Away

Apologies for the absence - I've been visiting in-laws in the southern hemisphere. Ah, heat and a tan in December... Bliss.

Now I'm back and refreshed and ready to crack on with book 3, which is to be part of the 'Young, Hot and Royal' mini-series. Here's hoping it runs more smoothly than Bk 2.

Over on eharlequin there's an open house post party this afternoon. Come along and join the party!

Sold!

Book 2 has been accepted! Hooray!

Heroine inspiration

My Bk 3 heroine has always been a people pleaser and has spent her life doing pretty much anything to avoid a scene. But not any longer. She's fed up of being trampled on, so she's been on an assertiveness course. She's learnt how to say 'no', to go for what she wants and to embrace confrontation. She's just embarked on a journey to find herself and the last thing she needs is a man in her life messing things up.

Oh dear. My hero could be in for a rocky ride. He should just be thankful that she draws the line at shooting people.

Well, after coming down with a chest infection last week, I finally managed to send in the latest - and, I fervently hope, last - set of revisions. Hmm, we shall see.

In the meantime, I've been jotting down ideas for Book 3, and BDD has had another lovely review. Lovely Julie at Cataromance says:

"Romance fans get ready to add a brand-new name to your auto-buy list: Lucy King! Last year’s winner of the Feel the Heat competition, Lucy King’s brand of sexy, sassy and feel-good modern romance is sure to be a hit with readers the world over! ...

... Bought: Damsel in Distress is simply fabulous! I couldn’t resist gobbling up this delicious contemporary romance in a single sitting. Lucy King has created a thoroughly modern and believable character in Emily and Luke is a gorgeous Alpha male who will make women swoon with delight! Refreshing, romantic and wholly enjoyable, this fabulously uplifting, emotional and captivating tale heralds the start of an exciting new voice in category romance and I cannot wait to read more sensational romance by the hugely talented Lucy King!"

The whole review is here.

A conference and a review

This afternoon marks the start of 'Las 3ª Jornadas sobre Novela Romántica', a mini conference on the romantic novel being held in the Alcázar in Seville. As I live about an hour south of Seville I thought I might check it out.

And if that wasn't exciting enough, Bought: Damsel in Distress has had a review! From Caro (clearly a woman of great insight and exceptional taste) on the Mills & Boon community site:

'The best of the August-by-mail, October-in-the-shops bunch I think. Lucy King won the 'Feel the Heat' competition with this submission and the editors picked a good one here. I hope she keeps up such an excellent standard in future books and she is one to watch. The premise is very unusual and I look forward to her plot devices to come.'

Well, that's made my week.

Headspace

Heavens, it's been a while! I've been travelling with the day job, working on revisions and seriously running out of headspace. But the latest version of Book 2 went in yesterday and until it comes back with more revisions (have lost count how many I've had so far), I get to catch up on some sleep. Yay.

Good luck to everyone who's entered the Harlequin Presents Writing Competition.

Prost!

Well, the authors' lunch was fab. Needless to say I forgot to take my camera but I sat next to Kate Hardy and Sabrina Philips and had a whale of a time. I also saw my editor, who most excitingly wants to do lunch (although she might change her mind once she's read the ms I've just emailed).

Yes, that's right. Book Two has finally gone in. Woefully short and almost certainly coming back to me with more revisions, but frankly after working solidly on the thing for weeks and getting up at 4am for the past three days I'm just glad I don't have to look at it any more.

By way of celebration, I'm off to Oktoberfest tomorrow.

A change is as good as a rest

I'm now in the UK for a few weeks, cat-sitting for my parents who are gallivanting round South America. This means that I won't now get my hands on my author copies until the book has hit and left the shelves. But never mind, at least I'll get to see it actually in the shops. Even better, being in the UK means that I can go to the Mills & Boon authors' lunch in London tomorrow!

On sale!

My book is now for sale on the M&B site and I don't quite know if I can contain my excitement!

Hello!

Oops, I've rather neglected my poor little blog lately, what with being busy with my day job, getting a rather draft-y version of Bk 2 to my editor and knocking up a very basic (and still patchy) website.

But thanks to a Google alert, look what I found - the blurb for Bought: Damsel in Distress!

Billionaire's bid...
Luke Harrison is always in control. But ever since he bid for the chance to save a green-bikinied beauty he's felt his self-possession slipping away...

Blind date...
Independent Emily does not want rescuing - until Luke, a smouldering knight in shining armour, swoops in on his private jet and starts to change her mind!

Secret baby?
Neither is prepared for the heat between them as Emily unbuttons her steely-eyed billionaire, or for when their no-strings fling leads to pleasure beyond their imagining...

Can't wait to get my hands on a copy!

Heaven

It's my 6th wedding anniversary on Sunday and my husband's taking me here for the weekend.

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It's the Hospes Palacio del Bailio in Cordoba and I can't wait. I've been welded to my computer over the past few weeks and am the only person in this town without a tan. But with a pool this gorgeous I might just manage to prise myself away from my laptop for a minute or two.

What are you up to this weekend?

My cover

My book has a cover! And I love it. I can't work out how to post it here but you can see it on Amazon here. Am too excited for words (which could be a bit of a problem as I still have a few more to write).

PS - Oh, look, I did it. Thanks, Michelle!

IHP post

I have a post up on iheartpresents today, all about my experiences of last year's 'Feel the Heat' contest.

The end is nigh

Oh my, it's been a while. Am still here, tapping away and the finishing line is in sight. A bit blurry, but in sight nevertheless.

My editor is truly the most patient, forgiving, understanding person on the planet. Of course she may well be rueing the day she took me on and planning to replace me with the winner of the new iheartpresents competition!

Light bulbs

It's 38 degrees in Jerez, and all sensible Jerezanos are on the beach, which is where I may be later if I manage to hit my 5000 word target for today.

Last night I had a bit of an epiphany. Well, actually, my husband had it for me. I was trying to explain the plot in the latter half of my story, which currently involves a villain, the illegal supply of appetite supressants and a touch of blackmail. Slightly tortuous but relevant, and all leading to a point where my heroine faces losing her business.

With one eye on Newsnight, my husband said, 'That sounds a bit complicated. I'm confused. Can't the bank just call in her loan?'

Well, yes, it could. And the result would be the same. With a lot less effort on my part. Setting up the whole villain/blackmail scenario was getting a bit convoluted, becoming rather far-fetched, and generally causing me major headaches. Simply having the bank get cold feet and withdrawing her loan is far more realistic, ties in with what's already happened and keeps the focus far more on the hero and heroine.

My learning curve isn't so much a curve as a vertical line.

Slightly swamped

I'm back in Spain and battling on with the nightmare that is Book 2. I have a sneaky suspicion that the entire first half might be a bad cliched plot device, so have decided to more or less delete the lot and start again. And I've said I'll deliver the whole thing by the end of June. Fun fun fun.

Where am I?

On the rather unlikely off-chance that anyone's been wondering where I've got to, I just thought I'd pop by to say I'm in London. Not wallowing in rewrite despair and not contempleting running away and hiding (much). No, no. I'm marking EFL exam papers.

When I accepted the contract I thought I'd have Book 2 done and on the editor's desk. Hmm. Still, a change is as good as a rest, and am hoping that spending a week immersed in something totally different has given my writing muscles time to refresh. And after endless discussions about the acceptability of various spellings of the word 'Tuesday' and what exactly constitutes effective communication, I'm quite keen to get back to Phoebe and Alex.

I'm on Amazon

OMIGOD check this out. No image yet, but MY BOOK is available for pre-order on Amazon!!!

If that isn't a boost to crack on with the mess that is Book 2 I don't know what is. I'm slicing my way through it, have asked for an extension, and with any luck may even get some proper sleep soon....

Thank you!

First of all, I'd like to say a big heartfelt thank you to everyone for all your comments and support. You're all absolute stars.

Now that I've stopped wailing and tearing my hair out and have managed to drag myself off the funeral pyre that is Chapters 1-3, I'm getting stuck into the rewriting. And I'm actually quite enjoying it.

The editors were absolutely right, and most of their comments reflected what I'd already guessed. Basically my first three chapters fell into the trap of relying on sexual attraction cliches and didn't really identify the core conflicts of the characters. I'd also got too caught up in sparky banter and had kind of forgotten about motivations and consistent behaviour (which I think may well be the cause of the problems I've been having with a saggy middle). Oops.

The story now starts from a different point, the minor cocaine-themed subplot (which doesn't really fit in with 'fun sexy escapist read') is going to be replaced with anorexia-plus-a-fondness-for-appetite-suppressants-themed subplot, and I'm hoping the middle will turn out to be nice and toned.

Fingers crossed I've got it more right this time...

Getting scared

Yikes, less than two weeks to go to my deadline, and I'm getting scared. So much to do. My heroine's character development shudders to a halt about half way through and my hero's conflict seems to be all about wanting to get the heroine into bed and having to unravel her resistance. This is clearly no good. I foresee sleepless nights ahead...

Castles in the air

My hero and heroine spent the weekend here:

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I spent the weekend in Barcelona at the first of May's weddings. The bride was a friend from the days when I lived there, and the wedding itself was gorgeous from start to finish. I'm not sure my cava-assisted 'dancing' was quite as classy, but happily I can't remember too much about it, and luckily there doesn't seem to be any photographic evidence.

Thanks to my lovely little Samsung notebook I even managed to get quite a lot of writing and editing done. I've been mildly panicking that my story has too much external conflict and not enough internal, so this week I'm planning to pile on the torment.

With a deadline zooming in faster than Jenson Button in his very speedy car, and an aim to finish the book before the next wedding (in two weeks), I may disappear for a while...

I love youtube

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My hero whisks my heroine off to Scotland in a Diamond Twinstar DA42. Now I've never seen one, let alone flown in one, but this morning, thanks to youtube, I've been to Biggin Hill Airport and have taken off and landed in this little plane so many times I can smell the jet fuel. And all without leaving my desk. Marvellous.

Don't you just love youtube?!

Where did my words go?

May is a busy month. I have 2 weddings, language examining training, lots of marketing work and around 15000 words to write. All doable with a little planning.

Losing 1000 words overnight was not part of the plan. I'm convinced I saved the document before closing down my computer last night (am a bit fanatical about this) but they weren't there this morning. So where did they go??? Grrrr. Not a good start to the week.

Hope yours is going better!

Bio and interview

I have to send my first three chapters to my editor this week, so am just popping my head out of my cave to say that my author bio and interview have just gone up on the Mills & Boon Author Area page (here). Thrilling stuff!

Questions, questions

I've just discovered Yahoo Answers. A couple of weeks ago I asked how to stop a canary singing without resorting to violence (canary on the windowsill downstairs + voice like a pneumatic drill + echoy patio walls = nightmare). Four answers popped back within an hour and I now write in drill-free bliss. Yesterday I posted a question asking for the name of an 80s film which may or may not have involved murder, models and body reshaping (really, it was that vague) and had the answer this morning.

So I wonder what response I'd get if I asked: What's going to happen in Chapters 7-12 of my Book 2? How do I know if my hero is crossing the line between fliriting and lechery? How can I make sure my heroine's sympathetic when she's supposed to highly competent and capable? Do I have enough internal conflict? Are my secondary characters taking up too much pagetime? And then my biggest concern: is it too similar in style/vocabulary/phrasing to Book 1 or is that kind of the point?

Forbidden fruit

Naturally, now that I'm actually getting somewhere with Book 2, and my characters are beginning to toe the line, I have the best idea ever for a new story. A catchy opening scene, a tormented hero, a lovely healing heroine and a remote desert island. Oh, it's soooo tempting.

So do I give in and open another word doc? No. Partly because I know what I'm like (I have a dozen started stories in a folder called 'Ideas') but mainly because my deadline of June 1 is approaching with alarming speed. Instead I've bought a little notebook and am jotting my new ideas in there. In the meantime Phoebe and Alex are rolling around in the mud in Scotland.

(Update: Oh, and this morning a breakfast show on national Spanish radio played a joke (in a fairly loose sense of the word) on the lovely Hugh Jackman, who is as good a sport as he is gorgeous. If you want to listen, and it's in a mixture of English and Spanish, click on the link that begins 'Descargar...')

Beefcake is back

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In times of recession, it seems, metrosexual is out, beefcake is in. Of course, for lovers of M&B beefcake is always in. But what is beefcake anyway? Is it like meatloaf? And is there any excuse for the photo of Sylvester Stallone?

Semana Santa

It's Holy Week, which, in Andalucia, means pointy hats and processions. It also means that my laptop and I are off to Madrid for a few days. Happy Easter!

Wicked

The line edits are done and now I'm back to Alex and Phoebe. I interviewed them last week, but they kept answering with things like, 'Hah, that's for me to know and you to find out' which wasn't particularly helpful. I shall have to get tough.

But what has been spectacularly helpful is Dr Wicked's Write or Die (thanks to Julie Cohen for the tip). This fabulous widget makes you write or else something nasty happens. This morning I wrote 1200 words in 45 mins.

Suddenly his jaw just clenched

I have a note in my diary for next Thursday which says 'Finish Book 2'. Right. 'Finish Chapter 2' would be more like it. Why is the second book so difficult???

On the proof front I've counted 153 'just's, 30 'suddenly's and 34 'clench's (in varying forms) so now I need scissors to go with my fine-toothed comb. My editor didn't make many changes to my ms, and all are for the better, but there is one line that was added that had me thinking 'please, no!'.

The Curse of the Character with the Changing Name

I've just received a pdf of Bought: One Damsel in Distress with line numbers for me to make any last minute corrections, which is thrilling but kind of scary.

The last time I read the story, about a week after I'd sent the revisions to my editor, I noticed that my heroine's sister, Anna, briefly becomes an Alice. Oops. Schoolgirl error. (Cue absolute horror and cold sweat and the conviction that they'd whip the contract back.) But then I reckoned that someone more eagle-eyed than me would pick this up while cutting dialogue and removing any madey-uppy words. However, Alice is still there and I'm wondering what else is lurking. Yikes. I'd better go and find a fine-toothed comb.

Where did the week go?

I can't believe it's been a week since I last posted. Where's the time gone??? Not lost in the depths of creativity, that's for sure. I got bored with rewriting the same scene over and over again, so have plumped for writing a string of standalone scenes in the hope that I can link them together later. As someone once wisely said, you can't edit a blank page. On the other hand you can't have a decreasing word count with a blank page.

The thing is, I'm not really that into my characters and the plot hinges on complications that I haven't even begun to work out. I realise (hope) this will pass. I've been looking over the drafts of my last book, and the end result was nothing like the earlier versions. But I can't help wanting this one to be perfect first time. Hmm, I guess there's nothing for it but to plough on through.

Inspiration

I'm rewriting. The word count on my wip is going down, the word count on my 'text dump' file is going up. But at least I've found something pretty to keep the inspiration flowing.

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Eddie Cibrian

It's all going pear-shaped

Book 2 is a total mess. I have scenes that go nowhere, dialogue that is cringeworthy and misbehaving characters. The only thing that is doing what it should is the wildlife.

Take my heroine, for example. She's sworn off men for, like, ever. So what does she spend most of Chapter One doing? Flirting with the hero and agreeing to have a drink with him. Aaagghh. Why she'd want to do this when he's being such a sap, is beyond me. I need to totally rewrite, which means I might as well scythe through the rest. Oh, happy days.

With any luck and if this is anything like the last book, the tortuous first half will morph into a far easier second half. Here's hoping. Does anyone else head off in totally the wrong direction and blindly keep going, or is it just me???

Being brave

At the weekend, I wrote a scene involving my hero and heroine, a stoned party guest, a flamingo and a canape. I think this might have to change. If Mills & Boon don't approve of characters who smoke then I can't imagine they'd allow a character (however minor) who's high on cocaine. It would be a shame as the scene is quite revealing, but I suspect the drug thing, although entirely relevant, may be a bit too edgy. Any thoughts?

AWOL

I'd like to be able to say I've spent the past five or so days tucked away writing like a demon, but no. Instead, I've been playing hookey and having a lovely time visiting family in the UK. Total words written since Wednesday? Umm...zero. However, I did have a couple of lightbulb moments about the current wip and I did meet a genuine utterly-charming-and-not-at-all-ruthless Greek tycoon.

But unfortunately I find writing is like exercise: the longer the break, the harder it is to get back into the habit. This requires self-discipline. Will power. Determination. Just sitting down, turning off the phone and getting on with it. Hmmmm. Tomorrow. I shall start again tomorrow.

(No) method in the madness

I'm 13k words into my new book. My heroine's just announced she's half Dutch (which came as something of a surprise) and my hero's been chopping logs without feeling the need for a shirt. It's messy, disorganised, grammatically horrible, disjointed and unexpectedly features flamingoes (although happily, the foray to Scotland stays). But hey, that's what a first draft is for, right?

However, I know from experience that I can't finish the whole thing before going back to tidy up. I have to edit as I go along in order to move forward, and an edit is long overdue. But is there anything more demotivating than a decreasing (and it would be decreasing) wordcount? Ho, hum...maybe when I get to 20k...

Obviously this means I've been procrastinating. Single line spacing or double line spacing? Big margins or little margins? One document or lots of little ones? Music or silence? A glass of wine or a bottle? How do you write?

Go, Book 2, go

The proposal I sent in a couple of days ago (with my slightly nuts overachieving PR heroine, my lone wolfish hero and the ex-drug addict handbag-designing sister) has been approved.

Three quarters of the synopsis dealt with the characters, a quarter with the plot. Given recent discussions on Jackie's blog I was a bit worried that the heroine's conflict might be too defined by her parents, but I seem to have somehow avoided this particular pitfall.

However, the plot isn't problem free. No indeed. I might have given them only a 200 word summary, but my editor spotted a potential plot device which I must Avoid At All Costs, and as I suspected Scotland may have to go. Other than that it's full steam ahead. Or in my case, chugchugchug. I feel like I'm about to set out across the Atlantic in a dinghy.

What's in a name?

My previously titleless novel has a title! And it doesn't contain ANY of the following words:

billionaire
millionaire
playboy
tycoon
Spanish/Italian/Greek
revenge
pregnant
virgin
mistress
bride
wife
ruthless
pleasure
claimed
inexperienced
hot

Which is slightly concerning since these labels must sell books. However the title is alliterative and does, at least, contain the word 'bought'. Phew.

The book is called.......wait for it.......

Bought: Damsel in Distress.

Hooray!

I have a paperback publication date - October 09! My revisions were fine (some of the dialogue has been cut for pace, which will be interesting to see), and the book is now with copyediting. Am slightly in shock.

Onions

Yesterday I offered to wade through Chapter 1 of ‘A Bid for Love’ to see if I could spot the conflicts. Both the chapter and synopsis are already in the public domain, so I didn’t think I’d be giving anything away by taking a little analytical look. I also didn’t expect it to be as hard (or as useful) as it’s turned out to be. When I wrote the first draft of the first chapter, I didn’t consciously think ‘Ah, good. Inner conflict. Tick.’ I didn’t use flowcharts, diagrams or post-it notes and I didn’t have much of a structure. I had to go and rework it hundreds of times at various stages to add foreshadowing and to strengthen motivation of subsequent action and behaviour. Analysing it is kind of tricky, but here goes.

Chapter 1 is entirely from the heroine's point of view so I’ll stick with her for the moment. The main external conflict point in this chapter is that Emily is going to a wedding that she really doesn’t want to go to with a complete stranger. So that’s the external conflict sorted (I think). Now how about the internal variety?

Well, the short answer is there isn’t any. At least not the gut-twisting, heart-wrenching, deeply introspective type. Intense emotional conflict prevents the characters from being together when they want to be. At the beginning of my story, Emily and Luke are strangers. Like many people, neither is the sort to jump into bed with someone they’ve only just met and then declare their undying love, so as I see it, they don’t need intense emotional conflict to keep them apart. And as they don’t really know each other, neither of them has much to lose if they walk away and never clap eyes on each other again, so the emotional stakes are not particularly high.

Emily’s inner conflicts then, the ones that affect her behaviour and reactions in this chapter, are not intense. They’re more about revealing her character and moving the story forward than causing deep emotional angst. She doesn’t want to go to the wedding of her ex-fiance to another woman (franky, who would?) and so she's cross with her bossy older sister for interfering. However she's also battling this guilty feeling that she really owes it to her sister to go. Additionally she thinks that she’s over her old relationship, but then reflects that maybe she isn’t. Internal conflict, yes, a bit. Angst, yes, but minimal.

But then there’s also the hint of conflicts to come, like Emily’s attitude towards motherhood and her reaction to her sister’s revelation that the money raised in the auction is to go to a charity that prevents maternal mortality. Things which are far more likely to cause major anguish if they’re challenged (and of course they will be) further down the line.

Luke, without his own point of view, is more shadowy. What’s going through his head only comes out through his actions, reactions and words. He’s attracted to Emily but probably doesn’t want to be. He’s also reluctant to reveal the real reason why he bid for her, which means it must be a big deal to him and very personal. If it wasn’t he’d just come out and say it. But he doesn’t. Just as Emily doesn’t tell him the real reason why she doesn’t want to go to the wedding. What’s more, they each suspect the other is holding back on this. (Could this be construed as conflict? I’m not sure.)

Which brings me on to another point: how do you know what to reveal when? Now this is only my very inexperienced opinion, but I reckon that backstory should be woven into the action/dialogue/introspection if and when it’s needed to explain a character’s motivations. (I think I may have broken a rule or two with my flashback though, so don’t take my word for it.) And it's a similar thing with foreshadowing. Which is why I have to constantly dart back and forth through my ms as I write filling in bits to make sense of what I've just written.

I think it's Kate Walker in her 12-Point Guide to Writing Romance who likened emotional conflict to an onion. Lots of layers. By peeling off and dealing with each layer, you reveal another and another until you get to the heart of the matter. In the case of Mills & Boon romance, each layer also tends to be worse than the previous one.

To continue with the onion analogy, I reckon that each layer should be peeled off at the point where it’ll have most impact. At the beginning of my story, if Luke said to Emily as they’re getting off the plane, ‘Enjoy the wedding. Oh, and by the way I’ve sworn off love because my wife died and I never want to go through that again’, she’d probably think she’d had a lucky escape. If, on the other hand, he tells her that just after she’s realised she’s in love with him, well, that’s going to have a dramatic effect.

Does any of this make any sense whatsoever? Obviously my waffling above is only my opinion and refers to my story and my characters. The intensity, nature and focus of emotional conflict will be different in each story and there are many other more experienced writers out there who are far better at dissecting this sort of thing than me. Anyway, I've gone on for quite long enough, but I’d be fascinated to hear other opinions and if anyone has any questions, do ask.

Contracts, characters and conflict

I sent off my contract this morning which was most exciting. I have no publication date or title or the slightest idea if my revisions were any good, but not to worry, there have been distractions aplenty.

Not only is Mills & Boon going militant, up in arms about Warrington Station's kissing ban, but Feel the Heat runner-up Jackie Ashenden has been running a fascinating series of posts about external v. internal conflict, stereotypes and editorial feedback.

Which got me thinking about how I go about setting up a story. Messily and randomly, generally; my thought processes are a work in progress in themselves.

But take my latest WIP which is still by-and-large plotless. I recently read an article about how one of the few industries to actually do well out of recession is PR. So I thought, OK, my heroine will work in PR. A good excuse to write glam launch party scenes, if nothing else. So what sort of person would work in PR? Extrovert, good at socialising, confident, a people person. Fine.

Now, let's make her the owner of her own PR agency. She's obviously driven, successful and independent, but why? Well, what if she comes from an over-achieving family where great things are expected from all family members and failure is not an option? And what if (given the brilliance of her siblings) she's not entirely convinced that she's up to the job? How would that manifest itself? And what if she's rubbish with men? As she's been brought up to pursue success and avoid failure, she'd probably steer well clear.

So what would be her greatest fears? Failure would be one, I guess. And that someone will see through her. Oh, and (to a lesser extent) meeting an irresistible man who's not much of a people person and is a bit of a loner. For her inner conflicts to really come into their own, then, she needs to fail at something. Big time. And she needs to meet the hero, who naturally is not much of a people person, is a bit of a loner but has an uncanny ability to see through people.

And then we start on the hero. If he's going to be a loner then he'll rely on himself and he'll have a loner-y kind of job. But why would he be a loner? Why wouldn't he rely on anyone else? And why is he good at seeing through people? And what would he really really hate to happen?

Crikey, this sort of analysis could go on for ever. With any luck the answers will lead me to the plot, although I'm rather hoping my characters will do it for me. The only thing I do know is that whatever does happen, it'll make them confront their fears and they'll hate it.

I think.

And as if that wasn't enough, all this needs to happen against a backdrop of sparkling repartee and smouldering looks. I suddenly feel quite weak.

Sizzling in Scotland?

A couple of weeks ago, while brainstorming my current wip, I decided to send my new hero and heroine to the hero's island off the west coast of Scotland. This may have been subconsciously inspired by my (then) forthcoming trip to said west coast of Scotland or it may have been due to the range of my hero's plane. Or it may be that I have this image in my head of my heroine marching around in the rain wearing a silk negligee, a battered Barbour and a pair of wellies. Who knows?

Anyway, I had hoped that the trip last weekend to meet my new nephew might provide some inspiration. But through the mist and drizzle it was hard to see much at all (although a visit to the Glengoyne whisky distillery was, um, illuminating).

This is worrying. Scotland in February is cold, wet and windy and my heroine, I fear, will spend quite a bit of time being cold, wet and grumpy. Not very glamorously sizzlingly Modern Heat, is it?

Valentine's Day

You know Valentine's Day is looming when the BBC turns philosophical and ponders the question 'What is Love?', newspapers lament the demise of the love letter and American psychologists reduce a kiss to a chemically-induced sensation of cortisol and oxytocin.

There is even a suggestion that an ideal Valentine gift For Her might be a silver-plated afternoon tea stand. I kid you not. This is apparently the ideal gift because 'afternoon tea is always well-received'. Better not come and visit me then. (Not only because of the lack of afternoon tea but also because I currently have my nose stuck in 'Love Letters of Great Men' which serendipitously arrived in my Amazon delivery yesterday and wouldn't be the best company.)

So what is love? What is romance? Is it lovenotes stuck to the bathroom mirror? Two dozen roses? Being told that 'a reasonable man might gladly travel three or four thousand leagues to see your nature, and your wit, in their full perfection'? Or is it silver-plated afternoon tea stands?

(I'm off to Scotland tomorrow for a few days, so Happy Valentine's Day!)

I'm stumped

I'm trying to complete a biography and interview for the authors' pages on the M&B/eharlequin sites. There are two questions which have me stumped:

a) What tip would you give your readers to make their lives more romantic?
b) What is the one thing you've always wanted to do, but never had the courage to try?

My immediate thoughts were a) Me? I'm not one of the most romantic people on the planet and am therefore hardly qualified to give tips and b) Naturally the only things I can think of are either illegal or immoral.

But I don't think this is quite what they're after so unless anyone has any better ideas, I shall probably have to plump for a) take time to listen and b) bungy jumping.

Progress

My new WIP now has a working title of 'Private Relations' (a bit cringe-worthy, I know) and a wordcount of 2800. My heroine now has a fear of failure and my hero now has a handbag-designing ex-drug addict of a sister. I, on the other hand, still don't have much of a plot.

They say that writing the second book is much harder than the first. I don't know about this yet because goodness, it's hard to concentrate when you're waiting for the verdict on revisions...

Research

I spent the weekend brainstorming ideas for a new story and researching personality types on the internet. (How on earth did people ever do research in pre-internet days?) As a result I have an over-achieving PR girl, a lone-wolf business angel but not much of a plot.

I also tried to set up a website but after about half an hour my brain melted.

What did you get up to?

Alpha men

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Ah, M&B Modern Heat alpha males... Gorgeous, authoritative, ruthless, sometimes tortured, often perplexed.

But do they really exist? Should they exist? Would you want to live with one? Do you live with one? Does anyone actually know a truly alpha male? Here's a lady who has some interesting views on the subject: The Romance Hero v the 21st Century

(And here's a moral dilemma for a Saturday - if a Modern Heat hero came knocking on your door, promising the sort of things only a Modern Heat hero could, what would you do?)

The Irate Virgin Passenger's Hilarious Letter of Complaint

This is fab.

Hearts pounding - not

Hooray! The tweaks went off yesterday. I swear, if I ever have to see the phrase 'her heart pounded' again I may just scream.

I won't hear back for a couple of weeks, so I now find myself kicking up my heels and doing things that need doing: getting a hair cut, filing, replying to emails, maybe setting up a website, signing my M&B contract...

I have an idea for the next book, but don't really see much point in jumping in until I've had a chance to chat it over with my editor and that won't happen for ages. Instead I'll do some thinking and throw a few ideas around my head. It's due in June. And this time I managed to refrain from saying 'June? How about the end of Feb?' (See, am learning.)

PHS

Today I'm blogging over at the Pink Heart Society about 'The Call'.

There's been a lot of press in the UK recently about how hedge fund managers are responsible for the demise of the UK economy. Booooo, hissssss. Guess what my (fictional) hero does for a living...

Doubts

The revisions are due tomorrow and am head down, tweaking frantically. I've added 2000 words. Have I done it right? Is there now too much internal agonising? Too little? Is my heroine now too confrontational? Do my tweaks stick out like sore thumbs? Where's the gin?

Agghh.

Revisions

Having just about got my head round the fact that I actually sold my book, I'm now eating, sleeping and breathing revisions.

Apparently these are minor, but as I have nothing to compare them with, I've no idea whether they are or not. But Kim, my editor, says they're tweaks and who am I to argue with the person who also said that my story has 'intense emotional conflict, excellent dialogue, appealing characters and an engaging plot'? (Although personally, I'm convinced she's got my book muddled up with a proper writer's.)

So, these tweaks...

Mainly I've skipped over some of the most crucial emotional moments. Those'll be the chapters at the end that I galloped through then. Heavy on dialogue, light on emotional exploration.

At the moment the emotional events happen off stage. This is Not Good as the reader takes on the role of observer instead of seeing the action through the characters' eyes and is pulled out of the story. And that affects the pace. Now this is something I probably should have known, but didn't. Like I should probably have realised that my hero is a control freak. And known that my heroine on occasion accepts things a little too easily. It all seems kind of obvious now. As is how little I do know...

So this week, I've been struggling up that learning curve with a highlighter pen and postit notes and am working on upping the emotional ante.

Hello

Welcome to my new home - which looks remarkably like the previous one!

Sale!

Well, the news is out! I sold my book!! My editor, Kim, rang last week to say that she loved my story and wanted to buy it. It took me totally by surprise as I never expected to hear anything so soon after Christmas, let alone that!

I have to do some tweaking in the next couple of weeks (minor revisions, apparently, although they seem huge to me - I mean, what if I do them wrong? Yikes...) but am obviously over the moon. Whooppee!!

Anyone can write a novel

Saw this on hereisthecity.com and it made me laugh, even though it's a bit harsh. I mean, we all need to start somewhere, right?

Dear Ms Robinson,

Having lost my job as a derivatives trader, I have been looking at my options and am thinking of becoming a writer since I can afford to take some time off. My friends tell me that my anecdotes are brilliant and I should write them down. They say everyone has a novel in them, so why not me? I notice you have written a number of books and am wondering if you can tell me where to start.- CB

Dear CB

Do you see Ms Robinson suddenly announcing she wants to try her hand at mathematical modeling? No, you do not. Does Ms R think she can be a plumber because she can turn on a tap?

One of the things that full-time writers hate is people who think they can write; they assume there is little skill needed and just the fact that you can read and spell equips you to write. (It's the same way for people who get Photoshop and think they are graphic designers.)

As for writing classes, the less said the better. You either can or you can’t. You might well have a book inside you, but do keep in mind we have many things inside us: kidneys and a liver, for example, and these are best kept where they are. You see my point CB?

Writing is not about sitting in a cottage overlooking the sea and penning a paragraph or two while looking forward to tea at 4pm. It’s about serious plotting, planning and dedication. The best writers cannot afford to take time off: they are at it day and night. Should you manage to pen a novel, chances are you will be thrown on the slush pile. Even if an agent takes you on, there is still a lot of work to do.

That is why writing is not something you try your hand at, it is a passion. If you had it, you would have written by now.

Ay, que frio

'Ay, que frio!' is the lament here in Jerez at the moment. Annual average temperature of 17ºC, summer highs of 40ºC, but right now with yet another icy front heading our way it's apparently 7ºC outside.

No central heating + no insulation = internal temperature of considerably less than outside.

Even with my little electric heater I'm currently sporting furry boots, tights, thermal leggings, pyjama bottoms, yummie tummie, t-shirt, wool poloneck, polar fleece, cashmere shawl. A most attractive combination. What I really need is a pair of fingerless gloves to prevent frostbite and complete the overall baglady look.

I envy you guys in the southern hemisphere...

Typos

I've just reread the ms I submitted before Christmas for the first time since it was sent in. And not without some trepidation. Ideally I'd have liked a couple of weeks between typing The End and hitting the 'Send' button. But my editor said 'Just send it in and we'll take a look', so I did.

It varies a bit from the original synopsis, especially the last third, which I reckon is no bad thing. While I actually quite like it, the end (as suspected) does feel horribly rushed and quite a few other bits need tweaking too. But what really appals me is the number of typos. How did they happen? I went over and over it with what I thought was a fine toothcomb, so how did missing/extra spaces, doubled words, random apostrophes and occasional bizarre word order get there? Grrrrr.

In the meantime I've started on another story, sort of based on my Nano novel. Am quite looking forward to seeing where this one goes...

Locks, props and three smoking fly-halfs

All these thoughts of rugby lead me to a Question of Global Importance. As The Observer asked way back in 2003 in the midst of world cup fever, who is rugby's hottest hunk?

Here's a selection... (No locks or props as pictures of them seem to involve bad hair and blood, and only three fly-halfs because I put 'fit rugby player' into Google Images and now have to go and have a lie down.)

Dan Carter

(according to E! Entertainment the 11th sexiest man in the world)

Danny Cipriani
(only 21...)

And, of course, Jonny Wilkinson
(now, unfortunately, retired)

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Rugby and romance

Mills & Boon team up with the Rugby Football Union! Read all about it here.

Resolutions

Spot the odd one out: eating, drinking, relaxing, chatting, charades, racing demon, Scrabble, DVDs, the Wii, reading, writing.

The answer is the only thing I didn't engage in over Christmas: writing. Not entirely surprising what with all the other stuff that was going on, and not particularly frustrating as I've long since discovered that you can't do everything at the same time all the time. But now back home I'm ready to start up again.

Since I started writing, the process (if I have one at all) has been really erratic: a fortnight of frantic typing and then weeks of nothing; repeat. This year I'm going to organise my time better, be more efficient and write more steadily. At least that's the plan...

Have you made any resolutions?

Happy New Year!!

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