Book Tag

Nell (who recently received the most gorgeous cover for her July release from Little Black Dress -- see it here) has book-tagged me, so here it is...

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open it to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people and post a comment to the person who tagged you once you've posted your three sentences.

I feel like maybe I should give some sort of critical analysis of whatever I post, but I think it depends on what I get!

*looks around for the nearest book*

I've laid my hands on Barbara Erskine's Whispers in the Sand, which I haven't actually read yet. Hope I don't come across a spoiler. Anyway, here are the relevant sentences:

She slipped off the canvas folding stool upon which she had been sitting before her easel and sank cross-legged on the Persian rug, fluffing her skirts up around her. When she glanced up he was offering her a plate, his deep brown eyes grave as they rested for a moment on her face. There wasn't a trace of servitude in his manner as he smiled the slow serious smile she was growing to like so much.

This book is set in the present and when I read this paragraph I thought it sounded quite historical. A flip back through the pages revealed that this comes from a scene which is actually a flashback into the past. I'm most intrigued by who "he" is, and why his eyes are so grave when he looks at her and yet he smiles anyway.

I tag: Sue, Karen, Judy, Julie... and whoever else would like to do it.


Just finished reading: Loose Screws by Karen Templeton

Bids Away!

Brenda Novak's Diabetes Auction is now in full swing. The first week is over and it looks like it's going to be a very successful year again in terms of fundraising. My gift box is already bid up to $56 -- last year it sold for an eventual $96. I'm bidding on a number of things myself (yeah, I know I won't win the trip to Vegas, but I'll have a go at it). Check out my gift box here, and go here for the auction main page, from which you can search through the many, many lots up for the taking.

Our trip to Spain went very well. Little Frog, in particular, made us very proud with his "what's all the fuss about?" attitude to flying! The weather was great and we had some lovely relaxation time. Oh, and here's a pic of The Bloke and Little Frog by the sea. Can you see what he's doing? The weirdest thing was that after we stopped him and emptied his hand, he tried to do it again -- and again. Did it really taste that nice?




Just finished reading: An Eligible Bachelor by Veronica Henry

My gift box for the Diabetes Auction

Here are the details on the gift box I am donating to Brenda Novak's Diabetes Auction:

A Taste of England -- a gift box from author Jessica Raymond

• A Lily of the Valley gift set from Woods of Windsor
• English Lavender bath herbs
• Twinings English Breakfast tea bags
• A box of slow-baked all-butter shortbread fingers
• A signed copy of A Taste of Summer, a duet beach romance by Jessica Raymond and Nell Dixon
• Jessica Raymond notepad, pens, bookmarks, and fridge magnets

The auction begins on May 1st and runs until May 31st. Bids on my box will start at USD $2 and you can pay by Paypal, credit card, cheque (US-drawn) or money order. There are LOADS of other fabulous things up for grabs and Brenda will be giving an amazing prize away to the person who places the most bids, even if they don't win anything.

Once the auction starts I'll post up a permanent link to my gift box on the sidebar.

I'll be away from the blog for a little while now, as tomorrow we fly to Spain to visit my mother. This is Little Frog's first ever trip on an aeroplane and I'm really hoping he behaves. (It doesn't help when both Mummy and Daddy hate flying.) But I'm just going to think about the nice sunshine and the good food and seeing the look on his face when he squelches his toes into some soggy sand on the beach :)

A Short Story - "Rearview"

A short story of mine appeared on the Moonlit Romance Authors Blog last week. If you'd like to read Rearview, just click here. I'd love to hear what you thought of it!

News of my Diabetes Auction gift box coming very soon.

The Soundtrack to My Life?

I shamelessly stole this from Liz Fenwick, who usually has some of the best meme's and tag-posts :)

If Your Life Were a Movie…What Would the Soundtrack Be?

Here’s how it works:

1. Open your music library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question/bullet-point, type the song that’s playing
5. When you go to a new question/bullet-point, press the next button
6. Don’t lie and try to pretend you’re cool, because you’re not!

Opening Credits: Feelin' Good by Nina Simone

Waking Up: Save Me by Remy Zero (the theme tune to Smallville)

First Day at School: Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out by Nina Simone (??!! -- and I have over 400 songs in my library and it picks the first artist again...?)

Falling in Love: Whisper of a Thrill by Thomas Newman (from the score to Meet Joe Black, and this is a pretty good match)

Fight Song: Inertia Creeps by Massive Attack (which could work!)

Breaking Up: Respect by Train (I think this is from one of my Dawson's Creek soundtracks and the lyrics kind of fit)

Prom/Dance/Ball: Angel by Ralph Fridge (a dance tune which, bizarrely enough, was released around the time of my high-school graduation)

Life’s OK: Toca Me by Fragma (the original version, not the one that's just been re-worked)

Mental Breakdown: Times Like These by Foo Fighters (another reasonable match!)

Flashback: Smoke by Natalie Imbruglia (and this is quite good, too, because it reminds me of my dad for some reason)

Getting Back Together: Everything by Lifehouse (which you must listen to because it's gorgeous... and also sort of fits lyrics-wise... I sometimes imagine this as a first-dance-at-wedding song)

Birth of Child: Daniel's 9th Cipher by Hans Zimmer (from the Da Vinci Code origin
al score... thankfully I don't own the score for The Omen!)

Wedding: Poe Meets Larkin by Mark Mancina/Trevor Rabin (from the Con Air original score... bizarre fit movie-wise, but it is a very beautiful orchestral arrangement)

Final Battle: Deadline by Dutch Force (a dance tune... I half-hoped something from the Flash Gordon soundtrack -- yep, I own it -- would pop up here)

Funeral Song: On Hallowed Ground by Graeme Revell (from the original score of The Crow... a pretty eerie match)

End Credits: Call the Police by James Morrison (and what should I make of that?!)

Dreams of Danny Dyer

For those of you who don't know who Danny Dyer is, here's a photo:



He's a British actor, and for some reason I had a dream about him last night. Not that I'm complaining ;)

Today I got one of those kneel-pad office stools, in an effort to be kind to my back. When I'm proofreading I have been known to sit in one spot for three hours or more (I know, I know, I should take a break every half an hour and stretch...) and my dining-room chairs just haven't been cutting the mustard.

I'm in the process of finalizing my gift box for Brenda Novak's Diabetes Auction, so keep an eye out for news and a photo of the prizes. (Speaking of which, Debs, I have not heard from you yet about your prize!)


Just finished reading: The Wives of Bath by Wendy Holden (Thanks, Pip! Really enjoyed it, although if the character of Jake was real I would need to be held back from punching him in his smarmy face.)

Can't Wait

I am so excited about this. Anyone else?

Full Plate

Hmm, so I was away from the blog for a little bit longer than I'd expected...

It's been very busy around here lately. Little Frog didn't get any better any faster and ended up going into hospital and staying overnight for dehydration. Fortunately we were allowed home the next day and he made a very steady recovery. Now he is eating more than ever and he is about to produce his third tooth!

I've also been mega-busy with proofreading. Every time I've finished one job I've had another sitting on the table ready to go, so there hasn't been much R&R for me. Still, it's nice to be tackling work again -- and it doesn't hurt the bank balance, of course!

Thank you so much for all your suggestions on things I could include in my English-themed gift box for Brenda Novak's annual diabetes auction. I have drawn a winner from all those who posted and it is... DEBS! Congratulations! If you could head over to the "Get in Touch" page of my website and let me know your details then I'll get your signed copy of Haunted Hearts and some chocolate in the post to you ASAP :)

Food items were the most popular suggestions for the gift box (who knew?), and so I have decided on the theme of British Cooking. I'm thinking a classic cookery book along with various typically British ingredients and condiments. Keep an eye out for pics of the gift box and a link to the auction page when it all goes live.


Just finished reading: Blood Brothers by Nora Roberts

Swings and Roundabouts

Positives from the last few days:

1. I finished my mountain of proofreading.

2. I won Phillipa Ashley's contest and now have a nice copy of Wendy Holden's The Wives of Bath sitting on my bookshelf.

3. I had a precious extra hour in bed on Saturday morning.


Negatives from the last few days:

1. An elderly member of the family, who had been unwell for some time, passed away.

2. Little Frog has contracted a very nasty bout of gastroenteritis.


At times like this I find it helps to think, "This too shall pass."

While I'm away from the blog for a few days, I'd like you all to put your thinking caps on for me. Brenda Novak's Diabetes Auction is coming up in a few months, and I will once again be contributing a gift box full of great items, probably on the theme of "England". So, I'd like to know a few things:

1. What sort of things would you love to get in a gift box?

2. What sort of gifts/prizes do you think of as being typically English?

I'd particularly appreciate the viewpoints of those of you who don't live in England, for whom English things will be a bit more of a novelty! Everybody who leaves me a comment with their suggestions will be entered to win a signed copy of Haunted Hearts -- and I might throw in some English chocolate too :)


Just finished reading: Full Exposure by Diana Duncan

Quick Bulletin

Still here. Busy working. Maternity leave finished and lots of proofreading to do. Great to be exercising the brain and earning money again, but hardly any time leftover to do anything else -- hence no progress on word counter. Really don't think I'll fulfill the To Do list this month... But stranger things have happened!

Mystified by MySpace

I've finally succumbed to the progress of technology and joined MySpace. There are people I know who've been on there for quite a while but I've never done it myself before now -- mainly because... well, if I'm going to be honest about it, the pages always look really cluttered and messy to me! But I think you can customise your own page, yes?

I would appreciate any pointers or advice anyone can give me about MySpace. How do I find new friends? How do your customise your page? What sort of things do you normally do on there?

If you would like to be my friend (shades of primary school...) then you can see my profile here.

I'll be looking for advice again in the next couple of weeks, this time to do with contest prizes and the sort of things you like to win! So look out for that :)

Cake Helps You Write

Question: How can we already be a week into February?!

It's been a time of great milestones for Little Frog lately. In the last fortnight he sprouted his first tooth, finally worked out how to sit up unaided, spent a trial day with his childminder (during which he went to a birthday party and was helped to play pass-the-parcel: be still my sniffy motherly heart), and then promptly sprouted his second tooth. How can this be when he was only recently a little pink wrinkly person who just knew how to sleep, poop, and cry??

And so to writerly things... I meant to post my February "To Do" list on the 1st, but got distracted by baby teeth and suchlike. So here it is:

1. Continue subbing my motherhood article. (Am still waiting to hear from the first magazine.)
2. Write chapters two and three of Truck of Luck.
3. Write another short story.
4. Update my website.

I finish my maternity leave next week and will be back to proofreading, but I am going to try my best to continue to meet my writing goals. I may need a couple of slices of Marks & Spencer's chocolate fudge cake to help me, but if that's what it takes then that's what I gotta do!


Just finished reading: One Night Stand by Julie Cohen

Whoop Whoop!

The first chapter of The Truck of Luck is DONE! And I am loving my characters. Their dialogue feels really effortless to me, which is great (I sometimes think my dialogue sounds a little forced) and I lurve my hero -- always a good sign.

*happy sigh*

And now I get to celebrate, because today is mine and The Bloke's sixth anniversary (of our first date) and Little Frog is at his grandparents, so we are going out for dinner :)

Ch-Ch-Changes

My maternity leave comes to an end in just a couple of weeks now, and Little Frog is booked in to have a trial day next week with the lady who will hopefully be his childminder. My feelings are mixed about the whole thing (as I imagine most mothers' are). It will be the first time he has been looked after by somebody who is not family, which makes me feel weird and nervous, but equally I am really looking forward to working again. Ah, the guilt...

Oh, and did I mention that he finally has his first tooth? It broke through quite suddenly last week and he's been enjoying testing it out on his baby board books.

So, back to my January To Do list. Did I complete it? Almost.

Tax return? Done. Article about motherhood finished and submitted? Done (but yet to hear back from magazine). Short story? Done (just needs a final check-over before it is sent out).

And on to the final item on the list... Completion of plot and first chapter for Truck of Luck? Not done. Sigh. Although I am much further along with my plotting. I got distracted by another story idea halfway through the month, on which I spent quite a bit of time, so if that hadn't happened I imagine I would have achieved my target. This one will have to be moved on to my February To Do list (look out for it tomorrow) and I think I should expand my goal to include the completion of chapters one, two, and three.


Just finished reading: English Lord, Ordinary Lady by Fiona Harper -- which is a finalist for the RNA's Romance Prize 2008, so best of luck to Fiona (and the other nominees)!

Me in a Glass

Liz Fenwick had this on her blog the other day -- What's the Recipe for Your Personality? I did it for myself and came up with the following results.

For my real name:

3 parts Grace 2 parts Fascination 1 part Panache Splash of Prosperity Finish off with an olive

For Jessica Raymond:

3 parts Warmth 2 parts Sass 1 part Style Splash of Intellect Finish off with a little umbrella and straw

Interesting differences between the two!

I've also been tagged by Nell for a list of six random quirks/things about me. I'm always terrible at thinking of amusing things to put in the list, but here goes.

Rules:

• Link to the person that tagged you
• Post the rules on your blog
• Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself
• Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs
  

1. My toes are always more presentable than my fingernails. If I haven't got nail polish on my toes then something feels very wrong, so they are never without some decoration. My fingernails, however, are lucky if they get painted once a month and then the poor things have to cope with gradual flaking for a couple of weeks before I finally get around to removing the remains of what's left.
2. Every now and then I get inexplicably addicted to some teen-targeted schlock TV show. At the moment I have to catch every episode of The Search for the Next Pussycat Doll, even though I know who wins and I know she jacked in the job about two seconds later (what a cheek!). I've also taken to having MTV's The Hills on during the day. Save me, someone.
3. I'm very picky about how I have my tea. I need to actually taste the flavour of the tea leaves, but I also need to have enough milk for it not to be mega-strong. The balance is delicate, and not many people can achieve it.
4. There is a lamp-post almost directly outside our bedroom window and in the two and a half years that we have lived here it has never bothered me -- until Little Frog moved out of our room and into his own. After that it felt like our room was flooded with light and it really started to get on my nerves. I guess it's because sleep became such a precious commodity. So now I have to plaster on a pink silk eyemask that is embroidered with the words "In Your Dreams" (it's the only one I could find, okay?) to ensure I get to sleep quick-smart.
5. Lately I can't stop eating junk food. I know it's gross, I know it's bad for me, but almost every day I want to eat some McDonald's or a KFC or some egg fried rice. Guess what I had for dinner last night? A Big Mac. Sigh.
6. I can't have a bath without a book. I always read in the bath before I had a baby, but now a nice bath is one of very few precious periods of Me Time, and I always use it to catch up on my reading.
   

I tag: Fiona Harper, Judy Jarvie, Julie Cohen, Karen Templeton, Phillipa Ashley, and Sue aka Ms Creativity. Sorry ladies!

Little Miss Change-Her-Mind

Thanks for all the comments and input on how to settle on a project. The last couple of days have seen my Libran trait of indecisiveness hit an ultimate peak. I started off the weekend wanting to work on the pregnancy book, changed my mind to Truck of Luck at lunchtime, then back to babies later on in the day. Yesterday I did some plotting for the baby book, but today I've been plotting Truck.

I'm wondering if the best way to handle this is just to plot both, start writing both, and see which one wins. I'm almost certain that one will take the lead. At the moment I think Truck is winning. I've worked on my characters more today and they're feeling a lot more three-dimensional now, and I find that always gets the story moving properly.

We can but wait and see!

Quandary

So I have just under two weeks to check off the last two items on my January To-Do list: writing a short story and finishing my plotting for The Truck of Luck. The short story's in the works, but the book plotting is being a bit troublesome.

What do you do when you are trying to work on the initial stages of a book but you keep getting distracted by another idea? Because that is what's happening. I keep thinking about another story (pregnancy-related, by the way) when I should be working on Truck.

Since I am writing to my own schedule and not to a contract or a proposal, I am technically free to work on whatever I would like. So what do I do? Continue with Truck, or back-burner it and take on the other story? I guess that, practically speaking, working on the pregnancy book might be a bit more sensible while I'm still close enough to the condition to remember what it was really like...

Votes, please!


Just finished reading: Taking the Leap by Judy Jarvie

Waiting to Hear

My motherhood article is finished and I am waiting to hear if the features editor of my targeted magazine is interested in it. Fingers crossed.

At the weekend I read a horoscope for my year ahead. It said that I would be very motivated and approach my career with sensibility and concentration. Hurrah! I have high hopes for 2008; hopefully Mystic Meg is telling the truth.

We've also been finalizing our childcare plans for Little Frog, since my maternity leave comes to an end in a month's time and I will be resuming my proofreading on a part-time basis. It will be strange not to spend all day/every day with the little one, but I am looking forward to giving my brain a regular workout and snatching back just a little bit of my 21st-century career-girl persona.

Item number one: Check!

That's one item crossed off my list -- the tax return. I filed it online and it's a lot easier. I still have trouble understanding most of it, though; the guidance notes can only be so clear to a person who isn't very maths-minded. I dream of the day when I might be able to afford an accountant...

Item two on my list is also half-done. I've finished my motherhood article and now I'm just researching markets. I hope to send it out on submission by the end of this week.

Next up after that it's either a short story or my plans for TRUCK OF LUCK.

My "To Do" List

I've decided to make a "To Do" list at the start of every month to keep track of my goals and put pressure on myself to achieve them. I'm feeling very motivated at the moment, but that may not always be the case!

January's "To Do" list:

1. Do my tax return.

2. Finish my article about the surprises of new motherhood and submit it to a magazine.

3. Write a short story.

4. Finish my plotting for TRUCK OF LUCK and write the first chapter.

Wish me luck!


Just finished reading: Holly and Mistletoe by Susan Mallery