Books I read in April ..........

So another month over, and slightly more reading was done.... not least because I had 10 days off work!

Favourite this month was Wallflower by Heidi Belleau - which is the second of the three Rear Entrance Video series and I think the best.  Close seconds were Mahu Fire by Neil Plakcy - definitely gay mystery not romance, and The Gentleman's Madness by Bonnie Dee & Summer Devon - who write this historical period really well.

I finally got round to reading the first two of the Special Delivery Series by Heidi Cullinan, which I enjoyed, and I have to read the third book to finish the series.

1. Pony – SJD Peterson
2. The Gentleman’s Madness – Bonnie Dee & Summer Devon
3. Wallflower – Heidi Belleau
4. Mahu Fire – Neil Plakcy
5. Straight Shooter – Heidi Belleau
6. An Unauthorised Field Guide to the Hunt – Kari Gregg
7. Blind Faith – N.R. Walker
8. A Reason to Believe – Diana Copeland (PIFM)
9. Foxe Fire – Hayley Walsh
10. Special Delivery – Heidi Cullinan
11. After the Fall – L.A. Witt
12. A Daring Ride – Andrew Grey
13. Something in the way he Needs – Cardeno C.
14. Double Blind – Heidi Cullinan
15. Bone Rider – J.R. Falley
16. Deviations: Submission – Chris Owen & Jodi Payne (r)
17. Deviations: Domination – Chris Owen & Jodi Payne (r)
18. Deviations: Bondage – Chris Owen & Jodi Payne (r)
19. Deviations: Discipline – Chris Owen & Jodi Payne (r)
20. Deviations: Safe Words – Chris Owen & Jodi Payne (r)
21. Naked Tails - Eden Winters (r)

There has also been re-reading of most of the Falls Chance Ranch short stories in between trying to finish my Love's Landscapes story..... for which there has also been a lot of dipping in and out of history text books!

I seem to have signed up for a multitude of challenges for next month so who knows how many books I am going to have read by then!

Saturday Song.......

There has recently been a big thing on radio here about 20 years of Britpop.... this cover of one of my favourites from back in my university days is really good

A day in which I have been like quite a few of the seven dwarfs...

After 10 days off work today was a day to sing the "Hi Ho" song as i went back to work.... not literally, I wouldn't inflict that on anyone at 7.30 in the morning!

But, I have been....

Sneezy..... seriously, it's only mid April and my hayfever is really bad.... I know it's due to oil seed rape and lime trees - and while in the middle of the city we don't have much of the former, there are a tonne of the latter!

Sleepy.... well, it was only to be expected seeing as I had a 90 minute seminar this afternoon on something that we've been doing for a while and had training on already.... and seriously, having it just after lunch in a warm room... yeah, I dozed but I was right at the back of the room so I don't think anyone minded

Grumpy.... I was back at work.... nuff said!

Dopey.... You know when you first do something again, even something you've done for years, and it just disappears out your brain.... yup that was me at one point this morning when I couldn't for the life of me remember what the heck I was doing....

Happy.... a couple of times!  My team leader treated me to a proper coffee .... a hazelnut latte, though alas no caffeine in it.... and then it was home time.....

I've not managed Bashful, cos well, I really don't do being embarrassed about anything.......... and Doc.... cos quite frankly I never was sure where he fitted in!

Anyway, my working day is over, and I am planning on a break for an hour or so then I shall be doing 2 hours of editing on my LL story

Though the highlight of my day was getting home and taking my shoes and bra off.... yeah, weird, but I dislike wearing both and for the last 10 days I haven't really bothered much......

Writing progress update....

For the last few weeks the sign to the right has been my motto!!

But, this afternoon, I finally reached the end of the first draft of my Love's Landscapes story which is called "A Point of Honour"

It's turned out at a shade over 27.5K words and has winged its way off to my kind and wonderful beta readers for a first review.... I am expecting it back with lots of comments and in the case of one beta a rainbows worth of highlighting!

It's ended up as much more a historical adventure rather than an M/M romance - though there is romance elements and a happy ending it's fairly smut light!  Which is good - because I found myself asking questions such as - what the hell would you use for lube in the middle of a forest in the 12th century?

I've had lots of fun with locations as I've been writing - setting it fairly locally has meant I can use places I've been to and I managed to finish the story in one of my most favourite places in the Peak District - Peveril Castle.  Okay, it's a ruin now, but it would have been very imposing as a newly built castle in 1204.

My story has had to have an author's note, as I know that some people get very hung up on facts in historical stories - but this is just a story - and while there are some facts in it, the majority of the people, and their titles, are totally made up.

I have just over a week now to get it polished up for submission by 1st May  and I really hope when it comes out my prompter will enjoy it :)

Where'd April go.....

Happy Easter to all who celebrate it and those who just think it's a wonderful excuse to eat lots of chocolate ;)

So... erm... yeah... not doing well on the whole updating the blog thing at the moment!

Very little is happening outside of work and writing at present.... though I am actually on holiday at the moment (going back next Tuesday though) so it's mainly been about the writing.

Work is hellish anyway as we head to the financial year end on 30th April - added to which our department is going to be having a major restructure which means by the start of July I may find myself in a somewhat different role to my current one (thankfully no redundancies or anything planned)

The deadline for the Love's Landscapes story is 1st May and I am still plodding away writing - so not the fastest writer in the world!  I am currently at just shy of 25k words and have about 1 1/2 scenes left to write .... fingers crossed I shall manage to finish tomorrow.  As I am one of those writers that can't just sit down and write but has to keep going back and faffing about and changing stuff as I go this at least means it can go straight off to my wonderful beta readers who are going to look over it and point out that it makes no sense in places :)

They may look like cute Easter bunnies
but I swear they are at least art Plot bunny

I am hopeful of getting the edited draft submitted on time......... *crosses fingers*

I've also decided that it's time to bite the bullet and actually do something more serious with my writing... so I have set goals.... which for this month is to find two anthology calls that grab my attention and that have suitable deadlines, with a view to writing for submission.

This is quite a big step for me as it took me years to let anyone see my writing and even now I am horribly pessimistic that anyone will read it when it's free never mind if they have to pay for it.  Time will tell I suppose, I need to get the courage to take the first step though or i shall never do it!

That's about it for this month so far - well apart form the fact that Hope is in season and scaring the life out of Ivan with her trollopy behaviour!

That "special" day....

Woe is me for I am "older" .... okay yes, everyone gets older every day but I am officially older... though unlike last year where I was all "Arghh, no, 40!" this year it has been very low key.

Which is good... it was never going to be easy as the first birthday without Dad - and of course what would have been his 62nd birthday is just a week away.

I did keep expecting the phone to ring this morning and for him to be on the other end and singing, badly, happy birthday, over his oxygen machine.  And then managed to make myself bawl my eyes out as I found a clip of him doing just that he'd recorded a couple of years ago and e-mailed me.

My mum, sister and friend took me out for lunch at a very nice country pub in Derbyshire and then we went back to mums, where there was cake - with an embarrassingly large number of candles on it!

I am home now, and in a total chocolate coma!

I have some lovely presents from some even lovelier friends.... particularly a very fine mug and lots of chocolate from Austria *squishes* Thanks hun!!  as well as a new duvet, pillows and a "teddy bear" throw for the sofa (my family do practical presents).  My sister's present to me though was my hotel room for the UK LGBT meet which I knew about already.  There are also some amazon vouchers which will keep me from teaching my book budget this month.

I am off to lie on my sofa and chill out for the rest of the day :)

100 words.... the midweek edition....

For thirty years this has been our escape. Our fortnights break from the day job, visiting San Francisco.

Sure it’s changed over the years, but then so has home. 

Back then, we risked everything for a few stolen moments in the dark; as far away from the bunk house as we could be. Now we live openly as a couple on the ranch. We share a family, a home, a life.

This year our holiday is different. Today we walk in the open, hand in hand along the main street, towards the Court House where we will celebrate our marriage.