A Random Lesson Learnt.

Okay, so I broke a rule. I started work on 'Severance' while in the middle of writing 'Truce'.

I know, I know... bad DeeDee!!!

The thing was that I had it right there, it was in my head, writing itself and I was scared of losing it! It's a sad peace of writing, a letter written by an older brother who knows that he's going to die, to his only sibling, also a boy, who will be left all alone when he is gone.

It was hard to write for a lot of reasons. It is an emotional subject, yet the purpose of the letter is to comfort and 'be there' for the brother that will be left alone. Then there was the fact that it was a letter written by a man and I am a woman. I didn't want it to be too emotional, Jae Shin has accepted that he is dying and wants to help Di Ye accept it too.

Fortunately I have a brutal  honest 'editor' who read the letter through and, after some thought, drove a neat red line through my most cherished passages the more maudlin phrases. I have to admit that the letter is better for the corrections.

It's also half as long.

With the sentiment stripped away, you really get a sense of Jae Shin's character, his personality springs from the page; strong, clever, a little bitter that his frailty has limited what he sees as his purpose in life, but not uselessly so. He sees a way to make a difference, even after death, by guiding his brother. He seems more vibrant, more alive somehow. You understand why Di Ye thinks so much of him, why he has allowed the letters his brother left behind to have such an impact on his life.

I think for the first time I understood that 'less is more' can apply in writing too. The bald facts, set out starkly and without emotion, gave a much clearer picture of the man Jae Shin was than all the extra information I had  added to the narrative in the form of feelings. It also re enforces my belief that having someone, that you trust completely to be honest, look over your work is a must. Because there is always more to learn, and sometimes the only person who can teach you is a reader.

Showing Some Love For 2013!

So far I'm loving 2013!

Some really great things have happened so far:

'The Promise' placed 3rd in 'Indie Book Bargains' best indies of 2012 awards and 'A Splendid Salmagund', an anthology that had a short of mine in it, won best anthology! So I now have two lovely badges to show off on my side bar!!!

At this point I would like to say thank you to everyone who voted, I really appreciate it! ;-D

'Blood, Sweat and Tears' book blog listed 'Broken City' 8th in the best books read in 2012! (Wish I had a badge for that!!!)

And I received a 4 star review of 'Broken City' from an Amazon vine voice reviewer.



Due to my 2013 challenge I've been busy writing, I'm now 34.000 words into 'Broken City: Truce' and I'm getting really excited about it! I'm already starting to think about the cover and hope a friend of mine will take the job on. If she says no I'm going to be in deep trouble!!!

I've just started sending out pre - release review copies of 'Fracture' to a few blogger friends of mine, I'm looking forward (with nervous excitement!) to their reviews!

Also you may have noticed that I've been blinging out my blog! I thought it was time for a bit of an 'update' and it kind of got out of hand!

Self Challenge For 2013!!!

I've made a decision. 

Things need to change.

I'm going to cut down on brownies and fluffy pillows, stop taking sugar in my coffee, get up at 6.30am every morning and jog 4 times a week.

Okay, okay: so I have no intention of doing any of those things! 

But I DO need more motivation and I have got a challenge for 2013!

So now I know you're all wondering HOW I intend to motivate myself???

By scaring myself silly!!!

I am going to post this challenge for everyone to see, in the hope that it will pressure me into accomplishing my goal:

In 2013 I will attempt to write the sequels to all three of my series!!!

'Truce'

'The Vow'

'Severance'

That was actually scarier than I thought it was going to be!!!

I'm not sure if I can do this but I'm going to give it a go, if I manage to complete 'Truce' and get half way through 'The Vow' I'll be pleased.

If I manage to complete both 'Truce' AND 'The Vow' I'll be VERY pleased.

But if I manage to complete ALL THREE I'll be ECSTATIC!!!

I'm already 25.000 words into 'Truce' so I'll have a bit of a head start there, but this is a HUGE ask and although I decided to do this some time ago I wasn't going to tell anyone. 

Soooo...

I'll keep you posted on how I'm doing, I predict a LOT of fluffy pillows and brownies in the next 12 months!

Here's to trying new things!!! 

O.O

What is your 2013 challenge???

Cover Reveal: Fracture.

So I have BIG NEWS!!!

The cover for 'Fracture' is finally ready!!!

Yay!

So here it is and I'd love to hear what you think of it!  ;-P

Please take a look at Fracture's goodreads page:

www.goodreads.com/book/show/15745015-fracture

A Splendid Salmagundi!

It’s finally here!!!

A Splendid Salmagundi, a collection of short stories and poems from the writers and readers of the UK Amazon Kindle Forum. I have a short in this book and I’m so excited! I hope that people enjoy it!

Please take a look???

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B009RBQSA4/ref=cm_sw_r_fa_alp_5q8Fqb1PXRM3C

What I'm Watching!!!

I have an addiction.

Don’t worry too much as it isn’t anything dangerous! My addiction is actually quite tame and harmless: I’m addicted to Asian dramas. More specifically South Korean dramas.

Where does this addiction come from???

Well that’s kind of hard to say…mostly I blame YouTube because that is where I had my first taste of K-Drama. I had spent 23 years in ignorance of their existence but one day while watching films on YouTube I somehow stumbled on to ‘He Was Cool’ (I have no idea how this happened, I vaguely remember it being a suggestion on the side bar). After that it was ‘My Girlfriend’s A Spy’, ‘My Little Bride’ and ‘Innocent Steps’ before quickly progressing to the aforementioned K-Dramas (and Japanese Dramas / Taiwanese Dramas).

When I admit to my addiction people always look at me a bit funny and say things like: ‘But surely it’s all subbed, isn’t that just irritating?’

No, it isn’t. It has no effect on my enjoyment at all and to be truthful I don’t even notice that I’m reading rather than listening anymore. It surprised me how quickly my ears started to recognize the different languages so that when I saw a trailer I would know if it was Japanese, Taiwanese or Korean. I was even more surprised when I started to recognize some phrases!!! (Although I’m not sure how useful ‘I love you’ in Japanese, Taiwanese and Korean is going to be!!!)

But we digress…

Now you have to approach K-Dramas in a certain way: they are the television equivalent of candy, do not expect gritty realism in any way, shape or form. Sit back, suspend your disbelief and just enjoy the (admittedly mad) ride you are about to take.

So why do I like K-Drama???

For several reasons: I like that the stories are (mostly) sweet romances, everyone always looks lovely and the characters are nice. The good guys always win, the bad guys always fail and the hero ALWAYS gets the girl.

That’s not to say that I don’t have my issues with them sometimes! Mostly the story centres on a love triangle (or square??? with all three guy liking the same girl), normally both guys will be handsome/kind and generally awesome and yet one of them will suffer a broken heart and see his true love lost forever…not cool, I don’t approve of that at all!!! Also these two guys will normally be best friends at the beginning and fancying the same girl will tear them apart before one of them gives up and then everything is hunky dory again.

But despite that I still watch and wait and hope that the guy I’m rooting for is going to get the girl at the end. Sometimes the love triangle thing doesn’t upset me at all so long as  I like the hero BETTER than the other guy, but this doesn’t always happen and sometimes I end up liking the secondary guy better than the lead (yes ‘Mary Stayed Out All Night’ I’m talking about you!).

The story lines are almost always ridiculous but there is also always something to keep you interested:

A young poor but plucky girl is given a scholarship to a private school that only takes the children of the wealthy elite and catches the eye of the handsomest, wealthiest boy. This boy is the leader of a gang (not that sort of gang!) called F4 made up of the four wealthiest boys in the school who also happen to be the four handsomest boys in the school as well. But come on: it’s the romance between the hero and heroine, the friendship between the 4 boys (okay, okay: AND their good looks!!!) that’s the real reason you’re watching anyway! (Boys Before Flowers)

A poor stunt woman body swaps (think ‘Freaky Friday’) with a rich man. This one was just so funny in places and I really liked the Hero and Heroine, how the guy playing the Hero managed to make me believe that he was actually the Heroine trapped in the wrong body I will never know, but he had me in stitches: I never knew a guy could scream like that!!! (Secret Garden)

A poor girl finds out on her sixteenth birthday that she is betrothed to the future King (yes I know that Korea has no royal family but just go with it!) and must now marry a complete stranger who doesn’t know her, doesn’t like her and is pining for another girl. I wanted to strangle the Hero in the first few episodes but I warmed to him in the end, the romance between the two leads was lovely and I didn’t want it to end!  (Goon, Princess Hours).

Can you see a pattern emerging here???   ;-P

I’ve just finished ‘Can You Hear My Heart’ and I loved it, it had the same poor girl meets rich guy scenario but the Hero was so lovely!  A new favourite! And I’m just starting ‘Faith’ which has Lee Min Ho as the lead (he was also the lead in ‘Boys Before Flowers’). It’s a historical drama, which I like, with a Heroine from the future. At the minute I’m more interested in the secondary romance between the King and the Queen than the Hero and Heroine…are you intrigued??? Then why not check it out!!!

http://www.dramacrazy.net/korean-drama/faith-episode-1/

Honey, Honey!!!

It is that time of the year again!

It is the time for stealing liquid gold from a vicious hoard of weaponized and decidedly ungenerous foes. Yes I’m talking about my Dad’s pet bees!!!

Over the years that my Dad has kept bees he has developed an allergy to them, and more importantly, to the honey. He can’t touch the honey anymore and so the uncapping and extracting has been passed on to me, my Mum and my sister.

Now I don’t know how familiar you are with extracting honey but there are a few things that you know are going to happen EVERY time you attempt to process the honey:

1.      The honey will get everywhere, on every surface, in your hair and sticky patches will mysteriously appear on your jeans and tee shirt.

2.      You will eat too much honey. Don’t argue because you just will, the temptation is impossible to ignore and making yourself sick is inevitable. I would actually question the sanity of someone who could finish the extracting process without feeling as though they might cast up their accounts!!! Ladles, spoons, sieves and all manner of other implements will present themselves to you just begging to be licked and you will be powerless to deny them!

3.      At the point when your hands are at their stickiest your nose will start to itch, this phenomena is not limited to honey extraction but is rife throughout life’s more messy moments.

4.      At some point you will forget to close the tap and honey will pour out all over the floor.

5.      All those jars you’ve been saving will have lost their lids, I don't know how this happens it just does.

6.      After you’ve showered and changed you will find a sticky bit you somehow managed to miss.

But despite all of that, the delicious taste of honey on toast every morning until the next season is a more than adequate reward!!!