Kept For Her Baby

UK  readers  - did you miss out on a copy of Kept For Her Baby?

Or would you just like a really good buy in an ebook in the M&B site's sale?

Secret Love-Child - a 3 in 1 collection  with two other books by Catherine  Spencer and Tina Duncan is currently available for .99p as an ebook on the site and on Kindle.  It's  a great deal if you grab it now.

The postman just brought a bundle of foreign translations  including two of my favourites -  one from Czechoslovakia where I'm  'Kate Walkerova'  and another new manga edition - I love getting those. The illustrations are so great. this one is  Sicilian Husband Blackmailed Bride

 with the Sicilian hero looking like a secret agent in his black trench coat arriving at his heroine's wedding! (He isn't a secret agent however!)

RITA reading with Ruby

I have been sent books to read and judge for the Romance Writers of America   Awards.  I have a selection of different romance genres  and authors. some I know of already, some that are new to me.

I finished one of the books last night. I'm not allowed to say which book or which author  or what I thought of it - but I can tell you that Ruby the cat thought it was a book she really   could get her teeth into.

And this is only the outside back cover.

She really enjoyed the rest of the novel!

Courses coming up 1 - Cirencester in April

OK  - so as I've been asked to let you now about my teaching plans for this year   - the first course coming up is the Advanced Romance Writing Course in the Winter Weekend and Fishguard but as I said yesterday there's only one place left on that   weekend  so I'll list the rest of the course planned for this year.

The first one is a weekend course at the Royal Agricultural  College Cirencester .  That's coming up in April. There has already been quite a bit of interest in this one  - so if you are interested in a place on them course, contact Relax and Write and  put your name down for it.

RELAX  AND WRITE

CREATIVE WRITING WEEKEND COURSE

‘Beginning Middle and End’

Planning your novel from start to finish

15 - 17 APRIL 2016

Attend as a Day Visitor or Residential Member

at

THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY

CIRENCESTER

Was your New Year resolution to ‘write that novel’?  Did you start out hopefully, wanting to write the story that was burning in your head ... Only to find that now you’ve slowed down, lost the plot, lost your way, become bogged down in a ‘sagging middle.’  Could you do with a route map - some guidelines to help you find your way?

This course will teach you how to plan out your novel so that you have a much better idea of where you’re going and how to create the best read possible.  It will show you how to:

l  Start well

l  Use opening hooks

l  Use a synopsis to keep yourself - and your characters - on track

l  Avoid the ‘sagging middle’

l  Maintain pace to keep the reader turning pages

l  Create a satisfying end - making the reader want more from you

All inclusive fee £245 and includes Sunday Lunch.

For further information Contact Lois Bird-Maddox ‘Relax & Write’ Course Organiser  :  www.malagaw

orkshops.co.uk 

Write to: The Secretary, ‘Relax & Write’ 9 (D) Langthorn Close, Frampton Cotterell, Bristol BS36 2JH.

Groups are kept small to benefit from the writing experience. Please let your Writing Group know about our ‘Relax & Write’ weekend courses, which are held at different venues during the year.  Book early to guarantee a place. Book early and pay by instalments. Non-participating partners welcome. Free Parking is available.

Also at this weekend: 

'Writing the Past' with Stephen Wade

This course is intended to help both fiction and non-fiction writers at all stages of their writing lives. The aim is to provide help and guidance in all areas of writing which is concerned with the past. The course topics include the full range of writing and research skills you need to write in any category about the past. All inclusive fee £245 and includes Sunday Lunch.

Pink Hearts Blog Day

I really have no idea at all what has happened to the beginning of 2016.

I'm sure it was only yesterday that it was  New Year's Day and the year was starting over all fresh and new. . . and now it's  - what?! January 24th?! How did that happen?

Well, I have some ideas, -
Revisions
Family birthday
Revisions
Organising   the redecoration of a. the bedroom b. hall stairs and landing
So that involved a. finding  new wallpaper we could both agree on b buying said wallpaper - and then going back  to the shop to get more wallpaper when we didn't have  enough with the same batch number!
Finding the paint we liked to go with the wallpaper  - see above
Revisions
Discussing and planning new courses coming up for the next year - with Writers' Holiday and Relax and Write and a couple of other workshops thrown in for good measure.
Revisions . . .

So now I'm hoping to get the revisions off my desk before the decorator comes and sets to work on the hall stairs and landing (could there be a part of the house that guarantees more chaos than that?)
And I need to have the course planned, the handouts printed, the critiques planned for the one to ones before I head for Fishguard in February.

So that seems to be what's happened to - well, most of January.
But today is my unexpected day for blogging over on the Pink Hearts Society Blog. So that's where

you'll find my blog post today (or perhaps I should say my other blog post!)

Oh and talking about courses and writing weekends and such - I've been asked to post details of what I am doing this year so you can know if any courses suit you. So I'll do that this week - there are
two courses with Writer's Holiday and two courses plus a Focus  on Writing Retreat  with Relax and Write 

Details coming up

Oh  but if you are interested in the Advanced Romance Writing Course at Fishguard in February this year - I have unexpectedly got one  free space because a student can't come  -  so if you're interested - act now! And contact Writers'  Holiday asap.

Trying to catch up

A rather belated happy new year to you all!

Well, it's been a bit of a crazy month.   I was so glad to get back home and out of hospital - but the convalescence took much longer than I ever expected.  And then there was Christmas,  New Year, my son's birthday,  We celebrated that by going to stay with him and his fiancée and  I thoroughly enjoyed walking the brand new family member - the grand-dog -  on a freezing, windswept beach. (Yes, I know it doesn't sound like fun - but it was!)

Now I'm trying to catch up in all way - revisions on the latest story being the most important. My brooding Spanish hero  is faced with meeting Rose, the woman who turned his life upside down ten years ago - and is now doing that all over again.

Today I'm blogging over at Tote Bags N Blogs  - talking about my 'determinations' for  2016. Not resolutions but things I'm determined to do more of  in 2016.

Oh, and I'm thrilled to discover that  one of my 2015 title Olivero's Outrageous Proposal  is
now reprinted in the collection 12 Best of the Year for Modern Romance.  That's something that got my year off to a good start!


Important PS  - for my lovely Australian readers - with special thanks to Helen (see comments) whose comment reminded me that I need to say this.

The book of mine that appears in the Best of The Year collection - Olivero's Outrageous

Proposal  hadn't been published in Australia in 2015 - but it is out at last this month in the Mills And Boon Sexy line.

Helen has read it already  because she had an advanced copy  for an unbiased review - and she gave it this wonderful review - and it was posted as a Featured Book on the Australian Romance Readers Association  web site - here

Part of that review said:
This is such an emotionally powerful story of revenge, desire and a marriage of convenience as two people learn a lot of truths about family. The setting is just wonderful—a villa in Tuscany, Villa D’Oro, where many sensual nights are spent together and lots of discussions take place. Love grows stronger by the day, but there are still a few hurdles to cross until they reach their wonderful HEA. This is a story that will pull you in from the first page and keep you turning the pages until the end. I loved this one and highly recommend it.

Thank you so much Helen - and the ARRA