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L.J. Diva

Kick-Ass Author of Sexy, Sassy, Kick-Ass Romances!

Today is the first anniversary of Jackie Collins death.

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I’m posting this because it is the first anniversary of her death today, and would have been her birthday on the 4th Oct, but there’s a post for that, so let’s talk about her books.
 
I’ve always been addicted, I’ve read them, followed her on social media, and took her advice when it came to writing. Hell, I want to be her when it comes to my writing, and her rollicking ballsy attitude was a breath of fresh air. I even wished I owned her house, it was awesome! But all of a sudden this year, back in May, I had the urge to start collecting her books. Some weird deep down, desperate need of Jackie because I still miss her. And that quickly turned into an addiction.

It started mainly on May 25th, the day mum went in for her endoscope for her ulcers and I hit the op shops and second hand book stores. I scored 25 books that would have cost me a fortune to buy online. However that’s what I’ve spent, a small fortune, that ended up with doubles from online sellers not selling or sending the correct versions. I got my money back on most, but I’m out a few bucks.
 
Ebay, Book Depository and Abe Books, somewhere I’ve only recently started buying from, helped me get older versions that you can’t find any more. And the more current versions were easy. Of course I googled the covers and had to decide on which versions to get, as there are so many reprints. I’ve ended with with 3-10 editions of each book, depending on how many have been released. 
 
Pan Macmillan in the UK are notorious for constantly releasing different covers and I have many. But my main goal was the hard covers in both the UK and US editions. A hard find for many. And I’m still collecting, not sure if it will ever be complete, but just like with my Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Dana Girls and Trixie Belden collections, it will (hopefully, fingers crossed), be completed one day.
 
Below are each batch of books and where I got them from. It’s definitely growing. I even had to boot Nancy off two shelves to accommodate JC.
 
OP SHOP LOT1 – 25 BOOKS
 
 
EBAY LOT1 – 5 BOOKS

 

 
EBAY LOT2 – 7 BOOKS
 
 
AWESOME BOOKS LOT1 – 12 BOOKS

 

 
AWESOME BOOKS LOT2 – 18 BOOKS 
(some weren’t the correct covers and one was a freebie. They refunded but it got sent anyway! I’ve also had to update Lovers and Players because I don’t like the name being worn off.)
 
BOOK DEPOSITORY LOT1 – 4 BOOKS
EBAY LOT3 – 20 BOOKS
EBAY LOT4 – 17 BOOKS 
(two are replacements as I wanted the larger ones to make them all even when standing on the shelf. I hate having a series of books all different sizes. I like them even, which is why two more will need replacing. How’s the old Sunday Simmons and pink Lady Boss covers?)
 
 
 
JC BOOKS EBAY LOT5 – 16 BOOKS
(There’s a couple of old ones in this lot, UK Chances hardcover and Lovehead pb) 
 
 ABE BOOKS LOT1 – 17 BOOKS 
(some weren’t the covers I bought and that’s kinda pissing me off lately. Sellers sending the wrong books. Or, sending worse versions that what they state on the sale page, like the hardcover of Chances, the dust jacket is falling apart even though it was stated as very good.)

 

 
ABE BOOKS LOT2 10 BOOKS  
(three books so far and one was the wrong cover. I’m waiting on 7 more. They’re quite slow in coming)
 
EBAY BOOK LOT6 8 BOOKS  
(Original UK Hollywood Wives hardcover with it’s silver foil print. Hard cover Power Trip to replace the soft cover, wrong cover of pb Wives so it’s a freebie, and Pan Mac’s The Bitch in the Diamond print. I love these covers for the diamond above the i in Jackie, and they’re awesome pictures too)
 
Loving the pictures on the backs of the 70s/80s hardcovers.
 
Because my old bookcase is bowing in the middle I had to move my hard covers to the bedroom and leave the paperbacks in the office, on the top two shelves. This is the back layer of books. UK on the left shelf, US on the right.
 
Here’s the shelf with its front layer on, as well as the picture montage I did of Jackie in an animal print frame I found.
Here’s a closer look at the montage I made using Picmonkey, then I just printed it out and framed it. I used inspirational quotes and leopard/tiger print.
Here’s the top two shelves of my bookcase. I had to boot Nancy Drew from the top shelves for Jackie. My two collections sharing space.
 
My desk in my bedroom, Jackie hardcovers, UK left, US right, sharing space with my style and jewellery books. I’ve added a couple since but couldn’t be bothered taking another photo.




So far it’s about 165 books or so, some free from refunds, and around $1600 give or take since May, so about $10 a book. Not bad considering some were more expensive than others and some were just a few cents depending on where I bought them from, like the op shop.

Some books are hard to get, so the first 10 or so hardcovers are very rare, in fact, I haven’t even seen most of them in my searches, just the paperback versions of which there are many. The search will continue but it will probably only be a couple a month now as I finish up paperback collections. I’ll also be getting her self-published versions this month as they’re easy to get, and will continue to update you all on my purchases.

Have you ever had a sudden addiction and need to collect things that have been available for years, all because of a death or incident?
 

With easter being over and me being sick with a migraine, what causes your headaches?

by Filed Under: Life - Death - Health 4 Comments

I cannot believe that my Easter post didn’t go through last week and is still in draft mode. 

Bugger! 

I was all set to wish you all a happy Easter and to eat buns and rabbits until you were sick.

Irony!

Now I’m sick!

But not because of all the Easter buns and chocolates. No siree Bob, its just the crappy migraines from being stressed over not getting my new books started, trying to run a business, a household and my mother as she’s been sick and vomiting again. Hasn’t gone back to hospital yet, and hopefully the vomiting is over, but that damn ulcer of hers needs to go and needs to go now. On top of that, her crippled back means she cannot move fast enough so a trip to the toilet always ends in a change of clothes. Sadly, she’s now in adult diapers which they give gastro patients in hospitals, otherwise I’d be doing a hell of a lot of washing.

Nope, I’ve never gotten migraines from food as many do, mine is from having a crooked back which makes my neck crooked so that puts pressure on my head which in turn becomes very susceptible to loud noise, bright lights and oppressive heat, all three of which wreak havoc on my brain. Right now, I have one across the back of my head and thankfully I’m seeing the chiro this arvo as I’m writing this on Thursday afternoon my time.

So, do you guys get migraines and do you know what causes yours or is it just one of those things?



2015 IN REVIEW

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Last year was pretty bad and this year only fared slightly better. Not as many celebrity deaths this year but Jackie Collins was probably the one that took us all by surprise.
 
Last year we had missing/blown up planes and this year we’ve had the same. We’ve had bombings and shootings and a mass exodus from the Middle East into Europe that Europe is now regretting. Terrorists will be plaguing those countries for decades to come. Sadly, Germany started it all by flinging open the flood gates without a thought. But then, they are Germany, they should be able to fix it given their history. Just kill a few of them, they’re good at that. France has suffered for it and Belgium is under lockdown. Let’s hope the Eiffel Tower doesn’t get blown to smithereens.
 
Australia is already going through heatwaves and fires and America has had more school shootings and still the government does fuck all about it. How many kids need to die for those arseholes to get the fuck over their right to bear arms? The constitution is a piece of old fucking paper, not your current lifestyle. I seriously doubt your forefathers predicted how the world would turn out, but the bastards are sticking by it anyway, clearly not caring who gets caught in the crossfire.
 
TV shows have come and gone and yay, Glen from The Walking Dead was alive…but for how long and how will they survive the horde that is coming?
 
Bruce Jenner decided to be a dick and become a woman, thereby deluging us with more Jenner/Kardashian bullshit than ever before. We really don’t give a fuck and the fact is, you were born a male, not a female. Even though I don’t believe in God as religious nut jobs do, I seriously doubt our creator put us here to chuck a shit fit and decide s/he’d made a mistake so one must change their sex to make themselves happy.
 
Why are there such contradictions between the sexes? Women are told to accept themselves the way they are and to suck it up and love their cellulite, yet men are told it’s perfectly normal to cut their dick off and become a she-male. They will never be actual females as the biology and genetics are not there, neither are the female parts. And quite frankly, if you cannot accept that you are the sex you are in this lifetime for a reason, then you are the one fucked in the head.
 
When in God’s name did it become okay for a man to cut his dick off, turn it inside out, slice himself open and shove it back in to make a vagina? When did THAT become okay?
 
Australia had another political spill this year when Malcolm Turnbull overthrew Prime Minister Tony Abbott. Just as with Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, it showed us once again how arrogantly narcissistic politicians can be. And are.
 
We got told by the head of the AFL that booing is racist because Adam Goodes cried like a sook at people booing him. Never mind the fact that people think he’s a knob, but because he’s HALF aboriginal it MUST HAVE BEEN because of that. *Insert seriously massively huge sarcastic eye roll here*.
 
I know there is a shit tonne of other stuff that has happened this year but I’m not about to remember it nor write about it as there is just too much currently going on that we all have to deal with.
So this is 2015.
 
 
 

The Greatest Female Writer has left us. RIP Jackie Collins.

by Filed Under: Authors & Books, Life - Death - Health 4 Comments

 
 
This week I have been in mourning.
 
Last Sunday afternoon I was working and listening to the radio when about 1 or 2 o’clock the news came through that Jackie Collins had passed away.
 
I cried out, unbelieving. How could she possibly have died when she didn’t look sick, hadn’t said anything, and I was checking her Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc and had only just answered one of her questions a week before.
 
I went into shock. How could Jackie have gone? I quickly flicked on my phone and checked Facebook and there they were, a whole bunch of posts about her passing. I shed tears. Of course I did.
 
Jackie inspired me to write my first novel, The Road To Vegas, in 2006. A scene from one of her books stuck in my head, I’ve spoken about this before, and I kept thinking I wanted to write a book with a character like that in it.
 
So I did.
 
I also put a dedication to her in the book and spoke of her in my second novel, How I Won Lotto, Moved To L.A. & Married a Really Huge TV Star. Jackie loved putting Australian characters in her books so I reciprocated by talking about her in mine. She’s also had her own place on this website where I share her links and I will forever leave them up. She is my inspiration, she’s not going anywhere.
 
In 2007 she came to Australia in May, during our Logies. The next morning she was on a morning show called 9AM with David and Kim. She spoke about watching the Logies the night before and loving Kim’s earrings, which Kim had borrowed for the awards night and was still wearing. It was later revealed that Jackie bought those exact earrings while here.
 
During that conversation they talked about it being carer’s week. Jackie spoke of caring for a husband and fiancé during their cancers and subsequent deaths and how no one cares about the carers.
 
Now, she herself dies from cancer and had only told her three daughters. She only revealed all to Joan when she visited London for a book tour the week before. After looking at the pics from the last few weeks, it was clear to see Jackie’s face had become gaunt and thin. You could tell she was sick and I assume she knew it was possibly coming fast.
 
Jackie worked until the end, with several books on the go and several more ready for release next year. I can’t wait to read her memoir when it’s published but now, I will be buying it instead.
 
Jackie was an inspiration for those of us wanting to write and be writers. She inspired me to write shorter chapters than the normal 20-25 pages and to write how I wanted instead of how the publishing world expected me to.
 
I loved a lot of things about Jackie. Her knowledge and saucy secrets, her books, her vast collection of blazers she designed herself, her house (have you seen it), and the amazing adventures she had. I can only dream of having a gorgeous house with seven writing desks and a huge decorated office with rows and rows of my books in hardcovers and paperback.
 
It’s still hard to imagine her being gone, even one week on, and I can only hope they, her estate or whoever is in charge, keeps her social media going. At least her website so people can still visit and get a list of books and biography and know her for the woman she was. She knew for six years she had cancer and I’m going to believe she got her affairs in order. After nursing her husband and fiance she would have been prepared. The problem with social media, as always, is what happens after we die?
 
As much as I would have loved to have met her, I never had the chance. I always dreamed and believed that when my books hit it big I would travel to America and meet her on the way as I never had the chance all the times she was here in Aus.
 
Sadly, now I never will.
 
Now, the tears flow once more while I’m writing this, because I will never get the chance to see her, talk with her, or even visit her house, unless they open it to the public. But considering what a private person she was everything will be left to her family or be sold off like Elizabeth Taylor’s estate. And if I had the millions I would buy her house just for the sake of the fact it is Jackie Collins’s house.
 
For inspiration to come there’s no better place for it to come in.
 
And curiously, I’d love to know what’s in her will. What will become of her stories and books, her legacy? Will the family continue it? Will they shut it all down? Who knows, maybe’s there’s someone in charge of a Jackie Collins book estate to take care of her copyrights and ownership.
Goodbye Jackie, you will be so, so, sadly missed but forever held on the highest inspirational pedestal I can find.
 
 

Migraine’s suck fucking shit balls of hell and pain!!!!!

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I haven’t talked about my health for ages, if not years, and it’s a bit of a long story.

When I was 18 I was told I had a curve in my spine and that it was scoliosis. I’ve had horrible back pain since which turned into all sorts of other pain. Migraine, sciatica etc and even though I’ve been seeing a chiro for five years now, this week I am suffering from a migraine. But not just any migraine. This is a migraine that started with sciatica. 

I saw the chiro two weeks ago but half an hour later I had bad foot cramps. The sciatic nerve goes through three layers of butt muscle, down the leg and into the foot. The cramps are fucking horrendous and left my left leg aching a bit. A couple of hours later I had another cramp in my left foot and this time it left my leg aching for 24 hours. It was fucking horrible.

A week later that pain decided to move up to my right shoulder. Because when you’ve been going to a chiro you soon learn that when the bottom stuffs up, it stuffs up your whole back like the domino effect. So my right shoulder was aching and crunching.

Then, it decided to move up to the back of my head where most of my migraines happen these days. The left side hasn’t been as bad as it usually is and I did manage to get it to stop on Tuesday but it came back Wednesday and was now across the whole back of my head.

These migraines are fucking horrendous. It’s like your head cannot sit in any position without pain. It does not matter which way you turn it, the pain will not stop. And that is because my spine jacks up underneath my skull and creates pressure on the nerves.

Like I said, FUCKING HORRENDOUS.

I had hoped to have less pain by now, and overall I do. But when I get these kinds of migraines so much more comes with it. I can feel as sick as a dog, my eyes bulge out of their sockets, I cannot sit to work because I cannot hang my head to look down. Hell, even hanging the washing with my head up the other day made it ache, and it’s aching now as I’m typing.

And my chiro knows all about when I’ve been hanging my head because she knows the issues. 

So, a couple of weeks ago I went looking for a laptop lifter. I have no idea if they’re actually called that but that’s the name I gave it. I went looking in several stores and no one had any so I logged into ebay when I got home and bought the cheapest. It’s actually a cooling pad for pcs but I’m using it purely for the lifting abilities to get my pc up higher to my face so my neck is not craning downwards all the time. Sadly, when I’m writing, my neck and head are down, so that sucks as a writer who writes in long hand and not straight onto the computer.

Have you guys needed to get one of these or even put your pc up higher to prevent mother fucking neck pain and migraines?

 

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