Displaying 1 - 10 of 135 entries.
Calling all aspiring novelists! I’m delighted to be teaching a very special course at a very special place. ‘Novel in a Day’ will teach you all you need to know about getting your novel written and published – from seeking inspiration to creating wonderful characters and plotting out your story, and approaching agents and publishers. The one-day course will take place at beautiful Assington Mill near Sudbury in Suffolk and you can book here right now!
The price – £85 – includes a home-made lunch in the mill’s wonderful farmhouse kitchen and there will be plenty of time for you to take inspiration from the surrounding countryside, sit by the mill pond and watch out for otters and kingfishers or meet the local herd of white goats. It’s going to be a fabulous day so book now as there are only 10 places available!
Continue reading ‘Novel in a Day’ writing course – booking now! »
It’s been a busy start to the New Year as I’m out and about (on the internet!) doing a blog tour for my new release Dreaming of Mr Darcy. So, if you’d like to find out what began my life-long love of Jane Austen or want to know about my writing habits, check out the following sites: Austenprose, Savvy Verse and Wit, Long and Short Reviews Laura’s Reviews and Royal Reviews.
I am finally getting into a writing routine here in our new home in Suffolk and have been making good progress on my new novel, The Aphrodite Touch, although the great outdoors is still proving a big distraction. We’ve had some beautiful frosty days here and, when the sun shines, it’s absolutely magical.
We’ve also been musing over seed catalogues, planning the garden so we can grow masses of vegetables and I managed to sneak in a few roses too! Well, you can’t have a cottage garden without masses of roses, can you?
Continue reading US Blog Tour »
It’s rather depressing having a birthday at the beginning of January. It’s so close to Christmas and the days are so short, dark and cold. However, we made the very best of things yesterday with a trip to Long Melford where we spent a couple of happy hours poking around antique shops in search of bits of furniture for our cottage. We then drove along the country lanes to Aldeburgh on the Suffolk coast. The sun was shining but it was bitterly cold.
The wonderful thing about winter is that you get magnificent sunsets and the colours in the sky were lovely. I often envy my husband with his summer birthday but I always try to make the very best of my Twelfth Night one!
Continue reading Twelfth Night »
Well, here we are at the start of another year and I have a wonderful reason to celebrate – a brand new publication! Today is the launch of Dreaming of Mr Darcy in the US – the second in my Austen addicts’ trilogy. It was published in the UK in April last year as The Perfect Hero but has a brand new look for the American market. What do you think?
And I’m delighted to report that the ebook edition of my romantic comedy, Molly’s Millions
, is currently riding high in the Amazon Top 100 chart and is Number 1 in the Humour Chart!
Today is also a very special day as it marks the ban on barren battery cages for hens. From today, these wonderful birds will have a little more room in their cages, somewhere to perch and somewhere private to lay their eggs. It’s still not ideal and it’s far from the free-ranging life that they should be leading but it’s a definite step in the right direction and my three ex-bat girls approve wholeheartedly!
Continue reading A New Year and a New Book! »
and it’s been snowing here in Suffolk – not enough to settle yet but very pretty. Puddles are icing over during the night and there are thick frosts in the fields. Although it’s bitterly cold now, the winter light is stunningly clear and there are some fabulous views if you brave the weather and venture outside which – as a dog owner – I’m obliged to do twice a day! Here are some photos from recent walks:
Life at Mulberry Cottage continues to make me smile and, this week, it was super smiles as we bought our first Christmas tree and decorated it with all the pretty gold, purple and pink decorations I’ve been collecting over the past few weeks and it looks lovely! I can’t wait to show it off at the little party we’re throwing next week.
On the writing front, I’ve been scribbling down my thoughts about moving to the countryside and I hope to publish Escape to Mulberry Cottage some time next year so you can read all about it then. And exciting news for my Jane Austen addicts’ trilogy – it’s going to be published in Russia! I’m so thrilled and can’t wait to see my first book in Russian!
Continue reading Christmas is coming … »
It’s been an incredibly busy week for us. We moved from London to Suffolk last Friday and have been desperately trying to empty boxes all week and we’re still not done! But all the stress and strain of the house move has been worth it. We adore Mulberry Cottage and love our new life in rural Suffolk. I’ve been on some beautiful dog walks with Molly and even saw a deer on the last walk through the wood. Now that’s something you didn’t see in the London suburbs!
I am definitely going to have to rearrange my writing timetable. I used to do my best writing in the mornings but, by the time I get back from these long dog walks and see to the hens (who are loving their new garden!) it’s almost time for lunch! I’ve been working best in the evenings since moving here – once it’s dark and the great outdoors is no longer a temptation! I’ve got rewrites to finish for The Runaway Actress and I’ve been working on a novella too – more about that another time. Then, it’s back to the brand new novel, The Aphrodite Touch. I’m really excited about this one and can’t wait to return to work on it.
Continue reading Our first week in Suffolk »
This week – at long last – we finally bid adieu to the Big Smoke and say a warm hello to rural Suffolk. I can’t wait to start our new lives at Mulberry Cottage. We’re in the very heart of the countryside with fields full of horses to the front and apple and cherry orchards at the back, and the village is laced with beautiful footpaths that I’m going to have so much fun exploring with Molly.
We have so much to look forward to – we’re planning to get a puppy in the spring and hope to have some more hens too. The husband is getting nervous in case I sneak in a few goats, geese and pigs too!
And I’ve decided to write about the experience of leaving the city for a slice of the good life so watch out for Escape to Mulberry Cottage sometime next year.
So, this is my last blog from London and I look forward to writing my next one from my very own study overlooking those fields full of horses.
Continue reading Escape to Mulberry Cottage »
I hate fireworks! Well, I hate suburban fireworks. Where we currently live, there isn’t a fireworks night but a fireworks season which begins in mid-October and goes right through until the end of January. It’s unbearable! So, in order to escape the very worst of it, we ran away to the Welsh coast for a long weekend and it was bliss! And just look at our local walk:
The coastal path is so beautiful and I even spotted a few red campions!
I often complain about walking my dog in the London suburbs but at least we don’t have signs like this:
Now, it’s back home and there are rewrites to do for The Runaway Actress and also a house to pack because – at long last – we are leaving the noisy London suburbs and moving to rural Suffolk. I can’t wait although the day itself is bound to be stressful with dog and hens in tow!
Continue reading Way out west »
I’m delighted to see A Weekend with Mr Darcy and The Perfect Hero are the bestselling ebooks in Waterstone’s Romance chart this week. It’s so exciting to see them together and I hope that you all enjoy the third book too. Mr Darcy Forever has just been released on Kindle as an ebook exclusive.
I can’t tell you how much fun it was to write this trilogy and it means the world to me to see them doing so well especially this week as it is 200 years since Jane Austen’s first book was published. Happy Birthday, Sense and Sensibility!
Continue reading Austen Addicts top Waterstone’s Chart! »
Thank you to all my lovely readers who helped to give my new book, Mr Darcy Forever, such a fabulous launch yesterday. It’s shot up the Amazon Kindle chart and features in three different genre charts – a great start!
I’ve had a lot of emails from readers about the new book and I’d just like to explain – at the moment, Mr Darcy Forever is exclusively published in ebook form. It’s available to readers all over the world excluding the US where it will have a paperback and ebook release (with a brand new cover) in April 2012.
Mr Darcy Forever is the third in my Jane Austen addicts’ trilogy and I’ve been delighted with the recent success of the first two books. Last week, A Weekend with Mr Darcy sold over 1,000 ebook copies and it’s been in the Amazon Kindle Top 100 chart for two weeks. The Perfect Hero is doing well too and is in the Top 20 Waterstone’s ebook chart. It’s lovely to know that there are so many Austen fans out there!
If you’d like to know more about the book, take a look at the Mr Darcy Forever page where you can read an excerpt. There is also a page of photos of some of the locations. The book is set in two stunning locations - Devon and Bath – and I hope you enjoy looking at the pictures.
Continue reading Mr Darcy Forever »
