Jewelled shoes and cabana boys

My jewelled shoes share glory with a cabana boy

Much excitement yesterday when my editor sent me a copy of Mills & Boon’s Romance magazine with a piece by Kimberley Lang, Kelly Hunter, Nicola Marsh and me to mark the launch of the brand new RIVA series. 

There was rather less excitement one Wednesday  last November when the email dropped into our inboxes: would we each write about our books and why we were thrilled to be part of the new line.  Oh, and would we do it by the end of the week?  You know, right then, I wasn’t thrilled. I know I sound ungrateful but I was in the throes of my second royal romcom, and it wasn’t going well.   And I certainly didn’t have time to write 500 words or whatever it was in two days. 

Still, the four of us got together on line, had a little grumble, and then started to have fun. We decided that instead of us each writing a straight piece, we’d have a Facebook-esque conversation about our RIVA books, and once we got going, it worked really well, with the conversation ranging from ideal heroes to writing crises to cabana boys, from title envy to cabana boys to painting nails, and from cabana boys to jewelled shoes.  Did you get the cabana boy theme???  I was mortified to be the only one who didn’t know what a cabana boy was – I felt very frumpy and unsophisticated next to the other three, who are all young and glamorous, but my editor told me later that she didn’t know either, so I felt a bit better then!

We ended up having a great time. Kelly Hunter put it all together, and I think it looks really good , although our original uncensored version was the best.  And best of all, my lovely jewelled shoes make an appearance in print!  Here they are, sharing the page with, yes, a cabana boy.  Hard to pick the best photo, I think, but then I’m prejudiced!

I'll be back in a couple of days to announce the winner of the 'hooks' contest.  In the meantime, I haven't heard any more from the winner of Kate Walker's 12-Point Guide, so if you took part in that contest, I'll send the copy to the first person who sends an email to jessica@jessicahart.co.uk with their postal address!