now I know...

why I was tired on Tuesday, and out of sorts. I was building up to the migraine that hit me yesterday afternoon, goddamnit! I think it's stress, I suppose, and probably linked to the viral thing that's still festering in my system from a couple of weeks ago. There seem to be quite a lot of 'things' happening at once in my life at the moment, and at the best of times, I'm no multi tasker... so right now, I'm constantly teetering on the edge of capsize mode.

But the good news is that before the migraine struck, I managed a princely 2K words of Gothic Heat! My best total for quite a while. It was pretty much moving on the story stuff, although at a v. slow rate, I must admit. GH seems to be like that... it's shag, shag, shag, shag... big chunk of shag free story type stuff... then possiblity of a shag again... then probably much more shag free story stuff. It's a bit unbalanced... but then again, so is it's author! LOL

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

Yay for Doctor Nathaniel!

Remember the 5K story that had to be pumped up to 7K? Well, the good news today is that the publisher - new British erotic romance imprint TOTAL-E-BOUND - have accepted darling Doctor Nathaniel's story... OBJECT OF DESIRE!

I'm really excited about this, as not only do I love this story, but Total-E-Bound are an exciting new publisher... and British! They launch on 2nd July, with a bunch of tasty looking titles... I'm not sure yet if OOD will be amongst those, but I think they're keen to get some Brits onto the roster as fast as possible, so there's a likelihood you may see my story available then. If not, it wont be long to wait...

And there's another cool thing about this sale... My great writing buddy Saskia Walker has just had a story accepted by TEB too! I predict a celebratory lunch when our deadlines permit... :)

--
Telly: documentary about Homicide Life on the Street
Choc/Yummy: chocolate cup cakes
Mood: very good
Writing: some Gothic Heat
Reading: Gothic Blue
RSI/FMS: bit sore


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

I've been drivin' in my Porsche

No, not the sleek beast above... but the sleek beast below... My LaCie External Hard Drive - which is actually designed by the same folk who do the Porsche supercars!

I bought this little beauty a few weeks ago... mainly because I've heard some sad stories recently about friends losing data and more importantly WIPs when hard drives have crashed and they haven't backed up... Today, himself was out, so I could spread out over the dining table and hook up my lappie and my LaCie and get stuck in... Bit of a hiccup at first, the naughty thing seemed to go into some kind of loop thing, and freeze... 5% took 40 minutes! But second attempt went smoothly and didn't take long at all!

I always save whatever I'm working on to a USB flash drive, and also externally to Omnidrive, but I don't think you can ever have too many backups where technology is concerned. :)

In other news, I've been working on Gothic Heat, and have done a handy 1.3K, which is reassuring. Need to keep up this pace for the rest of the month, in order to meet my target of 40K by the end of June. It's gonna be close, because I've got behind schedule, so I'm going to have to really focus and not get too involved with 'other stuff' for the next couple of weeks.

I've also been working on that short I mentioned... the one that needed extending... and with the sage advice of my crit partner, I've managed to bump it up to 7K, which is the wordcount required by the editor. Need to get it lobbed off to my agent tomorrow, and hopefully soon I'll get a response - and a positive one - from the editor... Watch this space for news of this!

ps. it's called Object of Desire... take a million guesses as to who inpired the 'object'.

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Telly: Nile
Choc/Yummy: Bendincks Milk
Mood: good
Writing: Gothic Heat
Reading: draft of a buddy's novella... very good stuff
RSI/FMS: bit sore


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

Buddies news!

Buddies Don't Bite is now listed at Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com

You'll find it in an anthology called Lust Bites, with two other vamp novellas by Mathilde Madden and Kristina Lloyd.

water, water, everywhere

Here in the monsoon region of West Yorkshire, even the ducks are sheltering. Okay, the ducks above aren't actually from WY, but you know what I mean. It has been pouring down for two or three days now, just bucketing it down hour after hour. Himself says the service pit in our garage is now a rather small indoor swimming pool...

The perpetual rain [as Withnail would say] has kept me indoors, which isn't unusual for me, but I did manage to venture out for a short while today, to go to the Post Office and finally send off some parcels of books to various folk. Some very patient prizewinners have been waiting far too long for draw prizes from me, but now I can safely say that everything that should have been sent has now been sent.

Although I'm feeling reasonably okay about Gothic Heat at the moment, I haven't been working on it today. Instead, I've been grappling with a short that an editor has expressed interest in, but would like to be a bit longer. It was 5K but needed to be 7K... Yikes, you might be saying! But actually, it wasn't too difficult... my crit partner shrewdly pinpointed a couple of areas where additional sensuality could fairly smoothly be inserted, and I managed to do the same during the course of the afternoon. Now the thing is an almighty shagathon, with tons and tons of rumpety pumpety with a certain hunky Doctor Nathaniel Gowen!

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Telly: NCIS
Choc/Yummy: carrot cake minis
Mood: okay
Writing: editing a not quite titled short
Reading: a draft for a writing friend
RSI/FMS: bit sore


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

I'm so tired...

I'm just knackered at the moment. I think it's the old post virals, compounded by freaking hormonal crap, and just generally seeming to have too much 'stuff' to deal with at the moment. I'm trying to stay calm and not let it get to me, but sometimes I just want to lay my head down a lot of the time, and have a kip!

But on the positive tip, I'm getting back into Gothic Heat! For the last two or three days, I've managed to do a K per day! Truly a miracle... And my Romance Diva pal Gwen will be pleased to know that there's been the beginnings of some naughty, evil Isidora Katori action... My wicked sorceress is back from her sojourn in hell or wherever she's been, and she's about to start wreaking a bit of havoc again... basically, because she's mislaid her body along the way, and she's borrowing Paula's! Her dastardly plan is to pinch it forever, and I'm waiting to see whether Rafe can resist her dark, sexual wiles... or succumb to them and get sucked into her power games. He's sort of a good guy, but he's got some heavy issues to deal with so he doesn't always do the right thing straight away...

Can't you tell that I'm beginning to enjoy it a whole lot more!

--
Telly: Springwatch
Choc/Yummy: scone/carrot cake slice
Mood: better
Writing: Gothic Heat 1K
Reading: Gothic Blue
RSI/FMS: rather sore and tired


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

Love the Dark Detective

I wish paperback books could have animated covers...

Watching the Detective in Love on the Dark Side

Due 9th August in the UK and 16th October in the UK

Available from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com


ps mmm... slightly better slideshow than the bouncy one I had before...

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

This is me...

... attempting to get past the barrier of 'where I'd got to' in Gothic Heat! And the good news is that I've finally moved on... Glory Halleluia!!!!

I've been at a point where unconventional and slightly dubious hypnotherapist Rafe is about to put Paula 'under' for about a fortnight now, and I must have been back over the text I've got so far about three or four times. Mainly because I didn't think Paula's voice was right. I don't think it's perfect, yet, by any means, but she's starting to sound more like a real person. I think I've been resisting moving on, because I have to do some important plot bits soon, and as I haven't really much of an earthly of what's actually happening in this dire saga, I've been a bit scared of that... But I've really got to push on, 'cos I can't keep mucking about much longer!

--
Telly: Japanorama
Choc/Yummy: Turkish Delight
Mood: okay
Writing: a few hundred of Gothic Heat
Reading: Gothic Blue
RSI/FMS: fairly sore


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

Today I have been mainly...

... watching Japanorama! Although have also:

• done some web design
• done some editing of Gothic Heat
• hung out in the Romance Galleria
• commented at Romance By the Blog
• been far too hot... but not in a saucy way
  

Apart from those, not much...

it's been a funny week...

It didn't start so well, what with me being lurgi bound, but it's improved quite a lot as the days sped past. I feel almost back to normal now... well, as normal as I ever am, and I'm now trying to catch up with all the jobs I lost touch with while I was 'out of order'.

Friday was a hoot at Romance by the Blog!


The other Bellas and I had a very jolly chat about heroes and who we pictured when we were reading and writing... The talk was pretty far ranging and resulted in some saucy speculations on sexy menages that we'd like to engage in with groups of two or more hot male celebs... LOL... A fourway with the Divine Vincenzo, Mr Depp and sexy Spike, anybody?

Anyway, if you want to see what the fun was all about, why not check out the comments here and maybe add your own thoughts? Also, somewhere amongst the commentary, I dropped in a couple of links to some very hot previously unseen on the internet excerpts from my 1996 title The Devil Inside.

And as if Friday's fun away day wasn't enough, I then got the fabboo news about Glint! Gosh, I am so pleased about that! I'm in that anthology with a whole slew of great writers... I'm about to go off and gather a few names, so I can post them here.

And what am I about now? Well, I'm going to get stuck into Gothic Heat again... I really need to buck my ideas up if I'm to get my 20K added this month! I'm still not quite sure of some plot bits and motivations, but I'm hoping that reading Gothic Blue again will help... much as I hate reading my own work. Bleck!


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Telly: MotoGP Catalunya
Choc/Yummy: Turkish Delight
Mood: OK
Writing: Gothic Heat
Reading: Gothic Blue
RSI/FMS: various twinges


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

Great Short Story News!

My short story GLINT is going to be in this prestigious anthology... out in September! It's a collection of shorts about watching and being watched... and mine is about frisky frolics on the beach. ;)

ps. am feeling 100% better than I did *last* Saturday!!!

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

My Red Hot Love Affairs

I'm guest blogging at ROMANCE BY THE BLOG today... on the topic of my red hot love affairs with guys like this...

Why not nip on over and join the fun!

There's a prize for commenters and the chat is already getting v. naughty... :)

ADDENDUM FOR THE BELLAS