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 Last-Minute Proposal has hit the shelves after all this trailing, I suspect that even I will be celebrated out! 

In the meantime, though, I am still on a high after no revisions on the last book (phew) and a wonderful few days walking along the north Cornish coast, from Padstow to St Ives.  It was a real ozone blast, and although I suppose the weather could have been better, it could have been a lot worse, too, and anyway, it doesn’t really matter when you’re striding along a cliff top. Every day was a bad hair day, it has to be said, but we did a lot of talking and a lot of laughing, even on the morning it rained.  The coastline there is wild and dramatic, just the way I like my scenery, and every beach we came to seemed to be longer and wider and more beautiful than the last.  I spent my birthday itself in St Ives, and after a token visit to the Tate, abandoned culture in favour of poking around in the shops and watching the Atlantic rollers crashing onto the beach.   Now I’m back in York and really missing the sea and the air

and that wonderful feeling of having nothing to do but decide what we really fancied for lunch and speculate on whether the perfect little café would be just over the next hill …

It wasn’t all play, I hasten to add.  We writers never stop (no coughing in the back, there)  I’ve come home with an idea for the next book which is going to be set – guess where? – in Cornwall.  There’s something very inspiring about the sea (not to mention all those surfers in their tight wetsuits!) and we had a good time batting ideas backwards and forwards and arguing about names as we walked.   That’s always the fun stage, but now I’ll have to put it down on paper, insert some emotional conflict and work out how to shift the setting back to the city … Then I’ll run it past my editor and start writing the first draft and before we know where we are, I’ll be moaning about being stuck on Chapter 7 …

Last-Minute Proposal is out soon.  I’ve been getting some lovely feedback on it from those who’ve read it, and although I haven’t seen the review, it’s been awarded four and a half stars by the Romantic Times so I’m delighted about that.  It’s much more light-hearted than Newlyweds of Convenience and Promoted: to Wife and Mother, and I certainly enjoyed writing it much more.  It often seems that the books I like don’t go down so well with readers but I’m hoping that in this case at least I’ll be proved wrong about that! 

Oh, nearly forgot about other things that are going on.  Trish Wyle is in the spotlight on the Harlequin Romance Authors blog  this month, I’m blogging at the Pink Heart Society and I’ll be Liz Fielding’s guest on her blog on 1st October … you’ll never guess what I’ll be talking about!

For now, I'll leave you with one final photo from my birthday - my mantlepiece covered in cards!