Freebie story

Watch out for a free story of mine, coming to the Torquere Press Spring Egg Hunt in the next few days!

The story, called Cut and Blow, is a naughty little piece about a haircut - with a difference!

The eggs in the hunt change every day (with free recipes, stories, bits and bobs and coupons for the e-book store) so be sure to check back often.

Oh wow!

I'm gobsmacked. DearAuthor.com, a review site by readers for readers, has just reviewed Roses in December. And they liked it. Rather a lot, actually, since they gave it an A-. :D

Check out the full review for yourselves - you might see why I'm bouncing.

Well well well...

When I wrote Roses in December I was worried that Nat's experiences, and particularly the implied criticism of the care he received from the army, might be a bit over the top. Imagine my surprise (and relief!) to see this article from the BBC today, saying that many traumatised soldiers are going AWOL rather than put up with the lack of care the army provides.

It's rather sad that the situation doesn't seem to have improved any in the 2-3 years since I wrote the book, but I do feel Nat's been vindicated.

My space on MySpace :)

I finally gave in to all the hype and got myself a MySpace page, and had lots of fun and frustration kicking it into shape.

I've based the theme on 'Roses in December' and I'm delighted with the way it's turned out, thanks to a gorgeous layout from pimp-my-profile. Here's the finished article:

Fiona's MySpace

I'm in the process of adding friends but it's a slow process because the MySpace Gremlins keep crashing my modem. So if I've missed anyone or you can't wait and want to add me instead *grins* then thank you very much! I'll see you all there.

Music of the night?

Just a line to let everyone know I've got a new story out in the January issue of Forbidden Fruit. This issue has a 'winter holiday' theme and 'Night Music' is a tale of a less-than-successful holiday trip to Salzburg (Austria) with a surprise ending. Hope you like it!

Favourite quotes

One of the things I love is browsing through dictionaries of quotations and the like for things well-known people have said about writing. They always seem to put it so much better than I could!

Here's a small selection of my favourites - either because they're true or because they make me laugh.

"Writing in English is the most ingenious torture ever devised for sins committed in previous lives." (James Joyce)

"Far too many [books] relied on the classic formula of a beginning, a muddle and an end." (Philip Larkin)

"Writing is like making love. Don't worry about the orgasm, just concentrate on the process." (Isabel Allende)

"Sometimes I think [my writing] sounds like I walked out of the room and left the typewriter running." (Gene Fowler)

If anyone knows of any others they think I'd like, please feel free to send them to me!

And now... Happy New Year!

We only got back from our New Year's holiday cruise late yesterday so this is a little belated, but I just wanted to wish all my friends, readers and friends-and-readers a very happy and prosperous 2007. Hope it's a good one!

The cruise was very relaxing and a great way to spend the week between Christmas and New Year, which can otherwise seem rather dreary. We visited some fascinating places, including a medieval castle in Lisbon which we explored in thick fog, the slopes of the highest mountain/volcano in Spain (Mt Teide on Tenerife), and the beatiful coastal city of La Coruna. We even saw dolphins. I'm hoping to use a few of the sights, sounds, smells and other sensory experiences in future stories.

I've come home with absolutely no inspiration for the novel I'd been scribbling for weeks before Christmas, but I'm working on an old (very old) work in progress, a ghost story set in 1970s Cornwall, instead. It's rapidly approaching the 20,000 word mark and if I can just keep going I hope to submit it as a novella early in the year. Wish me luck!

I usually hate New Year resolutions, which tend to get broken faster than you can say 'resolution'. But this year I'm determined to finish a mainstream novel, and start the lengthy and rather alarming process of submitting it to a print publisher. It will be a new experience, but hopefully one that I can learn something from.

I've got square eyes after my first full day back at work (ten days without access to a computer is a mixed blessing ) so it's off to bed. But watch out for further missives in the days to come.

Merry Christmas!

Just a note to say Merry Christmas, and a happy and prosperous New Year, to all my readers. Thank you all so much for your support over the last year - it's meant a huge amount to me to sell my books and think that people are enjoying them!

And this is 'over and out' for a little while as we're off on a cruise for the New Year and I won't be around to update my blog. Stand by for further reports in 2007. :)

Have a wonderful holiday, everyone.

Woo! - a new story

Some news at last! LOL

I have a new story due out in the January issue of Forbidden Fruit. 'Night Music' is the story of a man who wins a trip to Salzburg in a music magazine and rashly invites his best mate along for the ride. Needless to say, all does not work out quite as he planned. :D

The new issue of the magazine should be available either late January or early February but here's a very brief snippet to whet your appetite:

We abandon the opera to its fate. It doesn't seem very ethical but his grasp is too strong to break and besides, given the choice between Mozart and him it's easy to take my pick. Ben may be infuriating but at least he isn't dead.

We cross back over the river and I assume we're heading for the hotel, but without warning he pulls me under an arch and up an alley between two shops. It's dark and dingy and looks like the sort of place they store the dustbins but he taps the side of his nose. "Trust me, you’ve got to see this. Eleanor found it when we came before."

Eleanor's his girlfriend, when he wants her to be. I'd rather push her off a cliff than believe a word she says, but he's dashing ahead of me up the hill, turning every now and then to make sure I'm still there. He looks like an eager puppy and I can't deny the plea in his eyes so I do as he says, trying not to look at his bum in those skin-tight jeans he always wears. That's easier said than done, because it’s constantly in my face. The lane's so steep it's nearly sheer, with flights of steps every few yards and back-breaking stones in between. I thought I was fit, but on this slope I'm starting to flag.

Ben turns again, grinning, to wait. "Come on, grandad. You can do better than that!"

I stick out my tongue and soldier on. He's not that much younger than me really but you'd never know the way he carries on.

The lane's obviously a religious place. It's lined with shrines, each more ornate than the last, painted and gilded in rococo splendour, statues gleaming in the light of a myriad candles. The last is a calvary, Christ flanked by two thieves - three naked bodies assailing my eyes. It's all I can do not to gasp, all I can do not to picture Ben hanging there instead. My trousers are getting tight.

Tight pants or none I make it to the top; the hill is crowned by a friary, remote and forbidding behind high stone walls. It reminds me of Ben, who always retreats when he can't handle life. He's spent the last month retreating from me....

Quiet...

Sorry, I've been really quiet on here lately. The main reason is that I'm writing a novel and it's got me by the throat - so much so it's not leaving me much time for anything else. Also, usually when I start something new I want to chat about it, but this time I'm making such good progress I really don't want to tempt fate by telling all and sundry every last detail. ;) So, if you want to know what it's about, I'm afraid you're just going to have to wait until it's (hopefully) finished and (even more hopefully) published.

It's set in the English Lake District. And that's all I'm going to say. :)

Manloveromance

The author cooperative I belong to, Manloveromance, has just launched its very own promotional video on YouTube. It's classy and HOT and full of rather gorgeous nekkid men and you can find it here: Manloveromance vid. I should probably point out here and now that this is NOT WORK SAFE, unless you want to give your boss heart failure. LOL

I wouldn't even know where to start putting something like this together so I take my hat off to the lasses that created it.

Smooch of the Day

Yesterday I followed a friend's advice (thanks Shaz :D ) and submmitted a 500 word snippet of Nat and Richie's first snog from Roses in December to Ecataromance's 'smooch of the day' feature.

Imagine my surprise this afternoon to browse the site and find my excerpt already featured! It's here if anyone would like to take a quick peek: Smooch. I think I'm still reeling.

It's probably very childish but I still get a real buzz from seeing any of my work in print, even if it's only a short excerpt like this. It's as though it proves it really exists - or as though it proves *I* really exist.

Many thanks to the ladies at Ecataromance for making my day.

My very own domain!

Woo-hoo! I finally splashed out and bought my own domain. Somebody had already half-inched 'fionaglass.com' but I managed to cling onto fiona-glass.com and have now redesigned my website to suit, and moved it lock stock and barrel to the new domain.

It's here, if you'd like to take a look: Fiona's own website. Oh - and if anyone has links to me, please could you change the details? Thanks! And don't forget to bookmark the new site. :)

See you there!

Druids, anyone?

Kay Derwydd's long-running Druid serial 'Taliesin's Grove' in Forbidden Fruit is always a favourite, with lots of nice mythology and a couple of very hot men into the bargain. And her vampire tales are legendary. Put the two together and you have an explosive mix! I reckon I can thoroughly recommend this, her latest Druid/Vampire story:



Crossing the Veil by Kay Derwydd

Modern Druid Elijah has a lot going for him: a nice loft, a good bartending job at a hot gay nightclub...and a vampire for a boyfriend. So what happens when he begs for his lover to turn him during a Samhain ritual?

Get your copy HERE!

RomanceWiki

Spent ages this afternoon updating my RomanceWiki listing as I suddenly realised it was hopelessly out of date. I created a separate page for Roses in December, added at least three other stories/books I've had published recently (Watery Grave, Sticky Wicket and the Whiskey Creek Torrid Teaser) and added a list of similar authors.

It's a great resource now and filled with hundreds of books, authors, articles and links to resources. And not all the books/authors are modern, newly published ones either - whilst browsing today I came across entries for Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer and Mary Stewart, to name but a few classic authors that somebody hardworking has written entries for.

More spookiness

James Buchanan has an absolute rip-snorter of a story in the current issue of Forbidden Fruit, which is unusual, thought provoking and delightful. So I can thoroughly recommend this further collection of stories by the same author, based on creepy myths from around the world and brought out just in time for Halloween. :)



Taste Test – Bittersweets: A Taste of Halloween by James Buchanan Things that go bump in the night abound in this Taste Test from James Buchanan. From summoning an ancient spirit to magical spells that go awry, these fours stories will chill and thrill you.

Capturing folktales from Mexico to Russia, these steamy tales will have you jumping at every sound, and wishing you had more. Be careful what you wish for, though, for like the characters in these stories, you might get more than you bargained for! Give yourself a treat today!

Buy It Now

Amusing story

Something reminded me today of a story Mum used to tell me about her childhood. Apparently her sister, who was several years older than her, had been given a green Bakelite dressing table set (brush, comb, mirror etc) but decided she didn't like it. Rather than throw it in the bin like anyone else, she dashed downstairs with it one night and flung the whole set on the living room fire. Bakelite is flammable. Very, very, flammable. The flames hit the top of the chimney and set fire to it, and the fire brigade had to be called to come and put it out!

It's such a nice story I'm going to use it in my latest novel. I love putting odd bits and pieces like that into my writing - it seems to bring a book to life.

Slow progress

The new project is proceeding at a snail's gallop. Yesterday I managed about 980 words; today I've added another 800 but had to delete a fair chunk of those because I realised my character's motivations were all wrong. Sigh. Still, at least it is progress and at least I'm writing something every day, which up to last week I could only dream about doing.

I discovered to my horror yesterday that the link on my webpage to the catalogue page for Roses in December at Torquere Press was wrong. Blush. Many apologies for the inconvenience if anyone has tried to use the link and failed. I've repaired it now and you should be able to find the book with a single click.

So why the interest...

...in World War Two? I was chatting to some writer friends today and realised that several of my stories and novels have a wartime theme. 'Three Degrees of Separation' has a wartime backstory, whilst 'The House on Penny Lane' is set in Liverpool during the height of the blitz and draws quite heavily on some of my Mum's memories of living there during the war. 'Garden of Remembrance/Roses in December' is partly set in the years leading up to the war. And my latest project is set, once again, in WW2.

So why the fascination? The quick answer is, I honestly don't know. I'm not old enough to have lived through the war, and I never even studied that period at school. I can only think that listening to my parents' and grandparents' stories and memories has influenced me. My family was rather old fashioned and used to live in the past, ('do you remember' was a frequent cry at the dinner table) and it seems I soaked up the endless tales of a bygone age with my tea. So much so that at times, I feel I know more about the 1940s than I do about later decades when I was growing up!

Oooh! Creepy!

I can't believe it's nearly Halloween already! But the shops are full of pumpkins and furry bats, and Aspen have marked the occasion by releasing an anthology of four themed stories, just in time. I haven't had a chance to read this myself yet, but if Emily Veinglory and Laura Baumbach's previous stories are anything to go by it'll be a darned good read. Bring out the fake blood and the false teeth. LOL

The ERWF Promo LJ is pleased to announce a new Halloween anthology by Aspen Mountain Press entitled:

Creatures of the Night, Creatures of Delight

containing four short stories and selling as an e-book for $6.99 from the Aspen Mountain Press.

* "Walk Through Fire" by Laura Baumbach M/M
* "Devilish Good Time" by J.M. Snyder M/M
* "Things That Go Bump in the Night" by Lucynda Storey M/F
* "Blue Murder" by Emily Veinglory M/M