The 50 Books Party was a huge success and I had a wonderful time, so feel as if I have been well and truly celebrated!  The champagne cocktails were fabulous.  I’m not sure if you can see in the photograph but a friend gave me a box of the sweetest pink and white sugar hearts, which I used instead of a sugar cube at the bottom of every glass.  They were soaked in brandy and then topped up with champagne, and I can absolutely recommend them as a way to get a party going! 

There was no chance to take photos during the party itself, and a ...

As usual, time is running away with me and I am making very slow progress on my current book, in spite of regularly scaring myself by counting up the ever-decreasing number of days left before the deadline.  I’ve been preoccupied on other fronts, not least of which is the preparation for the party I’m having this Saturday to celebrate 50 books … and that will be absolutely and positively the last celebration, I promise!   I have been buying cases of champagne (well, sparkling wine) and candles and making delicious little cheesy biscuits in the shape of hearts but putting off the less exciting aspects of getting ready, like cleaning the house, in the hope that they’ll seem less important in the last

This week I'm blogging on Kate Hewitt's blog where where Kate and I are chatting about the differences between Presents and Romance. 

Unbelievably, October is here already!  This is both good and bad.    Bad because it means I’ve only seven weeks to write the next book and I haven’t written a word yet.  (Why do I do this to myself every time?  I suppose I must need the adrenalin rush, but I really wish I could break myself of the habit.) But good because it means the culmination of all this celebration when my 50th book, Last-Minute Proposal, hits the shelves at last.  I’ve been making such a fuss about it all year that I’ve got blasé about the wh ...

Today I'm blogging over at The Pink Heart Society about settings. 

Well, that’s it … I’m 50 now, and if I don’t think about how old it sounds, it really doesn’t feel too bad – or at least, no worse than 49!  On the plus side, I’ve been thoroughly spoilt and everyone has been lovely and made a big fuss of me, which I’ve lapped up.  Thank you for all your wonderful birthday wishes on the last blog – I was so touched when I found them all.  And the birthday isn’t over yet!  I’ve still got two special birthday dinners, a birthday lunch and a party to go.  By the time that’s over, and

Hi, it's the webmistress here to wish Jessica a HAPPY 50th BIRTHDAY!  She's away right now but it would be great if we could surprise her with some birthday messages so get writing and tell all your friends to visit!

This week I'm delighted to welcome back Kate Walker in the last of my guest blogs.  As Kate explains, she was the first other HMB author I'd ever met, and as author of more than 50 books herself, not to mention the invaluable Kate Walker's 12-Point Guide to Writing Romance , who better to help me celebrate that 50 book milestone?  Welcome, Kate!

Some years ago,  back before the internet and easy communication  transformed my life, and the life of every other romance  writer I know,  I asked my editor if there was anyone else who wrote for Mills & Boon and lived anyw ...

I am feeling very discombobulated today, which is a shame as I should be feeling elated at having sent off Honeymoon with the Boss at long last.  But I managed to break my glasses irreparably on Friday night , which meant that Saturday was spent replacing them as a matter of some urgency as I can’t read or write without them, and I still had two days to work on the book before my deadline.  It turns out that it takes two weeks to get a new pair of rimless glasses, so I had to settle for a pair with frames which I don’t particularly like and for which I had to fork out over £300!  And it’s a slightly new prescription which I’m finding hard to adjust to, so between the rims and the blurriness and a general feeling of frumpiness (not to mention the hole in my bank account)&a ...

Odd to think that this time last week I was in San Francisco ...  I’ve only been home four days, but already the RWA conference seems like forever ago.  The conference itself was something to have experienced, but I have to admit that Yosemite was the highlight of trip for me.  For the last few months I’ve been corresponding with Barbara Hannay  in Australia and Barbara McMahon in California as we tried to put together a workshop on writing for a global audience to present at the conference.  The plan was that we would all meet up and spend three days in Yosemite so that we could talk about it face to face at last, and I have to say that it worked brilliantly.  I kno ...