Tired, Tangled and Bewildered!

So had a fabulous day talking up a storm with some very interesting women interested in writing for M&B... And as writing and my books are my two favourite subjects I waffled non-stop for three solid hours altogether and hopefully at some point did actually impart a few pieces of useful information. Even managed to get a write-up on the Grazia website (muchos gracias Minx Lorraine for the link) as one of the attendees was a reporter.. Her M&B send-up is actually very funny and has some serious potential (LOL!) particularly like the setting in Dalston market (tres glamourous that) although was a bit bewildered by her take on internal and external conflict (crikey, did I say that??). Should also say a special thanks to my fellow Riva author Fiona Harper who popped in half-way through and managed to answer some questions that I couldn't!

Wanted to add that I'm talking about the fabulous new Disney cartoon Tangled on the Pink Heart Society for Must Watch Friday, so pop over there if you want to discuss it. Loved that movie.

Also (drum roll please) wanted to say a huge congrats to my mate, Modern author Abby Green whose fabulous book Bride in a Gilded Cage (that's her sultry sexy Argentine tango book!) has been short-listed for the Love Story of the Year prize....! Go Abby!

Valentine's Day Workshops in Selfridges

Popping in to let you all know that I'll be doing those M&B workshops at Selfridges on the mornings of Thursday February 10th and Friday February 11th... I'll get back to you on times and who to contact at Selfridges to sign up for one, but we're only expecting six or seven people per workshop so it should be a great way to get some ideas and inspiration flowing. It's going to be at The Together Shop (next to the store's Marble Arch entrance) where they've got that fab display of vintage M&B covers and all the shining new Rivas. (cue picture of Heidi looking heavily pregnant, but not!!)


Also the lovely Marilyn Shoemaker gave me a great tip-off about something that's happening on the eHarlequin forums. Apparently best-selling Harlequin author Tessa Radley is offering her services as a mentor for a month to one aspiring Harlequin author. I think the challenge is to write the opening chapter of a secret-baby story. She's going to blind-judge the entries and pick a winner. The details are here, sounds like a great opportunity to me! I've never written a secret-baby story but I do love reading them.. My favourite is probably Hidden Riches by Nora Roberts (which has a secret baby element to it).


Anyway, back to my ms which is going a bit better now... Have finally managed to claw my way to 20K words. Slow going but persistence pays off, have decided not to worry about whether it's all crap and just get the darn rough draft written. This is always the painful process for me, just getting the words on the paper, revising and editing them is much easier. I think my problem is that, after ten books, my crap-o-meter is so well-developed now, I start thinking it's rubbish before I've even written it which can not only be a bit of a downer, it's not very productive.

BTW, saw a preview of Tangled the new Disney animation at the London IMAX on Sunday. Fantastic! I laughed, I gawped, I got all dewy-eyed.  Rapunzel's sweet and feisty and has seriously amazing hair (that can bring people back from the dead, Pantene eat your heart out)! The hero is a charming rogue with a great smoulder (who even gets away with being called Eugene!). All very Modern Heat really (except without the sexy bits obviously, this being Disney!) Will be doing it for my next PHS friday movie.