one foot in front of the other

Current work: outlines, articles and tinkering with stuff
Listening to: Radiohead
Reading: Liz Fielding, Wedded in a Whirlwind (loved this – apart from the fact that I have a soft spot for archaeologists, Nick was a great character, and Manda… oh, my heart broke for her. For both of them, really. Have the tissues ready. And it’s a great read)

Saturday, nipped into town to pick up some things for son, and while I was there I stopped off in Border’s. I’m doing a talk on 29 October at 6pm (tickets are available from Borders in Chapelfield, Norwich) and I wanted to check a couple of details. Turned out that the organiser is none other than the lovely woman who organised the launch party for my very first M&B, A Baby of Her Own, at Ottakar’s back in November 2002. That’s great. (I was also very pleased to hear that my nonfic is doing well at Border’s.) Dropped in to see Dad in the afternoon, as I’d missed Wednesday due to his hospital appointment and was feeling awful about neglecting him (even though I sent him a postcard from London - last week was another where I only had one 'free' day).

Bit the bullet and stepped on the scales this morning. Given this summer’s hassles, I’ve avoided the scales: there have been more than enough pressures on me lately without the added one of weight management. For the last couple of months it’s been hard enough to put one foot in front of the other; writing has been a struggle because it’s been difficult to get time and headspace. I’ve been chain-eating chocolate and doing no exercise, so I was expecting to discover that I’d put on at least half a stone. Was very relieved (albeit surprised) that I’d managed to stay pretty much as I was. Hopefully if I can go cold turkey on chocolate and do some more exercise, I might be able to make some progress on that front.

This might not be the week to do it, though. (Oh, for a quiet life. A couple of nights’ sleep where I don’t wake up worrying at 2am about various things would help – Madam woke on Saturday night with a bad dream and was going to come in and see us for a cuddle, until she noticed the light on downstairs. ‘Mummy, why are you up at this time of night?’ Because I’m fidgety and it isn’t fair to Daddy to keep him awake... She got her cuddle and reassurance, but it was a while until I managed to get back to sleep.)

More damp meter readings due today, and there are some sticky patches due later this week (related to this summer so I’m not blogging about it). I do however have some bright spots – am taking Dad out to lunch on Wednesday, and I’m meeting friends on Friday for lunch – so will focus on them.

Plan for today: take out the reindeer and finish my outline; sort out the rest of my location pics for the nonfic; write three articles; sort my car tax.

Oh, and I’m keeping the competition open for a couple more days – realised I posted it Friday, after saying that I wasn’t going to update the blog until Monday. And, with global time differences, that’s unfair: so I’ll draw it Wednesday evening (UK time).

REALLY busybusy

Current work: revisions to Modern Heat (archaeologist)
Listening to: Sheryl Crow
Reading: Judith Lennox, All My Sisters

Yesterday... let's just say I was sleep-deprived. Am very glad Madam didn't wake me up in the middle of the night again.

Busy on revisions today and I am NOT going to be distracted by admin stuff or music lessons or the fact that my desk is a tip or... anything at all. (Well, apart from the weekly shop being delivered and there are Christmas presents in it - I have never, EVER been this disorganised or late re Christmas before and I am not happy about it.)

But revisions must be done FIRST.

In the meantime, for anyone local, just a reminder that Waterstone’s has a local author event on 12 December. I’m joined by Keith Skipper and Neil Storey. Obviously it’s nonfiction – as Ottakar’s they launched my first M&B here, but as Waterstone’s sadly they don’t stock M&B. But if anyone brings either – or both! – of my two new M&Bs in, I’m more than happy to sign them. :o)

Here’s the poster from their window:

good things come in threes

Current work: fiction and nonfiction
Listening to: Sandy Denny

Yesterday started off with a bit of a wobble – turned the PC on when I got home, and was shocked to see my screen had turned red. Uh-oh. Loose wire or something more sinister? Had a quick panic: the idea of having my PC in with the tecchy guys to sort a graphics card, when I have lots of work to do in the next 6 weeks, is scary in the extreme. (I even rang my lovely tecchy shop. Who laughed and said, stop worrying as it’s most likely to be a dodgy wire… take them ALL out and put them back in. So I did.)

Relief: it was indeed a dodgy wire. So that was the first good thing: computer was OK.

Next, the post arrived, with a copy of Strictly Legal from Brazil. My first translation from there, so I was really chuffed. And then I moseyed over to the Harlequin website for Brazil, and discovered that In The Gardener’s Bed is also coming out there. (Dear tax inspector, please may I go to Rio…?) Here are the covers – which are definitely different:


And then I had a phone call from Waterstone’s (as in the branch that used to be Ottakar’s, which threw the launch party for my very first M&B, A Baby of Her Own). Would I go and do a signing? (Sure.) And a talk? (Err… how long?) 30 minutes. (Eek!) We’ve agreed that I’m going to do a reading. With a difference: because it’s the Norfolk Almanac of Disasters, I’m going to get people to give me a day and I’ll tell them what happened on it… So there we go.

Lovely start to the week. And I don’t think I’ve mentioned this yet, but I’m going to see the Tutankhamun exhibition for my birthday, with DH, the kids and my best friend (booked the tickets on Friday night) so that’s lovely too. And I booked our family tickets for the panto. Was tempted to book Kate Rusby for me, but the available seats aren’t that good. (My fault for leaving it so late.) Am also temped by the Mediaeval Baebes – the Playhouse is very small so it’d be great. Then again… (Had it been Kathryn Williams, I wouldn’t even be dithering: I would’ve bought my ticket the day the box office opened. And I would dearly love to see Sheryl Crow…)

Plan for today: guitar this morning, then meeting a friend for lunch, and the PRESMA (pre-school music association – I’m a trustee) AGM tonight. And in between sneaking in some work.

Down in the dungeons…

Current work: pics and notes for new nonfiction; thinking about Med duo outline
Listening to: various piano
Reading: Prescription for Happiness, Pat Posner

Down in the dungeons? That's where I’ll be today for a photo session - at Norwich castle. This time I’m going to be in front of the camera rather than behind it, as pics are going to be taken to go with the piece about The Norfolk Poisoners (will be in the Eastern Daily Press on 1 September).

Yesterday was fairly busy. Started with cookie-making with the kids; then the interview (which went very well as Angi is so nice – mind you, I’ve yet to meet someone from Archant who isn’t); then did the weekly shop.

The morning’s torrential rain turned to sunshine, so we went into town. Started at my accountant’s. This year, they actually had my papers ready to return to me, which was nice – but I’m still going to talk to the Society of Authors to see if they have any recommended accountants in my area because communication isn’t brilliant and they just don’t match the service of my lovely accountant who retired. (And I loathe being called ‘Mrs Brooks’ by someone who’s in a business relationship with me: I much prefer first-name terms.)

Then we went to the Rosary Cemetery to look up certain gravestones (no, the new book isn't macabre book, but some of my subjects are late 19th and early 20th century so they’re no longer with us and I wanted to see their memorials).

Then into town proper – went to the bank, bought a larger atlas of Norfolk (I like ringbound maps and I wanted a large-scale one for work purposes) and signed all my stock in Waterstones to keep them going until we've sorted a date for the proper signing. (Now Ottakars have been taken over, they no longer stock M&Bs. So sad, as they gave me a launch party for A Baby of Her Own. Am just relieved they've kept their good local history section.) Took the kids swimming with DH; and then had a very slobby evening. (But I did over 12,000 steps yesterday so that's not bad...)

Kate’s 25th party, guest blogger #17 – Jenny Haddon

I’m so pleased that today’s guest can make it. She also attended my very first party – the launch for my first Medical Romance, A Baby of Her Own, at Ottakars (now Waterstones) in Norwich back in November 2002. It was well above and beyond the call of duty, because it was a stormy day and some of the roads were closed and the trains were delayed… and she also couldn’t get home to London that night as all the trains were cancelled. Naturally, when she asked me to recommend a hotel, the answer was, ‘You’re coming home with us!’ My daughter (then just about two) remembers her as ‘the lady with lovely hair’.

Jenny Haddon has been the chair of the RNA for the last couple of years, and when I first met her in person she was in an organising role. (Yes, you know what's going to come next.) She was the organiser of the Mills and Boon author lunch, and very kindly took me under her wing when I was a bit overawed. (Sitting me next to Kate Walker was an excellent move... as you'll hear later.)

Jenny’s great company. She’s very, VERY clever (an Oxford graduate but you have to stick pins in her to make her admit it: she has no airs and graces. Oh, and she floored Jeremy Paxman on University Challenge, so an awful lot of people will love her forever for that), as well as erudite and charming. She’s a real champion of romance and she argues her case brilliantly. (See http://www.jennyhaddon.com/otellme.html if you want to know more.) She writes lovely romances for M&B as Sophie Weston (and she pushes boundaries, too). She’s co-written a guide to punctuation for adults who want to know why as well as where to put the damn things, Getting the Point. She’s also the person who bought me the feather boa Sarah Morgan referred to… because she overheard me saying that I’d always wanted one. It just arrived in the post, no fuss, with the most lovely little note – because Jenny’s one of these people who notices things and does something about it. And I’m proud to call her one of my friends.

So here’s Jenny Haddon:

I first met Kate Hardy on the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s cyber chapter, when she set a fiendish quiz for a charity fund raiser. I realised then that she was a woman of wide interests and absolutely no restraint – just the recipe for a successful writer.

But even so, her first book, A Baby of Her Own, blew me away. It had everything: a strong intrinsic and multi-layered conflict between hero and heroine, great characters, utterly believable world, page turnability by the bucket load and that Extra Something.

It’s really difficult to say what the Extra Something is but, by golly, you know it when you see it. I did when the heroine, Jodie, gets her courage together and risks telling Sam that she loves him and thinks he loves her: ‘Unless that was just –‘ her voice wobbled ‘-- wishful thinking.’ Realising that they have to talk somewhere where they won’t be interrupted, Sam agrees to have dinner at her place. And then Jodie gets into a flat panic about cooking.

Oh yes, I thought, there it is. The Extra Something. Our human ability to brave the big stuff and collapse over trivialities. Been there, done that.

The smack of real life, which makes the happy ending so satisfying – that’s what Kate’s novels have had, right from that first one. And they just get better and better. So I’m really looking forward to Breakfast at Giovanni’s.

Happy 25th Kate. And many more.

GIVEAWAY: Jenny’s giving away a duo about two step sisters, The Millionaire’s Daughter and The Bridesmaid’s Secret and a short story collection, Sexy Shorts for Christmas. (There’s also a free read on her website - and I really recommend this)

GIVEAWAY QUESTION: What do you think is that Extra Something in the work of your favourite writers?