50th party blog guest - Carol Hedges

Carol Hedges is a new friend, and I met her a few months ago on Facebook when I was asking for recommendations for books for my daughter. Actually, my daughter really enjoyed Carol's Spy Girl series, and Carol and I are discovering more things in common as we talk on social media/email. (This is what I really, really like about social media – at its best, it does bring people together.)

Over to Carol:

How Social Media Changed My Life.

Thank you, Kate. Recently I went to a meeting of the RNA London Chapter. I sat next to a not-yet-published writer, and in the course of a drink or three, got chatting about the inexorable rise of Social Media.

'Not for me,' she said, pulling a face. 'I can't imagine why anybody would want to go on Twitter or Facebook. As for having a blog - who on earth would read it?'

Now I'm a very polite person (yes, really) so I didn't bend her ear, or call her out, but I think her attitude is waay wrong. As a writer, you must embrace Social Media, or you will sink without trace, and without sales.

This is what I use:

1. My Blog: Set up in May this year. This is my personal area, where I waffle on happily about life, the universe and daft stuff that happens to me. People get to know me as a person. They read my bio. All my books are here, with links to Amazon. If you like someone, chances are you'll want to read their novels. Also, I regularly invite other writers to guest on the digital Pink Sofa, especially if they have a new book out. My blog is my shared and sharing space.

2. Twitter: Joined six weeks ago. It's a great way to meet new people - though funny things do happen: I use my e-book cover as my avatar, and am currently being followed by a couple of male writers who clearly think I am young, pretty and blonde. LOL, as they say. People you follow will retweet links to your books/blogs to their followers. Some tweeters have 1,000s of followers. Do the maths. I tweet three sessions a day, make sure I return all favours, and I chat far more than I promote.

3. Facebook: I've had a Facebook page for several years. Here I post links to interesting articles on writing, reviews of my books, and bits and pieces about how the new novel is going. Or not. People add their comments. I comment on what they're up to. Also, if a friend needs advice, or just a digital hug, I'm there for them.

I used to think social media wasn’t for me. How wrong I was. If you are still debating whether to launch yourself into cyberspace, I'd say: go for it.

You will sell books - a lot more books. But most of all, you will meet some of the nicest, funniest, most supportive people on the planet, and they will help you, 'friend you, and stand by you when the going gets tough - and I know Kate will agree totally on this.

Carol Hedges is the author of 11 published novels for teenagers and YA. Her writing has received much acclaim. Her latest novel Jigsaw Pieces has just been published on Amazon Kindle.

Carol lives in Hertfordshire. She has one grown up daughter, one husband, two cats, and an awful lot of fish. She drives a customized pink 1988 Citroen 2CV called Annie-Rose.


You can find out more about Carol at her website www.Shewrites.com
or on her blog at http://carolhedges.blogspot.com
Or talk to her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/carol.hedges.779?ref=ts&fref=ts
Or follow her on Twitter @carolJhedges

Winner - Sue MacKay, Every Boy's Dream Dad

First name drawn from the hat for ‘Every Boy’s Dream Dad’ – Mia. Please contact me kate(dot)hardy(at)btinternet(dot)com with your details, and I'll get everything sorted :o) Thanks for taking part!

50th party blog guest - Lesley Cookman

I’ve known Lesley Cookman through the RNA for years and years, and I adore her Libby Serjeant series. (There was much cheering in this house when she got the call!) Lesley also writes pantomimes (how awesome is that?), and I love it when she sends me links on YouTube to bits of her shows.

Over to Lesley:

I’ve known Kate since she first got “the call” from HMB, when we were both members of the same online group, so I’m delighted to be able to celebrate her 50th with her, and very flattered to be asked.

Although we are still both members of the same organisation, the Romantic Novelists’ Association, I don’t write romance. I write very light mystery novels, called in the US “cosy crime”, a term which is gradually being adopted in the UK. They are books where the crime happens “off-stage” and there is almost more focus on the characters than the crime, easy in my case as I write a series with a whole village full of regular characters. Think Rebecca Shaw with murder!

My series character, Libby Sarjeant, is a former actor in her mid-fifties who paints touristy pictures for a local gallery and helps run the local community theatre. Libby has remained in her mid-fifties for a long time now, which occasionally throws the reader trying to make sense of the past, but I claim authorial privilege. There are series characters of all ages, genders and sexual orientation, so something for everybody, I hope.

However, for all the lightness, murder is a serious subject, and I have tackled some fairly grim themes, such as violent homophobia and illegal immigration. My poor police force are probably the most unrealistic element in the books, as Libby rides roughshod over them, so I have taken to apologising to all police forces in the front of every book.

If any of Kate’s readers would like to see what Libby’s books are like, there will be a paperback copy of the first in the series on offer, in the all new rejacketed B format. Welcome to Steeple Martin!

You can find out more about Lesley at her website www.lesleycookman.co.uk or her blog at
http://lesleycookman.blogspot.com/
Or talk to her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/SteepleMartinMysteries?ref=hl
Follow her on Twitter @LesleyCookman

Winner - Louisa George, Waking Up with his Runaway Bride

First name drawn from the hat for ‘Waking Up with his Runaway Bride’ – Eli Yanti. Please contact me kate(dot)hardy(at)btinternet(dot)com with your details, and I'll get everything sorted :o) Thanks for taking part!

50th party blog guest - Sue MacKay

Sue Mackay is a relatively new friend – I met her on the M&B author loop when she sold her first Medical Romance, which came out last year. Like Louisa, she’s in New Zealand, so I haven’t met her in person yet. But I was having a rough day last week when she emailed me a picture for her that really made me smile, for all the right reasons. (You'll see it below. By the way – his name is Wilson. From the Tom Hanks movie.)

Over to Sue:

I love to travel and recently have been lucky enough to indulge this passion quite a bit. For Kiwis just getting out of our country is a bit of a haul, but well worth the effort.

Two years ago I, along with my husband, visited Rarotonga, Cook Islands, for the wedding of our close friends’ son. Nearly forty of us made the trip and we rented houses in Muri. We shared a house with six others, including the groom’s parents so our house became the party house. Barbecues were a regular feature, for the groom and his mates, for the wedding party, and for an after wedding function.

We had a lot of fun. I learnt to ride a motor scooter. Actually, that’s not strictly true. I rode one but my parking skills were horrendous and the gardens suffered greatly. Hibiscus bushes don’t look quite so attractive with a scooter and me slammed into the middle of them.

The wedding was beautiful, taking place right on the edge of the beach. The backdrop was the lagoon while further out breakers crashed against the reef. The reception was held in a restaurant hanging out over the beach. The Bride was stunning while the men in the wedding party wore open necked shirts, fitting trousers and jandals. Very island-ish. [Edit from Kate - that isn't a typo - before I made an idiot of myself and asked Sue, I looked them up! Jandal = short for Japanese Sandal. It's a Kiwi thing :o)]

Quite a few Kiwis go to this fabulous island for their wedding, which, as a romance writer had my head tossing up stories non stop. One night, at a restaurant, my girlfriend asked every young woman in the dining there what her name was because I was looking to name my heroine.

Wilson :o)

We loved Rarotonga so much we visited again a year later, taking our adult family with us. On this trip I visited the hospital and various other locations for my story, and finally Every Boy’s Dream Dad was written. I loved writing this book. The words flew off my fingertips. The wedding at the end of the book has many elements of the wedding we attended. And there’s no going past the magical setting.

So who knows where my next story will be set, but one thing’s for sure, I’ll enjoy the research.

Do you like to travel? Where’s your dream destination?

I have a copy of Every Boy’s Dream Dad to give away to someone with a great place to visit.

Cheers
Sue MacKay
HM&B Medical
You can find out more about Sue at her website www.suemackay.co.nz

Winner - Susan Carlisle, The Nurse he Shouldn’t Notice

First name drawn from the hat for ‘The Nurse he Shouldn’t Notice’ – Jo Lambert. Please contact me kate(dot)hardy(at)btinternet(dot)com with your details, and I'll get everything sorted :o) Thanks for taking part!

50th party blog guest - Louisa George

Louise George is my twin on the Medical authors’ blog (i.e. we blog alternately on the first Monday of the month), and we have tons in common even though she lives in New Zealand and I live in England. We both like good food and cooking. And… well, she was one of the people who talked me into doing a Zumba class, but that was when I’d first started going to the gym and I overreached myself a bit that week. (She’s trying to persuade me that I’d find it much easier now – hmm, maybe!) Our children are similar ages, we like similar music and books and films, we both have huge TBR piles and love gadgets, and when we get to meet in person there’s going to be an awful lot of talking :o) (But one thing I don’t understand about her – no ice cream? Whaaa? I’m with her on chocolate, though!)

Over to Louisa:

Thanks so much for inviting me to your 50th blog party, Kate! 50 books. Wow. I’m in awe. As I’m reaching the half-way mark of writing my 5th book I can’t imagine what it must be like to have written another 45 on top! You are amazing. Huge congratulations! Thank you so much for so many wonderful stories- I look forward to enjoying the next 50!

We’re celebrating milestones, so I thought I’d share a personal one with you. As I write this blog post it is exactly ten years to the day that I emigrated, with my family, to New Zealand. We thought we’d come for two years. Still here after ten, and not looking to move any time soon. Go figure!

We decided to make such a huge life change for many reasons; both myself and my husband had dreamt of traveling extensively but had never quite managed to do enough of it (can you ever have enough of meeting new people in new places?); we wanted to try a more ‘outdoorsy’ lifestyle; we wanted more sunshine; most of all we wanted an adventure! Life had got a bit tame for us in England and we felt like jazzing things up a bit! And boy, did we.

I’m not saying it was easy, or that we didn’t get homesick for family and friends (still do, in fact), but it was life-affirming to our little family unit of four- and we became stronger and tighter because of it. I’ll never forget sitting on that airplane runway about to take off, leaving our old life in Manchester behind. The feeling of elation, empowerment and excitement was almost overwhelming. Oh, and I was scared as hell.

Hahei

South Island

The experience gave me more opportunities to challenge myself. If I can move to the other side of the world and create a new life for my family- what else am I capable of? Change my career? In a bid to make more friends I joined an evening class in creative writing. Here, the stories I’d always had in my head were given shape. I found people like me who wanted to express themselves with words. I fell in love not just with a country, but with writing.

So, what milestones are you looking forward to celebrating? What personal challenges have you set yourself recently? It’s always good to have something to work towards- what did Eleanor Roosevelt say? Do one thing every day that scares you…

I have a giveaway of my second book, Waking Up With His Runaway Bride, to one commenter.


You can find out more about Louisa at her website www.louisageorge.com
Or talk to her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/LouisaGeorgeAuthor
Or follow her on Twitter https://twitter.com/Louisa_George

Winner - India Grey (books and chocolate)

First name drawn from the hat for her books – Brigitte. Please contact me kate(dot)hardy(at)btinternet(dot)com with your details, and I'll get everything sorted :o) Thanks for taking part!

50th party blog guest - Susan Carlisle

Susan Carlisle is a relatively new friend – I met her on the M&B author loop when she sold her first Medical Romance (which came out this year, yay!), and we have one of my big passions in common, i.e. castles. So you know what’s going to be the topic of conversation when we finally meet up… And there will be proper tea and cake. Most definitely. She’s a bit more well travelled than I am (and did you know she’s ridden a mule into the Grand Canyon and spent the night there? Note to self, grill Susan for book purposes…).

Over to Susan:

Oh, I do love a good party. Congratulations Kate on your 50th book. I know what it takes to write one but 50! I figure I’ll be somewhere in the neighborhood of ‘way old’ before I reach that many. The number fifty got me to thinking about the significance of that amount.

50 years old. On average people are half through life. I’ve turned 50 which is okay. It’s the new 30. If it isn’t, it should be.

50 miles per hour. Too fast in town and too slow on the road but a good all-around number not to get a ticket most instances.

50 students. I’m a substitute teacher and that is a lot of students to referee. Fifty is a big number on those school days.

50 horses. That’s a lot to care for, a lot running toward you but what a wonderful bride price that amount would be.

50 people to feed. Super fun fellowship but piles of work for the cook.

50 dollars, 50 million dollars. Okay, the first one means you can’t quit work and the second means you can but you’ll have friends you never knew you had-and other problems.

50 Ways to Leave Your Lover. Remember that old song? Romance writers are about happily ever-afters and that song doesn’t imply that there is an ah-ha moment at the end.

That brings me back to the 50 books Kate has written. In the scheme of things, her 50 is beyond impressive and a goal of which to be proud.

What does 50 mean to you? Susan is giving away a copy of new book, The Nurse She Shouldn't Notice, to one commenter.

You can find out more about Susan at her website http://www.susancarlisle.com/
Or talk to her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/SusanCarlisleauthor
Or follow her on Twitter @SusanCarlisle1