Road Trip

Over at Romance by the Blog today, Bella Michelle's topic is hot, romantic fantasy holidays... where would you go, who would you travel with, and in what car?

Me, well, I think it would be a road trip across France and Italy, taking in Paris, Monaco, Milan, Venice, Florence and Rome. My companion, naturally, would be the Divine Vincenzo, and our car would be a 1962 Ford 250GTO, in cherry red. [They only cost $10 million!] See how happy he looks behind the wheel!


Real life? Well, I think a day trip to Scarborough, in a VW Passat with himself, would be nice!

So, where would your total fantasy hot romantic trip be to? And with whom, in what? Answers here... or at Romance by the Blog... or both, if you feel so inclined? :)

--
Telly: Shipwreck Detectives
Choc/Yummy: Lindt Hazelnut
Mood: goodish
Writing: slight tweak Gothic Heat
Reading: Radio Times
RSI/FMS: very, very achy and sore everywhere at the moment


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

Magic and Desire

Super busy today, but just swinging by to say that I just heard that Ill Met By Moonlight is going to be in the Black Lace 'Magic & Desire' paranormal erotica novella collection. No release date yet, but I'd guess it'll be some time in mid 2008.

Here's an unedited excerpt

--
Telly: UK History
Choc/Yummy: Green & Blacks Espresso
Mood: under stress
Writing: proofing Object of Desire
Reading: nowt
RSI/FMS: bit sore


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

One of my favourite films...

Himself is away at the moment, tramping around the Market Garden battleground sites of the Low Countries... and I'm left on my own, minding the cats and missing him. However, last night, one of my all time favourite films was on the telly, and I have to say, it cheered me up mightily!

I love THE 'BURBS!!! I've seen this film umpteen times, but it still makes me smile, giggle, and laugh out loud in places. I love Tom Hanks in anything, and I think this is one of his best comedy roles, although he is ably supported by a bunch of other talented actors. I love the combo of fun dialogue and out and out slapstick in this movie, and even the music is brilliantly appropriate and witty. There are dozens of standout moments, but for me, the scene that always makes me laugh out loud for some reason is the one where poor old Ray/Tom has to eat a sardine off a pretzel, whilst visiting with his creepy neighbours, the Klopeks.



I really don't know why this is so amusing to me, but every time I see it I howl with laughter, and last night was no exception. The cats thought I was bonkers, chuckling and chortling away at this scene, but they are being indulgent with me, because I think they know I'm missing the company of their 'dad'...

In other news, I'm still slugging away at Gothic Heat. Today has been pretty standard with it. One minute, I'm quite contented, enjoying what I've written, and gaining satisfaction from tweaks and improvements... the next, I'm in a tearful panic of horror with it, and wishing, wishing, wishing I'd never agreed to write it and that I was free to work on something else, less hideously disorganised, flung together and inconsistent. At the moment, I'm somewhere in the middle of those two states... sort of enjoying a new scene I'm inserting, which reintroduces Michiko, the Japanese white sorceress from Gothic Blue. This is fine, because I like her, but against my wishes, she's suddenly acquired a new Japanese boyfriend called Hiro... completely out of the blue, and yet another character in what could turn out to be a cast of bloody thousands!

--
Telly: UK History
Choc/Yummy: Turkish Delight
Mood: up and down
Writing: Gothic Heat
Reading: nothing much today
RSI/FMS: generally achy, bad pains in hips


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

Hey, look at this!!!!

Isn't this great? I've been given an award by Val, on behalf of Vincent's Vixens for my fiction inspired by the Divine Vincenzo! Isn't this a lovely thing of her to do? I'm thrilled and touched by this... If I'm managing to convey something of the man himself through my fiction for these discerning ladies, I must be doing something right, mustn't I? :)

Hopefully, I'll be more or less back to what resembles normal for me today - after my marathon stay-up and my chatting exploits in the middle of the night... It was fun, but it was bloody hard going staying awake that long, and yesterday, I felt like half doped hell all day. Needless to say, not a word on Gothic Heat got done, and I endured a lot of angst, thinking it was shit and a pointless exercise - probably because I was so tired - but by the end of the day, I'd come back around to it. I also even managed to do a tiny bit of web design work that I have outstanding, so despite my sleep deprived state, yesterday wasn't an entirely lost day...

So, I must get back into gear today... Himself is away for ten days, visiting the WW2 battlefields of Holland and Belgium, and I wanted to spend this time alone, really cracking on with work. Two days of the ten have already elapsed, and I've not achieved much, so I have to kick it up a notch today... or else!

Before I leave, may I ask a question? Authors... what do you think of online chats? Do you enjoy them and find them valuable? Readers... do you enjoy real time chatting with authors? A chance to ask them questions about their books?

--
Telly: not yet
Choc/Yummy: not yet
Mood: sort of determined
Writing: thinking about Gothic Heat
Reading: not yet
RSI/FMS: everything knacked by sleep deprivation


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

This is what....

Staying up for over twenty four hours and attending two web chats in the middle of the freaking night does to you!!!

ps. decided to reduce the size of this image in order to stop frightening visitors as much!

Stuff going on!

Lots going on TODAY! Madelynne Ellis and I are holding a Mocha Monday Chat tonight at the Romance Galleria with some fun and frisky chat and spot prizes for participating visitors! The chat starts at 9pm EST, and lasts for a couple of hours, but as the Galleria is actually an exciting 'virtual world' it's a bit different to a normal chatroom. You get to walk and 'talk' in the Galleria, using cute personal avatars... It's fun!!! To take part you'll need to download the Galleria software, and it'll take a little while... but it's a piece of cake to install and is perfectly safe and secure. I'm always cautious about downloading new software, but I've certainly had no problems whatsoever with this! :)

However, the Galleria isn't the only place I'll be chatting today...



Today is also the grand opening day of TOTAL-E-BOUND - the exciting new British epublisher that I'm delighted to say has accepted a couple of titles from me already! TEB has a lot of tempting books in the pipeline [apart from mine... LOL] including two fabulous novellas from my great writing buddy, Saskia Walker...

To celebrate launch day TEB are chatting on tonight too and I hope to be in attendance there too, for part of the time! Here are the details...

THE GRAND TOTAL-E-BOUND OPENING PARTY
at Coffee Time Romance
6 to 11pm EST
Join the fun, read the excerpts, and chat with your favourite authors.
www.coffeetimeromance.com/Chat.html

eyeliner skills and other stuff

Courtesy of the marvellous Eliza, here's a slightly more understated makeup treatment for the Divine Vincenzo! There's a poll over at Lustbites about men and eyeliner, and as dear Vin is on the list, I would imagine there are folks thinking 'Well, I've never seen him wearing full slap in Law and Order Criminat Intent!'... The piccie above is of him playing Cholo, the terpsichorially gifted knife assassin in the movie Naked Tango. The film is pretty rubbish, but Vin is glorious... Can I mention fedoras, sideburns, spats... and of course those smudged and sultry 'smoky eyes'?

All this mucking about with pix of Vin in makeup is, sadly, about the most creative thing I've done today. I woke up in the early hours brooding and fretting over Gothic Heat. Again! The way it works is that I usually feel okay about it when I'm writing it, but when I'm not writing it, I realise how much, at this stage, is totally wrong with it. There are plot elements that I should be expressing, but am completely forgetting to define... It's sort of slow, and a bit muddled, and probably doesn't seem very much like a paranormal erotic romance... it's more like a rather angsty three way relationship tangle type book... I need to think timescale, paranormal plot elements, key characters that need to appear sooner rather than later, central relationship, hero motivations... I've got bits of stuff about all those in, but they really need to be more concrete and far more consistent.

I'll get there, eventually, and hopefully on deadline... but really, this must be the toughest book I've ever written!
--
Telly: British Superbikes
Choc/Yummy: various choc
Mood: troubled
Writing: about 100 words Gothic Heat
Reading: nothing much
RSI/FMS: bit sore


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

Many Happy Returns, Baby!

Geez, it must have been one helluva party!!!!

testing

So, can you see it?

Ack, I've been tagged!

Chrissy dunnit, the minx!

A. Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves.
B. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed.
C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

1. my life is so boring there are no interesting facts about me any more
2. I'm sure I did this same me-me only a few months ago
3. some of my facts/habits will be the same ones as last time
4. I work in my bedroom because my 'office' is no longer inhabitable
5. I have three cats, Kuffer, Alice and Mulder
6. Mulder is actually a girl
7. I eat two bananas a day because they are the easiest fruit to prepare
8. I drink eight cups of tea per day

See, I told you it was boring! I'm not tagging anybody, because I don't want them to curse me... but if you feel like doing this me-me, go ahead! :)


--
Telly: CSI
Choc/Yummy: Guylian Sea Shell bar
Mood: okay
Writing: about 600 words Gothic Heat
Reading: Gothic Blue
RSI/FMS: slightly sore


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

Holy Moly!

ENTERTAINING MR STONE is available as an audio download from Amazon.com/Audible!

Here's the link!

There's a sample available, and it's quite nicely read. The reader sounds as if she's really getting into it... ;)

Sadly they weren't able to engage Signor D'Onofrio to do the voice of Clever Bobby Stone, but I suspect his fee might be more than the publishers were prepared to shell out... A girl can dream though...


ps. it's UNABRIDGED... so you presumably get all the rude stuff in full audio glory!!!! Wonder if there are sound effects??? LOL

--
Telly: Two and a Half Men
Choc/Yummy: not yet
Mood: good
Writing: not yet
Reading: Gothic Blue
RSI/FMS: not too bad


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

At 3 a.m....

She did it again, the little swine!!!!