RoNA Rose Award

Exciting news to announce this morning … Ordinary Girl in a Tiara has been shortlisted for the RNA’s RoNA Rose Award! 

The RoNA Rose Award (formerly Love Story of the Year and before that the Romance Prize) recognises the best in category and shorter romance, and it’s an honour to be on the shortlist with writers like Liz Fielding and Kate Hardy.  There are three historicals also on the list, from Jan Jones, Sarah Mallory and Mary Nichols, so Ordinary Girl is up against some very tough competition!

I have to say the news was a (very nice) surprise.  Readers with long memories might recall that this was the book that I nearly hit the wall with, and I had to give up on it entirely before I went to Australia in 2010.  So it’s reassuring to know that the pain pays off in the end … and a helpful reminder as I continue to struggle with Frith and George!

The Romantic Novelists’ Association awards celebrate romance fiction in its many different forms.  See its awards website for books shortlisted in other categories.  Winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in London on 5th March and I predict another wardrobe crisis nearer the time!  

Sneak peek

Wondered if you’d like a sneak preview of the cover for Time’s Echo, which is out in September …

This is a "time slip", written under my own name, as you can see, and it’s a major departure from category romance for me.  So a very different cover from my others!

Here’s the provisional ‘blurb’ to give you some idea of what will be on the back cover:

York , 1575: Hawise Aske smiles at a stranger in the market, and sets in train a story of obsession and jealousy, of love and hate and warped desire.  Drowned as a witch, Hawise pays a high price for that smile, but for a girl like her in Elizabethan York, there is nowhere to go and nowhere for her to hide.

Four centuries later, Grace Trewe travels the world, trying to outrun the memories of being caught up in the Boxing Day tsunami.  Her stay in York is meant to be a brief one.

But in York Grace discovers that time can twist and turn in ways she never imagined.  Drawn inexorably into Hawise’s life,  Grace finds that this time she cannot move on.  Will she too  be engulfed in the power of the past?  

I love this cover.  To me, it’s intriguing and conveys the ‘feel’ of the story, and I was thrilled when I saw it. The point of a cover is to tell the reader what kind of story they’re going to get when they open the book, and I think this cover ‘says’ "time slip", the way the cover of We’ll Always Have Paris, for instance, ‘says’ category romance. 

What do you think?  Is this the kind of cover that would make you pick up a book, or do you prefer your novels with a clearly contemporary or clearly historical setting?

What a difference a weekend makes

Fabulous weekend with the Chief Plotting Advisor: eating, drinking, shopping, walking, plotting, detoxing wardrobe … We both agreed that we couldn’t afford to spend any money, went into town to buy some eye drops for CPA, and came home several hours later laden with carrier bags.  Let’s hear it for retail therapy.  

All that, and George Clooney too!  Not in person, sadly, but on screen in The Descendants, which I thought was pretty good, although I am by inclination more of romcom girl.  But it was wonderfully unsentimental and very well acted.  I laughed at some bits, and cried at another, and was absorbed throughout.  I have a very low boredom threshold, and it takes a lot to hold my attention, so George definitely gets my Oscar nomination.

Oh, and as if that wasn’t a good enough time, we booked a holiday. The Dingle Way, here we come!  Had to endure the torture of booking a flight with Ryanair online (aaaarrrgghh) but apparently there is no other sensible way to get to Kerry.  Anyway, it’s done, and we’re going to Ireland at the end of May so fingers firmly crossed now for some decent weather.  We’re going to walk the whole Way, all 112 miles of it, and it does look beautiful … if only we can see it through the rain!

All in all, am feeling in a much better mood than when I blogged last week.  Douglas is still being silly about the cat flap, but I am standing firm.  As for Frith, I’ve decided to succumb and carry on with this draft in the first person, since she seems to want it so much.  Let her write this story if she’s so determined to.  This is my last job before I start work again, and I’m handing over to her, so we’ll see how she gets on …

First aaaarrrggghhh of 2012

So, this is the way it goes.  I start a book, brimming with confidence.  I have written 50+ books before, and therefore I know what needs to be done, right? I only need six weeks.

I rattle off a rough draft,  not worrying that it’s rubbish, because that’s all part of the process.  Then – vital stage – I write myself out a timetable, and I’m kind to myself. A bit too kind, perhaps.  The very first day, I only told myself to write a single page (and it was a struggle, too!).  Now I’m ahead of schedule.

But what’s the point of being ahead of schedule when the story isn’t working, the characters are leaden and every word is an effort?  I’m going to have to go back to the beginning and start all over again.  Am not sure if it’s a good sign or a bad sign that I am still on Chapter 2, and usually make myself labour on until Chapter 7 before hitting crisis point. 

Anyway, this too is part of the process, so why am I panicking?  I’m not panicking (much).  I just so hate this part when the characters refuse to come to life and I can’t imagine ever getting any momentum going.  I know it will happen (please God, let it happen soon!) but until that wonderful click when it all falls into place, I’m just plodding away and feeling desperate, which is not quite the same as panicking, but nearly as bad.

Part of the problem may be the nagging feeling I have that Frith wants to write her own story.  I’m resisting this because (a) readers traditionally don’t like romances written in the first person, and (b) I’m the author, which means I ought to be in charge.  How many books has Frith written, after all?  Once we let these characters off the leash, who knows where it will all end?    It’s all reminding me uneasily of my on-going battle of wills with Douglas, a very pretty but very stubborn tabby, who is refusing to use the new cat flap I had installed at great expense.  Clearly, it’s time for me to wrest control back and for cats and characters to learn their place.

And control is badly needed, as I have agreed a deadline at last with my editor and there can be no more messing around.  (Are you listening, Frith?)  My Chief Plotting Advisor is coming to stay this weekend, and she’ll have no truck with recalcitrant characters.  I’m banking on Frith, Douglas and I all being smacked into shape by Monday, at which point I can get back to normal procedure, i.e. writing the entire book in a rush of adrenaline just before the deadline.   

Ironically, this blog has been nominated for a top writing blog award – see button top right of the page and feel free to vote! – allegedly because of useful advice about writing.  So if anyone’s reading this in the hope of picking up tips, here’s my absolute top one: do as I say, not as I do.  

A tale of two covers

As you must all be sick of hearing, We’ll Always Have Paris is out this month in the UK.  For reasons I don’t quite understand, it’s not out in North America until April, so I haven’t had any author copies of that edition yet.  However, I stumbled upon the cover on Amazon the other day, and very pleased I am with it too.  My usual reaction to a cover is a ‘hhhmmmnnn’ at best, but I like this one. 

The Paris background is just the bluey-grey colour I always associate with Paris, and the heroine looks pretty much like I imagined Clara. Simon Valentine is a buttoned-up economist, so the suit and tie work well for him. And they’re absorbed in each other, unlike the couple on the front of the RIVA edition, where she looks downright sulky, I think, and he looks as if he should really be at school. 

The Simon on the front of the NA edition does at least look as if he might have a degree in economics.  He reminds me of Ben Affleck in Armageddon (Remember that film?  I’m a big fan of disaster movies, as we all seem to call them now, and Armageddon was one of my faves. Now that was plotting and pace.)  Here’s a picture of Ben in the film: am I right or am I right? 

The background is also disquietingly similar to the famous shot in the film when Paris is wiped out by an asteroid – when they didn’t always have Paris, in fact.  Now every time I look at the cover, I want to shout, ‘Hurry up and kiss!  There’s an asteroid heading your way!’

I suppose the NA edition is a little more old-fashioned, while the RIVA cover (right) is sharper and more contemporary, as befits the story (or so I think). 

I’ve always had a shameful tendency to judge a book by its cover, so covers are really important to me when it comes to whether I’ll pick up a book or not and I suspect they also influence how I read it too.  What about you?

The eternal dilemma

Very excitingly, I have been invited to a glamorous party in London next week (at least, it sounds glamorous to me, although maybe I’m being provincial and invitations to publishers’ parties are two a penny to my metropolitan sisters in the south).  Anyway, Pan Macmillan are holding a party to celebrate women’s fiction, at the Sanctuary Spa in Covent Garden, and like Cinderella, I will go to the ball.

Unlike Cinderella, I have no fairy godmother to wave a wand and supply me with just the right outfit for the occasion.  The Sanctuary is a women only spa and the last time I went, admittedly more than 25 years ago, none of us wore anything at all.  I’m guessing it will be a different dress code this time, but what?  

I so wish I was one of those women who don’t give the matter of what to wear a moment’s thought until a few minutes before they go out, at which point they pull out the perfect little dress from their wardrobes, or even better, throw together a funky mix of vintage and cheap’n’cheery that looks fabulous.  Whenever I ask them where they got any of it, the reply is always something along the lines of “Oh, this old thing?  I got it from M&S”, or “I picked it up at a market in Rajasthan” or something equally infuriating.  I never see any of these supposed bargains when I go shopping. 

I have, it is true, a wardrobe full of clothes, but none of them ever seem to be quite what I need.  So instead of being properly thrilled at the prospect of a party, I am fretting about the eternal problem of what to wear. 

When I went before, the Sanctuary was tropically warm inside, with parrots flying around over the palm trees. I suppose they might have updated the decor in 25 years, but surely it's a place for casual dress - but at 6.30 in the evening, presumably most people will be going from work, in which case they might be quite smart (unless they're other writers who get to slob around in comfy elasticated waist trousers all day).  I’m taking train from York and coming back same night, which means I need to wear something warm enough and comfortable enough for 4 hours on the train, but light enough and smart enough for party.  You see my problem.

On top of which, I want to look as if I haven’t tried too hard, and give the impression that yah, I go to publishing parties all the time as I run my fingers through my blonde tresses.  (Curses, too late to get new streaks put in).  On the other hand, I will be the new girl, so should make an effort … oh, dear, it's all so difficult. 

I keep buying dresses, only to take them back the next day when I realise I can’t carry them off.  I was determined not to wear black, as it’s so safe, and have been fantasising about a wrap dress in just the right shade of scarlet, although can I find one in York?  There are plenty of wrap dresses around, and even red ones, but they’ve got silly patterns or are the wrong length or don’t fit right … Yesterday, I went for a completely different look and brought home a slinky blue dress from L.K. Bennett, but this one was vetoed by Senior Style Advisor because she doesn’t like swirls, while Chief Plotting (and Style) Advisor doubted whether I had the chutzpah to carry it off.  Sadly true. 

So then I decided I was being ridiculous, had wasted enough time on the matter, and should just find something to wear from my wardrobe.  Out came the old favourites to be thrown over the bed, but it’s funny how tired everything looks after a few months go by …  I had a pretty dress from Hobbs last summer, which would do except for the fact that it’s January now, and as CPA pointed out, the exact same dress has been hanging around on the sale rails for weeks now.  

Or I could go ethnic in sludge green, or comfortable with leggings and a forgiving top from Sahara, but I was sharply slapped down for this suggestion: “enough of the leggings already. If this is a party you need to wear a party outfit, with heels FFS.”

The upshot of all this style consultation was that I will be playing it safe and going in – guess what? – a black dress.  Never mind, at least the decision is made, and as my mother always pointed out “Nobody’s interested in you, dear”, (not realising that was precisely what I was worried about).  So now I just need to fret about finding someone to talk to at the party.  Maybe the parrots will take pity on me.