My Recent Comments

Hi Lou, and welcome to the loop. Waving hi to everyone else, too.

Chris - 100 degrees? It sounds like mid summer. It's night here and though the sun shone it didn't warm too much - about 10 degrees C when I went outside - which I think equates to about 50 degrees F. Chilly for our coastal spot. Am wearing warm slippers, layers and have lit the fire. Now, if only I wasn't getting over a head cold I'd pour myself a nice glass of red. But the good news is it's great weather for reading. I've just finished Daisy's latest Spanish hero (I got a very early copy - wee!) and he's a stunner. What a terrific read! Look out for it in the UK in October. Actually, I just realised he's out the same month as my Khalid. Daisy - we'll be shelf buddies!

Lou, I feel for you, trying to decide which line to write for. It can be so hard and take so long deciding. I had the same problem and it kept me writing and unpublished for quite a few years. Of course, I might have remained unpublished anyway, while I improved my writing, but the fact that I was targetting the wrong lines certainly didn't help. I had really nice rejections pointing out all sorts of things the editors liked but I just didn't seem to fit. The trouble was I'd shied away from targetting Presents (except for my first ever ms and honestly that didn't count). I thought I wouldn't be able to do justice to the Presents promise, even though it was the line I loved best of all. Sitting down and writing the book that became 'A Mistress for the Taking' was so different for me as if just felt right - as if I was in the right zone at last.

My advice, for what it's worth, is to work out what line you love best of all. Which is the one that makes you FEEL the impact deep inside? Which is the line that you'd choose to take to your desert island, knowing that's all you could have. If it's the line that you connect with at a visceral level, I suspect that's the line for you. Easier said than done of course. It took me a few years to work that out.  But once I discovered I could write a decent alpha hero there was no looking back. Good luck with your writing and your choosing!

Annie

Yay, Carol. Great to hear you've been working on your whole ms for the RNA. Hope you get it in early as planned.

Yes, it's definitely cool here. We've lit our fire tonight and I'm seriously thinking about hot chocolate.

Annie

Yay, Wayne on 9 weeks of hoidays coming up. Fantastic.

And Trish, congratulations on the acceptance. So glad the wait to hear ended in good news. Will be interested to hear about your title. It sounds like it may be similar to my next one - The Desert King's Pregnant Bride. Wouldn't you love to be a fly on the wall during title discussions?

 Annie

Chris, good luck with the writing, and with getting hold of Kate's book - it's a real winner. Oh, how I wish I could jot down the words and discover they were perfect! Sometimes, yes, the words in a scene don't get changed too much but at other times...!

Trish, mega congratulations on 5 magnificent years with Harlequin Mills and Boon! Looking forward to plenty more. Already looking forward to your next book.

Wayne, best of luck with the school stress. Roll on holidays!

Must dash - dinner to cook and I have a hungry throng (well, small throng, but very hungry) already congregating in the kitchen.

Annie

Janet, it sounds like you've got a comprehensive checklist to work through there. A great place to start. If you know your characters before you move too far into the story it will help enormously.

Trish - isn't it so true about the words not being as crisp and powerful as in your head? Glad that's not just me. But better to get the gist of it down and then fix it. It's impossible to fix a page with nothing on it.

Annie

Janet, it's so exciting when you get the writing bug, isn't it? Even if you're hesitant about it. I know that many romance readers do get the bug - mainly because the romance writers I know usually started out as avid readers who loved the genre.

It sounds like the idea of writing has been kicking around in your head for some time if you've got that far through a story of your own. That's more than many people achieve.

As for the best way to proceed, it varies enormously from writer to writer. Some people plan meticulously - chapter by chapter and scene by scene before they start. Others dive in and work out how it goes as it happens. Others are somewhere in between - a mixture of impulse and planning. Really, the only way to know what works for you will be to write and keep writing and see how you go. If you feel the need to plan then that may be the best way for you to proceed, to ensure you produce the story you want.

One thing to focus on before you start is the nature of the conflict between the characters. The story will work best if you have a strong conflict between hero and heroine - not an argument, but something that holds them back from each other (even if circumstances drive them together). If that conflict is rooted in character it will be really strong and believable.

Good luck! I hope that, if you decide to have another go at writing your own story you find it as rewarding as I have!

Annie

Ah, like you, Trish, for some reason it took me a while to get here. Thanks for organising our new spot, Wayne. Still waiting to hear about my latest but life seems filled to the brim with other stuff. Have been up since 3.30 (teen on long distance Saturday excursion) and now, at 8.30 feel ready for bed. Definitely winter here today. Am rugged up and sipping real coffee. Hopefully that caffeine will get the creative juices flowing.

Anne, congratulations again on the no revisions book. I'm sure I'm due another one of them (G) but I suspect it won't be for a while. Trish, I hope your hard work paid off.

Kate, I saw your post on the Manchester exhibit and Tessa has posted about it too on the IHeartBlog (nice pics).

Waving hi to everyone here. Great to hear those books are getting read. My tbr pile is almost at tsunami height!

Annie

Just had to share - it's small stuff but it gave me a little thrill. My dh is currently in Canada for work. This is a major thing for us, Canada being so far from Australia, and neither of us having visited there before. Anyway, I just a moment ago received an email update from Halifax which included the news that he'd been into a bookshop (he's addicted to books too) and saw my book THE GREEK TYCOON'S UNEXPECTED WIFE on the shelves. Yay! Somehow that makes the overseas releases so much more real.

Annie

Poking my head up above the parapet after a particularly busy couple of weeks. Why does it never get less busy?

Anne, mega congratulations on the no revision book! Fantastic! I had one of those once.... I'm dreaming of another one day.  Wouldn't it be nice to write a book, type the end and know it was all done? Ah well, we writers do have strong imaginations, don't we? Best of luck on your travels. Hope you have a marvellous time. Your little granddaughter sounds just lovely, and a real live wire. I bet she keeps her parents on their toes. Thanks too for trying to post on my IHeartPresents blog about Greek heroes. I love your point about them being so different in the hands of different authors. That's why we keep coming back to them!

Nicole, best of luck with your submission. As the others have said, it's the ms you send in that you have to worry about. I hope they love it.

Kate, you're incredibly busy. I don't know how you find time to settle down to write. I heard that the Manchester exhibition was a real treasure. Wish I could be in the UK this year to see some of the centenary events. Congratulations on the Alcolar set in ebook. And on being in the vanguard of the new email-instalment book downloads. That's really innovative, isn't it? I was fascinated to see one of my books available there too. I'd known nothing about it.

Hi Daisy, Kate, Wayne and anyone I've missed. It's early morning here and I'm still waking up. The kookaburras have just given a burst so the day's just about to start in earnest.

What's everyone up to? Busy writing?

Annie

Thanks, Mulberry. Glad you enjoyed the post about Greek Heroes. It's fun talking about heroes we like, isn't it? It was great to see so many fans of Greek heroes popping in.

Yes, thanks, I had a lovely Mothers' Day. Very special and I never made it into the kitchen once! Hope everyone else who celebrated had an equally relaxed day.

Annie