Archive for December, 2007

December 31, 2007 | 3 Comments

Just want to wish everyone a very Happy New Year and all the best for 2008, whether you’re a writer or a reader. We’re just going to see the new year in at home with a bottle of Champagne and Hot Fuzz!

December 26, 2007 | 3 Comments

We had a lovely day with our family. I had lots of books, a Radley handbag and a framed copy of the cover of Decent Exposure. I’m reading Honeycote by Veronica Henry right now which has inspired me. My car still needs repairing but my back’s a lot better and we’re off for a Boxing Day walk on Cannock Chase soon. But I needed to write some of ISHBM.

Update: mta that my parents bought a ‘cuddly’ Ikea rat in a trap for my FIL who, for months, has been valiantly trying to catch the rats invading our rabbit’s pen. My dad desperately wants to build a pond in the new year so we bought him some pond gift vouchers and a wind-up trout that we presented in a bowl of water. We all fell about laughing - we’re a sad bunch!

Wishing you all a peaceful and relaxing festive season.

P x

PS I also discovered I’d had a very nice review for Wish You Were Here from Vulpes Libris.

December 23, 2007 | 5 Comments

Well. I haven’t blogged like a lot of people because I’ve been so busy. Not all of it has been fun. In fact yesterday was one of those days when everything went wrong and now our Christmas plans are up in th air. Of the eight family who were planning to come to Christmas dinner, one has shingles, one has problems with a hip and had to see the emergency doctor, one ran into the house in a brand new car, two are now without heating and hot water after the boiler breaking down and four had to miss a concert at the Symphony Hall to the tune of £140 in tickets.

It was in short, not festive.

I’m hoping I can make it to the shops for the food today without collapsing.

Anyway, things can surely only get better and looking forward to seeing friends tonight and tomorrow. Happy Christmas and Happy Holidays!

December 19, 2007 | 5 Comments

I’ve been away in the Lakes for a few days, sleeping, walking and writing. The weather was crisp, bright and very cold. It was idyllic, but the only trouble is, every time I go up there i want to write a sequel to Decent Exposure. We had lunch at Yew Tree Farm where the movie, ‘Miss Potter’ was filmed - it’s open at weekends all year round and all the time in summer for teas and B&B. The bedrooms look lovely and are very reasonable so I heartily recommend it if you want a weekend in the Lakes.

I also progressed with ISHBM in two big frantic bursts. Although I’ve done 16,000 words, it’s all going to have to be revised, slashed, hacked and restructured. This is why I never post openings of my wips or show them to anyone. I re-write dozens and dozens of times and you would wonder why I ever get anything published!

At home, our tree and decorations are up, shopping nearly done and all nearly ready for Christmas.

I also returned to some great news: the longlist for the Romantic Novel of The Year includes my friend and fellow LBD author, Kate Lace. I am so thrilled to see a Little Black Dress novel on the list for the main award. Fabulous stuff! Congrats to all the authors listed and especially to Kate and to Annie Murray, who I met at Shugborough in the summer.

PS It’s your final chance to vote in the Pure Passion Awards. I know who I think should win (and it’s not me!) but if you’d like to cast your vote for Decent Exposure or any of the other romance novels on the list, please do it here.

December 11, 2007 | 2 Comments

Hi there,

While I’m working, I’m welcoming a guest blogger today and she is Ms Bennet and has free rein.

One of the most popular games in our house – from long before Decent Exposure was published, when the idea of selling film rights to anyone (let alone Fox TV!) was total pie-in-the-sky – is fantasy film casting. We would rip up magazines for pictures of people who looked as we imagined the characters to look, and we’d be in the cinema, or watching TV, and suddenly grab each other and say “That’s Will!” or “Look, it’s Nick” (who’ll you’ll meet in JSY). Now that there’s a possibility of DE making it onto the small screen, I’ve been looking for possible Wills and Emmas from the other side of the pond, and I think someone like Dylan Neal (who, while Canadian, has also been in a lot of US television) might fit the bill. About Will’s age and height, nice broad shoulders, does “brooding” rather well…

Of course, some lucky people actually do get to indulge their fantasy casting. There’s a new Andrew Davies adaptation of Sense and Sensibility on the BBC on New Year’s Day (and I understand it’s going to be shown in the USA in the spring); and they’ve gone for a slightly younger cast than the Emma Thompson version – which, incidentally, I love, and I’m not sure how it can be bettered – including a relative newcomer called Dan Stevens as Edward Ferrars. It looks like they’re hoping for a new Darcy, and with publicity stills like this one floating around, they might well be on to something!

You might recognise his as the syphilitic Arthur, Lord Holmwood in the slightly (well, very) odd BBC version of Dracula last Christmas. He should be in good company with Dominic Cooper (of The History Boys) as Willoughby, although I may take some convincing about David Morrissey as Colonel Brandon. Along with JJ Feild reprising the role of Fred Garland in The Shadow in the North, Christmas and New Year are positively bursting with literary eye-candy!