An award for Just Look at Me Now!

Wow! I just learned that 'Just Look at Me Now' is the winner of the Catanetwork single titles reviewers choice of the year award as one of the best books they reviewed in 2010

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.

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

Book signing and auction

If any of you are in the Midlands on Tuesday 14th September then you're very welcome to come along to Malthouse Garden, next to the Independent Living Centre, 100 Oldbury Road Smethwick B66 1JE between 6 and 8.30pm. I'll be signing copies of Just Look at Me Now and reading excerpts and you can ask me all kinds of questions.
In addition you can bid in our silent auction to win one of the following signed by the author books!
1. Honey Trap by Julie Cohen – Paperback RRP £5.99 – Julie is a Holt medal award winner, this is a smart funny tale involving rock bands and honey traps.
2. A Most Lamentable Comedy - Janet Mullaney – Paperback RRP £5.99 – Janet is famous for her regency romps and this is chick lit with a difference.
3. Girl Racers – Janet Gover – Paperback RRP £6.99 – Janet writes fast paced stories set in her homeland of Australia.
4. A Wedding at Leopard tree lodge – Liz Fielding – hardback RRP £13.99 – Liz is one of the most famous and best loved of the Mills and Boon romance authors and this lovely story won’t disappoint.
5. Dangerous Waters – Jane Jackson – Hardback RRP £18.99 – Privateers and slave revolts in regency times.
6. Devil’s Prize – Jane Jackson – Hardback RRP £18.99 – Cornish smugglers in the 18th century, love and danger.
7. It Should Have Been Me – Phillipa Ashley – Paperback RRP £5.99 – Phillipa’s book Decent Exposure is now filmed as the Twelve Men of Christmas and this story for the Joan Hessayon award winning writer is guaranteed to brighten up your reading.
8. The Wise Woman’s Tale – Phillipa Bowers – Paperback RRP £6.99 – Young adult magic and realism combine in an enchanting historical novel.
9. Rainbow’s End – Eileen Ramsay – Hardback RRP £18.99 – Well loved best selling novelist Eileen delivers a tragic and beautiful romantic tale.
10. Another Woman’s Husband – Sarah Duncan – Hardback RRP £19.99 – Another cracking story by one of today’s best selling contemporary writers.
11. Stage by Stage – Jan Jones – Paperback RRP £7.99 – A warm and witty tale of life in a theatrical boarding house.
12. A Old-fashioned Arrangement – Susie Vereker – Paperback RRP £7.99 – Set in Geneva an ordinary woman faces an extraordinary dilemma.
13. Hardback by Elizabeth Hanbury – details coming soon
Huge Thanks to all of the authors who have generously donated their work. There'll be a raffle, lovely handcrafted cards for sale, some second hand books and of course some plants.
Monies raised are going to Ideal For All's Growing Opportunities programme which is a project for disabled people. It promotes health through horticulture and we need new tools, benches and to replace some of our older shrubs within the gardens.
If you didn't see it, there is a fab review of Just Look at Me Now and an interview with me over at Trashionista.Here
The reviewer said,'Just Look at Me Now is a fantastic read... ...This is yet another wonderful gem from Little Black Dress with a great plot and great characters.' 5/5!

What a week

Well, actually it's been a pretty crap fortnight. Major stress in the day job, the company that employs Mr Nell went into administration - hopefully that's now been resolved and his job is ok, eldest belle still hobbling around on crutches, fridge freezer is on the blink and my Mom has now had a malignant cancer confirmed again, this time on her nose.
On the upside, Just Look at Me Now is out and selling well, His Darling Nurse is on kindle in the UK now and at least Mom's tumour isn't connected to the retinal cancer she had a few years ago and it sounds as if it's fixable. Mr Nell is still gainfully employed and, provided I don't have a nervous breakdown from all the stuff I need to do this week, I'll be off on holiday soon to Devon.
I might even write something while I wait for the verdict on Me, You and Him. I may even get the pictures from Jess's wedding downloaded sometime this century - sigh.

It's out!

Just Look at Me Now is out today!
And in other news go HERE and congratulate my lovely and talented friend Judy Jarvie on her sale to Embrace Publishing! Judy, like me, is a former Moonlit author - there were some talented people writing for Moonlit and Judy is one of them!

Re- entry

It's always weird when you finish a book. I've been so immersed in Kate and steve's life at Myrtle cottage that I've kind of lost touch with what's happening in the wider world. Today though, I cleaned my desk - hey, there was wood under all that paper - who knew?
I'm attempting to fill out passport applications for the belles. This is a challenge - they have the 'wrong' sort of birth certificates, and were entered on my old passport when they were babies something which appears to throw HM passports into a bit of a tizz over which bits of paper I need to submit. It's all very complicated and very expensive.
The eldest belle is still recouperating after her toe surgery - she has to go back on Wednesday to have the dressings changed and see if she can be a bit more mobile.
My former cp, the talented and lovely Jessica is getting married on Friday to Simon and we're heading off to the wedding! So excited and thrilled for them both.
I'm so looking forward to my holiday at the end of August - I really need to be by the sea now and to have a break - it's been a very busy year. Plus we have the eldest belle's GCSE results yet to come.
My advance copies of Just Look at Me Now are here and Amazon are shipping already! Plus, it's £2 cheaper on there than the shops!I hope people will like this one :)

What the postman delivered!

Yes, I have a copy of Just Look at Me Now in my hot little hands. It's a real book - all pink and girly and pretty. Sometimes pink, girly and pretty is good.

Exciting stuff

Well, I'm easily excited by stuff, I really don't get out much as you know. This weekend I'm off to Jersey with Mr Nell for our anniversary and I'm going to go to the RNA summer party with Phillipa Ashley and Elizabeth Hanbury aka the coffee crew. It was one of those lovely mad impulse ideas so Phillipa has our train tickets and I've just posted my cheque for the party ticket. To top off my plans my former work colleague was chatting with me last night and we're planning a spa day for June. Happy Sigh.
I'm almost done with the report for the huge day job research project, that'll be finished by tomorrow. I'm on target for this months word count - eight chapters done this month! Fourteen to go! and my editor has been in touch to say there was nothing for me to change from the copy editor for Just Look at Me Now,so now I just have to wait for the galley proofs for the final snagging. All my anguishing about pulling off the third person writing after such a long gap seems to have been in vain thank goodness. Hope Me, You and Him is as smooth if anyone chooses to buy it when it's done.

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.

Good days

Yesterday was good. It's always great to spend time with like-minded people and the time went way too quickly. Today was hectic again at the day job but we got lots of stuff sorted out so that was a relief. Even better was getting an email from my lovely editor telling me she loved Just look at Me Now and there were no revisions - yay! Just a few little bits after copy edits. I have been so worried about this story in case i'd somehow forgotten how to write third person and that i hadn't managed to do the story justice - it's quite a complex plot in some respects and involves a lot of intense emotional stuff. Kim, my poor cp has been very patient with my constant emails of 'ignore that bit - I'll add it later or I'm going to change that'. It's a load off my mind to be told it's worked. So, yay for my backward editing process.Me, You and Him is going well too, I'm officially one third of the way through. A very good day!
Oh, and to add to my day - I just found the cover to the Indonesian version of Blue Remembered heels!

Amazon cover happiness

The new cover is up on Amazon today. It looks so pretty with the other covers!. I haven't heard my editor and my agents verdicts yet on what is going in between the covers so I'm hoping no news is good news, although I'm expecting some suggestions from my editor. She's very good at picking up exactly which bits I need to tweak.
Yesterday was another busy day at the day job, a twelve hour stint as we're finishing off our research contract. It's been fascinating stuff and we're looking forward to sharing the report as hopefully it'll help improve services.
I'm trying to pick up the pace on Me, You and Him. I finished one chapter at the weekend and I've almost completed another so I'm getting there. It's fun to write although I keep having to stop to look things up. Why did I decide to put a roundhead ghost in it? The only history we did at school was Henry the eight, the dinosaurs and Pete Marsh - a man preserved in a bog. I'm self taught for the rest so I have um, gaps.

Looking Forward

Now Just Look at me Now is on my lovely editors desk, I've lots of things I'm looking forward to. The RNA lunch on the 16th - meeting my editor and agent and all my RNA friends. I am so excited to be going and even more excited that I'm shortlisted! All the books on the final lists are wonderful reads and so different that I'm heartily glad that I'm not a judge.
I'm looking forward to exploring what to write next and enjoying working on Me, You and Him, my speculative project in the meanwhile. I can't wait to take the caravan to Denham so we'll have a home from home to escape to away from the madness that is London. I'd love to try and fit in a visit to Cliveden while we're away as I understand it's not too far away. I'm also going to have lunch with two of my favourite writerly friends before the end of the month.
In the day job I've the UKPHA conference at Bournemouth to enjoy. My jobshare and I are going for both days and our abstract was accepted for presentation so we're going to be presenting too - yippee!
What is everyone else looking forward to this month?

Just Look at Me Now

Pub crawl

Long day at the day job today as my job share partner and I spent the early part of the evening on a pub crawl. It was all in the aid of research as we had been asked to go and talk to men about health and physical activity so we dutifully took ourselves to some local watering holes and chatted up men. I like my job :)
In other news, Just Look at Me Now has winged it's way to my editor so I'll wait for her verdict to see if she likes the book wot I have wrote - to misquote the lovely Ernie Wise. Keep your fingers crossed for me! I promise I'll share my gorgeous cover soon too.

Happy St David's Day

I've been trying to catch up on all the things I don't do when I'm on a deadline. You know like shop, clean, put away laundry - sigh.My bedroom is now dustfree and dejunked so there's a start. I need to catch up on my accounts paperwork and then I can tackle the office. Today though I had to deal with the pressing issue of buying undergarments for under the frock I plan to wear to the awards lunch. Clothes shopping is so depressing when you aren't a skinny person. I managed to find a flesh coloured bra (in case the straps show) and because it's a frock I bought tights. I hate tights - if I manage to get them on without making a hole and get to London without destroying them it will be a miracle. There is a reason why I always wear trousers.
I haven't heard back on Just Look at Me Now yet from my agent but my editor has sent me the beautimous cover for it today which I'll share with you as soon as I can. It's fab - very, very girly and lovely. It cheered me up after my discovery that my bra size is roughly the same as my head size.

Done!

Just Look At Me Now is done - I added almost 10k in total with my editing process and I've just finished tidying up the last little bits. It's now winging it's way through cyberspace to my agent so she can read it before I send it to my lovely editor. Phew! I am so tired of looking at that story right now, it'll be good to have a rest from it for a little while. Now I just have to cross my fingers and hope my agent likes it. It really is very different from my other stories so I hope I've made it work.
Tomorrow I'm going with Mr Nell to the NEC to look at boats and caravans that we can't afford. That'll give me a day out. Then once I've reclaimed the house from the dust monsters I plan to push on with You, Me and Him while I wait for the verdict on Just Look at Me Now.

Almost at an end

Well, the second pass is done and I've gone through eliminating bits of repetition, overly used favourite words and phrases and now I'm on my final edit - the backwards read through. My word count is still climbing as I catch things I hadn't seen before. I've twenty-five more chapters to do and I've added in total now almost 10k from when I started. My ending is much stronger with Tia and Josh finally getting a resolution that they deserve. I've a little pile of post it notes for things I've thought of to add into a few key scenes which I hope will make the story stronger and add impact to the emotional scenes. I've a very, very hot scene in the book too which totally flips Tia's life into a spin and I'm hoping that I've done it justice.
I should be done by the weekend and then I can get this baby off my desk and start to rescue my house from the brink of squalor!

First Pass

Well the first read through and adit is done. The big plotholes are gone, the bulk of discrepencies caught and eliminated and just under 6k added to the word count. I'm still short of my final total but there are more pass throughs to come. The next one is my polyfiller pass - this is where I start to really fill in any tiny imperfections and cracks in the story, I change awkward phrasing and sand off the lumpy bits so the pace is smooth and there are no jarring snaggy bits to yank the reader out of my story. I've got a page of notes - mainly the could do better kind that I made on the first run through. Those are the places where I made some changes already but I wasn't 100% satisfied that I'd done enough. On this run through those are the bits I'll be looking at again in extra detail.
Already this story is much stronger for the work I've put in. Tia's character arc is shaping up now - I need to emphasis the point of change in her thinking and I need to emphasise my gorgeous, sexy hero's strengths. There is a very, very hot scene in this one! Whenever these two meet the attraction is so strong but I need to be sure the reader can feel that heat on the page.

Winters back

Well, we got more snow yesterday so it's nice and chilly here again. Mr Nell had his tooth out yesterday too. Luckily for him our dentist is so nice even my dentist phobic husband had to agree. Progressing well on the first round adit of Just Look at Me Now - 3k added so far with six chapters to go. I've marked a few things to look at when I do the next round. I'm now about 7k short of my target but I know those last few chapters are bad and need quite a bit of work so I anticipate it's going to take me longer to sort the ending out. I think I like this book more now. The heroine is very sweet and the hero is hot. Thank you to everyone who's emailed me and messaged me to say how much they like Crystal Clear and to congratulate me on the shortlisting. It's really helping me battle the crows while I work on Just Look at Me Now.