Nothing as interesting as the stuff goin' on in the Marvin Gaye song, I hasten to mention.
I've submitted my final anthology story for The Affair and working very hard on convincing myself that what I think a story is like is hardly ever what anyone else thinks it is. Which can be a good thing or a bad thing. Cryptic enough for you, eh? Eh?
It's just that, for some reason, I have that annoying line of Dr Johnson's burned into my brain: 'Read over your compositions, and when you meet a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.' I'm just entertaining a sneaky hope that the converse might be true and passages I think are really strange and probably terrible, but seem stubbornly resistant to editing, are truly my finest work. Arf arf.
On the bright side, finishing that story means that I can crack open a few books that have been awaiting my attentions, most notably Janine Ashbless's Dark Enchantment, plus everything I got for Christmas.
And when I've finished that, I shall start the book I intend to win in the Random House Valentine's Day prize draw. Details here, for anyone who wants to fight me, I mean, join me in bidding, for Portia da Costa's In Too Deep.
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"I've submitted my final anthology story for The Affair and working very hard on convincing myself that what I think a story is like is hardly ever what anyone else thinks it is."
ReplyDeleteSort of like: you think it's steaming hot, and actually it's a vanilla blancmange?
Oh, and In Too Deep and Dark Enchantment are orsum. I usually like to read a good bit of erotica before I can sit down and write, so PDC and JA keep me in good supply. Some fizzy worms and diet 7UP, and I'm away. One day I will have to thank 7UP, Candy King, PDC and JA for making me a writer.
You see, this is the kind of writing advice I can get behind. I shall throw out my style guides and buy a bag of fizzy worms instead. (I tend to have a good book to hand for when I run out of steam - a quick chapter of one of the classics always gives me a second wind.)
ReplyDeleteWhat do style guides know? Fizzy worms are the way forward!
ReplyDeleteWhat are your classics, Justine? And by classics I do not mean THE classics, like Stuffington Chesley by Lord Beezlebaum, I mean like your erotica classics.
I think I shall blog about mine. I'm thinking of doing reviews every week of all my faves.
I couldn't give a full list because it would be so long it would fall off the bottom of the page, and I'd probably miss loads of my favourites out regardless. But...in the close vicinity of my laptop just at the mo, I have:
ReplyDeleteSuite Seventeen and Continuum by Portia Da Costa
Dark Enchantment by Janine Ashbless (halfway through this and loving it)
Asking for Trouble by Kristina Lloyd
Fire and Ice by Laura Hamilton
And that's just the Black Lace!