Tote Bag Full of Books Contest

Drip. . .drip . . . drip . . .

It's supposed to be summer! It's AUGUST! It's supposed to be warm and dry and sunny . . .

But outside it's pouring down. And when I got back from my morning walk, my hair was soaked, so were my feet and socks, and water was dripping down my nose. And it was COLD.

Oh well, I'm still going to carry on running my 'Summer' Tote Bag Full of Books Contest. Even if it's raining - specially if it's raining - you can still curl up somewhere dry with a good book. And I have lots of good books for you to win.

And as a special message to Dina - yes this contest is open to absolutely everyone. I always promise to send the prize to absolutely anyone anywhere in the world - I must be mad but I do!

So here are the first two -

Stage By Stage by Jan Jones

Stage By Stage is about Beth (an English teacher and mother of two teenage children) whose husband leaves her after twenty-five years of marriage mainly because she is an English teacher and mother of two teenage children. In order to supplement her severely depleted income, Beth opens her Cambridge house to Bed & Breakfast visitors. Three of her guests are Cate - the young ASM-with-attitude of a touring musical theatre company, Seb - the newest actor in the company who happens to be staggeringly good-looking and with whom Beth's daughter Natalie immediately falls in love, and a character actor of about Beth's own age called Owen Pendragon...

As well as romantic comedy, Jan also writes Regency novels and her next book out will be Fair Deception published by Robert Hale Ltd and this is what Jan told me about it -

As the novel opens, Susanna Fair is employed as an actress at the Sans Pareil theatre in the Strand, London. Susanna is being opportuned (I just love Regency-speak) by the Dishonourable Rafe Warwick. Fortunately, heroic devil-may-care Kit Kydd is at hand...

Don't know yet when the book will be out, but you can read the first chapter on my website.

The other book I want to tell you about today is

is Bought For the Frenchman’s Pleasure by Abby Green

As a top model, Sorcha Murphy can command a high price. But her fame hides a terrible secret from her past - one she has tried to put behind her, but which is about to return to haunt her...

Romain de Valois knows Sorcha is damaged goods - her hedonistic reputation speaks for itself. But he needs and wants her for one final assignment, and he's prepared to pay...

So when Romain discovers that Sorcha hasn't changed her ways, he decides to change the deal...her pay-cheque will be recouped in the bedroom - as his mistress!

Abby has two new titles on sale around now, one in the UK and one in Presents.

The Mediterranean Billionaire’s Blackmail Bargain was a Mills & Boon Modern Romance in July 2008 and its still around on Amazon etc. And in September in Harlequin Presents is The Kouros Marriage Revenge.

Abby's web site is here.

Details of the contest and how to enter can be found on the contest page on my web site.

The closing date is August 18th

Great Big Blog Party 37 - Jan Jones

Today's Great Big Blog Party Guest Blogger is a lady who I hope has spent the last week or so relaxing, recovering and revelling in the thought of another job wonderfully well done.

Because today's Guest Blogger is the brilliant Jan Jones who plans and organisesthe RNA Conferences with such brilliance - and so much hard work and worrying. A couple of weekends ago, in Leicester, Jan handled the arrangements for 150 or so delegates, a wonderful selection of speakers, meals, coffee breaks, rooms, sound systems . . . you name it - and all with the appearance of a swan gliding calmly through the water (though you know only too well that its feet are paddling away like mad under the surface to keep things going.) She coped with late arrivals, good news and bad news, kept the sessions flowing, made sure they didn't overrun - and all with a smile on her face that maybe got a little fixed at times but never actually disappeared. She was, quite simply a star. And I'm quite sure that by the end of the conference she was exhausted and had to go home and recover.

But you did a brilliant job, Jan. Thank you so much. If everyone had as great a time as I did then you can give yourself many pats on the back.

Of course in order to run such great conferences, Jan has become a Mistress of Manipulation, managing to persuade innocent and gullible friends and fellow RNA members into running talks/workshops/panels etc byapproaching them when they are in a very good mood (like at a 50th title celebration), happy, relaxed, and so unsuspecting . . . and then she pounces. Which is how I've ended up doing Library talks, workshops on plotting, Emotional Punch etc etc - and now it seems, in a moment of madness, have signed up for something else next year as well. But the truth is that I can rarely (OK, never) refuse Jan anything - and she did give me this conference off completely. (Which is probably why I enjoyed it so much!)

Jan doesn't just organise Conferences though, she also writes brilliant romantic comedy and her book Stage by Stage won the RNA's Joan Hessayson Award (for books that have been through the New Writers' Scheme). It's now published by Transita and I enjoyed it so much that just wish she'd get another published so I can enjoy that too!

So here's Jan Jones - Going For Gold

Fifty equals gold. Romance equals roses. So it was entirely appropriate that Kate Walker was showered with golden roses at her Big Fiftieth Title Party in Lincoln.

But - did you know that yellow roses are a comparatively new phenomenon? European roses were all shades of pink or white until the 19th century when the arrival of tea roses from the Orient caused an outbreak of breeding to produce different colours and forms.

Frenchman Joseph Permet‑Ducher spent twenty years breeding roses in a search of a hardy yellow variety. Then, one day in 1900, he noticed a mutant yellow rose in a field, which had all the characteristics he'd been trying to create!

Which brings me, rather tortuously, back to a Kate Walker link. One thing - was it from the emotional punch workshop, Kate? - which struck me particularly, was her saying that whilst it is always possible to refine a piece of writing to wring the maximum out of it, if the subject didn't spring naturally from your heart in the first place, it isn't going to work as well as something that does.

In other words, write from your heart. Which Kate does to perfection.

GIVEAWAY QUESTION: Kate had golden roses for her celebration. I'd like to know which flower means the most to other people, and why?

GIVEAWAY PRIZE: is a signed copy of Stage by Stage, my NWS award-winning romantic comedy. Or, if you prefer, one of the Sexy Shorts anthologies in which I have short stories.

Biography: Jan Jones is on the RNA committee and organises the annual conference. (She also takes advantage of Kate’s good nature from time to time, but that’s another story) One day she hopes to find enough time to write another book.

PS from Kate

I've posted the official 'Jan Jones as Conference Organiser' picture that Jan sent me - but Sid would like me to add this one - that I've snaffled from her web site - as well because it shows Jan with a very handsome friend