My Little Tribute to London's Big Day

Have to admit I'm not big on flag-waving or patriotism or most of the things that go with celebrating royalty in this neck of the woods, but the romance-arama of yesterday's Royal Wedding was kind of hard to avoid if you're a Londoner — and a hopeless romantic like moi. And I did get a free day off, which is never a bad thing IMHO, especially if you have a book to finish by the end of May and you've still struggling through chapter six (eek!!).

That said my oldest son did manage to prise me away from my ms (not nearly as hard as it should have been) insisting that I watch some of the ceremony because it was 'history'... And have to admit I ended up enjoying it more than he did... Teenagers after all have remarkably short attention spans when it comes to pomp and circumstance.

Things I particularly liked:

My home town looking pretty magnificent with the green trees and regency splendour nicely offset with views of the Millennium Wheel and the city's modern heart.

Historian Simon Schama on the BBC valiantly trying to give all the hoopla a bit of historical context.

The jets flying over my house in formation... Very impressive!

William's eyeroll to Kate in the Abbey, nicely documented here.

And last but not least the cool bit of graffiti I discovered yesterday while cycling to the gym which I have used to illustrate my post. Marmite indeed!!

Brenda Novak's Auction... 4 Days and counting.

Hi All

Hope you had a great Easter Weekend. Weather was phenomenal here in the UK, spent four lovely days at my Mum's place in the heart of Thomas Hardy country in Wiltshire and the sun shined all weekend. Even went on an off-road bike ride down the Ox Drove (always makes me think of Hardy that journey, through the bluebell woods and across ancient chalk roads).

Anyway, just giving you'all a quick head's up to say I'm taking part in Brenda Novak's Auction again this year. Bidding starts on 1st May and runs through til the 31st.

I've donated an author critique of a first chapter and synopsis aimed at Harlequin Presents and a 'follow-up' meeting over breakfast at the RWA conference in NYC. Of course, if you're not going to be at the conference, I'm sure we can arrange an email chat.

I'm also donating a couple of signed copies of my books... Can't actually remember which ones, will have to go check.

Anyway, hope to see some good bids not just on my stuff but there's lots of stuff for aspiring authors from critiques to agent interviews, etc, so definitely worth a look.

Vote for Me This Weekend, Cos I Wanna Win!!

Ok, so my book Surf, Sea and a Sexy Stranger is up for the coveted title of Book of the Week on the Long and Short Reviews Blog and I want you to go vote for it. And I think you have to do it this weekend... Because I really want to win. Why? Well there are two main reasons.

The First Reason is that they gave the book a magnificent 'Five Book' review last week... So surely it deserves a vote or two.

Here's some of the highlights from that review to prove my point:

'This story defines what I look for in a romance book and Ms. Rice delivers.'

'Maddy is the heroine and she’s such a warm and wonderful person it was a pleasure watching her deal with the cranky dude she saved from drowning.'

'Rye is a deliciously complicated man with a few defensive layers just begging to be unraveled. He’s rich, he’s commanding and boy, does he ever know his way around a woman’s body. There were quite a few times I really wished I was Maddy when he does what he does to her, more than once.'

'This story is chock full of clever writing and great descriptions. I don’t know how to express the extreme satisfaction that I got while reading this story.'

'Surf, Sea and a Sexy Stranger is a very emotional book despite the very cheery title. This book hit all my happy buttons and is the kind of book I would have no problem telling all my friends to read. There is so much to like and enjoy throughout the entire story, it’s actually hard to pick just one scene or moment that was better than another. They all contributed to my maximum enjoyment and I look forward to reading other books from Ms. Rice. If her sense of humor and interpretation of life’s quirky moments are typical for her style of writing then the author has found herself a new fan.'

Okay, enough with the quotes, you can read the whole wonderful review here, but you get the drift. They loved my book and my head is now so enormous I need a crane to keep it from lolling onto my computer.

But now here's the Second Reason:

I've been nominated for some pretty terrific prizes in my time (ooh goody, another opportunity to mention my RITA nomination in 2008!!) but the only thing I've ever won was a treasure hunt at a Wiltshire Country Fair in the 1970s and all I got was 50p. And folks, even in the inflation-proof 70s, 50p was a pretty crap prize. Somehow I had convinced myself I was going to win a new Chopper bike after they announced my name over the tannoy and as I raced across the fairground, dodging coconut shies and swinging boats with my brother. But when I got to the organisers tent and breathlessly announced who I was, the gruff carny counting up the days' takings tossed me a 50p coin and told me to get lost. Is anyone sobbing yet??


So you see, you have to vote for me, so I can finally prove to myself (and my brother) that that damn 50p isn't going to be the only thing I ever win!


Here's where to vote, if you loved the review (or even if you've just taken pity on my sad little sob story!)


Thanks Heidi x

PS: And I never did get that coveted chopper bike... I'm just saying!!

Thanks to the Folks at Uxbridge Library

So last night I packed up my workshop crib sheets - which includes this very inspirational montage of Alpha Males (PS: I didn't put it together, so take no responsibility for Simon Cowell & Gordon Ramsey, I'm just saying...) - and headed off down the M40 in my Fiat Panda to Uxbridge Library.

Once there I was pleased to find not just an amazing turn out for 7.30pm on a Tuesday evening (at least 35 people) but a great cross-section of the population, from a couple of elderly gents (who said they were looking forward to reading their first M&B) to a young girl (who looked a little confused at times but sat very politely). There were avid romance readers, aspiring authors who have already submitted a couple of manuscripts, quite a few people who were just interested in hearing what it's like to be a published novelist and even a young male actor who was intrigued enough to 'give my book a go' even though he admitted to not reading much romance as a rule!!

I waffled for a good hour then took questions, and hopefully imparted a small amount of useful information in amongst all the  anecdotes on topics such as 'how to get rid of an Elvis impersonator who wants to take over your manuscript' and 'how to keep a straight face while explaining to your Mum that your first published book is going to be called Bedded by a Bad Boy'.

I had a great time, and hope the participants enjoyed it as much as I did (even if most of them are not likely to be submitting to M&B any time soon).

Best question of the night? The woman who asked if she could submit her story in Bulgarian. Bless! 

Was really tempted to say yes, as she seemed keen and as she rightly pointed out, women in Bulgaria love romance. But I think my editor would probably have killed me. So I settled for suggesting that she either get a good translator before submitting, wait until she was more confident in written English, or think about investigating Bulgarian romance publishers. I really hope I didn't discourage her.

Next stop Stokey on Thursday night!

How to Be Young Forever!

I'm over at the Pink Heart Society today doing a coverted Male on Monday slot and talking about teenage dreams, how your teenage crushes can keep you young forever and THAT guy from the Katy Perry video.

Actually, he's the inspiration for my latest hero, Nick Delisantro, a former North London bad boy, who now lives in San Francisco, has a very successful career as a Hollywood scriptwriter, but still has a wild streak, as my heroine is currently finding out after climbing onto the back of his motorbike.

Anyway to find out where I got my inspiration from, check out the PHS today.

Jake Gyllenhaal is HAWT!

Am over at the Pink Heart Society today talking about the fiendishly clever new Jake Gyllenhaal movie Source Code and it's very dishy star, so come join me.

Am currently writing Chapter Five of Nick's story and have just discovered that he doesn't like to talk. At all! Never encountered this strong-but-silent routine with a hero before and it's driving me mad... And turning my heroine into a chatterbox. The poor woman can't shut up.

Sexy Lifeguard Alert at I Heart Presents

Am blogging over at I Heart Presents today about the inspiration for my April Presents Extra release Surf, Sea and a Sexy Stranger during a not-so-glam camping holiday in Cornwall two summers ago. And yes, as this blog title suggests some very tasty lifeguards were involved.

Amazing how a good-looking chap (or two) can make you forget about torrential rain, wasps and leaking airbeds isn't it. Or maybe that's just me!

Happy Super Mum Day!!

Am feeling all blissful and pleased with myself today... First off, it's Mum's Day and I got a great card from my supremely talented oldest progeny! Not sure if he really thinks of me as Super-Mum or he just knows how to suck up really well (probably a bit of both is my guess), but the design he did hit all my happy buttons: particularly liked that he thinks he and his brother are Powerpuff Boys. And check out my cleavage and my knee-high boots! Wonder Woman eat your heart out. So I'm sharing it with you all, and wishing mums everywhere a Happy Mother's Day.

Not only that, but I got some lovely blogger reviews for Cupcakes and Killers Heels — which I'm also going to share, cos I'm very proud of them, and because I'm hoping to persuade a few more punters to buy my book (now we know where my son gets his sucking-up genes!!).

First up is the fab Doris O'Conor who reviewed Cupcakes on her Tardis Scribbles blog

"I laughed, I gasped, I wanted to bang their heads together...and the ending left me with a nice warm fuzzy feeling like any good romance should.

This is Heidi Rice at her best, funny, sassy, sensual and a jolly good read. If you have read any of her other books, you will love this one too and if you haven't? Why ever not? Where have you been?"

See, I'm blushing here.

Then a couple of days later I got this from RLA at the Every Day is the Same blog, where she's busy embarking on her challenge to read 365 books in a year. That's a book a day, folks (for those you who are as statistically challenged as I am). And mine came in at number 11!

"I have been a big fan of Heidi's books for a while, I find her writing is always full of quick wit, sparky characters, as well as having a very modern feel. To me her books are like the love-child of 'Sex and the City' and 'Bridget Jones', which can only be a good thing!"

Now I should fess up and say I sent copies of my book to both these bloggers because I know they like my stuff. But it's still lovely to find out that they enjoyed the book enough to write really great reviews of it. Not only that but RLA got her hubby to read it, and he loved it too. As I can't get my own hubby to read my books, that is pretty darn cool!

So here I am on Mother's Day happily basking in my own brilliance. Now if I could just get past Chapter Four on my current WIP, which is unfortunately due at the end of May, I'd be even more brilliant!