Choose Posting:
June 16th 2008 News Update.
Alas, I’ve fallen by the wayside again and it is nine months since I last brought you up-to-date with my latest news. As usual writing and gadding about took up much of my time. Some of you might have noticed on the website a couple of photographs of my talk at my local library in Litherland, which briefly features in Look for the Silver Lining. This talk went down extremely well.
I managed to finish my next saga Tilly’s Story and sent it off to my agent before Christmas, so I finished 2007 on a high. The festive season, the family spent at home, feasting and flaking out. But come the New Year I had to get down to some serious but fun writing by making a start on my next historical romance which turned out to be set more in England, especially London, than Scotland as I originally planned; although it does start north of the border. The year is 1502 and my hero, Alex, half Swedish, half Scottish, is sent on a mission south of the border by his father. My heroine, Rosamund, a Lancashire lass, in danger of her life, has fled her home. Naturally the two meet but I’m not going to give too much away.
The paperback of my latest Mills & Boon, Rebel Lady, Convenient Wife will be out at the beginning of July 2008 and I hope those who like my historical romances will enjoy this one.
January 2008 My agent and my editor at A&B said that Tilly was a cracking story and hopefully you’ll have seen the cover, read the blurb and the publication date on my home page. The paperback of When the Clouds Go Rolling By is due out shortly after in September. You will notice that the cover is different from the hardback. This has happened to me a couple of times. I think the picture is rather attractive and for me touches on that part of the book near the end when members of the Moran, Kirk and Bennett families go to Moreton on the Wirral.
Besides being busily writing it has been an interesting and exciting year so far due to it being not only Liverpool’s year as Capital of Culture but also Mills & Boon’s centenary year.
In February I went down to London to a party to launch the start of the celebrations which took place at the Wallace Collection. This is a fascinating building with some interesting paintings, silver and pottery, as well as sculptures. The champagne flowed and there were red roses, nibbles, candyfloss and ice cream, as well as a goody bag to take away. The lovely blonde lady in the photo is my editor Suzy Clarke at the party and the other one is me.
In March I not only did a talk at Dukinfield Library. Tameside , Manchester, as part of the North West Time to Read and Pure Passion Initiative, where I received a warm welcome, but also to the Pure Passion Awards Ceremony in Manchester Town Hall, which is another architectural gem. There was plenty of wine, water and soft drinks, as well as nibbles and chocolates, partly funded by M&B.
April, and husband John and I went off to Madeira for a couple of weeks. This was one of his 65th June birthday treats. On the whole the weather was good but we did have two days of torrential rain during which the capital Funchal disappeared below us. One can see why the island is so lush and green. I was glad I had taken my laptop as I was able to do some work, as well as watch some films that son Dan had downloaded onto my laptop for us.
It is an island of exotic flowers, as well as some more familiar ones. To see arum lilies and orchids growing in the wild was lovely. But John enjoyed walking the lavadas which are irrigation channels, besides which there are paths. His high spot was a walk through about a mile long tunnel where it was so quiet it was really eerie. The tunnel opening is on one of the photos. I did one walk but the extremely steep sheer drops put me off doing any more. (See photos)
Photos: View from our apartment overlooking Funchal, Bird of Paradise flower, me on a levada walk, John in the Lover's cave in the Botanical Gardens, Funchal at night, wild arum lily, orchid in Orchid Gardens, wild mimosa, one of the displays for the Flower Festival that was rained off, unknown flower in Palace Gardens, entrance to levada tunnel.
May, and I, along with Roger Sanderson, Val Williamson and Katy Flynn (Judy Turner), did an authors' panel in Wrexham Library as part of their literary festival linked with Liverpool Capital Culture. This was different to my normal kind of talks but interesting. My son, Iain, who is my researcher, had a small part in the proceedings, reading out a bit of research that I used in Tilly’s Story. I read out how I had used that particular bit. Wrexham Library is well worth a visit. Afterwards we were taken out for lunch in the countryside between Wrexham and Chester. Included in our party was Judy’s husband, Brian, and Judy’s secretary and my husband, John. Altogether it was a lovely day. I also did a talk for the Crosby Writers’ Group of which I am a member.
June and it was another M&B party in Manchester Central Library to launch the centenary exhibition. Plenty of wine, gorgeous nibbles, interesting people to talk to and the exhibition is well worth a visit. For Merseysiders, it will be coming to Liverpool’s Central Library about August, I think. We celebrated John’s birthday with a family lunch in the garden, which was full of flowers and the sun shone beautifully. He went for a run first with Dan - this is how he wanted to spend his special day, just relaxing. On June 11th, I went off to Formby, Merseyside, to do a talk, along with the crime writer, Martin Edwards, whose latest paperback is Waterloo Sunset which is out in August. The talk was for the University of the Third Age, in conjunction with Pritchard’s book shop. Tony of Pritchard’s treated us to lunch beforehand at the Quo Vadis, good food, and I was amused by the toilets - no Ladies and Gents there - but Gladiators and Vestal Virgins.
The talk in the church hall went down well and we sold quite a few books.
On Friday 13th June, we celebrated our 44th wedding anniversary with a walk in the Fairy Glen, Parbold and lunch at the Red Lion, Newborough.
Excellent topside beef and Yorkshire pudding.
Then on Monday, June 16th, I was off to Timperley Library, Trafford, Manchester as part of their Book fest. There was a good crowd and the librarians were warm and welcoming and I seemed to go down with the audience OK, so another good afternoon meeting my readers and hopefully more readers.
I will be going on holiday in Co Mayo, Ireland with my sister, Irene at the beginning of July, I have another talk in Manchester on July 14th at Hattersley Library. Hopefully I will have sent off the latest HMB working title, Wooing Rosamund by then and will have started work on the next saga.
August is publication of my 25th book Tilly’s Story and no doubt I’ll be doing something to promote it. The Magna large print of When the Clouds go Rolling By is also out then.
September is publication date of the paperback of When the Clouds go Rolling By and our yearly holiday in Lindos, Rhodes.
I hope you enjoyed reading my news and I would appreciate your comments on my books and website. I really enjoyed meeting one of my readers in Somerfield's, Litherland. She had checked out my website. Apparently she had heard me talk years ago in Crosby when with her gran and she had just bought two of my books, herself.
Warmest wishes, June.
Back to Top
Back to Main Page
