Discovered New Toy!!!!

The ultimate toy for booklovers to be exact:

Library Thing

I've started cataloging my books here and will add to his in the following weeks. This might be interesting for all the people who've asked me what kind of research books I use. Have fun browsing! If you go to my profile page on Library Thing, you can access some fun statistics. Enjoy browsing!

Happy new year to all of you!

You will not believe what I've just done ...

I have just uploaded a new episode of Sandy's Podchatter!! With a reading of a new chapter of BETRAYAL!!!!! Hooray! So, have fun with the new episode. :)

Sandy's Podchatter #17

Looka, looka here

Now that looks like a promising film: the Spanish/British/American production "Miguel & William", in which Cervantes and Shakespeare meet (and fight) (among other things). Here's the trailer. If the film is as good as the trailer, it will be great fun! So let's hope it will also come to cinemas near you. :) A bit more about the film can be found on Dani's Will Kemp website.

Lovely Things That Can Be Found on YouTube :)

Merry Christmas, everybody!

In Germany we already get our presents on Christmas Eve, so just head over to the Members Section of my website and "unwrap" your pressies. Enjoy!

Uhm ...

One of the cats just licked the lid of my notebook. Ugh. Perhaps because she sneezed on it first? *head desk* I so want to be a romance heroine! Their cats never sneeze, are never sick, and never leave hairballs in hallways. And romance heroines don't have to do litter trays.

Oh yes.

And they've got hunks.

Perhaps the hunks do the litter trays? Hmmm ....

"Hunk! Go and do the litter tray!"

Ugh. That sounds like ...* The horror, the horror! I'll just go and do the litter trays myself.

adios

* No, most of you are not supposed to understand this. Whereas some will probably fall off their chairs. :-P

More on setting

After telling you all about how much time I spent selecting the main setting for BEWITCHED, I don't want to withold from you the first glimpse of Rawdon Park. Here it comes:

Finally the day had come that saw her in the Earl of Rawdon's chaise-and-four, sent for by Sebastian. The middle seat had been drawn out to seat three -- one of the Benthams' maids was to accompany them while Sebastian himself rode alongside the coach. And so Amy sat huddled between Isabella's writing desk and several small and large parcels which somehow had found their way into the chaise at the very last minute. Happily, Amy pressed her nose against the glass to admire the landscape outside, while Isabella sat, looking sourly. They stopped for the night at an inn in Cambridge. Not even the fact that Amy had to share a bed with Isabella, who was probably pining after Lord Munthorpe and his sheep, could dim her excitement about the following day. For then they left the Great North Road and entered the marshes and moors of the Fens. Mist hovered over the flat land, clung to the clusters of trees and bushes, and enshrouded the windmills which pumped the drainage from the land into larger canals.

"Dear heavens, what sort of place is this?" Isabella muttered. "I swear it all looks the same. Haven't we passed this spot before? I daresay, we wouldn't even know when we are lost!"
"Nonsense," Amy said briskly. "Mr. Stapleton and Lord Rawdon's driver must know the way perfectly. I am sure we will reach Rawdon Park in no time at all."

And indeed, shortly after midday, they passed through a gate, rattled down a driveway, and behind a gently curving hill red-bricked Rawdon Park rose out of the mist. Dozens of chimneys emitted puffs of smoke, and several windows, mellowly lit, offered a warm welcome.

Sitemeter

I've already had some suspicions when I started my podcast and the stats of the libsyn visitor counter varied wildly from that of sitemeter. But I always thought these differences stem from people downloading or listening to the podcast via podcasts.yahoo and similar services. But now that I've put a visitor counter on my website, too, and sitmeter tells me something quite different than the visitor counter of my webhost, I've reached the conclusion that sitemeter indeed does not count all visitors. The numbers are really worlds apart. Still, I'll keep it on the sites; it's nice (and exciting!!!) to see where you all live. :O)

Hooray!!!!!

I can finally post again! After installing Kaspersky Internet Security on my 'puter, I was no longer able to log into blogger, post on the Romantisches Bücherforum, log into amazon (the horror, the horror!), abebooks (more horror!), and my postings on the AAR message boards disappeared into cyberspace nirwana. But now, ladies and gentlemen, the problem seems solved. And Kaspersky is still running on the 'puter. *g*

Spent the past two days putting together the main setting for BEWITCHED (which involved studying my Baedeker map of Great Britain, leaving through my Baedeker travel guide of Great Britain, consulting yet another travel guide of the south of England, watching an episode of A PICTURE OF BRITAIN -- lovely, lovely BBC series --, going to the 'puter to do some googling, watching parts of said BBC episode again ... and again ... and again, getting out old musty smelling books about old inns in Britain, leaving through big, fat, heavy book about stately homes in England and Wales, and, finally, reading up on travelling in Jane Austen's NORTHANGER ABBEY and PRIDE & PREJUDICE).

The estate of my hero's family will be based on Blickling Hall. Lovely Jacobean building, done in red bricks. I particularily like this pic, a view of Blickling from across the lake. (That lake will play an important role in the novel!!!)

Unusual Historicals

A few weeks ago, a new blog with the lovely title "Unusual Historical" went online. It's a group of pubbed and unpubbed authors who all write historicals with unusual settings or something else unusual. It certainly promises to be a fun blog!

I did a posting today; if you'd like to check it out, it's here.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas ...

Well, not really. At least not in my parts of the world. The only thing that looks vaguely Christmassy are the plastic Santa Clauses hanging out of windows, from balconies, down garden walls and galleries ... oops, wrong poem. Anyway. Plastic Santa Clauses ... I could really do without them. Especially when they're hanging right next to a box full of blooming flowers!

Of course, there are lots of other ways to create a proper Christmassy atmosphere. Like putting some Christmas music in your CD player. Or baking some Christmas cookies (and if you do, please send some my way!!!). Or overhauling your website and putting on it some more goodies for your readers. :) Which is exactly what I did yesterday. Most of said goodies can be found in the new members section for subscribers to my newsletter and include the complete first chapter of CASTLE OF THE WOLF, readings of excerpts from THE LILY BRAND and, again, from CASTLE OF THE WOLF. I hope you're going to enjoy these additional features.

And I hope everything works the way it is supposed to work!!!

On amazon

CASTLE OF THE WOLF can now be pre-ordered on amazon.de -- cover pic and backcover blurb are still missing, but I'm working on that. :)

Bad Habits ...

I've got plenty of them. Too much chocolate (results in fine, wide hips), not enough exercise (results in even finer, wider hips), tendency to mutate into couch potato (makes fine hips even wider), tendency to panic (over nothing), tendency to procastinate (regularily results in panic), tendency to grumble (only cure: chocolate, which brings us back to the hips). And I love googling myself and my books. Which is terribly narcisstic, I know, but, hey, you find the most amazing things that way! Like that poem about THE LILY BRAND (which, sadly, seems to be no longer online). Or other people dissing me for dissing them (which is totally new and intriguing way to make online buddies, I tell you *g*). Or CASTLE OF THE WOLF being already listed on the website of an Italian online bookshop. Or lovely people mentioning THE LILY BRAND on their blogs, like the Romance Vagabounds did when they discussed food and romance. And whenever I find something new, I'm as happy as a child in a candy shop. :O)

Yay!

I'm back! With a new computer! New (slim) monitor! New printer (which is also a scanner and a fax machine)! And -- drumroll -- new (and my very first) digital camera. It all came as a bundled package for just € 799. Not bad, eh? So let's hope this new 'puter will work better than the old one.

Okay, to be fair: the old one only died after I had sent off my revisions. That was quite nice of it. :O)

Guess what?

'Puter died once again.

Aaaaargh!

(Good thing I'm keeping all the important stuff on the notebook, eh?)

Hmm ...

Sent off revisions 3 1/2 hours ago.

No reply yet.

Hmm ....

Perhaps my poor editor was the one who just cried?

Hmm ....

(Yes, yes, I know: I'm too impatient. Duh.)

FINISHED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After several more hours of staring stupidly at my monitor and despairing over the revisions for Castle of the Wolf, I've finally finished the stupid things and sent the whole manuscript off to my editor. Yay! But I tell you, if he doesn't like what I did with the ms, I'm just going to cry!

I was a bad girl today

First of all, I taught my students about sex in today's class. About 19th-century sex, to be exact; about frail, ethereal, angelic women and men who are ruled by their beastly passions. And then we hopped directly to the matter of death, femininity and the aesthetic in the 18th and 19th centuries

I fain would follow love if that could be,
I needs must follow death who calls for me.
Call and I follow, I follow! let me die.

Quite chilling, if you ask me. (Apparently, my duckies thought the same: they made lots of shocked noises.) (Which, naturally, made me totally happy and as a result I tried to tell them even more sensationalist stories. *g* Now I fully understand these folklore professors who relish in telling their students about Roman fishsoup or about the use of worms in folk medicine.) And after the lesson one of my students even came to me to say how much he enjoyed today's lesson. Yay! Of course, this only shows once again that sex sells. (Perhaps I should start thinking about incorporating naked male torsi in my lessons -- after all, these sell extremly well, too. *ggg*)

After work, lunch, book-hunting in the library and a few chats, I drove away and bought a) a new anti-virus programme, b) a few Christmas presents, and c) a new workout DVD (Sensual Fighting -- sounds good, er?). And when I came home, I cuddled the kitties, took out the garbage, made tea (new tea, didn't taste nice), plopped down on couch, and watched TV.

So what's wrong with this picture?

Ah yes, I didn't do any writing today. After sitting in front of my 'puter until 12:30 a.m. yesterday, I just didn't feel strong enough to face the stupid thing again today. Duh. :-/

The Midnight Update

"Schofseckel" has been replaced by "dummi Nuß". I somehow didn't think it right to have my heroine call the hero "sheepballs" ...

Revisions are nearly done (except for two points), but I've realized that I used a copyrighted material for the translation of a poem. Sooooo -- could anybody tell me how to translate "Saluz od treyé amour"? (This is a line from the late medieval poem "De amico ad amicam", which uses French, English and Latin lines -- quite beautiful!) (And, as it happens, one of my favourite love poems!)

No meteor

I'm delighted to tell you that I've managed to insert the word "Schofseckel" in the manuscript.

Uhm ....

I've just found out what it actually means. Oh my!

Here comes a meteor

Once again I've reached the point with my revisions where I can only sit and stare stupidly at the monitor. I've finally managed to make hero's grumpiness and heroine's somewhat prudish behaviour more understandable (well, at least that's what I think), but now I have to figure out how heroine might soothe and comfort terribly tormented hero, just prior before she tells him that she loves him. My editor thinks that

If I had met you before [dah-dah-dah happened] ... You probably would have been a vain peacock then, fêted by society, admired by everybody. But [dah-dah-dah] has shaped you into the man you are todya, the man I fell in love with.

isn't terribly flattering.

Hm.

Unfortunately, he is right. Duh. Sooo --- what else could Cissy say? "Don't be such a ninny, stop whining and, for heavens sake, do start to make wild bunny love to me." -- Nah. Probably not.

How about meteor hits castle just before Cissy can utter those words of love and it will all end in terribly tragedy (please note the fine alliteration!) becausing they've never got as far as proclaiming their love. Ooooh. Wonderful! *g*

Whine, whine, whine

Making the reasons for my hero's grumpiness clearer is turning out to be much trickier than I thought. One the one hand, I obviously need to improve stuff or else readers might think him a total jerk. On the other hand, I can't make it too much in your face or else readers might think the heroine a moron for not realizing what's wrong with the poor guy. Argh! *head against wall*

I think I will opt for the meteor solution after all: awfully big meteor drops onto castle in Chapter 10. Flattens castle and everybody in it (sadly, this also includes the protagonists). THE END. What do you think? It's certainly a fresh and innovative idea for a romance novel! My editor will LUUUUUVE it! Yay!

Or perhaps he will run away screaming with horror when he sees me at national in Dallas next year. Hmph.

Still alive and kicking

Oy, it's me. I bet you will be so glad to hear that I've neither fallen off the edges of the earth and am now floating through outer space, nor been abducted by aliens and am now floating through outer space covered in green slime. Nooo, not me. I've been busy.

Remember back in summer when I sold my next two books? The only revision request my editor had back then was, "Perhaps Sandra could add two or three paragraphs of backstory." Two or three paragraphs -- wow! And that from the man who's famous for his loooooooooooong lists of requested changes!!! Double wow! I admit, I couldn't help boasting of my "two or three paragraphs" non-list. It was decidedly odd, true, but hey, you know, true genius and everything?

Right. True genius and everything came crashing down earlier this week when my editor contacted me after he had ... uhm ... edited Castle of the Wolf (that's why he's called editor, right?). And then I got the list. The loooooooong list of requested changes. So that's what I'm doing now: revising. Making the reasons for my hero's grumpiness clearer, throwing in some more cards, having a secondary character musing about the disadvantages of the sheltered upbringing of young girls. Which reminds me: can a person blush like a peony?

New Week, New Door

Today I've redecorated my office door: took coverflap of TLB off and stuck cover of Castle of the Wolf onto the door instead. And not five minutes later I spotted somebody studying the door intently.

Well....

Of course, she might have just read the Rights of the Reader poster that's on the door right next to my lovely cover. Who knows?

~*~

Coming back to the WIP, I had to change the scene of which I posted a snippet below -- no kiss. Because I had completely forgotten this. Which just proves once more that Author Interrupted is not a good thing. Ah well ...

They are SO cheesy!

Really, I know the poor dears are supposed to have drunk a love potion - but do they have to warble on in the most sugary fashion? As you can see I'm back to being somewhat exasperated by my characters. They're sooo sweet. And sooooooo in love.

And the bump down to earth will be sooooooooooooooo painful! Hehe *mad, evil laughter*

Even as a reindeer ...

... I am disgustingly nice. *sigh* Perhaps I just ought to give up my ambitions to morph into Horror Schwab.

You Are Donner

The most loveable and sweet reindeer, you're also a total dork! Why You're Naughty: You keep (accidentally) tripping the other reindeer while flying. Why You're Nice: You're always smiling, even if you've fallen flat on your horns.

Which of Santa's Reindeer Are You?

A trip to the British Museum

Remember Amy & Fox? I've finally returned with them to the British Museum and finished their tour of the marvels to be found there. Oooh, and what a finish it was!

His smile widened and seemed to fill her whole line of vision. She felt his free hand snake around her waist and then he drew her against his body, their joint hands clasped to his heart. "My dear Miss Bourne ..." And dipped his head until his mouth touched hers, his lips moved over hers, sweetly, gently, then powerful and demanding as the joy of it all caught up with them. Amy flung her arm around hsi neck to hold him to her and never ever let go.

:O)

Oh, and to make me even happier, I've got two amazon packages today. TWO! Yeah! Filled with the DVD of Christie's MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES, with Dorothy Gilman's MRS POLLIFAX AND THE HONGKONG BUDDHA & MRS POLLIFAX AND THE LION KILLER, as well as withPatricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer's SORCERY AND CECELIA, OR THE ENCHANTED CHOCOLATE POT. The latest installment of Wrede and Stevermer's series has just been reviewed in the LoveLetter and I found the review intriguing enough to buy the first book, a mysteric with magical elements, all set in Regency England and told in letters! Very intriguing indeed, don't you think so, too?

BETRAYAL Trailer

I'm very excited to introduce the book trailer for my audio novella BETRAYAL (or at least it should be available soon!):



I hope you're going to enjoy it! Feel free to leave comments about the trailer here or on YouTube and be sure to rate it!

Chapter 6 of BETRAYAL now online!!!

I've just uploaded the next episode of Sandy's Podchatter which contains my babble (as usual), purring cats and, of course, Chapter 6 of BETRAYAL, in which we all return to England and the estate of the Earl of Ashburnham.

Sandy's Podchatter

~*~

I really don't know what hit me this week -- somehow time seemed to just run away (and leave me behind). But at least, I got to read a lovely Mrs. Pollifax novel: MRS POLLIFAX UNVEILED. So, it could have been all much worse. :)

Squeeeeeeeeeeeal!!!!

I'm on The Literature Map: http://www.literature-map.com/sandra+schwab.html - I'm so, so excited!!! (If you've never been on that site, check it out! It's a nice place to play and explore: type in the name of your favourite author (Author A) and you'll get a map of authors whose work fans of Author A enjoy as well.

The Literature Map is part of Gnod, an experiment in the field of artificial intelligence -- which means you can make Gnod learn more about books, music & movies. If you've enjoyed The Lily Brand, perhaps you would like to tell Gnod which authors you also read and thus make sure my Literature Map will grow. For me it would certainly be exciting to find out what kind of books and authors you love reading.

Sandy's Podchatter #15

Another week, another episode of Sandy's Podchatter (yay! I've really made it!). What will Georgina do, now that the twins' secret has been revealed? Find out in Chapter 5 of BETRAYAL, now online.

Go to Sandy's Podchatter

Pudding Lane, oh Pudding Lane

My first week as a 30-year-old is nearly up and I'm happy to report that I've neither discovered any grey hairs yet nor transformed into a sex-mad sex bunny (no, I didn't like SEX & THE CITY all that much ...). In fact, I'm still very much ... well, me. *wipes her brow with relief*

So on my b-day I got this Regency-set crime novel I've been rather looking forward to reading. It all started quite well: interesting, unusual hero; nice Regency details; setting was London and then --

-- hero went into Pudding Lane and found himself surrounded by medieval, half-timbered houses.

Okay, let's repeat this again:

Regency London. Pudding Lane. Medieval houses. Half-timbered.

Now, what's wrong with this picture?

Regency London. Pudding Lane. MEDIEVAL houses.

MEDIEVAL!!!!

Woah, a time-warp in the middle of London! Totally scary! Regency hero walks around the corner and - bang! - he's been transported into Restoration London! Because, my dears, the medieval houses in Pudding Lane all burnt to cinders in 1666 during the Great Fire of London which just happened to start in a stupid bakery in stupid Pudding Lane. Fire patrol didn't yet exist. Fire raged out of control (due to these lovely medieval houses -- lots of wood!) and most of the City of London burnt down. Luckily for the Londoners, the rats burnt, too, and there was never again an outbreak of the Black Death in London -- mainly due to the fact that the City decided to rebuild in stone.

It was a nice enough novel, but boy, did the medieval houses in Pudding Lane drive me mad!

Another Quiz

You Belong in Fall

Intelligent, introspective, and quite expressive at times... You appreciate the changes in color, climate, and mood that fall brings Whether you're carving wacky pumpkins or taking long drives, autumn is a favorite time of year for you

What Season Are You?

Uh-oh

It seems I'm a guy. And didn't know it.

According to the Gender Genie the author of the first 588 words of THE LILY BRAND is male, the author of the first 787 words of CASTLE OF THE WOLF female, the author of the prologue of BETRAYAL male.

When we turn our attention to this blog, we'll find that the author of "The Fair" (9 Oct) is male, the person who dissed Heather is also male; when I had only 62 more pages of Castle of the Wolf to write in September 2005 I was male, too; when I was hit by the Muse two days earlier I was male again and again when I had just done my first interview in June 2005.

Sh*t.

Should I be worried? What do you think?

Georgina & Ash are back!

Well, at least Ginny is. :) I'm very happy to announce that a new episode of Sandy's Podchatter with the next chapter of BETRAYAL has just gone online. Please follow me once more to the Villa under the Linden Trees ...

Sandy's Podchatter

Incoherent ramblings on a Thursday evening

Blogland is a funny thing: you diss people, people diss you back, and afterwards you find out she's not quite the ignorant cow you thought her to be while she realizes you're not quite the humourless cow in hysterics she thought you to be. And no, I really, really don't hate Heather! And I really, really don't want to start a WeHateHeather.org blog. Nor a 501(c)(3) organization. (Whatever that might be.)

If I'd hated Heather, I would've dragged her along on today's seven hour supplies-for-Sandy-leaves-her-youth-behind-party shopping tour (during which I was attacked by a plate at Ikea -- stupid thing sliced my thumb open). Did I do that? Nooo. See? Sandy doesn't hate Heather.

Really, really, really.

Hey, and if you're here for the first time (*waving at the folks who've followed links from Two-Timing the Cosmos*), why don't you have a look at this ...

Non-garish cover :)

Thanks bunches to Laurel for fixing the colours!!! By now, I've found out that I can shrink the pic with the photo-editing programme on my notebook without doing horrible things to the colours. Thereby I've also realized that the cover is even more gorgeous if you take a high-resolution scan and open it in paint so you can see every little detail (like the stubble on the chin of my guy-in-the-sky). Hmmm .... *dreamy sigh*

Update on BETRAYAL

As you might have guessed from the non-existent further podcast episodes, I've run into a bit of trouble with BETRAYAL. I knew it was a stupid thing to do, to start reading it before I had ever finished writing it, but hey, if you want to believe some people us romance writers are illiterate and fluffheads anyway. Oh yes, and we've got inflated egos because our names appear on every other page of our books. I kid you not.

So at the moment, I'm busy with finishing the remaining chapters (almost there! almost there!). After that I'll go through the whole thing again, smoothen out the kinks and then start producing further podcast episodes. Sorry for the whole delay! But I'm sure I'll totally improve once I hit the big three-Oh (Saturday next week) and become a whole new person. Serious. Hardworking. Responsible. No more fluff. No more writing pornogr--

Piffle. Some people should have their Head examined! *g*

Good morning, world; good morning, gorgeous cover!

I should have perhaps mentioned last night that when I shrunk the cover image, my photo-editing programme did something funny to the colours. In the original file they're definitely not as gharish as they appear in the image below: her dress is red, not pink; and the sky is a lovely deep, dark blue.

Will try to post a better pic today. :O)

I've just got this ....

Muppets Forever!

I saw this at Schrumpfkopf's and just had to share:

Harry Belafonte, the Muppets & the Banana Boat Song

More Muppet Songs:

Turn the World Around

Manamana

Beaker sings Feelings

Fabio vs. Foucault

A few days ago the Greater Washington Initiative launched a wonderful ad campain to show what a wonderfully intelligent workforce resides in Washington -- and out of the blue romance readers and writers revolted. Shocking. You can find a nice and not at all biased summary and commentary on the DCist: Fabio vs. Foucault.

Oh waily, waily, the uneducated masses (i.e. romance readers and writers) dare to speak up. And some of them can *gasp* even form coherent sentences and express their annoyance at being ridiculed yet again. What has the world come to? Of course, if the Greater Washington Initiative would have done their homework in the first place, none of that would have happened. Of course, it's always easier to make use of stereotypes than to do proper research.

Which reminds me: Dear Ms Goss, didn't they teach you how to do proper research in law school? What a pity! You might have found out that the term "bodice rippers" refers to romance novels written in the 1970s; that the cover you posted is not a current one, but one from 1999; that Fabio retired from modelling several years ago; and that while Nora Roberts might have had auburn locks to toss in 1980, she is currently perfering a shorter and straighter hairstyle with no locks whatsoever.

As I said: pity.

The Fair

Last week our fair city on the Main was stuffed with people who work in the book business and/or simply love books: another year, another international bookfair in Frankfurt. Bloomberg gives a short summary of this year's main events and attractions:

A politically correct German Bible, the after-ripples of Guenter Grass's revelations about his wartime role, a 50th anniversary and the death of the poet Oskar Pastior were among the defining moments of the Frankfurt Book Fair.

Grass apparently voiced again his astonishment over the recriminations after the revelation of his past in the SS and said they were hurtful. And I still wonder what the heck he had expected after sitting on a moral high horse for the past 50 years. Geez.

I didn't go to the fair this year -- it's simply too stressful (but really great if you want to loose a few pounds) (on second thought, perhaps I should have gone to the fair after all! *g*) and there are too many people for my liking. From what I heard, the English-language hall must have been really disappointing this year: most publishing houses had only brought cover flaps and posters, instead of real books. And Mills&Boon wasn't there! (I still fondly remember the M&B plastic bag I got two or three years ago: it was filled with several M&B novels and after I put on my best sad-little-puppy face that nice young guy at their stall put in a few more.) (But hey, I'm a good customer of theirs!)

I also fondly remember the year I drove to the fair with my friend Petra and I missed the fricking exit. *head on table* In search of the proper carpark, we drove through the most interesting streets in Frankfurt (none of which I have ever found again!), didn't find the stupid carpark so that I finally gave up and took the first best empty parking space I could find. (Ein Parkplatz! Ein Parkplatz!) We walked for about 20 minutes -- only to find out that we had ended up being on the wrong side of the stupid fair building. Hooray, hooray! So we walked for about another 40 minutes until we had finally reached the main entrance.... Oh, what fun! (But I lost 3 kilos that day!) (As I said, the fair's really good if you want to lose a few pounds.)

'nuff said. Off to feed the kitties.

Oooops, need to do the dishes first!

More Manxome Mumblings

The Muse is a funny thing. In the past few days, or rather nights, I had increasingly weird nightmares -- sooo not nice! Then, earlier today I had a revelation as to the reason of the !"§$§$%&! nightmares: the Muse is bored. *head on table*

In addition, my 'puter is still not running as it should, and the programme I used for uploads totally refuses to work. Whaaaaaaaaaaa! *head on table*

I need chocolate...

Manxome Mumblings

When I joined RWA in 2002 I took part in a number of writing contests, all of which were relatively strict in regard to formatting your entry: double-spaced, Courier New, 250 words per page, chapter doesn't start at the top of the page but a third down, etc. You get points off for incorrect formatting; in the worst possible case your entry is disqualified. Heck, I once got points off for using DinA4 paper instead of letter-sized sheets!

Why is it then that most students seem to be generally unable to stick to our department's format for research papers??? After I've devoted ONE WHOLE STUPID LESSON on formatting, putting together a bibliography, etc. AND put together a fricking handout???? AAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!! *head on table*

Can you tell I'm depressed?

On the up-side: Adam Cooper posted a new diary. Hooray!

Favourites

AAR is currently doing a number of mini-polls, the ones running at the moment are Favourite Heroes, Favourite Heroines, & Favourite Couples. Here are my lists:

Favourite Heroes:

#1 Francis Crawford of Lymond, Dorothy Dunnett, Lymond Chronicles (not sure whether he counts, but he's my all-time favourite hero)
#2 Fitzwilliam Darcy, Jane Austen, PRIDE & PREJUDICE (again, not sure whether that one counts)
#3 Troy Sacheverell, Sandra Schwab, THE LILY BRAND (because he was my first :-) )
#4 Lucien Knight, Gaelen Foley, LORD OF FIRE
#5 Jacques, Christine Feehan, DARK DESIRE
#6 Robert Sinclair Dovenby ("Dove"), Julia Ross, THE WICKED LOVER
#7 Gabe Patton, Susan Fox, THE PRODIGAL WIFE
#8 Sir Daffyd / David Wolfe, Susan Sizemore, WINGS OF THE STORM
#9 the Marquis of Vulcan, Barbara Cartland, A HAZARD OF HEARTS
#10 Vane Cynster, Stephanie Laurens, A RAKE'S VOW


Favourite Heroines

#1 Elizabeth, Jane Austen, PRIDE & PREJUDICE
#2 Lillian, Sandra Schwab, THE LILY BRAND (again, because she was my first)
#3 Emma, Sophie Kinsella, CAN YOU KEEP A SECRET?
#4 Patience, Stephanie Laurens, A RAKE'S VOW
#5 Gwendolyn, Teresa Medeiros, THE BRIDE AND THE BEAST
#6 Joanna, Kathleen Harrington, THE MACLEAN GROOM
#7 Penelope, Elizabeth Rolls, THE UNEXPECTED BRIDE


Favourite Couples

#1 Francis & Pippa, Dorothy Dunnett, Lymond Chronicles
#2 Elizabeth & Darcy, Jane Austen PRIDE & PREJUDICE
#3 Claire and Jamie, Diana Gabaldon, Outlander series
#4 Clara & Paris, Margaret Moore, THE WASTREL
#5 Josie & Seth, Janelle Dension, BRIDE INCLUDED
#6 Joanna & Adrian, Anita Mills, THE DUKE'S DOUBLE
#7 Adron & Livia, Sherrilyn Kenyon, "Fire and Ice" (in MAN OF MY DREAMS, anthology)
#8 Van & Maria, Jo Beverley, "The Demon's Mistress" (in IN PRAISE OF YOUNGER MEN, anthology)
#9 Anne & Jack, Julia Ross, NIGHT OF SIN
#10 Emma & Lachlain, Kresley Cole, A HUNGER LIKE NO OTHER

~*~

What are some of your favourites?

Kresley Cole's A HUNGER LIKE NO OTHER

I've just finished reading .... er .... and re-reading Cole's paranormal A HUNGER LIKE NO OTHER. And wow! was I hooked! It's definitely one of the best books I've read in a long time. From the backcover blurb:

After enduring years of torture from the vampire horde, Lachlain MacRieve, leader of the Lykae Clan, is enraged to find the predestined mate he's waiting millennia for is a vampire. Or partly one. This Emmaline is a small, ethereal half Valkyrie/half vampire who somehow begins to soothe the fury burning within him.

I have to admit, at first I thought "Oh gosh, not another vampire book!" But this, my dears, turned out to be a terrific vampire book, with a well-developed mythology. AND a dark, tortured werewolf hero! And a wee heroine, who's so far led an extremely sheltered life among her Valkyrie aunts (lots of shrieks and lightning) and who -- despite being part vampire -- is almost afraid of her own shadow. When the half-crazed wolfie pounces, her worst nightmare seems to become true, yet in the course of the novel she comes to realize that she might be a bit on the small side, but is definitely not quite as helpless as everybody thought her to be.

Emma is an extremely likable heroine, with a strong sense of family, several hung-ups and a craving for modern technology. She LUUUVES her iPod and LUUUVES the xbox and is rather put out when she misses her aunties' xbox evening. (Isn't this delicious? Valkyries having an xbox evening!)

What also struck me about this book is how wonderfully brutish the hero is. Why, he's even worse than the romance heroes of old who generally behaved like cavemen! Now, this seems to tie in with a discussion about the erotic and political correctness at SmartBitches which was sparked by one of Laura Kinsale's post on her message board:

Kinsale argues that readers have become self-conscious about their own erotic fantasies, and the genre itself has been divided into two camps: the “safe Regency settings” that provide emotional depth, while “the erotic drive has been channeled over to vampire and fantasy books where realism is a non-issue” . . .

There's definitely more than just a bit of truth to this: traditionally, the male is seen as the Other in romance, the great enigma the heroine (and often the reader!) of the older romances couldn't figure out until the very end of the story, when he was pushed to explain himself. Take Laurie McBain's DEVIL'S DESIRE: Alex behaves like a real jerk for the most part of the story, is totally callous to the heroine, enjoy intimidating her (also in a sexual way), but it's exactly this bully alpha hero which makes this such a great story. In DANGEROUS MEN AND ADVENTUROUS WOMEN Robyn Donald explains the appeal of this overbearing alpha male thus:

The strong domineering hero of the romance novel has long been the subject of criticism. What critics don't realize is that it is the hero's task in the book to present a suitable challenge to the heroine. His strength is a measure of her power. For it is she who must conquer him.

Every good romance heroine must have a hero who is worthy of her. And in most cases he is a mean, moody, magnificent creature with a curling lip and mocking eyes and and arrogant air of self-assurance -- until he meets the heroine.

Today the most alpha alpha heroes can indeed be found in paranormals. As it is nicely set apart from reality, the heroes can behave as badly as their authors like. That they are vampire, werewolfie or what not only emphasizes their Otherness. So, in a way, the heroes of old live on in them. And perhaps that's the reason why paranormals are so hot right now ...

Sandy Triumphant!

Got my e-mails back, got my favourites back, am VERY happy right now! :O)

I'm baaaaaack!

After having been engaged in a heroic battle with the beastly worm, my 'puter, AOL, the software of my DSL modem and my brandnew internet security programme, I'm finally back online. Yay! Now I just need to find out whether I can restore the files with my saved e-mails and my favourites and Bob's my uncle.

Still, I've come to distrust the abilities of the internet security programmes ... Just great isn't it? Now I even start to get paranoid about my 'puter. Geesh.

Hey, but I will overcome this. If all fails, I'll just stuff myself with chocolate cookies. That always helps. *g*

'Puter Problems

Just a wee note to let you all know that my 'puter problems are a bit more serious than previously thought, meaning I have to re-install my whole computer *head on table* Since I have absolutely no clue whether I'll be able to do this all on my own, little ole me against the bad, bad worm (hey, that's almost a dragonslayer story!), I don't know how soon I'll be online again. Please keep your fingers crossed and send good vibes my way that I'll manage to slay the fearsome beast.

I'm on MySpace!

After many tears, much frustration and several e-mails to the poor MySpace support team, I've finally managed to set up an account and profile at MySpace. Yay!

www.myspace.com/sandraschwab

I've also found a Trojan Horse on my 'puter. I've let Norton Internet Security delete it. Should I reset all my passwords now? Does anybody know?

Another Golden Oldie

Well, it's not that much of an oldie: Susan Sizemore's WINGS OF THE STORM was first published in 1992, and it's another one of these novels I found in the UBSs of Galway. :) It's also one of the best time travels I've ever read. From the backcover blurb:

When an experiment gone wrong landed Dr. Jane Florian in the Middle Ages, she vowed to make the best of things. And if that meant posing as Lady Jehane from the Holy Land, cleaning the castle from tower to dungeon, ousting the hounds from the banquet hall, and giving the mistress of the castle a makeover, then she would do it. Unfortunately, she hadn't counted on her reaction to her new neighbour -- the magnetic Sir Daffyd.

What I usually find rather annoying about time travel romances is that the people who travel back in time, adapt SOOOOO easily to the situation, have absolutely NO problem with the language and, in some cases are even blissfully happy to have their happily ever after in, say, the 14th century. Argh! Diana Gabaldon's Claire at least travels only back into the 18th century and is a doctor, but 14th century? Come on, people, who among us would want to live in the 14th century for real, for good, for happily ever after??? That's the point at which suspension of disbelief definitely fails for me! BUT in Susan Sizemore's novel, Jane Florian is a historian, has studied the languages of medieval France and has spent years playacting a role in the Medievalist Society: "She had a role she slipped into when the club did living history demos." See? Sizemore's Jane stumbles into the past well-equipped!

In addition WINGS OF THE STORM features a truly delicious hero. One of my favourite hero-heroine interactions is from a morning-after scene:

Jane lay on her side, tracing her finger down Daffyd's strongly beaked nose. He lay on his back, eyes half-closed, a contented smile tugging up his lips.
"You look like you need a dish of cream," she told him. "Big old tomcat."
"That's me," he agreed, and propped his hands behind his head. "What are you doing with my nose?"

Isn't that sweet? :O)

Now do tell: Have you got any favourites among the oldies of romance?

Something old ....

Sometime during the chat last night, Sandy from Colorado mentioned how much she loves Laurie McBain's DEVIL'S DESIRE, a romance from the 1970s, when romances were still terribly politically incorrect and romance heroes darker, moodier and often downright vicious. I found a copy of DEVIL'S DESIRE when I spent those eight rainy months in Galway -- and I absolutely loved it, too! :)

It's the story of Elysia Demarice, who has grown up in her aunt's house as a despised burden. When Aunt Agathe plans to marry her off to the most repulsive man around, Elysia finally flees across the countryside, alone and penniless, but determined to make her fortune as a governess or lady's companion in London. Yet her plans are thwarted, when she stumbles into an inn and is used as a pawn in a play of revenge against the enigmatic Alex Trevegne, Marquis of St. Fleur, who's referred to as Lucifer even by his friends. Yet the revenge plot goes partly wrong, for when they're compromised, Alex loftily decides to make Elysia his unwilling wife. The story that now unfolds is quite delicious: they're both attracted to each other (of course!), but they're also too stubborn to admit it and have to struggle through a series of misunderstandings until they finally arrive at their happy ending --with Alex grovelling! *g*. And I have to admit, this is one of my favourite grovel scenes. :)

What I really like about the heroine is that she's no submissive little fluffhead, but gives back as good as she gets. Part of the joy of McBain's novel is watching her two protagonists needle each other. E.g., when Alex is "proposing" marriage, he kindly points out to her the only other honorable way open to her now is go and drown herself. "Of course, you could always wait until you reached London, and then jump from a bridge into the Thames. Much more dramatic, my dear, and society would love it." Marriage, he includes, is really the only feasible option for her. "'You see, my dear, you really have no choice in the matter,' he said not unkindly for once, 'and I might add, that it would be criminal of me to allow so lovely a child to fling herself into the cold arms of Death, when mine are much warmer.'" Now, isn't this delicious?

Thanks everybody ...

... who stopped by for the chat -- I had a lovely time talking to you all!

Let's Gab!

Join me in 45 minutes for an afternoon (US east coast), morning (US west coast) or evening (good old Europe) chat at the Mystic Castle! I'm looking forward to seeing you there!

BETRAYAL update

I've actually managed to finish writing the next chapter of BETRAYAL -- today! Yay! Well, I still have to go over it again and polish it a little, but all in all, I'm rather pleased with myself (which just shows that I must be suffering from partial amnesia :lalalalalala: because I planned to have finished the whole fricking novella by the end of August :lalalalalala:) The story is getting longer than I had planned, but that hardly comes as a surprise: after all, I've got a tendency to write really looooooooong stories (and take an awfully loooooong time to write them, too! grrr) In addition, my heroine is getting some really strange (and unplanned by author!) ideas. (Which also should come as no surprise) (Would somebody please tell my characters that surprising behaviour on their part is not necessarily good for their author's peace of mind??? And if you're at it, remind them that I'm actually a nice author, who doesn't drop stuff like mountains on them, but hey, that can always change, if you know what I mean! I can always call in the meteors or the horrible aliens bent on kidnapping humans, just so you know!)

A Glimpse of the Villa under the Linden Trees

I'll soon update the BETRAYAL pages of my website, but for now, here's a glimpse at the real Villa under the Linden Trees. That it appears in my novella is an anachronism, btw: it was built between 1902 and 1904 for Herbert von Meister, the son of one of the founders of the chemical factory Meister Lucius & Brüning, which later became the Hoechst AG. From the very beginning the factory owners took an interest in the welfare of their workers and very soon established a social security system in their factory, had new houses built for the workers, and did a lot of good in the surrounding towns, e.g. helped with the establishment of churches or the founding of new schools. For its centennary, Hoechst had a concert hall built, in which I saw Baryshnikov dance in 1993! :O)

For the first four years of my life my family lived in the town where the real Villa under the Linden Trees stands, and I remember a big summer picnic in the park of the villa and how eerie the old doll house full of cobwebs seemed to me. For some reason I still feel drawn to the old villa, therefore BETRAYAL, in a way, is partly an hommage to the Villa unter den Linden or Meistervilla.

The Coachman's House

The villa as seen from the banks of the river Main

Pictures!!!!

Okay, okay, I admit it: at times I'm just terribly lazy as well as snail-worthy slow, but now, finally, I've got the first bunch of my RWA 2006 pictures. Enjoy!

Atlanta in the Clouds

Georgia Aquarium

Fish

Lots of Fish

Big Fish

'Nother Big Fish

New Podchatter Episode Online!

After a small delay (didn't get Chapter 3 finished on time), the next episode of BETRAYAL is now online. The story is developing in a slightly different fashion than I have planned (but what's new?), which makes this whole serialized audio-novella adventure even more exciting! :)

I hope you're going to enjoy this new chapter! Feel free to leave comments about the story here or on my podcast website.

www.podchatter.libsyn.com

You can also tell me your thoughts about BETRAYAL during my chat at The Mystic Castle this Saturday at 2 pm EST. I hope many of you will come and join the fun! (And bring cyber chocolate!!!)

Last Night of the Proms

Yesterday I watched the Last Night of the Proms on TV. The promenade concerts are a London institution which was established at the end of the 19th century; they are called promenade because like in the Elizabethan theatres, part of the audience stands in the "promenade" areas of the Royal Albert Hall -- the best (and at the Last Night the most fun) is probably the arena in front of the orchestra!

The Last Night always ends a season of proms and involves lots of Union-Jack waving, cheerful singing and interaction between the artists and the audience. Now there are also Last Night parties (the Proms in the Park) in other cities of the UK: Swansea, Belfast, Glasgow, Manchester as well as in Hyde Park. So imagine: when they're playing Elgar's Pomp & Circumstance in the Royal Albert Hall, 100000 people will join in and sing "Land of ho-hope and glooory ..."!!! That's extremely moving -- even if you watch the Last Night on TV!

For the next few days, you can also watch this year's Last Night online: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctwo/programmes/?id=proms

What makes today so special?

It's the day the debut novel of one of my old LOL Lit Forum buddies hits the shelves! Wooohooo!!! Linda, I've said it before, but I'll just say it again: We're so damn proud of you!!!!

When I posted my first excerpt on the forum way back in 2000, Linda was the first to reply. Around the same time as I joined the Lit Forum, she started posting from a new novel of hers, BETWEEN THE PAGES, a wonderful YA fantasy novel (if I'm not mistaken she never posted the ending, though -- boohoo). These past few years Linda and her family lived in Japan (and they probably went to the Ghibli Museum -- can you tell I'm jealous? I swear I'm turning all green!!!), and her new home obviously influenced her Muse: the book's that coming out today deals with a young Japanese-American Nori who spends a year in Tokyo as an exchange student. She learns all kinds of things -- not only about the Japanese culture, but also about herself.

It definitely sounds fascinating, and I hope you'll all dash to the nearest bookstore to pick up a copy!

Cuuuuuuuuuute Games

I might have become a computer nerd -- but at least I'm a girly computer nerd. *g*

CUTE GAMES

A Taste of Britain, or A Walk Down the Memory Lane

At age 11 I fell in love with Britain. I partly blame Rosemary Sutcliff for this; I adored her historcial novels for children and YA, most of which (or perhaps even all of her novels!) are set in Britain. So when I first went to Britain for a stay with my penfriend, I might have been terribly homesick, but I also fell in love with the country. And whenever I visit the country now, it feels like coming home. Naturally, I also love (nearly) all things British.

Like Cadbury chocolate (except for Turkish Delight!!!).

I love eating Cadbury Creameggs, though I don't quite like the taste and feel sick after a quarter of the egg. But, you know, this wonderful, gooey eating experience -- hmmmm. (Besides, there are also Cadbury Chocolate Creameggs, though they are rarer than the regular creameggs -- don't ask me why!)

I love Yorkshire Pudding (but unperfumed!).

I love Twinings.

I love Chicken Tika Masala (Tesco's got a wonderful microwave version.) (Well, Tesco's microwave meals in general are rather good; I should know: they were all I ate during my last few weeks in Galway ...)

I love British biscuits.

AND Cadbury minirolls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So imagine my joy today when I found this itty-bitty shop in Frankfurt which sells All Things British. Like Cadbury chocolate, various variations of Twinings, British biscuits, Chicken Tika Masala sauce, etc.: A Taste of Britain. (They've got an online shop, too.)

Among the things I bought is Twinings' Fruit Bliss Cranberry, Raspberry and Elderflower, which I drank all the time during my 8 months in Ireland. Therefore, when I sniffed at the box, it smelt like Ireland. :O)

Fantastic News

I am thrilled to announce that I sold two more books to Dorchester. The first of these, CASTLE OF THE WOLF, will be a May 2007 release. It's the story of Cissy Fussell, who finds out after her father's death, that she has inherited a castle in the Black Forest. Alas, there is only problem: she has to marry the loutish son of her father's old friend in order to keep the castle. The picture above is the postcard she sent to me after her arrival in her new home:

Arrived in the Black Forest safe and sound (despite horrendous snowstorm). Castle is rather picturesque (i.e. in ruins & full of cobwebs and rodential skeletons), & everything could be just wonderful, if it weren't for that lout Fenris von Wolfenbach, whom I am - I hardly dare to breathe the words - supposed to marry. I sincerely hope one of all these gargoyles around here will fall off and drop onto the nigmenog's stupid head. - Await more news in May.

Yours truly,

Celia "Cissy" Fussell

For now, you can read the beginning of Cissy's adventures on my website. Enjoy!

RWA Pics!!!!

The people from the LoveLetter, the only German romance magazine, posted several Atlanta pics on their blog. There are also two of moi:

among orange fish

and

with Kathleen Givens.

(Somehow I look fat ... Duh.)

Cover Snarking ...

... on Squawk Radio and Smart Bitches. (Warning: Don't drink & read!) I particularily enjoyed the following sentence (i.e. I nearly peed my pants while reading it):

Look, when people mention a dude’s endowed like a stallion, they’re generally
referring to the size of his cock, not the length of his freaking neck.

NO HOLE!!!!!!

I'm deliriously happy!!! (Have I already mentioned that I'm slightly paranoid when it comes to holes in my teeth?) Anyway, went to the dentist, told her about the big, black, ugly hole in my tooth, then opened mouth -- aaaaaahhhhhh -- so she could have a look for herself.

"Where?" she asked, somewhat puzzled.

"Left side at the back," I said and pointed for good measure before I opened my mouth again -- aaaaaahhhhhhh.

"Hmm." So she took her itty-bitty dentis-mirror and had another look. Then she reached for this disgusting, small hook and prodded in my teeth for a bit. (Bah! I really hate when they're doing that!) And then, "There's no hole," she said.

"No hole?" I asked, cautiously hopeful.

"No hole. There's a discoloration, but no hole."

At which point my face broke into the goofiest grin imaginable. "No hole! Oh my gosh, there's NO hole! No hole!!!!!"

Dentis threw me a strange look and hurried finished her examination. I've got the sneaky suspicion that she now thinks I'm mad.

And I'm not!

Really!

And I've got no hole in my tooth! Yay! :O)

Oooooooh: On Your Toes! Or, Sandy in Fangirl-Mode

Found even more of Adam Cooper (the Swan in the Swan Lake video below) on Your Tube (I luuuuuuuuuuve Your Tube!!!!!!!!!!!!!!):

On Your Toes 1

On Your Toes 2 (It's got to be love)

Here be Swans!

Most of you will probably already know how much I love Matthew Bourne's SWAN LAKE. Well, now you can find the Swans on You Tube, too. The first snippet starts at one of my favourite SWAN LAKE moments (see pic above).

And here's the Pas de Quatre of the Little Swans: Matthew Bourne's version and traditional version.

Enjoy! (And then run to the nearest music store and get the DVD of Bourne's SWAN LAKE! *g*)

The First of the Week

I've sunk into lazyboneritis. Terrible lazyboneritis. And the weather here is not really inducing me to get rid of it any time soon: it's cold, it's raining, it's fricking autumn! Bah! And I've got this hole in my tooth. Baaaah!

So I'm trying to reduce my TBV (to be viewed) pile of DVDs -- and have discovered a true gem: the anime MILLENNIUM ACTRESS.

The director Tachibana plans to interview one of the great film legends of the past, the beautiful actress Chiyoko Fujiwara. 30 years ago she quitted film-making under mysterious circumstances and has lived as a recluse ever since. And while she talks to Tachibana, the story of her life mingles with the stories of her films - both herself and the characters she played are are on a never-ending search for something or someone. The interview with Tachibana is her last chance to unravel the secrets of her life ...

Very beautiful film. Made me cry buckets ...

Second Chapter of BETRAYAL is now online!

In this chapter the other twin returns home to Ashburnham Place in Sussex, we meet the hero, and a secret is revealed. Enjoy! (I do hope my audio-file editing programme did not gobble up any parts of this episode!) (Let me know if it did!!!)

Sandy's Podchatter

Friday Stuff

Bought another trunk yesterday. And found a hole in my tooth. Whaaaaaaaaah! (I've got this phobia about teeth and holes ever since I discovered a crater at the back of one of my teeth a few years ago. And to my utter horror, the dentist failed to mention filling, but starting mumbling about crowns straight away.) And to make things really cozy, I still haven't quite finished that chapter I'm supposed to read tomorrow. (Okay, this just proves that A) appearances are totally deceptive because B) while I might be a wonderfully organized person from the outside, the inside me is a chaotic freak. *sigh*)

Off to feed the cats before they're sick in the hallway ....

Ikea Adventures

Sorry for having been absent from bloglandia for the past few days. I'm currently trying to put the finishing touches to my flat. Into which I moved two years ago, I know. But the walls in the sitting room are still bare and my bedroom regularily turns into the setting for unimaginable chaos. Oh, and I realized I'll really need another shelf in my home office. I'm going to put it behind the door. You won't be able to fully open door then, but I consider a small sacrifice in view of getting more shelf space. Speaking of shelves, there're still no shelves on the wall of the library-cum-music-room. 'nother thing that needs to be done. (Does it ever end????)

Anyway, this week I tackled the bedroom situation. Went to Ikea and bought new stuff (took me three hours to walk through the whole store -- why?). Found magnetic coasters for pots (are they called coasters when they're for pots?). Cool, isn't it? Also bought new pot. And a towel rack (for the bedroom, though. For used clothes.) And a trunk for the bedroom (will be filled with all my bags so I've got more space in my wardrobe!).

Today, I spent all day assembling the towel rack (easy) and the trunk (not to easy). Got tiny slivers in my finger. They were so tiny that you couldn't even see them, but still, they hurt like hell. In the end I conquered both towel rack AND trunk. Now I just need to clean up the additonal chaos that putting everything together created as well as the normal chaos in the bedroom.

There are times when I suspect I've got too much stuff ...

Oh, guess what the cat's doing!

Indeed: being sick in the hallway.

Twice.

Oh joy!

First Episode of BETRAYAL Is Now Online!!!!

You're all invited to join me at Sandy's Podchatter and step back into Regency England and Germany for Georgina's and Ash's story. Enjoy!

You realize you're getting older when ...

... you walk into H&M and realize these clothes are so not for you. In addition you've got a hard time finding your size in the undies section ...

After these depressing facts, some uplifting stuff:

The World's Smallest Website

Jumping Lady (klick on the lady to make her jump!)

Rain, rain, go away ...

Woke up in the middle of the night due to heavy rainfall (it sounded as if we should've been boarding a new arc!). Woke up in the morning to more rain -- and decided I won't go to Frankfurt today. I had planned to visit that shop one of my friends discovered: A Taste of Britain. They seem to have run out of Cadbury Twirls, but hey, I would have settled for a Cadbury Flake all right. Only -- going to the station and waiting for the train in the rain? Walking around Frankfurt in the rain? Ew. No thanks. I'll just go to the Main-Taunus-Zentrum instead, which is something like an outdoor mall. Only they've put a glass roof over most of the walkways, so you don't have to run around with an umbrella when it's raining. Neat!

So while I amuse myself going shopping, here's something for your amusement, too:

Fluffy Puppy & Kittens

Puppy in the Grass

Puppy Plays with Its Human

And have you ever dreamed about throwing waterbombs from the Golden Gate Bridge? Here's your chance!

Golden Gate Drop

Holiday Reading

Sent off revisions to agent. Agent loved revisions. Yay! So I took the last two days off and spent a large part of them READING! Yes! (After all, I've got these 61 new books, remember?) (Okay, okay, I admit it: I had already done a bit of reading on the weekend.) Soooo, what did I read? Here's the list:

• THE TRUE LOVE WEDDING DRESS (anthology), loved especially Barbara Metzger's and Connie Brockway's stories
• Meggin Cabot, SHE WENT ALL THE WAY, sweet, humorous, with a bit of suspense
• Meg Cabot, EVERY BOY'S GOT ONE, really liked that one! It's very different: it consists of diary entries, e-mails, receipts, etc. But -- well, that Nazi joke at the end of the book -- that was so not necessary.
• Debbie Macomber, WYOMING KID
• Catherine Spangler, SHADOW FIRES, loved, loved, loved it!!!
• Catherine Spangler, SHADOWER.

And in a few minutes, I'll be standing in my library and will pick yet another book to read. I luuuuuuuuuuve holidays!!!!

Addition to my Idea Boutique Post

I've just found out that Kästner's DAS DOPPELTE LOTTCHEN has been translated into English as LOTTIE AND LISA:

Unfortunately, the book seems to be out of print, but I'm sure you can get it used, if you're interested in Kästner's novel.

My favourite film adaptation is the old black and white German film with Jutta and Isa Günther. All the women in my family seem to love this version best. :-)

Idea Boutique Post

Today I'm guest-blogging at the Idea Boutique about the inspiration for BETRAYAL. Enjoy!

Monday Mutterings

You know what's so horrid about proof-reading your own stuff? Inevitably you come to a point where you think, "This SOOOO sucks. This is worse than anything the dinosaurs would have written if they had been able to write! Oh, oh, oh!" And then you dash into the kitchen, open your cookie jar -- and remember that the cookie monster ate all your cookies. (It also ate all the peanutbutter cups, btw.)

And then, to make it all totally perfect, your cat is sick in the hallway.

Well, no, it hasn't.

At least not yet.

Hm ....

Or at least, I hope none of the cats has been sick in the hallway.

Sometimes you can't really tell. Until you step into the hairball-goo, that is. But have you ever seen any of the romance heroines who own a cat stepping into any hairball-goo? Sometimes it would be really good to be a romance heroine. I mean, you would also have the added benefit of a totally hunkalicious, but also caring, sensitive guy in your bed (I'm obviously talking about the ending here; who wants to be a romance heroine in the middle of the book when the hero's snarling at the poor girl and about to throw her into the dungeons?)! Okay, where was I? -- Ah, yes, the hunkalicious guy in your bed. Cool, right? So he would be the one to get up in the mornings to feed the cats, step into the hairball-goo and do the litter trays! Ha! :)

Sunday Afternoon Mishaps

Bad things that might happen to a girl on a Sunday afternoon: she ambles into her kitchen, opens lid of her cookie jar -- and realizes some terrible, cookie-eating monster must have devoured all her delicious, chocolate-covered cookies during the night. This is terrible! Where have all the cookies gone?

If you've got some spare cookies (preferably chocolate-covered), please send them to this poor, cookieless author.

Else, I'm writing a post for The Idea Boutique, which will go up on Tuesday.

Hell Hath No Fury ....

You gotta love this girl! Apparently, there's been some speculation on the net whether this is a real story or not. But even if she's fictional, you still gotta love Emily. You go girl!

Thursday Duh

Over at AAR they've got a not-so-nice discussion about THE LILY BRAND. I was so proud of myself because it didn't upset me at all --- until somebody called Troy a jerk. Now, that hurt. :-/ Nobody wants to have her hero called a jerk. Or a moron. (Of course, the heroine is allowed to call the hero a jerk. Or a moron. Or a nigemog. Featherhead. Dunderhead. Bird-witted dodo. Take your pick. *g*) But luckily, I've still got some peanutbutter cups, so I'm eating those for comfort. I would give a few to Troy, too, really I would! But well, you see the flaw in that...

Wolfenbach revisions: Yesterday I noticed for the first time that the hero's father and the hero's valet have almost identical names. *head on table* Why haven't I seen this before? So I'll need to page through my book of German firstnames some more.

Whaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!

What ARE these people at M&B doing to their Tender Romance line???? Check out their September releases. Can anybody please explain me what was wrong with the orange covers? I really liked the orange covers! (Okay, so not these orange covers. Geez. What the heck happened to their art department???) Now the Tender Romances look like the historicals. Geez.

In addition, this will disrupt the whole color scheme in my M&B shelf.

Not good.

Definitely not good.

Duh.

Firsts as Favourites

Yesterday an interesting At the Back Fence column went up at All About Romance. Among other things, Laurie raises the theory that the first books we've read by a specific author are often our favourite novels by that author. She wrote about this in more detail ten years ago in At the Back Fence #9:

ARE OUR FIRSTS OUR FAVORITES? This question, and get your minds out of the gutter ;), was brought to my attention by a Prodigy pal. Gretchen was struck by the fact that, although so many of us are such fans of Julie Garwood, most of us cannot agree on which of her books is best. For instance, Gretchen likes The Bride best. I like Castles best. It turns out that she read The Bride first. I read Castles first. Were we on to something? Could we say that readers tend to prefer the first book they read by a beloved author? As it turns out, yes . . . and no. . . .
When I looked through my library database, I discovered that my firsts are usually my favorites. It has held true for Julie Garwood, Johanna Lindsey, Catherine Coulter, Rexanne Becnel, Teresa Medeiros, Judith McNaught, Lisa Kleypas, and Kathryn Lynn Davis. But it is not always the case -- my favorites by Ruth Langan, Amanda Quick, Deborah Simmons, Elizabeth Elliott, Linda Lael Miller, and Katherine Sutcliffe were not the first books I read.

Now, when I looked through my bookshelves, I came to a similar result. My firsts are often my favourites: Gaelen Foley's LORD OF FIRE, Teresa Medeiros' THE BRIDE & THE BEAST, Susan Elizabeth Phillips's THIS HEART OF MINE, Stephanie Laurens's A RAKE'S VOW, Nora Roberts's THE MACGREGOR GROOMS, Victoria Holt's THE DEVIL ON HORSEBACK, Penelope Williamson's KEEPER OF THE DREAM. However, this is not to say that later books by these authors are worse -- not at all! I absolutely adored Teresa's YOURS UNTIL DAWN; Gaelen's latest, HIS WICKED KISS with its jungle-reared heroine is absolutely intriguing; and I don't really have to tell you that Nora Roberts is a top-notch author. It's just that the books I read first hold a special place in my heart. I guess this is comparable to whether you are a Lymond-fan or a Niccolo-lover: it depends on which series you read first. :)

Moreover, I've found that I've got a special love for my early romances -- which makes perfect sense, doesn't it? With your first secret baby or amnesia plot, you're totally charmed by the whole concept of it. Yet when you discover that secret babies and amnesia abound in romance (just like dragons and hidden kings do in fantasy), you are no longer quite as surprised and start looking more closely at the execution of the specific plot. I still love secret babies and amnesia, yet I want to see some fresh ideas being brought to these motifs. (Wow, now I sound like all these editors during the publishers' spotlights: "We want the same, but different." *g*)

Can you still remember your first secret baby book? Mine was Anita Mills's THE DUKE'S DOUBLE, a very sweet story indeed. And my first amnesia book was Penny Jordan's LOVER BY DECEPTION with its lovely, lovely cover (I really liked the old, painted M&B covers much better than the new ones with the photographs!). And I still can remember the sheer wonder I felt when reading Stephanie Laurens's A RAKE'S VOW, one of the first romances I ever read: I was totally enchanted by the heroine, who might be a Regency miss, but nevertheless is eager to explore her sexuality and makes a grab at what she wants, i.e. she basically seduces the hero to seduce her and to make love to her. This was a truly refreshing change from all the poor sexually active women who end up being dead as doornails in the classics. And this was what made me fall in love with romance: the celebration of female sexuality and sensuality. Who cares that this might not be historically correct? It nurtures women today -- something that in my opinion is much more important than historical accuracy (which can never be fully achieved in fiction anyway ...)!

Revisions Once More & Things I've Discovered in America

Once again, I'm going through my ms of Wolfenbach in order to tweak it into shape. And I promptly found that at some places where I made cuts during the last revision-feast the text has become somewhat obscure, so the cut paragraphs have to come back after all. In addition, I highlight intertextual references or passages for which I'll want to provide some additional background info on my website. *rubbing my hands* It's going to be so much fun when I finally get the chance to do "Secrets of Wolfenbach" pages for the website!!! :) But first of all, of course, I'll need to create some "Secrets of Betrayal" pages -- I hope the pics I took for these turned out fine. Well, perhaps it would help if I would just get the film developed!

Now, on to things I've discovered during my latest stay in the U.S.:

• peanutbutter M&Ms (this is Kris Alice's fault! just so you know)
• smoothies (ooooh yum! I bought a mixer on Saturday so I can now create smoothies myself -- and now I'm thinking about buying an icecream maker, too. *g*)

AAAAAAAARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wanted to post a new podcast episode this evening, complete with Lois Winston reading from her debut novel TALK GERTIE TO ME. But once again, Audacity destroyed a whole project, and thus, my work of the last 2 1/2 hours. Booohooo!

And now I need to feed the cats.

And do the litter tray, of course. :-/

What Sells? (Shells???)

At RWA National Sue Grimshaw and Kathy Baker gave a workshop as part of the PAN retreat (Published Authors Network), and among other interesting things, Sue Grimshaw listed things that sell well these days:

• paranormals (no surprise here)
• sex / erotic romance (even less surprise here)
• a torso on the cover ("man-titty", yay! *g*)

Okay, so my novels are slowly and steadfastly tripsing into the paranormal section (but so far there are no werwolves or vampirs involved!), and I've already had a torso on a cover. Two torsos (torsi?) in fact, if you count my mock cover for BETRAYAL! Now I just have to do something about the sex. There will be a love scene in BETRAYAL, but so far, I haven't even the faintest idea for a love scene in BEWITCHED. Ah well, I'm counting on the Muse to provide me with something nice! :O)

Llamas Rock!

Found this link again and nearly peed my pants -- again! Enjoy!

Hit by the Jetlag

Yup, jetlag has hit me squarely in the face, so I slept through much of today. And ate some more of the heavenly Godiva truffels! (Unfortunately, I'm now down to only two -- boohooo! I guess I have to throw in some mini-peanutbuttercups in between to make the truffels last another day.)

Lethal Godiva Truffels

The lovely Teresa Medeiros, who was generous enough to give me a wonderful cover quote for THE LILY BRAND, brought me chocolates to Atlanta. Godiva Passion Truffels. And let me tell you, those things are absolutely LETHAL!!!! I don't know how I'll ever lose all the weight I gained during the last week! Here's a picture of Teresa and me at the conference (I stole the pic from Squawk Radio)

The Five Faces (300th Post!!!!)

I'm not quite sure who came up with the Five-Faces-theory, but I heard it mentioned several times during the conference. It goes as follows: at each big conference, there are five people (dear friends and roomies excluded) you will run into repeatedly, and thus, there are five faces you'll see, like, everywhere. I'm afraid, I know only two of my 2006 Five Faces by name: Ann DeStefano and costume whizz kid extraordinaire Kalen Hughes aka Tonda Fuller. Tonda is a follow Beau Monde member and gives the most terrific workshops on clothing! Unfortunately, I missed her workshop this year because my own was scheduled for the same slot. Duh. But she prepared a lovely booklet on fabrics of the Regency -- complete with fabric samples!!! Her first romance novel, LORD OF SIN, will be published in April 2007 -- and she's got one sexy cover for that one!

TBR Pile Takes Gigantic Leap -- Up

Indeed, I did bring home more books this year than in the last: I counted 73 books, 12 of which will become give-aways. Not all of them were RWA books, though:

• Valdemar Companion (YESSSSSS! in paperback even!)
• Diana Wynne Jones, Conrad's Fate (which I'm reading at the moment)
• a big Calvin & Hobbes anthology (how could I resist?)
• The Monster Trap (a picture book)
• Ann Pruser, Murder on Monday
• Lois Faye Dyer, Jessie's Child
• Sandra Marton, Naked in his Arms (uhmm ... sounds promising, doesn't it? *g*)
• Kate Walker, The Antonakos Marriage (can never resist a Kate Walker novel!)
• Lynne Graham, Mistress Bought & Paid For (can't resist a Lynne Graham novel either)

Back Home

As you can see, I survived the giant cockroaches and the truly crappy Lufthansa-food (it was worse than uni-cafeteria food -- much worse!!!) and am happily back home again, where the jet lag has hit me. So, once again, I feel as if something dropped onto my head (what's new?). I'm currently taking a break from unpacking my suitcase (isn't unpacking one's suitcase terribly boring?). If I'm not mistaken, I've managed to drag even more books home with me than in 2005 (54). Will take picture later.

I'm going to post some of my conference adventures later this week. For now, here's a pic of me and the Whine Sisters (aka Kathleen Givens, Julia London & Sherri Browning), schmoozing before I had to head off to the Dorchester dinner. (Note: I shamelessly stole the pic from the Whine Sisters' blog -- as Kathleen found out on Saturday, I can be terribly sneaky if the situation warrants it *g*)

Left alone with giant cockroaches in Atlanta

The conference is over, most of the 2200 (!!!) RWA people have left, only I've been left behind and am forced to face the giant cockroaches on my own (though, the one we found underneath Kris Alice's suitcase was dead) (lucky us!). Boohooo! The day after a conference is always terribly anti-climactic, and when Kris Alice, my roomie, left for the airport about an hour ago I nearly started bawling on her shoulder. I had an absolutely fantabulous conference this year and will post some more about it as soon as I'm a) back home, b) less sleepy, and c) in possession of a German keyboard again! And I'll soon have some fantabulous news to share with you, too! So please keep your fingers crossed that I'm not eaten up by the cockroaches tonight!

The Last of Sandy

Cosmetics packed, kitties fed, bathroom cleaned, dishes done, Sandy finished (she also just realized that she's forgotten to print out directions how to get to party on Tuesday evening -- aaaargh! *head on table*)

Still need to do litter trays. :-/

~*~

On this cheerful note, I leave you all alone for a week or more. I'm sure I'll be all excited by tomorrow morning, but right now, I'm just horribly tired. So, good night, everybody. Stay safe!

RWA Countdown -- Sunday: Almost There!

After packing most of my stuff yesterday, I spent this morning beautifying myself:

• dyed my hair (not in any funky colour, just darkened my own a bit)
• after drying hair, realized I didn't like the look of my bangs (not really bang, but more of a slightly shorter front), thus cut my hair (and I'm not talking about having it cut here!)
• after cutting the front, I set out to improve the back => cut more hair. Surprisingly, it doesn't even look all that bad! (That just shows you I've got an adventurous streak after all! Ha!)
• painted toenails (unfortunately, toenails still look crap -- they're a hopeless case)

Now I need to experiment with the cold wax strips for a bit and paint my fingernails afterwards. Still need to do the print outs, clean the bathroom and do the dishes (or else my Mum will keel over when she enters the kitchen ...)

AND I realized I can use my cell phone in the US. Ain't that cool?


Update #1 (2 p.m.)
Look of toenails greatly improved with different nail polish. Toenails fine, but scraped my knee. Goodbye sophistication!

Update #2 (3 p.m.)
Yes! Can use cell phone in US!!! Yipee! In addition, I've just finished putting together the booklet with all my snippets of BETRAYAL, so I can work on the novella while travelling. :O)

Update #3 (10 p.m.)
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! My WM player is throwing a fit and refused to sync my John Denver songs to the MP3 player. Booohooo! Had to use my other 'puter with an old WM player. Couldn't create folders. What the heck. Music is finall on the stupid player. BUT bathroom is still uncleaned, dishes still undone, litter trays equally uncleaned. -- And I'm turning mad.

Wanna stay at home!!!

(And now I'm listening to Christmas songs ...)

(Told you I'm slowly turning as mad as a March Hare!)

Nearly Done!

Yay! I've almost finished packing:

• the "big" suitcase is done (it's not all that big, really) (I'm so good!);
• brandnew wallet is filled with dollars (the old one looked ratty, which is not at all the look I'm aiming for) (I'm aiming for "cool & sophisticated", of course) (bwahahaha -- whom am I kidding?);
• shopper stuffed with calendar, small RWA programme, Betrayal notebook, passport (gosh, what am I going to do if they tell me it's the wrong passport and I need one of these brandnew, terribly expensive, comes-with-strange-picture passport after all???) (it's not as if I hadn't looked it up on the internet AND phoned my airline about it) (oh yes, I asked my poor friend Kris about it, too) (at this point, I'd like you all to stop and fall silent for a Minute of Pity for Kris: she's going to be my roomie in Atlanta), book to read on plane (Veronica Stallwood, Oxford Fall), pain killers (in case I get a headache), chewing gum to help prevent travel sickness (actually, it's the chewing gum that makes me sick), assortment of pens

But I still need to:

• print out workshop script
• print out short bio for moderator to read at the beginning of my workshop
• print out hotel info and registration confirmation
• print out info how to find to party on Tuesday evening
• pack my cosmetics
• put the razor and scissors into the big luggage
• pack my hand luggage
• feed cats
• clean litter tray
• clean bathroom ('cause it looks horrid and will cause my poor Mum to drop dead when she does the litter tray next week) (so, 'cause I love my Mum, I'll have to clean the bathroom) (or at least, make it look as if it had been cleaned!)

And now I'm feeling a short moment of panic....

Okay, okay, breathe deep ... in and out ... in and out ...

RWA Countdown -- Saturday: Packing Day!

Are we panicking yet?

YEEEEEEESSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Actually, I'd like to stay at home. :-/ Gosh, I hate these last few days before a a big journey ...

Buried in Bookmarks

At the moment I'm packing all my promo stuff (and burning those CDs!!!). Now, the big question is: How many bookmarks do I take for the goodies room? How many for the signing? How many for the Beau Monde conference? How many teaser booklets? (And will people like my teaser booklets???)

To make matters worse, I've just been told that I can't bring as much luggage as last year. No longer 60 kilos on transatlantic flights. Boohooo! How unfair is that?

'nother Shoe Crisis Averted in the Afternoon

Waaaaaaaaaah! Can't take the brandnew shoes 'cause I get damp feet in them. Why? Why? It's leather for heaven's sake! Okay, okay, here's Plan B: take normal black sandals to wear in Atlanta if temperature inside hotel permits it. Wear ancient sandals on the plane. (And I mean ancient: approximately 20 years! We're talking about children's shoes here! But they're totally comfortable and look nice in a hippie-ish sort of way when you're wearing jeans.)

Went watch-shopping today since the battery of the old watch died and I forgot to have it replaced. Besides, I thought it was time I went and bought a new watch. Or rather, two: I bought one sleek, black thingy and -- brace yourselves! -- a children's watch! :) It's the perfect summer watch in shades of light green with a few pinkish flowers. Not at all gharish, but really nice. (Of course. Else I wouldn't have bought the thing, right?)

Also got a new notebook to continue working on "Betrayal" while in Atlanta. It's rather small and looks like an old book. Let's hope the Muse is so charmed she graciously stops by for a smooching party!

RWA Countdown -- Friday: Are we panicking yet? Nah, not us!

Finished workshop preps at 2:00 in the morning. Now I feel as if something dropped onto my head. I also have the sneaky suspicion that I'm going to sound like a cheap ad for Rhine tourism. Ah, what the heck, I'll be doing something for our economy, right? *ggg*

Now it's just burning the CDs.

And packing.

And realizing I've forgotten to buy something totally essential to survival. (Sometimes you need to remind yourself that the conference will NOT take place in the middle of some wilderness, but in a hotel that's right next to a shopping centre!)

Procrastinating

Yes, yes, you're absolutely right. It's that time again: the kitties need to be fed, the litter trays cleaned and the hallway cleared of icky hairballs (again *sigh*). Oh yes, and the preps for the workshop need to be finished.

Er ...

Which workshop???

*taps finger thoughtfully against her lips*

Workshop, workshop ... What the heck is that?

:-P

Just kidding. I'll be a good girl this evening and finally finish those preps. Just yesterday I found some really nice new links to old Rhine panoramas and stuff like that. But before I get back to all of that, I thought I'd post the cover pic of that KARL comic I'll give away during the workshop since several people won't have heard of KARL before:

RWA Countdown -- Found Shoes!!!

Yay! I've finally found shoes I can wear on the plane and for walking around Georgia Aquarium on Tuesday. Bought the last few presents today (bookmark calendars) and got the KARL novel I want to use as a give-away in my workshop. Still need to finish the preps for the workshop, though. And burn 50 CDs.

Oh ... and feed the cats, of course. *g*

RWA Countdown -- Wednesday: Major Crisis Just Occurred

Ooops, I've just realized that I don't have any business cards. That's something I always, always forget. Shoot 'n sugar! Wellllll .... I'll give out bookmarks instead. Easy! :)

Will need to go shoe-shopping tomorrow. And gummibears-shopping! Originally, I had planned to take small chocolate bars (my favourite: Rausch Java or Madagaskar! Yum!) as small gifts for friends, but in face of this enormous heat wave I decided to switch to gummibears. Less icky than molten chocolate!!!

Had my very last lesson in this semester today. It dragged along quite horribly, but I just wasn't in the mood for a full-blown nasty temper tantrum because they obviously had not read the stuff I had asked them to read. *roll eyes* Their bad: they missed all the naughty bits of Chaucer's "Miller's Tale"! Tee-hee!