Welcome to the Blog-hop

shewrites

Greetings, I am Sj. I am a blogger, writer and general marketing 'puke' living my writing dream just south of London, England.

Together with my US-based writing partners, Jason and Mel, my life is very busy. I am a partner in Throwaway Lines, a new blog website which is the showcase for fast, fun, light fiction and reviews (coming soon). I partner with Mel on My Ink Project, which is a blog about the ink in our lives and in our souls.

I am passionate about all things independent. Creative arts should be free to explore, not hemmed in by the needs of advertising and the whims of the money men. I assist with the promotion of an independent film, Pig, and administrate their blog.

In a move that could be described as foolhardy, I prefer to think of it as adventurous, I have also signed up as an Apple Developer. I will be using my own blog to chart my progress. Having already selected my victim… er, guinea pig, from time to time my vic.. guinea pig and my long suffering partners will join me in blogging about my progress as I wade my way through code, while trying to up my exercise intake and learn how to be a yoga teacher at the same time.

I have a short attention span, and I am insatiably and incurably curious. I always need to know how things work… I hope you enjoy what is here, and join me in my journey going forward!

Unreasonably Excited

by my curious success in the art of the ninja mockingbird plug.... thought I would stick up some more of my work in my notes on Facebook and see what folk think.... so be prepared for a minor flood of short stories and fanfic stuff over the next few weeks. As I've said before, Fanfic is one of the places I do my thinking, and bench testing of occasional ideas.

Garalt has given me a new target for some of my writing (thanks mate...) which is all well and good, because quite aside from being the Queen of Starting and Never Quite Finishing, I am also the Queen of Procrastination.... so Easter 2009 gives me a good head start for actually finishing stuff.

I have sort of decided that Cats, Custard and Consequences, The Siren's Guide to Sushi and the barely started Split Screen will probably be my focus for Easter 2009. Mainly because Cats and Siren are the furthest advanced (other than Half Light) and Split Screen has a slightly different purpose. Split Screen I need to write fully, because I intend developing it in two directions, firstly as a novel, and secondly as a television film script..... Ambitious? Well why not? Dream big.... it's always best to dream big!

And finally, I would like to thank the Quintet of Ladies who have been very encouraging and extremely helpful in my attempts to get published! Pam, Danielle, Sofia, Tashya and Laura, you've all been total stars!! Fanks!!!

Culinary Mishaps.... and other stuff

Last night I assembled the ingredients of dinner, you know chicken, spices, natural yoghurt, creme fraiche, rice, fire extinguisher, alka seltzer, little book of Calm..... and..... suddenly

I actually had an edible dinner...... quite startling really.... I come from a well known line of horrible cooks. My mother is atrocious, my grandmother wasn't so great either (but considerably better than my mother), it's a bit of a wonder that I survived to adulthood. My mother's great sins were over cooking and over seasoning..... I don't like a lot of salt in my food, never did, long before the Government started having a hissy fit over salt in food..... particularly as my mother and grandmother's salting habits meant that pretty much the only flavour you had was salt (bleugh!!).

So, having created this culinary masterpiece, I settled down to edit chapter four of Half Light. But it was no good. The thing that has been beckoning at me for twenty four hours or so, was leaping up and down going "me, me, me". Resistance was futile. I would look at Half Light and Si's conflicted feelings and see double.

So now Split Screen has jumped the queue, and is waiting impatiently just behind Half Light for its chance at the limelight. Feh. Tiresome or what. I had this nice, neat, orderly queue of novels all sitting there, begging quietly to be published...er.... written..... and along comes Split Screen like a teenager at a swimming pool..... no running or bombing allowed.....yeah right!

And the dog's in my chair again!....

Simply Irresistable....

It's one of those days. I have spent hours pounding away at my Nanowrimo entry with the vague feeling that this is all getting a bit down and dirty. I mean...... they met three years ago when the copper, Dominic, arrested Simon for being the son of a very nasty toerag...... Si's lover Charlie was done away with by Si's nasty dad..... and our boy is broken hearted and confused. Fast forward three years, Si is out of jail and making it as a Private Investigator, he's back in Dominic's world on the right side of the law this time, they meet, they connect and they make it....... absolutely everywhere. It's a force of nature..... they get their kit off at every available opportunity. I should take out shares in YKK for the sheer number of times zips have magically slid down.

There's the vague sense that all this passion is just staving off the inevitable...... the moment when all hell breaks loose. I find myself strangely reluctant to write it. Write the moment when I'm planning on breaking both their hearts, and almost killing one..... So I'm staving off the inevitable here...... My half breed demon wants his shot at love and redemption, but my gay ex gangster doesn't know the role his current lover had in his former lover's demise..... nor the fate that awaits his current lover if he doesn't deliver on his latest victim.

In between all of it is a mysterious drug of choice..... a mind bending rage enhancer made for the half light world where demons walk amongst the people.

I know what's on my last page........ I know what Si's choice is......... now all I have to do is write it...

Fanfiction.....

I can hear the purists twitching from here. But. And it's a big but. Fanfiction is a place where two things can happen. All the more improbable stuff you wish would happen, can (And yes, Sally is a Skynet Robot from the future.....), You can make it happen! And you get the chance to try out some of your plot lines and writing style with a ready made and often critical audience in place.

On one hand, you can really push the boat out...... write stuff that would never ever cross the screen, particularly if your favourite show goes out before the legendary and largely (as far as I can see) mythical watershed. You can also write unlikely love stories between extremely unlikely lovers. Which brings me neatly to the subject of Slash.

To the unitiated, Slash is a same sex pairing within the context of the story that you're telling. Your pairing can get up to all sorts of stuff. For instance, I am quite partial to shower scenes, things that have happened in the showers at a certain well known "Police Station".... well, let's just say if the actors knew what their characters got up to...... they'd never go in the Gent's Locker Room again!! Strangely, the fanfiction audience loves Slash. There's a lot of it about.

So, there you have it. Wildly improbable pairings, danger, death and destruction around every corner, hot water, soap........ what more could you possibly want to play with.... and it's all free. The only real limit is your imagination (and basic decency!). Ready made characters, some idea of back story without the effort of creating it. And it is quite hard work trying to write it true to character. That is one of the points of the whole thing. No good writing it, if everything you make the character do is so wildly out of character that your audience won't believe. Fanfiction has its uses, it's a good exercise in consistency, it's great fun and you meet the nicest people!