Am I a Writer or a Wimp?

Hi Blog, I haven't been here in a while as I've been busy writing! Yeah, I know! It's what I'm supposed to be doing! And I was working happily on the sequel to 'Through all Eternity' (B009MFQUBC on Amazon) when a Regency Lady who proved not to be so Lady-like, took over my muse!
She's 25 and if she can't get her best friend, neighbor, and only love to show her what making love is all about she's going to die a virgin! He says he will never marry, so be it, but surely he could show her just once? He has a dark ugliness in his soul that he believes makes him unfit to be any woman's wife, especially someone raised with the ladylike expectations of marriage as his JC has! But she is determined to open 'Pandora's Box' (and I really did argue that even if I could write what she was telling me there was stuff in that Box I couldn't, just couldn't, publish!) and she was just as determined her story would be told! Too bad about another story half-written - or my wimpishness!
Write mine! she demanded.
I thought I could get away with writing a quick novella (which I could hide in the bottom of a drawer) and then she would be happy. Not! I started writing it at the beginning of July and it's already 66,000 words long with probably another 20,000 to go. And it's the kind of story I really considered dredging up a pseudonym for. Thank goodness my Mum's not around to read it! But wait! I have kids, grandkids, and even great-grandkids! (I hide my face. ;((
Then on FB Karina Bliss posted a link to 50 Rantypants Snidbits Of Random Writing & Storytelling Advice

http://terribleminds.com/ramble/... a blog by Chuck Wendig. Of course I had to share it too. (Warning! Uncensored language! :))

So far I've only read to #10 BUT I then I had to share the link with a couple of other writers, go back and find it on FB and share it there too, sign up to follow Chuck Wendig's blog, copy #10 and print it out to stick on my wall - and blog about it!

Among the uncensored stuff (which I've sensored!) he says, "Be brave! Be powerful! Take risks. Write big. Write without fear. Write with blood, guts, madness and majesty!" 

Now you really will have to check into his blog and read all the really good stuff I censored out!

So, I ask myself, am I a writer or a wimp? 

And when I allowed the story to flow, I found once again, that it wasn't just about the 'beyond-sexy sexy stuff' - it was, as always, about the power of unconditional love to heal.

So hopefully I can do it justice and write it with all its 'blood, guts, madness and majesty'.

Harlequin have asked to see the first 3 chapters! 

 

Hullo Blog! Here I am again and scarcely 2 weeks have passed. We might actually build a relationship if we can keep meeting this regularly. Thanks for waiting around for me to find time to fit you in!
I'm really excited to be able to report that I am fizzing with energy and writing up a storm. Such a welcome state of mind after so long a dry season.

It has been a very interesting couple of weeks. I was working away, trying to get myself back into the plot of Crystal Dancer - and struggling. Then into my head popped these two characters involved in a BDSM scenario, which while quite titillating, was not something I would normally write - or publish! But would they go away? Would they hear that I had another book to finish that took precedence over anything they might have going on? Guess they were too busy to listen to me. (Or knew that since they were from the Regency period, I wouldn't be able to resist them!)

So I decided to discover who they actually were and what had made them the way they are and then I could write a short novella thingy and they'd be satisfied.Were they suckered in by that plan? No, again.
I began to realise there was more to this story than I had at first thought, that the BDSM component was more bondage and punishment than the real porno stuff and maybe I could handle that, especially as it was an issue between two people who should have been married 6 or 7 years ago; who would have been if the Earl of Windermere didn't believe himself incapable of making love to Jassie Carlisle as a 'lady' deserved to be loved.

I begin to see a pattern emerging. One or other of my main characters often have some sort of sexual dysfunction going on which can only be cured by that one special person who loves them - enough. The Honourable Jassinda Carlisle has loved Windermere since childhood. No other man has ever tempted her and at twenty-five she is way out of patience. She can choose to live and die a bitter and unfulfilled spinster with her honour and good name intact - or she can take matters into her owns hands, risk all for that one elusive chance at happiness. In doing this she may learn more than she ever thought she wanted to know - about desire and what drives it, about the Earl, and about herself.

These two characters are driving their own story so I guess I have no choice but to get my bum on the seat and my fingers on the computer and let the story flow.

Hang about Crystal Dancer, don't go away. I will be back... :)
You too, Blog!

Hullo Blog! I haven't been here for a while. Over 40 years ago I had a thyroidectomy - supposedly so I wouldn't have to take pills for the rest of my life. But guess what? - It didn't go quite right so I've had to take pills for the rest of my life. And 40 years with relatively trouble free health apart from the constant balancing act to keep levels right, is probably not a bad record. But in May I struck a bit of a hiccup. Calcium levels suddenly sky-rocketed and I ended up in hospital with kidney failure.

My inclinations had become dis-inclinations - big time. I did nothing for weeks but drink, drink, drink (3 litres of fluid a day!) and read books. I could barely be bothered to sit at the computer long enough to check my emails. The worst of it was the total lack of desire to write and I began to worry that the mojo was gone for good.

So I am very glad to tell you, Blog, that I am back. It has been a bit of a travail but I am finally writing again and averaging about 1200 words a day. More would be good but I'm very happy with that. So much better than a big fat zero!

I guess it was only a matter of time before Crystal Dancer began calling to me. At the end of the Atlantean past life in 'Through All Eternity' (available on Amazon B009MFQUBC) a child is the only survivor because he was miraculously transported through time and space to a lifetime 6000 years in the future - to the time of the biblical Great Flood. Crystal Dancer is Ugo's story (along with his great love, Ereka) as learnt through the dreams and spiritual experiences of their reincarnated souls, Hugh and Riki, in the 21st century.

Ugo and Ereka's story was written some years ago and it is only now that I am writing the present day component. I am constantly amazed by the effects of the deeply embedded soul memories carried forward from one lifetime to another, how a vow made in a lifetime over 3000 years ago could have such relevance and power in  the NOW.

Then again, I don't know why I am so amazed for I don't believe I am actually writing this story. I'm just the  vehicle by way of which it isbrought into physical being. And I am grateful that it is so.

And thanks, Blog, for hanging about waiting for me. :)

The Perils of the Writer's Life/Beware! Writer on the Loose!

I live in a small New Zealand country village called Piopio wherein you will find the best cafe in the whole country by the name of the Fat Pigeon.

 (www.facebook.com/pages/Fat-Pigeon.../151867164830075)

 I'm a regular. I go for a takeaway coffee every morning and am often there with a friend later in the day as well and can occasionally be found in a secluded corner with coffee at my elbow while scribbling away, J K Rowling style! (Bring that on!) It's so bad(good!) that I have my own button on the till - if you're passing by, call in and order a 'Jenny's' coffee and you will get a 'single shot soy moccachino made with white chocolate' . You get the point of the special button? It's a mouthful and I have to check and re-check to make sure I've left nothing out! And they spend several minutes finding all the relevant buttons on the till. Much easier for us all to have my own button. And if that isn't notoriety enough in a small village, today--- dammit! 

TODAY (with my head whirling with the inspirations I'd had for my novel while in the shower) - TODAY - I decided it was time TFP started doing drive-through! OMG! It was so-oo close!

Hubby has my automatic Honda CRV because his manual Daihatsu Ferroza is booked in for a warrant at the garage just behind us. I told Stu (the proprietor) he couldn't have it till I'd been to get  my coffee! I couldn't believe how strange it felt to drive manual again - like I've driven manual for YEARS! I've only had the Honda since November.

I got down to TFP okay, all of a minute from one end of main street to other, car in gear but not mind, not really!  The first park by the steps was free! I drove in and went into panic mode because I couldn't remember how to stop!!!  Thank God it WAS the Ferroza, Built like a tank and with chunky 4WD tyres, she climbed up over the quite large rocks, (which should supposedly stop people like me!), over the perfectly manicured 18" hedge and flattened the seat by 1st outside table! I missed the handrail of the steps by inches! And I could see the red wall of the building looming and hadn't a clue what to do. Good old Roza decided it was time to stop! Or maybe I (belatedly) took my foot off the clutch - or something! I stopped about a foot from the building! OHHH!!!

They all came running and now will NEVER let me forget it! They were so supportive and thought it so funny!!! All right for them! Thank God they didn't think of taking photos until after a couple of kind male patrons had got it off the rocks for me. I had to get one of them to drive it cos I was in such a tizz I couldn't think what to do! 

Two coffees later, one of them on Mel, (owner and the most amazing cook you could hope to meet!) I drove home - consciously thinking about what I was doing. And I did it all safely of course.

A pity I wasn't present in my mind in the beginning! And extremely grateful the only casualty was the seat. Wonder how that would look on an insurance claim?  LOL

And come to think of it, drive-through would be quite cool......

Thanks Mel and Staff!!!

Words

'A day without words, written or read is like a night without stars or hunger unfed.'
I was feeling a little poetic and the above sentence came to me. Once written I realised it is a basic statement of who I am.
Then I remembered something I'd seen on Facebook which had struck a magical chord within.
It's a photo by Upworthy - I scrolled back to find it and share it here.

 


So much knowledge, wisdom and just plain entertainment is found between the covers of a book - might have to change that to 'the screen of an ebook reader'!!!
Doesn't have quite the same ring, does it? Like an ebook reader doesn't have the same feel as a book.
But the blessing of the new technology is that it makes so many more WORDS available to us.