My First Meme!

I know I'm lagging behind everyone else (again probably) but I've been so confused about what a meme is!  My daughter tried to explain it to me, but I still didn't really get it.  I've looked it up on Wikipedia and I'm still not all that much the wiser, ho ho!  Oh well...

Anyway, I think I get the principle of the thing - it's something you pass on that mutates with other's take on it, their experiences, etc.  I think.

Annalisa Crawford's latest blogpost over at Wake Up, Eat, Write, Sleep offers up this meme to anyone who wants to take part and as it's quite a simple one for meme-newbies like me, here we go!

The idea is to find the first instance of the word 'look' in your WIP and post the surrounding paragraph.  I had lots of 'looked's, as my WIP is in the past tense, but I bypassed them and finally found a 'look':

The folded hands wavered and rose.  In spite of her bravado, Anna braced herself, but instead of coming her way they settled over her mum’s face as she sank heavily into the chair opposite.

“I don’t know what to do with you.  I just don’t.”  The hands flopped into her lap to reveal a look of such pathetic helplessness that Anna had to stifle an urge to spring across the room and scratch her eyes out.

“Leave me alone.”  Anna pulled her knees up, uncaring that her trainers were on the much-prized new upholstery.  “That’s what you can do.”

“Anna…” her mum heaved a sigh and wiped what might or might not have been a tear from beneath her right eye.  Anna rolled her eyes and hoped fervently that she wasn’t going to turn on the waterworks.  No matter what, that woman could turn every situation round to make it about herself.  And this was about Anna: Anna who was quite old enough to know when she’d broken the law and could decide perfectly well for herself whether or not to care.

 

I don't want to put anyone on the spot by tagging them - but please consider yourself tagged and take part if you want to!  Leave me a comment and let me know if you're taking part so I can make sure I check it out!

 

 

 

Look away now if it's Not Your Thing!

Not everyone likes erotica - and I'm talking proper erotica, not your 'top of the bestseller list' erotica - but if you do, please check out this collection! 

Xcite Books have just become available for Kindle and Cougar and Kitten will be available as a free download between the 17th and 21st August.  If you've read this far... go on, treat yourself to a titillating freebie! 

THAT BOOK...

Has anyone not read it?  I mean, of course, Fifty Shades of Grey.  I've just come back from Zakynthos where just about everyone on the beach seemed to have a copy - including the Greeks - and I can't believe how many conversations I overheard about it!  I have to say, a LOT of people seemed to be really enjoying it.

I felt compelled to read it - considering it my duty as a writer - and now I feel compelled to give my take on it...

As many others have said, it doesn't need to be 3 books long - there is a lot of waffle and repetition.  I was itching to get out my red pen and give it a good editing!  The hub of the plot, I thought, came along a bit too late and peaked after I'd already lost interest.  The sex... I don't know.  I didn't get turned on by it.  It was very 'samey', with the same terminology used and Ana seemed to be able to come to order... What a lucky girl!

I'm worried that so many women now seem to be in love with 'Mr Grey' as I couldn't really take to him at all, even with the (endless) references to him as a troubled little boy and his unbelievable sexual prowess.  I thought he was frighteningly controlling and I could only wish Ana good luck.  I don't think that marriage will last!

HOWEVER, it probably wasn't quite as bad as I was expecting.  I quite enjoyed the first book and half of the second - and I'm sure I'd have enjoyed the third if I hadn't started to get so sick of the characters.  I managed to like Ana to start with, but I went off her.  She veered between being pathetically wimpy and stupidly head-strong.  I'd also lost interest by then because I was getting bored with the repetitive sex.  I'm a very critical reader as well - I can't deny it - and was also reading it with a slightly envious writer's eye.

If I was E L James, I'd be absolutely thrilled at its success but rather mortified at the un-edited state it went out in.  I am honestly amazed that the professional editors who must have worked on it let so much slip by - words and phrases repeated in the same paragraph and sometimes the same sentence.  Not good!  Also, the cover makes it look a lot more of an intelligent read than it is!

So, basically, reading it is an experience.  I wouldn't describe it as very erotic (unless you never read or write any erotica in which case I'm sure it hits the spot) but I imagine it has distracted and cheered up a lot of readers this summer, which can only be a good thing.

That's just my opinion.  Have you read it?