Shelley Munro Blog

I was in the shower this morning, thinking as I do (I do all my best plotting while in the shower). Suddenly, a plot idea formed involving vampires. Astonishing for one who does NOT like the sight of blood, but whoever said a writer’s mind had to be orderly? Anyway, I came up with a random thought, one that has been on my mind ever since.

Do you think a vampire can drown? Yes. No. Why?

BTW - I think they can, but I don’t want to give away my fledgling plot…

A story from the National Geographic blog feed caught my attention because it’s about hyenas. My story Romantic Interlude features hyenas. Richard and Hinekiri, my hero and heroine, encounter them when they go on safari in Africa.

Evidently a study has found female hyenas force males to leave home by snubbing their sexual advances, thereby cutting the risk of incestuous mating. It seems female hyenas prefer mating with males from other clans or males born after they were, and this is nature’s way of preventing incestuous encounters and ensuring the breed stays strong. The full article is here

Below is a shot of a hyena mother and pups. There were actually three pups but there’s only one in this photo. This was taken in Kenya at the Masai Mara game park. We sat and watched the hyena family for quite a while. They’re not exactly attractive animals but it was fascinating watching them nonetheless.

The Romance Writers of New Zealand annual conference started today, and I’ve spent the day at workshops with Jennie Crusie, Anne Stuart, and agent, Kristin Nelson. It’s been a fantastic day, and I’ve arrived home with my head stuffed full of information. The food was delicious, the company great (I sat next to Nalini Singh and pumped her a little about her upcoming books. Unfortunately, I didn’t get her to spill any secrets but her new series sounds wonderful) and also caught up with lots of other members I haven’t seen for a while.

I’m not attending the full conference since my budget had to give somewhere and the lure of sand, sun and Hawaii beckoned rather loudly, but I have the weekend to put the things I’ve learned into practice.

Jenny Crusie suggests a writer let loose on their first draft and write what they want. If that includes thirty pages on china painting then so be it. Prologues, epilogues and flashbacks are all the kiss of death. Don’t do them. Anne Stuart says under some circumstances they’re okay, but Jenny was busy doing throat-cutting motions in the background.

I’m off to have dinner and relax with a glass of wine now. I think all Fridays should be like this

1. Elvis was born on 8 Jan 1935 and died on 16 Aug 1977 at the age of 42.

2. At school, Presley was teased by his fellow classmates; they threw “things at him — rotten fruit and stuff — because he was different, because he was quiet and he stuttered and he was a mama’s boy.

3. Aged ten, he made his first public performance in a singing contest at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show. Dressed as a cowboy, the young Elvis had to stand on a chair to reach the microphone and sang Red Foley’s “Old Shep”. He won second prize.

4. In 1946, Presley’s mother took Elvis to Tupelo Hardware to get him a birthday present. Although he wanted a rifle, his mother wanted him to get a guitar. He had earned money from doing small errands, but did not have enough to buy the $7.90 guitar, so she paid the difference.

5. Elvis didn’t want to sing in the movies…More than anything else, Elvis wanted to be a movie actor.

6. Elvis made thirty movies…They all made money.

7. On July 18, 1953, Presley went to the Memphis Recording Service at the Sun Record Company (now commonly known as Sun Studios). He paid $3.98 to record the first of two double-sided ‘demo’ acetates — “My Happiness” and “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin”. Presley reportedly gave the acetate to his mother as a much-belated extra birthday present, though the Presleys didn’t own a record player at the time.

8. Presley appeared at the Grand Ole Opry, Nashville. Hank Snow introduced Presley on stage. He performed “Blue Moon of Kentucky” but received only a polite response. Afterwards, the singer was allegedly told: “Boy, you’d better keep driving that truck.”

9. Presley’s first Ed Sullivan appearance (September 9, 1956) was seen by an estimated 55-60 million viewers. During the second, Presley only had to shake his legs to get screams from the audience, which a bemused Sullivan didn’t notice him doing when stood next to the singer. On the third show, the family-minded Sullivan censored Presley’s “gyrations”: he was shown only above the waist. According to the show’s director, Marlo Lewis, Sullivan told him that Presley was “hangin’ some kind of device in the crotch of his pants” and that it was “waving back and forth” when the singer moved. Sullivan said: “We can’t have that on a Sunday night. That’s a church night”. Although Lewis ordered camera two to film only Presley’s chest and head, he never believed the “device” was there at all. Despite his misgivings, Sullivan still declared at the end of the show: “This is a real decent, fine boy. We’ve never had a pleasanter experience on our show with a big name than we’ve had with you… you’re thoroughly all right.”

10. On December 20, 1957, Presley received his army draft notice. Presley returned to the U.S. on March 2, 1960, and was honorably discharged with the rank of sergeant (E-5) on March 5.

11. Many fans and others have acknowledged Presley’s sexual attraction and photogenic looks. Steve Binder recalled from 1968: “… when Elvis came back from vacation in Hawaii… he was awesome looking. I mean, I’m heterosexual. I’m straight as an arrow and I got to tell you, you stop, whether you’re male or female, to look at him. He was that good looking. And if you never knew he was a superstar, it wouldn’t make any difference; if he’d walked in the room, you’d know somebody special was in your presence.”

12. Towards the end of his life, Presley had many health problems, some of them chronic. “Elvis had had an enlarged heart for a long time. That, together with his drug habit, caused his death.

13.

There were loads of Elvis clips to choose at You tube. I chose this one because it’s the song that was played at our wedding.

Do you have a favorite Elvis song?

I learnt something interesting yesterday. Did you know candles have a memory? I didn’t. Evidently a candle will only burn to the same diameter it was last burnt to. To avoid ‘tunneling’ ensure the candle burns for one hour per 20mm in diameter. Note to self - this is obviously what I did wrong with my chubby candle because I ended up with a wax tube.

Out on the web at the Naughty and Spice blog Shelli Stevens is talking about love scenes. When did you read your first love scene and if you’re a writer, how did it feel writing your first love scene? I remember writing mine - discomfort would sum it up. How times change!

There’s always lots to look at in the Midnight Moon Cafe but check out Tempest Knight’s Flirting tips. You never know when this stuff can come in handy.

At Six Degrees of Sexy Wylie Kinson has a great post on body language. It’s one post you’ll want to save and refer back to while writing.

And finally, I received my Romance Writer’s Report today and Louise Ahern has an excellent article titled “The Cure for the PR Challenged.” I’ve just done an online course on PR with Louise through Author MBA and learnt so much. I’ll be putting stuff into practice soon so watch out!

Quote for the day: “We don’t stop laughing because we get old; we get old because we stop laughing.” Author ~Unknown~

I’ve mentioned I’ve been struggling a little bit with my writing recently, and today hubby dropped me off at a fairly new shopping center, not far from us. I took my alphasmart, ordered a coffee and started writing in the coffee shop at Borders. I think I should do this more often because it’s great for my productivity. I can’t get up and wander around, do the washing or any one of the other 101 things that need doing as soon as it’s time to write. I wrote almost 3000 words and have approx 15,000 words left to complete my first draft, which should take me 7 1/2 days as long as I do my minimum word count each day. Does anyone else leave home to write, and if so, where do you go?

And now to the totally random:

Everywhere I looked today I saw ads for hand sanitizer. I don’t know if it’s someone trying to tell me something? Maybe the ad men are just being super active but I started to get a complex about germs on my hands. This is a relatively new product on the market, and I’ve managed all this time without it. I’ll admit I have some in my purse from a promotional giveaway but I keep forgetting to use it. It’s great for picnics and holidays, and I can see it would be excellent for those with kids. I’m sure there are germs hanging around the place, lurking for the unwary hand but are we going too far? So an informal survey - do you use hand sanitiser?

Inspirational quote of the day: Fall seven times, stand up eight. Japanese proverb

Do you remember when you were a child and how much you’d look forward to school holidays or a family holiday to the beach?

Our cruise tickets arrived a couple of days ago, along with goodies such as hats and daypacks. We’ve spent several hours looking up available excursions, have read the Lonely Planet guide and discussed our options. I’m feeling distinct childhood excitement about our upcoming holiday. Admittedly, it’s an extra special holiday because we’re also celebrating twenty-five years of marriage (goodness knows where the time has gone!) but hubby is just as excited as I am. The suitcase is out and we’re thinking about the things we need to take even though it’s another two weeks before we leave for Hawaii and our cruise.

Meantime I’m trying to write. I’m actually doing really well and have stuck to my target word count of a minimum of 2000 words per day. I’ve been writing for 13 days and my total stands at 30200 words. The last four days have been plain hard slog because I keep thinking the holidays are coming. The holidays are coming. It’s like school all over again. I’m going on holiday with my best friend and I just can’t wait!

Well, I took the quiz but the outcome, for anyone who knows me, is very predictable!

You Are a Chocolate Cake

Fun, comforting, and friendly. You are a true classic, and while you’re not super cutting edge, you’re high quality. People love your company - and have even been known to get addicted to you.

I reached the midway point of my current WIP today, managing to do 2060 words. My muse and I disagreed about halfway through the day, and she stalked off in a huff. Talk about a bitch. I mean, what kind of a muse leaves her writer high and dry in the middle of a writing session? I tried all the normal things I do to get my muse back to work. I went to the fridge, studied the contents and fed my muse. She whined because I didn’t have chocolate. Yeah, and that was because she ate all the chocolate last week. Feeding the muse did nothing. She just dug in her toes and decided she’d like to watch television.

“No,” I said. “We’ll go for a bike ride and get some lovely fresh air. That will help you get back into the groove.”

My muse agreed. It was a nice day, almost spring-like with the sun shining. We went for a bike ride. My legs, head and muse all whined about the hill I made them pedal up. Honestly. Talk about a conspiracy. Here, I’m trying to do the right thing and they complain. Incessantly. We arrived back at home and immediately needed more food. Coffee, at least, my muse demanded. I can’t think without coffee.

Finally, I got my muse back to work. But my muse hates the book, the characters. Everything. “We’re never going to finish this piece of crap,” my muse said.

“We’ll take Scotty for a walk,” I said. “Maybe we’ll have a brainwave.”

“Are there any hills?” my muse asked, highly suspicious.

“No hills,” I agreed.

Off we went. Surprisingly we worked well together and had a brainwave…until the dog decided she’d seen my husband. Off she raced.

“She’s going up the hill,” my muse screeched.

“Yep,” I said. “We’ll have to chase her because her hearing isn’t so good now she’s old.” We put on a sprint, raced up the hill and finally caught the wee dog.

“That’s it,” my muse said. “I’m not listening to you again.”

My muse and I still aren’t talking…

If you have any advice to force my stubborn muse back to work, I’d love to hear it! And, is your muse male or female?

1. A kiwi is a flightless bird native to New Zealand.

2. The kiwi is a New Zealand icon.

3. Kiwis are shy and nocturnal birds. I have never seen a kiwi in the wild.

4. New Zealanders are affectionately known as kiwis. I am a kiwi. I am shy but I buck the trend cause I’m more of a morning person!

5. A kiwi is around the size of a chicken and is an endangered species. The Auckland zoo runs a captive breeding program where the birds are released back into the wild.

6. The Bank of New Zealand raises money to help with kiwi conservation and awareness.

7. Kiwis are creatures with a highly developed sense of smell, most unusual in a bird, and are the only birds with nostrils at the end of their long bill. Kiwi eat small invertebrates, seeds, grubs, and many varieties of worms. They also may eat fruit, small crayfish, eels and amphibians. Unlike other birds, the kiwi can locate insects and worms underground without actually seeing or feeling them. This is due to their long beaks, with nostrils at the end of them. As the length of a birds beak is measured from the tip of the beak to the nostril, the Kiwi has the shortest beak of any bird.

8. After an initial meeting during mating season (March to June), kiwi usually live as monogamous couples. The pair will meet in the nesting burrow every few days and call to each other at night. These relationships have been known to last for up to 20 years.

9. Kiwi eggs can weigh up to one quarter the weight of the female. Usually only one egg is laid. Although the kiwi is about the size of a domestic chicken, it is able to lay eggs that are up to ten times larger than a chicken’s egg.

10. New Zealand troops awaiting repatriation after World War 1 carved a huge kiwi shape into the chalk ground at Bulford on the Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire. It’s still visible and is currently maintained by the Ministry of Defence.

11. You can send a kiwi e-card to your friends. See here

12.

Here’s a cool animated cartoon about a kiwi, which was done as a thesis. Remember - kiwis are usually flightless.

13. Last week on our favorite local TV show, Outrageous Fortune, one of the characters died. The actress is going to Australia to act in an Australian soap. But when she died, right at the end of the show, they played the Goodnight Kiwi song. It was heart wrenching for all the viewers.

Before 24 hour TV came to New Zealalnd the Goodnight Kiwi cartoon signalled the end of nightly broadcasts. The last airing of this animation was in 1994. Today the characters are regarded as icons of New Zealand culture. Note from Shell - I’m not showing my age - really I’m not!

Here’s the Goodnight Kiwi cartoon that many New Zealanders remember with great fondess. If you slept through this you were likely to wake up to lots of white screen and a horrid hissing sound from the TV.