She's Back!

My enthusiasm came back! She's sitting on my shoulder, with that lovely silky fur snuggled up against my neck. On Sunday morning I read in Writer's News about a competition for page-turning novels run by a writers' agency. Unlike most such competitions, they were prepared to look at "almost complete drafts" as well as finished ones. And I have an almost complete draft of a whodunnit set in the observatory. I've been wanting to finish it for ages, but it's taken a back seat while I did the two books with local government support. So I got it out and looked it over, and (OK, I'm obviously biased, but) I think it counts as a page turner. Of course there was a catch. Entries had to be in "by the 26th of January". I wasn't sure whether that meant midnight Sunday or midnight Monday, so I decided to do what I could an enter by midnight Sunday. I started a mad rush to write the CV and covering letter and polish up my novel to make it at least clear what I plan to put in the gaps. I managed to sort out a glaring continuity errors as well. And my wonderful enthusiasm came back! She does love fiction and short-term deadlines. Before I knew it, it was 1 am. Oops. Well, I'd missed one deadline, right? I just had to hope that they meant Monday night. I went to bed and me and my enthusiasm got back into it in the morning. We fixed another continuity error, and spellchecked and did the synopsis. I finally submitted it at 11:30 pm on Monday. Best case is that I win the prize (£1,000 and they take me on as a writer. The previous winner did very well indeed.) Obviously that would be fantastic, but I'm sure there are lots of good entries and a few excellent ones. Second best case is that I don't win the priize, but they take me on anyway. That would be fantastic too. Worst case is that I don't even make the short list. But even then, I'm a good step further on with the novel. I must go and get my enthusiasm the fresh mango that I promised. She's definitely earned some.

Semi-crastinating

I've managed enough baby steps that now half the stories are in the "Done" folder, along with all the shorter texts, like "About the Artists" and "Acknowledgements". So the book won't be going to the printer's while I'm away, and I'll be astonished if it goes to layout, but it is at least moving.

And now I'm busy dealing with all the little jobs I've been putting off, trying to get as many as possible done before I leave. Things like helping prepare a press release for an upcoming anthology I'm in, and shortening the straps on my sun-dresses and getting posts for http://lapalma-island.com scheduled for while I'm away, and paying my accountant.

Better

I went back to the dentist yesterday. Much better! I now have a temporary filling that hopefully won't need to come out. If all goes well, the dentist will put a permanent cover on it in three weeks. Meanwhile, it's sensitive to hot and cold, but doesn't hurt otherwise. The children's anthology is coming on nicely, too. I've started writing the last story in English, nine of the stories have been translated into Spanish and eight of the fourteen illustrations done. It's starting to feel much less overwhelming.

What's a Few Tentacles Between Friends?

UK		USA

Volume 2 of Cthulhu Unbound is now on sale, featuring my story "What's a Few Tentacles Between Friends?"

I was about ready for some good news after the fire.

I Make This Stuff Up

Lately, my life's felt like all work andno play. Even the blogs feel like work. Worse, even the little fiction writing I've done has felt like work. So I've started a just-for-fun fiction blog at i-make-this-stuff-up.blogspot.com. It won't earn a thing, if only because there isn't a logical advertising niche to go with it. That doesn't matter. In fact it's almost the point. I write what I like, when I like, without thinking of cash at all. If I feel like being kidnapped by aliens, fine.

The result is predictable. Once I don't have to write, I want to. Once I stop thinking about the quality, it's actually quite good.

Typical.

The Mummy's Curse

My story, The Mummy's Curse, is up at Flash Fiction Online. It even got a special cover for April Fool's Day, although I believe that's coming down today.

So far, so good

Yup, I like being unemployed. The blog index is tidied up and linked to, the door's ready to varnish tomorrow, I've submitted five stories, blogged, and best of all, I've written 300 words of the next Agent Hammer adventure. I just hope I can keep the momentum going.

Unemployed at last!

My temporary contract doesn't officially finish until the end of the month - Tuesday - but I have two days holiday owing, so I'm free at last! Free to write all day (apart from shopping, cooking, cleaning, laundry, tidying up...)

It's going to be great, at least until the end of the month when my pay check doesn't arrive. But lucky me, I have a husband with a good job, and the house is paid for.

Over the weekend, I produced a subject index for my blog about La Palma, and submitted a story. This morning I'm blogging, sanding down doors ready for varnish, and submitting more stories. Plus some housework, inevitably.

In other news, my husband worked out a way to get the Berlingo repaired for our friends in Franceses. This is a long story, but it started when a rock fell onto the road and leaped at their radiator yelling, "Banzai!" Since this was absolutely not their fault, they should get compensation to pay for the repairs eventually. Meanwhile, there's a cash-flow problem, and we were begining to think that the Berlingo would have to stand out in the rain for perhaps four years, getting slowly rusty.

As I say, my husband thought up a workaround. And last night I dreamt of a dog-sized Berlingo jumping around his lap, being petted. "Good van. Good van."

Obviously I haven't been getting any saner lately, which isn't going to surprise anybody.

Gross dreams

Last night I dreamed I spat a huge slug out of my mouth.

That is positively the last time I go to bed without brushing my teeth!

But one of the advantages of being a writer is that sometimes I get paid for my nightmares.

Hindi Pizza

Yay, I've finished the first draft of a short story. To be honest, I don't think it's very good, but I've got something I can improve later. More importantly, it's the first new story I've finished for a while. I've done plenty of non-fiction and submitting, but very little fiction writing.

Advantages of Writing: #1

One of the advantages of being a writer is that they can't put you in solitary confinement. Wherever they put me, my whole cast of characters comes too.

When you talk to God, it's called praying.
When God talks to you, it's called paranoid schizophrenia.
When a headful of imaginary people talk to you, it's called being a fiction writer.

So I'm a writer because the voices tell me so. Which is a bit worrying, now I come to think of it.

The Cat's Meow

Part of the secret of absorbing fiction is to make it vivid. After all, you're more likely to remember that you're just watching a TV programme if you see it on a black and white portable instead of a wide-screen colour TV. As writers, we don't have colours and screens to work with, we only have words. And words or phrases the reader has seen a million times before get like scratched and faded cine-film -- all the zing has gone. The first person to call jealousy, "the green-eyed monster" was a genius -- William Shakespeare. He must have got a really clear image into the minds of his 17th century listeners. But now it's about as fresh as fish kept out of the fridge for a week.

The first step towards vivid descriptions is close observation. If you don't look at it for yourself you'll reach for clichés. As George Orwell put it, some writing is stuff full of clichés, "tacked together like the sections of a prefabricated hen-house." What a lovely bit of fresh writing!

It's OK to fill your first draft with clichéd descriptions, just as long as you fix it on the rewrite. That's the stage at which I wind up jiggling rum bottles on their bases to get a description of the noise. (I settled for thwunker-wunker.)

What's all this got to do with cats? Everyone knows they go "meow", right?

Not if you're listening.

A cat's hello is more like, "Mmrrrrrrtt! on a rising note, usually while they run towards you with their tail straight up. And then they stand on their hind legs to head-butt you as high as they can reach.

When they want you to produce their dinner or open a door, they go, "Me! Me! Me! Me! Me" until you do it. When they stand with one hind paw on your foot, they're really begging.

If you accidentally stand on their tail, they say, "MurrrrOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW!" at top volume. And when you lift your clumsy foot, they're off so fast it's a wonder there's no sonic boom.

Tom cats arguing over a queen or territory sound like something between a police siren and a scream.

In fact the one clichéd noise which is at all accurate is the purr, but there are no pauses: "RrrrrrrRrrrrrrRrrrrrrRrrrrr." Of course, they usually do this while they're on your lap. If they're really happy, they scratch and knead your thighs into mincemeat and drool all over you. This is what small kittens do to their mother as they suckled, so it's a great complement really.

I've lived with cats for about eighteen years, and I don't think I've ever heard one say "meow."

Interruptions

I plan to write a lot more fiction, and to blog about the art of writing fiction, and what happens?

Gastric flu.

I did at least get some research done into the history of knickers for a short story. Queen Victoria wore open-crotch drawers, with a 50-inch (127 cm) waistline. She was only 5ft (1.52 m) tall.

Normal service will be resumed shortly. Coming soon: How to make your fiction the cat's meow.

Unreal Estate

Issue 15/16 of Electric Velocipede should be out by Halloween, with my story "Unreal Estate". You can already pre-order it at the site, or enjoy three stories from the issue, free online.

A Productive Week

I've been doing rather well.

On Monday I had some new furniture delivered - cheap, because it was shop soiled. But one part provides enough storage space to tidy up the living room considerably, and the other part goes in the guest room (with the scuff marks hidden against the wall) which frees up a bookshelf, which is just the right size to fit in the gap in the pantry. I now have enough shelf space in the pantry to put the pasta in one pile and the tinned veg in another , and so on. As a result, I can find things much more easily, and I can see what I'm running out of, hopefully before I run out of it. Yay!

On Tuesday, I spent half the morning watching Casino Royale. This was vital research for a writing project, honest. Besides, I'd earned a break and I got quite a lot of knitting done.

On Wednesday I took a car load to the island's recycling centre - good riddance to it - and carried on to visit my friends in Franceses. For months now, they've been coming to me, so it was interesting to see their new steps, and the freshly planted garden. In the afternoon I took my osn to the dentist, which meant that I missed yoga for the first time. But I was shattered anyway, so I wasn't too sorry.

And in between whiles, I've sent off four submissions, carried on with the translation, tracked downa missing text book for my son, and started writing a new story.

So I feel quite vituous, really.

Stop the World, I Wanna Get Off!

I was looking forward to a relaxing summer, but I seem to have been rushed off my feet the whole time. There's the blog about La Palma, of course, and tour guiding, and helping my nieces practise English, and the current translation, and trying to photograph the fiestas, and the website for Ruido fanzine. Not to mention the housework and paying my son some attention now and then!

I got really stressed this afternoon, so I went out for a walk along Cancajos sea front, and then the beach.

Sand between my toes was just what I needed.

And on the way back to the car, I saw a charter flight leaving the island. In my usual mature way, I thought, "Nyer, nyer, na nyer, nyer."

OK, so I'm overloaded and rather stressed, and I've hardly written fiction for months, but at least I live on La Palma.

A new story at last

For months now, I've scarcely touched fiction. I've done lots of blogging and translation, and just a smidgen of fiction editing, but no new fiction.

Last night I found a website that was asking for 6 word stories. Before I knew it, I'd written one of my own.

But by then it was late, and I couldn't face the rigmarole of registering at the site in order to post the story. So here it is:

(Drum roll please.)

He said goodbye. My life began.

(Did I say it was a good story? Nope, just a finished one.)

The Lover's Leap

I got up at 6 am to photograph the dawn behind this statue of a goatherd, and then the sun came up behind a thick bank of clouds. So this was the best photo I got.

There's a local legend associated with it, which you can read on my blog about La Palma if you're interested.

My story "Agent Hammer: Licensed to Kibble" went down really well at the critters critique group. In fact I got an amazing 28 critiques, all mildly or very positive, and I've just finished writing 28 thank you emails.

And the translation is still chugging along.

Achievements at last

Well after the fun and the domestic trivia, I finally got down to some of the stuff I'd planned for my son's trip.

I read through the novel so far, made notes, and found it better than expected. I just need to start fixing the remaining gaps and inconsistencies, a bit every day. It feels good to be back at it again.

I sanded down the banisters, and I hope to get the first coat of varnish on tomorrow.

I even caught up a bit on overdue critiques for friends.

My goodness I'd missed the buzz of actually achieving things.

I even had time for a little fun too. I went with my husband to hear a Cuban-music group called Chango play at a bar one lunchtime. They were great.

An Honorable Mention

"Dear Sheila:
Thanks for entering the fifth "On The Premises" mini-contest. We received 48 entries. Yours didn't earn a cash prize, but was one of three chosen as an honorable mention."

The story is up at On The Premises Mini #5