Writing

No writing done today. I went to my art group this morning - where I've started a painting of a castle rising out of the mist. A bit tricky this. Maybe I ought to imagine Kara and Blake there - except that it's in ruins. But a scene in the moonlight? Mmm - food for thought.

And this afternoon I 'attended' a webinar run by Harlequin on the subject of - blogging, which was both interesting and enlightening. You'll have to let me know whether I improve over the coming weeks.

Kara & Blake

I hadn't realised that it had been over a week since I last blogged. How very naughty of me. My excuse is that I've been having in-depth conversations with Kara and Blake. Kara is Blake's PA and she has personal problems that he knows nothing about and she intends it to remain that way.

We'll see!

The good news is that I've now sent the first three chapters to my editor - so it's the waiting game to see what she has to say about them. I'm pressing on with chapter four and at this precise moment they're on Blake's own personal jet heading to a conference in Rome.

Aren't they lucky?

Another animal story

Forgive the title of this post. Fish aren't animals. But this happened on Saturday and it was very funny.



We decided to go out for the day into Wales. For those of you who are not aware of it Wales is very much sheep country. In the distance we could see a snake of traffic coming towards us, hundreds of cars it seemed. It was a long winding, hilly road and it was not until we got closer that we discovered the reason for so much traffic going slowly.



A lamb!



Strolling along slowly, looking a little bewildered, but nowhere for him to go. The hedgerows on either side stoppd him fleeing into the fields. Poor thing, he was completely out of his comfort zone. I bet all the drivers in the queue wondered what was going on.



This photo is not of the same lamb, it was one I took a few years ago, but he's very cute, isn't he?

Fish

Shock and horror this morning. My DH opened the curtains and looked through the window, gave a cry of distress, and was out of the house like a shot. Half naked! We have a pool in the garden - OK, maybe a pond - but it has at least a dozen fish in it. And for some reason the water had leaked out. He yelled out to me, 'The water's all gone and the fish are lying dead on the bottom.'



A slight exaggeration - but there was only a couple of inches of water left and the fish were gasping. Fortunately we only lost one and the rest are happily OK. Some are goldfish but some are koi and cost a lot of money.



DH thinks the leak is somewhere in the stream that feeds the pond. Actually the same water gets pumped round and round, so it might be in one of the hidden pipes. He's not yet had time to explore. But yes, it was a shock. We'd actually had a lie in, would you believe, so it brought us fully awake very quickly.

Contest winners

As I only had three entrants in my contest:

Denise Yen

Joy Isley

Mary Ann Derbin

I am going to send a copy of Married Again to the Milionaire to each of you and I thank you for entering.

Joy and Mary Ann I have your addresses. Denise, can you please send me yours. And I'll send off the books asap.

I've started my new book but it's fairly slow going. My heroine is the beautiful Kara, who hides her light under a bushel, and my hero is Blake. She has been working as his PA for over two years without him noticing her. But things are about to change...

Contest

Last day for the contest. Maybe I haven't advertised it enough because I haven't had many entrants, so if you'd like a copy of Married Again to the Millionaire, shoot over to my contest page and send off your entry.

I've also had the go-ahead from my editor today for my new book - so it's all systems go.

The weather forecast for the weekend is rain, rain and more rain, but I don't care. I'm happy to be writing again.

In limbo

My computer's back and almost everything has been reloaded. It cost an arm and a leg which annoys me considerably when the fault was not my own. Nevertheless it's onwards and upwards...

I feel in limbo since I'm waiting to hear from my editor about my latest plot. There are a thousand and one things I could be doing but none of them really appeal. I want to comfort eat but I can't because I'm on a diet. I lost 2-lbs last week and 1-lb the week before - so at least I have something to feel cheerful about.

Disaster

My computer is in hospital - I'm using DH's at the moment. Some nasty little worm has got at it and the end result is that the whole operating system has stopped working. So the tech guys are going to take everything off and reload the system again - and then I'll have the job of reloading all of my programmes!! Something I'm not looking forward to. Especially my service provider. That could take ages. Besides which it's going to cost an arm and leg. So I'm not a happy bunny at the moment.

At least the weather's good. We have clear blue skies and the forecast for the weekend is more of the same.

Land of Ice and Fire

I was thinking last night about all the people who have been stranded because of Iceland's volcanic dust that is a threat to aircraft. My heart goes out to them. I should really hate to be stranded that long. I imagine it is testing everyone's patience. I also feel sorry for the people in Iceland who lvie near the volcano? How are they coping? There doesn't seem to be much said about them.

Actually I set a book in Iceland. It was my fourth one, published in 1976 (in hardback only) and was entitled Land of Ice and Fire. Here is the blurb:

Alex had always loved Iceland, and she was delighted to be going back to work as a courier for a travel firm. But the job, unfortunately, wasn't going at all well - in fact, it was a complete disaster!

Everything that could possibly go wrong went wrong, and every time it appeared to be her fault. It didn't help that Bjorn Einarsson, the head of the travel agency, hadn't wanted her in the first place - he had expected a man - and didn't trouble to conceal his low opinion of her. It helped still less that she had fallen in love with Bjorn at first sight...

My background research was through a lady I knew who had been on holiday to Iceland. I wonder if she's thinking of that now?

Time remaining

There are only two weeks left in my latest contest. So if you want to be in with a chance to win a copy of my latest book MARRIED AGAIN TO THE MILLIONAIRE, simply email me the name of the hero and heroine in my book THE ITALIAN'S RUTHLESS BABY BARGAIN which was released as a Presents EXTRA last month.

Don't forget I'm picking two winners this time, and the deadline is April 30th.

Meanwhile I'm still busy working out a new plot. More of that later if my ed likes it.

Book cover

Thought you might like to see the Italian copy of The Italian's Ruthless Baby Bargain

I've also received in the post today a two in one version, also in Italian, of two of my older books - Surrender to the Millionaire and Reclaiming his Bride.

Gardens

My garden always takes second place when I'm writing. DH mows the lawns but the weeding is left to me, so as I'm now between books so to speak I've been spending time outdoors. We live in a regular sized house so the gardens aren't gigantic but we live on a corner so we have a front garden, a side front garden, a side back garden, and a back garden which has a fishpond and a little stream.

Last autumn I was busy working on a book so I let DH loose on the dead heading and pruning. Now, it's either the hard winter we had, or DH's less than careful pruning because I've lost some plants. The thing is, do I let him loose again or do I do all the hard work myself?

We're having glorious weather at the moment and the blossom on the trees is spectacular. A little later than normal but a very welcome sight.

Who does the gardening in your house?

New beginnings

I've had a lovely week free from the rigours of writing. Or should I say the pleasure of writing? Because it is a pleasure, even when it doesn't turn out the way I would like. I'm never happier than when I'm sitting at my desk creating new stories and I'm really anxious to start on something new. I've already started plotting.

Over on the Pink Heart Society today is a review of The Italian's Ruthless Baby Bargain - so why don't you pop over and take a look?

Happy Easter Everyone

I'm going to be busy with family and friends over the coming week, so if I don't blog you'll know why. Let's hope the weather is kind to us. We've had very mixed weather so far this year, although the daffodils in the garden are beautiful. They really cheer me up when I look at them. And even the fish in our pond are swimming on the surface again. We never see them during the winter, they hide right at the bottom.

I'm not saying anything about the writing front because - well, you know why.