I am forging my way down my ‘to do’ list and have at last reached ‘update blog’, so must write something right now before I lose my momentum.  I am wearing three hats at the moment, with a temporary day job and a freelance editing job as well as romance writing, and as all seem to be at critical stages at the moment, my days are spent in a frenzy of activity.  Ever the Virgo, I wrote myself a list of things that urgently needed to be done, and am aiming to strike three things off every evening. It’s so long since I had a proper job and worked in the daylight hours that I am quite exhausted by all the pressure, although as you can imagine I am getting scant sympathy from my friends who have real careers and live like this all the time. 

Anyway, back to the blog, which is supposed to be about my life as a romance writer.  I was quite busy for a while with the arrangements for the annual lunch for the Association of Mills & Boon Writers in London, but having spent the past year on it, I couldn’t go in the end.  A family crisis called me up to Scotland instead, so I missed meeting up with everyone.   I had planned photos for this blog and everything.  However, I gather my fellow authors all managed to have a very good time without me! 

I’m not usually very good at large parties and even worse at self-promotion, but I have decided that I am really going to make an effort next year.  My fiftieth book will be published in 2008, and I will also be hitting the dreaded five-oh myself (rather less of a cause for celebration, I must admit)  To mark the milestone, I’ve decided to go to the RWA conference in San Francisco next year, and I’ve been busy writing a proposal for a workshop on the grounds that if I’m committed  to doing something, I won’t be able to bottle out nearer the time. 

I’m beginning to wish I hadn’t started the whole thing now, though, as the proposal alone is taking ages. I thought I’d offer a talk about plotting (conflict and character) which seems straightforward until you have to think about giving it a catchy title, making it sound up-beat and interesting, preparing a handout, writing a biography to make yourself sound up-beat and interesting and goodness knows what else.  I had thought I might also offer a version of the talk I gave at the RNA conference in July 2006, which was a light-hearted guide to the downside of writing romance for a living, but have no idea how I would go about preparing a handout for that.  Besides, the RWA conference sounds an alarmingly professional affair and I wouldn’t want to be accused of not taking it seriously enough. 

I should stop fussing about the proposal and just send if off now, as I should really be starting my next book.  This will be number 50, so if I don’t get it written, there won’t be much to celebrate next year.  So far I’ve managed an outline of an idea which I’ve sent off to my editor for her comments, but since then have ground to a halt, diverted by all the other jobs on my list.  I really will have to get going on a rough draft before the weekend.  I am quite looking forward to this book at the moment – before I have to face up to the blank page –  and am hoping my editor will give me the go-ahead to keep things a little lighter this time round.  My heroine is called Tilly and my hero Campbell (although that might change) and they’re taking part in a reality tv challenge for charity … but that might change too.  I’ve had the thumbs down on an idea at this stage before now.  What I hate is when an editor rings up for a chat about the outline and somehow makes me point out what’s wrong and how the idea couldn’t possibly work. It’s sneaky the way they do that.  One way or another though, by the time I update this again, I should be well into the draft, so if you check back at the beginning of November you can find out whether I’m writing Tilly’s story or something else entirely …