Today our news in New Zealand is full of Sir Edmund Hillary, an ordinary man who was extraordinary. He died today from a heart attack at the age of 88. Sir Ed was brought up in Tuakau, the small town where I lived for part of my life and went to high school. In a coincidence, the story I’ve just sent off to Samhain is set in Tuakau. Sir Ed climbed Mt Everest years before I was born, but I, like many New Zealanders, really admire his achievements. He will be given a state funeral.
In writing news I finished my story targeted to Samhain for the Red-Hot Summer anthology and sent it off. Submissions closed yesterday and successful authors are notified at the beginning of February. Luckily it’s not long to wait. I’m getting very impatient in my old age.
This morning I pulled out the Middlemarch story I started in December and reread the 10,000 words I’d completed, editing as I went. I’m actually really pleased with it and will continue with it next week. During the afternoons I’ve been working on a tiger shifter story and putting my storyboard lessons into practice. While storyboarding is good in theory, I’m finding it much harder in practice. This method of plotting has, however, highlighted some conflict difficulties and I’m pondering about whether to change my contemporary idea into a fantasy. I haven’t written fantasy before but I think my initial idea lends itself better to this genre than contemporary. If I set it in the present day I think readers would need to suspend disbelief a bit too much and I’d lose them. I shall continue to ponder and fill out my storyboard. If you’re puzzled by storyboarding here’s a link.
And this week I’ve read some wonderful books. I read Lauren Dane’s Wolf Unbound, which I highly recommend. I loved it. I’ve read Lora Leigh’s Hidden Agendas. I really liked this book, much better than the previous one in the series (Dangerous Games) because the hero appeals to me more. He seems more sympathetic than the hero of Dangerous Games. I thought Lora Leigh did a great job with the character emotions. And at the moment, I’m reading Dangerous Grounds by Shelli Stevens. So far this is great, and I like both the suspense plot, with the man who is holding up coffee stores, and the two main characters.
I hope everyone has a fun weekend. Hubby is going fishing so I’ll be able to get some work done on my Middlemarch story, and hopefully fill in the dreaded storyboard a little more. What are you up to for the weekend?
Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that I’m visiting another blog today. I’m guest blogging over at Fuzzy Pink Slippers. Check out my post here.
