It feels odd to be talking about Christmas when summer is barely over, but I’ve just received big box of the North American edition of UNDER THE BOSS’S MISTLETOE, which is out this November.  There’s still no sign of the UK paperbacks, but here is the NA cover again, since it’s such a nice one!  The only thing I knew when I set out to write this story was that it had to incorporate a Christmas wedding, and I plotted it with a friend as we walked the South West Coast path in Cornwall this time last year. 

The original story was very Gothic in feel, perhaps because of all that dramatic scenery, but in the end the book turned out quite differently – I seem to remember writing quite a lot of drafts of this one, and I changed names of the hero and heroine several times … oh yes, all that angst is coming back to me now!  They ended up as Cassie and Jake, though, and now I can’t imagine even thinking about calling them anything else.  Cassie is a wedding planner who spends her life organising weddings for other people, but never for herself.  She ends up working with Jake, the rebel from her past, to transform an old (Cornish!) hall into the perfect venue for a Christmas wedding … Now all they need is a bride and groom! 

UNDER THE BOSS’S MISTLETOE isn’t out until November but I have some spare copies to give away.  Just email me and tell me what where your perfect wedding would be and you could win an advance copy.  All entries will go into a hat, and I’ll draw three winners in October when I get back from Italy.

What else?  It took a little time getting here, but I finally received the plaque for the National Readers’ Choice Award, and as you can see, it makes a fine addition to my study.  It has pride of place on the windowsill next to my RITA, where I can see them both whenever I lose my nerve and remind myself that I CAN do it. I am very proud of the plaque, I must say, and very grateful to the Oklahoma Romance Writers for organising the award.  My desk looks very tidy, doesn’t it?  This is because I’d just swept all the stuff off it and onto the other table for the purposes of the photo – normally it looks like the next photo, and I spend my time hunting desperately through the pile for pens and scraps of paper I’ve scribbled things on, which are always at the bottom!  I always think I’m the kind of person who ought to want to work in a calm, uncluttered environment, but in fact my study is always a tip when I’m writing.  One of the many good things about coming to the end of a piece of writing is being able to tidy up at last.  For some reason I can’t bring myself to tackle it when I’m in the middle of writing – you’d think it would be the perfect displacement activity too, wouldn’t you?

I’m off at the end of September to teach a romance writing course at the Watermill at Posara in Tuscany, which I’m looking forward to very much.  It’ll be good for me to get back into romance writing mode, too, as I have to start on my next book … er, now (wish I hadn’t worked that out).  So far, I have the characters and a premise and not much more, so there’s a long way to go.  But the course I’m teaching will make it all look easy (hah!)  This autumn’s course is booked out, but I will teaching at the Watermill next year as well.  There’ll be more about the course in October, but if you’d like to find out more in the meantime, have a look at the Watermill’s website http://watermill.net/index.html.