Book Titles

Remember Penny & Santo’s story? The book I finished a few weeks ago. I now have a title for it. THE ITALIAN’S RUTHLESS BABY BARGAIN. I’m not sure Santo was entirely ruthless, I wouldn’t like to think so, but hooks sell books so I dare not question it. It’s coming out in February 2009 which, as usual, seems a long time to wait. Looking at it another way, THE BILLIONAIRE’S BLACKMAIL BARGAIN which was accepted in October last year and is due out in September also seemed a long way away. But this year is rushing by so quickly that September will be upon me before I know it.

I now have the pleasure of meeting a new hero and heroine and I intend to spend this weekend getting to know them. I’ll maybe introduce them to you next week. They don’t have names yet but they will, I can’t write without a name, even though I sometimes change it part way through the book. Some names simply don’t suit some characters. It’s weird the way that happens. In one of my books I found myself calling my heroine a completely different name to the one I’d given her. I hadn’t even consciously thought about it. She just became that person.

Competition

Time is running out for my latest competition. If you want to be in with a chance of winning a copy of my two in one book TRAPPED and A TASTE OF PARADISE then you’d better get those entries in.

The competition’s running on my website but in case you haven't seen it here is the question again: On what date did I begin my writing career?

For the answer you need to read my bio, so take a quick look and email me your answer.

Good luck!

All sorts

My new grandson is now 2 weeks old and I've spent a lot of time this week at my daughter's as her partner has had to go into work. Oliver is such a joy. I've had the most wonderful time. I could go on about him all day - but I won't. I'll spare you the baby talk.

I'm still waiting to hear from my editor about my new synopsis so I'm not doing any writing at the moment. It feels strange and if it hadn't been for the baby I'd have most definitely been back at my desk doing something writing related. I-Heart Presents have asked me to do a blog later in the year so I could have been preparing that. And my book that has just been accepted (which so far does not have a title) is my 75th so I need to do a Dear Reader letter. And it's that time of year when the tax man will be expecting his accounts (the least enjoyable job).

I have a question. Yesterday I received two copies of Bedded at His Convenience in Afrikaans. I'm always interested in the titles different countries choose and I wonder if anyone can translate this one for me? Wraak in die bed.

Book challenge

I’d just like to add a reminder to everyone out there about eHarlequin.com’s 100,000 book challenge. Following on from last year’s success when the target was 10,000 books, and readers read an amazing 24,440 books, the plan now is to get 100,000 books read and reviewed. The actual challenge is to read 100 books in a year, 50 per cent of which should ideally be Harlequin romance books. But whatever number of books is read and reviews posted on reader’s blogs during 2008, Harlequin will donate the same number of books to the National Centre for Family Literacy. The aim of the NCFL is to promote learning and reading for disadvantaged children and parents so it is a very worth-while cause.

Here’s the link for anyone who is interested mailto:http://community.eharlequin.com/forums/book-challenge/how-add-book-review-100000-book-challenge

New baby

I’m bubbling over with excitement. I have a new baby grandson. I already have a step-granddaughter aged 19, a grandson aged 12, and now my daughter, who I thought would never have any children, has finally given us a grandchild. I wouldn’t be a doting grandmother if I didn’t say he was adorable. He is. He’s so cute that I have to share. Here he is at two days old.

Photographs

This is dawn in Barbados on the first morning of our cruise. Unfortunately we were never up early enough to see another spectacular sunrise!

I’ve just loaded all my photographs on to my computer and looked at them as a slide show. Our daughter bought us a digital photo frame for our anniversary, so what I’m going to do now is copy them on to a memory stick and insert it into the photo frame so that we can sit in our lounge and watch the display whenever we feel like it. I love watching photographs as slide shows because it brings back so many memories. I even have my screen saver set up as a slide show and it goes through every picture on my computer.

The alternative, before such technology, was getting out photograph albums – which is something I rarely did. So in this instance I embrace technology.

Contest

In all the excitement recently I’d forgotten about my contest. So apologies to all of you who were waiting anxiously to see if you’d won.

The question was: In which country is my September 2008 book – THE BILLIONAIRE’S BLACKMAIL BARGAIN – set? And the answer is: Australia.

I’ve persuaded my DH to wear a blindfold and pick out a winner. And the winner is…

Suzanne Bischoff

Suzanne, email me your address and I’ll send your prize – which is a copy of BEDDED AT HIS CONVENIENCE. The story of Keisha and Hunter and a marriage that went sour – and a reunion!

Caribbean

Amongst other things these last two weeks I’ve been away on a Caribbean cruise which I shall remember for a long time to come. The last time we did this was for our 40th Wedding Anniversary so it wasn’t an entirely new experience. What can I say about it? The weather was glorious, the food superb, the ship glamorous, and the islands exotic. I’ll be posting a photo now and then so you can see what I’m talking about but all I need now is sleep, and plenty of it. We flew back from Barbados overnight so were without sleep for twenty four hours; add jet lag on top of that and you can see what I mean.

While I was away I managed to jot down a few ideas for my new book, so I’ll be working on that in the days ahead. At the moment though all I want is my bed.

Accepted

I’ve just received copies of The Rich Man’s Reluctant Mistress in Italian. It was published there in January but I thought I’d share the sexy cover with you. The book’s set in the Caribbean and Lucinda is an interior decorator. Zane has flown her out there from England to put the finishing touches to his newly acquired property – but judging by the cover he has other things on his mind!

This morning I took a bag full of foreign editions to my local library – then when I got home there were three copies of this book waiting for me. And I’ve just checked my shelves and found that I already have a copy. If anyone knows any Italians who’d be interested…

But even better news – my editor has read the revised version of my Italian book starring Penny & Santo and is really happy with what I've done. So it’s all systems go. As soon as I have a title and publication date I’ll let you know.

For the next two weeks or so I’m going to be busy with more celebrations of our 50th so apologies now if I don’t blog very often. One thing I will be doing is updating the news page on my website - so do look out for that.

Perfect

The party’s over – and a good time was had by all. I worried unnecessarily that everything would go according to plan. But the venue, the food, and the music (a ceilidh band – pronounced kaylee for anyone on the other side of the world who is not familiar with the word – were all perfect.) Ceilidh is Scottish and Irish dancing and we had so much fun doing it. We had ninety guests ranging from one year to eighty six years old – and they all got up and danced the night away. It was a truly memorable occasion.

On a different note, did you know that a Mills & Boon Jigsaw has been developed by Ravensburger Puzzles? It features 10 titles chosen from each of the 10 decades M&B have been publishing. Any jigsaw puzzle fan – and especially Mills & Boon reader/jigsaw puzzle fans - can buy it here

There is also a card range being launched by The Greetings Card Factory with wonderful retro book covers from past classics which have been given a humorous makeover.

So many exciting things are happening in this Centenary year including a UK-wide tour Exhibition, starting in Manchester in June. Also Literary Festivals in Oxford, Manchester, Stratford upon Avon and Lincoln. So do look out for those.

Excitement

If you’ve visited my website you’ll know that our 50th Wedding Anniversary is fast approaching – on Saturday to be exact. We’re throwing a huge party in a splendid venue and I can’t wait. I can’t actually believe that I’ve been married for fifty years. Where has the time gone? We’re busy at the moment with all the last minute arrangements, keeping our fingers crossed that nothing goes wrong.

On the writing front I’m still waiting to hear from my editor about my Italian book – and I’m crossing some other fingers that she won’t want any more revisions. Meanwhile in between party planning I’m thinking up a new plot. I have my hero but not my heroine yet. And I sort of know what’s going to happen to them but not how they meet up. As you can tell, a lot more thought needs to go into it yet.

Also don’t forget, my contest is still running. Just to remind you I need to know in which country is my September 2008 release THE BILLIONAIRE’S BLACKMAIL BARGAIN set? My clue was that it was in one of my December posts. It was December 30th to be exact and prior to that on November 4th. But perhaps it’s a bit cruel asking you to search back like that. So I’m giving you another clue. Simone and Cade are Down Under. Easy uh? Send in those emails for a copy of BEDDED AT HIS CONVENIENCE

Empty Feeling

It’s a strange feeling when you send a book off. I feel empty. Happy yes, satisfied yes, but it’s as though part of me is missing. It’s been a big part of my life for four months and now that I’ve finally emailed the revisions to my editor I have no reason to sit at my desk each morning and immerse myself in Santo & Penny’s story. And that’s what I’m missing.

There are lot of things I could be doing, tidying my desk, cleaning the house, catching up on paperwork – but none of them are as enjoyable as writing. It takes me into another world – and for the Presents series that I write it takes me into a world of glamour. Of billionaires with their own private jets and beautiful houses in different parts of the world. My hero is usually a workaholic – he wouldn’t be a billionaire if he wasn’t a hard worker – but my heroine has rarely tasted such luxury. She might run her own business, or have a highly paid job, or she might be just an ordinary working girl. In the book I’ve just finished she’s a nanny. But no ordinary nanny. This is the first paragraph:

From the first moment Penny looked into Santo De Luca’s eyes she knew she was in trouble. They were the deepest, darkest brown she had ever seen, framed by long silky lashes, set beneath a pair of equally silky black brows. And they appeared to be looking into her soul, trying to find out what sort of a person she was before she had even spoken.

I think you can tell this is not going to be any ordinary nanny/employer relationship.

So for the next few days I’m going to feel sad that they’ve left me – except that I have other exciting things on the horizon – nothing to do with writing. If you’ve visited my website you might know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t – watch this space!

Wreck

I’m surfacing briefly from my revisions. Santo & Penny’s story has of necessity taken a different twist and it’s taking me far longer than I thought it would to re-write the last few chapters. Actually I have written them but in doing so I’ve lost 4,000 words. If anyone knows where they are…
Yesterday, my DH persuaded me to take a day off and we drove to Blackpool – mainly to see the wrecked cargo ship Riverdance. It’s not actually on Blackpool beach, but a few miles further north. It was hit by a freak wave in gales at the end of January and it’s been there ever since – becoming quite a tourist attraction. There were still crowds of people taking photographs.
It will eventually be floated again but it will need a very high tide, and I understand they’ll need to take some of the fuel off before they do so. One amusing thing I heard was that thousands of packets of McVitie’s chocolate biscuits have been washed ashore. How sad is that for all us chocolate biscuit lovers? Salty chocolate biscuits anyone?

Revisions

Thank you to everyone who said such nice things about my new website. I cannot thank the wonderful Heather enough for creating it.

But the excitement is over. My birthday flowers are dead. And it’s back to reality with a bump. Revisions. A long email from my editor. She was really upbeat about it – she called it a wonderful story – which I’m happy about. But she had reservations about the last few chapters – so I’ll have to re-write them.

I’ve read through her suggestions and I can see exactly where she’s coming from – it’s amazing that I can never see these things for myself. It’s because I’m too close to my work. Unable to see the wood for the trees. I know that when a manuscript is finished it’s wise to put it on one side for a while before giving it it’s final read through, and I did leave this one for a whole week but because of a deadline I couldn’t afford to leave it any longer.

I think it worked though plotting the book out beforehand (which is something I rarely do) and then just going for it without constantly re-reading what I’ve done. So I shall be immersing myself in revisions this week.