life with the belles

I discovered this weekend that Miss La was under the impression the the words to Coom by yar were:
Coom by yar, my Lord, Cucumber

Go on try singing it!

Here we go again

I'm off again this weekend in the caravan and then again the following weekend. Mr Nell and the belles are staying the whole time - some of us have to come back to go to work. This time it's to one of my favourite sites at Chirk on the Welsh borders. Trips to Wrexham, Chester and Shrewsbury will no doubt ensue and the belles are already hinting at going to the zoo again as it's been a few years since we last went. Mr Nell is taking the bikes so he and the belles can cycle when they're away. Sadly, due to the dodgy hip my cycling days are over so I guess I'll have to sit in the (hopefully) sunshine by the caravan and read and write. What a hardship that will be.
The fishsitters are looking after the house and poor Angie my angel fish who still has popeye in her one eye despite a seven day course of fishy biotics. She hates the medicine and tries to dodge it by hiding in the weed when she spots the bottle in your hand.

More pics

The beach again - loved this beach and the sea was so warm and nice.

Miss La inside our caravan

View from Kidwelly Castle

Holiday pics

Me and the belles at Kidwelly Castle

La, Shaggy and a friend

The belles at the national botanic garden of Wales

Cef'n Sidan beach

Last day

Today is the last day of my holiday. Mr Nell and the Belles are due back this afternoon so my nice orderly quiet will be shattered. Tomorrow I'm back to the day job and my job share partner is off on her hols for 2 weeks so there will be tons to do. So today I'm puttering about and taking my Mom for lunch before the madness and, no doubt the dirty laundry descends.
Had a lovely time last night with my friend, we caught up on gossip and had a nice meal. Pudding was yummy, lemon pannacotta with blueberries. My one indulgence so not bad.

Busy Bee

I've been very virtuous in the absence of Mr Nell and the belles. I've written two chapters of Just Look at Me Now and by the end of today I'm hoping to have a chapter done of Me, You and Him done too. I've read and critiqued 5 chapters for my cp and 2 for a writing friend. I've read and written a report for the NWS, sewn all the labels on Miss La's new uniform and cleaned out the bottom of my wardrobe.
Tonight I'm planning on going out for dinner with a friend, waves to Susanne, so we can catch up on gossip. I'm hoping to catch up with Phillipa, Liz and the coffee crew soon too. I'm still following my healthy eating plan though so I'll be choosing something good. I'd like to have lost a bit more weight by November as there's a possibility of a launch party in London for Loves Me, Loves Me Not and I plan to go if it comes off. It would be nice to finally go to something like that and even nicer if I could go looking like there was less of me.

John Hughes

RIP John Hughes
John Hughes's films defined the eighties. He'll be much missed. Not so long back I blogged about introducing the eldest Belle to Pretty in Pink. Classic

Permission to write

Mr Nell and the belles are off to Malvern tomorrow for a few days. This means I'm free to do all the stuff that I'm way behind on - like cleaning - oh hum, and writing. I'm hoping for a really good writing weekend without having to worry about running out of bread or taxi-ing various offspring to their social commitments. Instead it'll be me and my computer and the fish.
Talking of the fish, we've lost all our loaches in the hot weather and several platys. My poor Angel fish, Angie isn't very well either. She has Pop-eye in her one eye and she isn't keen on the fishybiotics. Fingers crossed for her to make a full recovery so we can get the tank settled and get some more loaches. I miss them so much. Some good news though, we have a baby fish of indeterminate parentage, not sure if he's a Platy or a Molly.

School uniform

I've been kitting out Miss La with her new uniform ready for high school in September - so far I've spent aprox £250. This includes trainers, shoes and football boots as well as stationary. What has really ticked me off is that the school has opted for a new PE kit. Instead of the generic pale blue polo shirt that I used to get from M&S for £3.99 as a 2 pack now it's £11.50 for one from the only shop in the area that supplies a specially printed top. Hmm, wonder if the fact that the shop is giving the school fund 10% from all it's sales of their kit is anything to do with the change? I only know this because I saw a notice for staff in the back room when Miss la was trying on her swimsuit - £9.99 for a plain navy costume. What a waste of money when I got her a nice costume for her holidays for £2.95 from George at Asda. Equally annoying is £14 for a navy school sweater just because it has the school name embroidered on it. The kids wear blazers all the time. They could have a plain navy jumper for less than £5 and they would still look smart.
Don't get me wrong, I think uniform is great but I hate the rip off that happens over trivial stuff like this.

Crystal Clear

Squee! The back cover blurb is up and a review quote - OMG! Sorry ahem, momentarily carried away there..
Here's what it says on Amazon.
Review
‘A brilliantly fun read that will have you hooked!*****’ (OK! magazine )

Product Description
Sometimes you have to go back to move forward...

For years Zee has tried to ignore her real name (who calls their kid Azure Dawn?) and her mother Marla’s alternative lifestyle. A million miles away from all that new-age nonsense, she’s got a reliable teaching job, a perfect life plan and sensible accountant Simon for a fiancé. But when Marla gets sick, the foundations of Zee’s rock-steady world are seriously shaken. Soon she’s back home, in touch with the boy who broke her heart and even being sucked into one of her mum’s hare-brained schemes. What about Zee’s plans for the future?! Could they ever include a free-spirit from her past?

Did ya miss me?

I'm back! I'm hoping the weather will stay dry long enough for me to dry the laundry mountain. Yesterday was a lovely day. We visited Kidwelly Castle which really is fabulous, then we hit the beach - Miss Boo tried out her boogie board. Then we finished the day with a barbecue - perfect last night for the hols.
As soon as Mr Nell finds the camera cable I'll try and get some pics up for you. I'm all set now for a good wekk of writing - in between finishing house chores and sorting out school uniform ready for the new term of course.
I did a lot of thinking this week about both my stories and I think I know where I'm going now - all my books have quite deep psychological layers which underpin the plotting and my external conflicts mirror what's really going on internally so I find I have to spend a lot of time early on in my books just getting the foundations right or the whole story will collapse in on itself in the middle. Hopefully I'm pretty much clear now on what threads I need to take up to make the books work.

Sun and showers

Today we visited the Welsh national botanic gardens. The rain held off until late this afternoon which was good. The gardens were quite nice, especially the double walled garden. Sadly the food in the restaurants wasn't so great so we were all starving by the time we left. Tomorrow it's forecast to be a dry day so we're hoping to hit the beach again.

By the seaside

At last T moanbile has finally let me onto my own blog! We're here beside the sea in lovely and, at the moment, slightly damp Wales. Today we visited Swansea, where there is a lovely Waterstones but it had a very tiny romance selection. Yesterday we visited Camarthen, where with the exception of TK Max, we had a lovely time. If you go to Camarthen, only shop in TK Max if you have a lot of time to spend standing in a huge, huge queue. The beach here at Pembry Country Park is beautiful and the sea is gorgeous and warm. We've had a couple of lovely hot days mixed in with the rain.
I haven't done any writing as yet but I have so many things working out in my head that I can't wait to get home and get cracking.
In other news - Big Brother! Save Marcus - vote out Noirin!

Wales!

We're off to Wales for a week leaving the housesitters minding the fish. This time we're going to Pembrey and the site is supposed to have WIFI so maybe my gadget will work this time. It's right by the sea so I can't wait. I'm hoping the weather will improve but Wales is famous for it's changeable weather so we'll see. I'm hoping to visit Kidwelly Castle and the National Welsh botanical gardens while we're there but most of all I'm hoping to write, and read and just enjoy the sea with Mr Nell and the belles.

Nice warm glow

A few years ago I stumbled into the strange surreal world of the Bat Cave over at eHarlequin. The friends I made there will hate me for saying this but they are the most generous, warm, supportive group of people. Through them I heard about Moonlit Romance and one of the bats was also my editor. Without Laura and her unstinting patience through the many rewrites and edits of my first book I would never have been published. Not only is she a superb editor she is also a gifted writer herself and she's one of the people, along with Jess, Kimberly and my editor and agent, who's opinion of my writing I really trust. So I was especially thrilled when This appeared, as I know even though she's my friend she wouldn't say it if she didn't mean it.

Last day of school

Me, Lizzie and Trisha Ashley

Me - dressed up.
Miss La breaks up today - it's her last day at her little village primary school and they are holding their traditional football and fairies event. This means the girls dress as footballers and the boys go as fairys complete with glitter and wings. It's a ton of fun and gives them all a great memory to take away with them.
Talking of memories, the lovely Lizzie Lamb took some cool pics at the RNA conference that she's given me permission to share. On one of them I almost look normal.

Schools not out

Argh, I was convinced that all the belles broke up on Friday - wrong. Miss La still has two days to do. Roll on September when for a whole lovely year they will all be at the same school. This weekend is the first time in ages that I was home, with four clear days and Mr Nell wasn't on nights so I could catch up on some much needed jobs. What happens? My stupid back goes. So I'm dosed on painkillers, hobbling around and muttering rude words under my breath everytime I look at the dustbunnies and piles of stuff that need to be moved, cleared and sorted.
Next Saturday we're off to Wales so it won't get done then either.

Handy Hints

In a weaker moment I somehow found myself being persuaded to help judge some short story contests this summer. The contests remits are very different but I have found the following issues so far to be pretty universal - here follows a public service broadcast on how not to win a short story contest or get yourself published.

1. Do not copy and paste a story from the internet complete with pictures and write your name in pen on the work.
2. Do not use a font so small that the reader needs a microscope.
3. Do not use anything other than Arial, TNR or Courier as your font.
4. Do not print your entry in bold.
5. Do not put a poem in the middle of it.
6. Do not write a covering letter explaining your story.
7. Do not write a cover letter that's longer than the short story giving me your autobiography.
8. Please give your story a title.
9. Stick to the word count.
10. Do not blame the computer for your spelling and grammar errors.
11. Do not print your entry on paper with a fancy background.
12. Do not put your story in a fancy binder.

Thank you

Conference report pt2

Where was I? Oh yes, After Saturdays lunch came more workshops. First a round up for the New Writers Scheme, where we all look at what works and what can be made better. Most of the published writers have experienced the scheme themselves when trying for publication and know how it feels to be anxiously waiting for that precious feedback. Then came Jessica Hart's workshop on character, plot and emotional tension. If you visit here regularly you'll know I am a huge fan of Jessica's, not only is she a great writer but she really knows her stuff when it comes to sharing her expertise with other writers so it was a really useful workshop. Then I have to admit I skived the last workshop in favour of a quick chat with Jessica before she dashed off and then I had a quick shower - taking care not to fall through the damaged floor of my bathroom - and a nice lie down before the Gala Dinner.
The Gala dinner is always a highlight with everyone dressing up and photographing one anothers shoes. We did take pictures of cleavages one year but I think we'd been in the bar for a long time then. The food at dinner was a bit of a disaster - we learned later that there had been an accident to one of the kitchen staff - but the only edible part of the meal was the soup and roll we had as a starter and the mint that came with the coffee. We did contemplate sending out for pizza on our table but decided it was too late at night. Luckily Sandra Forder came to our rescue once more as it was her birthday and there was cake in her kitchen.
I made it back to my room round about midnight by which time it was raining. Biddy and Anna arrived a few minutes later. I went out into the hall when I heard mild shrieks and giggles from the upstairs landing to find Biddy - dressed in a rather lovely black bra - perched on a chair and waving a pipe from a hoover at the open skylight while Anna hung onto her legs. They managed to close the skylight to stop the rain from pouring in and we finally went to bed after we'd had a conversation about the sex appeal - or not - of the Top Gear presenters.
Sunday saw some rather sore heads in the dining room for breakfast. Next workshop was Freda Lightfoot's 'Creating a Brand', another superb workshop. Then it was Linda Gilliard on exploring all the senses when writing. I'm in two minds about that workshop. The exercises were very good but there some statements made that as someone who has clients, colleagues and friends with vision and hearing issues, troubled me a little.
This was followed by the conference round-up and lunch before the lovely Judy Jarvie gave me a ride to the station where I spent a very happy half an hour comparing bookshelves with Allie Spencer where we discovered we both loved Chaucer and PG Wodehouse.
So there you have it, the insider goss on what we did last weekend. The wonderful Liz Fenwick is giving superbly detailed accounts of all the writers tips she gleaned on her blog - link is in the sidebar.
Now to save up ready for next year - and I think I may have volunteered to deliver a workshop.

Conference report pt1

Longtime regular readers will know that I'm not the world's best at writing these. Other bloggers do a far better job when it comes to detailing workshops and who had the best shoes, but here goes!
I made it to Penrith on the sardine special - aka Virgin Trains - too many people for not enough train. I shared a cab from the station with three other lovely novellists including fabulous new Little Black Dress author and recent winner of the Joan Hessayon prize, Allie Spencer.
The campus at newton Rigg is in a gorgeous spot and the staff there are lovely. The food however and my room were another story but at any conference it's the company that counts and I had the best company.
I was chuffed to be sharing a block with Nina Harrington, new M&B romance author and my good friends, Anna Louise Lucia and Biddy Coady. I soon met up with other online friends,and we went to the panel meeting on How much is too much? with Melanie Hilton, Liz Gill, Helen Scott Taylor, Sue Moorcroft and Veronica Henry.
Ten to six found me, Biddy and Anna joining the queue outside the bar where I met the lovely Sue Rix and her hubby Graham.
Dinner was less than stellar as they ran out of food by the time we got inside so I ended up with a Cumberland sausage four tiny potatoes and some orange stuff that may once have been carrots but by then you could have used them as rubber bullets. Fortunately Sandra Forder had a stash of biscuits in her room.
Saturdays workshops were fab - really, seriously good. I went to Myra Kersner's Non fiction proposals - excellent workshop on selling, publishing, writing and promoting non fiction. This was followed by Hugo Summerson's brilliant talk on How to do public speaking really well. I really needed this one!
Then we had a plenary session with one of my favourite writers - Veronica Henry.She told us all about her scriptwriting for the Archers, Family Affairs, Crossroads, Holby, Heartbeat etc and how this has informed her novel writing. Fascinating stuff.
I'll tell you more in part 2!