Sunday, May 29, 2011

Six Sentence Sunday

Hello beautiful people!

It's Sunday again, and once more I'm on the Six Sentence Sunday wagon. Cannot stress again how many great, wonderful, fascinating snippets are up every time, so go take a look for yourself over at the SSS blog.

As for me - well, I've been giving you peeps quips into my WIP, temporarily titled Glory Days. By now you've met Kelsey, the heroine; Stellan, the hero; know that they were involved as teenagers; and that Kelsey had given birth to their daughter, who died... and left them both a granddaughter...

So why now, 19 years later, is Kelsey back into Stellan's life? To tell him the truth, after all this time? Not exactly... Why don't you check out this week's six for an inkling?

'...“You are Stellan Elriksen, rich and renowned shipping tycoon whose pedigree alone could open the doors to any royal wedding in Europe.”
“Will they open the doors for you in a custody battle?"
“Not just for me, but for you as well.”
“Let me get this straight. You want us to fight for Alva together?”
Madness, but it was her only recourse - she nodded. ...'

So that's where I'll leave you with Glory Days... As from next week, I'll be moving to another of my works, my upcoming release with Noble Romance Publishing, Walking The Edge (Corpus Brides: Book One).

Have a great Sunday!

From Mauritius with love,

Zee

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Blogging on Plotting @ Tabby's Nocturnal Nights!

Hey peeps

Sorry for not posting the 'regulars' yesterday and today. As it's the 26th, I'm up for my monthly slot at Tabby's Nocturnal Nights, and since those posts pertain to the writing biz, I didn't have a Writing Wednesday post go up this week.

What query am I answering today? Here it is:

Dear Agony Zee,

I'm a panster! There, I got that out of the way! *whew* I'm sick and tired of people telling me I need to plot, like I need to know every damn detail about my story before I even write it. Where's the joy in that? I mean, if already know the story in and out, what's the fun in writing?
Still, I know I do need some sort of outline to help steer me along the way. But plotting is not outlining, is it?

What exactly is plotting?

Signed,

Panster and Proud!

Come check out my answer, focusing on the process of plotting, here.

From Mauritius with love,

Zee

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Tidbit Tuesday: On My Music Playlist...

Hey peeps!

Going back to the lighter side of life here, now that the doom and gloom of the exams are over. Waiting for my editor to send the first batch of edits on Walking The Edge, and in the meantime, trying hard to adjust back to a 'normal' life. Meaning by that, doing the things normal people do, like read, watch TV, and listen to music.

Speaking of music, thought I'd share with you some of the stuff on my playlist this week. Yes, I'm a Pop music junkie, and yes too, I'm that shallow. :)

Now that we got this confession out of the way, here's the songs on repeat atm on my music player.

Judas - Lady Gaga
I'm not a huge fan of Gaga. I mean, I like her music and songs, but the whole eccentric persona - not exactly my cup of tea. However, you gotta admit the woman has amazing video clips, and she knows how to choose her leading men! Anyone remember Alexander Skarsgard in the Paparazzi vid? Judas is of a same fare - I'm in love with Judas too. Not the character, but the bloke portraying him - actor Norman Reedus. Check him out - serious drool-worthy material. :)



Price Tag feat B.o.B - Jessie J
This one's my husband's fave tune atm - I actually downloaded it for him but ended up under the spell. Fellow Brit Pop singer Jessie J is one to watch out, imo. I haven't listened to her other songs, but if they're of the same fare as this one, I think she'll score a winner.
The lyrics are also something in this - I mean really, what's it with the price tag to everything and anything in the world today?



F**king Perfect - Pink
I like this song mostly for the vid, because it tells this amazing, totally sweet and poignant story of this girl who hit rock bottom in her teens yet managed to rise up again and find herself. The message is to her daughter, and the lyrics - a message any mother would want to tell her child, boy or girl. Warning - some of the images in this vid may shock!



So, what are you people listening to? Any song I should be having on my playlist here too?

From Mauritius with love,

Zee

Monday, May 23, 2011

Random Thoughts' Monday: I'm blogging at...

...The Noble Romance Authors' blog today!

So, so excited, because I get to tell you all some more about my upcoming release, Walking The Edge (Corpus Brides: Book One)!

Join me there to read some tidbits about how this story came to be. This is the post, What cold medication, SpongeBob, and Angelina Jolie have in common...

and here's a snippet:

"...All three of the above have played a part in my story coming together....Now what on earth do cold medication, SpongeBob, and Angelina Jolie have in common with a romantic suspense-slash-mystery-slash-thriller? Let me explain, and for this, I need to tell you a bit more about the book...."

Come read the whole post over at the Noble Romance Author's blog, and leave me a comment.

From Mauritius with love,

Zee

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Six Sentence Sunday

It's Sunday again! I can't wait for this day to come now, love putting out a new quip out here. Then starts the blog-trolling. I cannot tell you the amount of amazing writing I have come across the other loops that sign up for Six Sentence Sunday. I'm sure today's offerings will be spectacular as well.

If you wanna read them, check out the Six Sunday link here.

Now, today's tidbit... Remember last week, when Kelsey dropped the second bombshell, informing Stellan that the daughter he never knew he had was gone now?
Well, in the past weeks, I posted lines of dialogue. I thought I'd go back deep inside today, into what Stellan is feeling at the news.

So that the following six make sense, here's the setup: Stellan has stepped away from Kelsey, gone to the sideboard where crystal decanters are placed, and in the maelstrom of emotion swirling inside him, has taken one decanter and slammed it on the floor.

"...Kelsey flinched when the crystal shattered. She flinched. His eyes narrowed, so he saw her only through a thin slit of focus while his features hurt, contorting with anger and agony.
She should be suffering, feeling her insides tearing apart like his were ripping right now. Everything in his being felt like it was being pulled off, slammed back together with herculean force, and pulled apart again. Again and again and again..."

That's mine for today, folks! Hope you enjoyed. :)

From Mauritius with love,

Zee

Friday, May 20, 2011

Progress Friday

No actual writing progress to account for today, but good news and progress in other aspects of life to squee about!

Finished my last exam today - the last ever paper to complete this darn degree I started last century it seems! Managed to recall my study material, answer all the questions, and still hand in the answer book with 15 minutes to spare on the countdown. Go me!

So that's all my update for today. Now I can come back to the world of the living and get some work done.

My weekend plans? Parta-yyyy all the way! :)

Have a great weekend, beautiful people!

From Mauritius with love,

Zee

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Link Thursday: Top 9 Lies Women Tell Men

Hey peeps!

D-1 to the dreaded exam. Consequently, being immersed in textbooks and other persuasive text parlance that reads like utter gibberish and makes no sense whatsoever - I didn't subject you to a Wednesday ramble. Still, it's hard to be away from the blog, especially when blogging seems to be one of the sane things in your life.

So without further ado, here's today's link up. I got it from the Cosmopolitan Australia site, and you can access the article to get the pics accompanying each 'lie'.

*****

Top nine lies women tell men
 We know, we know, honesty is the best policy. But anyone who says they've never dropped a porky pie is, erm, lying. Clearly. Here are the top nine whoppers we tell men...

1. That you’re the best sex we’ve ever had

Well, what else are we supposed to say? “You’re the worst?” Unlikely! Telling a man he’s the best lover you’ve ever had is the easy way out, and one that he’s pleased with. What they don’t know doesn’t hurt them, does it?

2. “I’m nearly ready to go”

This is more often than not spoken in a tone that reeks of panic – frantic harassed panic as we try to look as ready as we’re pretending to be. This is always a lie.

3. “I’m fine”

The universal white lie that tumbles from ladies' lips with reckless abandon (and often, silent fury). If a female hisses this phrase at you, chances are we are not fine.

4. "It was on sale!"

The last thing we want to be accused of is blowing too much money of frivolous items, so we lie about it because we can. Then we cross our fingers that you have no idea that Camilla & Marc almost NEVER run sales.

5. That we love spending time with your family

It’s not that we hate spending time with them, and this is not a lie in every case, but we’d rather just be spending time with you, alone.

6. “Sure, you can call me...”

When faced with a perfectly nice guy asking us out, we feel trapped. Most of the time he hasn’t done anything wrong – he’s just not our type – and we feel we can’t give them the full rejection speech or the cold shoulder. So we smile politely and lie.

7. How much we weigh

This is dangerous territory for you, buddy. A woman should never have to divulge this information if she doesn’t want to and if you put us on the spot we'll probably tell you how much we weigh...minus a couple of kilos.

8. “You’re right.”

If you win a fight because we defeatedly mutter “You’re right,” don’t be fooled. We’re lying, saying these words just so we don’t have to listen to you anymore. Of course, we don't really believe it...

9. "Just tell me the truth...”

Good news: this is when YOU get to lie.

*****

I'll admit I'm totally guilty of # 2, so that now my husband always asks if I said I'd be ready in 5 minutes or 5 Zee minutes, in which case he knows he can catch an episode of Firefly/Burn Notice/Castle before I'll emerge.
And I'm sometimes guilty of # 4 too - even though my last binge was actually at a sale at Aldo.

What do you plead guilty to?

From Mauritius with love,

Zee

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Tidbit Tuesday: The Revolving Book

Hey beautiful people

It's exam time so I'm not gonna be much into content-intensive posts this week. However, that doesn't mean there won't be any content whatsoever on the blog!

For today, I have a message from a dear friend I want to put across. Her name is Joanna D'Angelo, and I met her through Facebook a couple years ago through the group she had on there, Love Romance Novels. We went on to become friends, and Joanna invited me to participate in her pop culture blog, originally called MissMakeAMovie, but which today has morphed under the very appropriate moniker of thePopCultureDivas. As of today, there's a grand total of 44 Divas which make up that posse, each Diva blogging once every other month. If you don't check this blog yet, make it a point to do so! 44 women, each with her own take and opinion on the world and pop culture - makes for some excellent reading! Not to mention that there's a Wedding special going on right now - you don't wanna miss this.

Anywho, Joanna's group hosted this amazing feature called The Revolving Book, where she made the group members discover a new book every week. Sometimes it was 'big-name' titles, but most of the time, these were outstanding romance titles that would've fallen off the radar had someone not pointed at them. Unfortunately, Facebook is initiating changes to its Groups features, and Joanna had this amazing idea.

I'll let her tell you about it - all about The Revolving Book, in her own words!

*****

The NEW Revolving Book

by Joanna D’Angelo

Welcome to our exciting new home! The Revolving Book will be your place to meet and chat about our favourite thing – the books we love to love!

So, I hope you’ll stop by when you can – jump in and take part in our usual weekly REVOLVING BOOK which will be posted here every Tuesday (and linked to the facebook group page) as well as THE QUESTION OF THE WEEK and other fun chat topics.

The facebook group will still keep going – but facebook is essentially cutting out all the functions that made the groups – well – groups! Functions such as discussion boards and the ability for me to send out weekly messages to all of the members. Our groups are essentially becoming “pages”.

So – I will continue the facebook group of course (after all – I was one of the first romance fiction groups – heck, I think one of the first fiction groups on facebook.) I launched Love Romance Novels and the Revolving Book in March 2007 – so I’m an old-timer as far as social media is concerned!

The facebook group will be linked to this web site which will provide lots of cool stuff that I could never fit onto facebook to begin with. Including an archive of the Revolving Books! Imagine tha – being able to go through a back catalogue of all the books that I post here with tags pertaining to their genre! Woohoo! So, lots of goodies to be found here.

I’m super excited about this and all YOU have to do is sign up and you can receive my weekly missive so you know when The New Revolving Book is up on facebook and especially on this nifty new site.

We’ll have a lot more freedom here to move and grow and build and we won’t be limited to the whims and whimsies of facebook’s administrative team!

I have lots of exciting ideas planned – things I know that you’re all going to love! Author chats, giveaways, contests and more!

And for our first order of fun – anyone who signs up to this web site gets a free e-book from Lachesis Publishing.

There are a lot of books to choose from in many different genres – romance/historical/contemporary/horror/mystery/YA etc…

So be a part of the NEW WAVE of THE new REVOLVING BOOK.

It’s YOUR group!

Here’s how you subscribe – just click on the SUBSCRIBE BUTTON ON THE TOP RIGHT SIDE BAR. EASY PEASY!

E-mail me at therevolvingbook@gmail.com to let me know you’ve subscribed so we can arrange for the free e-book!

cheers!

Joanna

*****

And what's the Revolving Book? I'll let Joanna answer you here too. :)

*****

WHAT IS THE REVOLVING BOOK? FUNNY YOU SHOULD ASK…

THE REVOLVING BOOK welcomes both authors and readers alike! We feature ONE new release per week (THE REVOLVING BOOK).

What makes us so unique? We feature books that sometimes go unnoticed – books that might slip under the radar – books that could end up being “keepers” on your bookshelf but they haven’t been given that chance because they didn’t get a big promotion or they were put out by a small press or they were published independently by the authors or because they’re older titles that have been re-printed etc… THE REVOLVING BOOK doesn’t operate like most book sites – we don’t review books (we do include links to reviews) and we don’t choose primarily based on what’s new or up and coming (however we do post new releases with great pleasure). We go by the authors themselves (and publishers as well). Authors send in their submissions – (both old and new titles) – as long as it’s in print it’s eligible to be THE REVOLVING BOOK. And we think that’s pretty darn special!

We also feature THE QUESTION OF THE WEEK – along with THE REVOLVING BOOK posting. It’s a fun way to connect with fellow readers and writers. The answers and comments run from fun to outrageous to poignant – and they are always interesting!

PLUS! We always have giveaways and other goodies to be had!

Love any good books lately?

Join THE REVOLVING BOOK REVOLUTION!

*****

I hope you will join up! I've already registered, and can't wait to get started.

From Mauritius with love,

Zee

Monday, May 16, 2011

Random Thoughts' Monday: Catching Up...

Hey peeps

Do you know this feeling when everything is catching up with you? Rolling, snowballing, a huge swallowing of dread gathering just behind your back and waiting to engulf you the minute you let your guard down? That's where I am right now.

D-3 to the exam, and if you ask me to sit for that paper today, I can assure you I will fail. I have no idea still what I am studying. Yes, the study guide and textbook material make sense, in a weird twisted way, but do I recall what I'm reading? Nopes.

Now in case you're wondering - No, I'm not panicking. Not yet. I've been through worse exam prep (a paper to write on a Tuesday which I actually started studying for - read that as in crack the book open for the first time! - on the previous Thursday. Don't ask why - it's always something and the other happening with me!). So, yes, not panicking. Yet. Let's just hope I am good with having faith in myself this time around too. But in another way, I'm jittery, because this is the last paper. Last ever! I mean, I've tortured myself with this degree for 8 years - think I'll go for more tertiary studies? Haha, you got another think coming then! Yes, in that way, I've got a totally lazy, sloth-filled brain!

And too, it doesn't help that we're in May - which is usually nice, comfy weather. I remember that when I had given birth to my son 8 years ago in May, I spent the time at the clinic and at home wearing those light, flimsy cotton shifts. Unfortunately, not the case now. Weird weather pattern or something, but it's getting cold. Quilt and afghans needed in evenings and night-time, socks and a light wrap in the mornings when you wake up, jacket & jumper when you step out, especially before noon. It gets dark as early as 5.30 PM, and at 6 AM, it still looks like the thick of night.

So you end up trading this, your everyday Ipanema by Gisele Bundchen sandals:



for this, Aldo Swendsen boots (which I have in black, btw):




...literally from one day to the other!

And along the weekend, you walk by Aldo and fall like a rabid fan on this - the Aldo Kelli flat, which was on - magic word coming! - Sale!! (Did I mention I'm an Aldo slut?)



Hope you had a nice weekend, and that things are not catching up with you the way they are with me.

From Mauritius with love,

Zee

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Six Sentence Sunday

Hey beautiful people!

Thank goodness Blogger is up and running today. Haven't been able to get on for the past couple of days and it's a huge relief to find everything working normally today.

Gotta say I'm getting addicted to posting out these little snippets for Six Sentence Sunday. Lol, no one said it gets this addictive, something you just have to do, and that you wait for every week. I hope these tidbits make you peeps happy too. :)

So, without further ado, here's today's six. Remember last week how Kelsey dropped the bombshell as to why she was back into Stellan's life? Well, here follows a snip of the conversation that follows, deep into Stellan's POV, after Kelsey has confirmed that she gave birth to their daughter. For the purpose of Six Sentences, I have tweaked it a little so the gist of the scene is conveyed.

Enjoy!


'...For eighteen years, he hadn’t known he had a child. She was a grown girl now, a young woman, who had just given birth herself to a preemie.
“Where is she?”


“Gone.”

The word was a whisper that sent pointed knife-edges to slash-dance across his spine.
“She, Sophie,” Kelsey’s voice tore on a sob, “she died.”...'


I always forget to add this, but not today - Find out more about Six Sentence Sunday here and check out all the amazing entries listed up again this week.

From Mauritius with love,

Zee

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Link Thursday: 18 Clues He's Still Crazy About You

Hey peeps

Apologies for no Writing Wednesday post yesterday. My Internet connection was hit and miss for most of the day, and add to it the fact that my brain is also in hit and miss mode at the moment, I didn't want to subject anyone to a totally senseless ramble (yes, even more senseless than usual!).

Back on board today, and wanted to keep it light and sweet. Digging through my Links trove, found this one. Perfect for all the in-a-couple women out there - whether in Real Life or fictional! So, how do you know your man still digs you? Here are some clues.

The article is from the MSN Lifestyle Love & Relationships page, and is written by Ann Hodgman. I accessed it just last week.

*****

18 Clues He's Still Crazy About You

You say your husband can't express his feelings? Here are all the funny little ways he says, "I love you."

By Ann Hodgman

1. When you wear a T-shirt, boxers, and socks to bed, somehow he still thinks you're cute.

2. He doesn't laugh when you pronounce former hockey star Mark Messier's name as "Mark Messy-er."

3. The only framed photo on his bureau is of you at age ten — with short bangs, cat glasses, and metal braces. (If he kept it in his wallet, you would have to kill him.)

4. He automatically smooshes all spiders for you.

5. He tried — unsuccessfully, but he tried — to clean the rust ring his shaving-cream can left on the sink.

6. After you rear-ended that Lexus in the parking lot, his very first words were "Are you OK?"

7. At this point, his wedding band is so tight, it makes his finger look swollen — but he swears he'd feel naked without it.

8. He doesn't try to guess what you want for your birthday — he asks your best friend.

9. He's incapable of putting dishes into the dishwasher but has learned to stack them in the sink.

10. He understands which old boyfriends are fair game and which aren't.

11. He doesn't "whoop!" while watching the Super Bowl anymore. OK, he does, but he's definitely cut back the whooping by about 20 percent.

12. He'll pick up a box of tampons at the drugstore without wincing.

13. Though you've had several kids together, he's never once announced, "We're pregnant!"

14. He wears that "Kiss Me, I'm Irish" sweatshirt you bought him during a weak moment — sometimes even in public.

15. He's careful never to deal with nose hairs in your presence.

16. When you drag him to sentimental movies, he doesn't sit there and snicker. (He may fall asleep, but he won't snicker.)

17. He doesn't comment on your new haircut unless you ask him to. And then he lies.

18. He may forget to give you a card for Valentine's Day, but at least he understands this is a criminal offense. And he's prepared to pay the price.

*****

From Mauritius with love,

Zee

Monday, May 09, 2011

Random Thoughts' Monday: Routines and, uh, stuff...

Hey peeps

New week, new routine. Yeah, I know - how can routine be new? Well, if you're like me, juggling different tasks so much your whole persona starts to change with every cape you don, you'd have a routine for everything.

There's the housewife/mum routine, where super-early-tweeters that are your kids bulldoze your sanity to kingdom come the minute you perceive they are awake from the depths of sleep, and where the TV and the GameBoy or Playstation console is your BFF/nanny/super-dumper. In all this time, your routine consists of not blowing your top off and uh, looking after the house. And praying your husband won't mind, once again, to order dinner out that night.

Then there's the writing days routine, where you flit by your inbox and Facebook first thing in the morning and actually manage to turn your Internet connection off and settle down with your computer to uh, write. This all before the kid's school is out, whereby you then revert to housewife/mum routine up above.

And then there's the work/study routine. Where you flit by your inbox and Facebook first thing in the morning just long enough to make sure no life-or-death reply/comment is needed from you, and after that you actually turn into a 'very responsible person' who actually does the work she's been commissioned to do, or study the total nothing-makes-sense university tutorial material and try to cram it all inside your brain and hope beyond rational hope, that come exam time, it will all make sense.

At the moment, I'm supposed to be in the last routine - studies. Got my last exam scheduled in 2 weeks, and no, nothing in my coursework is making sense yet. Still, there's hope - 2 weeks, peeps. I've known worse (as in, 5 days before the exam...).

Trying hard to stay sane, and I'm sad to stay my insomnia is just slightly better so I'm like a walking corpse most of the day. Hope you're all having a better start to this week.

From Mauritius with love,

Zee

Sunday, May 08, 2011

Six Sentence Sunday

Hey beautiful people

Once more, it's Sunday! Whew - where does the time go, eh? I sit down on most weekends (when I do find a minute to sit down, that is) and wonder where the past week has gone. Half the time, I have absolutely no idea! [not to mention that this past week has been one amazing ride - check the blog to see what I'm talking about]

So, Sunday... SSS... and if I'm not mistaken, it's Mother's Day today in the US. We celebrate it on the last Sunday of May here in Mauritius, but anywho, Happy Mother's Day to all the mums out there.

Speaking of mums, and parenthood, and my current WIP... From the previous SSS posts (here, and here), a lot of you were intrigued as to what was the real 'deal' between the hero and heroine in this story. I promised to unveil the 'revelation' this week, and in a way, it's perfect that today is Mother's Day. A mother is at the heart of this plot twist. Check it out.

This conversation takes place a few paragraphs down from last week's six sentences. Kelsey has come to Stellan's office to ask for his help, and is about to disclose why she needs him. The two were teenage lovers, and haven't seen each other for close to 2 decades. She's placed the picture of a premature baby in an incubator on the desk between them.

'...“The baby’s yours?”
“She’s,” Kelsey paused, looked down, anywhere away from his gaze, “she’s ours.”
He glanced at the time stamp on the picture - two days ago. “Kelsey, we haven’t seen each other in more than eighteen years. How can that child be mine?”
“She’s our granddaughter.”...'

As always, eager to hear what you think!

Have a great Sunday!

From Mauritius with love,

Zee

Friday, May 06, 2011

Progress Friday

Hey beautiful people

I'm sorry I haven't posted for the past 2 days. It's been a whirlwind here - if you think it all ends with netting a publishing contract, you're soooo far off the mark! It all starts with the contract.

So, since Tuesday, I've been dealing with the amazing folks over at Noble Romance Publishing. They're a huge, huge help with setting everything up and figuring out the lay of the land, so to speak. And... I have a release date!!

Walking The Edge, Book 1 of the Corpus Brides series, will be coming out June 27, 2011!

How awesome is that, eh? I've been alternating being whoops of joy and hyperventilating for the past couple of days. It's like, barely 6 weeks down the line, for God's sake! So much to do... But I'm calling it an investment. What I'm doing now and in the coming weeks to establish myself and my books will be worth it for the long run. Did someone say it's a labour of love? Not to mention that I've been introduced to my editor and we hit the ground running with edits and prep work. Whew!

Busy days... For once, I'm looking forward to a quiet weekend. And yes, I'm hoping that will not be an oxymoron.

What are you up to this weekend? Hope you have a nice one.

From Mauritius with love,

Zee

Tuesday, May 03, 2011

Tidbit Tuesday: I've Made A Sale!!

I've known about this little piece of news for a few weeks now and been dying to tell you all! It was hell to keep it bottled inside for so long, but now that I've got the all-clear, here it goes...

I just sold a story to Noble Romance Publishing!

I'm so, so excited about this! Noble is this amazing house that I kept hearing amazing things about, and I decided to take a chance and send in one of my mss titled Walking The Edge. The story overlaps a few genres, and though it can be classified as romantic suspense, it also features a mystery and escalates like a thriller. Noble's guidelines sounded perfect for this one... and seems the folks at Noble thought the story was good for them too. *grin*

Now, not only that, but I've been asked to join a new program over at the pub house called Hot New Talent. It's like an out and out full promo blitz and steamroll all rolled into one, which is offered to new authors and their first book. The minute Ms. Jill Noble asked me if I wanted in, I jumped on the offer!

So here's a little tidbit about the book. I'll share more asap as it comes (dying to get a cover now, lol!).

Walking The Edge
The next step might be the last...

A woman without a past
Left amnesic after an accident, Amelia Jamison’s instincts slowly rise from the depths of oblivion to question her life as the wife of a cold, manipulating and distant man. Wisps of a dream show her another man she may have known intimately, but is he a memory, or a figment of her imagination?

A man with too much information
After many aliases, today Gerard Besson is simply a police commissaire in Marseille. When a mysterious woman starts to follow him, he is suspicious. But things aren't what they seem, and as he reluctantly gets closer to her, dredges of his painful, buried past spring to light and make him question her identity.

Each seems to have led two different lives
But neither is prepared for what awaits them when they cross the fine line between knowing your true self and that of your alter ego.

Danger is the name of the game, and as it catches up with them in the French Provence, both know they better be ready for the inevitable fall.

From Mauritius with love,

Zee

Monday, May 02, 2011

Random Thoughts' Monday: Becoming 'Her'!

Hey peeps

As an author, I'm always advocating authenticity in writing. This might mean tons of research, contacting people familiar with the 'world' and 'culture' you're writing about. It can also, as in the case of actors needing to portray a role, consist of some form of 'method acting' wherein you as the author literally become your character so you can translate her POV better on the page.

My point here is - there's a difference between simulating something (say, a set of circumstances) and actually being in the thick of said circumstances.

In my current WIP - which by the way, you can catch tidbits of through the Six Sentence Sunday posts already up - my heroine, Kelsey, suffers from anaemia. Researching symptoms of anaemia, I read that it could bring on insomnia. I didn't consciously place insomnia as a feature of Kelsey's life. Things just 'happened' for me when in a scene, the hero, Stellan, went to her medicine cabinet to get her some painkillers, and ended up seeing the bottles of sleeping pills in there. Suddenly, bang, there it was - Kelsey was insomniac, and this explained a lot of things in the scheme of the book.

But this is where it 'hurts' - I've been anaemic in the past, so I can quite easily bring up memories of what it felt like to be light-headed all of a sudden, of growing out of breath after running 20 yards to catch the bus just going out of the bus stop. I know the fatigue hits you like one of those Looney Tunes Acme anvils.

I've never had insomnia though... until now. Thanks to some medication I've needed to take, I'm now plagued by this thing. And let me tell you experiencing the condition takes this 'method acting' thing to a whole new level. I'm like, how do I not make Kelsey a total b*tch, because all I feel like being after days of practically not sleeping is, well, b*tchy at best and positively homicidal at worse?

Believe me when I tell you insomnia is not a walk in the park. Combined with the amount of stress that's currently mounting in my life, it's hell. I have exams coming up, and as usual, I still don't recall much of what I should be studying for this paper. There are health woes in my family - both my father and father-in-law are battling health conditions that has got us all worried about their well-being and future. My son's school keeps changing his teacher every other week it seems this trimester, and I'm having to play the back-up schoolmistress with him to make sure he's keeping up with his syllabus.
Now add to it that I'm not sleeping... You'd think that by forgoing these 7-8 hours of sleep one would actually get stuff done as that's time on hand, literally. But sleep is something that's totally not overrated, and without it, you don't function, full stop.

But let's look at the silver lining (yes, there's one everywhere!) - Kelsey can be a total nutcase, and that works in the scheme of being an insomniac. I also now have first-hand experience about living without sleep, and darn if that ain't gonna end up in the story! Got an opp? Milk it for all it's worth! Or else, go crazy.

From Mauritius with love,

Zee

Sunday, May 01, 2011

Six Sentence Sunday

Hello beautiful people!!

Sunday again, and I'm once more on the Six Sentence Sunday bandwagon.

I met so many great people last week and can only hope this will be the case again this time. I'm looking forward to trolling the SSS list and discovering lots of astounding gems among the authors and authors' works posted.

So, without further ado, here's today's tidbit. Last week, my excerpt dipped into the heroine's POV, to shed some light about her thoughts on the hero. I'll turn the tables today, and give you a piece of the hero's POV, what he's thinking about this woman when she walks into his life again.

Excerpt taken from Chapter 1, which opens in the hero's POV.

"...Her voice was throaty, cautious. None of the girlish high pitch of the Kel he’d known remained in her tone. He’d been with her a little under two decades ago – that would make her about thirty-five today, the same age as he. An adult, a grown woman, sophisticated and worldly. Nothing like a bright-eyed teenager spending her first summer in Martha’s Vineyard.
No, he didn’t know the person she had become..."

Looking forward to your thoughts. :)

Have a great Sunday.

From Mauritius with love,

Zee