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Thursday, July 30, 2009
Heart of the Volcano, coming soon...
Oh look at that. It's my book on Samhain's coming soon pages!
Which means the cover art and blurb are now approved for sharing. And share them I shall, anywhere I can find.
Caught between love and duty, can she make an impossible choice? Five years ago, Aera was called away from everything she had ever known: her home, family, and Coram, the boy she was growing to love. She was given no choice. As the only living lava-shifter—able to transform her body into molten rock—she is destined to serve the volcano god as his fire priestess. Now, before she takes her ordained role, she must face her final test. Execute a criminal sentenced to death for the most unforgivable of all sins. Blasphemy. She’s shocked to discover it’s no anonymous law-breaker waiting chained at the center of the labyrinth. It’s Coram. For the crime of being a gargoyle, a winged stone-shifter. A gift akin to hers…except his gift is unsanctioned by the temple, his powers proclaimed unholy. If she refuses the test she will betray her god and condemn her family to dishonor. To pass it she must kill the boy she used to love…the man she still does.
Releasing September 15th! Check back here nearer the time for fun contests to celebrate!
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I'm blogging at the RNA blog today
Come and visit me. I'm talking about how much I love reading ebooks on my little Jornada 545 PDA.
There's a "digital debate" going on at the RNA blog all this week. Donna Poff contributed an article about the Kindle, and Ben Johncock talks to Liz Fenwick about how "digital books are trying to solve a problem no one has".
There's also a poll where you can vote on whether you read ebooks or not, and what you read them on.
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| Sunday, July 26, 2009
Chocolate Cake in a Mug
Friday started out sunny - I tried to make the children go out in the garden but they were set on staying in the house with the toys and the books and the computer and television - but then the sky went grey, the wind picked up and it started to rain.
In the summer holidays. What's that about?
So after lunch I decided what we needed was chocolate cake in a mug. The recipe is all over the net - you only have to Google it to find out - but this is my personal and improved version:
One microwaveable, largish mug.
Add 4 tablespoons of self-raising/cake flour,
4 tablespoons of sugar,
2 tablespoons of cocoa powder.
Mix well.
Add 3 tablespoons of milk,
3 tablespoons of melted butter,
1 egg,
a tiny splish of vanilla extract.
(Note: this is my variation. The recipe I found uses 3 tablespoons of oil, but if you do that you're getting fat with no flavour. I put three tablespoons of softened butter in another mug, then microwaved it to melt. It increases your washing-up, but I think it's worth it.)
Mix well, until it's smooth and lumpfree. At this point you could add a few chocolate chips or bits of chocolate broken up.
Place in microwave. Microwave on full power for three minutes until cake is rising out of the top of the mug.
Turn out onto plate, add cream/ creme fraiche/ chocolate sauce/ whatever else you can find, and eat.
This amount serves one person very generously. All three of us left about half our chocolate cakes for later. Sparkler made some chocolate butter cream to put on hers, and it was very good. When the cake first comes out of the microwave it's like a steamed chocolate pudding, but once it's cool it's more like standard chocolate sponge cake, with a denser, moister texture. It's too messy to be served the way you'd serve cupcakes or similar, but if all you want is lumps of chocolate cake it's a winner!
I'd add pictures at this point, but I didn't think to take them, and the cakes are all eaten now. If we make it later today (the weather is grey again so I think it's justified) I'll add pictures then.Labels: chocolate cake in a mug, cooking, recipes
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| Thursday, July 23, 2009
Drollerie Blog Tour: Summer - links galore!
Drollerie authors (including, for the first time, me!) are roaming around this month, talking about summer. You saw Isabelle Santiago's post on Tuesday, but for a full list of links go here:
Drollerie Blog Tour: July Labels: blog tour, drollerie press
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| Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Drollerie Press Blog Tour: Isabelle Santiago on Summer
For starters, I'm so glad to be a part of the Drollerie Press blog tour! Thank you Imogen for hosting my post today!
I've never been a real fan of summer. I prefer cuddling up with a warm blanket, drinking hot cocoa and sitting by a roaring fire. I love the way the sky smells after a fresh snow and the delicate beauty of flakes as they fall slowly to the ground. Knowing this about me, you might think it strange that I've got not one, but TWO stories where my heroes are men of summer.
My current WIP is a YA fantasy starring the prince of Summer as my hero. He's dashing, sultry, dark skinned and throws some really amazing parties. His culture involves everything I imagine represents summer- bold colors, tropical fruits, parties until dawn, and passionate lovers. Granted, it's YA PG-13 rated passion, but still, you get my drift. ;) Ha ha.
Of course, in order to truly appreciate the heat, you have to have experienced the cold. And I'll admit, after a long, harsh winter, I do appreciate the first warm days of spring. And the first trip to the beach in summer. But if you've never tasted the heat- if you've lived your whole life in the cold- can you imagine the impact that first blast of heat can have?
For my heroine, the first brush with the Summer Court is life changing- as any good first meeting between hero and heroine should be. ;)
Through her eyes, its hard not to find summer newly fascinating - even on days when I miss the snow.
Isabelle Santiago
Because not every girl dreams of prince charming...
website: http://twistedfairytale.net
blog: http://twistedfairytale.net/blog/
myspace: http://www.myspace.com/isabellesantiago
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| Friday, July 17, 2009
Immi's RNA conference moments and mentions (with pictures!)
So, I'm not sure I can do a proper run-down of the conference, but I can pick out a few of my best bits.
 (above: Katie Fforde about to present the Elizabeth Goudge trophy. Jan Jones is to the left)
Most exciting moment: Lesley Heames won the Elizabeth Goudge trophy this year, and there were two runners up. I don't remember the name of one (sorry - do come and tell me if it's you!), but the other was my local writing friend Stephanie Cage, who was, as it happened, sitting on our table so we could bask in the glory. Her story opening sounds fab, by the way - about a time-travelling email - and our table decided she needed to finish writing it very soon. Not that I can talk. Cloak of Feathers is languishing at 37,000 words, most of which I think may need to be scrapped.
Anyway, congratulations to Lesley (pictured below with me, photo taken from http://blog.verulamwriterscircle.org.uk), to the other runner up, and to Stephanie! (Stephanie also pictured below.)
Most embarrassing moment: Liz Bailey, the RNA's PR extraordinaire, ran a 'charisma workshop' on the Sunday afternoon, where she made us dress up in black bin bags and spray our worst physical features on huge boards so we could blow them to pieces with machine guns. Okay, so the graffiti, boards and machine guns were not real, but the bin bags were.
She also made half of us stand on the stage and compete to get the attention of the other half. Which was when a spirit of insane competitiveness came over me and I jumped up and down as violently as I could, waving and screaming "Me! Me! Me!! ME ME ME ME ME!!!" at the top of my voice (I still had a sore throat Monday morning). I won, but I'm not sure I looked at my most attractive.
 (Us in our bin bags. Kate Johnson is the one at the back with the ponytail, I'm on her right, and Jodi Thomas is on my right. Picture taken from The Pink Heart Society Blog)
Nicest moments: Meeting up with friends from previous conferences/chapter meetings/ online. Catching up with Stephanie and Vasiliki, my real-life local writing friends. Drinking surprise wine with the others in my accomodation block (surprise because they suddenly produced it Friday evening and shared it liberally with the rest of us).
Reeling out from finding our charisma with Kate Johnson and sharing a bottle of Echo Falls in the sunlit garden of the bar, leaving it behind the bar while we went for dinner and finishing it off during the hilarious and noisy quiz later that evening. Meeting Jilly from Spain and Ann Marie from Norway and Susan from Australia who lives in Scotland, and Jodi Thomas from Texas. Passing the (very shiny and polished) trophy on to the next recipient of the Elizabeth Goudge award. Taking Erica the red laptop so I could email Abstract and the girls when I missed them at night.
Oh, and passing on Darth to Nell Dixon for the next leg of his world tour/ world-conquering mission:
Most useful seminar: Jodi Thomas from Texas gave a wonderful talk on plotting: plotting your book and plotting your career. I came away with handfuls of fabulous new insights on both. Jodi is the nicest person, too, with a lovely accent, and I need to go find some of her many, many books to read.
Most charismatic speaker: Hugo Summerson, who gave a really effective talk - and practical demonstration - on public speaking.
Most exciting news about next year's conference: This is going to be held in London, so hopefully should have an excellent turnout, including agents/editors/publishers, who apparently don't like to venture far from their natural urban habitat. This means Friday's sessions, rather than being just for an afternoon, are going to be extended for a whole day - an industry day. Which, in turn, means I'll have to go down Thursday night, not Friday, and maybe I'll manage to take an extra day and visit The Model Auntie and Dr T-shirt (shh, I haven't asked them yet).
Also, I'm thinking, the fact that it's in London, and thus easily reachable from airports, could mean certain overseas industry professionals who like to travel might come, too. Yes? Yes!
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| Thursday, July 16, 2009
I am back, really
I'm back from conference. It was fab - I enjoyed it bunches more than last year's, which considering I came home with a shiny silver trophy last year is saying quite a lot!
I have a few pics, and hopefully will be able to steal some actually of me from other people. I also have some notes from seminars and names of nice people who I should mention.
Right now, though, I'm drowning in a) work, b) writing (sequel to Heart of the Volcano: currently titled Blood of the Volcano; a YA science fiction about telepathic twins; restarting work on A Stolen Cloak of Feathers), c) first-round edits for Heart of the Volcano, d) mini-edits on Within the Darkness to cut it down to meet a publisher's maximum word count, e) critiques for three people, and f) reading short stories for an RNA-sponsored contest. Oh, and housework. As ever. Everyone needs to be bald, and pathologically tidy, and to eat off disposable tableware. No, really. This time I mean it.
So I'm sorry, but anything about the conference is going to have to wait a little longer. There are updates coming in from the RNA's own blog, plus there's a post with a list of other blogs mentioning the conference. Go and look there. Have fun!
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| Thursday, July 09, 2009
Off to conference
This time last year I managed to go to the RNA conference with one big black shoulder bag and one (smartish) carrier bag. This year, not so much. It's surprising how much difference a Bobblehead Darth, a flouncier dress and an extra pair of shoes make.
I'll be twittering from conference, either from my phone or from Erica the red laptop. I hear that we definitely do have wifi there, and it works fine, but I may not want to carry Erica round all the time. If you go to the linked Twitter search page you'll see some early arrivals (mostly Liz Fenwick, who seems to be in search of a drink) have already started twittering.
But if you're just my fan you can keep up with just my tweets in the widget at the top of the blog.
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| Saturday, July 04, 2009
Common sense - some people are born with it, some people acquire it, some people have to get it from their daughter
For about eight years we've had this graphics tablet and pen attached to the computer. We got it way back when I was playing with designing websites and making fun little animated gifs. And I still use it occasionally - like to write on the picture of my clippykit bag in one of my recent blog posts.
So, day before yesterday I was complaining to Sparkler about the pain I've been getting in my mouse hand, and the fact that I was going to have to buy £80 worth of ergonomic mouse, and she said, "Why don't you use the pen instead?"
Lightbulb moment.
Seriously, I've been struggling with pain in my right hand and thumb joint for weeks. I've tried swapping the mouse to my left hand (hideo-impossible to use) and using keyboard shortcuts as much as possible, and sort of turning my hand on its side while I use the mouse to spare my thumb joint as much as possible. And finally, in desperation (and a few tears) deciding to buy £80 worth of ergonomic vertical mouse. And all the freaking time this tablet and pen were right there next to the computer, plugged in, ready to go.
I used the pen rather than the mouse all of yesterday, when I was filling in spreadsheets and cut-and-pasting data. And you know what? My hand isn't hurting any more. And you know what else? I feel extremely silly.
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| Thursday, July 02, 2009
The RNA has a blog and ergonomic mice and Darth Vader (the RNA only has the first)
Look at this, the Romantic Novelists' Association has started up a blog. There's going to be posts by various RNA members, plus announcements of that month's releases by RNA members.
Oh, and also a Twitter account. Look at us, embracing social media!
The RNA conference is coming up on the 10th to 13th of July, and we're going to be twittering from the conference using the Twitter hashtag #RNA09. The joys of Twitter, Erica the red laptop, and (allegedly) on-campus wifi.
So remember to check it out on the 10th: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23RNA09. I may even manage to send twitpics, but it depends on how well my phone behaves so don't, like, put your life on hold for them.
I tried to think of a snappier title for this post, by the way, but it didn't work so well. I'm getting some hand and wrist pain in my mouse hand, which - who knew? - turns out to be quite distracting when you're using the computer. It looks as if I'm going to have to buy an ergonomic 'vertical mouse' (expensive! ouch! but wrist pain! also ouch!).
This conference I'm taking a guest with me. He won't be much trouble, cos he'll share my room, but I may have to watch him in the bar. This is him:
 Bobblehead Darth, in the fifth country of his round-the-world tour. He's an honorary Romance Diva, and is travelling from Diva to Diva in search of cookies and the Dark Side. He's decided a romance writers' conference is the place to go for both, and, well, you don't argue with a Dark Lord. He's been holding that light sabre worryingly close to my Elizabeth Goudge trophy. After the conference he's going home with Nell Dixon, so I just have to pacify him until then.
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Scented Danger
a Red Riding Hood Anthology story
from Drollerie Press
Within the Darkness
Blood of the Volcano
Shadow-Weaver
A Cloak of Feathers
Linked
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