End of term and lovely review

Current work: Medical (and ohhh, I need a holiday)
Listening to: Corelli (yup, stress puppy)
Reading: next on TBR

Today’s the end of term. Start of the summer holidays. I’m looking forward to them as I enjoy my children’s company. And I am soooo looking forward to a week away and a week pottering (aka doing pics for a book, but I haven’t told DH that, yet…). Need to work smart, though, as I want this book off my desk before we go away. (Otherwise I will be fretting and it will spoil my break. Working on our family holiday is forbidden. Might have to stretch a point, this year.)

Son decided to have a completely new haircut yesterday. Suddenly my little boy looks like a teenager. (OK, OK. Not so little. He’s an inch taller than I am, now, so I have to admit it. I’m taking great pleasure in watching him do to his father what he used to do to me – stands beside him and then silently rises onto tiptoe. Cue ‘OMG’ look on parental face on sudden realisation of just how tall son is.)

Had a lovely review from Pink Heart Society Reviews for Surrender to the Playboy Sheikh:

From the talented pen of Kate Hardy comes an exciting new novel for Harlequin Presents that will just leave you breathless! Written with her trademark warmth and assurance, Surrender to the Playboy Sheikh is one book you just have to read in a single sitting!

Lily Finch stopped believing in happy-ever-after after her husband betrayed her and shattered her heart into tiny little pieces. She doesn't want a relationship and she certainly has got no plans to put her heart on the line and let another man walk all over her. Instead, she has chosen to put all of her energies and time into making her culinary business, Amazing Tastes, a huge success. But little does Lily know that Sheikh Karim al-Hassan wants more from Lily than just her food - he's determined to get her into bed and what the desert king wants, he always gets!

Karim's reputation has always been that of a vacuous playboy who enjoys dating a wide selection of leggy blondes and partying hard. Yet Karim's priorities changed drastically after the death of his brother Tariq. Karim knows that he should stay away from Lily and instead pay court to an Arab princess and not a divorced English woman. But how can he resist Lily when he's fallen head over heels in love with her?

You can never go wrong with a Kate Hardy novel and Surrender to the Playboy Sheikh is certainly one of her best! Realistic characters, heartwarming drama, passionate emotion, tender love scenes and wonderful romance combine to make Kate Hardy's first Sheikh novel a book that will fly straight to your keeper shelves!

Thank you, Julie Bonello, for making my day.

Woo-hoo – in the charts! – and lappie love

Current work: I wish...
Listening to: Diana Krall (am on a jazz/blues piano kick at the moment)
Reading: next on TBR pile but NOT until I’ve finished the book

My current US release – Surrender to the Playboy Sheikh – is in the Waldies top ten series romance bestseller list this week! Thank you very much to the lovely people who put it there, and I hope you enjoy Karim and Lily’s story.

Thank you also to the wonderful Harlequin readers – when I dropped by the eHarl pages on Wednesday to pick up the code for the widgets in my sidebar, I noticed that Playboy Boss, Pregnancy of Passion was at #3 in their bestseller chart. Colour me very happy, and I hope you enjoy Luke and Sara’s story.




And thank you to Marilyn Shoemaker, who’s written a very interesting post on Sheikh lit and included my latest in there.

Bought the laptop yesterday – which will NOT be connected to the internet and will, I hope, improve my productivity because it means that if I work on it I can’t be tempted to flick into email/get sidetracked by research. Also means DH and the kids can use my desktop so they won’t keep moaning that I hog the computer when I’m on a screaming deadline, as I am at the moment. And it has a webcam so son can use it for animation. (When he can get it to work. Daughter says she’s going to write on it. Ha. Bet that doesn’t stop her fleecing me for pretty notebooks.)

The thing is, though, a laptop needs storage. As in a lappie bag. The one in the John Lewis tecchie department was a Samsonite: nice enough, but a little boring/blokey for my taste.

(You know what’s coming next, don’t you?)

Radley do lovely workbags (beautifully made and they last for ever) and I’ve been coveting my friend Nell Dixon’s workbag for ages. Sadly, neither John Lewis nor House of Fraser in Norwich had the one I wanted in stock. But I came home to discover a very timely email from Hudson’s Leather Shop giving me 20% off their clearance prices (note, I have been immensely restrained and not bought anything Radley-oriented for myself for almost a year). And guess what was in the sale? Yup, the exact workbag I wanted. Black with a lavender trim. Sale price plus discount meant that it was only a tenner or so dearer than the Samsonite bag. Result: one lovely lappie bag ordered, with no guilt whatsoever. And it seems I got the last one: I feel very, very lucky.

I was dreading having to tackle Vista, having heard nightmare stories, but so far (touch wood) have managed to load Microsoft Office, set up the users, and help everyone to change their settings. Have also copied latest WIPs across. So I’m all set for use, now. As for printing: rather than faff about trying to find the Vista driver online for my elderly printer, am going to copy the file to memory stick and print from the desktop PC.

Plan for today: originally, the idea was to do lots of work and wait in for the delivery of the laptop bag.

But.

It seems Dad’s cataract op yesterday was more complicated than expected (haven't quite got to the bottom of that yet) and there isn’t ANY hospital transport available to take him back for an urgent check-up this morning (which might not be a check-up - might be the other half of the op. As I said, not got to the bottom of this yet), so I’m taking him and one of the carers is coming with me to help get him in and out of the car. The hospital said be there from 8.30 - but I need to do the school run first and can't be in two places at once. Which means he’ll be anxious (the joys of Parkinson's); depending on traffic and how long it takes to get him into the car it's more likely to be 9.30. Without a definite time, we may end up with a long wait in a hot, sticky environment; I foresee lots of trips to the vending machine for cool drinks. Must remember to take pack of straws for Dad.

Very hot and sticky here right now, which is why I'm posting at 5am - woke with a nightmare and it's too humid to go back to sleep. And yes, I know what triggerered the nightmare: worry about Dad's eye. Dreams can useful to me as a writer, but sometimes they go a bit far, and this one was pretty upsetting. Not fair to wake DH and sob all over him, so going to do some work instead: kind of useful, as I've lost three out of five working days this week, so having the revisions done and the next book off my desk before the summer holidays is looking pretty remote.

But, glass half full, Hudson’s sent me the tracking number for my parcel, so I rang the courier yesterday to ask if they could please leave it next door if I’m not back from hospital when they deliver; they were lovely and agreed, so at least I won’t have to drive halfway across the city to pick it up when I get home.

hot hot hot (the weather AND my review)

Current work: revisions on MH fairground book
Listening to: Robert Plant
Reading: Sarah Mayberry, Cruise Control (really enjoyed it but it made me bawl my eyes out – heroine’s conflict is one of the subjects I find a bit close to the bone and can really only cope with at this time of year. Have another of hers which I’m really looking forward to)

We’re having a heatwave. And I function best in cool, crisp temperatures. So it’s a matter of having a fan on all the time and drinking lots of iced water with a slice of lime and, um, being grumpy.

Daughter is becoming more and more a mini-me. She had a major strop on Sunday night. ‘It’s HOT. I can’t sleep.’ (Yeah. Neither can Mummy.) ‘It’s not fair. You’ve got a fan.’ (Yup.) And then, looking daggers at her father: ‘It’s all right for you – YOU don’t have long hair.’ (DH has, um, not much hair. So that was hilarious and she wasn't very pleased when we laughed.) Bless. I taught her the trick of running cold water over your inner wrists to cool you down. She responded by… yup, using our en-suite rather than the family bathroom at 2am. Urrr.

She has an inset (teacher training) day today. We had planned to do baking, but NOT in this heat. We’re shopping and flopping instead. And visiting Dad.

And the hot review? Well. Sometimes you write a book and think ‘this one’s a bit special’. I had two of those, last year: the second being Surrender to the Playboy Sheikh. It’s netted a Top Pick from Romantic Times… and it got a GRADE A from TGTBTU. Their review made me glow (and not just because I’m in the middle of a heatwave).

This is what Lynne Connolly had to say:

If anyone thinks that HMB books are churned out with next to no effort from the writer - this is one of the best examples against this argument that I've read, and certainly the best this year… This book took the trope of the playboy sheikh and turned him into a real person, one you could like... I adored the way he considered the needs and wants of the woman he falls in love with. He doesn't take for granted that she will fall in with his wishes, he doesn't force her or blackmail her or coerce her, he seduces her… with respect and healthy anticipation. I adored that about Karim and I could see exactly why Lily fell for him.

…And a warning here - Kate Hardy knows about cooking and if the descriptions of little ice-cream balls and coffee mousse filled choux buns don't make you hungry, ur not doin it rite. [note from me – yup. This is why Kate Hardy is overweight. She cooks the stuff in her books AND eats it.]

The stumbling blocks in the romance are believable and are dealt with in a great way… you can see the couple falling in love, and even before they fall they care about each other, so the sex scenes are about connection and pleasure, not about athletics or marathons.

I spent a lovely morning with this book, and I'd advise you to do likewise. I read the UK version, but the US version is one of the July Harlequin Presents offerings. Get it. You'll love it.

***

Read the full review here. And thank you, Lynne, for putting a huge smile on my face (no mean task in a heatwave, when I am usually grumpiness personified).

something to smile about

Current work: nonfic and Modern Heat

Listening to: Christmas compilation

Reading: Diane Watt, The Paston Women

Today is the anniversary of my mum’s death. Now, I know she would want me to remember her with smiles. I do. But I also miss her very much; and this year it works out that I’ve spent more of my life without her than with her, which makes me feel quite melancholy. This afternoon, both children will get an extra-special cuddle from me. And I’m going to put the Christmas CD on and sing along with them (actually, I might just do it with the guitar) and think of her.

Today I have some good news to share: the covers of my March releases. First is my deaf doctor book: The Children’s Doctor’s Special Proposal.

The second is the real stunner: Surrender to the Playboy Sheikh. My first ever Sheikh book. (Modern Heat’s first ever Sheikh, too. And the one Harlequin asked me to write a Dear Reader letter about their 60th anniversary… in which I’ve paid tribute to the author of the first M&B/Harlequin book I read, and who started all this because her books are so fabulous: Sara Craven. It’s also dedicated to an author friend of mine, who writes fabulous books that have kept me sane in dark times, but I haven’t told her about the dedication yet and so I’m keeping quiet for the moment. That’s a pleasure I’m keeping for next year. I can’t wait to get my hands on my author copies.)

In the book, one of the key scenes involves a bath, and the cover is pretty much what I had in mind. (Well, it’s actually set in a penthouse flat overlooking the Thames. But the bath and the tone are just perfect.) In an ideal world, you would be able to press a button on the front of the book and hear the music that the characters are hearing: Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis. (If my soundcard were not defunct, I would give you a YouTube link. But until I get the new PC and a soundcard – next month – I am avoiding to YouTube. Which, from a glass half full point of view, is probably good for my bank balance.) Have told my ed how pleased I am with this cover and asked her to thank the production team.

And I’ve had some other nice stuff this week. Really wonderful reader feedback on Hotly Bedded, Conveniently Wedded (thank you to everyone who wrote to me); and said book at one point managed to be #1 in both the eHarlequin top 10 books AND the eHarlequin top 10 ebooks. Thank you again to the readers who put it there. You’ve made this particular author very happy.

Whirr, slurp, swoosh…

Inside my house, with the ex-wet floor removed:

Outside my house - or, to be more specific, outside my office window:

Three guesses what’s happening here today…

So I’m off to Cornwall. (In my head, that is. Book is also set in the summer. It’s grey and miserable, here. I’m writing sunshine. Ha.)

I’ve already been to America this morning (written my Dear Reader letter for the US release of Surrender to the Playboy Sheikh, to celebrate Harlequin’s 60th birthday – is also a milestone for me as it’s my 35th Harlequin Mills & Boon!).

And there is glass half full stuff. I had a lovely, lovely email from a reader yesterday saying that she enjoyed The Greek Doctor’s New Year Baby. (Moments like these are ones to treasure.)

And, while I remember – here’s a reminder to save the day! December 11 is Open House at eHarlequin, and covers all time zones. Over 100 authors are taking part, and there are prizes galore! I’ll post the link and reminders nearer the time.

And finally - almost forgot, sorry, because am in the UK (and I should know better because my neighbour's from the US) - happy Thanksgiving to everyone arriving here from the US. Have a great day with lots of happiness.

Counting my own blessings: this time last week, I was worried sick about DH. He's still under par, but at least it's neither of the two things we were panicking about. So, in the scheme of things, a bit of dust and disruption [this is English understatement] doesn't matter.