Right Brain, Left Brain... or no Brain?

This link was posted on the ROMAUS loop, so of course I had to have a nose. It shows a dancer in silhouette and depending on which direction you see her dancing, can tell whether you use more of your left or right side of your brain.

I saw her dancing clockwise, which means I use the right side of my brain more (apparently!). Then she suddenly turned and started dancing anti clockwise. What fun!! I called my husband over to have a look, and just as he said, yeah she's dancing clockwise - she suddenly faced me and started swinging her leg back and forth.

And he couldn't see it!!!

I yelled for my son to come and take a look (never mind that I'd just put him to bed, this was important!) and he confirmed she was dancing clockwise.

All this time, the dancer was just standing there, swinging her leg from side to side, and the thing is - there is no explanation on the website! So I'm thinking I managed to splinter my brain or something!

Can anyone else see her doing that???

Oops nearly forgot to post the link! Here!

Alias

Free Rice

If you feel the urge to indulge in a spot of procrastination, here's an addictive site to try out - FreeRice. It's a word multiple choice quiz, and every time you answer correctly the site donates rice. I admit to not knowing all the words I was given (in fact I couldn't even pronouce some of them!!) but it's great fun guessing their meaning (espeically when I guessed right!)

Blood from a Stone and other Unlikely Places

Some scenes almost seem to write themselves. I sit down, and the words flow from brain to fingertips (at least I tell myself the words come from my brain, although oftentimes when I read my stuff back I think, did I really and truly write that???)

Other scenes are like pulling teeth with pliers. Such as my current one. It's not that I'm not enjoying this story. It's not even that I don't have a pretty good idea where it's all going. It's just... argh! Basically it all comes back to this bloody dead body I was careless enough to leave lying around in chapter one!! Talk about coming back to bite you on the bum.

I keep telling myself not to panic, that the girls in the basement/the muse/the little demon that resides in a crevice of my deluded mind will manage to sort something out when the time is right. But the thing is, I'm not used to writing into the mist like that. I generally have things planned out in advance, so while I might not know every twist and turn, I do know all the major roadworks along the way.

On the other hand, it is kind of exciting in a scary way NOT knowing how this is all going to resolve. At least I think it is. Then again, I might just be totally losing the plot...

Christina and the Chocolate Factory

It's a little known fact *cough* but I do love chocolate, so on Friday decided to take the two youngest offspring to the Fremantle Chocolate Factory. I had visions of something like Willy Wonka, but alas all we got to see was the back of someone flourishing a funnel filled with chocolate through a small glass window.

Never mind. There was a delicious chocolatey aroma in the shop, and I grabbed a basket and set to work finding Christmas pressies for the rellies back in the UK. When I discovered they sold no less than thirty-two varieties of fudge, I was in sweetie heaven because if there's one thing I love more than chocolate, it's fudge. *happy sigh*

My son lost no time at all in finding the freebies, and every time I looked round for him I caught his jaws chomping. I'm sure I don't know where he gets it from...

On the writing front I'm currently in a state of nervous excitement concerning an agent's response to a recent sub, so am keeping my fingers crossed there.

And now it's almost five which means it's tea and chocolate time...

Writing update

I just realised it's been a while since I mentioned my writing (well okay so it's been ages since I mentioned my writing...!) and this may have something to do with the fact that I haven't been doing a great deal of it just lately. Oops.

Partly it's because I'm waiting to hear back from various agents, and party it's because my motivation has kind of hit the skids lately. But that aside, I'm still very much in love with my wip and am determined to get it finished before Christmas.

I know where it's going (mostly) although I do have problems with the dead body. I always knew I should've steered well clear of that aspect, but what can you do? I'm just the writer. It's not like I can control these things (I can hear you howling with laughter there, Sara!!)

And speaking of control. What's with this blinking dead body suddenly phoning my heroine?? It would make sense if I was writing a paranormal but alas, there's not a vampire in sight!!

The Bone Garden

I recently finished Tess Gerritsen's The Bone Garden (actually I saw my youngest daughter reading it, and pinched it off her. We subsequently fought over it heh, but I won). I think it's my fave of hers so far (including The Mephisto Club which I finished reading a couple of days ago).

But OMG. This doesn't give any of the plot away but OMG!!! The hygiene. Gross. Even a week later I still can't get over how completely terrifying it must have been for women giving birth just 150 years ago. For sure I knew all about child bed fever - it's a favourite way of bumping off women in historical novels (so long as she doesn't happen to be the heroine) but honestly, I'd never stopped to wonder just WHAT the hell child bed fever was.

Well I know now, and so does my daughter, in graphic gut wrenching detail. Can we just say thank god we don't live in those times?? I think it's going to take ages before I get particular scenes out of my head.

But I also loved the romance between the two main characters, it was kind of hauntingly beautiful and I for one didn't mind in the least that Jane Rizzoli didn't make an appearance and Maura Isles only had a fleeting cameo. In fact I'd love more of the same, please!!