Happy New Year! Or is it?

Sorry for being AWOL since Boxing Day.
My kidlet has had pneumonia! And I've got some weird shortness of breath that has involved chest XRays and the like, with no resolution yet. Ugh.

Hope your new year has been more fun than mine!

In other news, I have a Mills & Boon anthology BEDROOM SEDUCTIONS out this month (a re-issue of Two Weeks in the Magnate's Bed.)

Nice cover.

The Brazilian

TWO WEEKS IN THE MAGNATE'S BED is going Brazilian this month.

Can you believe we're already into July?
Half the year gone?
Have you achieved your goals? Set new ones in the lead up to 2011?

I'm not a goal setter as such. I just sit down at my keyboard and get the job done.
Which is kind of nice when I look back over a year and realise how much I've written.

While I've just started writing my next Modern Heat and another YA, I have a major idea bubbling away in the back of my brain.

Time to grab a pen and paper and brainstorm, methinks...

Fancy a bargain?

eHarlequin is having a clearance sale at the moment, with loads of fabulous books 40% off!


You can pick up my TWO WEEKS IN THE MAGNATE'S BED and other fab titles by Marion Lennox, Sherryl Woods, Gena Showalter, Trish Wylie, Barbara Hannay, Fiona Harper, Anne McAllister and many more.

If you're anything like me, your To Be Read pile is always staggering, but we never stop adding to it, right?

(And happy Australia Day to all my mates out there!)

Sailboard romance

TWO WEEKS IN THE MAGNATE'S BED is out in Germany today!


I love the cover! And I'm assuming I don't need a translator to figure out it says 'Love on Board'?
(Quick plug for my Mod Heat buddy Natalie Anderson, who's giving away books at her blog!)

On shelves now!

The time has arrived for my double release in the USA!

Both A TRIP WITH THE TYCOON and TWO WEEKS IN THE MAGNATE'S BED are out in the stores now, so indulge your whim for armchair travel and grab both books.

If a trip to India isn't exciting enough, a South Pacific cruise with a very sexy sailor should ramp things up a bit!

A TRIP WITH THE TYCOON is also out in the UK , with the new pale pink cover.

And Chapter 3 of ONE INDIAN SUMMER is now live on eharlequin.

There endeth the plug.

Another Waldenbooks bestseller!

I've learned that TWO WEEKS IN THE MAGNATE'S BED has been on the Waldenbooks Top 10 Bestseller last for the last fortnight. Cool!

Here's a snippet:

He tapped the stack on his desk, beckoned her over. “Believe me, when you take a look at these you’ll be thanking me for filling them out here. I’ve helped employees through the rigmarole before, we’ll get it done in half the time.”
Okay, so he was being helpful. Then why did it feel like the Big Bad Wolf lending Red a hand before gobbling her up?
“Right, let’s get to work then.”
She plopped on the chair opposite his, drew the forms towards her.
He stilled her hand by placing his on top, setting her pulse racing as she stifled the urge to yank hers away.
“Not much intimidates you, does it?”
She raised an eyebrow. If he had any idea how her heart thumped, her lungs seized and her insides quaked at his simple touch, he’d withdraw that statement.
“I can usually handle stuff.”
Professionally, that is. Anything else and she was as poised as a toddler on ice-skates.
“Think you can handle me?”
His voice had dropped seductively low, the smouldering flame in his eyes warming her, warning her that she was in way over her head with this one if she thought for one second a small boost in confidence could cope with the likes of him at his tempting best.
“I’m sure it wouldn’t be too hard.”
She almost bit her tongue in frustration, unwittingly adding to the wordplay as heat suffused her cheeks, wishing she had the spunk to toss her hair over her shoulder not duck her head like the blushing virgin she almost was.
His grin had tension strumming her taut muscles. “You’re very assured when you want to be.”
Using her brain to fend off his quick retorts, maybe. Easier than admitting she was lousy socially.
“Mainly when putting guys like you back in your place.”
He leaned forward, close enough to whisper in her ear. “Guys like me?”
Resisting the urge to jerk back from his proximity, she settled for a subtle slide of her hand out from under his instead.
“Overconfident. Smooth. Charming. Used to getting your own way.”
Rather than being offended, he laughed. “Guilty as charged.”
He leaned into her personal space again, crowding her, overwhelming her, confusing her.
“So is it working?
“What?”
“My charm.”
“Not a bit.”
She crossed her fingers behind her back for the little white lie.

Another Top 10 book!

The last fortnight, A TRIP WITH THE TYCOON made it into eharlequin's list of Top 10 Road Trip books.

This week, TWO WEEKS IN THE MAGNATE'S BED is in the Top 10 Reasons to Believe in Love list. Awww....

Both books are available online now and hitting US shelves shortly!

Last night, I hit the wall.

Apparently, I can't do 5.30am starts and 11pm finishes with running around all day. I felt blah, so went to bed at 9pm.

Need a new working plan...

Romantic Times double!

I'm stoked!

Both my September releases have done well with stellar reviews from Romantic Times.

My favourite, A TRIP WITH THE TYCOON, was awarded 4 1/2 stars!

Here's what Catherine Witmer had to say:

A TRIP WITH THE TYCOON (4.5) by Nicola Marsh: Looking for a fresh start, widowed food critic Tamara Rayne takes the trip to India she'd once planned with her deceased mother. It's supposed to be a solo journey, but restaurateur Ethan Brooks, a friend of Tamara's late husband, decides to go along, allegedly on business. Ethan's wanted Tamara for years, and now that she's free, he's determined to win her. But Tamara's still nursing wounds inflicted by her verbally abusive and unfaithful husband ... wounds that Ethan's unaware of.

Sterling characters, an exotic setting and crackling sexual tension make for a great read. The realistically paced romance is also refreshing.

And Sandra Garcia-Myers had this to say about TWO WEEKS IN THE MAGNATE'S BED:

TWO WEEKS IN THE MAGNATE'S BED (4) by Nicola Marsh: After Lana Walker is passed over for a major promotion, she takes a two-week cruise to get away and let it all hang out, so to speak. Shipping tycoon Zac McCoy, who's undercover as the PR director, is on board to catch a culprit who's been causing trouble on different trips. But it's Lana who catches his eye. When the flirting starts, Lana throws caution to the wind. After all, what could happen in two weeks?

This fun and flirty shipboard romance features an entertaining twosome who will charm readers.

Don't you just want to run out and grab both books right now? :)

THE WRITE WHISPER: Mind Maps

I stumbled across Mind Maps when I did a creative writing course years ago. It was at a time where the first stirrings of my itchy fingers started, when I wanted to pick up pen and paper and start writing.

I can't remember much of the course other than the teacher bringing in weird and wonderful objects each week and asking us to write a short story about them. Stories I recently re-read when I stumbled across the folder from the course, stories I'm sure won't ever see the light of day!

An interesting aside caught my attention as I flicked through this folder.

Mind maps.

I'd done one for each story, done one for my current release TWO WEEKS IN THE MAGNATE'S BED (though I didn't know it at the time!)

Stupidly, I threw them all out, otherwise I could've scanned one for you to see here. And the mind map I created in Word last night especially for this blog won't upload (so if anyone wants a copy of it, you can email me at nicola@nicolamarsh.com and I'll forward it to you.) I'll try and describe it for you now.

Mind mapping is basically concept planning.

You take a central theme and collect ideas in different categories around it.
I guess you can say it's a diagramatic form of brainstorming.

Possible elements of a story map include:

Central theme/title
Characters
Setting
Time period
Uses of theme
Useful catch phrases/symbology/etc...

To create your own mind map, go into Word, click on 'Insert', then 'Diagram', then choose 'Radial Diagram'.
You'll end up with a central circle and loads of circles branching off from this like tentacles.

Then you can start having fun!

With the book I'm currently plotting, I had the heroine's job as the central theme because it's highly unusual. From there, my branches included: brief emotional descriptions of hero and heroine, secondary characters, setting, time period. Basically, you can include anything!
I used colourful crayons too, just for something different and it was strangely liberating.

So get those minds mapping.
You never know what gem of an idea may pop up.

It's all fiction, I tell you!

Here's my 'Dear Reader' letter for TWO WEEKS IN THE MAGNATE'S BED.

Dear Reader,

There's something about cruising...the choice to do everything or nothing, the delicious food, the excitement of sailing the seven seas (maybe indulging the odd pirate fantasy or two?), the brilliant eye candy factor with all those guys in uniform...
Ahem, where was I?

Can you blame a girl for having her head turned by a strong, sexy sailor? The type of guy to sweep you off your feet, to romance you in the style you deserve?

Lana Walker doesn't know what hits her when suave shipping magnate Zac McCoy does exactly that, turning on the charm until the shy curator doesn't know whether to succumb or jump ship and swim for shore.

What would you do? Give into a spellbinding romance no matter how brief or settle for the safe option?
I've been in this position and believe me, taking the romance was worth every magical second!

I hope you get swept away by Lana and Zac's enchanting romance too.

Happy reading,

Nicola

Now, after baring my soul and making that comment about taking the magical romance onboard a ship, I wonder how many people are going to wonder how much of this book is autobiographical?

Well, let me tell you, categorically, right here and now, there is only one scene loosely based on fact.
The first person to correctly pick the scene definitely deserves a prize ;)

Pressies all round

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas.

I'm still playing with all the fab toys Santa brought our littlies. Fun!

I had a few nice pressies on Christmas Eve.

My fab editor informed me that my upcoming Modern Heat, TWO WEEKS IN THE MAGNATE'S BED (UK, March) will be out in the US in September as a Harlequin Presents. Yay!

The other was a great 4 star review from Romantic Times for THE BOSS'S BEDROOM AGENDA.

Here t'is!

"To help finance her career as a metal sculptor, Beth Walker takes a temporary job as a museum tour guide. She's not too happy about it, until she meets the temporary CEO, Aidan Voss. The attraction between them is immediate and electric, but Aiden is an archeologist who wants to go on digs around the world, and Beth wants to stay in one place and put down roots. Can they meet halfway? From the moment these two meet, the attraction simmers until it finally explodes. What a nice change of pace that these two start out as equals on a journey that's filled with emotional twists and turns."

Just busting to tell you...

Two posts in the same day, highly unusual, I know, but I absolutely must tell you about 2 things.

First up, an author who is a new auto-buy for me.
I've just finished reading Richard Montanari's "The Skin Gods" and it was brilliant! Started it yesterday, couldn't put it down (and yes, I'm on deadline and trying to get this book done!) but here I sit at my computer with my word doc opened and my nose buried in this book desperate to finish it.

Harlan Coben and Tess Gerritsen are auto-buys for me, Richard Montanari is now part of that list. If you enjoy thrillers, grab his books!
I recently glommed Barbara Samuel and I'm off to glom the rest of this fabulous author's books too.

The other thing I had to share is the new cover for my next Modern Heat (March 09 in the UK).
I thought my Navy SEAL was hot in 'Purchased for Pleasure' but boy, does this guy rival him or what!!!

Right, you won't hear from me tomorrow.
I'm trying to finish this book!