If at first you don't succeed..

... try again. This blog has moved to http://sheilacrosby.com, and joined with http://starisland.co.uk. http://lapalma-island will be joining soon. The new blog looks much prettier, and hopfully this time I won't wipe it out while trying to upgrade. (And yes, I have a backup now. You bet your bibby I have a backup.)

Chain Blog Post

 Patsy Collins talked me into joining the Writing Process Blog Tour. She's a novelist and short story writer. Her short story collection is currently available to download FREE from Amazon HERE

I'm supposed to answer four questions, so here goes.

1. What am I working on? 
   I'm putting the finishing touches to an anthology of short stories for children. Technically, it's what Ursula Le Guin called a story suite. Rather than a bunch of random stories, the twelve stories in the book are interconnected: they all take place on the island of La Palma where I live, at specific places and specific dates in history, and they're all connected one way or another with the sky.
2. How does my work differ from others of its genre? 
   There's the focus on La Palma, which is unusual, and a lot of my stories have a thread of science running through them. And of course every writer inevitably produces different work. Your values tend to leak all over the page like a nose-bleed - particularly the ones that go so deep that you didn't even know you had them.
3. Why do I write what I do?  Like most writers, I write things I'd like to read. And in my case, I have a passion for the beautiful island I live on and the night sky (and La Palma has the best night sky in Europe).
4. How does my writing process work? 
   It varies. Normally  I like to have the story pretty well planned before I start. For this last book, I was chasing a deadline in order to qualify for funding, so I often wrote whatever bit I had clear, and hoped that my subconscious would supply the next bit tomorrow. I was surprised how well it worked.

And next week the same questions will be answered by:
Roxanne Snopek writes feel-good redemption stories with quirky characters and happily-ever-afters. Her popular Three River Ranch e-book series, published by Entangled Bliss, is set in Montana, and contains swoon-worthy heroes, strong heroines and various four-footed characters. Learn more at www.roxannesnopek.ca/blog


Tony Thorne MBE is a slightly eccentric author of quirky, speculative fiction, best known for Tenerife Tall Tales. The .pdf of his Best Selling Author Plan is available for free for a limited time.

Monica J. O’Rourke has published more than one hundred short stories in magazines such as Postscripts, Nasty Piece of Work, Fangoria, Flesh & Blood, Nemonymous, and Brutarian and anthologies such as Horror for Good (for charity), The Mammoth Book of the Kama Sutra, and The Best of Horrorfind. She is the author of Poisoning Eros I and II, written with Wrath James White, Suffer the Flesh, and the collection, In the End, Only Darkness. Her latest novel, What Happens in the Darkness, is available from Sinister Grin Press. She works as a freelance editor, proofreader, and book coach. Find her on www.facebook.com/MonicaJORourke

Filming part 4: The observatory

I arrived feeling very upset (see previous episode), but I had to calm myself down and get on with it. I had to get to the heliport by 11:45 to meet a group of tourists, and there was a lot of filming to do before then. Luckily, several people people were kind and helped me pull myself together.

So we filmed in the residencia for a bit. Then the TV people wanted somewhere you got a good view of all the telescopes - not the helipad, because we were going there later. So I took them up to the viewpoint at the Roque de los Muchachos, the highest point on the island.

I don't get up there nearly as much as I'd like, because I'm usually in too much of a hurry. Once I got up there, I found myself promising to do it more often. It wasn't a struggle to smile any more. So they filmed me saying hello to the "muchachos" - a rock formation that looks vaguely like a group of boys, and they filmed me with the telescopes behind me, and they filmed the view.

Then we went down to the Italian telescope, the Galileo, so they could film my husband. They asked him how we met, and he had to stop talking because he had a lump in his throat and a tear in his eye. After sixteen years of marriage!

And then we had to dash down to the heliport, to meet a group of tourists. I gave them the usual speech on why the observatory is here, (which the TV people didn't film much of) and we went off to Grantecan. The TV people didn't seem to film much of that either, although they did take quite a few shots of the inside of the telescope. I didn't mind, I was busy looking after the tourists.

When the tour finished and the tourists left, we finally filmed what will be the opening shots. I might have known.

Once they'd finished, the adrenaline left too. I drove home and collapsed into bed for hours.

Filming, part 2: Llano de los Jables

The cloud waterfall

Shortly before sunset I met the TV crew again at Llano de los Jables, at about 1,850 m (6,000 ft) with a group of friends who'd volunteered to come along at short notice (because the TV crew changed the date from Monday to Tuesday to Wednesday and back to Tuesday while they sorted out their complicated schedule.)

I spent the afternoon baking a chocolate cake, because I wanted to thank people for coming. The traditional thing here is to take Spanish omelette, but I always find that chocolate cake is more popular. And I'd a feeling it was going to be cold up on the ridge, so I made a flask of hot chocolate too.

The golden light at the end of the day was beautiful, and the cloud waterfall was stunning. When I got there, Carmelo was setting up the telescope. So they filmed me saying hello to everyone, and then we waited for it to get really dark.

I'd worried that it would be cloudy, but it was a beautiful, clear night, with a million stars. The catch was that it got colder and colder. The chocolate cake and hot chocolate were very well appreciated, although I could have used a lot more hot chocolate.

After that, filming became harder work. Of course, they had to use a spotlight on the camera to be able to film anything, so looking at the camera felt like being interrogated by the secret police, and I couldn't see anything else at all for several minutes after I looked away.

A Dutch family happened to be up at the viewpoint. The children's grandfather had just died, and they were little enough to believe that he was a star now, and they'd got it into their heads that he was the brightest star, Sirius. So we had to let them have a look at Sirius through the telescope, didn't we? And they got filmed doing it. I exclaimed over constellations I couldn't see for the spotlight, and got filmed doing it. We all started pogo jumping to keep warm, and got filmed doing it. And then Merche did her best ET impersonation, "Phone home!" and we all got filmed creasing up.

And then we all went home to our nice warm houses.


Carmelo setting up his telescope

Filming, part 1: Los Tilos

Me and Helen

On Tuesday I met Helen and the TV crew at Los Tilos. I'd planned to get there good and early, but by the time I'd found my makeup and put it on (I don't usually bother) and got dressed right it was all a bit last minute. So instead of getting there early, I arrived one minute late.

Laura, the director

Helen was already talking to the director, Laura, who'd I'd talked to by phone, and we had coffee while she told me what she wanted to do, and I showed her the magazines and anthologies with my stories that she'd asked me to bring. She rather liked, "The Appliance of Science", which is a bunch of sentient domestic appliances acting daft during Carnival.

She wanted to start the programme segment with me at the Roque, which wasn't going to get filmed until the next day. And please would I wear the same clothes for all the filming, today and tomorrow.

Next thing I knew, I was miked up and walking along the same bit of path about five times, talking to the camera like Shirley Valentine. "And now we're down at sea-level, at Los Tilos, and it's much warmer here..."

Eventually I got it right, and then I had to walk along the same bit of path a couple more times, while I was filmed from the back.

And then they filmed me at a table at the bar, supposedly writing fiction. And then they got me to talk about my stories for a bit - so I really hope at least some of it stays in.

After that, Helen, who had been watching the whole thing, "arrived". I introduced her to the camera, and we discussed the layout for the e-book. (I really, really hope that bit stays in!)

And then we went for a walk in the woods, going up and down the same bit of path multiple times, talking about how my Dad loved Los Tilos.

And suddenly it was 1:30, and I had to dash home.

Rather an interestng morning, really.
Me with Javier, the cameraman