Jessica Hart - 50 heroes, 50 heroines...50 happy endings!

Enjoying being a writer!

Thu, 15 May 2008 09:20:48 GMT

No moaning from me this week. This is the time when I really enjoy being a writer … i.e. when I’m not actually writing at all! I finished the book this time last week, and I have already heard back from my editor and done the couple of minor revisions. I had originally made my hero very fastidious about his clothes, which I saw as an endearing flaw, but which was deemed in the end too unheroic, so all references to that had to come out, but otherwise it was pretty straightforward – cue one very big PHEW!

Now I just need to do it all over again before the middle of July. Fortunately, I already have an idea,thanks to an excursion to the out of town cinema last Monday to see the latest chick flick, Made of Honour, starring the delectable Patrick Dempsey (which the webmistress has taken as a cue for including a pic!).

It wasn’t nearly as bad as the reviews had led us to expect, I have to admit. I thought the scenes in New York and the classic ‘friends to lovers’ romance were well done, but sadly it all fell apart when the action moved (pointlessly) to Scotland. There were also some needlessly cruel scenes with a ‘fat bridesmaid’ and a ‘nerdy guy’ that I imagine we were supposed to find funny – I hate those kind of cheap shots. There’s nothing funny about someone who feels worthless because they can’t fit into a certain size of dress, or who lacks the social skills to be ‘one of the guys’. I thought the heroine could have been more obviously torn between her fiancé and her friend, too, and the groom’s humiliation at being left literally at the altar was simply brushed aside … All in all, there was plenty for me to criticise on the way home, and it was as I was holding forth about how much more interesting a story they could have made that I suddenly thought, ‘Hang on, I could do that …’ Stories often grow out of other stories, I find, and then it’s just a question of making it your own. In the end, my story will have nothing in common with Made of Honour, except in an element of the background, I suppose, but the story that film didn’t tell will be the springboard of the plot.

My next task is to write up an outline to send to my editor and see what she feels about it. Sometimes stories I feel quite excited about get the downturned thumb, so I won’t do much more than that for now, but if it gets the OK, then I’ll start straight away on a rough draft (learning from the mistake I made last time!) In the meantime, I have to tackle some of the less exciting aspects of a writer’s life, which mostly means doing my accounts.

I’ve also had a logo designed recently, and have been talking this morning about ordering some promotional items with the said logo duly emblazoned all over them to take to San Francisco.

I am horribly afraid it may all turn out to be the most enormous waste of money, but I suspect that, as with any kind of promotion, its value is impossible to measure, so I’ll probably never know whether it is worth it or not.

I did find it interesting to think about the logo, and try to explain to the designer the sort of effect I wanted.

I gave her the tag line and some key words (‘fresh’, ‘contemporary’, ‘vibrant’ etc) and this is what she came up with.

What do you think?

(The webmistress apologises if the logos aren't perfectly clear. I'm having some technical difficulties!)

I'd love to hear your thoughts!

I'll also be updating the Pick Your Own Romance page very shortly so check back soon so you can vote again in Round Two!

Welcoming Natasha Oakley!

Tue, 06 May 2008 09:57:42 GMT

It’s a huge pleasure to welcome this week Natasha Oakley. Natasha is one of my very favourite Harlequin authors, and she’s certainly on a winning streak this year! She’s nominated for a RITA, is shortlisted for the National Readers’ Choice Award and has already won the Romantic Times award for 'Best Presents of 2007' with her book, The Tycoon's Princess Bride (although actually, we like to think of her as a Harlequin Romance author really). So I’m thrilled that she has found the time to come along as my guest blogger this week. I’ve had a sneak preview of her wonderful book, Wanted: White Wedding (how come everyone but me gets these great titles???) which is out now in North American and the UK, and I can tell you this is a typical Natasha Oakley book, with warm, realistic characters and a hero it’s impossible not to fall in love with!

Over to you, Natasha – and good luck with all those awards! I’ll be cheering you on in San Francisco!

Wow! 50 books!! Just the thought of it makes me want to lie down in a quiet room to recover.

I am so thrilled and a little bit star struck to be a part of Jessica’s 50 book celebrations - because she wrote the first Harlequin Mills & Boon I ever read. In 2001. I know; I was a bit of a late starter! But my passion was theatre. I’d fallen in love at fourteen and I’m a committed sort. I trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art (A contemporary of Minnie Driver. Boy, how I hate how thin that girl has stayed.) and I thought I’d act until I dropped.

Only in 2000 things changed. My husband was diagnosed with cancer. To say that diagnosis was life-changing is a complete understatement. My beautiful, blessed life had the equivalent of the ‘Monty Python foot’ slammed straight in the middle of it. Add to that the fact we had five children under the six at the time and you’ll have an idea of how completely miserable I was. That aside, it was clear my job as a mum was to keep things steady and, for that, I needed to stay at home.

So ... with confidence born out of complete ignorance I decided I would become an author. Lots of actors write, I thought. But what? Plays? TV?

I considered them all. The only thing I was really sure about was that I couldn’t cope with an unhappy ending. What I was living was tough enough. There may be great literary merit in the lesbian’s one legged transvestite brother’s murdered lover but I knew I wasn’t going to be writing it.

Embarrassing now to admit but at this point I really hadn’t read many novels apart from 19th century literature, Georgette Heyer and Mary Stewart. Plays were another matter. I was always looking for that illusive ‘perfect’ audition speech. And I watched films. Anything with a happy-ever-after kind of ending.

That’s when I realised I liked romance. So I checked out the romance market and made a startling discovery. Mills & Boon sell. Those ‘little’ books that are derided so often in the British press sell amazingly well. Something like 3 books every second in the UK alone. And then I discovered Mills & Boon was the UK’s brand name for Harlequin and those ‘little’ books sell well worldwide.

That’s when I went to the library. I borrowed 10 books that first time – and among them, first off the pile was ‘The Convenient Fiancée’ by Jessica Hart. I loved it. I loved Polly’s beautiful shoes, the ones that pinched her toes but made her legs look fabulous. I loved Simon, the family friend Polly thought was slightly boring who turned out to be more exciting than anyone she’d ever met. I loved that final scene at the family wedding. The engagement ring with the sapphire which matched Polly’s eyes. Oh, and that scene where they’re picking it out ....

It was just fab! And from that moment my fate was sealed. I was going to write for Harlequin Mills & Boon. And, just because sometimes dreams do come true, I now do! What’s more I get to be a part of Jessica’s celebrations. So, congratulations on 50 books – and here’s looking forward to the next 50!

This month my ‘Wanted: White Wedding’ is out in both the UK and North America. Personally, and I admit I’m a little biased, I think Daniel Ramsay is particularly sexy. I kind of had Jeremy Northam (you know, Mr Knightley to Gwyneth Paltrow’s ‘Emma’) in mind when I started writing him but he morphed into his own man by the end. Actually, that’s a total gratuitous excuse to post a picture of him on Jessica’s blog, but why not? I refuse to apologise.

And here’s a really short excerpt taken from somewhere in Chapter One:

“Get that, will you?”
     “I’m -”
     “The phone. Take a message,” a disembodied male voice shouted, followed by a grunt. “I’ll be through in a minute.”
     “I -”
     “Phone! Just answer the phone!”
     For a brief second she wondered whether she’d inadvertently stepped into a farce, and then Freya shrugged, stepping over a pile of vinyl records and an old gramophone to reach the other side of the desk. What did it matter? And at least it would stop that infernal noise ricocheting about.
     “Ramsay Auctioneers,” she said into the receiver, her eyes on the closed door.
     “Daniel? Is that you?”
     Hardly. She rubbed a hand across her eyes, the humour of the situation finally reaching her. “I’m sorry, Mr Ramsay isn’t available at the moment. May I take a message?”
     “Can you tell him Tom Hamber called, love?”
     Her right eyebrow flicked up and she reached over the scattered papers for a pad of florescent stick-it notes. In her real life she’d have paused to tell Tom Hamber she wasn’t his ‘love’. She might even have told him that while she could pass on a message she was by no means certain she would ...
     “Have you got that? You won’t forget?”
     “Tom Hamber called,” she said dryly, drawing a box around the two words she’d written. “I think I’ll manage to remember.”
     “Tell him I need to speak to him before midday.”
     Freya added the words ‘before midday’ to the note, then turned at the sound of a loud crash. “I’ll leave him a note,” she said in to the receiver. Whether he actually found it really wasn’t her problem.
     “That’s it, love.”
     She set the receiver back on its cradle, ripping the top note off the pile. One thing she was certain of: there was no way on earth she was going to let her Grandmother sell anything valuable through this crazy set-up. She looked at the confusion on the desk and stuck the note firmly on the telephone.
     “Thanks for that.”
     Freya turned and found she was looking up into a pair of brown eyes. Very definitely up. At five feet ten - more in heels - it wasn’t often she had to do that.
     Why did that feel so good? Some deep Freudian something was probably at the root of it. He had to be at least six foot two. Quite possibly more. And those eyes … Dark, dark brown and sexy beyond belief.
     “I was holding up one end of a table and couldn’t let go.”
     Freya pulled her eyes away from his and wrapped her sheepskin jacket closely around her. “Right.”
     “Did you get a message?”
     “Yes. Y-yes, I did. Yes.” The corner of his mouth quirked and she stumbled on, feeling as foolish as if she’d been caught drooling. “It was a Tom Hamber.”
     “Ah.”
     “He wants to speak to Daniel Ramsay before midday.”
     “I can do that.”
     The most horrible suspicion darted into her head.
     “I’m Daniel Ramsay.” He smiled, and Freya felt as though the floor had disappeared beneath her.
     This couldn’t be Daniel Ramsay. From her grandmother’s conversation she’d conjured up a very different picture. Someone altogether more parochial. More …
     Well …. less, if she were honest. Much less. Truthfully, this Daniel Ramsay looked like the kind of man you’d quite like to wake up with on a lazy Sunday morning. A little bit rumpled and a whole lot sexy.
     “You’re a little late.” Then he smiled again, wiping his hands on the back of dark blue denim jeans and the effect was intensified. “But not to worry. I get here about eight thirty, but I told the agency nine thirty was fine.”
     He held out a hand and she automatically held out her own. His wedding ring flashed. Of course a man who looked like this one would be taken. They always were - even if they pretended not to be.
     A familiar sense of dissatisfaction speared her. It was amazing how many men said they were separated when the only thing keeping them apart from their significant other was temporary geographical distance.
     She was so tired of that. Tired of the game-playing.
     Daniel bent down and pulled open the bottom drawer of his desk. “I’ve got the key to the inner office here. I’ll show you where everything is and then I’ve got to drive out to the Penry-James farm.”
     “I’m not -”
     He stood straight. “Which part didn’t you get?”
     “I understood you perfectly, but I’m not from any agency.”
     “You’re not?”
     “Merely a potential customer.”
     His hand raked through his dark hair. “Hell, I’m so sorry! I thought -”
     “I was someone else.” It didn’t take the mental agility of Einstein to figure that one out. It was vaguely reassuring to know he didn’t actively intend to run his business in such a haphazard way.
     Sudden laughter lit his eyes, and she fought against the curl of attraction deep in her abdomen.
     “So you’re not the cavalry after all? Perhaps we’d better start over?”
     “Perhaps,” she murmured, feeling unaccountably strange as his hand wrapped round hers for the second time. He had nice hands, she registered. Strong, with neatly cut nails. And a voice that made her feel as though she’d stepped into a vat of chocolate.
     But taken, the logical part of her brain reminded her. And, apparently, the kind of man who, if he wasn’t actually preying on her grandmother, was certainly making the most of an opportunity.

Thanks, Natasha!

Don't forget to visit the Harlequin Romance Authors blog to see who else has books out this month.

Book covers

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 20:42:54 GMT

As if I wasn’t eating enough at the moment, I have had to humble pie this week as well. Remember how I was moaning about the cover of my July book? I’d gone to all the trouble of sending them a photo of a lovely Scottish castle, and what did I get? A wedding cake! That was the last time I was going to have anything to do with the artwork, and so on and so forth. Then I came home the other day to find a box of books under the bush in my front garden, and lo and behold! there was the North American edition of Newlyweds of Convenience, which, as you can see, has a completely different cover.

So I had to take it all back, and admit that not only had the artist looked at the photo I’d sent, s/he had thought very carefully about the backdrop. Usually the front cover picture is the same for the UK and North American editions, but apparently Scotland is a big turn-off for UK readers, hence the wedding cake.

It was very interesting to read Larry Roibal’s account of how the covers are produced on Liz Fielding’s blog last week. Clearly a lot of thought does go into them, even though I often look at my own covers and think ‘Why on earth did they choose that?’ I can’t say the hero and heroine on Newlyweds of Convenience look anything like how I’d imagined them, but the picture on the back cover is excellent.

I really like the way the North American covers have a picture of the setting on the back, although they’re not all as evocative as this one.

I’ve just looked at the back of Promoted: to Wife and Mother, for instance, which is set in a fictional city in the north of England.

I hadn’t noticed it before, and I’ve been trying to work out now why this looks like anywhere but an English city. I think it may be something to do with the shutters – or the steps on the front cover. This looks to me like a Dutch city, perhaps, or an American one (not that I know anything about either, or that it matters – I’m just interested because it ties in with the research I did for my thesis).

Anyway, I think I will have to stop grumbling about my covers and just accept that Harlequin know more about what will work and what won’t than I do. I just wish I could have more like Barefoot Bride … sigh. In the meantime, I’ve been sent double quantities of my author copies again, which means I now have 70+ copies to get rid of somehow. Newlyweds of Convenience isn’t out until July, but if you’d like to read it now, just email me with your address and I’d be delighted to reduce the pile by putting one in the post to you!

On the writing front, I gave myself a day off on Saturday, but should be well into Chapter 9 by the time you read this, and I hope that the next time I get round to updating this I’ll be able to report (with a very big ‘phew’!) that the book is finished. However, it’s not done yet, so with the words ‘chickens’ ‘counting’ and ‘hatched’ ringing warningly in my ears, I’d better get on with it …

Deadlines...

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 08:25:20 GMT

My April 30th deadline has galvanized me into action at last, and I have been lashed to my computer for the past week. So far I am on schedule (just). I’m due to finish Chapter 5 tonight, which will leave me nine days to do the other five chapters, so I must keep my head down and not get distracted. Unfortunately, the 130 pages I laboured through in March have turned out to be pretty useless. I made a mistake this time in skipping the rough draft stage. Usually, I do a rough draft of about four or five pages a chapter, just to sketch out what’s going to happen and then do a proper draft of 14 or 15 pages (my final version is usually 17 or 18 pages a chapter). Then, when I come to rewrite it, I find I can use a lot of the draft, which just needs to be expanded a little. But this time I panicked about not having enough time so went pretty much straight into the draft stage – because I’ve written 50 books now, so I know how to do it, right? Wrong!!!

I have been using some bits from the draft, but it’s all over the place and I have been getting in such a muddle turning the pages backwards and forwards to find what I want that in the end it turns out to be quicker to rewrite it completely. Anyway, I am sticking with it and it is falling into place better now, although I am getting worried that I have too much plot (always a big mistake, and I ought to know better). May have to do some brutal chopping by the time I get to Chapter 8, but will have to worry about that when I get there. At the moment I’ll just be relieved to have Chapter 5 behind me and be half way through.

While I’m struggling with my book, do visit the Where are you? page if you haven’t been before, or even if you have, to see what’s new. I was very excited on Saturday to find three new countries added: Spain, Czech Republic and Denmark - thank you, whoever you are! That makes a total of 38 countries registered on the map, and if you run your cursor over the flags you can see where other readers come from. This is still absolutely my favourite page, and I’m thinking it would be fabulous if we could get to a total of 50 countries registered, to stick with my 50 books, 50 year theme. That’s only another 12 to go, and there are still several countries missing where I’ve heard from readers in the past (Italy, Greece, India, Sweden, Venezuela, Turkey, Philippines, Ireland … where are you all??) so go on, have a click and light up your place in the world! I’ve still got plenty of photos to go up. The latest are of Scotland. Fans of The Right Kind of Man (well, I know there are two of you from the Pick Your Own survey, of which more next time) may recognise the walk Skye and Lorimer took together.

Right, back to Chapter 5…

Introducing Kate Walker!

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 06:01:42 GMT

Now, here’s a surprise treat … hot on the heels of Liz Fielding, I’m delighted to welcome Kate Walker, who has popped by to talk about the new edition of her 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance. If you’re interested in writing romance and haven’t yet come across it, I urge you to get yourself a copy. It’s a wonderfully clear and helpful guide, and whenever anyone writes to me asking for advice on writing, Kate’s book is what I recommend - she says it better than I ever could!

It sounds as if it’s all happening on Kate’s website this week, unlike here where I will have to have my head down for a while, so if you want some fun, do go along to her party - and if you’re really lucky, Sid will pick out your name to win a copy of the guide for yourself!

Kate’s going to be back in September, and I’m really looking forward to chatting to her properly then, but in the meantime, let’s help her celebrate the second edition of a really great book … So thank you, Kate, and enjoy those parties!

My thanks to Jessica for inviting me to guest on her blog this week at what is a very special time for me when I'm able to announce that the brand-new, second edition of the 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance is being published this week, starting with a launch party over on my blog, and another at the London Book Fair. I'm really thrilled to be able to say that this second edition is being published and I've been working hard to make it even bigger and better than the first one.

Why did I want to write a second edition?

Well, first there's the obvious reason - the fact that the first edition sold out. That meant that no one can get a copy any more, unless they found one second-hand. Even Amazon doesn't have any used copies available.

Well - they do - if you want
a. A copy sent from Lebanon. I think that's Lebanon NY
b. A used copy for £60-82 - £60-82!!!!
c. A 'like new' copy for £67 - 40

I think not!

And no way am I claiming that my book is worth 6 - nearly 7 times what it originally cost.

Then there was the fact that some of the information in the original edition needed updating - for example, there were the names of some lines - Mills and Boon 'Tender Romance' was back to being just Mills & Boon Romance. And Silhouette Romance had merged with that line to be Harlequin Romance.

Then there was the Modern Extra line which is now selling as Modern Heat.. Nothing stays exactly the same in romance publishing for very long. And that includes the focus of the different lines, there are changes in the guidelines and the things that editors are looking for in submissions.

So obviously it was time to plan a second edition.

But I also decided that if I was going to bring out a second edition, it was going to be an improved and expanded new edition as well as a revised one. I know a lot about writing romance but there are some things that only the authors who write for specific lines really know about.

And so I decided that the best way to make the book even more helpful would be to include advice from the horses' mouths so to speak. Only I didn't call it that - I called this new section From The Authors' Desks. I sent out questionnaires to lots of my wonderful friends who write romance for many different lines - and 21 of them answered.

SO I'm thrilled to be able to say that the new edition is not only revised and updated, it also has this 40+ pages extra with advice and tips from 21 currently published authors. Authors like Michelle Reid, Anne McAllister, Sandra Marton in Presents, Liz Fielding, Natasha Oakley, in Romance, Trish Wylie and Julie Cohen in Modern Heat (Trish in Romance too!) - and Kate
Hardy in Mod Heat and Medicals - along with Gill Sanderson and Margaret McDonagh. And in Historicals there's Nicola Cornick and Michelle Styles. . .. and that's only as a taster. There's also Holly Jacobs from Harlequin Everlasting - er - Superromance (see there's another of those lines that came and went) and Yvonne Lindsay from Desire. Hopefully, whatever line you're aiming for you'll find something to help you there.

And it won't cost you £ 67-00 - I promise!

No, this new expanded edition will be exactly the same price as the first edition - that's £10.99 in UK money
.
As I said, I will be holding a special launch party on my blog with many of the authors who contributed to the From the Authors' Desks section joining me in the celebrations - and many of them are offering prizes too. So don't miss out on that. And I'll be answering questions in the Writers' Q&A as well. So I hope I'll see you here.

Oh -and as I've been asked for these details - here's what you need if you want to order the 12 PGTWR 2
The details you'll need are:

12-Point Guide to Writing Romance(Studymates Writers Guides)
By Kate Walker
2nd Rev Ed edition Pub April 8th
RRP: £10.99
Publisher: Studymates Ltd
ISBN: 978-1842851319

In America you should be able to order it from Barnes & Noble, Borders, Chapters/Indigo - just tell them to order it through Transatlantic Publishers.

But if you want a chance to be one of the very first people to own a signed copy of this brand new edition, then I have one that I'm offering as a prize here on this blog.

I don't know if you've ever visited my web site then you'll know that the way I pick the winners for my contests is that I don't pick them - my cat Sid does! I put all the names on pieces of paper with a cat treat on the top of each one, and the first one that Sid picks is the winner. So Sid will be picking a winner for me for this prize - and I'll throw in a signed copy of one of my Presents books and a special Kate Walker book bag as well. All you have to do is to post in the comments section - tell me about your writing, what lines you're aiming for - or why you'd like to win the 12 Point Guide - I'd love to hear from you. And so would Sid - the more answers we get, the more cat treats he has to eat his way through!

And if you get a chance I hope you'll come along to the launch party over on my blog - there will be more prizes to win over there too. Hope to see you there.

And thanks again for inviting me Jessica- I'll be back later to help you celebrate your very special 50th book - but in the meantime, very many congratulations on reaching this special 'golden' milestone title! Here's to 50 more.

Kate

Thank you, Kate!

Welcoming Liz Fielding!

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 08:36:51 GMT

The beginning of the month means that it’s time for another guest blogger, and I’m really thrilled to welcome the ever-popular Liz Fielding, in whose shadow I have been trailing for many years now. A wonderful writer, Liz was winning a RITA® before I even knew what it meant, and her name was above mine on the silver rose bowl awarded to the winner of the RNA’s Romance Prize each year. And although Liz has very kindly congratulated me on my 50 books below, in fact, she has reached that landmark ahead of me yet again! In spite of all the fuss, mine won’t be out until October, but Liz not only hit the 50 book mark in January, but is now celebrating a double achievement with the publication of her 50th Harlequin Romance,® The Bride’s Baby, this month, – some people always have to go one better!! Here she is to tell you about it herself, and there’s a chance to win a copy of her book with a really interesting competition at the end!

So, many congratulations to you, Liz – shine on, and keep leading the way to the next 50 books!

“Many, many congratulations on your 50th book, Jessica. It’s the most fantastic achievement. I know how much dedication, hard work, how much midnight oil it takes to produce such a body of work. The aching back, the sore eyes, the woolly numbness in the brain as you spend way too many hours at the keyboard when a deadline is looming. The nerve-jangling wait for editorial approval.

Just believe me when I tell you that we, your fans, appreciate the effort, although with awards from both sides of the Atlantic, the RITA® for Christmas Eve Marriage and the Romance Prize for Contracted: Corporate Wife, you already have solid evidence that your writing touches readers in the parts that other books just can’t reach.  I can’t wait for book # 51 – make it soon!

Okay, I said that I know how it feels to have written fifty books and that’s because my own fiftieth Harlequin Romance, THE BRIDE’S BABY, the first book in the A Bride for all Seasons quartet, is published this month.

All authors are asked where they get their ideas from. In this instance, I started with a request from my editor for a “spring wedding” book. That’s all. No suggestions as to theme. All that was required was the spring wedding. I actually enjoy that. It sharpens the focus so that you’re not distracted by all those plot ideas lurking idly in the back of the mind – the ones that refuse to show up and put in the work.

Weddings are always fun. It’s every woman’s dream to design a no-expense fantasy for the biggest day of her life, isn’t it? Actually, for Sylvie Smith, the wedding planner at the top of every A-List bride’s wish-list, it’s her worst nightmare.

She’s five months pregnant and everyone wants to know who’s the father of her baby. Bad enough. Then there’s the fact that the location for this fantasy is Longbourne Court, once her ancestral home. But she can’t refuse. Gossip-mag Celebrity are making a huge donation to the Pink Ribbon Club, a charity founded by her late mother, for this feature and even though the noblesse had gone well and truly down the pan, the oblige just refused to quit.

Then, just when she thought it couldn’t get any worse, she discovers that Tom McFarlane, the billionaire tycoon who does not have fatherhood on his agenda, is the new owner of Longbourne Court.

Sylvie turned to find her way blocked by six and half feet of broad-shouldered male and experienced a bewildering sense of déjà vu.

A feeling that this had happened before.

And then she looked up and realized that it was not an illusion. This had happened before except on that occasion the male concerned had been wearing navy pin-stripe instead of grey cashmere.

“Some billionaire…” Laura had said, but hadn’t mentioned a name. And she hadn’t bothered to ask, pretending she didn’t care.

She cared now, because it wasn’t just “some” billionaire who’d bought her family home and was planning to turn it into a conference centre.

It was Tom McFarlane, the man with whom, just for a few moments, she’d totally lost it. Whose baby she was carrying. Who’d grabbed her offer to forget it had ever happened. She’d expected at least an acknowledgement...

‘Tell me, Miss Smith,’ he said, while she was still struggling to get her mouth around a simple “good morning”; using exactly the same sardonic tone with which he’d queried every item on her invoice all those months ago. The same look with which he’d reduced her to a stuttering jangle of unrestrained hormones.

Despite everything, she hadn’t been able to get that voice, the heat of those eyes, his touch, the weight, heat of his body, out of her head for weeks afterwards.

Make that months.

Maybe not at all...

The man she most wanted to see in the entire world. The man she most dreaded seeing because she’d made a promise and she would have to keep it.

‘What?’ she demanded, since they were clearly bypassing the civilities, but then there had never been anything civil between them. Only something raw, almost primitive. ‘What do you want?’

Stupid question…

He didn’t want anything from her.

‘To know what you’re doing here?’ Then, presumably just to ram the point home, because he must surely know that it had once been her home, ‘In my house?’

‘It’s yours?’ she said, managing to feign surprise. ‘I was told some billionaire had bought it but no one thought to mention your name. But then I didn’t ask.’ And because she had nothing to apologise for, she’d not only been invited here, but was taking part in this nonsense at great personal inconvenience and no little expense, she said, ‘If you’ll excuse me, Mr McFarlane?’

She’d been so right to keep it businesslike.

He didn’t move, but continued to regard her with those relentlessly fierce eyes that were apparently hell-bent on scrambling her brains.

The man she dreaded seeing. The man she longed more than anything to see, talk to. If he would just give her a chance, let her show him a scan of the baby they’d made. His daughter. But maybe he understood the risk, the danger of being sucked into a relationship he’d never asked for, never wanted.

She’d given him that get-out-of-jail free card and could not take it back. And since he was studiously avoiding the subject, clearly he had no intention of voluntarily surrendering it.

‘I have a lot to get through today,’ she said, unable to bear it another moment and indicating that she wanted to pass. She'd meant to sound brisk and decisive but the effect was undermined by a slight wobble on the h-h-have.

She might have a lot to get through, but the dress would have to wait until she’d had enough camomile tea to drown the squadron of butterflies that were practicing formation flying just below her midriff.

Except that it wasn’t butterflies, but her baby girl practicing dance steps.

His baby girl...

I have a copy of THE BRIDE’S BABY and a useful little sewing kit (every bride should have one!) to give away. You’ll remember I told you how I love to have something to focus on when I begin to plan a story? For a chance to win, let your mind take wing; tell me what title you’d like to see on one of my books and I’ll write it. I can’t promise to keep the title – Mills & Boon have the final say on that – but I will dedicate it to the winner.

Now back to Jessica...

Thanks, Liz! Email your answers for Liz to me and I'll pass them on.

Choosing a hero…

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 20:51:07 GMT

I’ve been wondering if one of the problems I’m having writing this current book is my hero, Rafe. Not because he’s not everything you’d ever want in a man – intelligent, funny, kind, deeply attractive and, oh yes, he just happens to be very wealthy, too – but because he’s just too gorgeous. There’s something overwhelming about him, and I know Miranda (the heroine) feels that as well.

Every time I have a hero who is good-looking and/or very nice, I run into strife. The old clichés of tall, dark and handsome don’t really do it for me. I think I get on better with the hero who seems rather ordinary at first until the heroine gets to know him. Or an irascible hero can be fun to write, too. So mixed results for me in the first round of the Pick Your Own Romance survey. It looks as if the two categories of hero to be knocked out will be ‘Solid, reliable, safe, ordinary’ and ‘Strong, silent’ (can’t believe Guy in Woman at Willagong Creek could get so few votes!) However, the exasperated and irritable hero is still in with a chance. He’s in the lead with the charming hero (oops, Rafe falls into this category), both trailed by the typical Alpha man. But there’s still time to make a difference to the result, so if you haven’t yet voted, have a go. We’ll make the cut on 1st April, when I get back from Scotland.

In meantime, all this talk of hero makes it an appropriate point to introduce my first reader’s blog, and I’m delighted to welcome Juanita Sheehan. Juanita first contacted me as a reader, but it turns out that she is a writer too, so I’m very grateful to her for letting me include her thoughts on a hero here.

“As an aspiring Australian romance writer I am finding the right choice of a hero difficult. But, like Jessica, there are two types I am definitely going to avoid; I mean of course Sheiks and Royals. These boys seem to be having a renaissance that I can’t understand, and I wonder if I’m missing something here. Could it be those steamy novels of writers such as E. M. Hull and Ethel Dell, once so beloved of our great-grandmothers, are enjoying a new audience today?

Either way, the choice of either model leaves me cold, especially after having met several real life sheiks, most of whom have few teeth, live in close proximity to their goats and are quite ineligible as heroes, to me anyway. As for any royal personage, tall, dark and handsome as the case may be, who is supposed to solve all our heroine’s sexual and financial problems in one go, I still remained unconvinced. Such a romance seems to present too many pitfalls for any modern woman to handle, as history shows. A case in point happened here a few years ago when a wealthy socialite fell in love with a handsome flight attendant, a prince in disguise of course, only to have her enchanted world come crashing down when he eloped with his best man on the eve of their wedding. It’s hard to make a romantic novel from that, at least from the heroine’s point of view.

So, obviously, readers will expect a more prosaic hero from me when my books hit the stands. Look out for the garbage collector with the bedroom eyes; the sexy coal miner (I live near Newcastle, NSW); or the sultry, darkly handsome postman … the list is endless – but, you will note, there is not one sheik or royal amongst them.”

Thanks, Juanita! My thesis was largely on waste disposal in the pre-modern town, so I’ll look forward particularly to reading the one with the garbage collector hero! What about the rest of you? Does a down-to-earth hero do it for you, or is there anyone out there prepared to stand up for the sheikh and the prince?

And finally, on a completely different note, I promised I would mention that The Breast Cancer Site is having trouble getting enough people to click on their site daily to meet their quota of donating at least one free mammogram a day to an underprivileged woman. It takes less than a minute to go to their site and click where it says "Click Here to Give - It's FREE!". It won’t cost you a thing - their corporate sponsors /advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate mammogram in exchange for advertising – and it’s in a very good cause. Breast cancer is a terrible disease that touches so many of us nowadays, so if you have a moment, do click and pass it on to others if you can.

Contests and covers

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 19:24:07 GMT

For my birthday in 1987, I asked a friend for a copy of Roget’s Thesaurus, as I’d heard it was the kind of book writers had on their shelves, and I was at the time working diligently every evening (how times have changed!) on the manuscript which finally got me out of the slush pile. That story wasn’t accepted, in fact, but it did get a very positive response and a recommendation that I start afresh with a new story, which I did. On 23rd December 1989 I came home from work at The Observer to find a letter (remember letters?) accepting my first book. As you can imagine, it was a very jolly Christmas. (That original manuscript eventually became Oasis of the Heart, in case you’re interested.)

But back to my thesaurus … The front cover is inscribed to Amelia (yes, my original choice of pseudonym was Amelia Partridge, but Mills & Boon soon put a stop to that!) and continues “I look forward to seeing it well thumbed.” So well thumbed has it been in the last 20 years, that it finally fell apart last night. The middle few pages on emotion have been loose for years, and they are all alarmingly yellowed and torn, but now the whole spine has broken in half, which is a bit disconcerting. I’m hoping it’s not symbolic!

Otherwise, news is rather thin on the writing front, especially as I have vowed not to whinge about my lack of progress any more – I’m still creeping forwards at a slug’s pace, but that’s the most that can be said. However, I did get the hardback edition of my July book, Newlyweds of Convenience, a couple of days ago. The hardbacks are released in the UK a couple of months before the paperbacks, and go to libraries, so it’s usually the first chance to see the cover. Newlyweds of Convenience is set in a castle in the Highlands of Scotland, and I obligingly sent a photograph of Eilean Donan to give the art department a feel for the setting.

Here is what I sent...

… and this is what I got. Yes, a wedding cake. This tells us absolutely nothing about the story. No hint of the Highlands or the ruined castle or of anything other than a wedding, which doesn’t actually take place in the book – the hero and heroine have been married for five months when the story opens, and in any case it wasn’t a white dress and wedding cake affair. Oh, well. I think I used up all my luck on the cover front with Barefoot Bride.

Anyway, I hope people will look beyond the cover and read the story when it comes out in July. In the meantime, if you’d like to read it now, I’ve got one spare hardback edition to give away, so what about a quick contest for Easter? I’ve written three books set in Scotland so far: The Beckoning Flame, The Right Kind of Man and Kissing Santa. If you can tell me the names of the hero and heroine (here's a hint) in any one of these books, you could win an advance read of Newlyweds of Convenience. Just email me with an answer (don’t forget to include a postal address) and I’ll put your name in a draw for when I return from (yes!) Scotland at the beginning of April. And this time, there’s a runner up prize of a book of money-off coupons for Mills & Boon, which are obviously only useful if you live in the UK, so make sure I know where you’re from when you enter. It’s very hard to tell from email addresses!

While we’re on the subject of contests, Nikki is always ticking me off for not announcing the results of previous ones, so here are the winners so far this year: Karen Phillips won the Elizabeth Rolls contest, Anne Lane won a copy of Promoted: to Wife and Mother, and Diane Newland won a copy of Mothers Wanted. You could be next, so have a poke around the website to find an answer and have a go … Oh, and if you’re in a competitive mood, it’s not too late to enter the contest on the Harlequin Romance Authors blog either – you could win a copy of To Love and To Cherish by Jennie Adams. Good luck!

So stuck!

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 08:19:48 GMT

It’s just me this time, I’m afraid, and in very grumbly form. I am SO stuck. I have tried all of Kate Hardy’s helpful suggestions for getting past a block, but nothing is working. I don’t usually hit this stage until Chapter 7, but have been squeezing out pages since Chapter 4 and am still ploughed deep into the sand. I know what I need to do (just write through it) but somehow just can’t bring myself to it. Carrots, sticks … none of them are working, last night I gave up altogether and decided I might as well update the blog if nothing else.

To make matters worse, I have had some lovely reviews for Promoted: To Wife and Mother, at Romance Junkies, Cataromance and Merrimon. On one level, of course, this is wonderful. I’m thrilled that people have read and enjoyed the book so much, and very grateful to those who have taken the trouble to review it. On another level, though, it just makes me panic and think that I’ll never be able to write a book like that again. I know, I know … I need to pull myself together, get a grip, just get ON with it, as my mother would surely tell me if she knew what an appalling fuss I am making about nothing. I think I have a clear idea about my characters, and the story seems to hang together, so there’s no obvious reason for this carry-on other than my own susceptibility to distractions and general lack of self-discipline.

Enough of all this whingeing, though. Today marks a fresh start. By the time I come back, I will have caught up on my timetable, nay, I’ll be ahead of myself, and I will be totally focussed on the book. (Oh, yes, and I’ll be eating sensibly, exercising regularly and if anyone ever suggests going out for a drink, I’ll be the one saying “no, thanks, I’d rather stay in with a glass of water and work”) In the meantime, why not take a trip to the Harlequin Romance Authors blog where Jennie Adams is under the spotlight this month, not only sounding enviably positive but also offering a copy of her latest book – it’s all a lot more fun than here!

Introducing Kate Hardy...

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 22:49:14 GMT

It’s time for another guest blog, and I’m enormously pleased to welcome now Kate Hardy, winner of the this year’s Romance Prize. Kate has come down to earth long enough to tell us about her new book, Sold to the Highest Bidder , which is also out this March, and about her writing in general. I’ve always liked Kate, ever since she foolishly admitted to thinking that I was glamorous (I was two sizes smaller then) so she is clearly a very, very nice person. She is also a very successful one, with a writing schedule that puts mine to shame. Not only does she write for two romance lines – Medical and Modern Extra - she also writes local history books, instead of just talking about it, the way I do, and that’s apart from bringing up a family and everything that goes along with that. I can do intimidated too, Kate!

Anyway, (cue drumroll) here is Kate herself....

I’m truly delighted to be celebrating the publication of Jessica’s 50th book. That’s a fabulous milestone: and I know just how much work goes into creating a short romantic novel with believable characters and a good plot. Every word has to carry its weight, moving the plot forward and the characters together. And Jessica does it so well – not only do her readers love her work, but she’s won critical acclaim, too, with several awards to her credit. I was privileged to be on the shortlist with her in 2006 for the RNA Romance Prize (and I was on her table, too, so I could clap REALLY loudly!).

The first time I met Jessica, I was incredibly intimidated by her. It was my first Mills & Boon author lunch, so I was feeling a bit overawed to start with… and then I saw this incredibly glamorous woman in a gorgeous red dress, with matching shoes to die for and perfect hair. She was terrifying.

At a different author lunch, we started chatting, and I discovered that actually (despite being beautiful and glamorous) she was really nice and we had absolutely tons in common. Dogs. Music. A love of history. (I should mention here, I’m also very proud of Jessica for getting her PhD.) I think if we lived nearer each other we’d be terribly bad influences on each other (lunch, shoes, lunch, chocolate… you get the idea). And I think we also have similar methods of working, in that personal experiences spark off ideas. I can’t claim to have walked barefoot on the exotic beaches that Jessica has (!), but my latest release, Sold to the Highest Bidder, has a lot of personal things in it.

I think one of the fun parts about writing is taking something personal as a springboard, and then taking it further. Starting with the house: it’s actually an amalgam of several houses. The exterior belongs to a house in Norfolk which I would dearly, dearly love to buy (but, as my husband pointed out, apart from the fact it’s outside our budget, a moat does not go well with two inquisitive children and an even more inquisitive spaniel); the vegetable garden belongs to Oxburgh Hall (one of my favourite National Trust properties; I could really imagine living there); and the rhododendrons and lake belong to Blickling Hall (where we’ve spent a lot of time as a family, wandering through the gardens and feeding the geese at the lake – even my wallpaper on my computer is a picture of my husband and children sitting by said lake). With the exception of the library (borrowed in part from Blickling, when it was being restored), the interior of the house is all my imagination – as are the four-poster and the renovation plans.

Although I write for two very different lines – Modern Heat and Medical Romance – I do have a similar approach to both, in that I use real life as a springboard. A Baby of Her Own, my very first M&B, started life at my daughter’s bedside in hospital (her first Christmas, aged 7 weeks – but there is a happy ending in that the book was accepted on her first birthday and published on her second. She’s now 7 and very savvy: she claims that, as she’s the originator of my career at M&B, I owe her royalties… and she’s happy to be paid in chocolate and shoes!). I also do quite a bit of research, which has to be accurate – for Medical Romances, clearly the research is into medical conditions, symptoms and treatments, whereas in Modern Heat the research has varied from how to do latte art (for Breakfast at Giovanni’s – best excuse ever for touring cafes) through to architecture (The Cinderella Project), how to make a firework (Seeing Stars – and that started in ‘real life’, when I was organising our school’s firework display), and meteorology (One Night, One Baby).

Jessica asked me to talk about what it’s like, writing for two such different lines – and originally, I thought I probably did write differently for each line. Then I thought about it some more, and I realised that although the lines are very different, the way I write my books still has a lot in common. With Medical Romance, the medical bits have to drive the story forward or shed light on characters – it’s part of the setting and part of the romance. With Modern Heat, my nerdy tecchy bits either drive the story forward or shed light on the characters, too. With Medical Romance, you need a real-world feel and lots of secondary characters (your hero and heroine are medics, so they have to see patients!), whose job is to shed light on the characters or help move the story forward; with Modern Heat, I tend to have secondaries who do the same thing (again, using Giovanni as an example – his big, noisy Italian family have an important part to play in the story).

Settings, then. Surely it has to be settings. Modern Heat is meant to be sassy and stylish and urban. A lot of mine are set in London – but my hospital books tend to be set in a big city, too. My country GP practices have a Modern Heat parallel: Sold to the Highest Bidder is set in a country house. (I bent the rules a bit. Country house isn’t urban – but it is stylish…)

Sensuality levels? Medical Romances are regarded as ‘tender’ in the US and ‘sweet’ in the UK, and Modern Heat (as the name suggests) sizzles. Hmm. I think my sensuality levels are broadly similar in both lines – I don’t close the bedroom door in my Medicals. I did try writing one where they didn’t have sex for most of the book (Their Very Special Marriage), but I found it quite difficult as my characters, um, like going to bed with each other. I’m possibly a little more adventurous with the settings of my love scenes in Modern Heat (hmm – how am I going to top the tractor scene in Sold to the Highest Bidder?), but then again saying that is probably going to prompt me into doing something different with a Medical!

How about alpha heroes? Surely the Modern Heat hero is more alpha? Hmm. My editor says that the Kate Hardy alpha hero is clever, with a big heart. Which fits both lines.

At the end of the day, a romance novel is about character, conflict and a satisfying resolution. So I’m beginning to think that it doesn’t really matter which line an author writes for: it’s the voice that’s important. I’d be just as happy reading a Historical or a Modern or a Medical by Jessica Hart as I would a Romance, because even though the lines are nominally different (Historicals being set before the second world war, Modern being international glamour, Medical being set in a medical setting and Romance being ‘sweet’), if the name ‘Jessica Hart’ was on the cover I’d know exactly what to expect: a book with warm, realistic characters, a great sense of humour, and little details that stick in the memory for years.

Congrats again on your 50th book, Jessica. And I look forward to toasting your achievement at the M&B party in September!