rflong

my YA paranormal twisted fairy tale May Queen has started talking to me again.

I'm going through it a bit at a time. I think I know where it went wrong before, which is good. And it needs to be a tighter story than I thought - not so long. But as its YA that's okay, isn't it? At least I think so.

Nice to be doing this one again. I like the characters and I did a lot of research for it which is all coming back delightfully.

So... yay! I think...

Once again, Internet explorer foils my lovely post and crashes when I try to do something. Arrgghh. Most annoying Microsoft thingy ever.

So here is the mark 2 post, which won't be as funny or witty or clever. But here goes.

Not yet properly awake, even after two mugs of tea and a drive on the M50 carpark motorway in pouring rain. I also set up a cooler in our special collection room, trying to take down the temperature to a level that will not slowly dry out the books in the manner of smoked kippers. Hmm, better check the cooler shortly, just to make sure I did actually set it up alright.

I wrote a bit of May Queen last night, new words which are always wonderful at first glance, and rather disappointing at the second. Still. they are new words and that is what matters. A twist came to me, as twists will, which I think has firmly lodged its way into the narrative. Hopefully it is as clever as I thought it was last night anyway.

I also typed up a little more Moy Tura Echoes. This may be the best way to work myself out of the block I have found myself stuck in with this novel . There is some more still to type - two more scenes I think and then I hit the end of what I have written so far. But hopefully something magical will occur. Either that or I will have to put in some serious grind. Well, I'll let you guess which is more likely at the moment.

Sunday is Book Day at Farmleigh house, with a special exhibition on special bindings in my dream library . There are a load of children's book events going on so we should be able to entertain the small ones long enough for me to Ooo and Ahhh a reasonable amount. There is a gang of us going, most of the Leceister Codex brigade I think, so it should be fun. Thing is, I hope the weather isn't like today.

My son starts football tomorrow morning. (That's soccer for the rest of you). He is so excited I doubt he will sleep tonight. Again, I hope the weather isn't like today!!! And he made a new friend last night. A family with a boy his age moved in up the street and they have bonded big time in the space of about twenty minutes. Guess I'd better get used to having a second little boy running around. My daughter looked a bit shocked though. She isn't used to having to SHARE her brother with someone else. And someone who wasn't impressed by her Little Mermaid Barbie, either. The indignity!

I got a rejection for The Bonny Lass O'Fyvie the other day  (no comments or anything) so it is off out again elsewhere. 

Will probably be wallpapering the infamous kitchen tonight, and trying to avoid listening to the screams from the living room as Ireland plays France in the Rugby World Cup. Determined to have take away at least. Something will have to make up for it. No, I think the wall papering is a really good idea. 

I am not a rugby fan, except by osmosis.

Also must find out what the French press wrote about a particular member of the Irish team that has them so riled up!

I did some work on May Queen last night as Moy Tura Echoes seems to have stalled. I know what I have to write, what I have to write to get there and I know where the whole thing is going, I just can't seem to get it down on paper! May Queen on the other hand is just sparkling along for me. I can't understand it but think I will just have to go with it for now and follow the May Queen story until Moy Tura is ready to unravel again. So frustrating. I have an idea for a short as well, but finding the time to sit down with it is proving a challenge. I'm also wondering if its a bit of a cliche, but I probably won't know until I start writing.

I have bits of May Queen laid out like a jigsaw. Scenes I previously wrote. This is a method I used to use a lot and I think I might well go back to it. Of course, it does mean you need something resembling and outline first, which I am notoriously bad at doing. It's fun to leap about in time though. I find it easier to get the story written, but does require a LOT more polishing afterwards. 

I think writing The Penitent kind of threw me - I more or less sat down and wrote that one, longhand, from start to finish. It just flowed in a way that subsequent novels (or novel attempts) have not.  So by switching to the jumping around procedure I might get more written (even if I do leave more work later)???  I dunno. Gotta keep trying I guess.

I am miffed about Moy Tura though. I felt as if it was finally getting somewhere and then it just slams into a brick wall. Another part of me is saying go back and hammer at it until you get through, but what time will I be wasting? And if May Queen is ready to be written, as it appears to be, perhaps its time for that. 

Main problem is the whole two books at once thing, which was an accident I got myself into! 

Right now I have two A4 notebook which I am carrying around - one for Moy Tura, and one for May Queen (it was meant to be for short stories but there you go). Hopefully, though being back at work means less time, it makes me more regimented so I feel I should write during the evening, rather than the time off pathetic display of "I'll just write a couple of... Oh look, Bones is on tv!" 

Yes its all a bit of "ooo Shiney!" with me these days. I am easily distracted. Chronic tiredness does that to a body. And nothing induces chronic tiredness like two small people running your life. 

So what do you think? (About the novels, the approach, the self-absorption etc.) not the chronic tiredness???

 

I mentioned in the last post that I was going to have a shower and go to bed. Well, I tried, but as I showered, my husband came thundering up the stairs to tell me to turn it off as water was coming through the ceiling into the kitchen! 

Oh yes.

What ever muppet (and I use the term without affection) put the bath in tiled UNDER the bath seal so that the water runs down the grouting lines and has been building up under the floor boards in the ceiling above my new cooker!  When we poked at the ceiling the other day, we knocked a hole in it, giving the water somewhere to go and now cannot use the shower.

We can have a bath if we don't splash too much. It's going to make the kids a little less fragrant! :D

Seriously though, have we just discovered that we have in fact moved into the Moneypit? 

It's just a case of taking off a line of tiles, redoing the seal and then re-tiling, hopefully in a tile that matches, but frankly I don't care right now!

The flash at LH appears to be going down very well which is good. I subbed my next chapter of May Queen to the crit group last night and got one back already! Yay! Haven't really done much else. Very lazy these days.

Yes its Sunday morning because basically I was too jazzed to write anything last night. I watched the first of the 3 part finale of this season's Dr. Who. Not only did I have David Tennent there, but also John Barrowman playing Captain Jack, Derek Jacobi as one of my favorite actors ever, and John Sim from Life on Mars.
I went a little hyper by the end. Oh happy day. I could be a little insufferable for the next couple of Saturdays.

The writing on the last few episodes has been really superb. The two parter with the Family of Blood, Blink and now last night's episode just rocked.

I also watched Jekyll with James Nesbitt, the first part of a series which was also wonderful (although it could have been riding on the Dr. Who wave of elation. We'll have to see how it develops). Nesbitt is a really good actor and having seen him do so many comedy, cheeky lad parts (yes I know he's done other things but I haven't watched them) it was really amazing to see him switch between Jekyll and Hyde. We spent a lot of the episode going "who's that? who's that?" at one person in particular Denis Lawson, aka Wedge Antilles!

On the writing side, I got a rejection from IGMS for The Wrecker's Daughter, just a form letter. I have now sent it off to Andromeda Spaceways. I now have 9 pieces out; 7 stories and 2 poems. Not a lot of movement from anything. I am waiting on one which was referred to a higher power but its all gone terribly silent since. This was at the end of March. I'm trying to get the nerve up to mail and find out what has happened.

I am trying to get the Penitent together for Macmillan New Writing. I need to do some work on May Queen for the crit group as it is not actually as coherent a narrative as I remembered! *cringe*.  And I need to write some more of Moy Tura Echoes, although that seems to be almost back on track after a fairly shaky "how do I pull this together" section!

I have to go to a work thing this afternoon and then Pat and I are going out ot dinner tonight so this is my only chance at the computer today I think. And what am I doing? Of course I am. Why be constructive?

R