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 7^th 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!

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  

Christmas is coming...

WINNER! Janet has won Michelle Douglas's The Nanny Who Saved Christmas. Get in touch, Janet and we'll get the book to you! 

Christmas is getting out of hand. My grocery order is now going to need a supermarket truck of its own. There is a pile of pressies on the dining room table for the grandbabies waiting to wrapped. The sun has taken the week off so my solar lights are not doing very much at all and I forgot to order to wholegrain mustard. Again.

But the decs are up, the tree is twinkling festively, the carol singers are on their rounds tonight and tomorrow - I hope the rain lets up for them - and I've finally found my electric can opener. (Moving home takes longer than you would think!)

Now if I can think of some exciting little extra to pop under the tree for the s-i-l (one of the world's least acquisitive souls) my work here will be done.

Meanwhile, here are some announcements.

First, thank you all so much for making the launch of Old Desires such a success. Thanks to all your blogging, reviews, tweets and FB support, it went zinging into the top ten on both sides of the Atlantic and even made a bit of an impression in Europe, where eBooks are still rarer than hen's teeth.

I hope you all managed to download it free, but it's still a steal.

At the moment there's a daily Under the Christmas Tree feature on the Harlequin Romance Author's blog, which is worth a look, if only to wonder at Shirley Jump's 12 ft tree. Of course there are books to be won!

There's Lucky Love a new "Love" book from Nicola Marsh for those of you who fell in love with Crazy Love earlier this year.


Sadly, the Riva series hit a bump in the road  and The Last Woman He'd Ever Date never got it's scheduled paper release in the UK, but the New Year will bring the launch of KISS in the US, which is where you'll find Anything But Vanilla in May. Have you downloaded Mira Lyn Kelly's Waking Up Married? It's free, but only available in the US, sadly. PW raved about it.

I don't have any more guests before Christmas, but there will be one last not-to-be-missed gift for you all as the year ends and 2013 rings in. It'll be here for you to pick up on 28 December so make a note in your diary. You won't want to miss it.

Oh, and if writing romance is on your list of New Year resolutions, don't forget to put a copy of Liz Fielding Little Book of Writing Romance on your Christmas list.

Summer Giveaway!

A copy of my ebook edition of Eloping With Emmy is up for grabs during the SummerRomance Festival running from 25th June to 31st July.

There are two hundred books on offer so do join in the fun. And to keep up with the news of the Festival follow @Freado on twitter.



I'm also in the Spotlight over at Harlequin Romance Junkie today talking about beginnings and that sometimes your characters will tell you that where you think a story begins is way off beam.

Everyone who leaves a comment will go into the "Rafflecopter" for a copy of The Last Woman He'd Ever Date!

Back to Front

There was a time when a romance author’s backlist was something that gathered dust in the publishers attic. Occasionally, a favourite would be dusted off and reissued in an anthology, but after the first round of publication in the US, UK, Australia and around the world, most of the books only saw the light of day in three-in-one reissues in places like Lithuania unless an author moved into mainstream and hit the New York Times bestseller list.

Authors like Tess Gerritsen, Nora Roberts and Jennifer Crusie then found their romances dusted off and published in fancy new covers, annoying the heck out of their new readers who thought they were buying a mainstream Tess, or Nora, or Jennifer, but making everyone a lot of money. Including the authors.

Suddenly, however, the backlist is no longer in the back room.

With the wild success of the eBook — something everyone said would never happen — they are hot property. Many of my earlier books were digitised a couple of years ago by Harlequin when eBooks were just beginning to take off and they were testing the waters. And then the Kindle and Nook arrived and my reading life changed forever. A book at the press of a button, any size print I want. It’s an obsessive reader’s (one with dodgy eyesight) dream. But… but… While it’s great that those books are out there for the readers who missed them the first time around, how I would have loved to give them a make-over, bring them up to date, freshen the writing to reflect twenty years of experience.

Then Amazon gave us KDP and the world changed again. Now I’m not just an author, but a publisher, too.

Last year I dug out the Beaumont Brides trilogy, longer romances written for a British publisher in 1996/7 and gave them a new lease of life. It was a steep learning experience and earlier this year, after re-editing them and giving them to a new “clever clogs” to format them for me, I republished them all, along with a three-in-one volume containing all three books. The first of the individual volumes, Wild Justice, is free, so it will cost you about the same whether you prefer individual downloads or the big one — 300,000 words for $4.99.

Out of the sixty books I have written for Harlequin, just four titles have reverted to me and those are getting that lovely makeover. New covers — oh, the joys and frustration of hunting for the perfect image! — an update, if appropriate, to take note of modern technology, changes in currency in Europe, the fact that the Eurostar no longer leaves London from Waterloo, but St Pancras (I’ve been on it, and it’s fabulous!)

The first of these, Eloping With Emmy, was published this month and will cost you less to download now, at $2.99, than it would have done to buy it as a paperback in 1998 ($3.50). That is a serious bargain.

I’ll be following it with Old Desires in a month or two. The cover is done (here’s a peek), but I can’t get stuck into the serious editing until I have the book I’m writing off my desk. And moved house.

And of course, the icing on the cake, was the chance to put together everything I’ve learned in my twenty year career and pass it on to a new generation of authors in Liz Fielding’s Little Book of Writing Romance.

It’s a new world out there and I am embracing it with both arms.

ELOPING WITH EMMY

Long ago and far away, hot on the heels of the Beaumont Brides trilogy, I wrote my first book for Mills and Boon with dual viewpoint.

I didn't talk to my editor about it first, I just found myself starting the book with Tom Brodie, my hero, sitting across the desk from a man he disliked, wishing he was having dinner with the silver-blonde barrister with whom he'd been playing kiss-chase for weeks.

Upstairs, Emerald Carlisle, the man's wayward daughter, was having an equally bad day, but she wasn't taking it lying down.

It's the beginning of a roller-coaster romcom road book inspired by "It Happened One Night", but more akin to a Cary Grant/Katherine Hepburn comedy. Smart girl doing whatever it takes to keep one step ahead of equally smart guy.

I had the best fun writing it. I hope you'll have fun reading it. 

Here's a clip of ELOPING WITH EMMY:

‘I’ll expect to hear from you within twenty-four hours that this matter has been settled, Brodie,’ Carlisle said, as he walked with him down the steps. ‘I want no delay.’ 

      Brodie considered whether to mention the possibility that the lovebirds might already have flown, probably to one of those romantic destinations where weddings could be arranged in a matter of days, in which case it was already too late. But as they reached the bottom of the steps he decided against it.

     What clinched it was the sight of Emerald Carlisle, her dress hitched up about her waist, clinging just above head height to an ornate lead drainpipe about twenty feet behind Gerald Carlisle’s back.

     Brodie knew that he should draw his client’s attention to what was happening behind him. Something stopped him. It might have been a pair of large pleading eyes. Or the deliciously long legs wrapped about the drainpipe. Or even, heaven forbid, the glimpse of something white and lacy peeping from beneath her tucked up dress.

     Or maybe it was just simple distaste that any father could conceive of locking up a fully grown woman simply because her idea of what made a good husband did not coincide with his own.

     Whatever it was he decided to take Carlisle at his word. Emerald Carlisle, he had been told, was no concern of his. And when the girl let go of the pipe with one hand and urged him, with an unmistakable gesture that left her swinging in the most perilous fashion above a well-tended rose border, to get her father inside the house, he didn’t hesitate.

     Patting at his jacket pocket he turned and headed back up the steps. ‘I think I left my car keys on your desk, sir.’ The “sir” almost choked him

Eloping With Emmy has now been released as an eBook on Kindle and at Smashwords and you can download it now at a special introductory price.

It'll take a few days for it to work it's way onto the Nook/Sony/iTunes platforms, but it will be there soon.

SIX SENTENCE SUNDAY

It's that time of the week again - Six Sentence Sunday - and this week I've chosen six sentences from the third of my Beaumont Brides trilogy - WILD FIRE.

His touch was like summer lightning, wild fire that ran between them and as he continued to hold onto her hand, his eyes too seemed to heat from within.

They were not, as she had first thought, a steely grey, but were flecked with warm gold lights that seemed to bore into her very soul and for a moment she was certain that he felt the same charge of excitement. Then steeply hooded lids came down, cloaking his feelings.

'Guard it with your life, Melanie.'

The key was warm from his body, but his hands were cool. Long, slender fingers wrapped around her warm hand and the warmer key. Hidden layers of heat, like the hidden layers of meaning she sensed behind everything he said. 


If you want to read more, there are links for the Kindle, Nook and any other reading device (including your PC - so handy for a secret read when you should be working!) on the sidebar.


And for more details about Six Sentence Sunday click here

The nights are drawing in, there's a nip in the air so obviously it's time to get out the knitting that's lain abandoned in a basket in a corner of the sitting room since the clocks went forward at the end of March.

I hadn't knitted in years. Who had? But then I kept seeing books with knitting heroines and I remembered the pleasure of it. I used to love knitting. But still I didn't actually hunt out my pins. But then my lovely granddaughter arrived and I found myself walking into the wool shop in the Arcade and drooling over the patterns, the yarn.

It was a whole new world. No longer were baby clothes restricted to white, pink, blue or yellow. Babies wore strange and beautiful colours. Yarn was gorgeously soft Cashmerino I went knitting crazy for a while, but then the days grew longer, the garden called and projects languished.

There's the panda jumper I'm making for my granddaughter.

The shrug for my daughter (a really difficult pattern and I don't think that is going to ever get finished. And there's a pile of patterns and wool that I bought in a rush of enthusiasm.

Would she like this cupcake hat?


She does love a hat.




Or what about this frog outfit?

Probably not. She's not a baby any more, but a a little lady. Time for that ballet cross-over I think.

Yay, to the end of the wip and hooray for knitting!

SIX SENTENCE SUNDAY

For this week's SSS - for more details see here, I've dipped into the first of my BEAUMONT BRIDES trilogy, WILD JUSTICE.  It has a revenge plot, old secrets, new secrets and a heroine determined to take back control of her life from the man whose mission in life is to destroy it.

      Fizz. God, but how it suited her. Best kept chilled - inclined to erupt when shaken.
     The thought of making love in a four-poster bed had been simmering in her head, fanning the damped down fire. Her deliberate lack of interest had alerted him and he had known then that he would take her there; that she wouldn't, in the end, be able to resist the romance of it.
     But while he had thought to melt the ice a little, it seemed that unwittingly he had used a blow torch because now she had said the words, there was no way of taking them back.

Recently re-released as an eBook with this exciting new cover, you can download it for free from Amazon UK, Smashwords, Nook. It will cost you all of 99c from Amazon US.  Links on the sidebar.

Have a lovely day!

cafe du jour

Today I'm celebrating the Kindle publication of CAFE DU JOUR, a book that I featured on my blog a couple of years ago. It was originally published by Mira's Australian office and the paper version didn't make it to the US or UK, which considering Lillian hasn't written more than 100 books and has a world-wide fan base, seems a little short-sighted. (I had my copy sent from Australia!)

Now, however, thanks to the wonders of the digital age, Cafe Du Jour is an eBook and you can read wherever you are.

The is from my original blog...




I can't actually remember the first time I met Lilian Darcy.

It was certainly in America. Washington or Denver, at one of those terrific Mills & Boon pizza parties that have become a legendary part of the Wednesday night of the RWA conferences when, after the literacy book signing, colleagues from all over the world gather, usually in Sandra Marton's room, for pizza and gossip.

I do remember her in Denver, though. Harlequin threw a rock n' party with an "Elvis" singer and Lilian grabbed me and said "let's dance" and golly, did we dance!

Today, in Australia, Lilian is launching her "book of the heart", a single title called CAFE DU JOUR, published by MIRA, and I wish, more than anything, that I could be there with her to celebrate its publication, but since that isn't possible, I'm doing the next best thing and having my own personal launch here on my blog.

Here's Lilian herself to tell you about her book: -

There's a lot of good writing in popular women's fiction, actually, which is why it frustrates me that we get so little positive attention in the media. If you're just a regular reader who reads whatever she wants to and browses a whole variety of racks in the bookstore you may not realise this, but there's a huge gulf between literary fiction writers and popular fiction writers, and I really wish it wasn't there. I think there's a fertile middle ground where the two groups could connect and learn from each other and in the process produce books that give the warm, powerful and pacy stories that romance readers love as well as the richness of some deeper themes and observations that we sometimes don't have space for in romance.

In celebration of this middle ground, and of bridging the gap between literary and popular fiction, I'm thrilled that my upcoming novel "Café du Jour" is going to be launched by one of Australia's best-known literary fiction writers, Roger McDonald. He won the Miles Franklin Award in 2006 for his novel "The Ballad of Desmond Kale" which is full of his usual rich, tumbling language and cavalcade of characters that somehow manage to be exotic yet quintessenetially Australian at the same time. (Hm. I suppose Australian *is* exotic to many people!)

"Café du Jour" itself falls into the middle ground between popular and literary fiction, I think, with its mix of sadness and quirkiness, happy endings and unfinished journeys. It was originally slated for publication by another publisher and was given to Roger for editing. His valuable insights provided the basis for the next draft, but then the publisher closed up the imprint and the book went homeless for years. Several more major drafts later, it is finally coming out, and because of its long incubation it is a book that remains particularly close to my heart, and is different in many ways from anything I've published before.

On that note - being different - I'd like to challenge all of Liz's blog readers to try something different in your reading this month. Yes, we all love to turn to our favourite authors for time out or stress relief or guilty pleasure or inspiration, but there are so many writers out there whom we don't take the time to discover. If you're up for a reading adventure, go into a bookstore and try something new. Choose a book on the strength of a cover that grabs you by the collar as soon as you look at it, or on the strength of the author's unusual name. Choose a book because you've never bought one from that rack before, or pick a random colour and buy the first book of that colour that you see. Close your eyes and just reach out to the shelf. Okay, I'll let you have a few trial runs at this. You're allowed to read the back cover blurb or the first page and put it back if it sounds really awful!

Yes, there are some really awful books out there. They're scattered all over the bookstore, masquerading behind great covers, famous names, rave reviews. And the books that I might think are awful, you might think are great. Ultimately, the thing I most want to celebrate is that, whether we're writers or readers, there is room for all of us.

...

Amen to that, Lillian!

Thank you!

A big thank you to everyone who bid on Pink Society items at the Brenda Novak auction.  The Kindle and book bundle donated by the Harlequin Romance authors made $340, which is amazing and the Pink Society tote bag filled with books, the critiques and the all the books and jewellery on offer made it a real success.  Brenda's son suffers with the really tough version of this terrible affliction, but the dh has Type 2, so it's a cause close to my own heart.

Here's hoping the money raised this year - along with the $1 million dollars already raised by Brenda's efforts and the generosity of the romance community - will go a long way towards finding a cure.

Meanwhile, do you like that cute lolly pin?  I've just treated myself and will be wearing it at the RNA Conference in July!

I've been sending out loads of books to winners in the last week or two, I hope they all arrive safely.  There are still one or two people who haven't contacted me with their snail mail addy, so do check to make sure you're not one of them.

I'll be back next week with Ask the Author 2:  What Comes First - Character Or Plot?

PS - I've just been taking a look at my Clustr Map to see where you all are before this years stats are archived and I start with a clean world, so to speak.  Lots and lots of new visitors this year - welcome to you all; it's lovely to get to know you.  But I couldn't help noticing that I'd had a couple of visits from the Maldives.  You don't think ... no ... that couldn't be the new Duchess of Cambridge...  Could Kate Middleton have read The Ordinary Princess?  I can dream. :)



 

THE TEMP & THE TYCOON

"Bestselling romance titles include a number from British publishers such as Mills & Boon whose 'The Temp and the Tycoon' is one of the most downloaded Romance novels to date."  Daily Telegraph, 5 March 2011

Writing in the DAILY TELEGRAPH on Saturday, Richard Alleyne reported a boom for Mills and Boon in the eReader market. Clearly, Mr Alleyne isn't a romance reader since he suggests that this is because women are less embarrassed to read romance in public when they can do it undetected.

Actually, it's because romance readers (and publishers) have been ahead of this game from day one.  These are women who read A Lot. Who are not embarrassed by the covers.  Who don't feel the need to apologise for their taste.

The rush to buy eReaders was not from geeky lads and ladettes wanting the latest kit. It was led by women - many of them well past the ladette stage of life - who like the fact that they can buy books without having to leave the house.  Their computer.  They talk to one another on line, on twitter, on facebook and buy the books their friends recommend.  Instantly.

The alternative for me these days is a thirty mile round trip to my nearest proper bookshop and bookshops are not a romance friendly zone.

My nearest bookshop does not stock my books.  In fact I was once told by a "friendly independent bookseller" to whom I had just been introduced as an romance writer that she only sold "real books".  She was actually smiling as she said it.  As if I should somehow think she was clever, when in fact she was being about as rude as it was possible to be.  I was a very newly published author, too stunned to say anything, but I did better than that.  I took my friendly bookbuying ass online where, as well as romance, I buy an awful lot of "real books".  Her loss.

Mr Alleyne also mentioned that The Temp & the Tycoon, a book published in the Mills & Boon Centenary Collection, is one of the most downloaded books in the romance genre at Amazon UK

You can read the first chapter HERE

THE TEMP & THE TYCOON was published in the US in a two-in-one called STRICTLY BUSINESS.

eBOOK BACKLIST

I've finally run down a link my eBook backlist on eHarlequin. Lots and lots of older books that haven't been in print for a while, including Upper Haughton favourites like THE BACHELOR'S BABY, the appearance of Hector, the Trojan Hamster, in THE BILLIONAIRE TAKES A BRIDE and the chocolate addicted Dodie, in THE BRIDESMAID'S REWARD.

Here's a link I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it works - it's being temperamental. If it doesn't work, go to the eBook store, type Liz Fielding in the search box and that should do it. Fingers crossed.

The link for Mobi and hand held computer versions is here

And for Sony here

DO YOU DOWNLOAD?

People have been doing it for years with music, even with films, but in the last twelve months there has been a huge increase in downloading books to read straight from the computer, or one of the new eBooks on the market.

How do I know this – apart from Jeff Bezos telling me so?

I’ve just received my half yearly royalty statement which lays out in black and white not just how many copies of my books have been sold, but where and how. Anthologies (that’s when there is more than one book in a volume); reprints; manga cartoon strip editions and “chunking” – downloading a chapter at time to your phone -- in Japan; translations everywhere from Indonesia to Finland.

The newest way to buy a book is straight off the internet and while a year ago the downloads were a matter of hundreds, now they are in their thousands. Mirroring the way internet sales of books took off a few years back.

Okay, words on a screen can never replace the joy of bookshop browsing – where you discover and buy authors you’ve never heard of.

It mystifies me why some independent book stores are so snooty about stocking romance. Romance readers have to be the biggest book buyers on the planet and while they’re getting their fix of their favourite series romance they pick up books for their kids, cookery and craft books, books for presents for friends and family – because when you love to read, you want to share the joy, right?

But there are moments when you just can’t wait for the latest book by your favourite author. Now you don’t have to. You just go to the Harlequin or Mills and Boon websites, or any of the on-line bookstores, download it and you can be reading it within minutes. No trip to the store, no postage. The pure joy of instant gratification.

The really terrific thing about eBooks for Harlequin/Mills & Boon authors – and readers – is that the books don’t disappear after a couple of weeks. The online book stores have done a great job lengthening the time that series books are available – but the postage is a killer unless you’re multiple buying and once their stocks have gone that’s it. With a download, however, it’s there forever and even if you want to buy just one book, there’s no postage.

So there it is. Instant gratification, no postage, saving the planet – it takes a lot of trees, power and water to make paper – and for those of us (that’s all of us, right ) who haven’t got an inch left to spare on their bookshelves, no storage problems.

And there’s one last great bonus if you’ve missed a book by one of your favourite authors. You can actually go here, click on Enjoy Effortless Entertainment 2 and put in a request for a backlist book by a favourite author to be re-issued as an eBook. Or simply email ebookrequests @ harlequin.ca -- without the gaps, natch. How great is that!

In the meantime, since you're here and presumably interested in my books, here are all the Liz Fielding titles presently available as eBook downloads –

At eHarlequin --

The Valentine Bride
The Secret Life of Lady Gabriella
Reunited: Marriage in a Million
The Sheikh’s Unsuitable Bride
The Bride’s Baby (free at http://www.harlequincelebrates.com as well as Amazon for the Kindle and Sony for the Sony eReader)
Wedded in a Whirlwind
Secret Baby, Surprise Parents
The Secret Wedding

At Mills & Boon --

Wedded in a Whirlwind
Secret Baby, Surprise Parents
The Temp & the Tycoon