ack, now they've done it... the snooker is on!

The World Snooker Championship is being held now, at the Crucible in Sheffield, and I'm going to have a hard time not letting it take over my life for the next couple of weeks! I'll be particularly interested in the progress of the unexpected contender shown above. More information about his prowess at The Man Who Fell Asleep.

Although I haven't actually laid down any text of Gothic Heat, I have been having some good plot and character ideas for it over the last couple of days, including a couple of lightbulbs at around 1.30am this morning, just after we turned out the light for the night. Luckily himself was fast asleep, because at least twice, I had to put the light back on and scribble down some notes. There's no way I would have remembered my bright ideas without writing them down...

--
Telly: snooker
Chocolate: lemon drizzle cake
Mood: okay
Writing: brainstorming Gothic Heat/proof checking Watching The Detective
Reading: Passion of Isis
RSI/FMS: general soreness


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

last day of the 'holidays'...

Well, I've been moaning and whining about having no focus and not knowing what project to work on next, haven't I? Well, now I know... and am going to have to extract the old digit and get my enormous posterior into gear!

Received an unexpected phonecall from my editor this morning, for a chat about various book ideas my agent had sent to him. We batted various plot bits to and fro, and the upshot is that it looks like I'll be doing a sequel, or linked book, to GOTHIC BLUE! Now, please remember, nothing's set in stone yet, but the new title is provisionally called GOTHIC HEAT and will be out next year...

In GB, one of the supporting players, Paula, has a brush with the baddie, the sorceress Isidora Katori... and some time after the action of the first book, Paula discovers this incident had a more lasting effect on her than she's realised. In deep trouble, she seeks help from bad boy professional mystic and sometime new age con artist Rafe Hathaway and together they go in search of answers at the mysterious Sedgewick Priory... which seems to have disappeared into a kind of English Bermuda Triangle. I only have these bare bones of a plot, as yet, but one or two v. interesting titbits are already beginning to bubble...

Editor and I also talked about a fun and very naughty contemporary, to do after GH is in the bag... and this one will be the escapades of a librarian who drawn into a web of sexual gameplaying by an enigmatic admirer who sends her lots of outrageous notes and emails and text messages... My idea is that this book is loosely set in my Stoneworld universe, and familiar settings and characters may well pop up in the course of the story...

So, in honour of finding out what to do next... I've done absolutely nothing at all today!!! But, like I say, this is the last day of doing nothing, as I can no longer afford to fritter my time away...

Tomorrow's to do list includes:

• check proofs of my story Watching the Detective
• web design for a client
• couple of invoices
• send parcel to a prize draw winner
• develop proper outline of Gothic Heat
• read stuff on mysticism, tantra
• begin rereading Gothic Blue so I know what I wrote in it
  
• try not to panic and run around waving my arms about!
  

--
Telly: Sea of Souls
Chocolate: lemon drizzle cake instead
Mood: good
Writing: thinking about Gothic Heat
Reading: Passion of Isis
RSI/FMS: bit sore, not too bad


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

something else to worry about

Well, Mulder is continuing to do well... no probs with her. She's eating well, her stitches don't seem to be bothering her and she's quite her normal self! What a relief!

I, on the other hand, am doing terribly... as usual... My to do list is a mile long, I'm achieving v. little to nil, I have no idea what I'm supposed to be writing next... same old same old...

And this morning I hear news of yet another damning report about a medicine I've been taking for a long time. More cancer scares... sigh... Sometimes you really just don't know what to do, do you? To fix one problem, you create another... health is just one great series of knock-on effects... the entire human constitution is like a plate balancing act. You move to correct a wobbling platter, and somewhere else, another starts to teeter or drops off the pole entirely.... At least that's the way it feels to me, and I know that I'm far from the only person who's struggling to keep everything spinning! Not by a long chalk... There must be millions... billions of us out there trying to stay on an even health keel against the odds.




--
Telly: not yet
Chocolate: not yet
Mood: peed off
Writing: not yet
Reading: not yet
RSI/FMS: aching all over


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

She's home!

Everything went smoothly. No problems. Nothing sinister in the little cyst they removed. She's supposed to take it easy and have just a light meal tonight... and the photo above is of her having her fifth light meal since she got home!!! She has three little stitches that have to come out in ten days, but as she doesn't seem to be paying much attention to them, the vet says she doesn't need one of those giant collars... Which is super, because she's such a tiny thing that a whopping great collar would be quite an encumbrance for her.

It's so lovely to have Mulder back... she's only been away since 8am this morning, but I still missed her!

--
Telly: documentary about Herod the Great
Chocolate: Tesco Belgian Milk
Mood: okay
Writing: none
Reading: Passion of Isis
RSI/FMS: bit sore


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

Please have a good thought for....

MULDER

My little baby has just been taken to the vet for an operation... It's routine, to remove a small cyst on her chin that has been gradually growing for several years. But I still worry and I hate that she has to undergo an ordeal. She's such a character and a precious little mite, and it's been particularly hard to have to starve her overnight, because as you can see from the above she really, really loves her food! Hopefully, though, the op will be relatively minor and go smoothly and she'll quickly be back on top form, eating everything in sight, and possessed of an elegant super sleek chinline again!

I'm guesting again...

Read an interview with me today at:

Dark Ice Goddess' Musings

Many thanks to Nicole for inviting me to her blog. :)


--
Telly: CSI:NY
Chocolate: Tesco Belgian Milk
Mood: out of sorts
Writing: nothing
Reading: Passion of Isis
RSI/FMS: quite grim


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

The name's Gump... Forrest Gump

I'm really on a Casino Royale tip at the moment... am watching it over again. I'm loving Daniel Craig in the role too, but here's a Bond I would quite like to have seen...

The name's Da Costa... Portia Da Costa

Well, I've finally watched the new James Bond movie... months and months after most people, of course, but I can't remember the last time I actually went to the pictures. I always wait until the DVDs come out...

I am very impressed with Daniel Craig as Bond. Which isn't what I expected. I was quite fond of Pierce... I thought he was the best bond since Sean and I really wanted to see him continue in the role. When I heard he was passing on it, I must admit that I then wanted it to be Clive Owen, because he's got the 007 look somehow... I was shocked when I heard it was DC... and I just didn't see him as Bond, because of the hair, I suppose, although I'd seen him on the telly and in films and rated him as an actor. But he's great! He's a rough, craggy, rambunctious Bond, forever getting bloody and battered... and really very, very cold at times, in a totally appropriate and very ruthlessly sexy way. I like it that he's a universe away from the burlesque Bond of Roger Moore, although I enjoyed the Moore Bond movies in a comedy relief sort of way. There was nothing of the Bond books in those movies, but there is in the new version of Casino Royale in an updated sort of way. Although I think there's slightly more humour in the books somehow... Book Bond can be quite droll at times, but DC's Bond is more sardonically humorous in a very hardcase and bitter way. I also liked the judicious and relevant use of modern technology. It's utilised in a very real world sort of way, a bit like it is in the Bourne movies. [I do love Bourne... and Matt Damon is faberooney... but he's just that bit too pretty for a deadly killer... although maybe that makes him a more effective deadly killer, 'cos you don't expect it!]

What I'd like to see sometime is a remake of On Her Majesty's Secret Service with Daniel Craig as Bond. Sorry, George L. but you were never Bond for me [and for a lot of folk, I guess] and that's a shame, because the story was very good, with more scope for exploring the emotional side of Bond.

ps. don't forget to slide over to Lustbites and comment, eh?

pps. lisaf... where are you? There's a prize with your name on it if you send me your snail mail addie!!!

--
Telly: Casino Royale
Chocolate: Tesco Hazelnut
Mood: okay
Writing: not today...
Reading: Passion of Isis
RSI/FMS: sore


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

posting at LUSTBITES again today

I'm here!

Sweeter Than Wine

Please nip over, read and leave a comment if you feel so inclined. There's a chance to win an ebook download for the commenter picked out of the hat!

I may be back here later in the day... with some thoughts on Casino Royale - the movie rather than the book. Am watching it in teabreaks... and am v. impressed!

--
Telly: Casino Royale
Chocolate: last of my easter egg
Mood: goodish
Writing: thinking about a contemp idea
Reading: Passion of Isis
RSI/FMS: bit sore, not too bad


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

direction... sort of...

Bit of a breakout, yesterday, from this directionless lethargy I've been wallowing around in since before Easter. Himself got home early from work, and deposited himself in the living room, to catch a bit of telly. Not wanting to be unsocial, but not wanting to abandon the old lappie, I lugged it into the living room and plugged in there, to potter about a bit with it whilst keeping himself company... and managed to write rough outlines for two potential projects!

Don't get too excited... when I say rough, I mean fragmentary to the point of barely existing. But at least, it's started me thinking. At last. And there's something to build on... and something to show agent and editor... so they don't think I'm doing absolutely nothing! Even though I am doing almost nothing... ;)

While I'm hear, I'm still waiting to hear from lisa f... please contact me about the prize you won in my Gothic Blue publication day comment draw!


--
Telly: CSI/end of Life On Mars [again!]
Chocolate: G&B Dark Almond
Mood: better
Writing: thinking about GB sequel/outlines
Reading: Passion of Isis
RSI/FMS: bit sore, not too bad


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

Gosh, I'm sorry...

... that there's been this gap. I haven't been really ill or anything, and nothing particularly drastic has happened. It's just that the Easter Holidays and this occasional 'disconnect' thing of mine has really shaken me out of my usual routine of writing and posting and whatnot. I think all that promo stuff really freaked me out... I've done some of it, and prepped some of the rest of it, but it really really drags me out of my writing 'place' and I'm finding it bloody tough trying to get back into it!

Well, a lot of Easter was spent watching Agatha Christie stuff on ITV3... lots of Poirot, Marple and stuff about Christie herself. I'm not a crime writer, and I never shall be, but some of the insights into what makes her writing so compelling were quite interesting, with possible applications to other kinds of writing.


I haven't read any Christie recently, in fact I probably only read one or two way back when I was in my early teens, but I'm tempted to try some, just to see how they read nowadays... I have a copy of Evil Under The Sun somewhere in my TBR pile, which I bought because I was interested in its setting The Burgh Island Hotel, but so far I haven't really dipped into it.

On the subject of investigations and crime fiction... I enjoyed the last ever Life On Mars last night, and have even found myself snivelling a bit today over the ending. Of course, it's still open to interpretation, but I thought it was beautiful how Sam finally realised exactly where/when he really felt happiest and most alive... and made his choice.


LOM has been a very rare and unusual television event, and I think it will be a while before somebody comes up with something as novel again. Puts me in awe of the creative mind that can have such an audacious fiction idea and then flesh it out in such a coherent yet enigmatic way.

Amongst many of the virtuoso procrastination techniques I've been employing is fiddling with Blogger again... Please note the new header for this blog! It's just a first attempt, but at least I've worked out how to do it, with the help of the Testing Blogger Beta Blog, which has lots and lots of useful information! If you're wanting to fiddle with Blogger and 'do stuff' to it, check it out!

--
Telly: watching Animal Park, thinking about Life On Mars
Chocolate: Hotel Chocolat Happy Face Egg
Mood: unsettled
Writing: nothing
Reading: Madelynne Ellis - Passion of Isis
RSI/FMS: achy, disorientated, weepy


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

Agh! B*llocks! Promo activities messing with my head!

For the last few days, I have mainly been doing promo wotsit type stuff to do with Gothic Blue...

Promo is a necessary thing when you're a writer, and can be enormous fun... but sometimes when you get involved with a fair bit of it, all at the same time, you get this disquieting feeling that it's sort of taken over your writing life and expelled all your writing mojo from your grey matter! There must be a harmonious balance between the two... because some authors do manage to be both prolific *and* entertaining and effective at promo as well! Me, I think I have a bit of work to do yet in order to find that equilibrium. At the moment, I have this list of jobs:

• select extract and write accompanying piece for promo blog #1
• answer some questions, compose a short bio and select a promo piece for blog #2
• write short contribution for blog #3
• send out books to various prizewinners
• think about promo angles for Suite Seventeen

And on top of this, I've to come up with some plot outlines/proposals for new books as well as firm up the plot for Smalltown and actually write a bit more of the sucka!!!

So, I'd better stop foofing about and get on with something... no Easter Holiday Break for me!

--
Telly: not yet
Chocolate: not yet, but I think that egg is gonna get raided before tomorrow
Mood: slightly desperate
Writing: wot is writing?
Reading: Passion of Isis
RSI/FMS: very, very achey, probably stress related


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