Absolutely Wonderful...

...post about writing up at Ursula Vernon’s LJ.

Bark Like a Fish Damnit! - It Bears Repeating

Darn it. I want to know what's going on at Grandmothers house now too.

At the Weekend...

...I fell over. Not badly and the only thing hurt was my pride and my shoulders ache today from where I jarred them trying to break my fall.

One minute I was upright quite happily walking my dog, and the next I was flat on my face, with Dyson standing next to me and a look of puzzlement on his face which clearly said “What on earth are you doing down there?”

“I’m just taking a short break,” I said as I got back to my feet, and he quite happily trotted off, satisfied with this explanation.

I was trying to remember the last time I fell down and couldn’t. When I was a child I remember lots of bruised knees – I liked to rush everywhere – then when I was a teenager lots of grazed knees from falling over in the playground. But after my early teens I can’t remember ever falling down. Lots of trips, usually from not paying attention when I’m going up stairs.

There’s now a part of me that seems to kick in whenever I have a new experience, or repeat an old experience that I haven’t had in a long while. Some small part of my brain starts saying “I must remember what this feels like in case I ever want to include it in a story”.

It’s kind of helped me get through a few unpleasant things. And whilst falling over wasn’t as bad as having the camera put up my nose, they’re both experiences that I don’t want to repeat any time soon. But it’s very good to have those sensations logged in my brain.

Winner of January Giveaway is...

Nicole. Whose post number was randomly chosen by randomnumber.org.

After slacking off towards the end of January I hope to get my posting back up to speed in February.

Santa Brought me an XBox

I’m not much of a games freak, as my cousin delighted in pointing out to me. But I do like Tomb Raider. I’ve been playing on my PC – favourite version Tomb Raider 3. However, as the games have gotten bigger and better I thought I’d better finally get round to getting a games console. This has the added bonus of keeping my PC free for writing and not distracting me.

Whilst I have some skills on the PC my fingers flash round the keyboard keeping Lara out of trouble – it’s all the typing I do, who knew it would come in useful for something besides typing? On a games controller I tend to spend much more time running round in circles. After much practice I have reached the point where I can stand still and shoot things or run around on walls and jump off cliffs (sometimes intentionally). Unfortunately my skills do not yet extend to doing both at the same time. But I’m sure I’ll get there eventually.

One of my favourite popular culture references to Tomb Raider occurs in the sitcom Spaced. (For those of you who enjoyed Shaun of the Dead, this was written by and starred the same people). Well worth checking out on DVD if you get the chance. I can’t embed the video but hope you’ll click on the link. Whilst Tim finds the ‘point’ of the game is often to drown Lara, I find more often than not I’m going splat off the edges of cliffs. Though I occasionally drown her as well and have been known to set her on fire.


You Tube Spaced Tomb Raider Clip

Snippet from WIP

Little snippet from the current WIP.

“Glad you’re having so much fun. Next time you can be the one who crawls through two miles of sewer pipe.”

“Surely two miles is an exaggeration?”

“Would you like to die where you stand?”

My Furry Muse

So I thought I’d introduce you to Dyson who is my spaniel cross. So called because he usually has his nose glued to the floor looking for anything edible that may have accidentally been dropped which he can then hoover up.

He’ll lay across my feet when I’m writing, but when he thinks I’ve done enough writing and should be playing with him, he turns into the sock thief. He’ll stand at the door of my study with an innocent expression on his face and a sock hanging out of his mouth.

And Then We Got Help

I don’t think I’ve ever got hooked on a web series before. But this one about four couples who go to group therapy without a therapist has got me hooked.

There are new episodes every week, it’s updated on Friday’s I think.


Wordcount for 2010 - 5106 words

WIP Update

So getting back into the swing of things. Rather than updating weekly I’m going to change to monthly, hopefully will see more progress that way. Currently working on a short story, then onto my latest revision of Raven, Bargain is on one side at the moment it needs quite a lot of revision.

Words written so far in 2010 – 1607.

Winner of Every Good Thing

...is Cassandra who posted on my Wordpress blog.

I'll be doing another giveaway for January. All you have to do is comment on a January post any time in the month either here or at my Wordpress blog and I'll enter all the posters in a random draw at the end of the month. (Random numbers provided by random.org)

This month will be a $10 Amazon gift certificate so you can choose a book you'd really like to read in 2010.