Finding a Muse

Okay lets jump straight to Monaco where I was inspired by the palace and Grace Kelly's resting place , I already planned on doing a story about the Grimaldi family but this dude did it for me. The minute I saw him my story changed course(I hate it when that happens but the character is always the boss) and fell in place.
There is just something about a man in a Uniform so what do u think of my Monegasque muse?

the cheeky lil fellow moved he is a rule breaker

here lies Grace Kelly beloved American Actress and Monegasque Princess

I took a panoramic picture of the castle, I intend to return for a guided tour of the castle

I'm baaaaackkkk! with a bang that is

random thot for the day: thanx son now I have to rewallpaper this landlord's house when we move out. Peeling wallpaper by the yard is not anyone's idea of fun why would a toddler delight in it?

Got back from the family holiday over the weekend, It was so much fun I didn't want to come back home, but then I missed u guys too much to stay away.
The French Riviera was amazing, loads of cute muses that I shall be sharing with you later on because I took pictures of all the french Hottie McHotties I saw. A few amazing things also happened on the family front
1. I got to eat ribs after 3 months of not finding ribs anywhere
2. My almost 2 year old took up street dancing
3. The husband and I have decided one day we'll buy a house in Monte Carlo
and i got 3 book Ideas one about a prince, one about a fertility clinic doctor and one about a security expert now I just need to find the dames worthy of these men.
Hope u all had a fabu week?

Cote d'Azur

If u have a dog pick up after it or invest in doggy diapers! dont let ur city waste taxpayers money on having to wash the sidewalks everyday.

Okay Hello Blogosphere

I just realized yesterday that the holiday I booked ages ago is 2moro, I was also informed since its a vaca am not allowed to work grrrhh....
what they dont know is I'll still secretly be working obviously no posts for the next week but the waters of the azure will be the basis for my next book so I shall be doing research while pretending to be a lazy tourist.
Places we intend to visit
Marineland
Aquasplash
Promenade des Anglais
all the royal stuff of Monaco
oh and I shall keep my eyes peeled in case I spot a celeb or two
I'll have pictures up as soon as I get back.
After all we said and done, no one can prise my laptop out of my fingers so I can still check back online and reply questions or comments. Have fun everyone and try not to miss this blogger. Am out.

The Pill and one more book

Okay so apparently scientist have found out that women on the pill have a more developed grey matter than every body else.
Now back to the book I am going to rave about - its just a tiny pocket book and I think every writer should have one, to record ideas in.
I was at the playground yesterday when I had an idea for a book and another idea for a scene in a Work in Progress (WIP), lets just say by the time my son threw a tantrum and I had to physically carry him, tricycle and bags home my 2 ideas had flown back to idea land. I spent the better part of yesterday evening staring at my WIP trying to get the basis of my chapter 2 back, at around 2a.m. I got it and quickly wrote it down.
So in addition to writing in paper I suggest everyone carry a pocketbook or at least a phone that has MS word or wordpad on it.
I'm amazed I had not thought about this b4 considering I once had 5stories floating in my head infringing on everybody's space.

Twitter Go or No Go

Okay here I am musing about twitter, Twitter is just about about status updates right? so I guess its the alternative to  facebook stalking eh? sounds perfect for me as long as pple keep it interesrting

The idea for Twitter is that u can say oooh am @ NY fashion week and I just ran into Vera Wang and then pple tweet back, Okay so maybe if your life was extremely fascinating you could have a twitter acct like Ashton Kutcher (this link leads to his tweets).
Now for all of the rest of us, does having a twitter acct mean we think too highly of ourselves? or are people really that interested in what we are doing everyday?
I guess for writers it helps us keep up with recent happenings like contests and also do some brown nosing or get ur name out there.
I guess for me the real question is if I cannot find my phone at the mo' (and I really don't know where I put it neither do I care) am I the best candidate for Twitter? am great with my laptop though!

Ambidextrous Dynamite

yes I made the title ambidextrous dynamite bcos Taio Cruz's dynamite is playing on the tv.

So I have sent off two manuscripts one for fast track I should get "the news" this week and another I should hear back in 3 months - frankly I hope it's sooner and preferably good news on both ends.
But yeah about my ambidexterity I wrote till 4 a.m. one night till my thumb went from hurting to numb then back to hurting, luckily the next day I could use my other hand to do my regular stuff like open cans feed a regressing toddler, anyways this got me to thinking, am I the only writer out there that still uses pen and paper? seriously I have written at least 2 major theses and several papers for school and they always go on paper 1st which is seriously time wasting for me.

On the plus side though I find that transferring from paper to laptop (maybe I should get me an IPad) allows me to edit my work and even expand on or delete ideas I had while trying not to sleep.
Am I just technologically backward? am really interested in finding out

Kids Emulate

I wish this was a post where I could blow my own horn but that would come later in the year. I am just really amazed by how courteous my son is.
He speaks just a few words but the foremost among them are
Bless you - if you sneeze or cough
Thank you/ Merci - If you give him something (if they are new shoes he'll hug you)
Please - when he is trying to get something from you, his friend is even cuter when she says please

am sure most kids say these words but this is kind of 2nd nature for him and these are his basic words apart from his trademark No and More. I think he is taking after his momma someone once told me I sounded like an efficient secretary, I was not too pleased.

Birthday Pictures

Can someone give it up for French Cuisine? this was delicious and i am not even a fan of cream sauce. Notice my son's very vegetarian plate in the picture? yeah he's a vegetarian. oh and the dates are wrong of course

we could not wait to dig in

My boys cute hunh?

My Little Clown was in top form that night, he also met a real clown that nite and was not scared

this was supposed to be a birthday hug but it turned into a birthday projectile

Wired

I have just sent out a query, synopsis and partial submission in the mail. I am too wired to write sensibly @ the mo' is this going to be it?
I am already practising my cry of glee for when I get a favourable reply from them.

Birthday Party

yay its my birthday today I am once again officially older than 21 years old (that's the closest i will ever come to revealing my age)
Due to the fact that my brain is tired I am not going to have a party but I am going to walk down memory lane a little
Best Birthday ever - I was 8 it was a surprise party in a hotel, I didn't know most of the kids cos i didn't have many friends but it was a blast even my cousin that was like 15 had a blast for one day I felt super cool.

Silliest Birthday Ever - got angry and bought myself a bigger cake cos the cake the boyfriend bought was not big enough for my greedy mouth (lol) actually there is a lot more to the story

Emergency Birthday - I said I did not want a party bcos I'd had a party every year till I turned 22 but then 3 days b4 my birthday I decided I wanted a party, it was nice seeing everyone squirm to put together a party for me (can someone say spoilt?)

Worst birthday Ever - I had a job interview, I got fined cos the Luton airport train station is just conveniently out of zone 6 and I did not know, the interview lasted for hours, I had no intention of taking the job even when it was offered to me on the spot because no Ryan Air, I dont swim and I have no intention of paying for my uniform and every thing else cos I want to earn a meager salary from you.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOANNA

Crushes and Equalization

So every time a dude asks a girl out what is he acting on? a crush  (I thought so too) so why do some females think its wrong to act on it like ask a guy out on a date if they have a crush on him?
okay so I understand for the emotionally insecure it feels better if the guy asks you 1st cos that way you know he thinks you're hot and he is not just going out with you cos he does not know how to say no.
Or the whole drivel of man is a natural hunter - here is my cure for that if u meet one of those "the fun is in the chase" kind of people, you just have to make them think the chase is all their idea (married women do this all the time) and then sit back and enjoy the chase.
Lastly there is also the hey I quite fancy you, you know route, its very straight foward  but in the bid for equalization feel free to get some rejections too (cos i bet u haven't dated every dude who asked you out).
I really don't care what the method of getting together it won't matter in 50 years from now, what will matter is if you are happy and not full of regret or shame (lol)
When I was much younger, every time I liked a guy I stared at him and willed him with my mind to like me back and sometimes it worked but that is another story entirely
Have a lovely day everyone
and feel free to share ur crush dealing tactics here

Friends

touch someone's life today be a mentor, be a giver there actually is enough to go around if you let go of what you have.
okay on to today's topic; quick question has everyone outgrown the best friend stage?
I think the last time I actually referred to someone as my best friend I was 9 and this is not to say I stopped loving her its just that the more I grew, the bigger my heart's capacity to love grew as well. So my new device is not all people can get close to me but those who get in the circle rarely fall out.
Now I understand some of us love to remain loyal to one best friend and that is just fine but sometimes don't you ever get the feeling that different kinds of friendships work for different times?
problem is if your friend is the loyal kind they end up feeling hurt cos it seems u moved on without them. How you handle friends like that is very crucial cos things can break down really fast, so what I tend to do is I try to keep in touch cos I still <3 em and am interested in them I just cannot be who they want me to be.
I love my friends and I will not trade them for anything else in the world. I hope this helps someone out there juggle their circle of friends well

I'm in the mood for love

this is my ideal relationship and I thought I was alone till I heard Beth Moore speak at a conference. My ideal partner is the one that loves me and will show it anytime and anywhere, you know the kind of guy that would kiss you like his life depended on it in public, yeah that's me the exhibitionist - who would probably die from embarrassment if my partner actually did that.
Now I do realize some people will cringe if their partner touched them in public but apparently this is my love language, what's yours? or what is the best way ur partner can show you they love you? (fictional partners count too)
have a great day

Me against le blackberry

What is it with the blackberry that has so many people hooked on it? I have never owned one but I am beginning to get suspiciously curious.
Is this a status quo thing? or is it just more convenient to use? shouldn't any old phone with internet capabilities or apps do the job?
At least half of the people I know own a blackberry (esp a pink one) so now am interested in finding out from the blackberry owners what is it about that phone that does it for u?
and for those of us resisting the lure and peer pressure what are u waiting or why not?
my answer is simple I would become addicted to it just like I was am to facebook

funny jetlag story

this story is set in a london bank where I used to work many years ago. I went on 2 week vaca to America and then on my return trip our flight was cancelled due to bad weather so I had to leave a day after and got to heathrow monday morning at 6am.
I called my boss and said "listen I just got in jetlag, cancelled flight, long story short I cannot make it in to work today"
she goes "that is understandable but i am giving you till 12 to make an appearance"
so I drag myself in to try and save my job.
Around 3ish am serving this client who wants to withdraw money he gives me his passbook and i put it in the printer and go to sleep! right in front of the dude who by now is speechless, u know that feeling u get like u are falling in ur sleep yeah i got that just as I was about to fall out of my chair, so i wake up count out his money and hand it to him with a smile like nothing happened. The guy recounted his money like 3 times b4 he left just to make sure I didn't make a drowsy mistake and I think he told my boss because she sent me home after that.

The most Embarrassing thing that ever happened to me

Okay so anyone who has met me knows I hardly ever get embarrassed, I have seriously rocked golden leg warmers on a nice dress and even though I knew it was a fashion faux pas the minute I stepped out of my car I still had the nerve to stare @ everyone like don't u own a pair of legwarmers?
Okay so my most embarrassing moment was on a sunday (date and year have been permanently blocked in my mind 4 my sanity's sake) anyways I went to church and lets be honest any religious center is where you are at your most pious.
we stand up to sing and after a while a little girl (little girl's identity has also been blocked from my mind 4 same reasons above) comes up to me and says ur zipper is broken, I touch my skirt and yup I come up with a handful of ladyness (the thong was still in). I turn around and its just dudes sitting behind me so I run out, develop the most impressive migraine and go home to crawl in my bed.
I still have not recovered from it but at least all dates and faces have been blocked from my mind so when I see the people involved I blissfully cannot remember a thing.
what's your most embarrassing moment feel free to share afterall "if you cannot laugh at yourself you are missing a bloody good joke"

Ideas of where to publish a novella

I wrote my first book the year I turned 13 - in my head. In all of my youthful naivety I presumed transferring it to paper would be extremely easy after all anyone who can daydream for hours on end is practically writing a mental book right? wrong.
My first novella obviously unpublished and almost unsalvageable came up to just 7500 words and this took me months to write, talk about eating humble pie.
to make things worse I got one rejection and went into hiding, its been 3years since I got that polite rejection and I have not sent a query off since then but I am officially back in the game now with words in the 20,000 range.
I'm proud to say 3 manuscripts, 1 query letter and 1.5 synopses are ready, the next stop is finding a publishing house, I understand most agents will not touch anything less than 50,000 words, so I have decided Samhain and Carina Press are it.
wish me luck

Easy Synopsis

I cant remember were it was that said I should write a synopsis as a guide before actually writing my book. As a newbie writer I took this to heart, now as we all know mid-way our characters develop a life of their own and just do their own thing, hence making my already written synopsis become a nirvana of sorts.
Now my book is done and I have written my 2-paged synopsis in a day (admittedly I did it by the sea) but I found out my early synopsis still made things easy for me. So here is my humble advice always write out a synopsis first, your characters might change but you will still have a jump board when you are ready to send your book out.
Now if only I wrote a query letter  beforehand life would be
 
Joanna St James
Newbie