We're off again.

To the borders this time. We're going to be staying at one of my favourite places, Chirk. The site is next to Chirk Castle and it's a beautiful part of the world. I'm not sure if I'll be able to access the net while I'm away so the Friday Fun post might be a bit late going up this week.
I'm glad so many people seem to be enjoying reading snippets about my area. I've had some really lovely emails from all over the place with people telling me about their memories and stays in the Black Country.
I had a lovely surprise this morning too with another fantastic review for A Taste of Summer. This time from Fallen Angel Reviews.
HERE
Five angels!

The reviewer said - Making Waves by Nell Dixon is a most wonderful read. The emotions of the characters really stand out pulling the reader into the storyline. Josh and Cassidy are compassionate and warm who have had bad relationships in the past. The reader shares their sorrows and the way they wish to break any barriers that keep them from finding real love. Ms. Dixon creates a beautifully told read that spins the heart with love in a terrific summer romance that is sweet, romantic and awe-inspiring, don’t miss this one.

And about both stories she said - A Taste of Summer is a pleasant read by two gifted authors that know how to weave a believable story with genuine characters that are hard to forget.

A Taste of Summer is releasing on Fictionwise tomorrow along with the other two books in the set. A Hint of Summer and A Slice of Summer. All three books have wonderful reviews from different sites, so if you want a light, fun read for the beach or by the pool then pick up a copy. I promise you won't be disappointed.

I also had the pleasure on Thursday night of meeting Margaret Calloghan who is the author of the upcoming September release for Moonlit Romance. Marg discovered she wasn't living too far from me so she popped round for a glass of wine and a natter. Her website is under construction but look out for her book in September.

Friday Fun 5

My village of Gornal is famous for two main things. The villages are Upper Gornal, Lower Gornal and Gornal Wood. Gornal men used to be highly sought after by architects as they were skilled bricklayers and the area locally is the home to several brickmakers. The ground around here is very rich in clay and evidence of quarrying can still be readily seen today.
For todays class I thought I'd teach you all a saying or two.

E gid him a right cog-haiver - He hit him with a good punch.
Yow'm like a bibble in a can. - You never shut up.
That wo get the babby a new bonnet - You're not earning enough.

PS The first person to post in the comments the second thing that Gornal is famous for gets a prize!

Oh so quiet...

The belles finally left for Wales with their grandparents, so it's just me and Mr Nell at home. No Disney channel, no phone calls that aren't for us, food remains in the fridge and there are still biscuits in the tin. It's awful and I hate it.
To celebrate the wild excitement of being childfree Mr Nell and I went out for tea. Then he went to work - he works nights - and I was all alone.
And what did I do to celebrate this unique opportunity of me time? Did I play my music, take a long bath, write? Did I heck.
I washed my cutglass vases and paired socks.
When I did I get so boring?

Still, when I woke up this morning after Mr Nell had come home I found a lovely bunch of flowers in the kitchen sink for me to put in one of my newly washed vases.

Moonlit Romance beach party!

Jessica and I got another great review for A Taste of Summer!

Romance Reviewed

Come to the party!

We’re at the beach. It’s summer, the sun is shining, we have cool drinks and hot surfers. Best of all it’s in cyber space so no sand to make your picnic gritty.
Where’s it at?
http://www.moonlitromance.com and join the readers loop by following the link.

When is it on?
8am til 8pm central on MONDAY JULY 23rd

What can you win?
Great books and one very lucky winner will get the most gorgeous half moon quartz pendant.

Come and hang out with us and get A Taste of Summer, A Hint of Summer and A Slice of Summer with the gang at Moonlit Romance.

Friday Fun 4

Dudley Castle was founded in 1071 and overlooks the town known as the capital of the Black Country. It's haunted by the ghost of the Grey Lady and there are rumours of a secret tunnel leading from the castle to the ruins of the Priory which stands below the hill.
The castle and the towns Station Hotel were investigated by The Most Haunted team.
Today, as the castle is set within the grounds of the zoo, and as Kate Hardy talked in the previous post about some of her local dialects insect names, guess what the topic is?

A black bat is not the flying kind. Here, a black bat is a big beetle.
A doorbug is a woodlouse, possibly because of their habit of creeping under doors.
A Bobhowler is a moth.
Chookie is a chicken - like the Australian chooks.
Flen - is a flea
Oss or Hoss is a horse
A tunky is a fat pig. You might hear - Er's a big as a tunky pig.

Marrying Max got a great review!

Here

Marrying Max got a five heart review from The Romance Studio! It's always great when a reviewer really gets your book and this was one of those reviews!

Making Time

Boo is packed and away now till Thursday. Then on Saturday all three belles are away with their grandparents for a whole week. Ah, the hedonistic pleasures I have planned for that week. Finally doing my tax return, cleaning the house while they aren't here to see me removing outgrown favourites. Defrosting the freezer - sigh.
I finished my med chapter so I clogged up Jessica's inbox with it. Almost done my next chapter now on Blue Remembered Heels, so I'm halfway through - yay!
Eleven weeks now on the revisions and I'm thnking it'll probably be a few more before I hear.
Now to get my post office parcels ready. One critique, one letter to the bank (I hate my bank - I can't use a cashpoint, can't internet bank, can't get cash anymore from a till, can't get to talk to them on the phone so I have to visit the branh if I want money. All the other activities involve pin numbers and I don't have one and can't have one.)
Post my husbands forms which he's had for three months and I've had to remind him constantly about.
I think I'll try and pop in there mid morning after the ebayers have finished unloading their parcels.

Packing

The middle belle is heading off on Monday for a school residential trip. You would think she was leaving for the moon.
Boo - Why can't I take vest tops? How am I going to survive the week without vest tops?
Me - because it says tee shirts, no vest tops.
Boo - Can I take my cream tracksuit?
Me - Cream might not be the best colour for outdoor activities.
Boo - Oh. I don't want to go canoeing. You did tell them I don't do canoes?
Me - I told them you weren't a good swimmer.
Boo - Does it say no glittery things? Can I take lipgloss?
Argh! Can you tell she's my fashion diva?
I'm sure she'll have a great time, she's an experienced camper with brownies but she does love her girly stuff!

Friday Fun 3

Now most of you know about my passion for old buildings. This one is a tithe barn with roosts. It is just across the road from me and is part of a farm that's a listed building. The site on which the farm stands is an ancient heritage site as there has been a manor there since the Norman times. You can still see the medieval field layouts in the ground markings. We suspect our evening pipistrelle bats roost in or near the barn.
So, on todays lesson lol
This involves the words bist and bay. You can clearly see the link with old german. Bist is usually used as meaning are you as in Bist thee gooin ter town? ie are you going to town? How bist thee ma mon? How are you my good man?
Bay is nothing to do with horses. It usually means aren't you or isn't it. eg Yow bay gooin theer am yow? You aren't going there are you?
A classic Black Country statement using this is shown below
That bay a bay bin it?
That's not a bay window is it?
Now you have bin, bay and bist you can start to practice. I'll leave you with another word or werd - bostin' A term of high praise!
More next Friday.

Deep breath...

I sent off my partial via email as instructed last night. Next up is the critiquing I owe various people. I've got that well in hand though so I should have that finished in the next couple of days. I got a fab idea for another book, so I stashed that in my ideas file.
So, after that comes the writing!
Which would be fine except every night this week I have something on at the Belle's schools. Last night was Boo and La's parents evening. Tonight was a meeting for Boo's residential trip and tomorrow is the leavers service. Next week I've Shaggy's prize giving service as she has an award for art this year. There is also the leavers barbeque and Elvis night. (Don't ask!)

Aditing

I'm busy aditing my partial to send to Little Black Dress. I say adit because I'm aware of my tendency to write in a very sparing style. Consequently when I go back over to edit I invariably add things in. I'm almost done, just the end of C3 to tweak and my synopsis to check over and I'll send it on it's way.
Next up is some critiquing for various people and then back to the writing. I've almost got another couple of chapters done on the new med and on Blue Remembered Heels, so I need to get back on my schedule with both of them.
I also need to do my taxes - sigh.

Home from Leicester

I'm back from the conference!
I came home to lots of news, Marrying Max is on Fictionwise!!! Whoo hoo!! So if you've been holding off for a copy run and grab it while it's at the opening discount.
Jessica Raymond and I got another fabulous review for A Taste of Summer. This time from the lovely Robyn at Once upon a romance. You can check out what she said here
Once Upon A Romance
Conference was quieter this year as many of my friends were missing and we had some sad news while we were there. The workshops were great however as usual and as always I learned a lot. I met up with lots of people, some I'd previously only spoken with on line and others were people I hadn't seen for quite a while.
I had the great pleasure of meeting Cat Cobain from Little Black Dress and chatting with her about books generally and of course about Blue Remembered Heels. She remembered me from the Savoy. I think she was being polite when she assured me this was a good thing. lol.
She kindly asked to see Blue Remembered Heels so I'll do another polish and tidy and send it her way this week.

Friday Fun 2

I'm off to the conference later but I thought I'd leave you with some more lessons in 'spaking Black Country' while I was gone. The picture is of the famous Crooked House pub which is five minutes walk from my house. The pub defies the laws of gravity in that you can seemingly watch a penny roll uphill along the bar.

I thought you might like some descriptive phrases.

He's a right lummock - He's a big blundering man.
Stop yer mitherin - Stop worrying.
Goo an wash yer donny's - Go and wash your hands.
He's as jed as a nit - He's as dead as a headlouse.
Put t'wud in the hole - shut the door.
Her culdn't stop a pig in an entry - That woman has bow legs.

There'll be some more next Friday!

Conference preparations

Not Dallas but Leicester. Charlotte has done my nails, (she fitted me in between the end of my day clinics and before my evening one). I have the suitcase with the wonky wheel from out of the loft. Ocado delivered my groceries so I know Mr Nell and the belles won't starve while I'm gone.
I've almost figured out how to explain the plot of Blue Remembered Heels without people thinking I'm a nutcase. I have a box of books to take for Sunday just in case anyone wants to buy one or see what the Moonlit and Samhain print quality is like. (Fantastic - if you haven't seen them before!)
My choice of footwear, which was never vast, is still somewhat curtailed by my broken toe but given the weather I'm tempted to just take wellies.
So if you're going to the RNA conference tomorrow look out for the woman with the wilful suitcase, multitutude of books, dodgy shoes and harrassed expression.
See you there!

Guest blogging

Today at Kate Hardy's party!
http://katehardy.blogspot.com
Come over and help Kate celebrate her 25th M&B book! There's a prize.

First Review for A Taste of Summer

Check it out here! Four coffee cups!
http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/BookReviews/Atasteofsummer.html

tagged

Tagged by Lis

Here are the rules:
A. Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves.
B. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed.
C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

1. I have premonition dreams. Unfortunately the lottery numbers never seem to feature.

2. I'm a registered nurse, midwife, health visitor and nurse prescriber.

3. I'm a qualified shoe fitter for Start-rite shoes.

4. I'm allergic to glue, wool, tinsel, penicillin, nuts, apples, silver birch and cherry blossom.

5. I still love the Bay City Rollers.

6. I collect Pendelphin rabbits and antique pottery jelly moulds.

7. I'm scared of Doctor Who.

8. I haven't got a middle name and I always wanted one so I called myself Helen Louise for years.

I don't want to tag 8 people because all the people I'd normally tag are currently very busy with things like babies and moving and parties so if you read this and have time then 'tag' your it!