Home Again or Completely Gratuitous Shots of New Zealand Countryside

Okay, 4055kms later, I am finally back home! And already feeling the post holiday blues... :-) Stupid eh? But had a lovely time. Travelling the country has given me a new appreciation for how beautiful New Zealand is. If any of you are down this end of the globe, make it your mission to see the South Island, especially Fiordland. And most especially, Doubtful Sound. A more beautiful place on earth I have yet to visit... (Picture on right is Lake Te Anau. Picture on left is taken from the Cardrona ski field in Otago, looking towards Queenstown)



Yes, it rains in Fiordland. A lot. And apparently people have been known to complain to the local tourist information bureau about the fact that it rains. As if the tourist bureau has anything to do with the weather. Reminds me of the time we were Morocco, on the edge of the Sahara and how a couple of our tour party complained to the tour guide because clouds meant they couldn't get their desert sunset photo... These waterfalls at the right are in Doubtful Sound and only appear when it rains.

Here's me being blown about on the front of the boat in Doubtful Sound. Well, I suppose there has to be one shot of me but no one took one of me in front of anything scenic so this will have to do. :-)






And here's my eldest daughter taking a wander along the shores of Lake Whakitipu near Queenstown.







Now the holiday is over, it's back to the wait - 13 weeks! Not to mention thinking about the next writerly blog post... Hope everyone else has had a good couple of weeks!
P.S. Please excuse the big lines of nothingness in between the photos. Blogger sucks when it comes to formatting posts with images.

A Missive from the Deep South - On Heroines

Still adventuring in the wilds of New Zealand's South Island. We're in Dunedin, the southern most city and I have been searching in vain for wireless internet. I think poor old NZ is rather foot-dragging when it comes to providing free wireless hotspots because there ain't none around here. Luckily Dr Jax has an iPhone and it can provide me with the access I have come to require, nay demand.

So, had plans for doing lots of lovely writing/editing while I've been away but they came to nought. Probably a good thing to have a complete break but it does lead to frustrated writer syndrome (symptoms include grumpiness, impatience with long suffering family, and general wistful imaginings about all the lovely things one could do if only one had enough time on one's laptop) - which isn't happy for either me nor my family. Loving the holiday though (especially the three days of unexpected and superb skiing) but will be looking forward to getting back into the swing of writing again.

Anyway, while we've been away, I came across an article in the Guardian about writing for Mills and Boon. It was extremely interesting, especially about 'the heroine problem'. Apparently, according to this journalist, writing M&B heroines is extremely difficult. This is because they provide the reader with the conduit to the hero - in other words the reader needs to be able to imagine herself as the heroine in order to experience the love affair with the hero. But in order to do this, the heroine has to appeal to as wide a range of people as possible - basically she has to be bland enough to appeal to everyone and yet interesting enough to appeal to everyone. Hard, yes? It's good to know I'm not the only one who thinks so!

This is pretty much my problem with my heroines. I give them things like nose rings and tattoos. Or make them geeks with no self confidence. Or make them flawed in some way. But as soon as you do this - make them extreme in any way - you instantly alienate the readers who don't understand or can't relate to that kind of heroine. Which is why my FTH contest heroine didn't work - she was too extreme in both her views and her appearance, and thus alienated a whole lot of potential readers.

In fact, I had a rather interesting conversation with Dr Jax about this particular issue. I was running my new idea by him and he was asking me why a woman recovering from breast cancer was more acceptable than a recovering addict. I had to point out that addiction was more alienating and less sympathetic than breast cancer, not to mention it was a subject you couldn't wrap up nicely in 50k or less, even if it did happen in the past. He argued about this but even if a recovering addict was worthy, it doesn't provide the requisite fantasy or escapism element that you need to have in an M&B.
Even breast cancer may be pushing it. You can't wrap that up easily either but am thinking I'll have to make her in total remission, with all her treatment in the past, and, bearing in mind the whole appealing to the widest range of people possible thing, probably not having had a mastectomy.

Of course, I'll have to hear back about my current sub first before I send anything else out. Sigh.

What does everyone else think about the whole heroine thing? Do you find them difficult to write?

In the Millionaire Playboy Psychiatrist's Penthouse

Two out the four statements in the above title are true and I'll leave you to figure out which ones are which...

Yes, it is a little bit sad to be posting a blog entry while I'm on holiday but a) wouldn't you know it, I have a cold and am holed up in our apartment and b) my eldest also has a cold and is holed up with me. The cold is helped marginally by the setting - a penthouse suite (one of the true statements, see photo) on the shores of Lake Whakitipu, which has all the mod cons including a deck with a spa pool that looks onto the Remarkables Mountain range. Dr Jax outdid himself with the accommodation it has to be said. We have broadband, we have heated floors, we have flat screen TVs... Happy days.

In fact, the setting and the apartment are all extremely Modern Heat - I'm inspired despite the cold! Queenstown is pretty young, urban and hip - certainly judging from all the trendy snow people I saw in town yesterday - with lots of bars and restaurants. Could be a great location for a new story. In fact, I even have a great idea to go along with it. Shows you what an obssessive writer I am that even on a family holiday with a vile cold, the creative urge never stops. Am kind of itching to get into writing it and if it wasn't for those meddling kids... :-)

But I can't think of new ideas at the moment. Too many old ideas to edit, not to mention angsting over the partial under consideration. Coming up for 12 weeks next week but I'm not holding my breath for an answer just yet. In fact I should be doing more NTAI - ing. Unfortunately my main method of NTAI-ing is more writing....which I can't do...

Ah well, shall try and distract myself by reading the new AS Byatt I bought with me, though as much as I love her writing, it probably won't provide as much escapism as Lucy King's new book did (great going, Lucy!). Isn't it lucky I also have Kate Hardy's latest too? ;-)

Holidays!

Woohoo!! Yep, we're going on holiday for two weeks on Thursday! Be the first holiday for me in months (no, two nights in Rotorua does not count) and I can't wait. We're going to Queenstown (see piccie) in the South Island for a conference that Dr Jax is attending. Queenstown, for those in the northern hemisphere, is kind of like NZ's answer to Switzerland on a much, MUCH, smaller scale. :-) Remember those mountains in Lord of the Rings? Those are the Remarkables (again, see piccie). Remember Rohan? That's the kind of country where we'll be going. Anyway, not sure of the wisdom of driving over a thousand ks with two small kids but hey, if you don't try you'll never know right?

Of course the other advantage of going away is that it's the perfect NTAI distraction. It's been ten weeks since I sent in my sub and the twelve week mark will pass while I'm away. I'm thinking I won't hear, considering the busy-ness of the London office. Sigh. Oh well, I am taking the laptop with me just in case (does that make me sad?). Can't do without my email and can't do without my lovely blog friends. :-) And perhaps I'll even have time to do some writing. There's lots of hot alpha skiers, snowboarders, climbers and general extreme kind of guys down there... Hmmmm....

Modern Heat set in Queenstown anyone?

Going to Roto-Vegas

We're off for a couple of days down to Rotorua, the home of boiling mud, hot pools and the smell of rotting eggs. The husband has a conference there and after days of trying and failing to get my hero's conflict sorted, I'm hoping that a break will give me some ideas too.

Rotorua is the 'land of passion' as you can see by this April Fool's day ad that was run through various papers this year, so perhaps the smell will give me some inspiration! I am going to be taking my little laptop with me anyway and hope to have some time to give the wip a re-read, perhaps try to figure out just what I'm doing. I've got three strands of conflict that I could conceivably use but at the moment don't know which one to pursue. And all three is going to be way too complicated to resolve in 50k words. I'm hoping it will become clear in the fullness of time but boy, the man is being ridiculously opaque.

Oh, and why Roto-Vegas? Well, it's a bit of a NZ in-joke. We call it Roto-Vegas because Rotorua is NZ's answer to Las Vegas. Don't know why really because I don't think there are any casinos/burlesque shows/huge neon signs/deserts/Elvis impersonators in Rotorua. But it does have lots and lots of motels/hotels and tourist type stuff to do, not to mention being quite expensive. Ah well, at the moment, being winter here, I'll just settle for a nice hot spa to sit in with a glass of cold bubbly by my side, and perhaps my current hero in tight swim shorts to feed me grapes...but don't tell the husband that. ;-)