From the blurb: There are worse things than hiding in a derelict old cottage, battling field mice, and sucking on one’s last lemon. Or so Lady Annabella Price firmly believes. For example, spending the Season in London with her stepbrother and husband hunting, as her mother has ordered. Instead, Annabella
Sometimes my husband and I have our breakfast on this balcony. I love the view – it makes for a wonderful start to the day.
Recently I watched a lovely romance movie called Save Haven, based on the book by bestselling romance author Nicholas Sparks. Without wishing to give away the plot, the ending of the story had a heart-warming twist that called for a belief in something beyond stark, cold reality. I love romance
Readers, writers, publishers – the book world has been in uproar this week following the revelation that a recently published crime novel by ‘Robert Galbraith’ was in fact by the world’s most famous author: JK Rowling. Rowling was exposed by the Sunday Times, which had commissioned Professor Peter Millican of
From the blurb: Running late for her spoiled stepsister’s bachelorette party, Lacy Goodlow is forced to speed—snagging a hefty traffic ticket and the interest of Officer Jared Kelly. Their paths collide again in the middle of the bachelorette party when Lacy plays an embarrassing game of Fact or Fun and
I love these two urns that live outside my bedroom window in France.
Recently, I watched an episode of Come Dine With Me, a British cookery challenge show, and I was most interested by one of the cooks, a beetroot (beet) farmer, who created a full dinner-party menu incorporating beetroot into each dish! What was most interesting was his explanation that beetroot is
A comment I receive quite often on my book Burning Embers is that it’s reminiscent of an old movie – ‘romance like Hollywood used to make’ as one reviewer put it. The comparison got me to thinking about the difference between the style of romance we saw on the big
From the blurb: Sun, Sea and Secrets … A week on the sunny Greek island of Kethos is just what Alice Archer needs, even if she has to put up with her difficult sister. Stella’s tantrums and diva-like demands are a fair price to pay for crystal-clear waters, blue skies
My debut novel, Burning Embers, is set in hot and sultry Kenya. Other novels I have been working on are set in Spain and Greece, equally passionate locations. But one other country has always called to me, begging for a love story to be situated amid its dreamy vistas: Italy.
Recently, I have been watching The Tudors (Michael Hirst), because the period of history fascinates me. There’s plenty of focus on romantic relationships in the series, from Henry VIII and his wives and mistresses through to other members of the court. What has fascinated me has been the portrayal of
From the blurb: ‘Write to me, Emmi. Writing is like kissing, but without lips. Writing is kissing with the mind.’ It begins by chance: Leo receives emails in error from an unknown woman called Emmi. Being polite he replies, and Emmi writes back. A few brief exchanges are all it
Summer is here, and the warm weather and glorious colours always put me in a good mood! So this month I’m giving away: Three copies of Burning Embers A £20/$30 Amazon gift card The giveaway is open to residents of the UK and US. To enter, simply comment on this
I love all the green on view, in our garden and the hills beyond.
There’s no doubt that book covers are an art form. Those who create the very best examples are talented artists and designers; take, for example, artists like Jon Paul and Elaine Gignilliat who paint covers for leading romance publishers. But of course book covers are more than art: they are
Do you remember the comic strip series ‘Love is…’ by cartoonist Kim Casali? For a time, in the 1970s and 1980s, this ‘brand’ was everywhere (perhaps because it called to mind the First Corinthians chapter of the Bible beginning, ‘Love is patient, love is kind’). Romantic that I am, I always
Choosing a name for the heroine of a novel is, for me, one of the most fun parts of the writing – but also one of the most important. The name must encapsulate the very essence of the story, its atmosphere, its meaning. In my debut novel, Burning Embers, I
George Bernard Shaw said, ‘The British and the Americans are two peoples divided by a common language.’ I have always been intrigued by this quotation, and the truth behind it, especially when it comes to book publication. No doubt you are aware that British and American editions of the same
Careers are at the heart of my new novel Legacy. The hero, Dr Rodrigo Rueda de Calderón (Ruy), is a doctor who has set up a clinic offering alternative medicine to those suffering from cancer. The heroine, Luna Ward, is a journalist with a prominent scientific magazine in the United
The lost manuscript has long been a source of fascination for readers and for writers. When an author’s work is beloved, there is an insatiable desire for more, and the discovery of a ‘new’ old book can cause quite the sensation. In the past year alone the publishing headlines have
No doubt you’re familiar with the movie screenwriting term ‘meet cute’. It originated in the 1940s, when romantic comedies incorporated attention-grabbing and amusing scenes for the leads’ first meeting. Here is an explanation from the 1955 play Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?: [T]he beginning of a movie is childishly simple. The boy
Did you watch any of the Olympics coverage? I did: I find the athletes very inspiring. They work tirelessly, they make sacrifices, they push themselves to the limit emotionally and physically: they represent all that is beautiful about having a dream and pursuing it. My favourite event is the heptathlon,
Two households, both alike in dignity… From ancient grudge break to new mutiny… From forth the fatal loins of these two foes… A pair of star-cross’d lovers… No doubt you will recognise the preceding abridged quotation, from the prologue to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Romeo is a Montague, Juliet a
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