Touching base

Apologies to those lovely people who visit to see how I am and have found nothing new here over the past few days. I’m deeply entrenched in RECKLESS, the current novel in progress, and I’m closing fast on the deadline. It’s going really well, but the timing is tight and I’m not getting much of a chance to do anything outside of work on the book. I had a couple of short story calls I wanted to try for this month, but I’ve even had to let them go. Not easy for me! :(

The first part of the book is now with my wonderful critique partner, and I’m pushing ahead while I await her expert opinion. I’m really liking how this one is unfolding, and I’ve also fallen in love with this hotel in Catalunya that I’m using as the model for the house in the story. You can see pictures of it here and here and here.

As often happens with me when I write about a place I’ve been to, or use a building as a model like I am here, it makes me long to go there. I haven’t been to this hotel, but it’s now on my must-do list. Here's another good reason to go. LOL

I’ve also been enjoying a feast of Pedro Almodovar movies. Almodovar is one of my favourite filmmakers. I love his take on life, love and sex, his wonderful characters, and his ability to give us such a vivid insight to Spanish life and culture. Writing a story set in Spain has allowed me to be completely self-indulgent in the name of work, and watch lots of his films over again!

We also got to see VOLVER, his most recent film, one we hadn’t yet seen. As ever, a wonderfully entrancing story. It was particularly relevant, because one of the themes in the story is the secrets that people can hide within their homes, which is a big underlying theme in RECKLESS. Highly recommend the movie, and Penelope Cruz (who I’d taken a dislike to after Vanilla Sky, go figure,) completely won me back with her performance in this one. I’ve named the housekeeper in my story after her character, Raimunda, as my teeny tribute to her and Almodovar.

I have another word count mini hurdle to get over in the next few days, which will result in another treat. Yay! Yes, live music and a couple of nights away. I bet you can see the pattern regarding what constitutes a treat for me ;) I really need to get another 8-10,000 words in by the end of Tuesday. Wish me luck! Ooh, latest via my lovely agent, RECKLESS is scheduled for May 2008.

In other news, Angela Knight has a great blog post up about dealing with reviews. If you are a writer and you haven’t already checked it out, click HERE.

I hope everyone out there is having a good week!