Thursday Talk Time

OK so - first things first.

I forgot it was Thursday. That's what having a Bank Holiday at the beginning of the week does to you. You start everything a day late. From then on Tuesday is Monday, Wednesday Tuesday . . .and so on.


So I forgot it was Thursday. Until I went along to the Pink Heart Society Blog as part of my usual routine blog hop as I wake up in the mornings. And there I discovered that not only was it Thursday - but there was a Thursday Talk Time article up there and - er - I'd written it!


The ladies over on the PHS are so well organised that they get everyone - editors and columnists included - to set up and log their posts a month in advance. So I actually wrote this last month - and then forgot about it until today. But this is my very first post as an officially appointed PHS Columnist (along with Anne McAllister, Annie West, Fiona Harper and Samantha Hunter) so I was thrilled to write it - keen to get started. Until I saw the topic they wanted me to write on.



My Favourite Category Romance



And that's when my poor brain cell blew a fuse - because how could I choose? When there are so many wonderful books. Different books for different moods. Romance stories that tug at your heart and your emotions, and Modern/Presents ones that tie you in emotional and sensual knots and Historicals that take you away into another century - back into Roman times even - Medicals that have such poignancy and knowledge and fizzy, flirty Modern Extras . . . I read them all and have my favourites in all.


Isn't that what category romance is all about - A story for every mood, a book for every style of writer, a line for every type of reading?



So, no, I couldn't manage to pick just one book. I did manage - just - to narrow it down to just one author. An author I've been reading ever since I started reading M&B Romances - since before the lines were split in anyway - since before I was published. An author whose storytelling and emotion writing ability reached out and grabbed me and has never let go.

Who? Sara Craven - that's who.


Well if you want to find out more then you'll have to go and read the article. But I will say here that when I started out on the road to trying to be published, way back in 1981/2/3 someone had told me that one day I would not only meet Sara Craven but I would be able to call her a very dear friend, and she would actually say that she loved my books - then I would have known that they were lying and that this was all just a dream.




But here I am, all those years later - and all of those facts are true. Which shows me how far I've come and just why I never trample on other people's dreams - because the truth is that with luck, hard work and a following wind of talent, dreams do come true.

RNA Conference Workshop July 2007

Jenny Haddon standing Sara Craven seated

So Sara - thank you for everything - for the warmth of your friendship, the jokes that crack me up (the final night of the RNA Conference this year will live in my memory forever), for the amazing accolade of knowing that a M&B star like you enjoys my books - but most of all thank you for 32 years (yes 32!) of wonderful, brilliant, totally enjoyable books, You're one of the very best.

(And yes - I'll go and shoot that crow!)