The bedroom

You all remember how much you loved Rhys' house?

Well, I just realised I never got around to showing you the bedroom.

Technically, I made this Jade's bedroom in the book.

What do you think?

Fan girl moments

Occasionally on Twitter, I have giggly fan girl moments when my Tweet appears above or below Nathan Fillion or Harlan Coben or Hugh Jackman.

(I know, small things amuse me!)

Now I'm having another fan girl moment.


The moment I knew my upcoming Romance THREE TIMES A BRIDESMAID... was appearing in the same volume as Liz Fielding's latest, A WEDDING AT LEOPARD TREE LODGE, I shot off an email to Liz in great excitement!

I love Liz's books and to be paired with her...yep, having another distinct fan girl moment!!!

THE WRITE WHISPER: When characters shout

Writers know the feeling.

When some characters shout out to you more than others.

Those characters that strut onto our pages and refuse to be ignored. They grab hold of a story and give it a decent shake.

They make the pages fly, both as a writer and a reader.

If a secondary character, they can even take over the story and overshadow your protagonists.

Over the last few weeks, I've had an interesting experience so that I'd share with you.

I've been writing 2 books at once, something I never do.

I much prefer to concentrate on one book at a time, bury myself in the 'feel' of that book and the characters.

But I have a story that won't be denied, something really outside the box for me, something I have that constant 'excited churning in the belly' feeling for...

This story is giving me a buzz so I've been 'playing' with this story over the weekends while concentrating on my deadline Mod Heat during the weeks.

The words have been flowing in both but after sending off my 'outside the box' story mid-week and diving back into my Mod Heat, something happened.

The gloss of my MH characters wore off.

Annoying, because I was already struggling with this book from the start, in so much as the hero, Rhys Cartwright, featured so heavily in my next Presents release, OVERTIME IN THE BOSS'S BED, that my editor asked me to tone him down completely and remove him from several scenes. He was overshadowing the hero and far too sexy!

So of course he demanded his own story but when this guy got it...he's nothing like how I remember!

Sadly, this hasn't changed all book.

I know I'm in for loads of editing/polishing with this one.

Why is it some characters shout louder to us than others?

Is it the plot? The conflict? The characters themselves?

I think it all comes back to that old adage, 'write the book of your heart'.

If something is calling to you, write it.

No matter how many books you've written in a particular genre, no matter how many books you've published or unpublished, those characters 'shouting' at you are doing so for a reason.

Let them run free.

Flex your creative muscle.

You'll be fresher for it.

And who knows, that book may just be 'the one'.

In her shoes...

As promised, here's the US cover for THREE TIMES A BRIDESMAID...

So wonderfully romantic!

Though the hero looks nothing like that semi-naked pic of Daniel MacPherson I've posted here many times, the guy who inspired my hero Bryce Gibson.

But hey, I'm happy. And any time we need to check out the inspiration behind Bryce, we can always trawl the archives...

In the meantime, I don't think any of you want to be in my shoes today.
I'm off to the vascular surgeon, in the hope something can be done.
Wish me luck!

Seduction in the City

As promised, here's my cover for OVERTIME IN THE BOSS'S BED.

Love the 'Seduction in the City' tag!

I also have UK & USA covers for my other May release, THREE TIMES A BRIDESMAID...

It's gorgeous! Really romantic!

Once I crop it I'll post here.

Thank you, cover fairies, for being so nice to me yet again :)

Resuming normal transmission

Phew!

I don't know about all of you but I'm exhausted after the fortnight of hotties. Well, maybe my eyes are exhausted...all that eye candy, a girl doesn't know where to look first!

A huge thanks to all the lovely authors who came to play here and shared their favourite hot heroes with us. For the writers among us, lots of food for thought and future heroes to come.

While we've all been drooling, here's my fortnight in recap:

MARRIAGE: FOR BUSINESS OR PLEASURE? hits the USA TODAY bestseller list and makes me a USA TODAY bestselling author (yep, I'm going to keep screaming this for a long time!)

It also hit the Bookscan bestseller list, debuting at 67, hitting 62 last week.

I wrote a grand total of 17500 words on current Mod Heat due next week & 40 pages on something else I'm working on

Had an emergency dash to clinic for ultrasound for a deep vein thrombosis, followed by another dash to doc the next day to clear another nasty.

Toddler's head connected with pavement, now sporting massive egg.

Lovely Valentine's Day BBQ with old uni friends down near the beach, with 9 kids running riot.

There, now we're all caught up on the news, time to announce the winner of Kelly's fabulous books...

Peggy, congrats! Please email me your details.