Six degrees of separation...

Actually, that title is not right. I'm not talking about separation in this blog, but connections.

One of my lovely "Team Liz" members who received an ARC of The Sheikh's Unsuitable Bride had spotted a number of characters who had appeared in other books. She wrote and asked me if one of the other characters had also had a book of her own. She didn't, but the fact that she was "real" enough to give the feeling that might have was very pleasing. It meant that even though she appeared briefly, in a phone call, she had a three-dimensional quality that I hope to give to even the walk-on parts.

I love revisitng my characters and all my sheikhs are linked, either through family or close ties.

Sheikh Fayad and his lovely Princess Violet, who play an important part of this story, first appeared in Chosen as the Sheikh's Wife (with a guest appearance from my very first sheikh, Prince Hassan - His Desert Rose). I needed a country where the exiled Sheikh Ibrahim Al-Ansari could make his home and where better than Ramal Hamrah? Fayad is his cousin. The fort had been his maternal grandmother's home. Perfect.

Sheikh Zahir gets a passing mention. He first appeared in The Sheikh's Guarded Heart, then got his own story in The Sheikh's Unsuitable Bride.

His unsuitable bride was Diana, who worked for Sadie, (first appearance in The Baby Plan) who is the step-daughter of Amanda Garland (first appearnace Dating Her Boss), who also makes an appearance in The Sheikh's Convenient Princess.  Are you still with me? :)

When you have created the world's finest staff agency, why would you need to invent another one?

Amanda is one of those very useful women who will put in appearance whenever I need her. Her brother was the hero of Dating Her Boss; she was a bit edgy, very self-contained and I couldn't resist blowing her world apart in The Baby Plan.

Another character who gets a mention in The Sheikh's Convenient Princess is Jude Radcliffe, who met and married the adorable Talie in The Temp and the Tycoon (reported in the Daily Telegraph as one of the most downloaded books on Amazon UK when it was first published). That's the retro cover Mills and Boon used when they reprinted it for their 100th anniversary.

Are there any characters in my books that you wish had a story of their own? There are one or two who I think deserve a story of their own but I'd love to hear your thoughts.

In other news, I'm expanding Team Liz. The duties are not onerous. You have to be signed up to my newsletter (there's a link on the sidebar), "like" my Facebook page and follow me on Twitter. More importantly you have to love my books because you will receive an advance copy, in return for which you will be asked to leave a honest review on Goodreads and Amazon. If you hate it, I'd rather you emailed me and told me what bothered you - actually that goes for everyone. I will be putting an invitation on my newsletter in February with details of how to come on board.

There will be another new Liz Fielding Harlequin Romance/Cherish, Her Pregnancy Bombshell, in June 2017. And one other book this year. Maybe a short story if I can keep sufficiently focussed and everything runs smoothly at Fielding Towers.

Here are the links for The Sheikh's Convenient Princess.

Harlequin

Ibooks  Barnes & Noble

Kobo
 Amazon US
Amazon UK

eBOOK BACKLIST PART II

It's been a bit of a struggle to find these at eHarlequin but the lovely Penn, from the message board, has kindly explained how to do it.

Go to the ebookstore - select Harlequin RomanceM then click on "All Available". Scroll down to any of my books, click on the Liz Fielding link and lo, all 32 of my eBooks should appear. Just putting my name in the "search" box doesn't bring them all up, and I can't give you a link because it just breaks.

It's all deeply frustrating but at least this way does work.

Believe me, I just hate it when websites make you go through hoops to buy something.

Yesterday I bought a new pair of shoes - actually the identical pair to the yellow ones I've been wearing all summer and can't face having to give up for the winter; the new ones are deep blue.

I did it with three clicks.

Total bliss.

ENDURING CHARACTERS

“More sheikhs, Liz, more sheikhs…”

That’s a quote from my Italian editor, as he sat beside me at a book signing in Matera a couple of years ago. And it’s a fact that of all my books it is the sheikhs who get the most reprints worldwide – and usually with the hottest covers.

This month The Sheikh’s Guarded Heart – the first of the Ramal Hamrah stories featuring Sheikh Hanif and Lucy Forrester – is snuggled up with books by Susan Stephens and Alexandra Sellers under this delectable cover.

Han and Lucy have appeared – and meddled in – the lives of two of Han’s cousins, Zahir and Kalil, so far and they are such fun that I have no doubt that when I get around to writing the next book in the series they’ll be in the thick of that one, too.

Some characters are just like that. They have a life that you can feel continuing beyond their own book. And the fact that Hanif is the Ramal Hamrahn Ambassador to the Court of St James puts him in the centre of my romance world, London.

As readers do you enjoy this continuing contact with characters? Watching Princess Ameerah grow up, seeing Princess Lucy become the woman she was meant to be and Han, still reserved, but serving his country as was his destiny, surrounded by an adored and adoring family.

And if you’ve only glimpsed them in the pages of The Sheikh’s Unsuitable Wife and Her Desert Dream, you can read an excerpt here

LORDS OF THE DESERT – Rescued by the Sheikh is available online from Mills and Boon, Amazon UK and from The Book Depository who offer free worldwide delivery.

LORDS OF THE DESERT - SPECIAL OFFER!

I've just received my author copies -- a meagre two which, because it's a reissue, is all I'm entitled to -- of this gorgeous book.  The cover, needless to say, has blown me away.

There are three Lords of the Desert volumes, each containing three books and here's the deal.  If you go to the Mills and Boon website, click on the "Lords of the Desert" icon on the right hand side, you can buy all three for the price of two.  (You can, of course, by them separately, but golly, who would want to!) 

My title is THE SHEIKH'S GUARDED HEART, which is the first of the Ramal Hamrah books -- Lucy and Hanif's story.  (You may have come across them in The Sheikh's Unsuitable Wife and Her Desert Dream and wondered about their story.)

It's at the emotional end of my personal writing scale.

Lucy Forrester has just discovered that the man she trusted has run up huge debts on her credit cards, fraudulently borrowed large sums of money against the house she’s inherited and that far from having an exciting new life with him, he’s disappeared leaving her broke.

And then it gets really bad...

Because it's a reissue there is no "read inside" feature, but here's an excerpt...
 
THE room was cool, quiet, the light filtering softly through rich, coloured glass; lapis blue and emerald, with tiny pieces of jewel bright red that gave Lucy the impression of lying in some undersea grotto. A grotto in which the bed was soft and enfolding.Lucy drifted away, back into the dark and the next time she woke the light was brighter, but the colours were still there and although she found it difficult to open her eyes more than a crack, she could see that it was streaming through an intricately pieced stained glass window, throwing spangles of colour over the white sheets.

If the tiny explosions of pain from every part of her body were not sufficiently convincing, the hand at her shoulder, a low voice that was becoming a familiar backdrop to these moments of consciousness assured her that she was awake.


'Be still, Lucy Forrester. You're safe.'


Safe? What had happened? Where was she? Lucy struggled to look up at the tall figure leaning over her. A surgical collar restricted her movement and one eye still refused to open more than a crack, but she did not need two good eyes to know who he was.
Knife in his hand, he'd told her to be still before. She swallowed. Her throat, mouth were as dry as dust.


'You remember?' he asked. 'The accident?'


'I remember you,' she said. Even without the keffiyeh wound about his face she knew the dark fierce eyes, chiselled cheekbones, the hawkish, autocratic nose that had figured so vividly in her dreams.


Now she could see that his hair was long, thick, tied back at the nape with a dark cord, that only his voice was soft. But the savage she'd glimpsed before she'd passed out appeared to be under control.


But she knew, with every part of her that was female, vulnerable, that the man who'd washed her as she lay bloody and dusty on a hospital couch, was far more dangerous.


'You are Hanif al-Khatib,' she said. 'You saved my life...'

MORE SHEIKHS, MORE SHEIKHS...

When I was in Matera a couple of years ago, doing a book signing in starlit square with my lovely Italian editor, Stephano, at my side, he kept whispering in my ear, "More sheikhs, Liz. More sheikhs."

Well HER DESERT DREAM is for you, Stephano!

Those of you who've read CHRISTMAS ANGEL FOR THE BILLIONAIRE will know that Lydia Young, who does "look alike" gigs as the "people's angel", has traded places with Lady Roseanne Napier to give her a break from the media.

The tricky part is getting past the press cordon at the entrance to the hotel where they do the swap, but after that it's going to easy. A week of luxury in the private Ramal Hamrah holiday villa of Princess Lucy al-Khatib (The Sheikh's Guarded Heart) where no one has ever met Lady Rose. All she has to do is take a daily walk along the beach to give the paps a target for their ever present cameras.

The best laid plans...

Princess Lucy has another friend who needs her help and she seizes the chance to infiltrate Kalil al Zaki into the royal household under the guise of a bodyguard for "Lady Rose".

From the first moment Lydia and Kal set eyes on one another the temperature rises but falling in love with a national treasure will do his cause no good. And Lydia knows that next week she'll be back on the supermarket checkout.

Here's the moment they meet: --

It was like some dream-come-true fairytale, Lydia thought. Check out girl to princess. Pure Cinderella.

All she needed was a pair of glass slippers and a fairy godmother to provide her with someone tall, dark and handsome to play Prince Charming.

She wouldn’t even have to flee when the clock struck twelve. She had a whole week before she turned back into Lydia Young, whose job as on the supermarket checkout was occasionally enlivened by a look-alike gig.

She automatically reached for the door to the VIP departure lounge, but it opened as she approached; a “Lady”, with a capital L, did not open doors for herself. She was so intent of covering her mistake by adjusting the veil on her hat that she missed the fact that her escort had stopped at the door.

‘Mr al-Zaki will take care of you from here, madam.’

Who?

She thought the word, but never voiced it.

All sound seemed to fade away as she looked up. She was tall, but the knee-meltingly gorgeous man waiting to “take care” of her was half a head taller and as his eyes, dark and intense, locked with hers, she felt the jolt of it to her knees. And yes, no doubt about it, her knees melted as he lowered his head briefly, said, ‘Kalil al-Zaki, Lady Rose,’ introducing himself with the utmost formality. ‘Princess Lucy has asked me to ensure that your holiday is all that you wish.’

Graceful, beautiful, contained power rippling beneath exquisite tailoring, he was, she thought, crazily, the embodiment of Bagheera, the bold, reckless panther from her childhood favourite Jungle Book. She’d made her father read over and over the description of his coat like watered silk, his voice as soft as wild honey dripping from a tree.

Her own, as she struggled for a suitable response, was non-existent.

Kalil al-Zaki might favour well-cut British tailoring over a fancy Ruritanian uniform but he was as close to her own Prince Charming fantasy as she was ever likely to come and she had to resist the temptation to look around for the old lady with wings and a wand who’d been listening in on her thoughts.

‘You’re coming with me to Bab el Sama?’ she managed, finally, knowing that she should be horrified by this turn of events. The frisson of excitement rippling through her suggested that she was anything but.

Here's what Romantic Times said:

"Complex characters with powerful chemistry, a compelling conflict and plenty of humour highlight this memorable story. A keeper." 4.5 stars.

To read the entire first chapter, click on the UK cover --

As you'll see from this, lucky UK readers will also get the fabulous Lucy Gordon's THE BRIDE WORE RED as part of the new 2-in-1 format. Lucy's book is part of the "Escape Around the World" series and is set in China. Lucy is a trooper. Nothing is too much for her fans and she went to China twice to research the book. :) She's captured the country so beautifully that you'll think you've been there yourself. The romance is great, too!

RING IN THE NEW...

I’m sitting here in a deliciously stripey grey and pink sweater, wearing my new slippers, sipping tea from my special new mug that says “Liz is the Biz” from my dd and just thrilled at the fact that January will see the publication of two of my titles in the UK. Not just THE SHEIKH'S UNSUITABLE BRIDE, helping to launch Mills & Boon's 100th Anniversary year, but also a reprint of the Billionaire Takes a Bride in BRIDE FOR A BILLIONAIRE. A lovely seasonal gift from my publisher.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, too and found the gifts you were hoping for underneath the tree this year.

There will be a little extra for Gail, who won the signed copy of THE SHEIKH’S GUARDED HEART and Candy, who won THE SHEIKH’S UNSUITABLE BRIDE. I’ve just braved the chill to go and put the last of the prizes in the postbox – I hope they’ll all arrive early in the New Year.

But the fun doesn’t end there. Throughout 2008 guest bloggers will be dropping in to help me celebrate my 50th book. They’ll be telling us about their books and offering prizes, too, so make a note to visit every week if you don't want to miss out on some fabulous books.

But before that can happen we have to make our New Year resolutions.

I’m not sure that mine ever change. All I need to do is bring them out each year, brush them off and make the same pledge to

• lose a little weight (only this time keep it off).
• be a little more focussed on my writing – put work before

email play.
• make time to write something a little different; articles, short stories, tackle the big book. All muscles need exercise, even the writing muscles.
• do something new. Learn to tap dance, perhaps? When I was a little girl I yearned for a pair of red tap shoes with big bows. It would certainly get some unused muscles moving!
• take a trip in a hot air balloon.

Actually I did manage to write more this year. Three books and a novella. About half a book short of what I planned, half a book short of what I should have managed, but better than the last couple of years.

I did lose some weight – but it’s all crept back on in the last few months. Deadlines are not kind to the waistline and I do have a real dislike of exercise. It always seems to me a little like housework. You do it today and then you have to do it again tomorrow. There’s just no end…

So what resolutions did you keep this year? How will you challenge yourself?

Whatever they are, I wish you a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year in which at least one dream comes true.

Iechyd da!

THE GREAT ADVENT CALENDAR GIVEAWAY

DAY TWENTY-FIVE

DECEMBER 25th

MERRY CHRISTMAS!


A very merry Christmas to everyone on this special day; I'm delighted to share a moment of the day with you.

Diana and Zahir also asked me to send their best wishes. They hope to drop by next month to help me celebrate 50 books, but for now they need a little time on their own.

So many of you wrote and told me what your own special Christmas gifts would be, from the simplicity of sleep -- I think we can all sympathise with that one! -- to the most touching one, the relief from pain for a loved one. I hope you are all granted your heart's desires.
One of you, Lois, does have THE SECRET LIFE OF LADY GABRIELLA to look forward to. It'll be in the post straight after the holiday, Lois.

So, what is behind the door for this very special last day on our calendar. Well, of course it has to be Diana and Zahir's story. THE SHEIKH'S UNSUITABLE BRIDE.

For a chance to win this book just send me an email to liz @lizfielding.com with Day Twnety Five in the subject line and your name and address in the body of the mail. I'll draw the winner on the 27th, since I imagine you'll all be just a little preoccupied today. I'll tell you then who won The Sheikh's Guarded Heart and The Sheikh's Unsuitable Bride.

My turn to wish you all the very merriest Christmas. And someone else to do the clearing up.

Thanks for spending December with me.

THE GREAT ADVENT CALENDAR GIVEAWAY

DAY TWENTY-FOUR

DECEMBER 24TH

"Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house..."

Actually I saw a mouse the other day. It nipped up on to the stoop, bold as brass, and helped itself to a snack from the crumbs left out for the half-tame robin that visits every day. He should look out for the neighbourhood cat who's also started dropping by looking for tasty snacks!

Catching up with the news, Elsje in South Africa won THE BABY PLAN. I posted a load of books yesterday to winners not just for the Advent Calendar giveaway, but for Kate Walker's Christmas Stocking, too. I hope they all arrive safely.

Behind the door today is THE SHEIKH'S GUARDED HEART. A grieving man, a desperate woman saved from certain death, and a beautiful garden. Lucy owes her life to Sheikh Hanif and sets about healing his heart, as he has healed her body.

And Hanif's young cousin, Sheikh Zahir, makes his first appearance, too. This is the moment when his feet are set on the path that will eventually take him to London and his meeting with Diana Metcalfe, a highly unsuitable bride for a sheikh...

For a chance to read this story, email me at liz @lizfielding.com with Day Twenty-Four in the subject line and your name and address in the body. And tell me the most memorable Christmas gift you ever received.

WHO'S BEEN A CLEVER GIRL THEN?

Ally Blake, fabulous author -- I'm reading Steamy Surrender right now and it's stellar -- and wonderful website designer, has been working on a more personal production this year. To check out the result go to her blog.

All together now ... ahhhhh....







THE "SHEIKH" IS IN ARGENTINA

And hooray! The Sheikh's Guarded Heart has made it to South America --Argentina to be more precise .

You can find it here.

THE SHEIKH AS HERO

Today is the day when I have to do all the things I've been putting off. My accounts are top of the list -- oh, joy.

Think of me when you're all out having fun!

I also have to order flowers for two lots of birthdays. (June is the busiest month in our family -- we have four big birthdays!) I've been online to do this at least three times and it's still not done.

Today.

No excuses.

Then I have to get to grips with the sheikh novella I have to deliver by the end of August -- except I haven't got that long because the book after that is due at the end of October.

The good news is that the plot fairy visited yesterday in the unexpected guise of the dh. He doesn't usually take much interest, but he's always more interested in the sheikhs since he's trodden the ground, so to speak, and at one time spoke Arabic very well. It's been a long time since he's had any practice but he came up with a terrific idea for a plot -- once I'd managed to get him off the crashed helicopter scenario. And his "crashed car" opening was so similar to the one I used in THE SHEIKH'S GUARDED HEART, that I could almost believe he'd been reading it. But how likely is that?

Once we'd got the transport out of the way and he began seriously putting his mind to the task he came up with something really excellent. Now I just have to get it out of the realms of Tomb Raider and into the guise of a "Romance". And find suitable names for both sheikh and heroine -- which can take days. It's so much easier when you a character from a previous book, which is what happened with THE SHEIKH'S UNSUITABLE BRIDE -- out in January.

In the meantime, I've posted my article, THE SHEIKH AS HERO, that I wrote for a German magazine, here.

Hi everyone

Yes, it me again – Ellie – since Liz is still head down, battling with the final scenes of her latest book. Something unexpected came up that changed everything, as it does in books – believe me, this is something I know about first hand – which has meant going back and sorting out some stuff. She’s also blogging over at eHarlequin this month – she thought it was going to be for a week! – and so she’s asked me to tell you her news. Okay, here goes...

Remember this?

“...he caught her at the waist, lifting her, holding her to him as if she were the last woman on earth, while his mouth, hard, almost desperate, obliterated everything but the sensory seduction of his body; the silky sweep of his hair against her cheek, the touch of his fingers at her nape, the salty, dusty taste of his skin.

“And, finally, she understood the force that drove men and women to cross continents, conquer nations, give up their lives.”

It’s from THE SHEIKH’S GUARDED HEART and the really good news is that it’s on sale in Germany at the moment. There’s also a review and, possibly, an article Liz wrote on “The Sheikh” as hero for the German Loveletter Magazin. She’ll post it on her website at the end May when it’s updated, so that those of us who are a little rusty in German, can read it for ourselves.

The bad news -- and I’m in total agreement with Liz on this -- is the cover.

Gentle, reserved Lucy would never be seen dead in a dress like that. Liz was visiting with her recently when Han’s cousin Zahir was getting himself into a bit of bother – she’s going to be a real friend to Diana (THE SHEIKH’S UNSUITABLE BRIDE) – and believe me, she was not amused! Of course Han didn’t appear in a tux, either. But a tux is such a universally gorgeous item of clothing that it doesn’t matter. That dress, however, is something else...