My weekend contained….

1. Snowdrops
2. Stomach upsets
3. Cool church moments
4. Good food
5. A game of Carcassonne
6. Birdwatching
7. Writing
8. Mama Mia
9. Successful bargain hunting
10. Reading

How about yours?

Have you got a Nintendo Wii?  If you do, you know what I’m talking about.  If not….

On the Wii, you can create a little cartoon character called a Mii (me).  You can make them to look like you, or fun imaginary characters (Husband has a Beardy Wierdy and Geezer in his repertoire).  You get to choose the face shape, skin colour, hair style, facial features… and so on.

It really only took me about two hours to realise I could populate the Mii Plaza with little avatars of characters from my books.  If you have a Wii, you have to try it!

Yes, I really am that sad.  I have a little Mii for Kier (rugged face and frowny eyebrows – favourite colour: black) and Jenny (blue top, bright eyes, curly dark hair) from Run Among Thorns.  I have Miis for Alan (blond hair, good jaw, blue eyes and charming smile, in a white shirt) and Marianne (cute brunette hair, beautiful eyes, bit of a startled pout) from Dangerous Lies.

Then I got on to Gareth (favourite colour: blue – with thick dark hair and a wry smile) and Lisa from Danger: Deep Water.  And in the course of messing around with options discovered that Lisa likes hot tangerine and raspberry shades, if given the chance, and is quite a bit taller than I’d at first realised, and has cheekbones to die for.

Huh.  There really is no limit to where you can find inspiration, if you’re a writer, is there?

Squeeeeeee!  My RITA books arrived this week.

This year, for the first year every, I’m one of the many volunteer judges for the RWA’s RITA awards.  I’ve duly received my box of books for judging, a really eclectic mix of historicals, inspirationals, novellas and a regency, series and single title, hot and not.  Some of them are books I’d have bought myself, some are not, and my challenge is to score them fairly, separating personal preference from reader experience.

But mostly I’m just enjoying guilt-free reading time. 

I have to read them, you know.  It’s very important that I curl up in front of the fire with this novel and devote large amounts of time to sinking into another world….. 

*happy sigh*

Thank you, RWA, for this opportunity!

(Oh, and I refuse to obsess about what a judge is thinking, reading my book, entered for the first time.  I’m not going to do that at all.  No.  Not at all.)

Oooh look!  The wonderful Romantic Novelists Association are going to release an anthology of short stories, showcasing the best of their story-writing talent.  Frankly, the line up of authors is drool-inducing.  I’m going to be getting me at least one of the hardbacks in autumn, and then probably a stack of paperbacks as gifts….

And isn’t the cover lovely?

Some of my best plot-breakthrough moments in writing have come courtesy of Husband.

Writing is a solitary profession.  You have wonderful writer friends at the end of an e-mail, but if you can’t articulate what the problem with your story is, it’s hard to type it out in an e-mail.  I’d been unhappy about an element of the book I’m currently writing for a good while, but not able to put my finger on what was wrong.  I’d tried to solve a plot problem with a character and a device that just wasn’t properly motivated, but I couldn’t find a way to do it differently.

In Keswick with Husband, settling into a leather sofa with a rare caffeinated treat in hand, I tried to explain it.  He thought carefully about it and suggested mercenaries.  With laser guns.  And jet packs.  Shouting, “it’s zapping time!”  Then, when my back was turned, he wrote BOOBIES in big red letters across page 10 of the MS.

In between beating him with a toasted pannetino and laughing so hard I hurt, I explained why these elements wouldn’t work… and in doing so immediately saw what WOULD work.

He grinned the knowing smile of a spouse who perfectly understands he can’t solve my plot problems for me, but by making outlandish suggestions and generally making me laugh, can make my writing brain solve them myself.

But I’m still not making anyone shout, “it’s zapping time!”

It’s not really the 9th already, is it???

Sheesh.

I hope you had a grand Christmas and a lovely New Year – we certainly did, tucked away to ourselves with cats and food and tree.  We went walking on Boxing Day with a sharp, white frost on the ground and the sky blazing blue.  One side of the valley was in shade, and we were bundled up in many winter layers, walking briskly and freezing our backsides off.  Then we rounded the still lake and crossed the flatlands of the valley to the other side, and the sun hit our shoulders…. ahhhhhh…. fleeces off, hands out of pockets and sauntering all the way back…. 

I’ve stared the slow process of updating the site for 2009.  I’ve started on the front page, so go see what you think!  I’ve posted a few thoughts about 2008 there, and announced some fab news for some friends.