look at this! look at this!

Isn't it bonny? :)

me and the book wot I am reading

Taken with the help of the gadget below... and help, I'm nearly as shiny as the glossy book cover!

So who's read/reading The Black Dagger Brotherhood? What do you think? I'm really enjoying Dark Lover!




--
Telly: Columbo
Choc/Yummy: seashell chocolate
Mood: better
Writing: not yet
Reading: see above
RSI/FMS: bit sore


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

frivolity v. stress

Wahey, my Kevin and Perry CD arrived this morning! So I'm currently enjoying some bangin' Ibiza classics and dialogue snippets from the film. Yeah, I know it's a silly movie in a lot of ways, but I like it... sometimes, it's just nice to escape into total daftness and not to have to worry about any kind of intellectual significance and all that stuff. K&P is sort of like good old British Carry On but with a much better soundtrack... and beneath all the crudity and rudeness, I do think there's a surprisingly warm heart.

Anyway, it's serving its purpose in taking my mind off something I've been mulling over for a day or two, and which prompted my chainsaw post, further down. I've wrestled with this issue before, and it doesn't seem to go away... one of these days it'll come to a head, and I'll have to act, but for the moment, I'm wimping out and procrastinating... The sad thing is though, with my head screwed by this shit, it's hard to write and yet another day is speeding past without anything done towards Sweat70, which pains me because I started so well, and felt it was really, really benefitting me. But I will get back to it... I promise, Mr Blue and Sven, I will get back on track... Nil bastardi carborundum and all that...

On the plus side, while I'm not actually creating new fiction in the form of GOTHIC HEAT, I'm free to concentrate on checking the proofs of an older work which is about to see a new lease of life... ie. the second of my forthcoming Total-E-Bound ebook releases, WILD IN THE COUNTRY.


Oh my, this book is mad! But in a good way... I'd say it's sort of an erotic romance, because there's a central relationship, and a love story that develops and suggests HEA, but alongside that, it's really one of the craziest, most pervy and bonkathonical shagoramas I've ever written. Sort of like a giant loving menage story involving half the inhabitants of an English country village. LOL

Issa hoot!!!

--
Telly: listening to K&P instead
Choc/Yummy: seashell choc bar
Mood: stressed
Writing: proof checking WITC
Reading: WITC & Dark Lover/JR Ward
RSI/FMS: sore and weary


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

A thoroughly deserved award!!!

I am thrilled to announce that Double Dare by my super talented writing buddy Saskia Walker has just won the 2006 Passionate Plume Award for the Best Contemporary Erotic Romance!

I had the priviledge of reading this sumptuous novel some time ago, and it is indeed a perfect example of a warm, sexy and beautifully written erotic romance, worthy of this and even greater accolades. It has a smart, pacy story, great characterisation, hot urban settings and a drop dead gorgeous Alpha but complex hero! :)

Visit Saskia's Website to learn more about Double Dare and all her other fabulous fiction!

my state of mind today

Normal service will be resumed when I feel less homicidal...

Hot New Cover!

So here's the official cover for OBJECT OF DESIRE! Molto steamy, eh? Really captures the mood of heroine Sylvia... er... 'getting excited' whilst fantasising about Nathaniel doing his Tai Chi! ;)

Don't forget to check out the excerpt at the Lustbites blog, and do leave a comment there if you enjoy it!

--
Telly: Small Soldiers
Choc/Yummy: Dutch yummy brioche thing
Mood: bit overwhelmed by stuff
Writing: not a sausage
Reading: Dark Lover/JR Ward
RSI/FMS: generally achy


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

naughty excerpt

For a naughty excerpt from OBJECT OF DESIRE, my soon to be published mini ebook from Total-E-Bound, go HERE!

ps. Sven and Mr Blue are going to be after my hide as I didn't do anything towards Sweat70 yesterday! :(

It's Q&A day!

Today's the day that Madelynne Ellis and I are doing a Q&A on Romance Divas, about writing erotic romance, I think... It should be huge fun, so click the links and visit the Romance Diva's Message Board to take part. You'll need to register, but it only takes a mo, and once you've signed up, I'm sure you'll become a regular visitor because this is such a wonderful, friendly and supportive place for romance authors. Madelynne will be imparting much wisdom on the topic of erotic writing in her answers, and I will be supplying the comic relief, probably, in that - as anyone who visits here regularly will know - I basically don't have a freaking clue about how I do what I do, and I just blunder through every writing day in a state of blind hope and raw panic!

I also think that Mr Blue [see sidebar] will be after me today with his Uzi or whatever it is, as I suspect that today will be a day when I fail miserably at Sweat70. Himself is back from his jaunt to the Lowlands and the WW2 and Napoleonic battlefields, and naturally I want to spend time just hanging out with him and getting all the buzz on his trip. Plus, we need to hit the supermarket to stock up again and do mucho domestic sorting out and tidying. My plans to make the place shipshape and Bristol fashion for his return did not materialise, and the poor lad has come back to a residence that's cross between a giant dumpster and a sty for one big, fat and particularly slovenly she-pig!

I don't forsee Gothic Heat advancing a single syllable [sp] today... sigh...

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

struggling... and sleepy

Sometimes I wish I was a cat, like Kuffer, and I didn't always have a weight of 'stuff to do' bearing down on me all the time... How wonderful it must be to only ever have your next Whiskas Ever So Fishy pouch on your mind, if that.

I feel as if I'm struggling today. Not with my Sweat70... I've done 1.3K towards that, in the form of a K of Gothic Heat, and a mini outline for the final stages of it. No, it's just everything, really. I've got a set of proofs to check, quite a big one, plus some web work coming in and a Q&A to do tomorrow at Romance Divas. Goodness knows what sort of showing I'll put up there. I really am the last person to be telling romance writers how to do stuff. Mainly because 99% of the time, I haven't the faintest idea what I'm doing myself...

A case in point. A couple of the other Sweat70 combatants have been posting about 'pacing' in the last couple of days... and I've realised that apart from idea finding and plotting, pacing a novel or story is the thing I'm most crap at! Gothic Heat is a pacing nightmare... crawls like a slug on valium for around 50K... and now, I've only got 25K left, and I've about a dozen major plot events/scenes to squidge into that measly 25 thousand! Bloody hell, talk about unbalanced! I've a feeling this sukka is going to run over budget if I'm to get everything in, which will mean a humongous and complicated edit to get the monstrosity down to a manageable size... sigh...

--
Telly: Fred Dibnah
Choc/Yummy: choc biccie
Mood: weighed down
Writing: 1.3K Gothic Heat bits
Reading: Dark Lover/JR Ward
RSI/FMS: sore and tired


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

This starts today... so get stuck in!

Not going to Nationals? Don't worry...Romance Divas is doing the next best thing!

Romance Divas announces the first annual "Not Going to Nationals Cyber Conference" from July 11-15, righton the forum. Best of all, it's FREE!

Just register for Romance Divas--membership is free, you just need to sign up! www.romancedivas.com if you have trouble with registration email night.diva.maria (at) gmail (dot) com

There will be workshops, Q&As, and giveaways each day. All you have to do is participate!!!!

Schedule:

July 11:
Workshop: Character Development with Sophia Shaw NEW WORKSHOP!
Q&A: TBA (either with an agent from the Larsen-Pomada Agency or a panel on multi-cultural romance) NEW DATE!

July 12:
Workshop: Book Signing 101: Tips to Help Make your Signing a Success by Jackie Kessler
Q&A: Legal Issues for Writers by Amanda Brice

July 13:
Workshop: What to Expect After You Sign the Contract by Marley Gibson
Q&A: Erotic romance with Portia da Costa and Madelynne Ellis NEW DATE!

July 14:
Workshop: Writing Novellas and Short Stories by Sasha White
Q&A: How To Write Both YA and Adult Romance by Berta Platas

July 15:
Workshop: Trim That Fatty Writing! by Rhonda Stapleton
Q&A: TBA (either with an agent from the Larsen-Pomada Agency or a panel on multi-cultural romance)

Plus, Deirdre Savoy will also be doing a workshops for us (topic and date TBA)! So there will be two days with not one, but TWO fabulous workshops, plus a Q&A!!!!!

We also have loads of great giveaways, including books, critiques, coaching, and more!

Oh dear...

Am feeling uneasy and out of sorts this morning... hope that doesn't mean I have contracted the above described sweat related condition!


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

Being realistic...

I've done pretty good these last couple of days, the first two of Sweat70... I've felt motivated and I've achieved good wordcounts. But I'd be a stupid and delusional fool if I blithely claimed it could always be like this! I'm doing good because it's a novelty... and when that novelty wears off, that's when the test comes. If I can continue to keep up the pace... Obviously, it won't be the same pace, because other stuff comes along that must be done... and often not frivolity, and time wasting either. Stuff like commitments I've made in terms of interviews and stuff, and of course my web design work.

So, I won't always be batting along at my current searing pace... but I'm gonna push myself to keep up to my minimum pace, at least, choose whatever other stuff comes my way!

Lets face it, it's no biggie... not really... I have to write this book anyway...

And in terms of where I'm at in Gothic Heat? Currently trying to choreograph a four way argument/slanging match! Which is tough for me, as I'm usually claustrophobia-writer, intensely focused on either my hero/heroine couple, or the internal ruminations of just my main character... Managing four story people who are all shouting at each other at once is quite a reach for me!


--

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