bollocking, follocking hell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As if I haven't enough to do... my bloody MySpace profile disappeared off the face of the earth overnight, taking my carefully nurtured fold of nearly four hundred lovely friends with it! To say I'm vexed is putting it mildly... and on a day when I had a pile of jobs I ought to be doing, plus a lot of irritation on other scores too, I've had to spend hours setting up a new profile!

Now it's not looking too bad, apart from one quirk that won't fix no matter what I do... and I've even got a small, gathering band of returned friends, bless their kindly hearts, but it's not the useful social network it was before... It'll take time to build it up again, and it'll just have to be a v. gradual process, but if you're on MySpace, and would like to be my friend, why not pop along and give me the old 'add'...

Portia Da Costa's Myspace

I would post a ton of other stuff and ranting, but it's mid afternoon, and I've gotta get something else, other than bleedin' MySpace tweaking done now, so I'll leave it for the time being...

--
Telly: Steal This Movie
Chocolate: lots!
Mood: vile
Writing: you jest
Reading: myspace profile tutorials and crap
RSI: not too bad

thanks for the memory...

Well, it seems to be working again... Blogger that is...

Anyway, am v. pleased with my technical prowess today, even if I haven't done any writing as yet. My one gig module of RAM arrived this morning, and I was able to install it myself, without need for calling on the services of 'a man'! Am most chuffed about this, and have been able to install Dreamweaver now, on my lappie, which is going to speed up web updating for both my clients and me...

In fact I've finally managed to update my main website...

testing...

Blogger seems to be acting a bit weird, and the bar thing at the top isn't showing for me...

--
Telly: Steal This Movie
Chocolate: Hotel Chocolat
Mood: OK
Writing: nothing today so far
Reading: Thunderball - Ian Fleming
RSI: not bad

suite seventeen

I've left it a bit late to post today, and am feeling tired, but the big news of the day is that I've heard back from the editor about Suite Seventeen and he enjoyed it! And said some lovely things about it! Don't think there'll be much in the way of tweakage to be done, if any... So that's a big relief!

I've also done final tweakery of Watching the Detective and sent it off to my agent, and another short story off to a very famous and highly regarded editor in hopes that she'll like it for a collection... so fingers crossed for those two, eh?

chocolate dilemma

It's January, and the time of year when folk tend to think about weight issues. Both himself and I said, many a time before Christmas, that after the festive season, we'd both like to lose a bit... Not a resolution, mind you, just a guideline as Capt. Jack Sparrow would say... I should have started to trim back on fattening stuff now, but it's v. difficult when there are still loads of luscious goodies in the house. Not having had a total blow out over Christmas, and having indulged fairly modestly, there are still boxes of chocolates and biscuits and whatnot lying around the house... and some with 'eat by' dates that mean I'll have to partake of them fairly soon. All of which isn't all that conducive to healthy eating and the reduction of inches around my blubberous tum, hips, bum and thighs. This morning, I freely admit that I've just opened a rather large box of Hotel Chocolat's sublime Christmas Collecion... sigh... and gosh, are they yummy! I've only eaten two so far, and I'm going to try and only eat them in twos, but the fillings sound utterly heavenly! Champagne Sparkle, Plum Truffle, Praline Feast and Warming Rum Truffle to name but a few... mmmm.....

Oh, and on top of all this, we went out for fish and chips last night too. My waistline is doomed, I tell you, doomed!

I'm not very focused writingwise at the moment either... Still haven't edited Watching the Detective and am in 'oh, no, I can't look at it!' mode... Now this is all bollocks, because it might be okay once I open the file [or at least tolerable] but I'm just frozen with it for now... I suppose, mainly, that's because I'm stressed by various writing-related issues... promo, 'waiting', etc etc... all things that the true professional author takes in her/his stride, but which do my head in and provoke endless moaning and bellyaching... If I spent all the time that I spend stressing and complaining in actually doing something about these issues, I'd probably be a much more successful writer... but I yam wot I yam... and things ain't likely to change without a brain transplant.

--
Telly: Blue Planet
Chocolate: Hotel Chocolat Christmas Collection
Mood: irritated with self and stuff
Writing: **** all
Reading: Thunderball - Ian Fleming
RSI: so so

ack, everything in favour's against me...

A wasted day... cleaning up, sorting books, trying to get a memory upgrade for my lappie organised... did a nifty post here... then the broadband went down, and I lost it all! Grrrrrrr!

Still, Criminal Intent has just been on... and that's enough to calm the savage beast... or stir it up more than ever, if you know what I mean... nudge nudge... wink wink...

Isn't he pretty?



--
Telly: LOCI... nuff said
Chocolate: caffe latte chox... yum
Mood: not too bad, considering
Writing: nowt today
Reading: Thunderball - Ian Fleming
RSI: so so

from Russia with love

Imagine my surprise when I opened a parcel this morning and found copies of one of my books in *Russian*! It seems that my 2004 title DESIGNED FOR SIN, published by X Libris under the pen name DOROTHY STARR has been translated into Russian and issued as a hardback... How cool is that? I've often exchanged emails with my writing buddy and web client Elizabeth Chadwick about the idiosyncrasies of her Russian book covers, but this is the first time I've had some of my own to marvel over...



Now those of you who read my books and know where my inspirations come from will know that DESIGNED FOR SIN is my Spike from BtVS book... but the Russian cover artist seems to have completely ignored my physical description of the hero and made him dark haired! Unless of course, he's been given a retouch in the translation... But hey, I'm not worried in the slightest because it's so ineffably splendid and nifty to have a book translated into Russian at all! I think this is my first ever Soviet title... and I'm chuffed to bits!

But that's not all...

Imagine my further surprise, when, while I was flicking through the book and showing it to himself [who was dead impressed!], I discovered that it's *illustrated*!!! Some of the line drawings leave a little to be desired, but there's an enthusiastic quality about them that's a lot of fun, and they do fairly faithfully represent scenes from the book. I've picked out one below that does indeed seem to suggest the correct colour for the hero's blond hair...



Issa hoot, innit! :)

excellent day!!!

Had a brilliant time today, meeting up with Saskia!

I love these regular get-togethers of ours, and I always return from them in a high good humour and feeling all positive and energised about writing. It's just solid gold to be able to have a long, jolly chat face to face with someone who's right on the same wavelength. I simply can't believe my luck in finding such a good friend, so close, to share my experiences of this mad writing life with...

--
Telly: documentary about squids
Chocolate: none today, but yummy caffe latte chox from Saskia for tomorrow, yippee!
Mood: very good
Writing: nothing yet
Reading: Practical Web Designer
RSI: not too bad

quickie

I'll keep it brief tonight... It's 10.50pm and I've only just finished working! I needed to get some words under my belt today, as I'm off on a jaunt into big town tomorrow to have lunch with my bestest writing buddy, Saskia Walker! Can't wait!

Have achieved quite a bit today, although it's taken me until evening to actually do some writing. Still working my way through Detective... but I think I'm into the endgame now. I just have to round off the conclusion now... Still not sure if it's a proper paranormal, or if it's 'edgy' enough and whotnot for the editor... but hey, it's a bit of a laugh, and maybe it'll come in for something eventually if not for the target anthology.

To do list wise.... well, I had 17 items on the list I prepared this morning, and I've done about ten of them... So that's not bad, is it?

--
Telly: Ray Mears' Real Heroes of Telemark
Chocolate: choc bic
Mood: good
Writing: 1k words of Watching The Detective
Reading: Radio Times
RSI: little bit sore, not too bad

booze

Now, I don't normally drink due to medication issues, but I did take a nip last night to see the New Year in... and here's the poison himself and I partook of at midnight! Yummy stuff, quite sweet, but me not being a sophisticated drinker, it really hit the spot... :)

I'm not doing the resolution thing, but I'm glad to say I managed to do 1K words towards Watching the Detective today... which sort of augurs well for the year. I think it would have been a bad omen if I hadn't done anything at all today. It was probably 1000 words of crap, but words of crap are words that can always be edited. And I've got to keep remembering that instead of being afraid to write anything... First drafts are just that... *first* drafts. Even with stories... Sometimes, when the gods smile, it is possible to get a thing that goes right first time. But that's rare... and I mustn't be disappointed when it doesn't happen. When I first started writing, I did gazillions of drafts, so I mustn't be ashamed of the fact that it still sometimes takes a few...

Right, pep talk to self over...

--
Telly: The Great Escape
Chocolate: Cadbury's Chocolate Biscuit [just one...]
Mood: okay
Writing: Watching The Detective 1K words today
Reading: Radio Times
RSI: not too bad

felt like doing a blog thing...

The Movie Of Your Life Is An Indie Flick

You do things your own way - and it's made for colorful times. Your life hasn't turned out how anyone expected, thank goodness! Your best movie matches: Clerks, Garden State, Napoleon Dynamite

If Your Life Was a Movie, What Genre Would It Be?

2007 ahead...