Tuesday 30 June 2015

Book Signing in Waterstones

Début book signing in 2014
I'm so excited to announce that I will be doing another book signing in Waterstone's, Weston-super-Mare on Saturday 29th August at 2pm.

There will be copies of both of my books available (due to a little bit of a muddle from last year I believe, and 20 copies of Plus One is a Lucky Number arriving at their store in February - boy, were they pleased to see me).

So if you can make it, please come along! I will appreciate the support.

What I have learnt from last time is to have a pad, to check spellings of names if they want the book personalised, and have plenty of sweets!

I feel really lucky, because I know some Waterstone's stores are unable to allow book signings, but my store have been so supportive. Put the Saturday, 29th August in your diary!



Blurb: One Fine Day

Just a boy standing in front of a girl…

Actor Steve Mason has it all … gorgeous looks, the perfect starlet girlfriend hanging on his arm and his name on every Hollywood producer’s lips. That is, until it turns out the ‘perfect girl’ is actually a perfect PR stunt! Dumped and with his name plastered across every tabloid headline, Steve decides to head home to England, questioning if he’ll ever find a woman who genuinely loves him for who he is, and not just his place on the Sexiest Man Alive list.

It’s been fifteen long years since Ruby last saw her big brother – but the new LA version of Steve complete with designer wardrobe, California tan and an American accent is too much to bear – Ruby hardly recognises him and decides it’s time to get her brother back!

With Ruby’s help, Steve goes undercover as he plays the part of a regular guy who leads a regular life. And then one perfectly fine, ordinary day he meets lovely, funny, down-to-earth Lydia. But when Hollywood comes calling, will Steve be able to leave both Lydia and his little sister behind?


Buy Links:


Amazon UK Paperback ~ Amazon UK Ebook ~ Amazon US ~ Waterstone's ~ Kobo ~ Add On Goodreads ~ Harper Impulse


Blurb: Plus One is a Lucky Number


The wedding favour...

Sophie’s going to a wedding where the invite is strictly plus one… but with her single girl status not exactly fitting in with the bridesmaid dress code, and the best man being none other than the ex she would rather forget, Sophie needs a favour and she needs it fast!

Luckily for Sophie, her dreamy but distant co-worker Adam Reid owes their mutual friend James big time…and his gorgeousness more than fills the role of the ‘Perfect Boyfriend’!

As they take off to the sunny shores of Cornwall for the wedding weekend, it’s not long before pretence leads to passion and Sophie and Adam must decide; is their relationship real or is it all for show?


Buy Links:

Amazon UK Paperback ~ Amazon UK ~ Amazon US ~ Waterstone's ~ Harper Impulse ~ Add on Goodreads ~ Kobo

Sunday 21 June 2015

To All The Awesome Dads Out There

Dad's Truck!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY


Last summer
As you know, if you follow me regularly, especially via Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, I have an awesome dad.

When I separated from my ex-husband, he was tremendously supportive in helping me with my new home. He built me a utility room inside my garage, my garden looks awesome - it's its third summer this year! Where did the time go?


Polzeath Holiday 2015




He does so much with me and the boys. We love our walks, and our talks, our bike rides and our steam trains. My dad is the reason I love cars and driving - he taught me as soon as my feet could reach the pedals.

I think it's rather lovely that today is the longest day too. My dad loves the summer and the sunshine. The longer the days, the longer he gets to be outside doing his favourite things. Today we're off to a garden centre to look at plants and have a coffee.
Polzeath Holiday 2015
Unfortunately, there are some men out there who don't deserve the title of Dad. They don't take on the responsibility to support their children when the relationship breaks down with the mother. This makes me so sad for those children who don't have a good relationship with their dad like I have.

I feel really blessed that my Dad is not one of those imbeciles. I am even grateful that my boys have their own fantastic dad, too.
Another steam train trip (Easter 2015)

So if you have an awesome Dad out there, or he is sadly no longer with us, this blog post is dedicated to them! Have a happy Father's Day.





Tuesday 16 June 2015

Fake Friday with Jenny Kane

It's been a while for my Fake Friday feature, but today I have Jenny Kane on my blog. Jenny and I get to meet up - not as often as we'd like - at our RNA Chapter meeting in Lacock. I feature on Jenny's blog a little while ago... and I wanted to return the favour. 

And so, over to Jenny...


Have you always wanted to be a writer?

No - I wanted to be an archaeologist- and I was! I didn't find out I wanted to be a writer until I was 33 years old - it happened by accident over a coffee and a Mars Bar scone…

Did you manage to get the first book you wrote published, or is it tucked in a drawer somewhere?

I did - but it took 13 years to happen! The first book I wrote, Another Cup of Coffee, was published in 2013 - 10 years after I’d had over 100 other stories, long and short, published (under the name Kay Jaybee). I simply didn’t think Another Cup of Coffee was good enough at first. It took me all that time to get it just right.

My Twitter style question: Describe your hero in 140 characters.

Rugged Cornish decorator, Max Pendale, is determined never to take a chance on love again, until he meets Abi…

My Twitter style question: Describe your heroine in 140 characters.

Young widow, petite brunette children’s illustrator, Abi Carter, is on the run from an unhappy life. A fresh start in sunny Cornwall is calling her.

What do you read while you write, or don’t you?

I tend to read genres that are opposite to those I write. Although I do sometimes read romance, I wouldn't read it while I was writing one of my own. I would be afraid the book I was reading would influence the plot I was writing.

What do you do with a paperback once you’ve read it?

I keep them. I can never bear to part with a book, even if I haven’t enjoyed it. My bookshelves couldn't be more crammed if I tried.

What’s the best bit of writing advice you’ve ever received or read?

To keep a list of all the words and phrases I tend to overuse, so that when I have finished a novel draft, I can go through the whole thing and check I haven’t been excessive with those words. For example, I am a horror for having the words ‘slightly’, ‘long’ and ‘little’ in my manuscripts too often.

What is next on your agenda after publishing your book?

Now that Abi’s House is published, I am working on adding the finishing touches to the draft of my next novel, Another Glass of Champagne. This is the fourth in my Another Cup of… series, which follows on from Another Cup of Coffee (novel), Another Cup of Christmas (novella), and Christmas in the Cotswolds (novella). This new novel will be out in early 2016.

How would your best friend describe you in 140 characters? (Another Twitter question). 

I asked one of my friends - and she said:

A work obsessed, underpaid, coffee drinking, pen wielding, novel writing, kink thinking, word loving, secretly shy person.

Tea or coffee?

Coffee - always black! I write a coffee shop blog called Have Americano and Pen…Will Travel – so I’ve sampled a lot of different black coffee’s in a huge number of café’s and coffee houses.

Starbucks or Costa?

No question - it has to be Costa. My local one even has a plaque over my usual table I write in there so often!

Chocolate or ice cream?

Chocolate.

Dogs or cats?

Dogs.

Thanks for some fab answers, Jenny, but I'm trying to do the maths and I thought you were a lot younger... lol! 

Blurb for Abi’s House:


Newly widowed at barely thirty, Abi Carter is desperate to escape the Stepford Wives lifestyle that her late husband was so keen for her to live. Abi decides to fulfil a lifelong dream. As a child on holiday in a Cornwall she fell in love with a cottage – the prophetically named Abbey’s House. Now she is going to see if she can find the place again, relive the happy memories … maybe even buy a place of her own nearby.

On impulse Abi sets off to Cornwall, where a chance meeting in a village pub brings new friends Beth and Max into her life. Beth, like Abi, has a life-changing decision to make. Max helps Abi track down the house of her dreams … but things aren’t quite that simple. There’s the complicated life Abi left behind, including her brother-in-law Simon – a man with more than friendship on his mind … Will Abi’s house remain a dream, or will the bricks and mortar become a reality?

Buy links


http://www.accentpress.co.uk/Book/12915/Abis-House

Amazon Kindle

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Abis-House-Jenny-Kane-ebook/dp/B00UVPPWO8/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1426711175&sr=1-1&keywords=Abi%27s+House+Jenny+Kane


http://www.amazon.com/Abis-House-Jenny-Kane-ebook/dp/B00UVPPWO8/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1426711253&sr=1-2&keywords=Abi%27s+House+Jenny+Kane


Amazon Paperback

http://www.amazon.com/Abis-House-Jenny-Kane/dp/1783753285/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1426711253&sr=1-1&keywords=Abi%27s+House+Jenny+Kane

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Abis-House-Jenny-Kane/dp/1783753285/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1426711343&sr=1-1&keywords=Abi%27s+House+Jenny+Kane

About Jenny Kane

With a background in history and archaeology, Jenny Kane should really be sat in a dusty university library translating Medieval Latin criminal records, before writing research documents that hardly anyone would want to read. Instead, tucked away in the South West of England, Jenny Kane writes stories with one hand, while working for a Distance Learning Company with the other.
Jenny spends a large part of her time in the local coffee shops, where she creates her stories, including the novels Abi’s House (Accent Press, June 2015), Romancing Robin Hood (Accent Press, 2014), the best selling contemporary romance Another Cup of Coffee (Accent Press, 2013), and the novella length sequels Another Cup of Christmas (Accent Press, 2013) and Christmas in the Cotswolds, (Accent Press, 2014)
Jenny’s next full length novel, Another Glass of Champagne, (Part 4 of the Another Cup of... series), will be published by Accent Press in 2016.
Jenny Kane is also the author of quirky children’s picture books There’s a Cow in the Flat (Hushpuppy, 2014) and Ben’s Biscuit Tin (Coming soon from Hushpuppy)
Keep your eye on Jenny’s blog at www.jennykane.co.uk for more details.
Twitter- @JennyKaneAuthor
Facebook -https://www.facebook.com/JennyKaneRomance?ref=hl  
Jenny Kane also writes erotica as Kay Jaybee. (www.kayjaybee.me.uk)



Saturday 13 June 2015

Magical Weddings with Aileen Harkwood

Hey, it's the weekend, and I have Aileen Harkwood on my blog today talking writing, romance and magical weddings... 

Have you always wanted to be a writer?

Almost from the moment I understood books existed. Okay, maybe a little after that, since my first book was Green Eggs and Ham. I remember going to the school library in first and second grade and picking out books about the Salem witch trials. I was fascinated by them. Today, I’m writing fantasy romances with witches!

Did you manage to get the first book you wrote published, or is it tucked in a drawer somewhere?

Oh, Lord, I cringe at the idea of reading that thing. I mean, when I was seven I wrote my first “book,” but I’d call it more of an illustrated coffee table type thing (i.e. lots of drawings in crayon). My first attempt at a novel was in high school, written entirely in longhand. Some really, really bad science fiction.

My Twitter style question: Describe your hero in 140 characters.

Compassionate, charmingly brutish warlock with a heart that never gives up on love, and a power that will surprise everyone. Aragorn eyes.

My Twitter style question: Describe your heroine in 140 characters.

Repressed and introverted, yet ready to break out of her shell and find love. A witch with an old soul, brown hair and red eyelashes.

Why do you like writing romance?

Because it’s an emotionally lush genre. I like, no, I love getting swept away by a story.

Which of your characters is your favourite, and why?

Whichever character I happen to be writing at the time. They’re your babies. You have to love them all. Ideally, you should love them all equally.

What do you read while you write, or don’t you?

Yes, but never fiction. When I’m writing, I’m deep into a world of my own making, and need to stay that way. As soon as I finish with a story, I typically binge read for several days to a week.

Do you have a favourite author?

Cliché as it might be, my favorite will always be Jane Austen. I think of her as the mother of the romance novel.

What do you do with a paperback once you’ve read it?

Except for Austen’s books, plus Richard Bach’s Illusions, all paperbacks get donated to Goodwill when I’m done with them. Sad fact is, however, I almost never read “dead tree” books any more. Everything is on my Kindle Fire.

What advice would you give to new writers?

It’s the same advice I hear a lot of writers give, read. I would add to this, however, don’t just read within the genre. Don’t live solely on a steady diet of romance. Read other things, too, other genres, literature, poetry, the classics. Narrative nonfiction is especially helpful in teaching how stories happen in the real world. They aren’t always as neat and tidy as we like them to be in our HEA romance world. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying a romance novel should sound like Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, or should end with the boat sinking and everyone dying as happened in Sebastian Junger’s The Perfect Storm. Rather, by reading things completely outside your own writer’s wheelhouse, you can bring back elements to inspire your own fiction, for instance, the cunning way an author wrote a humorous confrontation between two characters, or the way another writer was able to infuse emotion into an action sequence.

What things inspire you to write? Location, music, film or even in a book?

A lot of the time it’s setting inspiring me. Judging by comments I’ve heard at conferences, romance editors tend to believe setting is an extraneous luxury authors can’t afford, but I like to make sure my stories are well-set. Even if most of the description never makes it to the page, if I know where I am, I’ll know what the characters are looking at, and the physical sensations they experience.. It grounds the story for me, makes it more real.

What is next on your agenda after publishing your (first) book?

My contribution to the Magical Weddings box set, The Last Wedding at Drayhome, is a standalone novella, but also functions as a prequel to the Breens Mist Witches series. Spell Touched, is the first of five books in Breens Mist Witches, which follows the same hero and heroine throughout all five novels. Wedding Spell, which releases this September, is the first of a four book series, Breens Mist Weddings, each a standalone novel. I introduced most of the heroines who appear in this second series in Drayhome.

Thank you for having me on your blog, Teresa. Enjoyed these questions!

Thank you, Aileen for taking the time to answer my questions! Good luck with the Magical Weddings box set. 

THE LAST WEDDING AT DRAYHOME by Aileen Harkwood


Never underestimate the power of a witch and warlock in love who have nothing left to lose...

Every witch and warlock in Breens Mist, Oregon has one main talent that guides their destiny. Colleen McColly’s gift is to be caretaker and voice for Drayhome, a magical estate with a mind of its own. Sent under the guise of helping to prepare for a wedding, warlock Terry “Ax” Paxton has orders to evict Colleen, and end Drayhome’s century-plus-reign as the heart and soul of Breens Mist. It’s a duty against which Ax rebels, not just because it’s wrong, but because he and Colleen have a connection of their own, raw, passionate and too many years denied.

About Aileen: 


Aileen Harkwood is a Readers’ Crown finalist who lives in the Southern Rockies. The Last Wedding at Drayhome is the prequel to two concurrent series of fantasy romances, Spell Touched: Breens Mist Witches, Book 1, and Wedding Spell, first in the Breens Mist Weddings series, due out in September 2015. She’s passionate about green chile and the mysteries hiding in antique photographs.

Twitter: @AileenHarkwood
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MAGICAL WEDDINGS: 15 Enchanting Romances

GooglePlay: http://bit.ly/1emycBp

If you love ghosts, witches, time travel--anything paranormal--military romance, historical romance, or romantic comedy, don't miss this engaging boxed set!

--All stand-alone stories (no cliffhangers)
--Includes 14 New Releases written expressly for this set!

Whether real or only in the hearts of the bride and groom, the magic of weddings is undeniable. And irresistible! As these 15 enchanting happily-ever-afters by bestselling and award-winning authors prove.

From sweet to spicy, the romances bundled into this set cross time and unite hearts, cast spells of laughter, battle wedding jitters and fight back tears, while weaving love’s hopeful magic throughout 1400 pages.

Her Wedding Wager by Leigh Michaels, National bestselling and Award-winning author of over 100 novels. Celia's doomed to an arranged marriage—unless she can win the most important bet of her life!

The Last Wedding at Drayhome (Breens Mist Witches) by Aileen Harkwood. Never underestimate the power of a witch and warlock in love who have nothing left to lose.

The Dress by Eve Devon. Two couples, 400 years apart. From a masquerade ball in Venice 1615 to a wedding in England 2015, can a dress laced with magic weave its spell through the fabric of time?

Second Chance Bride by Raine English, USA Today bestselling and Award-winning author. She thinks she's marrying the man of her dreams, until a telepathic rescue dog leads her to someone else... Will this bride-to-be say "I do" to the wrong man?

Two Hearts Surrendered by Tamara Ferguson, Bestselling and Award-winning author. Will two warring hearts be strong enough to survive the ultimate battle?

Something Borrowed, Something Blue by Lynda Haviland. She has a wedding to crash—until love gets in the way!

Heart of the Secret (Witches of Lane County) by Jody A. Kessler, Bestselling and Award-winning author. A 500 year-old curse, a witch who will do anything to marry her one true love, and the heart of a secret that will either divide them or bring them together…forever.

The Jealous Love of a Scoundrel by Jane Lark, National bestselling author. How do you fight a calling that comes from your soul?

A Wedding Across the Winds of Time by Bess McBride, National bestselling author. Darius and Molly found each other Across the Winds of Time. Now, it's time for their wedding!

Kiss This by L.L. Muir, National bestselling and Award-winning author. You never expect the florist to catch the bouquet…

Caution is a Virtue by Jennifer Gilby Roberts. How much is too much to risk for love?

Loving Lindy by Jan Romes. In order to become the bank's new Vice President, Gunther Justin has to be "settled." With Lindy McPherson posing as his fiancé everything is set to go off without a hitch—until real feelings get in the way.

With this Kiss by Heather Thurmeier. Does a simple kiss have enough magic to reunite lovers?

Real Magic by Elsa Winckler. She's the bridesmaid, he's a best man. Will the magical evening stay just that or will it turn out to be real after all?

The Wedding Guests (A Tassamara Short Story) by Sarah Wynde. When unexpected guests attend Akira and Zane's wedding, lives will change forever. But for better or for worse?


Tuesday 9 June 2015

I'm Having One of *Those* Days

At least I have a gardener who helps me out :)
I'm having one of those 'I've got too much to do but all I want to do is write' moments.

And so it's another one of 'those' blog posts.

The house needs cleaning. Again.
The summerhouse needs its yearly lick of paint.
I need to paint my garage door at some point.
I still need to finish my lounge by finding something to hang on the back wall.
I would really like to do some baking too...
At some point, one weekend, I need to do a car boot to get rid of the crap I've accumulated over another year and clear my garage.

And maybe I'm a bit hermit like, but Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays I find myself quite happily holed-up in my house - writing.

I don't write for the whole six hours the kids are at school. I fit a run/exercise in, and do some housework, like the washing, around the writing to break up the time I'm at my desk. I'd be crippled otherwise. But generally, I don't like moving from my house. I feel guilty if I do. Even a quick trip to a shop that I need to do feels time consuming.

I now try to limit meeting one friend a week. That way, I'm not eating to all of my three days. And I do need to get out - this is of course, research. :) And of course, I love catching up with my fabulous friends. But I still feel guilty that I'm not writing, and working towards finishing my book.

I'm trying to use my evenings more productively around the after-school clubs, but I'm also trying to make myself relax so that I sleep better - if you call ironing in front of the television watching Glee relaxing. (I am loving Glee - just slip that in!)

So, I suppose I can't hang around on this blog too long, spending a million hours making sure it reads right, the picture fits etc. I need to get on! I just feel overwhelmed :'(

Is this a writer thing? Or is it me, my personality, something I really am going to have to learn to deal with?

Anyone else out there feeling like the walls are closing in?

Today is just one of those days.