today...

This is out...
from TOTAL-E-BOUND...

I should be celebrating but I feel a bit....


About nothing in particular...

He's a bully but I don't care!

Mr Blue is very cross with me because I didn't write at all yesterday! I don't know how it happened, really... I meant to, but I just couldn't get into the groove, and a trip up into little town, to do some errands, really disrupted my day. It wouldn't have bothered a normal, professional writer... but it did me because I'm easily thrown by breaks in my routines.

And I'm not likely to get much done today, as I need to catch up with some outstanding web work, and I'm suffering huge, huge guilt pangs at not getting these tasks done straight away for my clients. It *is* getting harder and harder to balance the two sides of my working life... I'm managing at the moment, mainly because I need the money, but I accept that there may come a time when I have to reluctantly give up the design and focus on writing. I would miss it, if I had to do this, because it's another way of being creative, and one that can be exercised when I'm in a state of emotional turmoil, because it's not affected by my emotions in the way my writing is... *and* my web clients are all so nice... but it's getting to be more and more of a struggle to reconcile the two things. :(

--
Telly: UK TV History
Choc/Yummy: Tesco chocolate brownie
Mood: oppressed
Writing: nothing yet
Reading: Lakeland catalogue
RSI/FMS: achey, weary


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

A fun new Yahoogroup!!!

Literagasm - for fans of romance and erotica eBooks!

This group is for discussing erotic romance eBooks, the good, the bad and the ugly! We'll give you an honest opinion on the best and the worst, to help readers to decide which eBooks to spend their hard earned pennies on. We'll help readers to chat to their favourite authors and authors to tell them what's new 'n' up 'n' cummin'!

LITERAGASM
v.the climax of excitement esp whilst in the act of reading

Sign up now and join the fun... print book discussion welcome too!


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

Strange how things turn out...

I must have done something right with SUITE SEVENTEEN because not only did I get my fabulous Romantic Times review... "this deliciously seductive story... is hard to put down..." but I've also got another super smashing review at the Erotica Readers and Writers Association, courtesy of top man Ashley Lister!

Ash is a long time supporter of me as writer, and like the lovely reviewer at RT, he really seems to get where I'm coming from with my stories and characters...

But I really find this good response to S17 extremely reassuring... I had a real struggle with the sukka at many stages of the writing, and for a lot of the time I thought it was total crap... and it's ended up as something that's been pretty well received so far, both as a romance novel and an erotic novel.

So it just proves that even if a book seems like a steaming pile of horse plop while you're writing it, there's still a possibility that it might turn into something reasonably worthwhile eventually... Which means there may be hope for Gothic Heat too... :)

------------------

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

This just in!!!!

Just discovered that SUITE SEVENTEEN has got a lovely, glowing four and a half star review from Romantic Times!!!

Not sure I'm supposed to post details of the review until the magazine is actually out... but to say I'm well chuffed is putting it mildly! :)

This is...

... my degree of tiredness and lack of co-ordination today!



--
Telly: Time
Choc/Yummy: turkish delight
Mood: knackered and sleepy
Writing: nothing
Reading: lover revealed
RSI/FMS: see mood


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

Here's proof...

... that people do actually read my books! This is my friend, poet and blogger Ally, reading during her holiday at beautiful, peaceful Harrison Lake near Harrison Hotsprings British Columbia Canada.

It looks like a gorgeous spot for quiet reading and contemplation... and I'm just hoping that Ally found the book worthy of the glorious surroundings. :)

--
Telly: The Race for Absolute Zero
Choc/Yummy: Lindt
Mood: okay
Writing: 1.2K Gothic Heat
Reading: Lover Revealed - JR Ward
RSI/FMS: sore wrists and stuff


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

I've got the Giggles

Hey up! I just got my first ever Mrs Giggles review - for Object of Desire - and I'm delighted and thrilled to say she really liked the story and gave me a mark of 86 for it!

Mrs Giggles reviews Object of Desire

We can safely say that this has got my weekend off to a great start! :)

Better...

Am pleased to say that I've been doing better at Sweat70 in the last few days! And thank heavens for that... I was feeling very displeased with myself, and Mr Blue was ready to come after me and pistol whip me into picking up speed again. As it is, he's still got his beady eye on my progress and is determined not to let me slack again...

I now have a mere 13.5K approx of Gothic Heat to do... which is a good thing, as there's already a blurb up at Amazon.co.uk. Too late to change the storyline now, as info has obviously gone out now. Have a naughty scene with Rafe and Paula to do, then another confrontation with the baddy, Isidora, and after that, good sorceress Michiko has to do some sexual horse trading in order to get resources the [sort of] team need to resolve Paula's big, big problem. Then it's into the closing stages and a bit of mad magic that I have to sort of make up in order to resolve things and get everybody to where they need to be at the end of a paranormal erotic romance, including the 'extra' people who seem to have put in an appearance during the course of the book! I've a feeling all this crap will run to over 13.5K, but if I run long I'll just have to compensate by tightening the thing up stringently in the editing.

--
Telly: Atom
Choc/Yummy: Strawberry Iced Finger
Mood: okay
Writing: 1K Gothic Heat
Reading: Lover Eternal - JR Ward
RSI/FMS: bit sore, not too bad


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

Flake ad for the Bellas

have just eaten this!

A strawberry iced bun with a jam filling. Yummy!

Am feeling a bit dislocated from reality again today. From writing reality... Everything feels a bit weird and I feel detached from it. I think I'm stressing myself out over promo and suchlike again, and am experiencing panicky feelings that I'm not doing enough, and what I am doing is the wrong sort. I feel as if I'm about to sink into writing obscurity because I just can't handle the sort of promo some people seem to sail through... and manage to write at the same time. It's a tough balance... and yet, time and time again, in blog posts and on boards, it's hammered home that these days it's simply not enough to be a good writer to ensure success and sales... you have to do a lot of other stuff too. You have to promote yourself and brand yourself and establish a 'personality'. And heaven help you if you're an average writer - like me - and you're shit at promo... you'll just fade away completely. Some fairly mediocre writers [well, let's say, their writing doesn't work for me... it may for others] can soar to prominence because they're great self publicists and self promoters, but if you're the shy, retiring type like me [seriously, I am!] you don't stand a freaking chance!

Which makes it such a temptation just to switch off and think about sticky buns...

So, writer friends, do you worry about promo? Whether you're doing enough? Or too much, and it's interfering with the actual job of writing?

Reader buddies... do you sometimes find yourself thinking... 'This is all hype, and writer X isn't really all that good... maybe she should concentrate on her writing a bit more'?

--
Telly: Top Gear lads at the North Pole
Choc/Yummy: see above
Mood: troubled and uneasy
Writing: GH, I suppose...
Reading: Lover Eternal... so fab!!!!
RSI/FMS: sore, tired, fed up


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

Mus Musculus.... again!!!

So here I am, minding my own business and just doing my normal morning rounds of my favourite blogs and boards... when out of the corner of my eye, I catch sight of movement. At first, subconsciously, I think 'cat' as something trots along the top of the chest of drawers just a yard or two from my bed... then I think, '****! It's ****ing mouse!'

And there it is, large as life, a fairly big house mouse strolling around on the furniture, in my bedroom! Not cowering in the corner, but ambling about, taking the air and admiring the scenery, and leaping from item of furniture to item of furniture... with just a jump of around two feet to the bed I'm lying on!!!! I'm stunned to immobility, but when I do move, he clocks me, scoots along the the chest of drawers and drops down onto the floor, only to take cover amongst a heap of himself's trainers! Shit... out of reach now... no way to catch him.

I investigate, and find him actually in the gap between two chests of drawers, and amazingly, he comes sashaying out into plain sight as if there wasn't a massive human looming over him at all [and a freaking cat FAST ASLEEP on the bed just feet away!] We play 'cat' and mouse for a bit, and he tootles off out of the bedroom and into the hall... I think I've lost him, and we're in big trouble, but luckily, I spot him again, and he's just close enough to the loo for me to herd him into the smallest room and corral us in there together...

He's still bold as brass, and doesn't hide all that much, as well as showing disturbing tendencies towards leaping into the air and trying to climb up inside my trouser leg... But fortunately, after several minutes of tacticals, I'm able to envelop him in the tee shirt I'd brought in with me, and race outside to set him free in the long grass... phew!

That's clearly the most exciting thing that's going to happen to me all day... but I just wonder which furry buffoon of a cat brought him in, then couldn't be bothered with him any more and let him go.

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