Friday, May 31, 2013

The Cotswolds - Day 2




Rain!

Fortunately it didn’t last and by the time we’d had breakfast it was dry if not exactly sunny and we set off for world-famous garden at Hidcote Manor

It was a little like driving through a cloud – Hidcote is the highest point in the north Cotswolds – and when we pulled over in a rather dark wood to sort out the automatic lights on the new car I spotted a clump of cowslips looking totally out of place. 

You’re meadow plants, guys! 

Hidcote, a garden created by Lawrence Johnston in the 1930s in the Arts and Crafts style, was a total delight. Relaxed, soft planting… well, I’ll let the photographs do the talking. 

Things here, as everywhere, were late, so we missed most of the wisteria which, next week, will be stunning. But the tulips, bluebells and earliest Azaleas were gorgeous. Left with loads of ideas for my own small patch.

From Hidcote we went on to Broadway, the kind of pretty town that would have looked perfectly at home in Midsomer Murders. 

Good shops – I bought a jacket and the dh treated himself to a hat – and we had an excellent lunch at the Swan.



Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Away in the Cotswolds



I’ve been off the internet for a few days having ventured into deep country where the Hot Spots don’t reach!

The weather was grey but dry and reasonably warm when we set off from Trowbridge for the Snowshill on Monday. It’s only a couple of hours drive and we bypassed Chippenham, Malmsbury and Circencester.

Mostly we travelled through farmland. Arable crops mostly – this is prime farmland – although was a field with rootling pigs. There was a surreal moment when the hedge disappeared and beyond the wire fencing was an airfield littered with huge aircraft – I’m talking 747s - in what is apparently an aircraft scrapyard.

In villages with names like Bourton-on-the-Water, and Stow-on-the-Wold we caught glimpses of lilac, apple blossom and the last throw of the magnolias behind the traditional stone walls that mark out this part of the country. In the countryside the verges were billowing with cow parsley and red campion and the bluebells are so late this year that they were everywhere.

The green was broken up with huge swathes of the eye-gouging yellow of the rape crop in full flower, a colour so powerful that it was reflected off the low misty clouds.

We’d left home late the morning so that we could stop for lunch and took a slight detour into Lower Slaughter (yes, there is an Upper!) and ate at The Slaughters Country Inn, where we shared a “country platter” and discovered that this part of the world is a favourite with Americans on walking holidays.

An hour later we arrived at Snowshill Manor and the cottage we’d rented for the week. I’ll let the photograph do the talking.

Monday, May 27, 2013

A final kiss...

It's the last week of the release month in the US and Australia for Anything But Vanilla and here is the final kiss...




And it's also available direct from Harlequin US and Harlequin Mills and Boon in Australia and on iTunes, Kobo and Sony - there are links on the sidebar as is Elle's story, Tempted By Trouble.

Monday, May 13, 2013

Anything But Vanilla - the third kiss...

Anything But Vanilla was launched in retail two weeks ago. I'm not sure how many will be left on the shelves in your local Walmart, or in Barnes & Noble - they will have a new set of books to fill the slots by now so you have to be quick.

Thank goodness for the internet, where they'll be available until stocks run out and to download to eReaders while there's a demand.

So much has changed in our book buying habits since I started writing. It used to be the dash to W H Smith (in the UK) to buy the new Mills and Boons on the first Friday in the month when the new titles hit the shelves so that you could be sure to get your favourite authors. Then the numbers of books and series published increased to the point where they split them up and released new books in two batches. I'm not sure if that was more excitement, or just confusion.

The supermarkets got in on the act,  giving women the opportunity to add the treat of a romance to the weekly shop, and taking the place of the corner shops and newsagents that had once stocked the books - although since it was only the bigger branches it meant that some people were no longer able to pick them up since that usually involved a car journey. Always winners and losers - it's been a bumpy ride.

Amazon appeared in our lives and those of us with access to the internet no longer had to hunt the shelves of charity shops to find old backlist books by favourite authors - they could be delivered to the door. It made used books big business - good for readers but hard for publishers, authors and booksellers (who, unlike the big charity bookshops that were opening, actually have to pay rent and staff) and who need readers to buy new books to stay in business. If they aren't making a living there are no new books.

And then the eReaders gave "one-click" a whole new meaning with instant gratification, no waiting joy when a favourite author released a new book. Plus the "try before you buy" first chapter downloads for authors you didn't know, but whose book blurbs intrigued. And adustable print size for those of us whose eyesight has never been great and are deteriorating with age.

Now you can not just read anywhere - on your phone, your tablet - you can buy a book wherever you are and here to tempt you to download that first chapter is another moment from Anything But Vanilla - another #KISSkiss.





And it's also available direct from Harlequin US and Harlequin Mills and Boon in Australia and on iTunes, Kobo and Sony - there are links on the sidebar as is Elle's story, Tempted By Trouble.

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Happy Mother's Day


We've celebrated Mother's Day back in March here in the UK - it's a long story and it's back there in my blog on the day.

Today I wanted to reach out to all of you who will be honouring your mothers on 12 May so I'm sharing photographs of the women who made me - and who I made. :)






I never knew my grandmothers - all I have are their photographs -


Sarah Woodwards


Elizabeth Miles


This my beautiful mother -


Elizabeth Woodwards

 This is me with my daughter


Liz with Amy Elizabeth


And here are her girls, our future -




Cora Rose



Veda Mae


HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!



Thursday, May 02, 2013

Diabetes...

It's May, the month when the romance community and many fabulously generous companies come together to support the Brenda Novak Online Auction for Diabetes Research.

Everyone knows someone who suffers from diabetes. Maybe not the desperate Type 1 which, since last year's auction, has hit the  daughter of an acquaintance. She's six years old and each day she has to inject herself with insulin. Think about that when you check out the absolutely amazing items on offer in this year's auction.

Brenda - whose son has the disease  -  has so far raised a total of $1.6 million through the power of love. This year she's hoping to surpass the $2 million mark.


It doesn't have to cost each of us very much. There are signed books by favourite authors as well as the high cost items.

This year I've donated a Kindle Paperwhite loaded with some of my eBooks - you can bid HERE

And a group of KISS authors have put together a bundle of signed books which you can bid for
HERE  

Romance Bandits

I'm a guest of the Banditas today, over at the Romance Bandits blog where I'm giving away three copies of Anything But Vanilla. Drop by and tell me where you'd like to visit in the UK if you want your name to go into the hat.

And if you're at the RT Convention, do check out Jackie Braun's fabulous writer clothes store.