Party 3

This was a picture that resonated with my picture of what Zee looked like.
Here's an excerpt to whet your appetite - This is the scene where Zee meets Drew again for the first time.
The wind-chimes overhead sang out as the shop door opened behind me.
“Hi, Zee, I see you made it back.”
Even before Drew spoke, I’d known it was him. Some primitive sense deep in my psyche had recognised he was near me. Hell, five minutes in my mother’s shop and I was already thinking like her.
“Drew.” Annoyingly, his name squeaked out of my mouth as I turned round to face him.
My heart skipped a beat. He hadn’t changed, though his shoulders were broader and the tanned muscles of his arms indicated a life spent working outdoors. He was still unmistakeably Drew, from the faded tan tee-shirt stretched taut across his chest to the well-worn snug-fitting denim jeans. The crinkles at the corners of his eyes were deeper, as were the smile lines around his mouth. My mouth dried at the note of challenge in the dark green depths of his gaze.
“You look good, Zee.”
I fought the urge to toss my hair back in a flirty flick. I’d taken a little extra care with my clothes this morning, choosing fitted navy capri trousers and a pretty blue strappy top. I didn’t want to examine my motives for this, nor for doing my make-up so carefully. “Thanks. You still have your hair.”
Where had that come from? Probably some subconscious wish that he might have gone bald in the last nine years so that I wouldn’t find him attractive any more.
He raked his hand through his dark gold mop of hair, a slightly puzzled frown on his face.
“Yep, it was still there this morning when I showered.” A glint of mischief appeared in his eyes.
My pulse picked up just as I heard a soft and disapproving “tsk” noise from Katya; she probably had a major crush on Drew. That could mean that he spent a lot of time around here, maybe too much for me to feel comfortable.
“Well, you know, people’s appearances change. It’s been a long time.” I tried to ignore the heat creeping into my cheeks.
(C) Nell Dixon 2010

Pahty on

I'll draw the names tomorrow for prizes so please keep commenting and enjoy the fun. Here are some of my research pictures that I took of Brixham that helped jog my memory when I tried to recall certain places in the book.



This is the Sprat and Mackerel pub where there's a scene with Drew, Zee and Katya.

This was one of the atmospheric shots to capture the feel of the place when Zee is out jogging or walking down to the Crystal Palace in Fore Street.

The street where I placed Marla's cottage, high above the town so there's a view of the harbour

Happy Birthday to Me!

And the 'official' launch of Crystal Clear!
I have a lovely day planned today - lunch with some of my favourite people, Phillipa Ashley, Elizabeth Hanbury and the lovely Lizzie Lamb who is coming from miles away!!! Plus of course this cyber party for all my online friends who couldn't have made it to a real life launch.
To kick us off here's the blurb from Crystal Clear:
Crystal Clear by Nell Dixon
Fall in love with this sparkling story of crystals, chaos and re-kindled romance!

For years Zee has tried to ignore her real name (who calls their kid Azure Dawn?) and her mother Marla’s alternative lifestyle. A million miles away from all that new-age nonsense, she’s got a reliable teaching job, a perfect life plan and sensible accountant Simon for a fiancé. But when Marla gets sick, the foundations of Zee’s rock-steady world are seriously shaken. Soon she’s back home, in touch with the boy who broke her heart and even being sucked into one of her mum’s hare-brained schemes. What about Zee’s plans for the future? Could they ever include a free-spirit from her past?

‘A brilliantly fun read that will have you hooked!*****’ (OK! magazine )
When I write my books I create playlists of songs which pick up different parts of the story and help me get the right mood. Over the course of the story one sone more than any other becomes - for me - the one that sums up the feel of the book.
Here's the playlist for Crystal Clear:
Radio Nowhere - Bruce Springsteen
Turn it up - The Feeling
I love it when you call - The Feeling
Waiting on a sunny day - Bruce Springsteen
All Summer Long - Kid Rock
Photograph - Nickelback
What I go To School For - Busted.
No prizes for guessing that last track was for the last part of the story. One song though became the one which for me is Crystal Clear and that track is Bruce Springsteen - Girl's in their summer clothes. Listen Here
Everyone posting throughout today will be entered for door prize draws and I'll be pulling some names out to win signed print copies of Crystal Clear!
So, until I get back from lunch - tell me what music for you sum up which books - obviously Wuthering Heights can only be Kate Bush - Remember I've got goodies waiting!!!

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?

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

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

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.

Get ready!

Cyber party here tomorrow for everyone who missed out on the Waterstones signing. I have a few goodies from Little Black Dress and a host of other stuff so stop by and join in the fun.

Hot

It's really warm here again and my feet have suddenly ballooned to look like what my youngest says resemble 'two puffy penguins'. I'm trying to get the between book writing/editing house cleaning done but it's so warm it's difficult to keep going. I typed up an old short story that I had in longhand this weekend. Not sure what I'll do with it, it's a bit of an odd tale.
I also sent out my newsletter so if you're one of my subscribers it should be in your inbox. I hold subscriber exclusive contests so if you aren't a subscriber and you want to join in - go to my website and sign up then email me and I'll send you a copy of the Spring newsletter.
I'm also trying to finalise my launch party details for Blue Remembered Heels - exciting stuff!