Starbucks Discoveries... An Evening of Escapism!!

Had a high old time on Tuesday evening this week hob-nobbing with some influential female bloggers in the garden of at a very glamorous Kensington hotel, where we indulged in wine and canapes and Starbucks Discoveries Chilled Coffees to talk about women, their uber-busy lives and how to take a moment of escapism... And had a few fairly hilarious moments of escapism ourselves while doing it!!
Here are some pics from the evening to show how fabulous we all looked...

Moments of Escapism... Are you getting yours?

The sun has been shining in London Town this week (and about time too) and I've been busy helping those nice people at Starbucks Discoveries publicise a recent survey they did with 2000 British women. Spent the morning on Friday doing a series of local radio interviews answering questions about the survey (and trying to do a few shameless plugs for Unfinished Business with the Duke) which I enjoyed immensely, because as you all know I'm a bit of a media tart!!

Shocking news is that one in six of us don't even have time for a brief moment of escapism during the day. I'm thinking that doesn't include many romance readers, though, as one thing we've all got in abundance is an ability to have a brief moment of escapism when necessary.... Preferably backed up with lots of hero research.... In fact I've managed to make a career out of my brief moments of escapism!!

Also had a whale of a time meeting up with fellow Presents authors Natalie Rivers and Abby Green in a swanky West End hotel bar for champagne cocktails. Any similarity between us and the Sex and the City ladies was purely intentional!!

All of which has helped immensely taking my mind off what my ed thinks of my latest partial (yes, that would be the one with the ten-page synopsis which had everything in it bar the kitchen sink!!). No news yet about Ruby and Callum's story (have renamed my heroine because son number one told me "Suky" was too ridiculous, even for me... the cheeky little...!). So fingers crossed and double crossed on that one.

In other news my offer to critique a first chapter and synopsis aimed at Harlequin Presents only has a few days left on Brenda Novak's Diabetes Auction. Currently the bidding stands at $60 which is still fairly cheap. If anyone wants to put in a bid, click here. But frankly I'd go have a look around anyway cos there's lots of other great stuff on offer, especially for aspiring writers.

'Surf, Sea and a Sexy Stranger' and Brenda Novak's Auction

Book Eight has a title and it's a winner... Surf, Sea and a Sexy Stranger! And it will be out in December in the UK.

Copyright: Nick Reader


To celebrate the fact  I surfed the internet (geddit) to find a picture to illustrate this post and found this fabulously atmospheric photograph of Watergate Bay in Cornwall. Now, not only was Watergate Bay the inspiration for my original story (I was boogie-boarding on that beach last summer), but the photo here has a lone surfer on the beach below the cliffs (where Rye's fictional mansion sits) and it was taken in October, which is when my opening scene is set. So how cool is that? I got in touch with the photographer Nick Reader, who has very kindly allowed me to use his beautiful photograph here.

Nick does landscape and wedding photography in Cornwall and, surprise, surprise, is a keen surfer... The coincidences just keep piling up don't they. I've included a link to his wedding photography site, his blog and his landscape site (which is going live shortly) so check it out. There's some really gorgeous photos on them which give a real ambience for the story.

I also wanted to alert any aspiring authors here (and I know there's a few of you!!) to the fact that I'm taking part in Brenda Novak's Diabetes Auction again this year. I'm offering an author critique of a first chapter and synopsis of a manuscript aimed at Harlequin Presents (ie Modern or Modern Heat). At the moment it's going for $17 so it could be a mighty good deal. You can bid here. There's also lots of great offerings from the Pink Heart Society and a load of authors, editors, agents etc.

Book Eight.... She say yes!!! And some fender bending inspiration.

Woohoo! Just had my eighth Modern Heat book accepted.

This is Rye and Maddy's story.

Rye King's a bad boy ex-surfer turned billionaire Xtreme sports entrepeneur who's living as a recluse in his grandfather's old gothic mansion on a Cornish clifftop, and still licking his wounds after surviving a serious motorbike accident six months before. Maddy Westmore is a waitress in the local beach cafe who also does shifts as a beach lifeguard, and has a bad habit of trying to save the wrong guy which she has decided to break.

The book opens at the end of October, Maddy's doing her last shift on the beach in the cold sleeting rain, when she spots a guy trying to surf - and doing a terrible job of it - then he goes down and she dives into the surf to save him... Little does she know that this is going to be the start of a wild romantic ride for both her and Rye which will take them from their incendiary no-strings affair in her cozy cottage on the cliffpath to his penthouse apartment on Kensington High Street and the heart of London high society as Christmas approaches...

Think it's scheduled for release in November, but will let you know nearer the time... And will post a sneak peek on my website as soon as I have a title and a cover to go with it! But to keep you happy in the meantime I've stuck in a nice photo of Josh Holloway on a beach!

Meanwhile my head is down as I work on Book Number Nine. Am already very excited about this story which is coming to life in my mind. Didn't have an opening hook until I narrowly avoided being crashed into by a gorgeous Meditterenean-looking guy in an Italian sports on Holloway Road last week! See that's what's wonderful about being a writer, you can turn even the most hair-raising of life's little annoyances into inspiration for a book???

While mulling the story over I have been surfing the M&B sites round the world (as you do) and have illustrated this post with some of the book covers I found.

And just in case you didn't know. My June release Unfinished Business with the Duke is now up for grabs at the M&B site in the UK. And some sweetie pie's already given it a 5-star rating. Yippee!!