Still alive and kicking

I spent the past few days mostly with working on the thesis (I really think I'll get the romance chapter completed this weekend! Yay!), but today I also added some new stuff on the website, namely, an explanation what podcasting is, and a programme for Sandy's Podchatter. There you can also find the titles of the music on the podcast.

Coitus Fictus Interruptus

I've just realized it's not a good thing to stop in the middle of a love scene and don't go back to it for a couple of days. So I've managed to get Ginny and Ash into the bedroom. And then they do this:

He stepped towards her and his warmth and scent enveloped her. "Are you nervous?" her murmured against her ear.

She lifted her shoulder. "A little. It's been so long ..."

He laughed unsteadily then gave her earlobe a quick, but tender lovebite.

"And I am terrified."

Now.

Who the heck says that last sentence? I think it is Ash, but where do I want to go from there? Aaargh!

Moral: Do NOT let yourself be interrupted when writing a love scene!

PS

Got four copies of the WHISPERING GALLERY, a magazine for Dunnett readers, yesterday. They look lovely, and I can't wait to dig in! (... after the romance chapter ... after the romance chapter ... after the romance chapter ...)

Sunday Night Chatter

Made good progress with the thesis today. :O) Finishing the romance chapter by the end of next week looks actually do-able at the moment! *knocking on wood* Yay!

Have I mentioned that the podchatter bookmarks arrived? They are really gorgeous, and as soon as I've got said romance chapter finished, I'm going to send them out. I spent the past two hours with putting together CD covers for podcast-sample CDs. Some months ago I bought a magzine on scrap-booking and they had an extra booklet full of patterned paper. I used some of that and am quite happy with the results. (Scrap-booking looks like something I'd love doing... If only I had more time!)

Good night! :O)

Ritas & Golden Hearts!!!

I totally forgot: the names of the Rita and GH finalists are out! You can find the list here.

Since I'm not on that list, I allowed myself a one-hour-bout of hysterical tears yesterday (but I'm a bit ... uhm ... unstable these days anyway and cry at the slightest provocation: switch on the tv, see a baby, cry. Duh. It's the age I tell you!) So I bawled a bit, worried my cats, ate all my chocolate-oat-cookies, and felt utterly sorry for myself.

This morning I had fortunately overcome all this excess of self-pity, and finally realized that quite a number of my friends were nominated. So now I can be excited for them and cheer them on in Atlanta. (And I don't have to buy a new dress for the awards ceremony. Yay! I hate buying new dresses!!!!) :O)

And besides, I can always buy more chocolate-oat-cookies. *g*

Sandy's Podchatter #3

... is now online! Today I talk a bit about old books, about fore-edge painting, and read three of my old poems.

I hope you'll enjoy it! :O)

Sandy's Podchatter

Nah, not interrupted

I'm a daftie. I haven't yet installed the DSL modem thingie, but when wrote yesterday's post, I totally forgot that they said you could still have access to the internet even with an ISDN modem. Besides, I can always go and use my parents' computer.

So, if she didn't install the DSL modem thingie, what the heck DID she do today??? you might ask. Well, I had one of those PhD Project Days. And it went really well -- even though I wrote only about three pages all in all. That seems to be my normal pace for academic writing. Still, I will NOT panic!!!

I finished the chapter with the definition of romance and ended the whole thing with a reference to TLB. I'm not quite sure whether I'll be able to leave it in (that depends on what my prof has to say about it), but for me it was the easiest option to use my own book when it came to explain certain points about the structure of romance.

Chatterblog Interrupted?

I might not be able to get internet access in the next few days. I'm going to get a broadband connection tomorrow, but there might be problems setting the whole thing up. We'll see...

Earlier this week I managed to write Ginny and Ash further towards the bedroom. Yay! *LOL* And today I had a look at the villa I want to use for my German setting in "Betrayal" (the story will be set in Florence -- or Siena, I haven't quite decided yet --, Germany and England). It's a lovely old estate in the town where I spent the first few years of my life. Lately I have become fascinated by it again. I plan to post pictures of the villa when I'm doing a "Secrets of Betrayal" page for my website. :O)

Website Update

I'm seriously p.o.: After I've done battle with the stupid gif.s for the whole fricking weekend (and some of the gif.s actually had the nerve to not work the way I wanted them to work!), the uploading function of my homepage-building-for-dummies programme wouldn't upload the stupd gif-banner. (Can you say "AAARGH!"?)

So, I've just rewritten the welcome page and uploaded the whole website for the third time today. (Can you say "Argh! Argh! Argh"?) But now there's some info on "Betrayal" up and the pseudo-cover I've created for promo purposes. Here it is -- I hope you'll like it!

Booohooo!

I've wanted to show you this lovely banner I've created for "Betrayal", but for some reason it appeared as a jpg on the blog and thus wouldn't DO anything. Duh.

And I'm still not down to a tolerable size with the banner for my homepage. Duh. Duh.

But I will master this, too! Ha! I'm not going to be beaten by a stupid gif animation, no, not me!

I also didn't do a podcast today 'cause I was busy with some more uni stuff and with the gif animation, of course. And with stroking the cat so she will stop pulling out her fur and biting into her kitty elbows.

Computer-Geek Update, or Veni, vidi, vici (well, almost)

Gif Animations, here I come!!! :O)

I've just created my very first gif animation. With a programme I downloaded for free! (This is so cool!) Now I just need to find out how to create animations of a somewhat smaller size than 438 KB.

But I will conquer this, too!

Hammering a Story into Shape

Wrote furiously most of the day yesterday. Poor Ash spent a lot of time being miserable. Now I just need to drag Ash & Ginny upstairs into bed and Bob's my uncle. *g* I hope I'll finish the story done until the end of the week.

Well.

That's probably a bit too optimistic ...

Also worked on bookmarks for "Betrayal". Perhaps I can get those done in time for the BLC conference, too, or at least in time for the public reading on 19 May. :O)

Blurb for "Betrayal"

Seventeen years ago she fled from England.

Now she returns to confront the man whom she once loved more than life itself before lies and deceit tore her life and love apart.

Will their marriage stand a second chance?

Bookmarks

Spent the past hours putting together two bookmarks for promoting Sandy's Podchatter. They're going to be gorgeous! (I hope.) Love doing bookmarks, but now I need food! Urgently!!!!! 'cause I skipped lunch.

The Strangest Things Happen

So yesterday I chose names for the characters of that new novella I'm writing at the moment.

Today I started reading A Critical Companion to Beowulf by Andy Orchard, and on page 12 I found this:

"Although the combined manuscript apparently passed into the possession of the British Museum soon after its foundation in 1753, it had by then already suffered greatly, most seriously in the calamitous fire that swept through the Cotton collection on Saturday, October 23, 1731, damaging or destroying around 200 items when they were stored at the ominously named Ashburnham House."

A bit eerie, isn't it?

Sunny Tuesday

We've got a lovely, sunny day here in Frankfurt -- certainly too sunny to start the day writing about one's suicidal hero. So I let him wallow in his study for a little while longer, and instead started to read the book on Beowulf I got a few weeks ago. The story of the Beowulf manuscript alone reads like crime fiction -- I think this is going to be such an exciting course! (Of course, I thought exactly the same thing last spring, too, and look what happened.) (But no, I'm not going to let this spoil my excitement! Ha!)

Since it's so wonderfully sunny today, it might be a perfect day to write the prologue for "Betrayed". (Or do you think "Betrayal" would be better? I just can't decided... Opinions, please!) The prologue is set in Italy and it starts like this:

Italy -- where the summers are dry and hot and taste of herbs and olives and tomatoes; where the most famous artists of Europe have left their traces in old palaces and in churches striped like zebras.

:O)

Pet Update

Today our biggest, cutest koi died. Bohn was so beautiful, black and orange, with the softest fish-nose. He was tame, so when you walked up to the pond in summer he would come swimming towards you, hoping to get some fish treats. He really was the cutest fish. (This has been a crap winter in regard to our poor fish.)

Furthermore, one of the kitties apparently has psychological problems because for once I needed my whole desk for corrections and she had less space to bask in the heater-generated warmth on the desk. And now she's pulling out bits of her fur. And I feel bad.

On a brighter note: I wrote lots today! Yay! (Well, at least I think it was lots. I can't tell for sure because I used the AlphaSmart.) (But I'm quite, quite sure it was lots! *g*)

Choosing Names

Today I spent the better part of an hour trying to come up with fitting names for the characters of BETRAYED. For titles and surnames I'm now using my 200-year-old Debrett's, but it doesn't really help much with Christian names: all these people were called William or Henry or Frederick. Can you imagine a romance hero called Henry??? Nah.

Therefore I also leaved through my Concise Oxford Dictionary of First Names. As I've said before, choosing names is a bit tricky: on the one hand you've got to find something that fits the character, on the other hand it should also fit the era in which the story is set. Furthermore, you might also want to choose a name that won't reduce readers to fits of giggles. Heavens to Murgatroyd, you definitely won't want that! ;-P

So this time I've settled for Georgiana Crawley, called "Ginny", and Frederick Crawley, Earl of Ashburnham, called "Ash". Opinions, anyone? Giggles? Tears? (I hope not!)

Smooching with the Muse

This evening I had once again a smooching part with my Muse! YAY!!!!! And even though it was a difficult scene to write (it's a climactic scene and involves quite some emotional drama), the just flowed into the AlphaSmart.

Another thing I found difficult about this scene is that the looks the characters exchange are so important -- but try writing that down without repeating yourself over and over! After all, there are just so many alternatives for "to look". And it reads a bit strange when the characters mostly look at each other and walk around the room (glancing this way and that, fixing their eyes on this person and that). Ah well, I'll see what I can do for that scene during revisions!

Hooray, it works!!!!

Podcast should now work fine. I've just tried it out and everything came through nice and clear. And I was not depressed yesterday when I recorded it. I somehow sound depressed. Hmph. Still, I hope you'll like the episode! :O) (And perhaps it's only me who thinks I sound depressed.)

Podcast Problems

Apparently there are some general technical problems at libsyn today. I've removed the second episode for now (because it wouldn't play anyway), and will try to repost it tomorrow. Thanks for your patience!

2nd update
Tried to repost the stupid thing. Still doesn't work. Booohooo! I'm so frustrated!!! After I spent the whole afternoon putting those 15 minutes together! (Heck, you wouldn't think it would take so long, would you? Need to find a more efficient method.)

Litter tray is cleaned, btw. I'm so good! *g*

Sandy's Podchatter #2

... is now online! Today's topics are:

-- a bad-weather haiku
-- a review of HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE
-- a reading of A FAIRY TALE BURLESQUE

Enjoy!

Walking through Frankfurt

Went to Frankfurt today and discovered a number of strange things:

1) Something strange was going on in the city today: only three train lines went past the main station into town and in the main station there were noticably more policemen and security staff then usual. Not very reassuring, really.

2) That newsagent in the main station apparently no longer sells DANCE EUROPE. Duh.

3) My shoes were not made for long-distance walking: walked from main station to the Hauptwache and when I finally arrived, my feet were on fire. Double-duh.

4) In some shops shop assistants don't consider it necessary to assist customers. Or to restock things. Like the Original Suffolk Canisters I had planend to buy. No need to say, I'll never go to that shop again.

5) I am indeed able to walk into a bookshop and walkt out of it again without having bought a book.

Well, I did buy some books, never fear:

A) Rebecca Winters, FATHER BY CHOICE (for once I couldn't resist a M&B photograph-cover!)

B) Helen Bianchin, THE HIGH-SOCIETY WIFE

C) Rita Mae Brown & Sneaky Pie Brown, CAT'S EYEWITNESS

No I'll need to see what I can do about the blisters on my feet. :O)

On Mills&Boon Novels and Gay Secondary Characters

I spent the morning re-reading several of my Mills&Boon novels. I started my Mills&Boon collection six years ago during my eight-month stay in Galway, Ireland (west coast= rain, rain, rain, more rain, and oh yes, rain).

Galway Cathedral

It was my friend Ann, who got me hooked on Mills&Boon novels. One thing I will always remember about Ann (apart from getting me hooked on M&B books) is something that happened when we went to the Arran Islands by ferry. I suddenly felt really, really sick, and when we finally reached dry land, Ann (whose family originally came from Kenia and whose skin is very dark) told my in a voice full of wonder: "You know, you're the first white person I've seen going really white." *ggg* Ann was a dear friend, and I was so sad when her exchange programme ended after only one semester. Unfortunately we lost contact after a while, but whenever I'm standing in front of my Mills&Boon shelf I'm always reminded of Ann. :O)

What I like so much about M&B novels is that they're so short you can read them in about 2 hours (they're like small chocolates, really); you don't have to wait too long for the happy ending (and your own happy sigh); they are, in a way, slightly old-fashioned; and they've just got the best brooding, moody, harsh Italian alpha-heroes, who are so beautiful to watch falling in love against their will. (Of course, sometimes you wish the heroine would just hit the hero over his dense head, but well, you can get over that).

Yet I somehow liked the books better when they were printed on thinner paper and were slimmer. And when they used the painted covers! I really, really loved those. Among my favourite "old" M&B covers are those for Penny Jordan's LOVER BY DECEPTION (1999), Sandra Field's UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL! (1998) and Kate Walker's THE TEMPTATION GAME (1998).

~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~

So, spent the morning and half of the afternoon reading. Then I finally wrote down that scene I plotted while I was invigilating that exam on Monday. I really blame it all on the LOVE LETTER team: the March issue of the magazine contained an article on gay secondary characters in romance (prominently featuring THE LILY BRAND and comments by its author *smile*). One thing the article mentioned was that while there are now a number of (heterosexual) romances with unvillainous gay secondary characters and some of them even in a happy relationship, you usually still don't see anything beyond a mere kiss (it's a bit different in erotic romances, e.g. think of the threesome in Emma Holly's "The Love Slave" in SECRETS Vol. 4!). "Gosh," I thought, "they're right. We can't have that ..." (I blame reading too much Terry Pratchett for this streak of subversiveness!) (Isn't it cool when you can always blame other people? *ggg*)

So, as I said, it's the LoveLetter team who is to blame for the scene I wrote today (not part of BEWITCHED, but of a new novella) -- it's not a sex scene (that would be pushing the envelope a bit too far, I guess), even though it is certainly sexually charged. But it is mainly about emotional intimacy, which I consider to be the more powerful and the closer to the heart. It starts with:

Barefoot and otherwise equally stark-naked, Trevor Augustus Sherard, the youngest son of the Earl of Harborough, sauntered across the room to the window and lifted the drapes to peek outside. "Marvellous day."

Ode to Joy

Oh, what joy! Oh, what happiness!!!! I just finished correcting the last §$"%&/" exam! Hooray! (Okay, okay, I admit I spent a lot of time simply being miserable about having to correct so many exams.) I'm finally free!!!! (Okay, so I still have to correct their group projects, but that's almost fun.) Free!!!

I say I feel absolutely light-headed with joy and relief.

Or perhaps with hunger. Because I skipped lunch today.

Will now go off and transform myself into Kitchen Goddess and will cook heavenly meal consisting of spaghetti with spinach. :O)

Ooops

My rant about the historical inaccuracies in P&P never made it onto the blogpage (*booohooo* blogspot/blogger doesn't like me anymore!) (just kidding), so I'll need to repost that sometime soon.

Anyway, the results of the AAR Reader Poll are up. And while The Lily Brand didn't make it on this last list, I'm extraordinarily pleased that it did show up in the interim-results list. :O)

Favourite John Denver song at the moment: Wild Montana Skies. Hmmmmmm!

Tuesday 'Tis & That

Had a deucedly bad day yesterday: first, spent two hours watching other people write their exams (with me as person of authority to raise hell should they dare to cheat) (oh yes, and my other big task was to write down who went when to the loo) (Have you any idea how long two hours can be??? Even when you spend considerable time mentally drafting a scene involving two butt-naked men for some future novel...) (two absolutely gorgeous, butt-naked men!), then went to the uni canteen and ate cuttlefish-rings (which was probably not such a good idea). Afterwards went to Hofheim to get a bank statement and was positively surprised at the amount of money in my account (realized only later that I'd paid the flight tickets with my credit card and that my credit card statement for last month hasn't arrived yet. Duh.), bought the new PRIDE&PREJUDICE film in celebration (so I can adequately bitch about it later on), then went home. As I passed the post office in Hofheim I realized I was getting the beginnings of a mild (that's what I, poor deluded soul, thought) migraine. By the time I was home, it had worsened so I thought I'd take a quick nap until cat-feeding time (see? having cats is like having little children). By the time I woke up, migraine had taken on epic proportions and I felt so thoroughly sick I feared I might have fish poisoning (well, I've never had fish poisoning before, but given that I ate cuttlefish in the university canteen ...). Fell right back into bed after having fed the cats (Pünktchen threw a tantrum when I disappeared behind the closed door once more). Luckily, the fish-poisoning-fear turned out to be as false as the finger-might-fall-off-scare. *G*

Yeah!

I actually WROTE something today!!! I worked some more on that British-Museum-scene. I have not yet reached the marriage proposal, but instead managed to work in a reference to dragonslaying. *g*

Launching Sandy's Podchatter

Okay, so I had planned to do this tomorrow, but I just couldn't wait any longer: I have joined the world of podcasting, which means that from now on you will be able not just to read my ramblings, no, now you can also listen to them. Topics for the first episode include Sandy's take on settings -- Featured Book: Dorothy Dunnett's LYMOND CHRONICLES -- Reading: "Daisy" (a spring poem -- which has proved to be a bit premature). I hope you'll enjoy this podcast of mine! Please feel free to leave comments on the show, either here or on the pocast website. And now, please come over to

Sandy's Podchatter

at

http://www.podchatter.libsyn.com

Horror Schwab? Sadly not

I think I need some holidays. I do the most ludicrous things online. E.g., today I went to http://homokaasu.org/gematriculator/ and found out that this blog is only 39% evil. How do you transform into Horror-Anything if you're only 39% evil, I ask you?

Some holidays would really be nice. I miss the writing. At the moment I just can't write; most evenings I feel as if something dropped onto my head. Heck, I can't even concentrate enough to read a normal book.

We're snowed in!

Woke this morning to white stuff falling down from the skies. (If that's angelic dandruff, they're definitely not using the right shampoo up there .) So far, I've been valiantly trying to ignore the pile of exams on my desk. But I guess, it can't be helped: I really need to get those corrections done. *sigh*

The next semester is already casting shadows in the form of amazon packages with books on Beowulf. Nearly got a heart attack during registration for my course when one of the students mentioned she studies Anglophone Languages with special emphasis on Old and Middle English. I totally forgot about these historical linguistics people.

It's still snowing.

I think I'm going to make myself a pot of nice hot tea.

(Any volunteers for the correcting stuff???)

I'm turning into a geek!

What have I been doing with myself today? I taught myself how to use an audio-editing programme so I'll be able to enhance (i.e. cut the ehms *g*) future promo CDs. Bought a programme for transforming .wav files into mp3 (for storing more stuff on the brandnew MP3-player). Stupid programme doesn't work. Or rather the stupid CD-ROM with the stupid programme doesn't work. Duh.

Still, it's been an exciting day. I've learnt about dragging music onto my MP3-player, about studying sound waves, cutting ehms, and about crossfading! Yay! (See? I told you: I'm slowly turning into a geek. That's what writing does to me. *ggg*)

Another Approach to Transforming into the Horror-Schwab

Sandy is a Giant Squid that will turn back into a Human in the morning, has an Extra Head, carries a Flamethrower, and is Covered with a Thick Slime and Blind. Strength: 6 Agility: 1 Intelligence: 11 To see if your Giant Battle Monster can defeat Sandy, enter your name and choose an attack: fights Sandy using Strength Agility Intelligence

Rant

You know, I'm mostly nice and harmless and it takes a lot to make me mad. But there are a few things I really can't stand. And one of them is definitely putting down romance subgenres and formats you don't like reading, on a romance reader message board of all places! ARGH! For heaven's sake, if you don't like paranormals, romantic suspense or category romance, don't buy them. After all, nobody forces you to read them, so there's absolutely no need to bitch about them. Geez.

Rant over.

PS: As you can see I survived the Day of Horrors. *g*

PPS: All my students did, too. *ggg*