Talli Roland's Blog, page 34

The Dreaded Drill

I've blogged a few times about my hate for the dreaded non-stop drilling that resonates around my neighbourhood by day.
Living in an area populated by aging Victorian terraces, I guess it's inevitable. But when you work from home and your ear-drums are constantly assaulted by that whiny errrr-errrrr-eeeerrrrrmm of the drill, it's enough to drive one to drink (more).
So I ask you: should I...
A) Flash the builders into silence?B) March over, demand all drills, then throw them in the bin?C) Run away from my flat, screaming, to the nearest Starbucks?D) Purchase a schmexy pair of earplugs and try to ignore the constant cacophony?
Bloggers of the world, I beseech you: help me deal with the drill!
(In non-drilling news: India Drummond's Ordinary Angels is available on Amazon here!)

C is for... Celebrate! India Drummond's 'Ordinary Angels' Out Today

Woo! It's celebration time, because today is the day my wonderful friend India Drummond's book Ordinary Angels is released!

An angel is about to fall…

Most of Zoë Pendergraft's friends are dead, but she doesn't mind because they died long before she met them. Then one Tuesday night an angel takes her salsa dancing and turns her world upside down. Grim reality closes in when she discovers a body in her company's boiler room and Higher Angels accuse her best ghost friend of murder. Knowing she's the only one who can stand against them, Zoë resorts to lying, stealing and summoning.

In the end, getting blood on her hands forces Zoë to question herself.

Sounds good, doesn't it? That's because it IS! Here's my review:

With a smart sassy heroine, sexy angels and a fast-paced plot, India Drummond's Ordinary Angels is a heavenly read.

Zoe sees dead people. But for her, they're more than just visions -- they're her friends. So when one of them goes missing amidst an accusation of murder, Zoe can't help but get involved. From start to finish, Drummond effortlessly creates an intriguing world with necromancers and angelic orders I easily fell into. Mix in Zoe's romance with an angel even the devil couldn't resist and a dark mystery that could have disastrous consequences for the determined Zoe, and even chocolate couldn't lure me away.

Ordinary Angels is anything but ordinary. With its unique mix of romance, mystery and escapism, it is -- quite simply -- pure bliss.
You can buy the book from Lyrical Press, Barnes & Noble and Amazon (link coming soon). And pop over to India's (also an A to Z participant) to say congrats! She's been a fantastic help and support to me in my writing journey and I can't wait to read her next book.
You can see India's book trailer here.

B is for... Bluenoser

Me in my Bluenose habitat last September.

Many thanks to fellow Bluenoser (and A to Z Participant) Jan Morrison for today's B! Since yesterday I wrote about British-speak, today I thought I'd go back to my roots.

A Bluenoser is someone born and bred in Nova Scotia, Canada -- named after our famous schooner the Bluenose, which also features on the back of the Canadian dime!

A big thank you for all the comments yesterday, which I'm still working through. Can I be so bold as to make a request? Please, for the love of all things bloggery, pretty please with cupcakes and wine, take off your word verification. Blogger catches the spam! Fluffy baby lambs won't die! It's all good. Also, can I ask that you make sure your profile is linked to your blog, so that I can return your comment and follow back?

Right, boring stuff done. Happy Saturday, and I hope everyone had a great first day of the Challenge!

A is for... Argy Bargy

Can you believe it's finally here? It's the first day of the A to Z Challenge, and as a co-host, I'm very excited! Almost 1,000 bloggers are participating -- yes, 1,000! -- and it's going to be a great month of blogging.

Welcome to all new followers! If you leave a comment, I'll be sure to make my way to your blog, too. I can't wait to meet lots of fun new bloggers. To the left of this post on my sidebar is a nifty button that will let you navigate through the other participants -- thank you to the wonderful person who produced it (whose name I can't recall right now!).

Right, with that out of the way, on to today! I was going to blog about adenoids, but that kind of fell through when the analogy I was going to make didn't quite work out. So . . . argy bargy! That makes sense, right? Adenoids to argy bargy?

First, a bit of history: regular readers know that I'm a Canadian who has been living in Britain for almost seven years now and, in fact, recently became British myself! However, I still marvel at the unique vocabulary here, so different from back home. Argy bargy is one of those phrases that always makes me grin.

What does it mean? 'A vigorous discussion or dispute.' There you go! My A word: argy bargy.

(Also A: Angels! As in, Ordinary Angels. As in, my wonderful friend India Drummond's book being released on Monday! She's also in the challenge, so if you get a chance, head over and say hi!)

Uno, Dos, Tres

Keeping 'er short and simple today, as I gear up for the A to Z Challenge starting on Friday! I've got three things to share with you. Aren't I nice!

1. Today is a hair salon day. Very important in my world, since I have short, platinum hair. It's not a good look when that grows out, believe me.

2. The bunion on my wrist is getting bigger! It's been such a pleasure watching it grow stronger and develop into the fine bunion specimen it is today.

3. I'm at author Caroline Smailes' blog today ! Caroline is an author I first met on Twitter and then in person at her launch of Like Bees to Honey . She is super nice and SO supportive; she recently talked me down off the ledge when I had a mini-implosion. Anyway, please check out her blog if you get the chance because it's a great one, on any day!

Happy Hump Day, everyone!

String Bridge!

Happy Monday! Can you believe the sky is blue here? Again! It's like the tropics or something. My big weekend news (if you haven't already seen it on Facebook): I saw two really cute owls sleeping in a tree in Kensington Gardens. This has made me inordinately excited -- and worried about my mental state. I really need to get out more! But they were so cute!

On to more exciting things -- Jessica Bells' trailer for her upcoming novel, String Bridge.



To help promote it, Jessica's running a fantastic (and simple!) contest. All you need to do is link to her trailer then head to her blog and leave a comment with where you've linked to! It's just that easy, folks. (I feel like I'm writing a car commercial here. )

In other exciting news, the A-Z Challenge has reached 700 people! It's going to be EPIC. Maybe even more exciting than owls!

What animal excites you? (Ahem. In the purest way possible, of course.)

In Defence of Chick Lit

Happy Friday!

We're experiencing some truly glorious springtime weather these days in London -- honestly, it's like being in another city when the sun shines here! I'm happy to report my birthday went off with plenty of champagne and wine -- thank you all for the wonderful wishes.

Today I'm over at Nik Perring's blog, wondering why I often adopt an annoyingly apologetic tone when I talk about chick lit. Nik is the author of Not So Perfect , a collection of short stories. While I've only just started reading it, I'm blown away by his talent! So even if you don't feel like getting an eyeful of chick litty stuff, head over and check out his blog anyway. That's an order! *cracks whip*

Do you ever feel the need to apologize for what you write, or am I just spectacularly lame (you don't need to answer the second half of that, really...)?

A to Z Challenge: How to Blog Like It's Not a Chore

One very important bit of information before I launch into my post: tomorrow is my BIRTHDAY! Yes, I'll be turning the big 3-7. Yes, I'm getting old(er). No, I don't care!

As much as I love blogging, sometimes it can be a bit of a chore. I'm not in the mood; I've got nothing to say; I just want to have that glass of wine at the end of the day (although let's be honest -- I'm going to have it anyway, blogging or not).

With the A to Z Challenge coming up starting April 1, here are some of my tips to lighten the blogging load.

1. Keep it short, keep it short, keep it short! You don't need to write an essay.

2. Stick to one point. Blog posts that address one issue are easiest for people to read and comment.

3. If you can't think of anything to say - just have fun! You don't always need to be serious, and your readers will likely appreciate a little bit of levity.

3. Don't over think it. It's a blog post, not a peace treaty.

4. Drink some wine. Or eat some chocolate. That will make anything fun!

5. If you really don't feel like blogging - don't. No kittens will die. The world won't end. Take a break if you need it and get recharged.

There you have it! Want to sign up for the A-Z Challenge and have some fun? Visit Arlee's blog to give it a go - we're over 550 people now, I do believe.

I'm off to start the birthday festivities! See you on the other side.

Not in Bruges

I'm back! After a weekend of eating... drinking... eating... drinking (can you spot a pattern?), Mr TR and I returned late last night from Bruges. It's a fantastic place -- around every corner is yet another wonderful sight and the canals make it seem so peaceful. My phone is playing up, but I have managed to download a few of my many photos. Enjoy!

Hope you all had a great weekend, too.





I'll be back on Wednesday, talking about the A-Z Challenge and how to blog like it's not a chore. Until then, grab a chocolate from the photo above and enjoy!

Guest Blogger: Kate Johnson and The Untied Kingdom

Today I'm delighted to welcome shoe goddess extraordinaire Kate Johnson to my blog! Kate's a fellow member of the UK's Romantic Novelists' Association and an all-around lovely person. Her UK debut novel The Untied Kingdom is out soon! To be in with a chance to win a copy, leave a comment below.

Before I get to Kate, though -- thank you for all the wonderful comments on my last post. And can I remind you of Authors for Japan (which includes my books!). Bidding is open until Sunday.

I'm off to Bruges this weekend, embarking on a no-chocolate-left-behind tour! Wooo!

And now, over to Kate...

It's absolutely fabulous to be blogging here with the lovely and talented Talli, a lady of impeccable taste in shoes, and also provider of desperately-needed postcards with which to fan oneself on a hot July evening by the Thames! (Talli interjects: don't ask.)

Today I'm going to talk a little bit about the book trailer for my upcoming Choc Lit release, The Untied Kingdom. Book trailer, I hear you cry? What's that about then? Well, take a look:



*Kate takes a little bow*

The idea of a book trailer is pretty much the same as a movie trailer: to spread the word and give a taster of what's to come. It can be a tricky thing to get right--too long and you lose a viewer's interest, too short and you've missed the pertinent information. Too much text can be hard to read, especially if it's speeding by. Too many images with no explanation and it's just baffling. Getting the right soundtrack can be an impossibility, especially on a tight budget.

I started thinking about the trailer for The Untied Kingdom pretty much as soon as I sold the book. Oh all right, before that. Every now and then, with nothing else to do, I'd trawl stock photo sites, looking for pictures of people who resembled my characters, or the situations in which they found themselves. I began to assemble a loose script in my head, and I realised that with this particular book, something like a news report would be a good addition, keep it from being just a series of static images.

Of course, then I needed footage for the news report, and someone to read it out. Well, thanks to a year of reading out boarding calls at Stansted Airport, I could manage the second part myself, but footage of my then-teenaged heroine as an elfin popstar? I considered it. For about a second. Then I did the sensible thing and bought some stock footage from iStockphoto. I knew pretty much as soon as I saw the video of that girl singing that even though it took a big chunk of my budget, it needed to be part of my trailer: she's almost exactly how I pictured my heroine, Eve. I found an annoying electro-beat loop on the Garageband software on my Mac, and recorded the voiceover on top of it, for that 'news bulletin' feel. iMovie added the news ticker and visual effects.

Then it was onto the rest of the trailer. Pretty much the only thing I know about editing video footage is to cut on the beat--that is, to work out the interval between beats in the soundtrack, and use that as the basic unit of time for each frame. I got very lucky with my soundtrack (also iStockphoto), which has a nicely cinematic feel to it and reminds me a bit of the Inception soundtrack, and also some of the music from BBC's Being Human.

The stills in the trailer were from various stock photo sites, mostly Dreamstime and iStockphoto. I didn't always get the images I wanted: when I added it all up I realised compromises had to be made and in several cases, cheaper images found. Most of the quickly-glimpsed images in the montage at the end were free stock images: I searched for things like 'soldier' 'blood' 'kiss' etc. I knew I hadn't a hope in hell of finding a photo to look just like my hero, unless Richard Armitage returns my calls, so I went for a close-up of a man smoking a cigarette (which is one of my hero's many bad habits). For all of the scenes set in the alternate world of the Untied Kingdom, a world of war and hunger, I desaturated the images a bit to give that faded look you find in films like Saving Private Ryan.

I'd love to take credit for the fancy editing work, the text and transitional effects, but in truth I just picked them from iMovie options. I wanted to keep the visuals fairly simple, not too flashy, and make sure the text was as readable as possible.

I'll freely admit this is something of a procrastination for me. Right now I should be finishing work on my next book...but instead, I'm thinking about how I might create a trailer for that...

Kate is a prolific writer of romantic and paranormal fiction. Born in 1982, Kate is Choc Lit's youngest author and lives near Stansted. She is a self-confessed fan of Terry Pratchett, whose fantasy fiction has inspired her to write her own books. Kate worked in an airport and a laboratory before escaping to write fiction full time. She is a member of the Romantic Novelists Association and has previously published short stories in the UK and romantic mysteries in the US. She's a previous winner of the WisRWA's Silver Quill and Passionate Ink's Passionate Plume award.

Her UK debut novel The Untied Kingdom has had rave reviews from everyone who has read the manuscript. This eagerly awaited novel will be published in April 2011 by Choc Lit.