Minx in a Muddle

I don't normally need help to get into a mess. Since my head injury I frequently reverse things (hot instead of cold, up instead of down etc). This can lead to mild confusion i.e. when I say I've injured my left knee instead of my right. Or complete chaos when I write a message asking someone to do the exact opposite of what I want them to do, then misread a text message by reversing one word and omitting another... Confused yet? Try being me for a bit ;-) Better still try writing a book and having to laboriously check everything a million times.

However someone up there must be bored and has decided to assist this week in upping the mayhem quota - resulting in an x-ray technician x-raying the wrong part of me ('Computer says do what's on the form' never mind the human patient in front of you telling you it's wrong) and being given a faulty TENS machine which emitted random, unexpected surges so powerful they made my muscles jerk. Quite difficult when you're trying to talk to people and they have no idea you're hooked up. Funny? Well not if the electrodes are attached to you it's not, no...

Even my dogs have decided to lend a paw. Two nights ago Poppy (left) managed to lock me out of my house. It seems mildly amusing now she was able to shoot the bolt across the kitchen door, leaving me trapped in the garden room but I assure you it wasn't so funny at the time. Daredevil in a splint was on the other side of the door (up to goodness knows what circus antics) and I was shoe-less, phone-less and in dire need of the loo.

As my keys were still on the inside of the front door my initial plan of waiting for someone with a key to turn up and rescue me was pointless. Instead I had to traipse through the mud in my socks, climb through a hedge into next door's garden and try not to look too deranged when I knocked on the door. Thankfully the neighbour is a forensic police person who managed to break open the door and then replace the lock without any visible sign that the door had been forced. It's a little worrying someone can break in and replace the lock without me noticing but for the moment I'm merely relieved I didn't have to ring the fire brigade. Otherwise I would now be in the 'stupidest reasons for callout' book.

Enough is enough. I'm taking a deep breath and putting an end to the recent spate of bad luck. At least I have my Mills and Boon 'Make a Bag out of a Book cover' comp win to cheer me up (my entry is below). Although the email address I was given to claim my kindle prize doesn't seem to be working... Perhaps I need to take another deep breath ;-)

Getting in the mood...

If you're looking for inspiration and want to get in the mood (to write of course. What else? ;-) both the media and Selfridges are doing their bit. Grazia and The Daily Telegraph have had big splashes about the Mills and Boon workshops given by Heidi Rice last week. It was certainly a fab day on Friday, made all the nicer by the fact the London Traffic gods were kind to me, making me early so I bumped into Heidi and Abby Green in the Yellow Cafe (see below).

If you weren't able to make it to a workshop click here for a link to the Daily Telegraph article

There is also an interesting interview with Abby Green (Daisy Cummins aka the Queen of Romance) in the Irish Independent.

For anyone who hasn't already heard - if you have a UK address you can get a free taste of Riva, either by buying The Sun on the 18th February (and going to WH Smiths or choosing a free download) or by visiting the Date with Mills and Boon webpage

There is more good news to celebrate - Minx Sally has a new release out, available to download to Kindle tomorrow and in paperback very soon. Congratulations Sally. Click here to see her gorgeous cover :-)

Getting back on Track

Thank you for all your good wishes, both human and canine (waves to Elissa's Tillie!). Pip is home and doing well except for a very swollen foot. Now I just need to keep him from moving on the leg so the plate and screws stay in place... Ha! If Pip had only one leg working he would still find a way of getting around and getting places he shouldn't.

So I am now less distracted, although I am drugged up to the eyeballs (legally I hasten to mention), on permanent dog watch and dealing with crisis after crisis. Determined to turn the tide I have cadged a lift and a dog sitter for tomorrow so I can make it to Selfridges to see the lovely Mills and Boon artwork and of course have fun at one of Heidi's workshops. I may be a little zonked but intend to pick up inspiration by osmosis so that when I finally have five minutes peace I can think about the points raised by the Editor in her request email and maybe feel like a writer again!

Distracted

I've just dropped Pip off at the vets for a major operation and can't settle to anything. In fact I didn't sleep last night and the expression on his face when I handed his lead to the vet clutched at my heart.

What upsets me most is that this operation isn't down to natural causes or even an accident - his previous owners who abandoned him by tying him to a sign post also left his broken leg untreated for years so that it became malformed and has caused him constant pain. He's having a plate put into his leg and the leg completely refashioned and while I know he's in safe hands at the veterinary hospital I can't help feeling very sick :-(
I chose this photo of him even though it's not a 'good' one because it's him very happily receiving a tummy tickle and it reminds me how happy I've been able to make him.
The op is this morning, please send your positive thoughts/vibes/prayers his way, he really does deserve to have his happy ending...

News, or 'A watched inbox never pings'

I've been waiting since August to hear back on the partial requested by M&B and during that time I moved from mildly pleased with my story to utterly convinced I had messed it up. I'd been keeping an eagle eye on my inbox and with an ipad and iphone it was never too far away. But for some reason yesterday I just didn't check my email until the evening, preferring instead to do a stork impression at the Doctor's surgery, standing on one leg and begging for better pain relief (hadn't been able to sleep in a bed for days and had slept in the bath instead, waking up cold and very wrinkly!).

And so the Editor email sat in my inbox unread for a good 7 hours, in fact I almost missed it, skimming over my list and selecting a stressy one to read first instead. It's a modern take on the old wisdom - watched pans take longer to boil, if you take your umbrella out with you it doesn't rain, you only find object A when you are looking for object B...

What did the email say? It was a request for the full ms, my first full request and the nicest thing to happen to me for quite a while :-)

Getting hot under the collar

Since my last post Modern Heat has made it onto audible.co.uk (Hooray :-)

It's good timing - A fall down the stairs before Christmas has left me with nerve, muscle and ligament damage in my back and knee which a doctor cheerfully told me last week would take 3 months minimum to heal. The irritated nerves are stopping me from sleeping and as the bath is the one place I can unclench my teeth I spent last night there (yes, the whole night, very glad of the combi boiler!), listening to Heidi Rice's "Pleasure, Pregnancy and a Proposition". Thankfully Heidi managed to distract me with the sizzling interaction of her characters :-)

As the injury is just one of the unpleasant things being thrown across my path at the moment after "The End" of the audiobook and in the interests of not going stark raving mad I progressed to series 4 of Brothers and Sisters which arrived on my doormat with perfect timing (yes, I have come late to the 'Gilles Marini in his swimming trunks party' but better late than never ;-)

Also I have had a go at making a bag from M&B Riva covers - they are so fab it's not hard to make them look good! Click here to see the other M&B bags.