Belated Merry Christmas...

Hi all

Just wanted to pop in and say Merry Christmas to all my favourite peeps!! Oh all right then, I'm several days late, I blame too much feasting and making merry, but that's always a very good excuse in my book.

Anyway, I come bearing tidings of great joy. Surf, Sea and a Sexy Stranger is sold out on the M&B site in the UK and has a brand new cover on the Oz site for it's release there as a Sexy in January.

Now as you all know I'm mighty partial to my stubbled hunk of a guy on the UK cover (as are a few other people I'm sure), but the old-style clinch cover in Oz is also mighty pretty. Of course the book is set in October and Christmas in North Cornwall, so if Rye and Maddy had really stripped off to have a clinch in the surf they probably would have died of hypothermia, but who cares for literary accuracy in a cover when the result is so pleasing on the eye? I certainly ain't complaining.

BTW, had a lovely drink with my Modern Heat mate Kim Lang, who battled her way over to the UK from Alabama and despite snow, freezing temperatures and many, many travel nightmares managed to raise a glass with me in Piccadilly. We had a good old gossip and both agreed that we're very excited about the launch of RIVA in January in the UK. Kim's book The Girls Guide to Flirting with Danger (which sounds like another cracker from the phenomenal Ms Lang) is one of the launch books, so will be buying that as a New Year pressie for myself. Here's the pictorial evidence to prove that this time I not only took my camera, I even got it out of the bag and used it... How cool is that!!

Anyway, in case I'm too busy feasting and making merry again and I don't pop back beforehand... Hope you all have a very happy - and for any aspiring authors out there - very publishable 2011!

And I'm including a lovely Christmassy picture of my road (avec beaucoup de neige!!) to get us all in the mood for January!! During which I have to write virtually a whole book in four weeks... Arghhh!

PHS... Christmas Movies

Over at the Pink Heart Society today musing on my favourite Christmas movies.... Here are a few tips as to films that may be appearing on the blog... And a chance to add a little Christmas bling to my own blog!

Join the Party at the Harlequin Open House

Hey all

I'll be popping into the Presents Post Party today at the eHarlequin Open House, so come and have a chat, share some mulled wine and mince pies (and of course your favourite hunky hero!!). And we'll be rockin round the clock so it don't matter what time zone you're in!


And here's who I'm bringing to the party!! After I've knobbled Dawn French!

Christmas is coming.... And Heidi's ready to Party!

So after much rewriting and editing, I finally pinged off the first chapter of my Christmas (for next year) book to my ed. I know, I've been working on that damn first chapter forever, but am hoping that if I start this thing in the right place it should save work further down the line. At least, that's the plan. Anyway, to try and invigorate myself for the long haul, I decided to do a little location scouting round London's West End for locales and such for the rest of the book.

After checking out the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park with its fairground rides, ice rink and all round Christmas bling (can definitely see some fun to be had there), I needed a luxury hotel for my couples romantic tryst (well, several romantic trysts) so I popped into the Dorchester on Park Lane to be inspired... And boy, is that one beautiful hotel, all Art Deco glamour and vintage class. And the Christmas decorations add that festive shimmer of fairy dust (see, I'm waxing all lyrical already!!).

Then I trooped up to Oxford Street and snapped some pics of Selfridges fabulously funky window displays. Check out that handsome fella sitting next to the Barbie Christmas tree and all those lovely sparkles inside the store. To finish the afternoon I hopped on a bus to have lunch with my true love in this wonderful little cafe tucked away on a back street in Clerkenwell near where he's working at the moment.

Love Clerkenwell, it's all cosy and Dickensian but with the arty crowd of designers and architects and journalists to make it uber trendy too. Have decided to make my hero a web designer instead of a Broadway producer... Cos I saw these three very handsome chaps on the table opposite us looking all intense and brooding and artistic while tucking into their homemade Chicken and Sweet Potato soup. Perfect.

Should also let you know I'll be crashing the Harlequin Post Party on 15th December talking hunky heroes with some of my favourite Presents authors, such as the wonderful Kate Hardy, Maisey Yates and Kate Walker as well as a host of other Harlequin names.

So be there, or be a Christmas turkey!