Great Big Blog Party #52 and #53 Winners - and of course Sid

I'm late posting today - that's because I've been doing my accounts (yeuch!) so I'm staggering in her with a frazzled brain and a blank mind - but the accounts are done!! And they've left the building so that my accountant has them all to play with - and I'm sure he'll enjoy the experience much more than I did.

It just made me think of that question - the one that people always ask me - 'How long does it take to write a book?'

The honest answer is 'I write 3 a year so that's one every four months - unless one of those months has an accounting date in it.'Then the darned accounts take up most of my time.

But they're done - I'm up to date even for part of next year! So I can relax a while. And I can celebrate by announcing some Great Big Blog Party winners.

Firstly, prizes from Samantha Storm and/or Chaoscat

She (they?) said:

I had a grand time hanging out at your blog. Loved reading all posts! Thanks for having me! And can't wait for your 100th book celebration!

Okay dokey I picked two winners:

Peggy - won a package with a four reads from the RJ book vault.

Sabrina - won a print copy of Eye of the Storm.

The winners can email me at chaoscat @ romance junkies .com with their snail mail addies

Peggy and Sabrina can you cc me in on your notes to Cat so that I know the prizes are sorted.
Thanks! And I hope everyone checked out Romance Junkies - it's a great site to visit and their Writing Contest always attracts a huge amount of interest.

And a second prize announcement from Anna Campbell (ably assisted by Sid the Cat)

Sid says he totally understands the way that creatures turn up at Samantha Storm's house - after all, that's the way he came to live here - I just opened the door and he walked in.

But when it comes to eating crunchies off a piece of paper with a name on it then the name was brownone and her turtle.

brownone will you email me with your postal address as Anna is at the Romance Writers of Australia Conference right now - so I'll collect your details and send them on to her.

Sid says he's never seen a turtle but of course all creatures listen when you talk to them! They just don't think you're talking very much sense unless you're saying how handsome and wonderful they are or announcing that very important moment of TEATIME!

Finally, on the post about Sid yesterday a sharp-eyed Rachel spotted something on my desk that had clearly been entertaining Sid and so in the Comments section she said:

Dear Kate,I think Sid is telling porkies. looking closely he's been up all night reading a very good book-just what is that intriguing pink book under his right paw?Rach

Well, Rach that book is a copy of Call Up The Storm by the late and great Jane Donnelly. I found 3 copies of her books when I visited Hay on Wye when I was in Wales. (More on that later) And as my friend Anne McAllister collects Jane's work, I picked them up in case she didn't already have copies of them.

But I was also going to post a scan of that cover on a blog that would follow on from our discussion of covers after lee's Guest Blog on that subject yesterday.

This is an example of that terrible moment When Covers Go Bad!

To me, the intense, passionate, Alpha hero looks like nothing so much as camp comedian Julian Clary right down to the head cocked slightly to one side - and I'm saying nothing about that yellow-brown suit!