn't cope with any higher functions.

And now, of course, I feel physically knackered too. It doesn't take much housework to **** me up... All I really want to do is to sit around reading LOVER REVEALED by J R Ward all day, but I have this freaking demon inside me that howls all the time saying I must be doing this, or I must be doing that... and it torments me so much it makes me crazy and I can't do anything at all!

I am so messed up at the moment...

Suite Seventeen out in the US today!!!

SUITE SEVENTEEN - Portia Da Costa

Acting purely on instinct, I coil my arms around him. I can't believe this is happening and I can't believe what I'm doing. This new, different, impatient me takes the initiative and presses her tongue against his lips, demanding entrance.

He laughs, the sound deep and rough in his chest, and he admits me. Then a second later, it's like he throws a switch and he takes total control.

When vibrant, forty-something widow Annie Conroy espies her new neighbours Maria Lewis and Robert Stone having kinky sex in their back garden, she decides it’s time that she too woke up and smelt the erotic roses. And where better to begin her daring adventures than the luxurious Waverley Grange Country Hotel, and its hidden den of iniquity, the chintz-clad but wickedly pervy Suite Seventeen?

Under the stern but playful eye of exotic master Valentino, Annie quickly discovers the shocking hidden depths of her own sensuality, and surrenders herself body and soul to his outrageous games of power. But when the Waverley’s entire future hangs in the balance, and Annie has the means to help save it, dare she gamble on going one step further… and giving her heart to the mysterious man who’s come to control her?

"...this deliciously seductive story... is hard to put down" ~ Romantic Times, Four and a Half Stars, Sept 07

'Suite Seventeen contains all Portia's trademark treats from the arousing narrative, a wicked blend of deviant episodes, and an undercurrent of pragmatic and poignant romance.' ~ Ashley Lister, Erotica Readers and Writers Association

'I am grinning from ear to ear having savoured every last dripping word...' ~ Ann, poet and blogger

'a cheeky and very lovely read' ~ Madelynne Ellis, bestselling author of A Gentleman's Wager

ISBN 0352341092

Published by Black Lace in June 2007 [UK] and August 2007 [US]

Read an excerpt at PortiaDaCosta.com [NB. excerpt is NC
17 and suitable for adults only.]

Suite Seventeen is available from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com

a picture [of sorts] paints a thousand words

today...

This is out...
from TOTAL-E-BOUND...

I should be celebrating but I feel a bit....


About nothing in particular...

He's a bully but I don't care!

Mr Blue is very cross with me because I didn't write at all yesterday! I don't know how it happened, really... I meant to, but I just couldn't get into the groove, and a trip up into little town, to do some errands, really disrupted my day. It wouldn't have bothered a normal, professional writer... but it did me because I'm easily thrown by breaks in my routines.

And I'm not likely to get much done today, as I need to catch up with some outstanding web work, and I'm suffering huge, huge guilt pangs at not getting these tasks done straight away for my clients. It *is* getting harder and harder to balance the two sides of my working life... I'm managing at the moment, mainly because I need the money, but I accept that there may come a time when I have to reluctantly give up the design and focus on writing. I would miss it, if I had to do this, because it's another way of being creative, and one that can be exercised when I'm in a state of emotional turmoil, because it's not affected by my emotions in the way my writing is... *and* my web clients are all so nice... but it's getting to be more and more of a struggle to reconcile the two things. :(

--
Telly: UK TV History
Choc/Yummy: Tesco chocolate brownie
Mood: oppressed
Writing: nothing yet
Reading: Lakeland catalogue
RSI/FMS: achey, weary


Don't forget Portia's Promos - new stuff being added all the time!

A fun new Yahoogroup!!!

Literagasm - for fans of romance and erotica eBooks!

This group is for discussing erotic romance eBooks, the good, the bad and the ugly! We'll give you an honest opinion on the best and the worst, to help readers to decide which eBooks to spend their hard earned pennies on. We'll help readers to chat to their favourite authors and authors to tell them what's new 'n' up 'n' cummin'!

LITERAGASM
v.the climax of excitement esp whilst in the act of reading

Sign up now and join the fun... print book discussion welcome too!


Don't forget Portia's Promos - new stuff being added all the time!

Strange how things turn out...

I must have done something right with SUITE SEVENTEEN because not only did I get my fabulous Romantic Times review... "this deliciously seductive story... is hard to put down..." but I've also got another super smashing review at the Erotica Readers and Writers Association, courtesy of top man Ashley Lister!

Ash is a long time supporter of me as writer, and like the lovely reviewer at RT, he really seems to get where I'm coming from with my stories and characters...

But I really find this good response to S17 extremely reassuring... I had a real struggle with the sukka at many stages of the writing, and for a lot of the time I thought it was total crap... and it's ended up as something that's been pretty well received so far, both as a romance novel and an erotic novel.

So it just proves that even if a book seems like a steaming pile of horse plop while you're writing it, there's still a possibility that it might turn into something reasonably worthwhile eventually... Which means there may be hope for Gothic Heat too... :)

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Don't forget Portia's Promos - new stuff being added all the time!