Of Mice And M (&M’s)

I’ve just read that the blue dye in M&M’s can be used to reduce damage caused in spinal injuries! Well, the amount that I consume, just call me Alex ‘Ironspine’ Masterson… 😉

Take the above critter, for example; one of many who were suffering from a spinal injury. After being injected with the compound, which is called ‘Brilliant Blue G’, their ability to walk returned and they could potter about once again with a slight limp the only sign of  their previous disability. The side effect being, as you can see, that it turned them blue for a while!

What we can learn from this is that if you ever feel your back going,  or suffer a spinal injury, forgo that expensive medical treatment nonsense safe in the knowledge that you can just knock back a bag or two of M&M’s. Problem solved!

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“No blueys today!”

said multipurpose local shop man to me this afternoon, taking a moment out from teaching his ten-year-old son how to run the business. No blueys today. Each word a bullet to the chest. And he was right – the crispy M&Ms were sold out. How’s a guy supposed to get shit done without a regular supply of his favorite chocolate munchies?

Clearly this was an omen, as my efforts to get a preliminary version of my website online have met with only marginal success. I can get a shaky text version of one page up – ‘index.php’, and can’t for the life of me figure out how to link it to the rest of the pages that I’ve uploaded. Well, it’s not quite ready yet anyway so I’ve got a few days to figure it out, and I’m quite proud of the re-design so far; it’s alot more streamlined than the previous version which up and died on me.

I wonder what the silver lining for the M&M cloud will be. Not getting diabetes, perhaps.

Oh, and I decided on ‘without the ‘e’ , for the book title. So NOCTURN it is! Mark it, and mark it well…

*Disclaimer: Excess sugar doesn’t actually give you diabetes, but it seemed too good an urban myth to pass up 😉

Crunchy Spring Tolls

I’m addicted to M&M’s – the ones with ‘crisp rice centres’ to be exact. And it’s got to that mildly embarrasing stage where the guy at the local post office/grocery/IT specialist/phone unlocker/internet cafe knows it.

‘”Ahh my friend, you like the blue packets right?”

Yeah. Yeah I like the blue packets.

Anyway, I’ve eaten too many of the buggers this afternoon, and am now feeling very urrrrrrrrrrgh. That’s what I get for firstly: being tempted into trying for the ‘collect eight packet tops for free cinema tickets’ deal, and secondly: carrying on even when the date for the offer has past, I suppose!

Also, just had an utterly, blindingly obvious thought about Nocturne, my novel-in-progress. It’s set a vertical city… so why the hell did I not think of giving one of the characters vertigo? That’s a whole sub-plot/character development thing waiting to happen! Poor show. The vampires are all kinda twitchy about heights (Oh yes, there are vampires. But proper vampires, who kill and drink and scheme, as any self-respecting mankiller should. Anyway, I digress.) but actually giving one of the main characters a close, personal fear of heights to deal with has opened up a lot of possibilities in my mind. Got to tread carefully though; adding a character trait in at this stage is going to have to be done with care and precision to make sure it doesn’t look like it’s been stitched in. Maybe one of the secondary characters should get it…

Editing’s going very well on the whole though – I’m fifty pages away from finishing my first run through of the manuscript. Next stop will be filling in some of the awkward blanks between scenes.

In other news; I updated the ‘About’ section!