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"Schofseckel" has been replaced by "dummi Nuß".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. :)