Monday 31 July 2017

Weekly Round Up 31st July


Morning everyone from an unsettled Lancashire – me and the weather. How did we get to the last day in July? Sorry about last week – had a day of feeling tired and irritable and words wouldn’t come. Cat the elder has a yowl that could pierce steel, and she uses it from five in the morning, so lack of sleep has been a problem. She is old and deaf, but since we’ve put her in the kitchen overnight, she’s been okay, and I’m not so worried about the neighbours. Real life has also been rearing its ugly head. Hoping for some more positive news soon.
Writing has been slow. I’ve managed a few thousand on current WIP, but it’s hard going. I think even the voices have been too tired to talk to me. Trouble is, I know where the story is going, I even have a last scene written, but the in between, and getting the pair to that point, is eluding me. Instead, I’ve been editing Half Full, but it is 100K words, so doing my first sweep for certain words is taking time and, as I read, I realise the kitten timeline is totally rubbish. So, plans are to do as much as I can because some words are better than none. I will probably get my short story, The Matchmaker, to edit soon. This comes out as part of an anthology of contemporary stories with Pride Publishing in September/October.

On the reading front, I’ve managed a few including Robert Winter’s Lying Eyes, which I enjoyed except for, the Stoke accent. I find some accents difficult in books, especially if the person has simply looked up the accent and never heard it spoken. I’ve been told off for using typically English, Scottish or Welsh phrases in my books as well as for not including them. Accents work better in some books than others. Avery Cockburn’s Glasgow Lads is one example of getting it right, although I found the Doric in the first book, challenging. I’ve stayed in the North East of Scotland many times, and not understood more than the words Janet, Hoos, Elvis and explosive charge in a conversation. Dialect words are one thing to set a book in a place, even phrases, but sometimes I find they throw me out of the story.

Other reading has included, Atonement by Sloane Kennedy, my first by this author. Took me a while to get into it, but once there, Magnus hit me right in the feels as they say. One of my favourite authors, Gail Carriger, who wrote the wonderful series, The Parasol Protectorate, has a new book out. I discovered I’d missed a couple of novellas set in that world so read and enjoyed Romancing the Inventor. Now, I’m not a lover of shifter books, but I love her steampunk world of werewolves and vampires, so I’ll try her new one set in an alternative San Francisco. Current read is Felice Stevens, The Shape of You. I’ve been putting this off, and I know it’s going to be tough reading for me. I find books where one character is overweight problematic, but I thought I’d give this one a try. Early days yet.
Box set watching continues. We’re up to S11 of Supernatural, so not much left, and now on S3 of Orphan Black. I need to think what to watch after we’ve finished S11. I might try American Gods, but I’m not sure. Lots of current watches are coming to an end on TV now, as we get the summer recess and lots of repeats. I have enjoyed the Gay Britannia season of programmes tying in with the 1967 Sexual Offences Act which partially repealed laws and decriminalised some homosexual behaviour. It was a start, and along the way other obstacles appeared, including the awful Clause 28, which I’m proud to say as a teacher, I completely ignored. No one was telling me I couldn’t tell a teenager that being gay wasn’t normal. I wish I could find a sketch Ben Elton did at the time which questioned how the government then thought teachers were rubbish, but believed they’d be able to make everyone of their pupils gay with a few words. The film, Pride, was on TV last night. If you’ve never seen it, please do. The women in it are fantastic, and want to hope the character played by Bill Nighy finds love after so many years attempting to hide his sexuality.
That’s it for this week. I’ve had some more lovely reviews for My Highland Cowboy, so if you want a low angst, heart-warming read, it might be the one for you. 

And just a reminder that today is the last day for getting 25% off Manifold Press books at Smashwords, including my older MC story, While You See a Chance.


Have a good week everyone.

Wednesday 19 July 2017

Change my dears and not a moment too soon – representation and choice.


Or why I write what I write


Sunday, it was announced that the next Doctor would be female – I hesitate to use that word, but it’s what we have. We’ve known Timelords can be female for many years, but that they can regenerate into either gender is a more recent development. This is not a first for SciFi or Fantasy. Those of us who watch Supernatural know that angels and demons can use vessels of either sex. This change has led a lot of people to wring their hands and talk about how Doctor Who has caved in to those who want the programme to be ‘politically correct’. I, for one, am fed up of this. I want to talk about two aspects of what has happened.

1.      Representation

2.      Writing

Little girls need heroes – hell, women need heroes. Even better, they need heroes who look like themselves. On film, a girl can be a Jedi, a vampire slayer, a Wayward Daughter, a starship captain and now, finally, the Doctor. You see representation is important. We all need to see ourselves in others. We all need role models who show us that the seemingly impossible is possible. Our culture and media should reflect those needs hence a Doctor who can be in female form as well as male – though, I am still pissed the Doctor isn’t ginger. Some people, however, feel that this is a step too far and creating change for change sake. As a historian, I’ve heard this message before.

·         Why give the working class the vote? They won’t understand.

·         Why give women the vote? They have husbands and fathers to take care of them

·         Women can’t be lawyers or doctors. They aren’t intelligent enough.

·         Men should go out to work and not stay at home to care for their children. It’ll make them feminine and they won’t be able to cope.

·         Women aren’t strong enough to be superheroes. They have weak bodies and no one wants to see them as the lead in films and who will buy the models?

·         Men shouldn’t cry. Men should be macho and should no signs of weakness.
With this decision, another section of the monolith of what you can or cannot be, or do, has been chipped away. This brings me to the other issue – why writers chose their characters and story lines.
I write gay romance. I’ve been asked why so many times and told I’d sell more if I wrote M/F stories. The simple answer is, because I can, and because I want to. But shouldn’t I be writing about women people ask if I’m such a feminist? Again, the answer is, I do. Yes, my MCs are men, but my stories contain lots of strong women. I wouldn’t write them any other way. Women play vital roles in my books, and maybe, one day, I’ll get the F/F story I have a plot bunny for written. I’ve written about a variety of men because I can. My MCs have been a rugby player, a teacher, a chef, an inventor, a postman, a hotel owner, a minister, a policeman, a rancher, a designer, and a potter, among others. I’ve written characters with anxiety, with a damaged leg, with HIV, needing a wheelchair, with a bad childhood, who are gay and bisexual, parents and not. I’ve written them because I wanted to, because I wanted to explore a variety of issues and not write the same thing over and over again. I’ve written drama, angst, fluff and humour. I’ve given some characters a hard time, and others not. I’ve hopefully given them all some sort of happily ever after because I write romance.

So, when people question choices, and talk about being politically correct, writers will do what they want. They might kill a favourite to stir things up – looking at you here Russell T Davies and my beloved Ianto -  and create drama.
In romance, we have to find a happy ever after, but this isn’t true of all drama. The writers have their plans, their story lines. We may not agree with their choices, but they are the ones at the keyboard, and I, for one, always look forward to what they produce.

Monday 17 July 2017

Weekly Round Up 17th July


Monday again. This week the sun is shining in my part of the world. I wasn’t sure if I’d write anything this week, as I’m in less than a positive mood. A combination of depressing news from home and reading crap because they dared to give a woman the role of the Doctor, has left me frustrated and annoyed. For the record, I have some reservations about a female Doctor but it’s the stories that matter to me so get those right and I won’t care.

Writing has been slow, only about 3000 words on current WIP. My concentration levels are shot, and my brain keeps coming up with starts for other stories, which isn’t helping. I’m waiting to hear about short story I submitted in the meantime. This morning, print copies of My Highland Cowboy arrived so if I owe you a copy, I will get them out to you in the next week. I would take a photo, but sadly my camera has decided to play silly devils and not accept the memory card. I might go back to editing Half Full for weak words so I’m doing something productive.


Reading has been slow as well, but I have finished The Ruin of a Rake by Cas Sebastian, which got better after a third of the way through but I enjoyed less than the other two. Read and loved Satin by K. C. Wells and looking forward to Silk. Now reading Lying Eyes by Robert Winter which is also a bit of a slow starter for me, but I want to know more.


Finished S8 of Supernatural and now watching S9. In between have watched Orphan Black S1 and remain amazed by Tatiana Maslany. Other than this watching various series such as The Handmaid’s Tale, The Loch, Fearless and Poldark. Will also be trying to stay away from spoilers for Game of Thrones.

That’s it for now. I could rant about the unfairness of so many things, but it won’t make anything better, and I’m not looking for sympathy. Life is just a bit of a bugger at the moment but..
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Monday 10 July 2017

Weekly Round Up 10th July


Hello on a Monday morning from a rainy Lancashire. Noisy banging from next door has accompanied the last week as my neighbour has removed his roof and the whole of the back wall and is now rebuilding. He did warn me. Apologies for loss of blog last week. I could say I was recovering after a birthday weekend of drink and debauchery, but I’d be lying. I did have some lovely presents including a Funko Tenth Doctor to add to the collection, and the Harry Potter version of Trivial Pursuit. I think a complete rewatch may be necessary before tackling them.


Writing has been pretty slow, but I did get the short story finished in time to meet the deadline thanks to my alpha reader giving it a quick once over. Provisionally, it’s called The Matchmaker. I can only wait now to see if they want it for the contemporary anthology. I’ve attempted to get back into my age gap story. Adam and Jason are beginning to talk to me in the middle of the night, so there’s hope. I didn’t intend it to be a long story, and so far it’s around 5000 words at only two chapters in. I am getting to know them though. When the muse is avoiding me, I’ve started to remove ‘weak’ words from Half Full the 100K+ story of Owen and Jonah. I always start an edit with this then do the first read through checking continuity, repetition and punctuation before I hand it over to a beta to read. It does take me time, however, because I have to leave the MS alone for a while. This week, I’m going to continue the current WIP, I hope.

On the reading front, I haven’t done much except download several books so my TBR list is growing. I decided to have a change and read Poppy Jenkins by Claire Ashton, which I liked but did get a bit fed up about some aspects of the story. I did enjoy it being set in Wales. My current read is The Ruin of a Rake by Cat Sebastian. I very much enjoyed her first two books. I’ve also listened to three of the CDS in The Lives of Captain Jack audio series from Big Finish. I love that I can still hear Torchwood stories and these are attempts to fill in what I would call fanfiction gaps. In this case the four stories cover what happened after Jack came alive again after being revived by Rose, visiting Rose’s estate when she was young and meeting Jackie, her mum, what happened when he was introduced to Alonso – so lovely hearing Russell Tovey, and finally what happened with the two-year memory loss which made him leave the Time Agency.


Box set watching for this week, in between the tennis, has consisted of Supernatural S8 – I do love the Purgatory stuff and Benny, and the first series of Orphan Black which we watched in 3 days. How Tatiana Maslany didn’t win all the prizes, I’ll never understand. Now onto S9 of Supernatural again in between tennis depending on how far Murray and Konta get.


That’s it for now. My Highland Cowboy continues to get some lovely reviews which is wonderful. If I owe you a prize, I’m hoping to get the print copies this week as they are on order. Thanks for all the entries in various giveaways. Have a good week everyone. As usual, this can also be found on my blog.


Thursday 6 July 2017

Throwback Thursday - Sporting Chance




Sporting Chance was my first published novel. I began writing it while still in my full-time job of teaching, fitting it in before school, at lunch time, and at night after marking. It took nearly three years to finish, and the first draft was mostly written by hand.

Most people know I started my writing life writing fanfiction, mostly in the Torchwood/Doctor Who fandoms and later in Supernatural. Coincidentally, today is the eighth anniversary of the first showing of Day One of Children of Earth and I’m currently listening to one of the Big Finish Torchwood CDs from the set -  The Lives of Captain Jack—still a fan.

Dan and Aron, two of the characters in Sporting Chance, began life as original characters in one of those stories. In Torchwood High, they were teenage boys who had just realised they loved each other, then I callously split them apart in my first novel. I did feel guilty about that, but then I did give Dan someone else. Dan was always a rugby player and had to be, like me, Welsh. I wanted him to be openly gay rather than this being a story about coming out. Around the time I started writing, Gareth Thomas came out. If you ever get a chance, read his book. Alfie, as he was always known, was a superb player and has become a trailblazer for others. Dan isn’t based on him though. Physically, he’s based on another lock forward – I’ve always had a thing for locks – it’s the height. I decided instead to concentrate the story on what it is like to be famous, gay and looking for love.


Iestyn, the other MC, is a history teacher – yes so was I – who literally falls at Dan’s feet. The romance begins with a dinner date and continues in secret. Iestyn has a great family and friends who can’t quite believe he’s caught the eye of the best player in Wales. Eventually, their relationship is outed and here the problems begin for both men. At the time I wrote the story, there was a lot in the news about phone tapping of celebrities, so I speculated about press intrusion and how people make things up. Then, as the nasty author, I split them up in order to bring them back again. That reunion isn’t easy though, and help comes from surprising places, namely Dan’s ex-boyfriend, Aron. This is, of course a romance, so it had to have a happily ever after.

I submitted the manuscript to a couple of places and no one was more amazed than me that a publisher took a chance on the very raw story. I went on a steep journey learning about all sorts of things, like independent body parts and passive voice thanks to my editor, who was immensely patient with me. Finally, in November, 2014, Sporting Chance was published. It received some lovely reviews and some not so lovely, but such is the life of a writer. It was hard and it still is, dealing with the highs and lows, but a few years later, I’ve had more published and I’m still writing but Sporting Chance was where it began and it still sells double figures most months.

You can buy Sporting Chance in these places. And if you want to know what happens to Aron I tell his story in Comfort Zone.

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