Friday 18 June 2010

Book Launch for APRIL AND MAY


This story has some links to events in my own life. The heroine has a family home in Caversham [where I lived as a student] and where I came back to live after a number of years abroad. She also goes to Constantinople, a city I have visited often. The only difference is that I love it and she prefers London.
She then returns to Caversham....

This launch was a very enjoyable party and the laughter and the interaction of my guests was very gratifying. Oh, and I sold quite a few books. I hope everyone enjoys the story. Waiting to hear about that.
Well, actually, there have been some positive comments already.

Thursday 17 June 2010

APRIL AND MAY My new story is published


The cover of my new story [published on 31st May] shows sunset over Constantinople.


It is May 1804 and Tom Hawkesleigh is engaged on urgent secret business for the Sultan. The last thing he needs is for three English ladies to arrive at the embassy, demanding help, especially when he finds that one of them is Rose, the girl he has been trying to forget.

Rose is no better pleased to meet up with Tom, the man who abandoned her.

But life in Constantinople is bewildering and dangerous. And the Sultan's chief minister, Kerim Pasha, draws Rose into the secret plan. Danger follows even when Rose returns to London. Tom is desperate to help but she remains fiercely independent. Yet, underneath, as she discovers what drove Tom away four years previously, all her barriers come down. But by this time it may well be too little too late...
Istanbul [as Constantinople is now called] is a magical city and one I've been visiting for over forty years. One day, while crossing the Bosphorus in an 'ordinary' ferry boat, I saw a small wooden caique with red and gold cloth draped over the cabin and being rowed by a dozen sturdy young men in traditional costume with sleeveless red jackets. It's a tourist attraction and costly, but it must be a wonderful experience to glide from Europe to Asia in such a way. Of course, I had to make use of a caique in my story.


Having a Turkish husband, I've been fortunate to experience much hospitality in many homes and many different regions of Turkey. I've tried to convey the sheer kindness of the welcome they give to visitors.

Wednesday 9 June 2010

Romance Panel


On Wednesday evening, 2nd June, five members of the Reading RNA Chapter formed a Romance Panel in Reading Library to talk about our writing and answer questions. Of these five published authors, two write historical and three write modern romantic fiction.

Julie Cohen, Beth Elliott, Tania Crosse, Janet Gover and Nina Harrington faced a packed audience full of goodwill and eager to ask how we find our ideas - and more importantly, how we find a publisher. Other areas of interest were what is involved in writing a good sex scene and how do we go about research for each new novel.

With so much interest and so many ideas to share the time went by far too quickly for all of us.