The words flowed last week. Woo hoo! Not only that but I got some new ideas for the plot. All in all a great week.

Unfortunately the law of averages says this week’s gonna suck.

But at least I have 99 pages of the WIP. Yay! Take that Mangy Muse!

This month I’ve read some wonderful books. Such a joy. In no particular order:

1. Killing the Shadows by Val McDermid. This one is a few years old and not a Tony Hill book but it’s a great read. Thoroughly enjoyable.

2. Dark Road to Darjeeling by Deanna Raybourn. I love the Lady Julia Grey books and this one is no exception. In fact it’s probably the best to date. Looking forward to the next.

3. Live to Tell by Lisa Gardner. Unputdownable. This author just gets better and better. I can’t wait for her next book.

4. Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcie & Margaret Stohl. I snapped this up after enjoying Beautiful Creatures. Love the world and the characters.

And now drumroll please. It’s always an extra special joy to discover a wonderful writer I haven’t read before. Actually this book deserves a second drumroll. And a fanfare of trumpets.

5. I LOVED the (im) perfect girlfriend by Lucy-Anne Holmes!!!!! I laughed. I was moved. For me this book ticks all the boxes. Please, ma’am, I want some more.

Every Wednesday I’ll be blogging about the state of my garden. In the southern hemisphere it’s spring so the garden is flourishing. I’ve been harvesting lettuce, carrots, parsnips and shallots. The tomato and sweet basil plants are coming up, the corn is getting bigger, the beans are flowering.

In the flower garden there are pink cosmos, calendulars, cornflowers, evening primrose, a lone purple sweet pea and some exquisite white poppies edged with salmon pink. So beautiful.

Lots of plotting done this week. It’s easy for me to forget plotting is as important as increasing those pages. Speaking of pages, I’m up to 76. How long will it take me to get to 100? Hmmm.

After receiving a very nice review this week, I got to thinking about the perfect drink to celebrate. Then I got to thinking about the perfect drinks to celebrate those not so good reviews. So here are five drinks to celebrate both good and bad reviews.

5 Stars – pina colada on a tropical beach at sunset

4 Stars – something expensive with bubbles. Bollinger, Moet & Chandon

3 Stars – gin and tonic with a slice of lemon

2 Stars – “chateau cardboard” in a plastic cup

1 Star  – metho straight from the bottle while lying on a park bench.

So there you have it. A drink for every reveiw.

Lots of plotting last week interrupted the writing. Despite that, I’ve reached page 60. If I keep going at this rate I should have a first draft by end January 2011. Here’s hoping anyway.

Okay, this is going to sound crazy to anyone in the northern hemisphere but Downunder we’ve been having lovely hot weather which got me thinking about cold treats.

1. Frozen yoghurt – love it. Not as sweet as ice cream which suits me just fine. Favourite flavours – anything fruity.

2. Gelato – yum. A few years ago (well more than a few but who’s counting) I lived in London. On summer weekends, I’d go to Leicester Square for a movie and a lemon gelato. Mmmmm.

3. Ice cream – if I’m in the mood for something sweeter than yoghurt or gelato. Favourite flavours: toffee and caramel.

4. Plain fruit chilled in the fridge. Mmmm.

5. More ice cream but this is in a class of its own. Served in a tall glass: at the bottom is ice flavoured with coconut, then two scoups of saffron and pistachio ice cream topped by white fairy floss (cotton candy). Oh my. Heaven.

The third Allegra Fairweather book is underway. To track my progress (and hopefully encourage myself to write more quickly) I’m doing a regular Monday update on my page count. At the moment I have 40 pages. Let’s see how many more I can get by next Monday.

It’s time for another Friday Five. Today I’m listing five of my favourite characters from books.

1. Nicholas Darrow from Susan Howatch’s Starbridge and St Benet’s series. He’s charismatic, powerful and psychic. A great man to have on your side in a crisis but heaven help the woman who gets romantically involved with him. Poor Alice.

2. Scarlett O’Hara. She’s so well known I don’t even need to say which book she’s in. Basically she’s a bit of a bitch and I wouldn’t let her near my man but I love her anyway. I guess that’s because she’s a survivor. No matter what life throws at her she never gives in. Go Scarlett.

3. Elvis Cole and Joe Pike from Robert Crais’ detective series. Okay they’re two characters but it’s a case of the sum being greater than the parts. Elvis Cole’s smart-mouthed everyman character goes where angels fear to tread and always gets in trouble. Fortunately the silent almost god-like Joe Pike always appears in the nick of time to rescue him. A bit like a guardian angel really.

4. Miss Havisham from Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series. A woman of action who’s feisty, smart and funny. The antithesis of the character in Great Expectations. I love her. Such a shame she didn’t appear in more of the books.

5. Lady Julia Grey from Deanna Raybourn’s Silent in the Grave series. Another feisty, humorous heroine, who’s great fun to hang out with. I’m trotting off to buy the fourth book in the series this week. Greatly looking forward to reading it.

So those are five of my favourites. Who are your favourite book characters?