Sun, Networking, Sock Phobias and... a My Weekly Pocket Novel

Last time I wrote it was sunny - and it's been sunny again today. I'm turning into a fair weather blogger. Last time the good weather only lasted six hours, this time it's been warm for a couple of days. And I'm fed up already. It's way too hot. And my little car doesn't have air conditioning.

It's been a while (again), but I have been busy since last time. I've joined Pinterest (or, rather, my alter egos Melissa Welsh/Suzanna Ross have joined). If you look at my boards you'll see such lovely things as Feline Friends, Sweeties, Cake and Where a Fairy Might Live. I've had great fun, but I'm not too sure how useful it all is. I'd only intended to join as Suzanna Ross, but somehow the whole thing linked to Facebook and ran away with itself.

I'm also now all of a Twitter (  @sj_suz ). And I'll have you know I have over 60 followers (eat your heart out Stephen Fry). Again, can't really see the point, but I've wasted a lot of time trying to keep up with it. And there's just so much to keep up with - I think my head's about to explode if I'm honest.

As well as joining all these time wasting sties, I've also been watching television - which has given me a good excuse to revisit my sock phobia. Pobol Y Cwm - in my opinion the best Welsh soap in the entire world - had a recent story line involving a character leaving a sock in his girlfriend's house. She found it when she moved her handbag, which was odd enough. But - and this is the really disgusting bit - she picked up said sock and caressed it with her bare hands, a soft smile playing gently about her lips as she did so. Seriously. Yuk. I'd have needed rubber gloves and a plastic bag at the very least before I'd have touched it. I'm thinking of writing in.

Net result of this is I've done very little writing. But I do have some writing news. Some of you will have seen  already on my Facebook Page, (apologies for the repetition) that last week I sold a pocket novel to My Weekly. I'm so pleased I could cry. It will be published on the 9th August. No doubt I'll go on a lot more about it nearer the time.

Hope you're all okay.

XX

Sunshine and a Free Book

Not much to report, but the sun's shining, which is nice.

And I have a story in the current People's Friend (dated 12th May - on sale up to and including Tuesday), which is very nice.

Other that that, lovely Judy Jarvie is giving away a fabulous free book this weekend, which is very very nice. Head over to her blog to find out more.

Hope you all enjoy your weekend.

The Smallest Reading Room in Scotland?

Probably.

We were out for a drive when we happened upon this wonderful sight. An old BT red telephone box full of...

BOOKS.

BOOKS.

And more BOOKS.















This phone box was taken over by local people in Kinnesswood under BT's Adopt a Kiosk scheme and it's been transformed into a book exchange. You can read more about it here.






Thank you to all who liked my writer page on FaceBook. I reached the magic 30 likes and it's opened up a whole new world - er, well, I can see some sort of graph now in any case. I have to say I was expecting more after the way FB built it up. But very happy to have 30 likes nonetheless.

No writing news other than that I'm thinking of sending a chapter into the M&B Medical Fast Track. My requested full from the last Fast Track is still under consideration, but having read it again (I know, that's lethal) I think it might be just as well if I give myself another chance. Is anyone else giving this a go?

Keeping up with technology and a treat

My blogging problems have forced my hand and I’ve downloaded Chrome.

And I don’t like it.

The writing looks odd and it may coincidence but my laptop's been running awfully slowly ever since.

I also don’t like the new Blogger thingy. I don’t like having to think about things that are normally automatic – as I'm forced do now because it’s all different.

Why do they have to keep changing things that work? I’m an old dog. I’m not fond of new tricks.

I’ve given in and joined Facebook, too. But I didn’t want everyone from real life knowing what I was up to, so I’m there under a false name. Which was fine. But I couldn’t not friend my lovely niece – and when she listed me as her aunt, my mother found me. And then started to post rubbish on my wall (sorry Mam, but you did). So I started another account in my own name for family. But I made the mistake of friending myself, so then I was recommended to the friends I’d made on the first account.

Already the edges are blurring – and it’s all catching up with me.

Not content with confusing myself to this extent, I’ve also had the cheek to set up a writer page. The idea was to put anything to do with my writing on there, Not much in the way of news on there as yet, but I live in hope.

I have found and friended some of you. But if there are any of you I haven’t managed to find and you would like to friend me, I’m there as Melissa Welsh - I've tried to link but it doesn't work (that will be technology playing up again). No doubt FB will do its stuff and invite you to friend my personal account from there.

And if you want to like me, you can do that here. (Oddly,  this link seems to work.)

I’m up to 27 likes on that page now. Once I get to 30, I'll get to see something I can’t see at the moment. It's all wonderfully mysterious. And, being a nosy parker, I can’t wait.

So, the treat. Teresa Ashby has published (among other works) two collections of short stories on Kindle.  The Mother of the Bride & Other Stories and A Friend Like Aunt Buffy & Other Stories. Both are available to download now - for less than a pound each. Good news for anyone who loves a jolly good read.

Turning Minxy and a terrific new book

Some of you may know the story of how I turned Minxy. How I, along with many hundreds of other wannabes, entered a romance writing competition. Most of us didn't win a prize, but some did end up with something much better in the form of a lovely and supportive group of friends.

What you probably won't know is the the identity of the lady who started the mega critique group after the competition - the one that had so many members, it didn't seem practical as a critique group, so a number of smaller groups were formed. And one of those groups was my supportive group, The Minxes.

That lovely lady is CC MacKenzie. And I'm very excited to let you know she has a book out: Reckless Nights in Rome

Congratulations, CC, I wish you all the lovely sales you deserve.

To find out more, follow the links to Amazon, or head over to CC's blog.

Next time I really will fess up about my unhealthy Facebook habit. It's kind of grown legs and is rapidly running away from me. This is what happens when you try to be too clever about things you don't really understand.

Hope you're all well. I'm having dreadful problems commenting again - but I have been keeping up with all my blog visits. I suspect I'm going to have to give in and try to do something I don't quite understand with Chrome. Sigh.

Finally, I have a story in the current People's Friend (on sale up to and including Tuesday). I quite like this story - it kind of sums up the way I'm feeling at the moment. Not the actual happenings in the story, but the feel of time passing way too quickly. Did I tell you my baby's first set of big exams start on Wednesday? How can she be sitting big exams? It only seems like yesterday she started school.

Fab Minxy News, Awards and Tags...

There can be few who haven't heard the unmistakable sounds of celebrations from Minx Manor these past few days. One of our own, the very lovely Maya, got THE call. SHE NOW WRITES FOR MILLS AND BOON. I'm sure the celebratory chocolate will be flowing for many weeks, to come - news like this is mega. If you haven't already, hop over to Maya's blog to learn about her call story. And I defy you to read it and remain unmoved.

Congratulations again, Maya Minx. Proud of you.

Belatedly, I'm accepting an award from Diane Fordham - a Sunshine Award. Thanks, Diane. And sorry it took so long to write this post. A condition of acceptance is to list the things that make me happy. It would be quite a long list - I'm generally a contented soul (unless someone annoys me) so I'll give you the top ten edited highlight.

1. Good news (for an example of this, see above).

2. My 15-year-old, even when she's being horrid. She picked a fight the other day because I'd allowed her out of the house in a lilac anorak when she was aged 10. It was no wonder, she told me, she had no friends. She wouldn't be friends with herself in an anorak like that. I'd thought she looked lovely - besides, the anorak incident was five years ago. I suspect the argument was a pre-emptive strike as she anticipated a suggestion she might like to spend the last few days of the Easter holidays with her nose in a book. Not an unreasonable request when she has big exams starting in two weeks. And so far she's done absolutely no revising. And I seem to be the only one panicking. She still makes me happy, though. And a bit crazy. But mostly happy.

3. Chocolate. Specifically lime or violet cremes if anyone's offering.

4. Seeing my name in print. I'm such a narcissist.

5. A writing sale (see number 4). No matter how tiny the item, a sale is always cause for happiness.

6. Thinking about what I'll do when I win the lottery. Number 34: I will never again wash dirty socks. I hate feet. I hate anything that have touched feet. I loathe dirty socks. I worry about dirty socks contaminating the rest of the laundry (even though a sock wash is always exclusively socks and I do a boil wash with bleach to clean the machine afterwards). If I was rich, everyone in the house would have a brand new pair of socks every single time - and those would be dropped straight into the bin after wear. I'm told it's something to do with OCD, but not washing socks would make me very happy indeed.

7. Reading

8. Writing.

9. Reading about writing.

10. The friends I've met through writing. Some I've yet to meet in person. But these are real friends. These are the people who understand why, when a story feels like I'm pulling teeth, I keep at it until it's done. They're the ones who know exactly what I mean when I want to swing for the person who told me they fancied getting a little part-time job but weren't qualified for anything so they were going to write a little story. Most of all, they understand that writing isn't a little job, it's a compulsion, a vocation - a way of life. After writing in a vacuum for so many years, finally finding a community that offers such a level of acceptance and understanding has made a real difference.

And, Lucky 7. Huge apologies to Teresa Ashby, too, who nominated me for this ages ago. I'm supposed to go to the 77th page of my wip and copy out seven lines from it. But I'm too much of a wuss to show any of my fiction that hasn't been validated by a cheque from an editor. Soooo, I'm cheating (I know, that's so not like me) and instead I'm going to copy out seven lines from the seventh short story The Weekly News bought. This was published as Obsession Overcome in January 2011.

“I don’t think I switched off the hob.” Kate was too distressed to look at Ian, instead she kept her gaze on passing scenery.
“What?”
“After making breakfast – I don’t think I switched the hob off.”
Ian took in a deep breath. “Kate, I’m positive it was off.”
“Can we go back and check?”
He laughed. “You’re kidding, right?”

Yes, the main character has OCD. I wrote about what I know.
 
I'm supposed to pass these awards on, but I know it's taken me so long to accept that most of you have already been nominated. But, if you haven't, then you have now...

Next time: I may well, finally, reveal my secret Facebook habit (I'm sure you can't wait for that) - and news of a terrific treat not to be missed.

Hypochondriacs are us? A freebie. And dressing up.

Quick medical question: Does ripping your finger open on a staple count as a sharps injury? I had a feeling I should have been rushed to hospital for urgent treatment. Nobody at work seemed particularly bothered though, so I'm hoping it's not as serious as I think it might be. In much the same way I'm hoping nobody with hepatitis ripped their finger open on the same staple before I got to it.

Anyway, nicer things - much nicer. Lovely Sally Clements is giving away a free ebook - but hurry, this offer is open only tomorrow and Saturday. Head over to her blog to find details.

Finally, look at Miss Suzanne all dressed up to go and visit Mr Valance (Minx Man of the Month for March, no less) and his friends.

Just call me Calamity.

I'll be back before long with the promised post belatedly accepting those awards - and maybe even confessing to my secret facebook habit.

Have a good Easter.

Tag, I'm it :0)

A while back (quite a long while - I'm behind because of all the polishing that's still going on at a frantic pace, I'm so petrified of sending rubbish to the lovely editor who requested my full manuscript) Lovely Teresa tagged me. The challenge was to answer eleven random questions, set another eleven and tag eleven more bloggers.

So, with huge apologies for the lateness of my replies, here goes:

1. Do you wish you’d been born someone else?
When I was small, I always wanted to be Doris Day. I still think she's wonderful.

2. Who would you most like to have breakfast with?
Anyone who could make me laugh. It's nice to be jolly and I think good laugh in the morning can set you up for the day.

3. Favourite subject at school?
Maths - specifically algebra. I was never fond of geometry, because that involved digging in my bag for my pencil case. With algebra, I could sit without having to move too much while I worked out the values of x and y - and I don't like to move much.

4. Favourite television programme?
Oh, lots. I'm a real telly addict. If pressed today I'd have to say The Good Wife - but that's because I've just caught up with the episodes I've missed from series three. Tomorrow it might be something different.

5. Do you believe in ghosts?
I've never seen any myself. But my mum and my sister would often scare the living daylights out of me with tales of things they'd seen and heard around the house. Many years later, I read coffee can cause a chemical imbalance in the brain - and be the cause of hallucinations that are often mistaken for ghostly behaviour. Oddly, they've both been lifelong coffee drinkers. I suppose the answer is I don't know. I'd like to think there was something - but the rational side of my brain think if there was, there would be proof.

6. What is your star sign?
Pisces. Fish swimming in opposite directions. Which probably explains why half of me thinks there might be something to the ghost thing - and the other half definitely doesn't.

7. Which Star Trek series was the best?
The first one. In much the same way as John Pertwee will always be the real Doctor, the Star Trek I first saw as a child will always be the best.

8. If you could be a character from a book, who would you be?
Marvin the Paranoid Android. Or a female version - Marvina the Paranoid Androidina?

9. What is your favourite animal?
My daughter's cat. I'm also rather fond of pandas.

10. Least favourite vegetable?
I would say aubergines, because they give me heartburn - but I think they might be fruit. I'm also not fond of mushrooms, but they're fungus. So, I suppose, if I have to give my least favourite vegetable it would have to be carrots - because they taste horrible and are, frankly, not worth the bother. In fact, vegetables in general aren't worth the bother. Much easier and tastier to eat chocolate.

11. Why?
Because. :0)

So, my random questions:

1. What was the last thing you laughed about?
2. Sweet or savoury?
3. What annoys you most?
4. If you could only read one book for the rest of your life, what would that be?
5. What's the best birthday present you've ever received?
6. Hard copy or ebook?
7. What are you most proud of?
8. If you thought you were human, but were really a robot, would you want me to tell you? (Okay, I stole that from The Big Bang Theory - but I thought it was a great question. Personally, I wouldn't mind being a robot, but if I thought I was a robot then found out I was human I'd be pretty upset).
9. What's the happiest memory you have of your childhood?
10. If you could do any job in the world, what would you really like to do?
11. Where do you see yourself in eleven years' time?

And, I hereby tag: Aimee Duffy, Rae Argent, Pasty Collins, Deborah Carr, A man named Valance, Gary and Penny, Diane Fordham, Penandpaints, Karen Clark, Elissa Graham and Delcatto. (I know some of you have already been tagged with different questions so (and even if you haven't) don't feel you have to accept - I won't be upset if any of you decline, so don't worry about offending me.)

Next time: Lovely Teresa has tagged me again (this time with Lucky 7) and Lovely Diane has nominated me for a Sunshine Award (thank you, both), so I will be formally accepting those. And, after that, I many or may not out myself as a closet Facebook user. Yes, I know I said I'd never sign up for Facebook, but I have. And, while some of you will have rumbled my secret identify, some of you might not have (I know, in the scheme of things this is probably the least exciting revelation in human history, but I lead a quiet life, so to me this is intrigue at its best.)

Finally, there are still a few days left to vote on the March Man of The Month poll over at The Minxes of Romances. It might be worth a look at the poll just to see what lovely chap has tempted me to vote for him instead of for my one true love, John Barrowman. (In case you're wondering, Lovely Valance got my vote.)

Today I'm looking for a man...

...over on the Minx blog. Would be very grateful for your suggestions.

Also, there's news there of another fabulous free download (just for today, so hurry).

Next time: Lovely Teresa has tagged me, so I'll be answering 11 random questions.

(I think this will go down in history as my shortest blog post ever.)

PS I'm not being intentionally bad mannered - I've been having problems commenting again (on my own and on some other blogs, very annoying).

A Birthday, Sales and a Fantastic Free Download

I've been having problems posting. Initially, I thought the fault was with my laptop, but the problem seems to have sorted itself out as mysteriously as it started, so maybe it was Blogger after all. And, now I'm back, I hope to catch up with you all over the next few days.

Since I last wrote, there's been news. Good news. Four new short story sales (three to The People's Friend and one to That's Life! in Australia) and a request for a full manuscript. Yes, I’ve heard back about my partial and they want to see more. I have duster and a can of Pledge in hand as I write, for the purposes of furious final polishing. A quiet and subdued yay – I’m very pleased, but also realistic enough to know it might still come to nothing.

And it’s apt I should hear so much good news at this time of year because somehow, once again, I’m suffering a birthday. There have been lovely gifts and lots of cake (and I’m not mentioning the wrinkles and grey hair). But I'm still left reeling that yet another year has whizzed by.

Mentioning gifts, lovely Judy Jarvie has popped by with a freebie for all of you. Take it away, Judy:

What’s nicer than something for nothing? Well, NannyBehaving Badly by Judy Jarvie and published by E-scape Press is exclusively free this weekend only from the Amazon Kindle store.

It’ll only be available for a limited time – Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th February so please make sure you snaffle yours. It should be available from around 8am on Saturday just in case anyone goes inearly and it’s not there.


And some reasons why it’s worth a free read:


1 The Hero; Lyle Sutherland is a racing driver with banter,brawn and brains.

2 The Heroine; Maddie Adams means well but sometimes (ouch,erk) she gets it wrong. It’s fun to watch the fallout (hopefully).

3 It’s about naughty behaviour between consenting adults – a rollercoaster romance.

The blurb –

Strong, silent-type single dad hires wild streaknanny—off-limits opposites attract.

Maddie Adams hopes for a smooth ride in her new temporary coffee shop job so she doesn’t mean to make the worst impression possible with the handsome café owner, Lyle Sutherland. His suggestion that she becomes his son’s replacement nanny shocks them both. When attraction and passion areunleashed between boss and sassy super nanny, Lyle’s secrets and a shock pregnancy challenge old wounds.

Get yours FREE. Or pop by this blog for more info.

Versatile Blogger (and asking for a big favour)

Thank you to Susan Jane Jones for nominating me personally and the Minxes for Versatile Blogger awards. I hereby accept on behalf of both parties. Now I have to divulge seven facts about myself:

1. Even though we're near identical name twins, Susan and I are not related :0)

2. I have a wrinkle underneath my left eye that worries me. It used to work its way out by lunchtime, but now it's there all the time. I'm trying to learn to sleep on my back to stop it getting worse.

3. Talking of sleep, I think one of my ancestors must have been a cat because I seem to have inherited the sleep gene. I can sleep anywhere: In the car (not while I'm driving). In my chair at work (only if I've nothing to do). At the cinema. The other day I fell asleep while writing a story (but that's maybe a reflection on how interesting the story was, rather then my possibly feline genetic make-up).

4. I suspect I might not be as bright as I think I am. It worries me.

5. When my daughter leaves home for uni (in less than three years, as she keeps reminding me) I'm going to get a parrot to keep me company. And I'm going to teach it to shout 'in a minute' - which is Lovely Daughter's stock reply to every request.

6. I love a bargain. I will spend twice what I'd planned if it means qualifying for a special offer.

7. I'm blogging on the Minx site today. Is it too cheeky for me to plead with you to pop over and leave a comment? I'm worried it might look as though I have no friends. There are no prizes and I can't offer you money, but I will love you for ever.

A Challenging Couple of Weeks

So, the first two weeks of the brand New Year have flown by. And I'm still raring to go. Yay.

I've signed up for Sally Quilford's 100k in 100days challenge and I think this has helped enormously. Not only has a lovely and supportive writing community grown from this, but I'm actually keeping up and this has boosted my confidence.

I've been working on one of my longer projects, so haven't produced as many stories as I might have during the past 15k words. But, last weekend, I joined in a challenge - set by an online writing group - to write a short story. Of course, it's nowhere near ready to be submitted to a magazine at this stage, but I'm thinking there might be something there. A few more drafts should tell me one way or another if I think it's okay to send out.

It seems I'm one for the challenges in 2012.

There hasn't been much news from anywhere, but I'm okay with that. I've kind of written off a few submissions in my head in any case. The oldest being a partial requested by a well known publisher in 2010 - after a fast track (I don't like using exclamation marks, but in this case I'm very tempted !!!!!!!) . A query last October confirmed it was still under consideration - by which I'm guessing it's not been looked at yet (they were obviously holding their breath for that one). I've also resigned myself to never hearing about a Christmas story submitted in July - I'm guessing story and subsequent query have been eaten by the scary cyber radiator.

Not that I'm whinging. I know there are an overwhelming number of writers chasing ever an shrinking number of fiction opportunites. Thousands of stories will be landing on editors' desks every week. I'm only grateful it's only two projects I haven't heard back about.

There aren't many other stories left waiting for a decision: Another July submission, a couple from October and three from December. Really need to get more stuff out there, I think.

While I might not have much writing news of my own, I'm so pleased to be able to tell you about Diane Fordham's new book, Dream Keeper: It's Time to Face Your Fears


Diane is a very talented writer - as well as being a lovely blogger and a great friend - so I'm very excited about this. Dream Keeper is a very spooky tale and worth a read. You can find out more about the book on Diane's website here.