VALENTINE RELEASES!

What a busy month! Not only is Secret Baby, Surprise Parents released into British libraries in its hardback edition this month -- it'll be online at Mills & Boon and Harlequin next month -- but all over the world there are releases of Liz Fielding books and short stories. Here are some of them.

Promoted: Secretary To Bride! by Jennie Adams

What was I thinking? As if a new dress and a pair of borrowed hopes-and-dreams shoes were going to get me noticed by my scrummy boss! After all, he has barely looked at me in the last three years, so why should he now? But last night, after Jarrod drove me home from that posh work party, things seemed different, and for one crazy moment I felt sure he was going to kiss me! Oh, well, it will be back to business on Monday, and everything will go back to normal... But Molly's boss has other things on his agenda!

I know that Jennie Adams' name on the cover is enough to make you rush out and buy the book, but as a bonus, you'll also find THE SECRET WEDDING, a 10,000 word Liz Fielding "extra" tucked inside the covers. (It's pure coincidence that my heroine is also called Molly!)

It begins:

Begin your story at a moment of crisis, a point in time when your character's life is about to change for ever. Molly Blake's Writing Workshop Notes.

Romantic novelist, Molly Blake, has been booked to give a weekend workshop in a country hotel. Crime novelist, Tom Garrick, has been ordered by his publisher to go along and get in touch with his feminine side (women, he's told, buy more books than men). They are both late, there's only one parking place and when Molly discovers that it's her rat of a husband who's put a dent in her adored publisher's Porsche, things go downhill fast..

This is a February release from Harlequin, Australia and it's available now online here. Or at Dymock's if you'd rather have a eBook version.

And while you're checking that out, you'll find that
100 ARABIAN NIGHTS
has finally made it downunder here

If you click on the tag you'll find excerpts and stuff.









Oh, and just so that UK readers don't feel left out, you can find
THE SECRET WEDDING teamed with Betty Neels' in this Tender Extra.



And if you're in France, well, the same story is in a special Valentine Day anthology with Jane Porter and a load of other great authors. You'll find it here


And THE BRIDE'S BABY is on sale on 4th February in Germany -- or online here. (Or don't forget you can download it in English for free -- there's a link on the sidebar!)

TRAUMHOCHZEIT IM SCHLOSS?
von: LIZ FIELDING
Erscheinungstag: Mittwoch, 4. Februar 2009
Bandnummer: 1773
Bestellnummer: 0801091773
2,40 EUR
inkl. 7 % MwSt.

Die perfekte Traumhochzeit? Auf einem Schloss in Südengland organisiert die Hochzeitsplanerin Sylvie eine glamouröse Wohltätigkeitsveranstaltung. Sie selbst soll dabei die glückliche Braut spielen, die zu ihrer Jugendliebe Jeremy zurückgekehrt ist. Alles läuft nach Plan. Bis überraschend der attraktive Milliardär Tom MacFarlaine auftaucht. Er ist der neue Besitzer von Longbourne Court – und der Mann, dessen Baby Sylvie seit einer leidenschaftlichen Nacht unter dem Herzen trägt. Wie gern würde sie Tom das Jawort geben! Doch er glaubt, sie sei mit Jeremy verlobt …

And in this anthology, which includes stories by Sandra Martin and Margaret Moore you'll find The Cinderella Bride on sale in
Japan

Or you could click on the "free Liz story" link on the sidebar and read it online at eHarlequin in English.

Happy Valentine's reading!

GOOD STUFF...

Jessica Hart, one of my favourite Harlequin Romance writers, is under the Spotlight this week at the Harlequin Romance Authors blog. Like me, she's celebrating the publication of her 50th romance this year, although she seems to have reached that milestone ten or more years earlier than me. Do drop by and say hello.

Other good news is that I've received a couple of fabulous reviews this week. One for 100 Arabian Nights and one for The Temp and the Tycoon.

"Full of humour, romance, wit and emotion, Chosen as the Sheikh’s Wife sparkles with all the warmth, charm and flair which readers have come to associate with Liz Fielding! Fast-paced, romantic, dramatic and absolutely impossible to put down, readers will not easily forget this wonderful story of redemption, new beginnings and hope by a wonderful storyteller who is in a class of her own!"

More here

"Liz Fielding is the master of memorable detail. How can anyone forget Talie's crazy hair or Jude's reaction to her! Or that one detail of attire that expresses so much sexiness and romance together in just a few words! The ending brought a tear or two to my eye, as much for the beauty of the writing as the emotion of the story. Talia's story is not to be missed! THE TEMP AND THE TYCOON is a must read for Liz Fielding fans and a great way for those new to this author to see for themselves why this author's romances captivate with stories that move the heart with a richness of emotion that fills the reader with deep joy. THE TEMP AND THE TYCOON is beautiful ---beautiful for its writing, beautiful for its emotion, beautiful for bringing together two vulnerable people whose love for one another opens doors. "

More here

Neither of them are sale in the US or Australia (although The Temp was originally issued several years ago as Strictly Business) but they are available post free from The Book Depository and Amazon.ca as well as Mills and Boon -- there's a link on the sidebar.

HEATSEEKERS!

I've just had an email from my editor to tell me that 100 Arabian Nights has hit The Booksellers "Heatseekers" Chart. Hot books, selling fast...

How exciting is that!

To celebrate, here's another little excerpt...

FAYAD looked up as his aide approached him. ‘The princess is waiting,’ he said.

He’d given no instructions that she was to be given that title, but everyone knew who she was and it seemed that her transformation from Violet Hamilton to Princess Violet al Sayyid had already begun.

He still did not know what he was going to say to her, only that he must somehow prepare her for his grandfather’s expectations. Reassure her that she was, totally, in control of her own destiny. But as the door to the hareem majlis was opened to his knock he saw her standing in the centre of the room, waiting for him, and words became an irrelevance.

He could not have spoken, even if he’d wanted to.

Grave, beautiful, untouchable.

As distant from the girl who’d opened the door to him that morning, hair an enticingly damp tangle of curls, legs and feet bare, wearing nothing but a faded pink bathrobe, as the moon was from the stars.

Mistaking his silence for disapproval, she said, ‘This was Leila’s idea.’ A tiny gesture took in her clothes, some rich creation that would have his sisters drooling with envy.

‘Leila will be rewarded,’ he said.

‘Oh. I wasn’t sure. I thought it seemed a little … excessive but…’
‘
But everything is strange.’

Her silence, her stillness were answer enough.

‘You are wondering, now you’ve had time to think, whether you have made a mistake.’ And this time heat rushed to her cheeks. Not that cool, then.

‘You have the khanjar,’ she said. ‘And now you have me. If this was a movie I would probably be screaming at the heroine not to be so dumb.’

‘Believe me, I appreciate the trust you have shown. Your generosity. You could so easily have told me to … how do you say it? Get lost? Sold the khanjar to the highest bidder.’

She could have no idea how high the bidding would have gone.

‘No. That would have been wrong. And I’m here to protect Sarah. Her family. The innocent people who get hurt when powerful people clash.’

‘Not even a little bit for yourself? Are you not curious about your family? About where you come from?’

‘I could have gone to the library,’ she said, continuing to regard him with those extraordinary eyes. Then, ‘Your only concern was to get me away from the house. Anyone else would have called the police, but you didn’t want them involved, did you?’
‘
Politics are not the concern of the police, princess.’

‘Don’t call me that. I’m not a princess. I’m just Violet Hamilton.’

‘And you’re angry with me. You find yourself being torn from everything you know and you’re just a little frightened.’

‘Of course I’m frightened!’ she said. ‘It’s been a hell of a day…’

Without thinking, he reached out and took her hand in what he’d intended as no more than a gesture of simple reassurance, but he continued to hold it, long after it became much more.
Beneath his, her hand was small, but not soft. There was nothing soft about her. He had her history and he knew she had given up her education to care for her grandmother, not for expectation of reward, but out of love.

She was a woman whose value was far above rubies. Far beyond him…

‘Are you afraid now? Truly?’

‘Should I be?’

‘What does your heart tell you?’

Still no news of a US or Australia release date, but the book can be bought from the Mills & Boon website (July Special Release), or The Book Depository (who do not charge postage even for international sales). I put a link on the sidebar but it refuses to work for me for some reason. They are, however, a legitimate and well regarded company.

CHOSEN AS THE SHEIKH'S BRIDE

I've had a lot of enquiries about when this book will be available in the US and Australia.

I have asked the powers that be, but until they have an answer, I have, thanks to the lovely Anne McAllister, a solution.

The Book Depository, an online bookstore here in the UK, will despatch books worldwide post free, which is probably as good as it gets without going into a real bookshop anywhere in the world, including the UK. Click here to go direct to the page.

KATE’S WINNERS

Hi, I’m Violet Hamilton and Liz asked me to tell you that the lovely Kate Walker has drawn her prize winners and has, as always, been incredibly generous. First prize of Spanish Billionaire, Innocent Wife goes to Tracy because it’s her “first time”.

There are also copies of The Duke's Secret Wife (Mills & Boon 100th Birthday Collection) for Beth as an extra birthday present, for KimmyL for celebrating in spite of sadness and for Virginia - because everyone trying to give up smoking should be encouraged !

Congratulations to the winners send in your snail mail addies to me at liz @ lizfielding.com and Liz will pass them on.

Now, I know you’re saying to yourself, so who is this Violet Hamilton? And what is she doing on Liz’s blog. The truth is I really should have dropped by sooner to introduce myself because this is the month that my story CHOSEN AS THE SHEIKH’S WIFE is published in the UK as part of the Mills & Boon Centenary Celebrations. Honestly, though, it’s been a bit tricky, what with the whole princess thing and being whisked off to Ras al Kawi for my own safety. At least that was the plan.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Unlike Mills & Boon I didn’t have a lot to celebrate at the beginning of this year. My lovely grandma had just died, I was about to lose my home and then, to top it all, I put my foot through a dodgy floorboard, which was jolly painful I can tell you. Finding a jewelled knife hidden away did dull the pain somewhat, but then everything got out of control. I knew, as soon as I’d said it, that telling the antiques bloke that my great-great-grandmother was an Arab princess who’d sewn her jewels into her clothes and run away with my great-great-grandfather was a mistake. But he clearly thought the knife had been looted during the First World War and I wasn’t having anyone think that of my g-g-grandad; he was a hero.

But then I saw the local newspaper…

The headline read, ARABIAN “PRINCESS” AT ROADSHOW.

What?

The doorbell rang and without thinking Violet wrenched it open, certain that it would Sarah. She’d taken to dropping in every morning in the last few weeks, to see if she needed anything. She usually came round the back, letting herself in with her “good neighbour” key as she had yesterday when she’d heard her cry for help when the floor had given way.
Clearly the fact that the phone had gone unanswered was causing her concern, but since she’d bolted the back door last night, the key would be useless.

But it wasn’t Sarah, who was tiny – apart from around the middle where she was spreading spectacularly – and fair; the figure that filled the tiny porch was her opposite in every conceivable way.

Tall, spare, broad-shouldered, male, there was nothing soft about him. His features were austere, chiselled to the bone, his beard closely cut against olive-toned skin that was positively Mediterranean against a snowy band-collared shirt, fastened to the neck. His hair was thick and crisply cut. But it was his eyes that held her.

Dark as midnight and just as dangerous.

He looked very … foreign.

He was also stunningly, knee-wobblingly handsome.

Violet was suitably stunned. And her knees dutifully wobbled.

Just her luck that she’d emerged from the shower pink of face, with her hair in its usual wet tangle and nothing between her and decency but a film of moisturiser and a faded pink bathrobe that could only be described as … functional.

‘Miss Hamilton?’

Oh, and guess what… He had a voice like melted chocolate, delicately flavoured with an exotic, barely-there accent.

Whatever he was selling she was buying by the crate…

Except, of course, that he was far too expensively dressed to be a door-to-door salesman. She knew clothes. And what he was wearing did not come off a peg in the High Street.

Oh, well. She was expecting a visit from a representative of the finance company to call any day with the release papers for her to sign so that they could sell the house, recover their money.

This had to be him.

‘Miss Violet Hamilton?’ he repeated, when she didn’t answer.

‘Who?’ she asked, just to hear him say Violet again. Long and slow.

Vi-o-let.

Pronouncing every syllable, turning a name she’d loathed only slightly less than the hideously shortened “Vi” into the most desirable name in the entire world.

‘I’m looking for Miss Violet Hamilton.’ And taking the newspaper from her hand, he held the front page up for her to see. ‘I believe I’ve found her.’

No point pretending to be the lodger, then. Asking him to come back when she’d gussied herself up; straightened her hair, applied some make-up, was decked out in one of her more creative outfits. Oh, well…

‘And here I was kidding myself that the photograph is so awful that you couldn’t possibly tell,’ she said. ‘Clearly I was fooling myself.’

He looked at the photograph and then at her for rather longer than seemed necessary just to confirm the likeness. Then, clearly thinking better of commenting one way or the other, he returned the paper and said, ‘I am Fayad al Khalifa, Miss Hamilton.’ And he held out a visiting card -- as if they couldn’t printed off by the dozen in any name you cared to dream up by anyone with a computer.

Except that this wasn’t a do-it-yourself job, but embossed on heavy ivory-coloured card.
If he was from the finance company, he certainly wasn’t one of the foot-soldiers.

The front of the card gave no hint, but contained only his name: Fayad al Khalifa. Unusual enough. She turned it over. The back was blank. No address, no phone number.

Obviously this was a man whose name was enough for those with the wit to recognise it. Which did not include her.

‘Nice card,’ she said. ‘But a trifle shy of information.’

‘The Ras al Kawi embassy will vouch for me.’

‘Oh, well, that’s all right then,’ she said. Her friends would have recognised sarcasm. He apparently did not, but merely nodded. Good grief, he was serious…

Ras al Kawi? Where was that?

‘I need to talk to you about a khanjar that I believe is in your possession,’ he said. ‘It is possible that it once belonged to my family.’

‘Oh?’ Then, realising that he come to demand it back, ‘It’s amazing how fast good news spreads.’

‘You have no idea. Perhaps I should wait in my car while you …’

He made the vaguest of gestures, resolutely looking at her face, avoiding her bare legs, the shabby bathrobe that had a tendency to gape at the neck. It made no difference, every inch of her skin tingled.

‘Dress?’ she offered, lippy to the last. Except that the word didn’t come out quite as she’d intended, but thick and throaty and more to avoid those eyes, than because she was interested in his choice in transport, Violet looked past him.

A black Rolls Royce was parked at the kerb. The little green and gold flag on the bonnet stirred in the breeze.

She barely stopped herself from letting slip an expression that would have brought her a rebuke from her grandma.

Her breathless, ‘Who are you?’ wasn’t a whole heap better.

‘If your story is true, Miss Hamilton, then your great-great-grandmother, Princess Fatima al-Sayyid, was once married to my great-great-grandfather.’

At which point she did let slip a word that she used only under the most extreme pressure.
She would have been embarrassed about that, but a scream from rear of the house – Sarah’s scream -- obliterated the sound.


And that was just the beginning because it turned out that the knife I found wasn’t just any piece of fancy cutlery, but the “Blood of Tariq”, which it seemed an awful lot of people wanted to get their hands on and not all of them bothered to knock at the front door.

And truly, I wasn’t “chosen” as the sheikh’s wife.

Sheikh Fayad didn’t have any choice at all and no one actually bothered to ask me, but you can read how it panned out for yourself in 100 Arabian Nightswhich is on sale now.

PRIZE WINNERS…

First things first. A huge thank you to Larry Roibal for giving us an insight into cover art production and for his time in checking out covers for authors who dropped by to chat. It’s been a lovely weekend.

Now for the prizewinners. The dh got out his panama hat and after printing out all the names (he's such a star) and a lot of shaking around, he drew out the following five names:

Melissa Leavitt, Ellen, Erastes, Maureen and Limecello.

There are five books up for grabs – The Secret Life of Lady Gabriella, Reunited: Marriage in a Million, The Marriage Miracle, A Family of His Own and The Valentine Bride.

If you’ll email me with the above listed in the order of desirability (most desire first) along with your snail mail address, I’ll do my best to fit you all to the books you’d most like. If any of you have read all five (and God bless you if you have) then I’ll be happy to substitute with something else from my backlist. Just say.

This weekend my guest will be Lucy Gordon, who’s going to tell us about her first Harlequin Presents which goes on sale in May.

BY REQUEST…

And just in case any of your have forgotten, my book The Ordinary Princess is being reprinted in the UK in May in HIGH SOCIETY WEDDINGS, with books by Barbara Hannay (Princess in the Outback) and Barbara McMahon (The Tycoon Prince). It’s also available at Amazon.ca and will, in due time, turn up at Amazon.com.

You can reserve it now at Amazon, UK here, or get it now direct from Mills & Boon here.

IN AUSTRALIA

I discovered by chance that Mills & Boon, Australia are reprinting the Boardroom Bridegrooms trilogy. You’ll find The Marriage Merger here

DON'T FORGET

THE BRIDE'S BABY will have disappeared from retail by this weekend, but it's still available at Mills & Boon here and as an eBook here -- you'll have to type Liz Fielding in the search box since nothing I do seems to give me a straight link. I have reported this.

This book is part of the A Bride for All Seasons quartet -- you'll find more about all them here as well as a chance to win a signed set of the books.

AND FINALLY

I know how much you all love a sheikh, so I'm introducing you to my latest prince of the desert, Sheikh Fayad al Kuwani, heir to the throne of Ras al Kawi. There'll be an excerpt on my website when it's updated on the 1st May, but the story starts with a jewelled Arab knife ...

“The handle had the patina of hard-use and, inset in the top was a large, smoothly polished red stone the size of a pigeon’s egg. The sheath wasn’t straight, but sharply curved and adorned with fancy silver and gold-coloured filigree work into which were set three similar, tear-shaped red stones, decreasing in size as they reached the curved point and looking for all the world as if the stone on the handle was bleeding along its length.”

100 ARABIAN NIGHTS with stories from Kim Lawrence and Meredith Webber, is published as part of the Mills & Boon Centenary celebrations. Reserve your copy here.

ANNIVERSARIES...

A huge thank you to Abby for taking time out from her Easter break to drop by and take part in the celebrations -- and to all of you for doing the same. I hope you all were suitably rewarded with chocolate bunnies! When she's home, Abby will pick her winner and I'll post the name then.

I might be celebrating my 50th book, but as many of you know, this year Mills & Boon are celebrating their centenary. We've had loads of coverage in the press -- largely positive, although those journalists do find it hard not to slip in the lazy buzz-words that betray they've either never read one, or at least not in the present century. Television and radio have also done us proud, raising the profile of what is, undoubtedly, a publishing phenomenon.

They are also producing some great commemorative stuff. Specially commissioned stories (see the cover of 100 Arabian Nights in the sidebar), a reprint of 24 novellas in those retro covers -- you can buy the entire set now in a special at the Mills & Boon website -- £25 including postage (there's a link on the sidebar. And there's this fabulous jigsaw made up of old covers and I'm offering one as a prize in a special competition.

Above (courtesy of Philippa Gedge Photography) is a picture of the authors who gathered to join in the celebrations last month at the Wallace Collection (I'm on the left, rather a long way back in the spectacles) and for a chance to win the jigsaw, I want you to send me your suggestions for an apt, amusing or just plain outrageous collective noun for a group of romantic novelists at liz @lizfielding.com with Jigsaw in the subject line and your suggestion, along with your name and address in the body. I'll pick a winner on 1st April!

In the meantime, if you can't wait, or you want to send one to a romance lover your know, it's available here at Amazon

Finally, Ally Blake is having a fuzzy moment and can't remember whether she heard from Jill, the winner of her signed book when she was a guest here earlier in the month. Jill, if you haven't sent your address to either Ally or me, or if you have and haven't had a response (my email is new system and I'm still finding out about its quirks), do contact me at liz @lizfielding.com with all the relevant information.