Well, the real party may be over and the wonderful weekend now a set of happy memories - but the Great Big Blog Party is continuing just as long as I have posts to put up and prizes to give away.
Today's guest blogger is a brand new author with her very first book out.
In April when I went to the Savoy for the RNA Awards lunch, I met Heidi Rice who had just had her very first modern Extra title - Bedded By A Bad Boy - published that month - and it was on my TBR pile. It still is, unfortunately! I took it to Linconl in the hope of being able to get a little time to sit and read - I should have known better ! I managed to open it once and then only for a minute. But I hope to get a chance to read it soon. Heidi's second book is The Mile High Club which is coming out in November when she and I will be shelf mates. And with a
title like that I'll just bet readers will be flocking yo buy it.
title like that I'll just bet readers will be flocking yo buy it.I asked Heidi if she'd like to join in the Great Big Blog Party and she was glad to do so - and when her post arrived, I found that she was writing about that very first meeting. And it's another of those posts that makes me blush! Oh well, I'm getting a little used to that by now - and after the happy tears of Saturday night, what's a few blushes between friends?
Heidi is recovering for a stay in hospital and some major surgery but she's still found time to write her blog and get it to me.(Yes - some of you who are reading but not writing and sending your own blogs - consider this a LARGE HINT!) Thanks for that Heidi, and I hope you're recovering really well. It was great meeting you- I hope it's not too long before we meet up again.
Heidi Rice's Blog:
I consider it one of life's blessings that when I arrived at the Savoy this year for the RNA awards lunch - my first ever Modern Extra novel Bedded by a Bad Boy just recently published and knowing virtually no one - that some bright spark had decided to seat me next to Mills and Boon legend Kate Walker.
Kate is quite simply a gem. Immediately supportive she started giving me invaluable tips about 'the business' before the starters had even been served -- and all in that no-nonsense Yorkshire way that stops you from feeling intimidated. I have to admit though, that when she told me she was publishing her 50th book this year my jaw dropped (sorry, Kate if I was still tucking into my goat's cheese salad at the time).
FIFTY BOOKS! And here I was dithering like a ninny over book number three. As soon as I got home that afternoon I ordered one of Kate's books online -- my editor had said my hero in book three wasn't alpha enough and as Kate's the master on alphas I decided I might learn a thing or two. The Sicilian's Red-HotRevenge turned out to be a red-hot page-turner and Vito was certainlyinspiring (to say the least!).
When Kate heard a few weeks later that I was going into hospital she was sweet enough to send me the first part of the Corsentino Brothers saga and I can now confirm there's nothing to take your mind off major abdominal surgery like a tall, dark, handsome and devilishly sexy Sicilian billionaire.
So thanks Kate, not just for all the great adviceand support, but also for those sizzling alpha heroes. I suspect you've helped quite a few readers over the bumps life throws at them with yours tories. All I can hope is that mine will do the same -- although I'm not laying any bets on getting to 50 just yet.
Giveaway:
The Question:
Having had a crash-course in alphas from Kate, I'm hoping to add more alpha characteristics to my next hero, but my first love is bad boys - I adoreMarlon Brando in The Wild One or Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow (even with thedodgy personal hygiene!). I want to know which you prefer Bad Boys or Alphas, or if you love them both, and why -- plus I'd love examples of yourfavourites, all in the name of research of course.
Maybe you know of a good hero who's both Bad Boy and Alpha (I'm thinking Daniel Craig's Bond ticksthat box). I'll be giving away a signed copy of Bedded by a Bad Boy to the best post.
Bio:Heidi Rice is married with two boys and lives in North London. She's been ajournalist for 20 years, a film reviewer for 10 and a romance junkie forever(or at least from age 12 when she read Gone with the Wind and discovered what a terrible mistake Rhett had made picking Scarlett over her).
Heidi's firstbook Bedded by a Bad Boy came out in April, her second The Mile High Club is due in November
21 comments:
Hope you're feeling better, Heidi and you are so right about Kate - she's a gem!! My favourite sort of hero is the reluctant/bad boy sort and let's just say it's no coincidence that I happily bought my four year old son the first three Star Wars movies just so I could watch Harrison Ford do his thing!!!!
Hi Amanda
I'm feeling a lot better thanks and hope to be back on the netball court fairly soon!
Oooh, yes, Harrison Ford as Han Solo, a very good bad boy and one of my favs when I was a teenager. I even went to see the whole trilogy at Hammersmith Odeon on a sweltering day in July (long, long ago in a galaxy far far away) just so I could see that clinch with Princess Leia. Now that's what I call sci-fi cinema.
Heidi
Glad you're on the mend, Heidi.
I'd go with bad boys, too. (Kate W, I promise, not a *word* will pass my lips about Alphas, vbg.) So we'd be talking Hugh Grant in About a Boy and Antonio Banderas as El Mariachi (okay, okay, so I had to get that in). Oh, and Rufus Sewell as Charles II.
Hmm. Think I'm going back to my MS now...
Heidi-- so sorry that you've not been well and glad to hear you're feeling better.
I agree with every word you say about Kate-- and I'm also absolutely with her on the alpha men! The locked-up emotion behind the effortless self-assurance is a challenge I just can't resist, and although I love a sexy smile as much as the next girl, to me the word 'unsmiling' is far more provocative....
Give me a bad bad bad man any day day. Although I like my Alphas my sexy actory types always the play the bad bad bad boys. Theres nothing better than knowing your on the arm of a bad boy. I mean come on the villians have the cars, the money the homes and ofcourse the serious raw sexual prowness!
My favourite bad boys being- Severus Snape from Harry Potter.
Captain Barbossa from pirates of the caribbean.
The Marquis de sade in quills (geoffrey rush).
And of course anything played by Mr Malkovich!!
Hollie from Hull
Hi Kate H.
Mmm, Hugh Grant in About a Boy, thanks for reminding me about him. I'll have to channel him when I do my next ms as my editor at ModEx is a bit peeved with all my American Heroes.
India, no surprise that you're an alpha kinda girl -- you've obviously found your spiritual home at Modern.
And Holly,
My god woman, we're not talking bad boys here I think we're talking complete sadists! Still, I get you with Captain Barbossa, he did have a certain something -- and got all the best lines in Pirates 3 (btw, anyone out there understand what the heck was going on in that film?). Anyone who can steal a film from Johnny Depp can't be all bad, right.
H
Hey Alan Rickman in dressed as the potions master is not sadistic but fantastic, there is nothing hotter lol!
I went to see POTC 3 twice and hmmmm was distracted by geoffrey lol so no didn't get the big deal with calypso really!!
Sadists lol
Hollie Hull
Well, I'm torn between the two. I absolutely love Harrison Ford . . . in anything! But, showing my age, I'll watch anything with my favorite Alpha actor, Chuck Norris. I think I really lean more toward the alphas though, because they're whole persona commands respect and they exude such confidence.
Hollie - I reckon Alan Rickman in Robin Hood was even better :o) And how Juliet Stephenson could've passed him up for Michael Maloney in Truly Madly Deeply... even as a ghost, he was better. And I loved the way he played the cello. (Waves to India)
Exactly if Alan turned up in my house with a cello, (even with the funny beard) I wouldn't tell him the way to the concert hall!
But still Snape is my favourite bad boy!
Hollie Hull
Okay, now Alan as the Sheriff of Nottingham I definitely get -- let's face it he made poor ole Kevin look like a plank. And in Truly, Madly Deeply, yes, yes, yes - completely gorgeous. But does he count as a bad boy in that film? Do bad boys have cellos? And finally, Severus Snape - with the white skin, lanky black hair, and really snarky attitude. No I'm just not getting you there.
And I'm sorry Cheryl, but Chuck Norris! What's that about? Mind you I think I'm tainted as far as Chuckie's concerned. I worked for the BBC's purchased programmes years ago and had to watch six episodes of Walker Texas Ranger back to back. I was ready to throttle Norris by the end of that day.
I guess it just goes to show that one woman's heartthrob can be another woman's homicidal tendancy.
Heidi - would bad boys invite all their mates back and empty the fridge and be noisy when their other half is trying to sleep? *g*
(Thinks: am going to have to find a bad boy with a cello now... um... how about a guitar? 'Cos I could name an awful lot more...)
Hope you have recovered from your hospital stay and that it wasn't anything too serious.
Unless you count my husband I don't have a favourite hero but I do love both the bad boys (with a good centre) and the alpha males (with a soft spot for their heroinnes) :D
Harrison Ford, definitely!
Kevin Costner is a plank anyway the guy can't string a sentence together lol
hollie hull
Ilona,
Nothing life-threatening I'm glad to say and I'm well on the mend now.
Kate
Although I have a feeling this was a rhetorical question, I'm going to answer it anyway. If a bad boy woke you up in the middle of the night, at least you'd be entitled to a very good apology...
Mina,
Okay, Harrison seems to be rocking everyone's boat -- I hear he's currently making a new Indiana Jones film. Indy as a pensioner? Will he still be a bad boy? I certainly hope so, or what's the point.
Hollie,
Yes, Kevin Costner is usually a plank. But there is the small matter of Field of Dreams -- not a bad boy in that I know, but there was some great corn-harvesting going on, or was that cornball-harvesting? And at least he's never had long, lank black hair and been cruel to boy wizards like a certain Mr Snape I could mention.
Heidi hope you recover soon! My ultimate bad boy would have to be Sawyer from the series Lost.
tetewa
Sawyer from Lost, now we're talking. He's actually the guy I had in mind when I wrote Monroe in Bedded by a Bad Boy. Honestly. I just love that oily Southern charm, tough as nails exterior and then the vulnerability hiding beneath -- and he's a pretty good kisser.
Heidi hope you've recovered from your surgery and are feeling well.
I love the cover of Bedded BY A Bad Boy. Hopefully it will come out in the States.
I'm a fan of the Alpha male for sure but I also have a soft spot for bad boys. I first remember Alan Rickman in one of the Die Hard movies. As for Harrison Ford who could forget him.
Chris.
I would have to pick Hugh Jackman as an alpha hottie starring as Wolverine in the Xmen movies. He is strong and tough but does have a hidden compassionate side.
Glad you are feeling better Heidi.
Hi Chris
Bedded by a Bad Boy is coming out in the US in January in Promo-Presents under the title Bedded by a Playboy. (Goodness, I must get that info up on my website!)
And Cherie J
Hugh Jackman in anything (even just a towel as Kate Walker will tell you) is a prime hottie, but I'm wondering if he's a bit of a bad boy/alpha mix as Wolverine -- strong, commanding, but also a bit of a loner and tortured to boot. Yum.
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