You wouldn’t think it from this blog, but I have been hard at work over the last few weeks.  I’m taking a break from romance and writing a ‘time slip’ novel this summer, and I have to say that I’m finding it challenging, but generally in a good way.  I have been playing all sorts of psychological tricks on myself to write something different, and have a whole new routine which involves getting up at 6.00 am every morning and writing 500 words before I’m allowed to start the day.  I have always been an evening person, and usually do most of my writing after 9.00 pm, so it’s a big change for me, and so far it seems to be working.  I suspect it’s only because it’s summer and so light in the mornings.  I can’t see me doing this ...

I looked at this card a lot last summer!  It has been stuck up above my computer for years, and I was writing Honeymoon with the Boss while outside it was as grey and miserable as only an English summer can be.  The story is set in the Maldives, so whenever I was short of inspiration (quite a lot of the time, as it turned out), all I had to do was glance up.  My scanner isn’t very good, and puts dirty yellow dots all over everything, but the original card is beautiful, and always makes me feel as if I’m wallowing in a lagoon, digging my fingers into the white sand and listening to the hot wind soughing through the coconut palms (my toes are curling just thinking about it!) 

The book is finished and the sun is shining – hurrah!  I typed THE END at four o’clock on the dot on Saturday, and after a drink to celebrate that night am now in full-on achievement mode.  Yesterday I defrosted the fridge, cleaned the oven AND had a major weed/tidy in my poor neglected garden, and now I’ve even got round to updating the blog … am I a machine or am I a machine???  True, I can’t quite bring myself to tackle my accounts, the next big job, but I don’t want to lose the glow too soon! 

Actually, I haven’t yet sat down to reread the whole manuscript yet, so perhaps all this celebration is premature, but it was such an enjoyable story to write in the end, that I’m hoping that bodes well for it.  I liked writing it in the first person, and the guidelines allowed for a lighter emotional conflict than normal, which suits my style, I think.&a ...

Hhmmnn.  There I was feeling very pleased with myself – verging, indeed, on the insufferably smug – having got to the end of a full draft last night, with still a whole month before my deadline. How quickly things can change!  I’ve been enjoying writing this book, too.  It’s a romantic comedy, based on the Pick Your Own Romance survey I ran here last year as part of the 50 book celebrations, and writing it in the first person made it feel a lot fresher for me.  So I’ve been rattling away, not bothering with too many articles or inverted commas, and telling myself that the final draft would just need a bit of polishing and punctuation. 

WRONG! 

I sat down this evening and reread the entire draft and it’s obviously going to require much more work than I’d thought.  So much for ducking the usual Chapter 7 crisis!  I don& ...

I’ve been keeping my head down recently and trying to make less of meal of this current book than I did with the last one.  I was actually sitting here yesterday thinking I ought to update the blog but really had nothing to say as it’s just been tap, tap, tap at the keyboard, but just as I was girding my loins to embark on Chapter 7 this afternoon, the phone rang and a really lovely voice from Houston told me that Last-Minute Proposal had been short-listed for a RITA in the Contemporary Series category.  So now I’ve got no excuse not to update the blog!

I’m obviously really thrilled, and particularly because Last-Minute Proposal

Well, here I am, starting another book, and wondering as always how I’m ever going to make it work.  I’m still at the rough draft stage, filling pages with any old rubbish just so that I have something to work with when I go back to the beginning and start writing properly.  In some ways, this is a good bit of writing.  I set myself a low target of 5 or 6 pages a day, and have the time to work on other projects as well – at least in theory.  Let’s be honest here, I spend quite of time I could be working drifting around having coffee instead or, like last night, drinking pomegranate martinis – v yummy.  On the other hand, I did come back and draft a scene where my heroine has one pomegranate martini too many, so the whole evening can now be justified on the grounds of research! 

This book is meant to be a romantic comedy, and I’m writing it in the first person, which I& ...

Cinderella’s Wedding Wish is out soon.  If you can't wait to read it, you can read an excerpt here or read an email from the hero - Rafe Knighton - to his ex colleagues in West Africa here.

I only got home late last night, and I am still trying to sort myself out, so by the time I sat down to describe Tuesday’s RNA Awards lunch, Kate Hardy had already done a much better job on her blog so pop over there for a full description and an array of photos.  Kate is a regular on the shortlist, as is the ebullient Fiona Harper, here together in fine form but the Romance Prize went yesterday to India Grey. It was clear from the summing up just how much the judges loved India’s book, and she was a very popular winner.

Warmest congratulations again to India!

It feels strange to be sitting at my computer again.  I’ve just got home from three weeks in Scotland without internet access, in spite of my best efforts to get British Telecom to install broadband while I was there.  My father had a heart attack on 14th January, and was in hospital for a couple of weeks before an angioplasty, so I had to drop everything and go up to give my mother a hand.   It was an odd time, fitting into a completely different routine and without email I felt very cut off, but the good news is that my father is now home, thanks largely to the wonderful care he had at Dumfries & Galloway Royal Infirmary.  That meant that I could come home too, and yesterday I made it back across the Pennines to a bulging inbox.  I’ve been catching up with friends too – it feels as if I have been away for three months instead of three weeks, and I am still a bit disorientated, as if I’ve jetted in ...

Harlequin is celebrating it's 60th birthday today - Happy BIrthday Harlequin! - by giving away free books! Visit HARLEQUIN CELEBRATES to download yours!

Here is the complete list --

Harlequin American Romance, Once a Cowboy by Linda Warren

Harlequin Blaze, Slow Hands by Leslie Kelly

Harlequin Historical, His Lady Mistress by Elizabeth Rolls

Harlequin Intrigue, Crime Scene at Cardwell Ranch by B.J. Daniels

Harlequin Presents, Price of Passion by Susan Napier

Harlequin Romance, The Bride’s Baby by Liz Fielding

Harlequin Superromance, Snowbound by Janice Ka ...