If you like ebooks . . .

I've just discovered that Kept For Her Baby is already on sale in this format on eHarlequin.com. You can find the ebook version of this October Presents EXTRA release here.

I wasn't expecting it to be available in the Presents format yet, so it was a surprise to see it there.

It has been on sale on the Mills & Boon web site for a while, as have all the September Modern Romance, whether they appear in the shops on August 21st of September 4th. Kept For Her Baby will, of course, be in the bookshops in the UK from next Friday - September 4th. And you can read an excerpt from it here or using the link in the sidebar.

And don't forget that my Summer Sizzler contest which I'm running jointly with Michelle Reid is still open - nut the closing date is the end of this month Monday 31st September. So get your entries in for that- the details are:

We are giving you the chance to win a signed copy of each of the two great books we have out in September - my Kept For Her Baby and Michelle's Marchese's Forgotten Bride.

All you have to do is: Name the Hero and Heroine in both of the above titles!

(you can find the information on my web site - and of course on Michelle's)

Send your answers to me and to Michelle
Please put September Sizzler Contest in the subject line.

The closing date is the last day of August 2009 after which Michelle and I will pick out the winners and send them signed copies of our books.

Changes and a contest

So have you got the idea of the new M&B scheduling system yet?

No - me neither - but then it's only really just starting up. But I'm thinking about the new 'two tier' system as I just realised that we're now a couple of weeks into August. Which means that next Friday will be the mid month changeover point, the time when the second set of books, the new titles for 21st August should appear on the shelves.

It's going to be interesting to see if this actually happens in the shops and whether the new books will go out, and the books from mid July will come off the shelves. Everywhere I've looked, the mid July books and the beginning of August books are all shelved together, with no indication of which is which.

You can tell the new Romance, Medical etc books though, because they have the new design covers and some of the 2 in 1 books that are a new format. Have you seen these new covers around? What do you think of them?

nd what about readers in America? You've had more time to get used to the mid month publication of the new Presents titles in the Presents Extra scheduling. How is that working for you? Can you find the Presents Extra titles easily - or are there some shops that don't yet stock all the Presents titles? Obviously I'm interested in the because my next title Kept for His Baby will be published in Presents EXTRA in October. But I'm interested anyway in what's happening in the readers' world as these changes and new developments take place.

One of the way that this has affected me is that last year , as you may remember, Michelle Reid and I both had a book out in September and we ran a small joint contest to mark the event. The Super September contest. When we discovered that we had books out in - we thought - September again this year we decided to run the contest again. But we hadn't reckoned with the new scheduling sytem.

So now we both have new titles coming up, but the books are actually published in a slightly different schedule. Michelle's book - Marchese's Forgotten Bride is out in the first run of September books which are published August 21st (are you confuzzled yet? Me too!)

And my next title - Kept for Her Baby - is out in the second run of September books - on September 4th.

So we had to do a bit of rethinking and we decided we'd still like to run the contest - but this time we're calling it the Summer Sizzler (if the summer isn't exactly sizzling where you are, then don't worry - these books will warm you up instead.)

Details - prizes first -

We're offering two prizes of a signed copy of each book - one of Marchese's Forgotten Bride and one of Kept For Her Baby for each winner.

And here's what you have to do

Just go to my website or to Michelle's - or the M&B web site - and find the answer to this very simple question:

What are the names of the hero and heroine of each book?

Put your answers on an email with the title Summer Sizzler in the subject line and send your entry to me or to Michelle by the last day of this month - that's 31st August.

Good luck!

Readers in America - don't forget to look out for the Presents EXTRA edition of Kept For Her Baby in October. The USA date for Michelle's book is yet to be announced. Australian readers are lucky, you don't have to work out any different dates or scheduling - you'll just find Kept For Her Baby and Marchese's Forgotten Bride in the normal run of Sexy Romances for October.

And I expect that we'll all get used to the new publishing schedules - eventually. If you can;t spot the titles you want in the shops - ask! Or order from the M&B website where Kept For Her Baby is already on sale now.