To quickly recap... towards the end of last year the line I was writing under for Harlequin/M&B (KISS/ModernTempted) was withdrawn. There were two ways of looking at this - one was to crash my head on the desk and despair after all the work that went into getting The Call in the first place (I may have done a bit of that). The other (which took me a while to get around to) was to see it as a positive step forward instead of a setback.
While I reassessed my priorities, I also threw myself into finishing the remaining two books in my Do Not Disturb series for HarperImpulse. These are five standalone stories all centred around a luxury fictional boutique hotel in London. (The first in the series, Your Room Or Mine? is currently free, click on the sidebar picture for buy links).
I'm so excited to announce that book four and five will be published in May and June this year, and I can't wait to have the full series finally available - perfect for summer!
Access All Areas - released 21st May 2015
Can you hold onto the past without living in it..?
After losing her elderly parents, portrait photographer Anna will do anything to avoid losing the family home, it's all she has left of her perfect childhood. A hot tip from a friend raises her hopes - an A-list film star is secretly staying at the Lavington Hotel, London, with her rumoured toyboy lover. A photo of them together could be the answer to all Anna's money problems.
Unfortunately Anna's the worst paparazzi photographer on the planet and Joe, the hotel's new head of security, back in England in his first permanent job after years of globetrotting as a bodyguard to the stars, isn't about to allow a picture on his watch. No matter how cute the photographer might be...
Pre-order here - http://amzn.to/1CVwRdP
Meet Me at the Honeymoon Suite - released 25th June 2015
Happy ever after..?
The Lavington Hotel's new Wedding Co-Ordinator, Amy Woods, doesn't believe in happy-ever-afters, and that's exactly what makes her super efficient at her job - she can see past the magic. She is determined to pull off her first wedding in post perfectly.
Unfortunately the groom turns out to be her own marriage-phobic ex-boyfriend. The story of Amy's life, she's good enough to be the warm-up act but never the real deal. To nail the perfect wedding weekend now she will need to be her most clear-headed and emotionless. But as she gets to know best man Owen, keeping herself coldly on task isn't so easy...
Pre-order here - http://amzn.to/1BROztG
Having written these last two books, for the first time since 2012 I had no deadlines left. You'd think that would be a relief (I am, after all, a headless chicken when it comes to deadlines) but it was actually a bit scary. What to do next... more novellas? Or should I write more 50k category style romances and sub them elsewhere? Would anyone even want them? Most scary of all, should I take a bit of a leap and aim for my long-term ambition? I've always wanted to write a single title, you see. I just saw it as this vague might-have-a-bash-one-day idea way on the distant horizon while I was busy doing other things.
Would I ever have reached this point with that easy rolling Harlequin contract keeping me busy? Questionable. But when I thought it through I realised I was excited by the challenge. So I've come to see last year's nightmare as the push I needed to take that next step in my writing career, and after meeting with my amazing editor (who I love to bits and who believes in me when I don't), I am about to start work on my very first single title. Blog posts may therefore move back towards the erratic when I reach the inevitable tear-my-hair-out stage, but I am hoping to document the process a bit as I go along, so I will be around.
I'm also planning a few blog posts about writing process, tips and tricks that I've picked up and that work for me, that kind of thing. I will be back with those in the next month or so - watch this space!
