Yippee!! Book Seven Sold...

Heidi's a happy camper today (despite one of the worst colds known to woman!!) because Leo and Issy's story has finally got the green light. After revisions and tweaking and more, I finally found my sexual tension (and then some.. this is a seriously sexy book folks).

This was a hard one, no doubt about it (and no pun intended!) but usually the tough ones are all the better for it. And as always the problems with this story stemmed from the conflict not working. See isn't this what I always say, it's getting the conflict right that's always the hard part... Shame I didn't pay more attention to myself at the outset.

Still,  once the conflict works  every else tends to magically work as well. And that's no small feat for Modern Heat, where you want a story that will deliver on the fun and flirty tone, but still pack a serious emotional punch.

Still, I'm pleased with the story I ended up with, although sadly I had to change my hero's name at the last minute.... so now he's Giovanni instead of Leonardo.... May have to think up another Italian hero so I can use that name another time.

And to celebrate my success, I've posted the piccie of model David Gandy that was the original hero inspiration for this story.... Oh dear, I guess that means I've got to go hunk-hunting on the internet now to find hero inspiration for my next book. It's a tough life, but someone's gotta do it, right?

Blogging on Alpha Heroes...

Just a quick note to say I'm blogging on one of my favourite topics over on Kate Walker's blog today.... Namely 'Writing Alpha Heroes in a Modern Heat Stylee'. Which of course is a perfectly good excuse to slap up a prime tottie picture of my current favourite hero inspiration David Gandy.

So pop on over to Kate's blog and leave me a comment, pleeeeease. It'll be mortally embarrassing if I'm the only writer who doesn't get a single comment.

In other news, I dropped a quick email in the name of hero research to the fabulous Richard Rogers Partnership (RR is a top British architect whose partnership is responsible for such amazing buildings as Heathrow's Terminal 5 and The Dome incase you don't know) asking if they could give me some info on a top architect's daily life, qualifications, etc. Got a reply almost straight away from a very nice lady who has said that one of their 'ravishing and talented' young architects would be more than happy to have a chat. And let me tell you his name already makes him sound like a real-life Presents hero. But isn't that sweet of them?

 Poor guy doesn't have any idea what he's getting himself into, of course, but I'm already feeling quite nervous. Now I'm really going to have to come up with a plot (and some serious questions to ask him).  Ahhh, a writer's life, full of stressful decisions isn't it.

The Mile High Club goes Greek... And other inspirations.

Found out today about Harlequin's new Greek website so of course I could not resist browsing it to discover if any of my books are available. And lo and behold I found The Mile High Club coming out as a Desire in Greek! At least I'm assuming it's that book, my Greek not being all that fluent.

Just check out that fabulously sexy and romantic cover art — Mel and Jack exactly as they appear in the book snogging on the balcony of his bijoux Parisian residence with the Eiffel Tower in the background. Honestly I think it's the best book cover I've ever had. I absolutely adore it. 

I also stuck the title and blurb into a Greek Translator and discovered it's been retitled A Kiss for Christmas - which may not be quite as sexy as the original title, but is very cute nonetheless and as the story's set over Christmas and New Year also surprisingly appropriate.

It's moments like this that make the whole process worth all the effort. In fact, I was so excited by the discovery, I've just written the first four pages of my next story, all complete tripe of course, but the enthusiasm's back which is all that matters at this stage. 

And just in case you were wondering, my hero's a Brit this time around (a little bit bad boy, a lot sexy billionaire) just to be on the safe side for a change. And my hero inspiration (in the looks department mostly) is coming from a male model called David Gandy who I read an interview with in last week's Observer Woman magazine. Models don't usually do it for me - too much style over substance I guess - but Gandy does take a very good picture (if you've seen those Dolce and Gabana ads that's him) and more importantly he comes across as a nice guy in the article (journalist Polly Vernon certainly seemed to take a shine to him anyway), which is pretty crucial when you're looking for hero inspiration I always think.

And if you fancy buying The Mile High Club in Greek, click here.