Richard took this photo of me yesterday. It was taken in our garden; you can see part of the thick curtain of glossy ivy which climbs up the wooden fence by the contorted hazel tree, right by the entrance to the Grove or "circular lawn" as I obliquely describe it in my latest Hubpage: http://hubpages.com/hub/Adeles-Garden

The photo was taken for use with my author's bio for a horror/dark fantasy anthology to be edited by Raven Digitalis, who started this project two years ago. Raven intends to submit the MS to an interested prospective publisher on October 1st. My contribution was Spanish Jones, part one of which was broadcast live on 7 Waves Radio in October last year. It's a tale of pirates, selkies and witches fighting to the death on Hilbre Island and Middle Eye. Anyway, here's hoping that the MS will be accepted.

Meanwhile, Riverside Writers have now received one quote for printing our anthology. Obviously we're waiting for other quotes to come in, but already it looks like being a choice between two local companies. I sent emails to members this morning to tell them Gary Smailes from Bubblecow http://www.bubblecow.co.uk/ will be joining us at the next meeting.

Yesterday Richard arrived home clutching Cajun chicken and two wonderfully dreadful films: one had Godzilla and Rodan battling with a three-headed chicken-ish winged thingy, and the other film featured a giant shark (which ate San Francisco bridge and leapt skywards to chomp a plane) battling to the death with a giant octopus, which ate a few ships and an oil rig or two. Both films deserve a place beside Shark in Venice! and King Kong Lives - the one where Kong has a heart transplant and takes a fancy to a Lady Kong with a ginger rinse. Awful but hilarious, all. The Cajun chicken was good, too - peppery spicey, just as it should be.

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.

Yesterday I was at Radio City in Liverpool to meet producer Ali McBride. While enjoying the amazing view across the city centre from the top of Radio City Tower, she told me about Roy Basnett’s Friday show, Zone Unknown
- http://www.citytalk.fm/showdj.asp?DJID=48793.

His guests have included the Most Haunted team, parapsychologists, Bigfoot hunters and a white witch, and he hosts debates on conspiracy theories.

Then we stepped into a tiny recording studio and I narrated Spanish Jones (part one), a tale of selkies, smugglers and ghosts. Ali said she will to add a few sound effects, such as the cries of seagulls and the sounds of the ocean.

While it’s only part one of a three-part story, it is complete in itself. Parts two and three are set in contemporary times, whereas part one is historical.

It will be broadcast on City Talk 105.9 FM tomorrow (Friday 6th) sometime between 10pm and 1am (GMT).

You can hear the latest show (or catch Friday’s show later on Saturday!) by visiting the City Talk URL given above.

Gardening can be hard work, as Ygraine demonstrates in this photo.

Emily has discovered how to jump over the fence. As we'd like to keep our dog (and not be sued) we now need a higher fence. Ygraine has never once escaped. Emily has earned the nickname Houdini, and is currently under house arrest until the fence can be installed.

It'll be delivered on Friday. But before it can be errected, the thorny hedge which I've been coaxing to slowly grow since we moved in now needs hacking back again. Now, when I say thorny I mean thorny. Think of 3" needle-thin spines every finger-space along every branch. As a deterent to two-legged pests it's done an excellent job. A certain four-legged scamp, however, just ducks underneath it then scrambles over the old low wire-mesh fence.

So we spent part of the weekend pruning back tree branches and branches from a long and towering (not-thorny) hedge. This afternoon I began the task of pruning back the thorny hedge. I've done half of it. Enough was enough, for now!

I have finally finished writing (albeit for a tweak and polish) the third section of Spanish Jones. It's set on Middle Eye, and continues my theme of selkies (seals which can take-on a human shape) which has been used in other stories. This time, it's selkies battling with witches. At 6,500 words, this is easily my longest short story so far. The submissions deadline falls on October 31st, so I've time to polish it yet. I had three deadlines all falling on the same date, and I've managed to make them all. Whether the respective editors like the work is another matter, of course! So, now it's back to getting on with Rowan again.

Richard and I were in Liverpool on Sunday, to look at new gas fires and fire surrounds. Then we went to the cafe where my niece has a part-time job, and we enjoyed a lovely cup of tea while the poor girl was busily waiting on tables. Eeeek, I've never seen her move so much before! I tell you, that little lady can work when she has to! Her boss praised her to us, without any prompting.

And here she is:-

http://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/blogs/booksblog/adelecosgrovebray/display.var.1587938.0.haunted_hilbre.php

The above link will carry you off to my latest post on the Wirral Globe, which talks about Hilbre Island, site of several of my stories including Seagull Inn and Spanish Jones.

I thought I'd offer you some photos to give you a better idea of the site, which is arrived at by waiting for the Irish Sea to turn tide and leave an expanse of wide, flat sand exposed. Leaving the mainland at West Kirby behind, visitors walk first to Little Eye, which is a grassy tussock clinging to rock (usually) above sea level. Then walkers turn right and move parallel to the mainland as they trek over a vast area of wide sand to Middle Eye, a bigger island surrounded by umpteen rock pools festooned with seaweed and barnacles. Hilbre Island itself is beyond Middle Eye.


This first photo shows the journey from West Kirby out to Little Eye, which can seen on the horizon just above the four people. In the centre of the horizon is Middle Eye and Hilbre. In this photo it looks like they're joined. They're not; there's quite a long walk between them.

( Read more... )

Today's sunshine enabled me to finish laying paving bricks for the "bin park" in the front garden. This saves us having to drag any one of three large refuge bins from behind heavy locked gates at the side of the house, where the bins had previously been sited. I'd prefer them to remain there, out of view, but we seem to be forever moving bins in and out of the gates, or walking round with refuge while we hunt down the right bin (which was invariably on the opposite side of the gates to ourselves).

I've been tweaking my website, adding some new information. There's also a new front page picture but I'm not too sure about the red lettering - or the stretched image, for that matter. Go take a peek and give my your honest opinion, if you wouldn't mind. That's at:- http://www.adelecosgrove-bray.com.

Riverside Writers met again last night - a small turn-out, but it was an enjoyable evening nonetheless. I read aloud my ghost story, Spanish Jones, which is set on Hilbre Island and in Oxton. Having written it, I now think this might form the intro to a much longer story. Anyway, we'll see.

Yesterday afternoon found us sitting in a solicitor’s office, drawing up details to be included in our updated Will, such as our desire for a Living Will and for certain specific funeral arrangements. We’ve been meaning to update these documents for ages. Enough of procrastination! There’s no point in waiting for one of us to drop dead and then go, “Oops, we really needed to update our legal stuff! Quick, reanimate him/her and wheel us off to the lawyer’s office!”

And today we have glorious sunshine! That’s a rarity this summer. Mostly we’ve had non-stop rain. Maybe you’ve been watching the news, and are aware of the extensive flooding which has swamped large areas of southern England, particularly around the Gloucestershire area. (I used to date a lovely fellow from Stroud in Gloucester….)

Anyway, two little doggies saw the sunshine and came bounding up to me with leads in their mouths. I think we can safely take that as a hint. So off we went, through Ashton Park and onto the promenade, where some brave folk were crunching through their picnics. Sand and chicken sandwich, anyone?

Despite the sun, there was a lively breeze coming in off the sea. The breakers beyond Hilbre could easily be seen even from the mainland. Conditions looked pretty rough out there.

For reasons known only to him, Richard bought a boxed set of Jaws films. So I suspect tonight will see another round of people going “Arrrrrgh!” whilst being attacked by a rubber fish. Hmm, methinks I’ll be reading more of my book pile.

And Rome has finished now. Have you been watching that on TV? It’s unusual for me to be interested in a TV program, but this one was fun. My only minor gripe was with the way Cleopatra was portrayed, as according to recorded history she was a highly educated, multi-lingual woman.

I finished writing Spanish Jones - or at least I’ve finished the 1,300-word section which will be used for the ghost tours at Hallowe’en. Watching the breakers crash behind Hilbre, I realised that I’d only written the first part of a much bigger story. Don’t you love it when stories insist on you adding stuff to them? They acquire a life of their own, I’m sure of it.

Anyway – back to work….

I applied new sealant round the bath. Now, in the advert, it looks so easy; a tidy flow of sealant smoothly emerges from the tube, and in no time at all a perfect job is done. Does it work like that in real life? Bah! The pesky stuff comes out in great blobs or not at all. I ended up using a small artist’s palette knife to get the gloopy stuff to go in the right place. And now some bits have peeled up already. Humph!!!

Yesterday’s unrelenting rain encouraged me to stick close to the computer and continue working on The Reluctant Monk. It stands at 884 words at the moment, though I’ll probably tweak the text two or three times yet. The story gives some previously unknown (unknown by me, too!) background information about my main Bad Guy, who features in my novel, Tamsin.

In the afternoon, I began working on a second short story, also intended for the Oxton ghost tours project. I was going to have one the of main characters as heavily tattooed, then I remembered our microscopic budget and the possibility that it might be raining on the night of its performance – an actor with dissolving fake tattoos might look a bit silly! Plus I’d given him a curly black 18th c. wig, which the prop department might not be able to find. So I scrapped that idea, and offered impressions of appearance rather than specifics, and what began to emerge was Spanish Jones, a Welsh privateer (or pirate, in plain language). The Dee Estuary was notorious for piracy, at one time. I have no idea how that story is going to finish yet. I’ll find out when I write it!