Shoring up the pictures

I mentioned in my last post the amount of thinking I do when I'm starting a new story. To help me build up a sense of that story and who those characters are i make myself a playlist of music that helps me define certain moments or characteristics of the story. Here's my list for Just Look at me Now:

Love Scenes - Beverly Craven
It's all coming back to me - Meatloaf
Shape of my heart - Sting
I get the sweetest feeling - Jackie Wilson
I will never fall in love again - The Noisettes
If I could turn back time - Cher with Cyndi Lauper
Shes got the look - Roxette

I usually add to this as the book goes on and over time one song will come to mean that story to me. For Animal Instincts it was the Sugababes - Cos I know how I feel about you now. For Crystal Clear it was Girls in their summer clothes by Bruce Springsteen.
Oh, and I found a picture for Josh - my hero, yep, that's him at the top. Apparently he's an actor called Matthew Goode but I've never seen him act so i don't know if he's famous or not. I'm sure one of you more worldly people will tell me lol.

Thinking Time

I think I mentioned I'd written the first chapter of the new book? I'm halfway through chapter two now and hope to finish that this weekend. At this stage a lot of my writing time goes on thinking. I'm thinking through my characters stories, the plots and subplots and the routes for the various personalities. I also need to work out my playlist too. I find a few key songs can really set the mood for what I want to write. I've heard a few tracks that might work but I really need to go play on Youtube and make sure I've got it right. Also while I can 'hear'Tia, my heroine, very clearly I don't see her yet or Josh, the hero so I'd better look for some pictures too.
Oh the hardships of a writers life!

It's back!

you knew I would be watching! Yes Big Brother is back with another collection to entertain me for the summer. This group appeared to include the childcatcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Wolverine, a girl with an inflatable bust, a punk and one of my best friend's nephew! (He's the Russell Brand lookalikee Chris) I thought he looked familiar but last time I saw him he had a crewcut and really you don't expect to see someone you know - albeit vaguely - on TV.
The first night included a Brazillian boy shaving the eyebrows off a pretty Irish girl then drawing glasses and a moustache on her face with permanent marker. I love that BB never pretends to be something it isn't. It doesn't pretend to be educational or to expose some sad seedy secret. Instead it provides a brilliant and bonkers sideshow of human behaviour.
Davinia 'Shouty' Mcall was there too of course, dressed in a binbag and pretending everyone going into the house was sane. Looking forward to the next few weeks to see how everyone shakes down.

X marks the spot

Today is polling day in the UK for the European elections. I know a lot of people are very disenchanted right now with politicians of all parties. Even so please use your vote. I personally don't care who you vote for, even though there are some factions out there that clearly are not very desirable, but I do care that people exercise their democratic rights. If you don't know who do vote for then choose the party you think will do the least harm.
If you don't vote then don't complain that you don't like the policies that affect your life. Do something about it - Go vote!

On a roll

Finally got the shoe problem sorted - in the end I had to go down there with the shoes and not move until I got an answer. Shoes are now gone to be altered so Miss la will have to have a note for school and permission to wear sandals for a week until tbey come back. Not ideal but better than nothing.
I finally got on top of some of my mailing today too - a huge haul to the post office of official forms, parcels and other writerly bits and bobs that I needed to sort out.
I also braved the child tax credit line and dealt with updating and renewing all of that info - always a challenge when you have dyscalculia and there are a lot of numbers involved.
I finished the first chapter of Just Look at me Now. I think I quite like it - it's very different again from my other books and definitely different from Crystal Clear. Even better yesterday I got my sticky mitts on a copy of Jessica Hart's Honeymoon with the Boss. Rush out and get a copy - it's a lovely summery sunshine feelgood read that whisks you off to a tropical paradise.

shoes and the NHS again!

For all of you that remember the last saga of Miss la's shoes well, guess what? Sigh. Miss La has hypermobility of her joints, this especially effects her feet so she needs wedges fitted to the outside of her shoes to help with her balance and stop her feet turning in and an arch support fitted inside the shoe to stop her feet from hurting. She's been having this done since she was two - until she was seven she wasn't een allowed shoes, she had to wear boots.
Fast forward to two years ago when Mac, the experienced pillar of the othotic dept retired. Ever since then it's been hell on wheels to get her shoes fixed. The last time, they changed the rules and didn't tell me then insisted she had to be seen again before they would fix the shoes even though she wasn't due to be seen for another six months. That took ages to sort out.
This time I called my GP and asked him to write and ask if they needed to see her this time before fixing the shoes or could I just drop the shoes in as it had only been six months since they last saw her.
That was April - since then nada - zip. I've called and called and either get a nice man who says they have the letter but the girl who does appts insn't there or I get cut off then the phone is off the hook, or noone answers or the line is busy. It's absolutely ridiculous - so guess how I'm spending a lovely sunny afternoon?

Travellers return

We had a lovely time in the Devon sunshine. My appologies for the lack of posts - not only does T Moanbile struggle with me being over eighteen but the web and walk didn't walk very far - it proved to be more of a slow and pathetic crawl that ground to a juddering halt every few seconds. I'd forgotten the reception down around Torbay is so patchy.
Still, the sun shone and we did - well very little actually. We pottered around places during the morning then went back to the van on the afternoons to barbecue and laze around in the sunshine while the girls put on their bikini's and hit the pool.
I still haven't been inside Greenaways - sigh. Partly because it's so tricky to get to. It would be okay if I was on my own but a busride and rivertrip for five plus all the entrance fees is very expensive plus I don't think my hip will allow me to manage the uphill walk from the boat through the gardens to the house. Maybe next time.
We had lovely times in Dartmouth, Torquay, Paignton and Dawlish. We also visited Plymouth to the new Drake's Circus shopping centre during the only showery day. Not impressed at all by the centre - from the outside it looks great but inside it's very poorly planned - not enough lifts, no signs - they rely on electronic booths, not enough toilets and all the refreshment stands together on one floor - the top floor. I don't recomend it. It was also very expensive compared to Exeter, which is a much lovelier place to go.
Now I'm back to a mountain of washing - as per usual but at least the sun is shining so I can dry it and the wait for my editors verdicton Crystal Clear - I sense tweaking.
Also waiting for my agents thoughts on A Scattering of Leaves. In the meantime I'll plough on with Just Look at me now and keep my fingers crossed!

Travelling

Yes, we're off again. This time to Devon for a week leaving the house with our fish sitters. Fingers crossed my laptop thingy will work and that I can update the blog while I'm away. Maybe T Moanbile will believe I'm over eighteen this time. Have a nice bank hol and if you're visiting from the US - a good memorial weekend.

Back to school

Tonight was interesting. I accompanied Mr Nell and my eldest belle to her school where we found out more about the maths help available for the GCSE students. For those of you who know me really well and know my challenges with numbers I can already hear you sniggering. All I can say is that I am so happy that I don't have to do my GCSE now. I couldn't do it back then either and if I went to school every day from now till forever I would never, ever fully get it.
Sigh, we looked at the computer programme they use to work through the problems and I fell straight into the same trap I always went into when I was at school.

Question - Jaya spins a coloured spinner 500 times it lands X number on yellow, X on green, Y on red, Y on pink and Q on blue. What is the probability of it landing on Pink?

Already they lost me - I'm thinking Jaya has too much time on her hands and why did she want to make a spinner anyway? Did she convert a cocktail umberella and where is purple? I'd have put glitter on it and oh, what was the question again?
Oh yeah um, 500 right, and what colours? or was it 05?
I don't think I like Jaya, what an odd name to choose, wonder why they didn't just put Jane. Jane sounds like a mathy name or maybe not, what was the name of that girl in the easy reader books at primary? Was she a Jane. No, that was Dick and Dora. Dora could be a mathy name. If Jaya had a brother what would they call him? Is the next question a boy name? Maybe that one will be easier?

So now you know why I'm a writer and not a mathematician. Mr Nell says the inside of my head is a dark and scary place. I think it's more sort of pink and fluffy with little sparkly bits.

Happy Birthday La

My youngest belle, Miss La, is 11 today. In September she starts senior school and I can't quite believe she's that old already. When she was born I already had two children under four years of age, one of whom was a prem baby with health issues. Mr Nell was seriously ill with a longterm medical complaint that was still being stabilised. We had a business to run and I was working as a health visitor in a very demanding post.
Fortunately I managed to carry her to term although she was my third caesarian birth but she was actually quite a good baby. Now she's getting all grown up and ready to take on a whole new set of things that will be very different from the sheltered environment of her tiny village school. One things for sure though, she'll always be my baby.

Post book blues

I always feel a bit flat and kind of lost when I've completed a book. At the moment my agent has two of my projects so I'm waiting for the verdicts before I work any more on those. I hadn't planned to start my next book for Little Black dress till after my holiday but the opening scene has been nagging and nagging at me so yesterday I caved in and wrote 700 words.
Just Look at me Now is already looking to be very different from my other three Little Black Dress books, for a start this story is unrolling in third person wheras Blue Remembered Heels, Animal Instincts and Crystal Clear are all first person. Hmmm, I'll see how that goes as I get a little more into it but I already feel a bit perkier just knowing I've got a project underway.

If it's Monday

It must be Halesowen library reader group. Meeting at 2pm today in Drucker's coffee shop in the Cornbow Centre. I'm looking forward to meeting everyone and talking books.

Eurovision

Last night was one of our family's favourite nights of the year. The musical carcrash that is Eurovision. Naff costumes, ott frocks, mournful dirges and athletic youths leaping about the stage whilst attempting not to set their hair on fire while the wind machine blows a gale. Whats not to love? Sadly, Sir Terry Wogan's commentary was missing last night and we were left with Graham Norton - still he only managed to insinuate three or four gay puns into his commentary so maybe there's hope.
Our entry was Jayde, a girl who would have been booted from the X Factor in the early stages singing a song which had only three lyric lines and featured Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber playing piano. He'd wisely done a runner it seemed when it became apparant that Norway - who had a guy with eyebrows like two wayward caterpillars - was going to storm it.
Our favourites were Turkey - who had lots of belly dancers in red singing what we all though was 'shake your tictacs' and Ukraine who seemed to have raided a fancydress shop and had roman soldiers and discobeat. Azerbaijan were also good fun as was Denmarks imitation Ronan Keating. Best fun of all though was Greece, featuring a guy who looked like Chico's twin who sang and danced on top of a giant stapler.
Marvellous - roll on next year!
Watch Norway Here

Lemmings in lycra

What is it about donning a cycle helmet and skintight lycra that seems to rob cyclists of any kind of road sense? This morning I encountered two of them on my way to work. Bear in mind I work in the inner city on the outskirts of our second city so not exactly your quiet country lanes. It was foggy enough to require headlights.
Lemming number one in requisite lycra and helmet comes cycling out of a bus lane, across a red light and hasn't any lights on.
Lemming number two is on a busy duel carriageway weaving in and out of the temporarily halted traffic, no lights and cuts across the three lanes at the island because he's in the wrong lane.
Sometimes it's like Deathrace 2000

Talking about books

Nice time at Wordsley library this afternoon and looking forward to Monday with Halesowen readers group. There's nothing nicer than talking about books with other people who love books too. Have already zipped through my TBR pile so I think I'll have to go and treat myself to a few more.
I loved Katie Ffordes Wedding Season - I think it's her best book yet. The Betty Neels were lovely satisfying comfort reads as always. So I need some reccomendations. I like heart warming romances with a splash of comedy, a great plot and a happy ending. I don't mind the heat level if it's important to the plot so the bedroom door can be open but I can do without the mirrored ceiling and handcuffs. I don't really like Vampires and Shapeshifters. I like some historicals but Contemporaries are my favourites.
Tell me what to read...

Finished

Yippee!!! Crystal Clear is done. Whew. I intend to take a couple of days break to reclaim the house then press on with A Scattering of Leaves for a few weeks before I start the next Little Black Dress book.
If anyone is in Wordsley tomorrow btw I'm talking at the library there at 2.30 as part of Big Book Fortnight so pop along and say Hi. Next Monday I'm at Halesowen libraries reader group at 2pm - we're going to be at Druckers coffee shop in the shopping centre as the library is being refurbed so I think cream cakes might be on the schedule.
Now to catch up on my reading, two Betty Neels and Katie Ffordes Wedding Season are on my list.

Almost there

Well I've started my backwards edit. Began on C32 and am now on C26 added almost 2k worth of emotional description, dialogue etc and the end of the book is now looking much, much stronger. Hopefully by Tuesday the book will be done, polished and shiny ready for my agent and my editor.
I plan to work on A Scattering of Leaves then for a few weeks to ramp up my word count with that before starting to write my next Little Black Dress book - Just Look at me Now.
The Belle's have received their dance results - highly commended's all round so they're very happy. My youngest belle starts her SATs tests this week and that should then be the last of the exam angst in the house for a little while.

Backwards

Since Jess and a few other people have been a bit surprised by my back wards method of working I thought I'd try and show you what I mean using a short excerpt from Animal Instincts. Be warned it is quite painstaking as a way of working but It works for me. To show this properly I'm going to reverse the excerpt round to demonstrate how I check from the end

“Pay the man, Clo,” Immi ordered and staggered sideways, flinging her arm around the driver’s neck to steady herself.
“Whoops!” She giggled.

In this bit I wanted to show Immi was drunk but I didn't want to use slurred speech or a long description so I checked to see that her actions revealed her condition. Her dialogue shows her as a happy drunk at odds with her emotional state later on when she reveals the events from earlier in the evening



He must have driven her quite a distance to want sixty pounds and it was typical of Immi not to have any money with her.

This sentence reveals Immi's habitual habit of acting without any regard for the consequences a hint towards the chat show issue



“That’ll be sixty quid, Miss.” The taxi driver supporting my sozzled step-sister leaned her against the doorframe, a look of relief on his florid features.

Again this sentence shows Immi's state and the taxi driver isn't a character that will feature again - I just need to give the reader a word picture of the scene without a huge description and to show she must have come a long way to run up such a big fare - something out of the ordinary and a foil for Clodagh's perilous finances.

“Surprise!” Immi wobbled on her heels and blinked owlishly at me, “I’ve got a present for you.” She waved an unopened bottle of champagne in my face.

This contrasts the two sisters, immi with champagne which Clodagh would probably never drink and it gives an early indication of Immi's generous nature even if she doesn't think things through

The light from the hall spilled out into the night illuminating the two figures on my front doorstep.

This is the opening line of the book. It had to have something of a hook - who were the two figures? and why were they there in the night?

So, after that - in the right order as you would read it.

The light from the hall spilled out into the night illuminating the two figures on my front doorstep.
“Surprise!” Immi wobbled on her heels and blinked owlishly at me, “I’ve got a present for you.” She waved an unopened bottle of champagne in my face.
“That’ll be sixty quid, Miss.” The taxi driver supporting my sozzled step-sister leaned her against the doorframe, a look of relief on his florid features. He must have driven her quite a distance to want sixty pounds and it was typical of Immi not to have any money with her.
“Pay the man, Clo,” Immi ordered and staggered sideways, flinging her arm around the driver’s neck to steady herself.
“Whoops!” She giggled.


All the way through I'm looking to catch any repetition, have I foreshadowed something? Have I repeated a phrase that I overlooked on my forwards edits? Have I got enough emotion or does a phrase seem flat when I look up to the one before it? Is the description clear enough to give the reader a picture in their mind of the scene?

I write quite a sparing, clean first draft so my backwards pass tends to add in odd words here and there. For other people they might need to cut things out. I like dialogue and action tags that show a scene and reveal character. How about you? For the writers out there how do you edit?

Spit and polish

Crystal Clear is shaping up I hope. I've almost finished taking out my hit list words that I love to over use and I've smoothed a few anomalies, just one last one to rewrite so it becomes clearer and helps make more sense of the ending. Then once it's all stripped and clean I start the big adit, where I work through backwards looking at each phrase to see if the emotional impact is there and adding in the final parts that will hopefully make Azure and Drew's story come to life. I'm quite fond of Azure - she makes a big journey during the book. Next comes the nailbiting bit - sending it to my agent and my lovely editor for their verdict.
In other news though I've seen a mock up for the cover of Charlie Darling and it's wow! Completely different from any of my other covers but in a good way! Exciting stuff - no news on the release date yet and I know I have edits etc to come but still exciting.

Noses

While we were at the ginormous car boot one of the stall holders asked Mr Nell if Shaggy was his daughter. When he said she was the man said 'she's got a nice nose. My daughters just paid 4k for a nose job and it looks just like your daughters.'
mr Nell, ever the diplomat replied 'she got hers for free, walking into a metal post at school.'