50th party blog guest - Jenny Haddon

I first met Jenny Haddon (aka Sophie Weston and Sophie Page) at an M&B authors’ lunch. She was the organizer and was so kind to me, as a wet-behind-the-ears newbie. Actually, she went way beyond the call of duty and came all the way from London to Norwich for the launch party of my first M&B. And I might add that that was on a day when the weather was so bad that the trains stopped running! (So she stayed overnight at our place – no way was I sending her off to a hotel.) And she’s the one who sent me my very first feather boa. And she bought me a cup of tea in the Ritz, which made me feel really special instead of the scruffy oik I normally am. I loved her Sophie Weston books for M&B, and her ‘To Marry a Prince’ (as Sophie Page) is fabulous.

Anyway, over to Jenny:

Happy 50th, Kate. What a star you are. It is not so long ago that I came up to Norwich to dance at the launch of your first book! I remember coming to spend the night afterwards and finding with relief that, in spite of your impressive diligence and organization, there were places round the edges where your workspace was almost as relaxed as my own feline-friendly one.

Thinking about how I love your books set me to wondering about that special hook that captures me as a reader. A great story, of course. And I have to admit that I want a satisfying ending, preferably happy. But the thing that binds me to a book with hoops of steel is the characters.

Sometimes these are lovely people I want to have as my friends - and you do great friendly and responsible heroines, Kate. But what makes them special is that they have the potential to be completely different from their normal selves. I am not talking about the Heroic Journey, like Hamlet or Sydney Carton, who change, achieve and die. I am talking about the Other Me in all of us, the one who makes the choices we reject and knows that one day we could, maybe even will, do the 'out of character' thing in real life. And even if we can't actually do it, we can still imagine the feelings, the desires, the achievements of Other Me.

One of the best examples of this I know is Jilly Cooper's Rupert Campbell-Black, a ruthless, witty, charming don't-give-a-shit sexpot all through Riders. He looks the same in Rivals and then suddenly, after a weekend visit from the children of his now ended marriage, he sits in the den in front of the television, with one arm round his dog, weeping over Lassie. It shows his Other Me, embracing the one thing Rupert rejects and, you would say, has no time for at all: innocence. It sent chills up my spine, that scene, when I first read it.

I suppose I'm saying that, for a character in a novel to be real to me, they have to have the capacity to behave out of character. And yours do. Heck, it's even in the title of Dr Cinderella's Midnight Fling! And now I'm fully expecting to find it in The Hidden Heart of Rico Rossi. Scrumptious. Thank you, Kate.

Jenny’s giving away a copy of ‘To Marry a Prince’ – just tell her what draws you to a book or leave a comment below.

You can find out more about Jenny at her website http://www.jennyhaddon.com or on her blog at http://jennyhaddon.com/?page_id=121
Or follow her on Twitter @jennyhaddon

winner

Jenny Haddon has had major computer problems so I got my dog to do the honours. Well, actually, he lay down on the floor and waved his paws in the air, thinking he’d get his tummy rubbed and this is a specious excuse to publish another dog picture. The real ‘picking names out of a hat’ was done by my 6-year-old, who loved doing it and insisted on drawing all the names out of the hat and unfolding the paper and… I had to explain it was the FIRST name that won.

So congrats to Rae-Anne! (I’m continuing to have the forwarding problems so I’ve left you a message on your blog as well re getting in touch.)

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?