Apology

Sorry I haven’t blogged lately. It’s because I have my son and d-i-l staying with me, prior to their move to the US. Everything is chaotic at the moment, what with visiting relatives to say goodbye, decisions on what to leave behind because of baggage allowances (several boxes have already been sent on ahead) My house isn’t my own and no writing or even planning my next book has been done. Actually, that’s not quite true, I am making notes, usually sitting up in bed at night before turning out the light. So all is not lost…

What do you think of my new blog design? I'm completely harmonised now thanks to the wonderful Heather who has done all the work.

Thoughts

I'm still thinking!!

Here we go again

Some you win, some you lose. I’ve said that before, haven’t I? And not too long ago. And now another story has bit the dust. It’s back to square one. To say I’m disappointed is to put it mildly, but I’ve picked myself up and dusted myself down and I’m eager to go again. I have my son and d-i-l staying with me for the next two weeks so that will give me time to think up something new and wonderful that my editor won’t be able to resist.

So if you don’t here from me you’ll know what I’ll be doing – thinking!

Notebook

I have a notebook which is so well used that it’s held together with an elastic band because almost every page is loose. It dates back to pre-computer time. And I used it today because it has lists of both Christian and surnames in different languages. I was looking for Greek.

These days I use the computer for this sort of thing, but, actually, looking in my notebook was so much quicker. And nostalgic if the truth’s known. It must be nearly thirty years old. I garnered the names from all manner of places. The Olympic games was one of them. Newspapers was another. As well as names I have indexed places, plots, titles (when we were allowed to choose our own) It’s an amazing wealth of information.

word count

I beat my word count today of 2000 words.

I did 2001!

Progress

Three chapters are with my editor. I can’t believe I wrote three chapters in five days. But now the impetus has slowed and I’m back to my normal half a chapter a day, around 2000 words.
Nevertheless I’m having fun with Blake and Kate. Poor Kate’s just sprained her ankle and Blake’s having to care for her. You know the sort of thing, carry her from one room to another – even though it may not be strictly necessary. He has his head screwed on, that man!

Isn’t it funny how names don’t suit characters? You choose them so carefully in the beginning but as you begin to write you realise that it is all wrong for them. My Robyn has now become Kate. For no other reason than because Blake called it her. I had chosen Robyn because I’d wanted a name that could be mistaken for a man’s name – but it’s not really important to the story, so Kate she is. (If you’re reading this Kate Walker, please let me know if you mind)

It’s happened to me before, this changing names thing. I was wondering whether it had happened to anyone else?

Now to the exciting part. The winners of my last contest. They are:

Carmella Hathaway
Jackie Wisherd
Elaine Seymour

Congratulations. I'll be sending a book from my back list to each of you.

Jackie & Elaine I have your address. Carmella, can you please email me yours.

Covers

I've just received copies of The Billionaire's Blackmail Bargain in Italian. On the cover of my original Cade was bare-chested, but now he's been given a shirt. I actually like this new cover better. I feel it has a more sultry image. What do you think? And incidentally the title has been changed to Luxurious Blackmail. Lovely!

Fresh start

The new story has started off at a fair pace and Blake is beginning to make his presence known. Robyn is well able to stick up for herself, though. I think I'm going to have fun with this one. We've moved temporarily from the Scottish Castle to a Greek Island - owned by Blake! I don't want to give the plot away but it's a marriage of convenience and this is their honeymoon. Not the normal run of the mill honeymoon, of course!

My contest closed today and I'll be announcing the winners on Monday here on my blog.