Work on Bethany Rose has kept me busy, as I’m on the last three or four thousand words now. The total word count will run over my intended 100,000 words but as I’ve already decided to delete one minor character completely that’s not an issue. This is only the first draft, of course; there’s a lot of work to be done yet, editing and polishing. Some people balk at this aspect of writing but I thoroughly enjoy it.

I’ve enjoyed writing Bethany’s story. Her character’s an interesting mixture of contradictions; sensitive but strong, creative but practical, and incredibly brave in the face of awful circumstances. She’s a very different person from Tamsin, that’s for sure. But I won’t say too much about her publicly for now.

I’ve also been enjoying our two chickens. In the spring, Mum began talking about having two pet chickens. She gave it some thought, and by early summer they were in residence in her small garden. Richard laughed and told her we’d have them by Xmas. Well he was right, and here they are.

Cute little characters they are, too, with amusing habits and quizzical expressions. They’re not in the least bothered by our dogs. Actually, Ygraine has already lost interest. Emily is more inquisitive, though, having discovered that these new residents produce mini footballs - eggs to you and me.

Richard’s famous. Really, he is. Check him out on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3RJ9RA2fk8

Chapter 26 of Bethany Rose is now 1,300 words long; not finished yet but on its way. I needed to describe a journey through a factual location, arriving at a fictional location.

The fictional location is an amalgamation of several different brick-and-mortar mansions and stately homes around Britain--many of which I’ve visited. A factual road is named, then imagination takes over. I didn’t want any reader to look up the area on Google Maps and say something like, “Oh, right, that’s where it is!”

And I can do without a law suit from some irate stately home owner, too….

The trick, I guess, is to write hints about general location rather than offer an X-marks-the-spot detailed description. The same principle applies to any passage, really; an impression works more effectively than a blow-by-blow account of every item in the room.

Besides, who really cares about minutiae; Victorian novelists may have reeled off umpteen pages of description before a single thing happened plot-wise, but public tastes have changed since then. Just look at which books (and films) are currently selling well as proof of this.

Actually, quite a number of action-packed films which have been released in recent years seem to have minimal plot. They’re mostly about chasing people and blowing stuff up. All to our own, of course, but I like a well-rounded story; I want to know about the characters and their lives--but this is down to personal taste.

One of the positive aspects of writing a series is that backstory can be worked into the narrative over several books. Readers enjoy discovering new snippets of information about a favourite character. There was one series wherein the characters said snarky things about the things other characters had written about them earlier in the series--which I absolutely loved! Ok, it’s trivial but it fleshes out fictional personalities and gives a reader‘s imagination something to play with.

buy unique gifts at Zazzle

Take a peek at my new range of fine art posters, which are also available on bags, t-shirts and greetings cards. You’ll find them on http://www.zazzle.com/AdeleCB either on the main page or listed under New Products. Let me know what you think!

Wirral Bookfest 2009 will go ahead despite the closure of many local libraries. The date for my writers’ workshop is yet to be confirmed, but Riverside Writers’ evening performance, New Tales for Old Byways has now been booked for Wednesday October 10th, 7pm at West Kirby Library. Last year’s similar event, Words from Wordsmiths, drew a decent-sized audience so we’re hoping that with improved publicity for this year things will be even better.

The gorgeous spring sunshine has enabled me to get some gardening done! The Lily of the Valley root-ball has been potted up now; so have the pretty yellow celandines that Mum gave to me from her own garden. Evelyn’s multi-coloured primulas are now planted in one of the borders, their position being limited to a location unlikely to be flattened during our two dogs’ haste to exchange woofing contests with our new neighbours’ two dogs. Ours are female; theirs are male--and it is spring….!

Work on Bethany Rose continues, of course. The total word count now comes to 35,000. I’m aiming at 100,000 again, so obviously there’s much to be done yet. Yesterday an idea popped into my head, which used the title of a book I read some twenty years ago: Olaf Stapledon’s Odd John. It was simply the perfect book for BR to be reading at that moment in the plot. It’s interesting how the mind can hold on to information for so long, even when that data seems almost trivial and without practical purpose.

Who knows how much our subconscious contains, hmm? For example, how many times have you sung along to an old, old tune and remembered the words perfectly even though you’ve given that song no thought for most of a lifetime? It’s interesting how the brain remembers some silly things but then forgets stuff it could do with hanging onto. Or maybe we really do remember everything but are too lazy to retrieve “boring” data from our brain’s memory banks? I suspect there’s a subatomic-sized librarian in there somewhere, pottering around my grey matter, and far too fond of tea breaks for the benefit of her own career.

We know we're not supposed to be on here....

Wrote 1,850 words this morning, which takes the total word-count for Bethany Rose up to 23,250 so far. Writing the spooky bits is such fun...!

Warm spring sunshine yesterday enabled me to get some weeding done. Today's torrential rain has forced me to postpone further efforts. We have three yellow crocus and a patch of snowdrops in bloom. What happened to the rest of my crocus though? I planted heaps of them four years ago, and there has been less each year. Anyway, yesterday I had no sooner finished weeding a stretch of one border when a cute little robin came to investigate. I was looking out of the kitchen window as I was washing my hands, and saw a wren on the fence.

Bathed the dogs yesterday. I managed to capture them in the bathroom by stealth. Otherwise if they hear the 'B' word they hide under the bed and will not come out! I bathed Emily first as she was the cleanest. I'd no sooner towelled her dry than she jumped back in the bath to torment Ygraine. So then I had to clean the bathroom too--completely.

Sylvia's beloved dog, Gelert, died on Tuesday. He'd had a couple of peculiar wobbly spells recently, and then he had another and died twenty minutes later. Poor Sylvia is devastated. As any pet owner will tell you, shen a pet dies it's like losing a member of your closest family--more so, quite often, as people often far prefer their pets to their legal relatives.

Reminder: Until Friday, you'll still be able to hear Spanish Jones (part one) on http://www.citytalk.fm/showdj.asp?DJID=48793 Just move the curser along almost to the end of the show, as I'm on then.

Dragon tattoo by Richard:- http://www.myspace.com/richie_tattoo_artist

Richard spent a rough night due to the cold he's caught. Consequently he spent half of today in bed. He's sat in his Man Cave now, watching a documentary about The Beatles, with Saffron purring in his lap. He likes some of their music but not all of it. Saffron couldn't care less what's playing so long as she gets her ears tickled.

Anyway, while he was snoring triumphantly in bo-bos, I was busy tapping away on this puuter. Today's word count for Bethany Rose is 1,879 words. I love it when a character does something unexpected. I had no idea Bethany was going to move into a haunted house! This MS is very different in mood from Rowan. Whereas Rowan has a languid romantic feel to it, BR is much, much darker.

Did anyone tune in to 7 Waves Radio today? Four members of Riverside Writers were guests on Cath Bore's Lunchtime Forum show: Tim Hulme, Peter Caton, Eileen Murphy and Peter Hurd. I'll be back on air at next month's session, having volunteered to opt out this time to allow some other people a turn on air.

No news about the postponed Wirral Bookfest 2009 yet; and no wonder, with the situation regarding the threatend closure of so many of Wirral's libraries and other community resources still undecided.

The good news, though, is that playrite Sylvia Taylor has agreed to visit Riverside Writers and give a talk/workshop on script writing. The date is yet to be confirmed. Sylvia has co-written for the BBC and used to run her own theatre company. Currently she's making small films (which have been shown on the huge public screen in Liverpool city centre), planning full-length films, and works in community art development.

Dreaming of Walkies

The word count for Bethany Rose now stands at 11,000 words. Only 89,000 to go. No! Don't think of that!! Today's tally was 2,000. It was 3pm before I realised I'd forgotten to have lunch.

Did I mention that I'd begun writing the new version of BR? Anyway, it began to appear on my puuter screen on January 16th. I hadn't intended to spend that evening working but TV was as boring as it usually is, and while busy washing dinner dishes the start of the novel came to me. My fingers started itching, and so it began.

Do your fingers itch, literally burn and itch, when you've got a tasty idea demanding to be written or painted or photographed?

I find myself pulling odd facial expressions as the images of the idea flows through my mind. It's like watching a cinema screen in 3D inside my head. Who needs a remote control zapper when with a flick of Will you can rewind, rewrite, bring details up closer or move away as the story bursts into life internally? Then the finger-itching starts.

A literary agent, having read a synopsis for Tamsin and Rowan, recommended that I include the genre label of Urban Fantasy in descriptions of my work. Hmm... Well the novels (and some of my shorties) are set in Wirral and Liverpool, so I guess that makes 'em urban. And they do have beings from folklore included, plus a splash of metaphysics and a dash of magic (not the Potter variety), so that's firmly within the Fantasy genre. On the other hand, the term Urban Fantasy makes me think of bored housewives daydreaming whilst pushing shopping trolleys round a supermarket. Hmm...(she says again).

Opinions, folks?

...Another year, that is. And yikes what a chilly start! I'm wearing four layers and I'm still cold.

Stew for tonight's dinner--which I'm not looking forward to as I loathe stew, but there was little else I could do with the mountain goat which was supposed to have been lamb. Lamb?!! A howling chainsaw would have struggled to make an indent on that thing. Bleeeurch!! Here's hoping my culinary efforts can render it tolerable.



Tamsin is finished; all edits done. Unless a publisher wants any changes to be made, it will now remain as it is for all time. The final full-stop is in place. And the word-count now stands at 85,000 words, which is only 1,000 less than on the previous draft.

Now I'll begin editing Rowan, which I'm looking forward to doing, actually. Plus there are two short stories on the back-boiler, and I need to start thinking about what to do with Bethany Rose, as last year I wrote 50,000 words of that before admitting that I hated the plot and should have gone with the original idea.

Despite this morning’s torrential downpour, I headed into the village to attend to some business and browse the sales. All I wanted was a new black blouse, an evening-type style. I came back with two books, which is entirely typical of me. I always was the world’s most hopeless clothes shopper. I need a pet Gok.

Anyway, as I’ve put Bethany Rose on hold while I contemplate the shredder, I’ve been busy editing Tamsin, which I’ve not even looked at for a while. So far I’ve edited up to chapter 7. This is the last time I’ll edit this MS, unless a publisher wants a specific change. Otherwise I’ll be tweaking for the sake of tweaking.

Richard and I have begun watching a series called Blood Ties starring Christina Cox, Kyle Schmid and Dylan Neal. It’s based on books by Tanya Huff, and the two episodes we’ve seen have been enjoyable. Richard said he much prefers it to Buffy as it’s far more adult and gritty, and the characters seem more believable.

Lately, he’s been working his way through a Marx Brothers boxed set of films, and last night he watched an ancient Buster Keaton silent film while I finished reading a biography of a rather interesting fellow—lion trainer, bar-room pianist, author and independent thinker (and doer).

And I’ve done a bit more to the oil portrait which I’ve been working on for a while, too. There’s not much more to do to it now—a few almost-transparent pale touches on the skin, and that’s all.

At 50,000 words into writing the first draft, I realise that while I love her character, I absolutely hate the plot.

To scrap two and a half months' work is no small thing. But the story is simply not going where I want it to. Better to halt this version now than expend more time on something which I know can only become a major thorn in my side.

A good article on turn-offs for lit agents: http://www.writersdigest.com/article/what-agents-hate/

The turn-out for the writers’ workshop broke all Riverside Writers’ previous records. There weren’t enough printed handouts to go round, unfortunately. So much for my guess-work! Among the crowd was Sci-Fi author Colin P Davies, who visited our group as a speaker some years ago. http://www.colinpdavies.com/index.htm

Anyway, the workshop on constructive criticism generated a healthy amount of group discussion, which was one of my intentions.

The practical exercise I’d prepared brought some levity. I read one page of what was supposed to be the start of a novel, which was written awfully on purpose, and people had to pretend that a member of the writers circle had presented this in all seriousness. How, then, would the group offer constructive criticism? Once they’d all stopped laughing, I pointed out that if they were to laugh at fellow writer’s efforts, then that person might be terribly upset and never come back. It was interesting—and amusing—to see how people then proceeded to try and conjure a diplomatic and useful crit.

Soooo, on with my own work… Bethany Rose now stands at 49,500 which means the 50,000 half-way mark is but one hop away.

Richard has bought a boxed set of all the Magnificent Seven films. I “blinked” half way through a gun fight, and woke up to see Margaret Rutherford drinking tea. Hmm, did I miss something there?!!

Yay! We made it into the "what's on" section of The Wirral Globe. If you feel like coming along to Monday's workshop then feel free to do so.

Tomorrow, fron 1pm, you will be able to hear Tim Hulme, Peter Hurd and me live on 7 Waves Radio. We're on Cath Bore's Lunchtime Forum again. Listen via the station's website on http://7waves.co.uk/live-across-the-wirral/ or, if you live on Wirral, then tune to 92.1FM.

If you missed yesterday's post, go take a look at my new, exclusive Hallowe'en designs over on http://www.zazzle.com/AdeleCB. (And excuse the plug for those who've already seen it.)

Meanwhile, work on Bethany Rose continues; the word count currently stands at 45,700.

(And Emily is sitting on the windowsill squeaking because she's bored...)

2am saw me padding around the living room, wide awake.  Hubby was snoring like a jammed lawnmower, which is not conducive to restful meditations.

So I'd come down here, lit some incense and read for a while.  The dogs declined to join me, for once, having immediately secured my vacated warm spot under the duvet.  (Actually, Ygraine's booked in with the groomer today--about time too, as she resembles a miniature sheep.)

In answer to those slightly bewildered folk who nonetheless answered my last post:-   no, I am not planning to foist a horrible present on some unsuspecting girl.  I was working on a chapter of Bethany Rose and needed ideas for useless but showy gifts.  

The wordcount currently stands at 39,600. 

I've also added some new and exclusive Hallowe'en designs to my merch site.   Discover them for yourself at http://www.zazzle.com/AdeleCB

Mum's not feeling too well.  She had food poisoning after eating out, followed by a cold, and now her balance has gone haywire again.  She's had inner ear infections before, several times that I can remember.  Evelyn stayed the first night with her and took her to the doctor's in the morning.  When I spoke to her, Mum said she was feeling better but the Stenetil tablets make her very sleepy.

Cat is now an official university student!  Yaay!!!   And she's bought a pet snake named Havok.... 

Two friends were caught up in the recent airline collapse.  Lynn and Lee had only three days left of their Greek island holiday when their hotel manager told them their room had not been paid for.  They were given the choice of paying £600 instantly--which was the cost of their room for two weeks--or sleeping on the beach with police charges hanging over them.  Lynn and Lee had already paid for the hotel when they'd booked the holiday.  On top of this, their flight home no longer existed (due to the airline collapse) so they had to pay for another flight home.  Obviously, they intend to claim against their travel insurance.  But their holiday was seriously marred.  Lee should have been walking around a sunny Greek island, when instead he was pacing round our algid patio with Emily trying to eat his shoelaces.

Ok - you're a sixteen years-old girl.  You're unable to leave your room and spend much time on your own.

What are the worst possible birthday presents that you could be given?  Think expensive but useless.

Richard has the bubonic plague a headcold. 

Meanwhile....





What can moggies do when the rain keeps on pouring down, day after day after day? Snooze, mostly....  Or sunbathe beneath the hall window.

Anyway, while Jazzy and Saffron have been taking things easy, I've been busy designing some more Hallowe'en cards - visit http://www.zazzle.com/AdeleCB to see those.
 
I've been working on Bethany Rose.  The word count currently stands at 34,500.  Obviously there's lots to do yet, as I'm aiming for 100,000 words again.  This re-write differs considerably from the original version, partially because the whole mythos of the series has evolved since I first began playing around with ideas for it.

One tricky thing is keeping the Bad Guy bad enough without resorting to gore. 

Excessive violence and shock effects don't interest me, either in novels or in films.  Once the reader/viewer has gone, "Euwch!" a few times, the reaction wears thin rapidly.  I prefer to tease peoples' imaginations, leaving their own minds to fill in the gaps.  As with some of the old horror films, which build up a lovely creepy atmosphere.  It works well until the second you see the monster, and then you giggle because it's so obviously some guy in a stupid outfit, waving his arms about and going "Gurrrrg!" 

Mind you, I actually like some of those really old, eccentric films.  Richard has a collection of the hilarious Japanese Godzilla films, where plastercine monsters battle to the death.  Over the weekend, we watched an Ed Wood film, Plan 9 From Outer Space, which was so bad we loved it. 

So, which are your own favourite fictional bad guys and monsters, and why?

When hubby’s saucepan of eggs didn’t come to boil, I saw that the cooker’s power-on indicator light was not working. Further investigation showed there was no heat under the pan, or on the other main ring. So, I called out an electrician who we’ve used before.

The electrician arrived and he checked the wall socket, the electricity supply and the cooker’s wiring – all were fine. However, the grill, oven, and two rings on the cooker had no heat. He concluded that the elements had burned out.

“All at once?” I asked, sceptical.

He shrugged and said it happens sometimes. Richard said his mother’s cooker did something similar once.

Anyway, the cooker being five or six years old, the electrician said it would be difficult to find parts for it. Meanwhile, the electrician said it was safe to use the two remaining rings for cooking on. So, the very next day, Richard bought a new cooker. It will be delivered on Thursday this week.

On Sunday, I was cooking dinner – and noticed the cooker’s indicator light was on. Out of curiosity, I turned all the rings on, and the oven. Everything is working!

Now, the three of us (Richard, the electrician and me) had thoroughly twiddled the cooker’s buttons. We know it hadn’t been working – but now it is.

Cat collapsed into giggles, of course, and said, “Just watch your old one work fine for another three years now!”

Riverside Writers
Tonight’s meeting of Riverside Writers promises to be interesting, as we have two speakers. The first is children’s book editor Antonia Prescott, of http://www.thestorystudio.co.uk who’s going to talk about her work and her new business. The second speaker is Cath Bore, who will talk about her show on 7 Waves Radio and how we can get involved now the recording studio is in full operation. She wants writers to record their work for broadcasting on her show. That’s at http://7waves.co.uk/live-across-the-wirral/

Bethany Rose
Work on this re-write continues – the word count now stands at 20,500.

The house is filled with strange sounds – squeaking, thumping, rumbling, bashing and crashing thunks. Our immediate neighbours are having a new roof installed. I’ve turned in Victor Meldrew, having already photographed our own roof (with the builders’ scaffolding in the frame) to prove that we had no missing tiles before they began work.

And I am injured. Not mortally, but try telling my finger that. I painted the hall wall yesterday, and now I’ve got a blister. One tiny, dinky blister. And my finger feels like it’s on fire! Silly old thing….

Riverside Writers

Our meeting on Monday, July 28th went well, with another lively turn-out – and three new faces, too! Since the start of this year we’ve seen a big increase in membership, as if interest in creative writing is growing. Perhaps it is! Several of our members are new to writing, and some others write purely for fun. Several of us are more serious about writing, and have had work published and are developing writing careers. Between us all, we cover just about every genre, too.

Bethany Rose

The re-write continues: so far I've done 12,000 words, which is on target. The main changes I've made have been to move the plot along. The first half of the re-write is mostly a case of editing. The second half will require more creativity, so I'm looking forward to that part.

Photography

Richard's treated himself to a new digi camera, a Finepix S1000fd which is made by FujiFilm. He's bought himself a photodock too, as he doesn't use the computer at all. This way, he can crop and print to suit himself, (and I can't give him earache for using all my printing ink! *chuckles*)

He had been planning, at some future point, to convert our attic to a dark room. We already have darkroom equipment, including a rather nice b&w enlarger. However, digi photography is more convenient for various reasons. Now he fancies installing a home cinema up there, instead. Here's hoping he uses lots of sound-proofing!

He was interested in photography long before we even met. In fact, we met because of this mutual interest. He's been looking for something to do at weekends other than watch old films and listening to music - which he loves to do, too. Now he's got no excuse!

1,799 words today - plus I also updated my page on Amazon and my MySpace pages (Richard's, Riverside Writers', my design page and my writing page) to mention my appearence on 7 waves Radio tomorrow morning.

Our immediate neighbours are having their roof done. Emily nearly climbed out of the open front-room window in order to scrounge cuddles off the builder who was in our garden whilst erecting scaffolding.

I've already had to warn one of them to pay attention to our clear Beware of the Dog! signs. He'd pushed his hand through our gate to stroke my dogs. I know they're both softies, but I don't want these builders to think that. Who knows who any of these people are, or what their background might be? Call me paranoid if you want to. I put my security above anything.

Oh, the problem with updating my blog on the Wirral Globe newspaper is now sorted out, thanks to the help of their web developer. I should now be able to get back to posting my regular Wednesday updates there.

2,802 words done today - and it's only 1pm. How did that happen?!!

Ok, now I'll go in search of lunch in preparation for a deadly confrontation with the bramble which has sneakily grown in our front garden. Wish me luck.



Oh, yes - Tim Hulme and I will be appearing on 7 Waves Radio this Friday, between 11am and noon (GMT). If you live on the Wirral or nearby you can tune your radio to 92.1 FM. Otherwise, you can hear the show via their web site at:- http://7waves.co.uk/live-across-the-wirral/

I don't know which of his stories Tim will be reading, but he's an excellent writer so do listen in.

I'll be reading Beautiful, which was published in Quiet Lives (Amazon Shorts, 2008). It's the story of a woman's determination to live life to the full despite other peoples' assumptions about her. If you've ever felt disappointed by what you see in the mirror, this story is for you.

1,626 words this morning - and chapter one of the total re-write of Bethany Rose is now underway. The draft I'm working from was originally titled Cry for Innocence but this doesn’t fit in with the theme of my two other novel titles so I simply changed its name to that of the main character, as with the others.

The old draft is only 50,000 words long, so I need to double that. I have a solid plot in mind, to amend this. Also, there are many character and plot details which need to be changed so that everything blends with the mythos I’ve developed since penning the first draft of Cry….

For those who are now totally confused, I’ll explain that I wrote Cry… first, followed by Tamsin then Rowan. They can all be read in any order, so this won’t matter in the slightest. However, I’m not happy with Cry… at all; and so it’s about to be totally re-written with a whole extra plotline in the second half, and big modifications in the first. In a way, it might be easier just to start again from scratch, but there are some bits I want to keep.

I’ll be aiming to stick to the routine I used while writing Rowan - that is, to write a minimum of 1,000 words a day, five days a week. The writing comes first; other activities come after. This way work gets done, and within a reasonable timescale.

I now need to start editing the first draft of Rowan, which I haven’t even glanced at for eight weeks.

I also need to do more to a Sci-Fi story, working titles The Immortalists or The Karens, which is about a girl named Karen who is reanimated from a DNA sample. I’ve done 2,000 words of it so far, and it fulfils this month’s Riverside Writers’ project (which is what inspired it) but I feel more could be done with the idea. I’ve reanimated one Karen – but what if there were ten, or a hundred Karens?

Last night I was working on a new dragon design for my Zazzle merch. I’ve had a few requests for more “witch bears”! There’s one flying on a broomstick in my sketchbook… Requests, anyone? *chuckles*

We saw a gorgeous film called The Spiderwick Chronicles, which appeals to the childlike side of me – it’s full of odd little fairyfolk, helpful brownies and bad goblins and evil ogres, etc. Enchanting fun.

Oh, a few people have asked me why I’ve not updated my blog on the Wirral Globe newspaper. There seems to be some kind of technical error with their newly redesigned site. I’ve contacted them regarding this issue but have yet to receive a reply. I’ll keep you posted.

You know the feeling of having too many jobs to fit into too few hours? I know, I know… keep calm, prioritise and deal with one thing at a time. No problem; I can do that. I just wish the number of minutes within any given hour would stretch a little.

I’ve been editing Tamsin, and have reached one of the chapters which requires a major re-write. Guess who’s run out of yellow printing ink. The cyan is almost out, too. If any of the three coloured cartridges run out then the printer won’t work at all, even for all-black text. That’s my only gripe with the machine, as otherwise it’s proved itself to be smooth-running. So, at some point soon I need to take an hour’s bus ride into Birkenhead for supplies. I’d intended to do this today but I need to walk into the village for a few groceries – and to find Siberian Pine Nut Oil.

My father’s condition continues to decline. My brother Eric told me that when he’d visited Dad, he seemed completely immobile and his eyes were rolling in his head like a blind man. One of the nurses told Eric she was amazed by Dad’s tenacity. So are we all, actually – but it seems such a long, long, cruel death. Who knows how much he’s aware of? To think of him lying there, trapped within his steadily declining body tears at my heart.

A young climbing jasmine needs planting by the patio trellis. There’s a huge amount of weeding to be done throughout the garden. Earlier this week I continued tidying the front garden, cutting back the willow tree and Berberis thunbergii hedge, a slow task due to its vicious two-inch thorns – which are the reason I chose it for hedging!

Oh, I bought some cream trousers… The shops seem crammed with the most hideous skirts imaginable – huge floor-sweepers with big, clumsy appliqué junk randomly plonked all over them. Long skirts tend make me look like a 5’ 2” garden gnome.

There’re various on-going writing projects - a short story I need to finish by the weekend, and another anthology whose deadline for submissions is at the end of October. Three poems were sent to a local magazine just last week, too. I’m already playing around with a few ideas for the third novel in the series, though before I even write one word of that I fully intend to finish Tamsin and Cry for Innocence first. I’m seriously tempted to change Cry for…’s title, so that the series would have its titles after the name of the main character of each book. And I need to firmly prod (I’ve already tried gently prod) a certain well-known magazine who bought an article last November and have yet to pay me for it. Grrrr…!

And on top of that, I’m in the very early stages of setting up a new business venture - my own line of tattoo designs! Last night saw me surrounded by mounds of my sketch books and photographs of pottery, sketched caricatures, symbols from diverse sources, Celtic knots, ancient tribal sigils etc.

Last night I was chased through a city by Godzilla. In retaliation, I stole its eggs and made omelette. Pick on me at your peril.