Ahhhhhh.....

This is what I need. Someone to pamper me. This is Boost getting a scratch from Hubby. Talk about spoilt.

Ms. P had me building a new blog yesterday. It’s a behind the scenes look at my books and the characters in them. The lovely Candy helped me out the other day when I hit a snag with One Night In Bangkok. I needed to describe tom and even though I had a pretty clear view in my mind I wanted to look at a picture of him. Well do you think I could find a half American half Thai hunk anywhere? Nope! But Candy the wonder researcher found him for me and I finally got that scene down on paper. Yay! If you want to check out the blog the link is in the side bar with my others but go here.

Mr. Muse has been having fun with me too. He went down by the pool to laze about and generally ignore me. and I know he looks good lying down there, without his shirt and all wet from the cool off in the pool but jeez, I wanna finish with Tom. So I’m nagging and nagging and Mr. Muse is still ignoring until I get in the cab to go pick Princess One up from the airport, then he comes and sits next to me and starts telling me about this guy and the bar he’s in and….. Hang on a minute! Who? Where? Oh God! It’s a new story! Grrrrrr……  Like I don’t have enough? Please, Mr. Muse, as soon as we finish with Tom we’ll go watch you cowboy who isn’t a cowboy, and how the hell can he be a cowboy but not a cowboy? Oh boy! I’m in trouble. Yep. Big trouble. you should see what this guy looks like. Oh man! Where’s the waiter?

Rhian

Fountain of Wealth

The is in the middle of Suntec City shopping and business district (I think that’s what it’s called) and it normally has water flowing from the top ring you can see. During certain times of the day they turn that water off and you can walk into the middle. The reason you want to walk into the middle is and interesting one. Once you get there you need to put your right hand in the water spurting up and walk around, clockwise, three times thinking about what you would like. Now you might think that being the Fountain of WEALTH that this will make you rich, wrong. Wealth comes in many forms and can have many meanings, so basically whatever you think about you’ll have wealth in. Success in business, good health, a good marriage, a long life, you name it, if you think about it while walking around three times with your hand in the water you’ll be wealthy in that area. By the time I got half way round my turn I was so busy thinking about my wet feet that I forgot to think about what I’d planned to think about. sigh.

Let’s get back to the title of the post, procrastination or lack of inspiration? I’m not sure what to think anymore. I know what I want to write, how want it to make you feel when you read it, I know where they are and where they have to go but do you think I can write a damn word! Well, I have, but I’m not happy with them. At first I thought it had something to do with my unusual hero, he’s half American half Thai but I found him and now I have visual and he’s definitely more clear in my head. You can check him out here. I’m thinking that my problem could very well be THE END. Yep, I’m almost there and every other time I’ve finished a story I’ve hit a wall as well. But they were all long stories, this one will be lucky to top out at 7,000 words.

I shouldn’t be here, I should be there helping them get from where they are to where they need to be. Ms. P sux! If anyone would like to take her out for a spin feel free to drag her away.

Rhian

Today is the first in my new plan to promote an author I know and enjoy reading. Today’s luck winner is NJ Walters. Her book A Legal Affair is available today from Samhain Publishing. It’s the 5th book in her Jamesville series, I’ve read all of them and if you haven’t I recommend you head on over to Samhain and buy them all. You can visit NJ at her website or her blog and get all her latest and all her greatest. She really is a great author. NJ has signed a contract for the 6th book in the series, By The Book, released date is still unknown but you can bet I’ll be there with credit card in hand on the day.

A Legal Affair

 

A Legal Affair
Book 5: Jamesville
by N.J. Walters

Alicia Flint enjoys her community, her home, and her career as a lawyer. But since her livelihood depends on her spotless reputation, it’s not easy to even date in this small town, much less take a lover.

Then a chance encounter with a stranger at a friend’s wedding tempts her to do something she’s never done before—have a red-hot, one-night stand. The guy will be gone tomorrow; no one need ever know her delicious little secret.

Gill Baron has come to Jamesville to visit friends and figure out what he wants to do with the rest of his life. As a newly retired, burnt-out cop, he’s not looking for love, but he won’t say not to a night of no-strings sex with the seductive brunette. A night that leaves him wanting more.

When she meets the newest investigator on her latest case, Alicia is shocked to come face-to-face with Mr. One-Night-Stand. Jamesville doesn’t need another lawyer-related scandal to gossip about, but the truth is, she needs Gill’s top-notch investigative skills.

Their attraction is too deep to keep the town clueless of their affair forever. When Jamesville finds out, Alicia wonders if her reputation—and her relationship with Gill—will weather the storm.

Don’t forget to check out the other books in the Jamesville series.

Well what are you all waiting for? Get over to Samhain and buy NJ’s book!

Rhian

Care for a dip?

This is the pools in our condo complex. There’s five in total, yes I said five. The diving pool on the right, then the lap pool, the general swimming pool with spa, then the kiddies pool that you can’t see and another one that runs the length of our building, it has a big beach area in the middle of the complex.

So today is about the new work I’m posted for you to have a read of. But only if you’re over 18, it’s a bit….. yeah, well. You’ll find it on the excerpt 2 tab at the top of the page. Enjoy.

Rhian

Home Sweet Home

This is are condo complex. It’s 30 floors high and we’re on the 11th. There’s about 1000 apartments in the complex so you would think you’d feel crowded but you don’t. The pool never seems that busy and it’s rare to miss out on booking a tennis court, and the family has never had to wait for equipment at the gym. We’ve got a hairdressers, a DVD rental shop, a dry cleaners, a spa, and a supermarket (what we’ve affectionately name the quickie mart), add that to the two children’s playgrounds, the reflexology path, the fitness course and the 5 pools, there’s no real need to even leave the grounds. Everyone who’s visited says it’s like a resort and I have to agree, this expat life is rather ‘unreal’. It’s like being on holiday 24/7 except the kids go to school and the Hubby and son#1 go off to work. Sometimes I need to pinch myself and say, “Yes, this is your life. It’s real!”  (there’s different pic here)

You’re probably wondering what the hell I was thinking with the title of this post, well it’s simple really, I’m a little concerned by the number of people living in my head. The last few days or so it’s been very noisy and hard to breathe up there and like most things I’m sure there’s a weight limit. I’ve been caught between the old and the new. The old being over a Rachel’s and the new being here. Gosh that gets confusing. I’m pleased with ONIB, the lovely Mari read what I’ve written so far and likes it, so that’s good, it means I’m on the right track with it. I had hoped to have it finished by today but I had a very bad no sleep night last night and suffered today because of it. So I’ve been less than productive today and I’m kicking myself over it but like most production line hold ups, I’ll find the problem (lack of sleep) and fix it (drugs? alcohol?).

Author Sami Lee is guest blogging over at the FAR Blog today. Go here and see what she has to say.

Have a great weekend.

Rhian

A perfect example of why I should be a morning person.

It’s beautiful, isn’t it? I’m still not getting up to see it. Hubby took this shot one morning before heading to work, and yes I agree it’s a great way to start the day but I just can’t function on all brain cells before mid morning. Oh, I get up, I just don’t make any sense, or talk much. Speaking of mornings, I’m planning on getting up early tomorrow to get some writing done. Now that the visitors have been and gone again I can knuckle down and get cracking on ONIB and Lux. Let’s hope I make sense.

Happy day people.

Rhian

I promised a view out my window and here it is. No what you expected is it? I have a file in my pictures that’s called Twisted Weather, I think the qualifies. This storm rolled in the other day and it was a beauty, even gave a show of a little twister, if you look real close you can see where it touches the water and swallows a boat.

I’m feeling twisted at the moment. I’ve got characters talking a mile a minute but it’s not what I want to hear, I’m more than half way through writing One Night In Bangkok but it’s not the wip that’s acting up. Lux is telling me things that are completely out of character, well, out of character if she’s who I thought she was. Am I wrong? Me and her are going to have to sit down and have a long chat, or maybe I need to talk to her mother, she’s where all began after all.

No news is good news, that’s my story and I’m sticking with it. LOL  I’ve been in contact with the editor so the communication lines are open, they’re just not telling me what I want to hear. (Story of my life.) I’m hoping she’ll like ONIB because I’m writing it with a particular line in mind. We’ll see what happens.

Hi ho, hi ho…..

Rhian

My work space

This is plan #1. A photo every day. One of the author blogs I visit belongs to Linda Winfree and over the last few weeks she’s been sharing with the world some photos she took while on holiday recently. Linda blogs a photo and tells us all about. It’s a great idea! So great, I’m stealing it. Yep, from now on when I post there’ll be a pic of some kind for your viewing pleasure. This one as it says, is my work space, you cant’ see the view but let me tell you on a good day (like today) I can see all the way to Indonesia. I’ll hunt up one of the view for next time.

So what other plans do I have? Well, my fellow partners in crime over at the 50k blog have set ourselves another challenge. This one you set your own goal and report in every day to get cheered or booted up the butt, which ever you need. It’s also to help up to get back on track, most of us had a very brain dead couple of days when the 50k finished and we decided not have a clock ticking wasn’t helping, so we’ve wound up the clock and away it goes. Mine’s set for 1000 words a day or 1 chapter edited (either my stuff or my CP’s) and so far, even though it starts today, I’m on track. Well, not for today, but I set this goal on Saturday and I’ve done my 1000 words each day so far.

I’m going to go back to blogging more regularly, I’ve been a bit slack of late but I’ve set myself the task of staying a little more in touch. Especially now I’ve promised a pic every post. I’m limiting my net time, for obvious reasons (Ms. P hangs out there), and I plan to stick to it. See? another plan.

Anyway, writing goes well, One Night In Bangkok (ONIB) is coming along well and Lux has been whispering in my ear but I’m not sure I like what she’s saying, we might have to fight that out soon. ONIB is a short I hope to have finished by the end of the week, and if I stick to the goal then it will be.

Hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to work I go!

Rhian

On the Samhain Cafe loop Maria Zannini (find her here: www.mariazannini.blogspot.com ) asked the question, what’s your writers story, you know, how you got started. I’m copying my story from another blog because I did the a few months ago at my other blog, the one where I’m someone else. LOL

 

How did I get here and why do I keep going?

It’s an interesting question and one I’m not sure I can answer well. You see I don’t know how I got here. Well I know how I got here, there’s my mum and my dad, and well you get the picture. I’m talking about how I became a writer and I’ll be honest, I haven’t got a clue. I’ve always done it. Whether stories, poetry or just random thoughts, I’ve always written. Now the question of how I decided that’s what I’d be when I grew up is confusing. I don’t recall making the decision, ever. But here I am tapping away at the keys of my computer and writing with pen and paper. Always. And if I’m not writing I’m thinking about writing. I’m always thinking. That explains why I don’t sleep very well and why I’m always tired, so why am I still here and why do I keep going? I guess it comes back to the always writing and thinking. At the risk of sounding insane, there are just too many people in my head. They’ve got to come out or I’ll be pulling out my hair and heading for the alcohol. I can be doing anything when scenes start rolling in my head, that’s what it’s like, I’ll suddenly have front row seats to someone else’s life. I don’t plan; in fact when I try to plan those pesky characters never go along with me. I’m sure they do it on purpose.

I guess the answer to why I’m still here is that I can’t not be here. It’s who I am and what I do and whether it ever leads me to publication remains to be seen but even if it doesn’t I’ll still be here. Writing. And even when life throws things at me that make me want to quit I know I’d never be able to because I’ll never be able to stop writing. I stopped for years when the kids were young and as soon as I started again it was like an avalanche, pouring out of me. Most of it was crap and will never find its way out of the bottom draw but it was the beginning of what was to be my trip down the publication road. The road is bumpy, has detours, potholes and all sorts of debris lying on it but I keep going. Through rain, hail, sleet and snow, and of course the wonderful sunshine. Even when I feel like I’m carrying the weight of the world and dragging my feet I keep going because no matter what gets in the way or what I have to carry with me the dream is always there. And without that dream I wouldn’t be me.

So I guess that raises the question of why I’m here, going by the name Rhian. That I can answer. I write so many different genres that I thought it would be really horrible to pick up a book with my name on it expecting a romantic suspense only to get and erotic romance. I’d hate to turn a reader off because they grabbed one of MY books instead of one of Rachel’s. If you think that’s confusing you should try to be me. LOL

Anyway, my CP Mari has written her story over at her website blog ( www.maricarr.com ) head over and check her tale out. No, not that tail, her writing tale!

And don’t forget to pop over to Maria’s blog and check out hers.

Rhian

***Edited: If you want to tell your tale and leave the link in my comments I’ll post them here in a few day.

The 50ksIn30days finished yesterday. I on the other hand finished it less than half way through June, but getting to the magic number 50 didn’t stop me. Noooo……..  I kept going until I was actually lapping some of the other challengers. By midnight last night my grand total of words written for June was, are you ready? You might want to sit down first. 100,015 words!!! So you would think I’d finished at least one story, right? Wrong! I couldn’t work on just one wip I had to work on five different ones! Call me stupid, it’s not half as bad as I’ve called myself. I did get close to finished on a couple so they should be done with by the end of July. I know, July is supposed to be edit month but, well, you go with the flow.

What I’ve learn in the last month about myself as a writer has been invaluable. First, I don’t really have a say in what I write, sure I can say I’m gonna write this but nine times out of ten the muse decides we’re writing this. It’s a good thing he’s a hunk or I’d be locking him out of the office. Second, when I want to I can write like a machine. It’s scary how much I can write when I put my mind to it. Third, the writing community has to be one of the best places in the world. My fellow writers are the best and I’m glad we got to know each other a little better this past month. Fourth, the family isn’t all that keen on me being in front of the computer for as much as it will take to turn this writing for publication into a serious career. I guess they’ve always been so spoilt with me doing this in my limited amount of time after looking after them, working outside the house and just generally being always available. Mind you they’re all really excited about the prospect of going to book shop and seeing my name on a book.

To my fellow challengers, WE ROCK!!!!!!

Rhian