Sunday, June 30, 2013

I've lost my reading glasses...

...again.

The problem is that I don't know if I've actually lost them, or if they're lurking in some odd corner of the house where I've absent-mindedly put them down.

I've checked the car.

I've rung the dentist because my last memory of them is putting them in my handbag, or maybe a pocket, before going to have a filling replaced this week. I never actually took them out because I arrived ten minutes early (a bit anal about keeping getting to places on time) and the dentist saw me almost immediately (how rare is that) and I was out almost before my appointment time. Anyway, on the offchance I rang, but they weren't there.

They could be in Sainsbury's, crunched to pieces by a passing foot and kicked under a shelving unit. I'll run up there today and check if they've been found. Or maybe I should do a bit of serious housework  Just in case I only thought about putting them in my bag/pocket and they're actually down the back of the sofa (no, really, I've already looked).

The thing is, these were the reading glasses I bought the last time I thought I'd lost a pair. And then found them a week later.

I do have spare pair, slightly weaker, which are supposed to be for the computer. Thank goodness for the Kindle and its adjustable font size.


Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Princes and Sheikhs?

There's something about a sheikh... Or a prince...

They are the ultimate fantasy romance hero. All powerful, rich beyond imagining, men who control kingdoms with the click of a finger, can sweep a woman away not just on a horse, but in his private jet and make her feel like a queen. Men who cannot show the slightest hint of weakness and for whom falling in love is the hardest thing in the world.

Where does a man, who spends his entire life in the spotlight of the public gaze, whose every move is recorded by the paparazzi - or even the man in the street with a mobile phone - get to meet the special one, whether she's princess or PA, showgirl or shop girl? And when he's struck by cupid's dart, how will he know that the woman of his dreams is marrying him rather than his rank, status, wealth?

In such circumstances, the arranged marriage must seem a very attractive option. No doubt about it. Everyone knows what they're getting.

It's easy to see why the sheikh/prince hero makes the romance writer's mouth water. Putting an ordinary girl in his path, challenging everything he believes and watch him lose his heart is irresistible.

My question is this. In this modern day and age does the sheikh/prince hero still appeal? Do younger readers enjoy them? Would they rather have a billionaire tycoon? Or just an ordinary guy - with none of the hassle that a public marriage involves?

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Buy one, get one half price...

I made this new edition of two of my vintage romances

(a) because I love playing with new cover ideas - always happy to hear your opinion on those, btw.

(b) I love offering my readers a good deal. With this two-in-one you buy one and get one at half price and who can resist a bargain? :)

Here's what a few people have said on Amazon about the books -

Old Desires

This is one of Liz's earlier books re-released with a new cover. But the book was certainly not old fashioned in any manner, the author still delivered a stunning romance. I was left with a everlasting impression of love found in unexpected places under rather suspenseful and unnerving circumstances bringing forth a revelation of another kind. Desere - 4.5 stars

Interestingly, the point of view is all Holly's. Unlike many of the romance novels of today, we don't get the male POV. And do you know what? We don't want to either. It's very much Holly's story, and the story of her engagement with the reader. Maria - 4 stars

A Stranger's Kiss


This was a nice story with a no nonsense heroine and a hero who reluctantly comes to her rescue a couple of times . I liked the h/h sparring with each other and I LOVED the ending and I thought that the hero's love for the heroine was shown clearly in his actions . A good read :) .Lily - 4 stars

The perfect curl-up-happily book for a cold, damp winter's day. I hope Liz puts more of her backlist on Kindle for me to enjoy again. J. Jones 5 stars

Here's a link!


Amazon, Canada
Amazon, France
Amazon, Germany

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Following in mother's footsteps...

I read because my mother read. She taught me to read, then she took me to her very special place. Boots Lending Library. They used to have them upstairs in every Boots store in the UK. You paid to borrow books - not much, but my parents didn't have much money - but reading was that important to her.

She paid a few pennies for me to borrow books, too. Going to the library with my Mum was one of those lovely shared moments - the kind that stays with you forever.

My favourite author was Enid Blyton. She wrote fast paced adventure stories with kids taking on the bad guys. She's been out of favour for a long time, but she knew how to make those pages turn.

My mother's favourite was Netta Muskett. It's a name that has never left me. It belongs to those magic few minutes when we browsed the shelves, both hoping to find a book by our favourite author that we hadn't already read. When I joined the Romantic Novelists' Association when I sold my first book, a few months before my mother died, the Netta Muskett Award was still the one to win. The name itself just brings back those precious moments.

I exhausted Boots ability to keep up with my reading and joined the big Public Library and found a whole new range of authors to keep me happy. And by the time I was thirteen I was in the adult library, because, well, I'd grown out of most of the stuff they had on the shelves. YA wasn't a genre in those days, although the last book I remember taking out of the junior library, Jampot Smith, would probably fit into that category.

But back to the adored Netta whose books were, apparently, somewhat risque for her time. Her grandson, James Muskett (@N_Muskettbooks on twitter) and her publishers, are now re-releasing some of her books.

I've downloaded this one - Misadventure -my chance to discover why my mother loved them so much.


Wednesday, June 12, 2013

The Sheikh Who Loved Her

I just love the covers of the Special Editions that Mills and Boon releases - three-in-one collections of bestselling romance for a new audience.

And the company you get to keep!

The fabulous Kate Hardy and Susan Stephens. Just so special.

What we have here, is Ruling Sheikh, Unruly Mistress from Susan Stephens. Proud, curvy and pregnant- the heroine, not Susan!

Surrender to the Playboy Sheikh from Kate Hardy pits Lily French against seductive playboy, Karim.

Her Desert Dream finds lookalike Lydia standing in for a world famous woman and meeting her match in the disinherited Kalil al Zaki.

It's available online now from

Mills and Boon, Australia
Mills and Boon, UK

Her Desert Dream is also available in a single title digital edition in the US



Follow Liz on Twitter @lizfielding
Follow Kate on Twitter @katehardyauthor
Follow Susan on Twitter @Susan_Stephens







Tuesday, June 11, 2013

The garden...

I wish I'd taken some photographs of the garden when we moved in so that you could see how much we've done. We've waiting for some serious summer so that the flowers make a bit of an effort, but this is where we are so far.


This was earlier in the spring. 
The gothic window had just been finished and we'd just started planting.


This was it earlier this week with the honeysuckles about to come into flower.
The rose we plant underneath it is just coming into bud.




And the little standard willow is now in leaf.




The Nelly Moser is just a baby, but she's beginning to put on a show.


And here's the best beloved creating a heart-shaped raised bed for my birthday.


And the finished job. Isn't it gorgeous!

I'm now surrounded by gardening books, planning the planting!

Friday, June 07, 2013

Download Eloping With Emmy free this weekend!



Here we are – freebie Friday (and Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday). At last I can offer you the opportunity to download Eloping With Emmy free to your Kindle – and possibly your phone, or even your computer.

It’s a bit of a relaunch. My first cover, although absolutely lovely, didn’t seem to quite catch the sparkle, the fizz of Emmy and her race through France with Brodie, but one of the joys about having regained the rights to a book and being in total control of production is that if something isn’t working, you can change it.

The thing about Eloping With Emmy is that it’s a true romcom. As I was writing it, it played out like a movie in my head — and if anyone would like to turn it into a movie, well do get in touch! Do pitch in with ideas for who should play the leads!

Meanwhile, Emmy is stuck on a road trip with Brodie, a man who’s intent of putting a stop to her plans. A man she is deeply attracted to, which is awkward since she’s supposed to eloping with dear, sweet Kit, a pennyless artist. Dear, sweet Kit, who it's vital she convinces Brodie she’s determined to marry.

She’s smart, but Brodie's smarter and having made the mistake of aiding her getaway, he’s not about to repeat his error. If she's eloping, he's going with her. All the way.

Here are the links – just one click and the book will be on your reading device before you can say Jack Robinson. And, if you enjoy it, Emmy would be thrilled if you’d tweet about her, or share on facebook, or just about anywhere to be honest.




Also available in English in 

 Canada
 Germany
 France
 Italy

What people are saying about Eloping With Emmy ...

"I caught myself thinking half way through the book this is like a madcap comedy with Cary Grant in the lead... only to have the hero think the exact same thing within the next 2 pages. One for the keeper shelf."

   

5 stars, Amazon Review

"Wow!  The story was so well written, the characters came alive and everyone knows an "Emmy". The twists were well planned and the dialogue vibrant and cleverly written.  Highly recommended, it's one of the best books I've read in a long time."
Smashwords, janebaylis1979

"...non-stop action with dynamic scenes and vivid characterization."

  

Romantic Times



I've been a Liz Fielding fan for years now and she never disappoints. Eloping with Emmy has all her trademark wit and original plotlines and it fizzes along like a vintage 50s rom com yet - has an undercurrent of heartfelt emotion.

5 stars, Amazon Review

Thursday, June 06, 2013

It Happened One Night...

I'm delighted to introduce Phillipa Ashley's latest book - It Happened One Night, published in ebook format by Piatkus Entice on June 6.



Here's the blurb -

Sophie McBride has been in love with Adam Templar for as long as she can remember. Talented, brilliant and sexy, he shines like the sun over the tiny Lakeland village where she's grown up. Now, at eighteen, she has her own big ideas and what's more, Adam is home from university and has finally noticed her . . . really noticed her. When he asks her to a party, she dares to hope that all her dreams can come true, but what happens that night sets off a chain of events that bring heartbreak for Sophie - and lead to Adam leaving Langmere under the darkest of clouds.

Ten years later, no one is more shocked than Sophie to find him back in the village. Now an up-and-coming film director, he's returned to make a drama about a notorious local poet and brought his glamorous cast, crew - and girlfriend - with him. As the on-screen drama plays out, can Sophie and Adam lay the past to rest or will history repeat itself?

Here's an excerpt -

21 year old Adam Templar has finally made 18 year old Sophie McBride’s young life complete and asked her to spend the night with him at his younger sister’s birthday party – where he’s supposed to be in charge…
                                                                                                                 
Adam emerged from the en suite, hurriedly buttoning up his Levis, “I have to go downstairs and make sure no one’s been killed in the past half-hour,” he said, shrugging on his T-shirt. “You stay here.”
“What, in bed?” asked Sophie, knowing exactly what he meant but wanting to hear him say it because it turned her on.
 “Yes, in bed. Where else? You don’t think I’m wasting the fruits of the Bell’s condom machine, do you?” He sat down on the bed next to her, tilting her chin up in the cradle of his fingers. “This is going to sound crazy but I want you to know something. I didn’t just get you up here for a shag. I mean, of course I got you up here for a shag but I also want you know that this has meant more to me than a one-night stand.” He smiled and she held her breath. “Or even a two-shag stand. The truth is I’d like to see you again over what’s left of the summer.”
And then what? She wanted him to carry on. What would happen after the summer? She wanted so much more than a one-night stand too, no matter how much she’d convinced herself that having sex with him would be enough. Over the past few hours, hopes and expectations had somehow stolen into the room, no matter how hard she’d tried to keep them out.
“I’d like to see you too,” she said, marveling at how calm she sounded, while wanting to explode with happiness.
“Good. That’s great but . . . the thing is that, in a few months, we’ll both have to go away and it’s going to be bloody miserable and I don’t know how to fix that.”
She waited for him to carry on, hoping that he’d suddenly come up with some way to “fix it” and say they could carry on seeing each other once they were at university. She hoped he would say that he would drive up to her uni from Oxford every Friday or that she could come down on the train to his college. That he’d like her to meet his friends and wander the ivy-clad quads with his arm around her and that afterwards they could make love in his rooms all night, but he stayed silent and pushed back her wayward hair from her face in a way that Sophie should have found tender but instead found disappointing. She realised that he probably wasn’t going to offer to do any of those things – not tonight anyway but maybe, she thought, he might at the end of summer when they knew each other better.
“Then don’t worry. Let’s empty the machine at the pub and have a good time,” Sophie said brightly, hoping it was what he wanted to hear.
As if to remind them both, there were loud shrieks from outside in the garden.
 “You’re right of course. We should just enjoy now, but we both know it’s not going to be that simple.”
He smiled. She wasn’t sure if he was relieved or not, but he seemed happier.
The music ramped up a notch and the floor of the room felt as if it was throbbing. The shrieks and screeches grew in volume. It sounded as if the whole of Langmere was out in the garden, which was probably almost true.
“Adam!” A girl’s voice screamed through the door.
‘For God’s sake. What now?’
There was hammering on the door. “Adam! Open the door!”
“Wait a minute!”
The door flew open and Tarnyah dashed into the room. Sophie dived under the sheets as Adam swore loudly. “Get out!”
Before Sophie had time to expect the girl to giggle or point or shriek in embarrassment at finding her and Adam half naked, Tarnyah started shouting. “They’re in the lake. They’re in the lake. Come quick.” 



For more information check out Phillipa's website
Follow her on Twitter @PhillipaAshley
Like her on Facebook

Wednesday, June 05, 2013

Cotswolds - Day 3



Day three of our visit to the Cotswold and it was still grey but, with the hint of sun lurking behind the cloud layer, we set off for the Falconry Centre at Chipping Camden. 

The birds were just amazing and the talk by the expert was enlightening. Birds, it seems, do not fly for fun, only necessity – food and to escape danger. It’s pretty obvious if you think about it. I suppose it’s because we’re earthbound that it looks so thrilling. The sad truth is that half of them die of starvation in the first year of their life.

Their enclosures were large and full of natural plant life and birds were all looking glossy and gorgeous and it was lovely to see again some that were familiar from the time we spent in Africa. The last time I saw a Secretary Bird it was walking alongside the runway at Bulawayo Airport!

The flying displays were thrilling, but everyone  lost their heart to the tiny burrowing owl from South America. Flint didn’t fly much, but he ran brilliantly. :) He’s only a few months old but has already played a stunt-double for a natural history film to be shown in the late autumn. They do close ups in the studio using a blue screen. It’s cheaper, and less dangerous than filming in the wild.

We had lunch in the Arboretum, although contented ourselves with looking at the trees from a distance since the dodgy knee was not feeling up to the trek.

In the afternoon we had a walk around Snowshill Manor which is just opposite our cottage. 

Unfortunately it involved a walk of close to a mile to actually get to the front door which the knee did not appreciate, but it was worth it. 

Charles Wade never lived in the house – he bought it to house the collection of objet d’art and “stuff” that he began when he was seven years old.

He was clearly fascinated by Japan. There are stunning lacquered cabinets stuffed with pretty things, and Samurai armour. There were bicycles of every age, from the ubiquitous penny farthing onwards. Toys, models, sedan chairs and navigational equipment.

There was a dovecote (and doves) and charming gardens. Sadly his costume collection is on loan to Leominster Museum at the moment, although there were a couple of very pretty Regency dresses.

Monday, June 03, 2013

FREEBIE FRIDAY!



Stand by everyone!

Put it in your diary, tweet the news, share it on Facebook, tell your friends, tell everyone that Eloping With Emmy - in it's sassy new cover - will be going free for the very first time at Amazon on 7th June for 5 days. 

All you have to do is one-click and it will be on your Kindle in a flash.

Here’s a taster –

Her palm collided with the tight muscle of his chest but it did nothing to impede his progress and as the warmth of his body seeped into her through her hand, along her arm until her entire body seemed to be heating up from within, her fingers closed over his t-shirt, bunching it in her fist, holding it tight.
'Joking?' he enquired, softly.
For a moment she thought she had a chance and opened her mouth to reinforce her contention. But he stroked the back of his long slender fingers slowly and gently from her throat to her chin, mesmerising her with his touch and a delicious languor stole through her body as he captured her chin. Then he began to trace a slow, sensuous line across her bottom lip with the tip of his thumb.
It was like that moment in the car when he had so nearly kissed her. When she had, for one crazy moment, wanted him to kiss her more than anything else in the world. She still did and when she saw the reflection of her own heart in his eyes, Emerald Carlisle trembled.
'What is there to joke about, Emmy?' he finally asked her, his voice no longer diamond bright, but soft, like cobwebs tearing.

I’ll remind you on Friday!