Monday 17 June 2013

PAIN IN THE BOOK!

I'm a flitter. I have always known this. The trouble is, I don't think being a flitter is a particularly good attribute when trying to write a novel.

I was enjoying writing my novel but then the call of the short story came again and I meandered from the path. Now, darn it, having wandered back to the novel, I want to change the character in my time-slip part to a servant instead of a lady! I guess it was distance from the project that made me think differently - and I have to agree with myself that this would make it better and introduce some other angles - but what a PAIN!

So, here I go again, revising and rewriting what I thought was just going to be a first draft.

Ah well, it keeps me busy.

How are you all getting on?

Tuesday 11 June 2013

A Visit from Annalisa Crawford - That Sadie Thing on Tour!

Including the typo on my name
- one 'n' instead of two!
Thank you for having me over today, Linda, and as I know your alter-ego has been published by Xcite Books, I'm going to talk about sex!

I debated including Rain Dancing in the collection because it has such a different tone to the rest of the book. But then I thought, well my mum's read it, why not? Although, my mum did wrap it in cling film straight after finishing it, so I'm not quite sure what that means...

Rain Dancing was another one of my experiments. "I want to write a sex scene," I thought to myself one day. I was about 17 or 18 at the time, so it was a strange experiment.

The voice came to me straight away, along with the first paragraph. Although, by the end of that paragraph it became apparent to me that the voice was male. So, to recap, there I was writing my very first sex scene ever (until then I'd stopped at the bedroom door, much easier) and I was writing it as a man!

At 18, I wasn't much of a expert, but I had a feeling that the experience would be rather different for men. It was very difficult to get it right, but for some reason I didn't give up. And not only that, I submitted it to a couple of places before it got published.

Afterwards I realised a couple of things:
  • There was a typo that made Helen sound needy, when actually she was very much the opposite
  • The argument that sparked the end of the relationship was lame, very lame, almost non-existent.
It was a story ripe for rewriting, which bizarrely I did almost immediately. This is the story that sparked the idea for the whole collection - it's been waiting for its moment to shine for a very long time.



About Annalisa
I live in Cornwall, with a good supply of beaches and moorland right on my doorstep. I live with my husband, two boys, a dog and a cat. Despite my location. I neither surf nor sail, and have never had any inclination to try. I much prefer walking along the beach and listening to the waves crashing over rocks. For this reason, I really love the beach in the winter!

Buy That Sadie Thing here (this link should take you direct to your local Amazon)
Follow Annalisa here, or Like her here
Read her blog here

Wednesday 5 June 2013

IWSG June - Feeling Alive!

OK, the title 'Feeling Alive' may not sound all that suitable for June's IWSG post, but feeling alive after three years of 'fuzzy head' (it's just great being a 40-something woman) can have its downside!

First, the feeling alive bit - in case you were wondering. I have recently started taking a supplement called MACA - you may have heard of it. (The one I use is here if you're interested). I have been taking it for two weeks, during which time I was also trying to recover from a horrible head-cold. At first, I didn't feel any different but last week my brain suddenly started buzzing with story ideas - something that had been sadly missing for ages. I'd actually begun to accept that I must just have very little imagination! I've also been remembering to do things and not feeling quite as overwhelmed by life in general. So - maybe it's down to the MACA. Even if it isn't, I'm not going to stop taking it because I feel very well and energised.

Now, the insecure part. Writing short stories again means submitting them. Following a lot of initial success between the end of 2010 and the beginning of 2012, my shorts seemed to go off the boil and started missing the mark. Everything I wrote pinged back as 'a well-worn theme' or 'not for us'. I was disheartened, but moved onto writing other things (again with success, which did a lot to re-boot my confidence) and I also started my novel in earnest. I am still writing the novel - I make sure I add something to it every day if I can, however busy that day has been - but I get so much satisfaction from writing those shorts!

To cut to the chase, I've sent two stories off and now feel slightly sick! I may well have chosen a well-worn theme again or they may miss the mark by being too vague or too obvious (where is that middle ground when you want it?) but hey! At least I'm trying and, as we all know, if you don't try you'll never succeed.

How are you feeling this first Wednesday in June? I'll be hopping around to find out later.

Thanks as always to Alex J Cavanaugh for starting this group. You can find the full list on his blog but I'm not pasting it here because it gets longer all the time!