May 16, 2012
In between writing, I’m making my final preparations for the RNA Summer Party tomorrow.
I’ve got my party ticket and train tickets for author friends, Nell Dixon and Elizabeth Hanbury as we’re heading off to London together. I’ve not decided on the party outfit yet because the weather is crazy in the UK at the moment. One minute we have sunshine and the next hail and sleet. On Sunday I’d decided to wear a summery dress and sandals but now I’m thinking a black dress and thick tights.
This year the party is extra special. As usual, the winner of the Joan Hessayon New Writers Award will be announced. I’ve got a soft spot for NWS award, having been thrilled to win it for Decent Exposure back in 2007. The award is sponsored by Dr David Hessayon, to honour of his late wife Joan, who was member of the RNA. Under the NWS, manuscripts submitted by unpublished writers are read by an experienced writer or editor who provides valuable feedback. Any manuscript that’s subsequently published as a debut novel is eligible for the award, which is judged by a panel of RNA members.
I love seeing the newly published authors celebrating achieving their dreams. I’ll never forget standing in that line-up, trying to actually believe my debut novel had been published – still have to pinch myself!
This year the party is being held at a bigger venue, The Royal Overseas League, because for the first time, the RNA is also using the event to announce the winner of the Romantic Novel of the Year 2012 Award from the winners of five category winners in March.
They are:
Christina Courtenay- Highland Storms (The Historical Romantic Novel award), Choc Lit
Katie Fforde – Summer of Love (The Contemporary Romantic Novel award), Random House
Caroline Green – Dark Ride (The Young Adult Romantic Novel Award), Piccadilly Press
Jane Lovering – Please Don’t Stop the Music (The Romantic Comedy Award), Choc Lit
Rosie Thomas – The Kashmir Shawl (The Epic Romantic Novel award), HarperCollins
It should be a wonderful, exciting evening and the chance to meet up with lots of friends – and also I get to meet my new editors at Piatkus for the first time.
By the way, I did manage to get some Olympic tickets for the Canoe slalom events – my daughter does a lot of kayaking and has been on the Olympic course so we’re very excited to actually be ‘going to the Olympics’as spectators.
And finally .. check back here on Friday because I will have news of how you can get some FREE short stories for your Kindle over the weekend.
Posted by Phillipa @ 3:54 am |
May 14, 2012
My mission for this week, should I choose to accept it is:
1. Finish the synopsis of my 2013 release for Piatkus Entice
2. Write some more of the above book
3. Finish my commissioned writing work for clients
4. Do some more posts for my blog tours to launch Fever Cure and Just Say Yes
5. Get everything done in time for Thursday so I can bunk off to the RNA Summer Party and Romantic Novel of the Year Award
6. Get my hair cut
7. Try and get some Olympic tickets for anything that’s not Greco-Roman wrestling or football.
Number 7 is so time-consuming and complicated and I suspect, impossible, that I may not get 1-6 done.
See you next Christmas!
UPDATE: Yay!
Posted by Phillipa @ 3:50 am |
May 10, 2012
Sorry for this blatant sales post but I do like to save my readers money – honest!
I just checked out some prices for Fever Cure and Just Say Yes and found Book Depository seems to be the cheapest at the moment – and they deliver free anywhere in the world.
If you want the hot and steamy paperback edition of Fever Cure, your best bet seems to be HERE at £6.48. It’s only 26 days to wait for it so if you want print, go for it. Otherwise you can get the e-book (much cheaper!) from just about anywhere online right now.
They also have Just Say Yes at a very good price – this book is published as both an e book and a gorgeous paperback in the US on June 1st but it seems like you can get the US edition from Book Depository for £4.63 right now – just about wherever you live in the world. The paperback is out of print in the rest of the world so if you want the lush US edition, this is your chance.
I’m going to leave this post up for a while. 🙂 One reason being I am deep in finalising my edits on my October release.
Posted by Phillipa @ 11:29 am |
May 8, 2012
Have you seen the Top 3 Best Sellers in the Sunday Times and every other chart this week? Have you noticed those dump bins of mysterious grey paperbacks at the entrance to Sainsbury’s? Have you seen people raving and sighing and being Totally Outraged on social media sites?
All over a novel?
A romance novel?
Okay, I’m willing to stir up a debate here but the 50 Shades series seem like romance novels to me. I’ve only read the first, which I found amusing and mildly titillating in equal measure. If that’s a crime, please feel free to report me to … whoever.
What really amazes me is how what is, effectively, a very hot and kinky romance novel, has gone mainstream at all. Controversial books, usually involving lashings of s*x have hit the best-sellers in the past, of course, but 50 Shades is one of hundreds, probably thousands, of books of that genre out there.
Many of my friends have read it and are astonished that such books exist, yet of course, BDSM romance is a very popular romance genre in the US – so what’s new?
Could it be the Twilight fanfiction origins of the book? Clever media marketing? Is 50 Shades a ground breaking work by a genius? Or like, Bridget Jones, simply the first of an established genre, to catch the world’s attention?
And will the charts now be flooded with very hot romance in the UK and USA?
It makes me smile when people who don’t read a lot of romance tell me my own books are ‘very racy’. One chap (admittedly of 75) asked me at the weekend ‘do women really want to read such naughty stuff? Well, going by 50 Shades, the answer clearly a resounding ‘yes’ – and a hundred times naughtier. 🙂
If you’re outraged by 50 Shades, as you’re perfectly entitled to be, may I suggest you avoid the entrance display at Sainsbury’s and hope it all goes away. It may well be flash in the pan but I rather hope not. That book has made it okay for me to discuss hot romance with people who I’ve previously only chatted to about gardening and house prices.
And if you’re looking for something a little hotter and a little darker than my usual books, may I also suggest you try Fever Cure? There aren’t any trips to the hardware store in it, and no eye rolling or lip biting… but I think you might enjoy it. 🙂
It’s available in the UK, US and further afield as an e book – and from June 5th in print.
Posted by Phillipa @ 7:02 am |
May 3, 2012
I’ve finally come down (a little) from being able to announce the news about Miranda’s Mount. The e book’s out on October 1st and I’ve now sent off the ‘tweaked’ manuscript to my new ed. There wasn’t much to do, happily, and I really enjoyed making the changes so fingers crossed.
I don’t have a blurb or cover yet and it’s going to be fun to see how the Piatkus Entice marketing department present the book.
I don’t think it’s too much to reveal that it has a heroine called Miranda (quel surprise) and a hero called Jago St Merryn.
I love choosing names for characters, and I have to get the name right or I can’t seem to carry on with the story. The name defines the character and I spend quite a while finding the right one. Some slip into your mind instantly, others can take a few chapters. You know when you’ve found the perfect name.
Now, I admit Jago is a pretty exotic choice for a hero but the book is set in Cornwall and he needed a very Cornish name that was distinctive and slightly .. odd. I searched baby names on the web for quite a while and checked out maps for the surname. I came across Jago and it seemed right – unusual, old-fashioned, with a tiny hint of sinister (reminds me of the villainous Iago from Othello.) I was totally hooked when I found that Jago can also mean : usurper, because that’s so perfect for his character.
Miranda came to me instantly as she is the driving force of the book, which is set on an island castle that gets cut off by the sea at high tide. I love the name, it reminds me of the fabulous Miranda Hart and of course, of the Miranda from The Tempest.
However, before Miranda’s Mount, I have two books coming out in the first week of June:
Just Say Yes will be available in print and e book in the USA.
And a print edition of Fever Cure is going to be published and available worldwide from some stores and Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble etc
There’ll be much more on those in a week or so.
Posted by Phillipa @ 7:48 am |
