Romantic Friday Writers - Glitz and Glamour

Greetings Everyone!

Here we are with another Romantic Friday Writers do. This is the brainchild of Francine Howarth and L'Aussie where we write between 300-400 words on a given theme. This week is Glitz and Glamour and I've had a ball writing delicious decadence. So grab your Jimmy Choos, your Armani and a cocktail.....

Queenie D'Arbanville floated on her back, gently sculling. The coolness of the pool wrapped around her, soothing and relaxing her body and mind after the marathon that was last night's award ceremony. Dipping her head back , she luxuriated in the soft massage the scented water gave her scalp. The statuette for Best Actress dazzled in the sunshine, sending golden flashes across Queenie's Carrara marble pool steps.

After her swim, she'd indulge in a croissant, maybe two. With the awards season over, Queenie let her stomach muscles relax and looked forward to a few weeks respite from Hollywood starvation. She and Caleb left for their cottage in Wales this evening and she couldn't wait to live as Mr and Mrs Jones in that damp, windswept corner of the country. Caleb would work on his screenplay and together they would walk the miles and miles of unspoilt coastline.

Queenie adored their life here, a blessed variety of red carpet indulgence and carefully orchestrated privacy. If she laughed with the public and smiled at photographers she avoided those cursed 'Caught without make-up!' horror pictures the press was so fond of. The cottage, though, with her brooding Welsh writer, the temperamental Aga, the heavy, grey skies was how she counted her success.

Queenie's next role required an American accent again and she had already hired the dialogue teacher who had coached her through her award-winning part.
“Our own LA Cockney!” Chat show hosts chimed. She wasn't a Cockney at all, the dropped vowels were pure Essex, but she was happy with the better known association and with a name like Queenie, her own, the image of East End pearly royalty was complete.

A tall shadow snatched the sun from her upturned face and Queenie looked at the silhouette of her husband. He stood still and silent, his hands behind his back.
“My Dragon!” She cried.
“My Queen!” He returned.
She swam towards him and was met with his passionate kisses.
“I picked up a little something for the trip. Close your eyes and hold your hands out.”
Queenie did as she was told and felt velvet in her palms.
“Open!”
Cascades of diamonds and rubies glittered and sparkled. Twinkling drops shimmered around a central stone of fire. A tiara so heavenly, like a world of stars in her hands.
“Thought it would go with your hiking boots.”
“And perfect for the pool!” Her arms reached up and pulled him in.

Aren't they too scrumptious to be true? Written in a damp and windswept Devon in 414 words - hey, the bling required the extra words!

Do read the other glamorous offerings by clicking the piccie. Have a great Friday x

PS: Edited to ask where have my followers gone? Is Blogger holding them somewhere?

A different tag and tying up storylines.

Greetings everyone!

Way too much 'Other' going on this week,so haven't been around as much as I'd like. I am trying to visit as many of you as poss! Welcome to my new followers....this blog doesn't have a schedule (one day...one day!) but I hope you enjoy visiting.

I'll be here tomorrow with Romantic Friday Writers, so do tune in.

The wonderful Francine Howarth at Romancing The Blog has tagged me - a different set of questions from last week:

Do you think you're hot?
Noooo.....just cool :-) (Honestly, I'm neither!)

Upload a picture or wallpaper you're using at the moment.


For my latest WIP....sweet, eh?

When was the last time you ate chicken meat?
Last night - I made a marinade of honey, sherry, garam masala and herbs.

The song you listened to recently.
ZZ Top - Sharp Dressed Man - it's on the radio right now.

What were you thinking as you wrote this?
Following on from the song, remembering seeing ZZ Top in concert - excellent!

Do you have nicknames, what are they?
Tiggy from Beatrix Potter's Mrs Tiggywinkle.

Thank you for all the comments on my 'Pronounciation' post - great discussion. Now another thought....

I have just finished a big fat epic, kind of fantasy. Now, I didn't know when I started that it was the first of several. The tale has a cast of hundreds and many, many storylines. Much of the writing is very good with stunning descriptions BUT... not one storyline is completed at the end of book one! NOT ONE! I feel I've sat through a marathon of soap operas (very little happiness for anyone)and that the writer has left me dangling mid season. I'm furious! Surely in any series of books, the writer owes the reader something per book, otherwise it's not really finished, is it?

I read this on Kindle so didn't sneak a peak at the 'Coming next' at the back of the book.

Am I expecting too much? I really do feel cheated - I'd love your thoughts on this.

See you tomorrow x

Romantic Friday Writers - Lost

Greetings Everyone!

Welcome to our 2nd Romantic Friday Writers, a new meme devised by L'Aussie and Francine Howarth. Each week we submit some work (excerpt, flash fiction, poetry etc) around a chosen theme, coming in under 400 words.

This week's theme is Lost and I have to say the Muse stayed resolutely silent until the 11th hour. I struggled with this one but eventually this flash piece materialised.....at 376 words.

Lost

A sigh rippled through Alan's body as the ventilator was switched off, releasing him from his broken physical self. He watched as the tubing and machinery were disconnected and wheeled away. He looked at his partly shaved head, his swollen face, bruised hands and thought he looked quite the rugged hero, actually. A doctor was talking to Tash.

“ He's in no pain, Mrs Marshall. His body will shut down over the next few hours and...”

“I'll lose him.” She finished.

And when did I lose you, Tash?

Alan looked at his pretty wife. Waves of love flowed from him and settled around her heart. He wondered if she could feel him there. She was holding one of his hands, stroking it with her thumb.

Under the thumb, eh? Alan laughed and felt himself expand to the edges the room. His senses filled with glorious sensations. His whole being smelled grass and beer, every pore heard classic rock music, every hair squealing devotion from his boyhood puppies. He was standing on a road. Still.

No tunnel? He had no need to turn to be able to see all around. Tall trees, their tops lost in mist, led away like an avenue of sentinels. Had it rained? Water dripped from leaf to leaf, slow tears. The mist engulfed him.

When did dissatifaction set in, Tash? Was it after meeting skinny, rich Jayne in Pilates?

Alan couldn't pin a time to the changes. Tash ate less, exercised more, lost her soft curves. Her strawberry waves became a shimmering sheet of pale honey. The tapestry bag he had bought her in Thailand was replaced by something called Prada. Then she started on him. His hair wasn't right, she bought him gel. She moaned about his jeans, his motorbike.

Doctors had cut away his jeans and his bike was crushed.

I was selling it, Tash. There's a holiday in St Barts bookmarked on my computer. Wasn't that where you wanted to go? To be seen?

I wanted a baby, you wanted botox.

He imagined the conversation with her brittle friend. “How awful for you, a widow at twenty-nine but look how thin you are!”

Let go love.

The mist lifted. Alan absorbed divine warmth and walked home.


Do click on the piccie to read everyone else's inspiring romantic work.

Have a great Friday x

Pronounciation

Greetings everyone!

I am currently reading a fantasy novel full of names that are weird, wonderful, fitting and downright peculiar! The people sound vaguely Welsh/Celt and the locations are mystical and a touch Middle Earth.

Now, I 'know' how these should sound in my head, but does the author have other ideas? When you create a character or place, are you particular about how YOU want the name to sound? Do you sneak in phonetics?

When I was a child I knew a Hermione. So when the Harry Potters were published I simply thought it was nice to see a pretty unusual name have such prominence. When the films came out, many people exclaimed they assumed she was HERMY-OWN. That's how they 'heard' the name in their heads.

So, do you make sure the reader knows your pronounciation, or do you let them discover their own?

Enjoy your day x

I've been tagged!

Many thanks to the wonderful Madeleine Maddocks at Scribble and Edit for tagging me! All I have to do is answer a few questions and Tag another three bloggers.

1. If you could go back in time and re-live a moment, what would it be?
MrB's proposal!

2. If you could go back in time and change one thing, what would it be?
Well, things are what they are but I would love my parents to still be around.

3. What movie/TV character do you most resemble in personality?
Shirley MacLaine - I'm a former dancer with a keen interest in the paranormal and an irascible old broad!

4: If you could push one person off a cliff and get away with it, who would it be?
I'm a passivist of Gandhi proportions, I couldn't do it.

5. Name one habit that you want to change in yourself?
OTT contingency planning


6. Describe yourself in one word.
Short


7. Describe the person who named you in this meme in one word.
Superbwordsmith

8. Why do you blog? Answer in one sentence.
For inspiration, knowledge and friendship.

9. Name three people to send this meme to and inform them.
I receive tremendous support and advice from fellow bloggers and followers and I'd like to tag Lisa and Margo because I'm pretty sure they awarded me pretties just as as I was having to leave my blog for a while and Dorothy is a new writing chum who produces awesome stuff.

Lisa Ricard Claro

Margo Kelly

Dorothy Evans

So, there you go! I have another post looming on a writing matter but I'll pop it up tomorrow as two contrasting subjecst in one post is too much for little me!

Have a great day x

Romantic Friday Writers - a day late due to Blogger!

Greetings Everyone!

Here we are for the first Romantic Friday Writers, a wonderful idea from L'Aussie (Denise) and Francine Howarth. I had no Blogger yesterday so had a frustrating time waiting to post! I am working part of today and will read everyone's work over today and tomorrow. I'm so excitied to be a part of this. We are submitting work to a theme each week and it can be Flash Fiction, an excerpt from WIP, poetry...whatever as long as it's Romance and under 400 words.

This week's theme is Dire Moment.

My excerpt is from a very new, just forming idea, where Miranda is the head chef on a luxury yacht owned by Xavier Clichy. They are cruising the Western Mediterranean and Miranda has met and fallen in love with Xavier's nephew, Sol. Then.........

The voices sounded far away, sounds lost to the whispering slaps of water against the side of the boat. Miranda raised her head from the deck, pulling sticky strands of hair from the wooden grooves of the floor. Her ear throbbed and her cheek stung where she had been struck. The taste of sweet lemons in her mouth, so delicious earlier in the evening, now brought a chilly nausea rising from her stomach as she took deep breaths to halt the sickness she felt was sure to follow. Forcing herself to stand, she clung to a leather bar stool and fixed her gaze on the calligraphy of the yacht's name etched into the seat as dizziness threatened to swamp her senses.

The air was warm but her teeth chattered and her body shook as the chill of terror took over. She rubbed her frozen arms, feeling goosepimples prickle under the touch. A group of five or six people surrounded a prone figure. They had their backs to her and hadn't seen her stagger to her feet. Their voices were muted to Miranda's ears, the vicious pounding blocked out any clarity. She glimpsed a single white shoe, not Xavier! Please, not Xavier! Her breath caught in her throat as the group shifted enough for her to see her boss lying motionless, his linen suit spattered with stains, which Miranda prayed wasn't blood. Needles of pain pierced her head as she searched for Sol. She dreaded finding him laid out like his uncle. One of the group spotted her and alerted the others. Miranda swayed – they were armed! She counted five men and one woman. The woman was tall and muscular and the smirk she gave chilled Miranda to her core. The menace hesitated. Miranda sensed a presence behind her and turned. The agony in her head was excrutiating and she put out a hand to stop herself falling. Another hand caught her. She looked into the eyes she loved, the face that had lain close to hers only hours before. Sol! Here! Holding her. She melted into his arms. Those arms propelled her into the waiting mob. Rough bodies grabbed her as she stumbled. Her body slumped as the horror of her situation dawned. Sol, the man she loved more than anything glared at her with a gaze so cold she shuddered. He raised a gun,
“Lose her!”

As I said VERY new and I have condensed to meet 400 words - I have, though, had a wonderful time researching Super Yachts! This is an story I wish to develop.

Do click on the picture above to read the other posts and I will be dropping in and catching up all weekend.

Have a great weekend everyone x

Hope you remember me!....and Friday book blurb.

Greetings Everyone!

It's been too long, I know - and thank you so much for your kind messages regarding the absence of MrB and myself. The two sickly loved-ones are making great recoveries (one miraculously!) and our frantic to-ing and fro-ing should ease up a little.

Whilst I was away, I'm aware that I was given a couple of awards. I'm afraid that I was so stressed and vacant, I didn't fully note or acknowledge them and for that, I truly apologise. Awards are very special and I am grateful indeed to be the recipient of someone's thoughtfulness.

I am desperate to resume my writing and will start, tout de suite, with today's book blurb, courtesy of the lovely Lisa at Writing In The Buff where she posts a picture representing a book and everyone writes a blurb in 150 words or less. Fiction, Non-Fiction etc, whatever genre you feel goes with the piccie.

Here is my (rusty) entry. Do pop over to Lisa's and check out the others.




The Albion Falls


Meredith Lloyd has no room in her busy life for romance. As the leading light in bespoke landscape water features, her services are in demand. From film stars to footballers, her unique designs are world renowned.

When commissioned to create a tranquil lagoon for reclusive writer, Benedict Byrne, Meredith assembles her team and materials as she would for any other creation. Mr Byrne, though, has specific reasons for using only the unusual crystalline stones in his new garden design and Meredith is soon mesmerised by the effects of water cascading over the twinkling rocks.

What magic lies within the stones and will Meredith's ambitious heart be softened when she works closely with the charismatic author?

It's so good to be back....I've missed you all very much. Have a fabulous Friday! x