famous faces

I got this from Ally Blake's blog. Excuse the terrible photo of me! It's the only one I have scanned in.

still shattered

I posted the partial of Heaven Sent to M&B on Thursday. They would have received it today. Yesterday I felt elated. I've sent three mss - two partials and one requested full - out this week. Today I just feel tired. I've been up until midnight almost every night for the last two weeks and then up early to go to work. Did I mention how tired I'm feeling?

Shattered might be a better word for it. I've been living on lucozade. I feel a very early night coming on tonight. I just need to stay awake for another hour so that I can go to bed and drift off listening to the psychic show on LBC (http://www.lbc.co.uk/default.asp).

With the writing out of the way, the next six weeks will be filled with study...and reading Phillipa Ashley's (http://phillipa-ashley.com/blog/) Little Black Dress book in October and Kelly Hunter's (http://www.kellyhunter.net/index.html) next M&B Modern Extra in November. I totally loved Kelly's first book - Wife for a Week. I've read it soooo many times!

paper cuts

I got a paper cut yesterday when I was shuffling paper round during my editing of Sea of Dreams and then I got another one - a really nasty one that required a plaster to stop me bleeding all over my ms - this morning when I was packaging my mss ready for a trip to the post office.

Paper cuts are a hazard of writing. I always used to get them. Not so much recently since there's been a bit of a writing famine. But it made me wonder, do editors get paper cuts? I mean, they handle our mss. They must get paper cuts. Or do they read our mss with rubber gloves on their hands?

OK, silliness over. Rules and Sea were both posted today and so the waiting begins. I'm hoping to hear by Christmas but you never know - could be earlier or it could be longer.

Christmas will be here before I know it. This week I've got to concentrate on polishing up Heaven Sent for Modern Extra. Then I have six weeks of serious studying, followed by a week of freaking out about exams, a week freaking out about having so much work to do and then two weeks in Cuba! It'll only be one week until Christmas when we get back.

Let the countdown begin!

i wrote

...and wrote and wrote. And now I'm on a high!

The first seven chapters of Breaking the Rules are printed, ready to go to Little Black Dress at lunch time tomorrow. Can I just say that I think this ms rocks? And I think my synopsis is pretty cool too!

And the full of Sea of Dreams is also printed and ready to go to DC Thomson tomorrow.

Phew!

I'm exhausted! Or at least I should be.

The obvious question is did I do any study this weekend? Nope. Not a dot. But then there's always next week.

This coming week is about editing Heaven Sent (previously referred to as Holly's ms or The Husband Hunt) as my fantastic cp has sent me a fantastic crit.

shattered

I'm officially shattered. I figure I must be about to come down with something because I'm feeling very low and tired in general. When the alarm went on this morning I seriously considered not going to work. I did go but the brain failed to engage on several occasions which resulted in several hysterical laughter moments at work after I astounded my colleagues with my complete lack of an ability to function as a person.

The thing is I did actually leave work early yesterday because I had a killer headache. It was brought on by stress, in fact it started about five minutes after the stressful situation I was in yesterday resolved itself. So I came home, ate, slept for a few hours and then edited chapter five of Rules. I also swore at the laptop a couple of times because it seemed to be functioning as slowly as me.

I didn't sleep well and woke up this morning feel crap but not crap enough that I didn't go to work. I still had the headache although it was just there in the background until about 4pm when it started to kick in again.

So far tonight I have done absolutely nothing. I should be finishing chapter six of Rules but I don't think I can. It is not going to kill me to finish it over the weekend and post it on Monday.

But enough whinging. I had good news today! A full request from DC Thomson. Now, if you'd asked me last week after Tarts got rejected by M&B, I would have said I had nothing left out there. You see, I sent a partial of Sea of Dreams to DC Thomson on December 1st last year. They usually have a pretty quick turn around so when I didn't hear I just assumed it had been rejected and I hadn't got the letter.

But I was wrong! I got an email from the editor today apologising for the delay and saying she has read the partial and would like to see the rest. All I have to do is run through it with a red pen to shorten the word count and it will be ready to post on Monday.

I feel like the writing gods (if there are such a thing) are smiling on me at the moment. Tarts might have been rejected but I got a comps slip from M&B to send in with another submission which I'll polish up next week, Rules is just about ready to send into LBD and now I've got a full request for Sea of Dreams!

Now if only this headache would go away.

agent update

Thanks to everyone who has emailed me with advice on the agent dilema. I have listened hard and done some serious thinking and while I tend to agree that finding an agent is a good idea, I am going to send BREAKING THE RULES directly to Little Black Dress. That's not to say that I won't go down the agent route in the future. Just not with this particular ms. Tonight I'm doing a final run through chapters one to four and chapter seven then I need to finish an assignment. I have a feeling it's going to be a late night! Tomorrow I'm rewriting chapters five and six. Thursday I'll run through them one final time and Friday I'm printing and going to the post office. Now that I've posted that on my blog, I'll have to stick to it!

agents

So, I spent Friday night working on the first person version of Tarts Inc. I'm pleased to be able to report progress. LBD take the first 100 pages which is SEVEN chapters for me.

The first three chapters are as polished and ready to go as they ever will be. Chapter four is done but needs a polish. Five and six need rewriting but everything is there so that shouldn't take too long. And seven is done, done, done.

I'm thinking I can have this baby out the door by Friday. Which brings me to my next dilema - do I send it straight in or do I send it to agents first? I only "know" two LBD authors and both have agents.

There's also a second dilema in the background but it's only a small one - a name change. I'm so over Tarts Inc. It was the name for my Modern X version. This version is much funkier and I'd like a new name to go with it. So far all I've come up with are:
Breaking The Rules
Breaking All The Rules
Breaking Her Rules
The Rulebreaker
The Four Week Rule

Breaking All The Rules is the only real contender at this stage.

In other news, we visited a HUGE stationery store - Staples - today! For me, it was like being in heaven! As far as my husband was concerned, I was weird! I tried to explain to him that all writers like stationery but he just didn't get it. But in the end he did give in and let me buy more things for his desk that he actually needed. I didn't get anything for myself because I already have an overflow of surplus stationery in the house.

And I have also completed ONE assignment this weekend. Last night, in fact. Which means I am now only one assignment behind schedule. If this headache that is currently bothering me goes away, I will get that assignment done tonight and may even start on the next one.

It's going to be a busy week. It's our seventh wedding anniversary tomorrow so shan't be writing or studying! On Tuesday we'll be watching our weekly dose of Prison Break and the first two episodes of Spooks, which returns tonight. And on Wednesday we'll be watching the start of series two of The Unit. The rest of the week will be dedicated to study and writing, which I will, of course, be finding time for on Tuesday and Wednesday nights.

POSTSCRIPT: Now I have another dilema. Is it the first 100 pages I'm meant to send in or is it the first three chapters? I've seen guidelines with both. I have the first three chapters ready to go. What to do?

hm&b rejection

I came home tonight totally fired up to complete two assignments. But somehow I don't think I'm going to be studying tonight.

Instead, I'm sitting on the sofa with a rejection letter next to me. Yes, M&B rejected Tarts Inc. But it was one of those "good" rejections. I submitted my first ms to M&B in June 2003. Since then every single rejection letter I've received has been personal and I've always been sent a comps slips signed by the editor asking for me to send something new directly in to her. I've always been told comps slips are like gold dust.

I have another comps slip. That's the good part.

And it was another personal rejection letter - not a form rejection - so that's another good thing.

The editor said my premise was interesting and quite ambitious but the scenario was over complicated, and that there was a danger that the reader would not be able to identify with the heroine because they didn't get a clear sense of who she was because she was posing as somebody else.

However, my sensual tension is great and they look forward to hearing from me in the near future.

Hahahaha! The near future? I don't have another single thing that I can send them. I'm all M&B'd out.

OK, so maybe I'm not totally M&B'd out. I do have that ms I was freaking out about a few weeks back that I kind of like and haven't submitted anywhere but feel like it's missing something. I'll send it to my cp tonight along with an angsty email explaining what I don't like about it and see what she has to say.

And I do have a plot for a new M&B Modern Extra but it's many many many months away from being completed (or even started, for that matter) due to exams etc.

Anyway, the plus side is that I have a single person version of Tarts that I really enjoyed working on (unlike the M&B version which was like getting blood from a stone) and I'd talked to my cp about submitting it to Little Black Dress recently. Well, now I can. I'm kind of excited about that...at the same time as feeling a little sad that I've got yet another rejection letter.

peter brock

I've just read the sad news that Peter Brock died earlier today in a rally crash. Most people probably don't know I'm a bit of a petrolhead. I watched Brocky in the Bathurst 1000 and Mobil 500 every year when I was a kid. I loved it! I even went to Wellington to watch the Mobil 500 one year. These days I'm more of a Formula 1 fan but reading about Brocky's death reminded me of those years. I feel sad for Australia. They've lost Brocky and Steve Irwin in the same week.

exam result

Got the result of my July exam in the post today. I passed. Just. Still, it was still a pass. I shall celebrate by taking donnuts into the office on Monday. It was a bit of a wake up call though ie I need to start putting a bit more effort in for November's exams. I've only done one assignment so far. So shall be studying hard this weekend.

Visited baby Annie yesterday. Very pleased to say she's gorgeous but that I didn't have any maternal urges. Phew! I was worried! She must have known because she was very well behaved! So well behaved that I'm already planning my next visit.

technical difficulties

I've been missing for a while due to technical difficulties. Not with my new laptop, I hasten to add. My husband's computer died over a week ago and he uses it for work (rather than just writing and study like me) I had to let him use my laptop.

He builds his own computers so I had several days of "bits" arriving last week and when they all arrived, the lounge turned into something resembling a bomb site. It's usually over in a couple of days but this time, come the Friday night, one of the new bits failed. So instead of having my laptop back to study all weekend, I had to find things to entertain a grumpy husband who used my laptop.

He offered to tidy up since he had to wait until Monday to order new stuff (arrival Tuesday) but I didn't think it was worth it. I regretted this last night when the groceries arrived and I didn't have anywhere to put anything!

Touch wood, it all appears to be working tonight and I have my laptop back!

I'm way behind on my study and I'm also inspired to start writing again thanks to Julie Cohen (www.julie-cohen.com).

And I've got a half day in the office tomorrow because I'm going to see my friend and baby Annie!

Argh!

Writing is frustrating! Very frustrating. I read through The Husband Hunt last week and thought I'd worked out how I wanted to edit the first three chapters. So I copied the word doc and started playing with the cutting and pasting tonight. So far all I've managed to do is change it all and then and put it back to almost how it was before I started.

Now I've done a chapter breakdown and think I just need to switch two events around.

Well, technically that incorrect. As well as switching the two events around, I also need to go back and layer in lots more sexual tension. That is definitely missing.

However, I'm having a slight panic attack right about now. I'm thinking maybe I can't write and this ms is really just a pile of poo. I just logged into my gmail account and read an email that my first ever crit partner (hi Amanda!) sent me after reading the original first chapter for this ms. She liked it. Of course, that was quite some time ago because I did originally start work on this ms in 2004.

Maybe I should just make the two changes, switch the laptop off and come back to it again tomorrow to layer in the sex stuff and see how it seems.

Or maybe I just need to be ruthless and cut anything that seems rubbish. After all, it's only words and I can write more.

Of course, I'm also panicking because I should have done an assignment this weekend. I went to the library on Friday (day off) and Saturday so I have read through the lessons for assignment three and four. I just haven't finished assignment two. Maybe tomorrow.

Or maybe I just need to send my chapters to my current crit partner for some feedback. I assume she must have read through the three chapters last year before I sent them to a US publisher but I don't remember. However, I'm not sure she's around at the moment - school holidays and things.

As I said, ARGH!

Oh baby!

My best friend had a baby today! A little girl - 6 pound 2 ounces. They've known for months that their baby was a little girl and we've been calling her by her name - Annie - for ages. I got the call just after 12 noon. Daddy sounded rather stunned! Annie was born by c-section a week early because she was in breech position. My friend has sent me several texts tonight. Apparently Annie has slept most of the day, including when her mummy tried to feed her! I've also been sent a photo. Mother and baby are doing well and I'm planning to visit next week. I've been the excited friend for months, however now I'm the worried one. What if I see Annie and decide I want a baby? Or worse, what if I see her and still don't feel that maternal urge? I have to go shopping to buy a present. I saw the cutest little baby socks in a shop two months ago. Nearly bought them but didn't want to tempt fate. Apparently Annie has more clothes than she is ever likely to wear and millions of fluffy bunny rabbits. So I'm thinking maybe I'll buy her a book. Then again, that sounds boring. The only thing I know for sure is that I am not stepping foot in a Mothercare store. I did that a few months ago and it was scary!

Tagged

Yikes, I've been tagged. Thanks, Amanda! And the question of this particular tag:
"If you could write a novel about any subject, what would it be?"

Before I get into my answer, I want to say that Amanda's lovedotcom (see her tagged entry on her blog - and no, I don't know how to put links in my posts yet) was fabulous! She sent it to me to read when she first started critting my writing for me and I loved it. It's a shame she hasn't still got a copy of it but at least she's managed to recycle some of her characters. I've done that too!

So, what is my answer? I've been thinking about this for two whole days and I'm not sure I have an answer. If I could write a novel about any subject, then I guess it would always be the book that I'm currently working on because that is always my favourite book at the time.

The first book I ever wrote was called The Wrong Brother and was about a woman who joins an online matchmaking service after a couple of years of being single again (after her husband left her for another woman), falls in love with a guy she meets online and then, when she goes to meet him for real, finds out he's actually her brother in law. That all happened in the first chapter and the rest of the book is them working out their relationship. I loved that story and I still do.

Jump forward two mss to the next one I'm still in love with (what that means is that there was a rubbish one in between!) called The Italian's City Bride.

OK, I'll stop rambling about past mss and talk about the current one now. To be honest, I'm not sure I should write it. It's about a woman who doesn't have any children and doesn't actually want any. Why am I unsure if I should write it? Because not wanting children seems like a crime these days!

However, this story has been running around in my head for at least 12 months and the desire to write it gets stronger and stronger each time I look at it. I probably shouldn't but...

Family events, Jake Wellington hated them. People went out of obligation, not because they really wanted to be there. They spoke politely to each other, smiled for photographs and then usually ended up getting drunk.

Except he didn’t think this event would involved that much alcohol. This event was supposed to be about a person who couldn’t drink. A child. But that didn’t usually stop his grown up relations from turning celebrations into a drunken party.

Still, he didn’t intend on staying long enough to find out. He’d go outside to join in the party for long enough to say hello to the family. Out of obligation. Then he’d make his excuses and leave.

It was already arranged. In precisely thirty minutes his mobile phone was going to ring. He’d take the call and would, reluctantly, have to leave to attend an urgent business meeting.

‘You look like this is torture for you.’

Jake turned towards the voice, ready to defend himself. ‘You don’t look so happy yourself,’ he retorted, guilty at having revealed his thoughts. Hopefully Rosie and Justin hadn’t noticed his unwillingness to take party in what was supposed to be a happy family event.

The woman shrugged. ‘I don’t like christenings.’

There was something in the way she said it that told Jake there was much more to her short statement. Then it suddenly dawned on him. ‘You can’t have children?’ he asked, followed quickly by ‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.’

He was surprised when the woman laughed. ‘Oh, it’s much worse than that,’ she said with a tinkle in her eye.

He raised his eyebrows in question.

‘It’s not a case of not being able to have children so much. It’s more a case of not wanting children.’ She paused to glance at the guests, most of whom had a child or two. ‘It’s something of crime around here.’

He smiled. ‘I know.’

‘Don’t tell me they pester you as well? “When are you going to get married?” “When are you going to have a baby?” “Don’t leave it too late – your biological clock is ticking”.’

He nodded. ‘They do. ”Isn’t it time you found yourself a wife to have children with?” I get that one every time I come to a family event.’ He grinned. ‘So how is your biological clock?’ He ducked to avoid the flowers the woman threw at him.

That is the opening for the ms I'm calling No Maternal Instinct. I have no plot. I'm just writing it as I go, putting the pieces together like a jigsaw puzzle.

Another ms I'd write if I had the time is about a group of woman who share an allotment. I've done the research but I need more of a plot (no pun intended!) for this one. I've got several opening pages but none of them have grabbed me yet. And, I had a title but I saw a new book out with the exact same title when I was in Tesco yesterday checking out the new releases.

OK, so I've prattled on enough. Who am I going to tag? Only four or five people know about this blog and three of them have either already answered the question or been tagged. So I'm going to cheat a little bit. If you haven't already been tagged, tag yourself and leave me a comment so I know to pop over to your blog to read your answer.

Too much of a good thing?

Is it possible to have too much of a good thing? My husband seems to think so. When I last posted, I was about to watch the next episode of Bones. Mainly to oggle at David Boreanaz. However, my husband decided that watching nine episodes in nine days was enough so instead he made me watch a show he likes called The Dead Zone.

It's about a guy who is living his dream until a near fatal crash leaves him in a coma. He wakes up six years later to find his girlfriend has married someone else. He also now has the ability to see into the lives of people he touches. It's based on the book by Stephen King.

I grudgingly watched the first episode. Then we watched the original movie. Then I grudgingly watched the second episode. Now, four days later, I am on episode eight. All I've done is swap one obssession for another!

I find my obssession with The Dead Zone rather amusing. The relationships are rather weird. There's Johnny (the guy who has been in the coma for six years) who is still in love with Sarah (his girlfriend from before his accident). Sarah is married to the sheriff but is still in love with Johnny. Then there's a reporter who appears to be in love with Johnny. But Johnny touched her in an earlier episode and saw a vision of her life and I swear it was the reporter having sex with the sheriff, who is meant to be in love with his wife!

I have also seen two episodes of Bones. TV, it seems, is ruling my life!

Take today for example. I had the day off work. We would have gone to Southampton again but the weather forecast wasn't great so we decided to stay at home. Did I study? No. This morning I stayed in bed very late and then checked out all my favourite blogs and websites when I finally switched the laptop on before watching two episodes of The Dead Zone. We had a late takeaway lunch and then I switched the laptop on again. This time I did do some study but minutes after posting this, I'll be watching another Dead Zone followed later tonight by a Bones.

I've also just been reviewing the list of "fall" shows on a favourite site of mine (www.tv.com) and realised not only does Prison Break start on Monday, but I won't have long to wait until The Unit and CSI return! Bones also starts a second series shortly.

Did I mention that I have two exams in November? I have seven assignments and a mock exam to complete for one exam and a whole lot of study for the other. Not to mention those 16,000 words I need to write to complete The Husband Hunt.

I think I need to get focused!

Those who want to can read more about Bones at the link below. But be warned, this site may spoil the show for you as it contains a summary for every episode. Personally, I like that!
http://www.tv.com/bones/show/33332/summary.html?tag=tabs;summary

Likewise, you can read more about The Dead Zone here:
http://www.tv.com/search.php?qs=the+dead+zone&type=11&stype=all&tag=search%3Bbutton

Cleaning

I must be feeling ill. I have a new laptop but instead of spending the weekend playing with it, I spent yesterday cleaning. Why? It all started because my husband asked me to find the user guides for the old laptop because apparently someone might want to buy it. So I looked. And looked. And looked. In the end we came to the conclusion that we must have decided the old laptop was so old when we got it that we'd never sell it and probably threw them out.

But the looking reminded me that our place was covered in dust. Literally covered it in. When I'm writing or studying I can normally get away with a quick clean every now and then. I mean, I have an excuse. I'm busy! But yesterday, having soaked in the bath and made myself clean, I decided to clean the house.

It started with in the bedroom with the windowsils and bedside cabinets. Then I progressed into the bathroom - which wasn't as bad as it could have been since I'd washed the floor last weekend! After that I moved into the lounge. I have a terrible sense of smell so I couldn't smell the cleaness of the disinfectant but I did have a satisfied smile on my face a the end of it...until I got up this morning and saw all the fluff all over the lounge floor from that beanbag. How much fluff can a beanbag create? We must have had it for a month now. Surely it's got to stop moulting at some stage?

Anyway, so I felt virtuous yesterday. It might have lasted today if only I'd done that assignment. I swear I meant to but it just didn't happen. I'll try to do it this week. I did get all my research for Ladies Who Lunch (my allotment ms) out of the box file I'd hidden it away in and located some stuff for No Maternal Bones (which is the single title that's really calling at me at the moment).

But, if I'm going to be honest (and if I can't be honest on my blog, what's the point in having one?) the story I'm really dying to work on is called The Husband Hunt. It was originally written with M&B Tender in mind but I never actually submitted it because the line changed direction and The Husband Hunt no longer fitted. But it had a kind of Modern X feel to it. It only needs 16,000 words and I'm due a response on Tarts any day soon so I'm keen to get this ms completed so I've got another partial ready to send on in.

But right now, as always, I'm going to watch another episode of Bones. Purely for research purposes.

New laptop!

I'm excited because I have a new laptop! And it was a complete surprise! Well, not a complete surprise. My husband talked about getting me a new laptop on Monday. I just didn't expect it to happen for a long time.

My old laptop is many many many years old and didn't have word on it because it didn't have enough memory. It was also very s-l-o-w. But it was good enough for checking my emails and working on assignments. Not so good for writing though. The programs I used in place of word mostly didn't have word counts. It was frustrating. But all that is in the past now.

I came home from work last night to find a new HP waiting for me! I didn't play with it much last night because I was late home but I have been playing tonight. I had actually been planning a lazy weekend because I'm not feeling 100% but instead I will be writing and studying so I have an excuse to use the laptop. I won't have any excuse not to write now!

I've just spent the last half hour transferring mss from my usb drive to the laptop. I've got two mainstream mss that I'm going to play around with over the coming months plus I have an ms on 44,000 words that I need to get up to 60,000 for Modern Extra. I want to have it ready to send in as soon as I hear back about Tarts.

But right now I'm off to watch another episode of Bones. Amanda, if you're reading this, Bones is fantastic! Well, DB is. I'm not sure about the actual storyline but I'm not that bothered since I'm really only watching it as hero material research. He is definite hero material!

Nice things!

The last few days have been packed full of nice things!

On Friday, as we drove through London on our way to Southampton, we went passed Eton House - the home of Mills & Boon! I've been to Richmond before but I've never seen Eton House.

On Friday we caught up with my husband's father which was nice. We also caught up with my husband's brother, who we haven't seen for years. And we spent some time at Mudeford Beach, which I love. All in all, it was a great day!

On Saturday and Sunday, there were free events held in our local park. Sunday was the best. It was the Latino carnival. We watched an amazing parade and then went back to the park with a rug and sat and listened to the music. Last night when I went to sleep I was a little sunburnt and tired, but I felt very relaxed. I'd had a fantastic weekend!

I also started watching a new tv series at the weekend. It's called Bones and is inspired by real-life forensic anthropologist and novelist Kathy Reichs. I've read her books so I figured I might as well take a look at the series. Watched two shows so far. I'm slightly undecided. Planning on watching another one or two before making up my mind whether to watch the whole series. One big thing in its favour is David Boreanaz. I never really got into Buffy or Angel but I'm liking him in this!

Some time this week I'll have to do some study. I should really complete assignment A of my new course. I would like to get some writing in too. I'm toying with two ideas at the moment - a single title and a Modern X. Although right now, Bones is winning.

I'm off to watch some more David Boreanaz!

Well done, Donna!

Woohoo to Donna Alward who sold a book to Harlequin Romance! It's always good to hear about friends selling. You can read Donna's sale story on her blog which you can find by clicking on the link in my links on the right or by going here: http://www.donnaalward.blogspot.com/. I haven't figured out how to do links in my posts yet!

Today I don't suck

Today is a good day. Today I don't suck. Today I am celebrating passing my May exams! The results arrived early, which was probably good because I would have been a nervous wreck today in anticipation of the results tomorrow. Instead, I'm surfing the internet and thinking about studying. I was a little shocked because I was convinced I'd failed one exam. I didn't! I passed them both! The coursework and study guides for those two courses were put away this morning!