Agh, I missed the programme on Swan Lake, and the ballet itself, both of which I was going to watch and enjoy this afternoon... this is due to himself tearing the house apart in a 'sort out' etc, and me being forced to participate! Grrrrrrrrrrr.....
So, if any kind and cultured soul in the UK, reading this, has taped these no doubt wonderful BBC programmes, would they be kind enough to lend me their tape? I would take the greatest care of it, and return it to you as soon as I've viewed it, but recorded delivery, or better. But I would so love to see this ballet, and the programme about it, as research for my heroine in TechnoGothic, who is an ex dancer.
Fingers crossed that someone out there can help me! There's a contact link in the navbar to the left, which leads to a webform to send me a message....
Thanks in advance!
Sunday, 21 January 2007
achievement Sunday
Well, it's only 1.30pm and I've achieved quite a bit! Himself is muttering about 'doing things around the house' so I thought I'd better get my own tasks done first before I got roped in... So I've not only done my 30 mins static cycling, to music, I've also managed to get 1K words of Buddies done! A veritable miracle, no less, given how slowly this monster has been going of late. It was a pretty weird scene, in a maze, with Zack alone, musing on stuff... It's probably too slow, too introspective and too much of a back story blitz, but hey, it's words, innit? And any writing is better than no writing... I've also been jotting some notes for 'how it goes'... It's all a bit jumbled, and it seems that there's probably going to be far too much stuff to shoehorn into a short 25K novella... but again, hey, better to have too much and trim and refine it, rather than being woefully undercount and having to pad. I'll probably end up turning to my sweet, longsuffering CP for suggestions of where to winnow out a few words and paragraphs and bigger chunks here and there...
I have got quite a few jobs I'd like to get on with this afternoon, but I'm not sure if I'll get a chance... I don't mind though, because at least I've got the important stuff nailed and I can now not worry about getting railroaded into other activities!
--
Telly: 'Allo 'Allo
Chocolate: Tesco Light Choc Mousse
Mood: quite pleased
Writing: 1K Buddies Don't Bite
Reading: Radio Times
RSI: not much really
I have got quite a few jobs I'd like to get on with this afternoon, but I'm not sure if I'll get a chance... I don't mind though, because at least I've got the important stuff nailed and I can now not worry about getting railroaded into other activities!
--
Telly: 'Allo 'Allo
Chocolate: Tesco Light Choc Mousse
Mood: quite pleased
Writing: 1K Buddies Don't Bite
Reading: Radio Times
RSI: not much really
Saturday, 20 January 2007
oops, I did it *again*!
Forgot to post... or wanted to post, but got so waylaid and weighed down by 'stuff' that when it came to it I just didn't have the psychological energy to communicate...
Ack, 'stuff'... so much of it at the moment, and at just the wrong time. I want to be pushing ahead with Buddies, and striking while the iron is hot with one or two other projects/ideas, but always these complications of various sorts get in the way and take huge chunks of my time and mental pep. My brain has never been the kind that can multi task and compartmentalise, so if there's crap in there to do with one thing, it knacks up just about everything else as well. I just seem to be in one of those phases where everything seems to come with extra complications... something must be in retrograde or whatnot... I can't think of any other explanation.
I want to write, and when I do get a clear run, and find my writing heart, I can see inklings of ways to make Buddies work. But then a whole bunch of other 'stuff' will pile on in and I'm muddled again... eg. this morning, got a bill from an email service that's been cancelled, so have to sort that out. Then, upgraded Omnidrive and it stopped working and stalled my computer... nice. Great upgrade there. Not. Oh, and a zillion other things too... Got a new accounts program, and though I'm sure it'll be fun to use and work well when I'm used to it, it's gonna require time to learn and adjust to... [Thanks, you gits at Quicken for discontinuing your program in the UK... I'm sure I'm not the only one you've right royally f***ed up!!! I hate you bastards!]
And I need to develop some more book ideas. My agent would like to see a couple of more proposals from me, based on some v. flimsy ideas I sent to her a while back. But nothing exists of them but a paragraph or two, and suddenly I need to build two whole 'worlds' and completely rewire one of the plots to make it romantic, and give the other one a whole other, non romantic plot and conflict to make it viable.... Waahhh!!!!!!!!! Me brain hurts! I'm having enough trouble with Buddies... Think I'm really, really gonna have to finish the first draft of that before I launch into these other things... I really don't know how writers who juggle several projects at once, at different stages of development, do it! I've only room, really, for one set of story people in my head at once... otherwise it gets like a scene from Heironymous Bosch in there [many apologies for the spelling of that famous artist's name, I'm just wildly guessing...]
And I haven't done my static cycling yet, either! And I say again... Waahhh!!!!
--
Telly: some crap about cooking
Chocolate: Tesco Belgian Milk
Mood: hysterically aggravated and frustrated by 'stuff'
Writing: wot be that, I ask?
Reading: annoying post
RSI: so so
Ack, 'stuff'... so much of it at the moment, and at just the wrong time. I want to be pushing ahead with Buddies, and striking while the iron is hot with one or two other projects/ideas, but always these complications of various sorts get in the way and take huge chunks of my time and mental pep. My brain has never been the kind that can multi task and compartmentalise, so if there's crap in there to do with one thing, it knacks up just about everything else as well. I just seem to be in one of those phases where everything seems to come with extra complications... something must be in retrograde or whatnot... I can't think of any other explanation.
I want to write, and when I do get a clear run, and find my writing heart, I can see inklings of ways to make Buddies work. But then a whole bunch of other 'stuff' will pile on in and I'm muddled again... eg. this morning, got a bill from an email service that's been cancelled, so have to sort that out. Then, upgraded Omnidrive and it stopped working and stalled my computer... nice. Great upgrade there. Not. Oh, and a zillion other things too... Got a new accounts program, and though I'm sure it'll be fun to use and work well when I'm used to it, it's gonna require time to learn and adjust to... [Thanks, you gits at Quicken for discontinuing your program in the UK... I'm sure I'm not the only one you've right royally f***ed up!!! I hate you bastards!]
And I need to develop some more book ideas. My agent would like to see a couple of more proposals from me, based on some v. flimsy ideas I sent to her a while back. But nothing exists of them but a paragraph or two, and suddenly I need to build two whole 'worlds' and completely rewire one of the plots to make it romantic, and give the other one a whole other, non romantic plot and conflict to make it viable.... Waahhh!!!!!!!!! Me brain hurts! I'm having enough trouble with Buddies... Think I'm really, really gonna have to finish the first draft of that before I launch into these other things... I really don't know how writers who juggle several projects at once, at different stages of development, do it! I've only room, really, for one set of story people in my head at once... otherwise it gets like a scene from Heironymous Bosch in there [many apologies for the spelling of that famous artist's name, I'm just wildly guessing...]
And I haven't done my static cycling yet, either! And I say again... Waahhh!!!!
--
Telly: some crap about cooking
Chocolate: Tesco Belgian Milk
Mood: hysterically aggravated and frustrated by 'stuff'
Writing: wot be that, I ask?
Reading: annoying post
RSI: so so
Thursday, 18 January 2007
oops, I missed a day...
Sorry about that, folks... I meant to post. But it just didn't happen due to a combination of lots of web work to do, and not feeling too fab, due to a mild migraine... pah! And fretting, I suppose, about Buddies, which I still don't feel at all confident about, despite my supposed breakthrough thingoid.
I just have this feeling it should be darker, edgier, more innovative or summink... And it's not. It's just the usual PDC style, with a bit of vampirism thrown in... and thrown in v. haphazardly because I don't ****ing well know what I'm doing! It still feels like a mess and a hodge podge and even though I sort of start to like it while I'm working on it, I dislike it intensely when I'm not. It veers between between being a plotless wonder, and something that has far too much backstory and whatnot to ever work as short 25K piece... I suppose I got over confident, with IllMet having come together so well and fitted nicely into the wordlength, not really needing much backstory at all... I was spoilt with that one, which really wrote itself in places... and I just assumed I could do the same thing with this one-liner idea I had for a vamp book! Silly me!
Am going to have to stop now as Tilly has just arrived and is attacking me in order to encourage me to feed him! I may return later...
I just have this feeling it should be darker, edgier, more innovative or summink... And it's not. It's just the usual PDC style, with a bit of vampirism thrown in... and thrown in v. haphazardly because I don't ****ing well know what I'm doing! It still feels like a mess and a hodge podge and even though I sort of start to like it while I'm working on it, I dislike it intensely when I'm not. It veers between between being a plotless wonder, and something that has far too much backstory and whatnot to ever work as short 25K piece... I suppose I got over confident, with IllMet having come together so well and fitted nicely into the wordlength, not really needing much backstory at all... I was spoilt with that one, which really wrote itself in places... and I just assumed I could do the same thing with this one-liner idea I had for a vamp book! Silly me!
Am going to have to stop now as Tilly has just arrived and is attacking me in order to encourage me to feed him! I may return later...
Tuesday, 16 January 2007
Ah hah! Is this the sound of a breakthrough?
Despite getting slightly embroiled in 'stuff' again today, I've been working on Buddies Don't Bite again today, and I think I might just have made a breakthrough... sort of...
I managed to put my finger on what the main problem with it was/is. Which is that in the first version, the heroine was a moron! Not surprising, really, as most of my heroines are based on aspects of me... They're almost guaranteed to be flakey, childish, self-centred nitwits with enormous chips on their shoulders! Fortunately, though, with these fictional me's it's possible to edit them and make them finer and more likable... even if it's a bit late now to change the woeful character traits of 'the real thing'! LOL
In BDB, Teresa started out as a whingeing wimp, but now she's becoming more philosophical, and wry, and self aware... Which I'm liking. She feels more 'right'... and now I think I've got to tweak [ooeerr missis] Zack a bit too, and bring him more into line with the new feel of the book.
And yes, revising and reading this afternoon, it felt much more like a 'Buddies Don't Bite' book. It's not a laugh out loud funny thing, but I think there's a very subtly humorous tone that might fit with that title. I think I may stick with it for the time being, but give myself permission to change it if I feel I need to...
--
Telly: Phantom of the Opera - movie
Chocolate: various
Mood: better
Writing: editing Buddies
Reading: Thunderball
RSI: slightly sore, not too bad
I managed to put my finger on what the main problem with it was/is. Which is that in the first version, the heroine was a moron! Not surprising, really, as most of my heroines are based on aspects of me... They're almost guaranteed to be flakey, childish, self-centred nitwits with enormous chips on their shoulders! Fortunately, though, with these fictional me's it's possible to edit them and make them finer and more likable... even if it's a bit late now to change the woeful character traits of 'the real thing'! LOL
In BDB, Teresa started out as a whingeing wimp, but now she's becoming more philosophical, and wry, and self aware... Which I'm liking. She feels more 'right'... and now I think I've got to tweak [ooeerr missis] Zack a bit too, and bring him more into line with the new feel of the book.
And yes, revising and reading this afternoon, it felt much more like a 'Buddies Don't Bite' book. It's not a laugh out loud funny thing, but I think there's a very subtly humorous tone that might fit with that title. I think I may stick with it for the time being, but give myself permission to change it if I feel I need to...
--
Telly: Phantom of the Opera - movie
Chocolate: various
Mood: better
Writing: editing Buddies
Reading: Thunderball
RSI: slightly sore, not too bad
Monday, 15 January 2007
funny business...
Now, this vamp thing I'm supposed to be writing was in my mind first as a 'funny' vamp story... sort of lots of cute humour, not exactly Buffy style, but definitely a bit of a bloodsucking giggle. Needless to say, though, the best laid plans of mice and third rate authors never run true to course, and as I'm attempting to write it [hah!] it just doesn't seem to be turning out cute and funny at all... well, not very. [not that very much of it *is* turning out... this has got to be the slowest and most agonising production of mine so far!]
Thing is, I can't be funny to order. If I try to be funny, it comes out frivolous at best and clunky at worst [I've recently been told this... so it's the actual truth...] I *can* be funny, on occasion, but only when I'm completely not thinking about it and I'm in touch with my inner comedienne on a subconscious level. Otherwise, embarrassing, embarrassing, embarrassing...
So, need to rethink the tone of Buddies Don't Bite... And I'm wondering if a change of title might help... BDB suggests the lighthearted approach... maybe I need something just a tad more angsty? It's not going to be a total doom and gloom jobbie, and there may even be some wit and irony if I can get with the programme, but I've definitely got to go back and look at things again...
Any suggestions for a title? It's about a girl whose friend is a vampire, but she doesn't know it! But when they get to be more than friends, the truth sprouts fangs...
In other news, I've wasted most of the day again... on stuff. Fiddling with my Google Calendar and with Omnidrive, and uploading a new and extremely pink 'look' for my PortiaDaCosta.com web site. I really don't know what the hell got into me with the latter... I've gone pink crazy, what with my MySpace too... It's not as if I'm particularly the pink and feminine type, as anyone who's met me will attest... Just one of yet another of my current mental aberrations, I think... I'm probably just going completely dotty in my old age!
--
Telly: new LOCI... swoon... thanks Eliza!!!
Chocolate: Lindt and one of those green triangle things
Mood: fed up with own procrastination
Writing: not a f***ing thing today... again...
Reading: Thunderball - Ian Fleming... slowly, but at least I'm reading something!
RSI: bit sore...
Thing is, I can't be funny to order. If I try to be funny, it comes out frivolous at best and clunky at worst [I've recently been told this... so it's the actual truth...] I *can* be funny, on occasion, but only when I'm completely not thinking about it and I'm in touch with my inner comedienne on a subconscious level. Otherwise, embarrassing, embarrassing, embarrassing...
So, need to rethink the tone of Buddies Don't Bite... And I'm wondering if a change of title might help... BDB suggests the lighthearted approach... maybe I need something just a tad more angsty? It's not going to be a total doom and gloom jobbie, and there may even be some wit and irony if I can get with the programme, but I've definitely got to go back and look at things again...
Any suggestions for a title? It's about a girl whose friend is a vampire, but she doesn't know it! But when they get to be more than friends, the truth sprouts fangs...
In other news, I've wasted most of the day again... on stuff. Fiddling with my Google Calendar and with Omnidrive, and uploading a new and extremely pink 'look' for my PortiaDaCosta.com web site. I really don't know what the hell got into me with the latter... I've gone pink crazy, what with my MySpace too... It's not as if I'm particularly the pink and feminine type, as anyone who's met me will attest... Just one of yet another of my current mental aberrations, I think... I'm probably just going completely dotty in my old age!
--
Telly: new LOCI... swoon... thanks Eliza!!!
Chocolate: Lindt and one of those green triangle things
Mood: fed up with own procrastination
Writing: not a f***ing thing today... again...
Reading: Thunderball - Ian Fleming... slowly, but at least I'm reading something!
RSI: bit sore...
Sunday, 14 January 2007
my name is Wendy and I'm a writing avoider
I haven't done a bloody thing at my WIP for a week! Isn't that terrible? And it wouldn't be so bad if I had something else to show for it... but I don't really have all that much. I did some web work for clients, which was productive, and so much more fun now I have Dreamweaver on my lappie, and I did finally start work on bringing my '06 accounts up to date [agh, working on the old PC is a nightmare now... much more RSI from that than there is from dear old lappie!] but not a lot other than that, apart from fashioning a few home made book banners with newly installed Photoshop... oh, and of course, my MySpace redesign [out of necessity] and time spent exploring and refinding as many of my old friends as I can [again, out of necessity]. All that has disconnected me from writing, big style...
And I'm not sure today will be all that great for a big new productivity push either. Himself has some domestic reorganisation in mind, and yours truly will have to be involved in that whether she likes it or not... and once I've spent any length of time lugging around boxes, books, papers etc etc, writing is the last thing I feel like doing! Lying around watching the telly... or just vegetating like a zombie will be all I'm fit for...
But tomorrow... ah, tomorrow... I will do better!
Famous last words... ;)
And I'm not sure today will be all that great for a big new productivity push either. Himself has some domestic reorganisation in mind, and yours truly will have to be involved in that whether she likes it or not... and once I've spent any length of time lugging around boxes, books, papers etc etc, writing is the last thing I feel like doing! Lying around watching the telly... or just vegetating like a zombie will be all I'm fit for...
But tomorrow... ah, tomorrow... I will do better!
Famous last words... ;)
Friday, 12 January 2007
In news other than me going bonkers!
Gawd, what a strange day yesterday... and this morning, a bit, too. So many things to be wrangled with... Enjoyed working on some websites though, now that I have Dreamweaver on the lappie... Makes things so much easier and faster! So that's something... But some of the other stuff.... eek!
Some progress on the MySpace front. Have already got nearly 100 friends... people seem very glad to get me back, and I'm pleased with my pretty new design!
Portia's MySpace
In other news... some very, very good news that I've been meaning to post for a few days!
Two bloggers have named me amongst their top reading finds for 2006!
One is Regency Author and Blogger Janet Mullany, posting at the Risky Regencies Blog and the other is reader and reviewer Rosario posting in her Reading Journal... To say I'm thrilled by these mentions is putting it mildly! I'm all of a flutter with excitement!
[And many thanks to Alison Kent for pointing me in the direction of the last one...]
I also discovered I'd got a couple of trackbacks from the excerpt from Continuum I just posted! One is from author Anais Nohant, who is a great friend of mine from MySpace and wonderfully supportive of my writing, and another is from Kevin Steel, a Canadian writer whose name I've inadvertently given to the hero of Continuum! I was most surprised to read Kevin's blogpost, but I found it really entertaining... He says he's not going to read Continuum, but I hope that he'll relent and give it a try some day... His namesake does have a lot of fun!!!
Some progress on the MySpace front. Have already got nearly 100 friends... people seem very glad to get me back, and I'm pleased with my pretty new design!
Portia's MySpace
In other news... some very, very good news that I've been meaning to post for a few days!
Two bloggers have named me amongst their top reading finds for 2006!
One is Regency Author and Blogger Janet Mullany, posting at the Risky Regencies Blog and the other is reader and reviewer Rosario posting in her Reading Journal... To say I'm thrilled by these mentions is putting it mildly! I'm all of a flutter with excitement!
[And many thanks to Alison Kent for pointing me in the direction of the last one...]
I also discovered I'd got a couple of trackbacks from the excerpt from Continuum I just posted! One is from author Anais Nohant, who is a great friend of mine from MySpace and wonderfully supportive of my writing, and another is from Kevin Steel, a Canadian writer whose name I've inadvertently given to the hero of Continuum! I was most surprised to read Kevin's blogpost, but I found it really entertaining... He says he's not going to read Continuum, but I hope that he'll relent and give it a try some day... His namesake does have a lot of fun!!!
Thursday, 11 January 2007
Aaaagghh!
Agh! I was going to write today... but it's just turned into one of those days... with stuff... endless stuff to sort out!
Bloody good job I'm not on any deadlines... sigh...
Wednesday, 10 January 2007
a bit of Continuum....
There's a new excerpt over at Portia's Prose... It's from CONTINUUM, my current release in the UK, which will be rereleased in America on 6th February...First time with Kevin...
Do let me know what you think... and if you're a Kevin Bacon fan... well... the name isn't a coincidence! :)
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