Archive for the ‘about me’ Category
May 26, 2008 | about me
I did an interview recently, over the phone whilst at the park with the Fecklet. I answered questions whilst pulling him out of flower beds, preventing him from launching himself into the scummy fountain, confiscating his collection of cigarette butts, etc.
“What are your hobbies?” the interviewer asked.
I laughed aloud. “Hobbies? I have a seventeen-month-old son, a husband who’s on tour most of the year, and I write two 90,000-word books a year. I don’t have time for any hobbies.”
“Yes, but what do you do in your spare time?” she persisted.
“What’s spare time?” I asked, snagging the Fecklet before he plunged headfirst into a rosebush.
However, for the past few days I have been experiencing this odd “spare time” phenomenon. No phone call from agent means I don’t have to do any work. I actually read the Sunday paper yesterday. Bliss!
And I took the Fecklet to one of his father’s gigs, where he got to play the drums, strum the bass and sing in the microphone!
May 22, 2008 | about me
Ohhhh I have been such a bad blogger.
I’ve been very busy, and very tired. Mostly, I’ve finished up my first round of revisions for Girl from Mars and sent the whole thing off to my agent, who will probably get in touch today to tell me what she thinks. Am I scared? Well, yeah. Of course I’m scared.
I went through several stages of crows with this ms. When I’d finished it, I was convinced it was complete and utter crap. I left it while I went to the States, and then I came back and changed the ending a bit, and I read it over and suddenly, I was totally in love with it.
I’m not sure if this is a dangerous thing or not. Am I correct in loving it, or am I instead utterly, utterly blind?
Anyway, I expect revisions–I always get revisions. There’s one place I’m not convinced I handled the best way I could, and I’m looking forward to feedback about how to do that better.
While waiting, I’ve taken out and beaten all the rugs, mopped all the floors, hoovered up every single cobweb and cleaned the former disaster area of my back passage, which is what we call the covered-in area off the kitchen where we keep the refrigerator, washing machine, and tonnes of assorted crap. You have never seen so many spiders.
I’ve also done some reading, which I will blog about in a bit. And my creative writing session at the library went really well, which as always was down to the great group who did all I asked them with nary a complaint.
Now I will go back to biting my nails and waiting for the phone to ring.
May 6, 2008 | about me
And I have spent the last 13 hours sleeping as I didn’t get a lot of sleep while I was there. How I wish I could say that was because I was partying all night, but it had more to do with jetlag, sharing a bed and with helping with the night shift looking after my grandmother.
For my mother and my aunt, and all those who care for the terminally or chronically ill: I salute you. It’s a hard job, every minute of every day.
I’m spending today reading over my draft of Girl from Mars and hopefully my brain will be de-fuzzed enough to be able to figure out what I need to do for revisions.
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 | 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 | 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 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.
March 31, 2008 | about me
Thank you to everyone who helped with my sci-fi request! You guys rock!
I’ve been quite a remiss blogger these days, though I must admit it’s not all my fault…Word Press ate one post and then I think the server has been down every now and then, at times that correspond with my own free time to blog. But mostly it’s because I’ve been concentrating on other things–namely, being a parent and being a writer.
My husband has been off on tour, so I’m the lone parent. This is a little less lonely than it used to be, because the Fecklet is better company, and we have also worked out routines that mean I generally have a handle on what’s going on. I also know now that I need to plan ahead, and schedule a time to see other people most days, or at least talk on the phone, or else I will slowly go insane from lack of adult company. There was a time last week when I found myself gleefully looking forward to two different series of America’s Next Top Model at once, and I realised that I needed to get out a bit more.
I’m also writing nice and steadily: trying for 1000 words a day four days a week, and 2000 words a day the two days that Fecklet goes to his child minder’s, and Sundays off. The wip is growing, and that progress sidebar over there on the right is completely lying, because I’m well over 66,000 words. (Something about Word Press changes means I can’t edit the sidebar any more, but I’m getting a site redesign soon anyway so I’m not bothering to figure it out.)
This means I have something like 24,000 words to wrap up this story, and my main problem is trying to figure out how to do it. This story is a bit different from ones I’ve tried before; it has more story lines, and two main important relationships rather than one. It’s a challenge for me, and I’m enjoying it, but again, it’s new ground and I’m not sure exactly how to cover it.
But for today, I’ve finished my 1000 words (1006, actually) and I’m off to spend the rest of the day with friends. Oh, and I’m looking forward to America’s Next Top Model tonight…
