I’ve been doing some more teaching, this time as an evening class on writing popular fiction generally at the university here in York – not quite as glamorous as Tuscany, I know, but just as interesting in a different way.  One of the things we’re going to look at is the whole process of writing, so I have been giving that some thought lately. How *do* I write?  It’s easy to talk about character or plotting or dialogue, but actually getting the words onto the screen is a much more mysterious process.  For me, it certainly involves at least two rubbishy drafts and an awful lot of staring at the screen in despair.  The account of my day in About Jessica may look like a joke, but it’s all (sadly) too true. 

Now that I’ve started to think about it, I realise just how much time I waste every day.  I know I’m not alone in the constant search for displacement activities: I’m always checking my email, in spite of the fact that I rarely get a message, and if I do, it’s never anything urgent.  I paint my nails a lot too, or at least I did until I discovered permanent manicures (life changing for those of us with weak, splitting nails) and like to think of this as part of the whole process.  The mind seems to require a certain amount of festering time, I think (that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it) and the great thing is that you can then justify all sorts of time wasting activities when really you should be slaving over a hot keyboard. 

The fabulous Liz Fielding sent me the ultimate time waster other day.  (Liz, if I miss my deadline, I’m going to hold you entirely responsible!) Have a go at this jigsaw: Now tell me that you’re not hooked!  The great (or possibly terrible) thing about this is that you can upload any photos or images and create new jigsaws.  I moved swiftly on from covers to photographs from the Where are You page – the Ouagadougou dancers makes a brilliant one.  If you’ve got a favourite time wasting activity of your own, do share it and distract me from the jigsaws -  then I can stop blaming Liz for the fact that I’m not getting on with my book!

This makes a nice segue, if one was needed, into fact that Liz and I have books out together in UK this November in the new 2-in-1 format now.  I have yet to be convinced about the new covers, I must admit, but the big plus is that along with Under the Boss’s Mistletoe  comes Christmas Angel for the Billionaire, which is a truly wonderful story from Liz.  I only meant to flick through it, but I was sucked into the story in spite of myself.  It’s always a pleasure to read Liz’s books.  They all have that magical PTQ that is so hard to define or to analyse.  Perhaps it’s all that time she clearly spends ‘thinking’ too!  An even better reason to keep jigsawing …

Under the Boss’s Mistletoe is different in feel, I think, butI hope you’ll keep reading when you’ve finished Liz’s book!  This is the book I was struggling with so much last year, and which only came to life when I stopped and reread Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need,  a book I quote endlessly in classes and workshops, because it’s so funny and sharp, and because I love the way he thinks about stories.  Re-reading it reminded me that I hadn’t delivered on ‘the promise of the premise’ (pretending to be engaged/planning a Christmas wedding) and so I included what Blake calls ‘fun and games’.  I sent Cassie and Jake to a wedding fair and then set up a scene where they had to dress up as a bride and groom and be photographed and lo! the story took off. 
 
And talking of Christmas, here’s some advance warning if you’d like to set yourself up with some holiday reading. In December, Donna Alward will be announcing details of a special Christmas contest  on the Harlequin Romance Authors Blog, the prize to be a basket of books contributed by HR authors from the US, UK and Australia.  This will be a fabulous opportunity to read across the range of stories in this great line, so keep an eye on the blog to find out exactly when the contest is coming up and make sure you don’t miss your chance to enter.

Finally, if anyone’s in need of even more displacement activity, try and choose your favourite romantic novel of the last 50 years – not nearly as easy as it might seem!  The Romantic Novelists’ Association are holding a 50th Anniversary Poll to find the nation’s favourite romantic novel.  The poll isn’t open to members of the RNA, but it’ll be very interesting to see what book tops the poll and whether it’s what is normally thought of as a romantic novel.  As a member, I can’t vote, but I’ve been thinking about it anyway, and I was quite shocked to realise that many of my instinctive first choices (i.e. Georgette Heyer and Mary Stewart) were actually published before 1960.  I think it’s time my tastes moved on!