5 Reasons why I love my job . . .

1. Yesterday  a big box was delivered - brand new copies, hardback library editons and the first actual paperback copies  of my new novel - The Proud Wife. Nothing brightens up a grey, cold Monday morning like holding your latest book in you hands for the very first time.  It's a delight that never gets stale, believe me, and these are my first books with the new style cover so I was thrilled to see them. (Waking up with a ginger and white kitten chewing your hair and purring fit to burst  right in your ear is pretty special too - but not exactly work related.)

2. You can help  causes you care about - like

donating  books to the RWA Flooded Communities Book Appeal or the Brenda Novak Auction  and know that not onloy are you helping the cause but you are also  - hopefully - giving pleasure to readers who either are given  books as a result of these appeals or who buy the lots in this auction   and others like it.  Or  - as in this photo - you can send books to libraries where their book stock  needs a boost. This lovely lady is Nas who helped me give some books to her local library in Fiji where they can't get hold of very many M&B titles and  so my small donation has helped to widen their selection. You can read more about this on Nas's blog here.

3. You can share in the joy of bran new authors who have just had their very first title accepted.  Last year at the RNA Conference I met a lovely lady called Susan Wilson who at the time was working on her  Medical Romance that  had  won her the attention of a M&B editor  but which needed revisions -  and then more revisions . . . She's worked really hard on this and last Friday  she  finally received 'the call' to hear that her book has been accepted and will be published in Medical Romance. You can read the story on her blog.  Congratulations Susan - I'm so happy for you. It maye be 26+ years since I got my 'call' - it was a letter back then,  my first editor didn't ring me up - but I still remember the thrill of that moment.

Incidentally, I first 'met'  Susan when she won a copy of Kept For Her Baby in a contest I won . I didn't know at the time that she was  actually a Health Visitor who had worked with many women who had suffered from post natal depression and the darker, rarer form of post natal psychosis which  is the background to the story in this book. I was thrilled whne she took the time to write to me to let me know that the way the subject was handled in the story  "gave credibility to the fear the women have of harming their children, how jumbled their thoughts can be, and how difficult it is to explain their feelings" - Seeing as I had told myself that I woldn't write the book unless I could treat the subject properly that made me really happy.

4. You get to share your books with people from all over the world. Yesterday I learned that I now have had visitors to this blog from a total of 157 countries when my very first visitor  from Albania came by. All the readers and visitors are so welcome - wherever you come from. I hope you enjoy the blog and will keep coming back often.

5. As well as readers all over the world, I have friends who are fellow authors worldwide - and I get to combine the two when I share contests and celebrations with the fabulous award winning authors Anne McAllister and  Liz Fielding in our now traditional   Here Come The Grooms contest - this will be our 5th year of running this joint contest when you can win  one of three prizes each of a signed copy of all three of our books. We're finalising the details right now  - so watch out for the Grooms coming soon!