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2012-08-26 12:48 pm

Foreign words in Dialogue/health

Someone asked me on twitter about an antiquated French word and there was a short discussion (after all it is Twitter) about whether people liked foreign words inserted into a book to “give a flavour” and remind people that the people are actually speaking a foreign language, even though the book is written in English.

What do you think about that?

Personally it irritates the hell out of me. The only way I think it works is when the object described is alien to western eyes, and there’s no translation for it. Like “obi” for example (traditional sash) or other Japanese words. As long as the explanation is given gently in context, then that word becomes the staple word for that thing.

However, what I CAN’T STAND to the extent I want to stabbity stabbity is when a person’s speech is peppered with the words of the language he’s speaking. E.g (not from anything) “Ah, bien, Louis, you are here, we must hurry to save La Reine, vite!”

I mean, the book is set in France. We are reading them in English because it’s a novel. They are speaking French. So why are they speaking double-French? Or double Spanish, or double whatever language they are “really” speaking…

The only exception to this, to my mind would be if all the characters were speaking another language apart from their own and they interspersed their sentences with words from their language. Poirot is a good example of this: “Tiens, Hastings! I have been stupid! Je suis un imbecile! Nom de Nom!”


But what do you think? Do tell!

In other news - I’m pretty anaemic, despite scarfing down iron pills—prescription strength—for a couple of days. I wish there was some way to tell in advance when this was going to happen so I could get ironed up in advance. I do take normal iron pills every day, but the super-strength ones help me get back to normal. I’m tired, gasping for air—even talking—and want to go to bed. I think that I’ll do dad’s lunch and then go home. It just makes me completely “meh” about everything. I open a word file and I just get tired looking at it. Can’t concentrate on a tv programme, can’t concentrate to read a book. I hate it.

I’ve just discovered that there’s a fucking TREATMENT for Menorrhagia: It’s called Endometrial Oblation (which sounds like something out of Philip Pulman) and it involves burning away the lining of the womb, permanently. Can’t be done at childbearing age, for obvious reasons, but why the fuck hasn’t my doctor suggested it? It can be done in outpatients for Christ's sake. Oh, I know why. Because he’s a MAN and he can’t BELIEVE that my periods are anywhere near as ghastly as I make them out to be. Yeah, that’s right. We treat our periods in the same way that men treat fishing stories.

I’ll be having a word with my doctor next week…

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2012-08-20 12:58 pm

Fun with Editing 2.1.

How to over-write a sentence.


Quinn grabbed Rafe’s arm and pulled him into the room, the feel of the bare forearm, exposed from the flowing shirt that was pushed up to his elbows, seemed hot beneath his hand.

And to make your creator go BWAH? as well.

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2012-08-19 10:48 am

Furious with the Archers!

It’s hot. 28 degrees today, 34 yesterday and so I’m in a ranty mood. (More especially as as soon as I arrived at Dad’s I got pounced on by the owners of the house next door who are trying to sell the bungalow who accused Dad of throwing teabags up against the windows there. There’s no point trying to have that conversation with Dad, whether it’s true or not.


Anyway. THE ARCHERS.

We have an established gay couple in the show, but no lesbians that I can recall – it’s a comfortable gay relationship, accepted by simply everyone and they are married and until recently very happily settled.

However, something came out of left field this week, that has made me wave my Bisexual button with a vengeance. Harry has been in the show a while, and hasn’t really had any role to play other than getting a job as a milkman and competing for all the local girls with his flatmate. He has been shown as positively aggressively heterosexual, and even followed one of the Polish temporary workers back to Poland before coming home empty handed.

This week, he’d gone on holiday with Fallon (the young woman whose mother owns the pub, keep up do) and Jazzer and today I found out he never made it back because he’d met up with an old flame and they have trotted off into the sunset. And the old flame was a man.

It was SO FUCKING LAME. And hugely git-like on the behalf of the writers, because they probably thought “oh, how can we write Harry out of the show and give him an interesting end, as his life in Ambridge has been so tedious up to now?” and so they gave us this.. duhn duhn duhn…. disappearance to spice it all up and to give the residents of Ambridge something to talk about for another five minutes. They seem to have gone all coy in their language recently as the dialogue was much like this:

“You mean to say that…”

“What?”

“Well, you know… he’s…”

“Yes, exactly.”

“But he was all over that Polish girl!”

The conversation then goes on to say how the “Polish girl” had never been right for him and how lovely it was he had found his true love.

Not a MENTION of his obvious bisexuality. Once again the red-headed stepchild of the GL(B)T “family” (although it is very like a family, the Simpsons, the Borgias, the Corleones…) is invisible and sitting in a corner Not Being Named. It was a cop-out and although there was a massive opportunity to raise the awareness of bisexuality, the writers just went with “oh, he was gay all along.”

Pah.

Pah, I say. And double Pah.

And also: Speak its Name is running their interview spot again, thanks to the lovely Elin Gregory who is mirroring her Comfy Chair posts there. If you want a spot, slip either me or Elin an email. however, authors, I would be grateful if you were 1. at least a little familiar with the blog before applying and 2. Don’t start preaching to me me on the policy of the site and saying how limiting it is. There are plenty of other places that do interviews, but at Speak Its Name we do gay historicals. That’s all.

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2012-08-18 05:43 pm

sorry not been around

yesterday I was recovering from stupid cellulitis and today it’s 34 degrees in the sun, 31 in the shade. So am lying down with a “I atent dead but wish i was” sign on. Poor dog is hot as hell too. been alternating between cool bath and couch.

air conditioning? LOL – what is that?

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2012-08-17 02:01 pm

I have spoiled Haroun and Tanweer

Had a horrible temperature last night of about 102  (all gone now, these things only last about 12 hours) and my mind was amusing me as I tossed and turned by giving me re-runs of The Big Bang Theory. Suddenly I thought “This is stupid, I don’t want to watch ones I’ve seen before, I’m a writer, invent some new episodes!” So my mind obliged and promptly had Haroun and Tanweer (the gay indian couple mentioned in The Grasshopper Experiment) who came to stay on holiday with Leonard and Sheldon – and Leonard was talking to Haroun about their relationship, and Haroun said “oh, we have an open relationship – but Tanweer doesn’t know that, of course.” I spent the rest of the horrible night worrying about Tanweer!

Stupid brain.

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2012-08-16 02:49 pm

HILARIOUS response from my Ebay Seller

When I told her that:

1. She had misrepresented her  item (she said it was fully functioning, and it hadn't been converted to modern phone lines, so how could she KNOW?)
2. She had tried to blackmail me for good feedback "change your negative feedback for me and I'll return your money" (Ebay slapped her for this.)
3. I was NEVER going to change my feedback because I’m not satisfied!
4. She could have the phone back WHEN she paid me the postage for it, which she had not done. The law in England states that with a breach of contract, the aggrieved party has to be put back into a position as if the transaction had not taken place i.e. she had to return my money AND pay for return postage.

She didn't like that.

Here's her response. It's rather poetic.  I rather think English isn't her first language.

you know what
so take the phone itself for free
and then you're gonna
Matchstick Men and beggar
I do not care for that already.
bon appetit
Enjoy your meal.
to never again
no more such people like you
I wish I wore

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2012-08-13 03:00 pm

Promo in ebooks—a rantette

Firstly, I think publishers underuse the promotional capability of ebooks, but that’s up to them. It seems an ideal place to link to books and videos and goodness knows what, it surprises me how many don’t.

Secondly, I get sick and tired of chapters not being put at the beginning of an ebook, and if they are – they aren’t LINKED – what’s with that?  Who wants to hit “page forward” sixty times, looking for the last place you were at, or if you want to read a particular chapter again?

Thirdly, PUBLISHERS. PLEASE PUT YOUR PROMO NEWSLETTERS and letters of thanks and letters regarding piracy and gawd knows what fucking else AT THE END OF THE BOOK. The amount of persiflage I have to get through to find the start of books sometimes reminds me of this wonderful Danny Kaye moment.

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2012-08-13 12:26 pm

The Olympics converted me

I was hugely cynical before the games, like many many Brits. I think we were all pretty sure that we, as a nation of “try, but oh dear, we didn’t succeeders” (except perhaps in invasion) couldn’t pull off something as massive. After all, the last one we had was called The Austerity Games in 1948 and was run on a shoestring. I for one was concerned that London was grind to a gridlock, no-one would get anywhere they wanted to go and that someone would take the opportunity to bomb something, somewhere.

But bugger me sideways if the old bulldog spirit didn’t take over. Danny Boyle had me at “hello” with his opening ceremony, and I sat like a child, open mouthed as we raped the land, built dark satanic mills and had the Beatles march past Isenbard Kingdom Brunel. The volunteers turned into more sincere Disney workers, laughing, joking, dancing and helping the visitors in whatever they needed, and Londoners wore bright colours, came out in the daylight, and talked to each other. It was some kind of miracle.

I won’t bang on about how many medals, because that’s rather been done to death – but it was the human stories that brought the games to life. These underpaid semi-amateur people who have to go to school and to work and who still have to get up at five or earlier to cycle or run or swim or get a horse ready to work and find thirty hours or more in a week to train. My favourite events of course were the equestrian events, and that was just about all I watched from beginning to end, but i caught other things as they happened.

My favourite moment of the games? it should be the 26 year old Charlotte smashing through 90 points to take the team gold medal for dressage (our first ever dressage medal in the olympics, we used to suck, big time) but it' isn’t. After all the weeping and gnashing of teeth of athletes were sobbed in the camera about “how they’d let everyone down” by getting a silver, seeing Tom Daley’s utter utter jubilation when he won his bronze medal was, for me, the crowning moment of a fantastic games. I won’t be alive the next time we host, I’m sure, so I’m glad I was around for this.

(I also liked Mrs Grumpy Mo Farah who seemed to be nagging him when he came up to hug her, but then I’m English, I can’t help but find the funny in things.)

I suppose we’ll get back to normal soon, and we’ll be avoiding each others eyes in public and being little repressed islands again, but I hope it lasts until after the Paralympics.

What was your favourite moment?

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2012-08-11 10:03 am

Big News about Standish

As you may know, I’ve been trying to get Standish into ebook form for some time, and I’ve been having discussions about PD Publishing regarding this. We’ve decided—on a purely mutual agreement—that the rights will now revert to me, for all formats.

I’m really excited because Lethe Press have made me an offer for it, which I’ve accepted and I’ll be able to rework the book completely, give it a much-needed overhaul (particularly in relation to the POV switches *grin*) and take out the major mistake that must not be named. Then I’ll get a spiffy new cover, a relaunch and it’ll finally be available not only as a pretty paperback, but also as an ebook. There was an illustrator interested at some point, but she never followed through. *sadness*

I know that SOME PEOPLE have probably already got an e-version of Standish on their readers and smack wrist if you have, as it wasn’t ever available in that form!

Just a word about PD Publishing, in case people think I left them for any acrimonious reasons, I absolutely had no problem with them. They have never missed a royalty payment, their statements have always been spot on, and I’ve always found them to be prompt in replying, courteous and professional.  It was a ten year contract, and in this fast moving world, within the m/m genre, that’s a bit too long. It’s been out in print with PD for six years now, so it had a good run. The cover (although I shall always be fond of it, and it’s sort of iconic for me) looks a bit old, and as I said, the book badly needs a rewrite.

So! Watch this space! I need to get reversion letters signed, and new contracts signed and I’ll let you know when you can expect the Lethe version to be out. I’m really excited about it. 

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2012-07-31 07:53 am

Letter from the new CEO at Noble Publishing and Press Release

To all Noble Romance Authors:

My name is Jean Gombart and I am the new CEO of Noble Romance Publishing, LLC.

Attached is a press release that gives you some further information but I wanted to send out this email to all the current NRP authors.
Contrary to anything you may have heard, Noble Romance is a financially solid company

with zero outside debt and we are committed to not only continuing the work of the last 5 years but also to taking the company to the next level.
To that end, I am certainly available to receive any suggestions that you as authors would like to send.

What I have seen so far tells me that my first two orders of business priority are as follows:

1. I want to assure that the process of calculating and paying royalties is prioritized so that you can always count on receiving a timely and accurate royalty statement when due along with appropriate payment.

2. I want to significantly increase the sales of all existing NRP published books.
Certainly we also want to give the appropriate attention to books in process, support of author promotions, and other issues important to you, but my belief is that executing on these first two priorities will best serve NRP and it's strong group of exceptional authors.

I look forward to working with each of you and invite you to email me at JGombart@NobleRomance.com.
Best Regards,

And the Press release itself:

Noble Romance Publishing
Po Box 467423 Atlanta,
GA 31146-7424

Press Release Noble Romance Publishing Appointment of New CEO

Atlanta, GA, July 30, 2012:

Noble Romance Publishing today announced the appointment of Jean Marc Philippe Gombart as CEO Jean holds a Masters Degree in International Business from the prestigious Sorbonne University in Paris, France and comes to Noble Romance with 20 plus years of executive experience.

Born in France and having managed businesses on 5 continents, Jean is fluent in 4 languages including English, French, Portuguese and Spanish. Jean will be leading the further expansion and improvement of Noble Romance's existing eBooks and print books publishing business.

About Noble Romance Publishing:

Established in 2007 Noble Romance Publishing, LLC is a royalty-paying, full-service e-publisher of superior quality, cutting-edge romance and erotica. Noble also publishes young adult novels in all sub-genres through Noble Young Adult. We challenge our authors to take risks, to push the envelope while still maintaining their story's integrity, the combination of which is guaranteed to satisfy even the most discerning reader.

For more information, please contact faith@nobleromance.com

For Release 5 p.m. EST, July 30, 2012

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2012-07-29 11:48 am

Olympics and Noble

The opening ceremony for the Olympics was Just AMAZING. Boyle was right that he could never deliver the kind of WOW that China did, that was something else entirely, but what Boyle did was to garner all the best and the worst of the British, going from an agricultural feudal society to Dark Satanic Mills (in spectacular fashion, sort of like going from Hobbiton to Isengard in five minutes), and a sense of FUN (the Queen even had an acting cameo with James Bond) and a very broad sense of Humour. The highlight for me was Mr Bean playing the one note in the Chariot of Fire theme, and dropping into a doze to dream of those hunky runners on the beach.

But there were so many great moments. I was dreading it, to be honest, because our segment at the closing ceremony of the Beijing games was buttock curlingly embarrassing, and I thought it might all be like that, but somehow it encapsulated so very much that was great about England, and some of the Not So Great. One error though, they had a section on children’s literature and The Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang—although invented by Roald Dahl—was NOT in Ian Fleming’s book, he was purely a film creation.

I wish I’d been there, but I’m sure I got a better view from my sofa. If you haven’t seen it—then it’s really worth watching.

As for Noble Publishing—the temptation to call them Ig-Noble is quite strong. within the newly formed authors group we have a mole, one of the authors who feels that she is loyal to Noble. She (for ease, could be male for all I know) is passing all the emails from the group up to Jill and/or Jill’s daughter Natasha Noble/Lopez and said Natasha, who styles herself as and “executive assistant” has been emailing some of the authors personally and haranguing them and threatening them with legal actions. I have no idea if this is with Jim Noble’s or Jill Noble’s permission. I won’t say “without their knowledge” because they’d have to have their heads stuck up their bums not to have noticed the broo-ha ha going on, as more and more people post about it.

However, the latest in the saga is that Natasha states that “royalties will be paid” and that Jim is unlikely to return anyone’s rights.  And there will be a statement sometime today. Considering we were promised a statement on Friday, I admit to not taking this terribly seriously. However, we will see.

I’m just glad I’m only in with them for one novella, and not 8 or 12 like some of the authors. More news when I have it.

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2012-07-25 09:03 pm

Latest News from “Noble Publishing”

Although it’s not from “Jim Noble” (if he exists) it’s from Faith Fredin, the person who deals with the royalties – and usually gets mine wrong.

Dear Noble Romance Authors,




As some of you may know, yesterday, with only a few hours notice Jill Shearer resigned her duties and then proceeded to post a "farewell" message on a NRP author web site.




Although she directed authors in this message to contact Sara@NobleRomance.com she did not copy Sara nor anyone else nor did she perhaps realize that Sara is on vacation this week.




Understandably, this has caused some alarm and concern.




The most urgent concern seems to be that Jill's departure will somehow mean that authors will not continue to be paid their royalties due on their book sales.




Nothing could be farther from the truth.




The royalty payments which usually are sent out around the 20th to 25th of the month have not yet been sent out this month ONLY due to the fact that Jill did not provide the necessary royalty reports prior to her resignation.




This will mean that these royalty reports, unfortunately, will have to be compiled by others who do not have the same experience doing them and it will take until possibly the end of next week to have them completed properly, particularly with Sara's vacation schedule.




We can assure you that promptly upon their completion, the royalty checks and PayPal payments will be sent and future payments will be sent in a timely manner.




I know that many of you have worked with Jill for many years and many of you still may have a personal relationship with her.




We are sad to see her go and we wish her the best success in whatever she decides to do.




We also know that at times some of you have not been pleased with your business relationship with Jill and for those of you we will seek to repair those relationships and proceed forward in a more positive manner.




By early next week we will have a new management structure in place and will send another email update to keep you informed.




In the meantime, if you have specific questions or issues, please email me directly and I will try to respond in a prompt and professional manner.







Kindest Regards,







Faith Fredin

Noble Romance Publishing

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2012-07-25 02:47 pm

Thinking by Walter D Wintle

Read out today by Denise Lewis because of the Olympics, but I think it works for all things, and particularly writing. Particularly the bit about “You’ve got to think high to rise.”

If you think you are beaten, you are
If you think you dare not, you don't,
If you like to win, but you think you can't
It is almost certain you won't.

If you think you'll lose, you're lost
For out of the world we find,
Success begins with a fellow's will
It's all in the state of mind.

If you think you are outclassed, you are
You've got to think high to rise,
You've got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.

Life's battles don't always go
To the stronger or faster man,
But soon or late the man who wins
Is the man WHO THINKS HE CAN!

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2012-07-24 02:07 pm

Jill Noble Quits Noble Publishing

“Well, I want you all to know, I tried. I really did try - and for a little bit, I thought I'd succeeded, and I'd soon obtain full control of the company so I could resolve many of the problems we've had and take NRP to the next level. Unfortunately, the light I saw at the end of the tunnel turned out to be a freight train.

“Effective immediately, but after much thought, I have decided to part ways with Noble Romance Publishing. I have many powerful. legitimate reasons for doing so, but suffice to say, the owner and I have major differences in how we believe we should run the company and how we should treat our authors and freelance workers, and our visions for the company's future are miles apart. This, in addition to him making it literally impossible for me to do my job and do it well, has led me to make this very painful decision. Barring a miracle or some other form of Divine Intervention, Lisa Collicutt's book, The Devil's Flower, is the last one I'll work on/release for Noble Romance Publishing. I'll have the book uploaded and live in just a bit. After that, I'm done.

“At this moment, I do not know what the owner's plans are, as far as the company's immediate future is concerned. I'm pretty sure he'll keep it up and running, in some form, so he can earn back some of his initial investment. I, on the other hand, only invested years of my life, my talent, my expertise, and my hard labor, and so I don't imagine there is any way I'll recoup my contribution. ;-) I'm not concerned about that, though. For me, this has always been a labor of love. I've met a lot of really wonderful, talented people (and let's face it - a few crazy ones, too, lol), and up until this past year, I never looked on my position here as a "job." Jobs are never this fun. To say I've enjoyed working with you sounds like such a cliche, but I promise you, it's true. I'm hoping many of you will want to keep in touch and maintain a friendship on some other level. On the bright side, I can now review your books without being accused of practicing favoritism.

“I'm sure, at some point soon, the owner or one of his assistants will be in contact with the authors to let them know what to expect. I'm certain they will honor all contract terms, and there's always the possibility they'll hire someone else to do my job. Meanwhile, if you have questions or concerns specific to NRP or NYA, I recommend you contact sara@nobleromance.com.

“I sincerely apologize for the fact that my parting ways with NRP will no doubt disrupt some of your lives, to one degree or another. I hope you're treated fairly; I believe you will be. You all have contracts; follow them to the letter, and you'll be fine.

“As for myself, I'll be moving on and doing my own thing. I feel like I have a lot to offer when it comes to assisting authors in polishing their manuscripts, advising them on their careers, and assisting them in achieving their goals. I'll also be available as an e-publishing/self-publishing consultant, and I intend to do more ghostwriting. But most importantly, I'm going back to writing. I've neglected my own characters for far too long. If there's one bright spot in all of this, my having time to write is it.

“I wish all of you nothing but success. If there's anything I can do for you, personally, please let me know. You can reach me here for a little while, but I'll be phasing out this email address and moving all my important folders tojill.noelle.noble@gmail.com in the near future“

“Oh, and please, if you know anyone who needs to be made aware of this, but they are for some reason not on the authors' loop, please pass this along.

“Take care, and Kind Regards,

“Jill N. Noble Freelance Editor, Ghostwriter, Author”

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2012-07-15 02:19 pm

Six Sentence Sunday

(from something that doesn’t exist at the moment)

Sam has just made love to a boy on the beach. A golden, long, and languid boy with lazy lips and hair curled to his shoulders; too long hair, ending in golden tips. A sand-dusted boy, warm to the touch, as though he’d been buried in white sand for a thousand years and had been delicately brushed and uncovered by experts.

Not a boy at all, though. Sam was a boy at that age, elbows, knees and unable to string a sentence together. This was a young man, man enough to smile, man enough to know what he wanted, man enough to pat the sand beside him; and to smile, smile.

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2012-07-09 10:17 am

General update

I’ve been sick. The Twittersphere might have been aware of this, as 140 characters was all I was capable of doing yesterday. I thought it was a kidney infection but now realise (due to the inflammation of my left leg, high temperature-103.1!!) that it was another bout of cellulitis. At least I know that that is wearing off quickly, so I plastered myself with savlon, and took paracetomols to control the temperature. And this morning I had sweated it out, thank goodness. Yes, I could probably get anti-biotics for this, but by the time I’d made an appointment, the bout would be over—plus I don’t agree with taking AB’s willy-nilly. I’d rather keep ‘em for something really serious.

Of course I feel like a damp dishrag today, but at least it’s over. I couldn’t make Dad’s yesterday. I did try, even got dressed but then realised that it was a mad idea. I worry about him in that respect, because 2 years ago—when I was in hospital—he was capable of going around to Sainsbury’s and getting himself a hot chicken or a ready meal and cooking it in the microwave, but he’s not capable of even warming anything up now. On the days I’m not here, I make him cottage pies or curries and he just eats them cold. sigh.

Anyway. Writing today, no matter how crap I feel. I’m on chapter two of the new book which is encouraging.

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2012-07-06 11:34 am

Why, land, Katie Scarlett, it’s the only thing that counts!

So, I Knew Him is finished, bar the tidying up—I should be sending it off to the agent tomorrow with luck, or the weekend, anyway. And I’m sort of on the horns of a dilemma as to what to write next. (Those of you who have spotted this post for a big fat lump of procrastination, well done.)

You see, I like writing for Carina; the editing is fabulous—Deb Nemeth “gets me” and she pushes hard to make me better. But I’ve been staggeringly disappointed in the sales. What baffles me is that my two books with Carina have done markedly less well than Frost Fair & Speak Its Name with the smallest of publishers. In fact, the latest royalties for FF and SIN for JUST THE EBOOK SALES with Bristlecone (Bristlecone handled the ebooks, whilst Cheyenne pubbed the paper) were twice as high as with Carina. And that’s pretty thought-provoking. Of course Carina’s royalty rate is very low, but I think I thought that it would have much higher sales, so it would even out. Wrong.

I’m sure there are people making good money at Carina, but I suspect they are mostly writers of het.

No, of course I’m not in it just for the money (I’d be mad if I was, seeing as how little I actually make) but money has to be a factor. I rely on royalties to help pay the bills, because my Carer’s allowance only covers the mortgage. I can’t go spending six months of my life and writing something like Tributary (which personally I think was one of my best) only to find, as I have with that book, that it’s making about a dollar a month. Literally – the royalty for the Last Gasp anthology was FOUR DOLLARS AND EIGHTY FOUR CENTS and that’s between four of us. $1.21 each.

I mean – that’s just mad. I would do better self-publishing and I'm definitely not going there. I know I would make more writing het, but I’m even more definitely not going there, because I believe you should write what you feel the passion for, and it’s not het romance for me.

By the way, this is not some plea for a whip-round or anything like that. It’s a serious talking to myself about What To Do Next. Sometimes just writing it down helps. (Or I tend to shove it to the back of my mind along with all the other “I won’t think about that today, I’ll think about that tomorrow” thoughts.

Where’s a set of green velvet curtains when you really need ‘em?

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2012-07-05 01:06 pm

Help! Need comments!

Please come over to HC Brown’s blog and comment on my tongue-in-cheek piece “Can a Woman write m/m?”  I’m very disappointed that no one’s commented. Perhaps they thought I was actually being serious…

Me?

They should know better.

  http://bit.ly/N8vTwo

I’ve also posted today on “We Carry The Torch” where I discuss some of my favourite Norfolkian buildings along the Olympic Torch Route.


http://wecarrythetorch.wordpress.com/2012/07/05/day-48-norwich-to-ipswich-inspirational-buildings/

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2012-07-01 10:54 am

Another one gone

How – HOW – did I miss the news about [personal profile] leni_jess?

That's two people in a month. :( I was never a close daily friend with Leni, but we've been mutual LJ friends like--forever. I'll miss your posts, specially your travels. I'm just glad that you had that last good trip to England.
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2012-06-30 07:15 pm

1PlaceforRomance shows their class (none)

Yesterday I tweeted my disgust that 1PlaceforRomance had titled their newsletter “Hot Stories from Fiery Colorado”

A couple of authors expressed their disapproval at this – and this is part of the response that one of them got.

If I was in the South during Katrina I would have said I was in the Soggy South. If I was in California during earthquakes I would have said I was in  Rockin’ San Francisco. I am in Fiery Colorado it is part of my life right now and I shared that.

Personally I think this attitude is disgraceful, exploitative and utterly tasteless. I wouldn’t buy anything from 1PlaceforRomance if you paid me.