Cover love

I've just seen the cover for my next book, Say It with Diamonds, out in the UK in January, and am having serious cover love. (And even more serious gem envy - check out those rocks!)

Bella, the heroine, is a jeweller who meets the hero, Will, when he takes a sample of his family's jewellery collection to be valued. However, all is not as it seems...

As you can see instead of being released as a Riva, it's out as a Modern, but the story's still (I hope) Riva-ish in feel.

I have to say I loved writing this one!

NV

I'm having a lovely Saturday reading the second chapters of the 21 New Voices finalists. What an awesomely talented bunch - am gripped! I really don't envy the editors at M&B the task of having to whittle down the shortlist...

Creating Characters

Creating the characters for my next story (the stage I'm currently at) is one of my favourite parts of the whole writing process.

I've realised that main reason I had such trouble with books 2 & 3 was that I was so eager to get writing, I didn't have a good grip on who my hero and heroine really were. I had no idea what motivated them or why they behaved the way they did and consequently fell into the schoolgirl error of trying to shoehorn them into the plot. With such dire intial results that both books had to be rethought and rewritten.

Now I hope I know a bit better. Which is why I spend days nailing down every tiny detail of their personalities, lives and backgrounds before launching in with the help of the character questionnaire in Kate Walker's 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance and this: The Enneagram Made Easy. Both make me add facets to my characters that I'd never think of and help keep their behaviour consistent.

Following the personality types set out by the enneagram, my new heroine is an 8 (Asserter - direct, independent, upholder of just causes) and my hero a 5 (Observer - analytical, self-contained, calm in a crisis). As I can already see the sparks flying I can't wait to get started on their story!

How do you build your characters?

Rejoining the land of the living

The book is in (on time!!) which means that I can now catch up on all the many things that have been piling up: tax return, filing, cooking, washing... Or I could kick up my heels and browse the entries in the New Voices competition...

One thing that kept me going yesterday as I was speeding towards the finish line was the lovely review for my current Harlequin Presents release, The Crown Affair, over at Cataromance. Julie says

Lucy King is on top form with The Crown Affair! An addictive page-turner that brilliantly juxtaposes laugh-out loud humour with steamy sensuality and heart-tugging pathos, The Crown Affair is a lively contemporary romance with a lovely heroine you will love and a gorgeous hero you are sure to swoon over.

A sparkling tale of unexpected blessings, chance encounters and red-hot passion, The Crown Affair is another keeper by Lucy King!

The full review is here. Thank you, Julie!

New Voices - free ebook

Goodness it's been a long time since I last blogged... My only excuse is that I've been hard at work trying to finish my wip in time for my deadline on Friday and haven't been doing much of anything apart from writing!

In the meantime, the Mills & Boon New Voices competition has launched and so far has a staggering 411 entries. I wish I could read them all (hmm, maybe after Friday...) but good luck to everyone who's entered or is planning to. It takes a lot of guts to put your work out there so congratulations to all entrants for taking that giant step.

And to help all aspiring authors, the fabulous editors at M&B have put together a free eBook with tips and hints galore (including a section from me about a good hero grovel!). You can download it from Amazon here (and at the iBook store by searching for secrets uncovered boon). It's also available in Adobe Digital Editions from the M&B website here.

Hope to be back soon!

On Royalty

In celebration of the release of The Crown Affair in the US, I am over at iheartpresents today talking about royal romance. Pop over and tell me what you think!

Out in the US

The Crown Affair is out in the US this month! Woohoo!