I cannot tell a lie...

...from a lie!

I think I'm going to have to staple this handy wee guide to my forehead.

It's crazy. *sigh* Even after all these years, no matter what I do, I simple CANNOT get my poor old brain to assimilate the whole lay/lie/laid/lain thing. It makes about as much sense to me as algebra!

Here's something I've never admitted out loud: I regularly hit the on-line thesaurus in order to avoid having to use this troublesome word. So you might see my people 'reclining', or 'lounging', or even 'slumped', but you'll seldom see them actually lying... unless they're lying, of course!

How about you? Are there any words that get your synapses in a tangle?

The Book of Kells...

Today's wordcount is... 973. That'll do nicely, thanks!

Writing a book--any book--usually takes far longer than you might imagine. There are so many processes and stages to go through, you see, before it's fit for human consumption: all the various drafts; numerous revisions; the beta reading; edits; cover; proof reading... the list goes on and on.

As you might have already guessed, unlike so many of my writer buddies, I'm a particularly slow writer, a turtle of the book-writing world--mainly because I like to faff about fixing and rejigging stuff as I go, so I can't imagine how long it must have taken those marvellous monks to complete the gob-smackingly wonderful 'Book of Kells.'

"...The place of origin of the Book of Kells is generally attributed to the scriptorium of the monastery founded around 561 by St Colum Cille on Iona, an island off the west coast of Scotland. In 806, following a Viking raid on the island which left 68 of the community dead, the Columban monks took refuge in a new monastery at Kells, County Meath. It must have been close to the year 800 that the Book of Kells was written, although there is no way of knowing if the book was produced wholly at Iona or at Kells, or partially at each location..." 

The good news is, instead of having to queue up for hours to glimpse a couple of pages of this amazing book, it's now available to view online in all its magnificent entirety. Best of all, it's absolutely FREE.

Enjoy!

Testing Times...

Good evening, campers! How was your day? I hope it was full of fabulousity... is that even a word? :)

Okay, brace yourselves. Without further ado, here it comes, today's daily word count result. *drum roll*

**1500 words!**

Not bad. then again, I am playing catch up due to spending much of yesterday attending various appointments... one of them being my annual eye exam. Only twelve years overdue, but who's counting?

The good news is my vision is pretty much the same as it was over a decade ago. The bad news is the muscles supporting my ancient orbs are beginning to feel the strain. Probably because of all the hours I spend staring at a computer screen. Guess that would explain all the blinding headaches I've been having. Definitely time for some computer specs.

Speaking of computers, while I was out and about, I took my poorly Vaio to the local computer hospital. Guess what? Dr. Computerwhizz says the crash might not prove fatal after all, and a few new/old parts may well revive the patient, fingers crossed. :)

Oh, and btw, Dr. Microchip and his learned colleague Dr, Backup were most interested to hear about the various resuscitation methods I adopted while trying to save the life of my dear old friend. Yep. You guessed it. In other words, they both laughed and exchanged one of those superior 'women!' glances with one another, but who cares? They can be as superior as they like just as long as they save my precious Vaio.

Watch this space!

Toodles! <3

(PS: I'm an Einstein girl, btw,  just in case anyone's interested. Who do you see?)

SALE!!!

Ah! Those four little letters we love so well. Who doesn't like a sale? Well hold on to your hosiery, friends. 'cause I have BIG surprise for you. :)

From now until Sunday, 'Wolfsbane' (book two in the 'Traveler' series) is just HALF PRICE. Yes, that's a MASSIVE 50% off (give or take a cent or two.)

If you haven't read it yet, there's no better time than right now. Spread the word. Tell your friends. (If you hated it, tell your enemies!  ) Don't miss out on this AMAZING OFFER!!!

Available for download from your friendly neighbourhood Amazon store:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wolfsbane-Tales-Traveler-Book-Travel-ebook/dp/B00NC90MK4/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

http://www.amazon.com/Wolfsbane-Tales-Traveler-Book-Travel-ebook/dp/B00NC90MK4/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

*exhales* Phew! Trumpet blowing is such hard work. How did I do? Am I improving yet? Naw. Didn't think so either.

*** At the time of posting, Nook, Kobo and the other outlets still haven't adjusted their prices. Be patient, my pretties. I'm sure it won't be too long now.***

Welcome to Electronica...

Yesterday's wordcount => 0
Today's wordcount => 650

Yes. It's pitiful. What can I say? The last couple of days have been particularly... challenging.

Visitors to my Facebook page are probably aware of my recent laptop woes, but for anyone who didn't happen to hear me sobbing and cussing, here's a quick recap...my faithful laptop died and tried to take my current manuscript as company on its final journey... A fierce battle ensues, and our heroine (ie: yours truly) somehow manages to save Anselm from permanent deletion at the eleventh hour... or it might have been earlier on in the evening, I forget.

There. You're all caught up.

So here's the next instalment:

We rejoin our intrepid heroine (ie: me!) as she and her trusty sidekick, Hubster, venture into the terrifying Realm of Electronica (aka our local Currys store) in search of the Holy Grail of laptop tappers everywhere. (Cover your ears, Si!) Yes. The sacred, and incredibly elusive, Macbook of Pro.

After spending half an hour conversing with the Gatekeeper (aka Currys employee), our heroine decides to part with an obscene amount of gold in order to get her sweaty mitts on the valuable, credit-card slender grail. But, alas, when the Gatekeeper goes to retrieve the sacred Mac, he discovers it is.... gone! (Dun, dun, duuuuunnnn!)

Undeterred, our laptop-lacking heroine and her ever-faithful sidekick scrape together even more gold bullion, just enough to secure the Bigger Daddy of the original Grail, but once again their quest is thwarted. In short, there is not a Macbook of Pro to be had anywhere in the Realm... not even in Preston. :( (Cue heroine stomping away muttering increasingly colorful words)

On returning home, our heroine attempts to use Hubster's laptop, but the Tosh of Iba is as ancient as it is slow. It also lacks a functioning word processor or sufficient memory to download one!

Weeping, but undeterred, heroine dispatches Hubster back to the Gatekeeper of Electronica with instructions to, "Buy me anything with a flipping disc drive! I don't flipping care what flipping model it is, just get me a f...f... flipping laptop!" (Or words to that effect.)

Stalwart and true as always, Hubster returns to Electronica and finally brings home another, lesser, but physically chunkier grail. But for all that it is hefty, the HP (which the heroine promptly dubs "Harry") proves difficult to master. Eventually (today!), Harry finally surrenders to his new mistress, and six hundred and odd words were our heroine's just reward...

The End.

Tune in next time when Heroine and Hubster attempt to track down the child responsible for tipping a cup of tea over the unreliable Tosh of Iba's icky keyboard, rendering several keys completely useless.

So that's me. How was your week? :) <3

Today's word count is...

1500 words of Anselm-y goodness... or badness, depending on your point of view! 

Do you fancy a sneak peek? Here you go!

What? Don't you like clouds? I do. They're purdy!

Have a great evening, friends. :)

When vamps were vamps...

Vampires, that is!

Well the kids are finally back at school and after barely a week, right on cue, I've come down with an absolute honker of a cold. Yep, summer has officially gone bye-bye.

In an effort to cheer myself up, I watched the last ever episode of 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer.' (Regular visitors might recall that I embarked on the entire seven season marathon during the summer as part of my 'find my happy' campaign.)  You know what? I've so enjoyed watching it all over again. It's been like catching up with old friends, and I'm missing them all over again... especially Spike. <3

Which of Buffy's leading men do YOU prefer, Angel or Spike?

We have another winner...

Good evening all!

Just popped in the announce the winner of last month's newsletter subscriber giveaway.

Congratulations to...

**elainemc1982**