Tag Archives: Romance

Special Edition ~ featuring guest blogger, Juliet Madison

01 Tuesday Oct 2013

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HAPPY RELEASE DAY! Starstruck in Seattle (plus bumper giveaway)

Starstruck

Juliet Madison is celebrating the release of her third book with Escape Publishing, STARSTRUCK IN SEATTLE, a contemporary romance novella with a touch of magic (romagic).

Aspiring actress Anna Hilford might only have a small role in a leading television drama, but she longs to be dreamboat Karl Drake’s leading lady. Sick of being loveless and overlooked, Anna seeks the help of intuitive love coach, Lulu, from LuluTheLoveAngel.com to give her the courage and determination to follow her destiny. But fate has different ideas, Lulu has undisclosed power, and Anna is about to realise that life happens while you’re busy making plans…

Juliet tells us a little about how this book came to be…

“I got the idea for this story when Sleepless in Seattle was on TV. I thought, instead of a call-in-radio show where people ask for advice, what if there was a website that specialised in helping people anonymously with their love dilemmas? So I thought up the idea for a Love Coach, but as I like to do in many of my stories, I decided to give it a slight magical twist, and gave the character of Lulu some other-worldly powers that help her to give destiny a shove in the right direction. But, as Lulu discovers, doing destiny’s work can be a pain in the wings, and may be more challenging than she thought. ”

 

~ BUY NOW: >> STARSTRUCK IN SEATTLE is available worldwide and you can buy it from all ebook retailers, including:

Amazon / Amazon UK / iTunes iBookstore / B&N Nook / Kobo / Booktopia / JB Hi-Fi / Google Play / ebooks.com / All Romance ebooks

 

~ You can also add it to Goodreads here, and visit Juliet online at her website, blog, facebook, and twitter.

 

~ GIVEAWAY>> Juliet is giving away four prize packs of ebooks from Escape Publishing until 10th October (20 ebooks in total). See the prizes on offer and enter here

Here’s what you could win. Enter one or all of them!

#1 Fun, Fast, & Fabulous novella pack:

Christmas Wishes, New year’s Kisses, and Valentine’s Dates by Rhian Cahill; I Dream of Johnny by Juliet Madison; The Virginity Mission by Cate Ellink; and Bonjour Cherie by Robin Thomas.

Enter here

#2 Escape from Reality pack:

Fast Forward by Juliet Madison; Red Moon by M.A. Grant; Fish Out of Water by Ros Baxter; King Hall by Scarlett Dawn.

Enter here

#3 Out and About pack:

Matilda’s Freedom by Téa Cooper; Getting Wild by Sarah Barrie; Swift Runs The Heart by Mary Brock Jones; Riding on Air by Maggie Gilbert; Dark Oil by Nora James.

Enter here

Wow, so there you go! You have to be in it to win, so click on those links and you could be a winner. All the best dear reader, and Congratulations to Juliet, I’ll certainly be reading Starstruck in Seattle soon.

Thanks everyone for dropping by, Paula.

38 days, and counting down

23 Monday Sep 2013

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Hello reader, here in sunny Australia it is the 23rd of September. This means that there are only 38 days before NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, or November in the non literary world.

NaNoWriMo

That’s 38 days of reading, researching, plotting, planning, thinking and even dreaming.

Yes, I do dream about my characters. I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night with a scene having played out in a dream. Then the difficult bit is to get it recorded before I lose it.

This year I am planning on something a little different to the style I’ve written before. While still a romance, still a bit of a mystery, those being my favourites, Raven’s Ridge will be a mix if historical and contemporary, mystery and romance. And I can’t wait.

Serendipity seems to play a part in my my writing. A while back, ages really, I found a rhyme about crows, I just liked it so I saved it and forgot about it.

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I love the last line in particular and it became the premise for Raven’s Ridge.

In June I wrote a romantic romp that took my characters to a farm out near Dunedoo in central New South Wales. I fell in love the house I’d imagined and my sister, who read each chapter as I wrote it, did too. We both knew another story with the house as the setting had to be written.

Usually when I’m writing, I start with an idea, then build from there. Add characters, add in a mystery a romance and off it goes.

This time, I started with a house. I want to include our colonial history as I love reading and researching the early European settlement of Australia. So what better than to have a Colonial mystery unravelled in a contemporary setting. Perfect.

Homestead

So for the next few weeks I’ll be scribbling, drawing and reading. I have a pile of books and diaries and letters from the early part of the nineteenth century and have about six weeks to soak up the language, attitudes and history of 1820 Colonial New South Wales. Six week to shape my character’s attitudes, beliefs, likes and hates. Six weeks to learn about organic farming and agriculture. Six weeks to prepare for NaNoWriMo.

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So reader, do you like a mystery? Does history fascinate you? I love both and am really looking forward to delving into the secret past of Raven’s Ridge and the Craven family’s hidden troubles. Does it sound like something you’d like to read? I hope so.

Winning and Grinning

26 Monday Aug 2013

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Well hello reader, how’ve you been?

It’s been an awesome week for me. Frightening and exciting all at the same time. But I’ll come to that later.

The first thing I have to share is that last week was the Romance Writer’s of Australia’s annual conference. It’s held in beautiful Freemantle, Western Australia.  I wished I could have made it. Without being too worried about why I couldn’t, I’ll get on with telling you about what I was able to attend! The Clayton’s Conference. The wonderful people at RWA hold an online conference that runs over the same weekend as the live event, so that we, who couldn’t make it to Freemantle don’t miss out.

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I signed up and I wasn’t disappointed! The online event ran from Friday evening to Sunday night and was jam packed with online sessions ran by several authors, an editor from Random House and the content developer for Harper Impulse. It was fabulous to be able to ask questions of these industry professionals in real time. Not to mention the fantastic questions that other’s asked.

I wrote last week about the wonder of the writing community and I consider myself blessed that I have found most everyone to be welcoming, encouraging and helpful. Well things have just got better.

Beyond my wildest dreams, better!

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I won a three month manuscript development opportunity with Harper Impulse content developer Charlotte Ledger! I was so excited reader, I could barely speak! I know, hard to believe.

So, let me tell you how I came to be a winner!

When I first joined RWA I had no idea what a fantastic move it was going to be! I have Cathryn Hein to thank for recommending I join. (Cathryn writes fantastic Rural Romance, check her books out here)

Pretty soon after joining up, I saw there was a June write-a-thon about to start and I thought, why not? I had Festival barely started and going off track, so I signed up for #50ks30days and got stuck in. I met some awesome writers in the 50ks chat room and we clicked and clacked and kept each other company. Great fun and a 60K first draft done in 30 days. I was pretty happy with this, as you can imagine reader!

One subject that continued to pop up in the chat room was the RWA conference coming up! I began to wish I could go, but a only 2 months notice and lack of funds, I knew I couldn’t. Next year is in Sydney and I will be going!

Well RWA keep their members well informed and so I heard about the Clayton’s Online Conference and I signed up, I know, I’d already said that, but!!! Wait for it! An email appeared in the inbox and all the Claytoneers were invited to send in an email entry. Send in contact details with book title, word count, genre and where I was up to with the ms. I sent in Something in the Water, 65K, romantic suspense, 4th edit!

Whoo hoo, guess what reader?? Yep, I won!

winner is

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Me, who has not won anything other than a leg of ham at the Christmas Raffle. I did! I won a THREE MONTH MANUSCRIPT DEVELOPMENT FOR SOMETHING IN THE WATER!

With Charlotte Ledger of Harper Impulse! Ha!

The funny thing was, I went to visit a friend in hospital and turned my phone to silent and missed two phone calls to tell me I’d won!

The next day I went to Sydney and on the way home I saw I’d a missed call so listened to the message! It was Dana Scully, of RWA not X Files, and she left a message to tell me that I’d won! I also received a couple of emails from her and another from Charlotte Ledger.

Anyway, I’ve sent off the synopsis for Something in the Water and the first three chapters for Charlotte to have a look at and now I wait for her response. In the meantime I’ll be finishing the 4th, or is that the 7th edit on SITW and trying to calm my crazy palpitating heart.

Have you ever won something reader? Do you even enter competitions? I don’t usually, which is probably why I never win anything. But this is one time I came out a winner. Please share your winning and grinning moment, I’d love to hear about it.

Gleaning

05 Monday Aug 2013

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Reader, obviously I haven’t ever actually found a dead body or murdered anyone, at least you hope not, for the latter.

Dead-Body-Outline

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But as a writer I have to try to tap into the emotion to give you, reader, a credible experience when reading my stories.

Sometimes life throws things my way that make writing a chore rather than a pleasure and this last week was one of them.

Usually reader I find it very easy to write about love, being in love, feeling loved and feeling like I’m special to someone. But this week I didn’t. No real reason for it, but regardless I was full of self doubt and felt pretty useless. I think this started with my cat, Mr Flynn, not coming home on Sunday afternoon. He is usually hanging around, and as we had visitors, he was more likely to be close by. He is such a busy body. When he didn’t show up I started feeling slightly concerned, but not overly worried. He is a cat, cat’s are unpredictable. But he always came home when we did. He didn’t actually ever wander too far anyway, there being a decent supply of mice and critters to hunt in the four back yards he calls his territory. As we had visitors I was trying very hard (unsuccessfully I’m told) to not panic, cry and blubber. I prayed, my friends and family prayed and he did come home eventually. He was a scared and uptight little thing for a few days, and I have no idea what had gone on, but he was home and I didn’t care.

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But reader, this scary and emotional evening proved to be good writerly fodder. As I’ve said previously, I haven’t ever lost anyone close, found a body, witnessed a murder. So as a writer I have to rely almost entirely on my imagination. I’m glad I have an overactive imagination. Even if it led me to visualising some nasty neighbour (none in particular) whacking Flynn on the head with a shovel or dog’s tearing him apart! I know, overreaction for a barely missing cat, but that’s me!

imagination

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Does anyone else suffer from the agony of having too good an imagination? Do you look on drama and emotion in your own life as writing fodder? Am I alone in this weird tendency?

The Big Think

17 Monday Sep 2012

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Eeeek, has anyone else noticed that it’s September?? Not only that, but we’re halfway through September already!

You do realise reader what this means??? You don’t? Of course you do, it means NaNoWriMo is only SIX, 6, VI, got that? Six weeks away!

A decision needs to be made!

What will I write this November?

I have two story ideas kicking around and I can’t seem to make up my mind which one to go with.

Firstly, and probably my preferred idea is to nut out a sequel to On the River Bank, I think this is exciting and likely a good time to do it. If I do a first draft of a second novel while I’m still in the early edits of the first, I can plan the story arc and work the beginning toward the end. Well that’s the plan. I love Maddy and Daniel, and to be able to explore more of their life has great appeal. There’s just so much scope to write about as the history of the area is ripe for the picking. So maybe this should be the one to do for Nano.

Secondly, if I went with something completely different, I have a very rough idea for a contemporary Romantic Mystery called “Sweet Solomon” set in the Solomon Islands. It would be such fun to start on something new and poles apart from a historical romance. I like a bit of romance, so would like to keep that element alive in my writing. But hunting through the Honiara Markets for a contact, sliding in betel nut juice sounds like something I could really sink my teeth into.

I love both ideas. Neither are wrong. But what do you think reader? Which would you prefer?