Archive for March, 2007

March 31, 2007

Driving Him Wild winner

With the help of a random number generator and my baby pressing the mouse button (with some assistance), we’ve chosen Crystal Gwynn as the winner of my contest for a copy of Driving Him Wild!

I think this is the most people I’ve ever had entering one of my contests. Thanks to everyone who did, and congratulations Crystal!

March 29, 2007

things my baby loves

In January, when my son was a few weeks old, I blogged about things I love about my baby, and again when he was a month old. Most of those things are still true, although he no longer has frog legs or resembles my friend Treena’s baby, and his mullet hairstyle now also has a big bald patch in the middle of the back of it where he rubs his head against his mattress.

Today I thought I’d blog about things my baby loves.

1. His bath. His father has started giving this to him when he’s home and the two of them just talk all the way through it.

2. Being blow-dried. This is weird but he thinks it is great.

3. Standing up (with help from me). He stands and drools and makes hooting noises of joy and concentration.

4. Me saying “Baby bing!” as loud as I can.

5. Pulling hair.

6. Pooping.

7. Sitting face-to-face and having a long conversation (mostly consisting of “aghoo”, “durrr”, and “ggggh”). He prefers it if you repeat what he’s said back to him rather than add any innovations of your own, though I have been trying to teach him to say “arrrr” like a pirate.

8. Walking (or better, dancing) around in the Baby Bjorn carrier (though he hates getting into it).

9. Sucking his thumb. Either one will do; he is ambithumbdrous.

10. Playing air drums with his daddy.

hurry hurry!

There are only two more days before I pick a winner in my Driving Him Wild giveaway!

March 28, 2007

bookworm on the net

I seem to be spending more time blogging and commenting elsewhere than on my own blog lately!

The Bookworm on the Net blog has a bit about me today, which I find interesting. The author, Anne Weale, is a treasure of information about the reading and publishing world, though she and I have very different opinions about several things (including the colours lime green and orange).

Anyway, Anne talks about adverbs, buying second-hand books, self-promotion, and whether romance novels are partly responsible for teenage pregnancy. See what you think, and while you’re there, check out the many interesting snippets she has about the book world, including Gordon Ramsay’s bollocks, and how a child’s sweater connects to a multimillion-pound bookseller.

March 27, 2007

done.

As you can see from the word meter over there on the right, I’ve finished the first draft of ONE NIGHT STAND.

It has the most ridiculous ending I have ever written. I kid you not. I like it, but it’s ridiculous.

Anyway, the next step is to revise. The beginning needs quite a bit of work, mostly because I wrote it when I was pregnant and insane, and the character motivation has completely changed since then. I have to rewrite a couple scenes and remove some plot elements.

My goal is to get it finished (on paper anyway, maybe not in the computer) by the 5th of April, which is when I am going to the Lake District to visit Anna.

March 26, 2007

lust bites

My Very Cool Thing for today is that I was asked to write a post for Lust Bites, a blog by writers of erotica, about sex in category romance. Actually I mostly talked about preventing sex in my category romances, but it’s about sex, anyway.

Please check it out and read some of the awesome articles on there while you’re at it! (Oh and maybe check out the photos of naked men…)

March 24, 2007

bambino e romanzo

I received a nice package today–Italian two-in-one editions of Featured Attraction (Attrazione evidente) and Being A Bad Girl (Cattiva e sensuale) together.

It’s nice that they’re together, as they’re linked books, the stories of best friends Jack and Oz. The blurb in the front says:

Deidero di te de Julie Cohen che ti trasportera in un mondo fatto di sensualita allo stato puro e sentimenti travolgenti. Sebbene siano due scapoli incalliti, anche Jack e Oz dovranno arrendersi alle loro affascinanti tentatrici.

Babel Fish has it thus:
Desire of you by Julie Cohen that trasportera you in a world made of sensualita to the pure state and sweeping feelings. Although are two incalliti bachelors, also Jack and Oz will have to surrender to theirs fascinating temptresses.

Someone in our household was quite interested in seeing whether the translation was faithful to the original.

(Psst–Don’t forget my Driving Him Wild giveaway!)

March 23, 2007

hour power

I’ve got a post up on Romancing the Blog today, about Mummy’s Mucky Book Hour.

March 21, 2007

they play music. they drink blood.

Paranormal romance writers Kathy Love and Erin McCarthy have done something cool…

They’ve got a vampire band!

Both Erin and Kathy are writing books about members of the band. They’ve set up this excellent website about it, too, with blogs from members of the band. It’s interesting to see what an undead musician thinks about life…

The whole thing is lots of fun so go check out The Impalers!

March 20, 2007

seasons of writing

I am, according to the word meter there on the side, over 80% done with this ms (though I think it’s actually more like 90%), and I am beginning to be sad about finishing it. I’ll miss these characters when I’m done with them. I like Eleanor, and her self-doubts, and her sense of humour. I love Hugh, and his casual devotion, and his gorgeous resemblance to David Tennant. I even like the secondary character of an old man who sits at the end of the bar in the pub where Eleanor works and gets steadily drunker and steadily hornier until he suddenly erupts into verbal violence. (Imaginatively, he’s called Horny/Angry Man.)

There are other things about it that are close to my heart…the heroine is pregnant and I got to put in some of my experiences. She’s also a writer, and her doubts and insecurities are very definitely like my own. She also lives in Reading, so I’ve had fun putting her in places that I’m familiar with.

And on top of all that, this is The Book I Wrote When I Had My Baby. In fact there’s a break on page 72 that says “Pause here to have baby”.

My writing friends all remind me that I always get depressed when I finish a book, and that it’s a good sign because it means a) that things are normal with me, and b) I like this book and therefore it’s probably not utter crap. Sela called it “The Seasons of Julie.” It’s very true, and one of the reasons I started this blog was to remind myself that my feelings about my writing go in cycles, invariably in this order:
fear (starting book),
elation (liking book),
crow attack (hating book),
optimism (book could be all right), and
depression (book is over).

Does that happen to you too?

P.S. Don’t forget my book giveaway!

March 16, 2007

if only the phrase were the reality

I am so, so pleased that two people have come to this site in the past four hours following a Google search for the phrase “David Tennant naked”.

(Don’t forget my contest below!)

Driving Him Wild giveaway

I so totally need to do a contest, which I haven’t done for ages.

So. For anyone who didn’t rush right out and buy it in the shops, I’ve got a copy of my February Mills & Boon release, Driving Him Wild, to give away.

All you have to do is email me, using the “Contact” button on the right, and I’ll choose a winner by random draw. Kate Walker always has her cats choose a winner…I wonder if I can get my son to choose, somehow. Maybe by giving him lots of bits of paper and seeing which one he drools on most.

I’ll announce a winner on 31st March.