NATIONAL SHORT STORY WEEK

Most of us read short stories in magazines.  They fill desperate moments in hospital and dentists' waiting rooms, take our mind off the moment.  There aren't many collections published in book form these days, but  National Short Story Week 22-28 November, championed by the very lovely Katie Fforde, is hoping to open our eyes to the pleasures of the form.

You can read what she has to say about the pleasure of reading short stories
here and if you find yourself convinced, there's no better place to start than in this collection published by the Romantic Novelists' Association to promote their 50th Anniversary this year.  Perfect to pop into a stocking.  Yours, or someone you know who loves to read. 

Perfect to fill that twenty minutes before you climb into bed and are overcome with sleep.

Or here's one I wrote earlier that you can read for free - The Cinderella Valentine

MILLS AND BOON AT CHELTENHAM

Remember the Butlers in the Buff?



Well here's a little more one of them (ahem!) on duty at the Cheltenham Festival this week, when Mills & Boon brought a little excitement to this somewhat sedate literary festival. I so wish I'd been there!

To see him, and the panel, in action, click here

And more about the "reader's choice" hero, Mr Rochester, here

RNA CELEBRATES

The Romantic Novelists' Association is very nearly 50 years old. It was founded in 1960 by Alex Stuart, with an initial membership of 115 published authors, with the declared aim of raising the profile of the genre and garnering respect to match its huge popularity, and sales that made publishers rich and the cash tills ring in bookshops throughout the world.

That it has made huge strides in this aim, is a credit to a lot of very dedicated writers, many of them household names, who spare time from writing to appear on television, the radio and spend hours with journalists to press home the message and to organise the prestigious Romantic Novel of the Year, won by many great writers, and more recently, the Romance Prize which recognises the very different challenge of writing short romance fiction. There is also the fabulous New Writers Scheme, which nurtures and encourages the new talent which keeps the genre vibrant, fresh and the biggest selling section of the book market.

The celebrations will kick off later this year with the publication of LOVES ME, LOVES ME NOT, a collection of short stories by members and here's a sneak peek at the cover. Edited by Katie Fforde and Sue Moorcroft and published by MIRA, the anthology contains stories by Joanna Trollope, Adele Parks, Maureen Lee, Elizabeth Chadwick, Anna Jacobs and a host of other well known authors. And me. I'm in there, too with a short story called The Partnership Deal.

You can check out the full list of authors at the RNA website. And when you've done that, make a note in your diary to add the hardback edition to your Christmas shopping list later this year. Your mother, your sister, your aunts and your best friends will be so pleased that you did. A paperback edition will be published in 2010.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO...

Last night the dd and I were having one of those long, end of day chats. We talked about pot roast, the fact that Subliminal Girls are getting "air time" on Radio One, and books. We always talk about books. We also talked about the difficulties of both music and publishing business. How tough it is. And I suddenly remembered Stevie Morgan who, back at the beginning of this new century, wrote a book called
FLY AWAY PETER about love, and loss and moving on that I loved so much that after borrowing it from the library, I bought my own copy. In hardback. How often does an author move you like that?

I went in search of Stevie this morning. There were just three books (all of them a pleasure a to read) and a short story. Nothing since 2002, no website and Google threw up no articles, no photograph.

I recall Katie Fforde telling me once that Stevie's publisher just hadn't got behind her and as a result sales had not been good. Okay, not everyone can get on Richard & Judy and sometimes word of mouth just doesn't take off and these days you have one, maybe two chances before a publisher decides you're not a commercial proposition. But it makes me sad when someone who gave me such pleasure to read just disappears.