Old books

I love it when old books, ones that I've thought were 'dead', get resurected. One of the problems with series romance books is that they are only on the shelves for the month of sale and then gone. These days we can buy the in Amazon and B&N etc after that month is up but when I first started writing there was no way of doing this.

But some books I wrote so long ago only had their month on the shelf and that was it. One of these was The Cinderella Trap. I wrote that in 1988. Which is very nearly 20 years ago. (I was a child writer as well as a child bride, of course!) This book had one of my least favourite covers. The heroine was exactly as I desribed her - she was a model called Clea and the hair and dress were fashionable then. But the hero !!

Oh dear, they'd taken the hero away and brought in his elderly, lecherous uncle to pose instead. No way is that man the Matt Highland I described as having 'a powerfully masculine face, the strong features, square jaw and firm mouth, proclaiming a confidence close to arrogance.'

Interestingly, I can also find out what perfume I was wearing in 1988 - these were the years that the books were filled with designer names and perfumes etc were named - so Clea dabs 'St Laurent's 'Y' - a long time favourite' on her pulse points! I was doing the same.

Disliking the cover as much as I did, I was suprised when it reappeared on the Japanese cover - it doesn't look any better there. Uncle Fred Highland is still posing and trying to come on to Clea while his nephew is somewhere else.

Back in 1988 the books had a 'shout line' on the front of them - this was before the 'buzzword' titles - so this line was to give the reader a clue about the book. The shout line on this book reads 'Who was the real Clea?'I didn't like those shout lines - they seeme dtoo simplistic and could give the wrong impression of a book easily. They didn't last long.

Other books out that month in 1988? Well they were:

Beneath Wimmera Skies - Kerry Allyne

Devil and the Deep Sea - Sara Craven (I loved that one)

Design for Love - Jean Evans

Fetters of Gold - Jane Donnelly

A Lifetime and Beyond -Alison Fraser

Painted Lady - Diana Hamilton

Force of Feeling - Penny Jordan

Only My Dreams - Rowan Kirby

Lord and Master - Joanna Mansell

A Flood of Sweet Fire - Sandra Marton

Exclusively Yours - Leigh Michaels

When Two Paths Meet - Betty Neels

Bitter Judgement - Elizabeth Power

Without Love - Jessica Steel

Beloved Intruder - Patricia Wilson

Of course these were the days before the lines were spplit in the UK, so all of those will have been put together in the same section of the bookshop shelves - no Modern or Romance split for them. It's interesting to see the now famililar names that were, like me, starting out then - and the ones who have disappeared or sadly, like Betty Neels or Jane Donnelly, have died since then.

And that resurrection bit? (Seems appropriate for the Easter weekend) I was started off on this journey down memory lane by the arrival of a reprint of the Japanese version of The Cinderella Trap in a sparkling new cover - no sign of Uncle Fred anywhere! Thank you, Japan!

As it is the Easter weekend, the BM and I are off to Scarborough today. We'll be spending the weeked beside the sea, watching the waves, letting someone else do the cooking, going to a concert by one of my favourite singers - Michael Ball - I'm a sucker for those Musical/Lloyd Weber etc songs - among others.

(Holly - if you're reading, I know you'll be so jealous - but I'll listen really hard just for you)

And of course - as Rachel suggested in the comments to my last post - I'll be reading. Lots and lots of reading. Secure in the knowledge that my editor won't be back in the office until after her holiday, I can read everyone else's books to my heart's content. I already startd - I'm finally catching up on Liz Fielding's The Valentine Bride and I'm loving it. So that's coming with me - and what else? (Kate checks the TBR pile and her eyes glaze over - it's HUGE!) Oh I can't choose. I'm just going to grab a handful with my eyes closed and see what I get - I'm on holiday, the book is finished so I don't really care!

The only problem is that on our way to Scarborough, we'll stop off in Beverley - and Beverley is filled with secondhand bookshops - and the BM can't resist temptation! I suspect we will come back with more books than we started out with.

I'll be back on Monday - so in the meantime be good, Happy Easter and Happy reading!