Archive for August, 2005

August 30, 2005

cluck cluck

Well, I finished my revisions to DELICIOUS and sent them off to my editor. It looks like it’s scheduled to be released in June 06.

And (jumping in air like a madwoman) she let me keep the chickens!!!

(I know I’ve already posted this photo but it really needs repeating.)

Tomorrow I have to go back to school. I like my job, but I hate the end of summer vacation.

And I’m desperately trying to think of a way I can write a RTB column about bollocks, as suggested by my evil friends.

August 28, 2005

clueless

Working on revisions. I’ve written two new short scenes (which was fine as I was nearly 3000 words short), both of which will hopefully add to the emotion. I’ve also layered in bits of emotion all over the place. Hopefully my editor will like it.

I really don’t know what to write about for Romancing The Blog this month. I have nothing interesting to say except for random photos of bollocks. (Not an unusual situation, I’m sure.)

clueful

Both Beth Ciotta and Jaci Burton, two hard-working authors I am privileged to have met, landed great publishing deals last week. I love seeing good news like this!

Reading festival…

Yup. Cool. Didn’t rain. No horrific toilet incidents, but then again I only went yesterday; it’s Sunday that’s famous for overflow.

This year I actually saw a few bands, which was unusual–I have been known to spend the entire day sitting in the backstage area people-watching. I saw Juliette and the Licks, which were mainly remarkable not for their generic rocky music but for the sight of Juliette Lewis in a bikini. My friends Kev and Andy got their photo taken with her afterwards, about which they were ecstatic.

Dave and I got down to the front of the main stage to see Dinosaur Jr, who look much older than the picture on their website, and who rocked out. It was great to hear some real music after watching a movie star playing around. My husband was beaming like mad the entire time.

All of my music-snob friends stayed firmly away from Razorlight, but I am a Radio 1 girl and I like pop music. So I went, alone. The lead singer was wearing a J. Geils Band t-shirt, which is perhaps one of the main reasons why I like them.

My favourite band by far were The Raveonettes who were effortlessly cool-looking. I hadn’t heard them before but I knew within a chord that I would like their music. I didn’t know I would be madly 60s-dancing all over the tent, but I was. Brilliant.

Caught some of the Charlatans, some of the Foo Fighters, a few other bands, came home tired. I’ve got to work on my revisions for DELICIOUS today, so I can get them done before school begins next week.

August 26, 2005

Venice…

…was wonderful in every way.

I don’t think I could describe the city without using images or phrases that would be cliches–it’s too famous a place, I’m too poor an observer. I’ll just say that it was the most fitting way I could have found to spend money earned from writing a romance novel.

Here’s me proposing a toast with a Campari, on the bank of the Grand Canal.

Faithful readers of this blog will spot the typical Julie-with-booze pose, and also the pink cardigan that I seem to be wearing in most photos these days. This was taken on our first day in Venice, before I spent an entire afternoon at the beach on Lido, listening to the lazy waves of the Adriatic and not wearing sunscreen. Were I to drink Campari now, my nose would be remarkably similar in hue.

We walked, we ate, we made hypocritical fun of tourists, we drank, we spoke horrendous Italian, we wondered about diseases in the canals, we saw some art, we rode vaporetti (water buses), we got sand absolutely everywhere, we got lost, we ate and drank some more.

Most memorable drinks were bellinis at Harry’s Bar, beloved of Hemingway and Capote, near St Mark’s Square. Most memorable foods were fig ice cream (interesting) and tiramisu (wow).

Knowing the demands of the readership of this blog, I tried very hard to take a photograph of a gorgeous gondolier. I really, really tried. But 1) most of Venice’s gondoliers are not actually that gorgeous. That stripy shirt and straw hat look does not suit everybody. 2) It’s hard to get close enough and when you do, you’re often on a boat yourself, which blurs the photo. 3) My camera decided to pack it in and so I only got about four photos. The other camera was controlled by my husband, who seemed less enthusiastic about photographing gorgeous gondoliers.

I did take a good photo of a dog, though.

August 22, 2005

off on holiday

I’m off to Venice tomorrow morning for a few days. I’m sure I will come back on Friday highly sophisticated, well-travelled, and intelligent.

Just in time to go to Reading Festival, drink myself silly, and headbang.

See you Friday! Leave a comment so I have something to look forward to when I come back!

coincidence? or fate?

So this is weird. If you Google the phrase “giant pair of bollocks” (in quotations) you get this blog, and Gordon Ramsay talking about how to succeed as a chef.

August 20, 2005

on the same subject…

This a photograph of me, next to a giant pair of bollocks, in Paddington station yesterday.

August 19, 2005

there’s a message in here somewhere.

This is the honest-to-God truth.

In B&Q yesterday, standing in the paint aisle waiting for my husband to return from fetching some weird equipment he planned to modify into a homemade sink hole. Got a phone call from my editor. Editor, having astute professional instincts about readers’ reactions to the nuances of the English language, wanted to discuss my use of the word “dick”.

“You’re right,” I said, “maybe we should use the word ‘penis’.”

Then I looked around me and realised that I was surrounded by other shoppers. All pushing trolleys full of DIY materials, and all trying not to look at me in that particularly English way of not looking at you.

“Uh, the P-word, I mean,” I said.

Finished conversation, was rejoined by husband, made purchases, went out into car park.

Directly across from my Mini were three men, eating their lunch, leaning against a white van emblazoned with the logo “Steel Erections, Ltd.”

August 18, 2005

the wrong chef

When I spoke to my editor yesterday she said she’d read half of DELICIOUS (the one with the TV chef hero) and wanted to know if I fancied Gordon Ramsay.

Which I do, much against my better judgement. But my hero is NOT Mr Ramsay.

In actual fact the only TV chef I REALLY fancy is Jean-Christophe Novelli, and my hero actually looks eerily like the lovely Mr McGregor.

And most of what I tried to put in the book about food and sensuality and emotion, I learned from reading the godlike Nigel Slater.

I was just so glad she didn’t think I was talking about Jamie Oliver that I didn’t really mind the Ramsay associations. At the time. I’m a little worried now.

In other news, today my project is to work on an article for a London magazine about Thomas Hardy’s poetry, aimed at A-level English students. I’m going to call it ZOMBIE ATTACK!

August 16, 2005

a random question

Were the pop group The Archies supposed to BE The Archies from the comic book? Like was it supposed to really be Jughead on the drums and Archie singing and Betty and Veronica doing background vocals?

And is this the only group, until the modern-day Gorillaz, who are supposedly meant to be cartoon characters? I mean, all the time, unlike say Ah-Ha, who were portrayed as comic book characters in the video of “Take On Me”? Or groups who had cartoons based after them, like the Jacksons and the Monkees?

I suppose Chef from South Park counts, huh?

August 15, 2005

playing hooky

I am having a ball writing at the moment. The story is completely fun, and I’m just laughing all the time.

Of course it’s not the story I’m meant to be writing. I’m meant to be working on CONNECTED, and I have started it, but it’s a big, complicated story. A difficult story, and one that requires some research and world-building and delving into characters and thinking about style. I think it will be a good story–I’ve got that down-deep pulling that tells me I’m excited about it, and I’m in love with one of the male characters (though he’s very different from my other heroes), and I think the female characters are great.

I’m also meant to be writing an article about Thomas Hardy’s poetry. Which requires research and thinking and drafting and redrafting.

But I’m not working on CONNECTED, or my article. I’m working on something else, something totally unrelated to most of my other work, something that is pure enjoyment. I can’t wait to start on it in the morning, and I want to keep on writing it late into the night.

It feels naughty. I like it.