We have winners!

Thanks everyone for making my lovely guest, Anna Campbell, so welcome.

Winners have been picked and May has won a copy of DAYS OF RAKES AND ROSES and Princess Fiona has won THESE HAUNTED HEARTS. Will you please email Anna at anna@annacampbell.info to let her know what format you'd like the book in.

And here are links for everyone else who, like me, can't wait to read the books. 

Revelling in a Reunion!

It's so fun to welcome back, the fabulous Anna Campbell to my blog.

Last year I just lapped up The Winter Wife and I can't wait to get my hands on a download of Days of Rakes and Roses (I'm having cover and title envy!) Love me a good rake! :) 

But here's Anna to tell you all about it.

Hi Liz! Thank you so much for having me on your blog. As you know, I ADORE your books so this is a real treat for me. Speaking of treats, how good was ANYTHING BUT VANILLA? About as good as ice-cream (I’m on an ice-cream kick at the moment which makes my tastebuds happy and my hips cranky!). 

I’m visiting today to talk about my brand-new e-novella (available in North America only at present, although we’re working on other territories) DAYS OF RAKES AND ROSES which is out today from Grand Central Forever Yours.

You can read the blurb and an excerpt here

There’s a lot of things I like about this story.

The cover! Seriously, isn’t that gorgeous? Love the pink and the roses! 

The fact that it’s billed as 1.5 in the Sons of Sin series. Kind of like it’s a teenager! 

The fact that I got to play with a couple of the characters out of the rest of the series like Camden Rothermere and Sir Richard Harmsworth.

It’s only 99 cents! Seriously, that’s a bargain! 

The fact that it’s a reunion story. 

I love reunion stories. Do you? I love the way they give a couple a second chance at love when circumstances were against them first time around. I love seeing the hero and heroine recognise the mistakes of the past and with the benefit of time and wisdom, do things better. I love the awww factor at the end of a good reunion story when a couple always meant to be together finally gets their act into gear. 

While I love to read reunion stories, up until my e-novella DAYS OF RAKES AND ROSES, I’d only written one, a short novella called THE WINTER WIFE http://annacampbell.info/winterwife.html which I released last Christmas. The reunion was a theme I decided I wanted to return to. 

Lady Lydia Rothermere and Simon Metcalf are childhood sweethearts. The problem is that Lydia is the daughter of the powerful Duke of Sedgemoor and Simon is the penniless younger son of a mere knight. When Lydia’s father catches Simon and Lydia in a compromising position, he exiles Simon to the Continent and shames Lydia into a lifetime of toeing the line. 

Cue ten years later. Lydia is about to marry a rising political star Sir Berwick Grenville when, after a decade of no contact, Simon returns, determined to disrupt her engagement. Scandal has always dogged the Rothermere family and Lydia refuses to set tongues wagging by running after Simon. She also baulks at jilting an honourable man for someone who abandoned her and has since gained a Europe-wide reputation as a rake and vagabond.

But the passion she felt for Simon has never died. Duty versus desire? Which will win? And what events will tip the balance either way? 

Yeah, I think you can guess the outcome. But with these stories, it’s the journey that counts, isn’t it? And I loved both these characters. Lydia is SOOOO determined to do the right thing and Simon is SOOOO determined that he’s not going to surrender the love of his life for the second time. 

So are you a fan of reunion stories? Do you have any favourites? Why do you think reunion stories are so perennially popular in romancelandia? 

I’ve got a download of DAYS OF RAKES AND ROSES for a North American commenter and a download of my e-novella THESE HAUNTED HEARTS for someone from outside North America to give away today.

Please let me know where you’re based when you comment! Good luck! 



Follow Anna on Twitter at  @AnnaCampbelloz 
Like her on Facebook at  https://www.facebook.com/annacampbell.writer
Visit her webpage at http://www.annacampbell.info/

The Winter Wife - winner!

Thanks everyone for dropping by and taking part in the celebrations with Anna Campbell this week. It was great fun and there will be more guests during the month - and a chance to download Old Desires free next week - so if you have a moment during this crazy month, do drop by again.

The name drawn out of the magic hat is Angie Malone. Angie could you please contact Anna at anna at annacampbell dot info and she'll arrange for you to get your prize, a download of truly lovely The Winter Wife.

Next up - BABY IT'S COLD OUTSIDE!

The Winter Wife

This December is very special for me. It's twenty years this month when my first book, An Image of You, was published and I'm going to be celebrating. Later in the month there will be a gift for all my readers and supporters, but I'm also going to have fun talking about some fabulous Christmas books by authors who have become friends over the years - authors whose work I love. Today I'm thrilled to have as my guest, the wonderful Anna Campbell.

Anna writes amazing historical novels that keep me totally captivated and her latest full length book, Seven Nights in the Rogue's Bed is sitting on top of my tbr pile right now!

But it's Christmas, so she's here to tell you about a fabulous Christmas novella, The Winter Wife, that is hot from cyberspace!

That lovely cover is just calling out to me!

Liz, huge congratulations on your 20^th anniversary. Thank you for having me as your guest today.

I can’t begin to tell you how much reading pleasure you’ve given me with your beautiful love stories. You’ve made me cry too! And laugh! And sigh. And swoon. And close the book with that unique satisfaction that only a perfect romance novel can deliver. Anyone who picks up one of your books is in for a real treat (which lures me to mention one of my particular favourites of yours – TEMPTED BY TROUBLE, the ice-cream truck book, delicious as pistachio gelato!). Here’s to the next 20 years!

I’m nowhere near the seasoned veteran of romance writing that Liz is, but December 2012 marks a bit of a milestone for me. I’m dipping my toe into the indie publishing pond with a Christmas-themed historical novella called THE WINTER WIFE.

THE WINTER WIFE is an expanded version of a long short story that I wrote a couple of years ago for THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF REGENCY ROMANCE. I’d always wanted to revisit the characters and give them a bit more breathing room without the length restrictions that the Mammoth people necessarily have to apply.

This was also my first reunion story, which is a theme I love in romances (and it’s a theme Liz handles beautifully!). Added to which I’d missed a major opportunity first time round – the original was set on a snowy evening in Yorkshire in December and I’ve always wanted to write a Christmas story. Transforming “Upon a Midnight Clear” into THE WINTER WIFE allowed me to set the story on Christmas Eve – what better date to choose for a story about forgiveness, reconciliation, new beginnings and lost love found?

Here’s the blurb:

Will a chance meeting on Christmas Eve…

Alicia Sinclair, Countess of Kinvarra, cannot believe that fate has been so cruel as to strand her on the snowy Yorkshire moors with her estranged husband as her only hope of rescue. During their rare encounters, the arrogant earl and his countess act like hostile strangers. Now that Alicia has fallen into Kinvarra’s power, will he seek revenge for her desertion? Or does the dark, passionate man she once adored have entirely different plans for his headstrong wife?

..deliver a second chance at love?

Sebastian Sinclair, Earl of Kinvarra, has spent ten wretched years regretting the mistakes he made with his young bride, but after long separation, the barriers between them are insurmountable. Until an unexpected encounter one stormy night makes him wonder if the barriers of mistrust and thwarted desire are so insurmountable after all. When winter weather traps Sebastian and his proud, lovely wife in an isolated inn, could the earl and his headstrong countess have a Christmas miracle in store?

You can read an excerpt on my website here

THE WINTER WIFE is available at all good e-book sellers, including Amazon

So are you a fan of Christmas romances? Or is it bah humbug all the way to the turkey table for you? Do you have any favourite Christmas romances? I’ve got a download of THE WINTER WIFE, a Christmas novella, for one commenter today.

Good luck! And wishing you all the joy of the season!

PARTY TIME!

Welcome! Choose the cocktail of your choice from the barman, draw up a lap and sit down, we're about to party!

It's been twenty years since the day I signed my first contract with Mills and Boon for a book called AN IMAGE OF YOU - and two other titles.  An awful lot has happened in that time.

We've built a house. The kids grew up, went to university, flew the nest. My daughter got married and made me a grandmother and my son had a book of his own published.

And of course I've written sixty books for Mills and Boon - #60 is FLIRTING WITH ITALIAN out in December - and another three for someone else.  That's a lot to celebrate.

Writer friends will be dropping by to help me celebrate this week.  They're bringing along some good looking men to help the party go with a swing, and have books to give away as door prizes, so when you can stop ogling the pecs, leave a comment so that you name can go into the draw.

Meanwhile, my fellow author and webmistress, Ally Blake, has raided her own stash of fit blokes to serve our every whim.

Olive, anyone?

Don't all rush, now. There are plenty more where that came from!

But now to the guests.  Ally will be back later in the week with her latest book, but first to drop by is -

- the lovely Anna Campbell and she's brought a wicked English rake to the party.

He's London’s most notorious seducer, Nicholas Challoner, who lives solely for revenge…

The dashing, licentious Marquess of Ranelaw can never forgive Godfrey Demarest for ruining his sister—now the time has come to repay the villain in the same coin. But one formidably intriguing impediment stands in the way of Nicholas’s vengeance: Miss Antonia Smith, companion to his foe’s unsuspecting daughter.

Having herself been deceived and disgraced by a rogue—banished by her privileged family as a result and forced to live a lie—Antonia vows to protect her charge from the same cruel fate. She recognizes Ranelaw for the shameless blackguard he is, and will devote every ounce of her intelligence and resolve to thwarting him.

Yet Antonia has always had a fatal weakness for rakes…


I have read this book and believe me, she has a fight on her hands!

Anna has three copies of Midnight's Wild Passion to give away.  

So here we have a game of truth, dare, kiss, promise... To win a copy of this book, I dare you tell me your secret passion. 

And while you're thinking about that, here's another of Ally's butlers in the buff with a jug of delicious fruit punch - livened with a touch of something naughty, to cool you down.

 Okay? Glass in hand, a little blini to stave off the hunger pangs.  Here's Nicola Marsh joining the party with her man of the moment, the utterly delicious Rob Lowe.

I asked Nicola about her new book GIRL IN A VINTAGE DRESS and she told me that the idea was originally sparked by an article in a Sunday newspaper magazine on retro charm schools. 

"Lola Lombard strutted onto the blank pages fully formed and I didn't look back.  Of course, I had to pit her against a hero her opposite in every way to ensure guaranteed sparks and a pic of Rob Lowe in a business suit fitted the bill.  Mind you, having to research loads and loads of Rob Lowe pics once I’d cast him was no hardship either!

I can't argue with that, and if you aren't lucky enough to win a copy of Nicola's Girl in a Vintage Dress here, you can win it as part of her 7 book giveaway at
http://nicolamarsh.blogspot.com/2011/07/prize-pack-giveaway.html

Meanwhile, tell me about a dress that you once owned that still makes your heart beat faster. That you wish was still in your wardrobe. And why it holds such special memories. Only the truth now!

I'm also delighted to welcome my RIVA/Harlequin Romance colleague, the witty, wonderfully emotional author, Jessica Hart   Jessica is not only a fabulous writer, but she's a great teacher, too. She regularly teaches hopeful authors in the lovely Tuscan countryside, and last year mentored writers in Mills and Boon's New Voices competition.

She has volunteered Kevin Costner as a butler, so order yourself up a Martini or two!

And she's offering a copy of her latest Harlequin Romance, The Secret Princess, as a door prize today.  It's bang up to the minute with its royal wedding theme and you won't want to miss it, I promise you.


For a chance to win, all you have to do is tell her who you'd choose as your Prince Charming!  Be honest, now. And husbands and partners do not count!


 And come back tomorrow when I'll have more guests, more books, more gorgeous men.

KATE WALKER

I’m reading one of Kate Walker’s wonderful Harlequin Mills & Boon Modern romances at the moment.  The Konstantos Marriage Demand had somehow slipped behind my teetering tbr pile and, as always, it delivers on her emotional, sexually charged promise.

But I’m not talking about Kate Walker the romance author today, but Kate Walker who has done so much to teach new writers about the craft of writing a page turning romance.

Her impromptu, generous masterclass posts on the art and craft of writing at the eHarlequin community have won her an enormous following. Her workshops at conferences, at Caerleon and Fishguard are sell out occasions. But you don’t have to travel to Wales to get the benefit of her wisdom and experience.

Her fabulous book, Kate Walker’s Kate Walker's 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance, has just made it into its third edition and I have a copy, hot off the press, to give away to one lucky visitor to my blog this week.

The 12 Point Guide is packed with the essentials that every writer needs.

• How to write emotion
• Why dialogue is the lifeblood of your novel
• Sensuality
• Discovering the vulnerability of your hero
• Pace
• Digging down to the vital “black” moment
• Creating the essential PTQ – page turning quality

Since this a book for writers, for a chance to win the copy sitting on my desk I’m asking you to share a quote from your own writing – maximum 100 words! This isn’t a writing contest – I’m not judging, the winner will be drawn from a hat — but it never hurts to get your work read.

And I’ll add a copy of Mistletoe & the Lost Stiletto to the prize – or another book from my backlist if you’ve already read that one.

Off you go!

“Liz is the biz!” It has to be true, Anna Campbell said so.