Snowdogs - Tails in Wales

Cardiff and the surrounding area is currently playing host to the Snowdogs - who are raising money for the Ty Hafan Children's Hospice.  I managed to take pictures of some of them, but there are 43 dogs and 57 pups, so I only scratched the surface. Here are a few of the Snowdogs on the trail. They will be in place until 26th November and then will be all together in the Capital Shopping Centre on the farewell weekend 8-10 December. Woof, Woof.

He's on the prom at Barry Island

Also on the prom

He greets you outside Central Station

Outside the Cardiff library

Pups - inside the library

More library pups

Another from the library. He looks very cheerful

Another library pup

The last library pup

A 'four seasons' Pup from St David's Centre
outside John Lewis

Another season - looks like summer

I think this one is spring

So he must be autumn :)

Rather a fearsome looking Snowdog
at the M&S end of St David's Centre

Pups from the M&S end of St David's Centre

I think he was my favourite - always been a sucker for fur.

Pup from the Capitol centre

More Capitol Centre pups 

And more

And another

The last one 

From the very top of Queen Street

He was outside the museum

There are lots more to see - at the other end of town, at Penarth and in the Bay and some of the local Cardiff parks and the airport. It would probably take a whole day to track them all down!

About the new book.

Well, now you've seen the cover, maybe I'd better tell you about the new book. It's a Christmas book - the title kind of gives it away. I've never done one of those before. I'm not usually very big on Christmas, but it sort of happened. Books are like that. It's an e-book novella. Actually it's quite long for a novella - 60,000+ words so you'll be getting your 99p worth.

And you are going to buy it, aren't you? Pretty please? It's on pre-order at the moment from all the usual e-book retailers and publication day is 5th December.

But what is is about?

It's a romantic suspense, so not your usual feel good Christmas romance. Parts of it are very romantic and I hope you'll enjoy reading it, but be prepared for kidnapping, attempted murder ... all that festive stuff. A book for people who like something a bit different with their Christmas romance. The Christmas part is set in the Brecon Beacons, in a freak snow storm, although the book has a whole year time line and goes on to the following Christmas. The cover is gorgeous, thanks to the talent of the lovely Berni Stephens, who did wonders with my request for a hut. Watch that hut, it is significant.

It all starts when best selling author Andrew Vitruvius agrees to be kidnapped live on TV, for charity. And would-be author Lori France gets an unexpected visit from her sister.

Neither of them is going to get the Christmas they were expecting ...

What Happens at Christmas

Deep in edits for the Christmas romantic suspense, so no proper post this week, but I can show you my lovely cover.

Locations for Summer in San Remo - sort of ...

I like to do a short location tour for a book - just to give readers an idea of the look of places that appear. You can see the links for the ones for Never Coming Home and Out of Sight Out of Mind at the top of the page.

I haven't done one yet for Summer in San Remo, because I like to take my own pics and sadly health issues have stopped me from travelling abroad recently, so I don't have any up to date photos of the gorgeous locations I used from the Italian and French Rivieras. I had to rely on vivid recollections of some glorious holidays and a lot of Internet browsing. And that was such a lot of fun, and brought back some wonderful sunny memories. And a visit to the Riviera is top of the list as soon as I can get on the move again. When there will definitely be pictures.

I was thinking about this the other day, while drooling over holiday brochures. One of my secret addictions. There is a lot of drooling goes on, I can tell you. But you don't want to know about that.

Summer in San Remo is not set entirely on the Riviera though. The book opens in Bath. And Bath I have photos of, even if it is another country. So, here is a mini tour of  Cassie and Jake's home town. Imagine it has one of those signs that they hang outside bits of museums that are temporarily unavailable 'Gallery under re-construction' or similar. And I promise pictures of sunshine as soon as possible.

The Christmas Novella - have I told you the title? It's What Happens at Christmas - is set in London and in the Brecon Beacons, around Abergavenny, so I should be able to manage pictures of that.

And in the meantime - here is a taste of Bath.

This is at the side of the Abbey.

Poultney Bridge, which has shops all along it

Walcot Street, which is where Cassie's fictional office for her concierge business is located 

One of the side streets, which gives a good idea of the style
 of the buildings and the colour of the stone.

This has nothing to do with the story,
but it's such a posh pillar box I couldn't resist including it. 

So that's a few shots of Bath. The start of the Summer in San Remo tour.
To be continued ...

It's beginning to look a lot like ...

... yes, Christmas. It's only just October, and the clocks haven't even gone back yet, but the twitter verse is awash with Christmas books. There's going to be a lot of fab reading sloshing about out there, people!

And I'm bobbing about squeaking 'And me! And me!' The Christmas novella - actually it's more small book, as it's over 60,000 words, now has a title - What Happens at Christmas. And I've had a glimpse at a few possible covers, so it is getting exciting. Until the edits arrive, of course.

spooky, not gory

But in the meantime it is still only the beginning of October and I'm currently knee deep in the thesis for the PhD. I haven't gone back to any of the uncompleted manuscripts yet, but I am kicking around an idea that is set at Halloween - so it's very seasonal. Doing some research on Halloween and spooky stuff is fun, excellent displacement activity and a change from writing about air raid shelters. And don't get me started on how the university computer system seems to have eaten one of my draft chapters. I'm looking at supernatural rather than paranormal, stuff that may or may not go bump in the night, and the usual mayhem.

Well actually, no. My body count has been going down lately. Only two in the overgrown novella - well, it is Christmas - and so far this one only has three. I must be getting mellow in my old age. The two works in suspended animation are much gorier though, and I will get back to them.

At present I'm thinking spine tingling, rather than blood thirsty. I'm still getting to know the hero and heroine - he's called Lucas and is rather gorgeous and very mysterious. She's on a quest to find out about a possible inheritance - at the moment she's called Darcy, but I'm not sure that's right for her. There's a big house, set in a slightly spooky village - in Wales, of course - and a dog, and a secondary romance and two different sets of very nasty villains and a lot of scarecrows and tarot cards, hence the research.

If it looks like becoming more than a diversion from the air raid shelters, I'll let you know.

How bossy do you like your heroes?

I'm reading an American romantic suspense at the moment. I'm going to finish it, as I want to see how the plot works out, but I'm having a bit of of trouble with both hero and heroine - mostly the hero. He's bossy, overwhelmingly possessive, short tempered, a womaniser and might have criminal connections. The heroine isn't sure, as she doesn't really know him that well. He's told her that she's going to have his babies, but other than that ... She can't resist him though, because he makes her feel safe - oh, and he's filthy rich and sexy as hell.

Now at this point I'd be on the bus and heading for the hills, but of course the heroine can't resist him and doesn't think she's good enough for him. And if she ran, he'd only come after her and haul her back, possibly by force.

Now the only thing I can subscribe to in all that is that he makes her feel safe, which is one of my go-to qualities in a hero. Protective, but not smothering. The book is by a top rank author, so there must be readers who do go for that type of hero, but it isn't me. Even my very alpha types are not that bossy. I'd cut them down to size if they were. My heroines have to have room to be themselves, and the hero has to be man enough to let them. I also like vulnerability in a hero, even if it's kept between him and the reader, by way of access to his thoughts on the page - maybe it's best that way - it's the reader's secret ...

For me there's nothing so entertaining as an alpha who is falling in love and doesn't have a clue why he feels like he was just hit by a truck. Which probably makes me a sadist? It wouldn't fit with a bossy hero.

It clearly takes all sorts both as readers and writers, which is as it should be. We don't all have the same taste in men, on or off the page, thank goodness.

   

Peer Review

I spent a lovely day last week with the ladies of the Marcher Chapter of the Romantic Novelists' Association  at The Courtyard Theatre, in Hereford. As usual the company, the gossip, the laughter and the food were good - I love the fish pie for lunch and this time people also had cake! I was too full of fish pie to have one of my own but got fed slivers from other people's and very nice they were too. Next time I'll save some space.

This meeting was a bit different from usual, though, as it was a critique workshop, and instead of making ourselves at home at a couple of tables in the cafe, we'd actually got a room. This is the second time I've done this - so not as scary as last time, but a bit scary, because I don't do much in the way of critiques - I don't have a critique partner and no one usually reads my stuff until it goes to the publisher. The first time wasn't too bad - lots of confidence building comments on a romantic suspense that I wasn't too sure about. I'm working on it again, but other things keep elbowing it out. It will happen.

This time I took the first pages of what might be the next Riviera Rogues book.  There were seven of us, and part of the fun is trying to match the writer with the critique piece, as they are anonymous when they arrive. Some were fairly easy to guess, but there were a couple of surprises from people writing outside their usual genre. I have to say they were all fabulous. I wanted to read them all and comments seemed like nit picking. Happily the other felt the same, but we soldiered bravely and everyone got feedback, and we had a lot of fun. I'm not going to divulge details, but I really hope all the books make it into print, because I do want to read them all.

And mine - well the feedback was positive, but the big question was - how are you going to work the plot out? And thereby hangs the tail, because although the book is finished it's the one with the plot that is ... well, let's say at the moment it needs a lot of suspension of disbelief. I will sort the bugs out, because I want Nadine and Ryan to have their story and also to catch up with what has been happening to Cassie and Jake two years into their marriage.

I'll have to give the matter deep thought. Very deep.