This is what’s known as a displacement activity! I am supposed to be squaring up to that blank screen right now, typing Chapter One and getting on with it, but as usual I keep finding all sorts of excuses why there’s no point in starting just yet…

The good news is that I do have a plot, thanks to Stella, who helped thrash out an idea over a bottle of wine and was allowed to name the baby as a reward (she’s already had a name check as a secondary character in Fiancé Wanted Fast!, out May/July this year). She chose Noah, which is, apparently, what she would have called a boy if she had had one, so Noah it is. My heroine is called Martha, and the hero – for the moment at least – Lewis, although I’m not entirely convinced about it. Am not sure why, as I do like it as a name. I imagine a Lewis as a very cool, rational, no-nonsense kind of character, which would make sense for the hero. Will have to see how I get on when I eventually get round to writing a first ...

I meant to update the diary to wish everyone a happy Christmas, but there was so much going on in December that I missed that deadline, not to mention assorted others, and now it’s getting a bit late to offer good wishes for the New Year as well. However, for those of you like me who are only just getting back into the swing of things after the break, and especially for all of you who got in touch with me last year, have a very happy and successful 2003!

I had a wonderfully romantic Christmas, and was all set to glow through the new year, but a computer virus, a real virus, a bruising fall all the way down my stairs, and a tax return have brought me down to earth with a bump. I haven’t done any work for over a month now and I am beginning to feel twitchy. I am supposed to be starting the next book at the end of this month, but am bogged down with my thesis and in any case have got absolutely nowhere with a plot, which is still stuck on baby plus exotic setting. ...

The big news this month is the launch of www.harlequinromanceauthors.com - a joint effort by a number of Harlequin Romance and Mills & Boon Tender to try and alert readers to what a great line this is … contemporary stories that  give you just what you want from a romance.  Apart from news about forthcoming releases, there’s a ‘Day in the life of’ each author – a twist on the standard biographies – and a Café Corner, where you can eavesdrop on the conversations Romance authors have when they get together.  The website was only launched on Sunday, so we’ll be revising it and adding new features as time goes by, but do have a look and let us know what you think. 

Ah, yes, Paris!  Here I am looking very happy in the Luxembourg Gardens.  Absolutely more fun than just writing romance, but have yet to come properly down to earth and am consequently having great difficulty concentrating on the job in hand.  I hadn’t quite finished the last book (now called The Blind-Date Proposal) before I left, but I had been a good enough girl to be allowed to go, and it only took a couple of days to finish it when I got back.  My editor has had a look at it and it only needed a couple of minor revisions, so I’m hoping that as far as the City Brides trilogy goes, it is now two down, one to go …

I am just about to start the second – and hopefully final – draft of the current book, which so far has been going spookily well.  Normally I manage about 40 pages of a first draft but this one is already 95 pages long, and at times I just didn’t seem to be able to shut my characters up.  Of course, not trying to do another job at the same time helped, but generally I think it’s just that some books acquire a life of their own and others, like the one I have just finished, never quite click.  So I’m hoping that this book will continue to write itself ...

Am busily touching wood, though, as updating this diary is a bit of a displacement activity in lieu of starting back at Chapter One, which could be a bad sign.  I’m sure I’ll be all right once I get going though, as this time I have a very clear idea of my heroine, Kate, and the hero, Finn, and where they are (London) and what they’re doing (the usual!), and the assorted secondary character ...

Well, I did get past Chapter 5 eventually, but it was a struggle right to the end!  I finally sent the book off a week or so later than my original deadline which wasn’t too bad when it felt as if I had been writing it for ever.  I’m still not sure why that particular story never clicked, in spite of moments thinking that it was just about to, and frankly I was desperate to get rid of it in the end.

It’s been great to have a couple of weeks away from it, including  a trip down to London for the Jubilee holiday, but since I came back I have been braced for my editor’s comments.  I was convinced I would end up having to rewrite the entire book, or possibly to be told to give up writing altogether (a recurrent fantasy, based on the absence of choice and responsibility like most fantasies), but in the event, of course, things weren’t nearly that bad.  In fact, there were lots of things she really liked about the book, much to my surpr ...

Anyway, after we had sorted that out, she asked me what the problem was, and after I had wittered on about various other distractions in my life, I started to talk about the plot and why I didn’t think it was working, which was the first time I’d really articulated what was wrong with it.  It was incredibly helpful to talk it through with someone who understands how plots work and how far you can go with ch ...