We'll Always Have Paris: Christmas contest!

Clara is a production assistant for a TV film-making company and she’s got a new project.  Romance: Fact or Fiction is make-or-break for Clara’s future, and her first challenge is to get Simon Valentine, financial guru turned prime-time pin-up, to front the programme.  But Simon’s got no time for romance, real or fictional, and it’s going to take all Clara’s powers of persuasion, not to mention a broken wrist, to get him on board.

I was going to explain the premise of the programme, but why don’t I let Clara tell you for herself?

Apart from directions to the flat she shared in a shabby street in south-west London, the journey passed in silence.  Clara folded her lips together and heroically refrained from reminding Simon of his mother’s promise, but she knew that he was thinking about it.  Whenever she peeped a glance at him from under lashes, she could see a muscle jerking in his jaw.

Miraculously, Simon managed to find parking space only a little way down the street from Clara’s flat.  He switched off the engine, but neither of them moved. 

Clara and Simon film a segment of the programme on the Pont Neuf in Paris

The silence lengthened.  His jaw was still working, Clara noted.  It would be a mistake to say anything, but he could do with just a tiny push. 

Lifting her arm in its sling, she winced.  Not too much.  Just enough to suggest great pain, bravely borne, but not so bravely that he didn’t notice. It was a delicate balance.

‘Oh, all right!’ Simon ground out as if she had been nagging him for the entire journey.

Clara opened her eyes at him, all innocence.  ‘What?’

‘I’ll do your bloody programme, all right?’ he snarled.  ‘There’s no need to keep going on about it!’

‘I didn’t say a word,’ protested Clara, careful to conceal her jubilance.

‘You didn’t need to. I know perfectly well you registered what my mother said.  You must promise to let us know if there’s ever anything we can do for you,’ he mimicked Frances savagely.  ‘One of these days I’m going to wring her neck!’

‘It won’t be that bad, honestly.’  Now that he was on the point of agreeing, Clara perversely began to feel a little sorry for him.  ‘We’re not asking you to take part in any stunts or cheap tricks.  Ted is a brilliant director.  MediaOchre has won several awards for documentaries we’ve made, and we’re expecting this one to be just as successful.’‘Oh, don’t do that!  She’s so lovely.’

Far from agreeing, Simon blew out a breath and glowered through the windscreen.   ‘You’d better tell me what she’s let me in for,’ he said heavily.

Clara and Simon sit on a beach just like this

She could hardly believe she was getting to do the speech she had practised so carefully at last.  This was worth a broken wrist! 

‘Romance: Fact or Fiction? will be a serious examination of romance,’ she assured him.  ‘We’re going to look at what it is and how it works and why it’s so popular around the world, but we want to get beyond the clichés.’

‘Right.’  Simon’s voice dripped disbelief. 

‘Your presence will give the programme real gravitas,’ Clara went on, ignoring his scepticism.  ‘Stella Holt is incredibly popular at the moment, so she’ll represent the ‘romantic’ idea while you would be in the ‘anti romance’ camp, if you like. I know Stella is very keen to work with you on this,’ she added.  ‘We think the contrast between the two of you will make for intriguing television.’

‘Intriguing television … ye gods.’  Simon rubbed a hand over his face.  ‘I can’t believe I’m even listening to this!’

Clearly she wasn’t converting him to the idea.  Clara ploughed on.  ‘The plan is to shoot the film in three classic “romantic” locations. One will be Paris, obviously.’

‘I thought you were going to avoid clichés?’

Benn Eighe, Dec1994, or the view Clara wakes up to!

‘We’re testing the clichés,’  she said firmly.  ‘After Paris, we’ll film on a tropical island, and for the last segment, Ted wants me to find somewhere wild and stormy – a cottage in the Highlands, for instance.’  She looked at him hopefully.  ‘What do you think?’

‘I think it’s the most ridiculous idea I’ve ever heard,’ said Simon, not mincing his words.  ‘What’s it supposed to prove?’

‘Well, for a start, we’ll consider whether those places are romantic or not – will you feel more romantic when you’re there, and do they make you behave differently?’

‘I can tell you now that I won’t,’ he said, his mouth set in an implacable line  ‘I don’t do romance.’

‘Then that’s what you’ll say.’  Clara kept her voice calm.  It was like dealing with a skittish horse.  Having got this close, she didn’t want to spook him now, before she’d slipped that bridle over his head and got him to finally agree.  She was almost there.  Already her fingers were itching to pull out her phone and call Ted with the news.

Simon sighed again, rubbed his hand over his face again.  Reluctance incarnate.

‘So it would just be those three trips?’

‘Three short trips, which we would accommodate those to your schedule, of course. For you it’ll mean free trips to Paris, the Indian Ocean and Scotland,’ Clara added, still in economist whisperer mode.  ‘That can’t be bad, can it?’

Oops, wrong thing to say.   ‘If there’s one thing  people need to understand about the economy, it’s that there’s no such thing as “free”,’ said Simon quellingly.  ‘Everything has to be paid for somewhere along the line.’

‘I can assure you we wouldn’t be asking you to pay anything.’

‘I’d be paying with my professional reputation.  And my time.’

Personally, Clara would have thought the chance to go to the tropical island of St Bonaventure alone was worth the trade, but she bit her lip on the comment.

‘We’d make all the arrangements,’ she said, trying another tack.  ‘You wouldn’t have to do anything but turn up and do your piece to the camera.’

 ‘And if I agree, will you shut up and leave me alone?’

‘Absolutely.’

‘No more phone calls, no more emails, no more throwing yourself at muggers?’

‘Well, I’d need to get in touch with you about travel arrangements, but other than that, you won’t even know I exist,’ promised Clara.  **

I had great fun writing this story. Simon is one of my favourite heroes, quiet, restrained, and driven to distraction by Clara with her zest for life and her ability to sing all the words to The Sound of Music.

And of course, I got to write about some of my favourite places in the world.  I've just spent a happy afternoon going through my photo albums (cue much wistful sighing) in search of some pictures of Paris, tropical islands and the Highlands in winter, but I realised that there were so many other wonderfully romantic places I could have used as settings for Clara's programme instead.

The Australian outback is high on my list of romantic places, and what about listening to the rain on a tropical verandah, or watching the feluccas on the Nile as the sun sets?  And don’t even get me started on Africa or deserts or the combination of hills and sea anywhere in the world …

The Nile at Luxor

We’ll Always Have Paris is out in the UK in January (I’m still waiting to find out when it’s released in North America).  I’ve got three free copies to give away.  If you’d like to win one of them, leave a comment below letting me know the place you think is most romantic, and I’ll put you in a draw for Friday 16th December.  Don’t forget to check back then to see if you’re a winner!

 **From the book: We’ll Always Have Paris

By: Jessica Hart
Imprint and series Harlequin® Romance™
Copyright © 2012
By: Jessica Hart
® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher.
The edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
For more romance information surf to: http://www.eHarlequin.com

Websites, pet hates and a chance to win my newest book

Hooray … after a number of weeks stuck with my wheels spinning uselessly, I am finally back on track and slowly (slowly being the operative word) gathering momentum again.

Who knows what made the difference?  It could have been setting myself such tiny, achievable targets that I could hardly fail to make them every day, or it might have been the good ticking off I had from my best friend, who told me in no uncertain terms that I had to ‘get on with it’.  Or maybe I was just bored and ready to start thinking again.  Whatever the reason, I’m now back to juggling various projects and feeling much more myself.

One of the projects I’m ready to get to grips with is a new website for my “time slips”. Time’s Echo is to be published next October, and as that will be published under my real name, I’ll need a completely new identity.  I’ve been looking around at website designers and am trying to draw up a detailed specification of exactly what I want. 

Do you have any pet hates when it comes to websites?  What will make you stay and look around a site, rather than click away?  If you’ve got any thoughts on what makes for an appealing website, do let me know, and as a thank you, I’ll put anyone who’s commented below into a draw for a copy of my next book, We’ll Always Have Paris.

Still on the internet, I’ve been trying to set up an author page on Facebook.  Can’t for the life of me work out how to set up a ‘Like’ box, so have given up on that, but if you’re on Facebook and would care to pop over and ‘like’ me anyway, that would be fab.  You can find me here until I can find someone to sort out an icon for me!

Oh, and don't forget there's a chance to win a book and get some great recipe ideas every day at the moment at Harlequin Romance Authors' website.

Party time!

Not sure how we got to December when a minute ago it was January, but suddenly it’s almost Christmas.  Why not kick off the festive season by visiting Harlequin Romance authors at our newly re-launched website where we have Christmas recipes and books galore to give away.

I hate the word ‘supportive’ – always feel as if I should say it in a dreary voice with my mouth turned down – but it really is the best one to describe my fellow Harlequin Romance authors.  We are split into Cherish and RIVA authors in the UK, but we share an email loop, and a kinder and more generous group of women it would be hard to find. 

We’ve had a website for some time, but we felt it needed refreshing, and largely thanks to the indefatigable Donna Alward, we are now up and running.  We’ve been getting into the mood for Christmas by smacking our lips over each other’s recipes, and are all ready to parcel up our books to send off to winning readers.  

All you need to do is to visit the Harlequin Romance Authors' website and comment, and you’ll go into the draw for the author featured that day.   Lots of your favourite HR authors are there, so it’s a great chance to win some wonderful books to read over the holiday season. 

I’ll be there some time soon, too, with my recipe for Spiced Pears, which I make every Christmas to serve with gammon and a potato gratin.  It’s great if you have lots of people round and want to get everything done in advance, and the pears add a festive touch. 

When it's my turn, I’ll be offering a copy of Under The Boss’s Mistletoe, largely because it’s got a Christmassy cover (one of the few covers I’ve actually liked!) but because I’m in the mood for giving, I’ll also send a copy of We’ll Always Have Paris to whoever wins that day for a sneak preview.  

I’m not sure when I’ll be up, but there are recipes and books up for grabs every day, so pop over and see who’s around, and sooner or later you’ll find me there … 

Motivation, lack of

If you were expecting this to be a craft blog on how to keep motivated when writing after 58 books, I’m afraid I have to disappoint you because when it comes to motivation, I have, it seems, completely lost it for the 59th.

I was inclined to blame this on a lack of inspiration at first, but I think feeling unmotivated is different. I’ve got an idea, I’ve got a plot.  I’ve got characters with goals and motivations.  I’d like to write this story, I really would, but somehow I just can’t quite bring myself to do it.

Lack of motivation isn’t the same as block, which is a terrible thing.  Block is when you sit at your computer, staring at the screen, fingers frozen to the keyboard, feeling sick as a great tangle of words knots and lodges immovably in the pit of your stomach … ugh, I feel quite nauseous just thinking about it! 

Lack of motivation is less dramatic, but more insidious.  Now I can’t even get myself to sit at my computer at all, and if I do, I just spend my time checking my email, or drifting off to browse Amazon or check on the weather in countries I have no expectation of visiting in the near future.  And weirdly, I’m not even bothered by it.  

I can trot out plenty of explanations for this: I’m deadlined out; I’ve been getting over a general anaesthetic; I’ve been away, and now have visitors; my head is still in time slip mode and I’m waiting to hear what revisions are needed that; I’m not living from advance to advance the way I normally am. But these are explanations and not excuses, I know, and I am rather ashamed of myself, especially when I hear about other authors getting on with their writing under the most difficult of circumstances.


It may not be very cool to admit it, but for me the financial incentive is usually a very strong one.  Thanks to advance on the time slip, I've been in a more comfortable position this year, but I still can’t afford to give up my regular income from Harlequin.  If I don’t write a book now, it won’t have any immediate effect, but in two or three years’ time, it certainly will, and if the time slip isn’t a success, I will surely regret faffing around now.  The trouble is that I really can’t whip myself into a frenzy about something that may or may not happen in two years’ time. 

The real problem is that I don’t have a deadline. I had so many earlier this year that I agreed with my editor that I would write the book and then we’d talk about a contract.  Which is all very well, but I hadn’t realised then that my motivation would collapse like a popped balloon the moment the last deadline of the year was made.  So the obvious solution is to set myself a new deadline but you guessed it … I can’t bring myself to do that either.  Maybe tomorrow I’ll get my act together, but in the meantime, at least I’ve got most of my Christmas shopping done and it's not even December yet!

We’ll always have Durdle Dore

Thanks for all the brilliant suggestions for questions in the Mr & Mrs questionnaire last time. I made a note of them all … and then that felt like enough work before I went away for five days.  My nearest and dearest have spent the entire year complaining that I have been manic, and should calm down, so I have taken them at their word and am now so calm I am almost catatonic. 

The view was even better!

My stress levels have been reduced to sub zero by a lovely weekend on the Dorset coast.  We stayed in the most romantic little cottage right on the coast.  You can't see from this picture, but the bed was so high I had to climb on a step to get into it, and when we sat up in the morning and pulled the curtains, we could look right out at the sea. The state of my nose was rather less than perfect but apart from that, as romantic weekends go, it could hardly be bettered.

Aerial view of Lulworth Cove

The weather was beautiful, too, and in my current relaxed state I was happy to eschew long hikes for sitting on the beach listening to the sea on the shingle, or lying back on the tufty grass and watching the sky.  We were a bit more touristy on Sunday, and went to Lulworth Cove, which I’d never seen before, and which was much more spectacular than I was expecting.  I couldn’t get a good picture, so this is a postcard view, but the sea was nearly as blue as this when we were there, I promise you.

We'll Always Have Paris ... and Durdle Dore

Then we walked over the hill to admire Durdle Dore, where I made John pose with We’ll Always Have Paris so that I could take the perfect photo (after all the fuss, I haven't yet broken it to him that the best shot is the one I took one-handed).

This is the RIVA edition of We'll Always Have Paris and I am very ho-hum about it, I confess.  The girl on the cover is SO not Clara.  Clara loves musicals and is warm and energetic; this girl looks sulky to me - I certainly wouldn’t mess with her – while the cover hero looks barely out of his teens as usual.  I haven’t seen the North American cover for Harlequin Romance yet – actually, I’m not clear exactly when it’s coming out – so I’m awaiting that box of books with bated breath … or as bated as I can muster in my current slack state. 

We’ll Always Have Paris is out in the UK in January (I’m still trying to find out when it’ll be released in North America) so more about Clara and Simon’s story nearer the time. For now I really must, must, must get on with Frith and George …    

In the meantime, here are some more photos of the Dorset coast, since I have them on my computer.  Picture me sighing gustily.

The sea outside our window

The coast near Lulworth Cove

Durdle Dore, late November afternoon

Lulworth Cove