Archive for December, 2005

December 29, 2005

anniversary

Oh. And today is actually the one-year anniversary of this blog! Wow!

I’d like to write more about that, but I’ve got a Romancing the Blog post due next week, and I’m going to write about it there, so I’ll get all soppy even more in public. See, I’ve learned about being a blogger!

Instead, inspired by my full year of babbling about embarrassing things on the internet for all and sundry to read, I’ll have A GIVEAWAY.

A randomly chosen person who emails me at julie@julie-cohen.com will get a signed copy of FEATURED ATTRACTION…once I get my own copies of the book.

The post below should show how lovely those books are!

I reserve the right to not send a contest book to the people I’m going to send a book to anyway. If that makes sense.

books!

I WAS writing, honest, but I got a package today that actually contained TEN COPIES OF FEATURED ATTRACTION!!

I don’t get to keep them–I have to sign them and send them back to Mills & Boon so they can offer them as prizes in a January competition for their direct mail readers. But I did take photos.

It’s so, so strange to see this story in print, in a real book. And the blurb on the back, which I hadn’t seen yet:

Dream lover…or nightmare boss?

Jack Taylor’s new investment needs a special touch, and he’s decided Kitty Giroux is just the woman to provide it! Now a talented designer, she’s also blossomed into an irresistibly sexy woman–and Jack’s never been one to resist temptation…

Kitty has worked hard to get Jack out of her system, but she’s not about to turn down a lucrative contract just because he’s offering it. If Jack’s dangerously sexy charm still has the power to set her pulse racing, the obvious solution is to avoid him…

If only it were that easy!

…because they get locked in a cinema with a year’s supply of popcorn and a gross of condoms, of course, but that’s not on the cover.

Anyway this is me with my book. I wasn’t wearing makeup so that’s why I am looking so coy.

progress

I’m back in the UK, and back to my typical writing schedule during school holidays.

Which means I’ve been at it an hour and so far I’ve looked up Cillian Murphy on the internet twice, I’ve checked my email every six minutes on average, I’ve reread the last four pages I’ve written and made infinitesimally small changes of commas and such, I’ve listened to the same songs* about seven times each, I’ve checked my map of London twice, and I’ve called Selfridge’s on Oxford Street to ask what floor their ladies’ clothing is on. Oh, and I’ve written about a paragraph.

When I get my stuff unpacked I’ll post a couple more photos from my holiday. Until then, would you believe that after my Speedo Santa stroke of good luck, on my flight back to the UK, I shared the airport terminal with the Harvard swim team!? (My husband was with me so I didn’t take photos. Sorry.)

*”Year of the Cat” by Al Stewart, “The Dress Looks Nice on You” by Sufjan Stevens, and “Never Let Her Slip Away” by Andrew Gold, all of which are my hero’s songs. The hero is helping the heroine choose a wedding dress in Selfridge’s, hence the phone call.

December 23, 2005

I am so excited about this.

Featured Attraction, copyright Harlequin Enterprises 2006

December 18, 2005

saturday in boston

Well right now I am sitting in this room. I am sitting on a velvet couch watching hotel guests go out for whatever exciting Saturday night they have planned.

Personally my day was very exciting. Husband and I explored Boston. We were very jet-lagged, so ended up wandering around the waterfront soon after sunrise. This is me tugging on some big chain. (I will leave you to make the jokes.)

We went around looking for a diner to have breakfast in, but apparently this part of Boston (ie Posh Part) doesn’t have any diners, just Starbucks everywhere. We did find breakfast eventually and settled in for a long day’s shopping, only to be interrupted by lengthy sojourns for beer and hot wings.

This is me perusing a handbag stall in Quincy Market, with the charming name of Sacs. Who, me? Attracted to obvious genitalia references? Never.

I bought an extremely cheap skirt and spent a lot of time browsing in secondhand book stores.

At lunchtime we were happily ensconced in a pub awaiting nachos when I read in the Boston Globe that the annual Speedo Santa race was going to start, just one block away, in just five minutes. So I left my long-suffering husband with the beer and I ran, camera out, to the ice-covered Boston Common where, soon enough, dozens of semi-naked men started jogging by.

(I have a LOT more pictures like this, by the way. It’s research. Really.)

Have I mentioned I am having a very good time?

December 16, 2005

off

Well after a 12-hour flight via Zurich I should be in Boston for sunset today. We are staying here and I am really looking forward to a few days of fun and relaxation.

Meanwhile, I want to write 3000 words on the plane.

Have a happy Friday everyone and I will check in from the US as soon as I can.

December 15, 2005

busy

HA! Following my writers’ group meeting last night the Great Card Total is:
Me: 20
Husband: 5

It was our writers’ group AGM last night. I volunteered to be vice-chair again. My reasoning is that I enjoy both vice and chairs. Also, the vice-chair has to do absolutely nothing. In 2005 I believe I signed the minutes once. It is my perfect job.

We had a laugh, read some ghost stories, and then ate and drank a lot of nice things. It is a smashing group with a very diverse range of people in it, all of them talented. I was given a bottle of wine for being the person with the most successes in 2005. I’m not sure that I did actually have the most successes in 2005, but I think I am probably loudest about the ones I did have.

Today is going to be a busy day, both work and fun. I’ve already done an interview for Harlequin/M&B’s magazine. I have to tidy the house, finish writing my cards, charge up all my electrical stuff, print out my book so far, and do some last-minute shopping. I’m meeting a friend at 3.00 to see King Kong (yay! big ape) and I’m going to try to do an hour’s writing in a cafe after that, before I go to the Reading civic carol service. The service is in this church and my friend Jenny is giving a reading.

Then I have to come back home and pack. My husband and I are flying to Boston tomorrow morning and we’re staying in a posh hotel in Boston for a few days before going up to Maine to see my family for Christmas. The hotel apparently has free internet access so I will post photos.

Now I am just waiting for the post to come so I can update the card count…it really is good to have a purpose in life.

(Post-post update: Me 22, Husband 6.)

December 14, 2005

call me mrs wonky

“Your new glasses are crooked,” my husband said. I should have known there was something wrong; after eight years of marriage he rarely looks me in the face so intently.

So I went to the shop. The lady adjusted them. I came back home. “What do you think?” I said.

He considered. “I think it’s your face that’s crooked, actually.”

competitive? moi?

Not that I’m mean or anything, but I think I should get a share in the cards addressed to both me and my husband. So that would make the score:
Me: 14 (10 of my own and 4 to both of us)
Husband: 4 (NONE of his own and 4 to both of us)

I so rule!

December 13, 2005

glasses

So today, after thirty-whatever years on this planet without any particularly noticeable defects in vision, I found out I am shortsighted and need glasses.

I blame the computer.

Anyway this is a photo of me in my new glasses cooking a chorizo and spinach risotto. Which I don’t need glasses to do.

(Card race remains at 7-2; no post came today.)

December 12, 2005

the race of the year

Every year my husband and I hold a competition about who gets the most Christmas cards. Being a teacher and belonging to several professional organisations, I tend to know more of the type of people who send Christmas cards. Being a guitar tech and general rock god, he tends to know more of the type of people who smash up hotel rooms for fun. Needless to say, I usually win the Christmas card competition. I won’t comment on who usually wins the general coolness competition.

Right now I have seven, and he has two. The two he has actually have my name on them as well, but as they’re primarily from his friends I’ve let him have them. I am so gracious in victory.

I will keep you updated on the race. Bets welcome.

December 11, 2005

the constant gardener

How good was that film!? I was mesmerised. The story was excellent but more than that, the characterisation was superb. Wait, well actually, most of the characters weren’t more than two-dimensional, as typical in a conspiracy/thriller type movie. But Ralph Fiennes, the main character, was incredible. A fundamentally good yet ineffectual man, with a huge heart and an urge to nurture, baffled by the need to compromise and finally, struggling against everything he thought he was in order to become strong.

My friend thought the film’s title was misleading, as really it’s about corruption in Africa. I thought it was totally accurate, as really it’s about a gardener forced to carry out his principles of care and protection in the real world. A scary thing, dealing with people instead of plants. I loved it and only hope that one day I can create a hero so flawed yet so fundamentally everything that a human being should be.

There is a moment, when his character realises his wife loved him. It was in his eyes, in his face, in his body, in everything about him. What a marvellous piece of acting.

In consequence, I have written nothing tonight.