for the sake of it...

Non-Working Monkey can't be doing with people who put photos of their pets all over the place... so here's a cute piccie of Mulder! :)

agh... nothing achieved...

Ack, now I've got stomach ache too! I don't know whether it's my usual dyspepsia, or this thing himself has had... either way, it's knocked creativity on the head today. Mostly.

I suppose I have been thinking about my paranormal novella idea a bit, and also refining certain aspects of the outline with the help of my critique partner. I bounced my ideas off her, she bounced them back with some great suggestions. I bounced the idea back, she liked it and offered another suggested tweak or two, and finally, thanks to her sure instincts, I think I've more or less got a plan for it. But now I have to write the suckah!

The hero is called Robin, and he might be a fairy, he might be some kind of spirit of the woods, or he might be something else altogether... I don't think it's really necessary to be too specific. I only know that he's tall and hunky and delicious and has dark hair frosted with gold, and extremely unusual eyes...

best laid plans...

Oh, I was going to do so much today... and I'm afraid it's not going to happen. Himself is off work ill and needs a bit of TLC and attention. Because I mostly work in the bedroom, and he's in the bedroom, I can't really do a lot workwise. I could go in my office, but that's just being mean and callous somehow... I feel I need to stay around him, for moral support as much as anything, poor baby.

An excellent site was brought to my attention today! The Erotic Woman is saucy but intelligent sensual site for women, so why not check it out!

I've got a visitor at the moment...

Look who's just dropped in for a nosh and a snooze on the bed... It's Tilly, the cat who officially lives with a neighbour around the corner, but who also likes to make himself at home here.

am I a cynical, money grubbing hyena?

Yes, am I one of those because I'm thinking about writing paranormals because that's what my publisher seems to be most interested in at the moment? Or should I stick to my high ideals of being a contemporary specialist... and get dropped by the wayside in the consequence?

It's a tough one. Mainly because I despise bandwagon jumping as a rule, and writers who think, 'oh I must have some of that genre, or that imprint, just because I can't bear not to have a slice of everything!' There are some about... there's one culprit that springs to my mind right now... But the thing is, I know I've sort of been a bit guilty of the same thing myself, because I've written for a whole bunch of imprints, and sometimes just because - like Everest - they're there!

But back to the paranormal thing. I suppose I can justify this in terms of sheer survival, but also, in that it's not new to me of course... There's good old Gothic Blue, that's due to be reissued next Feb, I think. I can't remember what prompted me to write that... it may have been editor encouragement then, too. But even then, I'd written a few paranormal shorts. In fact, come to think of it, my first ever, ever short story was a paranormal! A series of five stories in fact [if a trilogy is three, what's a bunch of five? I should know I suppose...] Yep, five short stories about zombies, of all things... These stories were never published, mainly because I never submitted them anywhere as I was just writing for pleasure at the time. And they were probably the direst crap anyway, but at that stage, just to write anything at all was a titanic achievement and gave me the most astonishing glow! Later, I did rewrite the first of these stories, and it was published... but only after a lot of reworking and refining.

And while I'm strolling down memory lane, I've just realised that my second attempt, still for fun, was a sort of sexy space opera, an ongoing futuristic thing about a woman with special powers and a hero who was sort of reincarnated from the zombie stories. In fact, come to think of it, she was too, so it was also a timeslip! So again, I was already writing the futuristics that are almost as popular as paranormals nowadays... and all this was back in the early to mid eighties.

So, basically, I'm not a cynical money grubbing hyena. Well, not totally... I'm just been nudged by editorial and market forces back towards my earliest roots as a writer! In my heart of hearts, I think my comfort zone is still contemporary romantic erotica, but maybe I can make room in there for something fanciful and out of this world too?

Anyway, after all this remeniscing and soul searching, I should actually buckle down to this paranormal wotsit of mine, shouldn't I?

this is so cute!

Isn't this book cute? It's an ideas resource... with a word, or a paragraph, or a piccie on each small page. Each of which is supposed to trigger an idea for a story, a book, or even a blog entry. Me being the sort of person for whom idea finding is hard, hard, hard, I was all over this little book like a rash when it was recommended by my writing chum Sylvia Day on a writing message board we both frequent.

Not that I've been waxing productive and imaginative at all today. It's been a complete bust, apart from a bit of webby stuff, despite my high resolutions of yesterday. Saskia will think I'm a totally useless waster!

Must do better tomorrow...

in the middle of the night...

I'm very, very tired this morning. Yesterday was a lovely but busy day, and I was looking forward to a good night's sleep to rest up so that I'd be fresh today and ready to do loads of work.

Ha! The best laid plans... At around four o'clock this morning, there was a commotion and himself got up to see what was going on. Two cats were on red alert in the kitchen, and we soon discovered that either Alice or Mulder had caught a mouse, brought it inside, and then released it into the wild of the house. Brilliant! Now usually, in domestic 'situations', himself is the best 'coper' and 'resolver' of problems. However, in this case, he had to stand aside while the Great Mouso swung into action, clad in the pair of gardening gloves she never uses for gardening. With luck, I was able to corner the little devil quite quickly, scoop it up, and run outside - in the pouring rain - to release it into the real wild!

Great stuff, but unfortunately, when I returned to bed, I couldn't switch off, and my mind ran in circles for a couple of hours, on writing and related topics, while both himself and Kuffer snored beside me. [Kuffer the cat snoring considerably louder than his human counterpart!]

And now, of course, with a hefty working day ahead of me... I'm knackered!!!

a grand day out

Had a smashing day today! It was another of my occasional lunches with my splendid writing friend, Saskia Walker... in which we invade a local branch of M&S's Cafe Revive and generally terrorise the other diners and coffee swiggers there with our laughing and racy talk about erotic writing. Because Saskia and I swap emails incessantly, it always feels as if it was only yesterday since we actually met, and consequently we drop straight into a groove of jolly chat, with lots of jokes, feedback on each other's work, and a liberal amount of ripe, creative bitching! LOL

Because the life of a writer is usually a very solitary and quiet one, without much talking [unless you use Voice Recognition software] our super chatty lunches are sometimes a bit of a shock to the vocal chords and I do believe I've got a bit of sore throat now! But I wouldn't give up these get togethers for all the tea in China because there's nothing to beat having an author friend who you can meet 'in the real world' as opposed to online. Especially one who's as wise, witty and kind as Saskia - who is a rock to me in this insane and often irrational world of writing and publishing.

I'm already counting the days to our next lunch!

surprisingly...

I was expecting a higher percentage on this one...

Your Sloth Quotient: 37%

You're a little lazy, but normally you're a very energetic and motivated person. Don't beat yourself up over a little laziness every now and then. You do need your downtime!

How Much Sloth Do You Have?

so chuffed!

Just discovered another five star review for Entertaining Mr Stone at Amazon.com

Thanks, Robin! I'm so glad you enjoyed the book, and I appreciate you taking the time to say so. I've had so many dodgy reviews at the Amazons over the years that a positive one is always especially cherished and appreciated.

STOP PRESS!!!

Just discovered another five star, at Amazon.co.uk this time! It's from 'Erotica Reader from the North'... Mmm.... Mysterious, but clearly someone who totally gets EMS and thoroughly enjoyed it!

As I said above, many, many thanks for taking the time to say you enjoyed my book! I'm all of a glow now... :)

my baby...

Am feeling a bit soggy and weepy at the moment, and it's not really due to the quiz result below. I just went up to the post office and posted the manuscript of Suite Seventeen off to my agent. And now I feel as if a child or close friend has gone away and left me. I always feel a bit blue at the end of a book, both when I finish the first draft and when I actually send it out into the world. First draft blues are because the story is told and even if I have to rewrite bits and add bits, the plot is essentially resolved and I've got my characters to their happy ending and they don't need me any more. Posting off blues are just as intense. It's gone. I won't be working on it any more. I have to leave these characters and get to know new ones. Okay, there's the proof checking, but by then, it's like a book written by somebody else in a way. The intimate connection is broken by that stage.

Suite Seventeen is a particularly poignant one to lose because I've been working on it a long time, and I've had some pretty serious ups and downs with it. It's been hard! But after a struggle, I feel I got there in the end and it's a pretty good book... and the feedback from my critique partner tells me that I'm not wrong in being quietly pleased with the outcome. Whether readers will like it... well, who knows? Different people look for different things in books, esp. in the area of romance, erotic romance and women's erotica... but hopefully, people will enjoy Annie's racy sexual adventure and the love she finds in the course of it. And I know that a certain special group of readers will hopefully appreciate the unique charms of Valentino in the light of the remarkable actor whose appearance and thespian skills inform him! ;)

In other news, I'm keenly scrutinising the weather as tomorrow - fingers crossed - is another of my splendid writers' lunches with my special author buddy, Saskia Walker... A little bit of rain or chilliness will certainly not put us off, but if there's a torrential monsoonlike downpour we may have to regroup and reconvene...

Yikes almighty!!!!

You Are 84% Bipolar

You have some serious ups and downs, maybe to the point of endangering your own life. Consult a doctor to see if you may truly have bipolar disorder.

Are You Bipolar?

Actually, not a surprise as I was diagnosed with mild manic depression years ago, and these things don't tend to go away... It's not the big serious version of bipolar disorder though, so I'm able to deal with it and get on with life.