Michelle Styles's Blog, page 46

Rowing kicks my rather large behind

I am doing the indoor rowing 30 minutes at a time. 3x per week. It is not getting any easier but I am going further.
When I finish now my legs are jelly.Some day soon, I will start to feel my stomach contracting.
It will work. I know it will. Except why oh why did I let myself get in this state to begin with?
It is much easier to row with music on. I find it better to listen to the songs and sing along, so have knicked my daughter's number one musical cd. Nice. Jolly. Upbeat.
I have been requeste...

Dr Who and cutting for pace

I had been really looking forward to last night's episode of Dr Who but was disappointed. My husband who is also a fan expressed his disappointment. The pace slowed to a crawl and the tension was really not there because that particular story didn't progress.
There was little development between River and Dr Who to justify the whole Amy walking amongst the angels.

It is like anything carried too far. With nothing added to the mix, the story stalls and ceased to be frightening, just becoming a...

Almost finished

I've almost finished my first draft! It should be finished today. This means in the month of April I wrote 76k with most of that since 6 April.
Once the first draft is done, the harder part comes. The holding it in my affections while I examine ways to make it better.
There is no right way to do a first draft. Some people rewrite each page until it shines and then it is basically done, others go storming through. Some people think they are finished after a first draft. I know that I have j...

US Cover for An Impulsive Debutante

I finally have the cover for the US version of An Impulsive Debutante! It is a June 2010 release with HH Direct and ebooks.
This is the linked book to A Christmas Wedding Wager and is dedicated to my high school English teacher Mrs Fifer. It features a minor character from ACWW who was not the nicest but whom my daughter loved and adored. I had great fun making Lottie into a heroine.

The cover was also used in the title sequence for the BBC production about Mills & Boon.

I am supposed to be ge...

Dealing with ticks

My youngest came home from a school trip to the Isle of Arran with a tick. The teacher had put vaseline on it. The trouble with vaseline is that the tick suffocates and vacates its stomach into its host. The best way to get rid of a tick is with tweezers or a tick remover. Removed promptly with tweezers or a tick remover, the tick should pose no problem.
Burning, vaseline or nail polish is not good and is likely to lead to infection.
My youngest is now on antibiotics. He thinks I overreacted...

Because I'm going to Nashville

I have booked my plane tickets for Nashville. My place at the RWA conference and hotel room were booked when the conference bookings open back in February but I waited a little bit on plane tickets.
They were more expensive than I thought they'd be.
This means no new wardrobe and that I have to fit into my existing wardrobe.
This means exercise as nothing makes you lose inches like exercise. One of the best workouts I know is indoor rowing. And until we moved the rowing machine downstairs (where...

Misconceptions are us

I am currently reading a biography of Gertrude Bell. She is absolutely wonderful and a real daughter of the desert. It is through her work as much as Lawerence's that the Arab middle east evolved. She was particularly instrumental in setting up Iraq. She is a new heroine for me as I never really knew that much about her. She was just someone who spent a great deal of time in the desert and was an Edwardian lady traveller. Shows how wrong you can be.
Her early life adds a lot to my knowledge ...

Mystery object solved

Thanks to the ever so lovely Louisa Allen, I now know what the mystery object is -- a soda siphon. The picture she sent shows it complete with wire mesh.
My youngest is very grateful and my daughter feels vindicated. I told you that it couldn't be a lamp, she crowed.
I refused to speculate why it was buried in the bank. The people who built this house were bankers, not chemists. Before that, the area was part of a farm.

Now to see if my new way of work can continue today as everyone else is...

Making sure you have a life

Yesterday on the Pink Heart Society, new author Mira Kelly blogged about deadlines and how suddenly she could not do the things she wanted to. Writing had become a job rather than a hobby and this meant changes and have to forgo things because of deadlines. Lots of people are sympathetic but I wanted to put my head in my hands and go ARGH!

When you write, there is always talk of deadlines. Some authors get so het up about deadlines that they forget to have a life and this can lead to burn out...

Puppies reach one year

While we were away in Egypt, the puppies celebrated their birthday. Hardy chewed up his bed. Although I think Tess probably started it. The net result is now Chile the labrador and Hardy are sleeping on old towels while Tess gets the remaining bed. For some reason that bed has never touched.It is hard to believe that they have grown so fast. They are still adolscents in many ways. Yesterday, they climbed through a hole in the fence and went into the neighbour's garden. Both emerging very mudd...