Sunday, November 30, 2008

WINTER BOOK SALE

Mills & Boon are having a Winter Book sale at the moment and I notice that, along with a load of other stellar titles perfect for the Christmas stocking, they're selling last year's Christmas anthology which include A Surprise Christmas Proposal by yours truly for £2.

Check it out here.

I love books for Christmas, too and I've been searching out the backlist Michael Gilbert, of one of my favourite crime writers, winner of the Cartier Diamond Dagger, who died a couple of years ago.

His full length book are entertaining but his short stories are magic. Wonderful twist in the tale stuff. I especially love his stories about a couple of elderly (and deadly) secret agents, one called simply, Mr Calder and Mr Behrens and the other Game Without Rules. The books are nearly all out of print and incredibly expensive to buy second hand, but there is a new edition of A Pity About the Girl... Definitely one for this lady's stocking. :)

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Since this is my nearest city and my local book store, I thought I'd post this good news story!

Swansea City Council And Borders Join Forces For Christmas

This Christmas Santa's Grotto at the Winter Wonderland in Swansea city centre will have even more for children, thanks to Borders Swansea. Now in it's third year, the Winter Wonderland has been a huge success, with an outdoor ice rink, big wheel, fairground attractions, and at it's heart, Santa's Grotto. In previous years, Swansea City Council have provided chocolate for any children visiting Santa to make their Christmas wish. However, as 2008 is the National Year of Reading they chose to promote books and reading instead. With the help of the staff at Borders Swansea and a selection of children's publishers, each child visiting Santa will receive a goodie bag packed with exciting books, such as Young Rupert, Scooby Doo, Top Gear, or Anthony Horowitz. And don't worry, thanks to Starbucks at Borders Swansea there's also some chocolate in there as well!


Tuesday, November 18, 2008

HURRAH!

The book has left the building.

I seem to have been writing it forever, but in fact it's only four months -- not long by recent standards. But now Lady Rose (aka Annie) and George Saxon, with their hang-ups over Christmas and dysfunctional families, are my editor's problem. At least until it rebounds onto my desk with "fix this" stamped all over it.

Mine is part two of this duet, in which Lydia (aka Lady Rose) embarks on a week of pure luxury in a secluded resort.

Some hopes, Lydia...

Friday, November 14, 2008

eBOOK

For an exhibition entitled Blood on Paper, artists were given a book and asked to customise it.

Richard Shed got a 60-year-old Penguin Classics copy of The New Machiavelli which he digitised - scanning in every page - and then put the contents on a USB device made to look like the original book. Read on...

It brings a whole new meaning to the term eBook and what a great promotional idea this would make for a publisher who's just launched eBooks -- hint, hint, hint, Mills and Boon!

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

FAB REVIEWS!

Many thanks to Nicola for a fun weekend, and to everyone who took time to leave a comment or take part in the draw for THE UNMASKING OF LADY LOVELESS.

I'll post the name of the winner as soon as Nicola has made the draw.

In the meantime, while I'm battling through the last chapter of my wip, here are some absolutely fabulous reviews for WEDDED IN A WHIRLWIND, which I know I don't have to remind you is ON SALE NOW!!!

First, Cataromance said this...

Liz Fielding never ceases to amaze me! Just when you think that her books cannot possibly get any better, she pulls the rug from under your feet by delivering an outstanding romantic tale that leaves you breathless! Sensitively-written, heartrending, beguiling and absolutely impossible to put down, Wedded in a Whirlwind is another classic by one of Harlequin’s finest writers!


Then Romance Junkies added their pennyworth with: --

If you’re looking for a soul stirring tale that makes readers laugh, cry, and look at the world just a little bit differently then WEDDED IN A WHIRLWIND fits the bill perfectly. Nick and Miranda have troubled pasts that they’ve never fully shared with anyone. The time they spend together talking allows them a new perspective on their lives. While I really enjoyed Miranda and Nick’s arguments and their stubborn attitudes I really became ‘attached’ to the characters once they began disclosing the events of their past that made them into the people they are today. Liz Fielding gives readers a fun story full of passion, adventure and believable emotional situations which allow readers to feel like they’re a part of the story rather than just a reader.

And finally there was this from All About Romance, who are famously hard to please. I've never made their coveted Desert Isle Keeper list before, but Wedded touched the right chord this month and here's what their reviewer said about Miranda and Nick and their story: --

As a reader, I find myself quick to praise the new and innovative. However, sometimes a sweet, "comfort food" book comes along that just leaves me smiling. Wedded in a Whirlwind is just such a book. It does not reinvent the genre, but in a very limited number of pages, the author constructs a beautiful fairytale that truly sweeps one right out of the everyday world.

Read on
here



So would you like to share your own excitement about books that touch your heart? The Pink Heart Society is looking for regular, enthusiastic reviewers who would like to join them and write about the new releases.

They are looking for reviewers for every line and they would really like to see more of the American lines represented as well as the ones edited from the UK. So if you're interested, why not email the Pink Heart Society (there's a link on the sidebar) and tell them a bit about yourself. Maybe you can join the team, which means yo'd get the new books, which has to be the biggest incentive ever!

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

AND NOW FOR A HISTORY LESSON...

My guest this week is HQN author Nicola Cornick who lit up Times Square earlier this year with UNMASKED.

Nicola talks about our first meeting below, but I remember it vividly. It was the second international "Author Day" held by Harlequin and Mills and Boon in London. there were authors from all over the world attending and having met my editor I was looking around for a friendly face and saw Nicola standing on her own. I introduced myself and asked her what she wrote and that's when she told me she'd just sold her first book. Now she's a star and I'm delighted to welcome her here to tell you about a new eBook project just launched by Harlequin.

Over to you, Nicola!

Thank you so much for inviting me to blog today, Liz, and many congratulations on your fabulous fifty books! I’ve just been re-reading your short story The Temp and the Tycoon, re-issued as part of the Mills & Boon Centenary celebrations, and I’ve been loving it as much this time round as when it was first in print!

I’ve never forgotten when I first met Liz – it was at an author lunch and I hadn’t even been published at that point. Mills & Boon had just signed me up as a brand new author and I was totally over-awed to be meeting in person so many writers whose books I had on my keeper shelves at home! Actually I was terrified – and Liz took me under her wing and I have never forgotten her kindness.

Since that moment eleven years ago I’ve written 25 books for Mills & Boon and this month sees the publication of my latest Regency novella The Unmasking of Lady Loveless, a historical short story that is very hot, sweet and sexy! The Unmasking of Lady Loveless is one of the launch titles for Harlequin Historicals new e-book programme. It is set in the same fictional Yorkshire village, Peacock Oak, that I used for the background for my July HQN release Unmasked and also features some of the same characters. I wanted to write a Christmas story and the idea of the beautiful Yorkshire countryside under the snow seemed the perfect setting!

Here is the beginning of the story, slightly censored because this is a very sexy book indeed:

When Lord Alexander Beaumont entered Whites that night the entire room fell silent. No man would meet his eyes; their gazes slid away to study the pattern on the carpet or the brandy in their glasses. Throats were cleared, cuffs inspected with startling intensity.

“Gentlemen?” He raised one quizzical dark brow. “Would anyone care to enlighten me as to what is wrong?”

There was silence.

“Charles?” He prompted.

“Devil take it, Alex,” his friend Charles Wheeler complained, “I knew you would ask me.”

“That’s what friends are for, Charles,” Alex smoothly. “Well?”

Charles stood up. He loosened his neck cloth, palpably ill at ease. “Don’t know where to start, old fellow.”

“Try the beginning,” Alex advised.

“Good luck, Charlie,” someone said, sotto voce.

“It’s Lady Melicent,” Wheeler blurted out. “Your wife.”

His wife.

No one ever spoke to Lord Alexander Robert Jon Beaumont about his wife.

“Thank you, Charles,” Alex said. “We may have been apart for a couple of years now, but I am still aware of whom Melicent is.”

Wheeler winced. Several men drew in their breath in sympathy.

“She’s… She’s written a book,” Wheeler said. “Several books. This is the most recent.” He grabbed a slim tome from the hands of a man at a nearby table.

"Steady on, Charlie,” the man protested. “I was enjoying that!”

“Bentley…” Wheeler said in a warning tone. The man’s eyes flickered to Alex’s hard face and he fell silent.

“The Adventures of a Woman of Pleasure by Lady Loveless,” Alex read aloud the gold lettering aloud. He flicked open the book:

“Being naked kindled so great a rapture in her that she lay in wanton pleasure waiting for him to-”

A great harrumphing and clearing of throats followed. Alex closed the book softly and looked at his friend. “You are claiming that Melicent, my wife, is this Lady … Loveless?”

“Yes! Don’t call me out,” Wheeler added, as Alex took a purposeful step towards him, murder in his eyes. “Bentley bribed the publisher and found out that the manuscripts are sent from someone called Mrs Durham, from Peacock Oak in Yorkshire…” He made a pleading gesture. “You know that was Lady Melicent’s maiden name and that she resides there now.” He shook his head. “She has to be stopped, Alex. She bases the characters in her books on members of the Ton and they are too accurately portrayed for comfort.” He gestured to the Bentley again. “Will’s betrothal to Miss Flynn was ruined because there is a scene in the book where a character called Bill Gentley ravishes an actress in a box at the theatre during a performance!”

“We all know that happened,” Alex said dryly.

“That isn’t the point!” Bentley piped up.

“Bentley lost an heiress worth sixty thousand,” Wheeler said. “Lady Loveless’s sources are impeccable. Which is why she has to be stopped.”

Alex tapped the book thoughtfully against the palm of his hand. “She will be.”

“What are you going to do?” Wheeler asked.

“I am going to Yorkshire,” Alex said. He smiled at the look of horror on his friend’s face. “No need to fear, Charles, it is the North of England, not the North Pole.”

“Yorkshire in winter,” Wheeler spluttered.

“Yes,” Alex said, “and I will take this with me.” He raised the book and the candlelight gleamed on the golden lettered name, Lady Loveless, on the cover. “It will prove useful… for research purposes.”

“Devil take it, Alex,” Bentley called, “I was reading that!” But he spoke to thin air.

To win a copy of The Unmasking of Lady Loveless Undone e-book, email me at ncornick@madasafish.com (including your full name and address) to tell me the answer to the following question:

What is the name of the book that Lady Loveless has written?

I’ll put the answers in a hat and pick out a winner next week!

* * *

Whew! Thanks, Nicola!

If, like me, you can't wait to read on, you can download the eBook here

And for those of us who love to hold a book in the hand, you can buy Regency Christmas Weddings here or from your favourite UK bookstore in November.

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

A WINNER!

This from Trish Morey:

"I've loved the chance to blog and enjoyed hearing about people's favourite places around the world, many thanks to Liz and all who contributed. Sarita Leone's name was first out of the hat - congratulations Sarita! Thanks for putting Chincoteague, Virginia on the map!"

A NEW COMPETITION

I've just updated my website for November and there's a chance to win a signed copy of a book from my backlist. Check it out here

AND SOME UNEXPECTED PRAISE

The Guardian is one of our most prestigious newspapers -- read by the great and good and renowned for its literary snobbery. In the past it has not been kind to romantic fiction, but after the screening of two programmes about Mills and Boon -- one involving crime writer, Stella Duffy, having a go at writing an M&B romance, the other a drama that is queued up on my hard disk waiting to be viewed, they said this:

"The programme is a success too - for one because Stella Duffy, as well as throwing herself into it whole-heartedly, is very good company (not many novelists make good TV). But also because of all the amazing Mills & Boon ladies she meets along the way: the editor, the established writer who's teaching the course in Italy (that was Sharon Kendrick), the aspiring writers, the fans. They're all brilliant, clever, funny, women. Modern, even. But they also understand that romance - and cuppy-kissing - lives on."

By George they've got it! Finally! Romance is not for dummies. We're all brilliant, clever, funny, modern. And romantic. How cool is that!

AND FROM THE SCOTSMAN...

Another newspaper not known for frivolity, comes this:

"Seeking respite from the cursed credit crisis, Claire Black dives into the pool of romance that is Mills & Boon, and discovers that millions of others are doing the same." Read on here

Monday, November 03, 2008

HOW TO WRITE A MILLS AND BOON...

The Mills & Boon Centenary year is nearly over -- I hope you all managed to catch "Consuming Passion" on the BBC last night! You can log into the BBC website and watch it online here It's 85 minutes.
(about 80 minutes)

There was also "How to Write a Mills and Boon Romance", with Sharon Kendrick and Stella Duffy, which you'll find here

AND A CHRISTMAS GIFT IDEA

There's still time to order the complete set of 24 Centenary novellas, with fabulous retro covers, to pop in someone's stocking. It's a steal at £18.40, plus £2 p&p or £4 international.

Great stories by Penny Jordan, Lynne Graham, Lucy Gordon, Betty Neels, Sandra Marton and a host of other favourites. And you'll find it here