De-blog

WIPpet numbers for 31st January, 2018: 3+1 = 4 paragraphs  Goth of Christmas Past WIPpet Context: I’m still snipping  Goth of Christmas Past . This follows more or less straight from last week’s snippet  in which Jay was contemplating vending machine soup. Note (to explain the second paragraph): Hadyn has OCD, although he has just been handling a dusty Christmas tree… Emma—my wonderful illustrator—has come up with a second version of Jay and Krissi, which is awesome, and now I’m in a dilemma whether to keep the original (pictured) or go with the new one. I think I know what to do, but I”d appreciate your thoughts. QUESTION: Based on the current cover, what kind of story would you expect? * * * * * Here’s the snippet: [Jay] “Is the hot chocolate working?” “It was earlier.” Hadyn was already on his way upstairs and continued in a hasty but controlled manner all the way to the toilet. Jay eyed the machine and then the coins in his hand. He’d either g...

Title:  The Rose Thief Author: Claire Buss Publisher: CB Visions Published: 10th November, 2017 ISBN: print: 1549982443 / ASIN: B076FT93YN Link: http://cbvisions.weebly.com/the-rose-thief.html Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36438619-the-rose-thief Blurb: ​Ned Spinks, Chief Thief-Catcher has a problem. Someone is stealing the Emperor's roses. But that's not the worst of it. In his infinite wisdom and grace, the Emperor magically imbued his red rose with love so if it was ever removed from the Imperial Rose Gardens then love will be lost, to everyone, forever. It's up to Ned and his band of motley catchers to apprehend the thief and save the day. But the thief isn't exactly who they seem to be, neither is the Emperor. Ned and his team will have to go on a quest defeating vampire mermaids, illusionists, estranged family members and an evil sorcerer in order to win the day. ​What could possibly go wrong? Review: What's the worst thing abou...

I'm posting as part of  Rainbow Snippets , which is a group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week to share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation. At the tail end of December, I said I'd try to post more regularly to Rainbow Snippets, but then a spider chomped me, and there was just so much life happening. So, more realistically, I'm going to aim to get in at least one post a month. * * * * * Last time, I posted from  To Be Sure , which is a novella from the Hiding Behind The Couch series. I'm not posting from it today, because I have a (kind of) new release available (on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited) that incorporates  To Be Sure  and Red Hot Christmas — the novella I'm snipping from. I'll come back to that after the snippet, because the context for my choice is actually a conversation on a thread on the Rainbow Snippets page, where I mentioned that Andy (from the ...

WIPpet numbers for 24th January, 2018: 24-1=23 || 8-1=7 … 237 words Goth of Christmas Past WIPpet Context: I’m still snipping  Goth of Christmas Past —another snippet of Jay. I’ve moved on quite a bit to skip over Jay’s reminiscence of goth adolescence. In this snippet, Hadyn—Jay’s flatmate and sound engineer—has dug out the fibre-optic Christmas tree at the studio… * * * * * And here’s the snippet: Hadyn unwound the cable and plugged in the transformer. The tree illuminated in a brief, glorious wave of purple verging on ultraviolet…and went off. “Poop. I’ve got my soldering iron upstairs.” “Wouldn’t it be easier for us to buy a new tree?” “Easier, yes, but they’re mega-expensive.” “How much?” “A hundred and fifty quid.” It was a lot for a tree, but the studio could afford it. “Order one,” Jay said. Hadyn took out his phone. “Actually, order two. We can have one down here and one upstairs.” “You’re full of festive spirit this year,” Hadyn ribbed without...

I'm going to be totally up front here. I've not yet read any of Rose Montague's books, but I'm going to be rectifying that very  soon, and I'll tell you why. What you're getting is my first impression of an author who is new to me, of whom I know nothing. No interview, no review tapping; I'm going in cold. Before I go any further, I should mention that one of Rose's books is on a Kindle Countdown deal, and it's available at $0.99/£0.99 until 27th January, 2018. For the impatient who aren't interested in reading on, here are the links: Amazon US:   http://amzn.to/1FdKmWL Amazon UK:   http://amzn.to/18KgEfd Teaser: A presidential election. A witch with a target on her back and a magical arrow. A shadowy government agency made up of witches with unusual abilities. A game called Witch Pong. The Mighty Thor? See how it all comes together in a school you will never forget. Blurb: Jewel has a problem. She's in a witch school and c...

WIPpet numbers for 17th January, 2018: (18-17) + 1 = 2 paragraphs from  Goth of Christmas Past WIPpet Context: I’m still snipping  Goth of Christmas Past —and also still playing around with the cover to see if I can increase the readability of the title. I might get it to something I’m happy with before December… This is another snippet of Jay. It comes a few paragraphs after last week’s , so again, there is passing reference to self-harm. Here’s the blurb for further context: Black hair and band hoodies had a lot to answer for. That day, eleven years ago, when Gothboy mooched into their business studies class for the very first time, Krissi had taken one look at him and thought, What a freak. He’s so cool! Now in their mid-twenties, Krissi Johansson and Jay Meyer are successful businesspeople and still best friends. But while one of them is moving forward with their life, the other is sliding ever backwards…revisiting the past and wallowing in regret...

Honestly, this is a lot of waffle. You'd be as well to go and read something else. I've half-written two blog posts today—it being Monday and all (my nominated blogging day). One was a rant, the other was stream of consciousness. I guess, ultimately, I have nothing much to say. However, I read an article about Facebook algorithms yesterday, which told me nothing I didn't already know, but it did serve as a timely reminder that as an author, keeping on top of my online presence on other platforms is important. So, a waffle post it is. :D Facebook claim they are tightening up on posts that are little more than click bait and—allegedly—prioritising more of the family/friends type posts. The action they're taking is—they claim—in response to user feedback. Short version: people are sick of all the ads. And yet I'd lay good money on the outcome being more  sponsored posts at the expense of family/friends updates and posts from pages/groups we enjoy. In other ne...

WIPpet numbers for 10th January, 2018: 10 sentences from Goth of Christmas Past Sorry…again…to my fellow WIPpeteers for my tardiness. I had a spider-related mishap last Wednesday, so I’ve been, well, dopey, mostly. Antihistamines…ugh. WIPpet Context: I’m still snipping Goth of Christmas Past —this is another snippet of Jay. It falls a little after last week’s snippet , and I realised, while trying to select a suitable excerpt, that this story will need content warnings. I think people who have read my work before know I don’t write about mental health and illness for shock value. I write about what I know from personal and professional experience, but I try to tell the stories that aren’t usually told. There’s a kind of amusing anecdote that follows on from that. When I was working as a high school teacher, the headteacher at that time called me to her office and asked if I would be willing to mentor a group of Year Eleven pupils (age 15–16). I agreed without hesitation...

It's not really going to be a moan, but I liked the alliteration, and I am starting off with a grumble. Seriously, who gets bitten by a spider in England? Me, apparently, so said the nurse at the Minor Injuries unit in our local hospital. I'm on the mend, with the help of antihistamines and, subsequently, more sleep than I've had in months. I didn't see what got me, but there are only a few bitey spiders in the UK, one of which is a tiny thing we call the money spider, also called the sheet weaver spider (the photo shows why). There's an old wives' tale in the UK that if a money spider runs across your palm, you'll come into money, but the little buggers stick with you. They'll abseil on a strand of web, which you think you've successfully attached to something else only to find you're still carrying a miniature passenger. * Image credit:   Sheet Weaver (Money) Spider's Web :  Watchduck  (aka Tilman Piesk) For the above reasons (bi...

WIPpet numbers for 3rd January, 2018: 3 paragraphs from Chapter 3 (which happens on 1st December) from Goth of Christmas Past WIPpet Context: I’m still snipping Goth of Christmas Past  which is finally taking shape. This week, I’m switching from Krissi to Jay—the other main character. They’re the two people pictured on the cover (the magificent work of Emma Pickering). Here’s the blurb for further context: Black hair and band hoodies had a lot to answer for. That day, eleven years ago, when Gothboy mooched into their business studies class for the very first time, Krissi had taken one look at him and thought, What a freak. He’s so cool! Now in their mid-twenties, Krissi Johansson and Jay Meyer are successful businesspeople and still best friends. But while one of them is moving forward with their life, the other is sliding ever backwards…revisiting the past and wallowing in regret. Worse still, it’s Christmas—happy joy joy everywhere! Yay. >.< * * * * ...

Well, I planned to hit a milestone before the end of 2017, and I thought I’d missed it (damn you, Deb, and your rubbish record-keeping), but in the process of writing this blog post, I discovered I didn’t miss it at all. Hurrah! What am I talking about? This… 3,003,924 …is how many words I’ve clocked up since I started writing ‘for real’. Which is rather good, as I was aiming to hit three million, and I did. However…my annual word count has dwindled over the past four years: 2001: 105,342 2003: 8,600 2005: 1,062 2007: 111,813 2008: 122,414 2009: 66,735 2010: 52,771 2011: 101,820 2012: 183,373 2013: 515,840 2014: 486,425 2015: 474,692 2016: 399,912 2017: 373,125 😞 New Year, New Me? Hahahahaha. No. If  I was the kind of person to make New Year resolutions (which I’m not—you can set a goal  any time you like.  Pretty radical, huh?), I’d be setting one to hit 400k words in 2018. Last Words of Last Year… Anyway, here were the last w...