I'm lucky enough to have a great pal - crit partner, author and publicist extraordinaire who's set up a very informative blog for me -
www.elsborg-fans.blogspot.com
Laurie is on the cusp of success with her sci fi romance, has won numerous presitigious competitions with P2PC and has still found time to help me publicise my work. A million thanks, Laurie.
If you'd like a chance to win a copy of my book - Power of Love - visit the fans site and leave a comment. I'd love to know what you think of the interview about this book. Why isn't it popular??
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Finding the Right One -
Available 27th January - Ellora's Cave
Take a gorgeous man and a sexy woman.
Add a sprinkling of Greek sunshine and a splash of blue sea.
A perfect recipe for love.
*
Except the man is nursing a broken heart. And the woman is nursing a black eye.
*
Imo needs something to help her forget the man she's left behind in London. When she throws open the shutters of her villa to see a Greek God reclining in all his naked glory, how can she resist?
*
Working as a sailing instructor in Greece, is just the thing Will needs to forget the woman he can no longer have. Not easy when she's rarely out of his thoughts. But when he's attacked by a minx wearing red underwear, he wonders if he's found the perfect way to distract himself.
*
Finding out if Imo's the right one could be just the cure Will needs... so long as it doesn't get him killed. And will Imo's past in hot pursuit - it might.
*
This story is a stand alone but if you want to know how Will came to be reclining naked in Greece - grab a copy of Doing the Right Thing.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Point of view
I've been very interested to read comments on the Jasmine-Jade site and others about 'Doing the Right Thing'. There seems to be a divide between readers who liked it a lot and others who disliked the fact that much of the book focused on Will - who doesn't end up with the girl.
When I first wrote this story, Will ended up with Addie. After cries of horror from friends and my reconsideration of the story, I changed it because - frankly - he didn't deserve her. She is inexperienced and whether he means to or not, he takes advantage of that. He lets her down at times when she needs his support and it's his brother Ed who is always there for her.
Contrary to some readers' perceptions - Addie does NOT shag Will all the way through the book. They don't have sex at all until Chapter 12. After that they make love on only two more occasions. More than once on those occasions but still. I DO spend the book concentrating on Will and Addie's relationship because that is the primary one. I hope I show that it isn't always right or easy to 'do the right thing' - for many of the characters. It's not just Will who tries to do the right thing and messes up, Addie makes mistakes too.
I could have added more words to flesh out the ending - some find it abrupt - but this book is already VERY long. I thought about enhancing the sex scene between Addie and Ed but in the end I left it sweet rather than a shagathon. She isn't a slut and it was difficult enough to show her having sex with brothers without pushing too far.
I could have trimmed elsewhere to give me more time for Ed and Addie but I didn't want to lose any of the scenes I'd written. Maybe I should have done. It's true that there is a bit of an imbalance in the story. I could have added more about Ed but I also didn't want to give the ending away - who will she end up with - is a question I wanted readers to ask. Along with - Does Will deserve her? Would you forgive him???
I think a perhaps another relevant fact is that this story was written as NON-erotic and I enhanced the sex scenes later. Maybe that shows.
Another relevant fact is that this book, above all I've written shows the divide between UK romances and those set in the US and written by Americans. I think the US books follow the 'rules' more carefully. For instance - infidelity as a theme is something often explored in UK romances, women who sleep with a lot of men CAN be heroines of UK romances, secondary characters play larger roles, there is often more plot - I don't mean ANY criticism of US romances - I love them - I'm just saying that there are differences and Doing the Right Thing is very British.
In any case, this is not a typical romance, especially not a typical erotic romance. I took a risk using two brothers as the heroes - both in love with the same woman. Inevitable that one will end up disappointed. I wanted to show how easy it is to be in love and yet still get things wrong no matter how hard you try to do the right thing. I hope I succeeded in that.
I'm sorry that I disappointed some of those who read my stories. I'm glad I delighted others.
Will's story follows in a couple of weeks - Finding the Right One. More conventional!! I won't be going down the triangle route again I don't think. Not unless they both end up with the girl.
Doing the Right Thing was quite a challenge. I suppose I backed away from the largest challenge in the end - that would have been to have rehabilitated Will, so that he DID reserve Addie. But you know, sometimes men just don't get the girl they want.
When I first wrote this story, Will ended up with Addie. After cries of horror from friends and my reconsideration of the story, I changed it because - frankly - he didn't deserve her. She is inexperienced and whether he means to or not, he takes advantage of that. He lets her down at times when she needs his support and it's his brother Ed who is always there for her.
Contrary to some readers' perceptions - Addie does NOT shag Will all the way through the book. They don't have sex at all until Chapter 12. After that they make love on only two more occasions. More than once on those occasions but still. I DO spend the book concentrating on Will and Addie's relationship because that is the primary one. I hope I show that it isn't always right or easy to 'do the right thing' - for many of the characters. It's not just Will who tries to do the right thing and messes up, Addie makes mistakes too.
I could have added more words to flesh out the ending - some find it abrupt - but this book is already VERY long. I thought about enhancing the sex scene between Addie and Ed but in the end I left it sweet rather than a shagathon. She isn't a slut and it was difficult enough to show her having sex with brothers without pushing too far.
I could have trimmed elsewhere to give me more time for Ed and Addie but I didn't want to lose any of the scenes I'd written. Maybe I should have done. It's true that there is a bit of an imbalance in the story. I could have added more about Ed but I also didn't want to give the ending away - who will she end up with - is a question I wanted readers to ask. Along with - Does Will deserve her? Would you forgive him???
I think a perhaps another relevant fact is that this story was written as NON-erotic and I enhanced the sex scenes later. Maybe that shows.
Another relevant fact is that this book, above all I've written shows the divide between UK romances and those set in the US and written by Americans. I think the US books follow the 'rules' more carefully. For instance - infidelity as a theme is something often explored in UK romances, women who sleep with a lot of men CAN be heroines of UK romances, secondary characters play larger roles, there is often more plot - I don't mean ANY criticism of US romances - I love them - I'm just saying that there are differences and Doing the Right Thing is very British.
In any case, this is not a typical romance, especially not a typical erotic romance. I took a risk using two brothers as the heroes - both in love with the same woman. Inevitable that one will end up disappointed. I wanted to show how easy it is to be in love and yet still get things wrong no matter how hard you try to do the right thing. I hope I succeeded in that.
I'm sorry that I disappointed some of those who read my stories. I'm glad I delighted others.
Will's story follows in a couple of weeks - Finding the Right One. More conventional!! I won't be going down the triangle route again I don't think. Not unless they both end up with the girl.
Doing the Right Thing was quite a challenge. I suppose I backed away from the largest challenge in the end - that would have been to have rehabilitated Will, so that he DID reserve Addie. But you know, sometimes men just don't get the girl they want.
World's Worst Cook
That's me. I admit it. I followed the recipe so I'm at a loss to know how it could all go so wrong. I carefully mixed the ingredients and rolled out the dough. Spent ages finding the right cookie cutters and then cut out the shapes.
What a waste of time. They all merged and it wasn't because I'd put them too close together. So I tried to cut out shapes afterwards. That might have worked but they were too fragile to hold their form.
To make matters worse - they didn't even taste good.
I blame the flour.
Well, I have to blame something. It couldn't have been me! Surely!
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Doing the Right Thing - available 6th Jan - Ellora's Cave
Addie Winter is single-just one more reason for disappointment in her permanently disapproving mother's eyes. There's nothing she wants more than to be loved but when her own mother can't bring herself to love her, she wonders if anyone can. What she needs is a man-real would be ideal, but she'll settle for pretend. Anything to shut her mother up.
Will Mansell chokes on his drink when Addie offers to pay him to spend the night in her room. Tall, dark-haired and the epitome of Addie's "hero", he can't believe his luck because women usually go for his blond-haired brother. Ed Mansell is a serial playboy with an electric smile who waltzes through life and through women. Lucky for Will and Ed they don't have the same taste in women. But that was before they met Addie.
Far from pretending, Will and Ed set out to prove Addie wrong. But after having no one who loves her, Addie finds too much love can be just as painful as no love at all.
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