Treading water

Goodness, has it really been nearly two weeks since my last post?

Real Life has recently got in the way of writing, in the shape of being given notice on the flat we've rented for the past four years. The hassle of finding somewhere new, packing up and moving (with an ever-increasing pregnancy bump) is not altogether conducive to wordflow. Agh.

But I shall perservere. With a deadline in a month, I don't have much choice!

Valentine's Day

Love's Philosophy
by Shelley

The fountains mingle with the river
And the rivers with the ocean
The winds of heaven mix for ever
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single,
All things by a law divine
In one another's being mingle­
Why not I with thine?

See the mountains kiss high heaven
And the waves clasp one another
No sister-flower would be forgiven
If it disdain'd its brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea­
What are all these kisses worth
If thou kiss not me?

Ahhhhhh. Talking of smooching, there's an article in today's Times on what's happened to the cinema kiss over the last century. The classic screen kiss, it seems, is dead. Oh no! What do you think? Has the kiss "become the bland punctuation mark of bland romcoms"? And when did you last see a really great kiss in a film?

Right, having failed dismally to get any words added to my wip so far this weekend, I'm off to a flamenco fashion show. Happy Valentine's Day!

An award!!!

Two posts in one day? What on earth is going on, you may wonder.

Well, I've just found out that Bought: Damsel in Distress has won a Cataromance Reviewers' Choice Award for best M&B Modern Heat. Oh my. Am so excited and thrilled (and, to be honest, stunned) I can barely sit still. Thank you thank you thank you to Donna, Ally and Julie.


Check out all the other fabulous winners here.

Hot heroes

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Woohoo, it's Friday, and that means I'm over at Nicola Marsh's blog, with a pic of my favourite hero inspiration. I don't tend to cast a celeb when writing my characters - in fact beyond the basics (hair/eye colour, height etc) I don't really know what they look like. But if I did, Luke Harrison, the hero in my latest Harlequin Presents release Bought: Damsel in Distress, would look something like the gorgeous James Purefoy. There's also the chance to win a free copy of the book, so head over and take a look.

I'm now up to 25,000 words in Bk 3 (most of which are probably rubbish) which may account for my recent absence from blogland. Would like to add another 5000 this weekend but what with the start of the Winter Olympics and the Six Nations rugby I have my doubts...

What's everyone else up to this weekend?

An interview and Book 3

Today I'm being interviewed by the lovely Marilyn Shoemaker, romance reader and reviewer extraordinare. If you want to know what I'm reading at the moment or what I like/dislike most about writing then pop on over.

Book 3 - imaginatively titled YHR as it's part of the 'Young Hot and Royal' miniseries - is moving along steadily (hah - where have you heard that before!!). I had some feedback from my editor yesterday about the very sketchy outline I sent in a while back: I need to pinpoint the emotional conflict and think about the characters' journeys, especially the hero's.

Since sending in the outline my ideas have changed a little. The conflict and showing it right from the start is something I've been working on, and hopefully this now comes through in the first chapter.

The feedback about character development isn't entirely surprising. When I start a story I tend to have the heroine and her emotional baggage mapped out in much more detail than the hero. Often the hero starts out being a shadowy figure whose sole purpose is to mess up the heroine's life. And then gradually as he interacts with her I get more of a picture of who he is and why, and can go back and weave his conflict into the story. This probably isn't the most efficient way of writing, but it seems to work for me.

What about you? Are you more heroine- or hero-centric?

Happy Australia Day!

To all those in Oz, Happy Australia Day!

I'm celebrating by watching Nadal v. Murray in Melbourne. As it's 10am here I feel rather decadent, but am justifying it by being a quarter Australian and having a grandfather who was from Melbourne. Therefore I reckon I can take a quarter of the day (or a three-ish hour tennis match) as a holiday. Genius, or what???

Kreativ Blogging

The fabulous Lorraine has nominated me for a Kreativ Blogger award, so here are 7 (possibly not very) interesting facts about me.

1. I hate mushrooms. Although I can just about bear the little white ones raw in salads, the mere smell of mushrooms cooking makes me gag.
2. I was once approached by MI6. Luckily (as I'm not too good at keeping secrets) they decided I wasn't right for the job.
   
3. I have a masters in Arabic (which may account for 2.) and Spanish.
4. My sense of direction is non-existent, although my map-reading skills aren't too bad.
5. I asked my husband out on our first date. He initially said no.
   
6. I was once shot at in the Yemeni desert by bedouin would-be kidnappers. I think they decided in the end that 5 shrieking British girls weren't worth the hassle.
   
7. I prefer cats to dogs.
   

The peeps I tag are:

Heidi Rice, Kate Hardy, Natalie Anderson, Trish Wylie, Mira Lyn Kelly, Julie Cohen and Phillipa Ashley.

(If the 7 points above have piqued your interest, there's even more stuff about me and my writing in my recent interview over at Cataromance.)