London - AMBA and the Author Party

I’ve finally managed to get home from London, sort things out, unpack and do the laundry  so that I have a chance to catch up.

With Kate Hardy aka Scary Kate

 The trip to London was great from start to finish. On the  Friday night I had dinner with Chantelle Shaw and Rachael Thomas which was so much fun. It’s always good to catch up with fellow writers and friends and have a chance to have some quality time together to really talk.   Of course Rachael was once one of my students on the Fishguard Advanced Romance Writing Course and it had been wonderful to enjoy her success as she had written more successful  books and established her position in the Harlequin Presents line-up.

This year, the newest recruit to the Presents line was Amanda Cinelli  (winner of the So You Think You Can Write contest last year) whose first book  Resisting the Sicilian Playboy is out in October.  I sat next to Amanda at the lunch and so was delighted to learn from her that she  had  a copy (OK 2 copies – the print version  and the Kindle  one) of my 12 Point Guide To Writing Romance  and she told me that it had really helped her with her writing for Harlequin. Which is great because that’s just what I wrote it for! I also had more time to chat with Andie Brock who I met briefly last year but didn’t get much of a chance to  talk to her.  And of course I had a chance to talk with my editor - and so many others of  HMB editorial .

View from the News Building

  I had a wonderful time at both the AMBA lunch and the Harlequin Author Party afterwards.   The new offices in the News Building  on London Bridge Street  are in a part of London that I don’t know well, so it was fascinating to explore a bit  and to marvel at the amazing building  that is The Shard there.

The height and expanse of The Shard makes the News Building look rather small in comparison, but by the time we had travelled up 17 floors (thankfully in an express lift!) to reach the special events area, it didn’t actually feel smaller!  The view from the windows was

Another version of that stunning view

totally stunning, with the whole of London spread out below.  Even things like the London Eye looked tiny from up there.

One of the best feelings about being at the author party was the excitement of being able to see a couple of my covers projected on to the large screens in the room. As the covers to Olivero’s Outrageous Proposal and Destined for The Desert King are two of my favourite covers it was great to be able to see them on display like that.

Cover for Olivero's Outrageous Proposal on display

At the party I was able to meet up with more friends – some  international ones too! Anna Sugden who writes for American Romance and Kandy Shepherd  (Cherish) who was over from Australia.  And I had a very special hug for lovely Nicole Locke whose newest Historical novel  Her Enemy Highlander  is out this month.   You might remember that Nicole wrote thislovely blog post to mark my 30 years of being a published author. Thanks once again Nicole!

With Anna Sugden and Kandy Shepherd

I didn’t take many photographs  during the day so I’m grateful to my friends and the official M&B photographer   Katie who took pictures so that I can show them here.