RNA Summer Party & Awards

So last week I trekked off down to London for the RNA Summer Party, which is always a highlight of my social calender. (Quiet at the back. I have a social calender. I'm looking at it right now. It says '5th May: Esther's birthday' and '26th May: Eurovision'. And the birthday came with champagne and chocolate cake and two handsome young men chauffeuring us down the Cam. So there).

Right, anyway. What with all the wine and the celebrating (I'll get to that bit) events are a tiny bit fuzzy, but after getting only slightly lost (and why is there no phone signal in Marylebone? Why?) I met up with the always lovely Lisa Bodenham and Alison Maynard and took a cab to Waterstone's Piccadilly, which has a cocktail bar. Yes. A bookshop with a cocktail bar. As Barney Gumble said: "If you didn't close, I'd never leave."

The cocktail bar was followed by the RNA Summer Party, this time in the rather grand Royal Overseas League in St James's, where I found Jane Lovering and her family, even more excited than usual since we were expecting the announcement of the Romantic Novel of the Year Award. Both Jane and our fellow Choc Lit-eer, Christina Courtenay, had won their categories at the RoNA ceremony in March (it's just yours truly who lost out), and so they were finalists for the overall award. Also being presented that evening was the Joan Hessayon New Writers Scheme Award, which is given to a debut author who has graduated the NWS. Two of this year's finalists, Evonne Wareham and Linda Mitchelmore, have also signed with Choc Lit.

Well, it was a really good night for Choc Lit! Jane and Evonne both won their awards and I'm utterly delighted for them. Choc Lit is still a very small house, up against some of the biggest names in the business, and we've had an amazing year.

Choc Lit-eers l-r: Liz Harris, Kate Johnson, Margaret James, Jane Lovering, Evonne Wareham, Linda Mitchelmore, Sue Moorcroft, Christina Courtenay, Sarah Tranter. Photo by MLR Photography.

Liz Harris and me. Photo by MLR Photography.

Also, we clearly had the best shoes.

My shoes. Yeah, my feet do suffer to be beautiful, thanks for asking.

Photos by MLR Photography (except the shoe one. That's by My iPhone)

Lucky 7 meme

The lovely Rhoda Baxter has tagged me for the Lucky 7 meme, which means you get to see a little snippet of my work in progress.

What you have to do:
*go to page 77 of your current WIP
*go to line 7
*copy down the next 7 lines/sentences as written and post them on your blog or website
*tag 7 other authors
*let them know they've been tagged.

In this I'm fortunate she didn't send it last week, since I didn't have 77 pages then (I've only got 80 now).  So, seven lines from page 77 of my Wip gets you... (drumroll please)

"You know how it was when you walked in there the first time, not knowing anyone, the new kid, and even if you’re strong and you’ve been working hard, these are lads who’ve been learning how to kill people for months, maybe even years. And it’s a good job she can’t see the looks on their faces, especially Marcus Gloria--” here Kael allowed himself a chuckle, “who looks like he’s swallowed a toad. Anyway, the silence is bad enough, everyone stopping what they’re doing, all the machines going silent, all conversations stopping, and if Sir Scipius hadn’t been there I reckon they’d have turned on her like a wolf pack on a lamb.” 

In this scene my hero, Kael, is reading a letter from the heroine's best friend. She's the lamb, and the wolf pack are the boys she's been sent to train with as a warrior. And the reason he's laughing at Marcus Gloria is that Gloria is (as a small child points out further down the page) a girl's name. We don't like Marcus very much.

 I'm rubbish at tagging other people--besides I think a lot of them have been tagged by Rhoda already--so I'm just going to throw this one open. Fancy taking part? Be my guest!

First lines

So I was glancing over The Warlord, The Blind Slave, And The Dog Called Brutus*, and it occurred to me I'm quite pleased with my first line. First lines are important: something drummed into me during my authorly apprenticeship. First lines should intrigue and interest the reader, should make them want to know more, wonder why and how this situation or thought or conversation has arisen.

I'll give you my most recent three. From The Untied Kingdom:

Eve Carpenter was having a bad enough day even before she fell through the hole in the ground.

From Run Rabbit Run:

Four in the morning and I was painting over the number plate of my boyfriend's car with black nail varnish while I hid in a camera blindspot in a car park in Dover for the early crossing to Calais.

From The Warlord*:

She lay motionless on the bed, a skeleton in a red silk dress.

What do you think? Do you find first lines important, or do you not notice them? Do you find them hard to write, or like me do you find it hard to go on if you haven't got it right? What's the best one you've ever read?


*Not the actual title. More a working title (except it doesn't work at all).

**Also not the actual title, but the response of my publisher when I told her my working title. "We'll just call it The Warlord for now, shall we?"

New website!

Yes, this is now my new website! Blog and website all in one lovely heart-and-fireworky package. Have a wander around and tell me what you think...

Also, since I didn't get to announcing it two weeks ago, let it not be forgotten that I have a new book out! Yes, and I'm going to leave this post here a while so we can all bathe in the pink-and-gun glory of the cover (I really love this cover. Have you noticed?)

Sophie’s in trouble. Must be Tuesday.

Sophie Green’s an ex-spy, or trying to be. You wouldn’t believe the trouble she’s in. An MI5 officer has been shot with her gun, her fingerprints all over his office. And no, she didn’t kill him.

But she has gone on the run.

Now Sophie’s desperately seeking whoever’s trying to frame and kill her. She’s being forced to work with the least trustworthy man in Europe, MI5 is following her every move, and she’s had to leave the tall, blond, god of a man she loves behind.

Luke Sharpe works for MI6. Or did, until his girlfriend became a murder suspect.

Doing nothing wasn’t an option, so he started investigating. Who cares if it means jeopardising his career? Sophie’s everything he used to say he never wanted. Young, irresponsible, bright and mad. Now she’s just everything – and she has to live.

She will live, won’t she?

Read the Prologue and first chapter here...

Under construction

I'm in the process of migrating my whole website over to Blogger and re-designing while I'm at it. So for the time being, there might be a few missing pages and broken links. Don't panic! All will be well soon.

Whilst you wait (and I know how terribly excited everyone must be!) pop over to Lucie Wheeler and Dizzy C's blogs to follow the end of the Run Rabbit Run blog tour...and of course, win one of those delicious Lindt chocolate bunnies!

Desert Islands and chocolate

I'm not saying that chocolate is necessarily the thing for desert islands, what with its habit of melting in the heat, and also making you quite thirsty, but there is a link here, I promise. And you can find out what it is over on Lucie Wheeler's blog, where I'm talking about evading the authorities, lime green hotpants, and margaritas. Oh, and Run Rabbit Run, too.

Pop over and see how you can win a Lindt chocolate bunny. Mmm...

Luke Sharpe on the casting couch

As part of the Run Rabbit Run blog tour, I'm over at Catherine Miller's blog interviewing Luke Sharpe, and inviting your ideas on who'd play him in a movie. Pop over to the blog and tell me your thoughts: you could even win some chocolate!

Go on...you know you've thought about it too!

Run Rabbit Run blog tour!

You can win stuff...just follow me!

I shall be talking about how I came up with the title, what makes Luke different from Harker, interviewing Sophie herself, and giving away chocolate bunnies. Sound good?

Monday 5th March: Jera's Jamboree
Monday 12th March Nut Press
Monday 19th March Katy Little Lady
Monday 26th March Book Babe
Monday 2nd April Lucie Wheeler
Friday 6th April Dizzy's Little Book Blog
Saturday 7th April Choc-lit Blog

Romantic Novel of the Year

Tomorrow, I'm off to London for the RoNAs, or the Romantic Novel of the year Awards. Yes, that's right, I'm taking Eve and Harker to the fanciest of fancy hotels for a champagne reception, because The Untied Kingdom is short listed for the Contemporary RoNA. Eve will enjoy it, Harker will hate it, and I'll, well... I'll have fabulous shoes.

Wish us luck!

Run Rabbit Run trailer

After a few false starts, mostly because I hadn't a clue what I wanted to do with the trailer, I've got something I'm happy with*.

Thanks everyone who's said how much they're looking forward to the book. The paperback is out in April, but it's available right now on Kindle in the UK or in America, and should be up soon for Nook and other e-readers. It's already had a few lovely reviews, and I've been simply amazed at the number of people who've already Tweeted and emailed to say they've enjoyed it. You guys rock!

*NB: this is pretty much how I write books.