water, water, everywhere

Here in the monsoon region of West Yorkshire, even the ducks are sheltering. Okay, the ducks above aren't actually from WY, but you know what I mean. It has been pouring down for two or three days now, just bucketing it down hour after hour. Himself says the service pit in our garage is now a rather small indoor swimming pool...

The perpetual rain [as Withnail would say] has kept me indoors, which isn't unusual for me, but I did manage to venture out for a short while today, to go to the Post Office and finally send off some parcels of books to various folk. Some very patient prizewinners have been waiting far too long for draw prizes from me, but now I can safely say that everything that should have been sent has now been sent.

Although I'm feeling reasonably okay about Gothic Heat at the moment, I haven't been working on it today. Instead, I've been grappling with a short that an editor has expressed interest in, but would like to be a bit longer. It was 5K but needed to be 7K... Yikes, you might be saying! But actually, it wasn't too difficult... my crit partner shrewdly pinpointed a couple of areas where additional sensuality could fairly smoothly be inserted, and I managed to do the same during the course of the afternoon. Now the thing is an almighty shagathon, with tons and tons of rumpety pumpety with a certain hunky Doctor Nathaniel Gowen!

--
Telly: NCIS
Choc/Yummy: carrot cake minis
Mood: okay
Writing: editing a not quite titled short
Reading: a draft for a writing friend
RSI/FMS: bit sore


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

I'm so tired...

I'm just knackered at the moment. I think it's the old post virals, compounded by freaking hormonal crap, and just generally seeming to have too much 'stuff' to deal with at the moment. I'm trying to stay calm and not let it get to me, but sometimes I just want to lay my head down a lot of the time, and have a kip!

But on the positive tip, I'm getting back into Gothic Heat! For the last two or three days, I've managed to do a K per day! Truly a miracle... And my Romance Diva pal Gwen will be pleased to know that there's been the beginnings of some naughty, evil Isidora Katori action... My wicked sorceress is back from her sojourn in hell or wherever she's been, and she's about to start wreaking a bit of havoc again... basically, because she's mislaid her body along the way, and she's borrowing Paula's! Her dastardly plan is to pinch it forever, and I'm waiting to see whether Rafe can resist her dark, sexual wiles... or succumb to them and get sucked into her power games. He's sort of a good guy, but he's got some heavy issues to deal with so he doesn't always do the right thing straight away...

Can't you tell that I'm beginning to enjoy it a whole lot more!

--
Telly: Springwatch
Choc/Yummy: scone/carrot cake slice
Mood: better
Writing: Gothic Heat 1K
Reading: Gothic Blue
RSI/FMS: rather sore and tired


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

Love the Dark Detective

I wish paperback books could have animated covers...

Watching the Detective in Love on the Dark Side

Due 9th August in the UK and 16th October in the UK

Available from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com


ps mmm... slightly better slideshow than the bouncy one I had before...

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

This is me...

... attempting to get past the barrier of 'where I'd got to' in Gothic Heat! And the good news is that I've finally moved on... Glory Halleluia!!!!

I've been at a point where unconventional and slightly dubious hypnotherapist Rafe is about to put Paula 'under' for about a fortnight now, and I must have been back over the text I've got so far about three or four times. Mainly because I didn't think Paula's voice was right. I don't think it's perfect, yet, by any means, but she's starting to sound more like a real person. I think I've been resisting moving on, because I have to do some important plot bits soon, and as I haven't really much of an earthly of what's actually happening in this dire saga, I've been a bit scared of that... But I've really got to push on, 'cos I can't keep mucking about much longer!

--
Telly: Japanorama
Choc/Yummy: Turkish Delight
Mood: okay
Writing: a few hundred of Gothic Heat
Reading: Gothic Blue
RSI/FMS: fairly sore


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

Today I have been mainly...

... watching Japanorama! Although have also:

• done some web design
• done some editing of Gothic Heat
• hung out in the Romance Galleria
• commented at Romance By the Blog
• been far too hot... but not in a saucy way
  

Apart from those, not much...

it's been a funny week...

It didn't start so well, what with me being lurgi bound, but it's improved quite a lot as the days sped past. I feel almost back to normal now... well, as normal as I ever am, and I'm now trying to catch up with all the jobs I lost touch with while I was 'out of order'.

Friday was a hoot at Romance by the Blog!


The other Bellas and I had a very jolly chat about heroes and who we pictured when we were reading and writing... The talk was pretty far ranging and resulted in some saucy speculations on sexy menages that we'd like to engage in with groups of two or more hot male celebs... LOL... A fourway with the Divine Vincenzo, Mr Depp and sexy Spike, anybody?

Anyway, if you want to see what the fun was all about, why not check out the comments here and maybe add your own thoughts? Also, somewhere amongst the commentary, I dropped in a couple of links to some very hot previously unseen on the internet excerpts from my 1996 title The Devil Inside.

And as if Friday's fun away day wasn't enough, I then got the fabboo news about Glint! Gosh, I am so pleased about that! I'm in that anthology with a whole slew of great writers... I'm about to go off and gather a few names, so I can post them here.

And what am I about now? Well, I'm going to get stuck into Gothic Heat again... I really need to buck my ideas up if I'm to get my 20K added this month! I'm still not quite sure of some plot bits and motivations, but I'm hoping that reading Gothic Blue again will help... much as I hate reading my own work. Bleck!


--
Telly: MotoGP Catalunya
Choc/Yummy: Turkish Delight
Mood: OK
Writing: Gothic Heat
Reading: Gothic Blue
RSI/FMS: various twinges


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

Great Short Story News!

My short story GLINT is going to be in this prestigious anthology... out in September! It's a collection of shorts about watching and being watched... and mine is about frisky frolics on the beach. ;)

ps. am feeling 100% better than I did *last* Saturday!!!

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

My Red Hot Love Affairs

I'm guest blogging at ROMANCE BY THE BLOG today... on the topic of my red hot love affairs with guys like this...

Why not nip on over and join the fun!

There's a prize for commenters and the chat is already getting v. naughty... :)

ADDENDUM FOR THE BELLAS

Welcome to the world, Valentino!

Well, it S17 day here in the UK, and I had breakfast in bed surrounded by roses, messages of congratulation, champagne and the media, anxious to record the auspicious release of my great work...

Yeah, right...

It's just a day like any other day. No big fanfares on my lowly layer of the publishing cake... no thousands of fans camping out outside Waterstones and Borders, waiting to rush in on the stroke of midnight and purchase my oeuvre... I haven't even mentioned it to himself, although I might when he comes home from work.

Anyway, here's hoping that plenty of people do soon discover the book and enjoy it. It's one of those that had a very up and down creation process. One minute I loved it, the next I hated it, but I ended up loving it, so that's what matters. But I also want other people to love my hero Valentino as much as I do... and in that, I'm slightly nervous, because he does have more than his share of quirks and foibles and dodginess in his past... and present. Let's say that he's not a standard erotic romance Alpha hero...

So, those of you who are into idiosycratic and deliberately perverse heroes, and especially if you like long black hair and a twisted version of Italian romantic machismo, do, please, slide on over to Amazon.co.uk or any other fine literature emporium and avail yourself of this quality volume! LOL

In other news: I'm feeling quite a bit better!

--

Telly: Japanorama
Choc/Yummy: Arrowroot biscuits
Mood: slightly more focused
Writing: promo
Reading: web surfing
RSI/FMS: bit sore


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

plucky British grit and all that...

Yes, I have been working... I managed to do some stuff, even though I didn't actually get dressed today... shock horror! I working the bedroom anyway, but usually I get up and bathe and do my exercise and occasionally go out in the garden or take a walk and all that... Today however, I just lay around a bit, then sat up and started to work. You'll be pleased to know that I'm bathed and in clean clothes now... but it's taken me until tea time to get that way!

And what have I been working on? Gothic Heat, you ask? Nope, haven't done anything on that mutha for a week now, although I do feel that I still actually 'like' it and will be happy to return to it. No, I've been polishing another project/WIP that I originally worked on many, many months ago. It's part of a joint project with another author, and as there's been a slight development on that front [nothing radical, don't get excited!] it was time to dig it out and review it. I was pretty pleased with it at the time, in my own doubtful way, but looking at it after all this time, it was easy to pick out areas for refinement and improvement. I think a gap like this is often very useful, as you can look at a piece with fresh eyes and a different perspective.



Anyway, the hero if this novella is called Red, and he has a beard! Actually he wears glasses too, but I couldn't find a piccie of the divine Vincenzo with both glasses and beard. If anyone happens to have one tucked away on their hard drive, or knows where there is one to be found, do, do, do let me know!!!

Lastly, an important public service announcement...

On Friday I will be a guest blogger at the fabulous ROMANCE: BY THE BLOG... and I'll be posting on the topic of MY LEADING MEN. You don't need a thousand guesses to work out that the above mentioned gentleman will be featuring on that roster, do you?

--
Telly: old films and stuff
Choc/Yummy: one cupcake
Mood: weary
Writing: editing Red's story
Reading: bits and bobs
RSI/FMS: generally poorly


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

this is me...

attempting to fight off the stinking lurgi that has waylaid me since Friday night!

My entire digestive tract has now joined the list of bits of me that are giving me stick, but the fact that the amount of 'stuff' I need to do keeps piling up and piling up means that I simply have to ignore the fact I feel like hell... and just try to soldier on.

All I can hope for is that should I slump sideways in a coma whilst at the keyboard, the laptop won't incur too much damage as it falls off the edge of the bed!

Yes, I am a drama queen... but in essence, the above is more or less true.

ps. Suite Seventeen isn't officially published until tomorrow, but my friend Ann says her copy has already been delivered! Yay!

out of commission

Still pretty much out of commission... Have managed to do a few bits and pieces, but my brain is temporarily broken and not processing stuff properly.

Very frustrating... grr....