Prizes, Heroes and Words

I have some winners to anounce -

I love this bit - one of the best things about running a contest is being able to write to a winner and let them know that they have won a prize. The email that comes back is usally on the lines of 'you made my day' and there's something very special about know that you have made someone's day.

This time, purely by coincidence, both winners come from the same state. Which is a real coincidence considering that Sid the Cat and Saffy the retriever were several hours and hundreds of miles apart when they picked their winners. Saffy lives near Manchester and Sid, of course, lives here with me in Lincolnshire.

Anyway - the winners they chose both come from Texas. So congratulations go to

Gladys P from Houston

and

Ellen M from Corpus Christi

Both win a signed copy of Bedded By The Greek Billionaire and the De Santis Marriage - and the 3 in 1 By Request Her Passionate Italian.

The discussion on heroes was interesting. I'm in total agreement with Julie (and Anne McAllister) who said:

I think that the British hero is rather unrepresented in Modern Romance/Harlequin Presents of late. A sexy British aristocrat, a stately home, a strong Presents heroine, gorgeous scenery and I am in heaven!

I have to agree - after all I'm married to my own British hero and have been for many years. I also totally agree with Anne that " a good Englishman (or Irishman)" would be great as a hero. I often wonder why the Mediterranean hero has so much of a hold on the market at the moment. I'm all for an English or Irish hero - specially the Irish one as I'm a sucker for an irish accent - and that Irish charm. Hmm . . . I shall have to see if the trips to Ireland last year yield some extra inspiration.

I was also interested by Caroline's comment -

I think there's a shortage of Eastern Europeans. The Mediterranean men get good coverage, but how about the Slovenians and Estonians? Fascinating countries and some seriously handsome men, with the possibility of weaving courageous and heroic acts from the recent Balkans conflict into their back stories.

Which is one I can relate to as well. I grew up in a community that had many Poles and Estonian families in it. In fact my first 'love' was a Polish boy in my school. And I have always been fascinated by Russian men - ballet dancers Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov started that off. I have read a couple of Russian heroes in Presents (in books by Carol Marinelli) and I agree that Eastern Europe is a fascinating place. with a great deal of background detail. I do wonder though, Caroline, if it is exactly that "recent Balkans conflict" that makes me hesitate. Romance readers want to believe in the happy ever after and the memories of those conflicts are still so sharp and disturbing in my mind at least that I would wonder - and fear - that perhaps things have not settled enough to give the hero that settled and secure happy ever after. Another thought is that perhaps the cultural refernces are not as easy to access - not just for the writer but the reader so that the appeal of these heroes' backgrounds would be less immediately recognisable.

Which is not to say that an Eastern European hero wouldn't work. I think he could. And your comment has given me plenty to think about. Especially as Lidia agreed with you. So I shall be looking at that potential area for hero inspiration too.

Which leads me to the fact the winners of the hero comments prizes are
Caroline

and

Julie

And as no one contacted me from India - which is such a pity - I'm going to add in an extra prize which goes to Lidia.

Julie, I know your address so I will get your prize in the post to you.

Lidia, can you confirm yours is still the same, please?

Caroline, could you please let me know where to send you prize to. Thanks.

Oh, and I visited Caroline's blog on Natural Scotland and she has some wonderful photographs on there. Take a look. Caroline, I spent a happy time looking at those pictures - more than I could afford. I loved them!

If you want some more chances to win prizes, take a look at the Pink Heart Society all this month. Li'l Pink the Dancing Heart - and the PHS - are celebrating their second birthday this month. So there will be extra giveaways and prizes on various blogs all through the month. The posts are always worth reading as well.

Flora has just come in from the garden complaining that it's cold and WET again - so everyone in danger of flooding or anywhere where the persistent rain is causing real trouble, my thoughts are with you - keep safe.

Oh, and those words? It's amazing how a whole section of a book can turn on a few words. Last night I left Ricardo and Lucy at a point that will change their relationship for the next part of the book. But I kew there was one piece missing. This morning,as I staggered out of bed and went downstair to put the kettle on, four words came into my head that will affect this next secion so much. I do love the way that going to sleep with a problem/uncertainty in the plot at the back of my mind can so often mean that I wake up in the morning knowing that my subconscious has worked it all through for me and come up with the answer.

That's one of the things about writing that I can never teach anyone - it just happens - sometimes.

And today is one of those times so I'm off to make use of it.

Heroes and countries

I love the fact that my books sell all over the world. And I love the way that this blog has so many visitors from so many different countries - the collection of flags and places in the sidebar is evidence of that.

Recently I mentioned the fact that Mills & Boon had lauched the distribution of their lines in India where they knew there was already a large market for romance novels and they hoped that this new venture would be a great success. I haven't yet seen the royalties fro the 3 books of mine that have been published in India but I do know that it is in the top twenty countries for visitors to this blog. I know that the publisher of the 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance has sold the Indian rights to that book, too.

Then this morning I discovered that I discovered that I am this month's Featured Author on the M&B India site. My newest title in the UK - Bedded By The Greek Billionaire is published in India this month and as I've already said the cover art has been changed to suit the country of sale. So today is a good day to send a special hello and welcome to all my readers from India if you're visiting as a result of that. If you are visiting from India please say hello in the comments section and tell me where you're posting from. To celebrate being the featured author, I have a 2 small prizes on offer in the form of some M&B centenary goodies for the first couple of posters with Indian home addresses.

It seems so appropriate that as this interest in M&B romances in India is growing , over on the I heart Presents site, Penny Jordan has been talking about her new book and how she is pushing the boundaries of the types of heroes that are popular as she has written this one with an Indian hero. That made me wonder what other countries that are not well represented in the hero populaton of the Modern Romances/Harlequin Presents titles, you would most like to see. Again, I have a couple of small prizes for those whose posts interest me.

Or, rather, interest Sid. Sid of course will be busy this weekend anyway as the Super September Contest that I'm running with Michelle Reid is now closed and The Cat will be choosing my winner just as soon as I can get him organised. Meanwhile, Michelle will be asking Saffy the Labrador to pick her winner. Two lucky winners will win signed copies of Bedded By The Greek Billionaire and The De Santis Marriage both of which are out now in the UK, together with a copy of Her Passionate Italian the 3 in 1 By request volume in whihc Michelle and I both appear. The results will be announced when we know them and have got together to disover the two winners' names - probably on Monday. Watch this space.

And talking of heroes - as you know, sometimes I use a photograph to imspire me when creating a hero - sometimes I don't seem to need one. I was working on the current book and my brooding Italian hero without any extra inspiration but then yesterday I came across this. . .

Not quite sure why this particular image of Richard Armitage inspired when all the photos of him in black leather as Guy of Gisborne - or frock coat and cravat as John Thornton didn't. Perhaps it has something to do with the screen behind him that looks as if it might have a place in the historic island villa that is his home - but I took one look and knew that that was Ricardo. So I'm hoping that having a little extra inspiration will help the book grow even more and get me to The End a little faster. It should please Natasha Oakley anyway!

Prizes and podcasts

It's September 4th which means that you have just a couple of days to enter the Super September Contest that I'm running jointly with the wonderful Michelle Reid.

Bedded By The Greek Billionaire and The De Santis Marriage will be published as Mills & Boon Modern Romances in September. The De Santis Marriage will also be published in Harlequin Presents, and Bedded By the Greek Billionaire will appear in Presents in November.

But we're giving you the chance to win a signed copy of each of these great books in advance. There are two prizes of a signed copy of Bedded By The Greek Billionaire and The De Santis Marriage together with a copy of the By Request 3 in 1 volume Her Passionate Italian which contains my A Sicilian Husband and Michelle's The Passion Bargain.

Details of this contest can be found on the Contest page of my web site and Michelle's and entries have to be in by the time September 5th ends, wherever you are.

Incidentally my web site is now newly updated by fantastic Heather of We WriteRomance with details of the Beded By the Greek Billionaire, and information about everything I have coming up in the next few months. And Heather's own site, We Write Romance has just had a revamps and now has it's own regular blog - with planned guest bloggers for the future so keep an eye on that.

Talking of guest blogging - don't forget that I'm doing just that to help Jessica Hart celebrate the great achievement of her 50th title - we're talking about why you read romance and what keeps bringing you back to these stories - that over on Jessica's blog which you can find here.

If you're a would-be writer - and specially if you are interested in writing for Presents or considering entering the Feel The Heat contest that Harlequin Mills & Boon are currently running, then you will learn a lot by listening to the Meet The Editors podcast that are now available on the eHarlequin web site.

In the latest one, Executive Editor Tessa Shapcott and and Assistant Editor Sally Williamson are discussing the Presents and Modern Heat lines. You can find the discussion here

And the details of the Feel the Heat Contest are over on the I Heart Presents blog

Finally, as you'll know from reading this blog - and from the link in the sidebar, I am a keen supporter of Breast Cancer Research - a charity that Mills & Boon are strongly linked to as well.

This year the ladies of Mills & Boon will be running in the adidas 5k in support of Breast Cancer Campaign. Here's what Bethan Hilliard has to say:

This is Mills & Boon's 4th year of supporting Breast Cancer Campaign, and as this is also our centenary year, we'd like to do it in style! 10p from every sale of our Modern™ and Modern™ Heat books in October will go to Breast Cancer Campaign, as well as all the profits from Diana Palmer's Greatest Gift...and of course we're running as well!

We hope that 100 Mills & Boon staff, family and friends will be running at Hyde Park on 7th September, so please sponsor us and help us raise lots of money for this fantastic charity!

If any romance readers or writers want to sponsor them - there is a page set up at Just Giving where you can sign up to do just that. The run is on September 7th so let's give the runners all the encouragement we can and make a contribution to this great cause. After all, it's one that affects us all as women.

And there will be more about the support for Breast Cancer Research in October.

Quick reminders

Locked in the writing cave (can you get locked in a cave?) with a brooding Italian - no you can't mention the dreadline!

But I just thought I'd better remind you that August ends this weekend ( and that's why you definitely can't mention this dreadline!) and so . . .

If you want to get your hands (or your email) on a free copy of Spanish Billionaire Innocent Wife delivered by email then tomorrow is the last day it will be on offer from DailyLit.com to download for free. When September dawns this offer closes - so if you want to take advantage of it, then grab it now.

Apparently, DailyLit is celebrating the delivery of its 250,000th read to one of their 125,855 dedicated readers. That's a lot of reading in this new way of getting books electronically.

And don't forget the Super September Contest that I'm running jointly with the fabulous Michelle Reid - details are on my contest page .

There are two great prizes of a signed copy of Bedded By The Greek Billionaire and The De Santis Marriage together with a copy of the By Request 3 in 1 volume Her Passionate Italian which contains my A Sicilian Husband and Michelle's The Passion Bargain.

You have until September 5th to enter this.

Finally, the change around from August to September means that the books I have on sale also change - so this weekend is probably your last chance to grab a copy of The Alcolar Family Trilogy in one volume (By Request) - though the trilogy will still be available in the ebook bundle form over on eHarlequin.com - or the special Centenary novella, The Duke's Secret Wife.

But as those are taken off the shelves, my new title will be added as it comes out next week - and that, of course, is Bedded By The Greek Billionaire.

So hopefully that wil be plenty to keep you happy reading while I go back into the cave with Ricardo and hope to get him to his personal happy ending before too long . . .

. . . .just don't mention the D word!

Transition time

It's the last week in August. Summer seems to be coming to an end. Though here it suddenly seems to be starting up again as the temperatures climb a bit higher than before and the rain has eased off a bit.

Talking about the rain - a certain young Maine Coon does NOT like the weather and the other night when there was a severe thunderstorm and a torrential downpour was, as far as she was concerned, just too much! Her long fur is easily soaked and she came in from the garden looking like a drowned rat. Her loud complaints were clearly meant to tell us to turn that wet stuff off - right now!

Even the comfort of a nice big bowl of meat failed to appease her.

So she's been very happy to see some sun recently.

But the summer holidays are ending. Tomorrow the Offspring goes back to teaching, the schoolchildren will start walking past my window in the mornings and the new term will officially have started.

And when September starts I will have a new book - Bedded By The Greek Billionaire - out in the shops. Knowing the way some shops put the books out early, it might even be out this week.

And then in other places, The Alcolar Family will still be on sale for this last week.

Meanwhile I'm busy with a brooding Italian hero called Ricardo who is dealing with the fact that his errant wife has just reappeared in his life and he's none too happy about it. So, like the month and the weather I feel sort of in between different stages of my writing.

But the one I need to really concentrate on is Ricardo. So I'll be busy with him for a while. But I have the prizes for the Tote Bag Contest all packed up and they will be one their way to the lucky winners just as soon as I can get to the Post Office now that it's reopened after the Bank Holiday.

And if you didn't win a prize in that contest - I do have some news of another one that I'm running with a very special friend of mine to celebrate the fact that we both have books out in September.

Kate Walker and Michelle Reid's Super September Contest

As you may know, Michelle Reid is a great friend of mine and a favourite author too. It's not often that we have books on the shelves together but this September we do - in the UK at least.
Bedded By The Greek Billionaire and The De Santis Marriage will be published as Mills & Boon Modern Romances. The De Santis Marriage will also be published in Harlequin Presents, and Bedded By the Greek Billionaire will appear in Presents in November.

But we're giving you the chance to win a signed copy of each of these great books

in advance. There are two prizes of a signed copy of Bedded By The Greek Billionaire and The De Santis Marriage together with a copy of the By Request 3 in 1 volume Her Passionate Italian which contains my A Sicilian Husband and Michelle's The Passion Bargain.

What do you have to do?
Just answer this simple question:

What are the names of the hero and heroine in each of these September books?

Send the name of the hero and heroine of Bedded by The Greek Billionaire and The De Santis Marriage to me at the email link on my web site.

Please put the title Super September Contest in the subject line.

Closing date is September 5th after which I'll get Sid the Cat to pick out my winner.

You can enter this contest from both my site and from Michelle's site so that you will have two chances of winning this great prize.

Good Luck!

PS. And don't forget that simply by staying on my Newsletter list you are also in the running for the special Newsletter Draws where you don't have to do anything - or answer any questions, just stay right where you are and you never know, Sid the Cat might pick your name in one of the random draws. That's just one of the extra benefits you get for being one of my extra special readers! So why not sign up today and join the Newsletter Group?

Oh yes - and a special message for Carol Townend (thanks again for contributing to the Tote Bag of Books, Carol) who wrote, in yesterday's comments section -

I am curious, does Sid get to eat the other crunchies, later on? (After all he did work very hard with his choosing)

Carol - the answer is a definite yes. The first few crunchies that Sid picks count as the winners for any contest but then he gets his reward for all his hard work by being free to eat as many of the crundhies as he can manage. This is why he's always very pleased when there are lots of entries for a contest.

So don't forget to get your entries in and make a hardworking cat very happy!

Celebrating friends

I'll be continuing to talk about the books I'm giving away as a prize in the Tote Bag Full of Books Contest soon but today I want to post about a special day for a special friend.

One of the great things that my career as a romance writer has brought me - apart from all those books on my shelves and money in the bank, has been the unexpected and very welcome gift of some very special friends.

Friends who think along the same lines as I do (does this mean that they are crazy too?). Friends who 'get' romance in the way that I do. Friends whose books I love to read. And, bless them, friends who like to read my books too.

More often than not, I have found these friends because I have read their books, enjoyed them and thought that I would love to meet the woman who wrote those stories. This is how it has been with two very special friends in my life.

Back in 1997 I read a book called Finn's Twins and I loved it. I loved the hero, New York photographer Finn MacCauley. I loved the heroine Izzy. I loved the author's voice, the sometimes dryly humourous tone. It had an emotional intensity but one that didn't come from anger and revenge but a believable situation between believable people. Since then I've read almost everything else that author has written (the book was a RITA finalist, so obviously I'm not alone in my admiration of it) - and I wanted to meet the woman who had written that book.

A few years later I achieved that ambition when,as a result of an on-line discussion about visiting castles in England (something that never came off but I'm so glad that she asked) I invited her to come and visit when she was in this country. She did and Anne McAllister has been in my life ever since.

One of the real highlights of being in San Francisco for the RWA Conference was that I could also meet up with Anne again. Or rather that we could meet up I should say because as you'll know the Magnet and Anne's husband the Prof get on so well together that they start talking as soon as they meet, never stopping until they finally have to say goodbye as one or other couple heads reluctantly for a plane or a train.

We don't meet often - I doubt if we've spent more than a couple of months in each others company in all the time we've known each other. But it doesn't matter. We just pick up things where we left off. And we leave them off in so many different places. This last time we were trying to remember just how many cities or towns we've shared in the course of our friendship - it's quite a roll call. It goes from Doncaster to Denver and Dublin, Sydney to San Francisco, and so many points in between. Like the Magnet and the Prof we've never run out of conversation topics and I always look forward to the next meeting.

And of course there is the special Feline Friendship that Anne shares with The Cat himself. Sidney the Cat of Superior Breeding always has a specially warm welcome for his Lady from Across the Pond when she comes to visit. He even sends her emails and she was the receipient of his special Sid Calendar (taken from the pictures I posted on here last year) at Chrismas. She is coming over the pond again in September and Sid is already checking out the bed. He will, if she's good (the she in this case being Flora the Maine Coon) introduce the newest kit on the block to TLATP but only if she realises that he has first call on all the head rubs because Anne knows just the best way to rub a furry head, right behind the ears. The Hecks will also, hopefully make an appearance because it was after all Anne who named them on another visit a couple of years back.

I'm thinking of Anne specially because today is her birthday and I want to celebrate that special occasion as well as celebrating our special friendship that is such an important part of my life. So why don't you go on over to her blog and give her your best wishes for today?

So Happy Happy Birthday Anne

I hope you have a wonderful day. Sir Sidney sends his best purrs and head butts. and he's so looking forward to seeing you again. We all are. And Flora can't wait to meet you.

And while I'm on the subject of special writing friendships, as regular blog readers will know, another really great friend of mine and a writer I also really admire is another Modern/Presents author, Michelle Reid.

It's not often that we have books on the shelves together but this September we do - in the UK at least.

Bedded By The Greek Billionaire and The De Santis Marriage will be published as Mills & Boon Modern Romances next month. And so Michelle and I have got together with a joint Super September contest so that you can win signed copies of each of these great books - together with the July By Request Collection Her Passionate Italian that contains my A Sicilian Husband and Michelle's The Passion Bargain.

We still finalising things but the full details of the contest and how to enter will be going up on our web sites very soon. So look out for that. On my site you'll find the details on my Contest page which is where you will also find how you can enter my other contest and put yourself in the running to win a Tote Bag Stuffed with Books too.