How cold?

It registered at -5 this morning when I took the eldest belle to catch her train for college. I don't do cold, in fact for most of this week my brain and my fingers have been frozen. Not helpful when I'm incredibly busy both with the day job, my writing and with the belle's stuff.
Making Waves will be released a week tomorrow! Eek, this is the reprint from A Taste of Summer but I am so excited about it being back out there. Astraea Press Go Herelaunches tomorrow with it's first titles going on sale. If you like sensual romance that's firmly on the sweet side then head over there and check out the titles.
The finishing touches are being applied to another writing project I have cooking and there'll be an announcement about that in a couple of weeks. This is part of the putting the fun back into writing for 2011 project and is something I've been wanting to do more of for a while.
Somehow I'm working on three wips at the moment. Okay, so one is just a fuzzy fragment in the back of my head, One is going to be a novella and the other is a longer piece. I've lots of plans for this year. Now, if I could just find a few more hours in each day...

Making Waves

Out on February 8th from Astraea Press.

Washington Post Mensa Invitational

This came from a friend who knows my sense of humour.

The Washington Post's Mensa Invitational once again invited readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.

Here are the winners:

1. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time

2. Ignoranus : A person who's both stupid and an a**hole.
3. Intaxication : Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.

4. Reintarnation : Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

5. Bozone ( n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.

6. Foreploy : Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of having sex.

7. Giraffiti : Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

8 Sarchasm : The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.

9. Inoculatte : To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

10. Osteopornosis : A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)

11. Karmageddon : It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.

12. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.

13. Glibido : All talk and no action.

14. Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

15. Arachnoleptic Fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.

16 Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

17. Caterpallor ( n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.

The Washington Post has also published the winning submissions to its yearly contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words.

And the winners are:

1. Coffee, n.. The person upon whom one coughs.

2. Flabbergasted, adj. Appalled by discovering how much weight one has gained.

3. Abdicate, v. To give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.

4. esplanade, v. To attempt an explanation while drunk.

5 Willy-nilly, adj. Impotent.

6. Negligent, adj. Absentmindedly answering the door when wearing only a nightgown.

7. Lymph, v.. To walk with a lisp.

8. Gargoyle, n. Olive-flavored mouthwash.

9. Flatulence, n. Emergency vehicle that picks up someone who has been run over by a steamroller.

10. Balderdash, n. A rapidly receding hairline.

11. Testicle, n. A humorous question on an exam.

12. Rectitude, n. The formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.

13. Pokemon, n. A Rastafarian proctologist.

14. Oyster, n. A person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.

15. Frisbeetarianism, n. The belief that, after death, the soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.

Happy Birthday eldest belle

The eldest belle is 17 today - I am NOT old enough to have a child that age.

Zoom! Was that a week gone already?

Wow, last week went by fast! Eldest belle has her first lot of AS level exams this week - 7 exams - ouchie, it's her birthday tomorrow too. I am not old enough to have a daughter who has just sent for her provisional drivers license!
I wrote a staggering 8.5k in total last week on top of being out three nights with commitments and three and a half very hectic days at the day job. Writing short stories seeems to have uncorked my imagination. What I need now is more time to write down all the stuff thats whirling through my head. I'll probably do one or two more shorts this month and then start one of the novella's I have planned plus get going again on allotment wars.
I am loving my kindle - what I've found so far is that I am much more open to trying new genres and authors with it. So far this last week I read a YA - okay, a steamy historical - meh, an oldfashioned cosy detective - enjoyable, a Liz fielding - Fantastic!

Snow

It's snowing again. Eldest belle has gone to college, other two have gone to school, if this keeps up I can see me getting phone calls to go and collect them. Should be my day off today but I booked an appointment for the day job which looking at the weather I think I'll have to move.
Writing wise I'm off to a good start this year, I spent sometime once the worst of my flu was over sorting out some of the business side of my writing life. Still more to go but I feel really happy about the directions I'm taking this year. I finished revising 'An Uncivil War' and I wrote a 5k short story set in Venice which I'm actually quite pleased with. Again it's different from my other work, very romantic and wistful. I'm busy working on a few more short stories as it seems to be liberating my writing and firing me up again. I'm also working on a special fun project which you'll hear more about over the next few months. Then it will be back to writing Allotment Wars and hopefully a new short length novel too.

Happy New year

to all my friends. I hope this coming year will give you good health and happiness. I suspect my own new year will take me on new adventures, some sought and others which are totally unexpected. I always feel at this point in the calendar that old shades of the past seem closer than during the rest of the year but beyond the ghosts and the whispers there is the promise and sparkle of future magic yet to come that lies ahead.
I wish for all of you some of that magic in the coming year.

Merry Christmas

Wishing all my friends, readers and fellow writers a very happy Christmas and a peaceful and healthy New Year. I'm pleased to say I am feeling a bit better now so hopefully will be up to cooking Christmas dinner. However you celebrate the season, I hope yours is great.

Uncle Bulgaria?

I had two early prezzies this week in the form of my publisher telling me that Just Look at Me Now was going to be in large print, then today I heard that it's going to be translated into Bulgarian. Wow! how cool is that? Look out Bulgaria in Spring next year when it goes out with copies of Cosmopolitan magazine. So exciting - and a little tinsy bit strange but in a good way.

Dear Simon Cowell,

Whilst not doubting your knowledge of the music industry, TV and light entertainment I am however concerned re your rather hazy grasp on geography. I would like to point out that Cher is from Malvern - not Birmingham. You, and One Direction did a gig in Wolverhampton - not Birmingham. Oh, and Merry Hill is not in - guess where? - Birmingham.
I realise it is difficult to keep track of ones location whilst jetting across the Atlantic and you probably share the view of many people from the South of the UK that anything past Oxford is occupied by Wolves, Bears and Mancunians. However it is rude and disrespectful to the people who turned out in the freezing temperatures, who made you welcome and supported you and your act to keep getting the name of the place you visited WRONG.
In fact, whilst I'm here I would like to point out to Best buys - who are American so could be forgiven for not checking a map, and to Heart radio, to the BBC news team and indeed to anyone else who might wish to know - The Merry Hill shopping Centre is not in Birmingham.
It is in Dudley - in the Black Country. Birmingham is the city about twelve miles away.

Time to put up the tree

The belle's are clearing up their stuff from the lounge so we can put up our Christmas tree. This is a pic from last year and as you can see it's so very stylish, colour coordinated and small - not!

It's LBD week at Chick Lit Reviews

Check out an interview with me and a fab giveaway for UK readers!Here

Early pressie!

Which book do you think this might be in German?? Isn't it totally fab?

Brrr

Getting home from the day job yesterday took almost two hours so I played safe today and came home at lunchtime armed with a huge stack of work that I could manage at home. So glad I did. I returned to find we had a problem with the plumbing in the drain on the drive which needed urgent attention and then the snow just kept on falling! Wombourne Writers is cancelled for tonight - our guest speaker Dr Bob Bibby has rescheduled for February and Miss Boo's theatre reheasal has been cancelled too and rearranged for a longer session on Sunday. At least that means I don't have to go out again.
Can't quite believe it's the first day of December today! I've so much to do and no time to do it both in my day job, my writing and in my Christmas preparations. Where is that cloning machine when you need it?

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!