One of *these* days

Boohoo! I've just tried uploading the brandnew German website (for which I got a new subdomain!) -- and realized that

A) I made a stupid mistake when I chose names for the German bookshelf ("Bücher.htm" won't work for everybody, will it?)

and

B) that the stupid subdomain thingy isn't working. Duh.

And here I was, feeling as happy as a white-frosted cupcake because I thought the whole stupid thing was finished and ready for publication. ARGH!

Oh ...

And just now one of the cats has been sick in the hallway.

Again.

Yes, it's one of *these* days!

I think I need to dash into my library, stare at my lovely Totoro and chant soothing chants....

One of these days ....

Just came home after 10 of university -- to find one of the kitties being sick in the hallway. Duh.

But ...

BUT ...

BUT!!!

I got a stuffed Totoro* today!!!! It's the cutest thing. It spent the 8 hours sitting on my desk in my office, then drove with me in the car (sitting on the passenger seat) and is now surveying my library from the lofty height of one of my romance shelves. :O)


*from Studio Ghibli's TONARI NO TOTORO (my favourite animated film ever!)

'nother Website Update

Thanks to the fact that I didn't have to go to uni today, I was able to complete the revamping of the German pages, which means ...

... the new website is complete!!!!!

Well, almost. I'm going to add just three or four more Scotland pictures and another page with an excerpt from HIGHLAND LOVE, the first novel I ever wrote in English (anybody out there who still remembers Kathy & Rory?) (not to forget Hermann Bär!). In addition, I really want to find out how to put the German pages into a different section before I put everything online. But hey -- we're getting there!

And Bob'll be my uncle! *g*

Fixing the 1st Chapter

This past weekend I ordered bookmarks for BETRAYAL and put together a little teaser brochure. In order to do this, I had to fix Chapter I -- which really terrified me, 'cause, hey, I'm suffering from my usual mid-chapter-3-blues and then everything I write seems to be crap. Sooo .... imagine my surprise when I realized that all it would take to fix Chapter I was to change a word.

One word.

Now Frau Else doesn't cackle, but chuckle, and Bob's my uncle! :)

Oh happy day!

Website Update

Today I've finished converting all the English pages of my website, plus adding a few new pages. I'm very pleased with how everything looks - and I hope you'll be, too! Now I just need to convert the German pages and then the whole new revamped site can go online. YAY! :O)

Mills&Boon Joy & Gloom

As you well know I've got this secret passion for smouldering southern European heroes stalking through books in the blackest of moods, for secret babies, yes, even for amnesia plots! (Anybody remember Penny Jordan's LOVER BY DECEPTION? Now that was a thoroughly sweet story!) And I'm beside myself with joy whenever I find a book that stretches conventions and is refreshingly different (imo, Lucy Gordon's PREGNANCY BOND definitely fits the bill, or, more recently Jessica Hart's HER READY-MADE FAMILY -- why, in this novel the heroine is richer of the hero! She is the multi-millionnaire and he the struggeling country vet!)

BUT I'm decidedly wary whenever a book comes too close to reality (hey, that's the nice thing about these uber-alpha, sulking Italian heroes, the secret babies and the poor heroines getting whacked over the head and suffering from amnesia for weeks on end -- they're so improbable!). And a book that deals exclusively with the disintegration of a marriage and describes a miscarriage and the aftermath in all its horrific details -- that makes me thoroughly sick! For heaven's sake, I'm not reading romance to make myself depressed! And if an author tells me on 175 pages how unsuited the protagonists are, how unhappy they make each other and how happily they tear into each other, I'm not going to buy the happy ending that's produced on the last 8 pages like a bunny out of a magician's hat! AAAAAARGH!!!!

Evening Musings

With all the cross-snarking that's going on in Romancelandia at the moment, I should perhaps start another blog: "Jabberwock -- Manxome Burblings of a Romance Author". And I'd choose a really dark background and could finally transform myself into the Horror-Schwab! Yay!

*bwahahahaha*

(According to a colleague of mine who used to translate strange computer games, *bwahahaha* is the appropriate kind of laughter for evil people. So I'll need to practise!)

Lymond Chronicles in a Minute :O)

I've just stumbled across this -- but beware! Spoilers ahead!

The homepage is coming along fine and it looks as if I might have it online even sooner than I thought. I'm going to add a few more galleries: RWA National (finally!!!) and Scotland.

A Voice from the Past

On 20 May 2000 I posted my first real excerpt -- a love scene (sort of) from HIGHLAND LOVE, my first novel in English -- on the LOL Literary Forum (actually that was also one of the first scenes of that book I had written). And the first person to answer* was Lynda with: "Oof! Now there's a love scene with a twist at the end there. Please come in . . ." At the time, Lynda was writing a wonderful fantasy novel called BETWEEN THE PAGES, the story of young Sierra Weiss, who happens to tumble into a parallel world via a special book. I simply loved it!

Unfortunately, I lost contact with Linda when she moved to Japan three years ago, so imagine my delight when I found an e-mail from her in my mailbox this morning! And guess what! Her first book will be coming out this fall! Unfortunately it's not BETWEEN THE PAGES (I never got to read the end of that story *grumble-mumble*), but I'm sure this new story is just as fine. NOW AND ZEN is YA fiction and has got the most gorgeous cover:

From the publisher's website : "Nori Tanaka is thrilled to be studying abroad in Tokyo, Japan, but it isn't exactly what she had imagined. She expected tranquil gardens and swoopy-roofed houses, not concrete and neon. But after exploring more of the country, Nori knows she gas a good chance of finding the hidden Japanese spirit and Zen mind-set within herself. " Sounds intriguing, doesn't it? So I hope you'll all rush to the bookstores at the beginning of September and grab a copy!

* Funnily enough I've just discovered that May 2000 saw not only my debut on the Lit Forum, but also that of another young lady, who called herself "Ceit Mc" on the LOL boards. This was the beginning of her reply to my infamous love scene on 21 May 2000: "Hi! I've never posted here before, but figured this would be a good place to start. . . ." Hey, Kate, that was you! :O)

Charlotte MacLeod

Remember that book I bought because it came with a letter from Dorothy Dunnett? And how pleased I was to discover she must have been as charming and witty in real life as her books suggest? Well, I've just found out that the same must have been true about Charlotte MacLeod: I've stumbled across this lovely site which features letters MacLeod wrote to a reader and friend. Seeing those charming illustrations in her letters makes you somehow aware that despite the beauty of e-mails something does get lost ...

Here's a link to said site: http://www.cinemind.com/macleod/main.html

Enjoy!

The Sneak Preview of the New Website

I've put the new welcome-page online -- please let me know what you think of the new design!

Test page

Heureka!

It works, after all! And this means, of course, that my 'puter loves me, after all! Yipee!

The transfer from old to new site will take a while, though, but the result will be definitely worth it. Well, at least that's what I hope! :O)

Please keep your fingers crossed for my new website and me.

Website Mess

Fiddled with the new design for my website these past hours. Result: a mess.

No.

Make that a big mess.

Duh.

Had planned to streamline all the source codes. Had planned to work with style sheet thingy. Result: see above.

Double duh.

'puter obviously doesn't like me today. Will go and console myself with chocolate.

Spielkind II

Since I got the fantastiggerish DSL connection, I've been exploring the wonderful world of online games.

Free online games, that is. *g*

So here's a list of some of my favourite games:

Samorost 1 (just lovely!)

Samorost 2 (more loveliness)

Sesam Katapult (Scandinavian fun)

Lemmings Boot Camp (cuuuuuute!)

Hunga Basic Needs (the stone age loo)

Clash 'n Slash (here be aliens)

P.S.

Have you noticed? My weather pixie changes her clothes depending on the temperature!

Free Books!!!!

This is a truly wonderful week! When I came to uni this morning I found a box with used, unwanted, deserted, lonely books standing in the hallway. They were all published in the 1980s and have those charming, slightly old-fashioned covers.


So in the next few weeks I'm going to explore the fictional worlds of Charlotte MacLeod. :O)

Books

Got four packages of books today. FOUR!!!! Yay! What a wonderful day! :O)

Have you ever bought a book just because of its cover? I have -- Helen Kirkman's DESTINY. (This is all Dorie's fault since I saw that particular book on her blog! *g*) Isn't the cover simply gorgeous?

But what makes this day even more wonderful: the Muse is back! After a most miserable weekend and Monday afternoon when I just couldn't write or only produced the most horrid prose imaginable (isn't curious that I get my chapter-three-blues even when I'm writing a novella?), I finally got some writing done this morning before breakfast. Sitting on one of the stools in the kitchen with my AlphaSmart on my lap is apparently a pose the Muse thinks of as appropriate for kissing-sessions. :O)

Sunday Afternoon Fun :O)

The website is coming along fine - I've now almost completed the templates for both the German and the English site. I just need to create some nice buttons to go with the rest of the design. And figure out why I've got white margins on the left and bottom.... *scratching my head*

~*~

I've found the following on one of the boards at The Mystic Castle and it was just too cute not to share. :) Enjoy!

Why God made Moms -- BRILLIANT Answers given by 2nd grade school children to the following questions!!

Why did God make mothers?
1. She's the only one who knows where the scotch tape is.
2. Mostly to clean the house.
3. To help us out of there when we were getting born.

How did God make mothers?
1. He used dirt, just like for the rest of us.
2. Magic plus super powers and a lot of stirring
3. God made my Mom just the same like he made me. He Just used bigger parts.

What ingredients are mothers made of?
1. God makes mothers out of clouds and angel hair and everything nice in the world and one dab of mean.
2. They had to get their start from men's bones. Then they mostly use string, I think.

Why did God give you Your mother & not some other mom?
1. We're related
2. God knew she likes me a lot more than other people's moms like me.

What kind of little girl was your mom?
1. My mom has always been my mom and none of that other stuff.
2. I don't know because I wasn't there, but my guess would be pretty bossy.
3. They say she used to be nice.

What did mom need to know about dad before she married him?
1. His last name.
2. She had to know his background. Like is he a crook? Does he get drunk on beer?
3. Does he make at least $800 a year? Did he say NO to drugs and YES to chores?

Why did your mom marry your dad?
1. My dad makes the best spaghetti in the world. And my Mom eats a lot.
2. She got too old to do anything else with him.
3. My grandma says that Mom didn't have her thinking cap on.

Who's the boss at your house?
1. Mom doesn't want to be boss, but she has to because dad's such a goof ball.
2. Mom. You can tell by room inspection. She sees the stuff under the bed.
3. I guess Mom is, but only because she has a lot more to do than dad.

What's the difference between moms & dads?
1. Moms work at work and work at home & dads just go to work at work.
2. Moms know how to talk to teachers without scaring them.
3. Dads are taller & stronger, but moms have all the real power 'cause that's who you got to ask if you want to sleep over at your friend's.
4. Moms have magic, they make you feel better without medicine.

What does your mom do in her spare time?
1. Mothers don't do spare time.
2. To hear her tell it, she pays bills all day long.

What would it take to make your mom perfect?
1. On the inside she's already perfect. Outside, I think some kind of plastic surgery.
2. Diet. You know, her hair. I'd diet, maybe blue.

If you could change one thing about your Mom, what would it be?
1. She has this weird thing about me keeping my room clean. I'd get rid of that.
2. I'd make my Mom smarter. Then she would know it was my sister who did it and not me.
3. I would like for her to get rid of those invisible eyes on the back of her head.

Been busy this week!

Went to ikea and university on Wednesday: needed to get some books from our library, found a scrap of paper with my notes from last summer in one of them *g*, placed a huge, HUGE, HUUUUUGE order at abebooks -- and finally managed to get myself registered for the PAN programme (= for published writers) at RWA. Wednesday evening I wondered how the heck I had managed to stuff the wicker armchair into the back of my car because it sure wouldn't come out of it. Mum intervened (yay for Mums!) and together we finally got that thing dragged out of my car. Yet upstairs in my flat I then realized that the quality of those wicker chairs has continually decreased in the past years and that the new wicker chair looks absolutely ghastly with the old wicker chairs. *roll eyes*

On Thursday I did some internet research for my dissertation. I was absolutely thrilled about what I found out -- until I realized my four-hour internet research would end up bundled into a footnote. An eenie-weenie footnote....

And yesterday I spent mostly with feeling sorry for myself because A) I felt like crap, and B) one of my cats was sick about five or six times throughout the flat. And you know how cats are always sick twice? Yep. That made 10 or 12 kitty messes. (Something's wrong with her tummy, the poor thing.)

And I also thought about redesigning my website. So I spent the afternoon browsing for suitable pictures and playing with my version of Photo Shop. :O)

Nighttime Reveries

.... talking to your friend on the phone, while you browse the Mills&Boon website together, ahhing and ohhing over new books ....

Isn't it wonderful to be a romance reader? :O)

Blind as a Bat

Geeez, when did I start this blog? Over a year ago? And in all that time I never noticed that there was a whooping mistake in my profile... *head on table*

New Podcast Episode (and 250th Post)!

Yay! I've finally managed to get my act together and create a new episode of Sandy's Podchatter. :O) It's a reading of an old short story of mine, called "With the Godmothers' Best Wishes." I hope you'll enjoy it!

Sandy's Podchatter

Spielkind

As you can see from the new stuff on the sidebar, I've played around for a bit: I've added the weather-pixie (which tells you all about the weather in Frankfurt -- so if the weather's particularily disgusting you can pity me if you like *g*) and have also adopted an egg:





It will hatch on July 1, but whatever creeperly will come out is a big surprise. :) Neat, isn't it? You can find the egg at the bottom of the sidebar, too.

Kissed by the Muse

I started this morning with writing an emotionally difficult scene I had successfully avoided for several days now. I think I've already mentioned somewhere else that I find scenes infused with lots of negative emotions very difficult to write. After all, I have to go through these emotions while writing them. Not one of the most comfortable things in the world!

So I was sort of surprised that I pushed through this particular scene without much fuss. Of course, this could just mean that the scene has turned out crap. *g*

Furthermore, the hero continues to be extremely unpleasant to his heir -- and I wonder whether I'll be able to successfully redeem him at the end of the story. Hmmm.... We'll just have to wait and see, won't we?

Here be Germans! :O)

Yesterday one of my friends from the German romance message board announced that she sold two erotic romance stories to Freya's Bower. YAY!!! The book with the two stories has just come out (isn't the cover HOT?). Big congratulations, Birte/Lili!

If you'd like to find out more about Lili B. Adams and her writing, just hop over to her website at http://www.lilibadams.com.