Don’t miss my article on travel website Wanderlust, ‘An insider’s guide to the south of France’, in which I share my top five off-the-beaten-track places near my home in the Côte d’Azure. Visit http://www.wanderlust.co.uk/magazine/blogs/insider-secrets/an-insiders-guide-to-the-south-of-france.
Marvin Gaye famously sang ‘Wherever I lay my hat, that’s my home’. The inference is that, snail-like, you can carry your home with you, within you, allowing you to live nomadically without the pull to a particular place, rootless and free. It’s a fabulous song, but one whose sentiment I’m
UK readers, don’t miss this week’s Burning Embers competitions in Women’s Own and Now magazines, for your chance to win a romantic holiday for two to Kenya. Now magazine competition The prize is an all-inclusive nine-night stay at the glamorous Papillon Lagoon Reef resort, plus a trip to the Tsavo National Park and
Tempestuous, tumultuous, wild, stormy, turbulent, electric, thunderous – these are words we’re used to reading in romance novels in descriptions of the passionate relationship between the man and the woman. They of course relate to the elements: Nature demonstrating her power through storms. I recently read the last novel of
You know that moment when you rather wearily order a desert in a restaurant, knowing you are full and not expecting much of the crème brûlée, but when you take that first spoonful – oh my! It’s delicious, and at once you give up following the conversation of your companions
Have you heard of chromotherapy? It’s a sort of therapy that draws upon colour to rebalance and heal. It’s labelled pseudoscientific by some, and I’ve no personal experience of it. But it seems to me that colours do have significance. If I wear black from head to toe, I can
Countryside in the back country not far from the house, where I go for long walks while cogitating on plots for my novels.
When does the urge to be a writer commence? The nights, as a young toddler, that you sit on your parent’s knee and gaze at the scenes in a picture book while the words you hear spoken twist and gallop and soothe all around you? The time you first hold
A heart-warming, touching ‘clean’ romance with a charming setting and appealing characters. I found myself absorbed in the story from the first pages, starting as it does with two frightened and traumatised children who pull at your heart strings, and their caring but way out of her depth aunt, Jenna.
I always keep an eye out for news items that report on surveys on matters related to the heart. Usually, the results affirm that plenty of people in the world are as much hopeless romantics as am I! This week, then, I decided to set up my own romance survey
A carriage ride around verdant Hyde Park. A stroll along the Thames at dusk, admiring the misty lights of the Houses of Parliament. A coffee in a pavement cafe in Covent Garden, watching opera singers vie with circus performers for the public’s attention. A wander around the National Portrait Gallery,
Gorges du Verdon, a beautiful nature resort half an hour from our house in France. There are some wonderful restaurants around there.
With the Queen on most people’s minds, the Huffington Post recently published a list of favourite queens from literature. They included three queens from Alice in Wonderland, Tatiana from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Guinevere from the many stories of King Arthur, Lady Macbeth from Macbeth, the White Witch from the Narnia
Did you watch any of the Queen’s jubilee celebrations on the television? I enjoyed watching the flotilla, the fireworks after the concert and the coverage of the National Service of Thanksgiving; but what most drew my attention was the television footage of the Royal Family from many years ago. One
It’s summer (I know it’s raining, but check the calendar), and I’m delighted to be participating in Red Hot Books’ Shameless Summer Giveaway Hop. For a chance to win a print copy of Burning Embers this month, simply comment on this post. Now, here’s a list of all the lovely
Although this book is pitched as a young adult novel, and I generally don’t read within this genre, I love Philippa Gregory’s historical fiction and so was keen to read her latest offering, which is a departure from her norm, focusing as it does on four fictional characters rather than
Visitors to Covent Garden, London, in the next month can stand right at the heart of art. French artist Charles Petillon has filled the South Hall with 100,000 balloons, in a work named ‘Heartbeat’, as reported in the Daily Mail: Petillon, a visual artist, has until now only exhibited photographs
Art features prominently in my new novel, Masquerade. The heroine, Luz, is a writer, and she has been commissioned to write a biography of artist Count Eduardo Raphael Ruiz de Salazar, by his nephew, Andres de Calderón. Securing the job requires Luz to have a great deal of knowledge of
From the blurb: Katherine has been let down by men before. Can she trust the man who captures her? England, Summer 1132 Valens is an arrow-maker and spy for Lord Sebastian (the hero of Sebastian the Alchemist and his Captive, Medieval Captives 1). His beloved sister Julia has died, leaving an
Home is most certainly where my heart is. In the summer, I’m to be found at my French mas on the Riviera, writing in the garden overlooking views like these: In the winter, I nest down in our family home in Kent, a converted rectory surrounded by woodland and gardens
Imagine a world in which books matter a great deal, but authors – their creators – do not. Imagine a world in which the author of the Next Best Thing is unknown; the words alone are what influence and inspire and transform. In our modern era of celebrity culture, such
When I was a little girl, nothing was more exciting than a trip to the theatre. Dressing up in my Sunday best, travelling across town with my parents, gazing up at the architecture of the theatre, mingling with the crowds, taking my seat and then… the lights, the music, the
Today’s the day: Masquerade, Book 2 in the Andalucian Nights trilogy, is available to buy. Here is a short description of the story: A young writer becomes entangled in an illicit gypsy love affair, pulling her into a world of secrets, deception and dark desire. Summer, 1976. Luz de Rueda
I’m delighted to introduce a new monthly giveaway for readers and followers of my fiction around the world. Each month I’ll be giving away one of my novels in paperback, plus Amazon gift vouchers and a prize relating to my story worlds. Today I’m launching a giveaway in which you
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