It's official!

Buddies Don't Bite is go! It's to be in a Black Lace Erotic Paranormal Romance novella anthology called Lust Bites, and it'll be published on 9th November 2007!

If I can raise my game and belabour this recalcitrant sukka into shape, this should be a v. fine anthology, because the other novellas are by top spiffing authors Mathilde Madden and Kristina Lloyd, two very bright stars in the Black Lace firmament...

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Telly: Gladiators of WW2
Chocolate: none yet
Mood: schizo
Writing: proof checking... agh
Reading: proof checking... agh
RSI/FMS: very achey in all parts

sorry for the gap

Yes, I really am... but I've been grappling with my proof checking and not feeling so great and generally frittering away time that could have been more productively spent... :(

Page proofs are great because you see the way the finished book is going to look, and it all makes it stunningly real... That mad idea that you thought was as thin as a wafer is suddenly an actual book, and when you read it, it almost seems as if somebody else wrote it.

Page proofs are nightmarish because you see things you wish you'd said a different way... and it's too late to change them. And, worse, you see inconsistencies that *HAVE* to be changed and you've got to work out how to do it with the least disruption to the text!!! Then there are things that niggle you, but could be left, and you have to have a fight with yourself as to whether you're going to ask for them changing... which involves big time decision making - which is one of the things I most hate and loathe in life. I HATE making decions!!!

I've also been feeling cruddy with my fibromyalgia, probably triggered by the stress of the proofs and by getting myself in a paddy over stupid things and stupid people which and whom I really shouldn't let bother me. I should just let it all flow over me, but it's not in my nature to do that. I niggle about every goddamn thing! And I get into cycles of negative thinking, which makes me depressed and anxious, which makes my FMS flare, and then I feel even worse than ever! Looking around on the web, I've been intrigued by something called Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, which is recommended highly for people like me... so I've ordered the For Dummies guide to it on Amazon. Even if it doesn't do anything for me, at least I can have a character who's into it in a book, can't I? Nothing's ever wasted...

On a brighter note, I may have some interesting publication news coming shortly. I'm more or less certain of it, given what I've read at a writing chum's blog... but I somehow daren't speak about it here until I hear some confirmation via my agent.

Lustbites post today

I've posted at Lustbites today... it's utter twoddle, really, but why not pop over and take a look? There are lots of pictures, even if the text I've written is crap... LOL

LUSTBITES - Casting Continuum and Gothic Blue

GOTHIC BLUE out today in the UK!!!

At an archduke's reception, a handsome young nobleman falls under the spell of a malevolent but irresistible sorceress. Two hundred years later, Belinda Seward also falls prey to sensual forces she can neither understand nor control.

Stranded by a thunderstorm at a remote Gothic priory, Belinda and her boyfriend are drawn into an enclosed world of luxurious decadence and sexual alchemy. Their host is the courteous but melancholic André Von Kastel, a beautiful aristocrat who mourns his lost love. André has plans for Belinda... plans which take her into the realms of obsessive love and the erotic paranormal.

Excerpt here

Buy from Amazon.co.uk

Available in the US from 3rd April

drive by.... proof checking....

The page proofs of Suite Seventeen arrived yesterday, and I'm hard at work checking them.

Checking proofs is a strange experience - half stressful, half enjoyable, all consuming. I'm really liking the book as I read it, even though there are bits I'd do differently of course, and bits that I'd love to change and improve, even though it's far too late to do so at this stage. In this particular case, the proofs have made me feel quite tearful... I know it sounds crazy, but as I read it, there's a part of me so wishes that the story, the characters and particularly Valentino were all flesh and blood real! There's a lot of emotion in this one... It started out initially as a woman's journey of self discovery tale, but I got so into Valentino that it very quickly became a deeply romantic, if slightly pervy love story. He's a very complicated guy, full of contradictions. An uber dominant Alpha male, yet he has vulnerabilities too. Exotic and unusual, yet he has a sort of sweet everyday side to his nature as well... He's arrogant, but he enjoys a laugh at the expense of his own foibles...

I've used the 'faux' cover above, because gorgeous as the publisher cover is, my own version of the cover really captures Valentino as I see him... complex, mysterious and beautiful.

Out today in the USA!

When financial executive Joanna Darrell loses her temper with a client it sets in motion a chain of erotic events beyond her wildest most fevered imaginings.

At work Joanna is feisty, capable and supremely confident in her abilities, but when she takes a forced sabbatical she quickly discovers a new and shocking side to her sensual nature. She's a sexual submissive, and who better to guide her, coax her and initiate her than the sybaritic members of the mysterious society of the Continuum. The more she samples, the more she likes, and she's soon hurtling headlong towards the very heart of this exotic association of hedonists and devotees of erotic power-play.

Fascinated by the idea that the Master of the Continuum has singled her out for his special attentions, Joanna still finds herself falling in love with her naughty 'boy next door' fellow worker, Kevin Steel - who might be a computer geek but who still finds time for sensual experiments of his own.

How far can Joanna go? How much will she learn? Who will she choose?

Continuum is available from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com and all good bookshops.

Read spicy excerpts here and here.

agh, naughty Jax!

She tagged me, the naughty scamp!

"The rules are: Once you have been tagged you cant be re-tagged, you have to write a blog with 10 weird random things, facts, or habits about yourself. At the end, you chose 10 people to be tagged and list their names. Dont forget to leave a comment that says "you are tagged" on their profile and tell them to read your latest blog."

I'm crap at this, but here goes...

1. I eat chocolate twice a day
2. I haven't seen my natural hair colour for thirty years
3. I do all my writing in bed
4. I have at least seven different pseudonyms, possibly more, I can't remember them all
   
5. I wrote my first ever fiction when I was about twelve, inspired by a scene in James Bond
6. James Marsters owns several of my books*
   
7. David Boreanaz owns one of my books*
8. I am ruled by my cats
9. I used to be a Trekkie
10. I used to have four televisions, three VHS recorders, and two DVD players in the house [v. small bungalow] but am now down to two of each

* but they've probably both binned them by now...

I'm not tagging anybody... Yeah, I know I'm a spoilsport but it's hard coming up with this stuff! If you do feel like participating, please go ahead... :)

grappling with vamp/s

I've been watching two versions of Dracula today, trying to get in a vampy mood to write Buddies... I'm at a tough spot, and having to describe strong emotions, with issues to do with vampirism... and it's hard going. Only managing two or three hundred words per day, if that. There are two issues I'm grappling with:

• trying go describe the rapture of vampire sex and express an ecstacy in the blood that goes far beyond the genital experience. I'm used to getting into the head of characters in the throes of passion, but this is different... there's an extra dimension
• trying to express my hero's emotions being torn two ways at once ie. he wants to be with the heroine, and on a primal level, to change her, so they can be together, but at the same time, he doesn't want to deny her a normal life, and the sun and everything else she'd have to give up to be with him...

It's all very tumultuous stuff, which is why progress is slow.



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Telly: Dracula/Frank Langella + Dracula/Gary Oldman
Chocolate: Tesco Belgian Milk
Mood: okay
Writing: 500 words Buddies
Reading: Dracula movie novelisation [not Stoker]
RSI: not bad

in the press

Look who's on page 6 of the February Romance Writer's Report!!!

It's a very sexy book is Continuum... might be a bit strong meat for some romance readers. Even those who generally read erotic romance... But if you like the road to 'happily ever after' to be twisted, kinky and challenging... this is the book for you!

getta loada this!!!

Innit gorgeous???

now I know...

why I was in such a godawful mood yesterday. I had a migraine building, didn't I? It's arrived today, and I feel pretty crappy. Have taken my medication, but while that's brill at squelching the headache, it makes me feel generally weird, and I'm currently working my way through that weirdness...

In other news, well, no writing done again today, but at least I feel as if I might like to do some when I normalise again. So that's progress of sorts, at least. I've also been installing a few new bits and bobs of software, and I'm currently trialling a clipboard extender program called Clipmate, which looks as if it might be v. useful. I'm always wanting to save bits here and there, and past them into things, but it does my head in that I can only save one thing at once. Clipmate allows you to save a whole bunch of different things of different types, so that you can choose from amongst them to paste into your document or whatever. If it continues to be as useful as I'm hoping, I'll definitely be buying the full version...

Take a look here at Clipmate

CONTINUUM review

I'm smiling today! The splendid and very discerning Ashley Lister has just posted a wonderful review of Continuum at the Erotica Readers and Writers Association...

Click here to read the splendiferous review!