No snow show

Well, there was a tiny dusting of snow overnight, but only enough to resemble a very heavy frost. The forecast predictions seem to show it passing all around us but not on us. I guess we'll have to wait and see if it moves further into the midlands. It's flipping cold here though. The fluffy socks are out and the belles have ransacked the coat cupboard to dig out scarves and gloves. Everything suddenly feels very wintery and Christmassy.

Crystal Clear in large print

I have the most gorgeous new cover for the large print edition of Crystal Clear!

What happened in London - part 2!

We made to the party fashionably late thanks to the cab crisis so by then it was jammed with people. I mean literally jammed. It took us five minutes to locate the lovely Jan Jones and Roger Sanderson so we could sign in and collect our name tags and a rosette. This party was the final one for the clebration of fifty years of the Romantic Novelists Assoc. All those of us who had joined the association as unpublished writers, and had gone on through the wonderful NWS scheme to achieve publication become eligible for the Joan Hessayon award. In my year I think there were about 12 of us and the fabulous Fiona Harper was the winner. Winners of the award had very sparkly rosettes so Phillipa looked very glittery. We posed for pictures on the stairs which you can see over atJan Jones blog I'm at the back on the big group one and waving my hands around talking to my friend, Brigid Coady on another one. The evening whizzed past far too quickly and I missed talking to lots of people. People I did get to chat with included Cat Cobain, she bought my first LBD book, Blue Remembered Heels and I always enjoy talking with her as she is great fun and very wise. My fabby LBD editor, Claire, so excited to see her, Broo - who is Phillipa's agent, looking lovely as always. I met up with Sandra Forder, my good friend who I informally critique for and the ever glamerous Liz Fenwick, Cara Cooper, Catherine King, Diane Pearson, Lorelei Matthews, Lizzie Lamb and a whole host of other people.
The volume as ever was deafening so I struggled a bit to hear what people were saying and I was glad I'd left my walking stick at home as I probably would have legged someone over with it in the crowd. The drink flowed and the canapes were delicious especially after I accidently discovered the best spot in the room to stand to get offered them first - yum!
It was a fabulous party and Vik, Phillipa and I were buzzing as we left, like good little Cinderella's, a bit early to taxi across to the station and our ride home.

What happened in London

Vik, a friend from Wombourne writers, and I set off for Euston in time to meet my cp, Kimberley for lunch. Kim is an American, living in Italy and although we've been working together for a while now we'd never met. This is a special week though as her wonderful debut novel, Ask Me If I'm Happy was released from Diiarts press and she was over for the launch.
We met up at Euston and set off in a cab for John Lewis where we'd arranged to meet Phillipa Ashley, one of the coffee crew authors. Lunch lasted three hours that just zipped by in a flash. Kim is every bit a beautiful in real life as she is in her emails and we had a blast.
Once Kim had left to dash off to a literary event at Oxford, Vik, Phillipa and I went girly window shopping around the beauty department. Somehow we ended up in House of Fraser where the wonderful Laura, who was brilliant, gave us all a make-over with her gorgeous mineral make-up. (That is so going on my Christmas wish list).
Smelling delicious and immaculately made-up, Phillipa sprinted off for a meeting with her agent whilst Vik and I went in search of a cab to take us to Waterstones in Piccadily where we had been invited to a Tweet-up with Jane Holland, Talli Roland, Kate Nash, Jenny Bardon and Barbara Alderton. We were at the taxi rank when one of the cycle rickshaw cabs pulled in. So, we took our life in our hands and were pedalled away down Oxford Streets dodging in between the buses and admiring the posh shops and Christmas lights all the way to Piccadily.
We met up with the rest in time to celebrate Jane Holland's birthday which was made even better by a phone call from her agent telling her she had just landed a three book deal for her historical novels!
By the time we'd celebrated we were running late for the RNA winter party. We managed to grab one cab and half our party set off in that. Vik, Talli and I tried to find another cab. With time ticking on and no luck, Talli suggested we walk down to the Ritz as there were sure to be cabs there. Using her charm Talli then persuaded the wonderfully helpful doorman complete with his frock coat and top hat to stand out in the traffic and flag us down a taxi, so we were escorted into our vehicle in style.
After that came the RNA party and I'll blog about that tomorrow!

RNA Winter Party

I'm off to London with fellow writer Vik Moriarty and we're meeting Kimberley Menozzi, my cp and author of Ask Me If I'm Happy (out this week, Diiarts Press) and Phillipa Ashley, author of Dating Mr December (out now with Source books) for lunch. Then after a spot of shopping we're off to the RNA winter party and I know loads of my friends are going to be there so it'll be fab to catch up.

Ch ch changes...

Channelling a bit of Bowie. I'm being a busy bee at the moment making all kinds of changes to all kinds of things writing and non writing wise. You'll be seeing some new things hopefully on my website over the next few months and I'll be blogging about some of the things I have planned soon. I know, I'm such a tease!
First up though is to remind those of you who like large print that Crystal Clear will be released in LP format on December 1st. As soon as I see the cover i'll post it here for you!

Friday

The weather yesterday was really wild and I'm surprised there wasn't more damage when I drove eldest belle to catch her train to college this morning. I must admit I quite like lying in bed late at night and listening to the wind howling around the chimney. I always feel very snug especially if i have a good book to read.
Next weeks calendar is mad. I seem to be horrendously busy for the whole week including a trip to London on Wednesday to meet my cp, Kimberley Mennozi as her fabulous book, Ask Me If I'm Happy, releases this week from Diiart press. I'm travelling down with a friend from Wombourne writers and we're meeting Kim for lunch. Then later it's the RNA winter party. Very glam and exciting - well, the party will be, I'll probably be windswept and achey from schlepping around London all day but I'm so excited! It'll make a change from my usual outings which tend to be just to drop the belles off at various places.
Friday is my middle belle's birthday - she'll be 14. How did that happen? What happened to my cute little baby girl who cut her baby sisters hair when she was playing hairdressers? She used to say she wanted to be a ballerina hairdresser when she was small. Then her dream job was to work for Disney as Cinderella in the Disney parades, singing and dancing down Main Street. Maybe she hasn't changed too much after all.

Proud Mama moment

Congratulations to my lovely and talented middle daughter on being cast in her first stage play with Wolverhampton City Youth Theatre as the Envy Snake in their upcoming production of The Ashgirl in December!

Catching my breath

I'm sorry, I know I've not posted for a while. I had one day between getting home from holiday before I had to sprint off to Oxford for a course for two days. We had a fab week away, we did some Christmas shopping at Clacton shopping village and at the designer outlet village near Stansted. We went metal detecting on the beach at Walton-on-the-Naze. We played bingo on Clacton pier with the caller dressed as a monk. We climbed to the top of the tower at Orford and walked around the walls of Framlingham Castle. We went swimming in the pool at the caravan site (indoor). We visited Frinton and went bird watching from the sea walls at Point Clear. We played scrabble, did jigsaws and laughed a lot.
In short we had a great time. What do you like doing best on holiday, and where is your ideal spot?

Off we go

This will be my accomodation for the next week, our lovely caravan. Planning all kinds of nice things whilst we're away. The house/fish sitters will be taking care of things whilst were gone. When I get back it will all go a bit mad again. I have a two day course at Oxford UNI on evaluating qualitative research, the belles have dance exams, sports tournaments and a play to rehearse. Most importantly though I'm going to be meeting Kim, my cp for the first time on November 17th in London! Squee. Her wonderful book, Ask me If I'm Happy is releasing from Diiarts press that week and I'm going to the RNA winter party - extra squee!

Sunny Sunday

One week to go to my holiday - I'm looking forward to it so much. This October we're going back to one of our fave places that we haven't visited for a few years - St Osyth on the Essex coast. We plan to get our Christmas shopping organised at the shopping village and in Colchester. To visit Frinton on sea and walk along the sea front at Clacton, go on the pier, eat lots of sea food (well I do) and generally chill out for a week before we come back to the hurly burly of dance exams, show rehearsals, school events, tons of work stuff and just life generally. I'm hoping this lovely sunny weather keeps up while we're away

Feeling silly

I'm not sure where this came from but it seemed to sum up my day.

Errands

I took yesterday as a writing day - I'm on chapter six now and loving my new story. That means today is errand day - sigh. Visit to the bank which I hate with a passion was much improved by the discovery of one of my fab former Asda colleagues working there. Then to get a few ingredients for tonights casserole. Bought my new little purse diary for next year so I need to fill that out. These are fab - I've been buying them ever since I was a student nurse - they cost 50p from Clinton cards, open out to a month on view at a time with a box for each day just big enough to make a note and are small enough and flat enough to slip in the side of a purse, or when I was on the wards, into my uniform pocket.
Now to renew my RAC subscription - I'm supposed to get this free with my bank account but I'd hate to put it to the test. Finally I'm back doing my Flylady routines which I'd let slip this year and have missed so much. If you don't know about Flylady check out her website - great for busy people - her Christmas planner is ace.

Pleasant Valley Sunday

I appologise for the lack of blogging lately. Life has been even more hectic than usual so I've been a bit remiss in my efforts to bore you all rigid with the mundane trivia of my daily life.
This weekend I've barely been in the house, by the time I'd dropped the middle belle at dance class, scooted round and done the grocery shop, picked her back up, dropped her and the shopping off at home, collected the other two belles for a dentist visit - eldest for a tiny filling, youngest to have three milk teeth removed, dropped eldest off at cinema to meet her friends, gone home, helped a friend of mine complete a mountain of dss forms for her daughter, then gone and collected eldest belle, Saturday had vanished.
Then today, I needed to get the laundry on, visit my parents, come back to hang out laundry, take middle belle to theatre group, come home and grab coffee, then go back to collect middle belle then cook Sunday dinner, my Sunday will have disappeared too.
Somewhere in the midst of all this I really want to finish the chapter I'm working on, and I suppose I opught to attempt to clean the house.
How was your weekend?

X Factor?

I don't watch much TV but as you know I do love me a crappy reality show. Well, watching X Factor last night I certainly got the crappy part. Cheryl Cole was clearly much iller with her malaria than we were led to believe. The poor girl was still so affected by it she managed to take through the only two singers in her category who couldn't sing. Katie 'I think I'm Madonna's love child' and half girl, half old lady, Cher.
Gamu who most of the population of the UK had marked as their winner of the series didn't go through. Simon picked his made up groups on the grounds that they looked better than the groups who had bothered to work hard, rehearse and could actually sing. Dani chose an italian bloke with an ego to rival Katie whats her face and poor Louie has Tesco Mary, a bloke in a hat and Storm Drain. The best thing all weekend was the return of Sharon Osbourne.However there are now rumours of a judges wild card pick next week. Pah! I won't be bothering to watch.
The one bright spot on the horizon is that next week Harry Hill is back!!!

Writing into the mist

It's been ages since I wrote a post purely about my writing. I've recently started a new ms. At the moment it's called allotment wars but I have a sneaking suspicion that may turn out to be another book entirely. This is very much an into the mists book. I have no plan - I never have much of a plan, but for this one I haven't even done a rough blurb or outline. So far I have three chapters which I really like - they are still lacking the details to make them sharp but as regular readers here know that's something I do in my edit stages. Chloe, my heroine, is a radio reporter - she gets to go out and record interviews at the local baby show, meet the grower of the biggest leek and at the start of the ms she's about to abseil down the walls of a castle. Except, Chloe hates heights and has misguidely taken too many of her friend Shelly's tranquillisers in a bid to calm her fears.
So, that's what I'm working on - for the writers amongst you, what scene have you just written? And, for the readers, what scene have you recently read that's stayed in your memory?

Monday moaning

Either it's the damp miserable weather or I really am turning into a grumpy old woman. Random irritations on a wet morning:
False eyelashes - I mean really, why do you think anyone would glue something that looks like two spidery toupees for a bald man to their face to go and work in a bank? Most disconcerting for the customer on the other side of the counter especially when coupled with orange fake tan and the false nails.
Queues - everytime - Dear Halifax - you need more staff and why do the machines never, ever work?
Drivers with no lights - You are in a black car, it's dark, it's raining, please put your lights on.
TV in the bank - Dear Lloyds, I don't want to watch the Labour party conference whilst in your queue. I shouldn't be there long enough to watch TV. And I don't care who won the leadership contest - the ship is sinking I don't care who is on deck. (Disclaimer, in the interests of equality there are other political parties, and no, I don't want to watch them either)
Heart radio - For the love of Mike please change the playlist - I can only stand so much Lady Gaga, Michael Buble and Alicia 'New York' Keyes before I lose the will to live.
What minor stuff is irritating you at the moment?

Peaceful Sundays

I hope everyone is having a peaceful day. Mine is rather noisy. My neighbours have some people in to relay their patio. Unfortunately my office is at the back of the house so inevitably I have the merry sound of the grinder, the slab cutter, tuneless whistling and football commentary coming from their radio.
I really hope they finish it today. I can't concentrate when there's extraneous outside noise. I've been trying to drown them out by compiling my playlist for the new ms in progress. So far I've got:
Sweet about me - Gabriella Cilimi
Radio Nowhere - Bruce springsteen
It must be Love - Madness
Viva La Vida - Coldplay
Upside Down - Paloma Faith
Gotta be somebody - Nickelback
Only the good die young - Billy Joel
What about Love - Heart

Whatya reading?

I've been on a bit of a reading spree lately, some nice M&B's by Penny Jordan and Roger Sanderson. The Beach hut by Veronica Henry, A selection of short stories by Maeve Binchy, a nice group of historical short stories by Elizabeth Hanbury. Next up is a debbie Macomber followed by a real treasure - I managed to get one of the forerunner series by Andre Norton for my collection - and it was one I haven't read before! I'm also waiting for Amazon to bring me the new Jenny Crusie book.
How about you? What are you reading? Any good recomends?
Ps I like happy endings, no horror or misery lit, don't care for vampires werewolves or stuff like thet.

Just Look at Me Now

This afternoon I turned on the computer and found a review which actually made me cry. Happy tears, not upset ones. I always value the reviews from SingleTitles.com as Julie is a thoughtful and experienced reviewer. I'd been worried about this book as it was in third person rather than first person and is probably the most chick-litty and tongue in cheek of all my books.
Julie gave it 5 stars and said: 'I polished off Nell Dixon’s irresistible new novel in a single sitting! Fabulously readable, highly engaging and immensely enjoyable, I was hooked from the very first page and didn’t stop reading until I reached the satisfying conclusion!'
Then she added the bit that made me cry:
'With a wonderful heroine, a drop dead gorgeous hero, an enchanting cast of supporting characters, laugh out loud comedy, moving pathos and non-stop action, Just Look at Me Now is another winner from an outstanding storyteller who always leaves her readers with big smiles on their faces, eagerly awaiting the next rip-roaring romantic comedy from her very talented pen!'
I owe a huge debt on this book to Charlotte Maclain from Romance Diva's who gave me a wonderful insight into the world of magazines and also an even huger one to my CP, Kimberley Menozzi who has her own fabulous women's fiction book, 'Ask Me If I'm Happy', coming out in November from Diiarts books.
You can read the rest of Julie's review HERE