Join me today (Wednesday 22nd) at TJ Bennett’s Blog where I’ll be blogging about the book you nearly didn’t read…  and you’ll have a chance to win one of TJ’s gift baskets. 

TJ says, “remember that you need to leave comments for at least two authors throughout the month (more comments equals a greater chance of winning) to be eligible to win the gift basket with signed books by Carrie Lofty, Madeline Hunter, Anna Louise Lucia, Emily Bryan, and me, TJ Bennett, as well as the $25 gift certificate to See’s Candy and one pound of coffee beans to get your buzz on. ”

So get over to TJ’s place and get in with a chance of winning!

Someone asked me if I’d been living under a rock lately, to which I think the answer is:  Yes.

But I have dug myself out from under said stone to let you know that I’ll be blogging over at TJ’s on Weds. 

TJ Bennett is a fellow Medallion Press author, whose debut release The Legacy was picked as a Buried Treasure (an A1 recommendation) by All About Romance – nice going, TJ!

TJ asked me to talk about the scene you almost didn’t read… so I talked about Run Among Thorns, and its ‘Director’s Cut’ ending!  Join us on Wednesday over at TJ’s blog to find out more. 

Have you got a Nintendo Wii?  If you do, you know what I’m talking about.  If not….

On the Wii, you can create a little cartoon character called a Mii (me).  You can make them to look like you, or fun imaginary characters (Husband has a Beardy Wierdy and Geezer in his repertoire).  You get to choose the face shape, skin colour, hair style, facial features… and so on.

It really only took me about two hours to realise I could populate the Mii Plaza with little avatars of characters from my books.  If you have a Wii, you have to try it!

Yes, I really am that sad.  I have a little Mii for Kier (rugged face and frowny eyebrows – favourite colour: black) and Jenny (blue top, bright eyes, curly dark hair) from Run Among Thorns.  I have Miis for Alan (blond hair, good jaw, blue eyes and charming smile, in a white shirt) and Marianne (cute brunette hair, beautiful eyes, bit of a startled pout) from Dangerous Lies.

Then I got on to Gareth (favourite colour: blue – with thick dark hair and a wry smile) and Lisa from Danger: Deep Water.  And in the course of messing around with options discovered that Lisa likes hot tangerine and raspberry shades, if given the chance, and is quite a bit taller than I’d at first realised, and has cheekbones to die for.

Huh.  There really is no limit to where you can find inspiration, if you’re a writer, is there?

Ahhhhh.  Made it.  Today we go away on hols for a week.

Scottish castles, forest, hill and glen, with a few lochs thrown in.

And THIS time, when I visit the longhouse that’s just like Kier’s cottage in Run Among Thorns, I’m going to try and remember my camera….

See you in a week!

I wouldn’t say I’d particularly lost my smile, it’s jsut it’s been a bit furtive and shy recently.  But this morning, under the influence of a weekend of dancing in the rain (more in a later blog), walking in the sunshine and, it has to be said, a large hazlenut latte, my smile came out to play again.

I remembered, as my face warmed to it, that old colleagues used to love the fact that no matter how awful the day, I could be counted on to have a smile for them that somehow made things better (the constant supply of chocolate in my desk drawer helped, too)*  I’d like to be the one who can be counted on to smile in this job, too.

If you want a laugh, go to google images, and search for Big Smile.    Worth it. 

*Once, a valued colleague came and plumped down in a chair next to my desk, looking glum.

“Hello,” I said, “what’s up?”

“I’m having a terrible day, “he said.  “And I thought, ‘I know, I’ll go and see Anna.’  I thought you’d probably make me feel better.” 

Smiling broadly, I opened my drawer, reached in without looking and handed him a chocolate bar.

“I was right!” he exclaimed joyfully.  He nearly wept tears of gratitude.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Some hours after writing the above, I got two bits of great news – first, another review, a real goodie, from Sabine at Novelspot:

“From the first page, I couldn’t put down Anna Louise Lucia’s Run Among Thorns. The story was a fast and furious trip with two fascinating characters that drew me into their world before I knew what happened.

Filled with sexual tension overlaid on a well-built story, this romantic suspense novel was everything I could have asked for in a summer read.”

You can read the full review here. 

The second was the news that I’m short listed for an award!  Night Owl Romance are running their reader’s choice awards, and I’m included in the romantic suspense catagory!  Now, I’m not going to ask you to vote for me, but I am going to ask you to head on over and vote for books you read and enjoyed – support Night Owl and have some fun.  Go on… 

 Yes, I know… late, late, late!  Between travel, my brother’s wedding last weekend, my sickness, laptop sickness, work and home life, it’s been a long time since I promised to post pics of my Maine trip and the RWA Conference in San Francisco at the beginning of August.

What can I say?  It was marvellous, magical, a real couple of weeks of fun, friends, and perhaps most importantly, reflection.  Thinking back on how far I’d come (and how far I have to go!) and how much I have to be thankful for.  Missing absent friends and making new ones. 

Maine suited me down to the ground. 

Water, trees, swimming, walking, boating.  I’ll be forever thankful to Julie’s parents for taking me in, making me welcome, and answering all my research questions about sailing. 

Gareth and his treasured yacht Orpheus will be the better for it.  Lovely to spend time with Julie and her gorgeous boy (who learned a new word from me – ‘Brilliant!’)

Julie had arranged a joint reading/signing at Rumford Library with mutual friend Kathy Love and me, with the help of the wonderfully enthusiastic and dedicated Claudia.  We had a blast, as you can see:

And I think we had some happy readers!

(Martha Hill clutching her bounty of books and looking very happy about it!)

And then on to San Francisco.

This RWA National Conference was a biggy for me – my ‘first sale’ Pink Ribbon, the first at which I could participate in the mass Literacy Autographing, where over 520 authors signed their books, donated by the publishers for charity.  It was fabulous – I have to admit I was choked up a bit by it at times.  My fondest memory is selling a book because I found out the reader and I both adored BBC car programme Top Gear!  Result!  I was there very early, and there was a lot of time (before the Sherrilyn Kenyon inspired reader stampede) to reflect on the time that had passed since I started to write, and started to seek publication. 

It was an awe inspiring thing to sit there behind a pile of my books and sell them and sign them.  Just wonderful.

Even better to share it with some special people.  Kate Walker came over to congratulate me, and remind me Dad would have just about expired (if he wasn’t already!) with pride if he’d seen it.  Since Kate’s mentorship helped get me where I am, that was a very wonderful moment for me.

And I was very proud to participate, in however a small fashion, in raising over $58,000 for Adult Literacy.

I enjoyed the workshops – highlights were the His Brain/ Her Brain sessions, Advanced Writing Tools, Linda Howard’s brilliant Q&A (is it sad and shallow of me to note how much we have in common???) and Holly Jacobs and Nancy Warren’s session on being professional and business like.  Through all the workshops, it was wierd for me to realise (and I don’t mean this in a boastful sense) that I knew a lot of the answers already.  The theme of the Conference was, for me, you’ve come a long way, baby.  Now get writing.

I hope I took the message to heart.  This week I wrote over 10,000 words.  Woo Hoo!

I have to say Kudos, to the organisers, staff and volunteers.  GREAT job, folks.

My social secretary    Brigid Coady (who was also basically the Best Ever Room Mate – click the link and scroll down for her take on the conference), was clever enough to arrange for me to get in to the Harlequin party as Heidi Rice’s guest (a thousand thanks, Heidi and Biddy!)  

We met up with Sharon Kendrick and Abby Green at the Top of the Mark.  How’s this for a view?

Another fine view is this bevvy of beauties – from left, Heidi, Sharon and Biddy.

The Harlequin party was quite simply the best party I’ve ever been to.  Why?  Because when I go to a party, I want to dance.  And I get frustrated with people standing around through the first dozen songs or so, looking down their noses at the handful of nervous dancers on the floor.  I get to dance maybe twice a year!  I want to dance!

At the Harlequin party, when the music starts, the dance floor fills.  Immediately.  And it stays full ALL NIGHT.  After thirty or so, breathless, sweaty moments, I was in sheer heaven.  And stayed that way until my leg muscles seized up, about the same time my feet bruised.  Ah, fabulous.  It’s possible I burned up all the alcohol calories for the entire week in that one dancing session.  Bliss.

(Heidi in blue, Abby in green, Sharon in pink, unknown in kilt, but good man… and the guy in the grey suit is, Randal Toye, a Harlequin VP.  Who I once shared a table with at an awards ceremony, and inexplicably talked about my house’s higgledy stairs….)

And finally, for the Harlequin Party, the World Most Unflattering Photo of me, purely for the purposes of recording a seminal moment in time. 

Because that arm on the right in the background, boogying away, belongs to none other than Nora Roberts.  Yes, Nora Roberts.  Greater happiness knows no romance writer than dancing next to Nora Roberts at the Harlequin Party.

We rocked.

All in all, I have very fond memories of San Francisco.  I won’t even mention the shopping.

Finally for this post, all best wishes, good luck, blessings and congratulations to Ali and my brother P-J, who are currently honeymooning in Marrakesh.  You did good, folks.  You did great.

Because I’m all over the place, both cyber and real world, in the next six weeks or so! 

This Friday, 27th June, I’m a guest of the lovely Anna Sugden at Writers at Play, talking about Run Among Thorns.

Wednesday, 2nd July, I’m being interviewed by good friend and talented writer Donnell Bell at the nex group blog, Five Scribes.  We’ll be talking about how Run Among Thorns came about, and what it’s like being an English author writing for a US market.

Then on Saturday 5th July I’ll be presenting a workshop on Sense of Place – using setting in your story, at the UK Romantic Novelists’ Association annual conference, in Chichester.  This will be my fifth RNA conference, but my first as a published author, and my first presenting a workshop!

On Wednesday, 23rd July I’ll be joining fellow romance writers Kathy Love and Julie Cohen at Rumford Library, Rumford, Maine (the joke being that they’re from Rumford, Maine and I’m from Romford, Essex…  ) for a talk and book signing.

And finally, for the Grande Finale, I’ll be joining some 500 other romance writers on Wednesday 30th July at the Literacy Autographing at Romance Writers of America’s National Conference in San Francisco.

Phew.

Do you reckon that’s enough for now?