13 ways to say yum

I always forget to do the Thursday Thirteen posts that some folks do. But tonight I remembered. So I figured I'd start with the good stuff:

Thirteen favourite men in books (no particular order):

1. Rupert Carsington
2. Gideon, Lord Carradice
3. Daemon Sadi
4. Japhrimel
5. Phin Tucker
6. Shan yos Galan
7. Daav yos Phelium
8. Miles Vorkosigan
9. Gilbert Blythe
10.John Knightley
11. Paul Schafer
12. James Fraser
13. Ammar ibn Khairan

Hey this is fun...how about a Thursday twenty-six?

Thirteen favourite celluloid men (again, no particular order):

1. Captain Jack Sparrow
2. Captain Malcolm Reynolds
3. Commander John Crichton
4. Spike
5. Russell Hammond
6. Mr Darcy (pick a version, any version)
7. Derek Shepherd
8. Crash Davis
9. David Addison
10. Josh Lyman
11. Johnny Castle
12. Will Turner (so sue me, I'm in the mood for pirates)
13. Han Solo

Er, so if I was to analyse that I'd say I like:
1. Captains and commanders
2. Pirates
3. Demons
4. Doctors
5. Scholars
6. Warriors
7. Musicians and dancers
8. Men who are smart, funny and sexy

If you can figure out who fits into what, then you probably like the same things I do ...as a hint, some of 'em fit into more than one category!

A shout out

Happy first release to Rachel Vincent (another of the fabulous Miriam's clients)!

Her urban fantasy, Stray, which features feline shapeshifters (what's not to like?) is out now. It has a cool cover (as you can see) and the snippets I've read are likewise cool. I have to wait for the vagaries of the postal service being all the way here downunder but the rest of you don't...get thee to a bookstore!



PS Rachel's running a contest on her blog to win cool Stray stuff, so check it out!

It's not easy being orange

Apologies because this is a little blurry but I had to get a picture of what I found the orange cat doing tonight when I got home (he'd obviously been sleeping like this quite some time). And then of course he moved when I tried to take another.



Life's hard when you're orange. Obviously just knocking down the cushion to sleep on isn't comfy enough, no, there must also be stuffing of the butt into a shopping bag to keep one's delicate rear end warm.

The grey cat has expressed an opinion that there is too much orange mentioned here. To which I reply 'yes but he does so many more nutty things than you'. Which earned me A LOOK. So now she's probably plotting something.

And now, because I need to exercise, eat and write before I can look at any of the books the nice postman delivered, au revoir

Yo ho Yo Ho

Back from Pirates 3. The verdict? I loved it! I know it's gotten mixed reviews and even in our group of 7 there were varying opinions - interestingly the guys liked it less. And I think that's because it's very emotionally driven for a big swashbuckling adventure action movie. The motivations are all love and family and freedom and revenge rather than just 'let's blow some shit up'. With interesting results. But I found myself just sitting there smiling in sheer joy at several times during the film, just enjoying the big, audacious, all out, hell of a ride of it. And no, not just because Johnny as Jack completely RULES. Someone once pointed out to me that I like the Quest story, the impossible dream. And Pirates had always been about quests...multiple quests by the time we get to this installment. Quest heaven. Sue me but I like characters that aren't always black and white and complicated stories and betrayals and good things done for bad reasons and bad things done for good ones. Worlds where nothing's certain and there are big things at stake in personal ways.

Like Serenity, it's not perfect, there a few bits that maybe could change but I'd rather see someone go for the balls to the wall story and emotion and miss in a few places and whack it out of the park in most spots than play it safe and end up with boredom. Really Gore Verblinski had me at hello (and btw, the hello in this movie is not pretty and I really would suggest that this isn't such a kids film) and has yet to lose me. I would happily watch more Pirates movies. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'll see this at cinema at least once more. For one thing, Johnny. For another, Orlando is growing up just fine. For a third - COOLEST WEDDING EVER. And for a fourth , well stay for the end of the credits.

And if, in an alternate world, I can be marooned on one of those pretty, pretty islands with Cap'n Jack, that's just fine by me. In the meantime, I've got my own quest story to be playing with.

Better

Well, something worked overnight, I feel a LOT better today, despite the fact I don't think I slept terribly well. I kept dreaming about people having babies...no idea what thats about but it wasn't me having them, which is good : )

The cold is still there, lurking a little, but I no longer feel like a limp dishrag with a head stuffed full of cotton wool. In fact, I've had quite the productive day. I've finished the draft of my partial revision and sent it off to be looked at by wiser heads. It'll get another polish before it goes off to Miriam in a few weeks. I've even done (ssssshhh) housework and gone for a walk. And the business cards are sorted and ordered.

Soon I'm going to the mall for a poke around Borders to see if anything takes my fancy and to pick up my tickets for Dallas!! Yay. Less than 7 weeks now (counting days? who, me?). Then I'll come back and see whether the wolf might be ready to come out and play.

Happy Friday!

PS Anyone know why blogger isn't emailing my posts to me? Anyone? Bueller? Confusion reigns.

Bad blogger

I know, I know, I've been a bit awol. That's because my brain's been a bit awol with another cold...or maybe it's the same cold. Whatever it is, I've been fighting off fuzz-head all week. I think of things to blog about and then they dissolve in my brain before I can get to the computer.

I've been applying vitamins and sleep, hopefully it will all kick in soon.

Tonight I've been wrestling with trying to come up with tag lines for my writing. I realised I needed new business cards for the conferences...mainly because I've changed my email and my blog isn't on the old cards either. Then I realised I really needed two cards...one for the paranormal/uf side of things, one for the contemps, because I couldn't come up with a look that suited both without breaking my already strained brain. I knew what I wanted for the paranormal and I came up with a catchphrase or tagline or whatever you want pretty easily (and even better, when I googled it, no-one has used it that I can see). So yay me. But the contemps are harder....I don't currently have an idea of the look and feel I'd want for a website if I sold one...other than vague notions of colours...but luckily I found a graphic that works for now. But I still need the tagline. I need something that hints at my voice, something that catchy, something short. I have some ideas but I can't decide.

I think it might just be easier after a good night's sleep. Which will also make it one sleep closer to Captain Jack on Sunday (oh joy, oh joy, oh frabjous joy). Pirate movies make me happy. Orlando. Keira. Sword fights. Swashbuckling. And the ever smokin' hot Johnny. Or as the VT and I have christened him Johnny "tsszzt" (that's the little sizzle noise in case you were wondering) Depp. What more could you ask for? How about this....

Sunday again

The rain is coming down, the inspiration not so much. The girls are still pondering Wolf 2 apparently. But that's okay, I'm distracting them by working on something else and listening to RWA tapes. Yesterday I even resorted to scrubbing floors - working on the theory that I could possibly bore the muse into playing along - but all I ended up with was clean floors and sore triceps (housework done the old fashioned way is an underrated form of exercise). Luckily the revision/rewrite seems to be something they're happy to play with so we'll go with that until they figure out whatever it is they need to figure out.

But it's been a good weekend in other ways. Catching up, eating out, watching Clark Gable (It happened One Night - cute), watching Jeremy Irons (Brideshead Revisited) and if you think that's a strange combination, then blame Quickflix. Somehow it's Sunday night again already. You'd think three day weekends would last longer but apparently not.

One good thing about Sunday night is that it's only 7 days to I'm off to see Johnny in Pirates 3 in Gold Class. Now that's a Sunday to look forward to!

On and on and on

Still slow on the writing front but that's because I'm doing a couple of full manuscript crits for a couple of my fab writing buddies - having fun in their worlds while my subconscious hopefully figures out stuff in mine.

But I need to get back to pages too. I spoke to my agent this morning and we have added another thing to work on. One I'd like to have ready to go when she gets back after some well deserved time off. Plus there's this Wolf2 thing to finish.

So play nice amongst yourselves, it's going to be busy, busy around here.

Ten random things about my mum

1. She likes birdwatching, cheese and having approximately four gazillion tops in each colour.
2. She makes a great roast lamb.
3. She's got a retail therapy habit.
4. She taught me (and lots of other kids) how to read.
5. Her hair won't perm.
6. She lets her huge black dog sit on her lap (the dog is practically bigger than her).
7. She likes expensive single malt whiskey.
8. She's cute when she gets grumpy.
9. She has an unhealthy obsession with ironing.
10. She's ace.

Happy Mother's Day little blonde Mum!!!

The balancing act

It's been a slow writing week. After finishing the scene that would not end last week and getting close to 60k, it seems the brain has decided it needs some 'okay, what next and how the hell do we wrap up all these threads' time. I sat down to write every night and either nothing happened or the universe intervened with people calling me.

Today is writing day but so far I've been to the chiro, bought part of a mother's day pressie and done some housework given that the stuff seems to have piled up again. Effectively working two jobs, means the balancing act of getting everything done is tricky. It's easy to keep four balls in the air - say writing, day job, exercise, eating right, but keeping five or six never seems to work. Either things get messy or I get sick.

Particularly if you want to have a teeny semblance of a life as well. I keep trying to convince the furry ones that if they live here and eat the free food provided, the least they could do would be to learn to carry stuff so they could pick up around here or let me tie a duster to their tail so they could scurry around and dust (seriously, that would be cool : ) ) but they, in the inimitable way of cats, are having none of it. So it's just me, trying to keep all the balls in the air. I'm not someone who has to live in a perfectly spotless house - clean and messy is fine. To a point. Once that point is reached the mess starts to annoy me and I clean up only to start the whole process over again.

Almost

Okay, so 59k isn't 60 but given I was out Friday night, most of the day yesterday and had stuff on this afternoon, 22 pages is still a decent tally.

Best of all I've finished the scene that wouldn't not end! I even have a vague idea of the next couple of scenes.

And now it's bed time for this little writer. Hope you all had productive weekends too.

May musings

Which must start with...MAY??? Already?? Oh dear. That's a third of the year done. Mind you, it's been a pretty exciting start to the year but still, a little slow down wouldn't hurt.

This week I have been writing the scene that won't end. It still won't end and it's kind of annoying. So I am going to work around it and skip to the next bit and come back and see if I can't finish it. I need to do something like 27 pages in the next three days to reach 60k by the end of the weekend. It's a busy weekend, so we'll see.

Apparently May also equals mail because things I've been ordering have been arriving (with more to come...yay!). I found a dress to wear to the GH ceremony so yay. At the moment it fits nicely but I'm joining the general lulu health kick and plan to be lighter in July. Luckily one of the lulus is a fabulous seamstress type as well as a fabulous writer so she can perform adjustments if required (only two months now...I'm so looking forward to it). Keri is back from RT and full of reports of adventures. I wanna go to RT. We shall see about next year.

I've also got my very own copy of Sunshine now, so I can read it again. After I get my pages done. Wednesday night turned into sit down and read Natural Born Charmer night. I blame House for being a repeat (stupid TV programmers) and well, the fact that Susan Elizabeth Phillips is fab.