Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Talking Heads

I thought you might like to meet Hardyman, Stafford, and Thomas from The Emerald Staff. If you look carefully, those aren't their real names but I chose names that were very close to actual. I decided against using their real names just in case a relative of their's is still living somewhere. These "unsavory looking characters" do actually reside in Norwich Castle. My friend, Lisa and I, decided over a cup of tea, that it would be a lot of fun to make them talk. I have to admit it was one of the most fun scenes to write.

I did do a little research on them, though, and found out some interesting stuff, provided what I found was actually linked to the persons to whom these heads belonged. You can never be 100% sure when they are so old.

Sorry I don't have a picture of Molly (not her real name, either) That would be something, to get a picture of her, but I'm assured her alter ego's ghost does roam the castle.

I'll have to tell you what happened to me when I was left in the dungeon room, where the heads are, (by myself, I might add) while the guide went to try and sort out the lights. It will probably give you goosebumps, so I'll leave that for my next post.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

If You Can't Stand the Heat...

Actually, my kitchen is much cooler than outside, so I'll just stay there for now. This weather is something else. It has been 9 days now with temps in the 100's, with the heat index, and the humidity to match. To be honest with you I'm miserable! I hate this weather with a capital H. I'm a winter girl through and through. Well, okay, maybe not dead of Winter, digging yourself out of 2ft of snow, girl, but at the very least, Spring and Autumn. I want to be outside, I have fences to put up, and gardening to do and... and...

I'm the lucky one though. I can stay indoors with the A/C on full blast, but my poor animals can't and it's them who I feel for at the moment. Ollie, my goat, follows the shade around the tree throughout the day and mostly just stands there and pants. He hates being wet or I'd hose him down.

The horses stand with their heads over the water trough most of the day, I guess they must get some coolness from the water.

As for the chickens (I wish I'd had my camera with me). I opened up the coop door to get the eggs, and Daphne was sitting in the water bowl. It's actually just a dog bowl but she managed to fit her hiney in there perfectly and get her butt wet. And she wasn't about to move. This was new for me, I have never seen any of my chickens in the water, so I got a much bigger pan and filled it with water for them.

I am doing a lot of redecorating at the moment (hence why the blog is a bit sporadic) so I guess it's as good a time as any to stay inside and paint. I sure as heck am not doing anything outside until the temp drops at least 15-20 degrees. Roll on Autumn! Okay, that's my rant over with for now :-)

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Careful, Or You'll End Up In My Novel



A friend bought me this t-shirt just after I had written The Amulet. I love it, and the wording is more true to life than you may think.


Ps. This is my other horse, Ruby, modelling with me here for a newspaper reporter who did a wonderful story on my sudden success with the Custodian series on Amazon Kindle.


Apart from it being a good conversation starter with people who don't know me, it also makes people laugh, sometimes a little nervously.


I guess the question remains, have I taken my revenge on any real life people who have made my life sheer misery in the past? Have I immortalised them for all eternity as the bad guys (or girls)? Hmm... now that would be telling.


Like I said in a previous post, inspiration for writing can come from everywhere.