The Santorini Marriage Bargain

Good news! My London book has been accepted. I don’t have a title or publication date yet, but I’ll let you know as soon as I do.

Meantime here is the Pink Heart Society review for the Santorini Marriage Bargain.


I was delighted when asked to review Margaret Mayo's 75th book for Harlequin Mills & Boon. What a truly wonderful achievement.

By the first chapter I had fallen madly in love with the hero, Zarek who was both courteous and chivalrous whilst remaining an utterly gorgeous alpha male. Rhianne had experienced a terrible personal setback but Zarek helped her to take control of her life back - first by employing her and secondly by helping her to regain her confidence.

Although Rhianne had experienced a heartbreaking incident prior to the book beginning, she was in no way sorry for herself or overly emotional. Rather, she took the chances life and Zarek offered her with both hands.

The book begins in london but we are soon whisked away to the island of Santorini to meet Zarek's family. Although Zarek's father was seriously ill, I was impressed with the way this delicate subject was handled - just the right amount of sentimentality without becoming maudlin.

Zarek finds out he needs to be married in order to inherit his father's estate when he passes. Rhianne is the perfect candidate, yet she does not easily give in to Zarek's wishes. This story shows a strong hero with a heroine that matches him every step of the way despite her vulnerability. It is beautifully written by a prolific author who is a true inspiration to aspiring authors and a delight to her many readers.

In limbo

My accounts are finally done – whew! It’s the worst job. I’ve not heard from my editor yet about my book which is disappointing. I feel in limbo. I’m now about to go out into the garden and frighten away some weeds that are daring to reappear. My DH is at this very moment spreading weed and feed on the lawns. And the birds in the nest are growing very quickly. We’ve had some heavy rain these last few days but so far this morning it’s lovely and sunny so I’m looking forward to working in the garden.

My mind refuses to tackle thoughts on a new book. I have some vague ideas but I think I need the other one put to bed before I can really let my mind free to work it out.

Disappointed

At the weekend we thought that we would take a ride on the mountain railway up Mount Snowdon – which is the highest mountain in Wales, (higher than any in England too) and visit the new café that has been built there.

The weather was glorious when we set off but the closer we got the more cloudier it became. The clouds turned to rain clouds and it poured down. There were so many walkers huddled into their wet gear, heads down, that we felt sorry for them.

We decided not to go up the mountain in the end because we wouldn’t have been able to see anything. Another time perhaps.

Last year we went up (the café wasn’t finished then) and it was beautifully sunny, but even as we stood and admired the view the clouds came down. I guess it will always be a gamble.

Waiting game

I'm still waiting to hear whether my book has been accepted. I hate this waiting game. I feel on edge, not able to settle down to anything else. I still have accounts waiting to be done and an office to tidy. It's soooooo bad! I printed some bookmarks last week to slip into my books in local bookshops advertising the fact that I'm a local author. And could I find them this morning. I looked everywhere. Think logical, I told myself. I knew they had to be in my office. And, yes, I found them eventually, under my dictionary, which was in the wrong place.

And then I went down to our local town and proudly looked at my books. And with permission I inserted a bookmark into each. I wonder if it will help promote future sales. I'd like to think so.

Surprise

Do you remember me telling you that we had a visiting hedgehog? Well, he seems to have stopped coming, but yesterday we had another surprise.

We were thinning out the shrubbery in our secret garden, hacking away merrily, a robin playing at our feet. We’ve had two robins around for quite a while. And then what did we find? A robin’s nest.

Oh, my goodness. If we’d known we wouldn’t have cut quite so much of the bush away. But luckily the chicks didn’t seem bothered, they simply opened their beaks wide wanting to be fed. And the mother wasn’t disturbed either. So now we’re leaving it well alone.

Ideas

Yesterday’s post seems to have disappeared into the ether (and I didn’t keep a copy) So here I go again.

On Thursday my American daughter in law was sworn in as a British Citizen. DH and I attended and it was a marvellously patriotic ceremony. DH filmed it and we’re going to put it on a CD for her to show her parents next time she goes home. It was the sort of occasion that I’ll never forget.

Kimml – you’ve won my latest contest, so email me your address and your copy of The Santorini Marriage Bargain will be on its way to you.

Sadly that was the last week of my contest celebrating my 75th book, but I do have one more book to give away. This is not a contest as such but I’ve been trying to work out a new plot and I’m not sure in which direction to go. A marriage of convenience, a revenge story, amnesia (which I haven’t done in a long time) and I’ve just done the secret baby story, so that’s out.

How would you like to tell me which are your favourite plots – one of the above or something different. And if I choose one of them for my next book then I’ll send whoever came up with the idea a copy of The Santorini Marriage Bargain or The Italian’s Ruthless Baby Bargain. The choice is yours.

Empty

I feel totally bereft now that my book has gone. I should have spent time today working on my accounts but I couldn't face them. So I worked in the garden instead. Weeding is very therapeutic and now that it's all neat and tidy it's a pleasure looking out at it from our lounge windows.

Our grandson visited - with his Mum and Dad, of course. Oliver is now 14 months old and is taking his first faltering steps. I think I may have to put him in one of my books. I have a four year old in the book I've just sent off and I wrote that he liked sausage sandwiches for breakfast - which is my eldest grandon's favourite. So it just goes to show that we do put little bits of real life in our books. If you can call eating a sausage sandwich real life!

The four year old I'm writing about also fell down and cut his head and I had help from Anne McAllister whose granddaughter had done the same thing. In fact it was Anne mentioning it on her blog that gave me the idea to put it into my story. So if you're reading this Anne, thanks again for all the info.

Does anyone else use snapshots of real life?

Hurrah!

Hurrah, the revisions are finished. They were not as bad as I thought and I’ve read the book through twice to make sure I haven’t missed anything. Now all I have to do is wait and see.

I have two lucky winners for my June contest. My DH has picked Maureen to win a copy of my 75th book The Santorini Marriage Bargain, and Penney you get a book mark. If you’d both email me your address I’ll get them in the post straight away.

Now another week starts. Comments = prizes. If you don't comment you can't win. It's that simple. I have one more book to give away and loads of bookmarks.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Plots

I'm still deep in revision hell. But at the same time I'm idly thinking about my next plot. Not that I have one, but I'm sort of tossing options around. Remember this photo of Sienna in my current book? Well it was from a page I tore out of a magazine. I have no idea now what the article was about but printed on the same page were the words: 'Tom is charismatic, sexy and good-looking, but very intense and serious.'

I plan to print these words out in large print and pin it up in front of me. I want to know who Tom is and why he's intense and serious. I'm hoping it will prove a first stepping stone to my next story.

Best Seller

Yesterday Bought for Marriage was No 6 on eHarlequin’s top ten daily bestsellers. It doesn’t take much to make my day!

And last night I went to Kate Walker’s talk in Derby. Brilliant!

But now it’s back to the revisions…

Reviews

The first review is in for The Santorini Marriage Bargain and I'm delighted with it.

Check it out here.

And don’t forget that if you want to win a copy just add a comment

James Bond

We had a drive into Wales over the weekend. The weather was glorious and we found a lovely little cove in Cardigan Bay with golden sand and a headland either side. There was no parking at the bottom and we had to walk down a steep hill to it. Going down was OK but coming back up!!!

Talking to a man on holiday he said that the last scene in the James Bond movie Die Another Day was shot there and as my DH is a James Bond fan and we have most of his movies on DVD we found it out and religiously watched it last night. We recognised the bay instantly. We waited the whole movie for it – and it was on for about six seconds!

Pierce Brosnan was James Bond. Apart from Sean Connery I think he was the best James Bond by far. Seriously sexy. Does anyone else share my opinion or do you have other favourites? Or perhaps you don’t like James Bond movies at all?

Book covers

I’ve received copies of The Rich Man’s Reluctant Mistress in Dutch, and also The Billionaire’s Blackmail Bargain in the same language. The intriguing part is that although The Rich Man’s Reluctant Mistress has the same cover photo the one on The Billionaire’s Blackmail Bargain has been changed. Could it be because it originally had a bare chested hero?

I’ve just been on the Harlequin Holland website so that I could upload a copy of the cover but it’s not there. And nor is my name in their list of authors which I find extremely disappointing considering the numbers of years I’ve been writing.

The second week of my contest is over, and Abby’s name has been plucked out of the hat (of only two commenters – where are you all?) so if you email me your address, Abby, I’ll send you a copy of The Santorini Marriage Bargain. Michelle, if you also let me know your address a bookmark will be on its way to you.

Week three now begins and I’d be delighted to send another copy of this my 75th book to a lucky commenter (is there such a word as commenter?) and a bookmark to everyone else.

Ideas

I spent the morning yesterday weeding the front garden. We’ve had so much sunshine and rain recently that the weeds have flourished. Then I spent the afternoon making a start on my accounts, as well as submitting books for PLR. This is the side to writing that is no real pleasure. Unfortunately it has to be done.

I’m going to spend today dreaming up a new plot. This is much more exciting. (I might make start on the weeding first in the back garden but it’s not actually calling to me.) At this moment I have no ideas whatsoever. I thought I’d jotted some plot ideas down somewhere, but can I find them? Perhaps when I’ve tidied my desk they might come to light.