Fun images

I thought some fun photographs this week because,  well, that's what I feel like :)

Okay, one of the reasons I've feel like fun photos is because my day job is being a complete pest. However, seeing this photo really puts it into perspective. Even on a day day my job's not this much of a balancing act, nor do I have this much risk hanging over my head.

Why this photo you ask? Well I've never seen a cat's tongue up this close, kinda fascinating. Also I couldn't help thinking of all those paranormal romances with cat shape shifters (I've just finished Nalini Singh's new one so that could be why).

These two cracked me up. These two are probably the baddest, bad-asses on their block. Look at the stance, look at ht menacing glare.  If they were people they would have leathers, big bikes, scars and gang patches. 

Not sure why I added this one. I'm not sure if it's funny, or creepy, or weird, or some combination of all three - or something else entirely.

A kiss

Photojournalist Richard Lam took the photo below and it's gone viral - and yes here I am adding to that :)     An Australian guy kisses his Canadian girlfriend to comfort her after she is caught up in the Canadian riots.

I think several things make this photo powerful.  Love surrounded by anger, caring surrounded by violence. A moment of calm in the chaos. That no one else in the photo is even aware of them, and they are aware of only each other.

This photo is a great symbol for what romance writers are trying to create. Two people at there center of a story, who find love regardless of what surrounds or challenges them, and who are there for each other. And of course there are other elements as well, tension, excitement, romance, etc... you get the picture - literally in this case :)

brain exhaustion

I've been working so much lately my brain feels like it's leaking out my ears, and not on my writing unfortunately. My day job has been a bit of a menace on that front. So I'm afraid I have no cunning or clever post for the week (in as much as they ever are :) 
Instead I have a silly cartoon for you from xkcd.

As a side note, I've been re-watching the first series of Alias. I only saw the first series & a 1/2 last time round, but I gather the later series rather jumped the shark. Nonetheless, I've been enjoying my re-watching. Something I've noticed about the writing as it goes on is that the writers have huge skill at ending each episode on a cliffhanger. Even if as you watch the episode you're feeling a bit blah, by the time the end comes round you have to watch the next episode. Yet next episode they take the extream situation and wrap it up neatly in the first 5 minutes :)


It's a skill that works really well on TV, draws the views back each week. However, I find that technique in books (cliffhangers end of each chapter) is rather annoying. Oh a few are good, drive the tension, too many and it gets annoying.

What are your feelings on cliffhangers?

Design a new cover....

Look at the cover below... It looks like a perfectly ordinary cover doesn't it?

It isn't.
That's not to say it's not a perfectly good cover - it's simply that it's not a real cover. Not in the sense that it was published with the book anyway. Over here, is a site where a designer has taken on the task or redesigning the covers of some of the books he reads :)
This appealed to me because as an author I dread getting a terrible cover, and I'm sure there are authors the world over who wish they could redesign a cover. Here's someone who's done that - if not for the reasons that most authors would like to :)