Archive for January, 2010

January 7, 2010

I promised Nell would be along to blog about her new Little Black Dress release – and here she is, having battled through snow and ice. Yeah…

I was very excited to be asked to blog here this week to celebrate the release of my third title for Little Black Dress. I can’t believe it’s my third title to hit the shelves in the UK. Crystal Clear is a story of rekindled love, crystals and chaos. It has a very opinionated heroine who discovers that she is in fact wrong about pretty much everything and a very delectable, laid back hero.

When Phillipa and I talk to groups we often find they are very surprised by the amount of research that goes into our books. I think people expect it from historical authors but not contemporary writers. Crystal Clear involved hours spent poring over books on Crystal therapy, the art of tarot, Feng Shui principles and maps of Brixham and Torbay. I pestered the tourist information office, scoured the NHS website, took a million and one pictures and selflessly tasted lots of Devon icecream all in the name of writerly integrity.

I also had the help of two experts, Kate Tomas, a renowned Crystal therapist and Lorraine Ashe, a respected medium. Both ladies happily answered my hundreds of questions and guided me towards reputable sources of information. The result of all this hard work?

For years Zee has tried to ignore her real name (who calls their kid Azure Dawn?) and her mother Marla’s alternative lifestyle. A million miles away from all that new-age nonsense, she’s got a reliable teaching job, a perfect life plan and sensible accountant Simon for a fiancé. But when Marla gets sick, the foundations of Zee’s rock-steady world are seriously shaken. Soon she’s back home, in touch with the boy who broke her heart and even being sucked into one of her mum’s hare-brained schemes. What about Zee’s plans for the future? Could they ever include a free-spirit from her past?

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January 4, 2010

After a year which ended in an orgy of Internet indulgence on my part, I’m going on a web crash diet. I’ll admit I spent the past few weeks of 2009, staying up until the small hours chatting with Mericans on Facebook about 12 Men, scanning the web for news about 12 Men, watching clips of 12 Men and drooling over yet another, picture, report or snippet of news about …you guessed it.

Enough already. I’ve gorged on the web and it has to stop – I want to end my addiction and go back to real life. So, here are my resolutions:

1. I will update the blog once a week maximum and no more unless something momentous happens.
2. I will keep off the Evil Time Sucking Demon called Facebook
3. I will not waste time enjoying myself on C19 reading about crinkles and peaches.
4. I will avoid all writing blogs, including those of dear friends and those which offer (another) startling insight into my writing which I know won’t work for me and will only make me gibber in a corner, feeling inadequate.
5. I will spend all my spare time and energy going to the gym, drumming up lucrative new copy business and being a nicer person around my family. Oh, and possibly writing a new book.

Now, just one final glance at those Amazon rankings, a quick scan of the latest news about Richard Armitage and a final check of my five email accounts and I can start work…

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