Better today

The sun is shining. My fever appears to have stopped or at least I am not breaking out in a sweat every time I move -- although I still have a bit of a cough.

Tonight at 9 pm on BBC 4 is the first part of a four part series entitled Reader I married Him -- Daisy Goodwin presents a look at romantic fiction. Already from the press releases I have learnt that a M&B book is sold somewhere in the UK every 2 minutes. M&B represents 40% of the paperback market. And hopefully with well researched statistics, getting an airing on the BBC, Romance will be taken more seriously. I will be trying to glean any statistics I can, because whenever you do media presentations, you do get ask certain questions.... I know they did some filmng at the M&B offices so I shall be looking for familiar faces. They also interviewed some members of the RNA. I am really looking forward to seeing it.

I am also looking forward to Friday and AMBA day. It starts with lunch.This year, the speakers are foreign editors. Then some friends and I are retiring to Fortnams for a cup of tea. Later there is a toast to the authors at a very old established club...With all the editors. I am especially looking forward to seeing the historical team again as I am very fond of them. Champagne will be drunk by those that can, o.j. by those who are on the soft stuff... Then I get to go to dinner with two very good friends. It is one of the days that I do feel like -- I am a Glamorous International Award winning Best selling Author and so are my friends, thank you very much.

As generally I sit around in jeans that are somewhat worse for wear, old sweaters and t-shirts, I think I deserve a bit of glam...

Better today

The sun is shining. My fever appears to have stopped or at least I am not breaking out in a sweat every time I move -- although I still have a bit of a cough.

Tonight at 9 pm on BBC 4 is the first part of a four part series entitled Reader I married Him -- Daisy Goodwin presents a look at romantic fiction. Already from the press releases I have learnt that a M&B book is sold somewhere in the UK every 2 minutes. M&B represents 40% of the paperback market. And hopefully with well researched statistics, getting an airing on the BBC, Romance will be taken more seriously. I will be trying to glean any statistics I can, because whenever you do media presentations, you do get ask certain questions.... I know they did some filmng at the M&B offices so I shall be looking for familiar faces. They also interviewed some members of the RNA. I am really looking forward to seeing it.

I am also looking forward to Friday and AMBA day. It starts with lunch.This year, the speakers are foreign editors. Then some friends and I are retiring to Fortnams for a cup of tea. Later there is a toast to the authors at a very old established club...With all the editors. I am especially looking forward to seeing the historical team again as I am very fond of them. Champagne will be drunk by those that can, o.j. by those who are on the soft stuff... Then I get to go to dinner with two very good friends. It is one of the days that I do feel like -- I am a Glamorous International Award winning Best selling Author and so are my friends, thank you very much.

As generally I sit around in jeans that are somewhat worse for wear, old sweaters and t-shirts, I think I deserve a bit of glam...

On being sick

First things first My good writing friend Michelle Willingham has finally sold her first book to M&B historicals.It is an Irish Medieval, andfull of hunky warriors. It is wonderful news and I am sure she will be a great addition to the M&B stable.

This weekend, it finally hit -- I am sick. My children have been sick, my dh has been sick, and then it was my turn. Yesterday, I went to bed at 5pm without supper with a headache that would not quit. My middle made me a hot water bottle, and I woke up an hour later --drenched as the hot water bottle had leaked everywhere and being out of it , I hadn't noticed! I still have a bit of temperature, but feel much better.

I was able to work on my wip and I am not so depressed about its progress as when my headache was nearly blinding me. It is getting there. Over 50k now and the deadline a little less than four weeks away. If I keep going at my current rate I WILL make it. I know what is happening next and have really looking forward to writng this part. It is basically five to six more chapters. Or about a hundred to a hundred and twenty more pages, then editting which always adds because I have a tendency to need to layer.

Oh and I have finally got ALL the honey in. Something else I don't reccomend doing with a fever but it had to be done. My eldest and I went out and brought the last three supers in yesterday. Because the Porter bee escape had been on, and the bees could not get to the honey, once we had taken the first super off, the bees rose up -- stinging mad. In the end , I had about five stings and my son about three. The honey was easy to spin off. And we ended up with 18 lbs.
So that is a grand total of 206 pounds off two hives. Which I think will take some beating.

My cave

Cheryl St John had a blog yesterday about her cave, her inner sanctum and I was impressed. This is what my writing space currently looks like. I stitched the unicorn picture when I was sixteen. Underneath are my covers such as I have them. On the top of the bookcase, you can see the champagne bottles from my celebrations of my first two M&B contracts. The red heart shaped box next to them is where I keep my reader letters. It was originally a box of chocolates from my dh, but I loved the shape and thought it the perfect place to keep reader's letters. And you can see my mug. There is generally a mug of something on my desk and I tend to drink it either lukewarm or cold as I go into the kitchen to have a break, wander back, start writing again and then remember...
And also in the room, but in the picture was my yellow labrador who was lying alseep, and whom I nearly tripped over as I triedto take the picture.
And I am in mid-book. I thought it was in a mess , until Cheryl point me in the direction of Writer's Caves and I saw Jennifer Cruisie's. Then I realized what mess could really be like!
So go on tell me what is YOUR cave like or better yet post a photo on your blog so the world can see!

Gladiator's Honor's cover

I adore the cover of Gladiator's Honor but had no idea which artist had done the illustration. I know it was commissioned as HM&B do not have any ancient Roman set artwork.
But I had no idea about who the artist.

Thanks to Victoria Bylin who was searching for the artist who did the artwork for the UK cover of Abbie's Outlaw. I now know -- James Griffin. You can take a look at his gallery here and if you scroll down a bit you will see the orginal picture of Gladiator's Honor. He also did the artwork for Juliet Langton's The Warlord's Mistress. Anyway, I thought it rather exciting.

In other news: After I got my first reader letter, I made a decision that I would write to those authors whose books I really liked and thank them. It is something I had never thought of doing before. Anyway, I was very impressed with Loretta Chase and in particular Mr Impossible. So I emailed her and recieved a nice email back. She was in deadline frenzy and apparently my letter helped give her the impetus to finish. Always a nice thought. Her next book, the final book in the series Darius's story -- Not Quite A Lady will be published by Avon in May 2007. So there is some of my May reading sorted then. And if you have not yet read Loretta Chase and like Regency, do -- you are in for a treat.

Part of the Hugh Jackman Tour

The Pink Heart Society has declared it a Hugh Jackman day and has invited members to post pictures as part of a tour and I am doing my bit. Personally I think this one is fairly good... I found it at Jackman's Landing which has a marvellous compendium of photos...

The Romance Reader Connection Review of GH

I woke up this morning to another review -- this time from The Romance Reader Connection. Melissa Fowler rated it a 4 1/2 stars. As she is a dedicated reader of Harlequin Historicals, it was a real thrill to get the rating.

She said: THE GLADIATOR'S HONOR is an enticing combination of passion andromance, adventure, suspense and political intrigue. Ms. Styles captivating narrative brings ancient Rome to life in amazing detail.Valens and Julia are well suited as hero and heroine, the type of characters who, despite being knocked around a bit in the past, aredetermined to live as they wish—even if it is outside of polite society. The supporting cast of characters was also quite engaging, especially the more villainous elements.

The Romance Reader Connection is lovely, well thought out site btw and well worth a visit.

I do so love getting feedback from readers whether it is in the form of reviews or letters from readers!

Gladaitor's Honor a B+ at All About Romance

All About Romance has reviewed Gladiator's Honor and given it a B+. It was a thorough review and certainly has given me things to think about. They are notoriously difficult reviewers and so I can take a certain amount of satisfaction from the review.
And even though it did not have that certain something to make a Desert island Keeper for that particular reviewer, she still is looking forward to my next book. Always a bonus.

Yet more honey

I got three more full supers off one of the hives -- this makes 5 full supers thus far from this one hive. It stil has 3 incomplete supers on and so potentially more honey.
It looks like it will be about 100 pounds more of honey. This is to go with the other 100 pounds of honey I have already got off....
At the moment I am heartly sick of honey. There are 6 more supers frames to spin, but the honey tank is at the bottom of the spinner is full as is the filter tank.I have to wait for the honey to drain through into the collection tank before I can complete the job. Luckily the 144 jars and lids arrived yesterday. And I am not going to even begin to think about candles. As the other byproduct of keeping bees is beeswax. Neither am I tempted to make mead -- a fermented and therefore highly alcoholic honey drink popular during the AngloSaxon/Viking period. Lots of beekeepers do make the drink.
But it goes to show what my hives are capable of producing in a good year. But God, it is hard and at times very scary work with the bees pinging all about you. It is good to get the blood flowing though and there is a certain amount of satisfaction, once the supers are in the house and the bees are humming outside.

In other news: My partial was okayed by my editor -- so it is full steam ahead and I no longer have an excuse. My fingers are crossed for an excellent manuscript.

A Noble Captive Hardbacks arrive

My hardback copies for A Noble captive have arrived! I love and adore the cover. It just is. My editors who comissioned the cover picked up the elements of the story in far better way than I could.
And it is just as exciting to get the copies for your second book as your first.
Okay, maybe a bit less...
Ironically it was just about a year that the full was requested, and what a year it has been!

The last day before school starts

Today is the last day before school starts for my younger two. It is bound to be a day of searching for lost items, and checking one last time to make sure that everything is there.
The weeks have flown by and it hardly seems anytime since we were getting ready to go to Iceland!
What is worse, the years have flown. Eighteen years ago, I was busy getting ready to go to the UK. Sixteen years ago, I had a really bad night and then my eldest was born the next day by c-section.
Hence the only reason why I know the date I landed in the UK to start my new life -- I had to show my passport when I was registering my eldest's birth and one of the midwifes commented.

At that time I thought I had all the time in the world -- every day seemed to take a year. My life revolved around this newborn. getting ready to go anywhere took hours because no sooner was I dressed and ready, then he had to changed or fed and then ... you get the picture. Then suddenly he was five and starting school, and now he will be sixteen. And in theory next June, he could leave school, and leave home...A Very Scary Thought.

Luckily he is intent on university, so he will belong to me for a few more years yet.

I still remember the crewel work picture I did for a very good friend of mine when I was 16 and she was expecting her first child. It had the words the effect -- Hush to the washing, and ironing go to sleep, I am rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

And they really don't... time is a funny thing and it does slip through your fingers. Even when you think you have all the time in the world.

The Roman's Virgin Mistress

The Roman's Virgin Mistress will be publish in the UK in May 07 in hardback and July 07 in paperback.
I love the title as it really says everything about the book. My editors have decided to go with more Presents type titles for my Roman books, which is fine by me. I will admit to picking books off the shelves with the word Virgin or Mistress in them in the past....

I have been offered a new three book contract. The other books in the contract are my Viking one and one set in the Victorian era at Christmas. I am looking forward to finishing them both!

Ducks and rows

Anne McAllister has a post about getting all her doucks in a row and getting her book finished.

I had to laugh as my ducks are seldom in a row. they tend move far more as a phalanx. Last night, it was total confusion. The ducklings had decided to stay up late, and then panicked as I went to put htem away. They ended up getting mixed up with the older ducks. Eventually, I shut the duck pen and left them to it as I fed the dogs. Ducklings are unreliable and apt to panic, forgetting where their duck house is and rushing from one place to another, totally ignoring the duck house.
When I came back, the last of the ducklings were disappearing into their duck house, having eventually calmed down... and I was able to shut their door. But because I had not brought the dogs out, the big ducks refused to go to bed. they went into the house, and came out again, round and round the duck house we went until one decided that flying through the netting and going into the Dene was a good idea. I retreated, got the dogs, and then they were perfectly behaved.

My advice therefore is if you want to get your ducks in a row -- use older ducks and make sure you have a dog stationed near by.

In other news: my wip is going slowly, but it is moving ahead. I did some plotting yesterday and now know far more what happens in the middle bit. This in theory should make everything go faster. For the moment, my ducks are scattered and not in a row or even a phalanx.

August Bank Holiday Monday

It is the AUgust Bank Holiday here in Britain. This means grey skies and possibility of drizzle later.
My dh has started to put the garden to rights. This will involve a trip to the dump as the garden is looking rather like a jungle at the moment.

The ducklings are growing. It is very interesting to watch the social interaction. Lots of head bobbing before a young duckling join a group of ducks. There is a certain order to the way they do things. Everything regimented with lots of load quacking if it does not go as planned.

I discovered two books -- Consuming Passions about the growth of the consumer during Victorian times, apparently there is a chapter on Christmas. And also the Victorian House:Childbirth through death. Both by Judith Flanders. I am justifying the purchase as research for the Victorian Christmas one I am writing after this one.

Speaking of which, I saent the partial for HVC off to my editor who will be returning from holiday tomorrow. Even though, in theory I don't need to send in partials anymore. I like to do it. It makes for a certain discipline.

Also:
The marketing team for Harlequin Mills and Boon are busy gathering data for the 2007 Romance Report. In particular they are doing a survey about how romantic are you?If you would like to help, please fill in the following survey. Your answers are totally confidential and can not be traced back to you.Obviously the more people who fill out the survey, the more information Harlequin Mills and Boon will have about the currnet state of romance.The survey does need to be filled in by 30 September for your answers to be included in the 2007 Romance Report that is sent out to media worldwide. Thank you in advance for helping.

A better day, a hero prototype found.

Margaret Moore wrote a very good article on the Harlequin Historical Authors' blog in which she had uploaded a picture of Gerald Butler. Before this, I had not encountered him, and had not seriously considered him as an image model for Haakon, my hero. But when I saw the photo, I realized -- this was nearly a perfect match.
It is the dark hair and blue eyes. I understand from Patrica Frances Rowell he has been used as an image model for a number of Harlequin Mills and Boon Historical heroes including her own A Fortuitous Abduction. Terri Brisbin informs that she has over three hundred photos of this man. I think I have been missing something here.... I am not worried that our characters will alike, the deep character that each writer creates brings something new to the table. It is just that the image sometimes helps.


And here he is in a more modern pose. He will be appearing as King Leonidas in the 300 -- wearing Spartan Gear. Thermoplyae and all that. I hope it is a well told tale, although I suspect there will be a large group of women going for the pleasure of watching GB...and his loincloth. And what is wrong with that? A healthy hetrosexual appreciation of a good looking man is nothing to be sniffed at.
Anyway, once I had seen the picture, many thigns feel into place and where I had been a bit stuck, things appeared to flow better...
Did I need a face to put to an idea? I am not sure, but thus far it seems to have worked. I sent my first three chapters off to one of my critque partners and they came flying back with a few minor tweaks. These I will do and then send it off to my other critque partner, before sending it to my editor for Tuesday.

The bee stings are healing. And the honey has been bottled. I am currently melting the wax to separte if from any remaining honey and then I will make a few candles. The windows have to be closed while I do this as the bees can smell the honey and try to get in.

But the wip is moving forward again.

Harvesting honey and mistakes made

On Sunday, my dh decided we had had enough of the honey drought. For the first since August 2001, we had been without our own honey. I was supposed to go down and put the porter bee escapes in below one super.
Porter bee escapes allow bees to leave but not return. The theory being that you then go and pick up the honey in the early morning, and there is no need to shake the bees off the individual frames. This is the THEORY. It is not always true in practice as I have discovered in previous years.

However, I wanted honey sooner than four days time, and so I decided to forego the porter bee escapes for the shake the damned bees off the comb method.

I went into the first hive and was astonished to see how much honey -- the top super was overflowing with sealed honey. We had no more supers to put on. There were very few bees in the top layer.
MISTAKE Number 1 I should have just taken the top super away and worried about shaking the bees off, so distance from the hive. In stead I thought to follow my original plan and transfer the super frames to a brood box. Result: bees tried to sting my arms. One or two succeeded. Bees dislike honey robbers.

I got the honey up and in with no more mishaps. It was Rosebay willow herb -- a lovely light straw colour, and wonderfully runny. There were 26 jars worth on the one super. When you consider for the last few years following the 2 brood box method, we have had a total each year of about 50 jars, I was very pleased. There are 9 other super boxes potentially as full of honey.

MISTAKE number 2 Do not attempt to reopen a colony just after you have taken honey off. The bees tend to be a bit aggressive. Particularly do not try this when your smoker has gone out. RESULT: 15 bee stings to my legs. And one hive of v angry bees, rising in a black cloud.

Luckily I am not allergic.

Now all I have to do is check the other bee hive and plot how I am going to get porter bee escapes on.

In other news HVC goes slowly. I have figured out where I made a mistake and more importantly why it is a mistake. It should read better.

If you feel in need of motivation about writing, you should check out margaret Moore's blog. She offers some wonderful pearls of wisdom. With me it is not worrying so much the other writer is writing 15 pages per day, but rather that I am going too quickly, if this makes sense. And yes I know,I would be the one standing, burbling in the corner, if I couldn't write as much as I do.

Gladiator's Honour on radio

The audio cd of Gladiator's Honour will be broadcast on One Word Radio, starting on 27 August.

It is your chance to hear the wonderful voice of Simon Poland. It is abridged, but I thought when I heard it that it was done very well.

Can you tell that I am very excited about this development?

My good friend Brigid Coady is the announcer.

And the winner is...

Gladiator's Honour is the winner of the 2006 Cataromance Reviewers' Choice Award for Mills and Boon Historicals.

I am very pleased as I did not expect to win.


Elizabeth Lane won the Harlequin Historicals award.

You can see the winners here:

The RNA lunch was lovely, despite the rain. It was thrilling to actually get to see Rosamunde Pilcher. LadyMary Stewart was too ill attend and Lucilla Andrews was in hospital. Lucilla ANdrews was apaprently spitting mad that she couldn't be there. For those who don't know, Lucilla Andrews was one of the big names in medical romance.

Lunch, interview and a new blog in town

Today I am going to the RNA Lifetime Achievement Luncheon for Rosumunde Pilcher, Lucilla Andrews and Lady Mary Stewart. I will confess to not having read Lucilla Andrews. She wrote mainly medical romances which are not my favourites. BUT I spent very many hours reading RP and MS. Mary Stewart's Touch Not the Cat was one of the first main stream romances that I read and hooked me. I discovered RP before she wrote The Shell Seekers and always really enjoyed her books. I shall be doing the fan girl thing even though I believe Lady Mary is not well enough to attend.

I did a small Harlequin Historical Authors blog. It is a group blog, and we plan to feature all your favourite HH authors with interesting articles, news and comment. So please stop by.

Gladiator's Honour is a 2006 Cataromance Reviewer's Choice nominee

I was very thrilled and delighted to learn that Gladiator's Honour is one of the nominees for this year's Cataromance Reviewer's Choice Awards. As many other wonderful writers (Kate Hardy, Kate Walker, Anne McAllister, Julie Cohen, Trish Wylie, Liz Fielding, Ally Blake, Jenna Bayley-Burke to name but a few) and books are on the list, I doubt I will win, but it is very nice to be nominated and to think Gladiator's Honour was thought highly of. You can view the full list here.

The awards are announced on Friday 18 August. It is an all day event. There will be interviews with the nominees, goodie bags and much much more. You can find out more by going to the Cataromance site. Cataromance is a website dedicated to Catagory Romance.

One Book

I have just realised that Kate Hardy tagged me with this. Put it done to jet lag.
And as two plumbers are busy wrestlingwith the Aga, now seems to be the right time. As you will see, I did have probelms with one or two answers.And I want it said that it is practically impossible to choose just one book.

1. One book that changed my life: The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale. I read this as a teenager and it made a great impression on me.
2. One book that I have read more than once: Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes – This is the book that I adored when I was about 12. Total literary crush on Rab.
3. One book I would want on a deserted island: One book? One measly book? It would have to be the Bible or possibly the Collected Works of Shakespeare or possibly the Icelandic Sagas. Something very long and with lots of stories in it.
4. One book that made me laugh: Regency Buck by Georgette Heyer
5. One book that made me cry: The Marriage Miracle by Liz Fielding
6. One book I wish I'd written: Mr Impossible by Loretta Chase. An excellent historical romance writer and I am consumed by jealousy. There are others aswell she mutters darkly...
7. One book I wish had never been written: Or is a better sentiment as I am not into book banning – sunk without a trace? Here I could put Mien Kampf or Das Capital. Both have had a detrimental effect on the world. But I will have to go for Marx. And among other things Marx can’t do math.
8. One book I am currently reading: 1776 David McCullough (just finished Mr Impossible) it is an excellent companion to his Pultizer winning biography of john Adams that I read several years ago. I have several others on the go including an Icelandic Saga.
9. One book I have been meaning to read: Blood and Sand by Frank Gardiner – It is an account of the BBC correspondent’s life, what happened to him before he was shot and left to die in Saudi street and how he recovered afterward. My eldest has read it. I also am meaning to read Ghost Wars, but as my dh is currently reading our copy, I think I am excused for the moment

Now to tag: Nell Dixon, Anna Lucia and Kate Walker.

And sometimes you are the bug

I have a fondness for Mary Chapin Carpenter and her songs. I discovered her about 12 years ago The one which is playing through my head is the one about Sometimes you are the windshield and sometime you are the bug.

Yesterday was an eventful day. It started noramly enough. In fact it was normal up to 3 o'clock. Then the hot water pipe burst inside the AGA. The first I knew about it, my dh was screaming at me to come and see. As he had just screamed about there being no hot water for his shower, and I was busy with laundry, I was not best pleased. However, once I realised the situation, it was all hands on deck.
The water had flowed out and was busily dripping down into the basement. The rugs are the bottom of the staris were soaked. The well around the Aga was covered in warm red brown silt and water poured from its side. We turned everything off and still the water flowed out. I think we finally drained last bit of water from the house....Anyway, now today I have to see about getting it fixed as my usual plumber is on holiday. As we have another boiler, I suspect that the Aga shall to be bypassed. The thought of having to have it taken apart...

There is no reason why the pipes should have gone -- except the water pressure has been funny lately and the pipes are very old.

All this has meant that HVC was not worked on and I shall have to try to catch up in the next few days...

Bits and bobs

Well it had to happen --- Gladiaotr's Honor received a three star review from the RT. I have not read the review as I am not a subscriber. The main obection (or so my editor tells me) is that my language was too modern. My editor does not seriously think this is an objection. She would refuse to publish me if I wrote it in some sort of archaic form of English.
Quite frankly, no one knows what the Romans sounded like or exactly how they spoke. Nearly all of the writing we have access to was formal. There is a great gulf between formal and informal. Always has been, always will be. Even back in Shakespearean England, people used contractions.
My characters might sound modern because to their way of thinking, they were modern.
Anyway, I am very pleased to have been reviewed and apparently a number of nice things were said. Hopefully the publicity will result in several more sales.

I am currently hard at work on HVC. I do need to up my daily output.

My muse seems to thrive on hard work. Push her, make her work and she rolls up her sleeves and gets stuck in. If I wait for inspiration, she decides to go to sleep or loll around eating chocolates. Annoying there but there you have it. BICHOK works for me. Just as well as I have two books to write between now and 20 Dec. It can be done. It will be done.

Better get back to work then...

Holiday part 2

Annoyingly, blogger is not letting me upload photos. And I did have some more good photos of Iceland.

The plane flight over to BWI was painless and I have to say that I like BWI much better than Dulles. However, once we stepped outside, it was like stepping back into the steam room at the Blue Lagoon.
Heat and humidity remained the themes for the trip.
We spent the first fewdays recovering, and then went to the newly reopened National Portrait Gallery. It has been closed for over seven years and it was good to see all the portraits. I particularly enjoyed the portraits from the early years...The modern hanging foam heads were a bit disconcerting. We also went to Mt Vernon. The house and the grounds do not really change very much, but at this time of year, the swallowtail butterflies are out and the gardens are good. They are busy building a new museum though.
Afterwards we went to Alexandria for lunch and walk around. There we went into Barkley Square -- an upmarket dog bakery. When a small dog wearing pink ribbons tried to attack my youngest, its owner apologized. The dog was grumpy because she was trying on clothes. It was only when I look at the racks of dog dresses that I realized it was the DOG and not the owner who was trying on clothes! No wonder she was so upset. However the shop is wonderful for all things doggie and I managed to get a new collar and lead for Chile -- our Lab.
We drove up to the Adirondacks via the Hudson Valley. Stops on the way included West Point and FDR's home in Hyde Park. More properly it was his mother's house where he lived. Sarah Delano Roosevelt was an amazing woman. A bit overbearing, but determined. Our tour guide was wonderfully informative about FDR and his life there. FDR's library and museum was fascinating.
Eleanor Roosevelt's house Val-Kill is being renovated and will reopen this autumn. She preferred the cozy comforts of that house to the formality of Springwood. Eleanor Roosevelt was a truly great woman and one of my heroines.
Adirondacks were peaceful and relaxing and I can thoroughly recommend them to anyone. The only caveat is to bring lots and lots of bug spray.
On the way back to DC, we drove through Pennsylvania and stayed over night in Bird In Hand in the middle of the Amish country. It is a different way of life. On the Saturday morning, lots of buggies competed with cars as the Amish went about their business. The funniest sight was a horse drawn carriage at a petrol station as the Amish man filled up his petrol can. The Amish are allowed certain self contained tools. Strimmers appeared to be popular. The farms and houses were immaculate. It was a salutary reminder that life does not have to go at a thousand miles per hour.
The holiday went by very quickly, too quickly and now seems a long time ago as jet lag has finished.

Holidaay part 1 -- Iceland

Iceland is a land of great natural beauty.

Icelandic Air is only airline to serve Iceland and does deals so that you can stopover for three nights on the way to North America without paying extra -- so that is what we did.















One word of caution -- Reykjavik is not as safe as the guidebooks like to say. Some drunk tried to abduct my youngest off the street on the first afternoon we were there. My dh put a stop to it, and luckily held on to his temper. Thankfully, we had no repeats, but it was a bit unnerving.

On the second day, I went horseback riding up on the lava fields with Ishestar. Icelandic horses are direct descendents from Viking horses. They are beautiful -- smaller than English or American horses, with beautiful manes. They have five speeds. At the end of the two hour ride when my legs were numb, I managed to fall off when my horse decided to gallop. Nothing worse than a few bruises and scrapes, and a case of wounded pride. After returning to the hotel for a quick shower (all hot water is provided by geo-thermal and smells of rotten eggs), we went to the Culture house to look at the Icelandic medieval manuscripts. The manuscripts helped inspire Tolkien as well as Wagner and provide the most insight we have to Viking life. We then went to the newest musuem -- 871+/-2 -- a museum devoted to the longhouse than was discovered when a new hotel was being built. It made excellent use of multimedia. Later, we went on a whale watching tour. On the expedition, we saw puffins, minke whale, white beaked dolphin and harbour dolphins. Both type of dolphin had young with them and so put on quite a display -- leaping, twirling and playing. Afterwards, we went to a little fishering shack and ate lobster soup and salmon kabobs while sitting on barrels.

On the third day we went for a walk on the waterfront and then to the National Museum, which was recently redone and is excellent. It really puts Icelandic history in context. The oval brooches taht Viking women wore were much larger than I thought. There was a dressing room where you could try on Viking clothes --including a helmet and sword. The chain mail was hanging up so you could feel how heavy it was. Then we went on a bus tour to Thingvellir and the Rift Valley where the European and NOrth American plates meet, as well the Gullfoss (Golden Falls) waterfall and Geysir after which all geysirs are named. Geysir no longer erupts with any great regularity but the one next to it does -- about every four or five minutes.

On the last day, the airport bus dropped us off at the Blue Lagoon for several hours. We spent the time in the warm salty water, smothering our faces with silica mud, getting a massage from a hot waterfall and generally relaxing. It looks like a James Bond set. The only problem is that the salty water is hard to get out of your hair. And thus, my hair was a bit stiff when I arrived at BWI!

Iceland is a terrific place to visit. There is a lot of development going on, and hopefully none of the natural beauty will be spoilt, but given the amount of the building projects -- I would say the time to visit is sooner rather than later.Even though, sometimes finding a hotel room can be difficult.

Back

I arrived back in the UK this morning after three weeks away.

I will post pictures as Iceland is lovely as well as being highly organised for tours and the like.
I have fewer pictures of the Adirondacks because my middle kept forgetting to take her camera with her. The house where we stayed was the former great house of a Great Camp (built around 1900) and was fantastic -- right on the lake. With plenty of charm. My mother had lived there as a child for a time.

Iceland was cool but the US was meltingly hot and humid. There were also bugs, bugs and more bugs. Being bathed in sweat with rivulets of bug spray trickling into your eyes is not an experience I am in any hurry to repeat, but the views were fantastic. Everyone kept telling us that the Adirondacks were not normally so hot...Star Lake was lovely and cool though.

Iceland did not appear to have bugs. Its hot water is fueled by hot springs and smells of sulphur...

My friend Donna Alward sold her first book to HM&B while I was away.

And my interiveiw with e-harlequin's Inner Scoop is now up. I have also recieved a box of NA Gladiator's Honor as well as four Large Print The Marriage Inheritance from Linford Romance.

I have had the revisions for VW and they look highly doable and will no doubt make the mss much stronger. They are very minor tweaks, but crucial. Now just to execute them.

Off on my holidays

I am off to do Viking research in Iceland, and then visit relations in the US.
I shall be back on 8 August as it is doubtful I will have much time on the computer while on holiday.

Laurie Campbell's synopsis class

I took this class last year and thought it excellent. It is a great way to learn all about the black art of synopsis writing. I know my confidence and skills at synopsis writing came on in leaps and bounds after taking the class. A thoroughly useful class.

If you've ever had trouble writing a synopsis, here's a hint: pretend you're writing an ad.An advertising copywriter for 25 years, Laurie Schnebly Campbell was amazed to discover that the same skills which enabled her to sell bikes, bouquets and birdbaths ALSO helped her sell books. (So far, she's sold six to Silhouette Special Edition -- including one that beat out Nora Roberts for "Best of the Year"). Discover how to use those same techniques to get editor-agent "buyers" interested in YOUR product!workshops:
CVomments on past workshops:
"Thanks so much for an incredible wealth of information.
What a fresh, but extremely logical, approach to writing a synopsis!" — JoAnn Weatherly- - - - -"PLEASE keep me informed of any upcoming opportunities to hear you speak on ANYTHING." — Linda Lael Miller- - - - -"A fellow author has been raving about (your handouts). She said they worked so well that she plotted an entire book in 2 1/2 days." — Deb Cowan- - - - - - -

Now, regarding the August 7-31 workshop:"Tips From Madison Avenue: The Selling Synopsis" will be a month-long series of email lectures, with optional homework assignments along the way. Some people ask questions and chat about their assignments; others do the work but stay quiet; and I'm sure some never do it at all. The idea is that you can read the lectures and do homework whenever you have some free time, rather than getting all the info in one big clump. But sometimes when I give this workshop, a few people wait and read everything on the yahoogroup archives during the final week...so it's just a matter of whatever works best for you.
Here's the syllabus:
• Advertising (what makes people buy?)
• Know Your Product (characters)
• Target Market (identify your own)•
Unique Selling Points (first worksheet)
• Summary/Opening (second worksheet)
• Brainstorming (third worksheet)
• Strategy (last worksheet of the class!)
• Your Synopsis (outline; no homework)
• Query Letters, Format & More (Q&A)
To register for the $25 email class, see www.WriterUniv.com.

The Viscount's Betrothal

At the moment I am reading Louise Allen's latest -- The Viscount's Betrothal. I am enjoying it very much as it features an uncovnentional heroine -- very much in the mode of one of my favourite heroines -- Aemilia Peabody. The hero is just well very good. I was going to put up a copy of the cover but Blogger is being difficult....shakes fist at computer

I know Louise is a fan of Elizabeth Peters from a RNA conference workshop that she did several years ago. And I do so like it that she has created her own very strong heroine who is utterly right for the Regency but with that very steel back bone.

Louise's books are always good fun to read. My midde is now a huge fan of them. I kept having to retrieve her last one -- The Marriage Debt out from underneath her bed as she kept denying any knowledge of said book...

One great thing about Lousie's books is that because her heroines are so strong, her heroes have to match them in strength. It makes for an intersting contest of wills. Equally great is the way she dribbles in the history. It is very well done. Anyway, her books are a pleasure to read. I keep finding excuses to read The Viscount's Betrothal even though I am supposed to be doing proofs.

Nicola Cornick's latest is out -- Lord Greville's Captive. It is sitting on my TBR while I am on holiday pile because if I don't get the proofs done.... A Nicola Cornick is always a treat. I am looking forward to getting her first single title Deceived while I am in the US as it is supposed to be v good.

Today I shall be crazy busy -- finishing proofs, getting and the thousand and one jobs I need to have done before I go off on holiday on Monday. I am enjoying doing my proofs as I am falling in love with Sold and Seduced all over again. Although I keep thinking -- yes but is VW as good? You know the nice low swoops of the crows of doubt...

The ducklings are continuing to grow. They were wel behaved and once their mother decided it was the duckhouse or the net, and went in, protesting loudly, the little balls of fluff streamed in afterwards. The first brood now look like minature ducks -- so very different from the fluff balls of only a few weeks ago.

More ducklings

The inevitable happened. The first mother duck decided to sit on a nest when the Naughty duck turned up with her brood. I told my dh thre would be ducklings, and he said -- no, too late in the season. Guess who was correct?
We have 12 new ducklings. My dh was sent out and bought a new duck house. Several of the ducklings are completely yellow. In due course we shall have to give them off to good homes...I think.
Oh and he decided that today was also the day to pick all the gooseberries. I now have scratches down my arms.

Not much work on the new wip but I know my hero is going to be to die for.

The library campaign goes on. The stakeholder meeting was held and typically the council said that there must be change. Actually no, the recent high court case said that Northumberland County Council LOST said that the public must be told that the status quo is ALWAYS an option. They have to consult properly. There is now four weeks until the next staeholder meeting. The council say that the village's needs could be met by a corner in the Co-op or a library van. Umm the village paid for a redundant Network Rail builing to be fitted out as a library decades ago BECAUSE the library van option was not working. They objected to the library moving to the high school two years ago, why should they have changed their mind? The fight continues.

Back from the RNA conference

The RNA conference was held on the very lovely campus of Newton Rigg near Penrith.
My dh drove me over, and we were able to stop at the Village bakery for lunch, arriving in good time for the conference's start.
It was wonderful to see so many old friends and to make the acquaintance of many new and interesting people.
Both my editors were there and I had a lovely time chatting to them. I was also feeling smug as VW was sitting in my editor's inbox with no way for her to look at it. Thus the pressure was off for me and I could soak up the atmosphere.
The first day was devoted to celebrations and to a saga panel. Nell Dixon swears she will not sit next to me again as we both nearly got a fit of giggles when a saga writer made several unfortunate remarks about M&B. Seeing Nell and Allison and having them stay in the same block as me was one of the joys of the conference. Nell has promised me a medical romance, and I am holding her to it.
I was aso finally able to meet Kate Walker's twin or rather partner in crime -- Michelle Ried. A thoroughly lovely woman.
The lass said about dinner the better. I am not mentioning about the bar afterwards as others may do so.
Saturday started with Kate Allan's very interesting workshop on marketing. There was a bit about myspace.com. Both Nell and Kate are quite keen, but is it one more thing? Then there was the HM&B workshop on emotional conflict. Very interesting and well presented. My editor put up a large poster of GH as well as poster of Julie Cohen's Delicious and one of the new covers for the Romance line -- such an improvement.
Kate Fenton was the keynote speaker on romantic comedy. I must find her books. I need to read this woman's books as they sound a thoroughly good read.
Lunch with fellow M&B historical authorJune Francis, HM&B Romance author Jessica Hart and NAL author Amanda Ashby. I am so looking forward to Amanda's book, You Had Me at the Halo. It sounds fantastic. We shall draw a veil over Jessica, Amanda and I stopping outside open windows and getting shush. My only defense is that I didn't realize where we were.
I went to Sue Johnson's workshop on banishing the curse of writer's block and found several useful tips. It is good to know that many people suffer from the same things as I do.
After tea, Penny Jordan spoke about her career and the way she works. Penny is an amazing woman. She has been a firm favourite for a long time.
Dinner was sit down and lovely. I was able to sit with friends and spent a thoroughly enjoyable evening -- even if Michelle Ried claims I could talk for England and America combined. Afterwards, back in Kate Walker's kitchen -- I shall draw a veil over, but I understand there may be photos.
In the morning, I attend Jessica' hart's enjoyable A to Z Writer's survival guide. Generally when in doubt -- drink or take a bath. She did make the point that sometimes -- good enough is okay. However, I suspect her good enough is somewhat better than me, and so I shall keep trying.
NIcola Cornick led a friendly and informative NWS session. There are exactly 250 NWS places. For the last three years, the places have closed in May, so if anyone is interested in pursuing this valuable scheme, apply for RNA provisional membership in January time.
Then there was the welcome news of the RNA PR campaign and how it is going.
Lunch and I don't think I disgraced myself.
Then I spent a little time preparing my workshop once again and finally I gave it. I am quite happy to send the notes off to anyone who did not see the workshop. My editor did say that I covered the bases correctly, but she may have been being kind!
At last home, and after a lovely supper I was sent to bed as I overtired.

Off to Penrith

I shall be away this weekend, being very serious indeed at the RNA conference.

There, on the Sunday I will be giving a workshop on Bringing your Historical World to Life. If anyone wants my notes etc, after the conference, I will be happy to email them. At the moment, they are rather sketchy, but I know what I want to say.

in other news: I have finished Virgin Widow!!!!

I shall go to the conference without a binder full of mss, and can relax and enjoy the good company and three days of talking about books.

Fighting for a library

On Friday, I learnt that my little local library in Haydon Bridge has been earmarked for closure. I have become involved in the fight to save it.

Northumberland County Council appear on the face of it to be ignoring the Culture Minister's plea to consult local communiities before making firm decisions. Members of the local parish council were only told on Monday about an important stakeholder meeting to decide in principle the future of the library system. This isbreathtaking arrogance. Because only weeks ago, they lost a court case about the way they consulted over the proposed move to the three tier system. The public meeting is supposidly going to be held in the middle of school holidays -- grr.

My local library serves the elderly, the disabled and the young families in the village. Many of them do not have private transport to take them to Hexham for the main Tynedale library. It provides a vital lifeline for some people. The building was purpose built by fund raised through the Shaftoe Trust and other parts of the community, because the village desired a library. When my children were little and we only had one car, it served as a lifeline to sanity for me. We would go and get books at least one a week. When I became serious about writing, it is where I went to read Mills and Boon. I still use it for research and my children often stop in on the way home from school. The schoolbus drops them off outside the library.

Like many services, libraries are something we tend to take for granted. Yet they are as vital today as they were when William Ewart and Andrew Carnegie along with other Victorian philanthropists first founded the public library movement. For Carnegie, the library provided the vital knowledge that enabled him to go from bobbin boy to wealthiest man in the world. He endowed the branch libraries because he wanted to get books where they were needed most.

It says something not very nice about a soicety when they start closing libraries.

Luckily everyone in the village that I have spoken to, thus far feels as strongly as I do. This is something that must be fought. It will mean a decrease in a major service with NO decrease in the tax we pay. The bulding is sound, disable accessiable in a way none of the larger libraries are. It also has free internet access for those who wish to use and a highly knowledgible librarian. The County Council is on a cost cutting mission, and it should look elsewhere to find money.

Libraries are the cornerstone of life-long learning and should be treated as such.

Happy Fourth of July

Today is a day I can proudly proclaim that I am an American and proud of it. Some of my relations came over with the Pilgrims, and they continued to arrive for a long time after that. On most issues that have torn America apart, I have had relations on both sides. For example -- yes some of my relations owned slaves in the South but others founded the first abolitionist society in Chicago and helped found the Republican party. It made for interesting debates when my grandfather (a Southern gentleman) married my grandmother. I adore family history and won't bore anyone with anymore. But I am proud of the small part my relations played and continue to play in America's development.

I was disturbed to read yesterday's You.gov poll in the Telegraph. The questions were nonsensical. Why should a statistical organisation ask people -- do you like American, a lot,a little etc. They would NEVER have dared ask the same question about Asians, the Irish etc.

America is much more than it is protrayed in the media. Just as the UK comprises so much more than its media protrayal.
Anyway I simply want to say how much I love my countries -- the one of my brith and the country I now live and have chosen to bring my children up in.

The American flags are flying over the garden today, patriotic music is blaring and we are having a quiet BBQ today. But for once I am not going to make my seven layer dip. -- I have a mss to polish.

The next stage

The next stage in my wip has been reached.It is probably my favourite stage. -- the wip is off the computer and I amn dealing with the hard copy. I read it through with a blue pen, making changes as i go. THEN I read it through randomlywith a red pen, again making changes until every page has been randomly tightened. Hopefully after doing this, it will be at a stage that y editor can take a look and see the problems. Then comes revisions, which vies for favourite stage after this one. Revisions mean that my vision of the book is being helped to be realised. It is all about making a good book stronger. I like feeling that my editor are on the same team.

Also because of the lovely weather, this stage means I can put my straw hoat, and go outside to read the wip,rather than being stuck at the computer. Always a bonus.

In duckling news:
They are getting bigger and churping louder. They enjoy fosicking in the fresh compost that my eldest puts in their pen daily. Thus far, knock on wood -- all three are surviving.

And a cast went from the beehive. Annoying but there was not chance of capturing it as it came to rest high in the beech tree.

About bees

Julie Cohen asked about bee swarms. And as it's warm, I thought I would answer.

When bees swarm, the first swarm happens when a queen cell is sealed. The current queen and a sizable portion of bees leave the hive to set up a new hive elsewhere. Sometimes, you also get casts when the queens hatch out and one by one they leave the nest, with smaller and smaller groups of worker bees. The first swarm may be the size of a football, and the last the size of cricket ball.
Once the old queen has left, it takes about three weeks, for the new queen to emerge, mate and start laying her eggs and then it takes about another three weeks for the new workers to start emerging.All the while the colony is not increaing, and so may not be able to take advantage of any honey flow.

Swarming used to be a desirable trait before they invented moveable frames as the beekeeper would have to kill the bees to collect the honey. This is when bees were kept in skeps (ie the traditional straw beehives). With moveable frames, the beekeeper no longer need to kill the colony to get the honey, so much of your time as a beekeeper is spent trying to avoid swarms as the more swarms, the less honey.

You can tell a colony is about to swarm when there is a build up of drone brood comb. Drone brood comb is usually the first sign, and then the heart sinks as one discovers fully developed unsealed queen cells. You can cut out the queen cells and buy yourself -- two weeks of time. Other method include the complex and complicated Snelgrove method. Keep doing this and they may give up all idea of swarming, but then once the idea gets in their tiny brains....

The main reason for swarming imho is that the colony gets too big for one queen to control. She controls the workers through her pheremones, but other beekeeepers may disagree.

Bees swarm because it is the way they increase their colony or so they think. Today, you have the varroa mite, and any colony in the wild has very little chance of long term survival. Unfortunately. As a beekeeper, you have to take precautions -- a specially adapted floor, treating with Apistan or Apiguard at the correct time, and there are few other newer methods.

A bee swarm is generally not dangerous when it first leaves the colony. This is becuase the bees gorge on honey. But after a few days, they become hungry and ill tempered. If you spot a bee swarm, the best thing is to call the council and they will give you the name of an expert who can come and remove it. Or capture it for you. If a swarm is in your garden, it belongs to you, unless the beekeeper saw it emerge from his/her hive. A nucleus of bees can cost about a hundred pounds to acquire commercially.

Thus endeth the lesson.

Mills and Boon on the Radio

Harlequin Mills and Boon have done a deal with oneword radio. On Saturday and Sunday mornings at 8am (repeated at 4 pm) they will broadcast extracts from the new Mills and Boon Audio collection. Because Oneword is digital, it is possible to listen over the internet. The programme will be introduced by the very lovely voiced Biddy Coady and I believe will feature interviews as well. First up is Penny Jordan's The Italian Duke's Wife read by Jan Francis.

Fingers crossed that Gladiator's Honour will make an appearance as its reader Simon Poland has a wonderful voice.

US cover for Gladiator's Honor

I discovered the US cover for Gladiator's Honor today. Note the change of hands for his sword.
Much better.

Hopefully he will now fly off the shelves....

Bee swarms

A swarm in May is worth a load of hay,
A swarm in June ,a silver spoon,
but a swarm in July isn't worth a fly.

As it is almost July, can I get away with thinking that today's swarm isn't worth a fly? Iwas all set to capture if they landed within reason but off they flew into next door's garden. What is it with next door's garden this year? First the Naughty Duck decides to have her next there, and now the first swarm of the season lands there. I was feeling all smug and proud -- we had avoided a swarm and the honey was building up nicely, but no, despite cutting out the Queen cells two weeks ago, the bees took it into their miniscule brains to swarm.
We have a ton of honey,I think --this year appears to be very good on the honey front. And there is always a late honey flow when the Rosebay Willow Herb comes into flower, and sometimes we get heather honey (which is a pain to extract) but...Just once I would like to avoid swarms. It would make me feel like a good beekeeper. There again the brood box is wall to wall bees and they will do what natures. The beeswill go out and populate the general area.
Due to the varroa mite, there are hardly any wild honey bees left. It is one of the reasons why keeping bees is so important. Bees are essential for pollination of certain crops and flowers.
But why do they have to be my bees, and NOT the horrid queen either.

In other news:
I finished the rough draft and my editor likes my Viking synopsis. So hooray I have to something to write next!

Gladiator's Honour in Australia

I just found that Gladiator's Honour has been published as part of a special two in one release by Harlequin Australia. The title of the two in one is Society Whirl and there is a very Regency cover (last seen on a Stephanie Laurens reprint) I am not sure what Gladiator's Honour has to do with a society whirl but I am really pleased to be International!!!

Another Review for Gladiator's Honour

A Romance Reader At Heart has done a review of Gladiator's Honor and it recieved a Top Pick award. Hip hip hooray. last year when this website reviewed, The Lady Soldier, I was able to use the review to improve on my revisions for GH as there were parts of TLS that did not appeal to that particular reviewer. I learnt an important lesson, one that I remeber to this day -- heroeines should not be waterpots.

This time the reviewer said:

I felt like I was living and breathing this story. The writing is superb and did not fail to keep me intrigued at all. The love story is breathtaking and made me wish that it would never end. Michelle Styles has found a new fan in me. THE GLADIATOR'S HONOR will be going on my keeper shelves, which I hope in the near future to fill with more of Ms. Styles' books.

It is just really wow for me!! The sort of review to make me walk on air, particularily as I know this website has a reputation for not hesitating to pull punches.

Now I have to concentrate on making VW the best it can be so that it does not fail to live up to expectations and fingers crossed it can help fill more people's keeper shelves.

And back at the wip

In today's post I got a book on Women in the Viking Age. This is a very academic book, looking at the whys and wherefores of historical and archelogical evidence for how women lived durig hte Viking Age. The primary source documentation for the age is mainly the Icelandic Sagas. However, because they were all written several hundred years after the events, we have no way of knowing how much they tell us about the actual events and how much they tell us about Icelandic society at the time of writing. There is an adage in historical writing that the writing/subject matter is a glass through which one views his or her own age. For example, one reason for the huge popularity of the Regency novel in the 1990s and beyond could be perhaps explained by the huge technological and therefore societal upheaval that was going on. This in some ways rivals the Internet revolution. However, it could be that women just like to read about men in tight buckskin trousers.
What we don't know today -- because Icelandic sagas were works of fiction that closely mirriored historical records -- how much was an accurate reflection of Viking society. For example, what was the extent of warrior women. Yes, they are an archetype in the sagas BUT they generally come to a sticky end. How much is allegorical? Still the sagas and their traiditons give me a lot to work with.
In any case, the book basically confirmed what I wanted to do with my first Viking story, and so I was able to complete my synopsis and send that off to my lovely editor. That is one thing off my desk and onto hers. I have two more pieces of work to get off my desk -- my Victorian synopsis and finish my wip. I did my Viking synopsis this morning rather than working on VW In my defence, the wip is getting better and I am happier with it. It will be done in time and it will be the best I can make it at this time. But I still want the thing finished NOW!!!
The Victorian is going to need thinking about, but I am starting to get some good ideas. But at least I don't have to think Viking until I get to Iceland and then I can start writing in a new Moleskine notebook.

Kate Walker's Bag of Books contest

My very dear friend and writing mentor, Kate Walker is running a bag of books contest as she is busy celebrating her writing friends. I am absolutely thrilled and excited to be included as the list includes such luminaries as Michelle Ried, Liz Fielding, Julie Cohen, Anne McAllister and Kate Hardy.

As Kate's wonderful words of wisdom really helped me when I was first start getting serious about my writing, I am really honoured by what she has said about me.

To spend time in Kate's company is to come away inspired. As she has blogged, the last face to face conversation I had with her resulted in the premise for Sold and Seduced.

And for any aspiring writer, I can heartily reccommend Kate Walker's 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance as a must read. It is all there.

If you haven't yet entered her contest, please do so as the books spotlighted are all fantastic reads and include one that both Kate Hardy and I have tipped for next year's awards -- Liz Fielding's The Marriage Miracle.

Ennegrams and ducks

I had a post from Laurie Campbell who did an enlightening workshop about ennegrams two years ago on e-harlequin. It changed the way I develop characters. Anyway, she has now written a book on the subject and it will be available soon. I am so looking forward to it as it is specifically aimed at writers rather than psychologists. So it will be about creating characters through ennegrams.
Because of the post, I went back to my ennegram book and started rereading it. It is useful to do this at this stage of the wip, to remind myself of the character's primary motivations. It is also helpful as I am thinking about my next two synopsis. Where the clashing points are going to be. It is one reason I am glad about owning books rather than just getting them out of the library as I can go back and reread them, reabsorb the info.

We now have three other ducks sitting on nests. I would like to gather up the eggs, but my dh says the ducks are happy. One duck (the Mother duck from last year) is sitting on 13 eggs. Okay, what are we going to do if these hatch? We can not turn the whole garden over to a sanctuary for ducks. My dh says that the eggs will not hatch. Umm that is what he said last years, and this year....I think I can afford to give them a week or two more and at least then the pen at night isn't overly crowded.

The current crop of ducklings are doing well. The littlest one has now caught up with the other ducklings. They are quite content chasing flies and drinking water from the water container. After last year's catastrophe, we are not putting a duck bath in the pen. All that can wait until they are older.

And congrats to my two critque partners who had full requests on Friday from HM&B. My fingers are firmly crossed for them. And hopefully I have been as big a help to them as they have been to me.

Blurbs, bees and ducklings

My wonderful editor emailed me the blurb for Sold and Seduced today. It reads rather well, I think.

In just seven days, she will beg for his kiss!

Lydia Veratia made one mistake – and now her freedom is forfeit to the man who all Rome knows as the Sea Wolf. Sold into marriage, the one thing over which she still has control is her own desire. So when Fabius Aro offers her a wager – if she doesn’t plead for his kisses in the next seven days, then she will have her independence – Lydia thinks it will be easily won.

But Aro is a dangerously attractive man. And Lydia is finding his lips more and more tempting…


On Monday, the bee inspector came and gave the bees the all clear. It looks as if we shall get enormous amounts of honey this year. One colony looked like it was making plans to swarm but hopefully the preventative action the bee inspector took -- cutting out unsealed queen cells and drone bracing brood, and adding a super will make them think twice as the queen has a lovely laying pattern and is wonderfully dolcile. The other colony where I had sorted of hope the Queen would swarm so no signs or inclination. There is however a ton of honey. He also that the hives were well maintained.

The ducklings are doing well -- growing. I must put a photo up, except they always run under the Naughty Duck when I advance with the camera. the ND has decided that the duck house is sole property and is not allowing the other ducks in, so they are sleeping outside at the moment. I shall give them a few weeks to allow the ducklings to grow and then they will all be herded in as I have this fear of foxes.

Can you imagine before you see?

Yesterday I was reading an extract from Mary Gellhorn's Letters in the Sunday Telegraph. Mary Gellhorn was a journalist and briefly married to Ernest Hemingway. In the letter that she wrote to Mehingway shortly before they ended their marriage she says: deviously, everything I have ever written has come through journalism first, every book I mean; since I am not Jane Austen nor the Bronte sisters and I have to see before I can imagine.

Seeing before imagining. I have never thought of it before. Which do I do? I think a combination of both. there are times when seeing something can aid writing no end. Places often have a special feel about them, but many of the places I describe exist nowhere outside my imagination. They are things I have created based on research but htey are not actual.

I can remember when I was at Carleton, and taking a modern literature course (this was not a happy experiencebtw) but we did have to keep a journal of images. Now, it never occurred to me NOT to write down the images I had in my brain. After all they were far more intersting than the simple things I saw when walking through a Minnesota winerscape. I did get asked thoogh -- where I had seen some of the images...I can't remember if I ever did admit it to the professor though.

I suspect the neeed to see before one can imagine explains why some people are more suited to non fiction writing than fiction writing. But I thought it interesting.

IN other news:
The naughtly duck has reappeared with three ducklings. We had to drop everything this morning, herd them into the pen and rapidly construct a crow exclusion zone. Now I am left with a dilemma. I can not pout all the ducks into the pen and keep them locked up for weeks on end. It did my back in and it was not any good for the ducks. I suspect the answer is going to be to build a sepearte enclosure for the naughty duck and her ducklings. Then when they are old enough to allow them the free run of the garden. It is the only thing that makes sense...But n ot what I need when the bee inspector is arriving, the decoartor is here, and most importnatly I am on the last 15k of my wip and all I want to do is write.

It's Friday

Today is Friday and the sun is shining. Northumberland, for once, is basking in glorious weather.
Since this point last Friday, I have written 60 pages and I should be well on my way to reaching my deadline. Hooray. I have found since I deliberately upped my daily output that the words are flowing easier. Of course I refuse the right to change my judgement. But at the moment, it is great fun to write.
My acceptance cheque for Sold and Seduced arrived today. It is a woderful feeling to have successfully completed a contract. It will be an even better once I get the next one accepted.
Here's hoping everyone else is having a good Friday.

Sold and Seduced

On Friday, I received the lovely news that the mss formerly known as The Pirate's Bargained Bride will officially be called Sold And Seduced.
I am very pleased the Historical Editing Team came up with such a great title. It reminds me of the old titles I used to buy back in the mid 80s. With this title, I wouldn't even have bothered with the back cover, I would have had to have it.
Fingers crossed they do commission artwork for it as they did for A Noble Captive. I can hardly wait to be able to post the final cover as the mock ups are lovely and inspirational. They are up on my wall. If I get that sort of quality, I will be very happy indeed.
The thing about titles is that they are a marketing decision. As long as I can concentrate on making what goes inside the covers the best it possibly can be, I am very glad to put my faith in HM&B's ability to sell books and this involves the cover choice, title and back cover copy as well as the teaser in the front. They have far more expertise in it than I do.
Currently I am hard at work on VW. I want to have it finished within the next few weeks, so I will have time to edit it before handing it to my editor. At the moment, I think it is pretty good, but I have to keep reminding myself of the hard lessons I have learnt. First and foremost to make the turning points proactive, rather than reactive.

Julie Cohen's latest

My friend and fellow M&B writer, Julie Cohen, has a new release out -- Delicious available at all good bookstores such as WH Smiths, Easons and Borders as well as Mills and Boon online and Amazon. It is the tale of a celebrity chef and the English teacher who brings him to his knees.

Last weekend when my back was really playing up and my dh decided that rather than looking white and moving slow, I was spending time resting, I spent several happy hours reading it.

I was interested to read the book for several reasons. first, I knew it was a book she had written the first draft of early in her career, second it was set in a school, third it has Ewan MacGregor as hero inspiration material and finally live chickens play an important role.

While many may think Julie's inspiration was Jamie Olvier's assault on the poor state of cookery and school dinners in Britain's state schools, she actually came up with the idea long before Jamie highlighted the problem. But because of the nature of publishing, the book has just been published this month.

It is a cracking escapist read. I enjoyed the romance between the two protagonists, the well drawn setting of restaurants and schools as well as the chickens. And by the time I had finished, my back was feeling better.

If you want to learn more about how Julie wrote the book, revised, revised itagain and finally sold it, it is worth visiting her blog. It gives a lot of insight into the process she used and why sometimes rewriting can take a lot longer than writing something new.

Working away

It's half-term and the children are at home. Unexpectedly the decorator showed up yesterday morning. We were expecting him at the start of LAST month but he got delayed and I sort of thought he would be delayed again.
So now my quiet house reverbates to the sound of radio 2, the wallpaper steamer and the children's disputes. The place is a tip andI have discovered the plate rack I thought lovely and old fashioned in the hallway was in fact put in by the former do-it-up-on-the-cheap owners and it is very lucky I never ever put anything heavy on it... Said plate rack now exists as firewood and the bits and pieces have been redistributed.
I suspect this is going to go on for several weeks....
When I first became very serious about writing, we were getting the upstairs redone. Having people in the house tends to make me concentrate.I can't go traisping around as I want to leave them to get on with their work.
Fortunately I finished the first go round of my sensual scene before they showed up. I shall have to work on this in the early morning hours before everyone else is up as for such things I must have total silence.
My writing is now going at more than a snails pace and I begin to see the light. It will get done and edited before the 14 of July. But if I put up one of those word meters I fear I will become like a rabbit in the headlights, too scared to write.

And the naughty duck lives. She woke us up at 3:30 in the morning, quaking her head off. At that time in the morning, I no longer care if the fox gets her or not. Hopefully she will soon decide that her eggs won't hatch and return to the fold as it were. I don't want to think about ducklings.

Library talk

The talk I gave at the Washington Town Centre Library, reaffirmed all the reasons I love libraries and thnk they should be supported.

It was a well managed talk complete with posters and books. The librarian had even arranged to have a few of the paperbacks on sale. And about ten percent of the people who attended purchased a copy. There were about thirty people there. A significant majority belonged to the book group and had already read my book. Everyone was pleasant and I basically talked for over an hour.

People were there because they wanted to hear about writing romance, Mills and Boon and my books. I geareed it towards both readers who wanted to know more about how books were written and writers. One of the writers from the RNA Northumberland came along and it was wonderful to see a friendly face.

Apparently I am now known to the librarian mafia and my name may get passed along.

Blogging away

One of the blogs I read regualrly on e-harlequin -- Isabel Swift has now moved over to blogger. This means that I don't have to keep guessing if a new post has been put up, because of the way e-harlequin archives things. Isabel is VP at Harlequin and in charge of new business. I find her posts thought provoking and informative as she tend to blog about new things in the company, things happening in the industry and wonderful new upcoming books.

Her latest post is no exception and is all about increasing one's blogging profile. There is something called Technorati that keeps track of blogs, and apparently it can help to have one's profile on there. It takes a few minutes to set up and to claim your blog.

All of which is very interesting but not getting my wip written. I know what is happening next, I know why it is happening and I know what will happen after. I just have to write the thing.

I also have a library talk to prepare. My contract as such came through today. I had thought I was speaking about Writing Histrical Fiction, instead my talk is entitled A Taste of Romance and I am speaking about writing Romance. Fine but just so long as I know BEFORE I give the talk...

A smallish rant

I was reading Romancing The Blog (yes I know I should be writing but...) anyway, there was a nice piece about pirates and someone had posted that an un-named historical author said the only thing editors were interested in these days was lords and ladies. They would NEVER buy pirates. Huh?
Nope, not my editors. They have been buying Roman set historicals from me and someone else. And funnily enough all my mss thus far have had something to do with pirates. The working title of my last one was The Pirate's Bargained Bride.
They are looking for strong early 20th century but haven't found it yet, and they want more ancient civilisations. They are receiving very few mss set in these time periods and barely none that show the writer has done any sort of research beyond watching a film on tv.
Because HM&B have enough Regency authors doing drawing room, they want something that is that little bit different. I think it would be harder to to sell a striaght Lords and Ladies than it would be to sell something different.
And if my experience with Gladiator's Honour is anything to go by, readers are thus far knock on wood, responding to the time period.
When I read editors are not buying this or that, I know what it probably means is that the individual story was probably not strong enough for an editor to take a chance.
The basic key ingredient to sell a mss is to have a strong story that fits within the guidelines of that particular publisher. It is the dream of every editor to find an author talented enough to deliver.

Character v characterization

Or what are the damned questionaires for?

I am going to admit it. Put my hand up and say. I love character questionaires, I really mean to use them but somehow I never quite get around to filling them out properly.Don't get me wrong by this time in writing a book, I can probably answer most of the questions on the questionaires about my main characters. With a little thought.

This was why when reading Story, it was such a great pleasure to read the section on character v characterization. In his viewpoint, the spuerficialities don't matter a great deal, but the deep character -- what is this person really about deep down does. Yes, that was it. It suddenly all made perfect sense. There is a distinct difference between characterization (the colour of hair, eyes, clothes they wear) and the type of person they are. Simply know your heroine is a blonde with grey eyes and a penchant for long pink fingernails doesn't really tell you much about how she will react when faced with the biggest crisis of her life. You need to know more.

Now I know character questionaires (and Kate Walker's ones in the 12 point guide to Romance are brilliant) are means to an end. They are a way to discover the ins and outs of your character so you can uncover the deep character. What will your character do when faced with an emergency? Is she going to be the one holding the victim's hand? Calling the emergencies services? Organising the rescue? Or doing the rescuing? Or needing to be rescued herself? Or would she walk on by? Would your character rush into a burning building to save a kitten? How are they going to react under stress? And how are you going to force them to react? What ultimately is the sort of person you are dealing with?

But often times, when I am writing, the first thing that comes to me is the sort of person I am dealing with. It is one of the reasons I like building up from ennegrams. I like to know about the person deep down inside first. And then deciding what I need to know about the surface stuff.

But no matter how anyone does it, ultimately there comes a point when you have to know the characters so well, you could fill out on those character sheets in under five minutes flat..if you only took the time.

And next time I will, it will make filling out the art sheet so much easier.

Form, not formula

Because my editor went on a course with Robert McKee, I ordered his book. As I assume she will have assimulated his words, I wanted to see where her keen editorial eye would be going. For a variety ofreasons I like to get things straight from the horse's mouth.
Robert McKee's Story -- Substance, structure and the principles of screenwriting (ISBN 0413715604) so far has not disappointed. It has confirmed a number of strongly held views, so I suspect that I am going to be quoting from this for while.
He believes in form, not formula. To quote: Anxious inexperienced writers obey rules; rebellious unschooled writers break rules; an artist masters the form. He believes in teaching the craft of writing from the inside out( looking at desire, antagonism, turning points, spine, prgression, crisis and climax) as it was done in the first half of the 20th century. The current vogue is to teach from the outside in (ie looking at language, codes and text). It is one reason he postulates there has been a deep decline in the ability to tell and craft a story. He does not discount talent, rather he believes that talent can be and should be honed and sharpened. In short the forms of creative writing can be taught, but the mastery of the forms is down to an individual's talent.
He also believes in authenticity something that comes when a writer writes with authority. A story well told.
Anyway, I plan to spend some time digesting the tome. It looks excellent.
There again, I am always striving to hone my craft skills.

3rd Roman

Just to say my third Roman has been accepted and will be appearing in UK paperback in April 07.
A title will be forthcoming.

Now all I have to do is finish this Roman...

The Rules of Romance

Over the last week, a course was held at Castle Park about writing for MIlls and Boon. The Times has published an article on it.
Now if the article is accurate, I am so very glad I was not there. Why? Because I hate rules.
With romance writing, there are a few very basic rules.
1. The growth of emotional relationship between the two protagonists must be at the heart of the story. It is the glue that holds the whole story together.
2. With M&B a Happy Ending is always guaranteed. The trick is to make the reader fear that the Happy Ending will not come about until the very last second. You could argue the same is true with a murder mystery, the trick there is to make the reader think the murderer might actually get away with it until the detective figures the whole thing out.
3. To my mind, heroes should always be heroes. They need to have a larger than life qualitiy about them. The hero for each line of M&B will display slightly different aspects of an alpha hero.Just as there are many different types of leadership, there are many different types of heroes. I have my own idea of a hero and heroic qualities. By incorporating those, I can write from the heart in a much better way than I could if I tried to follow someone else's prescription. So to help create your hero, decide the characteristics you like best in a leader cum hero.

But beyond that, I don't agree that Rachel must always be dark. I know a number of blonde Rachels. Or that Sophie is a silly name for heroine. Huh? That is way too prescriptive.

For every unwritten rule, there will be a story that breaks it. It all depends on the execution and the writer's talent.

No Scottish heroes? Uh, Terri Brisbin writes them as do a number of other historical writers. Saxon warriors are Germanic. Vikings are Scando Normans are French. The list goes on. It is the personality that counts.

No professional sports stars? What do you call a gladiator? Also I believe there was a very well recieved Presents mini series about Footballers wives.

The point is that what ever The Powers That Be buy it goes beyond the superficial and goes straight to how strong is this book? A really strong book whose characters linger in the mind and whose romance you totally believe can break a number of the unwritten rules because really the only rules are that the story be told within the very vague guidelines set down by each line
Writing a strong story where the romance is the over arching plot will get you far further down the road to publication than many things.

End of rant. Back to writing the wip and not thinking about the fact that my editor has my revisions and will be getting back to me tomorrow. Do I have nails left?

The Cataromance Romance for Gladiator's Honour

Julie Bunello of Cataromance has reviewed Gladiator's Honour. Its rating is 4 1/2 stars.
My favourite bit of the review was:
The Gladiator's Honour is an engrossing tale of secret passions, forbidden desires and family secrets which will captivate readers everywhere! Ms. Styles is an exciting new writer of historical romance who has written an extremely well researched historical novel teeming with fascinating characters which linger in the mind long after the last page is turned, fiery passion, nail-biting action sequences and breath taking storytelling prowess.
Exciting, enthralling and unforgettable, The Gladiator's Honour is a debut which will dazzle and delight from the first page till the very last.

It is the sort of review that puts a smile on your face for a whole day and beyond.
Cataromance is a lovely site and dedicated to Catagory Romance.

In other news: I finished my revisions and emailed them off to my editor. Now the rollercoaster begins.
Also on Wednesday I am doing an interview with BBC Radio Newcastle. It is because I am giving a talk on Writing Historical Ficiton at the Washington Town Centre Library on 25 May as part of the Adult Learning Week events. All very exciting.

Another Review for Gladiator's Honour

Lori from Once Upon A Romance has reviewed Glaidaotr's Honour and has given it a 4.0 rating. She said that it was a truly passionate love story -- passion in the emotional sense. You can read the full review here.

I was very pleased that she liked the romance.

Yesterday I went down to Richmond and spoke with my editor and my senior editor. It was absolutely marvellous to finally see the offices of M&B. They are situated on Paradise Road -- a happy coincidence. The offices look like a publisher's office should -- full of piles and piles of books. In one place there were posters of long ago covers and ED had several Harlequin manequins in her office.

It was lovely to chat with my editors and the time passed so swiftly. The upshot is that they are very happy with my work and the way my writing is progressing. It was a Day All About Me. My head is still buziing with all the ideas but there is going to be a lot of hard work ahead.

The social side

One of the nicer partsof being a writer I have discovered is meeting like minded people. A very good way to do that is to join the RNA or Romantic Novelists Association.
Up here in Northumberland, we have a very reasonably active chapter and the infomation is always inspiring.One writer said that the words flowed out of her after the last meeting. Anyway, most of the RNA Northumberland showed up today. We were able to celebrate my book as well as Jan Minshull's first book -- Coast to Coast. Her book has not arrived from the publishers, but it involves the Coast to Coast walk and I am really looking forward to reading it. Janet MacLeod Trotter's next book is being launched in June and Benita Brown's in September. A good time had by all.
Tomorrow I am down in London visitng my editors -- a perk of the job and something I have been longing to do for awhile. I shall finally get to see the hallowed ground of the M&B office as well as lunching with two editors whose advice I really respect.

A day out and the bloody hand

Yesterdya was a glorious spring day, the sort of spring day that you glad to be in England and alive. As my dh had the day off, we headed off to West Cumbria and Muncaster Castle to see the Sino-Himalyan flowers in bloom.
Now the Good gardens Guide which is usually reliable utterly fails in this instance. This garden with its superb collection of Rhodedendron, magnolia etc as wel its unbelieveable location should be classed as a two star top garden. It does not even rate one star. Why? This garden is clearly in a class by itself and deserves to be ranked along side the other great gardens of Britain. It has much to offer.

In the words of John Ruskin, it is the gateway to Paradise. With nary a cloud in the sky, I could well believe the description. With a limited amount of time, we could only explore for about two hours and barely scratched the surface of this garden. In walking in the Sino-Himilayan garden, we chanced upon a Bluebell Haven. This was more than a wood, it was bluebells as far as the eye could see in glorious vivid blue, with the fragance filling my nostrils and mouth. We must have walked for ten minutes before we were through the wood and caught a glimpse of the Irish sea.

The newly opened plant centre is a treasure trove of plants and we were able to discover several magnolia that have been on our wish list for ages. Namely -- Magnolia Grandiflora 'Exmouth' and Magnolia x loebnerri 'Merill 'which has the most fantastic scent. Now we shall have to wait several years for the flowers to appear. But we have the plants and the prices were reasonable. For once it was a plant centre that accurately reflected the plants in the garden, rather than having plants that you could pick up at any garden centre. We had to limit ourselves to four magnolias. Both my dh and I have become magnolia enthusiasts. Their blooms are fantastic and they are not difficult to grow If you have a long time period in mind.

On the gate that leads into The Terrace, the crest of arms sports a Bloody Hand. Now there are various folktales on why a bloody hand appears -- generally to do with bad behaviour of some lord -- whipping a child to death. Some say the hand shrinks each generation until the debt is fully repaid. However, the truth is that it is a sign of a Baronet and goes back to when James I was trying to raise money for the Ulster Plantation. The Red Hand of Ulster comes from the O'Niells -- an O'Niell cut off his hand and threw it ashore to ensure he won and was able to claim Ulster, instead of a boat that was looking to land before his.

We did not have time to look in the castle, but shall go back again. There is a green glass bowl that I want to see -- The Luck of Muncaster Castle which has all sorts of legends attached to it (the book my dh gave me for Christmas about the Lore and Legends of England has an entry) as well as lots of other interesting features. It is supposed to be haunted.

However all this will probably have to wait until the bluebells are in bloom again as it is a long haul from Northumberland. BUT if anyoneh appens to be in the Lake District, it is well worth a visit.

Romance Junkies reviews Gladiator's Honour

I have a huge grin on my face this morning. The review for Gladiator's Honour has gone live on Romance Junkies. GH received a 4.5 Blue Ribbon rating and reviewer Dorine Linnen said The rarity of finding a romance set during this time period is just part of the joy of reading THE GLADIATOR’S HONOUR. Michelle Styles fills this book with just the right amount of historical flavor, without overwhelming with too much detail. Feel the rush of the crowds in the marketplace. Experience the tension of the gladiators, while they train for that ultimate day when they may meet death. All while following a love affair between two people, that societywill never accept as a couple. Just as the gladiators’ games build to a climatic end, so does the relationship between Valens and Julia. It’s a breathtaking, satisfyin gending that brought tears to my eyes. THE GLADIATOR’S HONOUR is a lush realm for historical lovers to explore, with the right amount of emotional impact to melt your heart.

I have a lot of time and respect for Dorine as I know she really loves her historicals. She is also one of the main reviewers for RJ and as such is very experienced.

If you haven't visited www.RomanceJunkies.com lately, do so and you will find a treasure trove of information about the Romance genre as well some very friendly people.

Romance Junkies is about to launch its third annual contest. Although it is a bit nerve-wracking, I do know a number of people who have sold after they have entered the contest -- including myself and Kate Allan for The Lady Soldier. It is a worthwhile exercise.

Handselling in Tescos!

As you can see I have been busy with my camera. I went back to WH Smiths and took a picture and then tried Tescos. There I was able to rearrange things so that I was next Jenna Bayley-Burke and Kate Hardy.

After I did this and my rather boring shopping, I went to the check out and had a lively chat with the woman there. I explained about Gladiadtor's Honour and she asked if I wouldn't mind signniig a copy for her and leaving at Customer Services where she'd pick it up later. She assured me it would be alll right as this is what they did when that Bobby Robson, ex-manager of Newcastle United came in for some of the male staff. And she confided, M&Bs were her favourite. It is her birthday next week and so she wanted to treat herself. I duly did as requested. I must have been beaming from ear to ear. The Customer Serice lady was absolutely wonderful about it.

Another reason why I like to shop at Tescos.