it's a struggle...

to get into my writing today. I've been putting it off and putting it off because I've got what feels like a tricky bit coming up next and I'm not sure how to tackle it. I've done a couple of hundred words... but I'm really resisting getting to the meat of the scene. I'm rather afraid of it. :(

However, Mr Blue, Professor Hottie and Kuffer are respectively menacing me, cajolling me, and waving their claws at me from the sidelines... so I'd better shape up, hadn't I?

In better news, I've recently discovered that my very first Black Lace novel is to be reprinted next year, with a brand new and apparently very spiffing cover! No idea what it'll look like yet, but here's the link:

Gemini Heat

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weak bulbs...

I'm still grappling with motivation and tone... and the underlying 'whys' behind my characters' actions and attitudes. And it's tough. I keep getting slight light bulbs of inspiration, but they seem weak and not as compelling as they should.

Thing is, it used to be enough for me in my earlier books for people to just 'be' the way they are ie. sex maniacs a lot of the time, just because... But now, I need to know what made them that way, and what drives them, and what's affected them. They need to be more fully characterised so that they make sense to me, and thus make sense to the reader. I think this is important in erotic romance, more so than in straight erotica. And only confirms I'm writing [or trying to write] now what I should be writing... A proper believable romance with fully developed even if slightly twisted characters, rather than just sex for sex' sake stories.

But me being me, I've made things hard for myself by going for a first person viewpoint again with my WIP. Clearly, this makes for very rich characterisation of Gwen, the heroine, but it's bloody tricky to see what's driving the two hero/anti-heroes, Daniel and Nemesis. Nemesis can speak through his letters and perhaps other media like emails and IM, but Daniel's going to be a tougher nut to crack. But, I had one of my weak bulbs about him this morning. One which sort of works okay, due to a facet of him that's already in the story... bit of happy serendipity, really. It's not really a glimpse into his mind, but it's a way of showing things that have happened to him that casts a bit of a lightbulb glow on why he does the things he does and acts the way he does...

Need to get stuck in and write more of the mutha now..


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Wowee, I'm posting at Sven's Gym today!

Go here today to read my thoughts on why writing is like cats... or summink.

Meanwhile back at base, despite the best efforts of Team Portia [Mr Blue, Professor Hottie and Kuffer's Claws of Death] I only managed to get around 1K of words done yesterday. Yes, I know that's meeting my target, but after several over-target days, it feels like a letdown. But I had so many bits of jobs to deal with, not least of all weird stuff with my bank account. Not bad stuff - in fact it might be good! - but it still takes time ringing up places to find out what's going on.

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Monitoring my progress

Here's a photo of Genghis Khat aka Kuffer, pictured with the high tech recording device that I use to log my Sweat70 progress.

Thankfully, I managed 2K words yesterday, and 1.5K so far today, so my lip is safe for the time being...


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And we start again!

Agh, for the third time, I'm starting again at the beginning of IN TOO DEEP and reworking it! I know I ought to just move forward and fix afterwards, but in this case, it's got to feel right before I can be confident in it.

It's still the 'tone' issue. The book's not quite sure what it wants to be, and neither are the characters. I think the problem is that - and I may have mentioned this before - the book idea stems from a time *before* was was 'officially' writing erotic romance. Long before... It's one of a number of ideas I submitted to my editor, and he's expressed an interest in it several times, even though we slotted GOTHIC HEAT in before it finally became the time to actually write it. Basically, and originally, it was a 'women's erotica' concept, a woman's voyage of sexual discovery... but that's not so much what I want to write any more. I really want to write a romantic love story with a lot of sex, and marrying these two concepts is like the proverbial square peg/round hole [oooer] dilemma. I can see a way to do it, but getting the voice and everything right is a very delicate balance... and the damn thing is also a menage of sorts, where the heroine, Gwen, is involved with two different blokes at the same time. One of them, Nemesis, an anonymous correspondent she plays games of sexual daring with, is proving particularly tricky to get right. He's benignly wicked and writes the most outrageous things, but I need to convey him as a teasing, extremely rude but sometimes lyrical sensualist, rather than just a dirty mack pervo guy. When I started, he sounded like pervo guy, then he sounded like ridiculous lovelorn twit with a hard-on, and only now, on attempt #3, is he starting to come out right...

Eeh, it's a tough old game, this writing business...

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In view of Kuffer's recent activities...

I thought this might amuse...



Courtesy of the lovely folk at Cute Overload...

I have loads and loads to do today, including 1K of In Too Deep, and having got up late, and with me going out earlyish this evening for carvery, time is short.

However, here's an interesting article at the Dear Author blog, that caught my eye this morning via Google Reader. See what you think...

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Thought for the day...

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Wounded in Inaction...

These aren't Kuffer's claws, but they're quite like them. And the reason I post this picture is because claws like the above inflicted quite an unpleasant wound on me last night!!!

I was lying in bed, watching the telly, with Kuffer at my side, when he suddenly decided to flip into one of his 'rough play' fits and before I knew what had happened he'd split my lower lip open with his claw! Ouch!!! I was a bit frightened and had visions of stitches and scars and everything, but when I'd stopped panicking, I realised it wasn't as bad as I'd feared. It's still a little sore this morning, but it seems to be healing okay, no thanks to that furry mutthead... who is as affectionate and friendly as ever, having no idea of the damage he's inflicted.

In other news, I did manage to finally get to my writing yesterday, and managed to achieve my 1k after all. It's not the greatest of stuff, and the plot is crawling at a mindbendingly slow pace, but at least it's words, innit? Words that can be edited. This morning I've tried a trick suggested by my fellow Sweat70 sponsor, Diana Peterfreund. She describes a strategy of hers to start the day with a small 15 minute chunk of writing, so that when you go into a more serious and prolonged work session, you're not going in stone cold, because you've already laid down a couple of hundred words or so at the beginning of the day. I've tried this, and have a tidy little chunk of around 250 words to build on later. Thanks, Diana! It's a good tip!

Something lovely happened yesterday... a bit of serendipity type stuff that made me feel very happy and good about myself. I posted the name of the winner of a prize draw of mine, over at Lustbites... and I discovered that before she'd even realised she was a winner, Dakota Rebel had already written a lovely post about me, over on her blog! Seems that a MySpace bulletin I sent out was instrumental in her getting her first book accepted for publication! Now, I often feel guilty that I don't help other writers enough, but it sounds as if inadvertently I've done some good for Dakota! And she also said some lovely things about my work... :)

Read about her story here.


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Mr Blue is vexed!

It's almost two o'clock and I've not written any of my WIP yet... His Blueship is not best pleased!


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Eeeek!

Argh, it's only day three and I'm feeling a panic attack! After two days of positive attitude and achievement, I'm now beset by one of those mornings when everything in favour's against me, and I can feel the entire day slipping away into a state of getting nothing done!

I must not succumb to this though! I must stay calm, focus on my writing ideas, and get myself into the zone. I must give myself permission to write a little less, maybe? But I should maintain a general optimistic attitude and lead by example as a Sweat70 sponsor...

I shall have to shape up soon or Mr Blue will be on my *ss! [I wish... ;) ]

And speaking of hard-core Sweat70 motivators, nip over to Kim's Blog and meet The Colonel!

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Is it wrong....

to count the words of the notes I've been making this morning towards my daily Sweat70 total?



After convincing myself last night that what I've written so far on In Too Deep is a pile of camel dung of the highest pong, and that the idea itself is ludicrous, I'm feeling better disposed towards it at the moment. Thanks in part to more of my bathroom brainstorming. Had a few not too pathetic and insane ideas about it whilst hovering before the sink, starkers and soapy, and when I was all clean and dry and dressed, I rushed to the laptop to get them down in my notes file. [above piccie is supposed to represent the foam of ideas welling up... or summink like that] I think I'm starting to get a sense of the book, sort of. I've plumped for first person for the time being, but will give myself permission to change that if it doesn't work out. There's also a bit of an additional hero first person POV in the form of some notes and letters and emails, which I'm hoping will work and not seem too hokey. The story takes place in the Stoneworld universe, but I'm not sure if it'll seem contrived to try and get some of the other characters into it. Maybe they'll just be 'seen' rather than have speaking parts.

Anyway, I did a solid 1K of words yesterday on this opus, so In Too Deep is officially under way now. And that's good because it means I've overcome my fear of 'starting'... which is a pretty big hurdle for me. :)

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Yikes, it's started!

Sweat70 has started and Mr Blue is determined to get tough with me from the outset! Which he needs to, because not only am I a sponsor this time round [I must be maaaaad!!!!] I'm also in the middle of one of my 'oh no, I don't want to write... it's too hard...' things. Which is a bit inconvenient to say the least...

No, seriously, I was feeling like that, but whilst taking a walk up into little town, to the bank [and forgetting to call at the chemists, which I was supposed to call at] I did have a bit of inspiration for the start of my next WIP, which I plan to 'sweat' over, to get at least a goodish chunk done by the time the challenge ends in January. I'm still debating between first and third person, but am veering closer to first at the moment. And even if I start in first and it's a misfire, I'll still have the storyline that I can rewrite in first, won't I?


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