Too busy!

Too much, I cry; too much! There's fabulous weather

begging me to go for walks, my garden to enjoy, people to see, Wimbledon (and if you are of the football persuasion, World Cup) to watch.

I signed a contract last week with Sapphire Blue publishing for my book Shadows, so e-mails are whizzing back and forth on that topic. Shadows has changed since it's brief exposure with the now defunct Triskelion. I've rewritten it from beginning to end and added 20,000 to improve the characterisation and motivation of the story. It's definitely a much better book than it was.

At the same time I'm making new contacts through the electronic world, receiving reviews for my last book and joining new blog groups. If you haven't discovered it yet, do have a peek at Historical Belles and Beaus. (The longer I look at that last word, the more I am tempted to write it as Beaux. And if you hurry, my post on Anne Boleyn is the most recent).

As for my poor old wip, editing has stalled at around Chapter 16.

This is the third day in a row that I've not got to it and I'm feeling so guilty. I also know that I have only a certain number of days before I go on holiday and I'd hoped to have it finished before then so that I could settle down and write - ha! ha! - wait for it! a romance for the Mills & Boon competition that kicks off around September.

Mills and Boon and I do not gell. I am continually told in rejection letters that (though my writing is fine etc) I don't have enough internal conflict.

I think because my Matho story is at an end (except for the editing, which OK, demands a lot of layering and thought) my subconcious is sort of freewheeling, if I can put it like that. It noted the M&B competition, and has been offering me tantalising bits of plot that I could use if I was willing to put in the time and energy - and if I think I have a better understanding of what they want when they talk about internal conflict. To be frank, initially I used to think of it as whingeing. Heroine wrings hands and wonders what to do in difficult situation. Now I have learned it is far more than that, and I think I could actually manage it now. It also seemed an ideal new venture to think about while I'm relaxing in France.

The pic shows Hexham market place on a brilliant sunny day. The close up is one of the more intriguing memorials around Hexham. No explanation. But why would someone go to the expense of having a memorial stone carved that says only Blood and Fire?

Must go - the Queen is arriving at Wimbledon! Must watch!

Romance publishing

I journeyed to Alnwick today to visit with the Border Reivers group of the RNA. Great fun. I whizzed through the glorious autumn countryside in the Mini Cooper and enjoyed every moment of the hour and a quarter it took me to get there, possibly because I travel on back roads, not A -roads. Not for me the long straight boring stretches of tarmacadam - I opt for the bends, swoops and curves of road through Stamfordham, beside Bolam Lake, a swift jink through Scots Gap and over the top to Rothbury - slow down for the High Street and then rev up the hill by the Cragside entrance, over the next top, cross the main road carefully and then on - wave at the ruined castle - I must stop and investigate one day -and then down into Alnwick. Wonderful. The trees are beginning to turn golden and the hedgerows are alive with red berries.

We talked about the Radio Four programme on Mills and Boon. If you want to read an entertaining rant about it, do go and enjoy Trish Wylie's rant: http://trishwylie.blogspot.com/
She has covered it all!

On the whole the programme coverage was not as bad as I expected it to be. I think the people like Brayfield, Mary Evans and one or two other detractors condemmed themselves out of their own mouths - they cannot have read a M&B since the 1960s. Shame on you ladies, for not keeping up with the current publishing world.