We had a lovely holiday.    Relaxing, exciting, fun, thick with reading and books, and some added research.

Which is a good because now I’m going into overdrive.

I’m determined to a) finish my new WIP as soon as possible and b) do a DAMN fine job on it.  The new WIP is called A Thousand Secrets, and the story is…. a secret.  *g*.  it’s a contemporary thriller/romantic suspense with historical vignettes (assuming that’s the right word!) set in some fascinating historical sites in the north-east. 

It had zero words in June, 10,000 by the time I went on holiday, and now it stands at just over 17,000.  It’s b****y, b******** complex (will I never learn?) and I think I’m about to write a GMC/Hero’s Journey chart for a dead person.  Whoop de do.

I’m trying to be disciplined (okay, who just yelled, “Ha!”??) and I’m updating progress on Twitter, so you can follow things there, if you dare!  I’m @AnnaLouiseLucia on Twitter.

Writing overdrive is kinda fun in short bursts.  But soon I’m going to have to come off the caffeine as it doesn’t agree with me after a while.  So the caffeine-free overdrive should be interesting…

Spare a thought for my long-suffering Husband.  It’s no fun being married to a writer. 

… I can’t ignore it any more.  No matter how much I don’t want to, and how tedious and difficult it’s going to be, I’m going to HAVE to do a timeline for the opening chapters of Danger: Deep Water.

*collapses on desk sobbing inconsolably*

Yes, a timeline.  Last time I had to do this, it was for Dangerous Lies, and I had to use both a spreadsheet and a map to work out the movements of the heroine and her kidnappers, the hero and his friend, and another villain, across thousands of square miles of Saharan desert.

*shudder*

This time I’ve got to try and map the movements of seven different characters on land and sea, with four different starting locations, flights, drives and a long-distance swim.

Oh, and three boats.

*more sobbing on desk*

Can’t I just write fun stuff and hope it all adds up???  No? 

Dang.

*Anna gets out her maps and coloured pencils.  Again.*

If you don’t hear from me in a few days, send search parties.  And chocolate.

I have a wonderful little book with quotes in it.  I probably bought it for a prize or a present and promply forgot about it, but it surfaced in the clutter on my desk the other day.

One particular serene quote caught my eye.

The strong, calm man is always loved and revered.  He is like a shade-giving tree in a thirsty land, or a sheltering rock in a storm.  (James Allen)

Which immediately made me think of Gareth, in the current WIP, DANGER: DEEP WATER.

Because he is a rock – kind, gentle, strong, with an immovable sense of honour.  He’s not the kind of man Lisa, the heroine, is used to at all.  Perhaps that’s why she’s so committed to provoking him, to knocking him off-balance.

In Dangerous Lies, my second book, Gareth showed his colours, established himself as a friend in a tight corner, a generous, but private, ruthlessly self-contained man. 

Which is why it came as such a surprise when, about a third of the way through DANGER: DEEP WATER, he turned into the World’s Angriest Man.*

Then I happened to look at enneagrams one day, and found something that made me laugh out loud.  Because Gareth is clearly a One, a perfectionist, “focused on personal integrity and … wise, discerning and inspiring in their quest for the truth,” chiefly demanding perfection of himself.  And what is the chief vice of a One?

Anger.

You’ve gotta laugh.

* Admittedly, she’s just blown up his yacht.  Well, not her directly, but the trouble she’s trailing behind like the poison tail on a dark comet.  So he’s lost his home, refuge, all his possessions…. etc etc… 

… the current preoccupations.

I’m working on WIP, DANGER: DEEP WATER, which picks up a secondary character from DANGEROUS LIES two years after that book finishes.

Gareth Lacy (inspired by Gerard Butler) is an ex Navy diver, specialising in mine-clearance.  He knows all about going down into the depths of darkness in search of the evil that men leave behind.  Now that’s all behind him, and he lives out his days aboard his shabby yacht Orpheus in the Mediterranean, avoiding people, life, love, and trying to escape the nightmares of his past.

Lisa’s nightmares are right here, right now. 

(I think Lisa looks a bit like Roselyn Sanchez, pictured below – she gets her looks from her spanish mother.)

Her free-spirit, less-than-truthful ways got Lisa in deep with a man and his ‘business’.  When Lisa realised what she was in to, she bailed, jumping overboard miles from shore.  Trusting to her strength and wits, she invites herself aboard Gareth’s yacht, Orpheus, enlists his help, and promptly blows his life apart.

Question is, can she help him put it together again?  And can Gareth trust a woman who lies with every breath or, better yet, can he teach her to be truthful?

Lies will run them into danger.  But the truth will draw them in deep.

I’m having a very writing day today.  The gardens are screaming for attention, the house needs a clean and I could do with making progress on two MA assigments, but today I’m prioritising reading for a CP, and writing my own stuff.

I’m working on something new and speculative, for the UK market.  It’s going well (3,000 words in the few hours I’ve snatched this week), but since it’s not romantic suspense I have this nagging feeling that nothing’s happening and it’s all rather bland…. *sigh*  It’s hard to know if something is working when you’re out of your comfort zone…. and there are no explosions.

Right.  Off to do breakfast – a quick smoothie I can gulp down – make coffee, and then get started. 

Oh, but before I do – a story of clothing success.  I bought a skirt in the January sales, a delicious confection of ivory silk and indigo-navy net.  Gorgeous.  But I’ve stuggled to find a top to go with it – and I’ve been looking for months.  A wardrobe clear out and winter/summer changeover revealed my summer wardrobe was woefully slim, so I’ve been building it up a bit – just a handful of tops and cardis that’ll go anywhere….  Leaving the supermarket one afternoon, I spotted a lady in a well-fitting gypsy top which looked to be just the shade I was looking for.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained, I complimented her taste and asked her where she’d bought it.  Obviously pleased, she said she’d got it from Bravissimo, a shop for, um, well, let’s not be shy about this – ladies with big boobs. 

Now, I’m no Katie Price, believe me, just somewhat over average.  I visited the website, made my choices, and today a couple of tops arrived- and I was right!  It goes with the skirt perfectly!!!  And it fits delectably.  Bravo, Bravissimo!

And yes, I am planning outfits for RWA in San Francisco already.  Yes, I am that obsessive…

I have limited writing time.  I’m not complaining, I’m coming to terms with it, and I try not to use it as an excuse.  Basically, between day job, MA and home commitments, I can put aside about 10 hours a week.

Fair enough.

This being the case, it’s a little off-putting to realise you’re suddenly working on three books at once.  This struck me while posting in comments (no, Biddy, I will not fight you for Gerard Butler… I concede, I concede!) and I’ve got to wonder whether it’s a good thing or not.

So what am I working on?

DANGEROUS LIES – final tweaks before it goes to publisher

DANGER: DEEP WATER – plotting and early first draft scene making

UNNAMED WIP – plotting and revising

The unnamed one is the one I promised myself a spare month to have a look at, and see if it would fit the needs of a UK publisher I’d like to submit to.  DANGER: DEEP WATER is what I hope will be my third book for Medallion Press  (the one with Gareth who’s only Gerard Butler when Biddy can spare him). 

And you know what?  I’m enjoying myself.

I can’t quite work out how to get Gareth and Lisa from a yacht on the Mediterranean to my home ground here, so I can really get stuck in, but it’ll come.

It may involve explosives.

Anyone know how to scuttle a steel-hulled boat?

So, inspired by the RNA’s top leading men list, I set about finding my physical inspiration for Gareth, the hero of my current WIP.

It wasn’t hard.

In fact, I ended up dreaming about him on Monday night, which sealed the deal….

Yes, it’s Gerard Butler of 300/King Leonides fame. I first noticed him in the otherwise disappointing second Tomb Raider movie, where he played a very attractively flawed hero/antagonist.  Then of course he took the planet by storm in 300.

And here’s Gareth from the WIP. We’re in Lisa, the heroine’s, POV:-

So far so good.           

Lisa blew on her coffee and watched the man out of the corner of her eye.He wasn’t being aggressive or controlling, he wasn’t overacting the outrage or too confused.  And, hey, he hadn’t pulled a gun on her yet, a definite plus in her eyes.  He wasn’t even leering all that much, which left her less scope for managing him but was – oh – such a relaxing change.  So far, so good.  Only . . . .

Only he was too cute.

No, cute was too soft and cuddly a word, too fluffy, like that ridiculous surname.  Lacy.  He was not a lace kind of man.  Leather?  No, not really that either.  The worn wool he wore, that was almost felted by bad hand-washing, and was now grey-ish although it had probably been blue once, that wool suited him down to the ground.  Rugged.  Soft and rough at the same time.  Natural.

She blinked, coffee-scented steam in her eyes.

Steady.

Lisa brought the smile back, pursing it to sip cautiously at the hot coffee.  Bliss.  “Better?” he asked, in that gentle voice that was almost an affront to the lines on the face, or the line of that jaw.

And, in case you were wondering, this is Lisa:-

They make a lovely couple, don’t they?

Pity they’re going to very nearly get each other killed….  *rubs hands*