Apologies for the late arrival of your post

A million apologies if you've landed here all revved up and awaiting the next installment of me.  However, due to the entirely foreseen circumstances of having returned from the Festival of Romance (pause for whoops of delight) slightly hungover and completely exhausted, this post will be slightly delayed.  Not, obviously, delayed enough for you to contemplate getting another blog, just long enough for you to get tired and cold and hungry waiting for the arrival of this one.

But it will arrive tomorrow, promise.  Probably.  Unless another hangover intervenes, or I wander off, or something else happens and I forget all about it.  If I do, you can prod me. Not too hard or anything, you don't want to make me cry, just...gently.  With marshmallows and kittens and things.

In the meantime, here is a picture of me, doing something.  Don't ask what, it was something to do with eyebrows, apparently.  Quite why I am talking about eyebrows whilst dressed as a set of curtains I do not know.  I had a hangover, cut me some slack...

NORMAL SERVICE WILL BE RESUMED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. DO NOT PANIC.

The Next Big Thing. Maybe. Plus kittens, but they are right at the bottom, so you have to read ALL OF IT! Mwhaha...etc,

So, anyway.  I've been tagged (no, it's all right, it's not one of those that means I can't go out after dark.  I don't go out after dark anyway, so it would be pointless...) by the lovely Caroline Green ..yes, it's all right, I'll wait while you follow the link and find out more about her... I'll just sit here and twiddle my thumbs....  Caroline writes YA (Young Adult) books, and we first met when we both won our categories at the Romantic Novel of the Year Awards (did I mention I'd won an award?  I did?  Oh.).  Where was I?  Oh, yes, Caroline's tagged me in The Next Big Thing, which is where I tell you about my, well, next big thing I suppose.

So I jolly well will.  There are questions I have to answer, it's all done properly and everything, not just me randomly standing on a box and yelling, so you might want to go and get a cup of tea and a biscuit (I recommend HobNobs), so you can properly absorb my words of wisdomish.  Which are thusly:-

What is the working title of your book?

Hubble Bubble.  It seems to be working so far...

Where did the idea come from for the book?

Walking through local woods, a smattering of a knowledge of hedge-witchery (I can kill a man with a look, you know.  Well, as long as I'm holding a gun, anyway), horrible winter weather and the nature of friendship.
I know this isn't very enlightening but I'm never quite sure where my ideas come from.  I just sort of point myself at a page and things happen.

 
What genre does your book fall under?

Although someone did say that it had a bit of everything, magic, romance, mystery, fantasy, primarily it's a  romantic comedy.  Because that's what I do.



Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Oh dear.  I was afraid you'd ask me that.  Y'see, I don't watch enough TV to know who anyone is these days.  Hmmm, let me think (and Google like a bitch)...  Hmmm.  Tom Ellis could probably play Kai, if he wore built up shoes and grew his hair a bit, plus played up his Welsh accent.  Holly.. I'm not sure.  Most actresses are a little bit too 'fey', since Holly is very down-to-earth and practical.  Freema Agyeman would do a lovely Megan and I'd plump for Ben Wishaw as Rowan.  Those are my best guesses, sorry.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Be careful what you wish for - you might get what you need, rather than what you want.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

It's under contract to Choc Lit to be published in June 2013.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

Six weeks.  I wrote it as my NaNoWriMo exercise three years ago.  Mind you, it's had an awful lot of work done to it since then...

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I'm not sure I've ever read anything quite like it!  I know there are books out there that are magic brought into the real world, Jenny Colgan's Working Wonders for one, but this is more about amateur witchcraft, so...not sure. Pass.

Who or What inspired you to write this book?

I honestly don't know.  I think there are stories out there, sleeting through the atmosphere, and sometimes a little germ of one hatches inside the mind that wants to write it...plus, I just loved the whole 'wishes coming true but in a very warped way' idea.  Apparently that happens in the horror films 'Wishmaster', but I've never seen it, because I am a wuss.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

There's a sexy Welsh journalist who gets caught up in the whole thing, against his will, whilst being very cynical and a bit brusque; he's cute.  And my MC, Holly Grey, who is adamant that she doesn't wish for anything - her life is complete as it is.  And yet...

And now I have to tag some people to carry on in this vein.  Supposedly it should be five, but I can only find two people willing to have their names attached to this blog (it's not like it's catching or anything.  They might just feel a bit...itchy for a day or two.  And spots, there may be spots.)  But I have managed to round up and corral a couple of volunteers, so watch their blogs for they shall be offering their own Words of Wisdomish about their upcoming Works in Progress, very shortly.  Or, you know, when they get round to it, they're busy people.  Itchy, busy people.  With spots...

Firstly there is Kate Johnson.   Kate and I go way back.  So far back, in fact, that sometimes we fall over.  This is a bit about her.

Kate Johnson lives behind a keyboard in Essex and belongs to a small pride of cats. 

She also seems to have developed a habit of talking about herself in the third person, which she'll stop now.

I was born in the 1980s and have spent the intervening years watching romantic comedies and reading Terry Pratchett, which sort of made it inevitable that I'd grow up to write fantastical stories about people falling in love.

I've worked in an airport and in a laboratory, but much prefer being an author since it allows me to look at pictures of handsome men all day for the purposes of research.

I spend a lot of time online (seriously, a lot of time), Tweeting, reading other people's blogs, and trying to justify the purchase of more shoes, and when I've completely run out of other things to do, I occasionally write books.

My hobbies include reading lots of books researching the literary competition, watching films and TV researching through a broad spectrum of media, drooling over admiring the work of fine actors such as David Tennant, Richard Armitage and Hugh Jackman, and being used as a bed/scratch-post/chew-toy/human slave by the aforementioned collection of animals.

I also write award-winning erotic romance under the name Cat Marsters.  

My other willing (honestly!) volunteer, is Rhoda Baxter, in whose company I have also been indecently drunk.  Plus, she knows about The Bat...

Hi. I’m Rhoda. I write smart contemporary romantic comedy. In real life, I’m a former scientist who now works with intellectual property. The rest of the time I’m a sensible grown up.
Years ago, when I commuted into London every day, I read a lot. I now write the sort of books I wanted to read.
My first book, Patently In Love is out now! The second, Having a Ball is scheduled for release spring 2013. I am a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association.

And now, as a reward, here are some kittens.

 
   

Whitby Goth Weekend - Panda, a corset, dusting and being 'An Entourage'.

Oh, veritably have I been jet-setting this past week!  Well, no, there were no actual jets involved, mostly cars and legs, and it wasn't so much set as a bit...well, wobbly; definitely one stage up from liquid but not quite as firm as one would like one's set to be, so...all right, not so much jet-setting as leg-wobbling then.  But I have most definitely been it.  For this week I have been signing books all over the place.  Mostly just inside the front cover, it has to be admitted, but also in York, Leeds, Scarborough and, particularly noteably, at the Goth Weekend in Whitby.

Also my mother came to criticise the curtains and make noises at the cats and this always distracts me from the process of writing.  She hasn't been up to visit us here in the wilds of Yorkshire for a couple of years, so you can only imagine the lengths I had to go to to cover up the dirt before she arrived.  I DUSTED, people!  And you know that dust and I have a slightly symbiotic relationship, and I have, on occasion, used to it make notes on an upcoming work in progress, so the cleaning and clearing up that this maternal visit initiated was like ridding myself of old friends. Anyway.  It accounts for my somewhat lackadaisical appearance on the Internet recently.

But!  And it is a big but, particularly in these trousers... I have delightful pictures to show you!  Here, look, this is one of them...

This is me, engothulated and about to sign some copies of Vampire State of Mind, in Whitby Bookshop.  It was absolutely lovely, so many lovely people in such beautiful costumes, and me in a tight corset and three inch heels.  I could neither breathe nor walk, I was like a typical Victorian Miss.  For a while I thought about having consumption just to complete the picture, but since I couldn't cough either this would merely have consisted of me holding a hanky in front of my face, and passers by may have thought this was a ploy to prevent my make-up from scaring the horses.  So I didn't.  I don't know why it says Vintage Gifts behind me.  I am neither.

Here I am, sitting down, to my great relief.  Try not to be distracted by my heaving bosoms, when you are laced into a corset your bosoms are the least of your worries, even if, it transpires, you can balance a pint on them.  I am accompanied in this picture by Panda - a gentlemanly specimen of his species, who belongs to Paul and Jeremy and who kindly posed with me to prevent me from looking quite so Billy No-Mates.  Paul was there to read from some of his 'Brenda and Effie' novels later in the day, which I also attended and which was lovely, and I actually got to be part of his entourage - well, we walked from the pub to the bookshop together and I guess that qualifies as entouraging - which is something else I've never done before!  Yey!  Although I do have to add that we were actually in the pub beforehand, talking about forebodings, which is not quite as rock and roll, although I did rock and roll considerably whilst walking over cobbles in three inch heels, and the wine came as something of a relief.

And now, to allow your eyes to stop rotating in their sockets at the sight of me in a corset, with a panda, here is a delightful photograph of the bridlepath outside my house, in the mist.  Look on it as a holiday for your brain...

And try not to dwell on the thought of me in a corset, it's not good for you.