Happy First of May. May?? How did that happen?

From today this blog is taking a rest. The posts can still be read and trawled for usefull snippets but won’t be updated.

All future posts will be on my good friend Nina Harrington’s Blog – and I would be thrilled if you could add my new address to your favourites in place of this one.

This is in the interest of my sanity and my totally selfish desire to actually have time to write books.

Thank you all so much for the support and encouragement over the past few years. It has been fantastic and appreciate every single post and response to my babblings.

I shall now walk into the sunset. Gone but hopefully not forgotten.

The forests were full of wild primroses and bluebells, the paths were dry for once, and I managed 11 miles before hitting the supermarket for barbecue food.

Then the sun loungers, chilled Marlborough sauvignon blanc and dessert.

Roll on the rest of the summer!

It is a VERY useful resource for tips on writing for the line and background info on your favourite authors.

This week I have the honour of joining their ranks for my debut book -so go here for the full story about ‘Always the Bridesmaid’ and my journey to publication – including a sneek peek at my next book ‘Hired: Sassy Assistant’ which will be published in January 2010 for the Romance Line.

In the meantime the travel tickets have arrived for my summer holiday in May to the lovely Greek island of Cephalonia.  One of my favourite places in the world.

These are some photos from the bay close to our apartment which were taken last year. It is a very tranquil and serene spot = hence the picnic blanket.

May?? What happened to the beginning of the year? Help. Lots to do in the next three weeks!

Now – how can I persuade my editor that further research in the Ionian is ESSENTIAL for my next story idea?

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What am I reading at the moment? Tami Hoag. Prior Bad Acts. Recommended.

What am I listening to at the moment? Matt Nathanson “Come on Get Higher”

I am delighted to say that a very good friend of mine has a new Website -

NinaHarrington.com has now gone live!

This is THE place to go to find out more about Nina’s journey to becoming a Mills and Boon Romance author, her Books and lots more, including a regular newsletter for anyone on her mailing list, and a link to her new Blog.

Nina would be thrilled if you could pop over and say hello!

FROM 1st MAY THIS BLOG WILL NOT BE UPDATED and I shall be posting over on Nina’s Blog instead.

It would be great if you could make a new bookmark to Nina’s Website and/or her Blog.

http://ninaharrington.wordpress.com/

Between now and 1st May I shall post on both Blogs.

Thanks for your patience.

The smallest hedgehog I had ever seen was trying to drown itself in our garden pond by leaning forward several inches and half standing on the marsh marigold leaves to take a drink.  I ran inside to find camera while alpha man saved the critter. 

After much gentle coaching with a plastic tray he decided to drink from a plant saucer instead. Then was presented with a fine tray of assorted cat crunchies and pork mince and a few sultanas which he chewed for ages.

Normally our hogs arrive well after dark and gorge themselves on cat crunchies and other treats, but is it VERY rare to see a tiny one out in bright hot sunshine. He must have been seriously hungry and thirsty. And seemed blinded and deaf to anything around him.

The funniest part was when he decided that he has enough and staggered/fell/waddled down the steps and made his way to our front drive – he clearly knew his route – and I stood in the road to stop any cars squishing him- he could hardly see – as he waddled across to the next garden.

Wildlife. We likes it.

On the WORK front, I have discovered a new website - ISERENITY  - which provides background sounds rather than music from your PC as you work to create the latest bestseller. Birdsong is my fav. What’s yours? Happy writing.

Am pressing on with plotting on a new story, and as always, find craft articles help to place my poor brain into the right place.  And hopefully ramp up the productivity.

Craft Articles - Fiction Plots and Pacing.

Suite101 has some great tips on how to get the old brain cells spinning faster when it comes to plotting. Not necessarily to be taken word for word, but useful for lateral thinking.

Trade Press-  MIRA Book Publishers

The British Book Industry Awards site had a very interesting interview with Catherine Burke, Senior Editor at MIRA Books, about the growth of the Harlequin Mills and Boon imprint.

There were a couple of key learning points for me:

* Mira publish single title mainstream books separate from Mills and Boon but use the distribution chain to supermarkets and Amazon etc to build sales

* Mira focus on building the career of the author – where the author is the brand, instead of the publisher.  

 And for motivation? Darren Hayes. Enjoy.

No – not a pic of my office, but I have spent a lot of time over the weekend either working on the garden, or blitzing some of the rooms in my house in a fit of spring cleaning.  Mr Ray-Anne is quite shocked. There is now a stack of items to be sold on E-Bay or donated.

What have I been reading over the last week? Thrillers.

Tami Hoag – ‘Prior Bad Acts’ - the third book in a series of police procedurals with the same characters, Robert Ellis ‘City of Fire’ and David Baldacci- ‘The Whole Truth.

And OF COURSE I read these book first for pleasure, and then for story craft.

Conclusions?

LOVED the Tami Hoag and Robert Ellis. Am already re-reading the Tami Hoag. I know these characters from her brilliant first books in the series ‘Ashes to Ashes’ and ‘Dust to Dust.’ Robert Ellis is a new author for me, and the sequel is already on my TBR pile.

Page turning, engrossing and enjoyable with great characters you can care about.  And, most importantly, these authors created:

* a female lead character who you could sympathise with AND empathise with – a human being. For Tami Hoag she was a judge, and for Robery Ellis, a police detective. Family, friends, lovers, all there. Funny, witty, compassionate, tragic. Horrific in parts.

* a ‘character web’ which was tight and focused. Each person identifiable and unique. Human and likeable. NOT a cast of dozens. Making the books accessible and easy to follow.

* a very clever plot structure – clear driving goals and objectives which are essential in a Police Procedureal novel – and which gave the reader a  lot of satisfaction when the bad guys were brought to justice. And no, I did not know who had done the deed until a lot further into the books then normal. [The crime was VERY gruesome in the Tami Hoag by the way if you are of a nervous disposition.]

Now, I know how hard it is to create a thriller plot instead of a police plot where the hero follows clues to reach the goal – it is SO tough, but  I struggled with the David Baldacci, who I normally love, so decided to use his book as a learning experience.

WHAT IS THE STORY QUESTION? That one driving energy which makes you read on? In a murder investigation story Iwant to know if our hero is going to find the killer and make the world/us/me safer and do it in an enjoyable way. I realised that there were simply too many storylines in this book without one single driving strand which I cared about very much.

WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF THE HERO FAILS? The serial killer would get away with his crime and go on killing. I am half way through this book now, and I know that David the author wants me to worry about – and I am still struggling as a reader.

WHY SHOULD I invest my time with these characters? Oh, this is tough and I am going to be harsh and hard headed now, but sorry David, there was not ONE likeable and believeable character who I actually wanted to spend time with. They were cyphers. Not people. All the action and location work did not help.

Hopefully I can put these points to good use in my own thriller. I already know that, as usual, I have FAR too many characters and subplots, even for a ‘big’ single title.

Back to romance – I bow to Donna Alward for the link to the fact that ABC has a great feature piece on Harlequin success in the recession – including an interview with Donna Hayes and I loved the readings from actors etc.

130 million books a year with 1200 new titles. The World’s largest publisher of Women’s fiction.

I’ll have me some of that.

 In the meantime, I am still recovering from a 10 mile walk on Monday in the lovely sunshine – and have the blisters to prove it!

Happy writing.

The six short-listed books and authors are:

The Secret Shopper’s Revenge by Kate Harrison. Orion

Bridesmaids by Jane Costello. Pocket Books

Recipe For Disaster by Miriam Morrison. Arrow

A Winter’s Tale by Trisha Ashley. Avon

The Marriage Bureau For Rich People by Farahad Zama. Abacus

The Importance Of Being Emma by Juliet Archer. ChocLit

The winning author will be presented with a cheque for £5,000 at a gala evening at Café de Paris in London on 10th June.

The criteria for the Best Comedy Romance Award were drawn up by best-selling author Melissa Nathan, who died of cancer in 2006. The Award is a fitting tribute to Melissa, who loved comedy, romance and good writing, and wanted the genre to get the recognition it deserved.

The Melissa Nathan Award for Comedy Romance (MNA) is the UK’s only literary award dedicated to comedy romance. The judging panel features the writer and comedienne Jo Brand, mega-selling novelists Joanna Trollope OBE and Sophie Kinsella, Tesco’s Head Book Buyer Gaynor Allen, actor and comedienne Morwenna Banks, and actor and television presenter Liza Tarbuck.

From a personal note, I have immediately ordered two of these books which were new to me – and I am intrigued that the plotline of one of them is strangely, horrifyingly, similar to my new book for Mills and Boon - except probably written brilliantly.

More later. Happy Easter.

Go there for numbers and quotes from the great and good in publishing.

Apparently in hard economic times people like a story with a happy ending.

And this comes as a surprise?????

So here is a little Elvis to keep us warm over the weekend. Happy Easter.

I have noticed a Huge proliferation in the number of Bestselling Books recently on self-development and Personal Fulfillment.

To some people this is a ‘management-speak’ way of saying ‘Pull yourself together and think about the positive things in your life, stupid. Nobody is interesting in your whining.’ And there is a lot of truth in that.

After all, we have so much to be thankful for.

There is so much pain and suffering in this world, and here we are enjoying a luxurious lifestyle where we don’t worry about where the next meal is coming from or where we are going to sleep tonight. We can trust our police force and have a health system other countres can only dream of.

So why is it that we are still so miserable?

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is one theory.

I find this very interesting, since most of the self-help books are aimed at non-creative people.

From a writer’s POV the Goal Motivation and Conflict Scenarios we create link directly into these theories at SO many levels of Fundamental Need.

Hope. Positive energy. Aspirational Love.  All food for the soul.