The price of paper and ink...

My visitors and I are having a lazy Sunday afternoon, which means that half daughter and I are reading in the kitchen with the mob, whilst her mum has headed for a lie down upstairs (this maybe in part because from about 5 am this morning we were curled up on the sofas in our duvets watching the grand prix), so I thought I'd quickly blog about something we'd been discussing....

The price of "paper" books.  Books are a great love of both of ours - in fact we met via a book forum on the Internet some, erm, 8 ish years ago.  We both collect, worship, fail to dust books, though she now has a kindle she swears by (and sometimes at).  Anyway, as she prodded through my bookshelves this morning she noticed the shiny fairly new collection of books since she'd last visited and raised an eyebrow at me and asked how much had they set me back... mainly because she knows that for the last 18 months I've been on a book and CD diet only allowing myself to purchase one of each a month.

I was honest and told her, to which she gasped a bit, but not too much.  We both collect children's books, particularly GO genre, which can cost a fair bit as they are mainly out of print, however, these were new paperbacks, M/M genre and published mainly within the last 3 years books, cost on average approximately £10 each, which is, lets face it, is steep for a paper back.

However, these aren't books you can pick up in the supermarket, or even in most mainstream book shops... Amazon (UK) seems to put a premium on these books, in some cases for new books the dollar and sterling amounts are the same - making the UK equivalent about 1/3rd more expensive.  I've just ordered 4 recently published books directly from the US publisher, which even with postage will work out cheaper than buying on Amazon who won't actually have the paperbacks available to purchase for another 6 - 8 weeks.

Now I don't mind paying for a good book - The most I've ever spent on a single book (fiction - I've spent a lot more for certain non fiction books) is £35... but can prices of over £10 per book really be justified? Or is this just a way for Amazon to try and persuade us to buy a Kindle then fill it with the same books in e-format at a fraction of the price?

I remain in two minds about e-books but I am getting to the stage of resenting the cost of a non mainstream paperback ..... but I can't imagine not having books around the house, for me, books are one of the things that helps make my house a home.

An unplanned bits and pieces type post....

I didn't plan on posting today as I have been at a seminar all day (including 4 hours of driving - urgh, motorways, on a Friday evening at rush hour, with added rain and high winds - deep and abiding joy!).   

I am also waiting (very impatiently) for some visitors to arrive... however, at the last text they weren't even past the border and into England so it may be a while!  Said visitors, who are staying till Wednesday, are one of my best friends and her daughter, who is known as my half daughter - which probably sounds kind of odd.  In short, half daughter (hd), is an honorific given because, due to the fact she has severe autism and Aspergers Syndrome, she will not go to stay at anyones house outside her immediate family (read own home and maternal grandparents), except for some reason my house.  We also have similar tastes in music (which her mother moans about) and books (though she's only been really reading for pleasure for the last 2 years or so). I'm also the only person outside of the family that is honoured and trusted enough to get a hug. 

I've known them since hd was 10, and as a family they've been through some really shite times, but things are so much better for all of them now.  Hd is a truly remarkable young woman, extremely intelligent and very amusing, but she finds it very difficult to interact with people and on some levels she isn't anything like 17.  She and her mum (and the dog) are coming down for a break leaving the males in the family to look after the toddler :o).  Apparently my house is relaxing - oh so not sure the majority of people who visit here would agree with that - hell at one stage I was threatening to give out badges stating "I survived Rent-a-Mob".

So, I am looking forward to much rest and relaxation, some good gossip, some communal reading, knitting of socks, writing and from them possibly some nagging about submissions and the progress of the 2nd book. (Hd and mum both read for me  - and mum is my initial editor, sounding board and ego booster for insecure moments).


PS - after a comment on good-reads yesterday regarding not reading M/M books in public because of the cover art, I took "Bonds of Love" with me to the seminar today and sat in the foyer reading it quite openly... no one commented, in fact I didn't even notice anyone look twice at it....

The Sex to Storyline Ratio...

I appear to be continuing with my budding friendship with the man who does the early shift on the post office parcel collection point... he seemed quite pleased to see me yesterday morning when I went to pick up my books.  Though it was more likely that it was due to the fact that because I wanted my books I was nice, polite and cheerful ... unlike the grumpy sod who was in front of me in the queue who had just shouted at him.

Anyway, since then I have worked, gone to quiz night (we won the best team name prize, but not the actual quiz) and today I went to work again, but finished at lunch time..... and between those things I appear to have read all three of the books I picked up.  I did sleep, but apparently 5 hours is enough sleep ... or at least as much as I am getting anyway.

All this goes to highlight one of the problems I have discovered since I fell into reading M/M books about 6 months or so ago... they really are far too easy to read and don't really challenge me at all.  The other big problem is that they are bloody expensive - particularly when you read fast and buy paperbacks!

The books themselves were the Common Powers trilogy (Soul Bonds, Rush in the Dark, Edward, Unconditionally).... I tend not to review books, but suffice to say I liked them, particularly the idea behind the powers themselves but felt that this was just a hook to get you into the series, it didn't really develop anything outside of the relationship between the MCs. To be honest, had I not been a major complete series freak (and believe me, having favourite authors in other genres whose works run to 18 (ish) (crime), 30 and going (fantasy) and even 64 plus fill ins by other authors (Children's/GO) then 3 is nothing!) had I just bought the first, I wouldn't have bothered with the others, which would have been a shame as I felt they progressively improved in terms of story line as they went along.

They also left me with another thought to toss around in my mind.  I am hoping for NaNo to write a M/M contemporary story, and whereas usually I don't plan ahead what I will write - rather I just sit and type what appears between brain and fingers (which can mean I surprise myself - certainly did when I read back a chapter of something and discovered I'd killed one of my characters!).  However, having only got 30 days and 50,000 words to try and get out (not to mention that the rest of my life won't stop whilst I try and do this) I've been planning and researching - which of course also involves reading the genre.  Now the question that these three books threw at me is - what is the correct ratio of sex/storyline?  I know that this is something that is very reader dependant - I found the 1st book in this set to be far too much sex and not enough story, the 2nd had morphed to lots of phone sex and little contact and a slightly improved storyline, the 3rd had the most involved of the story lines and the least sex (the dog helped my enjoyment level - though dogs in books, and werewolves can be a major issue for me if the writer knows nothing about basic anatomy, breed description or behaviour)

Now I'm not bothered if the sex side of things a full on graphic description or a fades to grey kind of moment, the thing is the scene has to fit, it's not just there because say, after 30 pages there must be sex because that's the type of book it is.

I shall have to ponder this one for a bit longer I think.  It will keep me occupied whilst I drive tomorrow.

Panic Over

Well today has been better.... much better, in fact, I have one thing on the list to do before I go on holiday... I felt that good about it, I booked tomorrow afternoon off as well :o)

Tonight I am off to a big charity quiz event (shock horror, a hint of a social life!!) ... but first I have to sort the mob out, which would be why I am sitting at the PC, desperately waiting for the Jessewave interview with Ty & Zane to load ... sorry dogs, we'll run down the park in a second....

At least I can get the housework done tomorrow afternoon now... and not sit read the, erm, 3 new books I picked up from the post office today (Soul Bonds series by Lynn Lorenz), honest.....

... And Breathe

This post is bought to you by the random wafflings from the over stressed....

Next week I have the week off, this is a good thing yes?  Actually, right now, not so sure.  I had a week off back in July mainly because I'd have had to take 2 days off for family stuff and then there was the 2 assignments I'd left till the last sodding minute yet again, so needs must. As it happened, I actually kind of enjoyed it.... well, most of it, eventually, when I'd finally wound down.  So in a fit of "oh Gods I am back at work" when I returned I phoned a friend and discovered when half term was for her and my half daughter and booked another week off so they could come and visit.

That was ages ago, or at least it felt like it at the time, and now my week off is next week, and I am yet again getting to the stage of stupidly overloaded panic brain caused mainly by too much work and far too little sleep.

So, huge mistake, I wrote a list today of what I needed to do before I finish for my holiday (which is Thursday at 4 pm not Friday as joy of joys I shall be spending Friday in a seminar on professional ethics and standards in Milton Keynes of all places).  I then looked at the list, then at my hands and, fuck, I was shaking.  That hasn't happened for a couple of years.  It was a close call between crying or hysteria, but professional control won out and I managed to get a grip of myself. 

The list is a bit shorter now and I think I shall get through the rest of the week without wigging out completely and cancelling the holiday.  I did have to get all my work checked off when I developed a severe case of sarcasm and potty typing, causing me to re-write one e-mail 8 times before it was fit to send without causing offence.

So I have 2 days of work, a shit load of housework and crap to do at home, a long drive, a seminar and then I can relax, for a week, in good company..... So I shall repeat to myself regularly until then, it will all be fine, just hold on and breathe.......

It's all just fantasy to me.....

One of the assistants at my “Plot Bunny Breeding and Rearing Centre” (aka one of my readers, who selflessly permits me to bounce ideas off her and who gets to read my scribblings for small bribes of chocolate/alcohol), raised an eyebrow and muttered at me today “you don’t subscribe to the write only what you experience yourself school of writing do you?”

Well, er, no, definitely not, in fact, can you imagine anything more boring? I can’t. 

My usual writing involves elements of fantasy, though I can write contemporary, but even then chances are (hum, ok, actually, not definitely, say about an 80% chance) that it’s not going to be anything I’ve any personal experience of… this is what research is for surely? (and research can lead you to do some very strange things… *ahem* drinking a bottle of beer and then spending 20 minutes sucking on a vibrator covered with a strawberry flavoured condom before going to bed because I wanted to describe the taste in a character's mouth the morning after for example)

Ok, so you can’t research some of the things that my head comes up with as, let’s face it, they don’t really exist (I’m talking marauding big cats, colonies of elves protecting the Peak District and intermarriage of races causing strange and magical powers here…. If anyone has evidence of these things, please send it this way!).  Yes, there are usually some myths and legends (preferably local ones) wound in, and I’ll happily mix in some fairy tales and a smattering of historical knowledge, but much of it does come from my head and for me that’s part of the fun of the writing.

Then I pointed out that there is a correlation between what I write and what I read, which lead to some boggle-eyed amazement… whilst I read anything that is put in front of me, if it’s a work of fiction then despite its designated genre it is pretty much guaranteed that in one way or another, to me, it’s going to be fantasy…

Just looking at some of my more frequently read books……I am never going to be part of a sweeping historical drama, nor will I go to school in a 1940’s boarding school, I won’t be a sword wielding hero (heroines are very few and far between in epic fantasy – there are some authors who write them brilliantly but still not enough!), I won’t be a private investigator or detective, pretty sure I won’t be a murderer or other major criminal.  I will never be involved with werewolves, vampires or any other paranormal creature you can think of, I won’t be in an M/M romance, and most probably not in a M/F one for that matter …

If my life were a book there’d be a few interesting moments, but the rest of it might as well be blank pages of boredom!  No, my imagination is a much more fun place to play.

So now, I shall go feed the plot bunny responsible for the new set of voices that arrived in my head the other night, which are telling me the story of a far too knowledgeable grandmother, an abandoned, lonely and insecure werewolf, a dominant and brash tree surgeon, some uncaring parents and a young twink with an attitude problem, a chip on his shoulder that is big enough sink the Titanic and a favourite red hoodie…….

This song title reminds me of writing.... the truth is mundane, something beautiful is infinitely preferable.

Hair Dye and the Helpful Cat

Last night, post blog post, prior to pizza, I got a text from friends advising that they were sitting in the garden of the pub enjoying the warm evening, and would I care to join them... so off I went, and for once didn't have to drive.
So I had a couple of drinks.... something I don't do often as I am usually the driver.  So after being plied with vodka and Pepsi Max for a couple of hours I was returned home, where I entertained the dogs for a bit, before putting them to bed.

Off I went upstairs to get ready for my own bed, when I noticed that my hair was showing rather too much grey, and perhaps it was time to dye it, like, right then. 

I checked the instructions and realised I had 30 mins developing time - which usually I would have put to good use by doing a bit of tidying - but no it's nearly midnight, I'm a little pissed and so I turn on the pc and find something to watch for half an hour whilst I develop.

Then i go liberally apply hair dye to my hair.. my long, down to the middle of my back hair.  Now, the new foaming hair dye stuff is great, it doesn't drip, it does however get flicked all around the bathroom... not that I noticed at the time.  Add to this that Mr Hugo, is sitting on the windowsill watching me intently and occasionally trying to sniff the dye bottles. (Mr Hugo is one of the cats, you get that right?Yyou don't think I just keep some random bloke upstairs perching on window sills and the like?)

Safely balancing my hair on head and trying not to move it I wandered back to the pc ... at which point Mr Hugo decides to be "helpful".  So with a flying leap he's on the computer desk yowling for attention.  I put him onto my lap as it's hard to watch the screen through a cat, but no he's not satisfied with that, so climbs up onto my shoulder and starts rubbing round my hair, my covered in developing dye hair.....

So for 30 minutes it becomes a battle of me v Hugo as he desperately tries to stay on my shoulders. I am subjected to flying leaps from the bed, the book case, the floor.... he's a persistent little bugger.

I eventually got the dye washed out and headed to bed... only to be woken at 4 am by Hugo nibbling the ends of my hair....

Now the thing is, my cats don't have hair, well fur, of their own, they are naked cats.... in his case he's a lovely black/white (which without the fur is blue/white) colour....only this morning, Hugo is in fact, black/white and deep red in places......bathing a cat with a slight hangover (no, not the cat, me) was not the top of my list of things I ever wanted to try.

He's now sulking, slightly less dyed and pissed off.... I am dyed, scratched and I still haven't got all the stray bits of dye off the bathroom... I mean, how the hell did I get dye on the ceiling??