Zip-a-dee-doo-dah

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay

My, oh my, what a wonderful day

Plenty of sunshine headin' my way

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay

The verse has something about everything being ‘satisfactual’ – and I definitely feel satisfied now.  Congratulations to all other A-Z Bloggers who have managed to get to Z.  

Would I do a challenge like this every month?  No way! 

Will I take part again next year?  Yay, bring it on!

Thanks to Lee for providing this challenge and thanks to all who've visited my blog

And now it’s zzzzzzzzzzzzz time - for a short time, anyway!

YAY - I made it (nearly!)

Penultimate letter – Yay, Yessss and Yippee!

At the beginning of April, I had titles for about half the letters of the alphabet.  As things occurred to me, I’d add them to my list.  Some letters ended up with a variety of possible subjects.  I think C probably had the most – I considered Characters, Computers, Conflict, Confidence, Creativity, Coping with Writers’ Block – and eventually went with Critique Partners.

Some topics I chose were relatively easy, others really made me think.  In that sense, it really has been a challenge (another C topic!).  I’ve tried to write the blogs for each week during the preceding weekend, but it hasn’t always worked out like that.  Finding pictures, too, has been a challenge at times.   I know I wasn’t obliged to find illustrations, but I do like finding appropriate pictures to break up a blog.  Okay, so maybe I like to make things harder for myself  J

I was determined to complete the A-Z Challenge, and now I’m almost there.  I didn’t for one minute consider giving up.  I’m stubborn like that.  Once I take on a Challenge, then – barring circumstances totally beyond my control (like my computer blowing up) – I try to see it through.  I wonder how many of the other 1000+ signers-up made it to the end?

I have to admit I haven’t managed to visit everyone else’s blog.  I did make a sterling effort the first week to visit as many as I could.  I became a follower of a lot of blogs, and I’ve gained quite a lot of followers too.  I’ve read a lot of interesting and thought-provoking blogs, and hope others have found mine as interesting.  I really appreciate those who’ve left comments for me, since we writers thrive on feedback, of course – and we have to support each other.  Even better, I’ve also made several new friends. 

Thank you all for your support!

X-cerpt from my new novel

Okay, here it is – the very first excerpt I’ve posted publicly from my June release of ‘His Leading Lady’. 

Blurb: Jess Harper’s predictable life is turned upside down when she discovers that Lora, her twin sister, has disappeared.  It’s just a week before rehearsals are due to start for a new West End musical in which Lora has the lead role.  Jess decides to pose as her sister in order to save Lora's career.  This brings her into close contact with arrogant theatre director Kyle Drummond.  Attraction sparks between them but there’s also evidence that he had been dating Lora.  So is Jess simply a substitute – in real life as well as in the show?  And what will happen when Lora eventually returns?   

Excerpt:

(Jess is posing as her sister, and she and Kyle have returned to Lora’s apartment after having dinner, the night before they are due to do a TV interview together)

            He followed her across the landing and her nerves fluttered like a bird caught in a net.  Her hand shook as she started to put the key in the lock, then Kyle’s hand on her arm stopped her.  “I’ll pick you up at nine thirty tomorrow,” he said.

            She looked at him, genuinely taken aback.  “But – but aren’t you coming in?”

            The instant she said it, she could have kicked herself.  Amusement flashed across his face.  “What man could resist such an invitation?” he said with a quick grin.  “But no, tonight I really must resist.  You need a good night’s sleep and I –” He stopped and gave a half-laugh.  “Well, let’s just say that I have a few things to sort out before tomorrow.  I’ll see you at nine thirty.”

            Jess knew the feeling sweeping through her should be one of relief, knew she should say a casual goodnight to him and open the apartment door.  But the look in his eyes sent waves of heat rising inside her.  She couldn’t move, even when he put his hands on her arms and started to lower his head.  A warning bell shrilled in her head but by then Kyle’s mouth was against hers and it was too late.

            His mouth was soft at first but the feel of it, so warm and tantalising, sent her head into a spin.  A small gasp escaped from her lips and parted them slightly.  Kyle’s arms went round her, and he pulled her firmly against him.  His lips hardened and his tongue slid into her mouth. 

            She’d been kissed passionately before but nothing had prepared her for Kyle’s kiss.  His mouth took possession of her in a seductive demand for surrender.  As his tongue gently fondled hers, sensations that she had never known before scorched through her, ignited every nerve and melted every bone.  She gripped his shoulders, her head went back and involuntarily she arched towards him, thrilling exquisitely to the feel of his hard body against hers.  The surrender he demanded was complete as she responded with the same fervour, wanting more, still more.

            When he released her, her breathing was ragged and she looked up at him, dazed and disorientated.

            For a couple of seconds, Kyle looked just as stunned.  Then he took a deep breath and gave her a wry grin.  “You certainly know how to make a man regret his decision!”  He cupped her chin with his hand and even that burned through her and then gave her a tender smile.  “I’d better go, otherwise I never will.  Goodnight, beautiful lady.  Sleep well.  And don’t worry about tomorrow.  You’ll do just fine.”

            His lips brushed her mouth again in a brief parting kiss and then he turned to the lift.  The doors were still open and Jess watched as he went in and pressed the ground floor button.  Still totally numb, she raised her hand slightly.  Kyle smiled and tilted his head in farewell.

            Only when she was staring at the lift doors did she finally move.  The key was still in the lock and she let herself into the apartment.  She closed the door behind her, then caught sight of herself in the hallway mirror.  Her face was flushed and her blue eyes stared back at her wildly.

            “Oh God,” she whispered as she brought both her hands up to her cheeks.  For a few moments she couldn’t think straight.  All she could feel was Kyle’s mouth, his tongue, his whole body.  A quiver ran down to somewhere deep inside her.

            In the next moment her eyes widened with horror.  How could she have let him kiss her like that? 

            She looked at herself again in the mirror and tried to calm her thudding heart.  Lora’s clothes, Lora’s make-up, Lora’s hairstyle.  Of course, he’d thought that he was kissing Lora, not her.  And she’d responded as Lora.  Hadn’t she?

            So that was some damn good play-acting, Jess.  Except that it didn’t explain her own response.  Not just the way she’d responded to his kiss, but all those other feelings that she didn’t even want to think about.

            Relief, she told herself firmly.  All evening she’d been worrying about how the evening was going to end, and when he’d said that he wasn’t coming in, it was simply relief that swept through her   Wasn’t it?

            Underneath, she knew there had been far more than that, but already her mind frantically tried to deny what had happened to her emotions and to her body too.  Instead, she diverted her thoughts to the TV interview.  Once she got through that, this whole charade would be over.  She could go back to Ashfield and forget that Kyle Drummond even existed. 

His Leading Lady by Paula Martin,
available from Whiskey Creek Press
in June 2011

Wedding Fever

With two days to go before the Royal Wedding, the whole country is gripped by wedding fever.  Or so the media would have us believe.  Every magazine and newspaper, every news programme and chat show, seems to be dominated by it.  

Well, of course, I wish the young couple well – they both come over as sensible, level-headed and mature 29 year olds.  And at least, like most couples these days, they’ve lived together for a few years now before deciding to make a commitment to each other.

Hopefully, therefore, their marriage will survive the pressures put on it.   Of course, all marriages have their own pressures, although William and Kate won’t have any financial worries or the problem of buying their own home or the threat of redundancy/unemployment.  But living one’s life in the media spotlight must bring its own pressures (which fortunately most of us ‘ordinary’ folk don’t have to experience).

Royal marriages since the middle of the 20th century haven’t a very good track record.  One only has to think of Princess Margaret and Antony Armstrong-Jones, Princess Anne and Mark Phillips, Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, and, of course, Charles and Diana.  Of the Queen’s children, only one, Prince Edward has (so far) remained with his first marriage partner. 

I’ll keep my fingers crossed for William and Kate – and I must admit, like thousands of others, I’m dying to see ‘that’ dress on Friday!

Venting my Vexations

I wasn’t sure what to write for V – of course, things like villains, violence and voice all came to mind, but then various things happened that made me think of this title, so I’m going to list a few things which really BUG me!

Going out for lunch with a friend who then spends more time talking to their husband/daughter/other friend on their mobile phone while I sit there twiddling my thumbs.

Someone serving you in a store who, while she or he is putting your items through the bar code, is busy talking to another staff member - or even, as happened recently, to a friend who happened to be passing.  They hardly break off their conversation to tell you the total you have to pay. 

People who park their car so near to yours in a car park that you can’t get to the driver’s door to get in your own car.

Members of the social group which I organise who sign up for an event or visit, and then don’t bother to turn up or even let me know they’re not coming.

And, because I’m a writer, I have to add this one – celebrities who write novels and get them published simply on the strength of their name (even though they probably haven’t written the thing themselves anyway!)

Okay, grumble over – but you can tell me some of yours, if you want to get them off your chest!

Using all the Senses

We’re encouraged to use all the senses in our writing:  sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. 

I’ll let you into a secret. At school, we had one English lesson each week called ‘Prose Writing’ – and I hated it! I didn’t want to write descriptions of ‘A Summer Meadow’ or ‘A Storm at Sea’ using the five senses.  I wanted to write about PEOPLE – what they said, what they did and, even more importantly, how they felt.

Maybe I should have tried harder in those Prose Writing lessons, because I still struggle with descriptive writing – and with using the five senses. I don’t consciously think about using the 5 senses when I’m writing.  If they’re there, it’s instinctive, rather than planned.

I think the so-called sixth sense can be equally important.  Hunches, suspicions, 'gut' instinct, intuition, even foreboding and premonition, can play a big part in creating suspense in a novel. 

For me, there’s another sense – emotion.  The heroine’s emotion when the hero kisses her is far more important to me than what his lips taste like or the smell of his aftershave. Her inner reaction to his anger or his sweet-talk matters more than what his voice actually sounds like or what music is playing in the background.

The reader knows what the senses are. She (I say this because romance readers are usually women!) has probably held a man’s hand, smelt his aftershave, heard his laughter, seen his frown or smile, and tasted his lips. I can leave a lot of that to my readers’ imaginations, I don’t need to spell it out for them with adjectives or similes. What I want is for them to FEEL the character’s response to all these things and that’s where I concentrate my energies.

Time-Wasting

I am an expert on this subject.  I suspect that many writers are similarly expert.  I have a free morning so I sit down in front of the computer, all ready to pick up my novel where I left off yesterday evening.

But, before I click to open the chapter, I must check my emails and reply to them, and I’d better have a quick look at Facebook too, both my personal page and my author’s page.  Ah, some links there to someone blogging.  I’ll click on those and add a comment – since we writers have to support each other.

Which has reminded me to check what next week’s topic is on our group blog, Heroines with Hearts.

Ah, it’s ‘What genre I write and why’.  Well, that should be easy enough.  I’ll just play a game of Pyramid Solitaire while I have a think about it. 

Twenty games later, I suddenly remember I haven’t checked the latest posts on the several yahoo groups where I’m a member, so I pop into those, read the posts and maybe make a few comments.

Right, I’ve now caught up with everything else, so I’ll go and make a mug of coffee, then I’ll get to work. While I drink it, I switch on the TV because I haven’t seen the news yet this morning.  I’m about to switch off when the morning magazine programme starts but I see they’re doing a feature about the Lake District, so I have to stay and watch that.

Okay, time to go back to my study now.  I’ll just pick up this morning’s post from the doormat.  Oh good, this month’s writing magazine has arrived, but I’ll save that until later.

A couple more emails have arrived, better see what those say, and I’ll have another look to see who else has been on Facebook…

And now this ancient computer has slowed down to a crawl, so I need to reboot.

While it’s grinding into action again, I open the writing magazine.  Oh look, there’s an article here about procrastination …

Please tell me you know exactly what I’m talking about and not that you’re a super-disciplined writer!