Electric pulse treatment & me.... is this wise??

Is this going to happen?

Last week I went off to see my MacMillan nurse  - just before anyone panics, though MacMillan nurses are
best known for the work they do with people who have cancer and in supporting their family - I don't have cancer, I do have a lymphatic disease which commonly effects people who are going through treatment for cancer though ... which means that I have been assigned a MacMillan nurse to help control and treat it because they are the people best placed to do so.

Anyway, my appointment was to be measured for a new bondage stocking as wearing them makes the lymph fluid drain off in my leg so the size changes, and also the elasticity and pressure changes after about 6 months of use.  Anyway when I was there she suggested I try a circulation booster.... which I thought was probably a medication/supplement type thing (to go with the gazillion other tablets I take to try help my immune system to actually work) but no, it's not, it's a machine you pop your feet on, stick electrodes up your calf (like a TENS machine) and then switch on and give yourself little electric shocks... sorry, it emits electronic pulses which encourages blood and hopefully lymph flow......

Well, I said yes because frankly any new treatment to try, whether it works or not, I am willing to have a go at - because some days it feels like the only alternative that might work is me taking a carving knife to my left leg and removing it below the knee..... so I was mentioning it to some friends and family... and they pointed out something I'd overlooked..... given my abilities to blow things electrical up and give myself electric shocks, explode things and fuse the house.... was this really a good idea?  I decided, after careful consideration, that yes, it was...

I have been warned that it might feel a little uncomfortable and possibly be a little painful, but I am kind of excited about trying this out.... which probably makes me sound a little weird...

My new machine arrives tomorrow... and I have been made to promise that I won't try it for the first time when in the house alone.... you know.... just in case...


I also have visions of one of the dogs standing on it and all their hair standing on end.... which will look very funny!!

Summer Sunshine Reading

So, it's summer.... and for once we are having a proper summer weather with lots of sunshine and very little

rain - most un-British!

It's been a low book reading month - at least in terms of published works - I've also read 47  of the Love's Landscapes stories which range from full length novels of 70K words plus to very short pieces of just a couple of thousand words.  There is a huge range in terms of themes as well as story length, and whilst not all are my thing I am trying to work my way through them.  There are some real gems among them and when they are all out I am going to try list my favourites.

So this month... just a short ride... I am really enjoying Megan Derr's Princes of the Blood series - I am reading the final book now and I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed both the books I re-read this month - which goes to show the value of re-reading.

so the list...

1. City Falcon – Feliz Faber (r)
2. Shades of Gray – Brooke McKinley (r)
3. The Ghost on my Couch – L.A. Gilbert
4. Mahu Blood – Neil Plakcy
5. With Pride – Megan Derr
6. Sense of Place – N.R. Walker
7. Dinner Party – Anya Vossand (F/F)
8. Let it Ride – L.C. Chase
9. Dance in the Dark – Megan Derr
10. Midnight – Megan Derr
11. A Courageous Ride – Andrew Grey

I have a week off work next week with no plans to do anything in particular, so I am guessing the reading rate my pick up again as I ignore the housework!

Nothing like the last minute..

When I found myself volunteering to take on an orphaned Love's Landscapes prompt in the middle of June, I knew I would be writing to a tight deadline.... you always do with the Don't Read in the Closet Events... even if you get a prompt on the first possible day, you've at most 8 weeks to write your story.  Now length isn't an object - but these are in the main short stories - my first year's story was just around 14,000, last year's grew to 18,000 and my first this year was just shy of 30,000...

This time I had six weeks to complete the story.... but it also involved a lot of research.. this is not naturally my historical period to play in (whereas the first story this year was)... and to be honest I knew next to nothing about The Enlightenment and Paris in the 1750's or there about.... so the first three weeks were something of a crash course in the period.

When I started writing nothing was working, I mean seriously nothing.  I had characters that felt wooden and their conversation stilted... so I sent it to a couple of my betas... who spotted something I hadn't......... my characters were flirting with each other! So I built on that... and kept going....

The deadline is Tuesday.... I finished the story this evening....... it came in at 15,149 words on the first draft.. it's a lot lighter than most things I've written and does contain some comedy moments... wig abandonment, improper use of a chaise longue, laundry theft....  I am hoping that my prompter likes the story - after all they are really the only one who really counts, sure to have others like it would be good but really I am writing for an audience of one.

I need to read it and edit tomorrow night, get my betas to rip it up a bit and send it back so I can tidy it up before sending it in to the event on Tuesday - thank goodness that the organisers are in the US and I get a few extra hours!

And now, having finished this one, I am seriously considering a Christmas story for an open submission call.... trouble is... the deadline for that is 1st August.... see last minute.com... that would be me then!

Research - with a little help from my friends.....

So with the deadline for my second Love's Landscapes story fast approaching I am in the final phases of getting the first draft finished - read this if you will as panicking like hell that I am not going to get it finished in time.

Now, it's another historical piece which means lots of lovely research - and this for me has been a whole new era to look into ... and I've had a blast doing it.  Okay I don't feel as comfortable as I did writing a piece set in the middle ages, and there will be issues that I am sure readers will pick up and and rant about but, hey such is life.

This story also came with another problem........ it unexpectedly has ended up quite a  bit, shall we say raunchier? than anything I've written so far!  I was having a crisis moment a week or so back and flipped what I'd written to one of my beta readers (and trusted person to give me a kick up the backside) who pointed out to me that Yves and Christophe really do like to flirt........ so I read it back and, yeah, they do.... well they actually go a bit further than just flirting.

Now, here's the thing... I have a technical problem with raunchy...I am female, and whilst I identify as a lesbian these days, I have some experience with men, but that was a long time ago, I certainly don't have the experience of being a gay man....

I am thinking of adding a warning tag to the story
No period furniture was harmed in the writing of this story!

So, as my characters played out a scene in my head I started worrying....... is that actually possible? what would happen if?  you get the idea.....

So, I wailed a bit, and in the process one of my friends kindly volunteered her partners to be my research assistants..... they were surprisingly agreeable about this and didn't think that the mad English woman should probably be ignored, or possibly locked up for her own sanity... and very bravely one evening acted out for me a particularly scene involving a chaise lounge..... according to my friend who watched and took notes for me.... it was hot

I just hope my written version of the scene works as well!

One of my research assistants is apparently keen to help out again, and if I come up with any other ideas of scenes they could try he'd be only too willing....... I would hate to disappoint so I shall have to see what I can do.....

But you've got to love research!

A random round-up kind of post....

So here we are, summer in the north of England.... and amazingly this year we are having some fantastic weather, though admittedly we are at the stage where a little rain would be nice.... or a bloody great thunderstorm to break the closeness....

I haven't been a terribly good blogger lately... life has just sort of got on top of things... not to mention that well, life hasn't thrown anything too exciting my way.

Weekdays have, as usual involved work.... we've had a major reshuffle in our department, but my job wasn't really affected... that will change in October thought when my team leader goes on maternity leave and I will probably be acting up as team leader for 12 months.

Evenings and weekends have been spent writing, or rather trying to write, my second Love's Landscapes story... I have enjoyed the research side of things but getting the story down is testing me.  I am assured by my wonderful beta readers that what I've got so far isn't the load of complete tripe that I feared it was......and that I should carry on.   The chest infection I had a couple of weeks ago really knocked me flat for a while - I am still on antibiotics and will be for another two weeks, plus I have some other drugs to take with it to try and boost my immune system which really didn't appreciate the infection at all!  Because of that the organisers have given me an extension... so I have another week to finish writing.  I am, I think, just over a third through the first draft, with several scenes for later mapped out (and the epilogue which one of my betas is insisting on is done)  Yesterday was a good writing day.... today not so much!  The muse and Rupert are fickle and some days they just don't want to play!

What else, my mum and sister went off to Turkey for two weeks and had a fantastic time - although mum came back with a badly swollen finger which it turns out is gout - she's not impressed with that diagnosis and keeps insisting it was a mosquito bite that went bad.... She's in a tizzy today - I went round for coffee this evening and ended up having to examine her cat who was limping, a bit of prodding and poking and I found an abscess on the top of her paw... which after a bit of squeezing I managed to drain down... neither mum or cat is now happy and they will be off to the vets tomorrow.

My own critters are split over the hot weather - the dogs really don't like it that much and their coats are coming out in handfuls, seriously I could knit a extra spitz out of the amount of coat I am hoovering up each day!  The cats on the other hand are basking in the sunshine.... the only downside is that they are eating over twice their usual amount of food each day - which is costing me a fortune in both food and litter!

So yes, that's about it for the unexciting life I lead.... an now I must go make my packed lunch for work tomorrow....... I wonder if any of my colleagues will notice that I have had my hair chopped off over the weekend.

Midsummer reading.....

So, that was June.... the days got long, we had some fab weather and I finished editing my first Love's
Landscapes story.... besides that (and work) there was some reading.

Now I've limited my list to the books I've bought and read, I've not included the stories from the Love's Landscapes event - of which to date I've read 61 of those published......they vary from around 5000 words up to around 60,000 words, some are excellent, some not so good, I will at the end of the end probably try pick out my 10 favourite and list them - but that won't be till sometime in September.

So on to this month...... favourites, well, there were probably four stand outs - When All the World Sleeps - these writers are becoming autobuy for me, both when writing separately and together, Dirty Deeds, which is the latest in a series that I think gets better an better, Temper Sanguine, which is the second book (or third and fourth novella) and you do need to read the first book.  And finally Strength of the Mate, which is a really good take on werewolves but does have a lot of military jargon in it you need t get used to.

Disappointments for me - Cross & Crown - this series I think is just not going to work for me, and Aftermath - which just had way too many issues in it for me that made me feel a bit leery of the story line

So the whole list....

1. When all the world sleeps – Lisa Henry & J.A. Rock
2. Tough Love – Heidi Cullinan
3. To Say I Love You – Anna Martin
4. Blood in the Water – Megan Derr
5. Knight Errant – K.D. Sarge
6. Aftermath – Cara Dee
7. Public Displays of Everything – Cara Dee
8. Crown & Cross – Abigail Roux
9. Dirty Deeds – Rhys Ford
10. True of Heart – M.L. Rhodes
11. Temper Sanguine – Lou Harper
12. Dance with the Devil – Megan Derr
13. Strength of the Mate – Kendall McKenna
14. Evil’s Embrace – L.M. Somerton
15. Take My Picture – Giselle Ellis

There were also some re-reads of paperback books but I can't actually remember which ones!

So, onwards to next month - not sure how many I will get read as I am still trying to work on my 2nd story - and the plot bunny is having "ideas" about a couple of other things..... but there will have to be some reading, cos otherwise I'd probably make my brain implode...

This year's knitting challenge update....

So, at the start of the year I looked in the yarn stash - which had spread and was occupying not only two project bags, 2 curver boxes, the space under the footstool, two draws and a couple of carrier bags in the cloak room and decided that now was the time to perhaps do something about getting rid of some of it......

There were also about half a dozen WIPs that I had to decide whether to complete or frog.... so, the aim is - one project completed per month.... and here are some of the finished objects...

January's socks - which took me for ever and a year to do - seriously, I have no idea why but this pair I was knitting back in July at the UK Meet.... I finally finished them in the middle of January!



 The February Hat was an emergency present for a friend whose birthday I thought was that month.... it wasn't but that's another story... I made it up as I went along - it's double moss stitch, 81 stitches in the round.... and yes, it's very pink!


Then we have the March and April projects

Yep more socks - for a friend's birthday... on the left we have some very bright ribbed socks and on the left some rather woolly socks for keeping the feet very warm.

and onward to the May project... yep... you guessed it... more socks... again for a friend's birthday.... I worry that one day I will have given socks to all my friends.... then I might have to knit something else :)

and this is my June project.... and, shock horror! it's not a sock :)
This scarf was promised for a friend at Christmas... so six months to wait isn't too much of a delay really.....this scarf also garnered a lot of attention as a lot of it was knitted whilst I was at the UK Meet ... I am kind of known for being the person that sits and knits through most of the panels...