On a weekend excursion into upstate New York, we stopped for lunch at a small town called Binghamton. It was an unremarkable town, in which we ate a reasonable but unremarkable lunch. But all that changed as we walked back to the car. Outside the high school, we stumbled across a sign erected in honour…
Imagine sitting in a tiny cottage, snowbound in a winter where the sun never peeks over the horizon – and a book lets you escape into the sweltering heat of the great Aussie outback! It’s a thought that makes me smile – because that book is going to be one of mine… I’ve just…
In a small bar in lower Manhattan last night, an Australian singer-songwriter showed me just what great story telling is all about. Paul Kelly has written a lot of songs in the past 30 years – and over two nights he’s playing a slection of them …. in alphabetical order. He made me cry three times (or…
The best thing that’s happened to me this week was learning the Girl Racers is a finalist in the 2011 Aspen Gold Reader’s Choice Awards – run by the Heart of Denver Romance Writers. I’m so pleased that Girl Racers has been selected – this book has a special place in my heart. The idea…
In London last week I caught up with my friends at the Romantic Novelists’ Association London chapter. We had lunch and a good chat – and they asked me to share some of my experiences with the US romantic fiction scene and last month’s RWA conference. When I arrived in New York last year, I…
I’ve just staggered out of the RWA conference here in New York. The staggering part is due to exhaustion – not anything else!! Although there was a bit of that too… So much happened this week that I’m going to take a little while to process it all in my head. But a few things…
This week is the RWA conference here in NYC. The fun started today with the Literacy signing event. This is what 500 romance writers look like raising funds to promote literacy. The books were all donated by the publishers – the authors donated their time a good will – and writing hands. Something over 2,000…
A comment from a friend of mine set me thinking about first lines. Great first lines. Lines that hook the reader and drag you into the story so quickly that by the end of the first page, you would die rather than close the book (well – it feels like you will die if you…