Hello World!

Hello World! I feel like I’m standing at the open doorway of an airplane about to jump out into white fluffy clouds. You’re lucky you won’t be able to hear me screaming (or singing) as I descend. Will the parachute open or will I end up going out with one great adventurous jump? Here we go!

If you’re one of my members you’ll be glad to hear that I’m working (though not at this exact moment) on the last chapter of A Companion for Life. It should be online in a week or so. When I started it, I thought it was a short story, but it turned out to be a novel. I kept trying to wind the story up. I’d tell people there were only three more chapters…only three more…only three more… I should know better than to assume I know anything. I’m not one of those people who lash their characters with a mental whip. They’d all just call me names and sail away into a mental sunset for a prolonged holliday. No, I have to write what they want me to write. If it doesn’t feel right and I start hitting my head on the proverbial brick wall I know I’m trying to tell them what to do again.

I don’t know why these characters have gripped me. I’m probably trying to tell myself something, but I won’t know what until the book is done. I write to read the story; it unfolds organically and everything falls into place in the most bizarre way. If you can guess the plot lines of one of my books you’re doing better than me!

Usually I work on multiple stories, but for the past four months (except for a few brief days) I’ve been absorbed in my first Welsh hero, Mr Penryth Bowen and Miss Lily Leigh who’s English. It’s not what I would call a funny story though it does have funny moments. It starts out with the heroine as her older sister’s unpaid skivvy/whipping girl. The older sister, Rosamund has a sadistic streak. She’s enjoyed beating the dreams out of her younger sister, but Mr Bowen comes to her rescue. Lily is really fat. I didn’t sit down and think I must have a fat heroine, I started writing and I realised she was fat. The fact she’s fat runs through the story…as does the odd mention of cake. And no she doesn’t lose weight to become some beautiful thin heroine. Dump that! He likes her the way she is. These men really do exist.

I’ve been obsessed with cake the last four months. It was really bad there for a while. Ok…it’s always bad! I have Candida so I’m not supposed to eat sugar or yeast or a long list of other food items that make eating pleasant as I end up scratching like a walking flea farm, but  sometimes I give in (like yesterday) and eat chocolate biscuits and or cake. Usually both! Some days…you just have to eat cake! And no Marie Antoinette never told the servants to feed the people cake. It’s amazing how many stupid things we get taught at school that are completely false. I think tomorrow I’ll have to waste of few minutes of my life trying to persuade the world that King John wasn’t as evil or as stupid as we’re taught. I want to get a t-shirt that says, I love King John. Then when any unsuspecting curious wretches ask me why I love King John I can torture them with a mini lecture that will be sure to make them hate King John forever. One can only try. I’d like to state here and now that King John is not one of my heroes! He’s not a hero, but he could have been…Ah…the famous last words… He could have been a great King…if only… if only he hadn’t been a complete jerk… minor details. I still want that t-shirt! Anyway I was talking cake. I digress. I was going to share a Regecy pound cake recipe, but I can’t find it. I was probably halucinating. It’s a good thing the store’s shut now or I’d go buy one. No, I’m going to be good and eat oak cakes (they taste like compressed unsweetened cheerios) and unsalted cottage cheese, it’s just not the same. I should probably get back to work on my book so I can finish it so I can move on and obsess about another story. With luck the next heroine will hate cake, though frankly that is highly unlikely!

Please note I don’t claim to be a Regency/Georgian expert, but if you have strange questions I may be able to answer them…I may not. I may redirect you to your local library. I know more than I realise, but less than I’d like. Feel free to ask me any questions about my stories or characters though I won’t be publishing plot lines or endings. If you really want to be tortured you can ask me about King John. I assure you the fact he resembles my character John Smirke is all completely coincidental. Truly. Ok, I’ll go away now before I give in to the wave of King John information threatening to burst from my brain. I’ll save it for tomorrow which is sure to be another rainy day.