De-blog

It’s the first day of my Christmas holiday. Hurray! I’m cracking on with Reunions …soon. I haven’t written any more of it yet. But I have marzipanned (yes, it is a verb, for sure) the cake (that I definitely didn’t buy pre-made). We’ve got a tree and lights and everything, so it’s all going according to plan. Mostly. Sort of. OK, there is no plan. Anyway… Rainbow Snippet time. Snippet context: It’s Christmas morning. That’s all you need to know. :)   Here’s the snippet: “Good morning, Mr. Johansson,” Ade sang—actually sang—holding the ‘-son’ for a count of four as the curtains swished open on a still-dark world. The bedside lamps came on, first one, then the other, and Ade clambered back into bed. “Good morning, Mr. Simmons.” Kris fought a smile, endeavouring to hide his amusement and surprise. Ade was not a morning person. “It’s—” Kris lifted his head and squinted at the clock “—five-thirty? That’s early even for me.” “All the more day to do Christmas with,” Ade sa...

Well, I knew I hadn't taken part in Rainbow Snippets for a while, but I was horrified when I discovered the last time was August! :o I'll leave the explanation at it's been a helluva year for all of us and move on. This week, I'm gearing up to the 15th December release of my Christmas novella - Of The Bauble . It's a young adult humorous fantasy romance, which hopefully readers of all ages (13+) will enjoy. Here's the blurb: When nineteen-year-old Kieran O’Sullivan takes a trip to the attic for the Christmas decorations, it proves to be an illuminating experience. Box includes: - a hapless but not altogether helpless student - a pedantic supernatural being (or two, or…well, quite a few) - a funky older sister - the coolest mum in the world - a naughty rescue bunny and her easily led feline sidekick - an insightful ex-girlfriend - twinkle lights - tinsel - baubles * Warning - may contain traces of magic and a smidgeon of social commentar...

I haven't posted in almost a month, which is madness, but then, my work schedule has been full to busting. Between teaching for the Open University (three assignments to grade within a month) and preparing ten separate publications (one of them an anthology) for November/December releases, I've stopped only to sleep...and to win NaNoWriMo by the skin of my teeth. And I wrote a Christmas novella, which is out next week (15th December) - more on that next time. For now, you can find out more and/or (preferably and) preorder it via the links on this page: Of The Bauble (Beaten Track)   So...all of that means I've missed the Wednesday WIPpets and the Rainbow Snippets for ages . It's about sharing, and I didn't have time to fulfil my part in that, but I'm hoping to get back on track over the next few weeks. Well, I'm hoping to finish writing Reunions and do some reading for pleasure, actually. I also have a few editor reviews to catch up on (as i...

It's the holiday season! Fun first...  And a thought... I'm not going to get ranty, but however you celebrate, if you are one of the fortunate, take that little spark of festive magic and do something wonderful with it. It could be life-changing for someone else, and it will make you feel nice. Now the hard sell! :) Me? Hard sell? As if! I had a job doing door-to-door canvassing for a kitchen company once. I lasted a day. But! I am selling something, so here goes... I wanted to officially launch Checking Him Out For the Holidays , which is available to buy for around $2 / £1.25 via Beaten Track , Amazon (Kindle) , Smashwords , All Romance eBooks , and a few other places by now, I would imagine. If you went torrent hunting you might even find it there, but I'd rather you bought it. I took it as a sign that I was finally getting somewhere when my recent novel, Crying in the Rain , made it to the file-sharing sites within three days of release. There...

Next Monday (December 15th) marks the release of my second Christmas story of the year, Red Hot Christmas , so we'll start as we mean to go on, by officially revealing the FABULOUS cover, created by Natasha Snow . Natasha's a brilliant cover artist / designer, and such a great person to work with. For both Red Hot Christmas and Crying in the Rain , I gave her a brief outline of the story and her first ideas were what we eventually went with, even though I fuss and fret and go all around the world before I reach the conclusion that she had it right all along. I think it's what comes of writing a series, whereby Crying in the Rain and Red Hot Christmas are chronologically #5 and #11 (full list at end of post), although I wrote Red Hot Christmas last Christmas, and wrote Crying in the Rain during the summer. By this point, the characters are so familiar to me that I have a clear picture in my head of what they are like - it's more of a psychological profile...