for a change

Just for a change, I decided to maraud a bit of himself's cake instead of chocolate for this pm's teabreak. That would be the teabreak between bouts of whining, being mental, feeling sorry for myself, seething, festering, and not-writing.

so freaking true!

You Are 35% Grown Up, 65% Kid

Emotionally, you are mostly a kid - but you're starting to grow up a little. Remember - only you have the power to make your life better. So go do it!

How Emotionally Mature Are You?

--
Telly: The Tango Lesson
Chocolate: Hotel Chocolat leftovers
Mood: pass me the machete
Writing: what is writing? I think I may once have done some...
Reading: bills
RSI: foul

something...

Amazon.com

--
Telly: POTC extras
Chocolate: Lindt
Mood: Indescribable
Writing: not
Reading: not
RSI: there may be some, but as everything aches who the **** can tell?

oh, dear... it's getting bad again...

As you can see, I've let things slide again... Bad, bad me!

--
Telly: POTC extras, Columbo
Chocolate: Tesco Belgian Plain
Mood: weird
Writing: TechnoGothic - 1.1K words today, 1.1K words yesterday
Reading: Encyclopaedia Dramatica - online [link not worksafe]
RSI: various aches and pains

in the past couple of days I have been mainly...

1. working on Techno Gothic Contemporary although I doubt if anybody will want it...
2. doing some webby bits for lovely client Gwen Kirkwood...
3. hurting my back - tweaked a muscle reaching for something in a funny way...
4. hurting my shoulder and arm - could be computer use, could be part of back incident above...
5. watching Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and feeling puzzled as to why I'm not enjoying it as much as I should...
6. visiting this strangely compulsive, sick in places, mordantly funny and rather clever web site *- don't understand most of it, but bits of it made me much neededly laugh out loud...
7. looking at a fruit cake selected by himself, at Tesco, for his personal consumption, and wondering if he would notice a missing slice or several...
8. panicking about Christmas...
9. avoiding quite a bit of reality...
   

* surf with care, much not worksafe and also v. v. gross!!!
--
Telly: POTC 2
Chocolate: Belgian Milk
Mood: flat, numb, compartmentalised anger
Writing: TechGoth contemp
Wordcount: abysmal
Reading: the writing on the wall
RSI: very sore shoulder

for all my American chums...

I'm not feeling v. communicative today, but I can't let this day go by without sending some best wishes to all my mates in America... Hope you all have a fabboo holiday time today!

Trying Something New

I'm trying an experiment here... Hope it doesn't all go horribly wrong...

--
Today's Telly: Oz & James's Big Wine Adventure
Today's Chocolate: Guilyan Bar
Today's Mood: Bloody
Today's Writing: Nothing yet
Today's Reading: Radio Times
Today's RSI: Not too bad

no cheating required here...

You Are: 0% Dog, 100% Cat

You are are almost exactly like a cat. You're intelligent, independent, and set on getting your way. And there's no way you're going to fetch a paper for anyone!

Are You More Cat or Dog?

back to normal...

Well, I didn't quite achieve the mighty 3K words total of Saturday today... That was a one off, and v. unusual, and a recipe for exploding wrists if maintained for too long... I did manage to keep up to the 1K average though, which is a.good.thing. Unfortunately, today's 1K was probably a tranche of some of the most unmitigated twoddle I've ever written, as I was just bashing ahead at something I wasn't quite sure about... an experiment, really. But at least some writing is better than no writing, and everything editable, even if it is rampant claptrap... and... oh, talk about purple prose... This stuff was positively imperial. You could fashion Caligula's toga from it!

And thanks to everyone who admired my little cover... it is pretty, innit? Those eyes... those glorious eyes... mmmm....

not sulking... but working!

No, I wasn't in a big sulk yesterday. The reason I didn't post was because I was busy being a proper writer, or trying to... and *finishing* draft #1 of Ill Met By Moonlight!!!!

Yep, I finished the sucker, and I'm mighty pleased with myself about that. It's only really taken me around 30 days to finish it, and that's even allowing for some days when I have actually been sulking and not producing any work... Granted the final scene and the epilogue are a bit of a dog's breakfast of bodgery, but I'm sure I can smoothe things out and improve them in the editing.

Anyway, to celebrate this mighty achievement, while I was waiting for himself to get ready to go out last night, I designed a faux cover for my little novella... and here it is!

a funny few days

It's been a funny few days, battling with low energy levels, low confidence levels and low enthusiasm levels due to being a bit fibro at the moment, I think.

Not too much progress in the last two or three days, either, on Ill Met By Moonlight... I love my little novella in some ways, and I love my characters, especially pretty, but big and butch Robin, but sometimes it's tough to motivate oneself sometimes when you're writing into the wind like this.

I'm in that mood where just the tiniest fragment of good news would kick start me into high gear again, and high enthusiasm, but I feel like a weak ninny that I need this kind of incentive. Some writers work hard, work good, and work focused for years on end when they're carving their way bravely towards publication. They pay their dues, they keep on going, learning, improving all the time, and they don't whinge like babies, the way I do, just for 'rewards'. They just hang in there and keep working. Of course some writers just seem to stroll into success... they happen on an editor who gets them fairly quickly, and they don't have to suffer the agonies and indignities of those years of rejections and striving...

I think I sort of steered a middle path on my way to publication. I did have several years of rejections when I first started, and when I was trying to write category romance. And, I did manage to stay motivated and keep trying and trying and sending in manuscripts... so in that way, I paid my dues and worked into the wind. However, when I started writing more erotic stuff, I didn't have to wait too long for publication... Those were the early days of Black Lace when the books were often very lushly romantic, and I fitted in quite well, having come from romance in the first place. But fashions change, and markets change, and editors change, as is normal in publishing, and my style of writing wasn't wanted for a while... until, by accident, I realised that it was wanted again, if I played to my strengths and wrote erotic, pervy, a tiny bit dark, but also still romantic and a bit on the wry side...

But the problem is, despite this, I'm still basically old school, and in writing, as in other things, that which is 'new and fresh' is often what's preferred.... and those of us who've been around a bit have to work ten times as hard just to keep pace! Especially when you're in a genre that's in the middle of a boom, and there are dozens, nay hundreds, nay, possibly, thousands of hungry and talented authors all striving to win those prized publication slots.

Gosh, it's no wonder an old bird like me feels tired, innit?

right on the money... but the mark *could* be higher!

You Are 87% Angry

You are a very angry person - and you might not realize it. While you may think that you're bitter, depressed, or bad tempered... What you're really feeling is anger. While you may not need anger management, you may need some therapy!

How Angry Are You?