Madame X

Poor Madame X.

In the last few months the damsel has been langishing, neglected and all but forgotten in the veritable oubliette of my computer.

She's traveled far -- across empires -- from Paris to St. Petersburg. But she has yet to meet her hero, although naught but a mere door now separates them.

Poor, poor Madame X. Although in reality she's a madamoiselle, but we'll get to that later. . .

I've known for some time that in order to accomplish anything -- and I mean anything -- I require some form of external accountability. Without it, I'm hopeless. A parapatetic in the land of projects.

So I've installed one of those ubiquitous word meters to keep me honest and keep me motivated. I should have one for everything I undertake. But that would mean slathering the walls of my flat with blackboard paint and, really, the aesthete in me rebels at the thought.

I am also asking for assistance to keep me focused. My background is in research and I have a troublesome tendency to toddle off on tangents. The fashions of a period, what they ate, how they spent their leisure time, and the like, are fascinating to me, but obviously not to every romance reader. Particularly if the story is taking place against a backdrop with which most are not familiar. To wit, Madame X takes place in Catherine the Great's Russia.

My question to you, therefore, is this:

What is most appealing or off-putting in an historical romance that takes place outside what might be called your 'genre of choice'? In other words, if, for example, you tend to read regency historicals, what might tempt you to buy something different and what, aside from rubbish writing or an absurd storyline, might cause you to chuck it in the bin?

Xenia and I would be most appreciative of your insights.

Adding illness to injury

I tend to be somewhat maudlin at new year's, ruing the fact that I haven't accomplished a slew of things I'd hoped to by the arbitrary date of 31 December and that sort of thing, but the most recent was an exception. I instead made an effort to focus on the positive and managed to see in midnight with a bucket of champers and nary a tear.

Imagine my disappointment, then, when, four days into 2007, I broke a finger.

I wish I could say I had done it jumping out of a plane or even toppling over, white lady in hand, in my 4-inch heeled Gucci boots (which, incidentally, are intended exclusively for posing, never for walking), but alas, the truth is infinitely more mundane.

Last Friday night, in his ardor to greet his wee dachshund friend, Basil the he-dog wrenched his leash from my hand and in the process fractured the middle phalanx of my left ring finger.

Then, in a lovely one-two punch, on Tuesday I was flattened by the flu, courtesy, no doubt, of one of the many hacking patrons of the urgent care clinic waiting room in which I spent the bulk of my Saturday afternoon.

Of course, as frustrated as I admittedly am, I have decided my new year's lesson, begun on the eve itself, is to learn how to be both patient and accepting of help from others.

These are lessons I have struggled with my whole life, and I guess now I'm being compelled to heed them. It's both very humbling and very freeing, really.

Indeed, another, more obvious lesson, is also the take time to appreciate how nice it is to have ten working fingers and two working lungs. Especially at the same time.

Hope everyone out there has a happy and healthy and lesson-filled new year!!

Reimagining the Past

Do you ever reimagine past experiences you have had, indulge in a creatively-driven form of "redecision therapy" as you compose a story?

To be more specific, have you ever passed up an opportunity and then built a story around the "what if" of having seized that opportunity?

What if you had been less afraid?

What if you'd expressed how you really felt?

What if you had allowed your heart to rule your head (or your head your heart)?

I'm toying with something of the sort at the moment and was just curious to know if and how anyone else had taken those "if only I'd..." fantasies into the realm of fiction.

So, tell me. Have you ever taken a situation from your own experience, peopled it with characters of your own devising and then seen how it played itself out?