50th party blog guest - Carol Marinelli

I’ve known Carol Marinelli for years through email loops, and I’ve also been privileged enough to meet her in person – she was there at the M&B party when I got my 25th pin, and I so wish she’d been there on Friday, too! (Still, I guess this time I didn’t have to peel her, Sarah Morgan and Nicola Cornick out of the shoe shops…) I’m also thrilled that her mainstream career is taking off. I can remember talking to her years ago about her Big Book and it’s great to see it in print!

Over to Carol:

I am thrilled to be taking part in Kate’s 50 books blog party – that’s a lot of books and they are all wonderful.

As I write this, Kate will be receiving her 50th book pin and I can actually picture it. I truly wish I was there as I have fond memories of the AMBA lunch and the Harlequin party afterwards as a few years ago I was lucky enough to attend and meet Kate and many other authors who I had only, at that stage, met via email.

I was visiting my family in the UK and they couldn’t understand why I was anxious about meeting my friends but it is quite nerve-wracking to meet face to face people that you have only spoken to online. You know already that you like each other, you really hope that you will get on, but there is still that nervousness present - that you won’t click in the flesh as much as you do online, that you might find out you have nothing to say….

I needn’t have worried!!

There was an awful lot to say. Friendships were confirmed and it was so lovely to be in the same room, talking about the books we love and finding out that the persona’s I had met online matched the people.

Between the AMBA lunch and the evening drinks there was a bit of time to kill and so we killed it in style – coffee and lots of talking with Kate, Sarah Morgan, Sharon Kendrick and Nicola Cornick and then off for a little bit of window shopping and a lot of trying on shoes.

To think I’d been nervous! It was such a lovely day and one I will always fondly remember.

I so wish that I had been there to see Kate get her pin but, writing this, I am even more determined to get there again, some time in the not too distant future.

Huge congratulations, Kate.

Carol Marinelli x

To celebrate Kate’s 50th book I’d like to give away a hardback version of my latest book, Banished to the Harem.
Just comment below about anything but I’d love to hear if you’ve ever been nervous about meeting someone you’ve only met online.

You can talk to Carol on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/carol.marinelli.90
Or follow her on Twitter @CarolMMarinelli