Boxing Day and Christmas presents

I had the best Christmas present I could give myself in the week before the big day, when I finally pressed 'send' on the very last  edits of Out of Sight Out of Mind. The text is as good as I, and the editorial team, can make it and the cover - back and front, looks great - so now it's on its final journey to print. The next time I will see it will be when my box of author copies arrives. Last time, with Never Coming Home, that was an emotional moment, and I sat down and cried on the stairs. (Shades of Rod Stewart!) This time I think I might break out the champagne. The book has already got a fantastic preview review from The Bookseller - I hope other people will like it too. I think it is a bit more romantic that Never Coming Home, but the plot revolves around mind reading, which is not everyone's cup of tea. Well, we shall see.

This time last year I did a post on how Kaz and Devlin, hero and heroine of NCH, might spend Christmas. This year I've been thinking of Madison and Jay from OSOM. I have to say that my first though was that as they are both totally wrapped up in their work, they might just see Christmas as an unwelcome intrusion. Madison is not totally scientist to the core though - she does have a very feminine side, and she does like to enjoy herself, when she remembers to do it. She has no family, so she has only herself to please at holiday time. I can see her jetting off, at the very last minute, to some warm, exotic location with a beautiful spa, where she will try all the pampering treatments, totally chill out and relax. I wish she would take me with her.

Jay - now he is a completely different story - I think intense is the best word for him. A complete workaholic. But - when the book opens he's a homeless man, with no memory, so his Christmas would very likely be spent in a homeless shelter, or a shop doorway. A sombre thought.

But then he meets Madison ...

I'd like to wish everyone a very happy Boxing Day. I've enjoyed your company here, and on the Choc-lit blog, over the year, and I hope we will be meeting again in 2013. There will be all the excitement of the launch of Out of Sight Out of Mind, I'm planning another photo tour of the locations I used in the book, and I also have plans for a series of posts on my inspiration as a writer. I'm calling them the Inspiration Files. I hope you'll join me to read them and will find them interesting.

Enjoy the rest of the holiday - see you in 2013!

December 25th ...

HAVE A VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS.

A successful launch - and old friends.

There weren't many left by the end of the evening.

I had a lovely time last week - a short stay in London, which included a day at the British Library's newspaper archive, in Colindale, immersed in war time editions of the Local Government Chronicle (Hey - to each his own!) Then an evening at Goldsboro books in Cecil Court, for the Crime Writers' Association Christmas party - packed, noisy with writers, let out of their ivory towers for the night, and the chance to catch up on friends and meet new ones. Many thanks to Rebbecca Tope for introducing me to some interesting people.

The next day was spent in Uxbridge - my home for many years - and one of the settings to the new book. I spent a frosty morning wandering with the camera, taking pictures of locations mentioned in Out of Sight Out of Mind, which will be part of a new location tour when I have a complete set - I need a trip to West Wales for that. It is such a hard life, being a writer.

In the evening I had a date with another Choc-lit author. Henriette Gyland was having her launch party in Waterstones in the Chimes Shopping Centre and I was there to introduce her and her fabulous book - Up Close. It was a lovely evening - and a few friends from my old workplace, whom I have not seen in a long time, came to meet me, so it turned into a nostalgic trip down memory lane. Everyone enjoyed themselves, Henri read an extract from the book, beautifully capturing its atmosphere, and books were sold and signed. Waterstones were great hosts - altogether a lovely evening and a suitable launch for a smashing debut novel from another Choc-lit author.

Up Close ... in Uxbridge

I have a very exciting date on Thursday evening, at Waterstones in Uxbridge. I'm introducing Choc-lit's latest release, Up Close and its fabulous debut author, Henriette Gyland, at her official launch. Up Close is a romantic thriller and I have to say, as another author of romance from the dark side, it is nice to have some company down in Choc-lit's slightly creepy basement. Henri's book is set in Norfolk, has tons of atmosphere and a hot hero in a wet suit - what more can a girl ask for?

I'm especially looking forward to Thursday as I lived in Uxbridge for many years and still have friends in the area, although I have not seen some of them for quite a while. They are coming to the launch party, so it should be a really fun evening all round.

I'm looking forward to visiting old haunts too, on my brief visit, which will be especially apt as my second book, Out of Sight, Out of Mind, which is out in March, is partially set in Uxbridge. Although I must admit, I have taken some liberties with some of the geography. I'm planning to take the camera - so there should be a location tour for that book, on the same lines as the one for Never Coming Home. If you haven't caught up with that yet, click the link above on Pages, to learn more about the locations and the writing of the book.

So - if you are around in Uxbridge, you might see me out, with the camera. And if you're in the vicinity of The Chimes Shopping Centre from 6.30 onwards on 13th December, I might see you  at  the Up Close book launch.

A literary lunch

Writers always claim that we don't get out much.  Awwww!

Engrossed in conversation

Chris, Kath, Sandra, me, Jean

Lorraine, Chris, Kath

So when we do, it is something of an occasion. The Cardiff and Carmarthen chapters of the RNA met in Cardiff on 4th December for a not quite Christmas lunch - Sandra (aka Toni Sands), Chris Stovell, Lorraine Hossington, Kath Eastman, from the Nut Press, Jean Fullerton, the RNA Chapter Liaison officer, all the way from London - and me. We had a good time, eating and gossipping and generally sharing writer type 'stuff'.

Pudding!
Cherry and Chocolate fondant.

It was so good we are hoping to do it again.








P.S. I've been blogging recently about Out of Sight, Out of Mind. This is the notorious second book - the one authors dread. Will the people who read the first one like this one too? I have an added complication that this is a paranormal romantic thriller. Relieved and heartened to find that the Bookseller magazine has previewed it as 'a terrific thriller'. Wow!

On location - Never Coming Home

If you're currently reading Never Coming Home and you want to see some of the locations used in the book, the pages link is above.

But it's all romance

When you write romance, you get used to hearing the stereotypes - bodice ripper probably being the favourite. I have to say that no bodice has ever been ripped in one of mine. Attending the Festival of Romance, and listening to large numbers of authors reading from their books, prompted me to think about the wide variety of work that comes under the heading of 'romance'. Some of the extracts were comic, some were about families and relationships, some were gritty, some were scary, some were sexy, some were sweet, some were set in the past, some were set on a different planet ... you get the picture. I would guess that if you asked the authors what made their book a romance the words 'Happy ever after' would probably feature, but other than that, the variety of setting and circumstances was huge.

This is something that interests me about categories for awards and competitions. Most awards for romantic fiction sub divide as a minimum into historical and contemporary. But such wide groupings mean that a book set in the Medieval world can be placed alongside one set on the Titanic. Or one that is about a woman leaving a life she has outgrown, or a failed relationship, can be matched against the none too serious adventures of a group of friends who are looking for Mr Right. And all that gets even more complex if any of those involved just happens to be a vampire. Or a serial killer ... 

What am I writing?

American contests tend to have wider groups of categories. Over there what I write is called romantic suspense and usually has a category of its own. In the UK, where everything is on a more compact scale, I'd simply be in the 'Contemporary' section - as a romantic thriller - and where you might also find those paranormal stories, and maybe one or two taking place on another planet, or a parallel universe, alongside the ones set in a big city cocktail bar or a country village. A good book is a good book, but I don't envy contest judges trying to untangle all that. A bit like trying to compare apples and pears? 

Categories are exercising my mind at present as I am in the process of editing my second book, Out of Sight, Out of Mind. My first, Never Coming Home, mixed a love story with an extremely high body count. Those of a delicate disposition will be relieved to know that OSOM does not have quite so many bodies - but it does have a paranormal twist, as both the hero and heroine read minds. So now I have a paranormal romantic thriller/romantic suspense on my hands. Talk about trying to fit a square peg, with bits sticking out and one side side shaped like a triangle, into a round hole.

I can never make things easy for myself, can I? 

But it does have a happy ending.