Today I got some good news.

My dear boyfriend has had some oral surgery done for some wisdom teeth which weren’t sitting in a very wise position. That’s what happens when kids don’t go to the dentist.

Now he’s not allowed solid food. The bacon withdrawal is killing him. But that’s not the good news.

The Good news is that he’s not allowed to smoke while his mouth heals either.

I’m a stoic non-smoker, but I long ago gave up debating the smoking issue with him because it wasn’t getting anywhere. Our relationship has been harmonious due to a peace-making “Mouthwash Agreement” and the banning of pre-coital cigarettes. But now, for a few blessed weeks, he’s going to have to kick the habit. and maybe, just maybe, I can nudge him along to kicking the habit for good. Or at least until Christmas. Or maybe my birthday )April). Or maybe for good.

We shall see. In the meantime, he’s wandering around asking people if they have a spare nicotine patch, instead of a spare cigarette.

You might have noticed I’ve been jumping through themes these past few days.

I apologize for the inconvenience, but my intentions were honourable. I had been asked if I could make the text on my blog any easier to read, so began my search for a blog with dark text on a white background. As much as I loved Red Wood, I needed something clearer and lighter.

I searched all day trying to find suitable themes for a blog about (mostly) fantasy writing. It’s hard because several writing bloggers seem to use the same theme. Aspire seems particularly popular, probably because there aren’t many suitable 3 column themes out there that are easy to find.

But there are so many more out there if you’re not completely obsessed with having three columns. There’s a nice list of them here at wpthemesfree, which I quite like.

 There is also a classical Fantasy one here. Very ‘Princesses and Fairys’ and not quite what I wanted.

There are three more themes here that are suitably fantastic, especially if you ignore one of the characters being from final fantasy.

 I’ve also found that plain themes are usually better for reading large chunks of text, which is the single biggest weakness I have found on most wordpress themes. Plain themes just aren’t distinctive enough for me though.

I won’t deny I’ve kept some of my favourites hidden (I still want to look original thanks!), but I’d encourage you to go looking for a theme that nobody else is using. Especially if you’re one of the dozen bloggers on Entrecard all using Aspire.

Veltra was originally one of the least developed characters I had written, especially next to strongly defined characters like Trillinda and Detra.

I suppose it’s partly because I had imagined her as ‘the quiet one’, when it’s very difficult to write truly quiet characters if you’re not writing from their point of view. They tend to say very little and fade into the background.

But I felt like Veltra should be more than a shadow character behind the constant conflict of Trill and Detra, or Jesse’s learning.  Veltra spent most of her time being a teacher, peace maker and councilor. She supported the others without drawing any attention to herself. That doesn’t make an intriguing character.

I always believed that Veltra had a secret. Something she never told anybody but still affected her every decision. She made a choice, and she suffered a loss. But I don’t know what they were, exactly.

Do I need to?