The Star Struck Blog Tour - Shed Visit

And so, here I am, back in the shed. Oh, in a good way, obviously, I’m not locked in – look, door opens and everything – and there are still biscuits. Although I must say, I think she’s hidden the HobNobs, I can see crumbs everywhere but all I’ve got is a Jammy Dodger...

Anyway. I’m not here to talk about the lack of oaty goodness, and it is very good of Debs to allocate me this cushion on the floor. No, I’m here to tell you about my latest novel, Starstruck which, as we speak, should be rolling its way off THE presses and making its way to a the retail outlets, ready for the grand release on 01 September.

What? I hear you cry, so soon? Yes indeed, my hungry friends... ’tis but a matter of less than three weeks away! And, if you fancy a taste of heat and dust (items with which this summer has been sadly underendowed if you ask me), then this is the book for you – set in Nevada, where the sun is hot and there is no underendowedness of any kind.

A small snippet, to allow you to MEET a couple of the characters as they meet each other...
‘Oh. My name’s Jack, by the way. And you’re…?’
‘Skye. Skye Threppel.’
‘Well, Skye. Here’s to hiding from the world.’ Jack picked up another glass from next to the laptop and raised it, seeming to toast the screensaver picture of purple-heathered moorland, as though he was blocking out the Nevada desert with a picture of home. Then he plonked himself on the floor, knees drawn up. The only chair in the room was in front of the laptop and covered in papers, so for want of anywhere else available, I sat on the bed.
‘Are you? Hiding from the world?’ I asked, jiggling my wine between my fingers.
‘Ah, now there’s the question.’
‘I know. That’s why my voice did that going up at the end thing,’ I replied a little sharply. I was nervous and being nervous made me edgy these days, and defensive. ‘Maybe I should write the conversation down for you.’ Jack seemed nice, a little tense perhaps, but the raw feeling of connection that we’d shared earlier had ebbed and I was concerned that maybe I’d imagined it. I couldn’t always trust the way I felt, when those feelings were built on memories or associations I could no longer recall. It was as though my body reacted in certain situations without my mind having any kind of control and I was very conscious that this made me easy to take advantage of.
He made an appeasing gesture, holding his hands out and spilling some of his drink on the T shirt. ‘Point to you. I’m still struggling with the lack of dramatic convention.’ He sipped and looked at me over the rim of the glass.
I felt the blush start again and the edgy sensation that my nerves had all been driven to the surface.
‘Maybe I should go. Rather than sit here and force you to make conversation.’
‘Maybe.’ Jack rested his glass on his knees and looked up at me. It might have been my imagination but I was fairly certain that what was in his glass wasn’t wine. It was too clear, too transparent. ‘But I’d quite like it if you didn’t.’
Despite the Valium I could feel my skin growing clammy and my hands had moistened as though beads of blood were seeping through the palms. ‘I ought...’ My voice sounded croaky and about a hundred years old. I cleared my throat but it didn’t help, just made the air thicken around me so that I had to concentrate on breathing.
‘What is it you’re frightened of, Skye? You look terrified right now, and no-one’s ever found me that scary before – arrogant and self-righteous, yes, scary, no.’ His head tilted to one side. ‘Panic attacks worse when there’re lots of people about, yes? And yet being alone, closed in, scares you too. Am I getting warm?’
Suddenly uneasy at the intensity with which he was looking at me, I drained my glass in one gulp. ‘I’m not scared. It’s stress related, I get... when I’m a bit... when things are different, when I don’t know what’s going to happen next, sometimes I get panicky. But it’s not that, I’m just worried that Felix will wonder where I am.’
Jack stood up and refilled my glass. ‘Do you want me to leave the door open? Will that help?’ He was looking at me with an expression that seemed partly compassion and partly curiosity and I hated myself suddenly, which surprised me. Hated this pathetic, helpless Skye with her inabilities and her carefully modified behaviour. ‘I’m guessing the panic attacks have to do with feelings of loss of control,’ he tilted his head to one side, stubbing out his nearly completely smoked cigarette without taking his eyes off me. ‘You might feel better if you know you can run whenever you want. A bit more in control of the situation. And if Felix comes back, you’ll be able to hear him.’
I gave a short, tight nod and he snicked the door off its latch, propping it open with a lone trainer. ‘Thank you.’ I could feel my airways relaxing. ‘It isn’t you, I’m sorry, they think it’s something to do with the accident, the head injury, it’s been over a year and a half and I still can’t…’
‘Oh, and there was me feeling special.’ Jack grinned and his face was suddenly attractive.

So. There you go. I hope you enjoyed that taster... more of a HobNob than a Jammy Dodger, I think you’ll agree. And thanks again to Debs for allowing me in here to chat to you all. Now, I’d better go and ... hang on, the door opened a moment ago... must be stuck...
If you’re reading this blog, please send help, a locksmith and HobNobs...

Jane Lovering is, we are assured, real and not a cover for the McVities biscuit advertisers. She writes books, which, now you come to mention it, do seem to have a lot of biscuits in them, has five children (largely raised on biscuits), and has taken to keeping chickens (to dispose of the excess biscuits). She also works in a school, in a job which doesn’t feature biscuits at all. She is often described as ‘quirky’, and cannot understand why, since everybody loves biscuits.

If you've been following Jane's blog tour you'll know about the competition to win one of three copies of this fab book. If now, here's how it works, follow Jane's blog tour to be in with a chance of winning one of the three copies, together with some delicious Montezuma chocolate and pick out the word in capitals and write it down. Each succeeding blog will have another, or maybe several capitalised words and each one of those must be noted. When the tour is over you should have a collection of words which you then have to put in to a sentence, which will form a question. You then e-mail the answer to Choc Lit.

Although we're part of the way through The Starstruck Blog Tour, you can visit the previous stops to find the words you need to take part and then carry on with the final two stops after this one. They are as follows:

18 July – The Nut Press

25 July - LoveRomancePassion

01 August - Dizzy C’s Little Book Blog

08 August - Katy Little Lady

11 August - Novelicious (for my review, but no words for the competition!)

15 August - Debs Daydreams In the Plotting Shed

22 August - Lucie Wheeler

29 August - Choc Lit Author’s Corner

Starstruck is Jane's second novel is published by Choc Lit pm 1st September. You can pre-order it from Play.com, Amazon UK, or The Book Depository.

Zumba, Battle of Flowers, Book & Puppies

This is me. Okay, that's a big fat fib, how can it be me, I'm blonde. Hang on a sec, that's a fib too. Well, this is how I expect to look at the end of my 12 week Zumba course. Shouldn't be too hard? Should it? Hmmm? Well?

Today was the Battle of Flowers parade and as fun and jolly as that is, sitting in one place in your car for 40 minutes on the way to work while the floats make their way to the grounds is a bit of a bore. My usual 20 minute journey took an hour and I was late for work. Not fun, especially as I spent most of the time trying to figure out how my car radio worked so that I could listen to the local news about the traffic. Needless to say, I didn't get it to work, and as I wasn't moving it was pretty obvious, even to me first thing in the morning, that whatever they said, I couldn't take a different route, so really didn't matter too much.

The winner of the copy of The Woman He Loved Before by Dorothy Koomson is Mama J. I've left a comment on her blog and will be posting off her copy of this fab book as soon as I know her address. Thanks everyone for entering.

Hope you have a fab weekend. I'll be 'on call' as my sister's labrador x retriever (the sweetest dog I've ever known) is due to have her puppies any day now. I'll probably be more of a hindrance than a help, but I thought I could at least offer my assistance. (Nurse Debs, I'm not, so this should be interesting).

Dorothy Koomson Day at Novelicious

Today we're having a Dorothy Koomson Day over at Women's Fiction Thursday on the Novelicious site to celebrate the publication day of Dorothy's brilliant latest book, The Woman He Loved Before, out today (4th August).

There are four copies of this fantastic book waiting to be won over at Novelicious, as well as my review, an interview with Dorothy Koomson, discovering about her writing space and much more. All you'll need to do is visit Novelicious and leave a 'pick me' comment at the bottom of one, or if you like, all of the features on the site.

I also have one copy to give away here, so should you wish to be in with a chance of winning, please leave a 'pick me' comment below and I'll announce the winner next Thursday when I also post the winners of the four copies of, The Woman He Loved Before.

Good luck.

St Malo With Himself

Yesterday it was my gorgeous husband's birthday and he wanted to go to St Malo for lunch with me. How could I refuse?

We arrived at 11.30 (1 hr ahead of us in Jersey/UK) and after a bit of a wander around the town and a drink, we finally decided to have lunch at Les Voyageurs (near to Chateau Briand - turn right at the main entrance to the walled town). I hadn't eaten there before and I'll definitely be going again. The food was delicious, as was the bottle of rose I managed to consume (with a little help from Himself, I hasten to add) and we relaxed in the sun as we slowly worked our way through several courses. Then it was off to find some white peaches for his mum and chocolate for my daughter/son.

Whilst we were sitting having yet another drink at yet another bar, Rob spotted a policeman from the Hampshire Constabulary and being a nosy chap (Rob, not the policeman) he asked him what he was doing in St Malo. Apparently he'd been partrolling the streets with a couple of the French Gendarmerie for three weeks to help with any undesirable british holidaymakers. What a clever idea.

Our last visit was to L'Absinthe, a small bar where the floor is covered in fine sand and you sit around huge barrels with parasols even though it's inside. Highly recommended.

On the boat on the way home, we were invited up to the wheelhouse by the captain - Rob knows a few of them - and he was surprised when I didn't want to join him. The sea, although calm, was a little choppy and I'm happiest sitting down when the boat moves (at all!). When Rob came back and said for the umpteenth time, "You would have loved it, you should have come to the wheelhouse." I finally said, "How would you feel if I asked you to come with me to a literary festival so you could listen to one of the authors giving a reading from a romantic novel?" He grimaced. "That's exactly how I feel at the thought of spending time in a wheelhouse hearing about how a ship's engine works." "Oh, I see what you mean," he replied. Bless!

Today I'm editing, and tomorrow, and the next day... However I've done more than enough for the timebeing and the sun is shining, so I'm going to go and make the most of it and read the latest Dorothy Koomson novel that I'm going to be reviewing for Novelicious this Thursday. There'll also be my interview with her and a piece on Dorothy's writing space, as well as a book giveaway, so do try and visit the site if you can.

PS Does anyone know how I can preserve an ivy leaf? (Odd request, I know!)

PPS I promise I'll catch up with all your blogs this week. x

Shakespeare & Co

I've just returned from an incredible few days in Paris. I especially enjoyed Montmartre where I watched artists drawing portraits of diners; wandered passed other artists displaying their paintings and visiting small galleries.

Then walking through the streets from the grandeur of Sacre Coeur down passed Le Bateau Lavoir where the likes of Picasso, Matisse, Mondigliani painted whilst mixing with actors (Gertrude Stein, etc) and art dealers.

I spent hours wandering around Pere Lachaise taking countless photos and gazing at the gothic graves of many people and spotting among others the graves of Jim Morrison, Rene Lalique, Edith Piaf, and Oscar Wilde (covered in lipstick kisses).

One of best places I visited was Shakespeare & Co the second-hand bookshop on the Left Bank shown recently on The Book Show where writers including Ernest Hemingway have congregated since the early part of the Twentieth Century. I could have stayed for hours resting on one of the comfy settees, or sitting in a little cubby-hole where writers (including moi) have left short notes about their time spent in this fascinating place.

I was also there doing research and made a thrilling discovery, but it's something I needed for the book I've just finished writing, so I won't post about it for now. Suffice to say that sometimes in life things happen that are so serendipidous that if you wrote about them they would seem hard to believe.

The End

I've just typed 'The End' on my historical romance which at 124,000+ words is too long, but with editing I'm sure I'll bring it safely within the 120,000 word limit for the RNA NWS. I still have to edit before sending it off hopefully in early August, but for now I'm thrilled.

I've loved writing this book. It's set in WW1 and follows the harrowing experiences, passion and betrayal of four characters, two men and two women, whose lives are unavoidably interlinked and ultimately altered forever.

I'm going to go and have a glass of wine now to celebrate and will be taking a couple of days off to read and get used to the idea that I've finished the first draft.

This picture of the moon above hydrangeas growing over nextdoors wall was taking a couple of nights ago.

Have a lovely weekend. x

Chainsaws & Holidays

This picture is of the beautiful roses my son's girlfriend bought me as a thank you when she was staying with us last week. Aren't they lovely?

Today is the first of 17 days off work. I'm so excited to have time off, even though I do love my job, so that I can spend more time with the family, read, relax and ultimately finish the first draft of my book. I'm already up to 121k words and still have to write the final couple of scenes, but I know that after edits it will come down under the 120k words I want it to be and then I'll be able to send it off to the RNA NWS for their report.

I was up at 6.30 this morning. I know, you'd think that as it's my first day of the holidays that I'd at least stay in bed for a while, but once I'm awake, I'm ready to get on with things. So, the laptop was switched on at 7.30 and instantly a chainsaw started revving (do they rev?) and cutting down the elderflower hedging from the nextdoor property over looking the field behind us. So noisy and so much for a couple of hours of peace before I have to get going with other things ie hairdresser for daughter, visiting parents, shopping, etc.

Nevermind, Grumps is thrilled to have me at home, even if it does mean that I spend a lot of the time tapping away at my laptop.