Germany

No, this isn't about the world cup. Blue Remembered Heels - the German translation is now released and already I have a lovely review on the Amazon Deutsch site. My middle belle, Miss boo, is also off to Germany in just over a weeks time. She's going to be staying in the area where I stayed when i went with my school when i was her age. She's really looking forward to it and i know she'll have a fabulous time.
Thanks to those of you who emailed to tell me things you especially wanted to know about using secondary characters. It was good to know I'd covered the pointers in my preparations. I'm really looking forward to the conference now and seeing everyone. There are some great workshops listed and I always come back feeling really inspired.

Any Spanish readers?

I have several very beautiful copies of Blue Remembered Heels in Spanish. It's the most gorgeous softback book and looks fantastic. If anyone out there would like a copy please give me a shout and I'll see what I can do.

Blue Remembered Heels - in Spanish!

Cute!

Animal Instincts got reviewed!

I almost never get reviewed so this is exciting - well it is for me! And happily the reviewer loved it READ IT HERE The lovely Debs from Novelicious gave it a big thumbs up! I also found a review on there for Blue Remembered Heels that I didn't know about either! Squee!!!!

Viva Espania

Hot on the Blue heels of the Indonesian version of Blue Remembered heels I found out yesterday that there will be a Spanish version too - out in just a few weeks. Sigh, the downside to this is that they may be putting a picture of me somewhere on the cover and as you know there is not a proper authorly picture of me in existence. mr Nell thinks this is quite funny and keeps quoting lines from 'Romancing the Stone' where the romance novelist Joan Wilder get's recognised.
Someone tell him he's not funny.

Excerpts

The unedited first chapter of Just Look at Me Now is up on my website and since Blue Remembered Heels came out in Indonesia I seem to be getting a lot of Indonesian visitors which is lovely. I'm sure though that one of my lovely visitors said it was on the young adult fiction list there. Interesting... I can see how that might work as two of the characters in it are quite young and it is a sweet romance so won't shock anyone. Just Look at Me Now on the other hand does have one scene which is probably the steamiest I've written for years. Hmmm.
My newsletter will be going out in a couple of weeks time and I'm planning some extra giveaways for subscribers so if you aren't already on the mailing list then hop over to my website (link in the sidebar) and add yourself. I mail out four times a year - no spam.

Lies have pretty legs

Well, thats what Babelfish has said the translation is of Blue Remembered Heels in German! The cover popped up today on Amazon and it says it'll be out in Germany in July next year. The cover is lovely but the shoes are red?

Lichfield lunch

Today was lovely, I've been working very hard over the weekend - massive edits on Charlie Darling and then I wrote almost 3k yesterday on the next book for LBD, so today was my reward. I went to Lichfield for lunch with two of my favourite writerly people - Phillipa Ashley and Elizabeth Hanbury. As usual we talked booky and writing non stop - toured the beautiful cathedral, drank lots of latte and ate cake. I also bought a very lovely scarf for my upcoming trip to London in November for a launch party and meeting with my agents. To top of my excellent day out I came back to an email saying that Blue Remembered Heels had sold to Indonesia. Very exciting to have foreign translations!

Exciting stuff!

I just learned that the large print edition of Blue Remembered Heels will be out on the first of October. I need to remind all my lovely librarian friends at the local libraries who've been waiting to acquire it for their shelves. I think my mom will be first in the queue to reserve a copy so she can finally read it. Animal Instincts will be out in large print on the first of April next year so not too long for that either! Also, in my quest to find you all a bargain, the lovely people at the book depositary who not only have free delivery anywhere in the world also have Loves Me, Loves Me Not at a steal of a price - much, much cheaper than Amazon!HERE So if you haven't got your copy yet and the copies for your friends, relatives, work colleagues etc for Christmas, Halloween, birthdays etc - rush on over and bag a bargain.

Nice warm glow

A few years ago I stumbled into the strange surreal world of the Bat Cave over at eHarlequin. The friends I made there will hate me for saying this but they are the most generous, warm, supportive group of people. Through them I heard about Moonlit Romance and one of the bats was also my editor. Without Laura and her unstinting patience through the many rewrites and edits of my first book I would never have been published. Not only is she a superb editor she is also a gifted writer herself and she's one of the people, along with Jess, Kimberly and my editor and agent, who's opinion of my writing I really trust. So I was especially thrilled when This appeared, as I know even though she's my friend she wouldn't say it if she didn't mean it.

X Factor yay

So it's down to Alexandra, Hedgehog and the Wiggles for the final. Diana has gone. I'd like Alexandra or JLS to win as I think Hedgehog will have a career anyway. Plus time is on his side.
I got up this morning to some lovely emails and comments from readers who'd read Blue Remembered Heels. It still stuns me when people say they've enjoyed one of my books and I so appreciate hearing from people.
I have the next chapter of Crystal Clear ready in my head and I want to go over the first third of my project book. However, my eldest belle has lost her voice - much to the delight of her sisters and my house is still not clean/tidy enough for us to even begin getting ready for Christmas. In my defense, cleaning and tidying my house is like the painting of the Forth Bridge. I'm sure I'll get there, it just may be Christmas 2009 instead of this year.

Strange day

Today was one of those odd days. I've felt really exhausted all day and there have been some lovely things like this wonderful review of Blue Remembered Heels HERE and some really depressing news from the publishing world that affects people I'm very fond of and have enormous respect for.
I had a lovely email from a reader about Blue Remembered Heels today too so I suppose the good things outweigh the bad and I've always been a cup half full person.

Coolness!

WH Smiths in Shrewsbury! And no I didn't have to adjust the display - Blue Remembered Heels was already placed like that with a wonderful collection of Little Black Dress books.
I'm next to Nora Roberts!!!
Twenty three thousand words in now on Crystal Clear - I already know I'll need to do my usual trick of going back over and over again to layer in things and tweak them about but it's starting to really spring to life now.
Working on my other project too and that's coming along nicely.

Did ya miss me?

Home! Huge mountain of laundry as usual and tons of stuff to do to get the belles ready for school on Tuesday and Wednesday - yes, they go back on different days and at different times - sigh.
But first, back to my fabulous review at Singletitles.com HERE Here's what Julie had to say 'Jill Mansell meets Nora Roberts in this terrific debut novel by Nell Dixon! Hilarious, funny, feel-good and with an intense emotional edge that will tug at your heartstrings, Blue Remembered Heels heralds the start of an exciting career for a smashing new voice in romantic fiction: Nell Dixon!

Witty, romantic and utterly compelling, Blue Remembered Heels is one of this summer’s must-read books!'
Wow! La Nora and Jill Mansell all in one sentence - squee!!!

I managed to do loads of research during my holiday but no writing (my laptop was hijacked by the belles) so my brain is bubbling now to get the words down on paper. No bill yet from the Inland revenue for my taxes - hope that comes soon so I know if i've worked everything out correctly and I can pay it and see what i've got left in the overdraft. I also need to speak to my lovely agent as we need to work out what I'm doing next. All exciting stuff!

And today

I'm posting from the Apple store in Exeter! So this is just a quick catch up. Thanks to the lovely Julie at Singletitles.com for a wonderful review for Blue Remembered heels. I promise once I'm home late on Friday i'll put up proper links. But for now it's back to the shopping and hoping my plastic card doesn't melt under the strain.

Warm fuzzy hugs and thanks

In lots of ways this has been a really nice week. Thanks to the lovely Judy Jarvie who mailed me a surprise package of gorgeous soap and candles. Big hugs to my good friend Olivia Gates for a copy of her latest Desire book - go buy it, it's goooood!
Thanks to a Liz, I don't know if it's a Liz I know or a random stranger who posted a five star review for Blue Remembered Heels on Amazon - mwah! whoever you are, it was so lovely, I often get nice private notes on my books but people are shy of putting them on sites. Thanks to my fellow authors, they know who they are, who sent me lovely notes saying how much they loved Blue Remembered Heels too and as they write in very different fields to me and as I admire and respect their work hugely, this was a massive compliment. Thanks to This Lady for her lovely, lovely comments and finally to Joanna D'Angelo for doing this!
I'm basking in the glow at the moment in the hopes that those hateful black crows of doubt will keep away while I write some more of Crystal Clear.

Thank you!

Hi, I'm Charlie, Abbeys sister and Nell asked me to stop by and say thank you to everyone who came along yesterday to help celebrate the release of Blue Remembered Heels. Abbey would have come back herself but she's too busy these days snogging the face off that policeman who kept following her around.
I mean, I'm only here because my fiance, Phillipe, (he's a footballer)has a pre season meeting with his agent. Not that I don't want to be here of course, I'm just saying - that's all. It was a good excuse to get dressed up.
Anyway, winners - ahem, Nell decided there were so many great confessions she'd give away two signed copies of Blue Remembered Heels so Terra 57 - the potty story and Judy Jarvie - the polo mint accident you win.
Door prizes of a selection of goodies goes to Janice and Ellen.
Nell says can you email your addresses to helen@ nell dixon.com (without the spaces) and she'll get them in the post.
I wanted a door prize, there are some really cute nail files and notepads and stuff - I like stuff
Well, thanks for coming, hope you enjoy the book.
love Charlie Gifford xx

Blue Remembered Heels Party

Hi, I'm Abbey Gifford and Nell asked me to be here to tell you all about Blue Remembered Heels. It feels a bit awkward if I'm honest - oh wait - I have no choice but be honest do I? Ever since that lightning bolt hit me I've only been able to tell the truth.
I still haven't figured out what happened with the whole lightning thing. I mean I wasn't out in a storm, or under a tree, or in the middle of a golf course when I got hit. I was standing on the pavement outside Debenhams looking at this really nice top in the window. There was a few rumbles like when your stomach growls really loudly and then wham! Next thing I knew this old smelly bloke was slobbering over me while I lay flat on my back feeling like I'd spilled boiling water all down the side of my neck. I remember people staring at me and the paramedics but then nothing. I woke up in hospital with Charlie and Kip, that's my brother and sister sitting next to me and a nurse calling me Henrietta.
oops, I got a bit sidetracked there, this is supposed to be a party. Nell said she has some cool door prizes and she'll pick a few people from the comments for those. She's also giving away a signed copy of Blue Remembered Heels for the person who confesses to the weirdest/funniest thing that ever happened to them. Personally, I think being hit by lightning is going to be hard to beat but Nell said I wasn't eligible because I'm a fictional character. She can be such a drag. She got stuck on a rope suspension bridge once on an army assault course and had to be rescued by this army cadet instructor - she doesn't like heights apparantly.
So come on in, leave a comment and tell me and Nell what happened to you.
Oh, and Nell said Blue Remembered Heels is available from Amazon and most good book stores - visit HERE and click on the new releases tab to read an extract.

Today at Waterstones

Top pic - Phillipa Ashley - whose book 'Just say Yes' is out soon, me and my good friend Faith, who Blue Remembered Heels is dedicated too - Heck, this poor girl shared an office with me for over nine years and is still relatively sane.
Allison - brilliant historical writer and my coffee buddy!
Me - trying to look authorly.
Special thanks to all the staff at Waterstones, Merry Hill, Josie, Jo and Emma who were so lovely and organised and totally fab!
Hugs and thanks to everyone who came along today - you all rock!!

Don't forget cyber party here on Monday!

It's out!

Blue Remembered Heels is officially out today! Thank you to those of you who've read it and sent me such lovely comments. I have more interviews out, over at singletitles.com with the lovely Julie and at myfavouriteauthor with Phoebe. You can also ask questions and find out a lot about the background to my writing at Jessica Hart's blog and you have till the weekend to post a comment over at Liz Fielding's blog to be in with the chance to win a signed copy. Blog party here on Monday and anyone remotely near Waterstones at Merry Hill on Saturday 12 til 2 is more than welcome to come and keep me company!