can I do vampires?

More work today on my vampire thingoid. Mostly, in fact completely rewriting the bit I did yesterday and the day before... That was just a sketch really, and exercise, just 'stuff' to get the thing started. I sometimes do that... just write nonsense really, just so there's something I can wrangle into something else. I feel better when I'm doing something rather than nothing...

I'm just starting to get a feeling for my vamp hero, Zack... I'm starting to see a picture of him in my mind, and a sense of his characteristics through the eyes of Teresa, my heroine. The fun bit is that *she* doesn't know he's a vamp yet, so I've to sneak in vampish things that she interprets as something else! I've to be crafty... the reader and I know he's a vamp, but she remains oblivious, although she knows he's not quite a normal guy!

This is my first vampire story ever... I've done paranormal, short and long, before but never actual vampires. I've done plenty of ghosts and sorcerers and even zombies once or twice... but not our toothy friends with a partiality for blood. But I've sure watched enough vamp movies and telly... all flavours of Dracula, plus tons of Spike and Angel... So I think I can probably hack my own particular version of the mythos.

Favourite vamps of mine? Spike, of course, Gary Oldman as Dracula, Frank Langella as Dracula, Angel... I once even had a tiny bit of a thing for Detective Nick Knight from Forever Knight... I'm also really looking forward to a new version of Dracula on the Beeb over Christmas starring Marc Warren... should be interesting, to say the least.
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Telly: Superman Returns - v. good!
Chocolate: Tesco Swiss Milk
Mood: good
Writing: Buddies... also some work on a mini short
Reading: nothing much
RSI: okay

busy busy busy

An astonishingly productive day! Probably the equivalent of lying like a slug to some of the more super prolific authors out there, but for me, a very satisfying day indeed...

Have been working on a new novella, another paranormal, bit of a vamp thing... Not quite sure what I'm doing with it, and it's a bit of dog's breakfast so far, but managed to ramp up a K of words per day so far, so at least it's moving and not standing still.

I think I'm starting to get into this novella thing, and also, slightly, this paranormal thing... Certainly feel v. happy now about IllMet... got the verdict of my CP, and she thinks it's terrific! So it's off now to my agent, and thence to the editor... Fingers crossed for me, eh?

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Telly: Dracula [1979 - Frank Langella... phwoooarrgh!]
Chocolate: Tesco Swiss Milk
Mood: v. positive for me
Writing: Buddies Don't Bite 1k words, IllMet tweaking
Reading: ComputerActive
RSI: mild

Lust Bites Christmas Party

The Lust Bites Christmas Party
Via Fossa, Canal Street, Manchester
Saturday 16th December 2006

no pix today...

Luckily for you all! I think I inflicted enough unmadeup horror on you yesterday! LOL

Still grappling with IllMet... and I need to get my finger out on this one and get it subbed to agent, then editor. Over the last couple of days I've been tinkering with one of Robin's physical characteristics... no, not that one... and I can't decide whether it's in or it's out... no, still not that one... I sort of decided to change it when I began the edit, but last night, I reinstated it... the resultant word wrangling turned the whole thing into a piece of crud. This morning, however, I've decided I like it again, and the reinstatement was correct.

I have so much to do over the weekend and in the run up to Christmas, but tomorrow I'm taking time out for a Transpennine expedition to Manchester to meet up with some other Black Lace authors for a Festive celebration. So watch out if you are in the general Canal Street/Piccadilly area... If you encounter a quartet of guffawing females, discussing the relative merits of various rude words, you'll know it's Madelynne Ellis, Nikki Magennis, Mathilde Madden and I out on our Christmas jollies! :)

I'm sure these esteemed ladies are just dying to meet 'the legendary Portia Da Costa ©''... if only to discover if she's as big a twit in person as she seems in this blog! LOL

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Telly: snooker
Chocolate: Tesco milk with wholenut
Mood: okay
Writing: IllMet
Reading: Christmas cards
RSI: not bad

from the sublime to the ridiculous

Nice hair, shame about the face...

After yesterday's divine pic of Vincent, here's something far less heavenly. It's hairdo day, and here's my barnet, all freshly bleached and trimmed by the wonderful Anne! Very daringly, this is a no makeup shot... as will be abundantly obvious... but at least I'm smiling like a human being [almost] and only a few of my chins are on show!

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Telly: UK Documentary
Chocolate: Tesco Milk with Hazelnut
Mood: okay
Writing: not yet
Reading: Cosmopolitan
RSI: not bad

crushed....

It's 'crushes' day over at LustBites and here's mine... surprise, surprise...

The Film that started It All...

IMDb

Well, it didn't actually start everything to do with my writing career... That's down to a certain pop video that I loved at the time, but would never own up to being inspired by now...

But my first ever published novel, Adventures in the Pleasurezone owes a lot to the magnificent 1983 sci-fi masterpiece BRAINSTORM. Basically, it's a story about the development of a virtual reality technology that can record a person's experiences and emotions in order that they can be played back, and 'lived' again by another person. It sounds a techie sort of film, and in some ways it is, but it's also a powerfully emotional movie that explores issues of spirituality and consciousness and the way visionary scientists can have their magnificent breakthroughs exploited and ****ed over by vested interests, the military and The Man in general. It also has a very sweet and poignant love story at the heart of it, that's made even more touching because the actress who's a part of it, the very fine Natalie Wood, died just before the film was completed. It also stars one of my all time favourite actors, Christopher Walken, who looks so young in this that he's almost angelic. In fact he's called 'angel' at one stage in the proceedings. If you ever get a chance to see this movie on the telly or on DVD, give it a whirl and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

The way it inspired me was that I too took up the theme of virtual reality and applied it to an erotic scenario in Adventures... although my VR machine had one or two attachments that weren't employed in Dr Michael Anthony Brace's apparatus in Brainstorm! LOL! But basically, it explored the creation of fantasy sensual worlds that could be experienced as 'real'...

VR is a theme I've sort of returned to in TechnoGothic too, which is why I've been revisiting Brainstorm. My Alexander Graves is a sort of darkly dramatic, damaged, millionaire ex playboy version of Dr Brace... A brilliant, glamorous polymath who now hides himself away, obsessing over arcane computer code and esoteric electronics and experiencing the world via his own exotic creation...

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Telly: Brainstorm, obvously
Chocolate: Tesco Swiss Plain
Mood: okay
Writing: editing IllMet
Reading: nothing
RSI: not bad

Suite Seventeen..... at Amazon.co.uk!!!!

It's listed!

Suite Seventeen - at Amazon.co.uk

They've spelt my name wrong... because they've got the info from Amazon.com, and they spelt it wrong at first too... but hey, it's now available for pre-order for those who must have access to *my* Valentino ASAP!

christmas... again...

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm whining again... But I'm angry with myself more than anything. I wish I didn't feel so negatively about Christmas prep. I want to feel a warm seasonal glow of love for my fellow men and women... I want to give gifts and send cards and make people happy with my efforts. I want to think about the deeper significance... feel goodwill to all and remember what the Christmas season is all about...

But it's just making me crazy, and I hate myself for that. I wrote a handful of cards today, and ordered two or three presents online, and it seemed to take up the whole day. How can that happen? I ended up with my head just spinning and my brain fuzzed. And no work done!

I'm going to have to generate a more positive attitude to Christmas though... I'm going to have to relax and enjoy it all! At the rate I'm going, people may not get their cards and pressies in time for the actual day, but that doesn't mean I don't care for them... and then at least they'll have a gift or a good wish turning up in the days after Christmas, when they might be feeling a bit of an anti climax after the festivities of the main event. Hopefully...

Anyway, seeing as it's all crap here, you'd best nip over to the LustBites blog. We need a few readers to post on the current topic, 'cos at the moment it's still a bit incestuous with only us authors commenting on each others' comments!!! The topic today is Work... yeah, I know, yawn, but it's not like that at all. It's all about what job you'd like the heroes and heroines of the books you read to have... So make some suggestions mebbe, eh? And in terms of jobs us authors have had, some of the girls have had some fun jobs in the past, and *lots* of them. Not like yours truly who has had two non writing, non web design jobs and they were both crap. Being a librarian drove me mad. Literally. And being a clerk in Local Government drove me mad with rage most of the time... even though I did meet some nice folk in both those jobs.

Any road up, nip over if you feel so inclined... And say hello to your humble servant, PDC! :)

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Telly: Tango, Carlos Saura : Brainstorm [best film evah]
Chocolate: Lindt Swiss Milk and cake
Mood: bonkers
Writing: edited two paragraphs of IllMet
Reading: nothing, me brain won't work
RSI: not too bad

panic attack

Woke up feeling moderately okay this morning [apart from the fact that our part time cat Tilly woke me up about 5am, dancing on my head, trying to get me to get up and feed him!] but mid morning, I had a sort of panic attack...

Too much going on, that's it, and my pathetic multi tasking skills just aren't up to the job. I just freaked out and had to just lie down and watch the telly... my brain just wouldn't work. Tuned into UK History, and just vegged out to it, levering myself up now and again to swig a bit of tea...

Feel better now, mainly due to the therapy of doing a little bit of work on IllMet... It's not the greatest writing in the world, but I found myself sort of 'interested' in it during the read back, despite its many glaring flaws. Even though it's only a few weeks since I finished the first draft, I'd almost completely forgotten what happened in it, so it's quite exciting to see how the story goes!

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Telly: The Life of Birds
Chocolate: cake instead
Mood: weird, sort of panicky and troubled
Writing: editing IllMet
Reading: not at the moment
RSI: not too bad

Help... it's nearly Christmas!!!

© Maria Brzostowska - FOTOLIA

Alas, this is not a piccie of all the lovely pressies I have packed and ready to send to people for Christmas... because basically, I haven't packed any pressies for Christmas yet. I haven't even bought most of them! I don't know what's happened in the last few months, the days have flown and flown by and I don't really know what I've done with them... apart from write a bit. For ages it was 'oh there's months yet...' and suddenly now, it's just over a couple of weeks to Christmas and I'm in a flat spin. In past years, I've always loved to peruse the many charity catalogues that arrive, and choose gifts from them. Sort of to salve my conscience for being such a thoroughly self centered bitch queen all the time. At least that way I was doing a bit of good at the festive season... but this year I've left it far too late, and will now have to call on the services of dear old Amazon and the delectable Hotel Chocolat, both of whom will wrap and deliver the pressie direct to the recipient. It's a lazy way to do things... and I know other people will have spent many hours wrapping their gifts and investing personal time in their preparation... which is part of the gift itself... but I think it's the only way I'm going to be able to cope at this late stage.

But I promise to do better next year! Next year, I will think ahead, plan ahead, and choose gifts ahead from all my favourite charities. In fact, I will make sorting out Christmas ahead of time one of my NY resolutions!!!

CEotFK

This is most unusual... Note position of Kuffer's tail.