THE GREAT ADVENT CALENDAR GIVEAWAY

DAY 17

December 17th

Hi, sorry I've been leaving Liz to get on with the competition, especially since she's been so busy. But I've needed time to think.

I've been letting my life drift on without me for the last couple of years, but now I realise that I have to take control, drive my dreams. Reach for the stars. But I'm going to miss this beautiful place.





So, back to business. Laurie in Canada won the copy of BITTERSWEET DECEPTION and the book is on its way to her. The answers, of course, were Eloping With Emmy and The Secret Life of Lady Gabriella (no, Liz didn't suddenly start writing historical romances -- it was an "experimental" title, getting away from the brides, babies, thing.)


Anyway, today we've got another of Liz's Rita short-listed books, CITY GIRL IN TRAINING. This one was a bit of a ground-breaker. Her first "first-person" book. (A Surprise Christmas Proposal was the other.)


In this Philly, levered out of the nest by her globe-trotting parents, waves a reluctant goodbye to the boy next door and heads for the city lights, a new job and new flatmates and immediately gets into trouble.

And then more trouble.

And then again...

Fortunately, she's met Cal. Another "boy next door" -- except Cal isn't a boy. Far from it. He's a great big hunk of a man. Not that he's ever going to be interested in Philly because he's gay.

This is the book that Presents author Susan Stephens famously burned the Sunday lunch when she couldn't put it down.

You have been warned.

You want to win this book? Of course you do. Just send an email to liz @lizfielding.com with Day Seventeen in the subject line, your name and address in the body of the email and the answer to this question. Liz has won three awards for her books. Two of them were RITAS, what was the other one? It's on the website!

A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE FROM DIANA METCALFE

Gosh, that makes me sound like the Queen, doesn't it?

Hi, you don't know me -- yet. Liz has plans to change all that, but right now I'm a chauffeur -- well, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration. It's my ambition to be a chauffeur -- to be entrusted with a limousine, drive VIPs to fancy parties. Earn enough dosh to buy my own taxi cab.
Right now I get to the drive the minibus. Do the school run. Run groups to the airport. Take the girls out on their hen nights.

I enjoy it but, trust me, glamorous it's not.

Liz, bless her, has promised to put what she calls a "little sizzle" into my life. I've told her not to bother. Really. I can't cope with sizzle right now. What I do want is "sparkle". To be more precise, a sparkly pink taxi cab of my own. Maybe, one day, a whole fleet of sparkly pink taxi cabs...

Anyway, while she's working on that, I'm here to tell you what she's got lined up for December on her blog.

The Liz Fielding Advent Calendar.

I always loved Advent Calendars when I was a kid and Freddy -- my little boy -- loves them too. He bounces out of bed each morning in December to open the door, see the picture -- his grandad bought him one with chocolate in it last year, which made the bouncing even more ... well, bouncy.

Liz's version, you'll be glad to discover, has daily treats, too. Fat-free treats.

Behind the door, each day from the 1st to 25th December, Liz's Advent Calendar will contain a signed book for one lucky reader. That's twenty-five books!

We had a fabulous time looking through the boxes that she stores in the loft of the Snap & Scribble (think Heidi at Grandpa's) this morning. She got quite moist-eyed at some titles. Hugged one or two close, the way you do favourite soft toys when you open a cupboard door and see them cooched up, forgotten. Occasionally she got a bit tight-lipped, muttering something about there being nothing like arty experiments to kill a book stone dead. I didn't ask...

The first one out of the box was A Stranger's Kiss. She hated the brown, she said. And then there was Baby On Loan -- that one was in a Mother's Day gift pack in the UK -- with a bar of soap.

There were some books with grey and white striped covers that I'd never seen before. And there were the ones that were like half a heart. It seems booksellers were supposed to display them to make a complete heart. As if they didn't have better things to do.

There were even yellow covers like this one.

Oh, it's an office romance. I love those!

There were loads of Australian covers, too, which, apart from some really old ones, were all blue. But I think I liked the American covers best. They have so much more impact.

Anyway, what's going to happen is this. Each day there'll be a different book behind the door and all you have to do is turn up and take part in whatever is happening for a chance to win the book of the day. Signed of course. With one of Liz's special "Celebrating 50 Books" bookmarks.

Uh-oh... Got to dash. The boss is in a flap about some emergency...

Put the date in your diary, okay? 1st December. I'll try and drop by to remind you --

Okay, Sadie! I'm coming...