Snowy start!

My lovely friends in the USA seem to have had their fun with the snow and now it's back here again too. Why not cheer yourself up by entering the Little Black Dress author's contest to win some free books. Go Here Like our oage and tell us the funniest, chessiest or the most romantic chat up line or proposal you've heard.

Who turned the heat off?

Just home from a lovely few days at Burnham on sea where it was sunny and relatively warm. Here it's cold and there appears to be bits of frozen white stuff lying on my lawn.
I visited the Jane Austen centre in Bath, very interesting - got a Mr Darcy fridge magnet and a large postcard of Colin Firth as Mr Darcy for my office. Purely for research reasons of course. We also went to the Fleet Air Museum to look at planes and got to stand on a simulation of an aircraft carrier. Mmm, none of the belles fancy the Navy as a career. It was all terribly macho and BBC plummy voices but great fun.
I did most of my Christmas shopping and bought a lovely Radley handbag in cream - it's a kind of half moon shape and very pretty. I must stop visiting Kate Hardy's blog, I think she's a bad influence rofl.
When we arrived home, the lovely Sara from Little Black Dress had sent me some cover flats of Animal Instincts and they are very gorgeous. I plan to frame one but I think I may hold a contest for one of the others after Christmas.
I managed a little bit of writing while we were away, not as much as I'd planned but enough to make me happy. Now, it's back to the grindstone and the laundry mountain.

Hugs

and thanks to everyone who braved the horrible weather last night to come and spend their evening with me and Phillipa Ashley at Wombourne library. Special hugs to Lizzie and June, two wonderful RNA members who came all the way from Leicester. It was lovely to see both of you. Phillipa and I really enjoyed it. The weather may have been cold and nasty outside but the atmosphere was warm and sunny.
My daughter has some pics on her phone which i'll post when she finally downloads them.
If anyone missed our double act we're at Burntwood library on Thursday afternoon.

Two posts in one day!

I just found the blurb for my next Little Black Dress book up on Amazon - The book is out March 09. It's still listed as untitled but my working title is Animal Instincts as you regular readers will know. I killed myself laughing when i read this blurb - it's just so fab I have to share.

Rising star Nell Dixon, author of BLUE REMEMBERED HEELS, is back!

Down-to-earth Clodagh Martin is very fond of her glamorous actress step-sister, Imogen - in small doses. So when Imogen turns up on her doorstep drunk and clutching a bottle of champage and announces that she's come to stay, Clodagh isn't exactly thrilled. It's not a great time. The animal sanctuary she runs is stony broke and the animals; a foul-mouthed parrot, two gay donkeys and a goat, aren't enough to attract the hoardes.

It's not a great time for Imogen either. Let's face it, staying at Rainbow's End animal sanctuary wouldn't exactly be her first choice. Unfortunately, a combination of debt and a humiliating public scandal involving a live TV show and too much booze, has left Imogen with very little choice but to throw herself on Clodagh's mercy until things blow over.

But actually, this could be a heaven-sent opportunity to get both her career and the sanctuary back on track. What could possibly go wrong?

Psst!

Check out the Little Black Dress website to enter the competition - if you visit here often I've a hunch that you'll know the answer to the question lolHERE

Hmmm...

You ever have a day when someone thinks they're doing you a favour but really they aren't? Sigh, My colleague is moving caseloads on Oct 1st, so guess who will be doing double duty on the caseloads again?
I'm happy for her because the travelling is awful for her but I think I'd better not put down here how I feel about TPTB and the short notice. I shot my mouth off enough this morning.
Then tonight my laptop managed to somehow disconnect the internet - argh!!!!
But, on the bright side, Blue Remembered Heels is done, polished, up to the wordcount and winging it's way through the ether to my new editor at Little Black Dress. I hope she likes it.
Next job is to polish up my non fiction chapter for the Christian Women's Devotional book and send that off to my other editor.
I have a new file open for Animal Instincts and I plan to spend this week working out the plot. I have a pretty good idea what I want to put but I need to clarify it in my mind and write a synopsis.

The Details

Thanks to everyone who's left comments, emailed me, phoned me and sent notes this weekend. I appreciate each and every one of you. Now I'm slightly more together I'll fill you in on the details.
I've been blogging about Blue Remembered Heels for a while and I think I mentioned I thought it might suit Little Black Dress. At the RNA conference in Leicester, five weeks ago I had the opportunity to pitch to Cat Cobain, the editor for the line. I was the last person in that day and we mainly chatted about books and BRH. Again, I think I blogged about how much I liked her. She took a copy Of my Samhain book, Things To Do and gave me a couple of LBD's to read (one's I hadn't already got)
She also gave me her card and asked me to email her the first three chapters of BRH and the synopsis. She knew the book wasn't finished but liked the premise enough to ask to see the first part.
I sent it off on the Tuesday after the conference and got on with writing. While I was away just over a fortnight ago she got in touch. I came home to two emails asking if she could see more. I wasn't sure what to do as the book still isn't finished. I had my schedule planned for it to be completed by mid to end September.
So, I emailed her back and asked if she wanted to wait til then or if she wanted what I had in a semi-polished rough draft, which was the first ten chapters, just under half of the book.
She asked to see the rough draft if I was okay with it. So I pressed send just over a week ago and kept on writing.
I opened my email at work on Friday as I expected a patient to send me some information and saw Cat's email. At best I'd hoped she might like it enough to say that I could send her the rest when it was done or that if she rejected it she might offer me some direction.
Instead she made the offer for BRH and another book.
Hence my state of total incoherence for the remainder of Friday and much of yesterday. I rang my husband, Mr Nell, from the office and my cp Jessica Raymond, My Mum was out! My colleague said tell Cat yes, you need to reply to the email!
I emailed back, one of the fastest acceptances I think she said she'd ever had. lol

I'm now almost at the end of Chapter 16 with saprox another 4 to write so I'm well on target to finish on schedule. I'm so excited and thrilled that Blue Remembered Heels will be a Little Black Dress book. I have no idea yet when it's likely to appear or if it will keep it's working title. I promise I'll keep you all posted. As for the next book? Well, I have an ideas file with a very rough outline but first it's back to work on BRH.

Sold

I'm stunned and delighted to say I've sold to Little Black Dress.

We interupt this broadcast...

I promise I'll blog more about my holiday tomorrow. When I got home from Chirk and ploughed through the emails in my inbox I found two from Cat Cobain, the editor at Little Black Dress. I think I mentioned I'd sent her the partial of Blue Remembered Heels a few weeks ago - well, guess what! She wanted to see some more. As you know and, so does she, it isn't finished. I asked her if she wanted to see what I had already and warned her it was only a rough draft or if she'd prefer to wait until the end of September beginning of Oct when I anticipated it being completed.
Well, I just pressed send as she asked to see what I had now - meep.
So, I'm head down and writing.

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.

Talk to the hand!

It's been that kind of week. I won't bore you with my work woes but just when it seems there's a chink of light in one direction there's a dark pit in the other. I feel as if I'm swimming against a tide. It would be lovely to just tread water for a while but I know if I stop fighting I'll drown.

The weather has been fun here too talking of drowning. Did anyone see the pics of the tornado on the news? That was five miles away from me. Luckily I'd left my temp base and gone back to my other clinic before the storm broke or I might not have made it home. As it was the journey was horrific, lights out, phones dead and two feet of water in places. Thankfully my trusty car, Baby, is a 4X4.

I'm looking forward to the RNA conference in a few weeks time. It will be so lovely to meet up with old friends, make new ones and take part in some great workshops. I have a pitch session booked too with the editor for Little Black Dress - eek! Better write some more of Blue Remembered Heels!