General

Some of you may have noticed we’ve made a few changes to my website. The new EU laws for all websites and blogs that handle EU citizens’ information came at us out of the blue. My Goblin gets a giant gold star! He slogged through endless pages of gobbly-gook law-speak to update my website on a hot day when he wasn’t feeling well. A true hero!

I can’t believe it’s been about a year since my last blog post. My sense of passing Time has been utterly distorted – mostly caused by the medication I took the second half of 2017, but the whole of 2017 was horrible. I rarely left the house. It was like being in a cocoon; couldn’t walk without pain, couldn’t think, couldn’t even watch tv for months because the moving pictures made my brain hurt. Thankfully, I was able to read romances. And I ended up reading lots of alien romances. At one point I asked myself…’Cari, why are you craving alien romances? It’s freaking weird!’ And my subconscious answered back, ‘I feel alienated.’ And it was true, I just hadn’t accepted it. Strangely, the year before, when I was craving Vampire romances…it turned out I was anaemic. If only my subconscious could tell me what my Regency characters are up to. They’ve been very quiet. Every time I take out an unfinished Regency to work on it I’m met with creepy silence as if all the characters are living in their own Sleeping Beauty nightmare. Wake up! Silence…

Thankfully, I have been able to work on my modern romance which hopefully will be finished this year. If you go to my Pinterest site (Cari Hislop) there’s a folder labelled Angus…that’s my hero (he looks like Michael Fassbender). He’s a Scottish self-made man. The heroine is half Chinese and half Norwegian/English (she looks like the Chinese/Norwegian poet). It’s a Billionaire romance, but she’s the Billionaire. He’s not remotely interested (because she’s not his type – i.e. a tall slender blonde), which only makes her want him more…so she blackmails him into her life only to find she’s bitten off more than she can chew!

When I finished my last post I pumped my fist (feeling Gung ho). I was planning to make regular posts and then I got sucked into another sick-hell. My medical issue was supposed to be solved by intervention A, but instead intervention A caused issue B, which led to issue C, which intervention caused issue D… Et voila! I’ve turned into a bore. You know it’s bad when close family members stop calling! What? You don’t want to listen to me whine…again? Ok…deep breath… Who needs contact with humans when there are thousands of alien romances to read? Yes, I’m addicted to alien/cyborg romances – anything to keep me from whining to myself (or my remaining friends).

I haven’t been completely unproductive. My goblin (who was forced into early retirement two years ago) decided I needed to edit all my stories. Being helpful, he printed them ALL off onto paper and made this ginormous pile (which was intimidating). I’m working my way through it. When we’ve finished the mega-edit I’m planning to make new (better) covers for my Regency romance novels. In the mean time I haven’t done much writing. I think all this sick-boring-rubbish has upset my inner writer. She’s not very happy with me, but as I don’t own a time machine I can’t go back and give myself any ‘excellent’ advice on what medical interventions to avoid – which is a pity. I’d go back and tell myself to write faster too! I’m hoping to have a short story finished by the time I finish the mega-edit. That’s my goal! 🙂

The last few days my sense of time has been off, thanks to a virus that has afflicted me and my Goblin. Halloween is coming? Wait, It’s over? What? I keep thinking today is Saturday…it’s Tuesday! I roll my eyes at myself! However, I’m excited that it’s finally November because it’s time for ‘November Skies’ a song by Tomas Barfod (a Danish artist) – The woman who sings the song is Nina Kinert. If you’ve never heard it, it’s Electronic (the contrast between the crackly music and Kinert’s singing is striking – almost haunting). The link takes you to Youtube. I find it a great walking song, especially under grey skies. Makes me hope I’ll wake up  tomorrow to rain (not that I’ll be walking farther than the fridge to find my last cupcake…unless it disappears in the night).

When I’m not listening to music, staring at the wall or reading alien romances, I am hard at work…which at the moment consists of more editing. The Goblin has been telling me for years that I need to go over The Curse of Love (as it was one of my early books). So that’s what I’ve been working on at the moment. The edit has ended up heavier than I expected (chopping up of chapters, deleting bits, adding bits). I’m hoping to get it done soon so I can immerse myself in an unfinished story without the Goblin giving me the evil eye. I’ll send out a newsletter to let you know I’ve updated it.

Once Upon a Wager is almost through the second edit phase. I’m hoping it will be on line in another week, though it depends on how fast the Goblin works his magic. The editing process took longer than I expected. I started Once Upon a Wager eight years ago (working on it in-between other stories). Most of the last four years has been one stupid annoying health issue after another. I learned a lot about myself, like how I can’t write without a working brain.

After I finished the book, I had the feeling it had wrinkles that I couldn’t see (because it was written over such a long length of time). Thankfully the Goblin could see them. I’ve been metaphorically ironing for weeks. I enjoy ironing (yes I’m weird), but not day after day for weeks on end. There, lies madness and an aching arm.

At last I can see the end is near. I still haven’t figured out which story to focus on next. I have so many partly finished/started stories it’s like…do I eat this yummy chocolate or that yummy chocolate? I want to eat them all right now!

I’ll send out a newsletter to let you know (if you’re a member – don’t forget to update your e-mail address). If you’re not a member and you’d like to receive an e-mail letting you know it’s in the shops, just drop me a line and I’ll add you to the list.

For all of you Regency shoe lovers…I came across a website today where they sell Georgian authentically styled shoes. I now must get rich because I NEED to have pairs of ALL of them. Heavy sigh! These (pictured) nankeen Regency ankle boots are high high high on the list. They also come in black and another colour I can’t remember. If, like me, you dream of Regency shoes… Have a look at these beauties! The sold out red leather buckle shoes look as if they were conjured out of one of Fragonard’s paintings…Magical!

Most of the last year feels like a long strange blur spent reading other people’s stories. I have read A LOT of books in all sorts of genres. With my thyroid careening back and forth between under and over active I’ve been living in a creative wasteland. For most of the last six months I couldn’t watch Tv or movies because my brain couldn’t handle the moving images or follow the story lines (very irritating). Thankfully my brain could still read! Finally about a month ago my brain seems to have found an even keel and I’ve been writing again which feels really good. With luck I’ll even finish something in the not too distant future. That’s my goal! I’ll let you know when I’m close to sending a book out into the world. I can only hope it will be sooner than later (if only for my sanity). I have a backlog of characters and stories all clambering for attention. I need to get them thinned out before another crowd comes rushing in. Wish me luck!