Pineapple book

All you writers out there, ever had a pineapple book?

Trish Wylie coined the phrase a few years back when she likened writing a difficult book to giving birth to a pineapple-excrutiating!

While my current Harlequin Romance isn't quite that bad, it's nudging into pineapple territory.

Because I write a clean first draft in one continuous go, leaving COMING HOME after starting it last year (for a variety of reasons) and returning to writing it now is causing problems.

The characters aren't as fun and flirty as my usual ones.
The book is too angsty.
And there's a kid.

I haven't written a kid for 15 books. And he's only serving to complicate matters...

So while I'm determined to make fruit salad out of this half-pineapple, this is one book I can't wait to reach the end of.
Revisions, here I come!

OZ cover revamp

Some of the Harlequin series have had cover revamps in Australia lately, with Sweet being one of them.
With more of a mainstream feel, I love them.

Here's my first in the new covers.

THREE TIMES A BRIDESMAID...hits OZ shelves in June, but can be bought right now online!

Speaking of online, OVERTIME IN THE BOSS'S BED hit the eHarlequin Top 10 Bestsellers last week, and did the same over the weekend for ebooks. Yay!

Weekend Book Club: The Secret of Everything

If there is one book you read this year, Barbara O'Neal's THE SECRET OF EVERYTHING is it.

Devoured in a day and a half (no mean feat for a busy mum and writer!) I fell into the richness of the story-the food, the scenery, Barbara's evocative way with words and the lush characters.

And they are lush. Lush with reality and life experience and heart-ache, so poignant in parts I cried (and I rarely cry when reading.)

While Tessa is troubled, I wanted to be her, for the simple fact she got to be with Vince.
As a hero, he is magnificent.
Single dad of 3 girls, he is beyond sexy. Thanks to Barbara's amazing way with words.

Read this book.
You'll thank me.

What are you reading this week?

Lovely postman

I love it when the postman delivers fun stuff like books (the bills I could do without!)

So imagine my delight when the other day, author copies of both these books arrive at the same time!

My action-packed story TAG TEAM is in THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF SPECIAL OPS ROMANCE, something I'm really looking forward to reading considering the other authors in the book.

And the same applies to DESTINATION: SUMMER WEDDINGS. I'm itching to read Lucy Gordon's and Jessica Hart's fab stories.

But first, I'm wallowing in the luxury of Barbara O'Neal's THE SECRET OF EVERYTHING. So hard when you're loving a book so much you don't want it to end, yet you have fab stuff waiting on your TBR pile!

More travels

This month, TWO WEEKS IN THE MAGNATE'S BED is out in Italy.

And A TRIP WITH THE TYCOON is out in Germany.

Don't you love the foreign covers?

Armchair travels

This month in the UK, I'm thrilled to be partnered with Liz Fielding in our Harlequin Romance duo.

Liz's story, A WEDDING AT LEOPARD TREE LODGE, is fabulous!

Part of the HR 'Escape Around the World' miniseries, Gideon and Josie meet in Botswana, while Josie is overseeing the celebrity wedding of the year.

The sparks flying between these two delightful characters kept me rapidly turning pages, and left me wanting to know more about them at the end (a sure sign of a great book!)

As for Gideon...he is truly droolworthy!

The setting, the characters and the snappy plot make this story a definite winner.

Go check out more on Liz's blog.

Critique up for auction.

Brenda Novak's auction to raise funds for kids' diabetes has started.
It runs all month so please check it out and bid!

I'm donating a critique so for all you writers targetting Harlequin Romance or Harlequin Modern Heat/Presents Extra, snaffle it!

It's a worthy cause so please give generously.

Weekend Book Club: Last Chance

While I'm on my YA kick, I've heard several fans of the genre rave about Sarah Dessen, so this week my copy of 'Last Chance' arrived and I quickly became absorbed.

Sarah's characterisation is superb. Real people to make me smile.

And when the book ended, I was left wanting more: more of their lives, more of their future, just more.

Always a sign of a good book, when the characters stay with you after you've closed the final page.

What are you reading this week?

Book 24

I now have full details of book 24 I recently sold.

WILD NIGHTS WITH THE WICKED BOSS (Harlequin Modern Heat) will be released in December this year!

Set in Alaska, Rhys and Jade do have some interesting nights together...and Rhys does look wicked in this pic...Will confirm USA release date when I get it.

And don't forget, Rhys appears in his brother Callum's story, OVERTIME IN THE BOSS'S BED, out in June!

Another RT verdict

You heard what ROMANTIC TIMES had to say about my other June release, THREE TIMES A BRIDESMAID... earlier this week.

Here's what they say about OVERTIME IN THE BOSS'S BED.

OVERTIME IN THE BOSS’S BED (4 stars) by Nicola Marsh: Dancer Starr Merriday is jobless, homeless and penniless, and willing to do anything, including work for the man with whom she shared a wild night of passion. CEO Callum Cartwright doesn’t think Starr will take him up on his job offer, but he wants to atone for past sins. Though he’s trying to focus on his company, having the sexy dancer underfoot at work plays havoc with his concentration.
The saucy heroine is well matched to the driven alpha hero. Marsh does an admirable job of challenging her characters to confront their innermost fears and find love in the process.

Love Starr being described as saucy! And to think, I had to tone her down!

Readers at Home

The READER AT HOME conference is up and running.

Come play!

I'm appearing later today.

Three Times a Bridesmaid...

Here's what ROMANTIC TIMES magazine had to say about my upcoming release (out in the UK next week!)

THREE TIMES A BRIDESMAID … (4 stars) by Nicola Marsh: Successful events coordinator Eve Pemberton doesn’t have time for a personal life, and with the wedding of her last single friend fast approaching, she scrambles to find a date. She asks her old friend, ad exec Bryce Gibson, for help. Playing at love leads to the real thing, but can they find a way to overcome their issues and give each other a real chance? The plot’s a familiar one, but it works well here because the characters are nicely rounded and the hero in particular is very charming.

Weekend Book Club: Evernight

Another YA novel I just had to read so this week I picked up Evernight, the first in a series.

I love trying new authors: the various voices, pacing, style.

Claudia Gray's Evernight is a surprising book. For the absolute out of the blue plot twist smack bang in the middle of the book.

I didn't see it coming. And it changed the second half of the book totally!

If you think this is another predictable vampire boarding school story, think again.

What are you reading this week?

Two in a week

Hot on the heels of my Modern Heat release OVERTIME IN THE BOSS'S BED in the UK this week, I have another release hitting the shelves, TAG TEAM, in THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF SPECIAL OPS ROMANCE.

I really, really loved creating these two fiery characters and think they deserve their own full story...one day...

Here's a snippet of Lee and Fox.

The woman had balls.
Big, brass cojones according to rumour circulating the ADF, though the technical terms in Coralee Keaton’s Australian Defence Force file read “brave, brilliant, resourceful.”
Garcia Diaz—Fox to anyone who wanted to walk out of his office without a permanent limp—had witnessed her demonstrate those admirable qualities first hand.
Now she was back.
To muscle in on his operation.
Again.
“Son of a bitch,” he muttered, squeezing his eyes shut, pressing the pads of his thumbs into them, wishing he could obliterate the memory of this woman and what he knew about her.
It didn’t work.
Her file was embedded in his brain: Coralee Keaton, Lee if you didn’t want a Remington 870 shotgun aimed at your head, thirty-four, joined the 4th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (Commando) after six years Army service, became part of the embedded Tactical Assault Group after 9/11.
An integral part of TAG if her results were anything to go by; this, on top of her leadership in 4 RAR (Cdo).
Was there anything the ball-breaking wonder woman couldn’t do?
A brief pounding on the door had his eyes snapping open in time to see her stride into his office, her expression a study in polite professionalism, her eyes eerily blank, as if she didn’t know him. Intimately.
“You cut your hair,” he said, throwing his pen on the stack of monotonous paperwork in front of him, peed at her intrusion yet glad for the distraction.
Coralee Keaton might be a pain in the ass to work with but her taut body, long legs and impressive D cup more than compensated for the grief.
“You cut your surveillance on the Ebola job.”
She slammed her palms on his desk, loomed over him. “It nearly botched the whole operation.”
“But it didn’t.”
Leaning back in his chair, he locked hands behind his head, thrust his chin up, his smug smile guaranteed to grate.
She reared back, her blue eyes frigid as the Yarra River on a winter’s day as she stared him down.
“You better not make the same mistake on the Ricin job.”
He’d had enough of this crap. Balling his hands into fists, he stood so fast his chair slammed into the filing cabinet behind him.
“I don’t make mistakes, Coralee.”
He deliberately used her full first name, hoping to get a rise.
It worked.
“Then what the hell am I doing here?”
“Wasting tax payers’ money?”
Stalking around the desk, he stopped a foot in front of her, invading her personal space, daring her to make an issue of it.
With a toss of her glorious shoulder length black bob, she met his taunting gaze head on.
“I’m the best there is.”
Jabbing his chest for good measure, she smirked. “And don’t you forget it.”
Like he ever could.
He’d tried to forget, dammit, tried with every rebellious cell in his body, but the memory of the last time they’d hooked up on a job was burned into his brain.

Some serious overtime

If you're in the UK, OVERTIME IN THE BOSS'S BED is out on shelves right now!

Here's a snippet from Chapter 2 to tempt you:

“Cal?”
“Yeah?”
He heard the faintest hiss of breath, before Rhys said, “It wasn’t your fault.”
Callum disconnected in a hurry, the gut-wrenching twist of sorrow deep in his gut telling him otherwise.
It was his fault, every shocking, mind-numbing moment of that night fourteen years ago.
He could forget most days, chase away his demons by submerging himself in business until the figures blurred before his eyes but it was nights like this when it all came rushing back in an agonising avalanche of horrific memories.
Rubbing a weary hand across his eyes, he shoved the phone back in his pocket, turned, scanned the crowd for the blonde.
She’d vanished.
He wanted to pick up where they’d left off, to continue their flirtation. She’d been a firecracker, he could tell. All sass and mouth. Just the type of distraction he needed right now.
Tonight, he wanted to forget.
Everything.
He’d thrown the job offer out there as a challenge, though a small part of him hoped she’d take him up on it. He needed a fill-in PA desperately, the only temp agency he trusted had no one available for eight weeks and he was seriously floundering.
Even a beautiful dancer with a smart mouth, a movie star name and a body built for ballroom rather than clerical would be better than his current predicament.
He scanned the crowd, the entrance, finally spotting her beneath a towering indoor plant near the lobby.
He should leave, head back to his hotel, find solace in pricey single malt Scotch. Instead, he found his feet veering towards her and at that moment she glanced up, tossed her dirty-blonde hair and pinned him with a curious stare.
The impact of those large blue eyes slugged him all the way to his toes.
She glowed with vitality, from the tips of her silver painted toe nails to the top of her mussed, just-out-of-bed hair.
She wasn’t his type, far from it. But there was something about her, something about her boldness that reached to him on an instinctual level.
“Is it too much to hope you’re waiting for me?”
“Way too much.”
“I asked you to hang around for me back there.”
Shrugging, she flicked a less-than-impressed stare his way. “Guess I don’t always do as I’m told, so sue me.”
Oh yeah, she was a firecracker all right, exactly what he needed tonight: hot, feisty, a world away from wallowing in memories he’d rather forget.
“Yet you’re still here?”
She cocked her head to one side, studying him. “I was waiting to say goodbye to a friend but I think she ditched me for one of those hunky waiters.”
“What? Those fake-tanned, muscle-bound Neanderthals?”
Her glossed lips curved into a smile and he couldn’t tear his gaze away.
She had the most beautiful mouth he’d ever seen: full lips, even white teeth, a smile that could make a man forget where he was and why.
“Naked himbos not your thing?”
“Himbos?”
“Male equivalent of bimbo.”
She rolled her eyes, her tolerant expression reading ‘don’t you know anything?’ as he chuckled.
“Looks like she’s a no-show.”
She pushed off from the monstrous terracotta pot where she’d propped, partially hidden amid the lush foliage of a palm, and it hit him all over again how utterly beguiling this woman was.
It had little to do with the sexily mussed blonde hair hanging half way down her back, the wide shimmering blue eyes or the saucy smile curving her lips, more to do with the aura of vibrancy that shimmered and danced around her, intriguing for a guy like him who focussed on business all the time.
He’d never met anyone like her, only dated well-dressed, well-heeled, well-put-together socialites who played things cool.
Starr Merriday was hot, the antithesis of every woman he’d ever been with and he couldn’t walk away.

Succinct

Nobody says it better than Jenny Crusie.

I adore her books, her humour and her succinct way of putting things.

Read this.

Interesting words as always.

Weekend Book Club: Looking for Alaska

I'm on a real YA kick at the moment, reading across the range so when I heard several recommendations for this book, I had to snap it up.

The title itself intrigued me. At first, I thought it referred to the place I honeymooned and hence holds a special place in my heart, Alaska.

But no, John Green's Alaska is a teenage girl, a wild one at that.

I can sum up the story in 4 words.

Real.

Gritty.

Raw.

Powerful.

Published in 2005, it won the Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in Young Adult literature, was a finalist for the L.A. Times Book Prize, and received many other accolades.

After reading it, I'm not surprised.

What are you reading this week?

Please give generously

Click HERE to donate!

It's almost that time of year, when the amazing Brenda Novak runs her charity auction to raise money for kids with diabetes.

I've participated the last few years, with one lovely writer bidding an amazing sum of money to have me critique her partial last year.

This year, I'm offering a critique of a Romance or Modern Heat first chapter. Any takers?

Once again, Brenda has a truly mind-boggling array of auction items for writers, readers and everyone interested in supporting this worthwhile charity.

So make a note in your diary and may the best bids win!

Deseo

My Navy SEAL gets another outing this month!

Are those pecs for real?

Roll over and one fell out

Changes afoot in our household last night.

Toddler moved from cot to his 'big' bed. And it is a big bed, a queen futon.

He loved it, very excited and fell asleep in a heart beat while mum? More than a little sad my 'baby' is growing up way too quick!

Despite lining both sides of the floor with cushions just in case he rolled off, I still didn't get much sleep worrying about him. And yep, 5am this morning, found him lying on the cushions.

Today, I need to go buy some of those side railings so I can get some much needed sleep!