Richard spent a rough night due to the cold he's caught. Consequently he spent half of today in bed. He's sat in his Man Cave now, watching a documentary about The Beatles, with Saffron purring in his lap. He likes some of their music but not all of it. Saffron couldn't care less what's playing so long as she gets her ears tickled. The photo depicts one of the tattoos he's done recently.  To see more, visit his website: http://www.myspace.com/riche_tattoo_artist Anyway, while he was snoring triumphantly in bo-bos, I was busy tapping away on this puuter. Today's word count for Bethany Rose is 1,879 words. I love it when a character does something unexpected. I had no idea Bethany was going to move into a haunted house! This MS is very different in mood from Rowan. Whereas Rowan has a languid romantic feel to it, BR is much, much darker. Did anyone tune in to 7 Waves Radio today? Four members of Riverside Writers were guests on Cath Bore's Lunchtime F

My Computer Is Dead! Long Live My Computer! When, for the second time in one month, my five year-old puuter puttered out, I gave up dithering and bought a new one. And here it is, purring away quietly before me. The monitor displays the right colours. And the tower actually switches on--always a bonus!!! I renegotiated my ISP contract and got a free upgraded modem, a better telephone calls package, and at £11 per month less. My hair is in shock; I've just come back from the salon, having had 4" taken off the length. It's still way below my shoulders, but looks thicker and has more movement now. My usual stylist has moved to Gran Canaria, so I had to risk trying another--which I hate doing, as the amount of hairdressers who can't cut long hair properly is exasperating, but this new stylist has done a good job. The village pond was partially frozen over yesterday! I'd put the dogs' woollen coats on them, as the wind coming off the sea was bitter. Emily a

Fancy some Hallowe'en tales to get you in the mood for tonight? Tune to 7 Waves Radio on 92.1 FM (if you live on the Wirral peninsula) or listen via the station's website on http://7waves.co.uk/live-across-wirral/ at 1pm (GMT). Along with fellow Riverside Writers members Tim Hulme, Carol Falaki, Peter Hurd and Peter Caton, I will be taking part in a live radio broadcast on Cath Bore's Lunchtime Forum, when we will be entertaining listeners with seasonal spooky tales. You can send messages to the show while we're on air via 7 Waves Radio's "Shout Out" box found on their website. Emails and texts can also be sent - see the website for details. I hope you'll listen in!

A good article on turn-offs for lit agents: http://www.writersdigest.com/article/what-agents-hate/ The turn-out for the writers’ workshop broke all Riverside Writers’ previous records. There weren’t enough printed handouts to go round, unfortunately. So much for my guess-work! Among the crowd was Sci-Fi author Colin P Davies , who visited our group as a speaker some years ago. http://www.colinpdavies.com/index.htm Anyway, the workshop on constructive criticism - which I'd organised - generated a healthy amount of group discussion, which was one of my intentions. The practical exercise I’d prepared brought some levity. I read one page of what was supposed to be the start of a novel, which was written awfully on purpose, and people had to pretend that a member of the writers circle had presented this in all seriousness. How, then, would the group offer constructive criticism? Once they’d all stopped laughing, I pointed out that if they were to laugh at fellow writer’s efforts,

In reply to those who asked, last weekend’s Circle of Hands gathering was postponed at the last minute. It has been rescheduled for October 29th at the usual time. Tonight, I’ll be running a writers’ workshop on “The Craft of Constructive Criticism”, and so now I’m wondering how many people will turn up. All my notes and the exercises we’ll be doing are ready. If you’re in Wirral, join us at West Kirby Library at 7.30pm. Rain all day here. Richard went out to buy his revolting rice milk, which he uses as a dairy substitute. I think it tastes like watery wallpaper glue—and the one which has been flavoured with hazelnut is vile beyond vile…. Meanwhile, I’ve been pouring over maps of Knoydart and gazing longingly at photos of its forests, craggy glens and mountains. I found the perfect cottage—took one look at it and thought, “Wow! That’s Bethany Rose’s cottage!” Photo prompts are useful to me; so are little sketches. Do you ever get the feeling you’re wasting your breath? Some

Dark of the Night: An anthology of shadows Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,491,928 in Books Publication Date: October 24, 2006 That's interesting... I was updating my bio details on my Amazon Connect page just now, when I spotted this. Jason, who features in my contribution for Dark of the Night ... also features in Rowan . With The Club you get to learn how Jason first came into David's strange, vicious life - which later has desperate consequences for Rowan. So the short story links to the novel, which is something I enjoy playing around with. Monday's Riverside Writers meeting was well attended, though partly because we were joined by another writing group who are linked to John Moores University. First, Antonia Prescott talked about her ten years experience as a children's book editor, and about the things which agents/publishers look for (originality, flair, marketable product) plus common mistakes which writers make when approaching these (format, addressing

Front row, left to right: Joanna McIlhatton, Mary Cary, Peter Hurd, Adele Cosgrove-Bray, Peter Caton,(audience member), and Tim Hulme. In the second row, between Mary and Peter Hurd, you can just about see Carol Falaki and Dave Hughes. Here's me, reading Seagull Inn from the Ruins Terra anthology

Just back from the village, and what did I see when I walked up my garden path to my front door? My best camelia lying crushed on the floor, its main stem snapped. Five years to grow it; one second for some clumsy idiot to ruin it. Yes, the scaffolders will be receiving a flea in their ear from me in the morning.... I didn't have to grant them permission to put the end poles of their scaffold on our side of the hedge. The least they could do is respect our property. Anyway, I've just taken photographs of the roof with the scaffolding in the frame, so if they leave any broken tiles behind I have visual evidence that our roof was fine before they walked over it. Our immediate neighbours are having their roof done. Emily nearly climbed out of the open front-room window in order to scrounge cuddles off the builder who was in our garden whilst erecting scaffolding. I've already had to warn one of them to pay attention to our clear Beware of the Dog! signs. He'd pus

On Friday, June 27th, at 11am, I will be guest on Cath Bore's show on 7 Waves Radio, which broadcasts on 92.1 FM. The show can also be heard live via the station's website at:- http://7waves.co.uk/live-across-the-wirral/. I will be talking about my contribution to Ruins Metropolis , and reading aloud one of my other short stories - probably Clara's Wristwatch , which is a modern faerie tale. I hope you'll listen in!

It looks sunny but it's freezing out there. Emily has dragged her increasingly tattered fleece blanket to the patio windows where she's made herself a nest. Ygraine is reclining on my patchwork cushions in the other room, while pretending to be asleep. I hate to disturb them but tough. They are about to help me continue beaking in my new purple walking boots. My trusty old ones (once blue and grey, now merely grey-ish and grey) are deliciously comfortable but have sprung a leak. They've lasted for something like seven years, and as they regularly get partially dunked in sea water that is no mean feat. The new ones are nowhere near as comfy. At the moment it feels like walking on springy bricks. Still, they are my favourite colour - and we all know how earth shatteringly important that is. Ahem. Cross-posted from:- http://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/blogs/booksblog/adelecosgrovebray/display.var.2183659.0.wonderful_words_of_wirral.php Monday saw me putting in a guest ap

Sunday was fun. My sister Evelyn was here, then Lee arrived, and then Cat came round after she’d finished work. It’s not often that Evelyn is able to see her niece, so they enjoyed getting to know each other a little better over dinner. Earlier in the morning, Richard had cooked the roast lamb with honey and rosemary, and I did the rest of the meal. Cat’s vegetarian, so she peered at our lamb as if it was infected with Ebola. Monday night saw Richard and Lee at the Pacific Road Arts Theatre in Birkenhead, for a Chris Rea concert. Meanwhile, I was at Riverside Writers’ latest meeting, when Tim and I planned the performance programme for Words from Wordsmiths, (which is our contribution to the Wirral Bookfest )  next Monday, on April 7th. Nine members of the group will be taking part, and there will be a variety of fiction genres and poetry on the night. Thanks to West Kirby Library’s staff, we’ll be able to offer tea and coffee. And we’ve been given the use of a microphone, which

A "Squirrel" Otherkin Trilogy ?!! *chuckles* The article makes it sound like I'm the sole author of Ruins Terra , Ruins Metropolis and Barren Worlds , rather than being merely a contributor to each. Oh dear.... Not my doing. So, yes, yesterday saw me back at Golborne High School by invitation of Sylvia Taylor , gelertandbess, actor, playwright and filmmaker, who also works to promote and develop the arts within the school. We’ve known each other since we were aged eleven, and used to sit next to each other in English and Computer classes at Golborne High – or Golborne Comprehensive School, as it was then named. Certainly it was interesting to see my old school again. Some things haven’t changed at all, while some are entirely new to me – such as the digital photography suite and the banks of computers in the school library. Back in our day, there was one computer for the entire school! And even that wasn’t a PC as we think of them now, but a monitor and keyboard w

You can read an interview with me here:- http://www.gabriellefaust.com/archives/category/interviews You will need to scroll down until you see the date 07.01.2008.

The algid sky is doing its utmost to remind me that January is still winter. The weekend, however, saw us enjoying a long walk over Caldy Hill. The dogs love it up there; there’s so much for them to sniff at! It’s a wonder their little noses aren’t worn out… A whole world is available to them which we’re oblivious to. Riverside Writers met last night, and a lively evening it was too, with three new members joining us. January’s writing project had been set on the theme of ‘the diamond wristwatch’, and as always everyone had produced completely different work, including a smattering of poems – unusual for our group, as poets are thin on the ground. Over the weekend, Richard managed to plant most of the climbing roses, which we’ll train up the new trellis fence. There is room enough for more roses yet. I do like roses, particularly the perfumed varieties. Plus they’re tough plants which can withstand Wirral’s microclimate, which ranges from baking heat in summer to tearing oceanic ga

Ooow, what a gorgeous Autumn day it's been here! Walking along the beach without need for a jacket, enjoying the amber sunshine with my two dogs, my feet drenched from having performed an impersonation of Dr Faustus as we meandered through a glittering pool of sea water... Now that's what I call a good break from the computer! Yesterday afternoon saw me taking part in a Poetry Marathon hosted by Central Library in Liverpool, and organised by Pauline Rowe of North End Writers as their contribution to National Poetry Day . It was a free all-day event, with a continual stream of poets (known and unknown all being treated alike) performing their work for the public. The audience was a respectable size. People wandered in and out, of course, and the poets’ styles were as diverse as could possibly be hoped for. Everyone had been previously allocated ten minutes each, which gives some indication of the large volume of poets taking part – plus some people came along on the day an

If you feel inclined to wander into a newsagent's shop any time soon, take a peek at the September 2007 edition of Prediction , which is the UK's main New Age magazine. I've a non-fiction folklore article on page 37. This publication can be purchased on-line also, at http://www.predictionmagazine.co.uk/ Did anyone see the asteroids zooming overhead on Sunday night? I sat on my patio, with Emily on my knee, to view the sky-sparklies scooting by. Fun!

Heidi Ruby Miller has been running a series of interviews with authors. From the list of fifteen questions, the subject is asked to pick six to reply to. Her website lists the authors - 56 to date - who have taken part in her project. See this here:- http://www.moonstonewritings.com/interviews.html Or for the latest one (with me as the subject) you could just scoot over to:- http://ambasadora.livejournal.com/129800.html?view=520456#t520456 *** Yesterday afternoon found us sitting in a solicitor’s office, drawing up details to be included in our updated Will, such as our desire for a Living Will and for certain specific funeral arrangements. We’ve been meaning to update these documents for ages. Enough of procrastination! There’s no point in waiting for one of us to drop dead and then go, “Oops, we really needed to update our legal stuff! Quick, reanimate him/her and wheel us off to the lawyer’s office!” And today we have glorious sunshine! That’s a rarity this summer. Mos

The leg fell off the ironing board. There is no alternative purpose for a monopod ironing board incapable of defying gravity, so the rickety old contraption is now propped outside in the rain, next to the recycling bin. This happened on Sunday morning, when we were trying to leave the house for a set time. Two thick bath towels doubled over and spread across a kitchen work top proved themselves to be a serviceable stand-in to the ironing board, and we even congratulated ourselves at how smartly dressed we were as we locked the front door. Big mistake. Five minutes later, it began to rain. Ten minutes later, despite huddling under umbrellas, we were drenched from the thighs down. We managed to dry out during the forty-five minute bus journey. Most of the sand brushed off, too. Yes, sand; we live by the sea, remember. Each time a storm blows in from the west, it carries half of the beach with it. Our bus arrived in Liverpool city centre at the same time as the thunder storm which

On Friday, I attended a talk by author Katie Fforde , who read aloud from her thirteenth novel, Going Dutch , before discussing her writing and freely answering questions from her audience at West Kirby Library. Katie came across as a warm and likeable lady, and told us that while she sometimes bases her fictional characters on people she knows, even family members, she’s always careful to make sure she writes nothing unpleasant about them! It’s always heartening to hear an author describe how they struggled to get published for ten years before being successful, as Katie apparently did. I’ve heard it said that, on average, an author experiences seven years’ worth of rejection slips. The topic of the practical benefits of developing a writing routine was discussed at some length during Saturday’s meeting of Wirral Writers Inc., organised by John Gorman .   Everyone seems to have their own quirks and methods. For example, I write (virtually) every morning until around 2pm. Some peop