pwetty... sparkly...

too much, already... sometimes

You know sometimes I just think I should not turn on the computer... and write by hand or something for a while. This stupid laptop obsesses my life, honestly. Time after time I wake up dreaming about something to do with computing or the online world, or something. Mostly online stuff... I see to live most of my life via the WWW... and surely that's not healthy.

Woke up this morning from a dream about Ning, which to those who haven't encountered it, is a social networking site. A bit like MySpace, but not quite as tacky somehow... It's more complicated though, which is probably why I was dreaming about it!

I also dream and obsess about online dramas of various kinds... and I shouldn't because that's all they are, dramas... mostly over nothing. I know writing involves imaginary worlds, and interacting via the internet a lot nowadays. But really, the actual world around me, away from the computer, is *real life* not all this tarradiddle on the net!

Anyway, back in the bizarre and importance-inflated world of writing... Had a good day yesterday on Gothic Heat. The prologue idea was a v. good one, and I ended up writing a princely 2K words! Brilliant for me... What's more, I unconsciously wrote a scene that ties in nicely with something that happens later, and prefigures it in a spooky sort of way... Which is quite clever for a dolt like me! And means I have a way to enhance the later bit when I rewrite it... as I most definitely will have to!

I've also decided to start listening to more music, instead of always turning on the telly. I'd forgotten how inspirational music can be for writing... At the moment classic THE CURE from the Eighties is helping to enhance the strange mood I need for Gothic Heat. And in pursuit of this music angle, I've decided that for my birthday [3oth May...] I'm going to ask himself to buy me an iPod... I must be the last person on the planet without one, I guess, so it's about time I joined in the digital music fun.


Mind you, isn't downloading tunes just another thing I'm going to spend time doing online when I should actually be writing? Goddam... I'll never escape!!!!

--
Telly: CSI:NY... does anyone else fancy Sid the pathologist?









Choc/Yummy: Cadbury's Turkish Delight bar
Mood: good
Writing: will be working on GH
Reading: AGW
RSI/FMS: not too bad...


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

And now, the Prologue!

In the grand tradition of Up Pompei, I've decided that Gothic Heat needs a prologue!

I've been thinking about this for a few days, but wasn't quite sure how to go about it... but yesterday, I got a bit of a flash of inspiration and an idea of how to start it. And today, I've dove into the action and have already done 1.1K words... and it's only midday! Way to go me!

Being a devotee of literary cliches, I'm not only begun with a prologue, but also a dream sequence. LOL! But despite this, I think it'll work okay. The dream is from the villainess's POV and sort of serves of a set up for the story and a bridge between Gothic Blue and Gothic Heat. I've also tried to use a touch of the more flowery language I used for GB... which is another bridging device. The main body of GH will be told in the more 'realistic' type style I use now, but I'm hoping the tone of this prologue will 'connect' the two books in tone as well as content.

I don't think this is any kind of gigantic lightbulb type breakthrough... but I do think it's a useful development, and I'm feeling a tiny bit more confident about this mare of a book now. :)

--
Telly: French Moto GP
Choc/Yummy: Fry's Turkish Delight
Mood: good
Writing: 1.1K Gothic Heat
Reading: A Gentleman's Wager/Madelynne Ellis
RSI/FMS: not bad


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

further to my post below

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...

--
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!

raindrops on roses....

At the moment, these are a few of my favourite things! When the dog bites... when the bee stings... la di da di dah!

what a nice surprise...

I'm not a great one for writing non fic pieces for the web and elsewhere, so I don't usually do much more in that line than produce the rambling day to day diatribes you find here... But a while back, I noticed a nice feature at Dear Author, where they were doing Q&As with a variety of authors who live outside the US, detailing their experience of writing and being published in America. I emailed Jane at DA on spec, and asked if I could answer their questions too, but she said they didn't need any more authors for that feature, and asked me if I was interested in trying something else... I shook in my shoes, really, because of the aforementioned uselessness at writing about myself... but I decided to have a bash and this is the result.

Portia Da Costa's First Sale


--
Telly: UK TV History
Choc/Yummy: apple turnover
Mood: okay
Writing: thinking about Gothic Heat
Reading: AGW/Madelynne
RSI/FMS: rather tired


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

I'm your huckleberry

Last night, I watched one of my favourite films for the second time in a week... and the second time was just as fresh as the first. I love TOMBSTONE! It's not a new movie, but clearly, it's one I never tire of... even though I know the story back to front by now. Well, the story as portrayed in the film... I'm sure the real story of the Earps v. the Cowboys was considerably different and more complex.



Apart from the obvious excitement and tension of the story, and the cracking gunplay of the infamous OK Corral and elsewhere, it's just a film that looks so good. Hot damn, those Earps are so stylish! They must have been the sharpest dressed gunslingers in the whole West. I love the frock coats, the whole severe collar, necktie and posh waistcoat thing, the cool hats... and oh, Wyatt's long, black duster coat that he dons when he means heavy lawman business! I would love one of those myself... I'm not so sure if I fancy men with such bushy moustaches... but then, they were the fashion at the time, and were obviously de rigeur for any self respecting sherriff or deputy.



Kurt Russell is fab as Wyatt Earp, sort of generally noble but also conflicted... but the real star, I think everybody will admit, is Val Kilmer's Doc Holliday... the prince of the morbidly droll one liners. Hard to believe that a guy can be sexy when he's white as a sheet and sweaty all the time, and always on the point of coughing blood, but he manages it supremely and he's certainly my 'huckleberry'. Also kudos to Michael Biehn as a coldly deranged, Latin quoting Johnny Ringo.

I'm not sure whether Tombstone ranks as a classic, traditional western or as a revisionist [not that I'm quite sure what that means]... but I'd say it's got a least some of the latter's qualities, because nobody's portrayed, really, in simple black and white terms of good and bad... The Earps weren't angels by any means. They were ruthless killers themselves, who happened to be on the side of the law, some of the time. Brilliant examples of good 'bad boys' or ambiguous 'good guys'... gotta love 'em!

Anybody else out there like this movie?



--
Telly: Tombstone, obviously
Choc/Yummy: Apple Turnovers
Mood: okay
Writing: thinking about Gothic Heat, need to rework some bits
Reading: AGW/Madelynne... loving it
RSI/FMS: bit sore and very tired


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

blogging bleugh

Sometimes I write about having 'writer's bleugh'... which is my version of writer's block. But at the moment, I think I've got a touch of 'blogger's bleugh' instead. I just seem to have run out of steam a bit blogwise, and other demands on my creativity are making it difficult even to come up with my level of blogging twoddle... which is admittedly very much lower than a lot of people's.

But I don't think I'm alone in this [hopefully temporary] lack of enthusiasm for blogging. I go to a lot of blogs, not necessarily the same ones every day, but some of the folk who used to be real hard core, fluent and copious bloggers, seem to be just lacking the pep they used to have. And some don't seem to be blogging as much because they're concentrating on writing or whatever else they do... which I applaud! But it just seems as of the novelty of blogging has worn off and it's not quite the fresh medium it used to be. I suppose I'm lucky in that I've never set out to produce a consistently high standard of blogging, and I've certainly never aimed to be literary or to commentate or to educate... but I'm feeling that there's only so many times that people are prepared to be interested in my moaning and groaning about my writing problems, my health problems, and television, chocolate and cats.

Who else is a bit in the doldrums with blogging? It can't just be me...
--
Telly: LOCI - stunning acting Vincenzo! [and many thanks, Eliza, love you!]
Choc/Yummy: Fry's Turkish Delight
Mood: fairly good, but feeling pressured
Writing: a few hundred words of GH, but had to rip out some stuff, so no further forward
Reading: A Gentleman's Wager/Madelynne Ellis.... smashing stuff!
RSI/FMS: very, very tired, almost to the point of sleeping sickness


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

gaps...

Ack, did it again. Too busy to post. Too tired to post. Too distracted to think of anything fun and interesting to post. And it's not as if I haven't been having a nice time... I went to Manchester on Saturday and met two fabulous literary ladies, Madelynne Ellis and Janine Ashbless, who are Black Lace authors, just like me... Well, not just like me... because we all write different styles, of course.

Anyway, we spent several hours laughing and talking, dishing the dirt on writing and writers, and discussing our characters and plots, or lack of plots, in my case. We scoffed yummy food, drank delicious drinks and coffees and generally had a highly satisfactory time of it!

Here are some splendid piccies... well... splendid of Janine and Madelynne and almost human looking of me.... almost...

The fabulous Janine Ashbless

The Magnificent Madelynne Ellis

Madelynne again, with some old woman....

--
Telly: The Madness of King George
Choc/Yummy: Cupcakes
Mood: not bad
Writing: 1K Gothic Heat/outline Gothic Heat
Reading: about to start A Gentleman's Wager by Madelynne Ellis
RSI/FMS: rather tired and sore


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

Agh, I've been tagged!

Naughty Michelle Pillow has gone and tagged me, the scamp!

THE RULES:

1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
3. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

EIGHT RANDOM FACTS:

1. I just ate a Fabulous Bakin' Boys Double Choc Cupcake

2. Before that I took an afternoon nap of one hour

3. There's an old movie playing on the telly - Heaven Can Wait, starring Don Ameche

4. Tomorrow I'm going to Manchester to meet Madelynne Ellis and Janine Ashbless

5. I do all my writing in bed! [or on it]

6. I wrote 1K words of my WIP this morning

7. #6 is a miracle

8. My favourite show is on the telly tonight - Law and Order Criminal Intent

I'M TAGGING... nobody

I don't think I'm actually going to tag anyone as such, but if you're visiting this blog and feel like posting 8 random facts about yourself on your blog... let me know!

displacement activity

I haven't got very far with the book yet, but I have made one of my silly faux covers for it!