NaNoWriMo 2012

To cut to the chase: I am a NaNoWriMo winner!

Last year I signed up, full of enthusiasm and had a whole novel plotted out. Half way into October, I went onto anti-depressants, and my writing drive dried up. My sex drive came back, and the drugs work, but NaNo went out of the window in 2011.

Fast forward one year, and I wasn't planning to do NaNo, but I read my synopsis, and got a freakishly unexpected spurt of enthusiasm.

And... I won.

I'm under no illusions. I've not written a novel. I've written a story with a start, middle and end, and I've written over 50k words. I've written an incredibly rough first draft. It's not even submittable, let alone publishable. But I did it. I had a week of depression in week 2, and a bereavement on day 27, and I had to write nearly 10k words on the last day, but I did it.

I don't even finish short stories. I finish flash, but not shorts. And I finished this. I am suitably proud. Could you tell?

Big snogs of course to my cheerleaders Lia Wolff, Nicole Trawick, S.A. Meade, and Carly Berg. It really helps to have people cheering you on.

I'm now editing. 

Did you do NaNo? Did you win? If you've got a good story, tell it, write it, get it out there. It doesn't matter if you do 50k in 30 days, or a finished novel in 5 years. For me, NaNo was brilliant, and the kick up the arse that I needed. I'm just hoping I can keep up the momentum.

Ms V 

xx

Tea for Thirteen

The lovely CJ Lemire pointed me towards this blog post from Chuck Wendig.

Up for the challenge, I rolled the dice and got the following:

Murder Mystery
A Brothel
Cloning.

Thank fuck I got something sex-related in there - not totally outside of my comfort zone, then.

My short story, Tea for Thirteen, has been accepted (yay!) by online literary magazine Absinthe Revival, and can be found here.

I'd love to know what you think, either here or as a comment direct on Absinthe Revival.

-Verity xx

200 people spanking

I read about that in a discussion group and it sparked the following:

To the tune of "Twelve days of Christmas," all together now:

On the Twelfth day of Christmas, my master gave to me:

12 Spankers spanking
11 luscious ladies
10 tits a' boobing
9 nobbers nobbing
8 fannies flapping
7 cocks a' pumping
6 snoggers snogging
5 biiiiiig cocks!
4 bouncing butts
3 cock rings
2 nipple clamps
And a tall gimp in a ball gag.

Verity has been looking at boobs

I have a Tumblr blog now.

There are so many incredible images on Tumblr, I have to share my favourites.

I should also mention that there's a good reason I haven't blogged in 3 months. I started taking anti depressants and my writing drive vanished for a while. It's now coming back, which is a relief. I'm also very happy, which is the most important thing.

Also, I am eating satsumas and yes, my xmas tree is up.

Stolen Summer: review and musings

I've just finished Stolen Summer by S.A. Meade.

When I read the blurb, I wasn't sure whether I was going to read it. Elements of the subject matter - terrorist-induced PTSD, anti-depressants, and related lack of sexual desire - were a little too close to home for comfort. However, having read a sample of S.A. Meade's writing, and with an inkling of how good it was going to be, when I saw a Tweet about it, I decided to go for it anyway.

Half way through, the characters kindly reminded me there is a soundtrack to this novel, and so I loaded up Einaudi on my iPad while I read. If you read this book, please do the same. It is the perfect complement.

To the book: I hope S.A. is absolutely over the moon with the release of this novel and that she is bursting with pride; she has every right to be. She handles sensitive subject matter with delicate yet confident skill, and the love story between Evan and Colin is a beautiful thing to see unfold.

If, like I was, you are deliberating whether to read it not because the hostage part of the plot gives you pause, don't worry. It's powerfully written but, as an erotic romance, the focus is enough to slide past what I was anticipating as the difficult sections: it's a love story.

I'm a new convert to m/m erotica, but oh, have I been missing out all these years!

I had tears in my eyes at parts of this book, that's how good Meade's writing is, full of beautiful imagery and gut-wrenching emotion.

And yes, the sex scenes are damn hot. Not filthy, just fucking beautiful.

Good Morning Blog

When I was a teenager, I would write, and write and write. And I would listen to music. All the time.

Now I'm thirty-something, I don't listen to music for the sheer pleasure of it any more. I forget. Real life occupies my mind too much and oh, now I've realised that, I'm very sad about it. I am going to do something about it. On my buy list are Adele, Ludovico Einaudi and, oh dear, I can only name two. That's shameful. At least I'm on my way to rectifying the situation.

It's scary how easy it is for life to get in the way of things we once thought were the centre of our existence. I used to play and write music too. Don't even go there.

I decided to start writing again - properly - a month ago. For the last ten years, very on and off, I've written erotica. Now I've started paying attention to it as a serious pursuit, I've realised I've written Very Bad Erotica. And I don't even mean bad in a deliciously wicked way. I mean poor.

But that's fine. I can improve. And I can enjoy doing it. Scandalous sex, excruciating teases and men with nice arses. What's not to love?