December 5, 2011

Last night, I was lucky enough to attend a dinner with some of the other British Sourcebooks authors at The Reform Club in Pall Mall, London. It was hosted by Dominique Raccah, the CEO of Sourcebooks, the US publisher of my LBD books including Carrie Goes off the Map.

Dominique Raccah

The Reform Club was founded in 1836 for those who pledged support for the Great Reform Act of 1832 and it was the political headquarters of the Liberal Party.

The club isn’t associated with any political party now and serves a purely social function – like holding a dinner for around a dozen very happy authors including Francesca Simon, Jane Odiwe, Helen Hollick, Elizabeth Chadwick, Amanda Grange, Ali Macnamara, Monica Fairview, Erica James, Wendy Holden, James Forrester, Gabrielle Klimm – and me!

Dinner in the Strangers Room

The club was made famous by the book, Around the World in Eighty Days. More recntly, the fencing scene between Pierce Brosnan, Toby Stephens and Madonna (from Die Another Day) was filmed here.

The day started when I got a cheap first class rail ticket to London. It wasn’t quite what I expected but it was a treat to lounge around in an almost-empty carriage eating biccies and Virgin Rail tea. Oh, the luxury…

Then I was collected from Euston and taken for more tea and crumpets at Duckface’s house and met her gorgeous little toddler, Harry. I want to thank Duckface for running me all over London, she drives like a cabbie and thought nothing of chauffering me down a heaving and very Christmassy Oxford Street to the Reform Club.

Dinner was served in the Strangers Room. We had game terrine, halibut in lobster sauce and pecan pie accompanied by champagne, wines and hand made truffles. Dominique gave a very upbeat, rallying speech about Sourcebooks – such a change to hear some good publishing news.
Here are some photos courtesy of Monica Fairview, who also has a report on her blog.

Helen, Elizabeth and James

PS Carrie Goes off the Map is featured book on the British Book Babes Facebook page – you can win one of three copies by telling us your favourite destination right now.

Share:

December 2, 2011

Told you there’s be giveaways of Carrie, didn’t I? There’s one HERE at Debbie’s Book Bag today – and Debbie has interviewed me about my writing life, what I love to read and how the book came about.

The TRS prize draw is also ongoing.

I’d like to give a big thank you to all the people who have been sending good wishes for the book launch.

Share:

December 1, 2011

Last night, I was checking out Amazon to see if Carrie Goes off the Map was available (it is!) and suddenly caught my breath.

No matter what the ups and downs of a writer’s life these days I just had one of those moments when I saw my book on amazon.com and thought : “I’m actually an author and I still can’t believe it.’

So let the party start!

The blurb

Carrie Brownhill, recently dumped by her fiancé, is determined to get away from men forever. Yet she finds herself stuck in a VW camper van careening through the English countryside with the intriguing Matt Landor, MD, and he seems to be just what the doctor ordered for a broken heart…

The idea for Carrie came to me one morning when I heard Radio 2 play the old Yvonne Fair song, It Should Have Been Me. That’s the song where the jilted bride stands up in the church and objects when her ex tries to marry another woman! I wondered what sort of heartbreak could drive a woman to crash her ex’s wedding in such a dramatic way and how would she ever pick herself up from there? Then I hit on the idea of having her take a real journey… and a road trip in a tiny campervan seemed the perfect way to do it.

In the book, Carrie ends up sharing the ‘cosy’ space with the gorgeous, enigmatic and infuriating Dr Matt Landor but I asked my lovely husband to take me on a campervan journey for research – in March, in England – and he agreed. Now, that might be true love… or madness. We had a fantastic time and the research changed the course of the book. I’ll be blogging about how and why later.

There will be chances to win a copy of Carrie Goes off the Map from now until Christmas during my Off the Map blog tour. One of them is at The Romance Studio today. Click HERE to enter the prize draw and read an extract of the book.

Carrie Goes off the Map is available in US stores and on line from Amazon.com, B&N and all good online retailers. It was previously published in the UK as It Should Have Been Me.

Share:

November 30, 2011

THIS does. An in-depth review from the great review site, Bookishly Attentive, which does contain the odd spoiler but it’s safe to quote the opening.

‘With a Phillipa Ashley novel, you know just what you’re getting before you open the book to the first page. There are fascinating locales, endearing protagonists, quirky secondary characters, an amazing love story and a gloriously happy ending. Carrie Goes Off The Map follows this trail perfectly.’