Truly, Madly, Deeply

Nice reviews for Truly, Madly, Deeply coming in 🙂

Truly, Madly, Deeply *24 short romantic stories*

Great review for Truly, Madly, Deeply from Cheryl M-M’s Book Blog.

Cheryl M-M's Book Blog

This is a compilation of short stories written by members of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and it includes tales from some of the most well-known names in the heart-squeezing, tear-jerking romance genre.

A Rose by any other Name Would Smell As Sweetby Adele Parks– It was the quintessence of family concern and their attempt at playing Cupid. For more books by Adele Parks go to www.adeleparks.com

A Sensible Proposal by Anna Jacobs – Love found during times of great desperation. For more by Anna Jacobs go to www.annajacobs.com

The Corporate Wife by CaroleMatthews – Everyone ages and only the ones willing to accept that are worthy of your time, loyalty and love. For more books by Carole Matthews go to www.carolematthews.com

The Art of Travel by Elizabeth Buchan – Time to let go of the memory of perfect love and move on. To read more by…

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Truly, Madly, Deeply – out today!

It’s publication day for Truly, Madly, Deeply!

Truly, Madly, Deeply is the second anthology I’ve edited for the Romantic Novelists’ Association and I’m just as proud of this fantastic collection of stories as I was of the first, Loves Me, Loves Me Not (2010).

The cover shown here is of the paperback, containing 24 fabulous short stories. As a wonderful bonus there’s also a digital extended edition containing a further 11 stories – fantastic for those who like to read electronically.

The story I’ve contributed to Truly, Madly, Deeply, Shocking Behaviour, is about Lizzy and Jax. Lizzy moves into the flat Jax used to own and she surprises him on her doorstep, trying to get back into the flat for something vital he’s left behind. I’m supposed to be telling you what inspired the story but I find I’m quite unable to do that without giving away the plot, so I’ll just say that the idea came to me from talking to a friend about shocks. What kind of shock? That’s a plot giveaway, too!

Speaking of giveaways, The Romantic Novelists’ Association has some copies of Truly, Madly, Deeply to give away, along with pretty RNA fans – I mean the kind of fan that you wave around in front of your face to cool you, not the ‘We love the RNA!’-type fan. Although I’m sure they’re all pretty.

Click HERE to be entered into the free draw, your chance to win one of the first copies of Truly, Madly, Deeply.

It’s Publication Day! Truly, Madly, Deeply by RNA authors

Truly, Madly, Deeply, 24 story paperback edition

I’m mega excited because today marks the release of the Truly, Madly, Deeply Romantic Novelists Association anthology published by Mills & Boon! And we’re even giving away copies… see below for your chance to win 🙂

The stories are by a mixture of new authors and rising stars as well as best selling authors and leading lights in women’s commercial fiction including Adele Parks, Katie Fforde, Carole Matthews and  Miranda Dickinson.

Here’s the blurb:

From wedding days to special anniversaries, steamy one night encounters to everlasting loves, Truly, Madly, Deeply takes you on an exciting romantic adventure where love really is all you need. The paperback edition includes 24 stories and the eBook edition includes 11 additional stories to bring it up to a whopping 35!

Truly, Madly, Deeply, 35 story ebook edition

I thought you might like to know what inspired my story…

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St Valentine’s Round Robin free from Choc Lit authors!

Five of the Choc Lit authors have got together to bring you a special St Valentine’s story in five episodes, hosted on five blogs.  I’ve only seen the first three segments myself and I left Shelly scheming to get what she wanted. I wonder if she does? I can’t wait to read episodes 4 and 5 to see how it all works out.

If you want to follow the story and get in line for the giveaways, here are the links to each blog:

Monday: Reading in the Sunshine

Tuesday: Victoria Loves Books

Wednesday: Chick Lit Reviews and News

Thursday: Chloe’s Chick Lit Reviews

Friday: Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell

Enjoy!

What do I say on the radio?

I love ‘doing radio’.

When I first began to get published I felt that ‘doing radio’ was something other people did. It was a genuine shock when I received a request to be interviewed by BBC local radio. Until then, I had taken part in one radio interview, conducted over the phone, and I think the reason that it went so well was that I didn’t realise I was being interviewed. I thought the journalist was just chatting with me and would get on to the scary stuff later. So I learned early that if I treat radio interviews as a nice chat, they’ll generally go pretty well.

The technique has served me well and now I’m a regular guest on chat programmes on both BBC Radio Cambridgeshire and BBC Radio Northampton.

BBC Radio Cambridgeshire has an afternoon slot on The Sue Dougan Show called In the Chat Room, where Sue invites people in to talk about a couple of topical subjects. It can be anything from finding the money to send a child to university to what you think about while doing the ironing. There’s usually another ‘Chat Roomer’ in the studio and so I have someone to banter with.

Helen Blaby, of BBC Radio Northampton, does a twenty minute discussion of the Sunday morning papers, each week. When I’m invited to be the guest, I arrive about 9am and a lovely production assistant sits me down with all the papers and a cup of tea. I choose five news stories I have something to say about and then I’m shown in to Helen’s studio about 10.10am, tell her what the stories are, and we go on to chat about some of them live on air. To give you an example, yesterday we talked about happiness classes in the British army and social media, which was mentioned in several sections of every paper – business, commentary, social and news.

What’s in these programmes for me? They’re not actually interviews about me or my books.

Apart from the fun of chatting live on air, both presenters ask me about what’s happening to me at the moment, when the next book comes out, what workshops I’m running etc. So I reach their audience, which is about 300,000 in both cases; it’s just a touch less direct than being the subject of an interview.

I’m also often the spokesperson for the Romantic Novelists’ Association (I’m vice chair), which is usually fast and soon forgotten, but it means that I occasionally have my name mentioned on radio stations throughout the country.

Here are my top tips for ‘doing radio’:

• Chat to the presenter as if the audience doesn’t exist
• But remember not to swear or say anything you don’t want to be instantly broadcast
• Keep close to the microphone (except if you laugh. Then pull back.)
• If there are things you want to mention, jot them down on a piece of card. Try and avoid noisy paperwork.
• Take/ask for water. You may not have coughed for ten years but the moment you go live on air, you’ll want to.
• Turn off your phone or put it on silent or airplane mode. Or don’t take it into the studio.
• Don’t worry that ten minutes after you thought you were going to be on air, you’re still sitting out in reception. The production team have to ensure a smooth flow and have probably built in a few minutes into the schedule so you’ll be there when they want you. Put yourself in their hands and relax. It’s their problem, not yours.
• But build in time for travel. Better to be early and have to wait than to be late and miss your slot. I once sat outside BBC Radio Cambridgeshire in a traffic jam listening to Sue Dougan say I’d be on air in about five minutes … Not comfortable.
• Enjoy. It’s fun.
• NB I did have one slightly hostile interviewer at a radio station in Yorkshire. He obviously didn’t like fiction and particularly not romantic fiction. The trick, if you get a question you don’t like, is to make like a politician and instead of talking about something you don’t want to talk about, talk about something you do want to talk about. Don’t let yourself be drawn into confrontation. Don’t try and score points. See it as an opportunity to tell the listeners about your new book. The presenter isn’t the only one with control.