Midsummer reading....

Sunrise in the Peak District
from Jamespictures.co.uk

So, we are half way through the year
The summer solstice has come and gone
The days are getting shorter
and there has been a lot of reading done

I wasn't originally going to count the Love Has No Boundaries stories in my totals for books read, but awful lot of them have been what I class as novella length.  So anything over 30,000 words has been included in the reading list.

My favourites this month are actually both LNHB stories, Nor Iron Bars a Cage by Kaje Harper and
Treasure by Kim Fielding.  Both are fantasies which
has kind of fitted my mood more than anything.  The Lion and The Crow by Eli Easton, Winter Winds by Missouri Dalton and Lia Black's Worthy

If it weren't for the LHNB stories, my top two books this month would have been Marie Sexton's Never a Hero, which is my favourite of the Tucker Springs series so far and Outlast the Night by Ariel Tachna.

There were two books I was really looking forward to reading this month, The Brat-tastic Jayk Parker by J. A. Rock and Mountain Prey by Lyn Gala.  Unfortunately I didn't enjoy either of them as much as I thought I would (comments on my Goodreads review explain why)

1. Strawberries for Dessert – Marie Sexton
2. Human Frailties – Jaye McKenna (LHNB story, novella length)
3. The Stable Boy – Megan Derr
4. An Intrepid Trip to Love – Charlie Cochet (LHNB story, novella length)
5. The Gladiator’s Master – Fae Sutherland & Marguerite Labe (June “Pick it for me” book)
6. Winter Winds – Missouri Dalton (LHNB story, novella length)
7. Nor Iron Bars a Cage – Kaje Harper (LHNB story, novel length)
8. The Armada Legacy – Scott Mariani (non M/M)
9. The Brat-tastic Jayk Parker – J. A. Rock
10. The Lion and the Crow – Eli Easto (LNHB story, novella length)
11. Treasure – Kim Fielding (LHNB story, novella length)
12. With a Kiss – Kim Dare
13. Worthy – Lia Black (LHNB story, novella length)
14. Not Letting Go – Danni Keane (YA GLBT group’s book of the month)
15. Anything for you, Sir – Max Vos (LHNB story, novella length)
16. Renew, a Hammer Story – Sean Michael
17. Sole Support – Kaje Harper
18. Merrick – Claire Cray
19. Half Blind (freelance magic) – Christine Price      
20. Six – Tara Spear                (LHNB story, novella length)
21. Mountain Prey – Lyn Gala
22. Never a Hero – Marie Sexton
23. Outlast the Night – Ariel Tachna
24. You Get Full Credit for Being Alive – Cari Z. (LHNB story, novella length)
25. Taken firmly in hand – Shannon West
26. When it’s right – Aria Grace (LHNB story, novella length)
27. Safeword - AJ Rose - loved this one... but completely forgot to recorded as read this month till I was double checking august's list!

There will be more LHNB stories next month to read, and I am taking part in the M/M group's scavenger hunt so there will be up to 10 books to read for that.... it could be a busy reading month.... and the UK GLBT Fiction meet is only 2 weeks away.... my ticket has arrived and I am torn between excitement and nerves at present!

Randomness, for my brain is broken....

It has already been determined by those who know these things, that when I become Supreme Mistress of the Universe and All the Galaxies Therein I shall be officially removing Monday from the week because it's Monday, and Tuesday, because Tuesdays are just far too grumpy to exist.... well after today I am considering removing Wednesdays as well.....

(okay, yes, I will be ruling a Universe with no days in it at this rate)

Today didn't start well.... it never does when it starts at 4 am... but Ivan was adamant in his pathetic squeaky way, with stressed eye rolling in addition, that he had to go out, like, now, immediately, this second... so up I got (even though I'd been up shortly after midnight clearing up after Gina who had decided to throw up the entire bowl of biscuits she'd troffed just before bed) and went to let them out..... would they then settle back down for a couple of hours before I officially had to get up... no they bloody wouldn't... in fact Hope and Kammi played chase around the lounge where I was trying to fall asleep on the sofa until Hope ran over my bad leg and caused much cursing........

So, I got to work at 8 am.... and then spent the day running round doing emergency things for my boss, who is acting as advocate for me tomorrow at a hearing... now I wouldn't mind this, only I was forced last Friday to get all the papers ready in a rush so he could prepare over the weekend.......... yeah, so of course he left it to today...... I am meant to finish at 4pm... but it was almost 6pm by the time I shuffled out of the office towards my car......

I made comfort food for tea - macaroni cheese with hard boiled eggs chopped up in it.... which is a bit of an odd thing to make in the height of summer, but hey, it was needed.... particularly as the only sweet things in the house are grapes....

I am meant to put in my supermarket order tonight.... but I am rather afraid I will rectify the lack of sweet things in the house whilst I am doing it in the mood I'm in.... which will make it very difficult to meal plan next week unless I just want to eat chocolate......

Thank goodness tomorrow is payday and my book budget is available for spending.... I fear I will blow it in one go.... not to mention I am also buying a Kindle for mum's birthday....... I shall try and make sure just because I bought it that it isn't cursed with technofail as most electronic items I buy are....

other than that, I've not been up to much......... though I did download my LHNB story onto my kindle to see if it made me feel like a "proper" author.... nope, seeing it there was weird, but still not convinced of author status.

There is an open call at Riptide in October, and two publishers are doing pitches at the UK Meet...... I thought about it..... and then decided no, I am not ready yet to be doing that sort of things.  Who knows maybe one day....

Lost Weekend....

Well, that was fun.... this weekend I have done, well, absolutely nothing.

Okay, not quite true..... on Friday I dashed off early from work to have my hair cut, and the the supermarket delivery was, erm, delivered..... is it wrong that the delivery driver knows me well enough to spot and compliment me on the new hair cut?? (it was the same guy who talks to me about importing dogs and his Thai bride)..... on carrying through the shopping to the kitchen I discovered I had someone else's freezer bag... I didn't order 4 tubs of strawberry sorbet... and managed to flag the driver down to get the items swapped for my own........ only whilst I was doing this the evil devil dog from hell managed to get into the shopping, swiped a packet of grated cheese and demolish it in under about a minute...

Saturday I declared I was having a pyjama day.... or at least as near to one as I could get....... which meant sprawling about in my dog walking clothes and watching trashy TV and reading........ didn't happen as by 11 am I decided I couldn't manage without a shower/hairwash and clean clothes... I did manage the reading for most of the day.

Today I have ventured to do laundry......... but that has been it.... again there has been reading... and an afternoon nap (well I'm an old person now).

I have to phone my MacMillan nurse in the morning... given the pain and swelling in my leg I have a horrible feeling that before the dentist whipped out a tooth on Thursday I should probably have been on antibiotics.... my lymph system is a delicately balanced thing (or screwed depending on how you want to look at it) and I really don't want another big flare up.... particularly given that I have more dental work planned for next week.

And so it is bed time, and the end of the weekend......... in which I have accomplished nothing... and actually enjoyed it quite a lot :)

Smile Please .....

Well, here I am sitting at my lap top, under instructions to rest from my dentist, whilst the results of the anaesthetic wears off and I have to keep checking that I am not dribbling (actually it's gone past that point now and I have weird pins and needles feeling in my face).

So, why the post.... well, here's the thing... it's the first time I've been to the dentist in years....and I am not phobic so really there was no reason for not going.

Only there was....

When I was a kid I we always went to the dentist for check regular check ups and I was tortured for years by an orthodontist until I had relatively straight teeth that I couldn't put a £1coin through the gap between the two upper front teeth.  Then I went to university and while I lived in Preston in Ye Olden Days I still went fairly regularly to the dentist for checkups... then the ex happened.

Now one of the things that she insisted on was having control of the finances... which meant that only things that she deemed necessary got paid for when it came to me....... and my dental care wasn't a high priority for her... we didn't have an NHS dentist available and paying privately would be too expensive unless there was an emergency (though strangely funds were found for her to have her teeth whitened ....) so for 7 years I didn't go near a dentist...

After the split and my move over this side of the country I could, and probably should have found and gone to the dentist.... but at that stage I didn't care... not about me, let alone about my teeth.  After all I couldn't see the point, it wasn't as though anyone else was bothered if I had my teeth, so why should I.... as far as I was concerned, it didn't matter anymore, no one was ever getting that close to my mouth anyway.

So going to the dentist was one of those things that I just never seemed to get round to... probably part of this was although I knew I had a couple of back teeth that needed attention, I have such a high pain threshold that it never hurt enough for me to actively need to seek treatment.......... and again I still couldn't find a reason to care enough to sort it out.

Then recently one of the things my counsellor is making me do is to try and care enough about myself to treat myself well.  So, last week I got the number of my sister's dentist from her and booked an appointment............ that was today...... I need a little work on a few of my back teeth... which started with her whipping out a broken tooth this afternoon... but despite the neglect my teeth are generally healthy and with no decay. I go back again in a week or so for the next lot of treatment.

I am still trying to decide if taking this step, having the treatment etc is going to make any difference to how I feel about me...... though more importantly, right now I'd like something to eat... which will apparently be yoghurt as I am only allowed cold soft food tonight......

Release day!!

Well, I got notification yesterday lunch time....

Today is release day for my LHNB story, which is called "One Week"

It will be listed at The M/M Romance Group website, which will link back for now to the M/M Romance Group on Goodreads.... but in the next week or so it will be available to download in multiple formats.

Si & Nick
(my boys..... for now at least)

I haven't written contemporary adult before.... and I have been accused by my wonderful beta readers of writing angst..... yet I maintain I am unfamiliar with the concept.

I really hope that I have managed to write something that the prompter (and anyone else who reads it) will enjoy.

I am fighting a massive internal clash between nerves and excitement.......... kind of like being on a rollercoaster....

Random mumbling for a muggy Monday evening...

 Well, that weekend went quickly...

For once there were plans, but like always when there are such things they are not straight forward.

No coffee - rather a lot of chocolate!

A friend and I have been trying to meet up for ages. Now this is where it gets rather ridiculous.... we live in the same city, we're really good friends, we talk via twitter (and text, well until I changed phones and forgot to give her my new number).... and we've not actually seen each other in person for 18 months.

We had plans to go out to Our Cow Molly for hot chocolate and ice cream sampling, but alas the weather was piss poor and we ended up in Costa Coffee instead....... no coffee was consumed though.

As usual our catch up took a good three hours....... and another 30 minutes stood at my car .... we've promised to make much more effort in future!

On Sunday I had a christening to go to, one of the workplace babies.... being predictable, I bought books for his christening present (The Hungry Caterpillar & The Gruffalo) .... it was a nice service, if a little mad given the amount of audience participation required.... it felt rather odd to be in a church.... (not least because pagan festivals are usually held outside... )  Afterwards we went to a local hall where there was a buffet and lots of chattering.......... and children... hundreds of children... actually that's an exaggeration... but it felt like it!

Sometime over the weekend I also decided in my wisdom (!?!?) to strip all the accumulated hair dye from my hair and go au naturelle!  (I blame that stray grey eyebrow hair)....... I duly applied the horrible smelling chemical mush to my hair and waited an hour to shrink the dye molecules (well that's what it said it did) so I could then stand under the shower for 20 minutes  and wash it out......... having done this I got re-dressed (well no, that's a lie, I spent much of Saturday afternoon and evening floating about in my pj's) ... and blew dry my hair.  Shortly after I wondered into the bathroom, where sunlight was streaming through the window.... looked in the mirror and said out loud... "oh my god, I'm ginger!"   Now I have to admit, until I was 3 years old, I was ginger... but it turned boring brown.... it's been rich mahogany, plum or aubergine for the last 20 or so years....... so the fact it is now ginger again was a bit of a shock.

Today I have gone back to work, well it's Monday, and if I don't turn up they'll probably object.  I have a half day on Thursday (dental appointment in the afternoon) and I think I will be finishing early on Friday as the hairdresser can fit me in (and if I don't get it done then it might not be done before the UK Fiction meet... which it needs to be as it's just a mess at present).

I am having an argument with work at present about the cold drinks they have available........ we all have vending machines on each floor, and their is a cafe on the ground floor..... and every single cold drink bar one on sale today had either caffeine, sugar or both in it... well unless I wanted water, again.... so I ended up with Diet Cherry 7up.... which was strangely nice....... apparently they will be sorting me out more choices... but they did look at me strangely when I said I didn't want anything with caffeine in it........ I am sure they think that is the basis of what makes the office run!

Other than that, I still have no idea when my LHNB story will be out... but have set myself a task of reading and commenting on all of the other stories....... which works well and keeps me busy in the evening... kind of too busy for much else really.... which may possibly be a way of hiding from myself (again)........ but we aren't admitting that as I think I may be in a little trouble for insisting to some friends that I was "fine" at the moment....... things are a little screwed up in  my head and possibly not so fine...... but I'll work on that one.....

Brain too fried to think of a title.........

No, I am not still being held captive by the critters..... honest....

Things have been rather painful round here for the last few days, and for once it isn't self inflicted.  A combination of a broken tooth resulting in an abscess (thankfully now draining) and a sudden change in weather making my joints rebel has made the last few days particularly difficult.  Last night was particularly special as I managed about 2 hours sleep.... and when I woke up it felt like my body had been out dancing all night then got hit by a truck on the way home!

little fishy was probably more with it than me today!

I've spent most of today either half asleep or in a pain killer induced trance... and it's quite hard to do any productive work when you've the attention span (and possibly the intelligence) of a goldfish!

We had a massive thunderstorm this evening...... which explains why my joints were so bad today, and thankfully when it was over they started to feel much better.  I'm rather tired now, but trying to hold off going to bed until pumpkin time, if I go earlier I'll be up in the middle of the night to let the dogs out.

As a result of the pain/tiredness combination I've been rather negative about everything for the last few days, so, as a reminder, some positives and things to look forward to ...

- the UK LGBT Fiction meet is now only 5 weeks away - so excited about this!  Mind you, the nerves may get to me nearer the time!

- My LNHB story is going to be coming out soon - I have no idea when, I understand we are being told a few days before so I should have advance warning!

- Ivan's blood tests came back fine and the couple of fits he had are just anomalies and shouldn't be a problem.

- I have some fantastic, caring friends, who put up with my whining and bouts of woe, and occasionally shout at me for doing stupid things (like driving this morning when really I probably shouldn't have been)

- I am meeting up with a friend on Saturday at a local farm shop cafe where they specialise in making their own ice cream.... I intend to empty part of the freezer so I can bring home samples!