Heidi Rice: NaNo-What Now?? And Book Giveaway News

Sunday, 13 November 2016

NaNo-What Now?? And Book Giveaway News

Box o' Presents!

Writing is always super hard for me... That was until this month. After finishing my second longer book and sending it off to my editor I had only a month to write my next Presents. I had already done six chapters of this book... So I wasn't too panicky.. Yet. I signed up for NaNoWriMo to help get me motivated. Only thing was, the day before it was due to start I read those first six chapters... And realised I had a problem, the external plot was way too complicated, my hero was a jerk and my heroine was a psychopath!!

I had two choices:

1) Try moulding that lump of crap into something more appealing.

2) Start from scratch.

But I only had a month. And it usually takes me three months to write a book anyway. But then a strange and wonderful thing happened. On the first of November, I just opened a new document and started again. Because I suddenly had a whole new vision for this book. The basics of the external plot were similar, but my heroine was a totally different person. And I soon realised so was my hero, not as ruthless, but just as alpha. And suddenly the words started to flow... And flow... And flow.

And now it's Day 13 of NaNoWriMo and I've written 36k words... And I'm still going folks. And I am LOVING this book. Which means either I'm completely delusional. Or it's actually as good as I think it is.

Here's a sneak peek of my Pinterest board to give you an idea of what it's about.

So now I know. Writing is always hard for me, except on the very rare occasions when it's not – and I turn into Joan Wilder at the beginning of Romancing the Stone. And seriously there is nothing more uplifting. This is good news for me, because I needed something to lift me up right now. And locking myself in my study and ignoring the news and just writing about love and romance and two people who desperately need each other but haven't figured it out yet – and then throwing in a marriage of convenience and a touch of pregnesia to spice things up a bit – is TOTALLY the answer.

In other news, my box of books arrived from Harlequin for my first Classic Presents: Vows They Can't Escape which is out in Jan 2017 in the US and Feb 2017 in the UK... I'm doing a Goodreads giveaway, but will also be doing a couple of giveaways to people signed up to my newsletter list. I'll be arranging that as soon as I finish this book... So if you're not signed up already and you want a chance to win, you can find the sign up form on my Facebook Author Page or my website or from the form on the sidebar.

Here's the giveaway which should be live soon... ish!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Vows They Can't Escape

by Heidi Rice

Giveaway ends November 30, 2016.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

1 comment:

Amy Andrews said...: I am finding NaNo totally thrilling too Heidi! So how I'm writing from now on - pacing myself at 2k a day which means I have time in my day to feel like I' doing other things other than writing and not chained to my keyboard!
Am loving it!
Can't wait for your Presents to hit the shelves here in Oz!; 14 November 2016 at 15:45

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My Book Recs!

Dirty Secret by Mira Lyn Kelly
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

So I know absolutely NADA about ice hockey, I'm a Brit after all. But when I saw my old writing mate Mira Lyn Kelly had written a series of HAWT hockey romances I hit the insta-buy button because I know what a fabulous writer she is – and I had a week-long holiday in Spain with lots of lounging-around-a-pool time to fill. I'm happy to say I was not disappointed. Because this book hit all my sweet spots hot hero, smart savvy heroine, snappy dialogue and deep deep emotion wise.... (Although I still know nada about hockey I feel I can now talk quite knowledgeably about how hot ice hockey players are at least!)

Dirty Secret is the first of the Slayers Hockey team stories (although Greg and Julia feature in Dirty Player, in another series, which I will sooo be checking out after I finish this series). Anyway Dirty Secret features team captain Greg Baxter's arch rival Vaughn Vasser and Greg's little sister Natalie, who is absolutely OFF LIMITS to the rest of the team. But most of all to Vaughn, who recently threw a punch at the cap, is not much liked by the Chicago press, the Slayers fans or nearly all of his teammates either, and has his sights set on a trade back to Oregon ASAP...

But what Vaughn does not know is that the "Allie" he had an uber hot one-night stand with eight months ago in Vancouver, and who ran out on him without leaving a number and who he cannot forget is none other than the guy he hates little sis. Natalie is so busted when Vaughn turns up at her door, after discovering who she is... And that she knew who he was all along, and that's why she was using an assumed name. To say he's pissed is putting it mildly, but the truth is he is also hurt. WTF was she thinking, leaving him in the lurch like that after pretty much the best night of his life? Ofc, it's only a matter of time before pissed gives way to provocative, because these two really cannot keep their hands off each other, or any other crucial parts of their anatomy tbf. But while the secret sex scenes are the perfect blend of explosively intense and toe-curlingly spicy, the real secret in this book is that the hard-nosed (and hard everything else) Vaughn, is actually a really sweet guy. But only Natalie ever gets to see that side of him...

Not all that surprisingly, given their explosive chemistry, it doesn't take long before their under-the-radar romance is impossible to keep under the radar (or anything else for that matter).

Once Greg finds out that his rival is secretly dating his kid sister, all hell breaks loose, leaving Vaughn's career in the crosshairs and Natalie having to deal with her big brother's ego explosion. So how is Vaughn not gonna blow up his career and get over the girl he can't have but still wants all the damn time? How is Natalie gonna get her big bro to back the hell off and give her space to figure out that Vaughn is the guy for her? Which is a big ask for her, because she spent her whole life living in the shadow of Greg's career. And she does not want to risk living in the shadow of another man's career - however right he seems....

I'll leave the answers to those crucial questions for you to find out, but I was rooting for them both throughout the fallout, even when they made mistakes. I loved the underlying theme,too, that love is never easy, that chemistry can be dangerous as well as delicious but that ultimately it's the compromises you make and the secrets you are brave enough to share about who you really are, and what you really want that give you the greatest rewards.

What a terrific start to this series, I'm already three books in and I am TOTALLY ADDICTED which is good because I'm now back in a cold and rainy London, and some Slayers Hockey heat is the perfect antedote. So thank you Mira Lyn for giving me my summer back, I appreciate it.

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