Escape! anthology released in print

The Escape! anthology containing 18 short stories from Changeling Press is out now in print. This antho contains my story Demon Ahoy!, which was published last summer as a stand-alone ebook.

I'm really happy to be in such great company with all the other Changeling authors. The stories are fun and sizzling hot. This is the ideal book to read on a train or during moments where you're snatching some free time because they're short reads, so you can get your story fix pretty quickly.

Stories include:
Runaway Home -- Camille Anthony
Firefighter's Sour -- Tuesday Morrigan
The Frog in the Room -- Jade Buchanan
Lunar Lovers -- Kira Stone
Pool Boys -- Sierra Dafoe
Gator Bait -- Mary Winter
Isle of Dreams -- Alexis Fleming
Demon Ahoy!-- Cassandra Kane
Sex on the Beach? -- Willa Okati
I Dream of Jimmy -- Fiona Jayde
Devilish Fantasy -- Marie Treanor
For A Good Time Call -- Amelia Elias
Werewolf Cove -- Marteeka Karland
Gremlins -- Isabelle Spurrier
Room Service -- Cat Marsters
Island Dreamin' -- Kate Douglas
Midnight Sun -- Alecia Monaco
Sex in the Sand -- B.J. McCall

Buy at Changeling Press
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Autumn's here...

Fireworks exploded outside my back window tonight ... aah, there goes another one... the last remnants of my neighbour's Guy Fawkes night stash (Bonfire Night was last night). A mixture of gunpowder and woodsmoke lingers in the air. A fox is busily attacking the rubbish bags set out for the weekly collection early tomorrow morning. Kids are kicking their way through mounds of fallen brown leaves.

I love autumn, probably more than any other season. I've always loved that comfortable feeling you get just before sleep, a mixture of drowsiness and expectation, tiredness and the anticipation of bed and, hopefully, sweet dreams. And autumn feels just like that for me. To me, Bonfire Night is like an announcement of autumn, a declaration that you're definitely too late to take a last summer weekend getaway and should be thinking of dusting off your skis instead (not that I ski, you understand, but one lives in hope.)

As to The Halloween Hand, even that's decided to give up the ghost (heh). Mostly gone. I no longer terrify anyone. I'm almost sorry to be losing this dodgy claim to weirdness, but no doubt something else will turn up to take it's place. It's been one of those years. *sigh*

The Hand saga continues...

The Hand is worse, more blisters, itchier. When I went to the doctor's after work (an hour and a half wait - and half the light bulbs in the waiting room gone, so I couldn't read and was forced to doze) she was bemused by The Hand and called in another doctor for a seocnd opinion. Second doctor said it might have been glandular fever, not strep throat, that I had originally - though that's all moot as no throat swap was taken at the time, but it means it might have been a viral rather than bacterial infection. In Second Doctor's opinion The Hand is a reaction to the antibiotics. She said she's seen some weird reactions, mine among them. My pill dose went down to half, which is a relief - one pill instead of the two every six hours.

This morning I woke up at 3.40am to catch up on some stuff for the day job. And guess what? I loved it. So quiet, so peaceful. I'm considering waking up regularly at this time to get some writing done. I have to face the fact that I'm usually so tired in the evenings I can barely operate. Most of it's not phsyical tiredness, it's mental fatigue. I'm one of those people who is quite happy to be left alone to get on with it, who's energised by her own thoughts. The day job had just me for my area a few months ago, and suddenly there's three of us, leading to the inevitable office politicking. Too exhausting.

A Hand for Halloween

Late last week I started getting a sudden itching in the palm of my right hand and, a day later, the same palm was covered in blisters. I quickly read the side-effects leaflet for the antiobiotics: “May results in skin eruptions, and…black hairy tongue.’ Eww!

The thing is, I did have a yellow, furry tongue early in the week. But I put that down to the nicotine rapidly abandoning my body because, dear readers, I have now survived 10 days as a non-smoker. I’m holding on to non-smoking status for dear life, determined not to succumb again to the evil seductions of the ciggy.

But I digress. Skin eruptions. Yes, my left palm is covered in about 40 wart-like blisters which sprang up out of nowhere over the weekend. I suspect a combination of the strong antibiotics and giving up smoking might have forced the gunk out, but still don’t understand why they’ve appeared on the palm of my hand only. Let’s hope I don’t go blind as well. ;-)

I’m off to the doctor this afternoon, crossing blistered fingers that it’s something innocuous. Though it did get me to thinking that I wouldn’t mind having the blistered hand for Halloween. As kiddies come Trick or Treating, I’ll open the door and casually wave my hand at them, then poke out my furry tongue. The kids brave enough to withstand the horror of that are welcome to take all the chocolates they can carry. I might even buy a jaunty little witches’ hat. Heh.

Back in the UK

Back home, feeling miserable. Actually, I went away feeling miserable. Headache all week, and woke up with a sore throat on Friday. Could barely swallow by Friday evening and had fever on and off during the weekend. Saw the doctor today who said I have a bad case of "strep throat" - my throat is white with infection, apparently. I need to take antibiotics for the next 10 days. Crap, I barely survived remembering to take the pills on time last week when I took another set antibiotics (which apparently would have had no affect on the strep throat) for a tooth infection, and that was only 5 days.

10 days! I have to remember to take 2 pills every 6 hours for ten days! *gulp* (literally!)

Must admit I'm feeling grumpy about the whole health issue thing. Every time I've gone travelling this year, I've come down with something no-so-pleasant. I'm scared at turning into one of those people you're afraid to invite anywhere in case they ruin it. I'm not trying to do that, honest! I haven't a clue if it's psychosomatic, as far as I'm concerned it's just bad timing.

And I can't say it's to get more sympathy either. I say this because my mother, with her usual tact, said this weekend, "Why aren't you eating? It hurts to swallow? Maybe you should have had that years ago to stop you putting on more weight."

Ah, a mother's comfort. Don't you just love it?

Off for the weekend

I'm off for a quick three days in Spain, back on Monday. Looking back, I realise I've only had two weeks holidays this year. That's almost unheard of for me. In the past I've managed to wangle at least six weeks a year... and that's because I made a deliberate choice to be a contractor rather than go permanent in the day job. It was the *freedom* I was after -- and, yep, that's another name for more holidays!

Three days is hardly enough to unwind and relax, but it's better than nothing. Gone are the days when I would have fought for my right to party in an exotic locale. Now all I can think of is saving for my mortgage. *le sigh*

When did I suddenly become an adult?

While I'm gone, you can read my blog post tomorrow at Star-Crossed Romance. I've volunteered someone to post it for me. Fingers crossed it works out!

Postal Strikes

We've had a week of postal strikes in the UK, and it looks like another week is on the cards. I never realised how much I loved the clink of my letterbox cover as mail is thrust through it until it no longer woke me up in the mornings. Even worse, there are no more packages from Amazon leaning forlornly against my door waiting for me to get home from work - not even that package I bought online from the rare book dealer in the US more than a month ago. I know it's arrived in the UK (thank you UPS tracker) but where, oh where, can it be?

Amazingly, the only thing that still manages to get through are my credit card bills. :-(

Conspiracy theories, anyone?

Editng Blues

I'm doing edits for Master Game, a new sci-fi erom story contracted to Changeling Press. I know most writers hate edits but, honestly, they make me feel like pulling my hair out. I've written the story and, to my way of thinking, it's done and dusted. When I get edits back I feel like shouting 'Let it go already!" - as though my editor and I are in a long-standing argument. But maybe that's just the voices in my head...

Thankfully editors understand the writer's emotional rollercoaster of 1/ despair at finding out you've written garbage (even if everyone else thinks it's really good), 2/ angst at wondering if you can bear to release this for public consumption, 3/ anxiety over getting the right cover that will make it Sell! Sell! Sell! and 4/ other niggling doubts we need our ego stroked over.

And I always make sure my editor hears about these doubts because, you know, it's so nice to be stroked...

I never realised I was so needy until I became a writer. *sigh*

October Scavenger Hunt

I'm participating in the scavenger hunt at Michelle and Mandy's Raven Happy Hour website. Click the graphic below for more details on how to participate!

Black and Blue...

I've had a bad case of the stomach flu since Tuesday and somehow this has turned me into a weepy self-pitying mess. I have deadlines, dontcha know. This wasn't supposed to happen now...

A friend helpfully sent me this link to cheer me up. So now I'm a weepy mess with a sore bum horrified that I might need to be helped in and out of the shower for the rest of my life. Thanks hon!

Life goes on though, and I continue to type away at my WIP, albeit more slowly than I'd like. A fairly straight-forward sci-fi action-adventure sex romp has turned into something BDSM-ish and full of political intrigue. Aaargh! The simpler I try to make them, the more complex they become. It just can't be girl meets boy, girl and boy jump into each others pants, girl and boy beat assorted monsters/villains, fall in love and live HEA. No, it has to be full of time-travel conundrums and willful plot twists and secondary characters trying to steal scenes.

This time it's girl meets boy meets boy, boy whips boy, girl whips boy, boy whips girl, boy beats boy with girl as prize... and I'll leave the rest to your imagination. I'm black and blue just thinking about it!