Saturday, 27 August 2011

New Beginnings (and this time I mean it!)

Anyone who has known me for a while (and if you've stuck around you have my thanks for your patience!) will know that for the past few years I've been going through a particularly gruelling insurance process following a brain injury.
Thankfully on Wednesday this came to an end in a highly pressurised game of Deal or no Deal that lasted 7 hours in a windowless, underground room. I could take the bankers offer and run or I could stick it out for another two years during which I was promised (threatened?) things would get much nastier. As they had already been pretty nasty - being followed by private detectives, having my post box rummaged through at 3 am, being forced to try treatment that made me worse, having every aspect of my medical and personal history raked over, being squeezed financially to the point of homelessness and being unable to afford food, being lied about, threatened and even blackmailed - my mind boggled as to how things could get even worse.
So, with great relief I decided to take the money and run, or in my case stagger, home. I've been so shattered I can barely take it in but finally it's dawning that all the energy I expended on the insurance reports and rehabilitation can now be channeled back into writing and that, more than any amount of money, is what is making me happy :-)
Now I can finish that requested full (finally!) and maybe even dip a toe in the waters of New Voices. Just for fun though as I've been way too sick lately to sign myself up for the kind of rosemania that swept the internet waves last year ;-)

And in case you were wondering what I've been up to all this time, well even though I've been unable to face a computer screen my creativity still insisted on finding an outlet and these are a few of the things I've made this year. It's patchwork but not as my nan would know it...


Wednesday, 13 July 2011

#MarryingCadeWave Stop Six

It’s launch day for Sally Clements’ new book, Marrying Cade, and to celebrate, she’s having a Mexican wave of excerpts! You can keep up with the wave’s progress on the twitter hashtag #MarryingCadeWave – and add a tweet with the hashtag to chat with everyone else who’s reading along!

Here’s how to do it…these are the stops, just call in to these blogs to read each excerpt (they start at stop one, and finish at stop ten). Alternatively, start wherever, and click on the next stop link at the bottom of the excerpt. Or just click on the buy link, to get your own copy of Marrying Cade!

Stop One – Talli Roland’s blog http://talliroland.blogspot.com/

Stop Two – Maya Blake’s blog http://mayabauthor.blogspot.com/

Stop Three – Nas Dean’s blog http://nas-dean.blogspot.com/

Stop Four – Joanne Coles’s blog http://joannecleary.blogspot.com/

Stop Five – Romy Summers’ blog http://romysommer.blogspot.com/

Stop Six – Lorraine Wilson’s blog http://lorraine-wilson.blogspot.com/

Stop Seven – Joanne Pibworth’s blog http://joannepibworth.blogspot.com/

Stop Eight – Suzanne Jones’ blog http://suzanne-sj.blogspot.com/

Stop Nine – Lacey Devlin’s blog http://laceydevlin.blogspot.com/

Stop Ten – Sally Clements’ blog http://sallyclements.blogspot.com/


Stop Six’s excerpt…

“Ciao, Cade.” Her low voice caressed his name. Her eyes rose to his and jolted him with a bolt of blue.

It was Melo, all right. He’d know those eyes anywhere.

She leaned toward him, proffering her cheek for the customary kiss.

Cade’s lips grazed the smooth skin of her cheek, and his nostrils filled with the intoxicating scent of her perfume. His fingers smoothed over her upper arms, feeling the shiver snaking through her. She had a tiny mole above the outer curve of her mouth, something else he remembered from the Melo of old.

He stepped back, needing distance.

“Hi Melo. You look great.” The scratchy croak was just about all he could manage. Rosa’s sister had blossomed into the most stunning woman he’d ever seen. Twelve years ago, the gangly tomboy had been the perfect companion for a boy on holiday. They’d done everything together. Well, almost everything. Now he was tongue tied around her, and that was new.

Read a review of Marrying Cade at Madeline Ash’s blog… http://madelineash.blogspot.com


Before you go on to stop seven, tweet this to help get the wave going! Now, continue on to Stop seven here! http://joannepibworth.blogspot.com/

CATCH ME A CATCH - July 2010, The Wild Rose Press
BOUND TO LOVE - February 2011, Embrace Books
NEW BEGINNINGS - February 2011, A collection of short stories
MARRYING CADE - upcoming 2011, The Wild Rose Press
LOVE ON THE VINE - upcoming 2011, The Wild Rose Press

Monday, 4 July 2011

Wake me when it's over...

Sadly I haven't been absent for the past few weeks because I've been sunning myself in Monte Carlo, ensconced on the yacht of a gorgeous billionaire. Instead I've been having unpleasant things done to my spine and neck that have turned me into a pain fuelled, hobbling harridan.
I'm the first to admit I'm not much fun to be with at the moment and having to miss the RNA conference this year because of some doctor's desire to poke at my nerve endings with sharp implements has made me a tad...grumpy.
Still, I've been getting through the enforced rest by listening to as many audiobooks as I can get my mitts on and the dogs are wisely sleeping through my recuperation (and are a great source of unconditional cuddles!).
I was really pleased to find a new Heidi Rice audiobook has been released on audible.co.uk - Public Affair, Secretly Expecting.
I'm hoping that by listening, listening, listening I can not only distract myself from the pain but also learn and grow with my own writing so this needn't feel like such a wasted time.
If you're going to the conference have a great time and good luck to those of you with editor appointments. I will see you all there next year :-)

Sunday, 5 June 2011

The new buzz word at HMB Romance HQ

Unpredictability is apparently the new buzz word at Mills and Boon headquarters, to quote Editor Flo Nicoll "Unpredictability is literally all we can talk about". At last year's RNA conference the theme of the Mills and Boon Editor talk was 'new twists on old themes' so this is clearly something anyone trying to write for Harlequin M&B needs to be thinking about. I'm going to be interested to find out the results of the Unpredictability Task Force - what are readers sick of, what do they want to see more of etc. If you want to read the Editor blog post in full or find out what on earth I'm on about then click here.

How to be fresh and new and yet fit the category line? It's a very interesting question, answers in a comment box will be welcome ;-)
While you're thinking about it have a slice of cake:

Monday, 23 May 2011

Riva Bag Giveaway

Just a quickie to let you all know the Riva bag I designed for the Mills & Boon Competition is this week's prize on the Minx blog so get over there and get commenting (and sign up to follow the blog while you're at it) and the bag could be yours!

Friday, 20 May 2011

Reporter Minx



Check out the Minx site today for photos of Minxes at the RNA party. I was determined to get to what would be my first RNA event of the year and despite the pain and tiredness it was most definitely worth it. I got to meet Sally Minx for a start, which was lovely :-) It was also fab to chat to friends old and new and to feel that buzz, and the corresponding internal thought "I am a writer and I will write despite everything". Unfortunately I haven't had the pain relieving injections into my spine yet so I just want to set the record straight - if you saw me slumped against a wall it wasn't because I was sloshed ;-)

Thursday, 5 May 2011

News and the science of heroes...

I don't know if you've all heard about it and I'm trailing behind but in case you haven't - Amazon are branching out into publishing romance novels, both print, ebooks and audiobooks. Read about it here. An expanding market can only be good news I think :-) If I find out more about submissions I'll let you know...
Other news - After analyzing 15,000 Harlequin books, neuroscientists Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam have compiled a list of the top 10 most popular professions for heroes in romance novels. They are: 1. Doctor, 2. Cowboy, 3. Boss, 4. Prince, 5. Rancher, 6. Knight, 7. Surgeon, 8. King, 9. Bodyguard, 10. Sheriff.
Interesting but number 3, Boss, covers quite a lot of professions really!
Do any professions turn you off a hero? Or alternatively turn you on???