The little things

I have to say that despite the fact I know that Monday is my day to dazzle you all wit my wit *insert laughter* I don't always know what to blog about. My life isn't overly exciting which I'm sure you can tell. Ha. So like I do every Sunday evening I try to think about what I want to blog about today. Some Sundays/Monday I will spot something or get a thought and go with it and on other days I pick something at random (the blogs which I class as "fun" would be those ones. :-P)

Luckily today I was having a conversation with my mother about butter - yes, I know how that sounds - but we were having some toast and she commented how she likes butter on it instead of margarine. I'm exactly the same, I think margarine on toast is like eating cardboard. It's gross.

Anyway, that little comment lead to me saying that butter on toast reminds me of the times I went to my grandmothers or aunts when I was a child, because they both made great toast.

And it got me thinking about the little things that people like/do and how those minor details remind us all of these particular people.

For example, when I think of my grandmother (my mothers mother) I think of butter on toast and of Christmas dinner (because we went every year until these last two). I think of Calamity Jane, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and The Slipper and the Rose, because we would always watch those 3 musicals. I think of Catherine Cookson films/books because she loves them. I think of the magic camel teddy she use to make me hold when I was ill and all her funny faces.

The smell of washing powder of white musk from the body shop reminds me of my mother. Any Carpernter song - especially "Close to you" - reminds me of her. Any time I hear a bad joke and I mean bad jokes like...

Patient: "Doctor, doctor I feel like a pair of curtains."

Doctor: "Pull yourself together, man."

Oh yeah, her sense of humour is that bad. She will actually come out with jokes on a daily basis, but unfortunately I always need to laugh at how bad they are. And then there is the crazy laughter she does along with singing "freak out!" every time she feeds my cats catnip and they drop on the floor and begin to roll around.

I think you get where I'm going? How we can see something or smell something and it will conjure a memory or most of the time the person linked to that memory. Now, when I was thinking about that today, my first thought was, "I wonder what things will/do remind people of me?"

The little things are important, especially when as a writer (and a reader) we want characters to be just that little bit more real. Like I knew Owen and Clare (She-Wolf) were Nickleback fans, or more to the point Owen played their music and got Clare in to them. And how he likes peanut butter and chocolate together. Clare smells like Jasmine and cigarette smoke.

It's the little things that set us all apart - including characters in books. The little things we place on different people we know and it is those things that trigger happy or maybe sad little thoughts.

What do you think? Do you like the small details about characters; even if they have nothing to do with the story and are just parts of the individual? Do you think those little things help make characters stand out a little more for you?

The Appeal Of The Older Man

I mentioned months ago in another blog post that I had a thing for 'older men', so I thought I'd follow that up today. I've always found the greying hair of the more mature man attractive, even from a fairly young age - maybe since my late teens / early twenties. But it's not just the greying hair that does it - it's the lines on the face that says "I've lived" and more importantly, "I've learnt." There's something about the kind of confidence that only comes from age, and from lessons that have thoroughly knocked you off your feet, that is SO DAMN ATTRACTIVE.

I don't know if other women who like the more mature man share my reasons for why they do - I've never actually discussed this with anyone, nor have I ever considered it an anomaly about myself. It's just always been that way for me. (I guess there's a chance that after posting this, a hoard of people will let me know how totally weird I am....)

I've always had boyfriends older than me, the oldest being about 16 years older - although he ended up being a total twat and NOT at all mature ... huh, I'll have to write that barely-a-relationship into a story one day...

Anyway, that didn't put me off the older man - nope. Like I said, it's just in-built!

So I thought I'd post some pics of celebrities that have that look that I think says rugged, lived, experienced and learned. It should be noted that I also like the way all these guys looked younger. And, yeah, sure, if you put a young and old pic of the same star next to each other, the young photos have the instant yum factor, but the older man pics have that deeper thing that only comes from knowledge and experience. That deeper thing is what I'm talking about. Do not underestimate it. Women want wisdom in their men.

(And does it work the same way with regards to women when they get older? To the men reading this, if you go for older-looking women, what is it about the older look that does it for you?)

Sean Connery: okay, well, this is probably the oldest I go (lol!), but there's a hardness in his older look, as well as an air of 'distinguished' that you just don't see in those pics when he was thirty-five!

Liam Neeson: love this pic. I have no idea how old he was here - at a guess, I'd say forty or just under - but the crow's feet at the corner of the eyes get me every time - laughter and tears, is what it says to me - and there's a very slight spattering of grey at his temples. However old he is, it's at THIS age that men really start to look sexy, in my opinion.

Pierce Brosnan: If anyone's got a look that says I've lived, and died (metaphorically), and picked up all the pieces to live again, it's this man. It's in his eyes. And the grey hair, and that damn nice coat just accentuate it.

Sean Bean: I would take this man EXACTLY how he looks nowadays over how he looked twenty years ago. And if he comes with the warrior gear and sword too, all the better ;p

Robert Redford: Oh, what was that? You want to pay me $1,000,000 to sleep with you for just one night? :D












To all the George Clooney fans, I'm sorry that I have not included him. I know there are lots of you; I know so many people think he's hot. It's just that he doesn't do it for me personally, and this is my blog post :p  His face is too smooth, not rugged enough. I'll take another look at him in ten years.

And lastly, I'll add that my own significant other, who just turned forty last year, is going wonderfully grey at the temples and the back of his neck, and the crinkles around his eyes are getting deeper. I won't put a pic of him up, because he may just kill me, but he looks even better to me now than he did when we first met, and he's growing sexier every year ;)

Project Theme Songs

So I thought today I would go with a more laid back – perhaps fun? – blog post instead of the semi-serious ones I’ve been doing the last couple of weeks. And since I’m in the midst of a new project – and one that is slow going – I thought I would make today’s post a musical one.

I am one of many authors who likes to whip up a playlist when she has projects. Mainly because when I am on the bus I like to listen to my MP3 player and I will listen to the playlist I have made for my current WIP. Let’s face it, when you’re on the bus all you can do is think and plan, so I like to have a good think when I’m on public transport.

I just find that having a playlist helps me get in the mood. Certain songs for certain characters and scenes, and it just set the mood for me.

So, I thought I would share all the theme songs to my manuscripts. And by theme songs I just mean the song that either inspired me to write the story in the first place, or the songs that just fit so perfectly for the general feel.

(All the songs are off of YouTube and I had to basically pick the ones that would work on the blog.)

She-Wolf (The Blood Series Prequel.) Now I think I have mentioned it a few times, and anyone who has read the book will know that the awesome music of Nickleback was the soundtrack for this book. But, it was one song in particular that inspired the first chapter/scene of the book – yup, the moment Owen realizes that the stripper he is watching is Clare; tasty tension -  and that song was . . . “Follow you Home” which is quite fitting, really. :-P

Nickleback – Follow you Home

Cranberry Blood, book 1 in The Blood Series. I wrote this novel before She-Wolf and the playlist is quite mixed. There are three songs from the brilliant 30 seconds to Mars which fit great, and there is a particular fight scene that was inspired by the Black Eyed Peas – “Pump it.” Oh yeah, but I’m not going to spoil it by telling you which scene or where it happens. I’m sure you will be able to tell once the book has been released.

In saying all that, another band that helped create the mood for this book was The Hoosiers. I don’t know if anyone on the opposite side of the pond will have heard of them? A lot of their songs are rather upbeat and catchy but others are quite, what’s the word I’m looking for? Not darker, but softer, perhaps sadder. The lead singer has a lovely unusual voice and I really do like the band, but it was the title track to their album that I heard and just though, “yeah, that sums up the heroines life perfectly.”

So, the theme song for the soon to be released – you’ll know the date when I do – Cranberry Blood is “The Trick to Life.” I think this song gives a good feel for what the next book in The Blood Series will be like.

The Hoosiers – The Trick to Life

No such thing as time off...?

Today was my daughter's 3rd birthday :)

Yesterday, we took the day off and went to Peppa Pig World. Today was also a day off. I've got to say that taking the time off to solely focus on the family and my daughter has been wonderful (particularly yesterday - yesterday was just amazing :)), BUT, this saying is true:

A writer never has a vacation. For a writer's life consists of either writing or thinking about writing. 

- Eugene Ionesco

I can't say that I completely let go of my deadlines, my story arc, the current scene I'm writing and what exactly needs editing, and further thoughts on my upcoming projects. It's always there ... always. And I don't know how to get rid of it. I'm not sure I can. At least, not when I'm in the middle of a story - maybe it's easier when a book has actually just been completed and published, but until then, it sort of feels like an unwarranted luxury to take time off. In fact, taking time off can sometimes make me feel more stressed than if I'm working/writing. I guess I just need to feel like I deserve the time off. Or maybe it's because leaving a story hanging in mid-air is a little like having to wait to know something major in your life - it's that awful 'unfinished' feeling.

Anyway, here's a [silly and cheesy] pic of all of us at Peppa Pig World yesterday. My daughter loved "driving" the car. She always pretends she's driving Daddy's car anyway. The day was so great, I almost didn't think about writing at all :)

Sorry the pic's a bit big, but you just can't see it in the smaller size.

Routines

Oy. So I am idiotically late with today's post. I wish I could tell you it was because I had an amazing day, but sadly that is not the case. And I wish I had an incredible and perhaps insightful post to make it up to you, but alas I do not.

No, instead I am going to ramble on a little bit about routines, because as a self-employed writer I have found I do really need to try and stick to the routine I set out for myself. (And by set out I literally mean I wrote out a routine and pinned it on my wall. Very sad, I know.)

Naturally, I work at home so I have to try and separate work from personal. *Inserts laughter here* It is rather hard to do considering I live in a terrace cottage and I can hear people sneezing when they walk past my house. O_o Yeah, I don't have an office. I would totally love a room that I could step in to and seal myself off from the rest of the house. I had one in my old house and I miss it terribly. That separation did work though, because if I was in there it was to work, full stop.

So, I am trying to get myself in to a daily rhythm. Sometimes when I'm working on a project I get up, sit in front of my computer and don't stop unless I really need to. Now don't get me wrong, I love those days because I usually get through projects a lot quicker than I think I will, because literally from start to finish I am up and going for it. And then - as you may recall from last weeks post - I can go weeks without working at all, which really frustrates me.

Over the last couple of days I have managed to find a nice balance. I get up and exercise for an hour in the morning - at least I think using the Wii fit counts? - I then check all my emails and so forth. I have breakfast and then . . . well it depends on if there is anything important I need to do; shopping, cleaning, gardening etc. If so then naturally I get on with that. If not, I sit at my computer and I hope to god I'm going to have a very productive day.

Question is how long will this routine of mine go on for? *sighs* I guess I will soon find out.

Does anyone else have a daily routine to keep them on track? Do you ever find it hard trying to separate your "home" life from your work?

UK Readers: Do you read paranormal romances?

It's always been very obvious to me that most of my sales are greater in the US than in the UK (the exception is my vampire poetry which does better in the UK and Europe), and it got me wondering, do UK readers read paranormal romances?

UK sales (at least from a quick look at Amazon) certainly seem to be okay for J R Ward and other mainstream (better known?) authors of the genre, in both Kindle sales and book sales (I only state this to point out that UK readers certainly do read paranormal romances), so maybe it's the fact that UK readers don't like to read anything outside of mainstream? Or don't like to read anything they can't find in a bookshop? Are US readers more adventurous in what they will try?

Or maybe it's that UK readers need to be reached in a different way. This is me asking a serious question to my potential readers in my homeland: what would it take for you to try a new author? Does the book have to be on Richard and Judy? Do I have to advertise on the side of a London bus?

I want to know. I'd love more sales in the UK, especially from those aged 18-35 (that's my target audience - that "new adult" market). I'm thinking, if you grew up watching Buffy and liked it, you might like my Witching Pen books.

I don't buy that British people don't read paranormal romances. I know we watch enough paranormal shows on TV, and Twilight (as far as the paranormal romance goes) is certainly popular here too. So is Fifty Shades Of Grey, if we want to talk kinky material in books. No kidding though, that such phenomena is usually big in the States before here.

So how big do I have to make it in the States before I reach you guys here?

I have no idea how to market on my own turf. Do I stand at Leicester Square Tube Station and hand out books? Signed bookmarks? Business cards? I can't seem to reach you on the internet the same way I can reach my US readers, so to my wonderful UK counterparts, please, please, tell me how to reach you :)

Series

Today I want to talk about Series.

Speaking from my experience, when I first have an idea for a story, I don’t know straight away that it’s going to be a series; I just have an idea. So I go through the process of figuring out the plot and meeting the character and when I have an idea of how big the “event” is and what’s going on in the background, and how the story ends . . . Then I know how far the story stretches and how big the picture actually is. I know if it’s a series or not.

Now, all series start at a certain time in a characters life; mainly when something major – to them or in their world, or over someone they care about – kicks off, and we follow the characters right through to the end.

I know I’m stating the obvious here, but what I wanted to know is how much do you want to know about the characters? Are you interested in their past? Do you prefer their timeline to go straight from point A to Z? How much is too much in a series?

As a reader I have trilogies to series that have ten books or more. I have series that follows one character, and then series where we have different leads each book. I love the series so much I would buy any book linked to them, and I have despite if they are set all the way in the characters pasts or they are side stories about different characters.

As a writer of two series it’s harder to answer.

She-Wolf is a prequel and it was an unplanned novel. I intended it to be something short and offered for free and then it blew in to 75k. She-Wolf was possible because of the insane planning that went in to the book that follows.

Cranberry Blood - which is the first book in The Blood Series – is the first of 3 books – possibly 4 – all starring the same hero and heroine. That was the original plan, and it still is the plan, but when I was creating the history and meeting all the characters I fell in love with their stories.

I fell in love with Owen and Clare and when I really got stuck in to writing She-Wolf I figured out that I wanted to see them again. I wanted more of them. I wanted to give any of the characters who have a story to tell a chance to tell it, but that wasn’t the original plan. The plan was these four books and telling the heroine and heroes story.

So what do I do? Do I do what seems to make the most sense which is explore this world deeper, or do I behave? I definitely know asking all of you who have read She-Wolf what you would like, but that is a question I plan to ask after Cranberry Blood is published.

As it stands in my head, and will hopefully come to be, The Blood Series has four novels (including She-Wolf) and a possible novella. Naturally things change during edits so once Cranberry has been released I will have a better idea, but I also want to step backwards. I want to go in to the characters history.

One example is May. For anyone who has read She-Wolf you will remember that May was actually a victim of a Rogue attack. Luckily she survived her transformation is in one of only two female werewolves in The Pack. I would like to tell her story and how she and her husband John became bonded.

I had a story idea – nothing related to The Blood Series - and as always once I started planning I saw that there were stories within the characters past. But, the idea I had takes part at a certain point in the characters life. So, I sat there and thought do I write this book and finish it, publish it if it’s good – something my Beta Readers will have to help me decide. Or, do I make notes and hold off and go to an early point and begin there? Do I start at the beginning and work my way to the end? Or do I start where I have that idea, tie up the loose ends and then jump back to that different event in their life and tell that story?

Most writers don’t usually bring out prequels to series until the first book has been released, or at least it appears that way. Yet, She-Wolf is a prequel and it’s out there before book 1 in the series. I like things to flow in order, which is why I find myself stuck with that above project I was talking about.

I can’t make my mind up whether I would be insane to write two interlock books and publish them. If they’re good and people like them, maybe I would be forgiven if I decided to jump back in to the characters past and tell another story. Or should I just write, put those books to one side and jump back to the beginning.

How do you feel about flow in series? Or more to the point what do you enjoy about series? Do you like seeing characters and different moments of their lives, or do you find it annoying? Do you like seeing a variety of characters in the series world?

A "Non-Post" About Some Giveaways and Reviews

Huge apologies for this post coming in so late. Things have been non-stop busy, which I guess is good ... until I realised that I almost forgot to vote today (London Elections for anyone outside the UK), so off I went with my daughter after dinner, and I've just got back. I'm sneaking this in before putting her to bed.

It's a non-post. Which means it's about nothing. So I'm going to leave you with my big news this week, which is the publication of The Witching Pen paperback (although I'm still waiting for it to appear on the system as "in stock"), and where I've got giveaways running, as well as some new reviews just come in.

I know, I know, not informative and awfully "salesy", but I promise that next week, I'll have more of a post for you all :)



Let's get to it...


Giveaways:

Giveaway! 1 x signed paperback copy of The Witching Pen over at Susan K Mann. Ends 7th May

Giveaway! 1 x signed paperback copy of

The Sands Of Time over at Goodreads. Ends 15th May

New Reviews:

• Susan Mann reviews The Witching Pen (with giveaway as listed above)
• Best Books reviews The Witching Pen and The Sands Of Time 
• A Page Away reviews The Witching Pen (I'll be on their blog on 10th May with an author interview)
• JeanzBookReadNReview on The Witching Pen (I'll be on her blog on 22nd May).

Appearances:

I'm featured on "Try It Tuesday" over at Bookaholic's Book Club, they're letting you know why The Witching Pen is worth the read (Click link above to view).

And some general updates....

All three books plus the prequel in approx
450 pages of non-stop action!

The Witching Pen Novellas Omnibus:
The paperback is now available to preorder!

Amazon US
Amazon UK
Book Depository (cheapest)
Waterstones

*some sites are still waiting to upload cover image / preorder facility, but the book is there!






The Witching Pen paperback is officially released:
It appears to be making its way through the system. Data is being updated and some retail sites are showing it as out-of-stock as this happens. But the date is today folks! And if you've pre-ordered the book, you shouldn't have to wait too much longer before it's sent out to you :)
See it on    Amazon US   Amazon UK   Book Depository

The Demon Bride:
All is running on time with this, for an eBook release on the 31st August. I can now confirm that the eBook will NOT be exclusive to the Amazon Prime library, because I want to be able to bring the Omnibus out in December. This means there will be no freebies on this book, aside from the usual giveaways where there will be a chance to win a copy, and I'm planning ahead for this book, so I'm hoping to have a giveaway going per blog / reviewer in the initial stages. 


Lastly, do keep up with me this week, as I can promise you there will be more to come ;)