On the First Night of Christmas....

My true love gave to me... A smokin' hawt cover for my next book!

Adore my bad boy hero with the lipstick-marked stubble, and my sassy heroine... Although had a little wobble over her fuscia eyeliner! That said, Son One tells me the eighties is back in, so maybe it's trendier than I think.... And of course he has no memory of ABBA's many fashion faux pas!

Can't wait now to see what my Harlequin Presents Extra cover will look like. Should be interesting to compare the two and have a little straw poll here of essential items such as Hero Hotness Factor, Unwrappability, etc.

I had hoped to post a sneak peek of this book on my website at this point, but as you may have noticed am having some problems with my website. Namely, it's vanished into thin air and I can't find it anywhere on my computer. Oops. Still am in the process of having a brand new website professionally designed for me, so it shouldn't be long before you get a little taster of my delicious, devil-may-care web design millionaire Jace Ryan, my lovelorn but game-for-a-fling book illustrator Cassie Fitzgerald and their fortuitous meeting one stormy Christmas night on Oxford Street.

My New Voices Workshops in London!

Ok folks, here are the details of my New Voices workshops in London in September:

Tuesday 20th September 6.30pm-8.00pm
Mayfair Library
25 Audley Street
LONDON W1K 2PB
Tickets for this one are £3 and you need to book your place by calling: 020-7641-4905 or email the library on mayfairlibrary@westminster.gov.uk

Monday 26th September 6.00-7.30pm
Fulham Library
598 Fulham Road
LONDON SW6 5NX
This is a FREE workshop. To book your place call 020-7753-3877 or email clare.edgson@lbhf.gov.uk or rob.symmons@lbhf.gov.uk

In the past I've always just done a talk with questions (and talked an awful lot about myself, funnily enough), but this time around, I'd love to try and limit the talk to an hour and then spend half-an-hour doing a workshop on attendees specific mss. So if you've already done some work on your New Voices entry all the better and we can brainstorm starting sentences, hero and heroine, internal vs external conflicts, etc. Obviously we're going to have to play it by ear according to who attends and how much they already know about M&B, New Voices and what they want to write, but hopefully it'll be a possibility.

Whatever happens, we should be able to have a good old chinwag about writing for M&B and the New Voices comp.

And if you can't attend my workshop, do check out the other workshops which are being given by some fabulous authors all over the country as far afield as Glasgow, Swansea and Norfolk, etc kicking off on next Thursday 25th with Sarah Mallory in Ilkley West Yorkshire. So you should be able to find one, if you live in the UK.

For those of you who don't live in the UK: Do join M&B's New Voices Facebook Group where lots of published authors are lurking to answer questions by aspiring authors about writing for M&B.  Plus there's all the info (and as of Sept 13th the entries) on www.romanceisnotdead.com to take a shuftie at. The New Voices team are also looking into doing an online workshop for overseas entrants, nothing's been finalised yet as far as I know, but if I hear anything I'll pass it on.

Best of luck everyone!! And as I just went to see Cowboys & Aliens here's a little visual stimulation for y'all! (I mean, come on ladies, Mr Craig and Mr Ford fighting aliens and looking sexy on horseback - what's not to be inspired by, right?)

And the winner is...?

So I dragged my actorly oldest son out of bed this morning to pick a winner from the entries for my One Amazing Night Baby competition...

And the winner is...

Jane Linfoot

So congrats to Jane, if you want to email me your addy at heidi@heidi-rice.com I'll pop a signed copy in the post. BTW, the other two stories by Anne Oliver and Robyn Grady are YUMMY! Have already devoured them myself, so you're in for a treat.

And for all those who didn't win this time, thanks for entering... And I'll be running a comp in the near future as soon as I get my hands on author copies of my November release On the First Night of Christmas...  Sheesh, am I talking about Christmas already?

Right, back to work and the hard task of trying to come up with a new story idea with a house full of snotty teenage boys! Groan.

Wanna see Guy Pearce's bum??

Then check out my post on The Pink Heart Society about the new HBO mini-series Mildred Pierce. Which has Kate Winslet brilliantly cast as the successful 1940s restaurateur but not so successful mother, Guy as her feckless but handsome lover Monty, lashings of beautifully observed period detail and some very sexy scenes involving.... Well, need I say more. Check out the darn post!

Also don't forget I'm still running my comp to win a copy of One Amazing Night Baby. To enter the prize draw answer these two questions by the close of play today (that's Friday 12th August) about my book Pleasure, Pregnancy and a Proposition.


1) The name of the Hero and Heroine from PPP
2) Why the Hero all but kidnaps the Heroine at the start of the story... 

And email the answers to heidi@heidi-rice.com and I'll announce the winner tomorrow.
 

One Amazing Night, Baby! Competition

 

And one amazing day for me when I got a little package in the post today containing two copies of my first every By Request title: One Amazing Night Baby!

Which not only features my fourth Modern Heat story Pleasure, Pregnancy and a Proposition (that's the book that topped the Waldies for two weeks in a row - sorry have I mentioned that already??) but also two super cool stories by my fellow Riva gals Robyn Grady and Anne Oliver.

So to celebrate this glorious event I'm gonna give away one copy to anyone who can answer the following two questions correctly:

1) The name of the Hero and Heroine from PPP
2) Why the Hero all but kidnaps the Heroine at the start of the story... 

For some clues, check out the sneak peek Here

To enter just email the answers to heidi@heidi-rice.com by Friday 12th August and I'll announce the winner on Saturday.

And just in case you were wondering I'm only giving away one copy cos I'm keeping the other one for myself so I can read Robbie and Anne's Amazing Baby stories!

In other news, I have just enlisted the help of a proper website designer to give me a brand spanking new website.... Not least because my current one seems to have disappeared off my desktop and is consequently going to be stuck in a Spring 2011 time warp forever more. So watch that space!

Also, just wanted to remind all you aspiring writers out there that New Voices is back this September.

It was a phenomenal success last year and they're making some interesting changes which I think will make it an even more positive experience for everyone who enters.

For starters I'm going to be doing two London workshops in Fulham and Mayfair. Will give you more deets about those when I have them. But there will be lots of other authors doing workshops round the country (I know the fabulous Fiona Harper will also be doing one in London), so hopefully they'll be one near you (if you live in the UK). but even if you don't live in the UK you can enter the comp. For details of how just check out the website and don't forget to join M&B's New Voices Facebook page.