Post Christmas Limboland

Well, it's the day after the day after Boxing Day, and I'm in a sort of post Christmas limboland. Part of me wants to try and get back into some kind of routine, while the rest of me is clinging to the 'what film is on next, shall I have another mince pie, work, wot that?' mentality of the seasonal festivities. This, coupled with the sheer mountain of 'stuff' that Christmas generates eg. wrapping paper, ludicrous amounts of extra 'strange' food, gift items to be assimilated into the household, is making it very hard for me to get into any kind of productive state of mind.

I haven't been entirely idle over the last few days. I have been doing a bit of editing on In Too Deep since Boxing Day, but it's very slow progress and my motivation level isn't high. Am very easily distracted by something on the telly or the desire for more unsuitable Xmas food. On Boxing Day itself, the book seemed like horse pooh, but yesterday, I seemed to get a sort of handle on it. But really, some of the stuff I've written is truly, truly dire. Boring, clunky, uninspired, story-less, strange characters with stupid motivations that people just won't like. This book will need many more rounds of revision after this one if it's to come anywhere near the standard of my beloved Suite Seventeen, which seems to have turned out to be one of my best works, given it's prizewinning status!

What does cheer me up though is that Suite Seventeen seemed like a pile of festering crud for much of the time while I was working on it. It too had to go through a lot of changes and enhancements. It too seemed flat and stupid and pointless. So, if I can get from that, to being judged a year's best novel, with one book, I can do it with another... And I went through the same journey with Gothic Heat too. I don't yet have much in the way of feedback other than the approval of my critique partner and my agent, but I like GH myself now, and it was really one of the hardest, hardest books I've ever had to write!!!

So there's hope for In Too Deep... I think I will probably have to go through this process with every book from now on, as part of the constant raising of the bar. Both in terms of my own writing, and because of fabulous books I read by other writers. I've got to keep pushing, working, improving, not accepting anything less than my best. It's tough out in romance writing world and you can't let yourself slide, even in the tiniest way... You can't sit back and think, 'oh, I'm the dog's wotsits, everybody loves me, I don't have to try now...' because there are hundreds of writers out there, with great ideas, who readers are going to discover and abandon you for if you don't produce the goods to the best of your ability!

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Telly: not yet
Choc/Yummy: mince pie in a minute
Mood: uneasy
Writing: not yet
Reading: not yet
RSI/FMS: very, very sore and achy, mainly due to waking up with small but heavy cat sitting on my rib cage!


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

Wahey, I won an Award!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Guess what?

SUITE SEVENTEEN has been judged the:

2007 "Romance: B(u)y the Book" Best Contemporary Erotic Romance

Isn't this awesome news? Especially as it's one of my faves of all my own books... :)

It's like Christmas just started all over again today here!


Check out the rest of the Year's Best list here

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Telly: not yet
Choc/Yummy: not yet
Mood: thrilled
Writing: not yet
Reading: not yet
RSI/FMS: who cares


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

Our Xmas DVD viewing...

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Telly: Tanks!
Choc/Yummy: everything
Mood: Christmassy
Writing: In Too Deep
Reading: Radio Times
RSI/FMS: so so


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

Season's Greetings from me!

Amazon.com now...

In Too Deep

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Telly: Numb3rs
Choc/Yummy: mince pies, lindor
Mood: bit out of sorts
Writing: editing In Too Deep
Reading: ComputerActive/Cosmopolitan
RSI/FMS: so so


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

Today's Photos

I am eating too many of these... the demon puff pastry mince pies!


Alice looking grumpy in her new favourite sleeping spot, himself's sock drawer.

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Telly: Numb3rs S2
Choc/Yummy: see above
Mood: okay
Writing: In Too Deep
Reading: Lord of Scoundrels
RSI/FMS: so so


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

Oh God!

In Too Deep is listed at Amazon.co.uk!!!!!!!!!!!

How can it be listed when it's still only a half @ssed, barely half written piece of crap!

ps. just realised that it's going to be published in the UK on my wedding anniversary too.

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Telly: Hot Fuzz
Choc/Yummy: cake
Mood: not too bad
Writing: In Too Deep
Reading: Lord of Scoundrels
RSI/FMS: a bit sore


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

Back in the saddle...

... writing IN TOO DEEP again aka Professor Hottie McHotstuff's story.

I looked at my records and it's nearly a month since I worked on this book, and that's quite a gap. I wanted to keep moving forward, but I knew I had to go back and 'learn' the book again. A tough choice, but I compromised. I completed the sex fantasy scene I was working on when I left the book, then scooted back to the beginning and began reading/editing again. At first the text seemed a bit wooden, but after a little while, it started to come alive a bit more, and I was getting a better feel for it. And for Gwendolynne, my librarian heroine; Nemesis, my secretive and pervy anti-hero, and Professor Daniel Brewster, my hero. I think it could be all right, if I weed out some of the terribly clunky language, and just get real with it.

Am facing a challenge, as usual, but overall, I'm really, really glad to be back with this story...

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Telly: Numb3rs S1
Choc/Yummy: cherry Madeira cake
Mood: good
Writing: 1K In Too Deep
Reading: Lord of Scoundrels
RSI/FMS: extremely achey and tired


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

This just made me giggle....

moar funny pictures

I'm sure the doggie was okay afterwards... :)


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Telly: not yet
Choc/Yummy: not yet
Mood: okay
Writing: thinking about it
Reading: nothing yet today
RSI/FMS: sore and tired


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

Entertaining Mr Stone - German cover

Hot or what? The translation seems to be 'The Boss'...

I think this must be a piccie of Mr Stone as a younger man, because in the book, he's a fairly stocky middle aged guy, not a young stud with a six pack!

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Telly: not yet
Choc/Yummy: jam tart
Mood: panicky over stuff to do
Writing: notes for In Too Deep
Reading: Lord of Scoundrels
RSI/FMS: bit sore, not too bad


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

Ups and Downs...

Yesterday, I was astonishing!!! I wrote 4K words on The Retreat. Yes, a whole 4000 words in one day... isn't that amazing. I felt like a real, productive writer, the sort I read about in blogs who are prolific as nobody's business and are surging forward and securing faboo contracts all over the place!

Today, I'm less astonishing... in fact, I'm crap. Have done nothing so far, and have got hooked into watching a movie I know I shouldn't have, because I won't be able to stop now...

It's about this guy...

Jason Bourne - one man mayhem factory. Mmmmm..... me like.



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Telly: The Bourne Ultimatum
Choc/Yummy: thorntons alpini bar
Mood: disatisfied with self
Writing: **** all
Reading: Lord of Scoundrels
RSI/FMS: achy


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

What a relief!

After grappling with a variety of Christmas stuff, and a deluge of web design chores, I'm finally writing again... Thank God for that! I'd almost forgotten what it's like!

My current WIP is my romantic BDSM novella The Retreat, with a hero, Ben Chambers, inspired by Eisenheim the Illusionist aka Edward Norton.

Isn't he gorgeous?

I think I have a slight thing for handsome guys with beards. The Divine Vincenzo looks fab with some facial hair, and Professor Hottie often seems to be sporting a manly growth of designer stubble. Mmmmm....



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Telly: Top Gear
Choc/Yummy: jam tart
Mood: okay
Writing: 1.2K The Retreat
Reading: Lord of Scoundrels
RSI/FMS: so so


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