I don't know when exactly this thought popped into my head today, or why, but here it is: a snooker player meets a pool player and they "connect". Just saying.

Over here we have snooker: practically a national sport (in fact I think it might be, not sure) broadcast on television, dull as ditchwater, players wear white shirts, waistcoats and bow ties. And trousers and smart shoes, obviously. They look a bit like footmen or waiters.

On the other hand the stereotypical view of pool is one of dingy bars filled with smoke, rock/country music and testosterone, guys in plaid shirts or t-shirts and jeans, swigging from a bottle of beer in between taking shots.

They are such similar games (long sticks knock coloured balls into holes placed around a large table covered in ugly green felt) yet they have such different backgrounds. So what would happen if two players from these practically opposite backgrounds met? I'm sure my brain will toy with this idea for a while, I might just do something with it, eventually.

Oh God, if I did write this I'd have to research snooker. And pool. Gaaaaaah . . . *points to the definition above* That's pretty much how far my knowledge extends for either game. I think in snooker you're supposed to pot the black last, but I've no idea why. Still it could be fun. And of course, there's all the bending. Ah the bending . . . Leaning over the table, long, smooth poles gripped confidently in their hands . . . Okay I'll stop now. ^_~

Wow it was hot today. I had Sean and Cam yammering in my head most of the day, which was annoying, 'cause I was in town most of the day and couldn't write anything. It's not a wip, since I haven't even started it yet, it pretty much just exists in my head.

Sean is a rugby playing, drinking, swearing Glaswegian (so, fairly typical Scottish bloke really), who happens to meet Cam, a willowy, pretty boy cross-dresser. The two of them get set up on a date by both of their friends for a practical joke, but Sean has seen Cam before and figures out what's going on. The two of them become friends, with Cam being attracted to Sean and Sean not quite able to figure Cam out, the first openly homosexual person he's met, who dresses up in girl's clothes for fun. There's Sean's younger sister, his homophobic rugby mates, Cam's catty friend who only wants to get into his (Cam's) pants . . . All sorts of fun things. I'll write it at some point. You'll hear me say that a lot, lol.

I've tried ordering The Shiny (mini HP laptop designed by Vivienne Tam - so pretty!) but the HP site is being difficult. I need a new computer! I tried going on my old desktop in our downstairs living room since it's cooler down there and had barely been on it, but Firefox still crashed - twice. I should probably do a system restore thingy but it's too fiddly and I'm worried about messing it up. Oh well least I've finally got wireless Internet, lying on my beanbag on the dining room floor with the laptop is more comfortable anyway. :-p

I really should remember to try not to eat or drink anything while watching QI or Mock the Week, even if I've seen them before. QI's always hilarious, especially Alan Davies' "cheeky schoolboy" to Stephen Fry's "patient schoolteacher" act. There's definitely a story in there somewhere.

Should write, feeling sleepy. I'm sure my brain will start blethering away at 3am, which is another reason why I want the mini laptop, so I can write in bed when my brain won't shut up. :-D This old thing, for a laptop, weighs a ton.

Took part in the chat for Dreamspinner authors (still getting a kick out of calling myself an author, lol) over at the Love Romances Cafe Yahoo group on Saturday. Had a brilliant time, was great fun chatting to everyone and getting insights into their lives and writing. And reading the excerpts of course! As I'd said in a post there I felt a bit like a kid trying to hang out with her older siblings, but everyone was lovely. There's lots of amazing sounding books I'm looking forward to buying if my bank balance can cope with it, heheh. I just need to finally get going with getting a book of my own finished and published! :-D I'll be keeping a look out for other chats in the future, I definitely want to take part again.

The two free copies of the Reflections of Love anthology from Dreamspinner finally arrived! I was so happy, I couldn't stop staring at it and holding it with a big silly grin on my face. Ebooks are great (and can really help save on space) but there is nothing quite like holding an actual paper and ink book with words you have written in it in your hand. I guess I am just a little old fashioned lol! It looked wonderful too, I love the cover. Sending it had taken longer than normal because apparently there had been a problem with the first print run so they had to re-print. I didn't mind the delay, I'd rather have to wait for a better looking copy of something than get an imperfect one, but now the books are finally here it just made my day! XD

Yes . . . I keep getting caught up in different things, and focusing on them, to the detriment of other stuff. I really need to learn to manage my time better. I have been writing as well, but still need to get off my lazy ass and do more of it. :p I tried writing a short story for Dreamspinner's wedding anthology that's coming up, but it just wasn't coming together properly. I couldn't even figure out one of the character's names for goodness sake! So unfortunately wasn't able to finish it in time for the deadline. I will get it finished at some point though and probably try submit it to Dreamspinner as a short story/novella. I still have other stories for other anthologies that I want to submit to to do I just need to get my brain in gear and get them done.

I've also been revisiting a story I did for a competition at MLRPress, it didn't win anything but I still like the story and would like to get it published sometime. I just can't help the feeling that there's something . . . wrong with it though. The competition was for their Partners in Crime line and the theme was art and murder so it has a kind of "police procedural" feel to it, along the lines of the CSIs or Law and Order, but with gay men. ;) What I'm not sure of is if it all fits together, if the person who's guilty is too obvious, if there's plot holes to drive a truck through, if everything sounds right. I think I'm too close to the story though, I need someone to read it with fresh eyes and seriously pick it to pieces, tell me exactly what they think is wrong with it and what works (if anything). And the harsher the better. It couldn't be any worse than how I am with myself, even if it's telling me to just forget it or re-write it from the ground up (I'm almost considering doing that anyway). Of course there's other things I should be working on, but yeah, after months my brain has decided to jump onto this again. I don't want to start working on it too much though without some other sort of feedback/criticism. *Sigh*

Yeah, I really need to stop doing this. ^^; Hopefully I'll have caught up and March's will be out in time by, well, March. . . I just need to figure out what I'm doing for that month. :-p

I was visiting friends from uni for a couple weeks and don't like using up their internet too much, plus I wanted to spend time with them, not be online loads. It was fun and great to see them but it's good to be back! So much to catch up on!

I have writing to do, I know I have writing to do. There's a submission for Samhain Publishing that I haven't even started yet that's due March 1st, I'm considering doing a story for the next Torquere Toy Box (biting, mmmmm) that's due the 15th plus there's another little something that I'm working on (don't want to say too much, but it has to do with the backdated post below) that I have to do for this month and catch up from last month. I was hoping writing all that might motivate me to do something about it. Nope, didn't work. So far I've just been having a fairly lazy day, reading smutty fanfiction. *g*

Well there's always tomorrow . . . I'm hoping to at least get my own thing done next week, and the Torquere - well that'll have to be done next week really, that's when the deadline is. :p And I'll try get started on the Samhain one soon too, I do have a basic idea at least and some bits thought out, it's just a few niggling details, like, oh, characters' names, and a title, and some bits in the middle that need to be worked on . . . *waves a hand* Eh, it'll be fiiiiine, just need to get going with it. :p

But for now . . . back to the smut!

More stuff will go here.  I'm just bookmarking this, you might say, to be edited later to add something to it.  Hopefully some point next week.

I found the website for Torquere Press through emily83176's journal, where they're accepting submimssions for Taste Test and Toy Box anthologies. The Taste Test one coming up is Mythical Creatures, which I was debating still trying to submmit for, but have decided not to. Not that I didn't want to, normally I love myths and legends, and I would have thought I could write them 'til they were coming out my ears. I figured this one would be easy but I just couldn't seem to get a handle on it. I did research, found out loads of interesting stuff and got plenty of ideas, but still nothing that seemed exactly right for the submission. Plus the deadline for it is tomorrow. The word limit is only 3-7k, and it is perfectly possible to write a story that length in about a day, or a little over it, but I seriously don't recommend it. Especially not when a story idea isn't really leaping out at me to be written. I had a few ideas, as I said, but there were either plot points that needed working out or research that needed doing that I really wouldn't be able to do properly in the time left, and I didn't want to be rushing to finish a story, writing it slapdash and sending it off when it isn't as good as it might have been. Besides which I still also have the story for the Toy Box submission to finish. :p I did want to write something for this, but it wasn't on my "need to write" list; I think it was more a chance to write a historical story, which I haven't done so far, than anything.

So, new idea! With all the various myths and mythical creatures I looked up for this I'm thinking of writing a collection of short stories of my own, featuring various mythical beings from different countries and cultures around the world, probably mixing one or two as well. There's so much to choose from, and a lot to look into, I have no idea how many stories there will be or how long they'll be or anything like that. I don't know how soon it'll be done either, with the other stories I'm planning on submitting that have deadlines. But if it's a collection of short stories I should manage to get them written in between other stuff, since it'll be writing various smaller pieces rather than one long thing. And it's helping me not feel too bad about the decision at least. ^__^



Also, if anyone knows of any good mythical stories or creatures/beings, feel free to send them my way! :-D

First post in my writing journal! ^__^ I still need to do stuff to it, prettify it some more and everything, but it's a start. A thank you to emily83176 for the awesome icon, I have a real life journal as well under the name silverblaise but I haven't updated that in . . . at least a year, probably closer to two. ^^;

I started off in fanfiction, and got up the nerve to write and submit an original story to Dreamspinner after seeing a link to their site on AFF.net. Checking out the Call for Submissions page there was one for an anthology where the theme was matchmaking, and before I knew it a story had started to form in my brain. That story was Hot Property, which was published in the second volume of Make Me a Match that came out in November 08.

Make Me a Match 2

I squealed out loud when I got the e-mail saying my story had been accepted (luckily no-one was around to hear me) and couldn't stop grinning. There are some amazing stories in there, I feel so lucky to have mine among them. Check it out!

Gaining confidence from that I decided to try my luck again and wrote a story for the Christmas Dreams Anthology which was accepted as well. Called New Culture New Year New Love it's about an American spending New Year's in Scotland and finding someone to spend it with. I really enjoyed writing this one. Scotland has, I think, a unique way of celebrating New Year's (which we call Hogmany) which I thought would make for a different and interesting story. It was also fun writing Trent and his discomfort at being in such a strange, cold land, and the interplay between him and Andy. I am not finished with these two yet, there is so much more to explore with them, and I have plans to write more with them soon!

All 31 of the Christmas Dreams stories were reviewed by emily83176 and elisa_rolle. I'd been told about Emily reviewing the stories and was very nervous as I waited for mine as it would be the first review of one of my published stories. I was so happy to be given such good reviews by both of them! (Yep, I grinned like a nutter again. :-D)

Emily's review

Elisa's review

A wide range of incredible stories are in the Calendar as well, from funny to sexy, historical and modern. In fact a lot of them made me incredibly jealous, they were so good! Definitely a bargain for the price, I know I enjoyed all of them!

Christmas Dreams



So I will be writing more, in fact I already am, I can only hope I'll get these stories published as well and that readers will enjoy them. I know I have enough ideas bouncing around in my head to last me for a few more years at least. I'm hoping writing them will make the annoying voices go away, but I doubt it, and really it would get very boring if they did. In the meantime I will try and write about what I'm writing on here and hope to make lots more friends while I'm doing it. ^__^