I’m a bit late with my August blog, but the month has been both stressful and exciting.
First, though, I need to give you a catch up on July.
As you’ll know if you’ve been following me anywhere, I’ve been waiting for my house sale/purchase to be finalised so that I can move to West Sussex to be near my daughter and her family.
While I was in Denver, I had a call from my lawyer asking if I was prepared to complete the contracts on 31st July. Gulp. There was a flurry of calls to the removal people to see if they could manage dates around then and I flew back home on the Monday and moved on the Friday.
There has been a slight issue over a bed and while I’ve been working at the flat, I’ve been sleeping at my daughter’s house. Finally, today, 23 August, I have made up the temporary bed loaned to me by the company who failed to deliver, and have moved in!
Back to Denver.
The Sheikh’s Convenient Princess didn’t win a Rita, but I had no expectations – I was just thrilled my lovely sheikh had finalled, and I was able to fly to the US and have the best time meeting old friends, meeting old internet friends face-to-face, and making a lot of new friends. And I have another Rita finalist certificate to add the seven others that I really need to frame and put up on my office wall. Maybe. I have a lot of pictures that would look far prettier.
The Romance Writers of America conference is an amazing event. So many wonderful writers, great workshops, breakfast with friends, lunches with editors and fabulous parties!
It took me a week to recover from two nine-hour flights, jetlag, the altitude and the kind of late nights I am not used to as well as dealing with the stress of moving – and leaving behind my lovely neighbours – in the hottest August I can ever remember.
I’d like to tell you that I’m sitting back and taking it easy after all that, but time and a deadline wait for no man. I’m just putting the final revisions to my new book, The Billionaire’s Convenient Bride. I don’t have a date yet, but I believe it will be out next summer.
I don’t often put together a play list for my books, but this one has been a bit special so here is some of the music and words I’ve been listening to as I wrote the ending, a couple of which actually appear in the book.
Jonas Kaufmann – You Are My Heart’s Delight
How Do I Love Thee by Elizabeth Barrett Browning read by Sian Phillips
And just because whenever I go to Youtube I listen to the amazing voice of Philippe Jaroussky, here’s Ombra mai fu by Handel
That’s it for now, but next month I’ll tell you about my next project, a quartet I’m writing with a fabulous group of authors and I’ll have a spiffy giveaway to celebrate a huge milestone in my writing life.
Enjoy the rest of August and happy reading!