The Red Collection - out today!

Thrilled to announce my latest book from Black Lace!

THE RED COLLECTION is a jumbo anthology of my previously published shorter work. It's stuffed with my short stories that have appeared in Black Lace anthologies, two chunky paranormal novellas, BUDDIES DON'T BITE and ILL MET BY MOONLIGHT, and one or two other bits and bobs.

For a list of the goodies, a bit of info, and a teeny tiny taster, zip along to:

THE RED COLLECTION

Available from the Amazons thus far, other online outlets hopefully to follow, and also from physical bookshops and supermarkets various.

Another Prize Draw today!

Random House have another Portia Da Costa title up for offer in their Valentine's prize draw today!

LUST BITES contains my first ever vampire story, BUDDIES DON'T BITE, the story of a rather honourable vampire who's totally smitten with his best friend and housemate.

Go here - on 8th February only - to sign up for the prize draw and the chance to win LUST BITES.

BUDDIES at LUSTBITES

I'm posting at the Lustbites blog today with a fun Q&A [questions posed by my chum Janine Ashbless!] a hot excerpt and a prize draw for people who comment on the post there.

So go here: BUDDIES DON'T BITE

And don't forget to leave a comment so you get a chance of the prize... it's a copy of the Lustbites vamp anthology and a copy of Gothic Blue!!!

--
Telly: Numb3rs S.3
Choc/Yummy: Lindor Dark
Mood: foul/chainsaw
Writing: nothing yet
Reading: nothing yet
RSI/FMS: tired, achy


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

all vampires today...

Still reading the above and loving it... and am now proof correcting the below... and sort of loving that too, just as much, in its own way. Think it's probably the most romantic thing I've ever written... even more romantic in a lot of ways than the straight romantic novels I've written!



--
Telly: not much at all
Choc/Yummy: cupcakes
Mood: improving all the time
Writing: proofs of Buddies Don't Bite
Reading: Dark Lover
RSI/FMS: not too bad


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

covers.... some new ones... real ones...

Here's the new 'official' cover for the Lust Bites vampire paranormal erotic romance collection! Not bad, is it? I'm so pleased to see this cover because a previous mockup I'd seen of it was just utterly dreadful... really... it was gruesome, with the most hideous t**t of a constipated looking bloke on it, who appeared to have been drenched in chip oil...


Obviously the cover above isn't as divine as my beautifully mournful 'faux' cover for Buddies Don't Bite... but it'll certainly 'do' in the absence of actually getting the divine Vincenzo to pose for my covers.


The second new cover is a new one for a reprinted novel of mine, Hotbed, which is due out in October, I think...



Again, I'm very pleased with this, both in terms of image and colour combos, and feel it's an improvement over the original cover... although that was rather nice, actually, too...


There's only one slight thing that bothers me a bit about this beautiful new cover. You might not be able to see it, but at the bottom it says 'an erotic romance'... and oh dear, oh dear... this book isn't an erotic romance! It's a work of erotic fiction for women, written several years ago, when romance wasn't really such a strong feature of Black Lace novels... I've mostly written romance toned erotica, and there is a central relationship in Hotbed, and the implication of a rather off beat HEA at the end, but it's not a romance per se.

But, if you like erotic romance... please do give it a try, just for the sex!

--
Telly: NCIS
Choc/Yummy: delicious choccy gift from a friend
Mood: cheerful
Writing: none today
Reading: Gothic Blue
RSI/FMS: tired and achey


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

Buddies news!

Buddies Don't Bite is now listed at Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com

You'll find it in an anthology called Lust Bites, with two other vamp novellas by Mathilde Madden and Kristina Lloyd.

Eek, agh, my baby left home!

Buddies has now gone to my editor! Fingers crossed everybody that he likes it... Like most authors, I feel a little sad when I say goodbye to a set of characters, having lived with them for quite a while and having got to know their quirks and foibles. But now I've got to learn to love a new hero and heroine... and do it pretty fast too! It dawned on me today that nearly a quarter of the year is over and all I've written is one poxy novella! And one, possibly two short stories... I really need to pick up the pace and stop being such a self indulgent wimp. There have been a lot of days in this first quarter year when I've done nothing... I've given in to fatigue [usually fairly mild] and I've given in to what's basically nothing more that glorified sloth! I've also wasted a lot of time online... I love online interaction on blogs and boards, but there's no need to check everything about seventeen times a day! No need to keep checking and checking emails and feeling 'frozen' because nothing arrives. No need to work myself into a paralyzing paddy because I read something online that upsets or annoys me... I've just got to push on regardless and immerse myself in the task and the pleasure of writing!

First job... work out a readable and enticing outline for Smalltown... ed. likes the idea of a PDC 'hot, sexy romance'... Now I've got to really sell the sucker!


--
Telly: Jeremy Clarkson
Chocolate: cake
Mood: pretty good
Writing: reformatting Gothic Blue for excerpts
Reading: Jeremy Clarkson
RSI/FMS: a bit sore

Buddies...

Managed to get through a day without a headache for a change. And worked really well, finishing the final editing pass on Buddies Don't Bite!

I've worked hard, damned hard on this novella. It needs to be good because it's in an anthology with ones by two other very good authors. Fortunately, my novella is likely to be very different in tone to the other two contributions, so with any luck, people won't be directly comparing them, as they're coming at the concept of vampire erotica from very, very distinct and dissimilar angles. I'm lucky, too, that not only have I had marvellous input from my magnificent critique partner, I've also had the benefit of critique from another wonderfully accomplished writer friend too. Double benefits! Both picked up on incredibly useful points, and with the suggested improvements from both these wise ladies, I'm feeling much more confident about the results. Especially when I sent it to my agent and she reckons it's AOK and reads 'incredibly well'!

Of course the acid test will be whether my ed. thinks it's what the readers will want! It's readers that are important, first, last and always...

--
Telly: football
Chocolate: cake
Mood: okay
Writing: editing buddies
Reading: magazines
RSI/FMS: bit achey

recharging one's batteries

It's Saturday, and Tilly has just dropped in to recharge his batteries... LOL

No, that's not a power cable attached to his bottom, just the cable to the laptop adaptor, which is perched on the end of the desk. The Tillster saw a space - where my laptop sits when it's not actually on my lap - and parked himself there for a kip.

I've been busy this last two or three days with rewriting and editing Buds... the fantastic feedback my critique partner supplied has really energised my approach to this novella, and I'm seeing lots and lots of ways to bring it up to full PDC code. Am getting lots more characterisation of Zack, and better conflict and interaction between him and Teresa... building on the stuff in the story that's already pretty okay.

In other news, I think all the papers and magazines etc from the side of my bed have finally dried out, but I think I'll sort them out a bit more tomorrow when I do a partial Sort Out Sunday... can't do a full one, as I want to push on with this editing, and get the thing off my desk and on to my agent's!

--
Telly: Master and Commander [mmm.... Russell Crowe]
Chocolate: cake and scone actually
Mood: okay
Writing: editing Buds
Reading: Radio Times
RSI/FMS: not bad...

that'll teach me...

No, this isn't me having done a fabulous clean out and sort out of the 'problem' beside my bed! This is the result of a stupid mishap with a full beaker of tea on the bedside table... sigh... tipped it over, didn't I? All over my bagful/heap of books, magazines and paper... and now 75% of said is in the airing cupboard, drying off. A few items escaped... but I've had to chuck a whole wodge of stuff too. Maybe it's a good thing out of a bad thing... and I've certainly learnt the hard way not to use unstable 'caffe latte' type mugs, and not to pile pillows up behind me, because they have a disturbing habit of tipping sideways towards full cups of tea!

On the general front, I've been feeling really cruddy again these last few days, hence the slim blog presence. Also had to do a major cleanup in the house, as himself had someone coming round to see him on a semi work type visit, so the place had to be tidy. I've also been thinking about edits on Buddies, suggested by my critique partner, as well as bits for my smalltown idea. But mainly, I've been fighting off the lurgi again, especially in the form of jammed up sinuses, aching limbs, and a constantly hovering headache/migraine.

In better news, Kuffer was at the vet last night, and he's responded well to his thyroid meds. He's actually put on a bit of weight! He's to be on the pills for another month, and then the vet will decide whether he needs and op, or whether his overactive thyroid can be managed with pills alone.

--
Telly: UK History
Chocolate: cake instead, actually...
Mood: mad with self for being an idiot
Writing: editing Buddies
Reading: Web User
RSI/FMS: generally aching

another mixed day....

Sigh... it's been another mixed day. Some progress on editing what I've done so far on Buds, and I am feeling quite good about the editing and refining I've been doing... but I've not been able to do as much as I'd liked. I was involved in a chat writing challenge this afternoon, at Romance Divas, and that was fun and v. good incentive to work, but the chat room was a bit on the blink and when I took a break away, I couldn't get back into it.

Am feeling a bit anxious at the moment because I have a dentist appointment tomorrow... eek! I don't have any particular problems that I'm aware of, other than the usual wear and tear of age etc, but I still freak out with worry when that prodder goes in my mouth and starts probing! The only good thing about going tomorrow is that I have a dishy new dentist, who also happens to be brill at his job... The trouble is though, it's no good him being so fanceable when he gets to look in depth into my mouth and see my less than dazzling white teeth, and also gets a good up close look at my aged mush and my lines and general frazzledness into the bargain. Sigh...

I won't be able to chill now [as if I ever do!] until I'm back safely from my dental visit tomorrow...

--
Telly: UK History
Chocolate: Green and Blacks
Mood: bit frazzled
Writing: editing Buds
Reading: nowt
RSI/FMS: very, very achey and tired

busy buddie day...

I've been busy working on Buddies today... Too tired to come up with a post now, but if you wanna sneak peak of Buds, go here!

It's rough and unedited, I warn you...

yesterday was Sort Out Sunday!

and that's why I didn't post.

Regular visitors here will have got some idea of the amount of chaos and clutter in my house from posts like this and this. Now things can only go on so long in this state before some sort of meltdown occurs... Last time it happened, our dining room was made into my office, but as my office is now the horrendous dumpster illustrated in one of those pix, and we have no more spare rooms, action has to be taken. So I've initiated Sort Out Sunday... which means that instead of writing on Sunday, as I often do, I will spend several hours sorting and throwing out, either in my office, or in other areas of the house where there's overspill... Hopefully, eventually, my productivity will increase when I can actually find things again... and I also would like to think I can take up the slack with the odd hundred or so extra words on the days when I'm not sorting out. One day, in the dim and distant future, I'll finish trying to sort out my clutter, and then I'll be back to normal.

Mind you, not that I'm doing all that much writing at the moment. I still haven't got back into Buddies Don't Bite, apart from one tiny bit of tweakage last night. Which was probably the first time I've looked at it in a fortnight! But I did have some thoughts about it whilst showering and dressing this morning [in the bathroom again, where I do some of my best creative thinking]... I've decided to slightly change Teresa's status at the beginning of the book, in respect of her so called boyfriend who's just dumped her. In the first version, she's supposed to have slept with this bozo, but now I think I'll have it that she hasn't yet done the deed... which will make her less likely to seem like a bit of a slag for fancying Zack at the same time!

Right, I suppose I should get on with that... although I'm sort of tempted to have a go with my new vacuum cleaner! Given my slatternly household skills, you'd think this would be the last thing I'd want to do... and it just proves the lengths of procrastination I'll go to in order to avoid writing... But we went to Makro yesterday and purchased an all singing all dancing Vax machine, to replace our old Hoover that went kerpuft, and I'm dying to get into a few corners here and there and massacre those dust bunnies!

--
Telly: not yet
Chocolate: not yet
Mood: not bad
Writing: not yet, but thought about it
Reading: ComputerActive
RSI/FMS: very achy from lugging stuff about on SOS

I made another purty thing!

But I really must get on with the naffing thing today! Haven't written for over a week, and I've still a big scene or two that need doing! I.am.bad.

--
Telly: UK History
Chocolate: not yet
Mood: okay
Writing: not a sausage
Reading: bits and bobs
RSI/FMS: not too bad

It's official!

Buddies Don't Bite is go! It's to be in a Black Lace Erotic Paranormal Romance novella anthology called Lust Bites, and it'll be published on 9th November 2007!

If I can raise my game and belabour this recalcitrant sukka into shape, this should be a v. fine anthology, because the other novellas are by top spiffing authors Mathilde Madden and Kristina Lloyd, two very bright stars in the Black Lace firmament...

--
Telly: Gladiators of WW2
Chocolate: none yet
Mood: schizo
Writing: proof checking... agh
Reading: proof checking... agh
RSI/FMS: very achey in all parts

grappling with vamp/s

I've been watching two versions of Dracula today, trying to get in a vampy mood to write Buddies... I'm at a tough spot, and having to describe strong emotions, with issues to do with vampirism... and it's hard going. Only managing two or three hundred words per day, if that. There are two issues I'm grappling with:

• trying go describe the rapture of vampire sex and express an ecstacy in the blood that goes far beyond the genital experience. I'm used to getting into the head of characters in the throes of passion, but this is different... there's an extra dimension
• trying to express my hero's emotions being torn two ways at once ie. he wants to be with the heroine, and on a primal level, to change her, so they can be together, but at the same time, he doesn't want to deny her a normal life, and the sun and everything else she'd have to give up to be with him...

It's all very tumultuous stuff, which is why progress is slow.



--
Telly: Dracula/Frank Langella + Dracula/Gary Oldman
Chocolate: Tesco Belgian Milk
Mood: okay
Writing: 500 words Buddies
Reading: Dracula movie novelisation [not Stoker]
RSI: not bad

this crap...

I feel as if I've got some of this crap in my system... or something. Himself has complained of feeling 'washed out' over the weekend, and now I think I've got the same thing. Exhausted, bunged up sinuses and whatnot, bit of a sore throat developing, I think. Basically, I just feel like getting my head down for some kip and generally 'avoiding' the day. Or maybe it's just an excuse to avoid Buddies which is drag, drag, dragging? Or an excuse to avoid all sorts of other things that are bugging me... all sorts of annoyances and general tittage and people being up themselves on the web for one...

Right, time for a bitta lunch... last night's home made pasta bizarro warmed over... which will probably make me feel worse than ever, because I cooked it myself!!!

--
Telly: nonsense
Chocolate: Tesco Belgian Milk
Mood: generally irritated and under par
Writing: about ten words of buddies
Reading: James Bond a bit
RSI: not bad considering

I can't seem to get them to do it...

Hmmm.... my characters seem to be so busy talking and interacting and discovering stuff about each other and whatnot that I can't seem to get them to start shagging! And this is an erotic romance! They should be doing it all over the place!

I think this is one of the basic problems of erotic romance and esp. paranormal erotic romance... there's a lot going on in terms of relationship, and story stuff, and it's just as important as the sensual elements. It's hard to balance the two. In a romance, the relationship is paramount, with the sex as a carefully developed expression of it... In erotica, it's all about the sex and the sensuality, and if there's a love relationship, well that's wonderful because it adds richness. But trying to get an even mix of the two... now there's the true skill. Which some folks have in spades, but which I admit I'm still learning. And like every skill, it doesn't come easily. I have to work hard. I know I'll get there somehow. I mostly do... But I'll have to sweat for it, for every word.

I'm just hoping it'll be worth it in the end...
--
Telly: Twister
Chocolate: Tesco Belgian Milk
Mood: not bad
Writing: 700 words or so of Buddies
Reading: You Only Live Twice - Ian Fleming
RSI: was quite sore, but feeling slightly better now

I made another thing...

Cute, isn't it?

--
Telly: Eddie Izzard
Chocolate: HC
Mood: good
Writing: 600 words Buddies
Reading: last years accounts - yeuk!
RSI: not bad

feeling slightly groovy...

Having temporarily given up on Snakes on a Plane, because it's stupid and predictable and not even Samuel L. can save it, I've switched to watching some Eddie Izzard comedy tapes instead. I got a whole batch of them from a charity shop a while ago, and I'd forgotten all about them until my critique partner mentioned Eddie, and I remembered I'd got them.

And Eddie is indeed groovy [one of his favourite words...] So funny, so wacko, so spot on observationally too in a twisted sort of way. And for a slightly chunky lad, he's pretty too... and of course, he appeals to me especially as he's a bit of drag queen too. Not in the Priscilla way... but in a sort of glammed up, but wearable sort of style. If that makes sense? He seems to like to mix and match women's and men's clothes, which I think is really creative, so good luck to him!

In other groovy news...

Have been pushing ahead on Buddies Don't Bite, and though I'm in a slightly puddingy bit of the story at the moment, I'm keeping it moving, and I think I'll be able to tidy up the stodge in the editing. We're getting pretty close to the moment of truth, when it dawns on Teresa that Zack really is the thing she's been telling herself is silly and doesn't exist... :)

Have also had a bit of publishing type news... can't really trumpet about it just yet, but things are looking good on the getting into print front for one of my current projects. I never dare count the sale chickens until I've signed on the dotted line, but there's strong hope on this one...

So watch this space carefully!!!

--
Telly: Eddie Izzard
Chocolate: Chocolate Reindeer
Mood: groovy
Writing: 1.2K Buddies
Reading: computer manual of accounts software
RSI: bit sore, not too bad