We had a few technical problems with the blog over the summer, which meant that my August blog didn’t appear, but I did write it, I promise!  I have to admit I was rather hoping that I could think of it as God’s way of telling me not to pursue the blogging side of life, but no, it appears things have been resolved.  Curses.  Now I will have to think of something to say …

It seems a long time since I actually did any writing.  I had a few straightforward revisions to do on the last manuscript (I’d overdone the heroine’s initial misery at being dumped by the love of her life, apparently, and I had to change a reference to the hero wearing long johns, which while practical in a ruined Highland castle were deemed not romantic enough) so got those done before I went off on my holiday, sorry, research trip.  I have to say, having done three books on the trot, I was very glad to go away and fo ...

Oh, dear, is it really over a month since I last updated this blog?  So much for my resolve to do it every two weeks.  I’m afraid the website drops dramatically down the priority list when I’ve got a deadline looming, and for the last couple of weeks I’ve been doing two jobs and finishing a book, and at a critical stage on all three fronts.  However, I sent the manuscript off last night – phew! – after a weekend spent tinkering with it in a rather dissatisfied way.  I’m hoping I’ll be able to get it done and dusted before I go on holiday at the end of next week.  That’s one way of saying that I’m screwing my eyes shut, crossing my fingers and wishing (please, please, please) for no revisions! 

As always I was faintly disappointed when I’d finished the book. They’re never quite what I wanted them to be, but it&rsquo ...

OK, enough with the kittens, already (I love the way Americans use “enough … already”, although I know it doesn’t sound the same in a British accent!)  No more boring you until I can report that both are suitably affectionate … which may be a very long time!  

The current book continues to progress, albeit at a very slow pace.  I’m going up to Scotland for a few days this week, and had hoped to have finished the draft before I went, but given that I’m only half way through Chapter 8, it doesn’t look as if that’s going to happen.  Keeping yourself too busy to think is all very well as a way of dealing with an emotional crisis, but it does have its limitations when you’ve a deadline to meet.  I’ve now filled my days with so many distractions it’s proving almost impossible to write!  

OK, it’s official.  I am now Britain’s Champion Kitten Bore.  They really should give me a cup.  In other words, skip this if you’re not the kind of person who goes ‘aaahh’ when you see a kitten.  But Douglas and Archie have completely taken over my life recently, and I seem to be consumed by them at the moment.  I don’t remember being like this when my beloved old cats were kittens, and I don’t know why I’m fretting so much about these two.  At least, I probably do know why – I’ve got plenty of amateur (and professional!) psychologist friends ready to identify my current obsession as displacement activity for other anxieties – but once I get into the morass that is my emotional state at the moment, it’ll all get very messy, so it’s best not to go there at all. 

Meanwhile, back at the kitte ...

Meet my new boys, Douglas and Archie...

Over the course of the past two weeks, Douglas and Archie have taken over my life.  I know all kittens are sweet, but you’ve got to admit that these two are particularly gorgeous.  I do love tabbies, and I’m hoping Douglas and Archie will fill the void in the house (and my heart) since I lost Charlie just before Christmas.

I have to admit, though, that I’d forgotten quite how much work baby animals are.& ...

I am very conscious that I haven’t updated this blog since the beginning of April but the last few weeks have been a very unhappy time for me, and there didn’t seem to be anything I could say apart from that.  Or, at least, I could have bored you with all the gory details, the way I’ve been boring all my incredibly patient friends, but that wouldn’t have been very professional, would it?  And if I’d pretended that everything was fine and that I was writing away nicely even though half my life had fallen apart, that wouldn’t have been authentic – and it seems to me that there’s no point in a blog unless it is authentic.  So I decided not to blog at all, because it all seemed too hard.

The fact that I’m writing this now must mean that I’m a bit better, I suppose.  I’ve also been pushed to finish a 30,000 word story for a Centenary Mother&a ...

I'm blogging on the eHarlequin 2007 RNA Romance Prize blog this month.  Here's what I posted today:

I've decided to make it a day trip to London from York next Friday, but that still means booking Mungo into kennels for a couple of nights, as it's too long a day to leave him on his own, and he's too old and grumpy to allow anyone else to take him for a walk. It's also meant forking out for a flexible day return at an extortionate price, but once dog and trains were under control, I could turn my attention yesterday to the knotty problem of what to wear ...

You will be amazed to hear that I have not, in fact, been inundated with calls from top designers wanting to style my "look" for the Awards Lunch, but having seen some of the disasters at the Oscars I can't help feeling I'm better off without them. I turned instead to my two goddaughters, aged 16 and 13, who have been staying with me all this week while their mother (my own persona ...

I'm blogging on the eHarlequin 2007 RNA Romance Prize blog this month.  Here's what I posted today:

I was in the kitchen, foraging for some comfort food, when Norma Curtis rang, and the Romance Prize was the last thing on my mind. It took me a little time to register why she was calling, and when I did I wasted rather a lot of time explaining that there had obviously been some mistake, as I had been on the shortlist LAST year, not this one. Eventually Norma managed to convince me that no, she hadn't muddled up her notes, and yes, she had called the right person. I must say that I was very surprised indeed to make the final for a second year running, and even more so when I remembered to ask which book had been shortlisted. I think I expected it to have been Business Arrangement Bride, but when I trotted back upstairs to flick through a copy of Her Ready-Made Family, I have to say that it was better than I'd remembered!

I often find it takes a year or ...

I'm blogging on the eHarlequin 2007 RNA Romance Prize blog this month.  Here's what I posted today:

I wish I had a fabulous story like Nicola's to explain how HER READY-MADE FAMILY came about! No glamorous Cavalier ghosts for me, I'm afraid ... I suspect the inspiration for my book came from the amount of time I seemed to spend at my local vet with a dog and two cats (sadly both gone now). I've always thought that there's something very attractive about a man who can handle animals gently and firmly (a bit like a big man holding a baby, very hard to resist!) I'd have to say that my Westie, Mungo, clearly doesn't agree. He HATES going to the vet and cringes and shakes in the waiting room in the most embarrassing way. What a baby.

I gave Morgan, the heroine of HRMF, a Westie too, although hers is overweight and inherited from her mother. I like Morgan. She's got a big nose and is a bit spiky and brisk and neurotically insecure (now, who does she remind ...