I was a teenage girl when I discovered television drama. Such a discovery! My mother and my sister and I would sit together gripped by the likes of Dallas and Dynasty. I loved the settings, the intrigue, the romance, the passion – but most of all, the dramatic nature of
I’m delighted to share that my latest novel, The Echoes of Love, has won a gold award in the 2014 Independent Publisher Book Awards!
Did you know that the symbol of Venice is a winged lion? You’ll find it all over Venice, in statues, on flags – it’s at the very heart of the city. The lion is a representation of the Venetian patron saint, St Mark. So legend tells, St Mark travelled to
Please visit http://www.romancejunkies.com/rjblog/?p=7046 and comment for your chance to win today, and to read about the ‘Janas of Sardinia’ legend…
The BBC News magazine recently published an interesting article entitled, ‘Should unfinished works be left untouched?’ The article was inspired by a new adaptation of a novel that was left unfinished upon the death of Charles Dickens: The Mystery of Edwin Drood. To adapt the incomplete book for a television
Please visit http://www.maldivianbookreviewer.com/2014/05/03/guest-post-giveaway-the-echoes-of-love-legendary-blog-tour/ and comment for your chance to win today, and to read about the ‘Atilla’s Throne’ legend…
Sardinia is my favourite Italian island, and Cagliari is quite one of the most beautiful parts, which is why I sent my characters Venetia and Paolo there in The Echoes of Love. Paolo explains to Venetia: ‘Legend has it that after the seven days of Creation, God decided to give
Please visit http://oh-my-books.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/the-echoes-of-love-legendary-blog-tour.html and comment for your chance to win today, and to read about ‘The Bay of Angels’ legend…
French president Charles De Gaulle once said, ‘How can you govern a country which has 246 varieties of cheese?’ Well, how about governing Italy then, which lays claim to some 450 different types! Many Italian cheeses date back thousands of years; Pecorino cheese, for example, dates back to the time
Are you a horologist, a lover of timepieces? It seems to me that the world is divided into those who find clocks, from the grandfather down to the miniature, charming and collectable, and those who are something like Captain Hook of JM Barrie’s Peter Pan, haunted by the ‘infernal’ ticking!
From the blurb: Claire Tremaine, the widowed Marchioness of Derebourne, wears leather breeches, trains horses, and helps the damaged ones find their lost spirit. Her husband has just passed away, leaving her with no place to live. Chastain Warren, the Earl of Kensington, Chase to his friends, isn’t pleased when
Don’t forget to add this great event to your calendar – this year you can win a $100 gift card and a whole host of goodies and books (my own included)….
Along with some 200,000 people, I’ve been following with interest Observer associate editor Robert McCrum’s attempt, on the Guardian Books blog, to draw up a list of the 100 best English-language novels ever written. An easy task? Or an impossible one? The editor is encountering hot debate over his choices.
Description. It’s an essential ingredient for any fiction, adding colour and depth and context to a story. In romantic writing, description must be carefully crafted to create a mood. All details matter, from the look of a garden and the food on a plate to the hue of a sunset
One of the most memorable and impressive aspects of Venice, setting for my novel The Echoes of Love, is its architecture, and of the many beautiful and historic buildings in the city, the Scuole are among my favourite. The Scuole Grandi translates to ‘great schools’, date back as far as
I’m delighted to announce my biggest ever blog tour and giveaway next month – 1 to 31 May 2014. Follow the Echoes of Love Legendary Blog Tour and Very Venetian Giveaway across a whole host of amazing blogs to read my series of posts on romantic Italian legends, and to
Autumn has come, and the lawns surrounding my house in Ireland are carpeted with leaves in glorious colours. The view from my writing desk over the countryside is beautiful, and different, which brings a new energy to my writing. Still, a part of me misses the Mediterranean, azure beneath a cloudless
The leaves on the trees in my garden are a riot of colour: crimson and ochre and russet and gloriously ripe yellow. The lawns are scattered with fallen leaves that will soon be a rustling carpet, and with horse chestnuts, split open to reveal smooth, shiny conkers. The air has a crisp
One of my hobbies is reading dictionaries; not cover to cover, because that would take an age, but dipping in and out. I love to learn about languages – both French and English, because I am bilingual. I especially love etymology, which is the study of the origin of words
Seville, capital of Andalusia, setting of my romantic trilogy: Indiscretion, Masquerade and Legacy. On the map for its rich historical and cultural sites, like the Alcázar palace complex and the Cathedral, and for one artistic field in particular: religious sculpture. I first encountered the Sevillian school of sculpture in the Museum
Where do you read books? On the train, perhaps, and in a doctor’s waiting room; in a few spare minutes before going out, or while the pasta is simmering on the stove. Keen readers grab moments to read wherever and whenever they can. But the best reading – the inspiring,
‘Female knight’ may well strike you as a contradiction in terms: how could a knight of medieval times be a woman? Surely this was a male domain? When you imagine a woman in armour, no doubt Joan of Arc springs to mind. She famously disguised herself as a soldier, and
Two marble hands reaching for each other, immortalised for all time; these are the 12th-century lovers Diego and Isabel, whose tomb to this day attracts romantics from all over the world. Here is the legend of Los amantes de Teruel: In the city of Teruel in northern Spain (the region of
Did you know that the plaza – a large, open urban public space, especially a square – originated in Spain? The Spanish built them to be the hub of towns and cities. There, in the buildings, resided the religious authorities (usually in a cathedral), the administrative staff and the law
Subscribe to my mailing list. I promise: no spam, only valuable information.