She's So Over Him...

I'm absolutely thrilled to introduce new Riva author, Joss Wood. Her fabulous debut book, She's So Over Him, is part of the relaunch package for the series and has been attracting a lot of attention. Joss herself, is from South Africa, adding to the international chutpah of a series that has authors from four of the five continents.

Welcome, Joss!


For a newbie author such as myself, it’s such an honour to be on your blog, Liz. Thank you so much for inviting me

My name is Joss Wood and writing has always been an escape, a compulsion, something I’ve dallied with all my life. It’s essentially to my mental well being so I’m absolutely thrilled to be contracted to write books for the Mill’s and Boon’s Riva line. My debut book, She’s So Over Him, was released in September this year and my second book, Wild About the Man, will be released in January 2013

I was a finalist in the Voice of Africa/Essentials magazine Short Story writing competition in 2010 and was placed third in 2011. It was through this competition that my first book was brought to the notice of the Mills and Boon Editors.

About Me…

I live in a rural town in the province of Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa in an area surrounded by wild game farms and stunning mountains. Totally spoilt, it’s not unusual for me to see rhinoceros and giraffe, antelope and zebra while driving to visit my family in a neighbouring town.

I run on coffee and drink far too much of it! When I’m not writing or being a hands-on Mom to two very busy kids, I work for a non-profit organization to promote the local economic development and the collective business interests of our town and area, where my background in business, local government and marketing comes in handy. My hobbies include coaching my daughter’s field hockey team, meeting my friends for a before-work cappuccino or an after-work cup of tea and reading, reading, reading. I read everything; from romance to romantic suspense to real life crime to sci-fi…

Travel is hugely important to both my husband and I and I’m happiest with a rucksack on my back and an airplane ticket in my hand and have been so fortunate to indulge my passion for travel by visiting many countries within Southern Africa, Europe and America.  

About writing…

While I’m working on a manuscript, I always have ideas bubbling away in the background. As an idea comes to me for a new book− or a heroine/hero with a problem−  I jot them down and carry on writing. When I’m waiting for revisions to come back from my editor, I go through those ideas again to see if any of the premises/ ideas jump up and shout ‘write me, write me!’ If they do, I start fleshing the story out, if not I pace the floor, eat cookies and worry whether I’ll ever write another book again.  

About She’s So Over Him….

Cale and Maddie. Complicated. Stubborn. So completely right for each other but so determined to keep each other at an emotional distance while ripping each other’s clothes off…

I absolutely adore them and loved writing every moment of this, my debut novel for Mills and Boon Riva. She’s So Over Him is set in beautiful Cape Town and tells the story of Maddie, a very successful event co-ordinator and Cale, a sports psychologist and triathlon maniac.

So as Maddie helps Cale organise a charity triathlon race in memory of his twin Oliver, Maddie and Cale jump into a physical relationship that they both want but neither realise lead to them inviting these pesky little feelings like tenderness and friendship and protectiveness into their lives. They’re both smart, successful individuals but neither of them knows how to deal with love… She’s So Over Him is available at: Amazon UK and Mills and Boon

With a big thanks to Liz and my very best wishes!

Joss

xxx

PS: I love to connect with readers on Twitter @josswoodbooks; on Facebook – Joss Wood9 and at my blog so pop along and say hello.

RIVA COVER SURVEY

Mills and Boon are redesigning the covers for the RIVA series this summer and they want your input.  They have produced three new designs for three books published in the series and they want to know which cover you'd be most likely to pick up. They are new, refreshing, different.

I'm not telling you which I prefer; it's really important to get the views of the readers this series is aimed at. I would, though, be very interested to hear what you love, what you hate, and what about any cover makes you pick it up in the bookstore or supermarket.

What book did you buy recently just because the cover leapt out at you?

To see the covers and add your voice, click on SURVEY

I had a lovely day yesterday. First I met up with writerly friend, Toni Sands, who lives very near me. We actually bumped into one another near Ammanford library and popped in there first, discussing who we’d been reading.

Toni had been reading the lovely Jill Mansell. I’d been reading a crime novel by a new-to-me writer that I expected to enjoy but didn’t. The author, who I won’t mention, described every person who made an appearance in minute detail – with a heavy helping of cliché. He also described every building (and its history) and every room.

Chekov believed that over description was an insult to the reader, that too many details lessen credibility. There was a good story at the heart of the book and I could see it making great television, but I found it a hard read and in the end didn’t care enough about the fate of the characters to wade through so much tedious stuff.

Toni and I had coffee and lots of “writing” chat. The books we’re working on, the ones just delivered, the future of publishing. How many of you have an eReader already? How many of you are hoping for one under the Christmas tree?

After that I went to Llandeilo with the dh to do a little Christmas shopping – anyone with a bright idea for an 85 year old aunt who’s allergic to plants and flowers and whose eye-sight is not good enough for heavy reading, could well find me falling on them in gratitude and sending them a copy of the book of their choice from my backlist!

We had lunch in Café Braz, a small restaurant we hadn’t tried before but will certainly visit again.

The cards – most of them – have now been sent. Still hunting for some addresses. I only send a few. The stupid amount of money I used to spend on them now goes to charity; St Martins-in-the-Fields will receive it again this year.

Decorations are beginning to make an appearance. Chocs have been sent to RomanceHQ for the editorial troops. I’m almost set.

This is the first year in as long as I can remember when I won’t be in charge of the cooker on the big day, but if you’re looking for recipes to inspire you, check out the revamped Harlequin Romance Authors blog.

CHRISTMAS PARTY

Sorry, I've been a bit behind with my blog in the last week or two - lots going on, both in writing and the family.

The Harlequin Romance Authors have combined their blog and website and given the whole thing a make-over. We launched it this week with a whole bunch of book giveaways (including Flirting With Italian) and holiday recipes so do drop in, click the link to subscribe by feed or email so that you can keep up with what we're doing. 

Here's the new Australian cover!

My website has been updated, too - check it out here (If you get July instead of December please give me a shout - it's been playing silly beggars!)

On the writing front, I've just dived into the second book featuring the Amery sisters and ice cream. This is going to be Sorrel's story - she's the one who planned to be a millionaire by the time she was twenty-five! - and I'm really looking forward to it.

And family news is that I'm going to be a grandmother again next year.  My daughter has had her first scan and all fingers and toes are accounted for. So it's out with the knitting needles.

Here is Cora, practising to be a big sister.

I think she might need an "L" on that buggy!

BLACK FRIDAY BOOK FUN!

Being British I was unfamiliar with the term Black Friday, but this year it's been everywhere and suddenly the meaning clicked.

Never one to miss out on a fun idea, I'm pitching in with a giveaway to celebrate the day.

WILD JUSTICE is already a free download on Kindle, but I'm offering a free download of WILD LADY and WILD FIRE - the second and third books in the trilogy as a prize.

To be included in the draw, follow my blog or, if you've already done that, then leave a comment (or both!) telling me what you'll be hunting down in the sale today. Or the best bargain you ever found.

Here's a snippet from Wild Fire to keep you warm -

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. 

I'll draw the winner on Monday morning, UK time.

Oh, and if you're in the UK, Mills and Boon are having a Pink Friday sale today and you can buy TEMPTED BY TROUBLE for a really skinny £1.99 here

SIX SENTENCE SUNDAY

And for this week's Six Sentence Sunday we return to Isola del Serrone with Sarah Gratton and Matteo di Serrone, who are spending the weekend at the vineyard at the start of harvest.

'I’ve been wanting to do this,’ he said as he backed her into a bay housing one of the barrels and kissed her, sliding his hands inside her t-shirt to unclasp her bra.


She leaned back over the gentle curve, sighing with pleasure as he took possession of her breasts. ‘Is this what is known as being had “over a barrel”?’


He shook his head, clearly not familiar with the expression.


‘At your mercy, my lord,’ she explained.


‘On the contrary, cara, I rather think that I am at yours.’


For more details about Six Sentence Sunday click here

For the first chapter of FLIRTING WITH ITALIAN click the Browse button if you're in the UK -

Or if you're in the States - click HARLEQUIN

SIX SENTENCE SUNDAY

Welcome back to Six Sentence Sunday!

Today I'm snipping my six sentences from WILD FIRE, the third in my Beaumont Brides trilogy.

TV soap queen and West End star, Melanie Beaumont has accepted a bet from an old friend that she can't do an ordinary job for a month - take the Cinderella role and work as a cleaner.

She's just mad enough at everyone to give it a go. Her first job, cleaning up after a party that's got out of hand, goes pretty well - until the owner of the apartment arrives home earlier than expected...

Jack Wolfe's steel grey eyes flickered about the apartment and came back to rest upon Melanie as she wriggled out of Tom's grasp and got to her feet. She fielded the look, held it, refusing to be intimidated, but the man was not a bit like his brother.


Tom was young, still soft, with an eager puppy-like charm that ensured quick forgiveness of his doubtless many sins. She knew the type and kept firmly on a training lead he would be amusing company.


Jack Wolfe was darker, leaner, harder. A Doberman to Tom's Labrador.

For more details about Six Sentence Sunday click here

ITALIAN FOOD

I promised you food to go with my Italian book and here Sarah and Matteo share lunch, starting with one of my favourites - antipasto.
Most cuisines have this lovely pick and mix starter - I had some wonderful mezza when I lived in the Middle East.
But wonderful spicy meats, sun dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, olives and creamy cheese served with fresh ciabatta on a shady terrace - perfect bliss.


There was a pause while Graziella brought antipasto for them to graze on and Matteo opened a bottle of the golden sparkling wine that was the pride of the Serrone vineyard.

‘You must taste this,’ he said, pouring a little into a second glass before she could refuse. ‘The grape variety was bred by my grandfather. It was his lifetime’s work.’ He swirled the wine around his own glass to release the aromas, encouraging her to do the same. ‘There is a scent of herbs…’ — he took a mouthful, taking his time to allow the flavours to develop — ‘… and a honeyed aftertaste, enriching the peach and melon flavours of the classic Frascati. It reflects everything that is Isola del Serrone.’

‘You a clearly passionate about it.’

‘A man must be passionate about something. My grandfather produced the flavour, my task is to improve yield and disease resistance for the next generation.’ If only on a part-time basis. ‘The Serrone vines have always been grown organically.’

She took a sip – how could she possibly refuse after that? – and her smile was unforced. 

‘It’s delicious. Like drinking a summer’s day.’

She couldn’t have said anything more calculated to charm him. He would need to be very careful.

‘I’d have to pay an advertising agency a fortune to come up with something that good.’  He picked up the servers and piling cold meat, artichoke hearts, sun dried tomatoes, olives onto her plate.  ‘How much will it cost me to quote you?’  

‘A piece of that bread?’  Then, as he cut into the freshly baked ciabatta, ‘I thought the vineyard was run by a co-operative.  I looked up Isola del Serrone on the internet,’ she explained, as she picked up a fork.  ‘Maybe I misunderstood?  I clicked on the translation device but the language was a bit mangled.  Or perhaps there’s more than one vineyard?’

‘You didn’t misunderstand.’ He filled his own plate. ‘My great-grandfather set up the co-operative after the war.  He wanted to rebuild the community. Give the villagers a share in what it produced after all they had suffered. Give the young men a reason to stay on the land rather than join the stampede to the factories in the north.’

‘Was he here?  During the war,’ she asked.
Again, not the kind of question he expected...


Next time it will be the pasta.

So what is your favourite Italian food? Spicy sauces, fabulous ices?  Do you have a favourite recipe? Do share!

MONDAY MASH-UP

Time for another round up of great links I've visited in the past week.

Are There Really Rules for Writing from Sarah Duncan's blog.

Special Christmas Releases from Harlequin.

Jody Hedlund on marketing your own book.

Social Media Snuggle from Kristen Lamb.

Brigid Coady at the Pink Heart Society on the joys of owning a Kindle.

PIVOTAL MOMENT!

TIME TO VOTE!

Voting for the final four "pivotal moments" of the New Voices 2011 competition begins on 1st November at 9 am. You have three days to make your choice; here's the lovely Charlotte Phillip's moment of change for Anna and Jack in her entry, Honeymoon With a Stranger.

Do go and support her and the other three writers who have worked so hard over the past week.

And if you entered a chapter - or two - I hope you're already polishing up your first three chapters to submit in the usual way. There were lots of really great entries and Mills and Boon are still looking for writers with that little extra sparkle. Go for it!

SIX SENTENCE SUNDAY

It's Sunday - and time for six sentences. This week from my new release, FLIRTING WITH ITALIAN.

Italy is all about food, about pleasure and when Sarah is invited to lunch with Matteo de Serrone, all that English restraint just melts away.

            Vivid colour, the scent of herbs and the sun-baked earth. The touch of a man’s lips for the first time in months.   

            Languorous in the still heat of the early afternoon, lulled by the faint hum of drowsy insects, mesmerised by Matteo’s dark eyes gleaming softly in the shade urging her to this one last pleasure, she leaned forward the inch required to take the grape, closing her lips around it.  Around the tips of his fingers.

            The grape exploded on her tongue, the juice dribbling over her lips, over his fingers.  And it seemed the most natural thing in the world to lick it up…

For more details about Six Sentence Sunday click here

BIG GIVEAWAY

STOP PRESS!

My lovely author, Charlotte Phillips, is through to the last four in the NEW VOICES competition!

All four here

Romance Is Not Dead

Voting in the  Mills and Boon NEW VOICES competition ends tomorrow!  If you haven't already voted, Chapter Two of my mentor author Charlotte Phillips, HONEYMOON WITH A STRANGER is on the website.

I'm practically chewing my nails to the knuckles!

There's time, too, to take part in the week long Small Blogs Big Giveaways bash.  You'll find links to other participating blogs at the bottom of the post as well as some of the prizes.  I'm offering three paper copies of TEMPTED BY TROUBLE and three copies of my eBook trilogy, Wild Justice, Wild Lady and Wild Fire.

Good luck!

The Biggest International Bookish Giveaway Online

62 prizes split between 5 winners + 6 Gift Card Giveaways!

Follow the event on twitter

HOSTS, Feat. Authors & Other Giveaways

Organized by: *Reading Romances

* Having Other Giveaways During The Event 

Hosts:

*Can't Put It Down

*The Magic Attic

Bona Fide Reflections

*Laurie's Thoughts & Reviews

My Cute Bookshelf

A Writer's Life With Liz Fielding

No Page Left Behind

*Close Encounters with the Night Kind

*Sweeping The USA

*Frugal Experiments

Alexa Loves Books

I Just Wanna Sit Here and Read

Romance Around the Corner

Coffee Beans & Love Scenes

So Many Books, So Little Time

*Sexxy Blogger

Thank you to our featured authors:

Talia Jager | Fiona Lowe | Jenn LeBlanc | Donna Alward| Christy Hayes| Gail Barrett| Lorhainne Eckhart | Sarah Ballance | Sandy Wolters | Hazel Osmond | *Bianca Swann | *Natasha Blackthorne | *Barbara Monajem | *Kate Hewitt | Wendi Zwaduk 

Want to be the first to be contacted when the sign ups start? Leave your info here and you'll receive the information about the 5th edition: November 18 - 25. Go to the website to know more.

BOOKS (60):

Shelfari: Book reviews on your book blog

GIFT CARDS:

$25 gift certificate to Amazon or The Book Depository

$15 Barnes & Noble eGift Card (US & Intl) or Gift Card (US)

$10 gift certificate to Amazon

$15.00 in books from the Book Depository

$10 in books from the Book Depository

$5 gift certificate to Changeling Press for a book of the winner's choice

(x2) $ 5 gift certificate to Amazon

READ THE FULL LIST OF PRIZES HERE

FLIRTING WITH ITALIAN

A four star review from Romantic Times BOOKclub for FLIRTING WITH ITALIAN!

After a difficult breakup, teacher Sarah Gratton takes a sabbatical in Rome and travels to a rural village to find the woman who sheltered her grandfather during World War II and with whom he had fallen in love, though he returned to his English wife.

While searching for this mystery woman, Sarah meets businessman and vineyard owner Matteo Di Serrone. 

This is a heartwarming story with memorable characters. Fielding’s beautiful descriptions of the setting and the use of Sarah’s blog to her students as a way to communicate her thoughts bring the reader deep into the story.

That's my good news story, but it's a huge week for, Charlotte Phillips, who made the Top 21 in Mills & Boon's NEW VOICES competition.

Chapter Two of HONEYMOON WITH A STRANGER went up on the website yesterday and you can comments from 9 am (GMT) Friday. Do go and read her entry here and cheer her on there and follow her on Twitter at @charlieflips.

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

I'M DONE!

I'm done! The book has left the building - although, as always, I woke up realising that I'd missed out something I meant to put in at the end.

Never mind, once my editor has read it, there will be revisions. Between now and then I'll be making little notes about all the things that always occur the minute I have to stop concentrating totally.

I have been struggling - as always - with ideas of a title.

It has a single mother in danger of losing her job and her home; the bad boy who left the area when she was a kid (she was posh, he was poor - times have changed); a donkey (inciting incident, cute meet...); old secrets; four dogs, a one-eyed pony. Oh, and there's the whole fairy godmother thing going on.

Any ideas? Please...

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!