RITAs

Yesterday the Romance Writers of America announced the line-up of finalists in all the categories for the RITA and Golden Heart awards for 2010.

I was thrilled to see that M&B Modern/Harlequin Presents authors were well representedin the Contemporary Series Romance Category, with nominations for:

The Christmas Love-Child by Jennie Lucas (November 2009)
One-Night Mistress…Convenient Wife by Anne McAllister (November 2009)

Duty, Desire, and the Desert King by Jane Porter (December 2009)

Kelly Hunter, whose books are published as Modern Heat was also nominated for her title Revealed: a Prince and a Pregnancy

There are several other M&B published authors on the list - for example

Michelle Willingham with Taming Her Irish Warrior in the Historical category

and

Elizabeth Rolls for Lord Braybrook's Penniless Bride in the Regency Historical category.

Many congratulations to all the nominees - but I'm sure no one will be surprised if I save some very special cheers and congratulations for my dear friend and wonderful write Anne McAllister whose nominated book was the prize in our joint Here Come the Grooms Contest just a few weeks ago. Congratulations, Anne (and Christo!) !

You can read the full list of the finalists here.

The winners will be announced at the RWA National Conference in Nashville in July.

Heading out

Suitcases packed - all cats removed form the inside of the cases

Passports checked, tickets ditto

Taxi booked

So I'm heading for Heathrow and a flight to San Francisco.

If you're going to be there - see you soon .

If not, have a good week and I'll tell you all about it when I get back

Conferences and Web Sites

I'm busy with one of my least favourite jobs, the annual accounts. They have to be done , I'm late already, so it's a matter of getting my head down and concentrating . I'm almost there and it's always a wonderful feeling when I'm finished so that's today's task. . .

But while I'm concentrating on that, perhaps you could help me by contributing to a discussion I'm having with various other authors, and will be talking about in public very soon.

It's coming up to the Conference Season. The Romantic Novelists' Association will gathering in Chichester for the weekend of July 4th-7th. I'll be there and if anyone reading this blog will be there too, please come up and say hello.

And then the Romance Writers' Of America will be holding their National Conference in San Francisco July 30th - August 2nd. I'll be there too - and if you'll be in SF either at the Conference or just attending the Literacy Signing on the Wednesday afternoon, please come and say Hi. I'd love to meet some of my 'blogfriends'.

I'm also giving a talk at the RNA Conference. And that's where you can help me. You see I've been bullied - ahem - persuaded - cajoled - into leading a discussion on why web sites are useful/important for authors. I've looked at this from the author's point of view, by running a survey and asking writer friends what their approach is, what they find works well, what they like and dislike . . .

But now I'd like to find out more from the readers' perspective. And this is where you can help me. I'd love to know what you like and dislike about authors' web sites.

What do you most want to see on an author's web site?

What are the most important /vital elements for you?

What do you rarely see that you think would be useful?

What information do you want to get from a web site?

Is a blog important?

Is it important to update a web site regularly? How often?

What brings you back to a site again and again?

Do promotions/contests matter?

Have you ever bought books directly from a web site - via Amazon/eHarlequin etc in a link?

How do you find authors' sites - what search engines/fiction/romancxe focused sites do you use?

Which authors’ sites do you visit/enjoy?

Which authors’ sites do you admire ?

Why?

Are there any web sites you dislike/find difficult to use/wouldn’t revisit?

What puts you off a web site?

Any help on this would be so useful and I'd really appreciate it. Feel free to answer as many or as few questions as you like - you can either post in the Comments section or email me privately (please put Web Site Survey) in the heading.

And as a thank you I'll put all the names in a hat - no - sorry - you know what I mean - I'll put them all on the floor with a crunchie cat treat on top and let Sid the Cat pick a couple of names from all of those who answer and the winners will get signed copies of my special Centenary Collection book - The Duke's Secret Wife.

Any non UK author friends reading this who haven't been asked to join in the survey - if you'd like to help with that too, you'd be only too welcome. Please email me for the survey questions.

Thank you!

Looking forward

Hmm - does the fact that I started this post on the 9th, tried again on the 10th, and am now back trying again today tell you something? Let's hope I get this written today.

OK so - coming up in 2008 . . .

Well, as you'll probably already know, 2008 is a very important year for Harlequin Mills & Boon. Because this year marks the company's centenary of the day on which Mr Gerald Mills and Mr Charles Boon founded the company that they called - naturally enough - Mills & Boon. All sorts of celebrations and special events are planned throughout the year and as soon as I know about them then I'll pass the information on to you. And anything I actually experience, you'll get to hear from me too. I was interviewed yesterday as part of the newspapers' interest in this event and again I'll tell you more about that when I can.

There will also be a special publishing programme to mark this centenary - so I think that publishing and books coming up is a very good place to start looking at what's coming up for me this year:

The books I have scheduled for 2008 are:

3 in 1 By Request, Just the Three of Us is in the bookshops this month. This collection has a reprint of my 2001 book - His Miracle Baby in it.

Spanish Billionaire, Innocent Bride - published in M&B Modern in March/M&B Sexy in Australia in April and Harlequin Presents in June 2008

In August, my novella The Duke's Secret Wife will be reprinted in the special M&B 100th Birthday Collection. These books are just starting to appear and they will all have a retro look cover so look out for them.

And finally - I think - The Black Angel aka Bedded By the Greek Billionaire will be published in M&B Modern in September and Presents and M&B Sexy in October 2008

Oh yes - and I have some exciting news about another book - but this time my non-fiction. I heard from the publishers of the 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance and the book has just about sold out! The last I heard there were only fice copies left and as Amazon has some on order, they might be the last ones available. So I'm working on a brand new 2nd edition of this book. It will be brought right up to date and . . . well, more on those plans later.

But talking about the 12 Point Guide reminds me that I must tell you about a new project that I'm starting with Lee Hyat over on Tote Bags 'N' Blogs. A while back, Lee asked me to do some workshops on her My Tote Bag site but we weren't sure how much interest there would be - so, with reference to my 12 Point Guide, we came up with this idea to see how things go. For 2008, I will be writing a blog on the Craft of Writing once a month - 12 Points on the 12th. And as today is January 11th, tomorrow will see the first of these blogs. See you there?

And that reminds me that I wanted to ask you a couple of things about this blog - and the Tote Bags one . If there is somethign that you'd like me to blog about - or topics you'd like me to discuss, then please let me know. If you don't ask, I can't help. One of the things I have coming up is to tie in with the Instant Seduction Contest over on the I Heart Presents web site- and talk a little about writing for Presents. The contest doesn't close until Feb 14th so we have a little time to look at that. For example, I had an email from someone who asked me what I thought was the most important thing to think about when writing Presents . . . .

What else is coming up in 2008.

Deadlines - several deadlines. Although I hate them when they're looming, deadlines are a good discipline - they keep me writing, make me concentrate and focus my mind - so the first one of those is coming up at the end of February, and then there will be some more throughout the year. And of course, deadlines mean new books so I hope to be able to tell you about more acceptances and more new titles coming out in the future.

Next - the three Cs -

Contests -

I may not have the 50th book celebrations this year, but I will still be running some contests. Contests to celebrate the publication of new books, the now traditional Tote Bag of Books coming up in the summer- and the other 'traditional' contest - well, that will be running for 2 years! - with Anne McAllister and Liz Fielding - when we run our Valentine's contest. Remember Her Come the Brides last year - and the time that the Grooms took over the blogs? Well, who knows what will happen this year.

And talking of Liz Fielding reminds me that I have to say Congratulations to this lovely lady as she reaches the wonderful milestone of her 50th book and her 50th M&B this year. And another golden girl who will be celebrating is Jessica Hart who also reaches that magical 50. I shall be helping both authors celebrate on their blogs through the year. And I'm also guest blogging with Nicola Marsh in February - and of course there will be my monthly commitment to blogging over on the Pink Heart Society once a month. Phew! That's more than enough blogging for anyone.

Courses

At the moment I'm not actually booked to run any courses this year - not weekend ones anyway. Sadly, I won't be able to make it to Caerleon Writers' Holidays this year and it looks as if the Winter Weekend won;t run in 2008. But I am booked for a workshop for Lincoln Book Festival in May and that will be followed by a Romance Event in the evening as part of those centenary celebrations for Mills & Boon. Several writer friends of mine have said they'll be joining me there too - so I'm really looking forward to that. So if you live anywhere near Lincoln, I do hope you'll come along.

Conferences

July- August is conference time, and as well as the Romantic Novelists' Association Conference in July, the BM and I hope to be travelling to the Romance Writers' of America's National Conference in San Francisco at the end of July and start of August. It's a long time - too long - since I met up with my friends from America - and some from Australia who will be coming to SF too - so I can't wait for that. and maybe I'll get to meet some of my blog readers - if you're coming to the conference or the literacy signing, then please some up and say hello.

I think that's it - for now. Of course all this doesn't take into account anything that the BM will be getting up to - for example he has some more books in the Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths series coming up - remember that research trip to Dublin? The book that results from that will be out in April - and there's a book on Hauntings in Yorkshire and . . . there will be more - I've just lost track of exactly what!

And of course there will be more about Sir Sidney and his Flirtatious Feline Mistress - Flora. Which reminds me that I haven't told you anything about my other animal friends for a while - the big cats - the lions and tigers adopted through the Born Free Foundation, the Guide Dog For the Blind (and I have news there!) And of course before we know it, it will be Spring and the Hecks will wake from hibernation in the hedgehog house.

And I'm sure there will be lots of other things to talk about and tell you about.

But this will do for now.

So now it's over to you - what do you want to know about?
Would you like more about writing romance?

Regular writing blogs?

Regular reading blogs?

Regular Sid blogs - he thinks you must be feeling deprived because there isn't the Sid Calendar any more.

There won't be a Great Big Blog Party in the summer this time - so we'll have to find plenty to fill the space!