Archive for April, 2008
April 29, 2008 | All Work and No Play, about me
I’ve sort of finished my first draft. And tomorrow morning I’m flying to the US to see a family member who is ill.
I’ll be back next week–see you then.
Meanwhile, here is a link to really excellent review of Mistress In Private (aka All Work and No Play…) in French. It’s out there next month as Une Passione Anglaise.
Thanks to Callixta and to Marnie!
April 28, 2008 | about me
You know, when I was a teenager, I was quite embarrassingly besotted with the music of Air Supply.
April 25, 2008 | about me
Tra la la, here I am, happy as a clam because my back is feeling so much better, hey, I think it’s a good idea to take my child to the park! Yay, what fun! Lift him up! Swing him round! Push the pushchair!
Oof, you know that sorta…hurts. Well, actually, it really hurts.
Actually it really really hurts.
Damn.
Oh well, more rest for me this weekend. And no more enthusiasm.
I’m off to set something on fire in my wip.
April 24, 2008 | All Work and No Play
Oh and the thing I wanted to say while I was locked out of my website…?
Mistress in Private has been in the Waldenbooks top ten bestselling series romance novels for the past two weeks.
Yippee!!
April 24, 2008 | about me
I’ve been locked out of my own website for a few days, so sorry for being behind! Fortunately my whiz of a webmistress knows all and has sorted it out for me.
My back is slowly getting better, with the help of rest, painkillers, and homeopathic remedies (I’ve got arnica, thanks for reminding me of it, Jan!). I’m not writing as much as I would like, but I’m managing some, usually in bed typing on my Dana with a heating pad on my shoulder.
I’m sort of at a tricky bit in the book, where several plot threads get wound up but the most important ones get more intense. And yeah, I’ve got the crows. It’s a little different this time because I actually like this book a lot. The heroine is totally one of my favourites, ever. But I worry that nobody else will like it. I also worry that a couple of the threads resolve too easily.
Plus I don’t know yet whether the hero goes back to America at the end, yet. “American Boy” has come on the radio every time I’ve been in the car, and I really like that song, so that makes me think, yeah. I’ll write a scene set in America. But then I look at mounting word count (I’m at 90,000, which was my original goal) and wonder if it would be simpler if they just stayed in London.
Playing God with my characters gets too darn complicated sometimes.
Anyway, back to the writing.
Currently reading: Yorkshire’s Murderous Women: Two Centuries of Killing by Stephen Wade (what a title!)
April 20, 2008 | about me
It hurts to walk, and to move, and to play with Fecklet, and to do housework, and to drive the car, and to sit in a normal chair, and to type. (Which means I owe lots of people emails–sorry.)
The only thing it does not hurt to do is to lie in bed reading. And to eat cake.
Sigh.
Currently reading: An Anthropologist on Mars by Oliver Sacks
April 18, 2008 | the web
Oh and on a more cheerful note than below, I’m guest-blogging over at category romance blogazine The Pink Heart Society today, about one of my favourite ever films, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Visit here.
April 18, 2008 | about me
I’ve done in my back, which is both immensely painful and immensely annoying. As it’s my upper back, I suspect a lot of it is my own fault due to sloppy posture, which makes it even more annoying.
Anyway, it makes it difficult to take care of the Fecklet–particularly because my husband is off on tour so I’m mostly alone with him. Fortunately he’s walking now so I don’t have to carry him around the house so much, but there’s still the lifting in and out of cot, high chair, bath, and pushing the pushchair is very painful.
It also makes it difficult to write, though I’ve adjusted my chair and this is somewhat better. This is frustrating because I’m very near the home stretch, where things are coming to a climax and if I could, I’d be writing it 12 hours a day. Oh, and I’m on deadline, of course.
The one bright spot in all of this is that Deep Heat smells great! Like Wint-O-Green Life Savers. Though I’ve developed a theory that it doesn’t actually make you feel better; it’s like the TENS machine you use when in labour, which creates a very odd and quasi-painful sensation itself that distracts you from the real pain underneath.
Hopefully I’ll see a doctor today and he can do something to help.
Currently reading: Viking Warrior, Unwilling Wife by Michelle Styles (it’s not out till June, but it’s a birthday present, hurrah!)
April 15, 2008 | Girl from Mars
Life here in Julie land was particularly cool today, because after dropping off the Fecklet at his much-loved child minder I headed to Oxford to meet with the editor of science fiction action comic weekly 2000AD.
In my professional capacity as a writer of popular fiction researching her latest novel, that is. Not because I am a giggly fangirl. No, never.
2000AD is famously edited by a green-skinned Betelgeusian called Tharg the Mighty. In real life, the editor is a very nice bloke called Matt who works with a handful of other nice people in a corner of a big warehouse even more green-skinned and mighty than he appears in the comic, and he rules his droid workers with a rod of iron. In fact he executed one while I was there. You should have seen the sparks and oil fly!
I am happy to report that I giggled my ass off and couldn’t stop saying “cool” like the sad fangirl I am I learned a lot of very useful information for my novel.
Anyway I can wholeheartedly recommend that you rush down to your local newsagent tomorrow, when the next issue comes out, and buy yourself a copy. “The Ten-Seconders” is worth the cover price alone.
April 14, 2008 | about me
…comes the day of hangover and eating leftover sweet and sour chicken for every meal.
Thank you to everyone who wished me well.
If you hurry, you have a chance to win some fab books over at Kate Walker’s blog–my One Night Stand, Kate Hardy’s The Doctor’s Royal Love Child, and Yvonne Lindsay’s Tycoon’s Valentine Vendetta, if you post by the end of today!
Currently reading: Chang and Eng by Darin Strauss
April 13, 2008 | about me
It’s my birthday today!
Normally I would post a picture of a gorgeous man. But you can see how much motherhood has changed me because I am going to post a picture of a cat, just so when my son sees it he will yell out “KITTY!!!!!”
P.S. Sorry if you tried to visit over the past day or so, I couldn’t figure out how to change my nameservers.
EDIT: Oh, okay, my kid yelling “Kitty!” is fun, but only for so long and then you want a hottie to look at. Here is Christian Bale in a shower in the dark.
April 11, 2008 | crows, writing
I’ve finally got some bookcases for the bedroom, so I was dismantling my old bedside table and underneath it I found, to my surprise, my first ever rejection letter.
It’s from Harlequin in Toronto, dated March 19 2002. It’s a form rejection, though it’s printed on lovely heavy cream headed paper. When I first saw the envelope last night, I thought my address had been typed on it in capital letters, but when I looked more closely I saw it was actually my own handwriting, mathematically precise. I remember throwing away a couple of envelopes because I hadn’t made the writing quite perfect enough.
When I received this rejection, just over six years ago, I was very disappointed. I’d thought that Harlequin would at least be interested in seeing the full. Now, I know that that story was very far from being publishable. It’s the only one of my unpublished mss I’ve resigned forever to the attic.
Now, I am working on my tenth contracted book and though right at the minute I am a teeny weeny bit stuck on it, I can see how far I have come.
By the way, one of the people who helped me come this far, Kate Walker, is celebrating the second edition of her wonderful 12-Point Guide to Writing Romance. If you haven’t read it–here’s your chance. And go on over to her blog where you can read her writing advice and have a chance to win lots of books.
