<![CDATA[CB Conwy - Blog]]>Sat, 19 May 2012 17:18:37 -0800Weebly<![CDATA[Ask, and Ye Shall Receive]]>Sat, 19 May 2012 14:37:40 -0800http://www.cbconwy.com/1/post/2012/05/ask-and-ye-shall-receive.htmlIdeas, that is! Yesterday, I asked for ideas for Torquere's anniversary charity sips, and Kristi P. quickly gave me not one, not two, not... Okay, you get it by now, but still: She gave me four great ideas! And now I've just finished my charity sip. So far it's called "Leather and Newfound Land", and it's about having literary names, a dog-skeptic boyfriend, and a Newfoundland puppy. It's a bit of fluff with an adorable puppy - oh, and a hot sex scene.

And, speaking about literary names: I found this quote when I researched a French poet called Gérard de Nerval (one of our heroes is named after him). Nerval is talking about his pet lobster, which he used to take for walks in the Palais Royal gardens in Paris:

"Why should a lobster be any more ridiculous than a dog? ...or a cat, or a gazelle, or a lion, or any other animal that one chooses to take for a walk? I have a liking for lobsters. They are peaceful, serious creatures. They know the secrets of the sea, they don't bark, and they don't gnaw upon one's monadic privacy like dogs do. And Goethe had an aversion to dogs, and he wasn't mad."

After that, I feel wonderfully normal!
]]><![CDATA[Call for ideas]]>Fri, 18 May 2012 13:24:30 -0800http://www.cbconwy.com/1/post/2012/05/call-for-ideas.htmlMy head is still pretty empty when it comes to Torquere's charity sips. I have two half ideas, but one will probably be longer than the 8,000 words of a charity sip, and the other is nothing but a very vague idea. I have had some great suggestions from readers before, so I thought: Why not ask you again? I absolutely can't promise anything; the writerly part of my brain works in mysterious ways.

But if you have an idea, feel free to make a comment here or mail me at cbconwy@yahoo.co.uk. Maybe it'll turn into a charity sip!

Here's Torquere's announcement:

"It's that time again, where all of our great authors get together to donate
to a charity working within the GLBTQ community! This year, Torquere Press
has chosen NOH8 as the donation charity, and authors who contribute agree to
donate 100% of their royalties to NOH8, with Torquere Press matching the
donation.

This year's theme, since this is Torquere Press' ninth anniversary as well,
is leather. Nine is the leather anniversary, y'all! How cool is that?

Leather can be reflected in any way in the story. BDSM may immediately
spring to mind, but leather can also mean cowboys, fast cars, Italian shoes,
jewelry, or any of a million other things."

Intrigued? Let me know!
]]><![CDATA[Inspiration]]>Fri, 04 May 2012 13:22:05 -0800http://www.cbconwy.com/1/post/2012/05/inspiration.htmlPeople often ask me where I get my inspiration, and oddly enough, this is actually a hard question for me. "Daydreaming" is such a weird answer - even if it's true. I find most of my stories by playing through a scene in my head. Sometimes it works, and I spend hours elaborating; sometimes it dies within minutes. Often I come back to it several times, and then suddenly I realize that there might be a story here.

Another way is reading the science pages in the newspaper. Again, it sounds strange, but "what if"s are a great starting point for me. It worked really well with Himiko, and I've just begun another story that was born the same way.

Then there are the mails from readers asking for more stories about one character or another. Funnily enough, my first reaction is often saying no. Even as I'm composing my answer ("No, I can't write a story about Jeff, because that would just be him sitting at home Saturday Night"), I sometimes begin thinking. And yes, Jeff got his story and you can read it here on my website. I might have another one for him as well.

Right now I'm thinking about something for Torquere's charity, though. The theme is leather, and my mind is pretty empty. Except for the suggestion I got in that mail yesterday - or maybe Jeff could finally...

So many men, so little time to write them!
]]><![CDATA[400th Rating Anniversary!]]>Wed, 18 Apr 2012 07:24:31 -0800http://www.cbconwy.com/1/post/2012/04/400th-rating-anniversary.htmlWow. A Russian Bear has been rated 400 times now on Goodreads! It's quite amazing to think that so many people have been reading my story about Tom and Mischa. Kinky bastards. Tom and Mischa, I mean, not the readers. Although... Well, let's just say that I truly appreciate people thinking a little outside of the box:).

Well, as you probably might notice from my choice of subject for today's blog post, things are a bit slow at the moment. Real life is good (not insanely busy, which is a pleasant change), and I had a nice spring holiday. Not much to tell, in fact. I wish I could say something different about the writing part of my life, but alas. Not much to tell there, either; I'm still trying to find the energy to do the last rewrites of the sequel to A Russian Bear. I will get there, I promise; I just need to make sure that I don't work myself too hard in the process. I'm becoming more and more aware of the negative consequences of stress, so I'm trying to keep my work load at a reasonable level - and for once, I'm succeeding. Well, I do have to finish reading a book and write a review, so I better get going now...
]]><![CDATA[Happy Easter Sale!]]>Sun, 08 Apr 2012 09:31:48 -0800http://www.cbconwy.com/1/post/2012/04/happy-easter-sale.htmlOops. I was so busy whining about being sick that I completely forgot to put this up. But you still have a couple of days to get a book or two from Torquere Press' Easter Sale. Here's the announcement from Torquere:

Happy Easter Sale!

It's Easter weekend! So we're offering 20% off your purchases from now
through the end of day Monday! Just put 'easter2012' in the coupon code box
any time you check out at Torquere Books (www.torquerebooks.com) before
Monday at midnight to get 20% off your order.

Sale good now through Monday April 9 at Midnight (est).

Celebrate Easter with a book from Torquere Press today!

Oh, and I'm better today, even though I still feel like I'm 95 years old. Perhaps it was for the best; I hardly ever take time off without using it to work on something, so the last couple of days have been a rare chance to relax completely. Mainly because I couldn't do anything else, but hey, it worked.
]]><![CDATA[Change of plans]]>Sat, 07 Apr 2012 04:45:36 -0800http://www.cbconwy.com/1/post/2012/04/change-of-plans.htmlSo, there I was, three days ago: I had stocked up on delicious food, equally delicious brownies and a good book - you know, just to get warmed up before I began editing the sequel to A Russian Bear (yep. The same one I've been talking about for ages now). I was deep into Kate Sherwood's latest Dark Horse novel when I began noticing that it was really cold in my apartment. So cold that I was shivering, in fact. Well, it was a good book, so I kept on reading, and it wasn't until I had finished that I realized that I was sick as a dog. As in "somebody please take me out of my misery"-sick. Food poisoning, in other words. It turned out that the delicious, fancy food really was fancy - in a bacteriologically not so good way.

So, now I'm spending my precious days off being sick and not editing my book. And yes, I'm feeling really, really sorry for myself. As a matter of fact so sorry that I'm comfort-buying books. I need it, you see. For your information, Kate Sherwood as well as Vaugh R. Demont are really good reads (they actually kept me sitting up in bed - gasp!). Now I'll begin Alexandr Voinov's Dark Soul. I've read his Scorpion and loved it.

So, if you need comfort reads, those are good choices. And by the way, you should never begin three paragraphs in a row with a "so". Just sayin'. But I'm sick, so I'm allowed to.
]]><![CDATA[Reading for real]]>Sat, 24 Mar 2012 08:23:18 -0800http://www.cbconwy.com/1/post/2012/03/reading-for-real.htmlI've had a lot of deadlines lately in one of my other jobs. I'm a book critic, and last weekend, I had a stack of books waiting for me. I did the math, and with a sigh, I realized that I had more than 1500 pages to get through. I reached out for the first book, determined to get through the pile, and then I hesitated.

1500 pages. Yeah, that's a lot, but there used to be a time when that meant a lot of excitement. When had I started thinking in pages instead of books, in simple math instead of the amount of literary adventures waiting for me - in work instead of pleasure?

Being a book critic is work, of course; I get paid to do it, and I don't get to choose what I want to read. But it's a great job, as well. As a matter of fact, it's a dream job (even though it doesn't feel that way when you're forced to get through a less than stellar crime novel. No, Detective, don't go into the woods; the murderer is out there, you idiot). It was in that moment that I realized that I had to get back to how things used to be; otherwise even this dream job would end up being just another chore.

Luckily, it turned out I had some really great books waiting for me - as in books you remember, for the good and the bad and for everything inbetween. It gave me back some of the faith in literature I had obviously lost sometime along the way, reading all those bad books and experiencing all that horrible editing.

Now I have to take a look at my writing as well to make sure I don't make the same mistake there. If that means writing a little less or editing a little more, then so be it. The most important thing is to remember the joy of it. 
]]><![CDATA[Read an eBook Week Sale!]]>Mon, 05 Mar 2012 13:03:10 -0800http://www.cbconwy.com/1/post/2012/03/read-an-ebook-week-sale.htmlIt's Read an eBook Week! So Torquere's offering 20% off your purchases from now through the end of day Saturday to help you stock up on eBooks! Just put 'read2012' in the coupon code box any time you check out at Torquere Books before Saturday at midnight to get 20% off your order.

Sale good now through Saturday March 10 at Midnight (est).

Celebrate Read an eBook Week with some books from Torquere Press! ]]><![CDATA[Going back]]>Sat, 03 Mar 2012 13:00:21 -0800http://www.cbconwy.com/1/post/2012/03/going-back.html
Picture
They say you can never go back, right? Well, I'm between books at the moment - that is, my current project is being torn up by a colleague, and I still need to figure out how to move on from the first 30 pages of my next project. I've spent the time reading and working on other projects, but yesterday I took the day off.

I drove across the country to the sea, and it was a really, really great day. The roads were empty, I had Leonard Cohen's new CD on repeat, and the landscape slowly opened up around me as I drove until everything was flat and windswept and open. Then I got to the sea for the first time in years.

This particular place was where we went when I was a kid, and it brought back a lot of memories. Some of them good, some of them bittersweet. I've spent happy days with my family there. However, the day also made me think of my mother and a trip we made when I was pretty young. It was one of the last things we did together before her alcohol abuse got serious and I pretty much had to manage on my own. It hurt to think about that day, mainly because it's one of the few times I remember her trying to show that she cared for me.

It was also good, though, because I could go back - not to the past, but to a place that used to mean something to me. It still does, but I was able to accept the old memories for what they are and create new memories of a beautiful day on top of those old painful ones. Sometimes maturing isn't about struggling to improve, but about acceptance. Not forgiveness, not yet in my case. But perhaps I can get there as well.

Well, this post got a lot more personal than I thought it would be; I promise to be back on track in my next post. Until then: Don't be afraid to go back. Good things might come of 
]]><![CDATA[Research]]>Sat, 18 Feb 2012 14:04:30 -0800http://www.cbconwy.com/1/post/2012/02/research.htmlSometimes writing takes incredibly long time - or, in this case, editing. I'm working on the sequel to A Russian Bear, and Tom is getting better at his karate. Better than I am, in fact.

That means that I've just spent a long time researching that incredibly difficult kata I once learned at a seminar (or, rather, attempted to learn, but let's not dwelve on that). That in itself takes quite a lot of time (I didn't know that you may use it for your second dan grading examination, for example). But then there are all the other interesting things you find when you Google something: Original videos featuring Kanazawa, syllabus, and oh, I know that guy, I just have to see what he's been doing lately...

In other words, research is interesting, but time-consuming. And then we're not even talking about the stalling. But hey, I found a yummy-looking bread recipe, so at least I won't be starving.  ]]>