Happy New Year! A message first for Wang Xiao Ming from China: I’m sorry, my computer won’t allow me to open your message and reply to it, but thank you very much for getting in touch! I will try and get hold of the CD Rom I need to read the Chinese characters as soon as possible.
I greeted 2002 with a stinking cold, and am unfit for human company at the moment, but one of the advantages of the Internet is that you can communicate without spreading germs, and you are not to know how deeply unattractive I look at the moment, with my puffy little piggy eyes, my big red nose and my stupid, croaky voice. There is nothing romantic about a cold, so I’m hoping this is not an omen for 2002!
I’ve got to pull myself together smartish, though, as I have a lot to do this year, and can’t waste time sniffling into tissues and feeling sorry for myself. I have drawn up a plan for 2002, in two week segments (how Virgoan can you get??) which in theory allows me to write three books and three chapters of my thesis, continue with one of my part-time jobs, give various talks, and have some proper holidays, which have been much missing from my life over the last three years. What it doesn’t do is allow any time for emotional crises (mine or anyone else’s – friends, be warned!) or writer’s block, so whether my year runs to schedule or not is very much open to question!
Anyway, I’m hoping to talk to my editor soon and agree deadlines for the next three books. If possible, I want to spend January and February on my research and start writing again in March, so things will be quiet on the website front. There are books out there, though, so keep an eye out for Assignment: Baby which is out in the UK this month, and in North America in February. I had the North American edition through just before Christmas, and was for once very pleased with the cover, mainly because the hero looks as if he might be a bit older than twelve. Here are the two editions, so keep an eye out for the one that applies to you!
Copyright © 2002 by Harlequin Enterprises Limited
® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher |
Copyright © 2002 by Harlequin Enterprises Limited
® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher |
Regular visitors to this website who have been following my writing diary from the beginning might remember my struggles with this book about this time last year, but when I reread it, I was really quite pleased with it – it worked much better than I’d remembered, and even I couldn’t spot which bits had been frantically rewritten! Let me know what you think.
I’m hoping to set up a separate page where you can find out more about Assignment: Baby and read an extract, but I’m having trouble working out how to do the links, and will probably have to go grovelling back to Isabel before this appears. Diligent readers from Western Australia have pointed out that many of the photographs are missing from previous diary entries, and I think this is because I’ve started updating the website from home on a different system, and it seems to have all sorts of unforeseen side effects (mainly because I haven’t a clue what I’m doing). So apologies if you’ve found anything frustrating, and I will try and get everything sorted out eventually. In the meantime, I’ll update the diary again in February, when I’m back from a week in the Seychelles. Oh, didn’t you get that? I’ll say it again, so that you can be really jealous! I’m off on a free trip to the Seychelles, courtesy of my wonderful sister-in-law, at the end of January, and I can’t wait! All I have to do before then is write a chapter of my thesis and lose about three stone so that I can get into my swimsuit …