Lillian Grant's Blog, page 14

Review of A Scarlet Past by Evanne Lorraine

he story A Scarlet Past takes place in and around Central Park during the second world war. The hero Fergus, an alpha male werewolf, is only passing through on his way back to the front but he needs some papers. Unbeknown to him Vivianne, an alpha female, is his contact.  While he has been fighting the Nazi's she has been fighting a war of her own to keep her pack and werewolves in general safe.  Their attraction is instant and he ultimately has to decide if he should leave her to fight alone.

I loved the characters and the story but it was much too short.  When it comes to sex scenes, of which there are many, I prefer descriptions to be a little less flowery.  I wish the story had developed a little slower and we had spent more time getting to know Fergus and Vivianne's motivations. All in all a very satisfying and enjoyable read. I can't wait to read the sequel when it's published by Loose Id.

The book also includes a short story by KevaD.  I love his writing and his story set in the same time period compliments the first course beautifully.

Dessert is provided by Amber Green who gives us a snippet of one of her delicious Huntsman books. Another series I have only ever heard good things about.

All three stories hang together well and make for a very enjoyable read.

All in all a wonderful read.   Available on 19th November at Amazon.

On the rewriting merry-go-round

I have been on the same ride for weeks. There are no pretty ponies or scary tigers, no flashing lights or cheerful music. My writing world is full of silence, darkness and pain.

Stories you have written are more than just words on a page. They're friends, good friends. Some days your characters won't behave and you hate them, some days the words all but type themselves and you love them, but no matter what kind of day it is they're yours. Kind of like children really.

Remember your child's first day at school? How proud you felt. How you had this fear in your gut they would come home at the end of the day crying or they would cling to you so hard they would never even make it through the school gate? Submitting your manuscript to a publisher feels a lot like that.

You follow their guidelines, press send and then you wait, and wait, and wait. – You get the picture – Eventually you get a response. Of late, mine have all been the same. We like it …but. They want changes. A full explanation follows of what it is about your story that doesn't work for them. Not enough sex, the sex isn't hot enough, too many coincidences to make the plot work, etc etc. After you take it all in you need to decide to either move on and submit somewhere else or make the changes they want. The decision in some cases is easier than others. If it's just a tweak that you know will make your story better then you leap at it. If it's more severe and threatens the whole structure of your plot you may dither and go either way.

I decided to go with making the changes on two different manuscripts. That is when my carousel ride began. I wrote and rewrote and resubmitted…now I am back to waiting.

After three weeks I am getting dizzy. In the movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Raoul Duke and his Samoan Lawyer visit a circus themed casino when they are high on more than just life. They ride the merry-go-round drinking at the bar in the middle but when they want to get off the Lawyer, played by Benicio Del Toro, can't do it. It takes a boot up the backside from Johnny Depp to get him off the ride. I know how the lawyer was feeling and just hope my Raoul Duke wanders along to boot me off the rewriting merry-go-round sometime soon before I start asking people if they were the ones fucking polar bears.

The day the music died

Today is a very sad day.  I loaded some new songs onto my iPod shuffle ready for my evening run.  Before setting off I switched it on to listen to whilst I washed the dishes and it died.  Crackle, crackle silence.

Panic set in and I rushed to grab my husbands earbuds in case it was just that mine were broken.  Nothing, nada, silence.  I plugged it into my laptop to see if I could breath new life into it.  It was all to no avail. My iPod is beyond help.

I took such good care of it too.  I never dropped it in a glass of coke, wore it in the bath or drove over it with my car so I guess it just died of old age.  Now my run is on hold for a day or two until I can get a new one.  You can't jog in silence. And even if you could why would you, the music helps to block out the sounds of laughter as you run past people who wonder why you aren't leaving holes in the pavement. My other half graciously offered his iPod but unless you run with a walking frame his choice in music just won't work.

A busy month

In a fit of madness I signed up for NaNoWriMo. This is an annual online event where writers of all abilities sign up to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. That means I have to average 1,666 words a day. I had today off work and got a head start with 3,8oo words done.  I have been stuck in rewriting hell for a while so the freedom of writing something new is invigorating.  Even better it has given me the opportunity to get back to writing a sci-fi that has been rolling around in my head for a couple of years.

Meanwhile I am still waiting to hear back from a couple of publishers about a novel I submitted and I am about to submit a novella.  All in all November could be a very good month.

Lillian Grant Nude

Some days the search terms that lead people to this site have me scratching my head. A couple of days ago someone was looking for Lillian Grant nude. Fortunately for them no such photos of me exist on this site, so they dodged a bullet. No one would want to see that!

My guess, they were looking for the model Lillian Grant. I did once get placed in a beauty pageant but my fat blond curls and dimples are long gone. I was two at the time. So there would be no comparison between us.

The weirdest search was for Julia Gillard's toilet. I'm not sure I ever want to know who that was or why they were looking for that.

Another new release by Cherise Sinclair

I know it's hard to believe but Cherise has done it again. As a huge fan of Cherise's work I am delighted to have another great story to read. Master of the Abyss is released today by Loose Id.

Check out the blurb and an excerpt at our group blog

Some Write it Hot

Congratulations Cherise.

Another great review

It must be my lucky week.  My book got another great review from Dark Divas.

5 Divas and a recommended read

My First Review

I got my first review for Happy Birthday, Nancy Tobin.  I am doing a happy dance.

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Read it at The Romance Review by clicking on the picture.

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Watch what you say

A great blog post today on Some Write it Hot where KevD warns us that the things we post on the net stay forever. He also encourages people to travel to the blogosphere and leave comments. I would just love people to visit my blog, no comment required.

I guess I  have been a little tardy in posting exciting new comments of late. No excuses, except I am on a rewriting roundabout.  For those who are not writers, when you submit a book you only send a few chapters.  If they're interested they ask to see the whole manuscript.

Even when they have seen the whole story you may not get a definite yes or no. I have two maybes for two different stories. The responses were, we like the story…but…can you make some changes, so back to the laptop I go.  Rewriting can be more of a trial than writing.  I had to ditch all of chapter one, I loved chapter one it was funny and edgy and now lies in the recycling bin.*sniff*

Once I get both the rewrites done and off to the publishers then I have to sit back and wait to see if I get a yes or no.  Meanwhile another publisher has requested the full manuscript. I pray they don't want a rewrite or I may be stuck in this fairground forever.

What English?

I am the blogger today on Some Write it Hot where I discuss, tongue in cheek, the vagaries of translating Australian English into US English.  Why not stop by.