It's a yes!

Hurrah, hurrah, my Australian book’s been accepted!

I have no title for it yet and no idea when it will be published but I am so pleased. Now I can finally put it to bed. Simone and Cade can take a rest as well until it’s their turn to enter the world of books. Of course they do live in the Whitsundays – so you can just imagine what they’ll be doing, can’t you? Sailing, snorkelling, lazing around until the yacht charter company’s up and running again. (Big sigh!) All this makes me wish I was still with them. Never mind I have new people to meet. My next hero’s going to be a gorgeous Italian. I can’t wait to get started with him – except that I haven’t quite worked out his story yet…

No news

I’ve been away for a few days catching my breath after my London trip and I was hoping to have news from my editor when I got back. However she rang me to say she hadn’t yet had time to read my manuscript – so the waiting goes on. I’ve caught up on some reading – which is sheer luxury because I hardly ever find time to read when I’m working on a book, and we’re revamping part of the garden, which is a major project..

I’d like to plug a book here. My friend Margaret Callaghan has just had an on-line romance released by Moonlit Romance. She’s been trying so hard to break back into the market after two of her previous publishers stopped publishing romance, and at last she’s done it. The book is called Chasing Rainbows and can be purchased here. I’m in the middle of reading it at the moment and can’t wait to get back to it. I’ll tempt your appetite with the opening paragraph:

Hell, but she was beautiful, the most beautiful woman in the world. His woman, he’d foolishly believed, that long hot summer that stubbornly refused to fade in his mind. Because try though he would, he couldn’t forget he smell of her, the taste of her, the feel of her. Or maybe the stark truth was he didn’t want to forget. Because he’d loved her, and she’d lied. And for that he’d never forgive her. And savouring the memory kept the hate alive.

And last but not least, the winner of my September competition over on my website is Nathalie Najm. Nathalie, if you email me your address I’ll send your prize.

It was an interesting competition, I had more responses than I expected, and it was hard deciding the winner. Thank you to all who took part; I’ll be announcing another competition soon.

Terracotta Army

Fantastic, incredible, breathtaking – there are really no words to describe the terracotta army exhibition at The British Museum in London. To think that the first emperor – King of Qin – had around 7000 terracotta soldiers built to look after him in the afterlife – not only soldiers but horses and birds, chariots, musicians and civil officials, everything he had during his earthly lifetime was recreated.
The exhibition included other artefacts – elaborate bells, swords, knives, scoops – all manner of things. Particularly interesting was a tableaux – probably no more than a foot high, showing how the army was made. Each figure was built from the feet up in separate parts, assembling as they went, until finally the head was put on – it was then transported on a trolley of sorts to its final destination.
The exhibition runs until April 6th next year, so if you’re ever in London do go to see it. Or even make a special journey – it’s well worth it.

The other reason I was in London was to attend an author luncheon and a champagne party thrown by Mills & Boon. I always love these luncheons – so many writers to talk to and compare experiences. The talking is non-stop. Writing is a lonely profession so meeting up with other writers like this is like the icing on the cake.

Now it’s back to normality. And a new book to think about. My editor’s promised to get back to me next week on the Australian one. So watch this space!

And don't forget the competition on my website. It only has one week left to run. Already I've had some very well thought out 'journeys' It's going to be a tough job judging.

It's a record

I've read my book through after a few day's break, made a few more alterations, and finally it's gone to my editor. Can you believe it's taken me seven and a half months to write this book? It has to be a record. My shortest ever was six weeks, my average is three months. I had problems all the way along and nearly gave it up and started something new. I always send the first few chapters to my editor to read before I carry on with the rest of the book. In this case the first five chapters had to be re-written as she had issues with them, then I sent off three re-written chapters and there were still problems. So I addressd those and carried on writing the rest of the book. Admittedly I have had a couple of holidays in the middle of it! I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed now that she will like it.


We're off tomorrow to see the Terracotta Army. I'll let you know what it's like.

Pink Heart Society

It’s going to be an exciting weekend. Over on The Pink Heart Society I’m doing a Spotlight Interview. Do take a look and find out where I get my inspiration from for my books, how I relax and wind down, my most embarrassing moment, and lots of other things about me that you might never know otherwise.

Something else embarrassing - my interview will have a link to my website which has gone completely haywire. Many apologies as I have no time at the moment to put it right.

Re-write

Hurrah, my re-write is finished. It’s been a big challenge but I’ve finally come to the end – and a good thing about it is that it’s longer than the original. I always have trouble making my books long enough. Right from the early days of my writing career I could always finish them at about Chapter 7. I’m having to force myself to delve more deeply into the characters, into their thoughts and emotions, and hopefully my books are stronger for it.

I shall leave it now until Monday when I’ll give it its final read through before e-mailing it to my editor. She rang the other day to see how I was doing. I felt guilty because it’s taken me so long. OK, I had two holidays in the middle of it but is that an excuse? Which is more important, my writing or my holidays? The answer is both. Because holidays are invaluable research. (At least that’s what I tell myself)

Next Thursday my DH and I are going to London. I’m going to an author luncheon on Friday and a Mills & Boon author drinks party afterwards. (where I’ll meet my editor – and I couldn’t face her if I hadn’t finished my book!!!) But one of the highlights of our trip will be going to see China’s Terracotta Army exhibition at the British Museum. It starts today I believe and tickets have been flying out. My DH in particular is looking forward to this.

Blocked blog

Has any computer expert out there got any idea how I can 'unblock' by blog. Since my computer crashed I've been unable to sign in unless I open it in a new window. I've gone into internet securities and tried ticking and unticking various boxes to no avail. It shows Blogger.com as a restricted website and it is blocked. Any help would be gratefully received.

Foreign books

I’ve just received some copies of a 2 in 1 book of mine printed in Italian. Actually I now have six copies! How I wished I’d received them before we went to Rome so that I could have handed them out and perhaps got myself some new fans. Isn’t it always the way of things? What do I do with these copies now? I’ll keep one for my bookshelf, but the others? My local library doesn’t want any more – I think I’ve saturated them. All ideas will be gratefully received.

Revisions

The revisions are well under way, although I fear they'll take far longer than I anticipated. I'm having to change the whole concept of the last few chapters, making Simone pregnant far earlier in the story in order to up the tension. In the original version her discovery was very close to the end.

I find re-writes far more difficult than the original story - but editors know best! And in the end it always turns out a far stronger story. The trouble is I'm very anxious to begin my next book. I already have a storyline in my head and I've started a collage (something I never used to do). Then I'll run the plot through my editor before I begin writing - after this Australian one's out of the way.

When I first started writing in the 70's I never had rewrites. I'd finish a book one day and start another the next. They were the good old days. The stories have changed so much. They're definitely much stronger now, feisty heroines and far more successful and powerful heroes. How I love them! The heroes I mean. I fall in love with every single one of them. And I hope my readers do the same!

Rome

I didn't tell you we were going to Italy, did I? We went on a coach trip to Rome. It's a place we've always wanted to visit and although it was a whistle stop tour of all the touristy sites it was well worth it. We visited Montecasino (where my husband's eldest brother fought in the 2nd World War), Pompeii (what an incredible place), The Vatican City (mind-blowingly beautiful), threw a coin in the Trevi Fountain, explored the Colliseum, and finally took a boat trip to Capri. What a beautiful island that is. It's certainly whetted my appetite for a much longer visit another time.



But now it's back to normality and revisions on my Australian book. I want to get stuck into them straight away but it's my daughter's birthday so we're going out to lunch with her - and I imagine it will be an extended meal, so perhaps tomorrow...

One thing after another

Thank goodness I'm going away for a few days. Everything's happening to me. Not only could I not figure out my new website but my other one isn't loading my book covers properly. If you look now one of them is wrong, and when I tried to put up a new page with US and Australian covers it went haywire. So apologies to anyone who's viewing my site and sees no recent changes. And on top of all this my computer crashed. I now have it back with a whole new inside (except for the hard drive, thank goodness, so I haven't lost anything - except that I couldn't sign on to my blog this morning and I'm doing this on my DH's computer.)

OK, big moan over, something more exciting. We've bought an e-reader. Well, my DH has, but he's granted me use of it. It has a lovely screen the size of an A5 page, and you can read it in sunlight and artificial light without any problems. You can increase the size of the font as well - so all in all it's a wonderful piece of equipment. Not only can you download books on to it, but newspapers as well, and you can do crosswords and sudoku (my favourite) and write notes (so useful for a writer) You can also view photos from your digital camera, plug a memory stick in and access whatever you have on it. (I've not checked yet whether I could work on my book on it - I don't think I'll be allowed the use of it for that long!!!)

I'll be back soon!

Disappointment

I'm extremely disappointed that my Geocities website which I was trying to move to another host isn't working out as I'd hoped. I've got the site up and running but absolutely no pictures. None of me! Not that that really matters. It's probably for the best. But more importantly none of my book covers. I've been back and forth with their online help people until my mind's all over the place. The main trouble seems to be that I created the site in Microsoft Word. Apparently not a good thing to do. It's been suggested I try again with a different programme. The trouble is I chose Word because it was simple. I'm not a computer techie and when people start talking to me in computer language I'm lost.

I thought it was a good thing in the first place having my own website. Actually it was my dear husband's fault that I ever started it. He spotted a piece in our local paper advertising a six work course on basic web design. I was quite excited. And then disappointed when the course was fully booked. But they ran anther one a couple of months later and I was very pleased with myself when my website was up and running.

But then I got ambitious. I wanted another site with my own domain name (if you remember the free site kept locking people out when it was used too much - it's still there, so you can always take a peek.). Unfortunately it didn't work out quite as I expected.

And now I have extensive revisions to do I won't have time to play at building websites. So all I can say is - watch this space! One day...

Busy

At least the weather’s picked up, if not my work life. My partying's over as well and I’m back to struggling with my new website, but I’m getting there (I think) And I now have revisions to do on my Australian book. Quite a lot actually. Plus my grandson’s visiting and we’re planning to take him away for a few days. All in all life’s very hectic. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. I cannot imagine sitting around with nothing to do. I’m not a domestic goddess. My house is tidy (reasonably) and clean, but I’m not fussy if there’s a smear on the windows or a speck or two of dust on the table top. And bless my husband, he does all the vacuuming.
I attacked the weeds in a wild part of the garden last week and got a rash on my arm for the pleasure. I think it attacked me back! I’ll teach you for not looking after me sort of thing. It itched like mad for about four days. Now I’m left with little hard red lumps which I’m hoping will go soon.

I'm back

What a long journey! But it was worth it. We actually went to my cousin's Ruby Wedding Anniversary party - which lived up to its expectations. A good time was had by all. Orkney landscape is very different to the rest of Scotland, except perhaps for the northernmost tip. See photo. It's fairly flat and almost treeless - and it was very windy!

My book Bedded At His Convenience is in the shops now and I saw it all over Scotland - which I found tremendously exciting as usual. Like most writers I always pull my books to the front of the shelves, and I didn't fail to do so up there.

I'm hoping to get back to sorting out my website next week. Meanwhile I have a Christening party and another wedding anniversary to attend this weekend. Does the excitement ever stop?