Wednesday 31 December 2008

Wondering about... new years resolutions




I said I would think about what my resolutions should be and I've been doing what I said.

There are lots of goals I could set.

Someone whose advice I respect suggested it's always a good idea to write for more than one publisher. So I should probably resolve to submit something to someone other than Total-e-bound - either another e-publisher, or there are a few British print publishers I have been looking into that seem quite promising.

I'd also like to finish my Perfect Timing Series. There's another nine submissions to make in that one. And I'd like to sub at least two more Collared stories. And I'd like to send off three more anthology submissions. And I'd like to send off at least two lust bite length stories. And I'd like to make a good start on a new series I'm planning. And... Since that amounts to about three years worth of work already, I'll stop there!

And apart from writing I'd like to do a whole host of other things.

But at the end of all the thinking and making a whole list of things it feels essential that I do in 2009, do you know what my new years resolution is?

I'm going to try not to plan too far in advance. I'm going to concentrate more on enjoying the journey.

It's not actually important to know which project I'll be working on in Decemeber 2009. So, in 2009, I'm going to take everything in smaller chucks and smaller steps.

On Friday I'm planning to post up Five things I'd like to do in 2009 and that's going to be it for me as far as New Years resolutions goes.

Someone sent me a truely lovely e-mail this evening, wishing me a happy new year and she said some beautiful things. If I needed another reminder that to do lists aren't the be all and end all, that was it.

So that's it for me for 2009.

Hope 2009 proves to be a happy, healthy, peaceful and lovely new year for you and yours.


Other news:

I made a biscornu. It's had to discribe one without showing you one, but it's a little tiny needlework project and I had far more fun stitching it than any person rightly should.

No writing yet. I'm going to do the last five hundred words on my Round Robin Chapter and make up my daily 1000 with some work on the synopsis for my lastest M/m project, which I finished the first draft of yesterday.

Monday 29 December 2008

Memo: Confused

Hi everyone,

It's that time of year again, when thoughts look back over the last year and forward to the next.

2008 has been a great year for me, especially as far as my writing goes, so I'm feeling very fortunate right now. But I'm also making plans for next year, wondering what I'll do in 2009.

I know which projects I want to work on in January, and I have a fair idea of what will be happening in February, but after that it all gets a bit blurry. A lot depends on how things go for the projects I'm hoping to work on in those first two months. So, I'm at a bit of a loss.

New years resolutions are all well and good but you need a certain amout of foresight to be able to make ones that apply to the whole year, and I just can't see that far ahead right now.

There are lots of things I would like to get done next year, lots of things that I would love to write, or edit or submit. There are challenges I would like to tackle - different series, longer stories, different voices, different sub-genres - but at the same time, I'm really enjoying doing what I'm doing now.

And at the same time as all this, I don't think it's really possible to continue to edit and submit at my current rate forever, which means I should probably think about finding some sort of realistic balance in 2009.

*Rolls eyes at self*

I suppose what this memo is trying to say is simple. My current thoughts on the two years in question are as follows.

2008 - Very lucky.
2009 - Very confused.

Maybe by Wednesday I'll have wondered enough to make more sense. Not making any promises on that score!

*****

Other news:

No editing at the moment. Starting back January 1st.

Writing - 4000 words left on the novella I'm working on at the moment. I'm planning to finish that this month.

I'm also hoping to finish off a little project that is for some inexplicable reason taking me far longer than a novella. I'm writing a chapter for a Round Robin. 2000 words. That's all. I started it on December 5th. Since then I've damn near written three novellas. I still haven't finished the chapter. That's going to be done by the end of the month too.

I also need to update my website, I'm just waiting for a final decision on where In the Heat of the Moment will find it's final home so I can do it all at the same time.

Saturday 27 December 2008

Hitting the Hotspot

Hi Everyone,

If you get a chance, please check out Total-e-bound's Hitting the Hotspot blog today.

I'm over there talking about New Years, The Gift, and that moment where Anything could happen!

Thanks guys :)

Hope you are all having a great Christmas.

P.S. Am I the only person on the planet who can't work out how to get an extra column of widgts to appear on the left as well as the right hand side of my blog? If anyone knows what I should be doing to get that to happen, please let me know!

Friday 26 December 2008

Five more things... I've started stories with.

Hi everyone,

Hope you all had a great Christmas.

I was going to post something festive and seasonal and do a last plug for The Gift before everyone had their fill of Christmas and Christmas stories.

But my editor just sent me an e-mail to let me know that she's offering me a contract for the last story I sent in - In the Heat of the Moment! So excited about that. It's the tenth story I've had accepted, so I thought I should do a post to celebrate that.

Quite some time ago I posted five things I started books with. Now that I can add another five first lines to that, I thought that would be nice to add them all together.

So here are ten things I've now started stories with.

1. Flickering firelight lent an enchanting glow to Nicky's body.
- The Gift

2. Sheridan Haswell put a final touch of red paint to the heart on his left bicep.
- Secret Service

3. Zachariah Radcliff ran his fingertips over Charlotte’s throat, slowly tracing the line of her jugular.
- Whispers

4. The twirling spotlight hit the table dancer for one perfect moment.
- Turquoise and Leather

5. Luke Anderson was not going to come first.
- You First

6. “This is an incredibly stupid idea.”
- Between Tooth and Paw

7. "Don't waste your time."
- Silent Night

8. Brennan Talbot was not going to stare at his best friend's arse.
- Time To Do

9. “If you’re too prissy for a bit of kink—”
- Imperial Topaz

10. “I thought you’d like the look of him. Rumour has it he’ll do anything you want. Really—Anything.”
- In the Heat of the Moment. (No link, and nothing finalised so pretty much everything is subject to change at the moment.)

And that's it for now.

I'll post up the blurb and a little bit more about In the Heat of the Moment when I have some definite info for you.

Happy Boxing Day everyone!


Ops, almost forgot my other news...

Finished writing Parry's War yesterday. Planning to edit and sub that somewhere in February as the first in a new series.

Also started writing my new project - another M/m, BDSM novella for an anthology call. Hoping to finish the first draft of that by the end of the year ready to edit and submit either in January or February next year.

Wednesday 24 December 2008

Merry Christmas Everyone!


Merry Christmas everyone!

Hope you and yours have a great day tomorrow and it becomes the start of a fantastic New Year!

Monday 22 December 2008

Even more memo: New Cover Art


This one is a bit special. It was the first story I sent to TEB, the first story I had accepted. And it's going to be first title I have released that isn't part of a collection or an anthology.

The cover is by Lyn Taylor, it's the first piece of cover art that I have all to myself and I love it so much. The man in the picture is Eric - and he's one of my favourite characters ever. He makes me smile every time I think about him.

I have two blurbs that go with this one.
Turquoise and Leather is the first in a series called Collared. This is the blurb for the series.

Leather. Latex. Silver. Gold. Ink. Velvet.

There are as many different shapes and styles of collar as there are people who wear them.
Protection. Possession. Dominance. Submission. Loyalty. Love.

Some collars mean it's time to play, others signify a life time commitment. A fun bit of bondage to one person can easily look like the kinky equivalent of a wedding ring to another. A gold necklace might look vanilla enough until you know what it means to the person wearing it.

But no matter what it's made of or what it represents. Collars are important. A collar can make or break the submissive wearing it - and the dominant who put it around their neck.

It doesn't matter if you are dominant or submissive. Everything changes once one person is Collared.

And this is the blurb for Turquoise and Leather:

An untrained submissive might not be what George wants, but Eric could be just what George needs.

George McAllister knows better than to hook up with an untrained submissive. He doesn’t have the patience to guide a novice through his first kinky experiences. His lovers have to know what they are doing and do what they are told. When he sees Eric dancing on top of a table in a kinky club, he assumes the beautiful young man is an experienced submissive. Then he sees the turquoise and leather on his neck and recognises it as a collar. Someone else already owns Eric. George has no choice but to walk away.

Eric Jordan doesn’t know much about kink and he has no idea why George is suddenly less than enthusiastic. But he knows what he wants and if he has to chase after George to get it, so be it. If George wants to believe the pretty bit of rock on his necklace means something kinky, that’s fine. But Eric doesn’t belong to anyone but himself and he won’t give up possession of himself for one night in George’s bed.

An untrained submissive might not be what George wants, but he could be just what George needs.

...

And I think that is it for today. I still have promo work to do, and my writing for the day, and it's just gone ten pm, so I'd better get to it!


More Memo: Secret Service


Secret Service went live on the Total-e-bound coming soon page. It's now got it's own page and I've got two stories under my name on my author page. If I've done it right, the cover art should link to the right page.
February 9th seems like a long way away right now.

Memo: Lots Happening.




Everything's been happening for me over the last few days. So I'm going to split this into a few different blog posts.



Yesterday I found a review that was actually written just after The Gift came out. It's by Elisa Rolle. She seems to like it. You can read the whole thing here.


If you click on the tag that says Total-e-bound, you can read her reviews of the other two m/m Christmas Spirit's Stories.



Today, I was reviewed on Rainbow Reviews by Carole.



RATING:






Here's a snippet:



It's a beautiful love story. It's funny and hot and ~ you DO want to read it. I can't wait for more stories from Kim Dare!



There's lots more, but I can't remember how much I'm allowed to copy and paste onto here, so you can read the whole thing here. Needless to say I'm very chuffed with everything Carole had to say.

I also attempted to do a TEB chat the Love Romances Cafe yahoo group. Technical problems - i.e. the late realisation that you go on moderation until they're sure you aren't sending them spam, and so your first couple of posts have to be checked before they are visible made it rather difficult to talk. In fact, it meant that none of my posts actually got through until after the chat had finished. However, Jamie Hill very kindly posted some exerpts for me, so I did manage to promote a bit.

Okay. Change which book I'm talking about, and on to the next post...

Friday 19 December 2008

Five things that... Wordle

I've always loved words, I've always thought words were beautiful. I've just found a way to make them look even more fantastic than usual.

It's a sight called Wordle. You copy and paste text into a box and the programe makes a pretty picture out of the words in the text.

Here are five I made using various excerpts from The Gift. Clicking on the picture takes you to a larger version (I could only get little pics on here, the bigger ones are soooo much better - please do check them out if you have time).

The text above them links to where you can read the text I used to make it.

1. Blurb Wordle.



2. Exerpt of Charles and Nicky's first meeting.



3. Excerpt of decorating the Christmas tree.



4. Excerpt of packing a special present.



5. Excerpt of the start of the book.



Caution: making wordles is fun, but it's also very addictive!

Have fun if you try it :)

Other news:

In the Heat of the Moment has been printed out and should be ready to submit tomorrow.

The edits of Between Tooth and Paw came back to me, all done bar an extra little scene that needs to be added in the middle. That should go tomorrow as well.

Parry's War is my new first draft and it's at an early stage, but it's going okay so far.

Wednesday 17 December 2008

Wondering about... Christmas and age limits

At what age are you too old to sit on Santa's lap?


You tell me...


.


.


.


.


.


.


.


.


.



Not much to say really, too busy running around in circles to have much time to wonder about this Wednesday, so I just thought I would share :)

Briefly, in other news:

One edit of In the Heat of the Moment done, two left to do before I print.

Finished the first draft of Sealing the Deal yesterday.

Started the first draft of a new story called Parry's War today.

Monday 15 December 2008

Whispers: Cover Art + Blurb


Night of the senses is a BDSM Anthology. It will be released by Total-e-bound on the 23rd February 2009. Each story concentrates on one of the senses. My story is the extra-sensory one. It's called Whispers. It's a M/f, BDSM, Vampire story.

I love the cover. I forgot to ask who created it, but I'll let you know when I find out.

I posted the blurb when the story was first accepted, but here it is again in case you missed it.


Charlotte is more than happy to offer her master her body, her blood and her submission. But her mind is her own, if he really is listening in on her thoughts, he has to stop – Right now!

As soon as Zachariah feeds from Charlotte’s blood, he begins to hear her thoughts whispering into his mind. A rare blood bond forms between them and Zachariah is thrilled. He’s sure the bond and his new insights into Charlotte’s mind will solve all their problems.

Charlotte was ready for her master’s bite to hurt – she was looking forward it. She thought she was ready for anything else too, but she wasn’t ready to let her master into her mind. The bond isn’t the solution to anything. The bond is the problem.

Zachariah has to solve a whole new set of problems if he’s going to prove he’s the master Charlotte’s always wanted, and Charlotte has to learn to do something she’s never done before – trust a master with her mind.

Memo: Paranoia


Memo: When even the astrologists are picking on you, you have every right to be paranoid!
.
This is a copy of my stars that came through in the Newspaper Magazine this weekend.
.
On the one hand, it's great that someone who writes horoscopes seems to think I have talent (at least as much as the millions of other cancerians who read the same newspaper, lol).
.
On the other hand, yes, I do know that I didn't get through the entire list of things I wanted to do to promote The Gift last week. I didn't have a fantastic week health wise and I'd made a pretty huge list of things and places where I wanted to promote my story. I got quite a lot of it done, but I'm still working on finishing it.
.
I don't believe in astrology, but I'll admit that this one guy is freakily accurate when it comes to my own life. It makes me feel like the guy must be following me around and watching me over my shoulder to get it right so often.
.
So, yes, most of last week when on promting The Gift. This week I'm hoping to do more of the same.
.
On which note, the lovely Bronwyn Green has posted an interview with me on TEB author's blog. You can read that here.
.
Also, very excitingly, someone bought The Gift. And if that's not exciting enough, she liked it too. I recieved a lovely e-mail from a Norwegian m/m writer, and she's also posted her opinion on The Gift on her blog here.
.
I also had new cover art for the Night of the Sense BDSM Anthology which will include my m/f vampire story Whispers. I'll post the cover with the blurb in a seperate post.
What else do I have to update you on?
.
Between Tooth and Paw went to contract for inclusion in the Caught in the Middle MFM Anthology in May 2009. My editor is going to send me the edits on them this week.
.
I've done the big edit that In the Heat of the Moment needed. It will need at least another three go throughs before it's ready to submit. Hopefully that will happen before the end of the week. It's a short-ish story, so it's possible.
.
The story I'm writing at the moment - another short M/m one called Sealing the Deal - is at 9,000 words as of last night. That means I have 3,000 left to go on it, so that should be finished on Tuesday or Wednesday. It will hopefully go off to a publisher in January.
.
Did I forget anything? My head's still spinning in so many different directions, I probably did.
.
That's it from me anyway.
.
New cover art to follow in a seperate post.

Friday 12 December 2008

Five things that... link

Hello everyone,

I've been meaning to post some of these links for quite a while. Others I've just found. No theme or anything, just pages I've visited recently that made me smile or that made me want to pass the news on.

1. The Mom song. on Brynn Paulin's Blog. Watched this video clip way too many times. Still giggle every time.

2. Dakota's new backdrop. Do I need to explain?

3. TEB's Christmas competition. All you have to do is enter your e-mail address how much easier could it be?

4. Chelle Hicks has a new contract, new cover art, new website and new blog. (Some of these could probably be discribed as new-ish. Sorry it took me so long to remember to link.) Congratulations on all the great news Chelle.

5. You really thought you were going to get away before I mentioned it again? The Gift.

.....

Other news.

I'm now editing my Summer story. In the Heat of the Moment. It's already touching the top end of the word count. Lot's off cutting bits to make room for other bits left to go.

Tomorrow I'll start back working on the wip I set aside to write the summer one. Sealing the Deal, first of a new series. Needs 6k done on the first draft.

That's it. Sleep well people.

Wednesday 10 December 2008

Wondering about... Two years on

Hi everyone,

It's been a really exciting week so far for me, with my first book coming out on Monday. (Yay, me! - no there really isn't any chance I'm going to stop talking about it any time soon.)

But today I'm not going to talk about now, I'm going to talk about the past. Today is something of an anniversary for me. Two years ago today was the last day I didn't write at least 1000 words.

Now, I know that statement isn't going to make the least bit of sense to anyone who isn't me, so I'll have another go at explaining it.

The advice given out to anyone who says they want to be a writer, is that you should write every day.

Two years ago, I took that advice.

1000 words a day. Every day. No exceptions. Ever.

And, what's more, those 1000 words had to be on my main work-in-progress. No more flittering around between different projects and never finishing any of them. 1000 words on that project every day until it was done.

Tomorrow, I'll be starting my third year of keeping that commitment.

So today I thought I would do a re-cap of everything making that commitment to write every day has brought me so far.

1,841,000 words written in total.

3 stories that I didn't finish. (2 sweet, vanilla regency romances - wonder why they didn't work for me... and a story with a premise that wouldn't let the characters get kinky or having sex without turning into people I didn't like)

2 projects that have been set aside (meaning I know the ending, but other things have nearer deadlines and had to take priority for a little while)
72 finished first drafts.

22 re-written stories.

9 accepted and contracted novells and novels (plus 1 that I was offered the chance to extend or contract and which is going to be extended)
1 published novella. (The Gift - you might have heard me mentioning it a hell of a lot...)
And 1 wip - the story I'm working on at the moment. (It's going quite well.)
So, all in all it's been a really fantastic two years for me and my writing.
Considering I spent the first of those years not even being aware that there was publishers out there that accepted the type of stories I was writing, let alone that they would ever publish me, it really was a leap of faith that started me on the way.
I've never been more thankful that I lept.
Thanks go out to everyone who's helped me over the last two years, and all those who've put up with me too. You know who you are.
Have a great Wednesday everyone.
Kim Dare.

Monday 8 December 2008

The Gift is out today!


The Gift is officially on sale. It's m/m (with a bit of m/m/m) BDSM. And it's part of TEB's Christmas Spirit's collection.
Here's the blurb:
If Charles prefers leather to tinsel, that’s okay. Nicky is still sure he can teach his master to love Christmas – with the aid of a perfect gift.

Just because Charles doesn’t see any point in making a fuss about Christmas, that doesn’t mean he can’t tolerate Nicky’s passion for tinsel and holly. He’s never forbidden his pet from enjoying any of his Christmas traditions and he thinks that’s enough.

Nicky has one ambition – to give his master a perfect Christmas. He’s willing to do anything to make that happen – even if it means taking risks and asking his master for special privileges - even if that means inviting a third man into their bed.

The Spirit of Christmas Past isn’t used to visiting Christmases that involve quite so much nudity, passion or kinky sex. Leading a dominant man like Charles through the Christmases isn’t easy – and keeping his eyes off the frequently naked Nicky is impossible. Still, all the spirit can do is enjoy the show – because his job is to bring lovers together and fade away inconspicuously. That’s the plan. However, if someone suddenly wants to thank him, who is he to say no?
And here's a quick extract:
Nicky looked around the room. “Stupid.” He shook his head at himself, knowing he should have broken Charles into the idea more slowly. Nicky wandered back across to the tree. He picked up a bauble from the box and hung it on the end of a branch. He frowned at the gleaming ball of glass.

“Beautiful,” Charles said.
Nicky turned to see his master once more standing in the doorway, now dressed in jeans and a long sleeved T-shirt and looking infinitely more pleased with the world. Nicky’s face lit up with a beaming smile. He offered Charles one of the fancy purple baubles.
Charles laughed. “Not the tree, pet, you.”
Nicky blushed, half at the compliment and half at the mistake.
Charles took the decoration anyway. He twirled the bauble around his finger, watching it catch the light from the dozens of fairy lights already on the tree. He hung it on a branch.
Nicky offered him another one from the box.
Charles took that one too.
He stepped closer to Nicky, pressing his clothed body against his bare back. Charles barely looked at the bauble before he hooked it onto an empty branch.
Nicky gave him another. Charles leaned against Nicky’s body to reach a higher branch. His free hand settled on Nicky’s waist. As he straightened, pulling Nicky back to lean against his chest, his hand slid around his pet’s body.
He was already half hard, responding as rapidly as he always did to the change in his master’s mood. Charles wrapped his hand around Nicky’s cock and took up a slow, stroking rhythm. Nicky gasped. A bauble dropped from his fingertips, bouncing on the thick carpet. Charles turned him around. Trapping his erection between them, he pulled Nicky in close for a deep kiss.
Their lips moulded together until Nicky whimpered and pressed against his master, desperate for more than a kiss. As Charles trailed his lips along his jaw line to his ear, Nicky trembled in his arms. Charles slid his hands over Nicky’s bottom, massaging the tight muscles in his grip. Nicky felt his master’s cock rapidly stiffening against him.
Charles might not be over enamoured with his decorating, but there were some things Charles always liked. Sliding his fingers along his cleft, Charles smiled against Nicky’s ear when he found he was all lubed up and ready for him.
“Expecting company, pet?”
“I always like to be ready for my master,” Nicky whispered.
*End of excerpt*
If you want to read a long excerpt you can reach the publishers page by clicking on the coverart. You can also buy the book by following the same link :)
I'm also on the amazing Bronwyn Green's blog today doing an author interview. You can see that here.

Saturday 6 December 2008

Secret Service: Cover Art


The cover art came through yesterday. I am sooooo pleased with it!
The fantastic cover artist is Natalie Winters.
As you can see from the bottom of the cover, Secret Service is part of TEB's My Secret Valentine Collection. It's going to be released February 9th and it's a m/m BDSM.
I've posted the blurb before, but here it is again if you missed it:
What’s more important, their love for each other or their differing attitudes to kinky sex?

Alistair has made it very clear he isn’t into anything even vaguely kinky.

Sheridan knew he was in love with him the day he found that out, and then decided to stay with him anyway. Unable to ease his desire to serve at home, Sheridan volunteers at a club where he can secretly serve the patrons, and feed his submission, without upsetting Alistair by revealing that side of his personality to him.

When chance drags Alistair into that same club on Valentines weekend, Sheridan’s leather mask can’t keep his secret safe any longer. With his desire to serve out in the open, it’s not long before other secrets start to come out and they both have to make a choice.

Does Sheridan give up on ever being allowed to submit to the man he loves, or does Alistair take the risk of becoming the master his love has always wanted?

Between Tooth and Paw

This is the blurb for my latest acceptance.

Between Tooth and Paw is a MFM, BDSM, Werewolf, Vampire, Older woman / younger men novella. It's due to be released May 11th 2009 as part of the TEB's Caught in the Middle MFM menage anthology.

Here's the blurb:

Caught between two dominant men until they learn to settle their differences, all Jasmine can do is submit – and enjoy.

Thrown in between the future alpha of all the werewolf packs and the next head of all the vampire clans – the entirely human Jasmine Neal is charged with the task of helping the two younger men to forget their differences and set aside their hatred for each other.

Offering Stafford and Hayden her submission is easy. Offering them her body brings her nothing but pleasure. But she’s only been sent to submit to them for one night. When the council of elders return to discover if their scheme to settle the men’s differences is successful, she knows that the joy she finds with the two men will be over.

Jasmine didn’t expect to find one potential master that night, let alone be caught between two. But, that only makes it harder when she has no choice but to lose them both.

Friday 5 December 2008

Five things... about five different projects

Okay, it's a bit of a mish mash of a post today. I've recieved different bits of news for a few different stories, so I thought I would share them all at the same time.

1. Between Tooth and Paw - it's been accepted for the Caught in the Middle anthology, to be released on May 11th 2009. Very excited about that.

2. Secret Service - part of the My Secret Valentine Collection - now has cover art! It's stunning - it's also on my other computer. I'll drop it into a seperate post later on.

3. In the Heat of the Momment - the one I told you all I wasn't writing any more. Well, I'm back with it again. Possibly for a call or maybe for a stand alone short or something else if the call doesn't pan out.

4. The Gift - part of the Christmas Spirits collection - four days until it comes out and counting down all the time. Very excited about that. Enough said there.

5. This one's not actually about a book I'm writing. But I forgot to post about it before, so I'll do it now before I forget again.

TEB has a competition running. The cover art is the m/f version of the Christmas Spirits cover art I've got for The Gift, so I'm adopting it on that rather vague basis. The picture below is the link. Click on it - really it couldn't be easier to enter!


Wednesday 3 December 2008

Wondering about... excerpts

What makes a good excerpt?

Frankly, I have no idea.

I've been wondering about it, but I'm yet to reach any sort of conclusion.

Still, I'm quite please with the one TEB has put out for The Gift. It went live today (or maybe yesterday and I just didn't notice until today...)

You can see it here. It's the start of Chapter 1.

You can also see the one I picked for the Hitting the Hotspot blog here.

There's also going to be another one on my website as soon as I get a chance to post it up there. (Link on it's way as soon as the excerpt is actually there to be linked to.)

I've picked up another excerpt that I'll be promoing on different groups etc. (By the way, I'm always looking for new places to promote stories, so if you know of one, please let me know.)

And that's it.

If anyone has any advice about excerpts, feel free to share :)

...

Update on WIPs:

Between Tooth and Paw has been accepted by my editor (Yay!). I turns out it's probably not going to be suitable for the anthology (my two straight guys get a bit too friendly, lol) but it might yet find a place as a stand alone or as part of my Perfect Timing series. Wherever it ends up, it has been accepted. Very excited about that.

I'm admining like crazy this week, so I don't have an editing WIP to share progress on, but the short I'm writing at the moment is going quite well. I'm over 1/3 of the way through it and I'm hoping to finish it by the end of the week.

Monday 1 December 2008

Memo: December Already!

Note to self: Work out where the hell the first eleven months of the year went.

I have no idea how it can be December already. But it is, and I suppose I have to deal with the fact.

So, re-cap on November.

Sent off the two stories I wanted to send off. Secret Service was accepted. I only sent Between Tooth and Paw off a few days ago so I haven't heard about that yet, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for it.

I finished writing the main project I wanted to write during the month - my Nanowrimo project - 56,000 on A Model Submissive. So, that's good. My other writing project was going to be a short story for an anthology, but, for a varity of reasons, I'm probably not going to sub it for that call - what I've written of it so far will probably be the starting point for one of a new series I'm working on.

And that brings me on to my plans for this month.

December...

I'm hoping to finish two short-ish writing projects that I'm starting from scratch. Each is the first story in two new series I'm working on.

I've also got two extending/re-write projects I'd like to work on - one is the next book in my ongoing series Perfect Timing. The other is the first story in yet another series I'm starting work on.

I'd like to get at least one of these projects - probably the story for the Perfect Timing series - edited and ready to submit to my editor.

As for what I'll actually get done this month - that's anyone's guess!

And, it's offically one week until The Gift is released! Very excited! Lots of exclaimation marks to come over the next seven days!

:)

Happy December everyone

Friday 28 November 2008

Five things that... made me go ohhhh, sweet!

A somewhat lazy post today.

My excuse is, I've actually been productive with my writing.

Between Tooth and Paw just went off to my editor.

A Model submissive hit 50,000 - I finished Nanowrimo late last night. (I still have about 5k to go to finish off the story line, and I'm going to do that over the next few days, but anyway...)

and so, I thought I would share five photos I recieved in a forward.

So sweet...






















That's it for me.
Nos Da.

Thursday 27 November 2008

Hitting the Hotspot - The Gift


I'm over on Hitting the Hotspot today, sharing an extract from The Gift.

Please drop by and take a look if you get the chance.

You can find it here.

Thanks everyone. Have a great Thanksgiving if you celebrate it, and have a great day anyway, even if you don't :)

Wednesday 26 November 2008

Wondering about: Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Leaves


I know the holiday isn't until tomorrow, but I'm posting on hitting the hotspot then, so I probably won't be over here to talk about it too. So, for once in my life, I'm ahead of schedule.


Thanksgiving Thoughts


If you don't know already, I'm based in the UK. We don't have Thanksgiving. I think the closest we might come is a harvest festival. I remember them from school, and I know some churches still run them, but it's nothing like the scale of celebrations that the US seemed to have at this time of year.



Pilgrim Turkey



But, I've still got a lot to be thankful for, so I'm giving thanks despite my nationality.


Pilgrim Girl


I'm thankful for a lot of things.


Thanksgiving Dinner 2


I'm thankful for my family. For my health (which isn't perfect now, but which has been a lot worse in the past). For my friends, new and old. For new successes, and for past hard work.


Thanksgiving Carving


I'm thankful that I'm not one of the people on the news at the moment, that I'm not living in a country racked with war and suffering, that I'm not on the verge of losing everything when a company fails through no fault of my own, that I'm not living in a part of the world that tells me who I have to be and what I have to do with my life.


Thanksgiving Greetings


I'm thankful for a thousand little things that never seem important enough to list inside my head, let alone on a blog anyone could read, but which my life wouldn't be the same without.


Happy Thanksgiving 1


I'm thankful that no matter what goes on in the world at large I have the chance to escape into a world where I know everyone will live happily ever after when I sit down to work on a story. And more importantly, I'm thankful that when I sit down to write, I'm free to write whatever I want.


Happy Thanksgiving


I'm thankful for far too many things to list here on every day, not just one.


Pilgrim


And that's it for me.


In more minor news:


I have (thankfully!) finished editing Between Tooth and Paw. I've just printed it out ready to read through and sub on Saturday. I even managed to chop it down to 17 whole words under the maximum word count!


I'm also (once more, thankfully) not too far off finishing my Nanowrimo project - or at least on hitting the 50k mark on it. The actual story is going to go on for at least another 5k after that.


And, because I can't stop talking about it, even when I'm trying to do a sensible, slightly sentimental post, I'm thankful that The Gift is coming out on the eigth of December - seriously, the wait is driving me somewhat insane!


Thank you for reading ;)

Monday 24 November 2008

Memo: It's not about writing!

Note to self: You occassionally have to make time for things that aren't writing.



It's recently been brought to my attention that I'm a bit obsessive about writing at the moment - to the extend that I'm not making time to do anything else.

So, this Sunday I decided to do a little bit of work on a project that hasn't seen much action for a long time. The photo is of a blackwork afghan sampler. (Blackwork is called that because it used to be stitched with black thread on a white background, more ecently people have used more colours.)

The geeky bit for anyone who likes sewing - it's a 7x9 square afghan, each design is 5 inchs by 5 inches. The afghan is 18 count, but it's stitched over two threads so the designs are nine stitches to the inch - so it grows quickly. Single thread for the design, tripple for the boarder. All done in simple running, back and holbein stitch.

Each square is a different pattern I designed and each is stictched in a differnt colour. I started it in August 2005, and I've been working on it in fits and starts, but I haven't done anything on it since October 2007.

I've got 15 squares left to stich up. It would be nice to finish it by next August - a whole four years after I started it!

It's pretty impossible to get a good photo of it. I'll have another go at some point, but this is the best I can manage at the moment. Here's a different angle, but it still doesn't really show up the designs.


And that's it.

But since I can't do a whole post without talking about writing:

The news in brief...

The Gift - it's coming out in a fortnight. I might actually get a count down wiggit for that!

Between Tooth and Paw - the big edit is done, a few finer edits left before I can print it out - hopefully the print out will happen on Wednesday.

A Model Submissive - I'm currently on 42,500 words. Haven't done any today, I'm about to go and do that now.

Friday 21 November 2008

Friday's Five things... I was going to be when I grew up

Okay, I’ve been entirely out of sync all week. I just realised it was Friday five minutes ago.

Kaenar Langford has been over on Hitting the hotspot today talking about the ten jobs people would love to have. You can see that post here.

Anyway, I thought I would post up my five things about the five things I almost spent my life doing before I threw myself head first into writing and really committed myself to it.

1. Does anyone out there realise that knees are really important if you want to join the army? Well, I can tell you that they are really important I was about this *holds thumb and forefinger really close together* close to joining the army – actually getting accepted and going through the officer boards and all that - sort of close. My knees got buggered up (highly technical medical term) about six months into training and that was the end of that.

2. Engineering was top of my list of things to do for the rest of my life for quite a while. It seemed like a sensible thing to do. I do have moments when I’m sensible and practical and make decisions that make sense – honest *Grin*.

3. Embroidery and textile design. Well, I still do this. But it’s more of a hobby when I get time in between writing now. Patchwork and blackwork are my favourites but I’ll enjoy pretty much anything that involves a needle and a thread. I might make a good go of this one day – I’ve got the designs, now I’m looking for time to stitch them up.

4. Librarian. I suppose this is one every writer has thought about from time to time. Spending the whole day surrounded by thousand and thousands of books. What’s not to like? On the days when I still manage to be at least a little bit sensible, I suppose this is my back up plan. This is what I’ll probably be looking for if I ever get a traditional 9-5 job.

5. Perpetual student. You know those books of course information from various universities that you get through the post now and again? Well, I tend to look through them, ticking the ones I’d like to do at some point or another. I tick almost every course in the prospectus. For quite a while I studied with the Open University. I’ve got the first year of a BSc along with the first year and part of a second year of a BA to my name so far.

I finished a course in Ancient and Medieval Cities at the start of 2008 and I decided to take a year out of studying to see if I could make a go of writing if I really concentrated on it. After all, what was the point in having a back up plan if you never actually had a good go at the first choice plan?

I’d been writing pretty solidly (1000+ a day, every day) for quite some time before this, but I guess focusing all my energy on writing paid off. I wanted to send something off to a publisher before I turned 25. After a few minor false starts, I sent my first story to TEB a month before I turned 25, and it was accepted a fortnight later.

That one’s not coming out until March next year, but I’m incredibly chuffed to have The Gift come out in 2008. (Yep, you can be pretty sure I’m going to mention that in every single post until December 8th, lol)



Other news:

I’m on 37,500 for A Modal Submissive. On track as far as Nano is concerned.

I’m about half way through my first edit for Between Tooth and Paw. I’m pretty sure there’s not enough time in the word count for them to have sex as often as they would like to. One of the sex scenes is going to have to go so I can make more room for a bit more plot to happen. Other than that, it’s shaping up not too badly.

Wednesday 19 November 2008

Wondering about... Threesomes

Apparently they're very popular - in erotic romances I mean. Well, rumour has it they are pretty popular in real life too, but I'm supposed to be talking about writing here, so I'll stick to the fictional stuff.

People like reading about them, people like writing them.

I'll admit that the particular type of threesome I'm writing at the moment, MFM (That's the ones where the two guys are straight) isn't the combination that comes most easily to me.

The only threesome I've written and had accepted by a publisher was a MMM in The Gift. (It's coming out 8th December - less than a month away - incredibly excited about that).

So, it took me a while to sort out the psychology of why two dominant men who aren't with each other would want to share. But I think, with a bit of help from the paranoral world, I've worked that out.

Now I have another completly different problem with this mini genre. Three main characters seems to be playing havoc with my word count. The story is supposed to be 15-20k.

So far I've edited about half the first chapter and that section has doubled in length. All the characters want to have their say - and their fun - they all want it to be their story, for the reader to see their experience.

I'm currently on 17,500 with another 12.5k left to edit, so it looks like there's going to be a lot of cutting out whole scenes in my future if I'm going to keep it under the word could.

But, you know what? I'm actually enjoying editing this story far more than I thought I would. The characters are really coming together. It just might turn out not half bad. Now, if I can convince it to turn into a not half bad story that's less than 20k - that might be a different story.

Either way, I'm hoping it will go off by the end of the month, so I should know sooner rather than later if it will fit the call.

....

Other news in brief:

A Modeal Submissive - my nanowrimo project - is on 33k at the moment. I'll add at least 1k more before the end of the night. That's ticking over on target.

I haven't hit half the plot points that I wanted to include yet and I'm pretty sure one sex scene somehow expanded to fill two whole chapters on it's own. But at least I'm having fun writing it :)

Monday 17 November 2008

Monday Memo: Decisions, Decisions

Note to self: Make up your damn mind.

I have a decision to make.

Apart from a few that need to be extended a little bit, all the stories in the Perfect Timing series are written. They have to be edited and stuff, but they are written.

I'm hoping to finish my Nano novel by the end of the month, so I've turned my attention what which series I'm going to work on next.

Now, the series can be roughly split into two different types.

There's the ones I like. I like the plots, I like the characters, I want to write them. I'm looking forward to writing them. I run them over in my head and I want to sit down and right them right now. I smile when I think about the characters. I want to write them their happy ever afters.

Then there are the ones that I know, before I even start them, that I'm going to get even more attached to. I'm even more invested in these series than I am in my other series (and I'm pretty damn obsessive about them!). The individual stories are going to be longer, the characters will appear in several stories. There are more complicated plotting and continuity and characterisation issues, they deal with more complicated and more delicate subbjects.

My heart wants to write one of the later series next just becasuse it does... My head says I should pick the safe option and do one of the simpler series. I find I'm learning more and more as I'm writing, each draft I write shows up some of the things I learnt writing other stories in the past.

What if I'm just not ready to write one of the majorly complicated series yet? A little bit more practice, a little bit more polish, before I tackle them couldn't hurt. They would be better if I waited a while before I tackled them.

The stupid thing is, I know I've made the decision. I've made it over and over again, and I always come up with the same answer. I know what I'm going to work on in December. I just can't stop wondering if I'm making the right decision.

...

Other news:

I hit 50k! Technically that's a Nano finished, except only 31700 of that 50k was on actually on my nano, so I still have a way to go on that, but I'm up to date and it's going okay - nothing like I planned it, but still good.

Started editing Tooth and Paw today. Will report more when I'm done more to it and I can see where it's going more clearly.

That's it.

Happy Monday everyone.

Friday 14 November 2008

Friday's Five Things that... are harder to write than I expected

Okay, here's a question for you all - have you ever sat down to write a story and then ended up just sitting there staring off into space or scratching your head. These are five of the stories that I expected to find far easier to write then I do.

1. Sweet Romances. I've looked back over the writing I've done for the last few years, and I've realised that two of the ones I lost interested in and didn't finsh were the ones where the characters were too sweet. Don't get me wrong, I like the characters, I even liked the plots, I jus didn't have this desire to know what would happen next. There was no spark to them.

2. Vanilla. Other people seem to be able to write it no problem, I'm starting to realise I'm just not wired up to wirte about sex that doesn't have some sort of kink in it. It doesn't always have to be much, a bit of power play, a pair of hnadcuffs and I'm fine. It doesn't even have to look like kink - everything that's kinky about it can happen inside a character's head and that's fine with me. The kink just has to be there somewhere.

3. MFM. I write about men and women having sex all the time. Writing about one woman having sex with two straight men should be easy, right? Wrong. I have two main problems with this little subgenre. First of all - the two guys keep guying each other up - I write a lot of male/male. If there's three people in the bed, it does seem a waste not to let all of them play with both the other people in the bed. Secondly - my guys tend to be possessive - why are they inviting another man into their bed to have sex with a woman they feel possessive over? I've just finished writing a MFM and I'm about to start editing it. And I'll admit I have struggled with the psycholoy. In the end the only way I could make it work was to go down the paranormal route. I think it works now. I'm keeping my fingers crossed I still think that once I've started editing it.

4. Historical. Believe it or not, when I started writing, I was all about sweet Regency Romances. I even wrote a whole 80k first draft. The thing is - research. I never feel like I've done enough. 20 books on the Regency period later, and at least quadripple that number of websites, and I never felt like I even scratched the surface. I've come to the conclusion that I'm better off writing psydo-history/fantasy for those plots and characters who aren't happy living in the hear and now.

5. Short Stories. This one has been annoying me a little bit lately. I decided a while ago that I was going to post up a free little short story - maybe 1-2k every Friday. Should be easy right? I got a few ideas together and... suddenly I didn't have 4 short story plots, I have four novella plots. So, I told myself, okay. I'll write a free story to go up on TEB's free story section. That could be longer - maybe 3-5k. A little bit of thinking about it later, my list of novella plots has grown a bit more and I'm still without a short story to my name. Maybe I'm just not a short story writer and that's that. I always want a context around what happens, I want more to happen for the characters than I can fit into a short story.

Okay guys, so what do you find harder about writing or to write than you thought you would when you started writing? Any takers?

.....

Other news:

A model submissive - my nano project - is coming along nicely. I'm on 21,500 words so far, so it's about on target. I'll be passing the half way mark on the weekend.

My secondary writing project - In the heat of the moment - was going to head for an anthology call, but it's going off in an unexpected direction, so it's probably going to end up as a stand alone and not a anthology sub at all.

Editing - I'm taking the weekend off editing. On Monday I'm going to attack Between Tooth and Paw with the intention of subbing it at the end of the month.

And that's it. Take care all.

Wednesday 12 November 2008

Secret Service Blurb

Hi everyone,

Secret Service has just been accepted. It will be released as one of Total-e-bound's Secret Valentines stories on February 9th 2009.

It's a m/m BDSM novella.

Here's the blurb:

What’s more important, their love for each other or their differing attitudes to kinky sex?

Alistair has made it very clear he isn’t into anything even vaguely kinky.

Sheridan knew he was in love with him the day he found that out, and then decided to stay with him anyway. Unable to ease his desire to serve at home, Sheridan volunteers at a club where he can secretly serve the patrons, and feed his submission, without upsetting Alistair by revealing that side of his personality to him.

When chance drags Alistair into that same club on Valentines weekend, Sheridan’s leather mask can’t keep his secret safe any longer. With his desire to serve out in the open, it’s not long before other secrets start to come out and they both have to make a choice.

Does Sheridan give up on ever being allowed to submit to the man he loves, or does Alistair take the risk of becoming the master his love has always wanted?

Tuesday 11 November 2008

Rememberence Day

In honour of Rememberance Day (Vetran's Day in the US) I'd like to share two poems with you.

The first one is very well known, widely taught in schools and it honours the men and women who have died while serving.
.
The second is rather less well known. It's about what all to often happens to those soldiers who return home after the war.
.
Least we forget...
.
The Charge Of The Light Brigade
by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Memorializing Events in the Battle of Balaclava, October 25, 1854

Half a league half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred:
'Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns' he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
.
'Forward, the Light Brigade!'
Was there a man dismay'd ?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Some one had blunder'd:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do & die,
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd & thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.
.
Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turn'd in air
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army while
All the world wonder'd:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke;
Cossack & Russian
Reel'd from the sabre-stroke,
Shatter'd & sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.
.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse & hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.
.
When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wonder'd.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!
.
The Last of the Light Brigade
by Rudyard Kipling
.
There were thirty million English who talked of England's might,
There were twenty broken troopers who lacked a bed for the night.
They had neither food nor money, they had neither service nor trade;
They were only shiftless soldiers, the last of the Light Brigade.

They felt that life was fleeting; they knew not that art was long,
That though they were dying of famine, they lived in deathless song.
They asked for a little money to keep the wolf from the door;
And the thirty million English sent twenty pounds and four !

They laid their heads together that were scarred and lined and grey;
Keen were the Russian sabres, but want was keener than they;
And an old Troop-Sergeant muttered, "Let us go to the man who writes
The things on Balaclava the kiddies at school recites."

They went without bands or colours, a regiment ten-file strong,
To look for the Master-singer who had crowned them all in his song;
And, waiting his servant's order, by the garden gate they stayed,
A desolate little cluster, the last of the Light Brigade.

They strove to stand to attention, to straighen the toil-bowed back;
They drilled on an empty stomach, the loose-knit files fell slack;
With stooping of weary shoulders, in garments tattered and frayed,
They shambled into his presence, the last of the Light Brigade.

The old Troop-Sergeant was spokesman, and "Beggin' your pardon," he said,
"You wrote o' the Light Brigade, sir. Here's all that isn't dead.
An' it's all come true what you wrote, sir, regardin' the mouth of hell;
For we're all of us nigh to the workhouse, an' we thought we'd call an' tell.

"No, thank you, we don't want food, sir; but couldn't you take an' write
A sort of 'to be continued' and 'see next page' o' the fight?
We think that someone has blundered, an' couldn't you tell 'em how?
You wrote we were heroes once, sir. Please, write we are starving now."

The poor little army departed, limping and lean and forlorn.
And the heart of the Master-singer grew hot with "the scorn of scorn."
And he wrote for them wonderful verses that swept the land like flame,
Till the fatted souls of the English were scourged with the thing called Shame.

O thirty million English that babble of England's might,
Behold there are twenty heroes who lack their food to-night;
Our children's children are lisping to "honour the charge they made -
"And we leave to the streets and the workhouse the charge of the Light Brigade!
.
In memory of those who fought, those who fell and those who came home. In honour of those who still serve. And with great sympathy for all those who have been touched by war - regardless of who's side they are on.
.
Least we forget...
.
1918-2008 - Ninety years of rememberance for the war that they said would end all wars.
(apologies for the dots - only way I could get the poems and text to seperate properly)

Monday 10 November 2008

Monday Memo: Re-write the damn thing!

Okay, time to get back up to date now.
Note to self: Once you realise something doesn't work, stop fussing about and just re-write the damn thing, you know you'll have to in the end.

Secret Service is finally gone. It was a bit of a bugger - I think I only managed to save about 3000 from my first draft, but the re-writes finally paid off once I stopped trying to fix something that would never work and just wrote most of it again from scratch. I also re-wrote the synopsis - only the first paragraph or two were accurate once I finished the re-write!

It's with my editor now, so I have my fingers crossed for it.

The Stroke of Twelve verdict is in. It didn't make it into the anthology I was originally aiming for (it didn't fit the tone set by the other stories in it), but TEB still liked it and I was offered a contract for it as a stand alone. It's now going to be extended into a novel length story and it's going to slip into my Perfect Timing series in place of Time Out, which is going to form the basis for a whole new series I have planed :)

I'm actually quite pleased. Don't get me wrong, I'd have loved to have been in the anthology, but I'm also really existed about extending the story and giving it room to grow into something a lot better than it is right now.

A Model Submissive - my nano project is slightly behind schedule. I should have been on 15k last night, I was on 14k. Hoping to catch up a bit tonight.

Okay... I think that's it. All up to date :)

Except one other announcement - there's a chat tonight with Total-e-bound authors on Night Owl Romance. It starts at 8 pm EST and runs to 10 pm EST. In British currancy, I think that translates to 1-3 am tomorrow morning.

I'll certainly be there at the start, and hopefully until quite a way through it.

Drop by if you can.

Birmingham's Five Things.

My Five things about Birmingham...

(Please bare in mind that I do have quite a random thought process.)


1. The first thing I like about Birmingham is the buildings.

I live in quite a small town. The buildings are all Victorian terrances with a bit of Georgian thrown in here and there and the odd 1950's thing stuck up in the middle of it all.

Birmingham is a complete mish mash of styles from way back when to right now. I wish I could find a better photo to show you what I mean. I just love looking down a street and seeing what looks like a high victorian church next to a building like in this picture.

Old and new side by side. Great.

2. We have one in Cardiff. But this is actually the first book shops I've been into since I started writing Erotic Romance and actually saw something like the books I write on the shelf. I was very excited - the people with me were very patient.
They weren't my books on sale there, but maybe one day they could be, if you see what I mean.
They had a gay/lesbian section and an adult book section - neither of which I managed to locate when I went book shopping in Cardiff last. Very cool.
3. The Jewellery quarter. Hundreds of jewellery shops all in one place. Enough said.

It think the credit crunch has had an effect, there didn't seem to be quite as much on offer as there has been on pervious years I've visited, but still a lot of fun.
I bought... well, no jewellery at all. Didn't see anything I fancied - except a book that had a hole cut in the middle to fit a hip flask into it. I collect hip flasks, so it was something I had to add to my collection. I also bought a painted stone egg and a guilded wooden egg - I collect eggs too. I also collect apples, although I didn't see any there on this visit.
4. The Pen museum.

No trip is complete without taking in an obscure little museum. I'd visited this one before. It's fantastic. I made an old fashioned pen nib on the machines like the one in the photo.
(Yes, I am a big kid, lol.)
The last time I went there I got hooked on collecting old fashioned pens - quills, glass pens, anything like that. My handwriting is appalling with both hands (I'm ambidexterous) and I rarely do any writing that doesn't involve a key board and a computer, but they are very pretty on a shelf behind my desk.

5. And the fifth thing I liked about Birmingam - Just getting away from it all for the night.
I just does you good sometimes. Although, that said, I've been all to pot since I came back, and I'm blogging last Friday on a Monday, but still.

It was good :)

Friday 7 November 2008

Friday's five things that...

Hi everyone,

I'll be posting Friday on Saturday this week - I'm off to Birmingham today and I'm hoping to have five things to tell you about that when I come back :)

Have a great day everyone :)

Wednesday 5 November 2008

Wondering about... cover art

Not so much wondering as announcing.

I've got cover art!

The cover for The Gift came through to me today - I can't tell you just how excited I am about it - I really love the design.
I forgot to find out who designed it, but I'll let you know when I find out.

Here it is...



Okay, back to writing now :)

Monday 3 November 2008

Monday Memo: Why?

Memo: Why a character does something is just as important as what that character does.

Character motivations have been a big thing for me over the last couple of weeks. I have one character that really can't settle on a good reason why he's doing the things he's doing. His personality keeps flickering around and he just won't get with the plan at all.

I know what he's going to do.

I've written what he's going to do.

But I can't finish the damn story until he admits defeat and just confesses why he's doing these things.

I've come to the conclusion that some things just have to be explained or they can't happen in a story. If a character says he dislikes something - not just isn't in the mood for it, but hates it on a really primal level - the reader needs to know why.

Come to that, the writer needs to know why to.

Alister, as he informs everyone very early on in the story, doesn't approve of kink. Okay - fair enough, not everyone does.

But the problem is, he keeps changing his mind about why he doesn't like it. Doesn't understand it? Thinks he understands it but has it all wrong? A bad experience in the past?

He's gone through every possible reason and some I didn't even know existed until I started writing this story - and I've played along and re-written the story for each new theory he's come up with.

It's a 20k story and I must have written about 50k on it so far.

Yesterday, four days before I want to send the story to my editor, he hit on a new theory.

It sounds plausible. It just might work. He might stick to this theory for more than two minutes.

I'm currently re-writing the last chapter to see how it works out for him this way.

Wish me luck people.

.....

Random bit of other news:

My Nano novel - A Model Submissive is on 4000 words as of last night - that characters in that are cooperating nicely.

Friday 31 October 2008

Friday's Five Things That... I've done for Nanowrimo

Happy Halloween Everyone!
Pumpkin


Tomorrow it will be November and it will be the fifth November I spend doing Nanowrimo.
For anyone who's not familiar with it, Nanowrimo stands for National Novel Writing Month. It challenges you to write a 50,000 word novel during November. The idea is, it forces you to write quickly, switch off your internal editor and get a first draft down on paper.
Here's how it's gone for me so far.

Skeleton1. On The Eighth Day - 2004. This was a high fantasy novel. I wrote the 50,000 during November, but the story was nowhere near finished. In fact, looking back, I'm not even sure the story really got started! At the end of November I set it aside to work on at a later date. I intended to finish it one day (I still do) but it hasn't happened yet.

Werewolf2. The Red Flag - 2005. Another attempt at high fantasy. Only, in this one something interesting happened. Two of the main characters came to life. Degnal and Mafori - a former sergant in the kings army turned guide across the inhospitable regions of the country and Mafori a former potcher who was caught and branded a slave for her crimes. He buys her in a slave auction because he the only way to cross certain borders is to make an offering to the inhabitants of certain countries. This one went the same way as the last. I wrote the 50,000 in November and then set it aside. It will be finished one day, and you can garantee that Dengal and Mafori will live happily ever after in whatever ending I finally manage to write.

Costume3. Alpha - 2006. This was the first Nanowrimo story I finished. It took my until January 2007, but I did finish it. I did 80,000 in the November. The finally story was 212,500 words. It was the first male/male story I wrote, the first erotic romance story I wrote and the first real BDSM story I wrote.
All in all a huge turning point for me. I haven't really looked back since. I haven't started editing this story yet, but it (in a much shortened form) is going to be part of a series I'm hoping to write in the reasonably near future.

Vampire4. Falling Angel - 2007. After spending the previous twelve months writing male/male. This was my first real go at writing a novel length male/female erotic romance story. I wrote 100,000 words in November and finished the story with 112,500 in the December. This is another of the storys in my to be edited pile. Hopefully I will get to it at some point in the near future.

Trick O’Treater5. A Model Submissive - 2008. This year I'm going for another male/male story. It's BDSM (like pretty much everything I write). I'm aiming for a 50,000 word finished story during November - if I manage it, it will be the first time I've actaully finished by November novel in November.
My screen name for the Nanowrimo website is Pheonix Jones. You can see how I'm getting on here.

See you then.

One bit of other news before I go...

I finished Between Tooth and Paw tonight - just in time to start my Nano Novel tomorrow :D