Friday 16 May 2008

How Time Flies



It seems a long time since I climbed Stac Polly but dh has just found pictures on his mobile phone! This is one of me he took when we were half way up, with Loch Lugainn beneath us. It was the end of February, I think, which explains why we were so wrapped up in winter clothes.

I'm working on fine-tuning HsD in fits and starts, and thinking about adding a new plot line to an earlier novel that I'm very fond of but which received 2 firm rejections for not having a) enough plot (Robert Hale) and b) not having enough internal conflict (HM&B). There are some good scenes in it that I'm loath to waste - but I quite accept that both publishers had valid complaints. My cp always said it had no spine...she was right.

Internal conflict is difficult, I find. There are only so many believable issues that can stop a couple who love each other from marrying and I'm sure you can think of them all in a twinkling. HM&B admit it, but say that the journey, and how it is handled, is the important bit. H'mmm. Then they ask for original voices and exciting stories. Ah well, nobody makes me do this. I do it all for my own pleasure.

I'm varying my diet of romance reading at the moment. I found biographies of Nigella Lawson and Byron on the library shelves and brought them home. Since Byron died in 1824 I can claim I'm reading around issues contemporary to my current wip, but Nigella? That's sheer nosiness on my part. I didn't know both her parents were Jewish, and that both her former and current husbands were/are Jewish, too. I use her How To Eat more than any of my other cook books - it is a joy to read - except perhaps for Delia's How To Cook.

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