Friends

Any follower of this blog knows that it has been quite an extraordinary time lately. Not only was I in the Maldives for my birthday with my whole family but just days before I signed a deal for publishing  A CORNISH HOUSE....life is good.

But in truth what makes life worthwhile on every single day of the year - the highs and the lows are friends and family. My writer friends are a special bunch...they know the joy, the pain, the frustration of what it's like...to be a writer. I know I celebrate each triumph and heart ache with them so I shouldn't be surprised by Julie Cohen's post here and Susan Alison's beautiful birthday painting here and finally another post from the lovely Nina Harrington here. but I was delightfully caught off guard and made a bit weepy...

So now back to real life...boys are revising as i type this. We're all struggling with the overnight flight and I'm clearing the decks...in readiness for edits from my editor...oh, how good it feels to say that...

Oh What a Night and Links

You know when you are in light sleep and the noises of the night invade your head...well in an old house like this one the sounds are many. In fact I can usually pick out the ones made by the general creaking of the building to the ones made by living things. So at roughly two am I hear a fluttering sound and begin to wonder if birds have managed to nest in the chimney again (some time ask me about the nesting rooks that I had to evacuate). So with eyes closed I tried to imagine which ones could have broken through the defenses at the top. They must be small I thought. Yet the noise seemed closer than the chimney (the cob walls provide tremendous insulation and a small bird shouldn't be heard fluttering).

As DD and I are here on our own she was snuggled up beside me in the bed sleeping so soundly as children do. I rolled away from her and opened my eyes. They adjusted to the dim blue light coming from the alarm clock and there hovering above the bed was a small bat flying in circles.

First reaction was to slide totally under the duvet or run from the room but I couldn't do either because of DD. I looked to the window which I had left open about two inches. This had to be where the bat had come from so with small pillow on my head I dashed and opened it as wide as I could then flung myself back under the duvet leaving the pillow in place. I lay there trying not to listening to the beating of winds going round and round. I prayed that my guardian angel would help this creature back out into the night where it belonged. I pressed the pillow closer to my ears so that I wouldn't hear the noise. I worried about bat droppings - do they have droppings? Do they carry disease? Then my mind went to vampire bats as the mind at night is a funny thing and DD had been reading the directors notebook for TWILIGHT before falling asleep.

Finally the beating of wings stopped and I removed the pillow from my head. I didn't know the time since I had hidden the light from the alarm clock as the eerie blue light didn't help my wandering thoughts....

Despite this I was still up at five! I don't think DD want to know what hovered over her in the night or she will be truly spooked.

I haven't written in ages which is bad, but I am hoping that the typing time off will have given the old brain a chance to build. I am about 20k from the end of the story. As it stands it is Victoria's story (remember she was my villain) which is okay with me. Her journey has been fascinating thus far and this is a very dirty first draft.

This leads to a few links and I won't introduce them as they are too numerous as I haven't posted any in ages.

Via BubbleCow the link here on editing your manuscript (I know it says for children's books but it applies for all work)

The Ten Commandments of Becoming a Published Author from Julie Cohen

From Nina Harrington a fantastic site with so much I won't link to just one part but the whole (however the first posts are great on first drafts....Billy Mernit

Finally I am totally in love with my garden right now. For the past few years I haven't been here to see the roses in their full glory and it is such a treat.

Home Again (however only briefly!)

Well back in Dubai to the sun, heat and humidity. London was fabulous and refreshed the writing cells again. Having stopped mid scene knowing that I was veering off track - I didn't write again until I hit the plane and was fueled by a glass of bubbly. I'm hoping the break will have recharged the writing subconscious as it felt as if I was starting the book again. I know what I need to do but it's very hard to begin. So I'm hoping that 100 incoherent words I wrote on the plane will send me on my way for the second half of the book. My end of May deadline is approaching far too quickly and I'm flying back to the UK this Thursday (half term beckons).

For the curious here are two more links to the RNA Summer Party - Janet Gover, one of the nominees for the Joan Hessayon New Writers' Award here and Ray-Anne aka Nina Harrington here. I have stolen one of her photos which has from the left - agent Jonathan Pegg, writer Cat Marsters/Kate Johnson, moi, Carole, and Ray_Anne/Nine Harrington.