A discovery

I met Sarah Wynde in the comment trail over on Lexi Revellian's blog. She was explaining her views on fan fiction and sounded like someone I'd like to know, so I visited her blog. And found her self-published novels. And discovered that they are delightful.

A Gift of Ghosts is a paranormal love story written in a fresh, lively style. It's an easy read and light-hearted despite a plot that touches on drug overdose and suicide. I felt amused and entertained the whole way through. The plot builds to a crescendo and although the ending wasn't a surprise it was entirely satisfying.

I liked the gradual uncovering of the rules for the paranormal in this universe and the way that they seem to have an inner consistency, even if we don't know everything yet. The main character's struggles to make sense of her experiences of the paranormal within her scientific worldview were fun too.

There are three novels in the series. I'm about to start reading number two!

Full disclosure: I didn't pay for books one or two. I intend to buy book three!

It's slow but we'll get there

It's hard to believe that an agent would turn down a book because the main character was gay but at least the story has a happy ending: Viking (a Penguin imprint) has taken on the book and it will be published in two years time. Without 'straightening' the main characters, as the agent is supposed to have requested.

The story is here.

And on a similar note, next Sunday is Bisexual Visibility Day, at least it will be in London! People are meeting at the Mad Hatter pub, where I often meet with Nano friends. If you live near Southwark, you might want to pop along.

Whether we're straight, gay, bi, or anything else at all, we can support each other's right to be treated fairly and with respect. This picture from Richard's Facebook page says it for me:

NSFW

What to do when you're bored

A naughty insect bit me a couple of weeks ago and this weekend my leg reacted as if it had been burned, turning bright red and blistering. The picture here (not for the faint-hearted!) is of my leg after the antibiotics had started to work so it's not even at its worst. The line of black biro is where the doctor drew round the edges of the redness to see if it was still spreading.

I have to sit with my foot raised to reduce swelling and I can't go to work. I feel like I should be enjoying being able to crochet and read and surf the net with no guilt feelings and do you know what? All I want to do is to get out and move around. I'm just glad you can't die of boredom.

I'm missing cycling. I'm missing walking. Heaven help me, I'm even missing work!

Any suggestions on what I can do for the next day or two until I'm back on my feet again?

Mighty Hunters

 

Score for the last four weeks

 

Rufus:

• one dead mouse
• one live and apparently uninjured mouse
• one nearly dead mouse
• one dead mouse that he proceeded to eat in front of us

Bonnie:

• one dead and mangled frog, left in the middle of the otherwise spotless hall to welcome us on our return from holiday
• one dead water rat

If we had a mouse problem these cats would solve it. As it is, I live in dread of what they'll bring home next.

But they look so cute!

Stop!

After you've finished reading, stop! If you want to remember what you were reading, that is; apparently a ten minute break after reading allows your memory to consolidate and you remember what you've read much better - even a week later.

You can read about it on PsyBlog.

I wonder if eating chocolate enhances the effect. I'm willing to test out the theory - for the benefit of science, obviously. Does anyone else want to test the chocolate theory with me?

What women have been waiting for

Do you sometimes write with a pen? Maybe not your novel, screenplay, blog post or
pornmagazine article, but perhaps a shopping list or love letter?

Up till now, women have had to struggle with heavy, clunky pens made for men's tough, calloused hands. But no longer! Say hello to the BIC for her pen, made specially for a woman's - Agh! Sorry. I can only stand so much of this drivel, even if it is me writing it.

Do go and look at the pens on amazon, though. The reviews, as always, are hysterical. And thank you to Sociological Images for drawing my attention to it. Their article has more examples (some NSFW) of unnecessary gendering in advertising.

Things to do when you're bored

1. Crochet a Happy Bunny

(Much more fun than clearing out the spare room. Or any of the other rooms where the clutter nearly reaches the ceiling!)

Flash fiction competition

There's a new flash fiction contest starting in September, run by Stephen Parrish who wrote the Tavernier Stones. Word limit is 250 words; nice and short! The competition opens on 8th September and closes on 22nd September, and the picture above is the prompt.

Is anyone else thinking about going in for it?

Adding sex appeal

Given that sex in novels is currently selling so well (and if you haven't heard of  Fifty Shades of Grey  where have you been?) maybe we should all be adding sex scenes into our stories. That's assuming you write stories. It's hard to add sex to crochet although it has been done (NSFW); if your hobby is photography then the answer is obvious; if it's astronomy or quantum physics then I have no advice for you here.

It might be hard to find an angle that hasn't been tried yet. Indie Reader has an amusing (and NSFW) article on current erotic bestsellers, many of which apparently started life as Indie books.

So sex is clearly the way to go if you want to make money from writing. My problem? I just can't do it. I was going to write a spoof of Fifty Shades but when it came to it, I was cringing and laughing too much to get words on the page.

What about you?

Pain relief internet-style

 

Yesterday My Beloved and I took our bikes for a wonderful ride in Surrey, and when we got too hot we stopped by a cricket match and bought diet Coke at their bar and sat and watched. It was an idyllic English scene.

Then we got back on our bikes. Only I had a basket on the back of mine making it top heavy, so while I was faffing about with putting stuff away the bike fell over. I was holding the bike and didn’t let go in time, so as it fell it pushed my ankle back and pulled me over and I fell on top of it. Ouch!
 
By evening, the scrape on my wrist was very sore. So, in the spirit of pure scientific research, I tried out pain relief as endorsed by friends on Twitter.

Test results for pain relief out of 5

Wine: 2
Chocolate: 0
Ibuprofen: 5

Either wine isn’t as good at pain relief as some people suggest, or I needed more of it. The trouble is, if I’d had any more I’d have fallen over again!