Important notes

I've said it before and I'll say it again - writers, care for your instruments. Not your laptop, not your brain, but your body. If you forget to treat your body with tender love and affection, pretty soon your brain will turn into a whirling mess of messy, whirling thoughts.

Which is why I made an immediate appointment for a hot-stone massage this morning and followed it with a bath at home. When one's shoulders make scary crunchy noises, one is best served to step away from the keyboard and so something that uncurls the spine.

Found on the Internet

The amazingly talented Lindsay Samuels created an amazingly wonderful website called LibraryScienceDegree.org.


I admit to busting a gut when I read her 50 Most Hated Characters in Literature entry. I adored her Top Ten Fictional Feminist Icons of All Time, too.

I am now inspired to go figure out my own fictional feminist icons. What are some of yours?

Go, read, enjoy!

Turkish rugs.

The Charming Man and I experienced the ultimate in shopping delight on our last day in Istanbul.

We hung up  the larger carpet.

We ended up (through a goofy sequence of events) at Onur Carpet and Kilim Story. The website is currently down, but here is a description:

 A selection of authentic handmade, all natural vegetable-dyed carpets, saddle bags, grain sacks, cradles, salt bags, pillows, runners and kilims. Mimar Mehmet Aga Caddesi, #13/15,Istanbul - Sultanahmet 34400 TURKEY.

There, we drank rose tea, chatted endlessly about being a writer of sexy novels, and the possibilities of making love on a silk Turkish carpet.
 We got to walk on dozens of silk rugs. Let me tell you, there is nothing like silk under your feet. So sensual, cool, and peaceful.

We weren't really in the market for a rug, so we started with just looking at the endless beauty and creativity that handmade rugs offer. Hand made rugs are a dying art form - they are extremely labor intensive and therefore expensive.

Onur Carpet gave us a great deal.

Detail from the larger carpet.

They added this smaller rug for us. We have it in front of our TV.

So yeah, that writing thing.

I'm at the first draft stage of Book Two, the sequel to Dracula's Secret. I thought I might give you all a peek into what I've been doing for research and prep work.

 Here is Daniel Craig, the model for my hero Lance Soliel. I have several pictures of him (yes, in various states of undress) to show me what Lance's moods and body language is like.

 Here are some pictures of Georgia May Jagger (daughter of Jerry Hall and Mick Jagger). She is the model for my antagonist for Book Two. I've got that character's backstory and Goal, Motivation, and Conflict finished. She's going to be very cool, and I think very different from anyone I've written before.

 I like to start off with hand-writing a lot of my first draft ideas and scenes. Keeps me from getting too self-critical about the quality of the work and lets me just roll with my brain.

I also have my plot turning points figured out for my main three characters and their relationships with each other and themselves. This gives me a road map of where I'm going, instead of flailing around blindly for ideas. I just have to look over my notes and something will trip my creative triggers.

And there we go!

I'm off to work now.

The Topkapi Palace

The Turkish Military keeps armed guards at the Palace.

 The Charming Man and myself spend over five hours at the awe-inspiring Topkapi Palace. To quote Wikipedia,

The Palace was the official and primary residence in the city of the Ottoman Sultans for 400 years of their 624-year reign,^[2] from 1465 to 1856.

Here are a few of my favorite photos to give you an idea of how huge, lavish, and jaw-dropping this palace.

This was a quiet day at the Topkapi Palace

The interior of the Library of Ahmed III.

I think every library should look like this!

Again, Wikipedia:

The Imperial Hall (Hünkâr Sofası), also known as the Imperial Sofa, Throne Room Within or Hall of Diversions, is a domed hall in the Harem, believed to have been built in the late 16th century. It has the largest dome in the palace. The hall served as the official reception hall of the sultan as well as for the entertainment of the Harem. Here the sultan received his confidants, guests, his mother, his first wife (Hasseki), consorts, and his children. Entertainments, paying of homage during religious festivals, and wedding ceremonies took place here in the presence of the members of the dynasty

Breathtaking stained glass in the private chambers in the Haram.

Visiting Cagaloglu Hamami

I don't have a Turkish keyboard, so I don't have the diacritics that belong in the name. Please forgive me!

Photo from www.istanbul-turismo.com

When I was in Istanbul, the one place I knew I had to visit was a hammam. I went to one of the most famous Hamams in the world - Cagaloglu Hamami.

This is the description I sent my fellow author, Sloan Addams. She calls me Wonder Woman. I call her Power Girl.

***

Power Girl! I have come to the conclusion that the hamam is the cure for all the world's ills.

First, some nice lady pours hot water all over you as you sit on a heated marble floor. Then you get to lay there in wet, fabulous bliss. She comes in with soap and a exfoliating mitt and scrubs you all over, front and back, so that your skin is incredibly smooth and clean. This is not fast, either. It's complete relaxation.

You get rinsed by more hot, clean water splashed over you. This feels like heaven.

Then you realize that heaven is even cooler than you thought, because you get a massage with the soap suds. The soap and water is so thick and bubbly that your massage is slick and relaxes every damn part of yourself.

Finally, she washes your hair.

At the end, you ooze your boneless way back to your little room and try to remember how to put on clothes.

I bought some of the soap and one of the mitts there, so I can give myself a cheater's hamam here at home. No heated marble floors, you know. ;)

***
Her response?



Wonder Woman - I just turned green.