Friday, November 20, 2009
Friday - His darling Nurse weekend free for all
Post for your chance to win a free download of His Darling Nurse - I want to hear funny medical stories, jokes etc! I'll give out special prizes for really good/funny ones!
Thursday, November 19, 2009
First door prize winner!
Step forward Josh Lockwood! Your name was picked by my eldest belle as the first of the door prize winners to get a free download of His Darling Nurse!
More posts to come over the next few days and more chances to win so keep the comments coming as everyone gets entered for every draw!
More posts to come over the next few days and more chances to win so keep the comments coming as everyone gets entered for every draw!
His Darling Nurse - Day 3
I'm back from London - very tired and with a blister on my heel from walking. I'll be drawing a name later for the first of the giveaways so leave a comment to be in with a chance of a prize!
A few people have asked where I got the idea for the barbecue scene in the first excerpt. For that I have to thank my neighbour, Chris. Chris loves to barbecue and a few years ago when he first got the bug he had his barbecue too close to my other neighbour, Tracey's fence. I heard a shriek and went outside to see smoke pouring from the fence at the back of Tracey's shed while Chris was frantically attempting to put out the flames with the hose. Luckily the damage wasn't anywhere near as bad as Juliet's conflagration.
Tell me about the kind of disasters you've experienced with barbecues?
A few people have asked where I got the idea for the barbecue scene in the first excerpt. For that I have to thank my neighbour, Chris. Chris loves to barbecue and a few years ago when he first got the bug he had his barbecue too close to my other neighbour, Tracey's fence. I heard a shriek and went outside to see smoke pouring from the fence at the back of Tracey's shed while Chris was frantically attempting to put out the flames with the hose. Luckily the damage wasn't anywhere near as bad as Juliet's conflagration.
Tell me about the kind of disasters you've experienced with barbecues?
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
His Darling Nurse - day 2
I'll be out a lot today as I'm going to London to meet my agency and to attend the launch for the wonderful Loves Me, Loves Me Not anthology but the party is still on and tomorrow I'll draw the first door prize from all the comments posted up to now for a free download of His Darling Nurse - if you already have your copy then I'll send you something gorgeous instead!
Here's another snippet to entertain you while I'm gone.
Wake up, Mummy. Wake up!”
Juliet groaned. Her bed dipped and sagged under Charlie’s weight as he bounced on her quilt. She squinted at the alarm clock, blinking in horror when she realized the time.
“Oh no, Charlie, we’re late.”
Scruffy barked with excitement as she chivvied Charlie along to get dressed. She put on her uniform and headed to the kitchen. So much for being up early and looking poised and professional.
“Charlie, toast’s done!” She poured him a glass of orange juice as he clumped downstairs with his shirt hanging out and his tie under his left ear.
Juliet tucked his shirt in and straightened his tie before he took his seat at the table for breakfast. She hurried to prepare his packed lunch for school. A few quick glances out of the kitchen window while she buttered his bread revealed the extent of the damage from yesterday’s fire.
She hoped Neil knew of some cheap fencing contractors. Her budget for renovating the house had been small to begin with, and the extra expense of paying for repairs to someone else’s property would blow her budget wide apart.
Scruffy yapped from by the back door so Juliet slipped on his lead to let him out into the garden. She didn’t want to add to the damage by allowing Scruffy to rampage across Neil’s bowling-green-like lawn.
There were no signs of life at Neil’s house, and Juliet wondered if he’d already left for work. It didn’t look like she would be likely to bump into him in his pyjamas coming out to the dustbin.
A peep at her watch told her she needed to speed Charlie along or they would both be late, so she hurried back inside. She had her key ready to lock her front door when Neil emerged from his house.
“Good morning, Juliet—Charlie.”
“Morning. How’s the hand?” Juliet flushed at his unexpected emergence. His neat suit and crisply ironed shirt contrasted vividly with the image of him in pyjamas that she had conjured up just minutes before.
He flexed his hand. “It’s fine. By the way, did Rose mention that we have a practice meeting today?”
Juliet blushed deeper and stammered an acknowledgement of the meeting, but he appeared oblivious to the heat in her cheeks.
“Then I’ll see you later.” He walked off towards a shiny new estate car.
By the time Juliet had dropped Charlie at his new school, spoken to his teacher and watched him file inside with his new classmates, she was ten minutes late.
“This is not a good omen,” she muttered. She rushed around the corner to the surgery and buzzed for entry at the staff door. “Way to go, Juliet.” Now she could add poor timekeeping under arson on her list of faults.
(c) Nell Dixon 2009
Available from Freya's Bower
Here's another snippet to entertain you while I'm gone.
Wake up, Mummy. Wake up!”
Juliet groaned. Her bed dipped and sagged under Charlie’s weight as he bounced on her quilt. She squinted at the alarm clock, blinking in horror when she realized the time.
“Oh no, Charlie, we’re late.”
Scruffy barked with excitement as she chivvied Charlie along to get dressed. She put on her uniform and headed to the kitchen. So much for being up early and looking poised and professional.
“Charlie, toast’s done!” She poured him a glass of orange juice as he clumped downstairs with his shirt hanging out and his tie under his left ear.
Juliet tucked his shirt in and straightened his tie before he took his seat at the table for breakfast. She hurried to prepare his packed lunch for school. A few quick glances out of the kitchen window while she buttered his bread revealed the extent of the damage from yesterday’s fire.
She hoped Neil knew of some cheap fencing contractors. Her budget for renovating the house had been small to begin with, and the extra expense of paying for repairs to someone else’s property would blow her budget wide apart.
Scruffy yapped from by the back door so Juliet slipped on his lead to let him out into the garden. She didn’t want to add to the damage by allowing Scruffy to rampage across Neil’s bowling-green-like lawn.
There were no signs of life at Neil’s house, and Juliet wondered if he’d already left for work. It didn’t look like she would be likely to bump into him in his pyjamas coming out to the dustbin.
A peep at her watch told her she needed to speed Charlie along or they would both be late, so she hurried back inside. She had her key ready to lock her front door when Neil emerged from his house.
“Good morning, Juliet—Charlie.”
“Morning. How’s the hand?” Juliet flushed at his unexpected emergence. His neat suit and crisply ironed shirt contrasted vividly with the image of him in pyjamas that she had conjured up just minutes before.
He flexed his hand. “It’s fine. By the way, did Rose mention that we have a practice meeting today?”
Juliet blushed deeper and stammered an acknowledgement of the meeting, but he appeared oblivious to the heat in her cheeks.
“Then I’ll see you later.” He walked off towards a shiny new estate car.
By the time Juliet had dropped Charlie at his new school, spoken to his teacher and watched him file inside with his new classmates, she was ten minutes late.
“This is not a good omen,” she muttered. She rushed around the corner to the surgery and buzzed for entry at the staff door. “Way to go, Juliet.” Now she could add poor timekeeping under arson on her list of faults.
(c) Nell Dixon 2009
Available from Freya's Bower
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
His Darling Nurse Excerpt One!
Here's your first excerpt!
http://www.freyasbower.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=7&products_id=227
“Could we have a barbeque this afternoon, Mum?” Charlie sat on the old bench, swinging his legs and slipping Scruffy a taste of his ice cream whenever he thought Juliet wasn’t looking.
“Well….” She felt a little nervous about trying out the barbeque. It had been a leaving present from her last practice. Juliet’s previous home had been a second-floor flat and she and Charlie had never had the luxury of a garden before. Not that Martin would have allowed us to enjoy it even if we had, she thought bitterly.
“Please, Mum?”
“Okay, I’ve got some burgers and sausages. We’ll finish moving all this stuff we’ve cleared to the bottom of the garden, and then I’ll check to see if we’ve got everything we need.”
Charlie whooped with delight, making Scruffy bark excitedly. Juliet smiled. The last few months had been so difficult, her spirits lifted to see her son happy again.
She tugged the barbeque from under the kitchen window onto the flattest part of the ground she and Charlie had cleared. Her workmates had thought of everything, for inside the big metal dome she discovered cooking tools, charcoal, lighter fluid and matches. Charlie watched from a safe distance while Juliet read the instructions and set everything up.
“Darn.” By the twelfth match, the charcoal had still failed to light.
“What’s the matter with it, Mum?”
“Nothing, I’ll get it going in a minute. Go inside and wash your hands for tea.”
Charlie trotted obediently past her and into the house and Juliet tried yet another match.
“More lighter fluid—that must be it,” she muttered. Juliet added extra charcoal and sloshed a generous measure of fluid over the top of the pile.
She held her breath as she dropped another match onto the coals, only to step back swiftly with a shriek. The coals had erupted into flames with a loud pop.
Juliet froze in horror. The barbeque had turned into a roaring bonfire. Sparks flew into the air and blazing charcoal dropped onto the dry grass. She realized too late that in her efforts to stand the barbeque on a flat piece of ground, she had inadvertently placed it too close to the fence.
Before she had time to react, the sparks ignited the dry timber of the ancient garden bench Charlie had been sitting on earlier in the afternoon. Within minutes, the fence panel behind it was ablaze too. Coming to her senses at the sight of the disaster unfolding rapidly before her, Juliet rushed to the tap on the kitchen wall and attached the hose. She attempted to turn on the water but to her dismay, the tap refused to budge. She struggled to turn the rusty metal, cursing and wrenching as the flames climbed higher. By now the fence was well alight, and Charlie stared open-mouthed from the doorstep.
A jet of water came from the other side of the fence just as Juliet managed to loosen the tap.
“Charlie, go inside!”
Her first concern was for her son’s safety. If the fire didn’t die down soon she would have to call the fire brigade. Steam and acrid smoke filled the air. She tackled the blaze with her hose and her neighbour doused the flames from his side of the garden.
“What the hell happened?”
Juliet couldn’t see the owner of the voice through the smoke, but he sounded furious.
The flames were almost out and three panels of fence were gone, leaving a smouldering wreck. The smoke began to drift away, and she could just make out a tall, masculine figure. Her eyes stinging, tears streamed down Juliet’s cheeks. She coughed to clear the toxic fumes from her throat.
“I’m so sorry. It was an accident,” she wheezed.
Her neighbour switched off his hose and kicked the charred frame of the fence out of the way to step through the newly created opening into Juliet’s garden.
“Are you all right?” He took hold of her shoulders and peered into her eyes. Juliet struggled to make the blurry outline of his face snap into focus as she continued to choke from the fumes.
“Inhaled a bit of smoke, but I’m fine.” She dashed a hand across her eyes to clear her vision.
He let go of her and patted his jacket pockets as if searching for something. Juliet blinked with surprise when he produced a stethoscope and slipped it around his neck.
“Smoke inhalation can be serious, you know.” He wrapped his fingers around her wrist and checked her pulse.
“Really, I’m fine. I’m a nurse, I know I’m okay.” She forced a weak smile in an attempt to reassure him. Now the flames had subsided and the air had cleared, her breathing pattern settled into something less ragged.
Apparently satisfied, her new neighbour released her hand.
His Darling Nurse
© Nell Dixon 2009
http://www.freyasbower.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=7&products_id=227
“Could we have a barbeque this afternoon, Mum?” Charlie sat on the old bench, swinging his legs and slipping Scruffy a taste of his ice cream whenever he thought Juliet wasn’t looking.
“Well….” She felt a little nervous about trying out the barbeque. It had been a leaving present from her last practice. Juliet’s previous home had been a second-floor flat and she and Charlie had never had the luxury of a garden before. Not that Martin would have allowed us to enjoy it even if we had, she thought bitterly.
“Please, Mum?”
“Okay, I’ve got some burgers and sausages. We’ll finish moving all this stuff we’ve cleared to the bottom of the garden, and then I’ll check to see if we’ve got everything we need.”
Charlie whooped with delight, making Scruffy bark excitedly. Juliet smiled. The last few months had been so difficult, her spirits lifted to see her son happy again.
She tugged the barbeque from under the kitchen window onto the flattest part of the ground she and Charlie had cleared. Her workmates had thought of everything, for inside the big metal dome she discovered cooking tools, charcoal, lighter fluid and matches. Charlie watched from a safe distance while Juliet read the instructions and set everything up.
“Darn.” By the twelfth match, the charcoal had still failed to light.
“What’s the matter with it, Mum?”
“Nothing, I’ll get it going in a minute. Go inside and wash your hands for tea.”
Charlie trotted obediently past her and into the house and Juliet tried yet another match.
“More lighter fluid—that must be it,” she muttered. Juliet added extra charcoal and sloshed a generous measure of fluid over the top of the pile.
She held her breath as she dropped another match onto the coals, only to step back swiftly with a shriek. The coals had erupted into flames with a loud pop.
Juliet froze in horror. The barbeque had turned into a roaring bonfire. Sparks flew into the air and blazing charcoal dropped onto the dry grass. She realized too late that in her efforts to stand the barbeque on a flat piece of ground, she had inadvertently placed it too close to the fence.
Before she had time to react, the sparks ignited the dry timber of the ancient garden bench Charlie had been sitting on earlier in the afternoon. Within minutes, the fence panel behind it was ablaze too. Coming to her senses at the sight of the disaster unfolding rapidly before her, Juliet rushed to the tap on the kitchen wall and attached the hose. She attempted to turn on the water but to her dismay, the tap refused to budge. She struggled to turn the rusty metal, cursing and wrenching as the flames climbed higher. By now the fence was well alight, and Charlie stared open-mouthed from the doorstep.
A jet of water came from the other side of the fence just as Juliet managed to loosen the tap.
“Charlie, go inside!”
Her first concern was for her son’s safety. If the fire didn’t die down soon she would have to call the fire brigade. Steam and acrid smoke filled the air. She tackled the blaze with her hose and her neighbour doused the flames from his side of the garden.
“What the hell happened?”
Juliet couldn’t see the owner of the voice through the smoke, but he sounded furious.
The flames were almost out and three panels of fence were gone, leaving a smouldering wreck. The smoke began to drift away, and she could just make out a tall, masculine figure. Her eyes stinging, tears streamed down Juliet’s cheeks. She coughed to clear the toxic fumes from her throat.
“I’m so sorry. It was an accident,” she wheezed.
Her neighbour switched off his hose and kicked the charred frame of the fence out of the way to step through the newly created opening into Juliet’s garden.
“Are you all right?” He took hold of her shoulders and peered into her eyes. Juliet struggled to make the blurry outline of his face snap into focus as she continued to choke from the fumes.
“Inhaled a bit of smoke, but I’m fine.” She dashed a hand across her eyes to clear her vision.
He let go of her and patted his jacket pockets as if searching for something. Juliet blinked with surprise when he produced a stethoscope and slipped it around his neck.
“Smoke inhalation can be serious, you know.” He wrapped his fingers around her wrist and checked her pulse.
“Really, I’m fine. I’m a nurse, I know I’m okay.” She forced a weak smile in an attempt to reassure him. Now the flames had subsided and the air had cleared, her breathing pattern settled into something less ragged.
Apparently satisfied, her new neighbour released her hand.
His Darling Nurse
© Nell Dixon 2009
His Darling Nurse - celebration!
Hi, I'm Juliet Darling and Nell has asked me to stop by to welcome you all to the party to celebrate the release of His Darling Nurse. It's a bit of a pun really - the title I mean. Neil, Dr, Forrest, makes a joke about it as my surname is Darling. If you met Neil you wouldn't think he was the sort of man to make jokes. I didn't think he was when we first met, but then again, I had just burned down half his garden.
Anyway, Nell asked me to tell you that the celebrations will be on all week to let everyone in the different time zones drop in. She's going to give away some prizes of downloads of His Darling Nurse and also a few other little treats. Some other authors will be stopping by too so there'll be lots of excerpts and fun. All the comments will be put into a hat for prizes and Nell will draw different ones throughout the week, so don't just pass by be sure to say hello!
Love Juliet x
Juliet Darling needs a fresh start. With the end to her disastrous marriage, she hopes that moving to the village of Chandler’s Gate—where she landed a job as a practice nurse—will give her and her small son Charlie just such an opportunity. Her ex-husband, however, doesn’t plan on allowing them to escape his clutches quite so easily.
Dr. Neil Forrest finds his quiet and orderly life disrupted both at work, with the arrival of Juliet and her new ideas about what a practice nurse should do, and at home when the accident-prone Juliet and her son move in to the house next door. Neil has deep-rooted insecurities about life and relationships since the premature death of his wife. The loss has left him clinging to his precious routines in an attempt to protect himself from further pain.
It takes a very special little boy, an out of control barbecue and a terrible accident before Neil and Juliet can finally get together and Neil can make Juliet his very own darling nurse.
http://www.freyasbower.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=7&products_id=227
Monday, November 16, 2009
His Darling Nurse
Is released tomorrow and there'll be a party here to celebrate, so stop by for some excerpts and for some prizes. I'm incredibly nervous about this story - it's been ages since I had an e book release, if you don't count the e book and kindle versions of my Little Black Dress books. It's my first book for Freya's Bower and my first with a medical backdrop.
I really love this story though which is why I've fought to get it out there. Juliet and Neil are two very determined characters and Charlie Darling is a real cutie.
I really love this story though which is why I've fought to get it out there. Juliet and Neil are two very determined characters and Charlie Darling is a real cutie.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Overheards
I have a small collection of phrases and conversations that I've overheard and which make me smile. Today I added another great one.
"That woman is always at the doctors. I think he's so sick of her half the medicine he gives her are those gazebos"
I'm assuming she meant placebos but what a great image.
"That woman is always at the doctors. I think he's so sick of her half the medicine he gives her are those gazebos"
I'm assuming she meant placebos but what a great image.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Bloomin' heck!
I was on the WH Smith website looking for books for pressies and stumbled across this:
'Just Look at Me Now' Description
Tia's top beauty tip: apply heavy make-up carefully to prevent any cracks from showing...Life is fabulous for Tia Carpenter. She has it all, money, looks, a great job as the beauty expert at stylish Platinum magazine and, at last, the attention of her unrequited high school love, Josh Banks. But Tia has a secret -- back at school she was Barbara Baker, overweight, crooked teeth, frizzy hair and no fashion sense. Cosmetic dentistry, losing seven stones in weight and a complete makeover later, Tia has successfully erased her past life as Big Barb, tub of lard, until the day Juliet Gold, the bane of her teenage existence, arrives to work at the magazine. Juliet always got everything she ever wanted, and now she wants both Tia's job and Josh. Tia will have to use every makeover trick she's ever learned to stop Juliet from uncovering her past and stealing her man.
Out August 2010
Um, guess I'd really better get a spurt on then.
'Just Look at Me Now' Description
Tia's top beauty tip: apply heavy make-up carefully to prevent any cracks from showing...Life is fabulous for Tia Carpenter. She has it all, money, looks, a great job as the beauty expert at stylish Platinum magazine and, at last, the attention of her unrequited high school love, Josh Banks. But Tia has a secret -- back at school she was Barbara Baker, overweight, crooked teeth, frizzy hair and no fashion sense. Cosmetic dentistry, losing seven stones in weight and a complete makeover later, Tia has successfully erased her past life as Big Barb, tub of lard, until the day Juliet Gold, the bane of her teenage existence, arrives to work at the magazine. Juliet always got everything she ever wanted, and now she wants both Tia's job and Josh. Tia will have to use every makeover trick she's ever learned to stop Juliet from uncovering her past and stealing her man.
Out August 2010
Um, guess I'd really better get a spurt on then.
Rainy days
I went out in the rain last night to take the eldest belle and her friend to one of the local colleges for their open night. Mr Nell drove thank goodness while we attemped to avoid being swept away by the water torrenting down all around us. We got to the college and thankfully they had a carpark. Mr Nell went to park and I noticed the amount of surface water so he pulled to the edge of the car park where the ground was higher. By the time we got out of the car to walk across to the reception area the car park was a lake. The force of the water had lifted a manhole cover underneath a silver Vectra in the centre of the carpark and water was gushing up under it like a fountain! Quite an experience. Today everywhere is just soggy and debris from the trees is lying in heaps in the gutters. It looks as if we might be in for a wet and wild weekend.
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