Allergy test

For some time now I've been having what seem suspiciously like anaphylactic shock reactions to something I eat at some restaurants. So far I haven't turned blue, but I have fainted and it's a little unnerving, as much for my companions as for me. The NHS specialist I saw several years ago was unhelpful to the point of being rude, but the attacks have kept on coming and finally, on Saturday, I plucked up courage to go for an allergy test at a local health food shop.

I have to admit I was dubious. The test was by means of a Vega machine and when I researched the process online the results were very negative. At best, I thought it would identify a few 'usual suspects' that I might be intolerant to. At worst, it would be £50 down the drain. But in fact, I was pleasantly surprised. The operator was clearly very experienced (and very sensible), and she'd set the whole thing up as a controlled experiment, so that neither of us knew the results in advance. I wasn't allowed to tell her what I thought I might be allergic to, so there was no way she could influence the results. And in turn, I had no idea which substance I was being tested for, so I couldn't influence the results.

And the results were interesting to say the least. Mild intolerances to citrus and tomatoes, a much more unusual intolerance to carrots (yes, really - she checked three times!) and a high intolerance (bordering on danger levels) to monosodium glutamate and several food dyes.

The mild intolerances aren't a problem - I simply cut out those foods as much as possible for a couple of months before reintroducing them gradually to my diet, which should hopefully give me time to build up tolerance to them. The higher level results for MSG, tartrazine and carmine red are much more of an issue, and are almost certainly what's causing my allergic reactions. How strange that the NHS specialist couldn't or wouldn't test for those, instead of selecting a couple of ingredients at random that I told him I hadn't eaten.

Of course, it's going to be difficult to avoid additives, particularly when eating out, but I can try to avoid cheaper restaurants which are more likely to use cheaper ingredients, and I can now press my GP for an epi-pen to carry around with me. And I no longer have to feel like a hysterical, middle-aged female who's imagining the whole thing, over-excited by the prospect of eating out, or trying to gain attention by fainting in public. Yes. Those really are some of the things that were suggested by the specialist.

Homeopathic testing gets a bad press (and sometimes probably deserves it). But in my case so far, it's homeopathy five, conventional medicine nil. And the best £50 I've spent in a very long while.

UK Meet guest blog post

The UK Meet (for readers, writers and lovers of gltb fiction) is rapidly approaching and we're starting to do a little promotion of the event, and ourselves, in the lead-up.

Today, it's the turn of a guest blog post over at Jessewave's m/m review blog, where various authors who'll be heading to Brighton for the event are given the chance to say what they're hoping to get out of it. Other than sore feet from too much standing, sore throats from too much yakking, and a goody bag, of course.

Muggins here has added her twopence worth, so if you'd like to know more about my reasons for attending - and check out some of the other writers who'll be there - then pop along to Jessewave's blog for the lowdown.

Oh, and ps - there are still a few places available if you want to come along yourself. The place - Hotel Mercure in Brighton. The time - Friday 14th to Sunday 16th September, although you can just come for the Saturday. The cost - um, I can't remember, but you can find that and a load of other details on the UK Meet website. Do come along - it's going to be fun!

Edits

The first round of edits on Gleams of a Remoter World have landed with a thump in my inbox, so I'm likely to be a little inundated for the next few days until I've worked my way through them.

Thankfully, so far, they don't seem too horrendous and thankfully I've now got to grips with the latest version of Word, so I'm not fighting to get every comment or comma in the right place! Even so, it's always hard work making sure I've dealt with everything I'm being asked to. So if I'm a little absent please bear with me. I will be back. And I'm very excited about the prospect of having this novel published.

Walking weekend

The good weather continued (mostly) unbroken throughout the weekend. We took one look at the blue skies and sunshine and said 'hang the chores', grabbed our boots and went out for a couple of lower level but still lovely walks.

On Saturday afternoon we chugged our way round about two thirds of the so-called 'Windermere three peaks' route - a slightly tongue-in-cheek description for an ascent of the three small fells at the back of the town: Brant Fell, School Knott and Orrest Head. I wimped out after the first due to the heat, which is fine when you're sitting elegantly in the back garden but a killer when toiling up one in four slopes with no shade. Dave, though, went on to complete the second as well and is hoping to add the third in the next few weeks. And even I must have walked a good three miles, much of it very uphill.

Yesterday we took the car out a short distance from the town, on narrow winding lanes through countryside that was like a step back in time. I'm not going to say exactly where we ended up because it was so utterly unspoilt and peaceful that I don't want to accidentally popularise it and spoil it for ever! But we parked by a small tarn and took off walking in the general area between Troutbeck and Kentmere, along a track that was simply plastered with wild flowers. I must have counted 25 or 30 different varieties in a four mile walk and haven't seen flowers like that for years. Setting off it was sunny with a fresh breeze, but after we'd been walking about an hour the clouds rolled in, the humidity level shot up, and the sky looked dark and threatening. We carried on for a short way, but thunderstorms on the fells can be unpleasant at best so in the end we wimped out again and headed back to the car. Needless to say, by the time we got back the clouds had cleared and the sun was shining as bright as ever... but we still had a really enjoyable Sunday afternoon stroll.

Tourists for a day

Dave and I both have exceptionally busy periods coming up - him with travels all over the place, including abroad, and me with edits on my novel. On Wednesday the sun was shining for a change so we decided to make the most of the opportunity, and a relatively free day before the 'deluge', to become tourists for the day.

We headed over the Kirkstone Pass to Glenridding, grabbed about the last place in the huge car park there, and bought tickets for a boat trip on Ullswater, which I last did when I was about eleven, and Dave had never done before. The scenery around the lake is stunning, with high mountains at the head and more pastoral scenes at the foot, but usually Dave is manhandling the car round bends and past other traffic and can't take his eye off the road. We thought this would give him the chance to actually see the surroundings for a change.

Trouble was, we'd reckoned without the crowds. The boat we were on had not one but two entire coach parties stuffed into it before they even started letting us ordinary passengers on. Consequently we found ourselves down in the bowels of the boat, on stools in the bar area, with hardly any view... as the boat sailed past some of the most spectacular scenery in England. Never mind, we thought, we'll get off at Pooley Bridge, have a wander round and a cuppa, and catch a later boat back when the crowds have died down a bit.

We did exactly that, but everyone else had the same idea and although we got seats on the top deck on the way back, they were under an awning and facing backwards, so we still couldn't see much of the mountains. Sigh.

Never mind, it was a fun trip out, we grabbed a handful of photos from the pier at Glenridding, and we saw what looked suspiciously like the Lake District's only remaining golden eagle soaring over the crags near High Street. A magical moment that made the whole trip worthwhile.

If we do this again, though, it will be firmly out of season when the boats are quieter and we can get a decent seat!

Come to Brighton, win a Kindle!

The organisers of the forthcoming UK Meet in Brighton have just let those of us who will be attending know that there's a chance to win one of three Kindles:

"The organisers of UK Meet 2012 are delighted to announce that delegates will have the chance of winning one of three (count em!) Kindles, thanks to the generosity of one of our sponsors, Silver Publishing. We'll be putting one into the raffle in aid of our link charity (Albert Kennedy Trust) while the others...well, wait and see on the day."

It's still not too late to book your place at the event; anyone who reads, writes or is remotely interested in gltb fiction is more than welcome to attend and there's already a long list of fascinating panels to go to, as well as the chance to meet some of your favourite British (and even non-British) authors.

Yours truly will be popping along on the Saturday and reading out the first 150 words of my latest work at the 'Novel Openings' panel.

So if you're free on 14th, 15th and 16th September (or even just the 15th), and fancy a trip to Brighton and the chance to win yourself a Kindle, see the UK Meet official website for more details.

http://ukglbtfictionmeet.co.uk/

See you there!

'Necessity' in print - update

The Rentboy Collection anthology, containing not only Necessity's Door but three other super titles on the theme of sex bought and sold, is now fully available to buy in print.

The four stories are by yours truly; fellow British author Anne Brooke; Cat Grant; and the writing pair of Heidi Belleau and Violetta Vane; and the stories range from the back streets of Birmingham to New Orleans in the floods.

If you'd like to treat yourself to the collection in print (complete with stunning cover artwork) then hurry along to the Riptide website where you can read excerpts, find out more, and place your order.

Celestial music

Last night we went to a concert with a difference, celebrating the life, work and music of William Herschel, the famous astronomer. It was held at Keswick's newish Theatre by the Lake, which does exactly what it says on the tin, being a theatre right by the side of Derwentwater - and a very nice venue at that. We'd never been before but thoroughly enjoyed our comfy seats at the top of the stalls with a grandstand view of the stage.

The concert itself consisted of ten different pieces of chamber music by Herschel, his friends, relatives and contemporaries, played by The 18th Century Orchestra. They specialise in playing (hardly surprising) 18th century and Baroque music, on instruments authentic to that time, by candlelight, while wearing 18th century costume. It was different, fascinating, colourful and fun, and gave a great impression of what music concerts would have been like in the days before microphones and stage lighting. In between the pieces of music an actor took the part of John Herschel, William Herschel's son, to read out snippets about the astronomer's life, discoveries, work, and music, all in a wry style that was very amusing.

As to Herschel's music, we didn't even know he'd composed any and it soon became apparent why it doesn't get played much. You could even say it was a good job he didn't give up the day job, except that astronomy is actually a night job! Even so, it was a thoroughly entertaining evening and something completely different. Well done to the organisers of the Lake District Summer Music festival for including something so unusual in their repertoire.

Not going for a walk...

The weather wasn't too bad this morning, comparatively speaking. It was cool, cloudy, windy and with frequent showers, but compared to most of the past week that's good, so we decided to get out for a walk while it wasn't bucketing down. After a session with maps and guide books we picked the area known as 'Potter Fell', at the back of Staveley, which is reasonably close to home, reasonably free of crowds, and not too strenuous. Or muddy. Which is a bonus after all the hours of rain.

The walk starts off from the lane between Staveley and the neighbouring village (hamlet?) of Bowston, a road known as the 'back road' which is narrow, twisting, amazingly lost given that it's only about 5 miles from the 21st century bustle of Kendal, and startlingly free of parking spaces. According to our Wainwright book, there was space for one car a few yards from the start of the walk, but that was in the 1970s when the book was last updated so for all we knew it might have disappeared.

It was still there, and would have been perfect for the walk. The only problem - someone was doing construction work in a nearby field, and had put 'no parking' bollards across the parking space, presumably to leave room for trucks and equipment. And there was nowhere else to park.

It was disappointing, but hopeless. We gave up, drove into Kendal instead, had a coffee and a mooch round (me with walking boots and a rucksack) and bought a couple of cookbooks from the discount book shop. We enjoyed the stroll, but it wasn't our nice walk to Potter Fell, Potter Tarn, and the wonderfully-named tarn of Gurnal Dubs. We'll save that for another day, and hope the building work ends soon. And that it isn't bucketing down again by then...

This is what we could have seen if we'd gone: Gurnal Dubs in typical local weather conditions. It looks so atmospheric that I'm even crosser we missed it!

Bold Strokes Nottingham event

I've just been made aware of the following gltb event, organised by Bold Strokes Books and taking place in early August at Waterstones book shop in Nottingham. Because I only found out about it yesterday I can't make arrangements to attend myself, but it sounds as though it's going to be quite a blast, with eleven glbt authors attending, panels etc over two whole days, and a Saturday night party at a local gay club.

Here's the event poster, or pop along to the event webpage for further information.



I can't say 'see you there' but if you do decide to go, have fun and perhaps someone could tell me what it was like?

Necessity in print!

As promised, Necessity's Door will shortly be available in print, as one of the four titles in the Riptide Rentboys anthology. The book is already available to pre-order at the Riptide website, from either Barnes & Noble or Amazon, and orders will be shipped in August (only a week or so away).

My author copies arrived in the post yesterday and I have to say the book is smart, snazzy, and well-produced, with a stunning cover - and the stories are terrific too. This is a real opportunity to get your hands (quite literally) on a print copy to place on your bookshelf and keep for posterity. Great value for $16.99 in my humble opinion!

Save a tree!

The title of this post sounds rather like one of those silly car-window stickers you can buy in holiday resorts - 'preserve wildlife - pickle a squirrel'. ;)

It isn't, though. This time I'm serious. The powers-that-be at the Lake District National Park authority have decided, for reasons best known to themselves, to cut down a large and beautiful monkey-puzzle tree in the grounds of their HQ and main Lake District visitor centre at Brockhole, on the shores of Windermere.

The tree is old, and a firm favourite with locals and visitors alike. But apparently it wasn't in the original plans for the garden at Brockhole and therefore it has to go. Even though the public like it. Even though there's nothing wrong with it physically. And even though those same powers-that-be have recently installed a tree top zipwire and boardwalk thingie that would certainly not have been in the original garden plans.

It's all very silly, not least because a garden is an organic entity that constantly grows and changes. Who's to say the original owner of the garden wouldn't have planted a monkey-puzzle himself if he'd been given a sapling or some seeds? Who decides that later changes to the garden are somehow 'wrong' and have to be ripped out? And who decides to destroy a healthy, beautiful and rare specimen on a whim?

If, like me, you'd like to add your name to the growing list of people anxious to save the tree, you can sign a petition here:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/save-the-brockhole-monkey-puzzle/

And thank you!

We've moved!

I seem to have spent the last week clambering over, around, and even in and out of cardboard boxes, and trying to decide where to stuff their contents. The good news, though, is that the move is now complete, we're settled in our new place, and apart from one broken glass and a small dent to one of the dining chairs, everything survived unscathed.

It's been a completely exhausting process, mind you, and leaving the old house was more of a wrench than I expected. Especially as two of the friendliest neighbours came round at the exact moment we were locking the door for the last time to see us off. It was lovely of them to think of it, but I was struggling to hold back the tears and managed to set all four of us off!

I'm taking it easy this week, catching my breath and trying to get myself back into a frame of mind where I can work, rather than fretting constantly about where things are, how much more unpacking there is to do, and where on earth we can store half the things we own. Moving house is not conducive to writing... but I have managed to get going again on the rewrites for Gleams of a Remoter World, and hope to do more, and chat more, next week.

And waffling on...

I've only just noticed that the UK M/M Romance blog posted an interview with yours truly a few days ago. I'd been keeping my eyes peeled and would have dropped a line on here with the details but what with the house move and all the general rushing about I'm afraid I missed it. Mea culpa.

You can still read the interview, though, and find out a little bit more about me and my writing in the process. Just click here - and I hope you enjoy it. Blog owner Sue Brown asked me some fascinating questions; please excuse the rather waffly replies!

Following the torch

Popping in briefly to say that I've just posted over at Carrying the Torch, a blog which follows the Olympic Torch Relay around the country with a new post by a m/m author every day.

Today it's the turn of Birmingham, which just happens to be the setting for Necessity's Door. If you want to find out about some of the real-life Birmingham places I used in the book, head on over to Carrying the Torch today! There's also a new excerpt from the book.

Lovely review for Necessity's Door

I've had a smashing review for Necessity's Door from a Goodreads reader. I'm always delighted when a reader enjoys one of my books, and even more so when they write to say why. I do put a lot of care and love into my writing, and it's wonderful to find that someone has read my book, and got every bit as much out of it as I'd hoped when I was writing it. So, thank you Adara O'hare - you really made my day.

"An interesting short novella about an undercover officer posing as a rentboy. He gets caught between his job and his life when he meets a real john who's not part of his mission but he has to go with the guy to maintain his cover. And he likes it. A lot. And then he gets paid, and no one really knows about it, so even though he should declare it, he's got some financial difficulty riding him and that money could help, and no one will know, so what's the harm, and if the guy keeps coming back and no one knows, is it still maintaining his cover, or is it more...

The confusion of right and wrong, reality and fiction fuses into one big mess for Jake. It's a well-thought out dilemma, in my opinion, and the whole thought process felt very... human. Completely understandable where he's coming from, and why it would be so easy to just...

I LOVED the voice of this piece. I've read several stories which were written in British English, but the colloquialisms were almost non-existent. Not so here. The colloquialisms are what made this story for me, part of what made it so human--a more natural interaction.

If I had had a gripe, and I really don't, it would have been the ending, because I wanted more--I wanted to be a fly on the wall for the coming conversation--but I realized it really didn't make sense to go there with this story. It would have drug on to go there. So, after thinking about it, I have no gripes."

Seeing the light

Thursday was a special day for us here in southern Cumbria as the Olympic Torch relay passed through the region. Not only that, but it arrived at Bowness-on-Windermere on a steamboat and we were able to grab a place by the pier to watch it.

The weather wasn't good. The previous day had been unbroken sunshine from start to finish, but by Thursday morning it was pouring. By late afternoon/early evening that had turned to dispiriting drizzle and the clouds were down on even the lowest fells, but in a strange way that added to the atmosphere. You don't come to the Lake District for good weather!

We turned up at Bowness 'promenade' (a strip of concrete by the side of the lake) at about 6.30 pm, fully expecting the torch to arrive within minutes. Only after we'd been waiting for twenty minutes or so did we think to check the official leaflet, to find we were a whole hour early. Still, that meant we found a spot right by the railings with an amazing view of the pier. Not bad considering the crowd was five or six deep by the time the real arrival time rolled around.

MS Tern is the oldest working launch on Windermere, dating back to 1898, and is a beautiful craft. For the relay she had an escort of two dragon boats, which had rowed either side of her all the way from Waterhead at Ambleside, five miles further up the lake, as well as a whole flotilla of yachts, canoes, launches and houseboats which had come along for the ride. Tern's bow, and the yacht masts, loomed wonderfully out of the mist as they got ever closer, and the flame of the torch could be seen shining like a beacon right at the front of the boat. It was all rather lovely, and surprisingly emotional - at least until somebody's children elbowed their way in front of me and blew vuvuzelas down my earhole. I guess there's more than one way to enjoy an event!

What seemed like half the north-west of England had turned up for the event and afterwards there was a massive concert culminating in a spectacular light, sound and firework display over the lake.

And if you want to read more about this stunning corner of the country, pop along to Carrying the Torch where Bruinfisher has posted about the Dumfries-to-Bowness leg of the torch relay with some fascinating snippets and stories.

Still in one piece

I ache from head to foot from bending, stretching, carting boxes and plant pots and the lighter bits of furniture, and scurrying up and down step-ladders, but the good news is that the first bit of the house move has gone successfully. Now I have two or three days to try to catch up on work, emails and sleep *grin*, before the real onslaught next week.

We're hoping to see the Olympic Torch relay tonight - the torch itself, the lighting of the huge cauldron in Bowness, and a spectacular 'pyrotechnics' and fireworks display once it starts to get dark. It sounds utterly amazing and would no doubt all look stunning on a dry day. At the moment, it's raining. But we can hope...

In the thick of it

The first load of furniture goes off to storage tomorrow, with the bulk following to the new place next week. As you can imagine we're working pretty much non-stop now, going through every last drawer, cupboard, nook, cranny, bookcase, wardrobe, and shed, packing what we can, labelling what we can, and generally trying to make life as easy as possible for both the removals men and us.

At some point my laptop will get packed, at which point I'll be without internet access for a day or two until we get to the other end and retrieve it, so if I suddenly vanish please bear with me.

And can anyone recommend a good horse liniment for aching muscles? I've moved more boxes, pictures, ornaments and suitcases in two days than I ever knew we possessed. Ooof.

I think I'm psychic!

How's this for timing? Only two weeks after the publication of Necessity's Door, British policing minister Nick Herbert has given undercover officers official permission to have sex with 'clients' if their cover or their safety depend on it.

You can see the details in this article from The Metro newspaper.

This is not giving officers blanket (sorry, pun not intended) approval to sleep with whoever they like. But in an awkward situation where refusing sex might give rise to suspicions, they can now act without fear of reprisal. Which does suggest, of course, that the practise was already going on, unofficially, and this has merely formalised it. Something that Jake, of course, knew all along. ;)

And no, before anyone asks, I did not pay Mr Herbert a penny to make this announcement so soon after my book was released!

How far do undercover cops go?

This is a question I had to ask myself whilst writing Necessity's Door, and it wasn't all that easy to come up with an answer. After all, ask any self-respecting police officer whether they would break the law if they went undercover, and the reply is likely to be a resounding 'no', not least because saying anything else might well cost them their job, or at the very least a stern talking-to by their inspector.

I've always had a sneaking suspicion that an officer who was undercover, who'd worked hard to infiltrate some criminal group or other, whose cover (or even life) might be at stake if they didn't pull their weight, might give a very different answer. Certainly Jake is sucked into his criminal lifestyle against his own better judgement. He knows that if he turned down every single punter who approached him, word would soon get round the other rentboys and their pimps, and he'd risk a good kicking, some very awkward questions, and the failure of the operation. Undercover officers and their teams can mitigate against this to an extent (in Jake's case, by setting his rates so high it would put off all but the most determined client), but there must be times when even that isn't enough. When an officer is forced to break the law, or suffer the consequences.

Even so, that little voice still piped up from time to time: was this really plausible? So I was delighted to find this article in today's news - an undercover officer accused of firebombing a London department store after he infiltrated the Animal Liberation Front. Presumably, he had no choice; presumably, if he'd stuck his hands behind his back when offered the matches, his new colleagues would have been so suspicious they'd never have trusted him with anything else again.

It's sad, of course, that a copper had to go to those lengths to bring the criminals concerned to justice. But it's proof that the life of an undercover officer is every bit as risky, dangerous, and morally ambiguous as I thought it might be - even if you'll never get the officers themselves to admit to it.

Contest winners

Congratulations to Kassandra and Sarah, who won first and second prizes in my blog tour contest. Your books, plus some swag, are already winging their way through the postal system and should land with a thud on your doormats (or in your mail boxes) in the next few days.

And congratulations also to Helene, who won a print copy of my short story Any Means Necessary in the live British Belles chat last week. It's also on its way.

I hope all three enjoy your ill-gotten gains, um, I mean prizes. ;) And to everyone else, watch out for future contests. You never know how lucky you might be!

House move imminent

We're on the edges of our seats today, waiting for confirmation that we've exchanged contracts with our buyers in Birmingham. Once that happens, we're targeting a completion date (ie, actual move) of end of June, which is *gulp* less than three weeks away now.

The next couple of weeks are going to be hell, quite frankly, as we try to clear as much stuff out of the house as possible and transport it north, or to the nearest charity shop, or to the local tip. Stuff is being, er, stuffed into boxes, and promptly lost - I've already lost track of my business cards, which I quite thought I'd packed in one carton but must have left somewhere else. And all this is before we even let the removals men loose on the place to pack the bulky items and furniture.

I've been through more house moves than you've had hot dinners so I really ought to be used to it by now, but it never seems to get any easier. So if I disappear for periods over the next few weeks, please bear with me. I might be travelling with yet another car-load of stuff. I might have disappeared head-first into a box. Or I might have packed my computer and forgotten which box it's in. It's all good fun...

UK M/M Romance blog

Well, I said I'd be popping up from time to time and *boing*, here I am again. This is sooner than even I expected, but there's a brand new promotional blog just hit the internet, called UK M/M Romance (hence my blog post title), and it seemed like too good an opportunity to miss.

The blog is designed to provide a showcase for British writers of gay male romance, as well as non-British writers who set their books and stories in the UK. It's still very new and at the moment authors are dropping in on a daily basis to introduce themselves and their work. My own first post is an extended biography together with some details of my books, their UK settings etc, but I hope to be back there on a regular basis sharing news, views and information about myself and my books and stories.

You can find UK M/M Romance right here - feel free to click over for a good browse. It's amazing how many British m/m authors there are!

Blog tour contest closed

Well, that was fun! But my blog tour is now officially over (although I'll probably still be popping up here and there from time to time) and that means that my giveaway contest is closed.

I'll be doing the prize draw later today and will contact the winners shortly afterwards, so if you took part, watch your inbox! I'll also announce the winners on here in the next day or two. So, good luck, and thanks very much for participating.

Necessity's Door blog tour - day eight

This is the last day of my journey around the blogosphere (stopping off at a couple of places some days has cut the tour from ten days to eight) and I'm going out with a bang, with two different guest posts to read.

First I'm back at Amara's Place with a piece about the settings in Necessity's Door. Did you know, for instance, that some of the places I mention in the book really exist, or used to? Pop along to Amara's to find out which ones, and where!

After that I'm off to Top 2 Bottom Reviews to answer lots of questions in a slightly racy author interview.

Don't forget, too, that this is your last chance to enter my contest, for the chance to win a couple of books from my back catalogue and some swag. The contest will be ending at midnight (US time) tonight so if you haven't already answered those three simple questions, get reading, get emailing - and good luck!

Necessity's Door blog post - day seven

There are two stop-offs for the price of one on my blog tour today.

First off it's a guest post on talented artist L.C. Chase's blog, where I discuss the process of designing a cover for Necessity's Door. L.C. designed the stunning cover art for the book (see left) and this is a chance to see how author and artist combine to make that magic happen.

And a little later today check out Tracy's Place for five fun things you might not have known about the British police force!

Necessity's Door blog tour - day six

Today I'm being interviewed by Amara Devonte of Amara's Place fame. So if you'd like to find out more about me, my writing, the inspiration for the book, future projects etc etc, then haul your ass over to Amara's Place and get reading! And don't forget that contest... I know, I know, how could you with me reminding you every other minute, but still, there are prizes.

I may also be turning up from time to time at Clare London's 'Short and Sweet' day on Beth Wylde's yahoo group today. You may remember I hosted my own day of fun (aka complete and utter madness) on Beth's group last Friday. Now it's Clare's turn and together with a number of other authors she'll be discussing the (sometimes neglected) art form of the gay short story. See you there!

Necessity's Door blog tour - day five

So how did the operation start for Jake and Mac? How did they get 'landed with this', as Jake so colourfully puts it in the very first sentence of the book?

If you want to find out, head over to All I Want and More to read the dramatic 'missing' first scene of the book and see for yourself.

As before, there's also the chance to win prizes in my contest giveaway - or should that be giveaway contest?

Necessity's Door blog tour - day four

This is the fourth day of the blog tour and today I'm at Book Wenches, talking about how and why I chose the title for the book. After all, it's not your everyday phrase, so where exactly did it come from? All will be revealed if you pop along to Book Wenches to read the post. And don't forget that contest/giveaway!

Live chat - British Belles - today!

As well as my blog tour, I'll also be involved in a live chat today (Friday 1st June) at Beth Wylde's yahoo group. Every June she throws open her group to glbt authors and I'm lucky enough to have bagged the very first day!

Here are some more details:

"Hello there from Fiona Glass, one sixth of the group calling ourselves the British Belles who will be chatting today, Friday 1st June, at Beth Wylde's yahoo group. (Don't ask who came up with the name - I'm keeping quiet to protect the guilty. LOL) Anyway, the rest of the group are fellow Brit m/m writers Sharon Maria Bidwell, Becky Black, Anne Brooke, Clare London and Jo Myles, and we'll be kick-starting the whole pride month on Beth's group on Friday 1st June. (And a very big thanks to Beth for organising this.)

Seeing as Britain is currently celebrating the Queen's Jubilee this very weekend, we thought we'd do our bit by throwing a virtual party. We'll be opening up the bubbly (or brewing a nice cup of tea if you prefer that sort of thing), celebrating all things British, telling you about ourselves and our work, and giving away a load of books.

If you want to find out about the Jubilee, the Olympics, the torch relay, us, our books, or anything else about Britain, feel free to join us here all day Friday and ask away. Just make sure you bring your own bottle, and don't leave the empties rolling round in Beth's group!

You'll need to register at Beth's group to join us but it's both easy and free - just pop along to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bethwylde/ and sign yourself up!"

The chat starts at 8.00 am EST, which I think translates as 1.00 pm Brtish time, and the six of us will be popping in and out in relays pretty much all day. I hope to see you there!

Necessity's Door blog tour - day three

So here we are at day three of the blog tour and today it's the turn of Pants Off Reviews (who apparently "take ur pants off one m/m book at a time").

I thought I'd told everyone enough about the book, so for a change I've concentrated on me, with five fun facts that you might not have known (and quite possibly didn't want to). So, for a potted tour round where I'm from, what I like and which star sign I am, drop into Pants Off. I hope I won't bore the pants off you, at any rate. ;)

M/M book wins Orange prize

I was fascinated to read that this year's winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction, 'The Song of Achilles' by Madeline Miller, is a same-sex novel set in the world of Ancient Greece.

From the sounds of it, it's a good old-fashioned m/m erotic romance, so it's all the more surprising that the judges went for something rather controversial. This has to be a good thing, though, in turning the spotlight on same-sex romance and opening it up to the reading public.

For all the cries of originality I can't help feeling that Mary Renault got there first, but even so I've added this to my reading list and will be really fascinated to see how good it is. And watch out for other same-sex novels, hopefully following in Ms Miller's footsteps.

Necessity's Door blog tour - day two

Day two of my mad dash round the ethernet sees me posting at Joyfully Jay, with a piece about how the whole story of Necessity's Door came about from initial head-scratching and ideas to the actual publication.

"The book is called 'Necessity's Door', it's just been published by Riptide Publishers, and I had an absolute blast writing it. A very speedy blast, mind you, since I only discovered the call for submissions ten days before the deadline..."

Join me at Joyfully Jay to read the rest of the post, find out more about the book, and take part in the contest.

There are seven more stops on the tour, by the way, and if you'd like to know where else I'll be appearing just pop over to the events page at the Riptide Publishing website, where there's a complete list.

Live chat coming up

Just a note to say watch out for me at author Beth Wylde's yahoo group on Friday (1st June). Every June she throws her group open to gltb writers and this year I collected a group of fellow authors - myself, Anne Brooke, Sharon Maria Bidwell, Jo Myles, Becky Black and Clare London - to take part. We'll be calling ourselves the British Belles since we're all British and all (ahem) incredibly beautiful, and we'll be chatting about ourselves, our books, and, seeing as it's the Queen's Jubilee weekend, probably the Jubilee celebrations as well.

And on top of that, four of the assorted Belles will be giving away books from their backlist as prizes.

The address for the chat is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bethwylde/ - please make a note in your diaries and pop in to join in the fun.

Necessity's Door released - blog tour and giveaway day one

Riptide Publishing have officially released 'Necessity's Door' today (woot!) and to mark the launch I'm off on my virtual blog tour.

First stop on the journey is Jody Faltys Words of Wisdom from the Scarf Princess, where you can find a fun little interview with the book's main character Jake. I won't give away the contents but let's just say he wasn't being entirely cooperative when he was interviewed. LOL

You can find me and the interview at Jody's blog. And don't forget, for the duration of the blog tour I'm running a contest/giveaway, with two of my earlier books/stories and some cool swag as prizes. Just read the book, answer the three simple questions you'll find on any of my blog tour posts, send the answers to my (email on each guest post) and you'll be entered into a prize drawing at the end of the tour.

Good luck, and I hope you enjoy the book.

Novel accepted

You might remember a few weeks ago that I'd submitted my Irish paranormal novel Gleams of a Remoter World to a publisher. That publisher was Riptide again (the same people who are releasing Necessity's Door in a day or two) and the great news is that they loved it and have accepted it! They've asked for a few minor changes but nothing I can't handle (I'm busy on some of those right now) and we're hoping for a release date around October/November this year, to coincide with Halloween.

This will only be my second ever novel (the first being Roses in December, which was published yonks ago by Torquere Press), and I've always been rather fond of it. I think I've mentioned that the first seeds were planted during a holiday we had in a remote part of Co Galway about ten years ago. Possibly the novel brings back memories of that holiday or perhaps I just like the ghost story and all the mystery, but whatever it is, I can't wait to see it in print. In a misquote of a rather dreadful tv advert for Disneyworld from a few years ago, "I'm so excited!"

Not long now...

It's less than a week until my new book Necessity's Door is released and the excitement is building. Well, my excitement at any rate. It's been too long since I had a whole book to myself, with just my name on the cover, and I have to admit it feels rather special.

To celebrate the launch I'll be going on a ten-day long virtual blog tour, with guest posts at ten different blogs in various corners of the internet. Each is on a different topic - an interview with the book's main character Jake, for instance, or a fun little 'did you know' about the British police force, and as well as the posts I'll be running a contest for the duration of the tour, with cool prizes!

I'll pop on here each day to make a note of where I'll be popping up next, or you can go to the main 'master list' for my blog tour at the Riptide website. That way you can follow me about, stalk me, heckle me, and find out a little more about the book (and me!) along the way. I'll see you there.

Drums

We're back in the smoke for a few days, partly to do yet more clearing on the house but mostly to go to a concert with our friends.

And what a concert, because for a complete change we'd booked tickets for Mugenkyo, a group of British taiko drummers. If this sounds improbable, it is - most of the group are from Scotland and look rather as though they've just stumbled out of a pub on a back street in Glasgow at three o'clock in the morning. Looks can be deceiving, though, because they're all fully trained in the Japanese art of taiko; the group's leader Neil Mackie actually studied under a sensei in Japan. And it shows, because they are Good with a capital G.

Dave and I first saw them when we lived in Loughborough, when they played live at a street festival in the town. We'd never heard of them, but were so blown away by the sound that we stood and watched for over an hour. The subtleties and range of sounds the musicians get out of their drums are just incredible - everthing from a faint reverberating hiss to the sort of percussive pandemonium that nearly brings the ceiling down.

Last night was no exception - the rafters of Solihull theatre rang - and the group have added more theatrical style to their repertoire in the intervening years. The end result was loud, spectacular, moving, entertaining, and, er, did I mention loud?

Olympic torch relay blog tour

The Olympic flame reached Britain yesterday evening and set off on its 70 day dash round these islands first thing this morning. During that time it will visit all four home nations (England, N Ireland, Scotland, Wales), calling in at over 1,000 towns, cities and villages as well as some well-known landmarks such as Stonehenge. This morning, rather fittingly, it began its journey at Lands End in Cornwall, which is always supposed to be the most south-westerly bit of mainland Britain, and I'm sure it'll be visiting John O'Groats in north-east Scotland at some point.

And to mark the torch relay, author Charlie Cochrane has organised a special blog tour, with authors posting about places they know, love, or that feature in their books. Each day, the post will feature the particular area the torch is travelling through - be it a county, a city, or even a small village. You can find the offical torch relay blog tour blog right here - and follow the torch's progress around the country day by day.

Today's post from American writer Syd McGinley is all about the beautiful Cornish coast - very appropriate as the torch spends the day zig-zagging through the county towards the city of Plymouth.

Muggins here is due to appear on 1st July with a post about England's second city, Birmingham, which just happens to be the setting for my forthcoming book Necessity's Door. I'll remind you and re-post the link nearer to the time so do keep popping back to check.

And apologies if I seem to be making even less sense than usual. Last night I collided heavily with one of the structural beams in our attic, and although I've got away with nothing worse than a sore head and whiplash, it does seem to have temporarily scrambled my brain...

Hop against homophobia

I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't know today is International Day Against Homophobia. Luckily not everyone is as 'un-switched on' as me, and a large group of authors have come together to support the day with a 'Hop against homophobia'.

You can find a list of participating authors here; each has posted a message on their blog so feel free to trawl the list, pick out your favourites and leave a comment in support.

If I'd known about this sooner I'd have been taking part myself, so the least I can do is give the event some added publicity - and watch the calendar more closely next year.

Synopsis hell

Just how do you squash the setting, characters and plot of an entire, 68,000-word novel into 500 words?

Ask any writer and the chances are they'll tell you writing a synopsis is the single most difficult part of their job. I'm no exception, and tend to sweat blood whenever I have to summarise one of my works. Last time was bad enough, but that was for Necessity's Door which is only around 16,000 words long. This time, it's worse. Much, much worse.

I'm trying, I really am. I bashed away at the keyboard for a couple of hours this morning, stopped, hit the word count button, and found I'd done over 1,000 words. Without even trying. I hacked out as much as I could, stopped, checked again, and found it had crept down to about 800. I kicked the desk, hacked out a bit more, and got it down to 750.

Then I got really cross, and started chipping away at stuff I thought was necessary to explain the plot. After another twenty minutes of that I'd reduced the wretched thing to 588 words, and there I have stuck. I've read and re-read; I've fiddled and re-fiddled; but there's nothing else to come out - not if I want the overall piece to make the slightest bit of sense.

So, 588 it is. D'you think there's any chance that the publishers are too busy to count? :D

Necessity's Door excerpt

The excitement is building as the release date on Necessity's Door creeps ever closer (28th May, in case you'd forgotten).

We've finalised the edits. We've gone through a massive proof-reading excercise and I've accepted the final proof. And today, the publishers have released a nice long juicy excerpt of the story, which is available to read on their website.

So, if you'd like to read a bit and see whether the story, and my writing style, are your sort of thing, just pop over to the Riptide website. Scroll down the page and click on the small black tab marked 'excerpt', in the box at the bottom next to 'warnings' and 'additional details'.

Happy reading - and you'll see from the quote at the top of the excerpt where my title came from!

UK glbtq fiction meet 2012

This year I've finally got myself organised enough to book a place on the annual glbtq fiction meet-up, which is being held in Brighton. I'd wanted to go to the last couple of events but never quite made it - either we had holidays booked that clashed, or I simply forgot to book in time. But this year I'll be heading off to Brighton on Saturday 15th September, in order to meet up with lots of other glbtq authors and readers and hopefully have a thoroughly good time.

Not only that, but I've signed myself up to take part in the 'novel openings' panel, where authors will be reading out the first 150 words of their latest book. So, if you haven't bought or read Necessity's Door and want to find out if it's your cup of tea, now's your chance. Or will be, once September rolls around.

There are still places left for the weekend, so if you're interested in coming along and meeting some of your favourite authors (including, hopefully, me...) please head over to the official Meet-Up website for more details of how to book.

I'll post more details about the exact venue, time etc when September is a little closer to hand.

Walking with ravens

Sunday wasn't supposed to be up to much weather-wise, so we hadn't planned anything special. In the event the sun shone, the wind dropped and there was no sign of the promised rain, or even much in the way of cloud.

On a whim we decided it was too nice to stay indoors, dug out our boots and tackled the little fell at the back of Windermere, School Knott. It's only a tiddler at about 750 feet above sea-level, but the nice thing is there are a number of ways up it so you can vary the route. This time, we approached from the back, having first staggered up to Lickbarrow and then cut across the fields to Old Droomer (wonderful names...). After that we took part of the Dales Way, following a stream and crossing a ford in the direction of School Knott Tarn.

The air was wonderful - fresh yet warm in the sun - and everything smelled clean. Sheep munched the grass practically at our feet, the gorse was out, and when we hit the fell tops we heard the unmistakeable call of a raven. Looking up, we saw four different ravens circling overhead. Given how rare those birds are, it was an amazing and special sight.

The views from the Knott were amazing, too. The previous day's haze had cleared and we could see for miles in an unbroken 360-degree circle, including pretty much all the high ground in the north-west of England. The Conistons, the central fells, the eastern ranges, Shap, the Howgills, the Pennines... It may not be very high, but it's a staggeringly good viewpoint.

And we even made it home in time for a cup of tea and a sticky cake.

Just as well we took advantage of the sunshine, because yesterday was a typical bank holiday washout...

Walking with coffins

I finished the first round of edits last night and sent them back to the publisher; they'll look them over and no doubt send me a 'second round' to get my teeth into but that will take a day or two so today I was actually free. In the meantime, Dave has also been working all the hours God gave, but he'd also reached a natural break in his work, so we decided to take the day off.

This morning we set off for the little village of Grasmere, which we haven't visited since an incredibly wet walk over a year ago. We could just have parked in one of the village car parks and stomped round the shops, but decided to be a bit more enterprising by dumping the car at White Moss and finding part of the old Corpse Road from Ambleside to Grasmere.

This isn't quite as ghoulish as it sounds. In Medieval times Ambleside had no church of its own, which meant no consecrated ground for burials. So every time anyone in the village died, their coffin had to be taken, by horse and cart or more usually by man-power alone, to the nearest church for proper Christian burial. In time, people found the best routes - compromising between distance and gradient - and the corpse or coffin routes were born.

At first we thought we'd taken a wrong turning since the path from the car park headed straight uphill at an alarming degree of steepness. Eventually, though, after much puffing past a waterfall and a gang of men repairing a dry-stone wall, we hit the coffin route proper. Neither of us had ever walked this way before, and discovered a whole new fascinating world, from White Moss Tarn which used to be used for washing wool, to the 'coffin resting stone' by the side of the track, where the men used to pause before the final, steep slope down into Grasmere. Add to that some lovely old farms and cottages, stunning views of the fells, and pretty woodland to boot, and it was a simply beautiful walk. We'll definitely be doing this one, or variations thereof, again.

Oh - and having a coffee sitting outdoors on a riverside terrace in Grasmere, watching the old church, with small birds zizzing this way and that after crumbs, was an added bonus.

And here's a picture of the coffin resting stone, just to prove I'm not making it up!

Can't talk... editing

This is just a tiny note to say that there's a reason I'm not being my usual chatty self, and it's called 'edits'.

The editing process is much harder work than most people realise (heck, it's harder than I realised before I started this writing lark) and fiddly and time-consuming to boot. So when I get a set of edits to work through, I pretty much have to abandon everything else, draw the curtains, ignore any distractions, and plod through them as quickly as I can.

This time, it's taken four whole days - and counting. But it'll be worth it in the end, and I'll be back with you when I can.

Paragraph Planet - reminder

As promised, here's a quick reminder that my tiny story Armed and Dangerous is appearing today at Paragraph Planet.

The story will only be live for one day (although it will appear in the archives at the end of the month) so hurry along now if you don't want to miss it. It's, um, sort of fun!

New paragraph

Watch out at Paragraph Planet on Monday 30th April for my latest 75-word offering, Armed and Dangerous.

This is a tongue-in-cheek little tale about a robbery with unexpected results, told as ever in exactly 75 words.

I'll post a reminder on the day so you don't forget.

The reading pile

The last couple of weeks I've slowly been working my way through the toppling pile of books next to the bed.

I gave up on 'Mr Clive and Mr Page', at least for now. I still can't get my head round what's going on or who's who and when you only have time to read a few pages before you go to sleep, it's even more baffling. The book is exceptionally well written, original and intelligent and I'm hoping to pick it up again eventually, but just at the moment my head hurts too much.

Instead, I read 'The Sense of an Ending' by Julian Barnes, which you might remember I picked up during a special offer at WH Smith a few weeks back. This book won the Man Booker prize of 2011 so I wasn't expecting it to be particularly readable - I've tried Booker-prize-winning books before and they were all rather strange. Added to that I tried Barnes' previous novel 'Arthur and George' and found it too tedious and slow to finish. But this one was very different. It's much shorter for one thing, and the prose bowls along, especially towards the beginning where Barnes is describing the main characters as teenagers. Actually, that was the best part of the book for me - very evocative with real insight into the trials and tribulations of being at school and being slightly different. After that, although the pages kept turning, it did rather descend into internal musing as the main character tried to work out whether he was responsible for a terrible event in his past or not. Overall I'd have preferred a little more action and a little less angst, but I was still pleasantly surprised and would happily read the book again. Not something I could say about one or two other Booker titles!

Busy busy...

I know time flies, but quite what happened to the last ten days is anyone's guess. They flew by so quickly that I'm hardly aware they've gone! To be fair, we've been incredibly busy. We've had people viewing the house (the original deal hasn't quite fallen through yet but the chap is dragging his heels). We've had tedious appointments with dentists, opticians and what-have-you. We've got two different removals firms coming to give us a quote, so we've had to go round putting different coloured labels on all our furniture to make sure we know where it's going.

On top of all that I've had a couple of deadlines with work. I submitted the novel I finished a couple of weeks ago, and am chewing my fingernails while the publishers consider it. I've submitted a couple of short stories to various magazines and contests. And I've also been putting the finishing touches to the blog tour that I'm going on (in a virtual sense!) once Necessity's Door is released by Riptide at the end of May.

Phew! Hopefully by next week I'll have got my breath back, because I'm itching to start rewriting a ghost story/novella that I finished, sort of, but that Needs Work to bring the minor characters to life. Again in a virtual sense - they can hardly come to life if they're ghosts!

Spellchecker hilarity

Over the weekend Dave was catching up on some long overdue admin and one of the things he finally got round to was leaving some glowing feedback for the architect who designed and project-managed our extension for us.

The site where he left the feedback had an online pro-forma to fill in, which rather unusually had its own spellchecker.

Dave was part-way through filling the form in when he suddenly collapsed with a fit of the giggles, which rapidly turned to uncontrollable cackling, which turned to howls of laughter. The reason? The spellchecker had taken offence at the word 'Windermere' in the address line and wanted Dave to change it to...

... Wonderbra.

I seriously think this is the best spellchecker prompt EVER, but if you have any that can trump it please let me know.

Better late than never...

Yesterday was a real red-letter day for me because I finally finished my second-ever novel. Gleams of a Remoter World (based on a quote by the poet Shelley) is a ghost story set on the wild west coast of Ireland, and I first started writing it during a holiday in Co. Galway with Dave. The scenery was stunning and there was a ruined church a short walk down the coast that screamed 'ghost story' at me the minute I saw it. I grabbed some paper and a pen and scribbled some notes before we'd even packed up to go home.

But that was, I'm ashamed to admit, the best part of ten years ago. I don't honestly know why it's taken so long to write. I got part way through, lost the will to live and put it in a box. I took it out again and wrote some more. I got hopelessly bogged down with the love interest and put it back in its box. I changed one of the characters from male to female and wrote some more. I got stuck on one particular scene and put it away again. Finally, earlier this year, I unearthed it, found some inspiration from somewhere and finished the actual writing, but then it still needed editing, rewriting and polishing. The whole process has been not just like pulling teeth, but like pulling my own teeth while still awake. Painful, in a word.

But I've got to the finishing line at last (at very. long. last) and I'm absolutely delighted with the result. It topped out at nearly one-and-a-half times the length I'd thought it might and I like the characters, and the way they develop, and I like the ending. (Which isn't always the case with the things I write.)

Now I'm sitting on it for a few more days, just to be absolutely sure I haven't forgotten anything, and then I'll be sending it off to a publisher. I just hope my ten years of hard work won't be wasted!

Pre-order... and win!

I'm jumping up and down because I now have a cover for my new book Necessity's Door - see left for the fantastic artwork by L.C. Chase.

The book is available to pre-order at Riptide Publishing. Not only that, but if you do pre-order you'll be entered in a prize draw to win free e-books from Riptide for a whole year! Second and third prizes are also available and if you're not lucky enough to win, you'll still receive your pre-ordered copy a whole two days before it's officially launched on 28th May.

Necessity's Door tells the story of Jake, a detective working undercover as a male prostitute to try to trap a local crime boss, who finds himself being sucked into the lifestyle he's forced to lead. Will he get out again with his honour, his virtue and even his life intact?

The book is being published as part of the 'Rentboy' collection and if you pre-order all four titles in the series you get a massive 20% discount.

So go on, what are you waiting for? Oh, yes, a link to the ordering page at Riptide would be a good start. Well, here you go!

Easter break

We've treated ourselves to a few days off from gardening, decorating, and packing ready for the looming house move over Easter. The weather has not been great (cool with grey skies and occasional drizzle) but we've managed to pack a load of stuff into the four days: a couple of local antique fairs, a mooch round Kendal, the Aquarium of the Lakes, and today when it's been hammering down all day, a trip to the Lancaster Maritime Museum.

The latter is quite small, set out over a couple of floors of the Custom House and a neighbouring warehouse, and specialises in displays on local history of a watery nature. How Lancaster developed as a port; the history of the whole Morecambe Bay area; offshore gas drilling from Barrow-in Furness; a mock-up of a fast 'packet' boat that took passengers on the Lancaster canal. There weren't quite enough buttons to press for me (what can I say, I'm just a big kid at heart) but it was informative and fun and a great place to spend a very wet day.

What a difference...

...a week makes. This time last week it was 20c and we were wandering around outdoors in t-shirts and enjoying working in the garden. Today it's blowing a gale, snowing, and only 2 degrees. I'm digging out my winter woollies as I speak.

Oh, the joys of the Great British Weather.

Good walk

Saturday morning was fine, if a little chilly, so we decided to beat the crowds, park up nice and early in Ambleside and have a walk. And it was glorious. The sun shone all the way, the recent haze had cleared to leave stunning views of the fells, and although it stayed chilly it was perfect weather for walking.

We headed up one of our favourite walks - the Scandale path as far as High Sweden Bridge. We'd have liked to go further but we only had a two-hour ticket in the car park which just gave us time to march to the bridge, take some photos and march back down again.

The Scandale path gains height out of the town quite rapidly and there wasn't much sign of spring once we'd got beyond the last straggle of houses. Until we reached the packhorse bridge, looked over the other side, and saw a host not of daffodils but of primroses along the bank of Scandale Beck. Pure magic!

Now we're back in the 'smoke' for a few days and the contrast is not a happy one...

Good crack

No, I'm not talking about Class A drugs, but the concert we went to last night featuring Scottish folk musicians Aly Bain and Phil Cunningham.

It was held at the improbably-named Kendal Box, a brand new venue which looks as weird as it sounds. Even its own web page describes it as looking like a 'wonky box' and as Cunningham commented last night, he'd "never played inside a slate box before". But however strange it might look, as a venue it's great. Small but cosy and very intimate, with space for an audience of only around 300 which gives a great feeling of being right there with the performers. None of these vast Big Screens needed here - you could see everything, hear everything and feel almost as though you were in the local pub with them performing for their beer.

And what a performance! Not only are they both brilliant musicians (Bain on fiddle, Cunningham on accordion), but they're charming and witty too. They divided up the music with chat ('crack' to the Celts, hence the title of my post) with anecdotes, brief information about what they were playing, and some surprisingly hilarious jokes. They played piece after piece with never a hint of a wrong note (or of any sheet music to crib from, for that matter), for a good two hours and their solo pieces brought the house down.

We thoroughly enjoyed the entertainment and will definitely be adding Aly and Phil to the list of acts to watch out for in future. And I'm sure we'll be going back to the Wonky Box.

The reading pile

I'm embarrassed to admit that I currently have seven books in a heap by the side of the bed, plus a couple of ebooks I'm part way through. Every time I finish a book I seem to add another two or three and the pile never really gets any smaller. There are too many interesting books out there, dammit, and not enough time to read!

Currently I'm worrying my way through 'Mr Clive and Mr Page' by Neil Bartlett. When I first started it I thought it was really good, with an intriguing plot linking gay characters throughout the early part of the twentieth century, and some excellent prose writing. But... the more I read, the less I can work out what's going on. It's rather like stumbling around in a bowl of oxtail soup - everything seems cloudy, somehow. I don't even know for certain who the main character/narrator is, and I don't know the full names of the other important characters, and I don't know exactly when the book is set. There are flashbacks after flashbacks, and flashbacks within flashbacks, and an uneasy sense that the events being portrayed never happened at all but are simply in the narrator's imagination. And I'm already around a third of the way through, by which time I should have some idea of who's who and what's what.

I'm hoping everything will become clear by the end because at the moment it's quite simply driving me nuts!

Today... for one day only...

All Romance ebooks are holding a one-day, one-off 50% discount sale on all their 'incentive-eligible' titles (which basically means anything with a little crown logo next to it) today.

This is an incredible offer so if there are any ebooks you've had your eye on but haven't been able to afford, pop along to ARe now before it's too late!

Radge 6 on Kindle

The Byker Books editor has worked fast and Radgepacket Volume 6 is already available on Kindle for only £1.54.

This is incredible value for around twenty stories and great news for anyone on a tight budget (which is probably most of us at the moment).

You can buy the Kindle version (and Byker's other books, including Radgepackets 2 and 4 which also contain stories of mine) at the Byker Kindle store.

Oh - and if you're at all nervous about taking the plunge you could do worse than read this review from Sabotage, which should set your mind at rest.

Your name... for a coffee?

I spotted this article on the BBC website the other day, about the latest ploy from Starbucks.

Apparently the baristas will now be asking every customer's name when they place an order. This is supposed to cut down on confusion over which customer ordered which particular latte, and also to appear more friendly. In America, where the policy originated, it's popular.

But.... Here in Britain we're a much more reserved bunch, and the idea of having to tell some complete stranger my name just to get a cup of coffee sends shivers down my spine. Invasion of privacy, anyone? Not to mention having some sixteen-year-old school-leaver addressing me as 'Fiona' as though they're suddenly my best friend. If any Starbucks staff try it with me I shall have an attack of the Old Fogeys and tell them it's "Mrs Glass".

As much as anything it's the pretence that annoys me. They say they're trying to appear more friendly, but since when was any vast multi-national corporation interested in being my friend? What they're really doing is trying to make money. If they were a bit more honest about that, I might not mind quite so much.

Sunshine!

We drove down to the south coast yesterday to spend the day with my inlaws, neither of whom have been particularly well recently (there are a lot of bugs and viruses about).

It was a really enjoyable day. We took them out for lunch at their favourite Chinese buffet, and afterwards we strolled along the riverside walk next to the River Itchen. Much to our amazement the weather was simply gorgeous. The sun shone brightly all day, and by early afternoon it was really warm - easily the warmest and most spring-like day of the year so far. Daffodils trumpeted from the verges, there were buds bursting on some of the smaller trees, geese honked, swans sailed magestically past, and the river sparkled in the sun.

Today we're back to mist and gloom, but it was lovely to have at least one day of spring at last.

Birthday cakes and birthday suits

Great news - Radgepacket Vol 6 has been released a few days ahead of schedule, which means you can now get your grubby paws on my latest story, Jack in the Box. This is a dark, gritty story of a young man cosying up to the local mob boss to get what he wants, which isn't necessarily what you first think it is.

"The first time I clapped eyes on Frank Turnbull I was jumping naked out of the cake at his fiftieth birthday party."

If you want to see what happens after that rather memorable entrance you'll have to buy the book, but that's no hardship as it's crammed with 'industrial-strength' fiction from authors established and new, and only costs £5.99 from Amazon UK, or $10 from Amazon.com.

Happy reading - but please don't ask me to re-enact the above excerpt. It would not be pretty.

Special offer at WH Smith

For anyone here in the UK, WH Smith currently have a pretty good special offer. If you buy a copy of The Times newspaper for £1, you get a paperback version of Julian Barnes' Booker-prize winning novel The Sense of an Ending for only £2.99.

The last thing I really need is any more books on my tottering 'to be read' pile, but the temptation was too strong and I bought it. I've no idea if the book is any good or not (Booker prize winning books may be very literary and worthy but they can sometimes be jolly hard to read) but at that sort of price it's got to be worth trying.

Karnataka at the Brewery

On Saturday evening we went out to our very first concert in Cumbria since we 'sort of' moved up there a couple of years ago, and a great night out it was too.

The venue was the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal, a wonderful amalgamation of cinema, theatre, bars, restaurant, cafe and art exhibitions housed in (as you might guess) a former brewery. The outside is stunning - they've even kept the old chimney - and inside is quirky and full of character. All the rooms are called after old bits of the brewing trade; we were in the Malt Room which still had all its old cast iron pillars holding up the ceiling.

The band we saw are called Karnataka and were billed as 'celtic folk rock'. They turned out to be rather more rock than either celtic or folk, although you could hear a folky influence in some of the tracks, as well as a distinct nod towards progressive rock from the late 70s and early 80s. Since Dave and I love both those elements it was right up our street and we thoroughly enjoyed every track they played. Not so every member of the audience. One older, very well-dressed couple were clearly expecting the sort of folk that turns up on Radio Two on Sunday afternoons, and walked out after less than five minutes. It seems daft these days not to do some research on YouTube to see what you'll be getting before you go, not to mention a huge waste of money. And they missed a very entertaining two-hour set.

Radge reminder

Just a quick reminder that the Radgepacket 6 launch party is happening in Newcastle upon Tyne next Saturday, between 12 and 3 pm, at The Back Page sports bookshop.

Unfortunately it looks as though, due to family commitments, I won't be able to attend, but the new book will be on sale, the editor will be there to answer questions, there'll be drinks and nibbles, and a chance to mingle with some of the other contributing authors and get them to sign your copy of the book. On top of all that it's a chance to rummage around in The Back Page, which is the closest thing to Aladdin's Cave you'll see this side of the Arabian Nights. ;)

And I'll stick an announcement on here the minute the book is available to buy online.

Birdy word play

Oh, the joys of spam. Mostly of course it's deadly dull - nothing but invitations to play at this or that online casino, notifications from banks I've never joined, and endless offers 'guaranteed' to increase my, erm, length. (One of these days I really must call their bluff on that, but that's another story.)

But every now and then there's a real gem in my spam box, presumably thanks to online translation software.

Yesterday it was the turn of this: "Luxury turkey escapes"

I wondered why anyone would want to tell me that their top-flight (sorry) pet bird had flown the coop, and had visions of the turkey concerned wandering down the road thumbing a lift to Manchester for the weekend. And then I realised it was advertising Turkish holidays.

Once I'd finished giggling I deleted the post along with all the rest, but it really brightened up my day. To whoever sent the email - thanks for the laugh!

New story accepted by Riptide

It's funny how things work out, isn't it? I'd only just mentioned Riptide Publishing in a post the other day, and then I got the terrific news that they've accepted one of my own stories. And remember my post about meeting that very tight deadline on a call for submissions a week or two ago? Well, it was that very story that they've decided to take.

The story is called Necessity's Door (based on a quote by Daniel Defoe) and tells the tale of Jake, an undercover copper who poses as a rentboy and finds himself getting sucked into the life he's forced to lead. Will he get out with his life, honour and virtue intact or will the temptation be too much for him? Will his partner Mac help, or will it be left to new man in his life Graham to ride to the rescue? Although it sounds like straightforward smut it's actually a little more serious and thought-provoking than that, and was inspired by a sort of 'what if' moment: what if an undercover detective really did find himself in that situation? What if he liked the life, or the benefits it might bring?

You'll be able to find out for yourselves in May, which is when the book is due to appear. It'll be published in both electronic and print formats and to say I'm over the moon about the acceptance and looking forward to the release is the understatement of the month. I'm running round the study screaming!

I'm on Goodreads

The title says it all, really. One of my writer friends first recommended Goodreads a couple of years ago now but it's taken me this long to sit down, register myself with them, get a profile and start collecting books.

I have to say it isn't the easiest social networking site to join. I found the process very unintuitive and it took me a whole hour to realise that the microscopic icon on the top right hand side of my 'books' page was the link to my profile. And I still haven't worked out how to get a blog on there, or link that blog to my own blog here, or even how to review the books I've read and rated. But using any of these sites includes a steep learning curve and I'll keep on fiddling and ferreting until I've cracked it.

What I did want to say was that I haven't yet tracked down many of my fellow-victims, er, I mean members, on the Goodreads network. So if you're a member already and would like to link to me, or even just browse my bookshelves and poke around what I enjoy reading, then hurry along to my profile and feel free to 'friend' me from there.

Dark day on the fells

We were all set to go out for a walk on Saturday but events conspired against us so we went yesterday instead. Inevitably, the weather was less kind (chilly, damp and grey) but at least it wasn't pouring with rain, blowing a gale or covered in ice. Everything is, however, absolutely squelching with mud after all the rain and many of the smaller or higher level paths are so disgusting they're not really safe, so we chose the Coppermines Valley at Coniston which is on good, stony tracks (actually old miners' tracks to the vast network of historic mines and quarries in the area).

It was surprisingly enjoyable. Thanks to bad weather, frequent trips back to Birmingham and various work commitments we've not been out walking since Christmas Day, and even that was a short toddle up Post Knott, hardly one of the highest peaks in the land. It was lovely to get out into the fresh air, get the old legs moving again and see some scenery close-hand rather than through the windows of the car. And what scenery! Coppermines is a classic hanging valley, almost flat once you heave yourself up the steep slope out of the village and over the lip, and it positively bristles with evidence of its ancient mining past. To some people this would be dark, dreary and depressing but we love it. It's so full of atmosphere you can almost hear the miners, the pit ponies, the old rail trucks clanking down the slopes filled with ore... and the whole place has a wildness and remoteness about it that's extraordinary considering it's only a mile or so from the centre of the village.

Here's a couple of photos I took, with the mist down over the fell tops and drizzle blowing in the breeze, to show you what I mean. Pretty it ain't. Stunning, yes.

Door to nowhere

We have a brand new door on our landing... but it doesn't go to a room, or a corridor, or even a set of stairs.

This doesn't mean we've discovered a hole in the space/time continuum, or a new way into Narnia, or even a portal to another universe. What it does mean is that we've been moving furniture in my study again.

I think I've mentioned that my study (really more of a box room) is very small and an awkward shape. Recently I treated myself to a new desk, to replace the rag-tag of hand-me-downs I'd been managing on, none of which really fitted the space. The new desk is a proper full-height adult one with drawers to give me better storage and fits into my 'writing corner' beautifully. The only slight drawback is that my large bookcase won't fit in next to it any more.

No problem, I thought. There's an odd little entry-way to the room and the bookcase should fit in there. The only problem with that was that there was a door in the way - the door to the room. So Dave got busy with a screwdriver the other night and took that off its hinges, and moved the bookcase into the space where the door had been.

The bookcase is fine. It looks a little odd, but then this house is full of quirks and kinks and corners so it fits right in. The only problem now is... what to do with a full-sized door. Dave left it leaning against the banisters on the landing, where it looks thoroughly surreal and where I can trip over it ever time I leave the bedroom. Hopefully, we can find somewhere else to store it before long. Until then, I'm very tempted to try opening it, and see if there's anything unexpected on the other side...

I've won a book!

Rather to my surprise, actually, since I almost-to-never win anything, and I had no idea I was taking part in a contest!

It turns out the contest was being run by fellow author Anne Brooke to promote her latest book launch at Riptide, a new(ish) publisher specialising in gay fiction. I commented on one of Anne's blog posts to congratulate her on the new release and hey presto! the very next day she told me I'd won the contest and could choose any book from her impressive back list.

The one I've selected is called The Bones of Summer and is a gay mystery thriller involving missing persons, amnesia and a disastrous past love affair. Oooh-er. It sounds right up my street and I'm very much looking forward to reading it.

How many endings?

I caught part of an interview on BBC Breakfast this morning with author Caroline Smailes, who has apparently written her latest novel with no fewer than eleven different endings which the reader can choose between. Apparently she did this after readers complained the endings of her last two novels were 'too gloomy'.

I missed hearing how the technology is supposed to work but this article in The Daily Telegraph has more detail. It seems that the book will be published electronically and the readers will have to answer questions and depending on the answers the software will select an ending for them. This sounds a little too much like those quizzes that turn up on people's blogs from time to time, where you answer a bunch of random questions to find out which chocolate centre you resemble or what sort of an elf you are.

It's an intriguing idea and one that explores the possibilities of new digital technology, but I don't think it's for me. Not as a writer, and certainly not as a reader. When I read a book I'm not aware of turning the pages, I'm not aware that it is a book. Instead I slip inside the world the author has created and become a part of it, only to surface again when I turn the final page. If I have to stop and answer questions about my mood or my favourite colour it will pull me right out of the story, which surely defeats the object of the book.

And as a writer, it would simply drive me wild. The BBC also interviewed author Josephine Cox at the same time and she explained that her characters 'write' her books and that they themselves choose their own, natural, ending depending on the events they've been through. This is very much the way I write and I'm not sure a book would feel properly finished unless I'd written the last sentence and drawn a (metaphorical) line under it.

I suspect that like most new technologies it will become something of a fad for a while, but would you really want to have to do this for every book you read? Wouldn't you rather the book's author had already done the hard work for you?

Stars (of both varieties)

We've just arrived home after a long weekend away in London attending the annual 'AstroFest' conference. Dave started his lifetime ambition of a degree in astronomy last year and managed to bag one set of free tickets for the event, so we bought ourselves another set and indulged in a two-for-the-price-of-one weekend away, while using some of his vast store of hotel points to stay in a large hotel in Kensington for only the price of breakfast.

The conference was a blast. Highlights for me including the particle-physisist Simon Singh (who turns up on learned programmes on BBC4) setting fire to a gherkin live on stage; and collecting a smile from Brian May. Yes. That Brian May. He was attending in his 'doctor of astrophysics' persona, not as a rock guitarist, but I've been a fan of Queen for years so it was still rather special.

The talks were fascinating and much to my amazement I enjoyed the super-scientific ones (Lucie Green on the structure of the sun's surface; Don Kurtz on the role of the Kepler mission in discovering new exo-planets) much more than the more historical ones. Given what a duffer at maths and physics I was at school, that was a major surprise.

In addition to cramming in sixteen talks in two days, we also managed a bit of sight-seeing, including lots of exploring round the local streets. Kensington is an area neither of us knew very well and we fell in love with it. It's full of stunning houses; rows of old mews cottages half-hidden down back alleys; blue plaques to famous residents like Benjamin Britten, Hubert Parry, T S Eliot and Alfred Hitchcock; churches; and garden squares. It's also home to some of the most expensive property anywhere in the country so I doubt we'll be moving there any time soon. Add in a run round the natural history museum and a more sedate visit to the science museum, as well as several nice meals out, and all in all it was a very successful trip. Apart from the train journey home, which should have involved one train and taken about two hours. Four hours, three trains and one bus later we finally made it home. Sunday rail travel is a bugger.

Oh, and the gherkin? Dr Singh hooked it up to an electrical current to show the sodium ions (in the pickling brine) glowing orange... and accidentally left it connected just a little bit too long. The smell was interesting, at any rate.

Spooky

The story is finished and sent, so I finally have time to drop in and report a couple of slightly strange experiences from the previous week.

The first involved finding a very large bright green caterpilar making its way determinedly upstairs. Nothing odd in that, you might think, except that it's the middle of winter and we're having a particularly cold spell outdoors. Added to that the stairs are in the middle of the house, about as far from any doors and windows as you can get. And caterpilars aren't exactly the Speedy Gonzalezs of the insect world... and it can hardly have flown. Just where it had come from, and where it was going, are still creeping me out.

Two days later the doorbell rang and when I opened the door there was nobody there. Nothing unusual in that either, of course - kids do it all the time, not to mention a tradesmen or two when they realise they've got the wrong address. But this was different, because I was right by the front door when it happened, and I could see through the glass panels that there really was nobody there. Our front garden is small and the gate is in line with the front door, so unless someone folded themselves up and escaped down a crack in the paving slabs, there was nowhere for them to have gone. So who or what rang the bell? It's still a complete mystery to me.

Mind you, nothing can hold a candle to this photograph in the Westmorland Gazette, of a woman's figure at the window of an empty house.

I don't think I really believe it's a ghost - it looks more like a reflection of someone outside and is probably too small for the proportions to work. But it's a wonderful picture nonetheless, and just creepy enough to send shivers down your spine!

No time...

I realise I've been neglecting this blog the last week or so but there's a good reason for that. Last Friday I spotted a call for submissions from a publisher which might be right up my street, for a theme that I wrote a story about many years ago. The story needed a complete rewrite but I figured I could do that, and get it to the length the publisher was asking for. The only problem? The closing date is 1st February, which was only ten days away.

Writing a 10,000 word story from scratch in only ten days is a tall order, especially for me as I tend to work more slowly than some writers. Nevertheless, I've parked my bum in my study chair every day this week, and have made remarkable progress. Luckily, because I'd already written a version of the story, I knew where it was going which has helped. Now I'm only a couple of thousand words or so away from finishing it, and hoping against hope that I'll have time for that next week.

In the meantime, I shall reapply nose to screen and get typing again. Sorry for the silence. I should be back soon!

Kindle charges

This post is really aimed at any writers out there thinking about publishing their work on Kindle; the information has filtered down to me (via a writer friend) from the head honcho at electronic publisher Untreed Reads.

Apparently, for any work priced at less than $2.99 (or the £ equivalent in the UK, presumably), Amazon takes back a hefty 65% on every sale. For titles over $2.99, Amazon check regularly and if they find it for sale at a lower price anywhere else they will automatically reduce the Kindle price to match and only pay royalties on the lower price.

It's worth bearing this information in mind, especially for anyone hoping to put out single-title short stories on Kindle, as it will have a big effect on the amount of income you can expect from your sales.

There's always a downside, isn't there?

Houston, we have a cover...

And here it is - the brand new, just-announced cover for Radgepacket 6, the latest volume from Byker Books.

The book itself is due out in March (I've already blogged about the launch party) so there's not too long to wait before you can get your sticky mitts on another great collection of gritty 'industrial-strength' stories from authors established and new. Including yours truly, with a tale about a man jumping out of a birthday cake in his... birthday suit.

I hope that snippet, and the cover, whet your appetite!