Shortlist for the Choc Lit Short Story Competition is announced!

Congratulations to everybody on the Choc Lit Short Story Competition shortlist!

The winner and runner up will be revealed on the 10th April.

Well done everyone the standard and number of entries was amazing!
(In alphabetical order)

Chloe Banks, The War of the Last Rolo

Jennifer Bohnet, Paris Can Wait

Debbie Freeman, For the Love of Chocolate

Lara Higgins, On a Night Like This

Geoff Holder, Blood and Chocolate

Laura E James, Bitter Sweet

Lucy Mouland, A Foreign Field

Margaret Mounsden, Black Market

Lucy Oliver, Her Life, in Chocolate

Marilyn Rodwell, Brazilian Dreams

PRIZES
1st prize £200, publication on the Choc Lit website and Choc Lit’s authors corner blog and a box of chocolates from Plush Chocolates.
A Runner Up will receive £50 and a box of chocolates from Plush Chocolates.

Good luck to you all … x

CIRCALIT SHORT STORY ANTHOLOGY: OPEN FOR SUBMISSIONS

Circalit has announced the publication of a short story anthology for  
Autumn 2012. The Circalit Anthology will be read by over 10,000 subscribers  
and will be available in paperback and as an eBook. Any short story  
uploaded onto Circalit will automatically be considered for the anthology.  
Simply create an account at www.circalit.com and upload your short stories  
to be eligible. The deadline for entries is 31st March, 2012.

For further information please contact:
Robert Tucker
www.circalit.com
rob@circalit.com
www.facebook.com/circalit
twitter.com/circalit

New novella – Where the Heart Is

In 2011 I put out a backlist novel and three novellas as ebooks  - Uphill All the Way, Between Two Worlds, A Place to Call Home and One Summer in Malta.

Uphill All the Way was my first published novel, coming out in April 2005 (Transita).

The novellas began their lives as serials for The People’s Friend and then became large print books, published by Magna Large Print. Large print books are expensive and hard to get hold of so, surprised (but pleased!) that so many readers asked about the novellas and complained because they couldn’t read them, I had covers done for the ebook market. The sales figures from Amazon show that they are being downloaded in the hundreds each month.

After Where the Heart Is, my last serial, ran just before Christmas, as well as offering the book to Magna it was a no-brainer to publish an ebook, too. The artist who had created my other covers, Josceline Fenton, wasn’t available, so I asked around on Facebook and was introduced to Jane Dixon-Smith. And what a find Jane turned out to be!  I can’t tell you how easy and whizzy she made the process up to the point of sending me six roughs to look at. Then I had to request a pause for a bit of agonising and lip chewing, because the covers were all good.

Above is what I eventually chose for Where the Heart Is. What do you think? I love it.

Once I had made my decision, Jane moved into whizz mode once more, and within a day I had the finished product in formats suitable for print, on-line booksellers and avatar.

Where the Heart Is begins in my beloved Malta. Here’s the blurb:

Malta 1968: Sylvana Bonnici’s parents are dubious about her marrying Rob Denton, a British army staff sergeant, but Sylvana dreams of being an army wife and travelling the world – in mini skirts and big hats, like Jackie Onassis.

Sure enough, Rob is posted to exotic places like Singapore and Gan Island … but, unfortunately, the army dictates that he must leave behind his new wife. Sylvana has little choice but to live with her parents, who have moved to the UK.

In 1971 Rob is finally offered a UK posting and the married quarter that Sylvana has yearned for – but is no longer sure that it’s what he wants. Sylvana’s reaction to his new plans shocks him, but it’s a horrifying accident that proves that home is more than just a place to live.

I found Jane Dixon-Smith’s rates affordable. Her website is here and her Facebook page is here.

Where the Heart Is can be downloaded from Amazon.co.uk here (£1.29) and Amazon.com here ($2.05).

New author pix – wow!

I’m one of those authors who has new author pix taken every couple of years, preferring to take the ageing process gradually, rather than in a large, indigestible chunk.

And, as I’ve been able to throw away my glasses, lose a stone and meet my deadline, a couple of weeks ago I decided it was time. I knew the lovely Marte L Rekaa, who takes such wonderful photos of the RNA events, so I collared her for a chat. It wasn’t so much that I knew what I wanted – more that I had a clear idea of what I didn’t want.

I didn’t want to look as if I came from the pages of a bank’s in-house magazine (OK, I used to work for a bank, but that doesn’t have to count); I didn’t want to look like a secretary, either (and yes! I used to be one of those, too! But I’m not now.) I wanted images that were relaxed and creative. And flattering, obviously. And not to be always wearing a huge horsey smile. Photographers seem to  want to catch me with a massive smile, in the same way that hairdressers can’t resist sending me out looking like a country-western star’s poodle.

Marte spent loads of time with lighting and different coloured backgrounds, because those two things can make an enormous difference – it’s no coincidence that I bought none of the images with the white background – and we just talked and laughed and she took photos.

It all sounds simple, but it worked so well. No chance to set my face in that rictus of just-get-it-over-with. No this-feels-as-artificial-as-plastic-flowers. The whole experience was fun.

What do you think?

Aaah … What gorgeous guys

It’s been a crazy week, with three Love Letters Workshops for John Lewis and a talk to a Women’s Institute. And it was further enlivened by staying with my good friend Katie, one night, and meeting the gorgeous guys she has living with her.

Even though two were spoken for, they all made themselves available for cuddles. In fact, one climbed into my bag – obviously deciding he loved me enough to come home with me.

I discovered a new accomplishment – walking with puppies swinging by their teeth from the hem of my coat and the laces of my boots. There’s quite an art to it. (No puppies were harmed, in case you’re worrying.)

And I took away five tiny pawprints in my heart. Aww.

 

Post WIP delivery To Do List

My study mid book, notes to right of monitor, timeline draped across filing cabinet, filing system largely on floor. It's tidier now! If I could only just find my camera, I'd show you ...

It’s a lovely feeling, to get your book finished and in to the publisher on time. I feel all end of termish, Christmas Eveish and ‘it’s nearly my birthday!’ish, all at once. This Utopia will fade as time for the edits draws near but, meantime, I can work through a To Do list that I’ve been compiling since October, when the deadline seemed to be approaching at an unpleasantly rapid trot considering that I had an eye op and Christmas to work around.

So I thought I’d reproduce my To Do list, here, with progress:

1. Do accounts for the year ended 31.12.11 (scheduled for the weekend)
2. Send books to accountant (scheduled for shortly after)
3. Scan through inbox and answer unanswered emails Unfortunately, new emails have appeared
4. Sort through intray and deal with anything that can be dealt with Ditto, with bills etc
5. Filing (hate it. It hasn’t reached the rim of the tray, yet, so it can’t be time to do it)
6. Write three columns for Writers’ Forum (one of these now drafted and research done on another)
7. Write three guest blogs and update own blog
8. Type up invoices and deliver
9. Update website and send update to webguy  (webguy now busy and says he’ll try and get onto it next week)
10. Write Romance Matters Q&A column (Qs received – the As are my bit)
11. Write 2x Choc Lit Author blogs and schedule/sent to person collating contributions
12. Read my half of Choc Lit short story comp entries
13. Order curtains
14. Bring in a couple of pots from garden before the first frost. (Um. Oops.)
15. Update website. (As this appeared on the list twice, I obviously understood the urgency of doing this in October when Love & Freedom won the Best Romantic Read Award 2011. Actually sent update off last night …)
16. Make appointment for eyebrow plucking (tried, but my plucker is on holiday)
17. Have hair cut (One has to have some standards! Of course I had it cut!)
18. Call people who supplied woodburning stove to tell them paint is coming off
19. Update my ALCS payment records
20. Attend RNA Leicester Chapter Lunch (will be crossed off later today)
21. Attend RNA Cambridge Chapter Lunch (will be crossed off on Wednesday)
22. Smile more
23. Tweet more
24. FB more

So, that’s quite a lot of progress!

(I’m not the only one to have a To Do list, am I? And to put things on specifically to be able to cross them off? see entries 22-24.)

PS I can see my desk. Achievement in itself.

WIP Ready to go!

It’s a fabulous feeling. There’s no other like it. My new book, Dream a Little Dream, is just about ready to be sent into the lovely Choc Lit team. A whole day ahead of deadline.

It’s like end of term, birthday and Christmas all rolled into one. I’m now entering a wonderful period, when the book is finished but the edits and revisions haven’t yet arrived. But I have a mega ‘to do’ list,  waiting to take my attention: student assignments, competition entries, three columns for Writers’ Forum, do my bookkeeping for 2011 because my accountant has already written asking where my books are, update my website, write some guest blogs, judge my share of the Choc Lit short story competition, get my invoices up to date, write my Q&A column for Romance Matters, and buy new curtains for the landing. I also have several events to attend, at least two of which are thinly disguised meals with friends, and have new author pix taken. Oh, and pick up my new glasses.

But, yeah, even with that mammoth list, I’m still in a happy place! Dream a Little Dream is complete. It’s a Middledip book and my other Middledip books, Starting Over and All That Mullarkey have drawn a lot of positive feedback, recently, so I hope that everyone who enjoyed those books will enjoy Dream, too.

And I can’t end without a little boast – All That Mullarkey is number 42 in the Top 100 paid Kindle chart, and has spent 72 days in the top 100, in total. I think I feel a glass of wine coming on, this evening …