Well, I’ve just had a wonderful surprise - my new novel,  A Weekend With Mr Darcy, is available to buy at Amazon.co.uka whole two weeks before publication day!

And it’s the same day as Sophie Kinsella’s new book, Mini Shopaholic
which I’m so looking forward to reading!  The wonderful site, Chicklit Reviews, is celebrating by having a Sophie Kinsella week and I was thrilled to be asked to contribute as I think Sophie writes the very best romantic comedies around.

Well, it’s not been much of a summer, has it?  But at least we can always rely on a good book to cheer us up and there are two more wonderful reads available via this week’s Writer Top Tens thanks to Rowan Coleman and Chrissie Manby.  Happy reading, everyone!

I can’t believe how quickly the summer is passing and I can’t believe how bad the weather has been!  Still, there’s been a lot of fun like the brilliant day I met up with writer friend, Deborah Wright, last week.  We visited the beautiful Wallace Collection in London and then had a picnic in Hyde Park before taking a ride out on the lake in a pedalo.  It was great fun but suprisingly hard work and I’d like to report that the two dodgem-style incidents were due to the lack of skill in others and had nothing to do with us!

The writing has been going well too and I’ve just finished the second book in my Austen addicts trilogy, Dreaming of Mr Darcy.  This is the one set in lovely Lyme Regis and I had so much fun researching it.  The next one, Mr Darcy Forever, will be set in Bath and I’m looking forward to spending a few days there next month when the Jane Austen Festival is in full swing.

And the big news is that we’ll be welcoming home some feathered friends in the autumn.  We’re rehoming some ex-battery hens via the amazing  British Hen Welfare Trust.  I’ve been wanting to keep chickens for ages and can’t wait to welcome them to our little patch of suburbia.  It’ll be like a scene from The Good Life here!

To celebrate the summer holidays, I thought we’d have a special double issue of the Writer Top Tens with four fabulous authors whose books should be found in everybody’s holiday suitcase: Jane Green, Paige Toon, Jo Rees and Veronica Henry. Happy reading, everyone!

Yesterday, I met up with bestselling Regency romance novelist, Nicola Cornick, for a walk and a talk!  With our dogs, Molly and Monty, we walked in the grounds of beautiful Ashdown House where Nicola is a tour guide.  You can read more about the house and its history at her brilliant blog.  Ashdown has so much to offer from rolling fields, shady woodland to an iron-age hill fort and some very friendly ponies, and it’s somewhere I’ll certainly be returning too. 

Then we had tea and biscuits, giving the dogs – and ourselves – a chance to catch our breaths!  It’s what Sundays in summer are all about.

Then it was on to the oddly-named Cheese Wharf on the Thames and Molly and I enjoyed an evening walk following the river to Buscot.  The air was filled with thistle-down and the riverbank was thick with Himalayan Balsam.  It was a gorgeous walk that I didn’t want to end.  I love long summer evenings…  

One of the things I love about summer is that you can decide to go out as late as six o’clock and still have hours of daylight to enjoy.  That’s what we did yesterday – heading off into Oxfordshire.  Roy’s painting a series of pictures along the Ridgeway and this means me and Molly get to enjoy some glorious walks.  The countryside is laced with chalky footpaths and, because it’s too difficult to choose just one, we decided to explore all of them! 

One path led to a pretty little ruin.  I love how the crumbling arches frame the countryside in this picture.

The evening sunshine turned everything golden and Molly kept having to pull on her lead to remind me we were on a walk and weren’t there just to stand and stare!

On with the novel now and I’ve almost completed the first draft of Dreaming of Mr Darcy – the second in my trilogy about Jane Austen addicts.  It’s always a moment of great relief tinged with sadness when you finish a novel and I’m both looking forward to and dreading it!

I have to admit to being one of these women who adores pink.  I have pink dresses, pink hats, a pink clock and even a pink laptop!  But I was almost swayed when we visited the lavender fields of Snowshill in the Cotswolds yesterday where they have fifty-three acres of perfect purple fields. 

And the purple didn’t stop with the lavender for there were thistles, scabious and harebells growing in profusion, dotting the fields and footpaths.

The warm air was scented with the lavender and Molly and I followed a footpath with stunning views across Gloucestershire.

But the footpath was wildly overgrown and it was a bit of a battle for Molly – not that she was complaining.  One of her favourite things in the world is poking around in long grass!

And there were two wonderfully purply treats to round the day off – my lovely hubby bought us some violet creams (my favourite!) and I found the most adorable purple felt brooch from a shop in Stow-on-the-Wold.

And here’s a sneak preview of my cover for my new novel, A Weekend with Mr Darcy.  I absolutely love it and thought I’d add it to my blog here because it does have rather wonderful purple lettering!

One of the fun things about writing a novel is the research and the Jane Austen trilogy I’m currently writing is proving great fun.  In April, I had a trip to Lyme Regis where I spent a week really getting to know the setting of the second book.  I’ve been to Lyme before and love it but it’s quite a different experience to go there when you have a novel in mind.  And we now seem to be hooked on visiting because we’ve just been back again.  I got lots of writing done but hubby struggled with his painting because it was the windiest week ever!  Still, it was good fossil hunting weather and we headed to Monmouth Beach in search of ammonites.

And we had the pleasure of meeting the lovely Carol Drinkwater whilst she was on tour for her latest book, Return to the Olive Farm.  I adore Carol’s books.  She writes beautifully and passionately about life on her farm in the south of France.

There was also a quick day trip to Bath which is the setting of my third Austen addicts book.  Molly and I took a walk up Lyncombe Hill – a walk Jane Austen would have known well.  The views across the countryside were beautiful and we then descended back into town to enjoy a sit down in a peaceful square by the abbey.

But this month hasn’t been all about research.  There’ve been parties too!  My dear writer pal, Janet Gover, had a party to celebrate the launch of her new book, Girl Racers.  Janet and her partner are leaving for New York City in a few weeks so this was also a chance to say farewell.  But what they didn’t tell us was that there was yet another reason to celebrate: they’d just got married the day before!

Here I am sandwiched between the happy couple, Kelvin and lovely writer friends, Julie Cohen, Jean Fullerton and Henriette Gyland.

2010 is a very special year if you’re a romantic novelist because it marks the 50th anniversary of the Romantic Novelists’ Association.  I’ve been a member since 1996 and I’ve made so many friends through the society and had so much encouragement over the years.  Oh, and they throw the best parties ever so membership is jolly good fun too!

Each year, the RNA have a conference – a long weekend of wonderful talks, workshops and fun and, to mark their special anniversary, this year’s venue was Greenwich.

I went along for the Industry Day yesterday which turned out to be the hottest day of the year with temperatures reaching 31 degrees celsius in London!  But the Thames looked so beautiful and, travelling on the Docklands Light Railway, I couldn’t help feeling that I was on holiday.

Now it’s back to work in a very hot study with the fan going full blast.  But I think I’ll escape to the garden later with a good book.  When you’re a writer, you can claim that such things are actually work!

Last night, I had the great pleasure of attending the HarperCollins Summer Party at the Victoria and Albert Museum.  The party was in the courtyard which made a lovely venue with its fountains and fabulous architecture.

There were even musicians out in the water!

And the dessert display was just too tempting for words.  Here I am with author and pal, Giselle Green, making sure we’re first in line for the strawberries and cream!

I also had the pleasure of saying hello to TV historian, Dan Snow, whose recent programme, Little Ships, was so moving.

And it was great to meet some fellow authors and chat to the brilliant Avon team at HarperCollins.  Here’s my fabulous editor, Kate, with the lovely author, Melanie Rose.

My husband and I also managed to have a very quick trip to Lyme Regis this week where I was tempted by one of my favourite shops – Pop Goes the Weasel – and bought a delcious sun hat the colour of a strawberry milkshake.  Unfortunately, Molly’s also taken a shine to it but I don’t mind sharing.

But I’m sorry to report that I was a victim of crime in Lyme!  I was walking along Marine Parade enjoying a raspberry pavlova ice-cream when a seagull swooped down from the heavens and mugged me!  We’re forwarding the following photo to Crimestoppers…

… and would like to warn fellow ice-cream eaters to beware!