Avast, me proud beauties!

Shiver me timbers, it be...

International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

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

time....

Well, I've finished another pass at Gothic Heat... and I'm glad I did because I found a whole bunch of internal logic glitches and demented things with the timeline [like a night that seemed to last 24 hours!] that I'd somehow perpetrated when I was doing my content tweaks. They were quite minor, and might not have been noticed, but I would have known about them, and I'd always be scared that someone would pick up on them and comment on them in a review. A lot of the big review sites seem to jump all over errors like that.

I feel exhausted now. Deflated. Worried that I ought to go through it yet again because there's other stuff I've missed. I ought to be thrilled, but these anxieties, and other stuff that's upset me this afternoon, have left me tearful and depressed.

I'll pull out of it. I always do. Maybe I need to eat extra chocolate and have a bit of a spending spree?

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Telly: westerns
Choc/Yummy: lindor bar
Mood: low
Writing: editing Gothic Heat
Reading: nothing today
RSI/FMS: weary


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

I'm fighting with myself...

... over Gothic Heat.

Basically, it's like this. I know I should give it one last read through, to check for inconsistencies... but I just can't bear to go through the flipping thing yet another time. I like it and all that, after all my trials and tribulations with it, but the thought of ploughing through it yet another time gives me a sick feeling of dread in my chest. A feeling that almost rivals the sick feeling I get that there might be some glaring and stupid continuity boo-boo that I've perpetrated in my latest edits, and which I'm blind as a bat to because I'm far too close to the story and the characters.

I've been through this a gazillion times, with other books, and I've always regretted not doing that one last read through because there have been instances when I've received the page proofs and an inconsistency of the type I fear has been there, sitting in the pages of my almost ready to be published book, festering and pulsating with horribleness and unprofessionalism like a giant infected boil. And at that stage, it's hellish difficult to change things with the minimum of disruption to the 'shape' of the printed pages! Copy editors are supposed to spot things like this, but I suppose they're only human and have blind areas too.

So, I'm putting off and putting off this horrible task... and it wouldn't be so bad if I were doing something productive instead of it, but I'm not. I'm just foofing about and allowing my To Do List to grow to humongous proportions... It's already spread from one page to two and jobs keep piling up!

I'm just a pathetic mess, really, aren't I?


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Telly: History programmes
Choc/Yummy: chocolate swiss roll
Mood: stressed to the max
Writing: nothing
Reading: nothing today
RSI/FMS: sore and tired


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

How cool is this?

I've been nominated in the Best Ebook Contemporary Erotica category of the 2007 Fall N.O.R Awards!

So if you're partial to a bit of Portia... why not click here to vote for me!


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Telly: MotoGP
Choc/Yummy: chocolate swiss roll
Mood: under pressure
Writing: none
Reading: none
RSI/FMS: achy and tired


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

have been in....

... an alternate universe this week. The world of GOTHIC BLUE/GOTHIC HEAT, where I've been tweaking and polishing the latter ready to submit it to my agent and thence to my editor. I've finally begun to like GOTHIC HEAT, and I think it's got plenty going for it, but when you're dealing with factors other than just a sexual relationship, continuity, consistency and internal logic become big issues. Even though it's a pretty fanciful tale, it still has to make sense in its own way. And be consistent with stuff that happened and things that were said in GOTHIC BLUE... which is a very tricky balancing act. I think I've got most things now, apart from one 'internal logic' tweakette that remains, but I'm going to do another pass at the thing, just to check that in correcting and expanding on some stuff, I haven't inadvertently created other snafus.

Ack, what writers of 'real' books have to contend with... I've got away without a lot of this over the years because most of my books are just 'some people bonking and perving' without benefit of much in the way of plot. But I think working on GH has been an excellent learning experience and hopefully, pushed my writing skillset just a little further... :)

STOP PRESS STOP PRESS STOP PRESS!

Forgot to mention... go to Lustbites today if you're interested in GOTHIC HEAT. There's a work in progress post, with a smidgeonette from the book, along with an excerpt from Janine Ashbless's fantastic THE HOUSE OF DUST!

Works in progress from Janine and Portia!

I may be back later to post a bit about my current reprint release, HOTBED, which also has what passes for a rudimentary plot, surprisingly enough.


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Telly: Numb3rs... love it!
Choc/Yummy: deluxe Swiss Roll
Mood: a bit pressured
Writing: Gothic Heat edits
Reading: nothing much right now
RSI/FMS: middling


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

I'm guestblogging at Lustbites today

I'm guest blogging at Lustbites today, with a wicked-hot excerpt from my naughty, rompy, super-fun Total-E-Bound ebook WILD IN THE COUNTRY...

Click here to read CARRY ON SHAGGING!

There's a contest to win a signed book two... possibly with two winners!

Hey, I have ebooks I never knew about...

The Devil Inside is available as an ebook here and here, in several formats.


Entertaining Mr Stone is available here in a couple of formats, sadly not Adobe so far.

Designed for Sin is available here and here, in a variety of formats.

I knew that theoretically these books could also appear in electronic formats, but nobody ever told me they were actually available... I found them via my mate, Madelynne Ellis who discovered ebooks of her own on sale.

Stop Press!

Gigi stopped by to let me know that my ebooks are also available at EbooksAboutEverything!

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Telly: lots of sport
Choc/Yummy: turkish delight
Mood: okay
Writing: sifting ideas
Reading: nothing much at the mo
RSI/FMS: not too bad


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

well, thank you very much, Fungal Spore Pollen!

This is what you have turned my brain into!!!!

Barely sentient porridge! Well, thank you very much, you foul little spores, you wait until I have a to do list a mile long, then you render me incapable of doing any of the things on it... f***ers! I think the main problem is not only that the sinuses in all parts of my head are congested and filled with crud, but also, my lungs are crudded up too... which means I'm not getting the oxygen I should, which means my brain is not getting enough of it. And my poor old noggin is in a parlous enough state as it is, without this further diminution in its function.

I've been able to do nothing today. Zero. Nada. Zilch. A big fat empty void of non achievement. I am very annoyed.

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Telly: nothing much
Choc/Yummy: turkish delight
Mood: bad
Writing: none
Reading: none
RSI/FMS: everything knacked by fungal spore pollen


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

The Good, the Good and Ugly

The Good...

I've just heard back from my critique partner about GOTHIC HEAT... and she loves it! I'm blown away by the great things she's said about it... 'Rafe is perfect'... ooh... and also almost faint with relief that I seem to have managed to produce something readable after the titanic struggle I've had with this mutha! Anyone who calls here regularly will know how I've wrestled and wrestled with GH, and the huge doubts I've had about it, but now that I've had such a positive response from someone whose judgement I trust, I feel much, much better and can look forward happily to the publication process.

The Good...

The latest of a number of lovely reviews for OBJECT OF DESIRE... This one's from Lacey at Romance Junkies.

With a sexy premise and enjoyable characters, Portia da Costa created a wonderful, highly erotic tale. The story captivates the reader from beginning to end, enveloping them in a world of possible fantasies becoming reality. OBJECT OF DESIRE is a fun, fast read that had me smiling and sighing the entire time. I look forward to reading Ms. Da Costa’s future works.

Isn't that fab?

The Ugly...

FUNGAL SPORE POLLEN!!!!

I've had gallopingly vile rhinitis for the last couple of days, so much so that my head's just felt as if it's about to explode. I know I'm prone to allergies, and hayfever like symptoms, so I just thought I'd check the BBC Weather site for pollen levels... and discovered that Fungal Spore Pollen is at astronomical highs at the moment. So there's yer answer... and apparently this filth is lurking in the atmosphere until November and it can affect you indoors as well as outside... Oh joy!!!!

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Telly: thing about Dick Turpin
Choc/Yummy: Turkish Delight
Mood: good
Writing: nothing today
Reading: nothing today
RSI/FMS: pollen!!!


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

Gone but not forgotten...

It was a year ago yesterday [2nd Sept] that darling Boy passed away. I still think of him and remember his sweet, affectionate nature.

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

The Real Me...

The photos on my websites and whatever are all a sham... this is the real me!

Simpsonize yourself

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

death warmed up

That's what I feel like this morning... due to Kuffer waking me up in the small hours, 'announcing' that he'd come in after a nocturnal jaunt. He seems to like to know that we know he's back. Even if it is around 4am... And waking up acquainted me with the fact I had a sinus headache, so had to get up and get pills to sort that out. So now I'm feeling distinctly under par.

After a day of doing nothing at all, letting the latest edit of Gothic Heat 'set' I started back into work again yesterday and had a most productive day. Caught up on accounts, replied to some emails, did a bit of web work, sent out some parcels to prize draw winners and reviewers, and even did a K of story I'm thinking of sending to a magazine. Pretty rough stuff at the moment, but writing all the same. And different to Gothic Heat, so refreshing in a way. I flipped back to my contemporary first person present tense voice and really enjoyed the change. I'd forgotten how much fun it is to write that way, and I'm wondering whether to return to that voice for my next book. It certainly worked quite nicely in Entertaining Mr Stone and Suite Seventeen, and readers have said how they liked it too.

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