Celebrating friends

I'll be continuing to talk about the books I'm giving away as a prize in the Tote Bag Full of Books Contest soon but today I want to post about a special day for a special friend.

One of the great things that my career as a romance writer has brought me - apart from all those books on my shelves and money in the bank, has been the unexpected and very welcome gift of some very special friends.

Friends who think along the same lines as I do (does this mean that they are crazy too?). Friends who 'get' romance in the way that I do. Friends whose books I love to read. And, bless them, friends who like to read my books too.

More often than not, I have found these friends because I have read their books, enjoyed them and thought that I would love to meet the woman who wrote those stories. This is how it has been with two very special friends in my life.

Back in 1997 I read a book called Finn's Twins and I loved it. I loved the hero, New York photographer Finn MacCauley. I loved the heroine Izzy. I loved the author's voice, the sometimes dryly humourous tone. It had an emotional intensity but one that didn't come from anger and revenge but a believable situation between believable people. Since then I've read almost everything else that author has written (the book was a RITA finalist, so obviously I'm not alone in my admiration of it) - and I wanted to meet the woman who had written that book.

A few years later I achieved that ambition when,as a result of an on-line discussion about visiting castles in England (something that never came off but I'm so glad that she asked) I invited her to come and visit when she was in this country. She did and Anne McAllister has been in my life ever since.

One of the real highlights of being in San Francisco for the RWA Conference was that I could also meet up with Anne again. Or rather that we could meet up I should say because as you'll know the Magnet and Anne's husband the Prof get on so well together that they start talking as soon as they meet, never stopping until they finally have to say goodbye as one or other couple heads reluctantly for a plane or a train.

We don't meet often - I doubt if we've spent more than a couple of months in each others company in all the time we've known each other. But it doesn't matter. We just pick up things where we left off. And we leave them off in so many different places. This last time we were trying to remember just how many cities or towns we've shared in the course of our friendship - it's quite a roll call. It goes from Doncaster to Denver and Dublin, Sydney to San Francisco, and so many points in between. Like the Magnet and the Prof we've never run out of conversation topics and I always look forward to the next meeting.

And of course there is the special Feline Friendship that Anne shares with The Cat himself. Sidney the Cat of Superior Breeding always has a specially warm welcome for his Lady from Across the Pond when she comes to visit. He even sends her emails and she was the receipient of his special Sid Calendar (taken from the pictures I posted on here last year) at Chrismas. She is coming over the pond again in September and Sid is already checking out the bed. He will, if she's good (the she in this case being Flora the Maine Coon) introduce the newest kit on the block to TLATP but only if she realises that he has first call on all the head rubs because Anne knows just the best way to rub a furry head, right behind the ears. The Hecks will also, hopefully make an appearance because it was after all Anne who named them on another visit a couple of years back.

I'm thinking of Anne specially because today is her birthday and I want to celebrate that special occasion as well as celebrating our special friendship that is such an important part of my life. So why don't you go on over to her blog and give her your best wishes for today?

So Happy Happy Birthday Anne

I hope you have a wonderful day. Sir Sidney sends his best purrs and head butts. and he's so looking forward to seeing you again. We all are. And Flora can't wait to meet you.

And while I'm on the subject of special writing friendships, as regular blog readers will know, another really great friend of mine and a writer I also really admire is another Modern/Presents author, Michelle Reid.

It's not often that we have books on the shelves together but this September we do - in the UK at least.

Bedded By The Greek Billionaire and The De Santis Marriage will be published as Mills & Boon Modern Romances next month. And so Michelle and I have got together with a joint Super September contest so that you can win signed copies of each of these great books - together with the July By Request Collection Her Passionate Italian that contains my A Sicilian Husband and Michelle's The Passion Bargain.

We still finalising things but the full details of the contest and how to enter will be going up on our web sites very soon. So look out for that. On my site you'll find the details on my Contest page which is where you will also find how you can enter my other contest and put yourself in the running to win a Tote Bag Stuffed with Books too.