Writer Top Tens

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At long last, I have some new Writer Top Tens for you! The very lovely Ruth Saberton and Polly Williams reveal their own personal favourite things just in time for their new summer releases, Ellie Andrews has Second Thoughts and It Happened One Summer. I, for one, can’t wait to read them.

A busy week ahead of us – I’ll be filming for Channel 5’s The Vanessa Show tomorrow to be shown on Wednesday’s programme.  Then it’s more house-hunting as we’ve just lost a lovely cottage we’d fallen in love with.  Keep your fingers crossed for us – we’ve just sold ours and I don’t fancy being a bag lady with a spaniel and hens in tow!

Tea at Enid Blyton’s!

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I have to say that the last few days have been pretty stressful what with preparing our house to sell and viewing properties ourselves and putting in offers!  But I managed to find time for a tranquil afternoon out with my lovely writer friend, Ruth Saberton.  Ruth had just been on The Vanessa Show and she was giving me a few tips for my appearance which is going to be broadcast on Wednesday 15th June.  Then we took off in her car with the roof down to enjoy the sunny June weather.  Our destination was somewhere very special: Old Thatch – the one-time home of author, Enid Blyton.

It’s always a strange feeling to tread in the footsteps of a literary idol.  Looking around the garden, I wondered if Enid had a favourite spot where she would sit and write. 

It was Enid Blyton who first got me excited about stories and I devoured The Famous Five books.  But it was obvious very early on that I was destined to write romances because I always wanted Anne to fall in love in the summer holidays!

And what an amazing experience it was to have tea and cake in Enid Blyton’s garden!

We then strolled down to the Thames where there was a family of geese with their gorgeous goslings.  It was a perfect afternoon and one we’ll have to repeat again very soon!

The Magic of Lemon Drizzle Cake

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I have a scene in my new romantic comedy, The Perfect Hero, where my heroine, Kay, makes a cake for Oli – one of the rather delicious heroes.  It didn’t take me long to choose the cake she would make for him: lemon drizzle cake.  I was first introduced to this lemony wonder a couple of years ago when we were chicken-sitting for friends in Kent and they made us a gorgeous lemon drizzle cake.  I begged for the recipe and, now we have hens of our own and a regular supply of eggs, it’s a favourite treat.

Then I read the lovely Miranda Dickinson’s new book, Welcome to My World and guess which cake had a walk-on role?  A lemon drizzle!  And, just last week, I was reading Freya North’s gorgeous new novel, Chances, and up it popped again – in the sweetest of scenes where her heroine makes it for the new man in her life.

It’s so funny when this happens.  When my book, Molly’s Millions, came out, there seemed to be a sudden deluge of heroines who were florists.  Then there was a big chocolate craze with novels focussing on this most delicious of delights and now, the shelves of the supermarkets are heaving under the weight of books set in New York. 

Perhaps authors are all in tune with each other or there’s a secret muse we all share who flits between us all whispering ideas to us.  What do you think?

Chickens in the chives

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We’ve now had our lovely ex-bat hens for three whole months and it’s so amazing to see the changes in them.  The pecking order – which was established very early on – has remained the same with Dotty at the top although Minnie has been spied pecking at Dotty’s feathers on occasion!  Alice, who is regularly pecked by Dotty and Minnie passes it on with gusto to poor Dolly Clare who is definitely at the bottom of the pecking order.

But, for the most part, they all get along well, exploring the garden together in hen harmony.  Here they are investigating the chives:

And here’s Minnie enjoying the sun with Molly:

And the gorgeous Dolly Clare with a muddy beak after the rain.

She had really bloomed into a beautiful bird.  When we first brought her home, she was thin and her comb, wattles and earlobes were really pale but they’re now a vibrant red and her feathers look positvely golden!  Alice is also blossoming although she’s still a little scruff!  But the feathers are growing back on her head so she no longer resembles a snooker ball!  And Dotty’s enormous comb has shrunk to half its size which is a sign of a happy hen in a healthy environment.  And Minnie?  Minnie was always a bit of a stunner.  What’s really cute about her is that she can hear me rattling the bag of corn from the bottom of the garden and she comes tearing along like Roadrunner to be first in line!

As there’s a surge of growth in late spring, it’s fascinating to watch the hens exploring.  There are parts of the garden they favour over others.  The potato patch is a favourite place although hubby has to chase them off sometimes before they squash our produce!  They also love browsing around the lawn under the apple tree and Dotty and Alice have a special fascination for the lemon balm.  Here’s a view I regularly see – Dotty disappearing, beak first!

Launching Online

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So much publicity happens online when a new book comes out which is very exciting.  Launching my new rom com, The Perfect Hero, has been great fun.  I’ve been reviewed by many websites and I’ve been interviewed too and I thought I’d link to some of them here in case you missed them.

The first site to review the book was the marvellous Chicklit Reviews who adored the novel and particularly enjoyed the seaside setting of Lyme Regis.  It was also quickly reviewed by Novelicious who loved Nana Craig – one of my own personal favourite characters!

The wonderful Dot Scribbles also reviewed it and said so many lovely things about The Perfect Hero that it had me blushing!  And Sarah Broadhurst and Hot Brands and Cool Places loved it too.  And I was delighted to find that my book had been chosen as a ‘Book of the Month’ on the Lovereading website.

Then there were the interviews.  My Austen Dream World had lots of Austen-related questions for me, Chicklit Central quizzed me on being a writer, and Chicklit Bee had a fun and fast interview technique!

I also wrote a special piece about getting married in a medieval castle in the Yorkshire Dales for Chicklit Reviews who were celebrating the Royal Wedding with lots of fun features.

Of course, there were magazines and newspapers too including The Sunday Express, Closer, My Weekly, Jane Austen’s Regency World and The Burnley Express, and I’ll also be giving some talks and books signings later this summer at the Worcestershire Literary Festival and Chawton House in Hampshire.  

Phew!  And, no doubt, I’ll have it all to do again when my Austen addict books are published in the US in July!

That’s my book!

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I don’t think the joy of seeing my books in the shops will ever go away. This week, I spotted my first copy of The Perfect Hero in Tesco and squealed – yes, squealed in delight!  Even more exciting was seeing it next to books by Jilly Cooper and Lisa Jewell – two of my favourite authors!

So, if you’re doing your weekly shop, be sure to pop a copy in your trolley!

Love is in the Heir

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It’s publication day again in the UK and I’m celebrating the release of The Perfect Hero. It’s  the second book in my Jane Austen addicts trilogy and is a romantic comedy about a young woman who falls in love with the actor playing Captain Wentworth in a new version of Jane Austen’s Persuasion.  But is he really the perfect hero for her?

The Perfect Hero by Victoria Connelly

There have already been some lovely reviews for the book – check out the gorgeous quotes.

It’s really touching that London has decided to help me celebrate by putting flags out everywhere!

Oh, all right!  Perhaps the flags have something to do with a certain royal wedding this week!  Anyway, if you haven’t already overdosed on romance with all this talk of weddings, stick your nose in my new book!

Locked up in Trafalgar Square!

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On Tuesday – one of the hottest days of the year so far – I had the dubious pleasure of being locked away in a tiny cage in Trafalgar Square.  Why?  To show members of the public the appalling conditions which millions of hens are still enduring.  Here I am, trapped in a cage with Bill Oddie!

I’d been asked to join the wonderful people from Compassion in World Farming who organised a petition-signing and march to support the ban on barren battery cages for hens.  The ban is meant to come into effect in January 2012 but several European countries say they won’t be ready.  But we have to make sure it goes through – no excuses, no delays!

We marched around Trafalgar Square, down the length of Whitehall and through Westminster before handing in our petition and documents to the European Commission and DEFRA.

It was a brilliant day and I felt very privileged to have met so many people who are passionate about animal welfare.  My own four ex-battery hens  – Dotty, Minnie, Alice and Dolly Clare – would like to thank everyone who took part.

If you’d like to see a short film about our day, visit the CIWF site here.

March in April

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As you may know, we recently rehomed four ex-battery chickens from the British Hen Welfare Trust.  It’s over two months since we brought them home and they’ve really settled into their new lives well.  I adore them and can’t imagine life without them now. 

However, there are still millions of chickens kept in tiny battery cages – not just in our country but all over Europe.  There’s meant to be a ban on caged chickens which should come into force in January 2012 but several countries are dragging their heels and say they won’t be ready.

To help make sure this ban goes ahead, Compassion in World Farming are staging an event in Trafalgar Square on Tuesday 19th from 11 am.  There will be human-sized cages and guess who’s agreed to be locked up in one of them?  ME!  So, if you want to come and see me finding out what life is really like for a battery hen, come along on Tuesday.  There’ll be a petition you can sign and you can also join in the march to deliver it to DEFRA.  TV presenter and conservationist Bill Oddie will be there too!  So do try and join us and make your voice heard.

If you can’t make the big day, you can still help make a difference here.  On behalf of myself, Dotty, Minnie, Alice, Dolly Clare and caged chickens everywhere, THANK YOU!

Cornwall

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We’ve just returned from the most wonderful holiday on the Cornish coast and we couldn’t believe our luck with the weather!  We had a couple of freezing days filled with fog but then the sun came out and, suddenly, it was summer!  Here’s our idyllic cottage in Polperro – it’s the one right on the harbour by the steps with the bright blue door.

Molly and I definitely got fit whilst there despite the number of chip suppers and gorgeous Cornish ice-creams consumed.  There were so many lovely walks from the cottage and my favourite was the coast path which was lined with violets and primroses.

But the main purpose of the trip was to see my lovely writer friend, Ruth Saberton.

Ruth lives in Polperro and has used it as a setting in her fabulous book Katy Carter Wants a Hero and I was lucky enough to explore some of the locations from her story.  Alas, I didn’t meet Pincy the lobster but I did get to meet some adorable goats at the farm where Ruth keeps her horse.  Now our hens are well settled, perhaps I’ll start thinking about goats…

There were so many wonderful places to visit and we got the little car ferry across to Fowey and I instantly spotted Daphne Du Maurier’s beautiful house right by the water.

Another gorgeous place was Port Quin where we had the most beautiful walk.  I felt like I’d stepped right into a Rosamunde Pilcher novel!

Ruth and I also visited Bedruthan Steps which was used in the film version of Twelfth Night.  The view was stunning.

Perhaps my favourite outing was to the lovely Elizabethan manor house of Trerice.  Ruth and I practically had the gardens to ourselves and could have stayed there forever.

But every holiday has to end and, although it was awful having to say goodbye to Cornwall, I prolonged the holiday feeling as long as I could with a detour to Devon to see the church of St Mary in Berry Pomeroy which was used at the end of Sense and Sensibility staring Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman.  It was the most perfect little village and the church wall was smothered with wisteria.

Now it’s back to work and it’s going to be a very busy week.  I’m meeting my German agent at the London Book Fair, seeing my editor at HaperCollins, organising publicity material for the new book and trying to tidy the house so we can put it on the market!  Phew!  Think I’ll need another holiday after all that.

Win, win, win!

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If you’d like a chance to win one of three copies of my new book, The Perfect Hero, along with Sue Welfare’s latest book, A Surprise Party, hurry along to Chicklit Reviews! 

Yesterday, I finally finished the first draft of my new book, Mr Darcy Forever.  This is the third in my Jane Austen addicts trilogy and it feels funny to come to the end of it.  There will be edits, of course, but I feel like it’s the end of an era.

Hens in the house!

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We’ve been enjoying a few balmy days here in London and the hens have been strutting their stuff in the garden.  Well, not just the garden.  They’ve also been bravely exploring the kitchen if I leave the back door open and I was very surprised to find Alice underneath our kitchen table this week!   Hmmm … I’m not sure about hens in the house.  What do you think?

On the writing front, I’m just a few thousand words away from typing ‘The End’ for my new novel, Mr Darcy Forever – this is the third and final book in my Jane Austen trilogy and it will be a very strange feeling to finish it although I am looking forward to launching into my next project which is a closely-guarded secret at the moment…