Losing Sleep

Here's a spare Kay Nielsen picture I had left over after my Lust Bites post on Bear Skin. It shows the moment in the original fairy tale "East of the Sun, West of the Moon" in which Mr Bear says that the curse has come home to roost and he must now go marry the wicked troll woman. His human wife begs him to tell her where he will be, so that she can search him out.

I had a few fairy-tale books when I was little with these sort of illustrations - very arty and sexy, and full of languid feminine-looking men (a sort of proto-Manga look), though I don't remember all the boots being quite that pointy. Those illustrations siezed my imagination and had a huge effect on me. They led me on to Angela Carter in the end, I suspect.

More modern children's illustrations tend to be bright, cartoony and aimed squarely at kids. What a waste, and what a pity. Who are they going to inspire?

Anyway, this week I have:

• Signed the Best Women's Erotica 2009 contract for my story Ritual Space.
• Written my bio/blurb for a ghost story anthology.
• Started to panic about getting my Misbehaviour story written in time.
• Woken at 3.15am on Tuesday night and been unable to get back to sleep because my brain was churning over the plot for Heart of Flame. This was actually a real blessing - one of the gift moments I am so grateful for as a writer. It means my subconscious is engaged with the story. In the remaining hours of the night I mentally sorted out 4 or 5 scenes for the novel which I had previously been vague upon. But I can't write them yet! Misbehaviour first.