Good news week!

Got an email a couple of days ago from Donna at CataRomance to say that The Mile High Club has won a Reviewers Choice Award. I was so chuffed, especially when I checked out the full list and found fellow Modern Heat authors Nicola Marsh, Trish Wylie, Ally Blake and Sue Stephens there as well. You can check out the full list by clicking here.

Then I heard via the grapevine not one but two of my Modern Heat colleagues - namely Julie Cohen and Kate Hardy - have been nominated for RNA's much coveted Romance Prize this year. And I've got to mention Romance author Fiona Harper (who very nicely came up to chat to me last year at the RNA lunch so I consider her a friend) and who has been nominated twice (isn't that a bit greedy Fiona?). I'll be rooting for all of them come Feb 4th (if I can get a late ticket for the Awards Lunch at the Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington, which I, of course, forgot to book! Duh!). For the full list of nominees click here.

And then to really make my week I got an email from my editor Bryony to say that Bedded by a Playboy got into the Waldenbooks Top Ten Bestsellers in series romance for the week ending 12th January and here's the proof. Yippee. I'm a happy camper. So happy in fact that I will admit to falling off the wagon ever so slightly last night. Luckily I didn't hit the ground too hard.

As my reward tonight I'm off to see No Country for Old Men, the new Coen Brothers movie. Anyone seen O Brother Where Art Thou? George Clooney in a hairnet - now that's what I call a movie. I'm expecting to be thoroughly entertained. And I'm expecting to tell y'all about it at a future date - unless it turns out to be rubbish, in which case I won't.

2008 here I come.... Shackled to the wagon

Happy New Year all... Now, as my New Year's resolution I rather rashly decided to give up alco-frol for the whole of January. What was I thinking! Well, actually I know what I was thinking - I was hoping to be able to squeeze into my posh frock again in time for M&B's big centenary birthday bash in February. Now I'm thinking I should have just sprung for a new one. Only five days into the new year and I've already discovered how boring hubby's wonderful spaghetti and meatballs is without a nice glass of Chianti.

So, yesterday, to take my mind off my enforced sobriety I headed for our local cinema with my teenage son and managed to strong arm him into seeing a chick flick with me (hubby will not go near them) and discovered the sweet, pleasantly cheesy, heart-meltingly romantic (and surprisingly poignant) PS I Love You starring Gerard Butler and Hilary Swank.

I'm hoping to blog on it in The Pink Heart Society's Friday Film Night (although I suspect someone else has already nabbed it) so I'm not going to say too much. Just that it's a rom-com about grief (yes, really) based on Cecilia Ahern's debut novel and has the added benefits of the gorgeous Gerard (I'll even forgive him his iffy Irish accent), Hilary being light but not too fluffy (great actress that she is, she sometimes comes across as a bit intense I think), Lisa Kudrow doing her Phoebe schtick with the ditz-ometer on a lower setting and the fabulous Kathy Bates (someone give this woman a proper starring role again, please) plus the sort of Oirish location you only ever get in Hollywood movies (cue rolling green hills, craic-filled pubs, dry stone walls and dark, handsome, blue-eyed boyos singing love songs). I swear, I thought Maureen O'Hara was about to pop up in a supporting role (and was a bit disappointed when she didn't).

I'm not going to tell you the story, except to say it's the sort of plot that would make a category romance writer proud and the big twist after the opening credits cleaned out my sinuses but good. Anyway, if you haven't seen it yet, get out there and lap it up — especially if you're off the booze like me. Nothing like a good cry, a good laugh and a good oggle (thank you Gerard's butt) to intoxicate you without the aid of alcoholic stimulation I say.

In a word, inspirational. Which is what I need as I've only got five weeks to due date on ms four and I'm not even half-way through yet. Argghhh.