LIZ FIELDING

I’m baaaack…

Sort of.

The laptop, which is my lifeline to the outside world is in hospital at the moment on life support. Its innards have been backed up by the tech guys in Swansea, but are still ungetatable so all unanswered emails will remain that way for at least another week. Meanwhile I’m picking up the ones that are making it through on the dh’s laptop – although I’m not sure whether mail to liz @ lizfielding.com is getting picked up. Sigh.

I really hate the dh’s laptop. Not it’s fault. It’s a big, beautiful, glossy black job, but the keyboard doesn’t work for me. The right hand shift key is a tiny little thing lost amongst a group of other keys and my finger doesn’t know where to find it (I’m a touch typist). And it seems so slow having to go to my server for mail instead of downloading it. So hold off sending me emails for the moment. I’ll tell you when I’m back up to full steam.

Never mine. Lots of good things have happened.

HER DESERT DREAM has now gone through copy edit and so the CHANGING PLACES duet is now scheduled for November/December this year. These are Cinderella stories. In the first, CHRISTMAS ANGEL FOR THE BILLIONAIRE, Lady Rose yearns to be an anonymous "nobody". In the second, HER DESERT DREAM, Lydia becomes the "princess". These two books proved something of a challenge to write, largely I suspect because both women are pretending to be something they’re not, but editors cried, so I’m pretty happy with the outcome.

But enough of future books. SECRET BABY, SURPRISE PARENTS is available now at the Mills and Boon and eHarlequin websites -- links opposite -- both in paper and eBook versions. And they’ll be on sale retail in April (as always, a month later in Australia and New Zealand).

So what is this story about?

A while back, when I pitched a story to my editor, she did that yeeees, thing. The one with doubt in every inflection. Then she said, "Could you add a baby.’ Pause. ‘And a marriage of convenience.’ Well, I tried, then I abandoned that idea and wrote this book instead. With the baby, the marriage of convenience and secrets galore. (Not the baby though – everyone knew about the baby!) But a secret love, desperate fears, and a desperate tragedy. And a couple of monstrous mothers.

Romantic Times have given the book 4.5 stars, which always makes me glow a little. But the people who really matter are the readers. My last book, Wedded in a Whirlwind, started a very heated debate on eHarlequin -- let's see what you all make of this!