I’ve been keeping my head down recently and trying to make less of meal of this current book than I did with the last one.  I was actually sitting here yesterday thinking I ought to update the blog but really had nothing to say as it’s just been tap, tap, tap at the keyboard, but just as I was girding my loins to embark on Chapter 7 this afternoon, the phone rang and a really lovely voice from Houston told me that Last-Minute Proposal had been short-listed for a RITA in the Contemporary Series category.  So now I’ve got no excuse not to update the blog!

I’m obviously really thrilled, and particularly because Last-Minute Proposal

Well, here I am, starting another book, and wondering as always how I’m ever going to make it work.  I’m still at the rough draft stage, filling pages with any old rubbish just so that I have something to work with when I go back to the beginning and start writing properly.  In some ways, this is a good bit of writing.  I set myself a low target of 5 or 6 pages a day, and have the time to work on other projects as well – at least in theory.  Let’s be honest here, I spend quite of time I could be working drifting around having coffee instead or, like last night, drinking pomegranate martinis – v yummy.  On the other hand, I did come back and draft a scene where my heroine has one pomegranate martini too many, so the whole evening can now be justified on the grounds of research! 

This book is meant to be a romantic comedy, and I’m writing it in the first person, which I& ...

Cinderella’s Wedding Wish is out soon.  If you can't wait to read it, you can read an excerpt here or read an email from the hero - Rafe Knighton - to his ex colleagues in West Africa here.

I only got home late last night, and I am still trying to sort myself out, so by the time I sat down to describe Tuesday’s RNA Awards lunch, Kate Hardy had already done a much better job on her blog so pop over there for a full description and an array of photos.  Kate is a regular on the shortlist, as is the ebullient Fiona Harper, here together in fine form but the Romance Prize went yesterday to India Grey. It was clear from the summing up just how much the judges loved India’s book, and she was a very popular winner.

Warmest congratulations again to India!

It feels strange to be sitting at my computer again.  I’ve just got home from three weeks in Scotland without internet access, in spite of my best efforts to get British Telecom to install broadband while I was there.  My father had a heart attack on 14th January, and was in hospital for a couple of weeks before an angioplasty, so I had to drop everything and go up to give my mother a hand.   It was an odd time, fitting into a completely different routine and without email I felt very cut off, but the good news is that my father is now home, thanks largely to the wonderful care he had at Dumfries & Galloway Royal Infirmary.  That meant that I could come home too, and yesterday I made it back across the Pennines to a bulging inbox.  I’ve been catching up with friends too – it feels as if I have been away for three months instead of three weeks, and I am still a bit disorientated, as if I’ve jetted in ...

Harlequin is celebrating it's 60th birthday today - Happy BIrthday Harlequin! - by giving away free books! Visit HARLEQUIN CELEBRATES to download yours!

Here is the complete list --

Harlequin American Romance, Once a Cowboy by Linda Warren

Harlequin Blaze, Slow Hands by Leslie Kelly

Harlequin Historical, His Lady Mistress by Elizabeth Rolls

Harlequin Intrigue, Crime Scene at Cardwell Ranch by B.J. Daniels

Harlequin Presents, Price of Passion by Susan Napier

Harlequin Romance, The Bride’s Baby by Liz Fielding

Harlequin Superromance, Snowbound by Janice Ka ...

I know everyone else has been back at work for a while now, but this week feels like the start of the year for me.  The last book (still to be titled) finally went through last Friday, after a last minute flurry when I was asked to add some tips for a Christmas party to go in the back of the book and since then I’ve been tidying up loose ends and trying to get myself organised.  Then came a request to write a blog for eHarlequin’s  “My Favorite Hero” event in February.  The brief was to write it from a hero’s perspective, so I sent an email from Rafe, the hero of Cinderella’s Wedding Wish to his ex colleagues in West Africa. I rather enjoyed doing that – 1000 words was a breeze after the slog of the last book!   The result should be up on eHarlequin on 6 February but if you want a sneak preview of wha ...

Well, just when you thought I’d finished with all the self-congratulation …  I’m thrilled to have been short-listed for the RNA’s Romance Prize again this year with Promoted: to Wife and Mother, so will be off to the Awards Lunch in London on 10th February to see who’ll be taking the rose bowl home this year.  Also on the shortlist is last year’s winner, Kate Hardy, who was talked about her book  Sold to the Highest Bidder on the blog here last year.  Congratulation ...

Well, here we are in 2009 – it hardly seems possible.  I was waxing lyrical about Egypt yesterday, remembering getting off the train in Aswan and the absolute hush as we watched the sun set over the Nile, or cycling out to the Valley of the Kings at midday, after all the tour groups had gone in the cool of the morning, so we had the tombs to ourselves (cue gusty sigh), and then I realised that it was twenty five years ago.  A quarter of a century.  It makes me feel quite odd just thinking about how quickly time goes – except when you’re bogged down in a book, when every minute drags, of course! 

Am not quite sure why I’m feeling so nostalgic at the moment.  Perhaps it’s because I’ve been to see the film “A ...

Hhhmmnn … interesting to re-read my last blog and see how confident I was about version #6.  What touching faith!  In the event, it was version #7 that made it to the end – or even version #8, if we’re going to be picky. I was just about to email the manuscript to my editor when I realised that I’d miscounted the total number of words, and had 5,000 more than I’d thought I had.  NOT a good moment.  I had to slash and burn my way through the manuscript again, cutting whole scenes, to get rid of 2,500 words.  I don’t suppose I actually had my eyes screwed up while I was doing it, but that’s certainly what it felt like!  All in all, it was a real Mistletoe Marriage of a book (plus RSI – excellent!) and I feel as if I’ve been lashed to my computer for months.  I let myself have a morning off to have coffee with a friend a couple of weeks ago, and it fel ...