Flaws and issues

Am making slow but useful progress on The Boss's Secret. It's crawling along really, but some progress is better than no progress at all, so it's all a plus.

I'm reading an interesting how to book at the moment, about outlining, called Take Off Your Pants! It basically offers guidance on how to use clever outlining to help you write the book and write it faster. Which makes sense. I always used to be an outliner, but never felt very good at it, because I'm crap at plotting and you need a plot to make an outline. So, over the years, I became more of a hybrid plotter/pantser, leaning towards pantsing more, lately.

The trouble with pantsing, at least for me, is that I tend to write myself into pickles, and into stories that don't make sense, have no conflict [I hate conflict!!!!] and end up going nowhere or sounding suspiciously like something I've written before. At least once.

So I thought I'd give outlining a whirl again, specifically to help me revamp Boss.

Although I don't agree with everything in this book, it's good because it's got me thinking about the characters more, and their issues and their personality flaws etc, and the way these drive the [rudimentary, in my case] plot. I've got what I think are some workable flaws and issues for Lawrence now, but Rachel is proving harder. I realise that in the old version of Boss, she was a bit of a cypher, but I'm getting glimmerings now, of how she can be a stronger character.

The problem for me is that I don't like just picking an 'issue' out of thin air, to make a romantic conflict or whatever. I know characters have to have them, but I feel uncomfortable taking something serious and 'using' it, just to create artificial angst in what I consider a fairly lightweight piece of writing. I know my own level. I write to entertain and to provide escapist fun reads. I'm not setting out to make some great point on the human condition and all that, so I feel guilty using issues that are pretty terrible and agonising for people in real life, just to make a character arc for my fictional people.

But, having said this... this is my issue, and every writer and every reader has a different take on it, and I suspect I'm a bit of an outlier here. :)

Writing a baddie!

In the last couple of days, I've been thinking about and writing about the baddie in my WIP. Now this is tough for me, because I'm a sucker for sympathetic characters, even when they're sexy, somewhat domineering alpha heroes... but the dastardly Eustace Lloyd's actions have a pivotal effect on the plot of IN THE FLESH, so I don't think it'll work to have him simply referred to, rather than put in an actual appearance. In fact, come to think of it, a dirty trick that Eustace plays on my heroine, Beatrice Weatherly, initiates the entire plot of the book. Not that there's a *huge* amount of plottiness. I'd be the first to admit that my stories depend mainly on characters, erotic interplay and emotions, rather than a lot of racing around doing things.

Because I mostly like 'nice' characters, I don't write many nasty ones. I think the last proper villain I wrote ie. one without much in the way of redeeming features, was Isidora, the wicked sorceress in my GOTHIC duo, Gothic Blue and Gothic Heat. Now she was a very bad girl, and totally ruthless, and didn't care what she did to people as long as she got what she wanted. Readers seemed to like her, and I must admit, she was fun to write, so maybe I can channel some of that irredeemable mojo into Eustace... although I'm already looking for reasons for him being the way he is. Not that I'll have much time to go into his back story. I've nearly got three quarters of my wordcount done, and I'm only half way through the plot!

Looks like this book is due some stringent and carefully considered cutting and compressing in the editing... or it's going to be a helluva sight longer than the projected 95K words!

Now then... shall I do a bit more Eustaceness? Or return to Beatrice and Mr. Ritchie and their delicious bedroom games? Hee hee!


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Eating: far too much sweet stuff
Watching: The Mentalist, Numb3rs etc
Reading: Patience - Lisa Valdez/Sherlock Holmes for Dummies
Writing: IN THE FLESH aka Victorianoid
Feeling: so so

Professor Hottie... is hot!

Despite my natural fears, I've been been enjoying checking the proofs of IN TOO DEEP and especially reacquainting myself with my hero Professor Hottie McHotstuff aka Professor Daniel Brewster. He's a very naughty academic, full of sexy fun, but also dealing with some quite serious issues. Molto complex... and it's no wonder that Gwendolynne very quickly falls for him!

The proofs themselves are pretty straightforward... no major boo-boos or continuity errors as far as I can determine. Just a few odd punctuation bits, nothing drastic. Which is big phew of relief for me! I've done the first pass, and am 'clearing my head' of them today, but tomorrow, I'll be reading through the proofs again. Even though I think I've caught everything, there is always, but always something I find on the second pass...

And I do like the book. It's a simple story, very intensely focused on two sexy, emotional people, pretty much a feel-good tale but with a side of complications that make the pair work for their happiness.

One Day Down...

Well, it was a pretty good first Sven day!

I edited about five chapters of IN TOO DEEP, and despite many qualms about this one, I didn't find it too horrifically bad. It's pretty light on plot, but I'm starting to really like Gwendolynne, and her fairly grounded attitude to life, sexy mindgames, and her larger than sylphlike size. She's excited by the sudden naughty goings-on that she's becoming immersed in, but she's pretty down to earth too.

Later, when I'd done a good editing stint, I even went so far as to do a bit of writing on a different project too. Now this is a gamble, because I can usually only keep one set of characters in my head at once, but I thought I'd give it a shot, as I wanted to get some actual words laid down for the challenge, as well as just the editing. Plus, editing can be intense, and this other thing was like a 'refresher'... Not sure whether this new thing will amount to anything, as I'm not sure it's at all right for the project it's aimed at... but hey, it might come in for some other project at another time, or maybe turn into something suitable with editing.

I don't think I'll achieve nearly as much today, because I'm at a bit in ITD at the moment that needs some drastic reformatting. The characters are IMing each other, and the way I'd got it set out was confusing. So I'm having to do it a different way entirely... Plus, later, I'll be going out, so there'll be no extra evening working today.

Bad dreams....

For the past two nights I've had very similar dreams, that have disturbed me and caused feelings unease to linger with me for quite a while after I've actually woken up. In each case, I'm getting ready to go somewhere or do something [not exactly a specified thing] and in each case my preparations are hampered in every possible way. Every stage of getting ready 'goes wrong' and I get more and more desperate and panicky, and the more desperate and panicky I get, the more the things go wrong... and in the meantime, someone's waiting and getting more impatient or something that's important to me is slipping away. I woke up with a nasty, very unsettled feeling that somehow hasn't really quite gone away yet...

Thanks to those who commented in the pretty white corset I found yesterday for the final scene in IN TOO DEEP. Madelynne suggested a site which might have pix of lingerie for curvier ladies, and the image below is more my heroine Gwendolynne's build. She's not really what I'd class as out and out fat, but in her own words, she's 'plentiful'... and of course, Professor Hottie can't get enough of her sexy, curvaceous body!


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Telly: Top Gear
Choc/Yummy: fruit :(
Mood: troubled
Writing: not yet
Reading: Wild Nights
RSI/FMS: bit sore generally


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

Whut?????

In the latter stages of IN TOO DEEP now, and suddenly I find myself writing about a white satin basque! Don't know where this idea came from... but it just suddenly seemed the right thing to dress Gwendolynne in for this particular scene. Obviously, as a lushly curvy girl, she doesn't look quite like the above illustration, but it's the sort of thing I'm thinking of...

I usually think of black, or crimson, or some other deep, vibrant colour for this sort of lingerie in my books, but choosing white takes me in a direction that just seems so right for an erotic *romance*... :)

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Telly: documentary about gravity
Choc/Yummy: banana... it's just not the same... :(
Mood: better
Writing: In Too Deep
Reading: Wild Nights, Jaci Burton
RSI/FMS: not too bad


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

Yeah, things are getting bad again....

My bedside disaster area is getting out of hand again. The pile of magazines and paper is now actually higher than the bedside table itself, and the heaps of books that lean against this pile are at a more or less matching height. I think something has to be done in the next few days or it'll all end in tears.

Sorry there haven't been any posts this last few days. You could say my mind is a bit like my bedside... a teetering pile of unsorted information. I have been crossing stuff off my to-do list, but it just seems as if as fast as I do this, I add new items, so I never get to the end of it. But I suppose that's a writer's life? I'm sure there are writers who sit at a clutter free desk, with their business paperwork in an A-Z filed filing cabinet and with all their books on mahogany bookshelves in an office with a harmonious garden view... but I bet there are more out there who function in various stages of hyper-chaos, the way I do... I could say it's part of the mythos of being a 'bohemian artiste', but that's just pretentious claptrap... what it really boils down to, in my case, is the mythos of being an idle, disorganised slob. :)

Anyway, my naughty Marquis story is moving ahead, at a modest pace... Christian is the type of male character I love. Dominant, but humane, aware of his own foibles and not prone to taking himself all that seriously. He's a sort of blend of Mr Stone and Valentino, but with a title and a crumbling old moneypit of a stately home.


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One of my favourite films...

Himself is away at the moment, tramping around the Market Garden battleground sites of the Low Countries... and I'm left on my own, minding the cats and missing him. However, last night, one of my all time favourite films was on the telly, and I have to say, it cheered me up mightily!

I love THE 'BURBS!!! I've seen this film umpteen times, but it still makes me smile, giggle, and laugh out loud in places. I love Tom Hanks in anything, and I think this is one of his best comedy roles, although he is ably supported by a bunch of other talented actors. I love the combo of fun dialogue and out and out slapstick in this movie, and even the music is brilliantly appropriate and witty. There are dozens of standout moments, but for me, the scene that always makes me laugh out loud for some reason is the one where poor old Ray/Tom has to eat a sardine off a pretzel, whilst visiting with his creepy neighbours, the Klopeks.



I really don't know why this is so amusing to me, but every time I see it I howl with laughter, and last night was no exception. The cats thought I was bonkers, chuckling and chortling away at this scene, but they are being indulgent with me, because I think they know I'm missing the company of their 'dad'...

In other news, I'm still slugging away at Gothic Heat. Today has been pretty standard with it. One minute, I'm quite contented, enjoying what I've written, and gaining satisfaction from tweaks and improvements... the next, I'm in a tearful panic of horror with it, and wishing, wishing, wishing I'd never agreed to write it and that I was free to work on something else, less hideously disorganised, flung together and inconsistent. At the moment, I'm somewhere in the middle of those two states... sort of enjoying a new scene I'm inserting, which reintroduces Michiko, the Japanese white sorceress from Gothic Blue. This is fine, because I like her, but against my wishes, she's suddenly acquired a new Japanese boyfriend called Hiro... completely out of the blue, and yet another character in what could turn out to be a cast of bloody thousands!

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Telly: UK History
Choc/Yummy: Turkish Delight
Mood: up and down
Writing: Gothic Heat
Reading: nothing much today
RSI/FMS: generally achy, bad pains in hips


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

docking manouvers

Yeah, we have capture!

I've successfully managed to hard dock my 'prologue' with the beginning of Gothic Heat... in fact it's no longer a prologue but simply chapter one now. I'm currently working my way through what were chapters one and two, but are now chapters two and three, and integrating them with 'stuff' that happened in the opening dream sequence... and clumsy and kacky as that sounds, it's actually working quite well, and I'm liking what I'm reading and writing... I hate to say it, but I think I've managed to dock with my characters now too, and they're becoming more alive to me. Which is a relief! Gothic Heat was starting to feel like a real SBFH... but now it's showing signs of becoming more manageable and enjoyable to write.

Rafe is definitely a non standard hero. He's pushing forty, he's a bit of a misfit, and he's got a dodgy past and a slightly sleazy present... and he has some huge issues to deal with, that he's sort of been avoiding by being a little bit of a shag monster, to be honest. But now he's met Paula and things are changing fast. He's still got to battle with various temptations, and that's going to cause some grief and nonsense along the way, but seeing as I'm a firm believer in the good in a guy winning out in the end, he'll come to the light and be a hero when the time is right.

nb. SBFH = sh*t book from hell

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Telly: nothing much today
Choc/Yummy: Turkish delight
Mood: good
Writing: 1K in the integration
Reading: AGW
RSI/FMS: not bad


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

bathroom thoughts

I still don't feel as if I quite know what's going on in Gothic Heat... but I just spent some time mulling over various plot points whilst I was getting washed and dressed in the bathroom, and I think I've had one or two tiny insights into what makes my hero, Rafe, tick. I often have good ideas for writing whilst I'm in the bathroom and above is a picture of this haven of inspiration... Not! Wish my bathroom was as luxurious as the one above. 'Cos if it was, I'd linger for hours in there bathing and beautifying [well, as much as is possible these days...] and probably produce much more and much better in the way of fine fiction!

The problem with Rafe is that for the plot he needs to be more ambiguous, perhaps something of a bad boy... a bit ruthless and dark. But because I like my characters to be basically good, I keep on making him too nice! I've been thinking about what might have happened in his past to make him the way he is... and my bathroom ponderings produced one or two minor traumatic events for him, and also a clearer picture of some past misdemeanors that have led him to the place in his life when he encounters Paula. I foresee a long soak in the tub later in the day, in order to flesh out a better back story for her too! At the moment, they're both too vague... I need to actually sit down and write character bios for them, as well as tidy up the sort of outline thing I've written... in fact I need to actually do the normal prep a sane writer would do for any book! Rather than charge into writing willy nilly with no idea in my head what I'm supposed to be writing!!!

But that's one of my problems really... I panic if I'm not actually writing wordcount, and subconsciously think of prep as avoidance of the real issue of banging down the story... Which makes me think, I'm not actually the full on pantser I thought I was becoming... I'm still actually a planner at heart, and avoiding the planning is having a detrimental effect. I need to stop panicking about deadlines [I've got until October, after all...] and think things through a bit...

Yes, that's what I'll do!

Writers... do you ever panic like this? Ever rush too quickly into the actual writing because you fear that you're deliberately avoiding writing by taking time to plan? I'd love to know if people have the same angsts and worries that I do...

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Telly: not yet
Choc/Yummy: not yet
Mood: uneasy
Writing: thinking plot points through
Reading: AGW
RSI/FMS: bit sore


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

another reprint in the works... hopefully...

I've just been exchanging a few emails with my editor about another reprint of one of my books that's in the works. This time it's my 2000 title HOTBED... He needs a refresh about some details about the characters' appearance in order to come up with a suitable cover image, so I was flicking back through the manuscript, looking for clues. To my dismay, I'd forgotten a lot of what happens in this book, and the fine detail of most of the characters in it, but one thing jumps out at me in that it's yet another book of mine with a cross dressing character in it!

I really must have a think for blokes in frocks... but I really don't understand what the psychology of this fascination is... It's happened a number of times though in my books. Each time though the cross dressing lad is also *very* masculine and alpha... They all love women, and they're all devastatingly attractive in their normal male clothing... and out of it. I seem to like to create this certain breed of very bold and experimental men who don't feel constrained by the usual gender 'rules' when it comes to expressing themselves. A sort of 'Sod it, why *can't* I have fun with gorgeous clothes and makeup?' attitude....

The best real world example of this is the fabulous comedian and actor Eddie Izzard.

I'm afraid I don't know andything about Eddie's private life, so I don't know what his sexual orientation is, but he doesn't come across as effeminate to me. He seems very much like a supremely intelligent and imaginative man who enjoys experimenting with beautiful clothing and makeup and making himself look great, regardless of gender. At least that's how I perceive him.

What do you think?

my film of the moment

I love this film! I saw it the other night on Film Four and immediately ordered myself the DVD. I'm now watching it for the third time in a week. It's very rare that a film comes along I can watch again and again like this, but the divine Priscilla is one of them. I love all the three main characters: dignified yet ascerbic Bernadette, sensitive yet sarky Mitzi and gorgeous but silly Felicia. It's amazing that not one of these three top actors are either gay or transsexual, but they give the performances of their lives making you believe their roles.

I think I've probably got a bit of a thing for drag queens... Three of my books and at least one of my stories all contain glamorous transvestite characters. I love the OTT glamour and the metamorphosis of man into a high impact facsimile of a woman...

Here's the inspiration for one of the earlier Da Costa Drag Queens...



Who the devil do you think this beauty is? Easy really...

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Telly: The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
Chocolate: Hotel Chocolat
Mood: good
Writing: 1.1K Buddies Don't Bite
Reading: You Only Live Twice - Ian Fleming
RSI: bit of soreness, not too bad