I've been doing such a lot of 'stuff' lately that I haven't actually had time to write. Yesterday my must kicked my arse and told me it was about time I got writing again, so I did.

I'm working on two stories for a short story competition. I like the way one of them turned out, but the other is going in a strange direction, not the one I intended at all. Oh well.

I haven't had much time for reading either, which is a shame because I pulled out my old favourites again and want to get into them. Maybe I'll have to allocate part of every day as a reading time.

Had a scare yesterday when the school called to say my son was ill after a particularly strenuous session of PE. He was fine in the end but it really scared me and I think we need to look at our lifestyle a little... well... to lean on his Dad because there's not much I can do about the physical stuff.

I've been thinking about genre. It's a strange thing. People can get locked into it and that's the last thing I want. I can't honestly say that I write in any genre and if i apply one to my stories someone is going to get a shock.

For examply, almost all my stories have a strong romantic theme... love against the odds, winning over in the end, growing throught the story. There are often very sweet moments HOWEVER, there is lot of darkness too so if anyone opens my books expectin saccharine they are going to be sorely disappointed.

So, if we apply the genre of horror... well they're not that either. There are dark, often very dark times in my books but there/'s too much love and sweetness for it to be totally horror. Even my vampire stories have twists.

So, my characters are usually gay, but their sexuality never defines either them or the story. It's not gratuitous, and neither is the sex.

They are erotic but not solely so, or enough to apply to that genre either.

One or two have elements of BDSM, and, although one fits squarely in that bracket, the rest aren't.

I think that we dwell too much on genre. It's useful as a tag but should never be a box.

My cats are playful today. They often fight but today they are playing which is fun to see.

Anyway, when I start talking about my cats I know it's about time to go.