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 ...

Greetings from San Francisco! Workshop went well, and I have survived the conference (just).  Looking forward to going home now, though.

Today's guest blogger is Donna Alward.  A big congratultions to Donna for winning the Traditional category of the Booksellers Best Awards at the conference!!!!!  Now, over to Donna...

When I was an aspiring author, one of my favourite “research” books was a Romance called “Christmas Eve Marriage ...

Jessica isn't here this week because, as we all know, she's in San Francisco for the Romance Writers of America conference!

So I'm here to remind you that Jessica, Barbara Hannay, Barbara McMahon and editor Lucy Brown will be giving a panel entitled "Emotion, Emotion, Emotion: Writing Romance with Global Appeal" from 9:45 to 11:45 on Friday morning (August 1).  Don't miss it!

And to fill in the time for those of you not able to go to the conference, here's an article Jessica wrote last week for The Pink Heart Society: 

This Writer's Wednesday Romance author Jessica Hart extolls on the pain of the dreadline...er...deadline...even as she prepares to celebrate a couple of pretty ter ...

Do you ever have times when it seems technology turns against you?  Every time I switch on a light at the moment, a bulb goes and the entire circuit cuts out.  My television has stopped working, for reasons best known to itself, the fuse in the iron has blown, a whole shelf collapsed in one of my kitchen cupboards, the shower door is broken and yesterday I had to admit defeat and go out and buy a new printer.  I am getting a little anxious in case my bad technological vibes extend to the plane next week!  I am a nervous flyer at the best of times.  I’m that white-knuckled passenger next to you who spends take off with eyes squeezed shut and hands gripped tightly together.  Pathetic, I know, but think of me on Thursday as I fly off to San Francisco… 

This week I'm delighted to welcome Nell Dixon who is just back from the RNA conference and is here to tell her about her latest book, out on July 12th!

I’ve always said I wished I could write like Jessica, so it’s a great honour to be invited to help celebrate her fiftieth book.

I think I’ve read most of those books and enjoyed all of them.
 Jessica was one of the authors who inspired me to try for publication and this July sees the first of my books for